——And now they want to take away my practice as well. But let them! The poor I shall keep anyhow—those that can’t pay; and, good Lord! it’s they that need me most. But by heaven! I'll make them listen to me; I'll preach to them in season and out of season, as the saying goes. MRS. STOCKMANN. My dear Thomas, I should have thought you had learnt what good preaching does. DR. STOCKMANN. You really are absurd, Katrina. Am I to let myself be beaten off the field by public opinion, and the compact majority, and all that sort of devilry? No, thank you! Besides, my point is so simple, so clear and straightforward. I only want to drive it into the heads of these curs that the Liberals are the craftiest foes free men have to face; that party-programmes wring the necks of all young and living truths; that considerations of expediency turn justice and morality upside down, until life here becomes simply unlivable. Come, Captain Horster, don’t you think I shall be able to make the people understand that? HORSTER. Maybe; I don’t know much about these things myself. DR. STOCKMANN. Well, you see—this is the way of it! It’s the party-leaders that must be exterminated. For a party-leader is just like a wolf, you see—like a ravening wolf; he must devour a certain number of smaller animals a year, if he’s to exist at all. Just look at Hovstad and Aslaksen! How many small animals they polish off—or at least mangle and maim, so that they’re fit for nothing else but to be house-owners and subscribers to the _People’s Messenger_! [_Sits on the edge of the table._] Just come here, Katrina—see how bravely the sun shines to-day! And how the blessed fresh spring air blows in upon me! MRS. STOCKMANN. Yes, if only we could live on sunshine and spring air, Thomas. DR. STOCKMANN. Well, you’ll have to pinch and save to eke them out—and then we shall get on all right. That’s what troubles me least. No, what does trouble me is that I don’t see any man free enough and high-minded enough to dare to take up my work after me. PETRA. Oh, don’t think about that, father; you have time enough before you.—Why, see, there are the boys already. EILIF _and_ MORTEN _enter from the sitting-room._ MRS. STOCKMANN. Have you a holiday to-day? MORTEN. No; but we had a fight with the other fellows in play-time—- EILIF. That’s not true; it was the other fellows that fought us. MORTEN. Yes, and then Mr. Rörlund said we had better stop at home for a few days. DR. STOCKMANN.