SONNENSTICH--Is the writing in this manuscript yours? MELCHIOR--Yes. SONNENSTICH--Does this obscene manuscript originate from you? MELCHIOR--Yes.--I beg you, Mr. Sonnenstich, to show me one obscenity in it. SONNENSTICH--You are to answer the particular questions I put to you with a simple, modest “Yes” or “No”! MELCHIOR--I have written no more and no less than what is very well known to you to be fact. SONNENSTICH--Insolence. MELCHIOR--I ask you to show me one offense against morals in that paper! SONNENSTICH--Do you imagine I’d have a mind to act the clown for you? Habebald!... MELCHIOR--I have---- SONNENSTICH--You have as little respect for the dignity of your assembled teachers as you have decent sensibility for mankind’s inbred feeling for the modesty of the shamefastness of the moral order of the world!--Habebald! HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? SONNENSTICH--It’s in fact the Langenscheidt for the learning in three hours of agglutinative Volapük![5] MELCHIOR--I have---- SONNENSTICH--I instruct our Secretary, Mr. Fliegentod, to close the minutes! MELCHIOR--I have---- SONNENSTICH--You have to keep quiet!--Habebald. HABEBALD--Yes, Mr. Sonnenstich? SONNENSTICH--Take him down! CURTAIN SCENE II.--_A graveyard seen through pouring rain. Gray stone wall about five feet high, and quite close to it, parallel with it, an open grave, behind which stands_ PASTOR KAHLBAUCH, _umbrella in left hand and prayer-book in right, flanked by_ MORITZ’S _father, his friend_ ZIEGENMELKER, _and_ UNCLE PROBST, _on the right, and_ PRINCIPAL SONNENSTICH _and_ PROFESSOR KNOCHENBRUCH, _with a string of schoolboys, on the left. At a little distance, by a half-collapsed monument, are_ ILSE _and_ MARTHA. PASTOR KAHLBAUCH-- ... For he who rejects the mercy wherewith the Eternal Father has blest man born in sin, he shall die a spiritual death. He who in wilful, carnal denial of God’s proper honor liveth for evil and serveth it, he shall die the death of the body. He, however, who wantonly throws from him the cross which the All-merciful has laid upon him for his sins, verily, verily, I say unto you, he will die the everlasting death!--[_He closes the book and puts it in his pocket, takes a shovel from the wall-face and with it pushes some mud into the grave, and hands the shovel to_ MR. STIEFEL.]--Let =us=, however, faithful pilgrims upon the thorny way, praise the Lord, the All-bountiful, and render him thanks for his inscrutable elections. For as truly as =this= soul did die a threefold death, so truly will God the Lord induct the righteous man into bliss and the Life Everlasting.--Amen. MR. STIEFEL--[_His voice thick with tears._] The boy was none of mine!--The boy was none of mine!--The boy never pleased me from childhood up! [_He throws a shovelful of mud into the grave, and gives the shovel back._ PASTOR KAHLBAUCH _hands it to_ PROFESSOR SONNENSTICH.]