Here you may see I’ve been hewing and building;—

It must down again, dear; it is ugly and mean——

Solveig.

Be it mean or brave,—here is all to my mind.

One so lightly draws breath in the teeth of the wind.

Down below it was airless; one felt as though choked;

That was partly what drove me in fear from the dale.

But here, with the fir-branches soughing o’erhead,—

What a stillness and song!—I am here in my home.

Peer.