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He silently tested things, and saw everything in a new light; it was best not to make a noise, if you were always walking in the sight of God. He did not go on cracking his cattle-whip, but meditated a little on whether he should burn that too. But a little before midday Rud appeared, and the whole incident was forgotten.
Pelle's voice quivered with eagerness, and he had to dilate his nostrils to get air enough; his limbs began to tremble. "No only sixty you hit so hard! And I must have the money first, or you may cheat me." "I don't cheat," said Pelle gloomily. But Rud held to his point. Pelle's body writhed; he was like a ferret that has tasted blood.
He proved to be nothing but a little shoemaker down in the village, who spoke at the meeting-house on Sundays; and it was also said that his wife drank. Rud went to his Sunday-school, and he was poor; so he was nothing out of the ordinary.
"What's your name?" he said, and tried to expectorate between his front teeth as Gustav was in the habit of doing. The attempt was a failure, unfortunately, and the saliva only ran down his chin. The strange boy grinned. "Rud," he said, indistinctly, as if his tongue were thick and unmanageable. He was staring enviously at Pelle's trouser pockets.
He silently tested things, and saw everything in a new light; it was best not to make a noise, if you were always walking in the sight of God. He did not go on cracking his cattle-whip, but meditated a little on whether he should burn that too. But a little before midday Rud appeared, and the whole incident was forgotten.
He could not bear cruelty to animals, and thrashed Rud for the first time when the latter had one day robbed a bird's nest. Pelle was like a kid that makes a plaything of everything. In his play he took up, without suspecting it, many of the serious phenomena of life, and gambolled with them in frolicsome bounds.
And perhaps some day, when Rud had become enormously rich, he would get half of it. "Will you have it?" he asked, but regretted it instantly. Rud stretched out his hand eagerly, but Pelle spat into it. "It can wait until we've had our dinner anyhow," he said, and went over to the basket. For a little while they stood gazing into the empty basket.
"The Sow's been here," said Rud, putting out his tongue. Pelle nodded. "She is a beast!" "A thief," said Rud. They took the sun's measure. Rud declared that if you could see it when you bent down and looked between your legs, then it was five o'clock. Pelle began to put on his clothes. Rud was circling about him. "I say!" he said suddenly. "If I may have it, I'll let you whip me with nettles."
"O-oh? Can you move your ears, then?" "Yes." By dint of great perseverance, Pelle had acquired that art in the course of the previous summer, so as not to be outdone by Rud. "Then, upon my word, I should like to see it!" exclaimed the clergyman. So Pelle worked his ears industriously backward and forward, and the priest and the school committee and the parents all laughed.
The mouse made the funniest leaps up toward the cork to get out; and the boys jumped up and down on the grass with delight. "It knows the way it got in quite well!" They imitated its unsuccessful leaps, lay down again and rolled about in exuberant mirth. At last, however, the joke became stale. "Let's take out the cork!" suggested Rud. "Yes oh, yes!"
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