ed him.

SOPHY.

Come, William, let us go out to Andrew.

FORESTER.

Keep quiet, woman. Are you going to make him completely crazy with your
lamentations? Either you keep quiet, or you go in there, and I shall
lock you in.

[_Goes solemnly to the rear door_.]

Andrew! Come in at once! Do you hear?

SCENE X

_The same. Enter_ ANDREW. ANDREW _at the door; when he sees the people
he is going to withdraw_.

FORESTER.

Andrew, you come in. Before your superior!

[_Seats himself as if preparing for trial_.]

_The_ FORESTER, SOPHY, WEILER, WILLIAM _on the left. The_ PASTOR,
WILKENS _on the right_. ANDREW, _who dares not look any one in the face,
in the centre_.

FORESTER.

Come here, forester's assistant Andrew Ulrich. Where do you come from?

ANDREW. From the nursery, father.

FORESTER.

Where is your rifle, Andrew Ulrich?

[ANDREW _is silent_.]

FORESTER.

Who has it?

ANDREW (_in a hollow voice_).

Godfrey.

[FORESTER _rises involuntarily_.]

SOPHY (_in great alarm_).

Ulrich!

FORESTER (_sits down again_).

Here no one has anything to say, except the forester's assistant Ulrich
and his superior. Andrew--

ANDREW.

Father--

FORESTER.

Why do you not look at me?

ANDREW.

I no longer can look any one in the face. I want to go to America as
cabin-boy. Let me go, father.

FORESTER.

Boy, it is your duty to answer when your superior asks. What is it that
Godfrey has? Out with it!

ANDREW.

I was just at my task of taking out the maple trees in the nursery--

FORESTER.

As I had ordered you.

ANDREW.

Then came--

FORESTER.

Godfrey? Go on, Andrew Ulrich.

ANDREW.

With six woodcutters from the Brandsberg--

FORESTER.

From--go on, Andrew Ulrich.

ANDREW.

He was intoxicated--

WEILER (_half audibly_).

As usual--

[_When the forester casts a look at him, he pretends not to have said
anything_.]

ANDREW.

And so were the woodcutters. He had them pass the bottle round. "Here we
begin," he said. "Ulrich has made a fine mess of it," he said; "for that
reason he is dismissed." When he had said that I stepped forward
forward--

FORESTER.

You stepped forward?--

[_Rises_.]

ANDREW.

And said he was a miserable slanderer. And that, moreover, he had no
business to give orders in the forest.

FORESTER (_straightens himself_).

In the forest.

ANDREW.

And that he should go where he belonged.

FORESTER (_emphatically_).

Where