] 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.