OLD BAUMERT
He was the major's own servant. Just listen to him--he speaks like a
gentleman.
JAEGER
I've got so accustomed to it that I can't help it.
MOTHER BAUMERT
Well, now, to think that such a good-for-nothin' as you was should have
come to be a rich man. For there wasn't nothin' to be made of you. You
would never sit still to wind more than a hank of yarn at a time, that
you wouldn't. Off you went to your tomtit boxes an' your robin redbreast
snares--they was all you cared about. Isn't it the truth I'm telling?
JAEGER
Yes, yes, auntie, it's true enough. It wasn't only redbreasts. I went
after swallows too.
EMMA
Though we were always tellin' you that swallows was poison.
JAEGER
What did I care?--But how have you all been gettin' on, auntie Baumert?
MOTHER BAUMERT
Oh, badly, lad, badly these last four years. I've had the
rheumatics--just look at them hands. An' it's more than likely as I've
had a stroke o' some kind too, I'm that helpless. I can hardly move a
limb, an' nobody knows the pains I suffers.
OLD BAUMERT
She's in a bad way, she is. She'll not hold out long.
BERTHA
We've to dress her in the mornin' an' undress her at night, an' to feed
her like a baby.
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