PEHR. No, no, for God's sake, wait a little--

DEATH. You're a timid beggar! Live on then if you think it
anything; but don't regret it later. I shall not come again for a
long time. [Starts to go.]

PEHR. No, no, no! don't leave me alone--

DEATH. Alone? Why, you have lovely Nature!

PEHR. Yes, it's all very well when the weather is fine and the sun
shines, but thus late--

DEATH. You see now that you cannot live without your fellow men.
Knock three times on the door over yonder, and you will find
company. [Death vanishes. Pehr knocks three times on door of hut;
the Wise Man comes out.]

WISE MAN. Whom seek you?

PEHR. A human being! In short--I'm unhappy.

WISE MAN. Then you should not seek human beings, for they cannot
help you.

PEHR. I know it, yet I would neither live nor die; I have suffered
all, and my heart will not break!

WISE MAN. You are young, and do not know the human heart. In here I
have lately been pondering the causes of mankind's misery. Would