Jeppe on the Hill Part 9

=Jeppe=--So that I'm not a ghost?

=Judge=--Certainly not!

=Jeppe=--Nor a spirit?

=Judge=--No.

=Jeppe=--Am I then the same Jeppe on the Hill that I was before?

=Judge=--To be sure!

=Jeppe=--And not a spectre?

=Judge=--No, of course not.

=Jeppe=--Will you swear that it is true?

=Judge=--I swear that you are alive.

=Jeppe=--Will you cross your heart and hope to die if it isn't true?

=Judge=--You should believe what we say without question, and thank us that we have been so merciful as to sentence you to life again.

=Jeppe=--If you had not hanged me yourselves, I should have been glad to thank you for taking me down again.

=Judge=--Be content, Jeppe, and let us know when your wife beats you again, and we shall look into the matter. See, here are four Rixdollars, which you can have a good time with for awhile, and don't forget to drink our health.

(Jeppe kisses his hand and thanks him. The judge goes away.)

Scene 3.

=Jeppe= (alone)--Here I have lived for fifty years, and in all that time I have not gone through as much as in these two days. This is certainly a queer story, when I stop to think of it; one hour a drunken peasant, another hour baron, a third hour peasant again; now dead, now alive on a gallows,--which is the funniest of it all; maybe when live people get hanged they die, and when dead people get hanged they come to life again. I guess that a drink of whiskey would taste fine on this. Hey!

Jakob Skomager, come out!

Scene 4.

Jakob Skomager. Jeppe.

=Jakob=--Welcome back from town! Did you get the soap for your wife?

=Jeppe=--Ay, you rascal, you must know what kind of people you are talking to! Off with your cap! for you are but an idiot compared to a fellow like me.

=Jakob=--I'd not stand such words from anyone else, Jeppe. But since you give my house a daily penny, I won't be too particular.

=Jeppe=--Off with your cap, you rascal!

=Jakob=--What has happened to you on the way, that you've got the big head?

=Jeppe=--You must know that I have been hanged since I spoke with you last.

=Jakob=--That is not so much to feel proud about. I don't envy you a bit.

But listen, Jeppe, "where you have drunk your beer there you should show your spleen!" You become drunk at other places, but come into my house just to make a disturbance.

=Jeppe=--Quick, off with your cap, you rascal! Don't you hear that jingling in my pocket?

=Jakob= (with his hat under his arm)--Whew! Where did you get that money?

=Jeppe=--From my barony, Jakob. I'll tell you what has happened to me, but give me a gla.s.s of mead first; for I am too proud to drink Danish whiskey.

=Jakob=--Your health, Jeppe.

=Jeppe=--Now I shall tell you what has happened to me. When I left you I fell asleep; when I woke up again I was a baron, and got drunk again on canaille sack; when I got drunk of sack, I woke up on a dung-heap; when I woke up on the dung-heap, I lay down to sleep again, hoping that I would again become a baron, but I found that it doesn't always go like that; for my wife woke me up with Master Erik and dragged me in by the hair without having the least respect for such a man as I had been. When I came into the room I was kicked out head first, and saw myself surrounded by a lot of shysters, who sentenced me to death and killed me with poison; after I had been hanged I came to life again and got four Rixdollars. This is the whole story; but how such a thing could happen, I will let you imagine.

=Jakob=--Ha! Ha! Ha! It's a dream, Jeppe.

=Jeppe=--If I didn't have these four Rixdollars I'd think it was a dream, too. Give me another, Jakob, I'll not think more of that foolishness but have another good drink.

=Jakob=--Your health, Baron. Ha! Ha! Ha!

=Jeppe=--Perhaps you can't understand this, Jakob?

=Jakob=--Not if I stood on my head.

=Jeppe=--It might be true anyway, Jakob, for you are a dunce, and don't understand such things.

Scene 5.

Magnus. Jeppe. Jakob.

=Magnus=--Ha! Ha! Ha! I'll tell you a confounded story about a man called Jeppe on the Hill, who was found drunk and sleeping in the field,--his clothes were changed, and he was laid in the best bed on the estate. He was made to believe that he was the Baron, then they made him drunk again, and put him back on the dung-heap. When he woke up, he imagined that he had been in paradise. I laughed till I almost died when I heard that story from the overseer's men. I would give a Rixdollar if I could get a chance to see the fool. Ha, ha, ha!

=Jeppe=--How much do I owe, Jakob?

=Jakob=--Twelve pence.

(Jeppe wipes his mouth and goes away very much ashamed.)

=Magnus=--Why did that man leave so suddenly?

=Jakob=--That is the very person on whom the trick was played.

=Magnus=--Is it possible? Then I must hurry after him. Hold on, Jeppe! One word more. How is everything getting along in the other world?

=Jeppe=--Let me go in peace.