[_Looks in the same direction toward the village. Contemptuously_:] Where? Oh, yes, that's him! There they both are! They're just walkin' around the parson's garden. Well, what about it? You think I ought to be gettin' away? I'm not afeard o' them psalm-singin' donkeys. ROSE [_In quivering fear._] Streckmann, I've saved up twelve crowns ... STRECKMANN Rosie, you know you've saved more than that. ROSE All right, I'll give you all my bit o' savin's! I don't care for the money ... I'll bring it to you, to the last farthing. Streckmann, only have pity ... [_She seeks to grasp his hands beseechingly, but he draws them away._ STRECKMANN I takes no money. ROSE Streckmann! For the sake o' all good things in the world ... STRECKMANN Well now, I can't see why you don't act sensible. ROSE If one person in the village finds that out.... STRECKMANN It depends on you! Nobody needn't know. All you need to do is not to force it on 'em ... [_With sudden passion._] What's at the bottom of it?--I'm crazy about you ... ROSE Where's the woman or girl you're not crazy about! STRECKMANN Maybe it's so. I can't change things. A man like me who has to go the round o' all the estates in the country with his threshin' machine--he don't have worry because he's not talked about. I know best how it is with me. Before ever Flamm came--I'm not mentionin' August--I'd thrown an eye on you. An' nobody knows what it's cost me. [_With iron stubbornness._] But the devil fetch me now! Come what may, Rosie! There's no more use tryin' to joke with me! I happened to come upon somethin' to-day! ROSE An' what is it? STRECKMANN You'll see soon enough. _MARTHEL, ROSE'S younger sister, comes skipping along the field-path. She is neatly dressed in her Sunday garments and is still pronouncedly child-like._ MARTHEL [_Calls out._] Rose, is that you? What are you doin' here? ROSE I've got to finish hoein' the patch. Why didn't you stop to finish it o' Saturday? MARTHEL Oh, dearie me, Rosie, if father sees you! STRECKMANN If there's a bit o' profit in it, he won't do nothing very bad. You let old Bernd alone for that! MARTHEL Who is that, Rosie? ROSE Oh, don't ask me! _Old BERND and AUGUST KEIL are approaching along the field-path from the village. The old, white-haired man, as well as the other who is about thirty-five years old, is dressed in his Sunday coat and each carries a hymn book. Old BERND has a white beard; his voice has a certain softness as though he had had and been cured of a severe pulmonary affection. One might imagine him to be a dignified retired family coachman. AUGUST KEIL, who is a bookbinder, has a pale face, thin, dark moustache and pointed beard. His hair is growing notably thin and he suffers from occasional nervous twitching. He is lean, narrow-chested; his whole appearance betrays the man of sedentary employment._ BERND Isn't that Rosie? AUGUST Yes, father Bernd.