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Pelle the Conqueror — Volume 02 by Martin Andersen Nexø
page 45 of 362 (12%)
discovery that he was a laughable object! Every time he tried to
make one of a party, he was pushed to one side; he had no right
to speak to others; he must take the hindmost rank!

Nothing remained to him but to sound the retreat all along the line
until he had reached the lowest place of all. And hard as this was
for a smart youngster who was burning to set his mark on everything,
Pelle did it, and confidently prepared to scramble up again. However
sore his defeat, he always retained an obstinate feeling of his own
worth, which no one could take away from him. He was persuaded that
the trouble lay not with himself but with all sorts of things about
him, and he set himself restlessly to find out the new values and
to conduct a war of elimination against himself. After every defeat
he took himself unweariedly to task, and the next evening he would
go forth once more, enriched by so many experiences, and would
suffer defeat at a new point. He wanted to conquer--but what must
he not sacrifice first? He knew of nothing more splendid than to
march resoundingly through the streets, his legs thrust into Lasse's
old boots--this was the essence of manliness. But he was man enough
to abstain from so doing--for here such conduct would be regarded
as boorish. It was harder for him to suppress his past; it was so
inseparable from Father Lasse that he was obsessed by a sense of
unfaithfulness. But there was no alternative; if he wanted to get
on he must adapt himself in everything, in prejudices and opinions
alike. But he promised himself to flout the lot of them so soon as
he felt sufficiently high-spirited.

What distressed him most was the fact that his handicraft was so
little regarded. However accomplished he might become, the cobbler
was, and remained, a poor creature with a pitchy snout and a big
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