PEER. [_Laughing between whiles._] Bars I must fix me; bars that can fasten The door against troll-folk, and men, and women. Bars I must fix me; bars that can shut out All the cantankerous little hobgoblins.— They come with the darkness, they knock and they rattle: Open, Peer Gynt, we’re as nimble as thoughts are! ’Neath the bedstead we bustle, we rake in the ashes, Down the chimney we hustle like fiery-eyed dragons. Hee-hee! Peer Gynt; think you staples and planks Can shut out cantankerous hobgoblin-thoughts? [_SOLVEIG comes on snow-shoes over the heath; she has a shawl over her head, and a bundle in her hand._ SOLVEIG. God prosper your labour. You must not reject me. You sent for me hither, and so you must take me. PEER. Solveig! It cannot be——! Ay, but it is!— And you’re not afraid to come near to me! SOLVEIG. One message you sent me by little Helga; Others came after in storm and in stillness. All that your mother told bore me a message, That brought forth others when dreams sank upon me. Nights full of heaviness, blank, empty days, Brought me the message that now I must come. It seemed as though life had been quenched down there; I could nor laugh nor weep from the depths of my heart. I knew not for sure how you might be minded; I knew but for sure what I should do and must do. PEER. But your father? SOLVEIG. In all of God’s wide earth I have none I can call either father or mother. I have loosed me from all of them. PEER. Solveig, you fair one— And to come to me? SOLVEIG. Ay, to you alone; You must be all to me, friend and consoler. [_In tears._ The worst was leaving my little sister;— But parting from father was worse, still worse; And worst to leave her at whose breast I was borne;— Oh no, God forgive me, the worst I must call The sorrow of leaving them all, ay all! PEER. And you know the doom that was passed in spring? It forfeits my farm and my heritage. SOLVEIG. Think you for heritage, goods, and gear, I forsook the paths all my dear ones tread? PEER. And know you the compact? Outside the forest Whoever may meet me may seize me at will. SOLVEIG. I ran upon snow-shoes; I asked my way on; They said “Whither go you?” I answered, “I go home.” PEER.