Excerpts from
Pelle the Conqueror: Childhood
By Martin Andersen Nexø
The excerpt is from the final chapter of the first volume of Pelle the Conqueror.
They still talked about it every day during the short time that was left. Lasse, who had always had the thought of leaving on his mind - and had only stayed on year after year for the boy´s sake - was so sluggish, now that there was nothing to hold him back. He was unwilling to lose Pelle, and did everything he could to hold on to him; but nothing would induce him to go our into the world again.
"Stay here!" he said persuasively. "We´ll talk to the mistress and she´ll take you on at a proper wage. You´re both strong and handy and she´s always looked on you with a kindly eye."
But Pelle didn´t want to serve the landowner; there was no prestige or future in it. He wanted to be something great, but there was no chance of that out here in the country - here he would be following the rumps of the cows all his days. He wanted to go to town - maybe even farther, across the sea to the King´s Copenhagen.
"You should come too!" he said. "Then we´ll get rich even faster and be able to buy a big farm!"
"Yes, yes," said Lasse, slowly nodding his head, "that´s fine for you to say. But things don´t always work out the way the pastor preaches. We could be left penniless! What does anyone know about the future?"
"Oh, I´ll manage," said Pelle, nodding confidently. "Don´t you think I can try my hand at anything I like?"
"But I didn´t give notice in time either," said Lasse as an excuse.
"Then run away!"
But Lasse would not do that.
"No, I´ll stay and work toward getting something for myself around here," he said - a little evasively. "It would be nice for you too, to have a home that you could visit once in a while. And if things don"t work out for you out there, it wouldn´t be bad to have something to fall back on. You might get sick, or something else might happen - you can´t always count on the world. Out there you´ve got to have calluses all over you."
Pelle didn´t answer. The part about a home sounded nice enough; he understood quite well that it was. Karna who was weighing down the other end of the balance. Well, she´d put all his clothes in order for his departure, and she´d always been a good soul - he didn´t have anything against it!
It would be hard to live apart from Papa Lasse, but Pelle had to go. Away! - it was as if spring was shouting that word in his ears. Here he knew every rock in the landscape and every tree - yes, every twig on the trees as well; there was nothing more here that could fill his blue eyes and his big ears, and satisfy his soul.
The day before May Day they packed up Pelle´s things. Lasse knelt before the green chest; every article was carefully folded and commented on before he placed it in the canvas bag that would serve Pelle as a suitcase.
"Now remember not to wear your socks too long before you mend them!" said Lasse, putting darning yarn on one side. "He who mends his things in time is spared half the work and all the shame."
"I won´t forget," said Pelle quietly.
Lasse was weighing a folded shirt in his hand. "The one you´ve got on has just been washed," he said thoughtfully. But I don´t know - two shirts are probably not enough out in the world. Take one of mine; I can always manage to get another by the time I want a change. And remember never to wear it more than two weeks! You, young and healthy though you are, could easily get lice - and be jeered at by the whole town. Such a thing would not be tolerated in anyone who wants to make a reputation. At the worst you can do a little washing for yourself; you could go down to the beach in the evening, if nothing else!"
"Do they wear wooden shoes in town?" asked Pelle.
"Not people who want to amount to something! I think you´d better let me keep your wooden shoes, and you take my boots instead; they always look nice on a man, even if they´re old. You can wear them for your journey tomorrow, and save your good shoes."
The new clothes were placed in the top of the bag, wrapped up in an old shirt to keep them clean.
"Now I think we´ve got everything," said Lasse, with a searching glance at the green chest; there wasn´t much left in it. "Allright, then we´ll tie it up in God´s name, and pray that you may arrive safely wherever you decide to go!" Lasse tied up the sack; he was not happy at all.
"You have to say a proper goodbye to everyone on the farm, so that they won´t have anything to scratch my eyes out for afterwards," said Lasse after a moment. "And I´d like you to thank Karna nicely for putting everything in such good order. It isn´t everyone who would have taken the trouble."
"Yes, I´ll do that," said Pelle softly; his voice wasn´t working quite right today.
From Martin Andersen Nexø: Pelle the Conqueror. Volume I: Childhood . Fjord Press 1989
Translated by Steven T. Murray
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