Aune (with a start): Me! (He laughs.) You are joking, Mr.
Bernick.

Bernick: I should not be so sure of that, if I were you.

Aune: Do you mean that you can contemplate discharging me?--Me,
whose father and grandfather worked in your yard all their lives,
as I have done myself--?

Bernick: Who is it that is forcing me to do it?

Aune: You are asking what is impossible, Mr. Bernick.

Bernick: Oh, where there's a will there's a way. Yes or no; give
me a decisive answer, or consider yourself discharged on the
spot.

Aune (coming a step nearer to him): Mr. Bernick, have you ever
realised what discharging an old workman means? You think he can
look about for another job? Oh, yes, he can do that; but does
that dispose of the matter? You should just be there once, in the
house of a workman who has been discharged, the evening he comes
home bringing all his tools with him.

Bernick: Do you think I am discharging you with a light heart?
Have I not always been a good master to you?

Aune: So much the worse, Mr. Bernick. Just for that very reason
those at home will not blame you; they will say nothing to me,