These ladies don't seem to believe me. Will you kindly inform them, gentlemen, that Mrs. John has no child in board, and that they are quite obviously mistaken in the name.

KaFERSTEIN

I am asked to tell you that you are probably mistaken in the name.

PAULINE

[_Vehemently and tearfully._] She has got my baby! She had my baby boardin' with her. An' the gentleman came from the city an' he said that the child wasn't in no good hands an' that it was neglected. She went an'

ruined my baby's health.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

There is no doubt but what you have mistaken the name of the woman of whom you speak, Mrs. John has no child in board.

PAULINE

She had my baby in her claws, that's what! An' she let it starve an' get sick! I gotta see her! I gotta tell her right out! She's gotta make my little baby well again! I gotta go to court. The gentleman says as how I gotta go to court an' give notice.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

I beg of you not to get excited. The fact is that you are mistaken! How did you ever hit on the idea that Mrs. John has a child in board?

PAULINE

Because I gave it to her myself.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

But Mrs. John has her own child and it just occurs to me that she has taken it along with her on a visit to her sister-in-law.

PAULINE

She ain't got no child. No, Mrs. John ain't got none! She cheats an' she lies. She ain't got none. She took my little Alois an' she ruined him.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

By heaven, ladies, you are mistaken!

PAULINE

n.o.body won't believe me that I had a baby. My intended he wrote me a letter an' he says it ain't true an' that I'm a liar an' a low creature.

[_She touches the pillow on which the infant is resting._] It's mine an'

I'll prove it in court! I c'n swear it by the holy Mother o' G.o.d.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

Do uncover the child. [_It is done and Ha.s.sENREUTER observes the infant attentively._]--H-m, the matter will not remain long in obscurity. In the first place ... I know Mrs. John. If she had had this child in board it could never look as it does. And that is true quite simply because, where it is a question of children, Mrs. John has her heart in the right place.

PAULINE

I want to see Mrs. John. That's all I says. I don't has to tell my business to everybody in the world. I c'n tell everythin' in court, down to the least thing--the day an' the hour an' jus' exackly the place where it was born! People is goin' to open their eyes; you c'n believe me.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

What you a.s.sert, then, if I understand you rightly, is that Mrs. John has no baby of her own at all, and that the one which pa.s.ses as such is in reality yours.

PAULINE

G.o.d strike me dead if that ain't the truth!

Ha.s.sENREUTER

And this is the child in question? I trust that G.o.d won't take you at your word this time.--You must know that I, who stand before you, am manager Ha.s.senreuter and I have personally had in my own hands the child of Mrs. John, my charwoman, on three or four occasions. I even weighed it on the scales and found it to weigh over eight pounds. This poor little creature doesn't weigh over four pounds. And on the basis of this fact I can a.s.sure you that this child is not, at least, the child of Mrs. John.

You may be right in a.s.serting that it is yours. I am in no position to throw doubt on that. But I know Mrs. John's child and I am quite sure that it is, in no wise, identical with this.

MRS. KIELBACKE

[_Respectfully._] No, no; that's right enough. It ain't identical.

PAULINE

This baby here is identical enough all right, even if it's a bit underfed an' weakly. This business with the child is all straight enough! I'll take an oath that it's identical all right.

Ha.s.sENREUTER

I am simply speechless. [_To his pupils._] Our lesson is ruled by an evil star to-day, my dear boys. I don't know why, but the error which these ladies are making engrosses me. [_To the women._] You may have entered the wrong door.

MRS. KIELBACKE

No, me an' the gentleman from the guardian's office an' the young lady went an' fetched this here child outa the room what has the name plate o'

Mrs. John on it, an' took it out into the hall. Mrs. John wasn't there an' her husband the mason is absent in Hamburg.

_POLICEMAN SCHIERKE comes in, fat and good-natured._

Ha.s.sENREUTER

Ah, there's Mr. Schierke! What do you want here?

SCHIERKE

I understand, sir, that two women fled up here to you.

MRS. KIELBACKE

We ain't fled at all.

Ha.s.sENREUTER