and would secretly wink at one another across the street.

"The shopkeepers have arranged their things very neatly to-day,"
said Pelle.

Klaus nodded. "Yes, yes; to-day they've brought out everything they
couldn't get rid of sooner. To-day the block-heads have come to
market--the easy purses. Those"--and he pointed to a side street,
"those are the publicans. They are looking this way so longingly,
but the procession don't come as far as them. But you wait till
this evening, and then take a turn along here, and ask the different
people how much they've got left of their year's wages. Yes, the
town's a fine place--the very deuce of a fine place!" And he spat
disgustedly.

Pelle had quite lost all his blind courage. He saw not a single
person doing anything by which he himself might earn his bread. And
gladly as he would have belonged to this new world, yet he could not
venture into anything where, perhaps without knowing it, he would be
an associate of people who would tear the rags off his old comrades'
backs. All the courage had gone out of him, and with a miserable
feeling that even his only riches, his hands, were here useless,
he sat irresolute, and allowed himself to be driven, rattling and
jangling, to Master Jeppe Kofod's workshop.




II