“Very often it’s evening before I have earned anything at all, but one just has to stir one’s stumps; there’s always something or other if one knows where to look for it.”
“What do you think—suppose I were to go with you?” said Lasse thoughtfully.
“You can’t do that, because I run the whole time. Really you’d do much better to hide one of your arms.”
“Hide one of my arms?” said Lasse wonderingly.
“Yes—stick one arm under your coat and then go up to people and ask them for something. That wouldn’t be any trouble to you, you look like an invalid.”
“Do I, indeed?” asked Lasse, blinking his eyes. “I never knew that before. But even if that were so I shouldn’t like to beg at people’s doors. I don’t think any one will get old Lasse to do that.”
“Then go along to the lime works—they are looking for stone-breakers these days,” said the omniscient youngster.
“Now you are talking!” said Lasse; “so they have stone here? Yes, I brought my stone-cutter’s tools with me, and if there’s one thing on earth I long to do it is to be able to bang away at a stone again!”
XV
Pelle was now a man; he was able to look after his own affairs and a little more besides; and he was capable of weighing one circumstance against another. He had thrust aside his horror concerning Due’s fate, and once again saw light in the future. But this horror still lurked within his mind, corroding everything else, lending everything a gloomy, sinister hue. Over his brow brooded a dark cloud, as to which he himself was not quite clear. But Ellen saw it and stroked it away with her soft fingers, in order to make it disappear. It formed a curious contrast to his fresh, ruddy face, like a meaningless threat upon a fine spring day.