Clar. Take money! sell privileges! (walks up and down.) It is impossible! Father and mother are honest people; he has been sent to church and school, never saw any thing amiss in us; no, nothing amiss in all his life-time. We have worked hard day after day; never indulged ourselves with breakfast or bagging,[1] that he might have every requisite, that we might spend on him as much as ever we could afford. And now, he is got up so high, and is one of those that rule the country, that now he should be worse than I would suffer a 'prentice boy to be, that I employ in my yard! Oh! if that be so, Lord take him or me, for I cannot bear it, either in this world or in the next!
[Exit.
[Footnote 1: Bagging, in the North of England, is the common expression for a meal taken between dinner and supper. And, as it perfectly expresses the meaning of the German vesperbrod, I thought myself authorized to adopt it here; particularly as tea, in the mouth of a character, like carpenter Clarenbach, would appear preposterous. The antiquaries of Yorkshire and Lancashire derive the word bagging from the old custom of carrying bread and cheese in a bag, in the afternoon, to the labourers in the fields; and this derivation is not altogether improbable.
Translator.]
Fred. I do not understand a word of all this. What does he mean?
SCENE VII.
Enter Gernau.
Gern. Good morrow, Frederica!
Fred. Why so ruffled? Is that your welcome, after having kept out of the way for two days together?
Gern. Things grow worse and worse, between your brother and me, every day.