Pelle the Conqueror, Martin Andersen Nexø [best fantasy books to read .TXT] 📗

over here! He had thought over this for a long time, and now there should be an end of his lodging with Pipman.

In front of one of the doors stood a little eleven-years-old maiden, who was polishing a pair of plump-looking boy’s boots; she wore an apron of sacking which fell down below her ankles, so that she kept treading on it. Within the room two children of nine and twelve were moving backward and forward with mighty strides, their hands in their pockets. Then enjoyed Sundays. In their clean shirtsleeves, they looked like a couple of little grown-up men. This was the “Family”; they were Pelle’s rescuers.

“Here are your shoes, Marie,” said Pelle. “I couldn’t do them any better.”

She took them eagerly and examined the soles. Pelle had repaired them with old leather, and had therefore polished the insteps with cobbler’s wax. “They’re splendid now!” she whispered, and she looked at him gratefully. The boys came and shook hands with Pelle. “What will the shoes cost?” asked the elder, feeling for his purse with a solemn countenance.

“We’d better let that stand over, Peter; I’m in a hurry today,” said Pelle, laughing. “We’ll put it on the account until the New Year.”

“I’m going out, too, today with the boys,” said Marie, beaming with delight. “And you are going to the woods with Hanne and her mother, we know all about it!” Hopping and skipping, she accompanied him to the steps, and stood laughing down at him. Today she was really like a child; the shrewd, old, careful woman was as though cast to the winds. “You can go down the main staircase,” she cried.

A narrow garret-stairs led down to the main staircase, which lay inside the building and was supposed to be used only by those who lived on the side facing the street. This was the fashionable portion of the “Ark”; here lived old sea-dogs, shipbuilders, and other folks with regular incomes. The tradesmen who rented the cellars⁠—the coal merchant, the old iron merchant, and the old clothes dealer, also had their dwellings here.

These dwellings were composed of two splendid rooms; they had no kitchen or entry, but in a corner of the landing on the main staircase, by the door, each family had a sink with a little board cover. When the cover was on one could use the sink as a seat; this was very convenient.

The others had almost reached the Knippels Bridge when he overtook them. “What a long time you’ve been!” said Hanne, as she took his arm. “And how’s the ‘Family?’ Was Marie pleased with the shoes? Poor little thing, she hasn’t been out for two Sundays because she had no soles to her shoes.”

“She had only to come to me; I’m ever so much in her debt!”

“No, don’t you believe she’d do that. The ‘Family’ is proud. I had to go over and steal the shoes somehow!”

“Poor little things!” said Madam Johnsen, “it’s really touching to see how they hold together! And they know how to get along. But why are you taking Pelle’s arm, Hanne? You don’t mean anything by it.”

“Must one always mean something by it, little mother? Pelle is my young man today, and has to protect me.”

“Good Lord, what is he to protect you from? From yourself, mostly, and that’s not easy!”

“Against a horde of robbers, who will fall upon me in the forest and carry me away. And you’ll have to pay a tremendous ransom!”

“Good Lord, I’d much rather pay money to get rid of you! If I had any money at all! But have you noticed how blue the sky is? It’s splendid with all this sun on your back⁠—it warms you right through the cockles of your heart.”

At the Triangle they took an omnibus and bowled along the seafront. The vehicle was full of cheerful folk; they sat there laughing at a couple of good-natured citizens who were perspiring and hurling silly witticisms at one another. Behind them the dust rolled threateningly, and hung in a lazy cloud round the great black waterbutts which stood on their high trestles along the edge of the road. Out in the Sound the boats lay with sails outspread, but did not move; everything was keeping the Sabbath.

In the Zoological Gardens it was fresh and cool. The beech-leaves still retained their youthful brightness, and looked wonderfully light and festive against the century-old trunks. “Heigh, how beautiful the forest is!” cried Pelle. “It is like an old giant who has taken a young bride!”

He had never been in a real beechwood before. One could wander about here as in a church. There were lots of other people here as well; all Copenhagen was on its legs in this fine weather. The people were as though intoxicated by the sunshine; they were quite boisterous, and the sound of their voices lingered about the treetops and only challenged them to give vent to their feelings. People went strolling between the tree-trunks and amusing themselves in their own way, laying about them with great boughs and shouting with no other object than to hear their own voices. On the borders of the wood, a few men were standing and singing in chorus; they wore white caps, and over the grassy meadows merry groups were strolling or playing touch or rolling in the grass like young kittens.

Madam Johnsen walked confidently a few steps in advance; she was the most at home out here and led the way. Pelle and Hanne walked close together, in order to converse. Hanne was silent and absent; Pelle took her hand in order to make her run up a hillock, but she did not at first notice that he was touching her, and the hand was limp and clammy. She walked on as in a sleep, her whole bearing lifeless and taciturn. “She’s dreaming!” said Pelle, and released her hand, offended. It fell lifelessly to her side.

The old woman turned round and looked about her with beaming eyes.

“The forest hasn’t