CURTAIN.



ACT TWO

SCENE ONE.

Snow-clad woods; diagonally across stage is an ice-covered brook.
Dawn. Wind blows through the trees as curtain rises. Pehr on.

PEHR. So this is the forest, whither my thoughts have so often
flown through the clear air, and this is the snow! Now I want to
throw snowballs, as I've seen school boys do. It is supposed to be
something uncommonly amusing. [He takes up some snow and casts a
few snowballs.] H-m! That's not so wonderful! Once again--I think
it almost stupid.

But what is it that plays up in the tree tops? The wind--Ah, it
sounds rather well. Zoo, zoo, zoo! But one grows sleepy if one
listens to that long. Zoo, zoo, zoo! Now it sounds like the gnats
on a summer's evening. Strange how short everything is out here in
Nature! The dullness in the tower--that was long! Now it's not at
all pretty or amusing. [Sees brook.] Why, what is this? Ice! What
pleasure can one get from that? Ah, now I remember--one can skate
on it. I must try that! [He goes out on the brook; slides; ice
cracks; he falls from fright and lies there, stunned.]

[Enter Lisa.]