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- he was the sinner, ay, he and none other;
- the ugly beast tempted my poor boy astray!
KARI
- Had I not better send word to the parson?
- Mayhap you're worse than you think you are.
ASE
- To the parson? Truly I almost think so.
- [Starts up.]
- But, oh God, I can't! I'm the boy's own mother;
- and help him I must; it's no more than my duty;
- I must do what I can when the rest forsake him.
- They've left him this coat; I must patch it up.
- I wish I dared snap up the fur-rug as well!
- What's come of the hose?
KARI
- They are there, 'mid that rubbish.
ASE [rummaging about].
- Why, what have we here? I declare it's an old
- casting-ladle, Kari! With this he would play
- button-moulder, would melt, and then shape, and then stamp
- them.
- One day-there was company-in the boy came,
- and begged of his father a lump of tin.
- "No tin," says Jon, "but King Christian's coin;
- silver; to show you're the son of Jon Gynt."
- God pardon him, Jon; he was drunk, you see,
- and then he cared neither for tin nor for gold.
- Here are the hose. Oh, they're nothing but holes;
- they want darning, Kari!
