Pelle the Conqueror, Vol. 1 by Martin Anderson Nexo
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Martin Anderson Nexo >> Pelle the Conqueror, Vol. 1
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But Pelle returned his knife to his pocket; he had not intended to
do anything. He strolled along the foddering-passage without aim or
object. Lasse came up and took his hand.
"You'd better stay here a little longer," he said. "We're so
comfortable."
But this put life into Pelle. He fixed his big, faithful eyes upon
his father, and then went down to their room.
Lasse followed him. "In God's name then, if it has to be!" he said
huskily, and took hold of the sack to help Pelle get it onto his
back.
Pelle held out his hand. "Good-bye and thank you, father--for all
your kindness!" he added gently.
"Yes, yes; yes, yes!" said Lasse, shaking his head. It was all he
was able to say.
He went out with Pelle past the out-houses, and there stopped, while
Pelle went on along the dikes with his sack on his back, up toward
the high-road. Two or three times he turned and nodded; Lasse,
overcome, stood gazing, with his hand shading his eyes. He had never
looked so old before.
Out in the fields they were driving the seed-harrow; Stone Farm was
early with it this year. Kongstrup and his wife were strolling along
arm-in-arm beside a ditch; every now and then they stopped and she
pointed: they must have been talking about the crop. She leaned
against him when they walked; she had really found rest in her
affection now!
Now Lasse turned and went in. How forlorn he looked! Pelle felt a
quick desire to throw down the sack and run back and say something
nice to him; but before he could do so the impulse had disappeared
upon the fresh morning breeze. His feet carried him on upon the
straight way, away, away! Up on a ridge the bailiff was stepping out
a field, and close behind him walked Erik, imitating him with foolish
gestures.
On a level with the edge of the rocks, Pelle came to the wide high-
road. Here, he knew, Stone Farm and its lands would be lost to sight,
and he put down his sack. _There_ were the sand-banks by the
sea, with every tree-top visible; _there_ was the fir-tree that
the yellowhammer always built in; the stream ran milk-white after
the heavy thaw, and the meadow was beginning to grow green. But the
cairn was gone; good people had removed it secretly when Niels Koller
was drowned and the girl was expected out of prison.
And the farm stood out clearly in the morning light, with its high
white dwelling-house, the long range of barns, and all the out-houses.
Every spot down there shone so familiarly toward him; the hardships
he had suffered were forgotten, or only showed up the comforts in
stronger relief.
Pelle's childhood had been happy by virtue of everything; it had been
a song mingled with weeping. Weeping falls into tones as well as joy,
and heard from a distance it becomes a song. And as Pelle gazed down
upon his childhood's world, they were only pleasant memories that
gleamed toward him through the bright air. Nothing else existed,
or ever had done so.
He had seen enough of hardship and misfortune, but had come well
out of everything; nothing had harmed him. With a child's voracity
he had found nourishment in it all; and now he stood here, healthy
and strong--equipped with the Prophets, the Judges, the Apostles,
the Ten Commandments and one hundred and twenty hymns! and turned
an open, perspiring, victor's brow toward the world.
Before him lay the land sloping richly toward the south, bounded by
the sea. Far below stood two tall black chimneys against the sea as
background, and still farther south lay the Town! Away from it ran
the paths of the sea to Sweden and Copenhagen! This was the world--
the great wide world itself!
Pelle became ravenously hungry at the sight of the great world, and
the first thing he did was to sit down upon the ridge of the hill
with a view both backward and forward, and eat all the food Karna
had given him for the whole day. So his stomach would have nothing
more to trouble about!
He rose refreshed, got the sack onto his back, and set off downward
to conquer the world, pouring forth a song at the top of his voice
into the bright air as he went:--
"A stranger I must wander
Among the Englishmen;
With African black negroes
My lot it may be thrown.
And then upon this earth there
Are Portuguese found too,
And every kind of nation
Under heaven's sky so blue."
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