Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/138

 the door against troll-folk, and men, and women.
 * Bars I must fix me; bars that can shut out
 * all the cantankerous little hobgoblins.-
 * They come with the darkness, they knock and they rattle:
 * Open, Peer Gynt, we're as nimble as thoughts are!
 * 'Neath the bedstead we bustle, we rake in the ashes,
 * down the chimney we hustle like fiery-eyed dragons.
 * Hee-hee! Peer Gynt; think you staples and planks
 * can shut out cantankerous hobgoblin-thoughts?

[SOLVEIG comes on snow-shoes over the heath; she has a shawl over her head, and a bundle in her hand.] SOLVEIG
 * God prosper your labour. You must not reject me.
 * You sent for me hither, and so you must take me.

PEER
 * Solveig! It cannot be-! Ay, but it is!
 * And you're not afraid to come near to me!

SOLVEIG
 * One message you sent me by little Helga;
 * others came after in storm and in stillness.
 * All that your mother told bore me a message,
 * that brought forth others when dreams sank upon me.
 * Nights full of heaviness, blank, empty days,
 * brought me the message that now I must come.
 * It seemed as though life had been quenched down th