Pfeifer, sir.
[_Eagerly, coaxingly._] You'll please be so very kind as to let me have a
few pence on the next job, sir?
PFEIFER
[_Paying no attention._] Fiedler, one and twopence.
WEAVER'S WIFE
Only a few pence, to buy bread with. We can't get no more credit. We've a
lot o' little ones.
NEUMANN
[_Half aside to the APPRENTICE, in a serio-comic-tone._] "Every year
brings a child to the linen-weaver's wife, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh."
APPRENTICE
[_Takes up the rhyme, half singing._] "And the little brat it's blind the
first weeks of its life, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh."
REIMANN
[_Not touching the money which the cashier has counted out to him._]
We've always got one and fourpence for the web.
PFEIFER
[_Calls across._] If our terms don't suit you, Reimann, you have only to
say so. There's no scarcity of weavers--especially of your sort. For full
weight we give full pay.
REIMANN
How anything can be wrong with the weight o' this...!
PFEIFER
You bring a piece of fustian with no faults in it, and there will be no
fault in the pay.
REIMANN
It's clean impossible that there's too many knots in this web.
PFEIFER
[_Examining._] If you want to live well, then be sure you weave well.
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