On a sunny afternoon—Melchior and Wendla meet each other in the wood.

MELCHIOR: Is it really you, Wendla?——What are you doing up here all alone?——For three hours I've been going from one side of the wood to the other without meeting a soul, and now you come upon me out of the thickest part of it!

WENDLA: Yes, it's I.

MELCHIOR: If I didn't know you were Wendla Bergmann, I would take you for a dryad, fallen out of your tree.

WENDLA: No, no, I am Wendla Bergmann.——How did you come here?

MELCHIOR: I followed my thoughts.

WENDLA: I'm collecting Elderflowers. Mamma wants to make Maybowl. At first she intended coming along herself, but at the last moment Aunt Bauer dropped in, and she doesn't like to climb.——So I came by myself.

MELCHIOR: Have you found your Elderflowers?

WENDLA: A whole