MRS. FIELITZ

A whole lot o' thinkin' over you'd ha' done! You ain't done any thinkin'

all the days o' your life. A great donkey like you ... an' thinkin'.

Well! A fine mess would come of it if you took to thinkin'.

FIELITZ

Mother, I axes you to consider that ...

MRS. FIELITZ

Put you up? To what? What is I puttin' you up to?--This here old shed is goin' to burn down sometime. It's goin' to burn down one time or 'nother, if it don't first come topplin' down over our heads. It's squeezed in here between the other houses in a way to make a person feel ashamed, if he looks at it.

FIELITZ

Mother, I axes you to consider ...

MRS. FIELITZ

Aw, I wish you'd clear out o' the front door this minute! I'm goin' to pack up my things pretty soon too. An' you c'n go over to the justice for all I care. I been puttin' you up to things, you know!

FIELITZ

Mother, I axes you to consider that ... Look out that you don't go an'

get a black eye! 'Cause I, if I ...

MRS. FIELITZ

[_With a gesture as though about to push him out._] Get out! Just get out! It'll be good riddance! The sooner the better! What are you dawdlin'

for?

FIELITZ

[_Beside himself._] Mother, I'll hit you one across the ... You're goin'

to put me out, eh? What? Outta my shop? Is this here your shop? I'll learn you! Just wait!

MRS. FIELITZ

Well, I'm waitin'. Why don't you start? You're that kind of a man, are you? Come right on! Come on now! You got the courage! I'll hold my breath or maybe I'd blow you right into Berlin.

FIELITZ

[_Hurls a boot against the wall in his impotent rage._] I'll break every stick in this here shop! To h.e.l.l with the whole business: that's what I says! I must ha' been just ravin' mad! There I goes an' burdens myself with a devil of a woman like that, an' I might ha' lived as comfortable as can be! She killed off one husband an' now I'm dam' idjit enough, to take his place! But you're goin' to find out! It ain't goin' to be so easy this time! I'll first kick you out before I'll let you get the best o' me! Not me! No, sir! You c'n believe that!

MRS. FIELITZ

You needn't exert yourself that much, Fielitz ...

FIELITZ

Not me! Not me! You c'n depend on that! You ain't agoin' to down me! You c'n take my word for it.

[_He sits down, exhausted._

MRS. FIELITZ

Maybe you might like throwin' some more boots. There's plenty of 'em around here--I s'ppose you married me for love, eh?

FIELITZ

G.o.d knows why I did!

MRS. FIELITZ

If you'll go an' study it out, maybe you'll know why. Maybe it was out o'

pity? Eh? Maybe not.--Or maybe it was the money I had loaned out?--Well, you see! I s'ppose that was it.--You c'n live a hundred years for my part! But it's always the same thing. 'Twasn't much different with Julius neither. If things had gone his way, I wouldn't have nothin' saved this day neither. The trouble is a person is too good to you fellers.

FIELITZ

An' outta goodness you want me to go an' take a match an' set fire to the roof over my head?

MRS. FIELITZ

You knew that you'd have to go an' build. I said that to myself right off, an' buildin' costs money. There ain't no gettin' away from that fact. An' the few pennies we has ain't more'n a beginnin'. If we had what you might call a real house here ... Schmarowski, he'd build us one that'd make all the others look like nothin' ... you could have a fine shop here. We might put a few hundred dollars into it an' sell factory shoes. If you'd want to take in repairing you could get a journeyman an'

put him here. An' if you wanted to go an' make some new shoes yourself, you could take the time for all I care.

FIELITZ

I don't know! I s'ppose I ain't got sense enough for them things. I thought I'd get hold o' a bit o' money ... I thought I'd be able to lay out a bit o' money! Buildin' a little annex of a shop--that's good fun. I thought it all out to myself like--with nice shelves and things like that ... an' I planned to hang up a big clock an' such. An' now you sit on your money bag like an old watch dog.

MRS. FIELITZ

That money--it ain't to be thrown away so easy. 'Twas earned too bitter hard for that.

FIELITZ

... You forgets that I've been in trouble before. Is I to go an' get locked up again?

MRS. FIELITZ

Never mind, Fielitz, to-morrow is another day. A person mustn't go an'

take things that serious! I was more'n half jokin' anyhow.--Go over to Grabow's an' drink a gla.s.s o' beer!... We must all be satisfied's best we can. An' even if you can't go an' open a shoe shop, an' even if you gotta worry along cobblin' an' can't buy no clock--well, a good conscience is worth somethin' too.

THE CURTAIN FALLS

THE SECOND ACT