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PEER
- And where is he now, this remarkable man?
AN ELDERLY MAN
- He fared over seas to a foreign land;
- it went ill with him there, as one well might foresee;-
- it's many a year now since he was hanged.
PEER
- Hanged! Ay, ay! Why, I thought as much;
- our lamented Peer Gynt was himself to the last.
- [Bows.]
- Good-bye,-and best thanks for to-day's merry meeting.
- [Goes a few steps, but stops again.]
- You joyous youngsters, you comely lasses,-
- shall I pay my shot with a traveller's tale?
SEVERAL VOICES
- Yes; do you know any?
PEER
- Nothing more easy.-
- [He comes nearer; a look of strangeness comes over him.]
- I was gold-digging once in San Francisco.
- There were mountebanks swarming all over the town.
- One with his toes could perform on the fiddle;
- another could dance a Spanish halling on his knees;
- a third, I was told, kept on making verses
- while his brain-pan was having a hole bored right through i
