Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/124

 krak!" as much as to say: I'm the game-cock from Stonelee, I am!

The Chamberlain.

Capital! Hear, hear!

Stensgård.

And then there was an old woodpecker. He bustled up and down the tree-trunks, pecking with his pointed beak, and gorging himself with grubs and everything that turns to gall. To right and left you heard him going: prik, prik, prik! And that was the woodpecker.

Erik.

Excuse me, wasn't it a stork, or a?[1]

Heire.

Say no more!

Stensgård.

That was the old woodpecker. But now there came life into the crew; for they found something to cackle evil about. And they flustered together, and cackled in chorus, until at last the young cuckoo began to join in the cackling

Fieldbo.

[Unnoticed.] For God's sake, man, be quiet!

Stensgård.

Now it was an eagle they cackled about—an eagle who dwelt in lonely dignity upon a beetling

1 As before stated, "Heire" means a heron.