Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/269

 Well, I can at any rate laugh at that danger;
 * for here on all fours I am firmly planted.
 * [Scratches his head.]
 * A queer enough business, the whole concern!
 * Life, as they say, plays with cards up its sleeve;
 * but when one snatches at them, they've disappeared,
 * and one grips something else,-or else nothing at all.
 * [He has come near to the hut; he catches sight of it and starts.]
 * This hut? On the heath-! Ha!
 * [Rubs his eyes.]
 * It seems exactly
 * as though I had known this same building before.-
 * The reindeer-horns jutting above the gable!-
 * A mermaid, shaped like a fish from the navel!-
 * Lies! there's no mermaid! But nails-and planks,-
 * bars too, to shut out hobgoblin thoughts!-

SOLVEIG [singing in the hut].
 * Now all is ready for Whitsun Eve.
 * Dearest boy of mine, far away,
 * comest thou soon?
 * Is thy burden heavy,
 * take time, take time;-
 * I will await thee;
 * I promised of old.

PEER [rises,