rings the wine_).

CARL (_drinks quickly_).

Now we can start in again--planing, sawing,
hammering, and, in between, eating, drinking, and sleeping, so that we
can go on planing, sawing, and hammering, and on Sundays do a bit of
praying into the bargain! I thank Thee, O Lord, that I may plane, saw,
and hammer!

[_Drinks._]

Long live every good dog that is tied to a chain, and yet does not snap
at everything around him!

[_He drinks again._]

And once more: Here's to his health!

CLARA.

Carl, do not drink so much! Father says the devil lurks in wine!

CARL.

And the priest says God lurks in wine! [_He drinks._] Let us see who is
right! The bailiff was here at the house--how did he behave himself?

CLARA.

As if he had been in a den of thieves. No sooner had he opened his mouth
than mother fell over and was dead!

CARL.

Good! If you hear tomorrow that the fellow has been found dead, then do
not curse the murderer!

CLARA.

Surely you are not going to--

CARL.

Am I his only enemy? Has he not been often attacked already? Among so
many it might be difficult to find the right man to attribute the deed
to, unless he left his cane or hat on the spot! [_He drinks._] Whoever
it is: Good success to him!

CLARA.

Brother, you talk--

CARL.

Don't you like it? Never mind! You will not see me very much longer!

CLARA (_shudders with terror_).

No!

CARL.

No? So you know already that I am going to sea? Do my thoughts crawl
around on my forehead, that you can read them so easily? Or did the old
man fly into a passion in his old way and threaten to shut me out of the
house? Bah! That would be very much the same thing as if the jailer had
sworn to me: You shall not stay in prison any longer--I am going to
shove you out into the open again!

CLARA.

You do not understand me!

CARL (_sings_).

A ship lies in the offing,
A-sporting with the winds.

Yes indeed, there is nothing to bind me to the bench here any longer!
Mother is dead, there is no longer any one to stop eating fish after
every storm, and that has been my wish from boyhood. Away! I shall not
prosper here--at least not until I know for sure that luck no longer
favors the brave fellow who stakes his life on the game, who throws back
onto the table the copper coin that he has received from the great
treasure, in order to see whether luck will pocket it or return it to
him gilded!

CLARA.

And are you going away to leave