Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/276

 PEER
 * I see! A pet child has many nicknames.
 * So that's it, Peer; it is there you're to harbour!
 * But these, my good man, are most unfair proceedings!
 * I'm sure I deserve better treatment than this;-
 * I'm not nearly so bad as perhaps you think,-
 * I've done a good deal of good in the world;-
 * at worst you may call me a sort of a bungler,-
 * but certainly not an exceptional sinner.

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
 * Why that is precisely the rub, my man;
 * you're no sinner at all in the higher sense;
 * that's why you're excused all the torture-pangs,
 * and land, like others, in the casting-ladle.

PEER
 * Give it what name you please-call it ladle or pool;
 * spruce ale and swipes, they are both of them beer.
 * Avaunt from me, Satan!

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
 * You can't be so rude
 * as to take my foot for a horse's hoof?

PEER
 * On horse's hoof or on fox's claws-
 * be off; and be careful what you're about!

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
 * My friend, you're making a great mistak