Pelle the Conqueror Part 150

The poor man must stick to the union idea; he had got hold of the right thing this time! And now all at once Pelle knew which way they ought to go. If they were outside the existing conditions and their laws, why not arrange their own world upon the laws that were theirs? Through the organizations they had been educated in self-government; it was about time that they took charge of their own existence.

The young revolutionaries kept clear of the power of money by going without things, but that was not the way. Capital always preached contentment to the poor; he would go the other way, and conquer production by a great flanking movement.

He was not afraid now of using the librarian's money. All doubt had been chased away. He was perfectly clear and saw in broad outlines a world-wide, peaceful revolution which was to subvert all existing values. Pelle knew that poverty is not confined to any country. He had once before brought forward an invincible idea. His system of profit-sharing must be the starting-point for a world-fight between Labor and Capital!

X

Two days later Pelle and the librarian went to Frederiksberg Street to look at a business that was to be disposed of. It was a small matter of half a score of workmen, with an electrical workshop in the bas.e.m.e.nt and a shop above. The whole could be had by taking over the stock and machinery at a valuation. The rent was rather high, but with that exception the conditions were favorable.

"I think we'll arrange that the purchase and working capital shall bear interest and be sunk like a four per cent. credit-a.s.sociation loan,"

said Brun.

"It's cheap money," answered Pelle. "A good result won't say much about the circ.u.mstances when we haven't got the same conditions as other businesses."

"Not so very cheap. At that price you can get as many as you want on good security; and I suppose the workman ought to be regarded as the best security in an undertaking that's built upon labor," said the old man, smiling. "There'll be a big fall in discount when you come into power, Pelle! But the bare capital costs no more now either, when there are no parasites at it; and it's just parasites that we're going to fight."

Pelle had no objection to the cheap money; there were still plenty of difficulties to overcome. If they got on, it would not be long before private speculation declared war on him.

They agreed that they would have nothing to do with agents and branches; the business was to rest entirely upon itself and communicate directly with the consumers. What was made in the workshop should merely cover the expenses of the shop above, the rest of the surplus being divided among the workmen.

"According to what rules?" asked Brun, with a searching glance at Pelle.

"Equal!" he answered without hesitation. "We won't have anything to do with agreements. We made a great mistake, when we began the Movement, in giving in to the agreement system instead of doing away with it altogether. It has increased the inequality. Every one that works has a right to live."

"Do you think the capable workman will submit to sharing equally with those that are less capable?" asked Brun doubtfully.

"He must learn to!" said Pelle firmly. "How could he otherwise maintain that all work is of equal value?"

"Is that your own opinion?"

"Most decidedly. I see no reason, for instance, for making any difference between a doctor and a sewer-cleaner. It's impossible to say which of them is of the greater use in matters of health; the point is that each shall do what he can."

"Capital!" exclaimed Brun. "Capital!" The old philosopher was in the best of spirits. Pelle had considered him awkward and unpractical, and was astonished to find that his views on many points were so practical.

"It's because this is something new," said the old man, rubbing his hands. "I'd done with the old before I came into the world; there was nothing that stimulated me; I was said to be degenerated. Yes, indeed!

All the same, the old bookworm's going to show his ancestors that there's vigorous blood flowing in his veins too. We two have found the place from which the world can be rocked, my dear Pelle; I think we've found it! And now we'll set to work."

There was enough to do indeed, but they were realities now, and Pelle had a pleasant feeling of once more having his feet upon the ground.

This was something different from riding alone through s.p.a.ce upon his own thought, always in danger of falling down; here he opened up his road, so to speak, with his hands.

It had been arranged that the present owner of the business should carry it on a little longer, while Pelle made himself at home in it all, learned to understand the machinery, and took lessons in book-keeping.

He was always busy, used his day and at night slept like a log. His brain was no longer in a perpetual ferment like a caldron, for sleep put out the fire beneath it.

The essential thing was that they should be a party that could entirely rely upon one another, and Pelle unhesitatingly discharged those of his comrades who were not suited for work under new forms, and admitted others.

The first man he applied to was Peter Dreyer. Ellen advised him not to do so. "You know he's on bad terms with the police," she said. "You may have difficulties enough without that." But Pelle needed some one beside him who was able to look at things from a new point of view, and quite understood what was essential; egoists were of no good, and this must be the very thing for a man who had grown restive at the old state of things.

Pelle had come home from his book-keeping course to have his dinner.

Ellen was out with Boy Comfort, but she had left the meal ready for him. It was more convenient to eat it in the kitchen, so he sat upon the kitchen table, reading a book on the keeping of accounts while he ate.

In the front room sat La.s.se Frederik, learning his lessons with fingers in both ears in order to shut out the world completely. This was not so easy, however, for Sister had a loose tooth, and his fingers were itching to get at it. Every other minute he broke off his reading to offer her something or other for leave to pull it out; but the little girl always made the same answer: "No, father's going to."

He then gave up setting about it honorably, and tried to take her unawares; and at last he persuaded her to let him tie a piece of cotton round the tooth and fasten it to the doorhandle. "There! Now we've only got to burn through the cotton," he said, lighting a piece of candle, "or else father'll never be able to get the tooth out. It loosens it tremendously!" He talked on about all kinds of things to divert her attention, like a conjuror, and then suddenly brought the candle close to her nose, so that she quickly drew back. "Look, here's the tooth!" he cried triumphantly, showing it to Sister, who, however, screamed at the top of her voice.

Pelle heard it all, but quietly went on eating. They would have to make it up by themselves. It was not long before La.s.se Frederik was applying a plaster to his exploit; he talked to her and gave her her toys to put her into good humor again. When Pelle went in, they were both lying on the floor with their heads under the bed. They had thrown the tooth right into the wall, and were shouting together:

"Mouse, mouse!

Give me a gold tooth Instead of a bone tooth!"

"Are you going to do anything now, father?" asked Sister, running up to him.

Yes, he had several things to do.

"You're always so busy," she said sulkily. "Are you going to keep on all your life?"

Pelle's conscience smote him. "No, I'm not very busy," he said quickly.

"I can stay with you for a little. What shall we do?"

Little Anna brought her large rag doll, and began to drag chairs into position.

"No, that's so stupid!" said La.s.se Frederik. "Tell us about the time you minded the cows, father! About the big mad bull!" And Pelle told them stories of his childhood--about the bull and Father La.s.se, the farmer of Stone Farm and Uncle Kalle with his thirteen children and his happy disposition. The big farm, the country life, the stone-quarry and the sea--they all made up a fairy-story for the two children of the pavement; the boy Pelle's battle with the great oxen for the supremacy, his wonderful capture of the twenty-five-ore piece--each incident was more exciting than the one before it. Most exciting of all was the story of the giant Eric, who became an idiot from a blow. "That was in those days," said Pelle, nodding; "it wouldn't happen like that now."

"What a lot you have seen!" said Ellen, who had come home while they were talking, and was sitting knitting. "I can hardly understand how you managed--a little fellow like that! How I should like to have seen you!"

"Father's big!" exclaimed Sister appreciatively. La.s.se

Frederik was a little more reserved. It was so tiresome always to be outdone, and he would like to have found room for a parenthesis about his own exploits. "I say, there's a big load of corn in the cabman's gateway," he said, to show that he too understood country life.

"That's not corn," said Pelle; "it's hay--clover hay. Don't you even know what corn's like?"

"We call it corn," answered the boy confidently, "and it is corn too, for it has those ta.s.sels at the ends."

"The ears, you mean! But those are on coa.r.s.e gra.s.s too, and, besides, corn is descended from gra.s.s. Haven't you ever really been into the country?"

"We were once going, and meant to stay a whole week, but it went wrong with mother's work. I've been right out to the Zoological Gardens, though."

Pelle suddenly realized how much the children must lose by living their life in the city. "I wonder if we shouldn't think about moving out of town," he said that evening when he and Ellen were alone.

"If you think so," Ellen answered. She herself had no desire to move into the country, indeed she had an instinctive horror of it as a place to live in. She did not understand it from the point of view of the children either; there were so many children who got on capitally in town, and he surely did not want them to become stupid peasants! If he thought so, however, she supposed it was right; he was generally right.

Then it was certainly time they gave notice; there was not much more than a month to April removing-day.