That's what he did. That little scamp talked, Mrs. Fielitz! The whole meetin' just shouted! An' he didn't mind callin' a spade a spade neither. MRS. FIELITZ He oughtn't to be so hot, I think. LANGHEINRICH That he ought, just that! An' why not? Do what you can an' go ahead! That's the way! That whole crowd don't deserve no better. Not Wehrhahn an' not Friderici. An' anyhow, it was a good thing, Mrs. Fielitz. It was done just in the nick o' time! Now he's gone an' broken with them fellers, an' everybody knows it. There ain't no goin' back now. Now he belongs to us, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I never would ha' thought it of him! MRS. FIELITZ You got reason to be satisfied with him, I'm thinkin'. Look at the noise in your workshop with four journeymen ... LANGHEINRICH That's true, too, an' I'm not denyin' it. He put money in circulation. I couldn't make friends with Pastor Friderici's collection plate. Couldn't do it. Now everything's arranged.--Now I want you to keep your eyes open at the window when I gets up to the top o' the steeple. I'll wave an' sing out an'--jump down! _LANGHEINRICH and EDE exeunt with the weather vane. A brief silence._ MRS. FIELITZ I wonder if Rauchhaupt will be comin' in to-day? LEONTINE I don't see, mother, why you're so frightened all the time. Rauchhaupt ain't nothin' but an old fool. Let him come all he pleases an' jabber away! Let him, mother. Nobody don't pay no attention to his nonsense! MRS. FIELITZ They says as he's been talkin' around a lot. LEONTINE Well, let him! I got letters too. Here's one of 'em again, mother. [_She throws down a letter in its envelope._] But I don't worry about that. An' anyhow it's only that assistant at the railroad. MRS. FIELITZ It might ha' been Constable Schulze, too. LEONTINE Or that assistant teacher Lehnert--if you want to go on guessin'! MRS. FIELITZ Well, let 'em! Them fellers is jealous--an' envious o' Schmarowski an' his new house! They'd like to go an' lay somethin' at our door. But no! 'Tain't so simple as that! LEONTINE [_Who has been sewing at her machine for a moment._] Look, mama, I found this here! MRS. FIELITZ Hurry now, hurry! Don't go an' lose time now. That dress has got to be ready by two. Adelaide has been sendin' over again!--The one thing you ought to do is to go down to the cellar an' get that couple o' bottles o' wine, so's we can drink their health when they come up! You c'n see, they'll soon be through. LEONTINE That thing was the Missis' spine supporter. MRS. FIELITZ She was a poor, wretched crittur: strappin' herself an' tyin' herself an' squeezin' herself, an' yet she couldn't get rid o' her hump. LEONTINE Well, why did she have to be so vain! MRS. FIELITZ Don't grudge her her rest. She's deserved it. LEONTINE They says that her ghost keeps rappin' up in the top attic where Langheinrich sleeps. MRS. FIELITZ