_
MOTHER BAUMERT
[_In a querulous, feeble voice, as the girls stop weaving and bend over
their webs._] Got to make knots again already, have you?
EMMA
[_The elder of the two girls, about twenty-two, tying a broken thread_]
It's the plagueyest web, this!
BERTHA
[_Fifteen._] Yes, it's real bad yarn they've given us this time.
EMMA
What can have happened to father? He's been away since nine.
MOTHER BAUMERT
That he has! yes. Where in the wide world c'n he be?
BERTHA
Don't you worry yourself, mother.
MOTHER BAUMERT
I can't help it, Bertha lass.
[_EMMA begins to weave again._
BERTHA
Stop a minute, Emma!
EMMA
What is it!
BERTHA
I thought I heard some one.
EMMA
It'll be Ansorge comin' home.
_Enter FRITZ, a little, barefooted, ragged boy of four._
FRITZ
[_Whimpering._] I'm hungry, mother.
EMMA
Wait, Fritzel, wait a bit! Gran'father'll be here very soon, an' he's
bringin' bread along with him, an' coffee too.
FRITZ
But I'm awful hungry, mother.
EMMA
Be a good boy now, Fritz. Listen to what I'm tellin' you. He'll be here
this minute. He's bringin' nice bread an' nice corn-coffee; an' when we
stops workin' mother'll take the tater peelin's and carry them to the
farmer, and the farmer'll give her a drop o' good buttermilk for her
little boy.
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