Pelle the Conqueror, Vol. 2

ons through two centuries, and follow the several branches of the family from country to town and over the sea and back again, and show that Andres and the judge must be cousins twice removed. Bu

uld say. He did not grudge people any pleasure they could derive from the facts of relationship. Poor peopl

st them. Elastic-sided boots and lace-up boots had superseded the old footwear, but honest skill still meant an honest reputation. And if some old fellow wanted a pair of Wellingtons or Bluchers of leather waterproofed with grease, instead of by some new-fangled devilry, he must needs go to Jeppe-no one else could shap

master. They all laid themselves out to mystify him, speaking of the most matter-of-fact things in dark and covert hints, in order to make

hey did not answer, and then he would fly into a passion. "I'll have you show me respect!" he would cry, stamping on the floor until the dust eddied round him. Master And

that, although it grieves me to use harsh measures!" he would mew. "And that, too-and that! You've got to go through with it, if you want to enter the craft!" Then he would give the lad something that faintly resembled a kick, and would stand there struggling for breath. "You're a troublesome youngster-you'll allow that?" "Yes, my mother used to break a broomstick over my head every ot

lling sand in the streets-a specialist in his way. Day by day one saw Anker's long, thin figure in the streets, with a sackful of sand slung over his sloping shoulders; he wor

ust have sand for their floors, and his was as good as any other. He needed next to nothing for his livelihood; people maintained that he never ate anything, but lived on his own vitals. With the money he received he bought materials f

e had spent many years on Christianso, but then the Government had sent him to spend the rest of his term of captivity on Bornholm. Dampe was his name; Jeppe had known him when an apprentice in Copenhagen; and his ambition was to overthrow God and king. This ambition of his did not profit him greatly; he was cast down like a second Lucifer, and only kept his head on his shoulders by virtue of an act of mercy. The two young people regarde

, for neither Anker nor Bjerregrav was particularly warlike; yet everybody could see that the town was not behind the rest of the world. Here the vanity of the town was quite in agreement

cornfully, "he has tu

And it's only that I'm not very capable; I have my wits, thank God!" Bjerregrav solemnly raised the fingers of hi

y over the first tramp you meet! And you defend an abominable agitator, who neve

to make the world more beautiful!" Bjerregrav b

people! So that's why he takes his walks at night! Well, the world would of cou

gun, and in its honor he intended, in his insane rejoicing, to make an ingenious clock which should show the moon and the date and the month and year. Being an excellent craftsman, he completed it successfully, but then it entered his head that the clock ought to show the weather as well. Like so many whom God had endowed with His gifts, he ventured too far and sought to rival God Himself. But here the brakes we

know; the best ought to have the clock. I shall send it to the King. He has given us the new time, and this clock will tell

him; over and over again trouble built its nest with him. The money he gave to the poor, and he lamented that the new time had not yet arrived. So he sank even deeper into his madness, a

thing by sitting under a crazy man," saw Jeppe scornfully. Anker himself paid no attention to them, but went his own way. Presently he was a king's son in disguise, and was betrothed to the eldest

the first of January, Master Andres had to write a letter for him, a love-letter to the king's daughter, and had also to take it upon him to despatch it to the proper quarter

the workshop door, and the sound of some one humming a march drifted in fr

hat with a waving plume, and epaulettes made out of paper frills; his face was beaming, and he stood there with his

said, "how goes it

ms that should keep the whole in motion are failing me." He stoo

he master's eyes were twinkling, b

y," said Anker unwillingly, "and

ty eyes, without speaking a word. He did not move; only his temples went o

ometimes like a living darkness that surrounded tho

e young master's ear. "Has an answer come from

back. Anker stood for a few moments in silence; he looked as though he must be medit

aid the young master. His voice sounded mournful

assed. Pelle knew that weary homecoming; it was as though weariness in person had invaded the town. And he knew the sound of this taciturn procession; the snarling sound when this man or that made an unexpected and involuntary movement with his stiffened limbs, and was forced to groan with the pain of it. But to-night they gave him a different impression, and something like a smile broke thr

itary young fellow threw him a playful remark. "Keep your hat on-it's not a funeral!" he cried. A few foreign seamen came strolling over the hill from the harbor; they came zigzagging down the street, peeping in at all the street doors, and laughing immoderately as they did so. One of them made straight for Anker with outstretched arms, knocked off his hat, and went on with

still, his body jerking convulsively, as though the old sickness were about to attack him. Once he sprang

right among the sailors, in order to drag them off the lunatic

cried the boy, but he was hu

of Jens the apprentice. He wa

ther!" cried Morten. The man laughed foolishly, and began slowly to pull his coat off. "Help him, then!" bellowed the boy, quite beside himself, shaking his father's arm. Jorgensen stretched out his hand to pat the boy's cheek, when he saw the blood on his face. "Knock them down!" cried the boy, like one possessed. Then a sudden sh

ten followed them hand-in-hand. A peculiar feeling of satisfaction thrilled Pel

ler note came into the voices of all who spoke to him. Pelle did not clearly understand what there could be attractive about himself; but he steeped himself in this friendship, which fell upon his ravaged soul like a beneficent rain. Morten would come up into the workshop a

posed that Jens and Morten must have been supported by the poor-box; he could not understand how a boy could bear his father to be a giant of whom the whole town went in terror. Jens seemed hard of hearing when any one spoke to him. "He ha

a wider radius, and his soul was on the alert for wider ventures; he dropped his anchors in unfamiliar seas. The goal of his desires receded into the unknown; he now overcame his aversion from the great and mysterious Beyond, where the outlines of the face of God lay hidden. The God of Bible history and the sects had for Pelle been only a man, equipped with a beard, and uprightness, and mercy, and all the rest; he was not to be despised, but the "G

h steps if he had been rich; and if Anker talked strangely, in curious phrases, of a time of happiness for all the poor, why, Father Lasse's lamentations had dealt with the same subject, as far back as he could remember. The foundation of the boy's nature felt a touch of the

cares, but they were imprinted on his character, to which they lent a certain gravity. He still roamed about alone, encompassing himself with solitude, and he observed the young master in his own assiduous way.

y a much-needed winter overcoat, and went in to the master, who was in the cutting-out room, and laid th

is that?" he a

oney," said Pelle,

as though from another world, and Pelle all at once understood what every

himself could

ner in the air. "Lord o' me! what a lot of money! Well, you aren't poor!" He

ckoned it up exactly. And the master mu

u young devil!" he groaned, and leaned heavily on Pelle; his face was purple. Then came a fit of sickness, and the sweat beaded his face. He stood

of all the disgrace. But late in the afternoon the master called him into the cutting-out room. "Here, Pelle," he said confidentially, "I want to renew my lottery

le knew down to the ground exactly where he stood, and that knowledge was bitter enough. Below him lay the misty void, and the bubbles which now and again rose to the surface and broke did not produce in him any feeling of mystical wonder