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_ ACT II - SCENE I
[Snow-clad woods; diagonally across stage is an ice-covered brook. Dawn. Wind blows through the trees as curtain rises. Pehr on.]
PEHR.
So this is the forest, whither my thoughts have so often flown through the clear air, and this is the snow! Now I want to throw snowballs, as I've seen school boys do. It is supposed to be something uncommonly amusing.
[He takes up some snow and casts a few snowballs.]
H-m! That's not so wonderful! Once again--I think it almost stupid.
But what is it that plays up in the tree tops? The wind--Ah, it sounds rather well. Zoo, zoo, zoo! But one grows sleepy if one listens to that long. Zoo, zoo, zoo! Now it sounds like the gnats on a summer's evening. Strange how short everything is out here in Nature! The dullness in the tower--that was long! Now it's not at all pretty or amusing.
[Sees brook.]
Why, what is this? Ice! What pleasure can one get from that? Ah, now I remember--one can skate on it. I must try that!
[He goes out on the brook; slides; ice cracks; he falls from fright and lies there, stunned.]
[Enter Lisa.]
LISA.
[Runs up to Pehr.]
There he is! Ah--he sleeps!
[Sees something that glitters.]
What is that?
[Picks up ring, which Pehr dropped when he fell.]
A ring! He is sleeping in the snow! What can have happened? He is hurt! What can I do? In the very heart of the forest and right in the snow! Not a human being comes this way. He'll freeze to death if he cannot get away. The good fairy sent me here to look up that boy, but she did not tell me that I should find him half dead in a snow drift! If only it were summer, with the sun shining on the green grass-carpet--
[Lisa fingers ring. Transformation: Landscape is changed from winter into summer; brook loses ice-cake and runs forth between the stones; sun shines on the whole.]
LISA.
What can be the meaning of this! [Amazed, glances in all directions. Pehr awakens.]
PEHR.
[Rubbing his eyes.]
Why, what is this--I fly from the church tower, come into a forest of snow, throw snowballs, skate, bump my head on the ice, lose my senses--then I wake up and find that it is summer! Have I been lying here under the snow six months? No, it doesn't seem likely. [Looks at himself in the brook.] I'm as red as a rose. [Bends over water.] But what do I see down in the deep--A blue sky, green trees, white water-lilies, and right in their midst--a girl!--just like the one the youth had his arm around in the Christmas-home: flowing hair, a mouth like a song, eyes like the dove's!--Ah! she nods to me--I'm coming, I'm coming! [About to plunge into the brook, when Lisa gives a cry. He turns.] There she is! A moment ago she was down here.
LISA.
So it seems, but do not always believe your eyes.
PEHR.
A strange world, this! But let me see if it is the same girl? [Stares at her.] Yes, it is she. [Starts to run toward her, then catches sight of ring.] What! my ring? You robbed me while I lay senseless! Oh, do not believe your eyes, you said. No! for now I have my first lesson--I wanted to embrace an angel, and I find a thief.
LISA.
Do not always believe your eyes, Pehr; investigate before you judge.
PEHR.
You are right. I shall do so. Girl, who are you? What is your name?
LISA.
Lisa is my name, but who I am you must not know until the time is fulfilled. I came here and found you senseless--on the ice I found your ring, the powers of which I did not know.
PEHR.
You have saved me from certain death in the snow. Forgive me! Lisa, you shall go with me on my journey, and you shall see a jolly life.
LISA.
You are traveling, you say--What is the object of your journey?
PEHR.
I seek--like all the rest--happiness.
LISA.
You seek happiness! That is a fleeting thing.
PEHR.
Ah, say not so! I can have all that I wish for. Have we not been given the most delightful summer in the middle of winter? See how gloriously the sun shines up in the pines! You must know that all this is new to me. Oh, look!
[Picks up a few spruce-cones.]
What are these?
LISA.
The fruit of the trees.
PEHR.
Then it is good to eat.
LISA.
No; but children play with it.
PEHR.
Play--that I have never done! Shall we play, Lisa?
LISA.
Yes--but what? Shall we play a game of tag?
PEHR.
How does it go?
LISA. Watch me!
[She runs behind a tree and throws cones at Pehr.]
Now catch me!
PEHR.
[Running after her.]
But that's not so easily done!
[Steps on a cone and hurts his foot.]
The damned spruce apples!
LISA.
Mustn't curse the fruit of the trees!
PEHR.
One can do without such fruit! I prefer the kind I saw on a Christmas-tree. If this spruce could bear such fruit, then--
[Instantly spruce bears oranges.]
Look, look! Let us taste.
[They pick fruit and eat.]
LISA.
Well, what think you?
PEHR.
Oh! it's rather good--but not quite what I had fancied.
LISA.
So it is always--all through life.
PEHR.
My dear girl, how wise you are! Lisa, may I put my arm around your waist?
[A bird in the tree begins to sing softly.]
LISA.
Yes; but what for?
PEHR.
May I kiss you also?
LISA.
Yes--there's no harm in that, surely.
[Bird sings louder.]
PEHR.
I'm so warm after the play, Lisa! Shall we bathe in the brook?
LISA.
[Covers her eyes with her hands.]
Bathe!
PEHR.
[Throws off coat.]
Yes!
LISA.
[Hides behind a tree.]
No, no, no!
[Bird sings.]
PEHR.
Who is that screech-owl up in the tree?
LISA.
It is a bird that sings.
PEHR.
What does he sing about?
LISA.
Hush! I understand bird language; that my godmother taught me.
PEHR.
It will be fun hearing about it!
[Bird sings.]
LISA.
"Not so, not so!" he said just then. [Bird sings again.] Pehr, do you know what he said then?
PEHR.
No.
LISA.
"Live guiltless! Mine eye seeth thee."
PEHR.
Guiltless--what is that?
LISA.
I don't know--but dress yourself!
PEHR.
It's only nonsense; there's no one here to see us. [Cuckoo calls.] Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
PEHR.
What is that rogue calling?
LISA.
[Imitates cuckoo.]
Cuckoo, cuckoo!
PEHR.
What a lot of tiresome formalities there has got to be!
LISA.
Can you not enjoy the great, innocent pleasures of Nature?
PEHR.
Yes, for a little while--What was that? [Tears off vest.]
LISA.
An ant.
PEHR.
[Beats right and left with his hat.]
Only look at all the horrid pests! Ouch! what was it that stung me? A mosquito!
LISA.
Everything here in life is incomplete, Pehr. Remember that, and take the bad with the good.
PEHR.
Deuce take the bad! I want the good. [Beats at the air.] Now I'm tired of the for est. Surely one cannot play all one's life! I yearn for activity, and want to be among people. Tell me, Lisa--you, who are such a wise little creature, what do people value most? For that I shall procure for myself.
LISA.
Pehr, before I answer you, listen to a sensible word! People will cause you just as much annoyance as the mosquitoes do, but they will not give you the delight to be found in Nature's perennial youth.
PEHR.
Nature!--Oh, yes, it is very pretty when seen from a church tower, but it becomes rather monotonous near to. Doesn't everything stand still? Don't the trees stand in the selfsame places where they stood fifty years ago, and won't they be standing there fifty years hence? My eyes are already weary of _this_ splendor! I want movement and noise, and if the people are like mosquitoes, it will be so much easier to keep them at a distance than this company.
[Beats about his head with his hat.]
LISA.
You'll see, no doubt, you'll see! Experience will teach you better than my word.
PEHR.
And now, Lisa, what do people value most in a person?
LISA.
I'm ashamed to say it.
PEHR.
You must tell me!
LISA.
Gold.
PEHR.
Gold? But that is something outside the person which does not belong to his being.
LISA.
Yes, that is known; but it is so nevertheless.
PEHR.
What extraordinary qualities does gold possess?
LISA.
All! It is good for everything--and nothing. It gives all that earth has to offer; in itself it is the most perfect of all the earth's products which rust cannot spot--but which can put rust-spots into souls.
PEHR.
Well, then! Will you follow me, Lisa?
LISA.
I will always follow you--at a distance.
PEHR.
At a distance! and why not near me? Lisa, now I shall put my arm around your waist again. [Lisa tears herself away; bird sings.] Why do you run away?
LISA.
Ask the bird!
PEHR.
I can't understand what he says; you must tell me.
LISA.
[Embarrassed.]
No, I cannot!
PEHR.
Cannot? What is it?
LISA.
He is not singing for us now. He sings to his sweetheart, so you must know what he is saying.
PEHR.
How should I know that!
LISA.
He says like this:
[Running off]
"I love you, I love you!"
PEHR.
Stay! Shall you run away from me? Lisa! Lisa! She's gone! Very well then! Come hither palace and plates and wines and horses and chariots and gold--gold! _
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