“She had only to come to me; I’m ever so much in her debt!”
“No, don’t you believe she’d do that. The ‘Family’ is proud. I had to go over and steal the shoes somehow!”
“Poor little things!” said Madam Johnsen, “it’s really touching to see how they hold together! And they know how to get along. But why are you taking Pelle’s arm, Hanne? You don’t mean anything by it.”
“Must one always mean something by it, little mother? Pelle is my young man to-day, and has to protect me.”
“Good Lord, what is he to protect you from? From yourself, mostly, and that’s not easy!”
“Against a horde of robbers, who will fall upon me in the forest and carry me away. And you’ll have to pay a tremendous ransom!”
“Good Lord, I’d much rather pay money to get rid of you! If I had any money at all! But have you noticed how blue the sky is? It’s splendid with all this sun on your back—it warms you right through the cockles of your heart.”
At the Triangle they took an omnibus and bowled along the sea-front. The vehicle was full of cheerful folk; they sat there laughing at a couple of good-natured citizens who were perspiring and hurling silly witticisms at one another. Behind them the dust rolled threateningly, and hung in a lazy cloud round the great black waterbutts which stood on their high trestles along the edge of the road. Out in the Sound the boats lay with sails outspread, but did not move; everything was keeping the Sabbath.
In the Zoological Gardens it was fresh and cool. The beech-leaves still retained their youthful brightness, and looked wonderfully light and festive against the century-old trunks. “Heigh, how beautiful the forest is!” cried Pelle. “It is like an old giant who has taken a young bride!”
He had never been in a real beech-wood before. One could wander about here as in a church. There were lots of other people here as well; all Copenhagen was on its legs in this fine weather. The people were as though intoxicated by the sunshine; they were quite boisterous, and the sound of their voices lingered about the tree-tops and only challenged them to give vent to their feelings. People went strolling between the tree-trunks and amusing themselves in their own way, laying about them with great boughs and shouting with no other object than to hear their own voices. On the borders of the wood, a few men were standing and singing in chorus; they wore white caps, and over the grassy meadows merry groups were strolling or playing touch or rolling in the grass like young kittens.