“Is Karna still here?” he asked. “Can’t I speak to Karna a moment?”
They were glad to see him again; and yellow-haired Marie patted his cheeks quite affectionately, and just before that she kissed him too. Karna could scarcely recover from her surprise; he had acquired such a townsman’s air. “And now you are a shoemaker too, in the biggest workshop in the town! Yes, we’ve heard; Butcher Jensen heard about it on the market. And you have grown tall and townified. You do hold yourself well!” Karna was dressing herself.
“Where is Father Lasse?” said Pelle; he had a lump in his throat only from speaking of him.
“Give me time, and I’ll come out with you. How fine you dress now! I should hardly have known you. Would you, Marie?”
“He’s a darling boy—he always was,” said Marie, and she pushed at him with her arched foot—she was now in bed again.
“It’s the same suit as I always had,” said Pelle.
“Yes, yes; but then you held yourself different—there in town they all look like lords. Well, shall we go?”
Pelle said good-by to Marie affectionately; it occurred to him that he had much to thank her for. She looked at him in a very odd way, and tried to draw his hand under the coverlet.
“What’s the matter with father?” said Pelle impatiently, as soon as they were outside.
Well, Lasse had taken to his heels too! He couldn’t stand it when Pelle had gone. And the work was too heavy for one. Where he was just at the moment Karna could not say. “He’s now here, now there, considering farms and houses,” she said proudly. “Some fine day he’ll be able to take you in on his visit to town.”