Pelle the Conqueror Part 24

He only nodded. n.o.body should come and accuse him afterward of having complained.

"No, you aren't comfortable," she said, in a plaintive tone. "No one is comfortable at Stone Farm. Everything turns to misfortune here."

"It's an old curse, that!" said Pelle.

"Do they say so? Yes, yes, I know they do! And they say of me that I'm a devil--only because I love a single man--and cannot put up with being trampled on." She wept and pressed his hand against her quivering face.

"I've got to go out and move the cows," said Pelle, wriggling about uneasily in an endeavor to get away.

"Now you're afraid of me again!" she said, and tried to smile. It was like a gleam of sunshine after rain.

"No--only I've got to go out and move the cows."

"There's still a whole hour before that. But why aren't you herding to-day? Is your father ill?"

Then Pelle had to tell her about the bull.

"You're a good boy!" said the mistress, patting his head. "If I had a son, I should like him to be like you. But now you shall have some jam, and then you must run to the shop for a bottle of black-currant rum, so that we can make a hot drink for your father. If you hurry, you can be back before moving-time."

La.s.se had his hot drink, even before the boy returned; and every day while he kept his bed he had something strengthening--although there was no black-currant rum in it.

During this time Pelle went up to the mistress nearly every day.

Kongstrup had gone on business to Copenhagen. She was kind to him and gave him nice things to eat; and while he ate, she talked without ceasing about Kongstrup, or asked him what people thought about her.

Pelle had to tell her, and then she was upset and began to cry. There was no end to her talk about the farmer, but she contradicted herself, and Pelle gave up trying to make anything of it. Besides, the good things she gave him were quite enough for him to think about.

Down in their room he repeated everything word for word, and La.s.se lay and listened, and wondered at this little fellow who had the run of high places, and was in the mistress's confidence. Still he did not quite like it.

"... She could scarcely stand, and had to hold on to the table when she was going to fetch me the biscuits, she was so ill. It was only because he'd treated her badly, she said. Do you know she hates him, and would like to kill him, she says; and yet she says that he's the handsomest man in the world, and asked me if I've seen any one handsomer in all Sweden. And then she cries as if she was mad."

"Does she?" said La.s.se thoughtfully. "I don't suppose she knows what she's saying, or else she says it for reasons of her own. But all the same, it's not true that he beats her! She's telling a lie, I'm sure."

"And why should she lie?"

"Because she wants to do him harm, I suppose. But it's true he's a fine man--and cares for everybody except just her; and that's the misfortune.

I don't like your being so much up there; I'm so afraid you may come to some harm."

"How could I? She's so good, so very good."

"How am I to know that? No, she isn't good--her eyes aren't good, at any rate. She's brought more than one person into misfortune by looking at them. But there's nothing to be done about it; the poor man has to risk things."

La.s.se was silent, and stumbled about for a little while. Then he came up to Pelle. "Now, see here! Here's a piece of steel I've found, and you must remember always to have it about you, especially when you go up _there_! And then--yes, then we must leave the rest in G.o.d's hand. He's the only one who perhaps looks after poor little boys."

La.s.se was up for a short while that day. He was getting on quickly, thank G.o.d, and in two days they might be back in their old ways again.

And next winter they must try to get away from it all!

On the last day that Pelle stayed at home, he went up to the mistress as usual, and ran her errand for her. And that day he saw something unpleasant that made him glad that this was over. She took her teeth, palate, and everything out of her mouth, and laid them on the table in front of her!

So she _was_ a witch!

XIII

Pelle was coming home with his young cattle. As he came near the farm he issued his commands in a loud voice, so that his father might hear. "Hi!

Spasianna! where are you going to? Dannebrog, you confounded old ram, will you turn round!" But La.s.se did not come to open the gate of the enclosure.

When he had got the animals in, he ran into the cow-stable. His father was neither there nor in their room, and his Sunday wooden shoes and his woollen cap were gone. Then Pelle remembered that it was Sat.u.r.day, and that probably the old man had gone to the shop to fetch spirits for the men.

Pelle went down into the servants' room to get his supper. The men had come home late, and were still sitting at the table, which was covered with spilt milk and potato-skins. They were engrossed in a wager; Erik undertook to eat twenty salt herrings with potatoes after he had finished his meal. The stakes were a bottle of spirits, and the others were to peel the potatoes for him.

Pelle got out his pocket-knife and peeled himself a pile of potatoes. He left the skin on the herring, but sc.r.a.ped it carefully and cut off the head and tail; then he cut it in pieces and ate it without taking out the bones, with the potatoes and the sauce. While he did so, he looked at Erik--the giant Erik, who was so strong and was not afraid of anything between heaven and earth. Erik had children all over the place!

Erik could put his finger into the barrel of a gun, and hold the gun straight out at arm's length! Erik could drink as much as three others!

And now Erik was sitting and eating twenty salt herrings after his hunger was satisfied. He took the herring by the head, drew it once between his legs, and then ate it as it was; and he ate potatoes to them, quite as quickly as the others could peel them. In between whiles he swore because the bailiff had refused him permission to go out that evening; there was going to be the devil to pay about that: he'd teach them to keep Erik at home when he wanted to go out!

Pelle quickly swallowed his herring and porridge, and set off again to run to meet his father; he was longing immensely to see him. Out at the pump the girls were busy scouring the milkpails and kitchen pans; and Gustav was standing in the lower yard with his arms on the fence, talking to them. He was really watching Bodil, whose eyes were always following the new pupil, who was strutting up and down and showing off his long boots with patent-leather tops.

Pelle was stopped as he ran past, and set to pump water. The men now came up and went across to the barn, perhaps to try their strength.

Since Erik had come, they always tried their strength in their free time. There was nothing Pelle found so exciting as trials of strength, and he worked hard so as to get done and go over there.

Gustav, who was generally the most eager, continued to stand and vent his ill-nature upon the pupil.

"There must be money there!" said Bodil, thoughtfully.

"Yes, you should try him; perhaps you might become a farmer's wife. The bailiff won't anyhow; and the farmer--well, you saw the Sow the other day; it must be nice to have that in prospect."

"Who told you that the bailiff won't?" answered Bodil sharply. "Don't imagine that we need you to hold the candle for us! Little children aren't allowed to see everything."

Gustav turned red. "Oh, hold your jaw, you hussy!" he muttered, and sauntered down to the barn.

"Oh, goodness gracious, my poor old mother, Who's up on deck and can't stand!"

sang Mons over at the stable door, where he was standing hammering at a cracked wooden shoe. Pelle and the girls were quarreling, and up in the attic the bailiff could be heard going about; he was busy putting pipes in order. Now and then a long-drawn sound came from the high house, like the distant howling of some animal, making the people shudder with dreariness.

A man dressed in his best clothes, and with a bundle under his arm, slipped out of the door from the men's rooms, and crept along by the building in the lower yard. It was Erik.

"Hi, there! Where the devil are you going?" thundered a voice from the bailiff's window. The man ducked his head a little and pretended not to hear. "Do you hear, you confounded Kabyle! _Erik_!" This time Erik turned and darted in at a barn-door.

Directly after the bailiff came down and went across the yard. In the chaff-cutting barn the men were standing laughing at Erik's bad luck.

"He's a devil for keeping watch!" said Gustav. "You must be up early to get the better of _him_."

"Oh, I'll manage to dish him!" said Erik. "I wasn't born yesterday. And if he doesn't mind his own business, we shall come to blows."

There was a sudden silence as the bailiff's well-known step was heard upon the stone paving. Erik stole away.

The form of the bailiff filled the doorway. "Who sent La.s.se for gin?" he asked sternly.

They looked at one another as if not understanding. "Is La.s.se out?"