Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 4).djvu/279

 PEER
 * You're surely not meaning to melt me up,
 * with Dick, Tom, and Harry, into something new?

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
 * That's just what I do mean, and nothing else.
 * We've done it already to plenty of folks.
 * At Kongsberg they do just the same with money
 * that's been current so long that its stamp's worn away.

PEER
 * But this is the wretchedest miserliness!
 * My dear good friend, let me get off free;-
 * a loopless button, a worn out farthing,-
 * what is that to a man in your Master's position?

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
 * Oh, so long, and inasmuch as, the spirit's in one,
 * one always has value as so much metal.

PEER
 * No, I say! No! With both teeth and claws
 * I'll fight against this! Sooner anything else!

THE BUTTON-MOULDER
 * But what else? Come now, be reasonable.
 * You know you're not airy enough for heaven-

PEER
 * I'm not hard to content; I don't aim so high;-
 * but I won't be deprived of one doit of my Sel