Pelle the Conqueror, Vol. 2

ends, and at times they pirated the master's customers, by underbidding him in secret. They kept their own work under the bench; when the master was no

ad much to do after work-hours or on Sundays he had to help them; but he gained nothing

ers, and didn't want to be behind the capital! They always referred to the subject when Pelle went round with his shoes, and felt in their purses; if there was a shilling there they would hide it between their fingers, and say that he should have something next time for certain-he must remind them of it another time! At first he did

ster anathematized because they were so worn out. The poor were not afraid to pay a shilling if they had one; it made him feel really sad to see how they would search in every corner to get a few pence together, and empty their childr

aps. Here every shilling meant so much suffering or happiness, and a grimy little copper would still the man's angry clamor and the child's despairi

mend these a bit for me!" she pleaded. "Just sew them up anyhow, so that they'll stick on my feet for half the evening. The stone-masons are giving their feast, and I do so want to go to it!" Pelle examined the boots; there was not much to be done f

anks!" she said, looking delightedly at the boots; "an

h's cat," said Pelle smiling

heir bed," the young woman rejoined jestingly. "Still, I wis

rty pair of children's boots, which she earnestly begged him to mend. He took the boots and repaired them although it left him still poorer; he knew too well what need was to refuse. This was the

; as, for example, when he defiantly sat upon a freshly-tarred bollard. He became thereby the hero of the evening; but as soon as he was alone he went behind a fence and let down his breeches in order to ascertain the extent of the damage. He had been running his errands that

to Pelle; if he ran about out-of-doors in his best clothes he was only doing as the town did. At all events he had a shirt on, even if it was rather big! And the barber's assistant himself, who looked most important in tail-coat and top-hat, and was the ideal of every apprentice, did

, had wives and children, went out on Sundays, and amused themselves; and after all why should one behave as if the world was coming to an end because one hadn't a barrel of salt pork or a clamp of potatoes to see one through the winter? Recklessness was fi

ible world, and here he was, stranded in this little town, where there was never a crumb to feed a hungry imagination; nothing but a teeming confusion of petty cares. One felt the cold breath of the outer winds, and the dizziness of great spaces; when the little newspaper came the small tradesmen and employers would run eagerly across the street, their spectacles on their noses, and would speak, with gestures of amazement, of the things that happened outside. "China," they would say; "America!" and fancy that they themselves made part of the bustling world. But Pelle used to wish most ardently that something great

traddle, in order to ride down the tiger which was on the point of tearing the King of the Himalayas to pieces so that he would of course receive the king's daughter and half his kingdom as a reward for his heroic deed. Pelle often loitered about the harbor, but no beautifully dressed little girl ever fell into the water, so that he might rescue her, and then, when he was grown up, make her his wife. And if such a thing did really happen he knew now that his elders w

lor. But all the men in town who possessed anything had attained their wealth by wearily plodding forward and sucking the blood of the poor. They were always sitting and brooding over their money, and they threw nothing awa

's house the big dog, as always, made for his legs, and he lost the twenty-five-ore piece. While he was looking for

my lad?" he asked, and beg

"And then I shall answer him boldly, and t

erious adventure, such as happens to

merely searched eagerly, and inquired: "Where were you w

"Extraordinary-how eager he is!" Pelle did not really want to go o

e twenty-five ore. But what a booby you are!" And he moved on, and Pelle lo

en. The sight tickled Pelle tremendously. "Have you lost anything?" he asked mischievously, standing on the alert, lest h

as a thief and who a bankrupt speculator, and that Merchant Lau only did business with the little shopkeepers, because his daughter had gone to the bad. Pelle knew the secret pride of the town, the "Top-galeass," as she was

onderful old doorways and flowers in every window. Their neatly tarred framework glistened, and they were always newly lime-washed, ochrous yellow or dazzling white, sea-green, or blue as the sky. And on Sundays there was quite a festive display of flags. But Pelle had explored the back quarters of every house; and ther

chapel, as they sat together and sang out of the same hymn-book, they would secretly pinch one another's legs. "Yes," people used to say, "such a

r it. "Will you please put it down?" they would say, when they came for their boots; and "it's to be entered," he himself would say, when he made a purchase for his employers. All spoke the same magical formula, and Pelle was reminded of

s there came a day of reckoning. The master already spoke with horror of the New Year; and it was very unfortunate for his business that the leathe

etry in the scramble of life; there were people going about who were poor as church mice, yet they played the lord. Alfred was such a lucky fellow; he earned not a red cent, but was always dressed like a cou

ugh he could not be quite sane, and he had to go away without effecting his object. "There must be some secret about it that I don't know," he thought; and he dimly remembered another b

h fur edging, which looked like feeding pigeons. "I got them from a shopkeeper's daughter," he sai

ined his re

s before his face. "Good Lord, he wants to gets shirts on tick! If o

now he wanted a summer overcoat and rubber cuffs. "Why do you want credit?" asked the shopkeepe

g any one else into it; it wa

shopkeeper surlily. "We don't cloth

rtly. "You are just like Albinus

it then?" ask

"it just came of itself. But naturally I don't tell them that I'm p

pinch your upper lip?" a

t, I'm stroking