BURGOMASTER. Toddy too——! DR. STOCKMANN. Yes; sit down, and let’s make ourselves comfortable. BURGOMASTER. Thanks; I never join in drinking parties. DR. STOCKMANN. But this isn’t a party. BURGOMASTER. I don’t know what else—— [_Looks towards the dining-room._] It’s extraordinary how they can get through all that food. DR. STOCKMANN. [_Rubbing his hands._] Yes, doesn’t it do one good to see young people eat? Always hungry! That’s as it should be. They need good, solid meat to put stamina into them! It is they that have got to whip up the ferment of the future, Peter. BURGOMASTER. May I ask what there is to be “whipped up,” as you call it? DR. STOCKMANN. You’ll have to ask the young people that—when the time comes. We shan’t see it, of course. Two old fogies like you and me—— BURGOMASTER. Come, come! Surely that is a very extraordinary expression to use—— DR. STOCKMANN. Oh, you mustn’t mind my nonsense, Peter. I'm in such glorious spirits, you see. I feel so unspeakably happy in the midst of all this growing, germinating life. Isn’t it a marvellous time we live in! It seems as though a whole new world were springing up around us. BURGOMASTER. Do you really think so? DR. STOCKMANN. Of course, you can’t see it as clearly as I do. You have passed your life in the midst of it all; and that deadens the impression. But I who had to vegetate all those years in that little hole in the north, hardly ever seeing a soul that could speak a stimulating word to me—all this affects me as if I had suddenly dropped into the heart of some teeming metropolis. BURGOMASTER. Well, metropolis—— DR. STOCKMANN. Oh, I know well enough that things are on a small scale here, compared with many other places. But there’s life here—there’s promise—there’s an infinity of things to work and strive for; and that is the main point. [_Calling._] Katrina, haven’t there been any letters? MRS. STOCKMANN. [_In the dining-room._] No, none at all. DR. STOCKMANN. And then a good income, Peter! That’s a thing one learns to appreciate when one has lived on starvation wages—— BURGOMASTER. Good heavens——! DR. STOCKMANN. Oh yes, I can tell you we often had hard times of it up there. And now we can live like princes! To-day, for example, we had roast beef for dinner; and we’ve had some of it for supper too. Won’t you have some? Come along—just look at it, at any rate—— BURGOMASTER. No, no; certainly not——