“I have wasted five years of my life,” he used to say when they met him; “Run away while there’s time! Or it’ll be the same with you as it was with me.” He did not come to the workshop any longer out of fear of Jeppe, who was extremely wroth with him for dishonoring his trade.
It was cozy in the workshop when the fire crackled in the stove and the darkness looked in at the black, uncovered window-panes. The table was moved away from the window so that all four could find place about it, the master with his book and the three apprentices each with his repairing job. The lamp hung over the table, and smoked; it managed to lessen the darkness a little. The little light it gave was gathered up by the great glass balls which focussed it and cast it upon the work. The lamp swayed slightly, and the specks of light wriggled hither and thither like tadpoles, so that the work was continually left in darkness. Then the master would curse and stare miserably at the lamp.
The others suffered with their eyes, but the master sickened in the darkness. Every moment he would stand up with a shudder. “Damn and blast it, how dark it is here; it’s as dark as though one lay in the grave! Won’t it give any light to-night?” Then Pelle would twist the regulator, but it was no better.
When old Jeppe came tripping in, Master Andres looked up without trying to hide his book; he was in a fighting mood.
“Who is there?” he asked, staring into the darkness. “Ah, it’s father!”
“Have you got bad eyes?” asked the old man derisively. “Will you have some eye-water?”
“Father’s eye-water—no thanks! But this damned light—one can’t see one’s hand before one’s face!”
“Open your mouth, then, and your teeth will shine!” Jeppe spat the words out. This lighting was always a source of strike between them.
“No one else in the whole island works by so wretched a light, you take my word, father.”
“In my time I never heard complaints about the light,” retorted Jeppe. “And better work has been done under the glass ball than any one can do now with all their artificial discoveries. But it’s disappearing now; the young people to-day know no greater pleasure than throwing their money out of the window after such modern trash.”