Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/116

 ].
 * Hu-hu! And this we must hear and put up with,
 * when I and my sister make music and dance.

PEER
 * Oho, was it you? Well, a joke at the feast,
 * you must know, is never unkindly meant.

THE GREEN-CLAD ONE
 * Can you swear it was so?

PEER
 * Both the dance and the music
 * were utterly charming, the cat claw me else.

THE OLD MAN
 * This same human nature's a singular thing;
 * it sticks to people so strangely long.
 * If it gets a gash in the fight with us,
 * it heals up at once, though a scar may remain.
 * My son-in-law, now, is as pliant as any;
 * he's willingly thrown off his Christian-man's garb,
 * he's willingly drunk from our chalice of mead,
 * he's willingly tied on the tail to his back,-
 * so willing, in short, did we find him in all things,
 * I thought to myself the old Adam, for certain,
 * had for good and all been kicked out of doors;
 * but lo! in two shakes he's atop again!
 * Ay ay, my son, we must treat you, I see,
 * to cure this pestilent human nature.

PEER
 * What will you do?

THE OLD M