Pelle the Conqueror by Martin Andersen Nexø (great novels to read .TXT) 📕

“And I didn’t give notice in time either,” said Lasse to excuse himself.

“Then run away!”

But Lasse would not do that. “No, I’ll stay and work toward getting something for myself about here,” he said, a little evasively. “It would be nice for you too, to have a home that you could visit now and then; and if you didn’t get on out there, it wouldn’t be bad to have something to fall back upon. You might fall ill, or something else might happen; the world’s not to be relied upon. You have to have a hard skin all over out there.”

Pelle did not answer. That about the home sounded nice enough, and he understood quite well that it was Karna’s person that weighed down the other end of the balance. Well, she’d put all his clothes in order for his going away, and she’d always been a good soul; he had nothing against that.

It would be hard to live apart from Father Lasse, but Pelle felt he must go. Away! The spring seemed to shout the word in his ears. He knew every rock in the landscape and every tree⁠—yes, every twig on the trees as well; there was nothing more here that could fill his blue eyes and long ears, and satisfy his mind.

The day before May Day they packed Pelle’s things. Lasse knelt before the green chest; every article was carefully folded and remarked upon, before it was placed in the canvas bag that was to serve Pelle as a traveling-trunk.

“Now remember not to wear your stockings too long before you mend them!” said Lasse, putting mending wool on one side. “He who mends his things in time, is spared half the work and all the disgrace.”

“I shan’t forget that,” said Pelle quietly.

Lasse was holding a folded shirt in his hand. “The one you’ve got on’s just been washed,” he said reflectively. “But one can’t tell. Two shirts’ll almost be too little if you’re away, won’t they? You must take one of mine; I can always manage to get another by the time I want a change. And remember, you must never go longer than a fortnight! You who are young and healthy might easily get vermin, and be jeered at by the whole town; such a thing would never be tolerated in anyone who wants to get on. At the worst you can do a little washing or yourself; you could go down to the shore in the evening, if that was all!”

“Do they wear wooden shoes in the town?” asked Pelle.

“Not people who want to get on! I think you’d better let me keep the wooden shoes and you take my boots instead; they always look nice even if they’re old. You’d better wear them when you go tomorrow, and save your good shoes.”

The new clothes were laid at the top of the bag, wrapped in an old blouse to keep them clean.

“Now I think we’ve got everything in,” said Lasse, with a searching glance into the green chest. There was not much left in it. “Very well, then we’ll tie it up in God’s name, and pray that, you may arrive safely⁠—wherever you decide to go!” Lasse tied up the sack; he was anything but happy.

“You must say goodbye nicely to everyone on the farm, so that they won’t have anything to scratch my eyes out for afterward,” said Lasse after a little. “And I should like you to thank Karna nicely for having put everything in such good order. It isn’t everyone who’d have bothered.”

“Yes, I’ll do that,” said Pelle in a low voice. He did not seem to be able to speak out properly today.

Pelle was up and dressed at daybreak. Mist lay over the sea, and prophesied well for the day. He went about well scrubbed and combed, and looked at everything with wide-open eyes, and with his hands in his pockets. The blue clothes which he had gone to his confirmation-classes in, had been washed and newly mangled, and he still looked very well in them; and the tabs of the old leather boots, which were a relic of Lasse’s prosperous days, stuck out almost as much as his ears.

He had said his “Goodbye and thank-you for all your kindness!” to everybody on the farm⁠—even Erik; and he had had a good meal of bacon. Now he was going about the stable, collecting himself, shaking the bull by the horns, and letting the calves suck his fingers; it was a sort of farewell too! The cows put their noses close up to him, and breathed a long, comfortable breath when he passed, and the bull playfully tossed its head at him. And close behind him went Lasse; he did not say very much but he always kept near the boy.

It was so good to be here, and the feeling sank gently over Pelle every time a cow licked herself, or the warm vapor rose from freshly-falling dung. Every sound was like a mother’s caress, and every thing was a familiar toy, with which a bright world could be built. Upon the posts all round there were pictures that he had cut upon them; Lasse had smeared them over with dirt again, in case the farmer should come and say that they were spoiling everything.

Pelle was not thinking, but went about in a dreamy state; it all sank so warmly and heavily into his child’s mind. He had taken out his knife, and took hold of the bull’s horn, as if he were going to carve something on it. “He won’t let you do that,” said Lasse, surprised. “Try one of the bullocks instead.”

But Pelle returned his knife to his pocket; he had not intended to do anything. He strolled along the foddering-passage without aim or object. Lasse came up and took his hand.

“You’d better stay here a little longer,” he said. “We’re so comfortable.”

But this put life into Pelle. He