Pelle the Conqueror, Vol. 4

himself under the tap, and then went down to his work. The gray spirit of the night was still visible down in the street, but a tinge of red was appearing above the roofs. "The sun's rising now over

le is here already!" The night-watchman came slowly past the open window on his way home. "Up already?" he exclaimed in a voice hoarse with the night ai

r the home grew, so he hammered away cheerfully. They were poor, but that was nothing in comparison with the fact that if he were taken away now, things would go to pieces. He was the children's Providence; it was

the children? It was not easy to build everything up at once from a bare foundation, and he was sometimes tempted to leave something alone so as to accomplish the rest the more quickly. As it was now, he was real

at stalwart fellow we once knew?" His own people, on the other hand, were lenient in their judgment. "Father hasn't got time," Sister would say in explanation to herself when she was playing about down in his wo

ills that constantly repeated themselves, and a mountain-top here and there that was reached every time he emerged from the thicket. It

d not trouble him! The Movement was really something new, and not one of history's everlasting repetitions. He now wanted to see its idea in print, and one day found him sitting with a strange solemnity in the library with Marx and Henry George in front of him. Pelle knew something about this subject too, but this was nevertheless like drawing up a net fr

k to his home. It was only Lasse Frederik ushering in the day; he took a flight at each leap, called a greeting down to his fat

said sulkily. "It's not good to sit working

g. "Fine ladies don't get up until long

her husband and have something ready for him. "I will have you call me!" she

her affairs, and they discussed the plans for the day, af

f and went out to deliver it. While he was out he would go int

slippers and long black caftan was balancing himself carelessly on the steps of the basement milk-shop with a bowl of cream in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other. Above on the pavement two boys were playing hopscotch, just below the large red lamp which all night long adve

provincial town. A string was stretched above the flower-pots, with a paper of safety-pins or a bundle of shoelaces hanging from it. There were poor people enough here, but life did not run in such hard grooves as out at N?rrebro. People took existence more

columns of workmen; its clothing was plentiful and varied; it might appear in the last woollen material from the big houses of old Copenhagen, or in gold-rimmed spectacles and high hat. Pelle thought he knew all the t

or man. There was something of the "Ark" about this part of the town, only not its hopelessness; on the contrary, all possibilities were to be found here. The poor man had conquered this ground from the rich citizens, and it seemed as if the development had got its direction from them. Here it was the proletariat whose varied nature forced its way upward, and leavened-so to speak-the whole. In the long sid

ghborhood to arrest his fancy and carry him forth. It was like a quay on which people from all parts of the world had agreed to meet-artists, seamen and international agents. Strange women came sailing through the crowd, large, exotic, like hot-house fruits; Pelle recognized them from the picture of the second-hand dealer's daughter in the "Ark," and knew that they belonged to the international nursing corps. They wore striped costumes, and their thick, fair hair emitted a perfume of foreign land

ed like life itself, broad and calm. The world was greater than he had thought, a

*

th a large volume of statistics under hi

leasant for you again?" he asked, looking

for your work?" she ask

the shop himself. They'

ot no dinner for you!" She tried to smile a

nd her. "Why didn't you make me some porridge?

get hardly anything else, an

put her carefully down upon the kitchen table. "That's porridge

without paying. They had spoiled her good bed-clothes by lying in them with their clothes on, and had made them so filthy that nothing could be done with them. She was unwil

he whole fiasco that had upset her so; she had promised herself so much from her great plan. "It i

"You only say it because of me! And the second-hand dealer sent up word this morning th

t, and that'll be an

that we've paid!" she exclai

s shoulders. "Tha

he things sold little by little

hire of the furniture, and as long as we owe a farthing on it, it

en, trying to smile, "but the stro

They were "Queen Theresa's," and she was going to wear them in the evening. "That'll bri

days of their married life. Now and then they stopped to laugh, when Ellen had forgotten some knack.

aid Ellen. "The artistes generally have their

checks, with enormous cuffs and boots with almost armor-plated toes. They chewed well and looked up stupidly at the call of the girls; they wore a hard, brutal mask for a face, and big diamond rings on their fingers. Some of them had such a powerful lower jaw that they looke

reet, where she lived, but found she was not at home. He had

yed with a mouse. Pelle was not nearly so cheerful as he appeared to be when he faced Ellen. The reality was beginnin

ust had twenty krones (a guinea) sent me from The Working Man, and we can divide them. It

way to you, after all!"

t piracy. You should have seen their expression! Goodness knows it's not pleasant to have to earn your bread on wretchedness, so to speak, but it's still more painful when afterward you have to beg for

Johanna?" The last words

s keeping her bed. She's

fortunately I can't find out anythi

she could easily help to put us on the right track if

an't be so

gine how spiteful she can be; it's as though the exhalations from down there had turned to poison in her. If any one comes here that she notices I like, she reviles them as soon as they're go

ath the clothes-she had been listening at the door-and pretended to b

Pelle, seating himself

for you. Can you g

nd crept down under the clothes, where she lay with compressed lips, and stole distrustful glances at Pelle. There was

e is she now? I should like to speak to her. Coul

s and a mocking expression. "Don't y

" Pelle went on, taking her thin h

es, at

leave your old grandmother and not even like others to

eally," she said reassuringly. "I only took away her stick and hid her spectacles so that she couldn't go out and fetch the cream. So she was obl

his up, I think," sa

t of the loaf too, and

ontinued

king her damp forehead. "I know q

o you know what I wish?" she said su

ou like

l, I'd treat you just as well as I've treat

y been kind to grandmot

to the wall. He could see from the curve of her body that she was struggling to ke

dmother!" she whispered

you're fo

lt that she couldn't get into the Home, she said; I heard her myself! And yet I went about and begged all the food for her.

elle earnestly. "I promise you you sh

orn silence. She did n

the police to find her, bu

n in prison!" she excla

you think that's so funny?" he said, winking his e

ried!" she said. "There was no one to

became of you two that day on the common? We

looking at him with her large gray eyes. It was Hanne's look; behind it was the same wondering over life, but here was a

er were once sweethearts?" sh

ise. "I'll tell you everything about your mother if you'l

know?" she asked in a

o write about me

t find your grandmothe

. "I went there on Thursday when the old things had leave t

u go up to

of listening to h

nd answered-a little sullenly-Pelle's questions, while she played nervously

oney for herself. When it became cold she went as scullery-maid to the inns or maid-of-all-work to the women in Dannebrog Street. Strange to say, she always eluded the police. At first there were two or three times when she started to return to her grandmother, but went no farther than the stairs; she was afraid of being punished, and could not endure the thought of having to listen to the old lady's complaints. Later on she became accustomed to her new way of living, and no longer felt any desire to leave it, probably because she had begun to take strong drink. Now and again, however, she stole in to the Home and caught a glimpse of her grandmother. She c

hinking that there was no hurry, that life was richer than that! But the children, the children! Were they to wait too, while he surveyed the varied forms of existence-wait and go to ruin? Was there on the whole any need of knowledge and comprehensiveness of survey

was burning hot and throbbed, and alarmed he felt her pulse. Her hand dropped into his

ed in a whisper, with a look of expectation in the bright eyes that she fixed upon him. And

nna; you're my little daughter!" he said, bending down over her. Her pale face was lighted w

s vain fight to get on, his horrible death in the sewer, how Hanne had grown up as the beaut

ything about Hanne," sai

e, like an all too beautiful dream. Do you know she danced hersel

nd hear about the old lady. It's a pity she should hav

her here, howe

anged. She and the child

o Ellen with the money

grandchild had been found. She lay most of the time, talking unintelligibly; she thought she still had to get money for the rent and for food for herself and the child. The troubles of old age had made an indelible impressio

e said. "Ever since I came over here in my young days, I've always meant to use the first money I had over on an excursion home;

arcely knew him. She felt for his hand and held it in both hers like a blind person trying to recognize, and she looked at him with her expressionless eyes that were already dimmed by