THE OLD MAN
[pulls out a bundle of old newspapers]
I daresay you think that we’ve no newspapers?
Wait; here I’ll show you in red and black,
how the Bloksberg Post eulogises you;
and the Heklefield Journal has done the same
ever since the winter you left the country.—
Do you care to read them? You’re welcome, Peer.
Here’s an article, look you, signed “Stallionhoof.”
And here too is one: “On Troll–Nationalism.”
The writer points out and lays stress on the truth
that horns and a tail are of little importance,
so long as one has but a strip of the hide.
“Our enough,” he concludes, “gives the hall-mark of trolldom
to man,”— and proceeds to cite you as an instance.