Little Eyolf | Page 6

travels? [With an outburst of joy.] I shouldn't wonder if you
had finished the whole book, Alfred?
ALLMERS. [Shrugging his shoulders.] The book? Oh, the book--
ASTA. Yes, I was sure you would find it go so easily when once you
got away.
ALLMERS. So I thought too. But, do you know, I didn't find it so at all.
The truth is, I have not written a line of the book.
ASTA. Not a line?
RITA. Oho! I wondered when I found all the paper lying untouched in
your bag.
ASTA. But, my dear Alfred, what have you been doing all this time?
ALLMERS. [Smiling.] Only thinking and thinking and thinking.
RITA. [Putting her arm round his neck.] And thinking a little, too, of
those you had left at home?

ALLMERS. Yes, you may be sure of that. I have thought a great deal
of you--every single day.
RITA. [Taking her arm away.] Ah, that is all I care about.
ASTA. But you haven't even touched the book! And yet you can look
so happy and contented! That is not what you generally do--I mean
when your work is going badly.
ALLMERS. You are right there. You see, I have been such a fool
hitherto. All the best that is in you goes into thinking. What you put on
paper is worth very little.
ASTA. [Exclaiming.] Worth very little!
RITA. [Laughing.] What an absurd thing to say, Alfred.
EYOLF. [Looks confidingly up at him.] Oh yes, Papa, what you write
is worth a great deal!
ALLMERS. [Smiling and stroking his hair.] Well, well, since you say
so.--But I can tell you, some one is coming after me who will do it
better.
EYOLF. Who can that be? Oh, tell me!
ALLMERS. Only wait--you may be sure he will come, and let us hear
of him.
EYOLF. And what will you do then?
ALLMERS. [Seriously.] Then I will go to the mountains again--
RITA. Fie, Alfred! For shame!
ALLMERS. --up to the peaks and the great waste places.
EYOLF. Papa, don't you think I shall soon be well enough for you to
take me with you?

ALLMERS. [With painful emotion.] Oh, yes, perhaps, my little boy.
EYOLF. It would be so splendid, you know, if I could climb the
mountains, like you.
ASTA. [Changing the subject.] Why, how beautifully you are dressed
to-day, Eyolf!
EYOLF. Yes, don't you think so, Auntie?
ASTA. Yes, indeed. Is it in honour of Papa that you have got your new
clothes on?
EYOLF. Yes, I asked Mama to let me. I wanted so to let Papa see me
in them.
ALLMERS. [In a low voice, to RITA.] You shouldn't have given him
clothes like that.
RITA. [In a low voice.] Oh, he has teased me so long about them--he
had set his heart on them. He gave me no peace.
EYOLF. And I forgot to tell you, Papa--Borgheim has bought me a
new bow. And he has taught me how to shoot with it too.
ALLMERS. Ah, there now--that's just the sort of thing for you, Eyolf.
EYOLF. And next time he comes, I shall ask him to teach me to swim,
too.
ALLMERS. To swim! Oh, what makes you want to learn swimming?
EYOLF. Well, you know, all the boys down at the beach can swim. I
am the only one that can't.
ALLMERS. [With emotion, taking him in his arms.] You shall learn
whatever you like--everything you really want to.
EYOLF. Then do you know what I want most of all, Papa?

ALLMERS. No; tell me.
EYOLF. I want most of all to be a soldier.
ALLMERS. Oh, little Eyolf, there are many, many other things that are
better than that.
EYOLF. Ah, but when I grow big, then I shall have to be a soldier. You
know that, don't you?
ALLMERS. [Clenching his hands together.] Well, well, well: we shall
see--
ASTA. [Seating herself at the table on the left.] Eyolf! Come here to
me, and I will tell you something.
EYOLF. [Goes up to her.] What is it, Auntie?
ASTA. What do you think, Eyolf--I have seen the Rat-Wife.
EYOLF. What! Seen the Rat-Wife! Oh, you're only making a fool of
me!
ASTA. No; it's quite true. I saw her yesterday.
EYOLF. Where did you see her?
ASTA. I saw her on the road, outside the town.
ALLMERS. I saw her, too, somewhere up in the country.
RITA. [Who is sitting on the sofa.] Perhaps it will be out turn to see her
next, Eyolf.
EYOLF. Auntie, isn't it strange that she should be called the Rat-Wife?
ASTA. Oh, people just give her that name because she wanders round
the country driving away all the rats.

ALLMERS. I have heard that her real name is Varg.
EYOLF. Varg! That means a wolf, doesn't it?
ALLMERS.