Committed arson? That there boy? Over there? At Fielitz's? Gustav? This here boy? This here little feller? O Lordy! But that makes me laugh! An' that they ain't all laughin'--that's the funny part. Here, Schulze, don't you go in for no foolishness! I wore them brass buttons myself onct!--Howdy-do, Mrs. Fielitz! Well, Fielitz, how are you? Where are you goin' to hang up that clock o' yours? MRS. FIELITZ Now he's jeerin' at us atop o' our troubles. RAUCHHAUPT Not a bit. Why should I be jeerin' at you anyhow? It's a misfortune, you think! Lord, Lord, so it is! Cats die around in sheds an' the birds they falls down dead to the earth. No, I ain't jeerin' at you! Anyhow: I ain't scared o' many things. I've gone for some tough customers in my time--fellers that none o' the other constables wanted to tackle! This here finger is bitten through. Yessir! But before I tackles any one like you--I'll go an' hang myself. MRS. FIELITZ [_Almost grey in the face, with trembling lips, yet with considerable vehemence and energy._] What's that man goin' for me like that for? What did I ever do to him, I'd like to know! Can I help it that things has turned out this way? I ain't seen nothin'! I wasn't there! I ain't cast no suspicions on no one! An' if they went an' arrested that boy o' yours--I didn't know no more about that than you! RAUCHHAUPT Woman! Woman! Look at me! MRS. FIELITZ Rot! Stop botherin' me. Leave me in peace an' don't go showin' off that way! I got enough trouble to go through. The doctor tells a person not to get excited, 'cause you might go just like that! An' a man like you ... We don't know where to lie down! We don't know where we're goin' to sleep to-night! We're lyin' in the street, you might say, half dead an' all broken up ... RAUCHHAUPT Woman! Woman! Can you look at me? MRS. FIELITZ Leave me alone an' go where you belongs. I don't let nobody treat me like that! I c'n look at you all right! Why not? I c'n look at you three days an' three nights an' see nothin' but a donkey before me! If this here thing is put off on your boy now, whose fault is it mostly? How did you go an' talk about the boy? You says, says you: he steals, he sets fire to your straw shed--an' now you're surprised that things turns out this way! You beat this here poor boy ... he used to come runnin' over to me with so many blue spots on his body that there wasn't a place on him that wasn't sore. An' now you acts all of a sudden like a crazy man! _WEHRHAHN has motioned the officers who grasp GUSTAV more firmly and lead him toward the door. RAUCHHAUPT observes this and jumps with lightning-like rapidity in front of GUSTAV, placing his hands on the latter's shoulders and holding him fast._ RAUCHHAUPT