Mother! Have you gone out of your wits?
[Goes to the head of the bed.
You mustn't lie there and stare so! Speak, mother; it's I, your boy!
[Feels her forehead and hands cautiously; then throws the string on the chair, and says softly:
Ay, ay!—You can rest yourself, Granë; For e'en now the journey's done.
[Closes her eyes, and bends over her.
For all of your days I thank you, For beatings and lullabys! But see, you must thank me back, now—
[Presses his cheek against her mouth.
There; that was the driver's fare.[1] The Cottar's Wife.
[Entering.]
What? Peer! Ah, then we are over The worse of the sorrow and need! Dear Lord, but she's sleeping soundly— Or can she be? Peer. Hush; she is dead.
[Kari weeps besides the body; Peer Gynt walks up and down the room for some time; at last he stops beside the bed.
Peer.
See mother buried with honour.
I must try to fare forth from here.
Kari.
Are you faring afar?
- ↑ Tak for skyds, literally "thanks for the drive."
