Scene 3 Summary

Three years later, Mother Courage and Kattrin fold clothes beside the cart. "Swiss Cheese," in his uniform, watches. Yvette Pottier, the prostitute of the military camp, is having a brandy. Her red high-heeled boots are laid aside. An armourer is trying to sell Mother Courage a sack of shot for money to buy drinks. Courage finally accepts, knowing she can sell it to an armourer from another regiment at a profit.

Courage then turns her attention to outfitting "Swiss Cheese" with woolen underwear for the coming fall. She's thankful that he's honest "and, above all, so stupid" that it hasn't occurred to him to run off with the regiment's pay. She thinks his honesty will keep him alive. "Swiss Cheese" goes to hide his woolies under his mattress.

Yvette Pottier has become drunk and starts telling the story of her first love, who...