Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 4).djvu/132



SCENE FIRST.

''Deep in the pine-woods. Grey autumn weather. Snow is falling.''

 stands in his shirt-sleeves, felling timber.

[Hewing at a large fir-tree with twisted branches.]

Oh ay, you are tough, you ancient churl; But it's all in vain, for you'll soon be down.

[Hews at it again.

I see well enough you've a chain-mail shirt, But I'll hew it through, were it never so stout.— Ay, ay, you're shaking your twisted arms; You've reason enough for your spite and rage; But none the less you must bend the knee!

[Breaks off suddenly.

Lies! 'Tis an old tree and nothing more. Lies! It was never a steel-clad churl; It's only a fir-tree with fissured bark.— It is heavy labour this hewing timber; But the devil and all when you hew and dream too.— I'll have done with it all—with this dwelling in mist, And, broad-awake, dreaming your senses away.— You're an outlaw, lad! You are banned to the woods.

[Hews for a while rapidly.

Ay, an outlaw, ay. You've no mother now