Pelle the Conqueror, Vol 3

ing his smiling face toward the bright heavens overhead. Then he lowered his head and ran down the break

r heads out of window. "But then, of course, he's from the country. And now he's going to deliver his work. Lord, how long is he going to squat

yard raised their heads when t

er for us to-day, Pelle?" the

some little bits of patent-lea

he shared the pieces among the children. Then the yo

s had withdrawn themselves a little, as though they were no longer worked so hard. His blue eyes still accepted everything as good coin, though they

h of sunlight touched a window there were stained bed- clothes hung out to dry. Up one of the side streets was an ambulance wagon, surrounded by women an

e as at home; here a hundred different things would happen in the course of the day, and Pelle was willing eno

If you've got any money, come along!" He was actually on the point of following her, when he discovered that the old women who lived in the street were flattening their noses a

ght up in the gables awakened memories of home. Sometimes, too, there were vessels from home lying here, with cargoes of fish or pottery, and then he was ab

t of such an obvious matter of course as that he should make his way. Here wealth was simply lying in great heaps, and the poor man too could win it if only he grasped at it boldly enough. Fortune

eople filled the whole street in front of the iron- foundry, shouting eagerly to the blackene

here?" as

y all suddenly chuck up their work and rush bareheaded into the street and make a noise, and then back to work again, just like school children in play-time. They've already been in and out two or three times, and now half of them's outside and the others are at work, and the gat

anded what was owing it. "He won't give us the wages that we've honestly earned, the tyrant!" they cried. "A nice thing, truly, when one's got a wife and kids at home, and on a Saturday afternoon, too! What a shark, to take the bread out of their mouths! Won't the gracious gentlema

y were before. "What the devil are we to do if there's no one who can lead us?" they sai

d them in to negotiate with the manufa

ds the deaf-and-dumb alphabet!" they shouted. T

got your killer with you, Eriksen?" cried one, and Erikse

we don't set fire to the place!" Then all was sud

this! These people didn't beg for what they wanted; they preferred to use their fists in order to get it, and they didn't get drunk first, li

they pressed back to the gates again. "This is where we work, and we're going to have our rights, that we are!" Then the police began to drive the onlookers away; at each onset they fell back a few steps,

t! He's the son of the mangling-woman what lives in the house here, a

ith his body. She retired to her cellar, and stood there using her

g to use your truncheon on me, too? Wouldn't you like to, Fredrik? Take your orders from the great folks, and then come yelping at us, because we aren't

would turn round; then the whole swarm took to its heels, but next moment it was there again. The police were nervous: their fingers were opening and closing in t

ndered about an idiot. Then the "Great Power" rose up before him, mighty in his strength, and was hurled to his death; they had all been like dogs, ready to fall on him, and to fawn upon everything that smelt of their superiors and the authorities. And he himself, Pelle, had had a whipping at the court-house, and people had pointed the finger at him, just as they pointed at the "Great Power." "See, there he goes

he would pull at it and crumple it so that it lost its shape, and then he made the most infernal to-do because it was not good enough. Now and again he would make a deduction from the week's wages, averring

me, we shall come to blows!" he thought. But the foreman took

s breeches when he came to Copenhagen from Germany as a wandering journeyman. He did not know much about his craft, but he knew how to make others work for him! He did not answer

n, smiling. "Ah! Pipman-he knows the trick, eh? You do the work and he takes th

like to be independent as

he foreman; but no unionists here, min

went out quickly into Kobmager Street and turned out of the Coal Market into Hauser Street, where, as he knew, the president of the struggling Shoemakers' Union was living. He found a little co

of the passers- by were just above his head. At the back of the room a woman stood cooking something on the stove; she had a lit

id Pelle. "Can I become

d. Something like a smile pa

sked slowly. "It may prove a costly ple

, in Kobma

red as soon as he

n the Union. He's not going to tell me what I can and

s too few of us. You'll be starved out

erous," said Pelle cheerfully, "and then

whole miserable trade in poverty! Ah, what a revenge, comrade!" The blood rushed into his hollow cheeks until they burned, and then he began to cough. "Petersen!" said the woman anxiously, supporting his back. "Petersen!" She sighed and shook her head, while she helped him to struggle through his fit of coughing. "When

u're a woman-you know nothing about the matter

for a week. "And now you must try to break away from that bloodsucker as soon as poss

And I learned nothing of this at home

, you've given me back my courage! Now you persuade as many as you can, and don't miss the meetings; they'll be announced in The Wo

a little after the fatigue of the day. There was a whole new world out here, quite different from that of the "Ark." The houses were

a long, steady stride that took him over the bridge and into North Bridge Street. Now he himself was a trades unionist; he was like all these others, he could go straight up to any one if he wished and shake him by the hand. There was a strong and peculiar appeal about the bearing of these people, as though they had been soldiers. Involuntarily he fell into step with them, and felt

lebration of the day. But first of all the whole affair must be properly and methodically planned out, so that he should not be disappointed afterward. He must, of course, have

d gone wrong between them. Pelle was ashamed of himself and could not find a word to say. He had been unfaithful to his only friend; and it was not easy for him to account for his behavior. But Morten didn't want any explanations; he simply s

ome sleep before the night's work. "But come in with me; we can at least sit and talk f

could look out over the endless mass of roofs, which lay in rows, one behind the other, like the hotbeds in a monstrous nursery garden. From the numberless flues and chimneys rose a thin bluish smoke, which lay oppressively over all. Due south lay the Kalvebod Strand

city, the capital, for which he and all other poor men from the farthest corners of the la

nd all expectation. Everything here was on the grand scale; what men built one day they tore down again on the morrow, in order

ove the mass of houses. Down in the street flowed a black, unending stream, a stream of people continually renewed, as though from a mighty ocean that could never be exhausted. They all had some obje

deep breath. "Yes," said Morten standing beside him. "And it's

erful idea. But it was true en

eedles a child out of a thing," cried Morten morosely. "But there's no real efficiency in anything that children do-and the poor have ne

we went and tried to take it

ted about it-but we

ion of organization was so stupendous. Men combined, sure e

to get his rights. I was thinking about him a little while ago, how he nev

e and bringing disgrace on us. And I was horribly afraid, too, when he began to lay about him; I wake up sometimes now quite wet and cold with sweat, when I've been dreaming

I t

so quiet and delicate was he. He had not yet quite recovered the strength of which Bodil h

kept; and there were actually flowers in a vase beneath the looki

them, of

another man in the world who

ious connection between them and Morten's peculiar, still energy. He h

, now?" he asked doubtfully

the new conditions are coming, an

you've got your book-learning to help you along. But we other chaps can

ers, all together! But we must demand proper conditions! Scarcely one out of thousands can come out on top; and then the rest can sit where they are and gape after him! But do you believe he'd get a chance of rising if it

and you put up with it and baa after them! No, let them all together demand that they shall receive enough for their work to live on decen

r father was raving about when he lay dying in the shed. He lay there delirious, and he belie

understood that longing. But Pelle sat there brooding. Was this the "new time" all over aga

t to-day I joined the trade union. I shan't stand sti

g. "I must go to bed now so that I can get up at one. But where do you live? I'll come

shavn-in the 'Ark,' if

know the 'Ark' very well, it's been so often described

d have run into one another's arms like this! What bit of luck, eh? And I behaved like a clown and kept out of your way? But tha

th you," replied Morten, smilin

"If I had the strength of all us poor folks in me, I'd break out right away and conquer the whole of it! If such a mass of wealth were shared out there'd never be any poverty any more!" He stood the

about and playing the duke while such as we can sit here working our eyes out of our heads! And we have to go thirs

answering him. He no longer took Pipman seriously. "Devil fry me, but a man must si

his glance fell upon Pipman. His blue naked shanks, miserably shivering under his leather apron, l

bly! Those damned brats! 'Pipman's got D. T.,' they yell. 'Pipman's got D. T. And God knows I haven't got D. T., but I haven't got any trousers, and that's just the tr

n chest and took out

n lumber-chest of yours," said Pipman surlily. "After a

sat playing his flute somewhere in his den deep within the "Ark." He always hid himself right away when he played, for at such times he was like a sick animal, and sat quaking in his lair. The notes of his flute were so sweet, as they came trickling out of his hiding place, that they seemed like a song or a lament from another world. And the restless creatures in the "Ark" must perforce be silent and listen. Now Vinslev was in one of his gentle moods, and one somehow felt better for hearing him. But at times, in his dark moods, the devil seemed to enter into him, and breathed such music into his crazy mind that all his hearers felt a panic terr

's playing was like a gentle breeze that played on people's he

but it was nothing to him. For he wore the conqueror's sh

climbing pelargonium and some ivy had wound themselves round the broken beams and met ov

hter sewing; and Hanne's face glowed like a rose in the night, and every now and then she turned it up toward Pelle and smiled, and made an impati

here I have to keep slaving and getting his food ready for Ferdinand from morning to night and from night to morning again. And he doesn't even trouble himself to come home to it. I can't go looking into his wild ways; all I can do is to sit here and worry and keep his meals warm. Now that's a tasty little bit; a

o with me!" said Pelle grumpily

d to stand there hanging your head! So young and well- grown as you are too! You cut her

o go clattering down the stairs to th

Johnsen, making room for him. "You know you are alway

her head. She sat there turning her head about; she gazed at him smiling,

weather to-morrow

up at the little speck of sky in a

rophet, Pelle? But y

retending to slap her. "If it's fine to-morrow we

go; but he hesitated sl

then you shall be my young man. It's so tedious going to the woods with the old lady; an

Gate by omnibus; I don't car

ist any longer, mummy! But there are st

Gate was a splendid place. From there you could get a view over the country where my home was, and the summer nights were neve

w and again joined in the conversation. Then she came out, serving Pelle with a cracked tea-tr

still had the feeling that of something unusual, and f

sign on your forehead? Just look, mother, just look at him

and began to rub the soot away, Hanne standing behind him and holding his head in both hands so that he should not move. "T

lf laughed

o the fourth story. "Good evening!" he said, in his deep bass voice, as he approached

t means he's wasted the whole week's wages again. They've always got more than e

whenever a door was opened turned to a feeble clucking every time some belated mother came rushing home from work to clasp the l

ng rose up through the shaft; it was only "Grete with the child,"

hildren haven't got strength left to sing. But her brat doesn't n

things to make her fine for to-morrow, when he

morrow, then?" as

xpects him every Sunday, but

dly a thing to laugh ab

lusions, and her pensi