Wanderers by Knut Hamsun
page 50 of 383 (13%)
page 50 of 383 (13%)
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"That young cock. Drink--well, of course I do. No sense in only eating.... Let's look about for a place where there's a piano," said Falkenberg. I thought to myself: a piano on a place means well-to-do folk; that's where he is going to start stealing. In the afternoon we came to just such a place. Falkenberg had put on my town clothes beforehand, and given me his sack to carry so he could walk in easily, with an air. He went straight up to the front steps, and I lost sight of him for a bit, then he came out again and said yes, he was going to tune their piano. "Going to _what?_" "You be quiet," said Falkenberg. "I've done it before, though I don't go bragging about it everywhere." He fished out a piano-tuner's key from his sack, and I saw he was in earnest. I was ordered to keep near the place while he was tuning. Well, I wandered about to pass the time; every now and then coming round to the south side of the house, I could hear Falkenberg at work on the piano in the parlour, and forcibly he dealt with it. He could not strike a decent chord, but he had a good ear; whenever he screwed up a string, he was careful to screw it back again exactly where it was before, so the instrument at any rate was none the worse. |
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