[Bird sings again.]
Pehr, do you know what he said then?
PEHR. No.
LISA. "Live guiltless! Mine eye seeth thee."
PEHR. Guiltless--what is that?
LISA. I don't know--but dress yourself!
PEHR. It's only nonsense; there's no one here to see us. [Cuckoo
calls.] Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
PEHR. What is that rogue calling?
LISA. [Imitates cuckoo.] Cuckoo, cuckoo!
PEHR. What a lot of tiresome formalities there has got to be!
LISA. Can you not enjoy the great, innocent pleasures of Nature?
PEHR. Yes, for a little while--What was that? [Tears off vest.]
LISA. An ant.
PEHR. [Beats right and left with his hat.] Only look at all the
horrid pests! Ouch! what was it that stung me? A mosquito!
LISA. Everything here in life is incomplete, Pehr. Remember that,
and take the bad with the good.
PEHR. Deuce take the bad! I want the good. [Beats at the air.] Now
I'm tired of the for est. Surely one cannot play all one's life! I
yearn for activity, and want to be among people. Tell me, Lisa--
you, who are such a wise little creature, what do people value
most? For that I shall procure for myself.
LISA. Pehr, before I answer you, listen to a sensible word! People
will cause you just as much annoyance as the mosquitoes do, but
they will not give you the delight to be found in Nature's
perennial youth.
PEHR. Nature!--Oh, yes, it is very pretty when seen from a church
tower, but it becomes rather monotonous near to. Doesn't everything
stand still? Don't the trees stand in the selfsame places where
they stood fifty years ago, and won't they be standing there fifty
years hence? My eyes are already weary of _this_ splendor! I want
movement and noise, and if the people are like mosquitoes, it will
be so much easier to keep them at a distance than this company.
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