Pelle the Conqueror Part 80

Here you know where you are--and if we went together--"

"No, there's nothing here for any one to do who is poor--if I go on here any longer, I shall end in the mud again. I want to have my share--even if I have to strike a bloodsucker dead to get it--and that couldn't be any very great sin! But shan't we see about getting on now? We've been a whole month now tramping round these Sudland farms. You've always promised me that we should make our way toward the heath. For months now I've heard nothing of Father La.s.se and Karna. When things began to go wrong with me, it was as though I had quite forgotten them."

Sort rose quickly. "Good! So you've still thoughts for other things than killing bloodsuckers! How far is it, then, to Heath Farm?"

"A good six miles."

"We'll go straight there. I've no wish to begin anything to-day."

They packed their possessions on their backs and trudged onward in cheerful gossip. Sort pictured their arrival to Pelle. "I shall go in first and ask whether they've any old boots or harness that we can mend; and then you'll come in, while we're in the middle of a conversation."

Pelle laughed. "Shan't I carry the bench for you? I can very well strap it on the other things."

"You shan't sweat for me as well as yourself!" rejoined Sort, laughing.

"You'd want to take off even your trousers then."

They had chattered enough, and tramped on in silence. Pelle stepped forward carelessly, drinking in the fresh air. He was conscious of a superfluity of strength and well-being; otherwise he thought of nothing, but merely rejoiced unconsciously over his visit to his home. At every moment he had to moderate his steps, so that Sort should not be left behind.

"What are you really thinking about now?" he asked suddenly. He would always have it that Sort was thinking of something the moment he fell silent. One could never know beforehand in what region he would crop up next.

"That's just what the children ask!" replied Sort, laughing. "They always want to know what's inside."

"Tell me, then--you might as well tell me!"

"I was thinking about life. Here you walk at my side, strong and certain of victory as the young David. And yet a month ago you were part of the dregs of society!"

"Yes, that is really queer," said Pelle, and he became thoughtful.

"But how did you get into such a mess? You could quite well have kept your head above water if you had only wanted to!"

"That I really don't know. I tell you, it's as if some one had hit you over the head; and then you run about and don't know what you're doing; and it isn't so bad if you've once got there. You work and drink and bang each other over the head with your beer-cans or bottles--"

"You say that so contentedly--you don't look behind things--that's the point! I've seen so many people shipwrecked; for the poor man it's only one little step aside, and he goes to the dogs; and he himself believes he's a devilish fine fellow. But it was a piece of luck that you got out of it all! Yes, it's a wonder remorse didn't make your life bitter."

"If we felt remorse we had brandy," said Pelle, with an experienced air.

"That soon drives out everything else."

"Then it certainly has its good points--it helps a man over the time of waiting!"

"Do you really believe that an eternal kingdom is coming--the 'thousand-year kingdom'--the millennium? With good times for all, for the poor and the miserable?"

Sort nodded. "G.o.d has promised it, and we must believe His Word.

Something is being prepared over on the mainland, but whether it's the real millennium, I don't know."

They tramped along. The road was stony and deserted. On either side the rocky cliffs, with their scrubby growth, were beginning to rise from the fields, and before them ranged the bluish rocky landscape of the heath or moorland. "As soon as we've been home, I shall travel; I must cross the sea and find out what they do really intend there," said Pelle.

"I have no right to hold you back," answered Sort quietly, "but it will be lonely travelling for me. I shall feel as if I'd lost a son. But of course you've got other things to think of than to remember a poor hunchback! The world is open to you. Once you've feathered your nest, you'll think no more of little Sort!"

"I shall think of you, right enough," replied Pelle. "And as soon as I'm doing well I shall come back and look out for you--not before. Father will be sure to object to my idea of travelling--he would so like me to take over Heath Farm from him; but there you must back me up. I've no desire to be a farmer."

"I'll do that."

"Now just look at it! Nothing but stone upon stone with heather and scrubby bushes in between! That's what Heath Farm was four years ago--and now it's quite a fine property. That the two of them have done--without any outside help."

"You must be built of good timber," said Sort. "But what poor fellow is that up on the hill? He's got a great sack on his back and he's walking as if he'd fall down at every step."

"That--that is Father La.s.se! Hallo!" Pelle waved his cap.

La.s.se came stumbling up to them; he dropped his sack and gave them his hand without looking at them.

"Are you coming this way?" cried Pelle joyfully; "we were just going on to look for you!"

"You can save yourself the trouble! You've become stingy about using your legs. Spare them altogether!" said La.s.se lifelessly.

Pelle stared at him. "What's the matter? Are you leaving?"

"Yes, we're leaving!" La.s.se laughed--a hollow laugh. "Leaving--yes!

We've left--indeed, we've each of us gone our own way. Karna has gone where there's no more care and trouble--and here's La.s.se, with all that's his!" He struck his foot against the sack, and stood there with face averted from them, his eyes fixed upon the ground.

All signs of life had vanished from Pelle's face. Horrified, he stared at his father, and his lips moved, but he could form no words.

"Here I must meet my own son by accident in the middle of the empty fields! So often as I've looked for you and asked after you! No one knew anything about you. Your own flesh and blood has turned from you, I thought--but I had to tell Karna you were ill. She fully expected to see you before she went away. Then you must give him my love, she said, and G.o.d grant all may go well with him. She thought more about you than many a mother would have done! Badly you've repaid it. It's a long time ago since you set foot in our house."

Still Pelle did not speak; he stood there swaying from side to side; every word was like the blow of a club.

"You mustn't be too hard on him!" said Sort. "He's not to blame--ill as he's been!"

"Ah, so you too have been through bad times and have got to fight your way, eh? Then, as your father, I must truly be the last to blame you."

La.s.se stroked his son's sleeve, and the caress gave Pelle pleasure.

"Cry, too, my son--it eases the mind. In me the tears are dried up long ago. I must see how I can bear my grief; these have become hard times for me, you may well believe. Many a night have I sat by Karna and been at my wits' end--I could not leave her and go for help, and everything went wrong with us all at the same time. It almost came to my wishing you were ill. You were the one who ought to have had a kindly thought for us, and you could always have sent us news. But there's an end of it all!"

"Are you going to leave Heath Farm, father?" asked Pelle quietly.

"They have taken it away from me," replied La.s.se wretchedly. "With all these troubles, I couldn't pay the last instalment, and now their patience is at an end. Out of sheer compa.s.sion they let me stay till Karna had fought out her fight and was happily buried in the earth--every one could see it wasn't a matter of many days more."

"If it is only the interest," said Sort, "I have a few hundred kroner which I've saved up for my old days."

"Now it's too late; the farm is already taken over by another man. And even if that were not the case--what should I do there without Karna?

I'm no longer any use!"

"We'll go away together, father!" said Pelle, raising his head.

"No; I go nowhere now except to the churchyard. They have taken my farm away from me, and Karna has worked herself to death, and I myself have left what strength I had behind me. And then they took it away from me!"

"I will work for us both--you shall be comfortable and enjoy your old days!" Pelle saw light in the distance.

La.s.se shook his head. "I can no longer put things away from me--I can no longer leave them behind and go on again!"

"I propose that we go into the town," said Sort. "Up by the church we are sure to find some one who will drive us in."