Show him your watch, Moritz. An' he's got a new suit of clothes, an' thirty shillings cash.
ANSORGE
[Shaking his head.] Is that so? Well, well!
EMMA
[Puts the potato-parings into a bag.] I must be off; I'll maybe get a drop o' buttermilk for these.
[Goes out.
JAEGER
[The others hanging intently and devoutly on his words.] You know how you all used to be down on me. It was always: Wait, Moritz, till your soldierin' time comes—you'll catch it then. But you see how well I've got on. At the end o' the first half-year I had my good conduct stripes. You've got to be willin'—that's where the secret lies. I brushed the sergeant's boots; I groomed his horse; I fetched his beer. I was as sharp as a needle. Always ready, accoutrements clean and shinin'—first at stables, first at roll-call, first in the saddle. An' when the bugle sounded to the assault—why, then, blood and thunder, and ride to the devil with you!! I was as keen as a pointer. Says I to myself: There's no help for it now, my boy, it's got to be done; and I set my mind to it and did it. Till at last the major said before the whole squadron: There's a hussar now that shows you what a hussar should be!
[Silence. He lights his pipe.