Why do you talk so fast? Let me continue--

OLD MAN. No! Away with you and obey, boy!

PEHR. Yes, away from here! I want to go out and see the world. I want
to see child-faces--even if they can be clouded by envy's cankerworm! I
want to taste the fruit of the tropics even if it is worm-eaten! I would
drink the wine though it were gall, and I want to put my arm around a
maid's waist, even if a bankrupt father does sit at the hearth stone! I
want silver and gold--if in the end it is nothing but dross!

OLD MAN. Hell-fire! who's been here?

A VOICE. Curse not Christmas!

PEHR. What can this mean? It is so strange here to-night--stranger than
usual. Father, look at me! Why, that's not his face!

OLD MAN. [Kneeling.] My son! Listen to your father--obey the old man,
who wishes you only good; remain within these peaceful walls!

PEHR. It is too late!

OLD MAN. What do I see?--that ring! who gave it to you? [Tries to take
the ring from Pehr.]

PEHR. Who are you? You are not my father!

OLD MAN. Your guilty, your unhappy father, who is bound by the
witchcraft of the Powers! [Old Man is transformed into a big black cat.]

PEHR. Jesu Maria, help! [Bright rays dart out from Virgin's image; clock
strikes twelve.]

PEHR. The witch! The witch! Away, unclean spirit! [Cat vanishes.] And
now--[opens tower shutters] for life! [Fingers ring.] To the forest.
[Going through window.] _Out_!

CURTAIN.

ACT TWO

SCENE ONE.

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