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Updated: May 13, 2025
People were wearing out their old boots, or they went about in wooden shoes. Little Nikas was seldom in the workshop; he came in at meal-times and went away again, and he was always wearing his best clothes. "He earns his daily bread easily," said Jeppe. Over on the mainland they didn't feed their people through the winter; the moment there was no more work, they kicked them out.
Little Nikas had to look out for something else; their means would not allow them to keep a journeyman. So Nikas decided to marry, and to set up as a master shoemaker in the north. The shoemaker of the Baptist community had just died, and he could get plenty of customers by joining the sect; he was already attending their services. "But go to work carefully!" said Jeppe. "Or matters will go awry!"
And then the smelly workshop itself, where never a ray of sunlight entered. And no one here seemed to respect anything. When the master was not present, little Nikas would sometimes indulge in tittle-tattle with the older apprentices.
Even the master does not bother him, but endures his taciturnity and little Nikas submits to being treated like an apprentice. Garibaldi raises his head. "Well, one didn't come here to sit about and idle!" he cries gaily. "Plenty to do, master?" "There's not much doing here, but we've always work for you," replies Master Andres.
And then the smelly workshop itself, where never a ray of sunlight entered. And no one here seemed to respect anything. When the master was not present, little Nikas would sometimes indulge in tittle-tattle with the older apprentices.
He drank brotherhood with little Nikas, and in the evening he went out and treated the other journeymen and came home drunk as a lord. Everything passed off just as it should. On the following day Jeppe came into the workshop. "Well, Emil, now you're a journeyman. What do you think of it? Do you mean to travel?
"To-night I shall go out and meet my girl," they would say, laughing. Little Nikas said nothing at all. Pelle had no friends to give him work, and he could not have done much. If the others had much to do after work-hours or on Sundays he had to help them; but he gained nothing by so doing. And he also had Nilen's shoes to keep mended, for old acquaintances' sake.
"He struck out properly," he said, in surprise, turning his reddened hand with the palm inward. Little Nikas did not respond. He was not superstitious, but he did not like to hear ridicule cast upon the reality of things. "What shall I do?" asked Peter. "Are mate Jensen's boots ready?" The master looked at the clock. "Then you can nibble your shin-bones." It was time to stop work.
"That must be tested, too, before we can declare him to be useful," said little Nikas, in deadly earnest. "Are you done with your tomfoolery now?" said Master Andres angrily, and he went his way. But Jeppe was altogether in his element; his head was full of the memories of his boyhood, a whole train of devilish tricks, which completed the ordination.
Pelle was not quite sure that the journeyman had noticed this. "Bjerregrav has forgotten " "Hold your jaw." Little Nikas made a movement backward, and Pelle ducked his head and pressed his hand tightly to his mouth. Over in Staal Street there was a great uproar; an enormously fat woman was standing there quarrelling with two seamen. She was in her nightcap and petticoat, and Pelle knew her.
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