[Block and Jöns are treated to a meal by Jof and Mia]

I've written a song about the spring! Would you like to hear it?

[Jof gets up to fetch his instrument, but Mia stops him]

Our guest may not care for your songs.

Oh, yes. I write songs myself.

You see!

There's one about an enormous fish which you haven't heard.

[Block clears his throat]

And you're not going to hear it, either.
. . .

[as Block broods, Mia offers him a bowl of wild strawberries]

We worry about so much.

It's better to be two.
. . .

To believe is to suffer. It is like loving someone in the dark who never answers.
. . .

I shall remember this hour of peace: the strawberries, the bowl of milk, your faces in the dusk. Mikael asleep, Jof with his lute. I shall remember our words, and shall bear this memory between my hands as carefully as a bowl of fresh milk.

[he drinks from the bowl]

And this will be a sign, and a great content.