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They laughed more than they spoke; if any one introduced a serious subject it was immediately suppressed with a punning remark. Nobody was serious to-day! Pelle moved slowly about, delighting in the crowd, while keeping a look- out for Madam Johnsen and the child, who were to have met him out here. Inwardly, at the back of everything, he was in a serious mood, and was therefore quiet.
Manna cooled his swollen cheeks with wet earth while they waited. "Did it hurt you much?" she asked sympathetically, putting her arm about his shoulder. "It's nothing. What's a box on the ear?" he said manfully. "I didn't mean it you know that. Did that hurt you very much?" Pelle gazed at her sadly. She looked at him inquisitively. "Was it here?" she said, letting her hand slide down his back.
He was like the ram of a ship; the weight of the whole was behind him. He began to feel that he was the expression of something great; that there was a purpose within him. The Pelle who dealt so quietly and cleverly with Meyer and achieved precisely what he willed was not the usual Pelle. A greater nature was working within him, with more responsibility, according to his old presentiment.
Pelle wondered at himself, that he was able to answer her so quietly instead of railing back at her. But he understood very well that she was ashamed of her poverty and did not want any one else to see it. "It is unkind to the child," was all he said. "And yet you are fond of it!" Then she began to cry.
Karen had not grown during the last few years; she had become even more deformed; her voice was dry and shrill, as though she had passed through a frozen desert on her way to earth. She was glad when Pelle was there and she could hear him talk; if she thought he would come in the evening, she would hurry home from her situation.
She should not sigh any longer in vain. For a whole month indeed, Lasse's thoughts had been occupied with Karna, now favorably, now unfavorably; but at this solemn moment when Pelle was just taking the great step into the future, and Lasse's feelings were touched in so many ways, the thought of Karna's devotion broke over him as something sad, like a song of slighted affection that at last, at last has justice done to it.
He was aroused from his thoughts by discovering that the people nearest to him were turning and gazing at him. The number of faces looking round at him increased, and the words, "Pelle is here!" passed in a murmur through the crowd. Hundreds of eyes were directed toward him questioningly and searchingly, some of them in evident expectation of something unusual happening at once.
There was something abstracted about Peter; and his den gave one an impression of loneliness. Nothing was left to remind one of the mischievous fellow who must always be running; but something hostile and obstinate glowed within his close-set eyes. Pelle sat there wondering what could really be the matter with him.
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!
Manna cooled his swollen cheeks with wet earth while they waited. "Did it hurt you much?" she asked sympathetically, putting her arm about his shoulder. "It's nothing. What's a box on the ear?" he said manfully. "I didn't mean it you know that. Did that hurt you very much?" Pelle gazed at her sadly. She looked at him inquisitively. "Was it here?" she said, letting her hand slide down his back.
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