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Pelle shuddered, and for a little while walked on in silence beside his father; but when he next spoke, he had forgotten all about it. "I suppose Uncle Kalle's rich, isn't he?" he asked. "He can't be rich, but he's a land-owner, and that's not a little thing!" Lasse himself had never attained to more than renting land. "When I grow up, I mean to have a great big farm," said Pelle, with decision.
Fru Kongstrup gave him red-currant wine and cake, and the farmer gave him a two-krone piece. Then they went up to Kalle's by the quarry. Pelle was to exhibit himself in his new clothes, and say good-bye to them; there was only a fortnight to May Day. Lasse was going to take the opportunity of secretly obtaining information concerning a house that was for sale on the heath.
Lasse was delighted at the visit. "What a pleasant time we had with you the other evening!" said Lasse, taking his brother by the hand. "That's a long time ago now. But you must look in again one evening soon. Grandmother looks upon both of you with a favorable eye!" Kalle's eyes twinkled mischievously. "How is she, poor body? Has she at all got over the hurt to her eye?
When after a little while he returned to his room, the note lay upon the bed. Kalle must have seen his opportunity to put it there, conjurer that he was. Lasse put it aside to give to Kalle's wife, when an occasion presented itself. Long before the time, Lasse was on the lookout for Pelle. He found the solitude wearisome, now that he was used to having the boy about him from morning till night.
"When we take Anna's too, it makes fourteen." "Oh, yes, count the others too, and you'll get off all the easier!" said Kalle teasingly. Lasse was looking at Anna's child, which lay side by side with Kalle's thirteenth. "She looks healthier than her aunt," he said. "You'd scarcely think they were the same age. She's just as red as the other's pale."
On the heath near Brother Kalle's, there was a house that he could have without paying anything down. He often discussed it with Pelle, and the boy was ready for anything new. It should be a wife who could look after everything and make the house comfortable; and above all she must be a hard-working woman.
"But this fellow here's not to be despised," said Kalle, pointing to the long boy in the turn-up bed. "Shall we have a look at him?" And, pulling out a straw, he tickled the boy's nose with it. "Get up, my good Anton, and harness the horses to the wheelbarrow! We're going to drive out in state." The boy sat up and began to rub his eyes, to Kalle's great delight.
At Uncle Kalle's there was a hen that came into the room among all the children and laid its egg under the bed every single day all through the winter, when no other hens were laying. Then the farmer of Stone Farm bought it to make something by it. "Mother's balsam flowers all the winter," said Sister, looking fondly at the plant.
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