That would be nothin' but butterin' their bread, Think of all the insurance money they'd get. [_Laughter._ BECKER No, from here we'll go to Freiburg, to Tromtra's. JAEGER What would you say to givin' all them as holds Government appointments a lesson? I've read somewhere as how all our troubles come from them birocrats, as they calls them. SECOND YOUNG WEAVER Before long we'll go to Breslau, for more an' more'll be joinin' us. OLD BAUMERT [_To HILSE._] Won't you take a drop, Gustav? OLD HILSE I never touches it. OLD BAUMERT That was in the old world; we're in a new world to-day, Gustav. FIRST YOUNG WEAVER Christmas comes but once a year. [_Laughter._ OLD HILSE [_Impatiently._] What is it you want in my house, you limbs of Satan? OLD BAUMERT [_A little intimidated, coaxingly._] I was bringin' you a chicken, Gustav. I thought it would make a drop o' soup for mother. OLD HILSE [_Embarrassed, almost friendly._] Well, you can tell mother yourself. MOTHER HILSE [_Who has been making efforts to hear, her hand at her ear, motions them off._] Let me alone. I don't want no chicken soup. OLD HILSE That's right, mother. An' I want none, an' least of all that sort. An' let me say this much to you, Baumert: The devil stands on his head for joy when he hears the old ones jabberin' and talkin' as if they was infants. An' to you all I say--to every one of you: Me and you, we've got nothing to do with each other. It's not with my will that you're here. In law an' justice you've no right to be in my house. A VOICE Him that's not with us is against us. JAEGER [_Roughly and threateningly._] You're on the wrong track, old chap, I'd have you remember that we're not thieves. A VOICE We're hungry men, that's all. FIRST YOUNG WEAVER We wants to _live_--that's all. An' so we've cut the rope we was hung up with. JAEGER And we was in our right! [_Holding his fist in front of the old man's face_.] Say another word, and I'll give you one between the eyes. BECKER Come, now, Jaeger, be quiet. Let the old man alone.--What we say to ourselves, father Hilse, is this: Better dead than begin the old life again. OLD HILSE Have I not lived that life for sixty years an' more? BECKER That doesn't help us--there's _got_ to be a change. OLD HILSE On the Judgment Day. BECKER What they'll not give us willingly we're goin' to take by force. OLD HILSE By force. [_Laughs._] You may as well go an' dig your graves at once. They'll not be long showin' you where the force lies. Wait a bit, lad! JAEGER Is it the soldiers you're meanin'? We've been soldiers too. We'll soon do for a company or two of 'em. OLD HILSE With your tongues, maybe. But supposin' you did--for two that you'd beat off, ten'll come back. VOICES [_Call through the window._] The soldiers are comin! Look out!