Pelle the Conqueror, Vol 3

d and had miserably been defeated. Round about him lay the fallen. The town was built over them as over a cemetery; one had to tread upon them in order to win forward and harden one's hea

stabbing pain whenever he saw others suffer; and he rai

child had moved in a short while before. Every morning she locked the door and went to work-and she di

was in his ears-a grievous sound, as though something were incessantly complaining. Perhaps it

he said, and she wrung her hands anxiously upon her hollow chest

wrong," said Pelle, and

its crying for a moment, as though it heard them, but it began again at once; the sound was low and monotonou

d Marie, under her breath. With one leap Pelle had r

old wooden stool, was a tin plate containing a few half- nibbled crusts of bread. The child was dressed in filthy rags and presented a shocking appearance. He

anted to pick the child up. "Let me do that!" crie

dly. He helped to untie the c

doorpost; then he discovered that he was not tied up, and began to rush up and down. He still held in his hand the old tea-strainer which he had been

orming up and down again-he was like a wild thing. But suddenly he came right in, laid the tea- strainer in Pelle

cried Marie pityingly.

d at himself, that he was able to answer her so quietly instead of railing back at her. But he understood very well that she was asha

over the window-sill and runs into the street-he got to the cor

on the gangway! We will lo

Pelle bought some old clothes, and they altered them to fit him. The child looked very droll in them; he was a little g

en forward, without intermission, day and night, as long as one drew breath-Morten was right about that! This child's father was a factory hand, and the girl dared not summon him before the magistrates in order to make him pay for its support for fear of being dis

attended these meetings were mostly young people like himself. They met in some inn by the North Bridge

"comrades" were invited to a meeting through the press, they turned lazy and failed to appear. More effectual means were needed; and Pelle started a house-to-house agitati

no time for that. Together with Peter and Karl, who were extremely zealous, he took in The Work

the capital, and there they stood and could go no farther for all their longing, but perished on a desert shore. The many lives of the "Ark"

gs. He laughed less and performed apparently trivial actions with an earnestness which had its comical side. A

ren singing Hanne's song down in the courtyard. He stood still in the tunnel-like entry; Hann

rom the lof

er vale

a ship com

ng, s

ship com

were lordl

r eyes were tightly closed. She turned slowly about

st of all t

e ship di

circle. She went up the stairs with him. The c

evening?" she asked. "It is so

ot an appointment," r

to, Pelle." She looked at hi

he met her gaze. "What do you

gazing irresolutely

she said, in a toneless voi

below here ... he knows where I live. I went across to the other side and behaved as though

say to that?" answ

ything-I ran as

ed Pelle harshly. "You can keep aw

ook for me?... And you are so.... I don't care for anybody

e over to you," answe

ong before he had abandoned his firm attitude and allowed himself to be drawn into the most delightful romancing. They sat out on the gallery under the green

time. When her mother went into the kitchen to make c

e if he is really so silly as to think I'd come.

id not

ned with the coffee, "I'm going out to buy som

ward Pelle to-day; something was going on in the girl's mind, and if Pelle only wanted to, he could now bridle her properly. Sh

with you," she told Hanne. "

we don't turn up," she said, laughing. Pelle laughed also. She stationed herself behind one of the pillars o

id not appear, her animation vanished; she was si

!" she said suddenly, a

ole thing to tell you,

id Pelle quietly, a

tranger came quickly up to her. He held out his hand to Hanne, quietly and as a matt

music, for example?" he asked, and he continued t

e's eyes, which wore an expression as though she was longing for some means of shaking him off. "Well, it looks as if one was i

oily water. He did not suffer; it was only so terribly stupid that a strange hand should appear out of the unknown

chief came out of the cabin and stared up at the rigging as though out of habit, and yawned. Then he strolled ashore. His cap was on the back of his head, and between his teeth was a new pipe. His face was full of freakish merriment, and he walked with a swing of the hips. As he came up to Pelle he swayed to and fro a few times and then bumped into him. "Oh, excuse me!"

resentment; he did not know whether to

how it should be parried; and he held his hands in readiness. Suddenly something in the stooping position struck him as familiar. This was Per

ied, delighted, and he gav

should meet you here, Pelle; that's the most comical thing I've ever known! Y

e used always to stand still gripping on to something and bellowing, if the others came bawling round him. "And Nilen, too, I met him lately in New Orleans. He is second mate on a big American full-rigged ship, and is earning big money. A smart

e one in torment, and the sound of blows. Pelle wanted, to tu

g a fourth. He did not cry out, but gave vent to a muffled roar e

its following hail of rocks. Howling Peter had learned to use his strength; only a sailor could lay about him in that fashion. It was impossible to say where his blows were going to fall; but

said Pelle crossly, when it was over,

er. "But it does one no harm to

egs again, but had to hold him upright; he stood as limp as though asleep, and his eyes were staring stupidly. He was making a heavy snoring sound, and at every breath the b

hey drew a red rag from his bulging jacket-pocket, and wiped the worst of the blood away. "

aid the man thickly. His li

th enough. Either a fellow manages to look after himself or he

the police into it; an

hard, and when I fell

nly I don't get ill now!" he groaned from time to time. "I'

ld only hang about and play the gentleman at large; nothing more came of it. But of course he had given his word-that was why he had not hit back. The other three had found work elsewhere, so he went back to the firm and ate humble pie. Why should he hang about id

effect that the man had been struck on the head by a falling crane. He lived right up in the attics. When they opened the door a woman who lay there in child-bed raised her

n order to console her; "he

stance was not of much use; every time the woman's crying reached his ears he stopped helplessly and t

ed Pelle crossly, when he, too, could get

like wax? It's beastly, I tell you; it's infamous! He'd no need to go making her cry like that! I had the great

said Pelle earnestly. "That does ha

ole lot without food-what? And she in childbed. They were married, right

. "So I thought!" he said, fishing out the note. "I was afraid the girls had quite cleaned me out last night! Now Pelle, you go up and spin them some sort of a yarn; I can't do it properly

ook her the money," said Pel

we-I tell you, I should have left the thing alone and used the money to have made a jolly night of it to-night...." He was suddenly silent

tand a few pints when I meet a good pal," he said, "but at other times I save like the dev

had a love-affair with Madam Olsen for some time, but then bo'su

sea since those days. Now he was no longe

he roundabout was a mingled whirl of cries and music and brightly colored petticoats. Now and again a tremendous outcry arose, curiously dreadful, over all other sounds, and from the concert-pavilion one heard the cracked

" said Per Kofod. "You have a

orming little groups. Their eyes sent many a message before ever one of them stopped and ventured to speak. Perhaps the maiden turned away; if so, that was an end of the matter, and the youngster began the business all over again. Or perhaps she ran off with

hole thing.... Just look at those two, Per!" Two girls were standing arm-in-arm under a tree, quite close

tickle. And then it all comes back to you in the nights when you take the dog-watch alone; you've told her lies, or you promised to come back again w

can be frisky som

an; but after all they strangle little children.... And they come and eat out of your han

k me, I remembe

rself from the trap-door with a rope. Howling Peter came on to the parish. And you know how they all scorned him. Even the wenches thought they had the right to spit at him. He could do nothing but bellow. His mother had cried such a lot before he was born, d'ye see? Yes, and then he hanged himself too-twice he tried to do it. He'd inherited that! After that he

his tone was quite childlike. "He always said I mu

never had. There was nothing in the whole world at that time that could have helped me to stand up for myself. I can scar

ow does it really come about that

uch that you others couldn't see. Damn it all, I can't make head nor tail of it! It must have been my mother's dreadful misery that was still in my bones. A horror used to come over me-quite causeless-so that I had to bellow aloud; and then the farmers used to beat me. And every time I tried to get

le, and he took his hand. "But it's a

before them, but you may take your oath he hated them out of the whites of his devil's eyes. But me, who treated him with humanity, he played all manner of tricks on-it was nothing to him that I was white. Yet even with him I didn't dare to fetch him one- there was always like a flabby lump in my midriff. But once the thing went too far-or else the still-born something inside me was exhausted. I just aimed at him a bit with one arm, so that

ew you a little while ago, or you would

's a fellow-countryman, but a swine in his dealings with women. There isn't a single port where he hasn't a love-affair. In the South, and on the American coast. It's madman's work often, and I have to go along with him and look out that he doesn't get a knife between his rib

, then?" said Pe

rt Ka

lle, that is to say, isn't really his father. His wife had him

then!" cried Per Kofod

t's as it

ape him. Suddenly he seized her round the waist; she withdrew herself slowly from his grip and laughed in his big fair face. He embraced her once again, and no

pairing accent. "But, damn it all, why should a man have so much compassion when he himself has been so cruelly treate

" replied Pelle. "It doesn't do

them came up to Per and Pelle-he was wearing a student's cap. "Have the gentlemen seen anything of our ladies?" he asked. "We've been

do to the old man?" said Per. "But of course, he's ashore to- night. I saw him g

ready when I was still a youngster. Anyhow, I've got to

le behind a stack of coal. A powerful, bearded man came out, leading a young girl by the hand. She went slowly, and appeared to resist. He set her ceremoniously ashore, turned back to the cabin, and

Kofod. "That's how he treats them all-

by some terrible burden. Suddenly he pulled himself together, pres

Like a sleep-walker, she staggered along the quay and went over the long brid

ace. Pelle stood still; turned to ice by the thought that she might see him. H

pwrecked females from the "Ark," who shuffled along by the house-walls in trodden-down men's shoes,

row street, and as soon as he knew that she must