Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/136

 :he was the sinner, ay, he and none other;
 * the ugly beast tempted my poor boy astray!

KARI
 * Had I not better send word to the parson?
 * Mayhap you're worse than you think you are.

ASE
 * To the parson? Truly I almost think so.
 * [Starts up.]
 * But, oh God, I can't! I'm the boy's own mother;
 * and help him I must; it's no more than my duty;
 * I must do what I can when the rest forsake him.
 * They've left him this coat; I must patch it up.
 * I wish I dared snap up the fur-rug as well!
 * What's come of the hose?

KARI
 * They are there, 'mid that rubbish.

ASE [rummaging about].
 * Why, what have we here? I declare it's an old
 * casting-ladle, Kari! With this he would play
 * button-moulder, would melt, and then shape, and then stamp
 * them.
 * One day-there was company-in the boy came,
 * and begged of his father a lump of tin.
 * "No tin," says Jon, "but King Christian's coin;
 * silver; to show you're the son of Jon Gynt."
 * God pardon him, Jon; he was drunk, you see,
 * and then he cared neither for tin nor for gold.
 * Here are the hose. Oh, they're nothing but holes;
 * they want darning, Kari!