trade. And when you have hanged him, I shall have you hanged
yourself.

BAILIFF. Oh, gracious lord, is there no reprieve?

JEPPE [walks to and fro, sits down, drinks, and gets up again]. Half
a hundred rix-dollars, a wife and seven children. If no one else
will hang you, I'll do it myself. I know what sort you are, you
bailiffs! I know how you have cheated me and other miserable
peasants--Oh, there come those damned peasant illusions into my head
again. I meant to say, that I know your games and your goings-on so
well, I could be a bailiff myself if I had to. You get the cream off
the milk, and your master gets dung, to speak modestly. I really
think that if the world keeps on, the bailiffs will all be noblemen
and the noblemen all bailiffs. When a peasant slips something into
your hand or your wife's, here is what your master is told: "The
poor man is willing and industrious enough, but certain misfortunes
have befallen him which make it impossible for him to pay: he has a
poor piece of land, his cattle have got the scab,"--or something
like that,--and with such babble your master has to let himself be
cheated. Take my word for it, lad! I'm not going to let myself be
fooled in that way, for I'm a peasant and a peasant's son
myself--see how that illusion keeps cropping up! I was about to say
that I am a peasant's son myself, for Abraham and Eve, our first
parents, were tillers of the soil.

SECRETARY [on his knees]. Oh, gracious lord! Pray take pity on him
for the sake of his unfortunate wife; for how can she live if he is
not there to feed her and the children?