MRS. BERGMANN--Be sure you don’t forget, you angel child! Really, I’m interested myself in knowing if he came in by the window or the chimney! WENDLA--Or how about asking the chimney-sweep, rather?--The chimney-sweep must know better than anybody whether he flies down the chimney or not. MRS. BERGMANN--No, not the chimney-sweep, dear; not the chimney-sweep! What does the chimney-sweep know about the stork? He’ll fill you chuck-full of nonsense he doesn’t believe himself.... Wha-what are you staring down the street so at? WENDLA--A man, mother, three times as big as an ox!--with feet like steamboats--! MRS. BERGMANN--[_Plunging to the window._] Impossible! Impossible! WENDLA--[_Right after her._] He’s holding a bedstead under his chin and fiddling “The Watch on the Rhine” on it--now he’s just turned the corner.... MRS. BERGMANN--Well! You are and always were a little rogue! To put your simple old mother into such a fright!--Go get your hat. I wonder when you’ll ever get any sense! I’ve given up hope! WENDLA--So have I, Mother; so’ve I. It’s pretty sad about my sense! Here I have a sister who’s been married two and a half years; here I am an aunt three times over; and I haven’t the least idea how it all happens!... Don’t be cross, motherkin! don’t be cross! Who in the world should I ask about it but you? Please, Mother dear, tell it to me! Tell me, darling motherkin! I feel ashamed at myself! Please, please, mother, speak! Don’t scold me for asking such a thing. Tell me about it--how does it happen--how does it all come about?--Oh, you can’t seriously expect me still to believe in the stork when I’m fourteen! MRS. BERGMANN--But, good Lord, child, how queer you are! What things do occur to you! Really, I just can’t do that! WENDLA--But why not, mother? Why not? It can’t be anything ugly, surely, when everyone feels so glad about it! MRS. BERGMANN--Oh, oh, God defend me!--Have I deserved to---- Go and put your things on, girl,--put your things on. WENDLA--I’m going ... and supposing your child goes out now and asks the chimney-sweep? MRS. BERGMANN--Oh, but that’s enough to drive me crazy!--Come, child, come here: I’ll tell you.... Oh, Almighty Goodness!--only not to-day, Wendla! To-morrow, day after, next week, whenever you want, dear heart! WENDLA--Tell it to me to-day, mother. Tell it to me now; now, at once. Now that I’ve seen you so upset, it’s all the more impossible for me to quiet down again until you do! MRS. BERGMANN--I just can’t, Wendla. WENDLA--Oh, but why can’t you, motherkin?--Here I’ll kneel at your feet and put my head in your lap. Cover my head with your apron and talk and talk as if you were sitting all soul alone in the room. I won’t move a muscle, I won’t make a sound; I’ll keep perfectly still and listen, no matter what may come! MRS. BERGMANN--Heaven knows, Wendla, it isn’t my fault! The good God knows me.--Come, in His name!--I will tell you, little girl, how you came into this world--so listen, Wendla....