_] Look
out! I'm coming!
OLD HILSE
Gottlieb, Gottlieb!
MOTHER HILSE
Where's Gottlieb gone?
OLD HILSE
He's gone to the devil.
VOICES FROM THE ENTRY-ROOM
Go away from the window, father Hilse.
OLD HILSE
Not I! Not if you all goes crazy together! [_To MOTHER HILSE, with rapt
excitement._] My heavenly Father has placed me here. Isn't that so,
mother? Here we'll sit, an' do our bounden duty--ay, though the snow was
to go on fire.
[_He begins to weave._
[_Rattle of another volley. OLD HILSE, mortally wounded, starts to
his feet and then falls forward over the loom. At the same moment
loud shouting of_ "Hurrah!" _is heard. The people who till now have
been standing in the entry-room dash out, joining in the cry. The old
woman repeatedly asks:_ "Father, father, what's wrong with you?" _The
continued shouting dies away gradually in the distance. MIELCHEN
comes rushing in._
MIELCHEN
Gran'father, gran'father, they're drivin' the soldiers out o' the
village; they've got into Dittrich's house, an' they're doin' what they
did at Dreissiger's. Gran'father! [_The child grows frightened, notices
that something has happened, puts her finger in her mouth, and goes up
cautiously to the dead man.
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