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All of a sudden he felt the pressure of a friendly hand on his shoulder, and as he turned round, he found himself face to face with Gustav, the waiter, who seized his hand and exclaimed with undisguised pleasure: "Is that really you, Mr. Blom? How are you?"
Suspense ran through his body like an icy shudder. Outside stood Hanne's mother, shivering in the morning cold. "Pelle," she whispered anxiously, "it's so near now would you run and fetch Madam Blom from Market Street? I can't leave Hanne. And I ought to be wishing you happiness, too." The errand was not precisely convenient, nevertheless, he ran oft.
Say we'll send for them early to-morrow morning and finish them properly! But run as though the devil were at your heels!" Pelle ran, and when he returned, just as he was slipping into his leather apron, he had to go out again. "Pelle, run out and borrow a few brass nails then we needn't buy any to-day. Go to Klausen no, go to Blom, rather; you've been to Klausen already this morning."
"Crabs?" he asks, more as a matter of form than because there is any need of the question. "Female crabs," answers the schoolmaster. "Large, female crabs," repeats Gustav, walks to the speaking tube which communicates with the kitchen, and shouts: "Large female crabs for Mr. Blom, and plenty of dill."
"Yes, run off," said Holm, "and many thanks for your guidance, and give my respects to Lasse and Karna." On the harbor hill Pelle met Master Jeppe, and farther on Drejer, Klaussen, and Blom.
Pelle bent over her happily; but she pushed him suddenly away; her beautiful body contorted itself, and the dreadful struggle was raging again. But at last a feeble voice relieved hers and filled the home with a new note. "Another mouth to fill," said Madam Blom, holding the new-born child in the air by one leg. It was a boy.
Outside Vealös we had the pleasure of waving a last farewell to a man to whom the expedition will always owe a debt of gratitude, Captain Christian Blom, Superintendent of the dockyard, who had supervised the extensive repairs to the Fram with unrelaxing interest and obligingness. He slipped past us in his sailing-boat; I do not remember if he got a cheer. If he did not, it was a mistake.
"Well," says the bookseller, who has suddenly found a topic of conversation, "when are you going to be married, Blom, old man?" "I haven't the means to get married," answered the school-master. "Why don't you take a wife to your bosom yourself?" "No woman would have me, now that my head looks like an old, leather-covered trunk," says the bookseller.
I don't think you would have recognized plum pudding under the name which they gave it." "What was it?" asked Frank curiously. "Blom buden was the name given on the bill." "I can spell better than that," said Charlie. "We shall have to send you out among the Dutchmen as a schoolmaster plenipotentiary," said Frank, laughing. "I hope the 'blom buden' was good in spite of the way it was spelt."
It was a bad shock to all of them. Klaussen went bankrupt and had to find work on the new harbor. Blom ran away, deserting his wife and children, and they had to go home to the house of her parents. In the workshop matters had been getting worse for a long time. And now this had happened, throwing a dazzling light upon the whole question. But the young master refused to believe the worst.
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