"Who knows? But it is difficult. The eyes are not bad, you have the right expression. But the nose, no it has not the correct shape. But of course it may grow and curve in time," said Old Hans.
And that Viggo hoped too, and in that hope he learned to drill and march from his old friend, but he often looked in the mirror and wished with all his heart that the nose would curve a little more.
Part Five
[Allarm]
One afternoon Viggo was walking home from school with a bag of books on his back. He marched straight as a stick with a soldierly step, for he was thinking of the time when he should change this bag for one full of cartridges. Old Hans was standing outside the cottage waiting for him, and when Viggo halted and saluted, the old man asked if he could guess what present there was for him at the house.
"How does it look?" asked Viggo.
"It is brown," said Hans. "Now guess."
"Oh, I suppose it is nothing but a lump of brown sugar from Aunt Beate. She never remembers that I have outgrown such sweet stuff," said Viggo.