Pelle the Conqueror Volume 03

Excerpt: ...-that is, when the pigs have taken what they want. The Amager farmers fatten their swine there, and the sanitary commission talks about forbidding it; but no one has compassion on the Copenhagen poor." Pelle shuddered. There was something demoniacal in Morten's hideous knowledge-he knew more of the "Ark" than Pelle himself. "Have you, too, been down in that loathsome rubbish-store?" he asked, "or how do you know all this?" "No, I've not been there-but I can't help knowing it-that's my curse! Ask me even whether they make soup out of the rotten bones they get there. And not even the poison of the refuse-heap will inflame them; they lap it up and long for more! I can't bear it if nothing is going to happen! Now you've pulled yourself out of the mire-and it's the same with everybody who has accomplished anything-one after another-either because they are contented or because they are absorbed in their own pitiful affairs. Those who are of any use slink away, and only the needy are left." "I have never left you in the lurch," said Pelle warmly. "You must realize that I haven't." "It isn't to be wondered at that they get weary," Morten continued. "Even God loses patience with those who always let themselves be trampled upon. Last night I dreamed I was one of the starving. I was going up the street, grieving at my condition, and I ran up against God. He was dressed like an old Cossack officer, and had a knout hanging round his neck. "'Help me, dear God!' I cried, and fell on my knees before him. 'My brothers won't help me.' "'What ails you?' he asked, 'and who are you?' "'I am one of Thy chosen folk, one of the poor,' I answered. 'I am starving!' "'You are starving and complain of your brothers, who have set forth food for you in abundance?' he said angrily, pointing to all the fine shops. 'You do not belong to my chosen people-away with you!' And then he lashed me over the back with his knout." Morten checked himself and spoke no more; it...