You have to answer with a modest "yes" or "no" the exact questions which I put to you!

MELCHIOR.

I have written neither more nor less than what are well-known facts to all of you.

SONNENSTICH.

You shameless boy!

MELCHIOR.

I request you to show me an offense against morals in this ma.n.u.script!

SONNENSTICH.

Are you counting on a desire on my part to be a clown for you?----Habebald----!

MELCHIOR.

I have----

SONNENSTICH.

You have as little respect for the dignity of your a.s.sembled teachers as you have a proper appreciation of mankind's innate sense of shame which belongs to a moral world!----Habebald!

HABEBALD.

At your service, Herr Rector!

SONNENSTICH.

It is past the time for the three hours' exercise in agglutive Volapuk.

MELCHIOR.

I have----

SONNENSTICH.

I will request our secretary, Herr Fliegentod, to close the minutes.

MELCHIOR.

I have----

SONNENSTICH.

You have to keep still!!----Habebald!

HABEBALD.

At your service, Herr Rector!

SONNENSTICH.

Take him down!

SCENE SECOND.

_A graveyard in the pouring rain----Pastor Kahlbauch stands beside an open grave with a raised umbrella in his hand. To his right are Renter Stiefel, his friend Ziegenmelker and Uncle Probst. To the left Rector Sonnenstich with Professor Knochenbruch, The grammar school students complete the circle. Martha and Ilse stand somewhat apart upon a fallen monument._

PASTOR KAHLBAUCH.

For, he who rejects the grace with which the Everlasting Father has blessed those born in sin, he shall die a spiritual death!----He, however, who in willful carnal abnegation of G.o.d's proper honor, lives for and serves evil, shall die the death of the body!----Who, however, wickedly throws away from him the cross which the All Merciful has laid upon him for his sins, verily, verily, I say unto you, he shall die the everlasting death! (_He throws a shovelful of earth into the grave._)----Let us, however, praise the All Gracious Lord and thank Him for His inscrutable grace in order that we may travel the th.o.r.n.y path more and more surely. For as truly as this one died a triple death, as truly will the Lord G.o.d conduct the righteous unto happiness and everlasting life.

RENTER STIEFEL.

(_His voice stopped with tears, throws a shovelful of earth into the grave._)

The boy was nothing to me!----The boy was nothing to me!----The boy was a burden from his birth!

RECTOR SONNENSTICH.

(_Throws a shovelful of earth into the grave._)

Suicide being the greatest conceivable fault against the moral order of the world, is the greatest evidence of the moral order of the world. The suicide himself spares the world the need of p.r.o.nouncing judgment of condemnation against himself, and confirms the existence of the moral order of the world.

PROFESSOR KNOCHENBRUCH.

(_Throws a shovelful of earth into the grave._)

Wasted--soiled--debauched--tattered and squandered!

UNCLE PROBST.

(_Throws a shovelful of earth into the grave._)

I would not have believed my own mother had she told me that a child could act so basely towards its own parents.

FRIEND ZIEGENMELKER.

(_Throws a shovelful of earth into the grave._)

To treat a father so, who for twenty years, from late to early, had no other thought than the welfare of his child!

PASTOR KAHLBAUCH.