I suppose you want me to make an enemy o' that feller? You just go ahead an' get him down on you! I tell you, that's a dangerous feller. He ain't got nothin' to do except spy on people. Come. Sit down. Eat. Here's a fork for you. You don't understand much about such things. You take care o' the things that belongs to you! Did you have to go an' lay the snares right behind the garden? They was yours, wasn't they? JULIUS [_Annoyed._] Go right ahead! MRS. WOLFF An', o' course, that fool of a Motes had to find 'em first thing. Here near the house you ain't goin' to lay no more snares at all! Y'understan'? Next thing'll be that people say we laid 'em. JULIUS Aw, you stop your jawin'. [_Both eat._ MRS. WOLFF Look here, Julius, we're out of wood, too. JULIUS An' you want me to go this minute, I suppose? MRS. WOLFF It'd be best if we got busy right off. JULIUS I don't feel my own bones no more. Anybody that wants to go c'n go. I ain't. MRS. WOLFF You men folks always does a whole lot o' talkin', an' when it comes to the point, you can't do nothin'. I'd work enough to put the crowd of you in a hole and drag you out again too. If you ain't willin' to go to-night by no means, why, you've got to go to-morrow anyhow. So what good is it? How are the climbin' irons? Sharp? JULIUS I loaned 'em to Karl Machnow. MRS. WOLFF [_After a pause._] If only you wasn't such a coward!--We might get a few loads o' wood in a hurry, an' we wouldn't have to work ourselves blue in the face neither.--No, nor we wouldn't have to go very far for 'em. JULIUS Aw, let me eat a bite, will you? MRS. WOLFF [_Punches his head amicably._] Don't always be so rough, I'm goin' to be good to you now for onct. You watch. [_Fetching a bottle of whiskey and showing it to him._] Here! See? I brought that for you. Now you c'n make a friendly face, all right. [_She fills a glass for her husband._ JULIUS [_Drinks._] That's fine--in this cold weather--fine. MRS. WOLFF Well, you see? Don't I take care o' you? JULIUS That was pretty good, pretty good all right. [_He fills the glass anew and drinks._ MRS. WOLFF [_After a pause. She is splitting kindling wood and eating a bite now and then._] Wulkow--that feller--he's a regular rascal--. He always--acts--as if he was hard up. JULIUS Aw, he'd better shut up--he with his trade! MRS. WOLFF You heard that about the beaver coat, didn't you? JULIUS Naw, I didn't hear nothin'. MRS. WOLFF [_With assumed carelessness._] Didn't you hear the girl tell how Mrs. Krueger has given Krueger a fur coat? JULIUS Well, them people has the money. MRS. WOLFF That's true. An' then Wulkow was sayin' ... you musta heard ... that if he could get hold of a coat like that some day, he'd give as much as a seventy crowns for it. JULIUS You just let him go and get into trouble his own self. MRS. WOLFF [_After a pause, refilling her husband's glass._] Come now, you c'n stand another. JULIUS