throat and mittens on their
red wrists--and were full of good humor. Klavs knew them quite well,
and stopped of his own accord.

Klavs also stopped for poor women and school-children; Lars Peter
and he agreed that all who cared to drive should have that pleasure.
But respectable people they passed by; they of course would not
condescend to drive with the rag and bone man.

They both knew the highroad with its by-ways equally well. When
anything was doing, such as a thrashing-machine in the field, or a
new house being built, one or other of them always stopped. Lars
Peter pretended that it was the horse's inquisitiveness. "Well, have
you seen enough?" he growled when they had stood for a short while,
and gathered up the reins. Klavs did not mind the deception in the
least, and in no way let it interfere with his own inclinations;
Klavs liked his own way.

Things must be black indeed, if the highroad did not put the rag and
bone man into a good temper. The calm rhythmic trot of the nag's
hoofs against the firm road encouraged him to hum. The trees, the
milestones with the crown above King Christian the Fifth's initials,
the endless perspective ahead of him, with all its life and
traffic--all had a cheering effect on him.

The snow had been trodden down, and only a thin layer covered with
ice remained, which rang under the horse's big hoofs. The thin light
air made breathing easy, and the sun shone redly over the snow. It
was impossible to be anything but light-hearted. But then he
remembered the object of the drive, and all was dark again.

Lars Peter had never done much thinking on his own account, or
criticized existence. When something or other happened, it was
because it could not be otherwise--and what was the good of
speculating about it? When he was on the cart all these hours, he
only hummed a kind of melody and had a sense of well-being. "I
wonder what mother'll have for supper?" he would think, or "maybe
the kiddies'll come to meet me today." That was all. He took bad and
good trade as it came, and joy and sorrow just the same; he knew
from experience that rain and sunshine come by turns. It had been
thus in his parents' and grandparents' time, and his own had
confirmed it. Then why speculate? If the bad weather lasted longer
than usual, well, the good was so much better when it came.

And complaints were no good. Other people beside himself had to take
things as they came. He had never had any strong fe