Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/56



What sort of game do you mean?

The luring game.

Do you mean that it is the dog that lures the rats?

[Nodding.] Mopsëman and I—we two do it together. And it goes so smoothly—for all you can see, at any rate. I just slip a string through his collar, and then I lead him three times round the house, and play on my Pan's-pipes. When they hear that, they have got to come up from the cellars, and down from the garrets, and out of their holes, all the blessed little creatures.

And does he bite them to death then?

Oh, not at all! No, we go down to the boat, he and I do—and then they follow after us, both the big ones and the little ratikins.

[Eagerly.] And what then—tell me!

Then we push out from the land, and I scull with one oar, and play on my Pan's-pipes. And