(_Hammelev enters from the left. An elderly man with a kindly, somewhat tired expression on his face_.)

MRS. HAMMELEV

Kirsten is here, pa!

HAMMELEV

So I see, mother, I see. (_Goes to Kirsten and shakes hands with her_.) How do you do, Kirsten? I hear that your husband will drive to the station for us to-night. I want to thank you for your kindness.

KIRSTEN

Oh, that’s nothin’ to thank us for, Mr. Hammelev. It ain’t the season of the year when we use our horses much.

HAMMELEV

No, oh no--now that you’ve got the hay in, I guess you don’t. But it isn’t the first time we have had reason to thank you and your husband. Since we haven’t any horse and carriage, we ought to be thankful that we have such kind and helpful neighbors. (_Goes to the pipe-rack, takes down a pipe, and fills it with tobacco_.) Well, Kirsten, I suppose you know what a great day it was in school to-day?

KIRSTEN

Oh, yes, I can imagine, Mr. Hammelev. It is in a way a day of rejoicin’--we can’t say nothin’ else. The Lord has dealt severe with you, so we are glad when He helps you along a little and makes it easier for you.

MRS. HAMMELEV (_who has been serving the coffee, interrupting_)

You’ll take a cup of coffee, too, won’t you, pa?

HAMMELEV (_who has lighted his pipe_)

Yes, thanks; we can always drink a little coffee. (_Sits, smokes, and drinks his coffee_.) Yes, you see the cross we have to bear, Kirsten--we ought never to complain of that. (_Good-naturedly_.) At your house you don’t complain, anyhow, I don’t think. Do you, Kirsten?--You haven’t anything to complain of.

KIRSTEN (_knocks under the table, from superstition_)

I’d better knock on wood before it’s too late.

HAMMELEV

Yes, do that, Kirsten. Well, I won’t say that we have anything to complain of over here, either. We get our daily bread. And now this great joy when our son comes home. We haven’t seen him for four years.

KIRSTEN

Is it as long as that?

MRS. HAMMELEV (_to herself_)

Four long years!

HAMMELEV

Yes, it has always been worst for mother, of course. You see, I have the school and the church singing to think of. But she has to sit alone here in this room day after day. Then, of course, her thoughts go far, far off--we all know how it is. I often say to mother: “Mother, I have a hundred little children to take care of every day.” That means a hundred little hearts and a hundred little brains that I must keep watch over. And so I say to mother, it seems to me as if she ought to be able to keep track of at least herself. But it is easy enough to find fault. Sorrow is a weed that it is not so easy to pull up by the roots.

KIRSTEN

Yes, if I’d had such a misfortune to think of, I don’t know what I’d have done.

HAMMELEV

But now mother will get her reward for all she has gone through, poor mother. To-night he’ll be here in this room, he whom she is always thinking of. She hasn’t even slept during the last half-dozen nights.

MRS. HAMMELEV (_smiling_)

Now you are exaggerating again, pa!

HAMMELEV

Well, well--you haven’t had very much sleep. A little with one eye is about all, if we should sum it up. And there has been such a house-cleaning and scrubbing and frying and baking, as if the vicar himself was expected. The boy’s room is fixed for him; it is just as it was when he was at home last, excepting, of course, that everything is newly washed and cleaned and polished.

KIRSTEN

But when he ain’t able to see it--

HAMMELEV

No, he can’t see it. But the blind instinctively feel what we others see. They can, for instance, enjoy a beautiful landscape. The color rays work on their skin, you understand, Kirsten. It is just as if they were taking a sort of bath in all the beauty. And then, of course, they have the sense of smell. Well, now--and there are twelve new shirts and twelve pairs of socks for him on his bed. Those he can get a great deal of pleasure from. Would you like to see them, Kirsten?

MRS. HAMMELEV (_somewhat impatiently_)

Oh, that’s nothing--

HAMMELEV

Yes, Kirsten, just to make mother feel ashamed, I’ll show you how diligent she has been. She knows how to do these things. She has a linen closet that would make many a woman envious.

KIRSTEN

Yes, we sure have to have clothes on our body.

HAMMELEV

Yes, Kirsten; but you and your husband no doubt have more than we. Come along now; I’ll show you what mother has made for our boy.

KIRSTEN (_puts away her coffee-cup, rises, shakes hands with both_)

Yes, all right. Well--thank you ever so much for the coffee.

(_All three go out, right. At the same moment are seen, through the windows in the background, Anton Hammelev and Louise Thorsen, approaching by the roadway outside_.)