Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 16, 2025
And he comes home and wants to settle down as master, but the guild won't accept him; he is too young. So he goes to sea as cook, and comes to places down south where the sun burns so fiercely that the pitch melts in the seams and the deck scorches one's feet. They are a merry band, and Jeppe, little as he is, by no means lags behind the rest.
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.
He never appeared in the workshop with his sack of sand; he was afraid of Jeppe, who was now the oldest member of the family. Elsewhere he went in and out everywhere with his clattering wooden shoes; and people bought of him, as they must have sand for their floors, and his was as good as any other.
"But times have altered, Master Jeppe; knee-straps and respect have given out; yes, those days are over! Begin at seven, and at six off and away! So it is in the big cities!" "Is that this sosherlism?" says Jeppe disdainfully. "It's all the same to me what it is Garibaldi begins and leaves off when it pleases him! And if he wants more for his work he asks for it!
They were longing for food by dinner-time; the moment Jeppe called his "Dinner!" at the door they threw everything down, ranged themselves according to age, and tumbled in behind him. They held one another tightly by the coat-tails, and made stupid grimaces. Jeppe was enthroned at the head of the table, a little cap on his head, trying to preserve seemly table-manners.
They say they are raising their heads again over on the mainland." "Well, that, of course, is a thing that comes and goes with unemployment," said Jeppe. "The people must do something. Last winter a son of the sailmaker's came home well, he was one of them in secret. But the old folks would never admit it, and he himself was so clever that he got out of it somehow."
Jeppe was allowed to spin his yarn alone. "Are you waxing it well?" said little Nikas. "It's for pigskin." The others laughed, but Pelle rubbed the thread with a feeling as though he were building his own scaffold. "Now I am ready!" he said, in a low voice.
He heard Jeppe's squeaky voice, and looked at the young master, who sat there submissively, without having the courage to express his opinion, and all at once he felt terribly sorry for himself. "That was right," buzzed old Jeppe, "a shoemaker mustn't be afraid to wax his hide a little. What? I believe it has actually brought the water to his eyes!
Sickness and death and halleluiah! We live, and we live, I tell you, Brother Jeppe and we live in order to live! But, good heavens! all the poor things that aren't born yet!"
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?
Word Of The Day
Others Looking