Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/168

 e.
 * One may drop off before one dreams of it.
 * And then there were the thousand pitfalls
 * laid by the philanthropic camp;
 * besides, of course, the hostile cruisers,
 * and all the wind-and-weather risks.
 * All this together won the day.
 * I thought: Now, Peter, reef your sails;
 * see to it you amend your faults!
 * So in the South I bought some land,
 * and kept the last meat-importation,
 * which chanced to be a superfine one.
 * They throve so, grew so fat and sleek,
 * that 'twas a joy to me, and them too.
 * Yes, without boasting, I may say
 * I acted as a father to them,-
 * and found my profit in so doing.
 * I built them schools, too, so that virtue
 * might uniformly be maintained at
 * a certain general niveau,
 * and kept strict watch that never its
 * thermometer should sink below it.
 * Now, furthermore, from all this business
 * I've beat a definite retreat;-
 * I've sold the whole plantation, and
 * its tale of live-stock, hide and hair.
 * At parting, too, I served around,
 * to big and little, gratis grog,
 * so men and women all got drunk,
 * and widows got their snuff as well.
 * So that is why I trust,-provided
 * the saying is not idle breath:
 * Whoso does not do ill, does good,-
 * my former errors are forgotten,
 * and I, much more than most, can hold
 * my misdeeds balanced by my virtues.

VON EBERKOPF [clinking