PEER (aside). Not if I know it! (Aloud.) I have other things to attend to.
ACT II
SCENE I
[A room in Jeppe's house. Montanus (whose stockings are falling down around his ankles).]
MONTANUS. I have been away from Copenhagen only a day, and I miss it already. If I didn't have my good books with me, I couldn't exist in the country. Studia secundas res ornant, adversis solatium praebent. I feel as if I had lost something, after going three days without a disputation. I don't know whether there are any learned folk in the village, but if there are, I shall set them to work, for I can't live without disputation. I can't talk much to my poor parents, for they are simple folk and know hardly anything beyond their catechism; so I can't find much comfort in their conversation. The deacon and the schoolmaster are said to have studied, but I don't know how much that has amounted to; still, I shall see what they are good for. My parents were astonished to see me so early, for they had not expected me to travel by night from Copenhagen. (He strikes a match, lights his pipe, and puts the bowl of his pipe through a hole he has made in his hat.) That's what they call smoking studentikos—it's a pretty good invention for any one who wants to write and smoke at the same time. (Sits down and begins to read.)
SCENE 2
(Enter Jacob. He kisses his own hand and extends it to his brother.)
JACOB. Welcome home again, my Latin brother!
MONTANUS. I am glad to see you, Jacob. But as for being your brother, that was well enough in the old days, but it will hardly do any more.
JACOB. How so? Aren't you my brother?