Pelle the Conqueror, vol 4 | Page 5

you don't ask
any either: that's all. And by the way, you might do me the favor to take
back your two-krone. I don't owe any one anything."
"Well, borrow it, then," said Pelle. "You can't go to town quite without
money."
"Do take it, won't you?" begged Ferdinand. "It isn't so easy for you to
get hold of any as for any one else, and it was a little too mean the way
I got it out of you. You've been saving it up in there, a halfpenny a day,
and perhaps gone without your quid, and I come and cheat you out of it!
No, confound it! And you gave mother a little into the bargain; I'd
almost forgotten it! Well, never mind the tin then! I know a place
where there's a good stroke of business to be done."
A little above Damhus Lake they turned into a side road that led
northward, in order to reach the town from the Nörrebro side. Far down
to the right a great cloud of smoke hung in the air. It was the
atmosphere of the city. As the east wind tore off fragments of it and
carried them out, Ferdinand lifted his bull-dog nose and sniffed the air.
"Wouldn't I like to be sitting in the 'Cupping-Glass' before a
horse-steak with onions!" he said.
By this time the afternoon was well advanced. They broke sticks out of
a hedge and went on steadily, following ditches and dikes as best they
could. The plough was being driven over the fields, backward and
forward, turning up the black earth, while crows and sea-birds fought in
the fresh furrows. The ploughmen put the reins round their waist each
time they came to the end of their line, threw the plough over and

brought it into position for a new furrow, and while they let their horses
take breath, gazed afar at the two strange spring wayfarers. There was
such a foreign air about their clothes that they must be two of that kind
of people that go on foot from land to land, they thought; and they
called after them scraps of foreign sentences to show they knew
something about them. Ah, yes! They were men who could look about
them! Perhaps by to-morrow those two would be in a foreign country
again, while other folk never left the place they were once in!
They passed a white house standing in stately seclusion among old
trees, a high hawthorn hedge screening the garden from the road.
Ferdinand threw a hasty glance over the gate. The blinds were all down!
He began to be restless, and a little farther on he suddenly slipped in
behind a hedge and refused to go any farther. "I don't care to show
myself in town empty-handed," he said. "And besides evening's the
best time to go in at full speed. Let's wait here until it's dark. I can
smell silver in that house we passed."
"Come on now and let those fancies alone," said Pelle earnestly. "A
new life begins from to-day. I'll manage to help you to get honest
work!"
Ferdinand broke into laughter. "Good gracious me! You help others!
You haven't tried yet what it is to come home from prison! You'll find
it hard enough to get anywhere yourself, my good fellow. New life, ha,
ha! No; just you stay here and we'll do a little business together when it
gets dark. The house doesn't look quite squint-eyed. Then this evening
we can go to the 'Cupping-Glass' and have a jolly good spree, and act
the home-coming American. Besides it's not right to go home without
taking something for your family. Just you wait! You should see 'Laura
with the Arm' dance! She's my cupboard-love, you know. She can
dance blindfold upon a table full of beer-mugs without spilling a drop.
There might be a little kiss for you too.--Hang it!--you don't surely
imagine you'll be made welcome anywhere else, do you? I can tell you
there's no one who'll stand beckoning you home.--Very well, then go to
the devil, you fool, and remember me to your monthly nurse! When
you're tired of family life, you can ask for me at my address, the
'Cupping-Glass'." His hoarse, hollow voice cut through the clear spring
air as he shouted the last words with his hand to his mouth.
Pelle went on quickly, as though anxious to leave something behind

him. He had had an insane hope of being received in some kind way or
other when he came out--comrades singing, perhaps, or a woman and
two children standing on the white highroad, waiting for him! And
there had only been Ferdinand to meet him! Well, it had been a damper,
and now he shook off the disappointment