Pelle the Conqueror, Vol 3

ned that he would lie in bed a little longer, so that he should not deprive her of a pleasure, and when she knocked on the wall he would answer in a voice quite stupid with drowsiness. But so

was the elder, worked in a tin-plate works, while Earl sold the morning papers, and undertook every possible kind of occasional work as well; this he had to hunt f

ty rising in their eyes and their garments, smacking their lips as though they relished the contrast between the night and day, audibly yawning as they scuttled away. Up in Pelle's long gangway factory girls, artisans, and newspaper women came tumbling out, half naked; they were always

her breathing was audibly perceptible, as a faint, whistling sound. There was a curious, still, brooding look about her little under-grown figure that reminded Pelle of Morten's unhappy sister; something hard and undeveloped, as in the fruit of a too-young tree. But the same shadow did not lie upon her; childish toil had not

ay in the chest of drawers, and gave them something wherewith to amuse themselves. "They must have something!" she told people; "besides, men always need money in their pockets. But they deserve it, for th

g married woman, and Pelle

lle to have a bite of something; or else she would bring

st a saucepan should boil ove

be talked over; the difficult times, Marie's parents, and then the wonderful fact that they had met one another once before, a long time

der to show old Thatcher Holm the steamers; and she always laughed when she heard how Holm had run away in his alarm every time the steam-cr

a few things then. We took them to the pawn-shop when father lay ill

a man with a fine old mirror in his arms. Th

ompassionately. "Father was so unhappy, b

guests who came there in summer. Three years they had kept the hotel, and Pelle had to name the sum out of

hey came to the "Ark." Their mother did washing out of doors, but at last she became queer in the head. She could not bear unhappiness, and neglected her housework, to run about seeking consolation from all sorts of religious s

aving all this to look after?

more than one can manage-if one only knows how to manage. And the children

their position, and haul them off to school. Then they would be forcibly separated and brought up at the expense of the poorrates. They were shy, and "kept themselves to themselves." In the "Ark" everybody liked them, and helped them to keep their secret. The other inmates managed their famil

s their morning coffee, she carried some in to Pelle-it was no use protesting. And in the mornings, when she was busy indoors by herself, she would go round to him with broom and bucket. Her precocious, intelligent

ould take that to heart, and would go about offended all the rest of the day; so he would run below to fetch a roll of white bread.

he rosiest of humors, and even Hanne could not throw any real shadow over his existence. In his relat

hten her poverty-stricken life with his high spirits. He chatted merrily to her, chaffed her, teased her, to charm her from her unnatural solemnity. And she w

shirt?" she would ask. Her gratitude alway

Hanne and her moth

for the Princess-I ca

e, raising his head. "Is

he was with us-and she was always the princess. But do you know what? Some one will come and take

se!" said Pe

utspread. "And she knows everything that is going to happen. She used to run down to us, in the courtyard, in her long dress, and her mother used to stand up above and call her; then she'd sit on the grating as if it was a throne and she was the queen and we were her ladies. She used to braid

l!" said Pelle,

she asked him, looking

m her forehead. She was delighted when they both had some errand in the city. Then she put on her best and went through the streets at his side, her whole face smiling. "Now perhaps people w

cheerfully of the good times that would soon be coming for all poor people. It cost him a great deal of exertion to put this in words so as to make it sound as it ought to so