Part 58 (2/2)

”There's really no sense shoving anything into her,” said Anna, who was bringing coffee in honor of the visitor. ”She gets as much as she can eat, and she's not hungry.”

”She's hungry, all the same!” hummed Due.

”Then she's dainty--our poor food isn't good enough for her. She takes after her father, I can tell you! And what's more, if she isn't naughty now she soon will be when once she sees she's backed up.”

Due did not reply. ”Are you quite well again now?” he asked, turning to Pelle.

”What have you been doing to-day?” asked Anna, filling her husband's long pipe.

”I had to drive a forest ranger from up yonder right across the whole of the moor. I got a krone and a half for a tip.”

”Give it to me, right away!”

Due pa.s.sed her the money, and she put it into an old coffeepot. ”This evening you must take the bucket to the inspector's,” she said.

Due stretched himself wearily. ”I've been on the go since half-past four this morning,” he said.

”But I've promised it faithfully, so there's nothing else to be done.

And then I thought you'd see to the digging for them this autumn; you can see when we've got the moonlight, and then there's Sundays. If we don't get it some one else will--and they are good payers.”

Due did not reply.

”In a year or two from now, I'm thinking, you'll have your own horses and won't need to go sc.r.a.ping other people's daily bread together,” she said, laying her hand on his shoulder, ”Won't you go right away and take the bucket? Then it's done. And I must have some small firewood cut before you go to bed.”

Due sat there wearily blinking. After eating, fatigue came over him. He could hardly see out of his eyes, so sleepy was he. Marie handed him his cap, and at last he got on his legs. He and Pelle went out together.

The house in which Due lived lay far up the long street, which ran steeply down to the sea. It was an old watercourse, and even now when there was a violent shower the water ran down like a rus.h.i.+ng torrent between the poor cottages.

Down on the sea-road they met a group of men who were carrying lanterns in their hands; they were armed with heavy sticks, and one of them wore an old leather hat and carried a club studded with spikes. This was the night-watch. They moved off, and behind them all went the new policeman, Pihl, in his resplendent uniform. He kept well behind the others, in order to show off his uniform, and also to ensure that none of the watch took to their heels. They were half drunk, and were taking their time; whenever they met any one they stood still and related with much detail precisely why they had taken the field. The ”Great Power” was at his tricks again. He had been refractory all day, and the provost had given the order to keep an eye on him. And quite rightly, for in his cups he had met s.h.i.+p-owner Monsen, on Church Hill, and had fallen upon him with blows and words of abuse: ”So you take the widow's bread out of her mouth, do you? You told her the _Three Sisters_ was damaged at sea, and you took over her shares for next to nothing, did you? Out of pure compa.s.sion, eh, you scoundrel? And there was nothing the matter with the s.h.i.+p except that she had done only too well and made a big profit, eh?

So you did the poor widow a kindness, eh?” A scoundrel, he called him and at every question he struck him a blow, so that he rolled on the ground. ”We are all witnesses, and now he must go to prison. A poor stone-cutter oughtn't to go about playing the judge. Come and help us catch him, Due--you are pretty strong!”

”It's nothing to do with me,” said Due.

”You do best to keep your fingers out of it,” said one of the men derisively; ”you might get to know the feel of his fist.” And they went on, laughing contemptuously.

”They won't be so pleased with their errand when they've done,” said Due, laughing. ”That's why they've got a nice drop stowed away--under their belts. To give them courage. The strong man's a swine, but I'd rather not be the one he goes for.”

”Suppose they don't get him at all!” said Pelle eagerly.

Due laughed. ”They'll time it so that they are where he isn't. But why don't he stick to his work and leave his fool's tricks alone? He could have a good drink and sleep it off at home--he's only a poor devil, he ought to leave it to the great people to drink themselves silly!”

But Pelle took another view of the affair. The poor man of course ought to go quietly along the street and take his hat off to everybody; and if anybody greeted him in return he'd be quite proud, and tell it to his wife as quite an event, as they were going to bed. ”The clerk raised his hat to me to-day--yes, that he did!” But Stonecutter Jorgensen looked neither to right nor to left when he was sober, and in his cups he trampled everybody underfoot.

Pelle by no means agreed with the pitiful opinions of the town. In the country, whence he came, strength was regarded as everything, and here was a man who could have taken strong Erik himself and put him in his pocket. He roamed about in secret, furtively measuring his wrists, and lifted objects which were much too heavy for him; he would by no means have objected to be like the ”Great Power,” who, as a single individual, kept the whole town in a state of breathless excitement, whether he was in one of his raging moods or whether he lay like one dead. The thought that he was the comrade of Jens and Morten made him quite giddy, and he could not understand why they bowed themselves so completely to the judgment of the town, as no one could cast it in their teeth that they were on the parish, but only that their father was a powerful fellow.

Jens shrank from continually hearing his father's name on all lips, and avoided looking people in the eyes, but in Morten's open glance he saw no trace of this nameless grief.

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