SCENE THIRD.

Low, treeless heights, close under the mountain moorlands; peaks in the distance. The shadows are long; it is late in the day.

Peer Gynt comes running at full speed, and stops short on the hillside.

Peer.

The parish is all at my heels in a pack!

Everyman of them armed or with gun or with club.

Foremost I hear the old Hegstad-churl howling.—

Now it’s noised far and wide that Peer Gynt is abroad!

It is different, this, from a bout with a smith!

This is life! Every limb grows as strong as a bear’s.