“No, not to-day. It might be too much for me all at once. At my age you must go forward gently; I’m not as young as you, you know. But you might go through the twelve lesser prophets with me.”
Pelle went through them slowly, and Lasse repeated them one by one. “What confounded names they did think of in those days!” he exclaimed, quite out of breath. “You can hardly get your tongue round them! But I shall manage them in time.”
“What do you want to know them for, father?” asked Pelle suddenly.
“What do I want to know them for?” Lasse scratched one ear. “Why, of course I—er—what a terrible stupid question! What do you want to know them for? Learning’s as good for the one to have as for the other, and in my youth they wouldn’t let me get at anything fine like that. Do you want to keep it all to yourself?”
“No, for I wouldn’t care a hang about all this prophet business if I didn’t have to.”
Lasse almost fainted with horror.
“Then you’re the most wicked little cub I ever knew, and deserve never to have been born into the world! Is that all the respect you have for learning? You ought to be glad you were born in an age when the poor man’s child shares in it all as well as the rich. It wasn’t so in my time, or else—who knows—perhaps I shouldn’t be going about here cleaning stables if I’d learned something when I was young. Take care you don’t take pride in your own shame!”
Pelle half regretted his words now, and said, to clear himself: “I’m in the top form now!”
“Yes, I know that well enough, but that’s no reason for your putting your hands in your trouser-pockets; while you’re taking breath, the others eat the porridge. I hope you’ve not forgotten anything in the long Christmas holidays?”
“Oh, no, I’m sure I haven’t!” said Pelle, with assurance.