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Per Olsen stood and ground his teeth, trembling all over his body. "Oh dear, oh dear!" was all he said. There was white foam at the corners of his mouth. Lasse gave Pelle the end of the rope to hold. "He's grinding his teeth; the devil's busy with him already," he whispered.
Pelle clasped the bottle to his body with his arms, for he dared not trust his hands, and pushed out his stomach as far as possible to support it. Lasse stood with his hands extended beneath the bottle, ready to catch it if it fell. "There! That'll do!" he said anxiously, and took the bottle. "It is heavy!" said Pelle, admiringly, and went on contentedly, holding his father's hand.
"He's sure to be able to. There's grandmother's bed; that's big enough for two." "But suppose we can't get anything to do, then we shall be a burden on him." "Oh, we shall get something to do. There's a scarcity of laborers everywhere." "Yes, they'll jump at you, but I'm really too old to offer myself out." Lasse had lost all hope, and was undermining Pelle's too.
So Pelle thought better of it and began to undress; and at last Lasse got off. When Lasse reached Madam Olsen's house, it was shut up and in darkness. He recognized it easily from Pelle's descriptions, and walked round it two or three times to see how the walls stood.
He pawned it one day, without letting Ellen know, and on coming home surprised her with the money, which he delightedly threw on the table, krone by krone. "How it rings!" he said to Young Lasse. The child gave a jump, and wanted the money to play with. "What do I want with a winter coat?" he retorted, to Ellen's kindly reproaches. "I'm not cold, and it only hangs up indoors here.
He laughed when he glimpsed himself in them. "Who sits in mother's eyes now?" he asked. "Now a little sister sits there, who likes to play with Young Lasse," said Pelle. "But now you must walk again it doesn't do for a man to sit on anybody's arm!" The three orphans were waiting for him eagerly; Karl hopped and leaped into the air when he saw Pelle. "Where is Father Lasse?" asked Pelle.
If he wanted to, he could make them tear home to the stable in wild flight, with their tails in the air, on the coldest October day, only by lying down in the grass and imitating the hum of gad-flies. But that was a tremendous secret, that even Father Lasse knew nothing about.
When they had sung the Socialist marching song, the party broke up. Lasse had his pockets filled with sweets for the three orphans. "What's become of the Vanishing Man?" said Otto suddenly. "Perhaps he's been taken bad down in the yard," said Stolpe. "Run down and see, Frederick." They had quite forgotten him.
Here at last was something the possession of which did not rob it of its lustre. There was no end to the purchases he made with it, now for Lasse, now for himself. He bought the dearest things, and when he lingered long enough over one purchase and was satiated with the possession of it, he set about buying something else. And all the while he kept the coin.
They drew near to the shed, and Pelle turned cold with fear, for the black man was still standing there. He went round to the other side of his father, and tried to pull him out in a wide curve over the harbor square. "There he is again," he whimpered. "So that's what was after you, is it?" said Lasse, laughing heartily; "and he's made of wood, too!
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