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017 - Lucky Peer part 1 · Fairytales and Short Stories by Hans Christian Andersen

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  Speaker 1: Section seventeen of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales and Short Stories,
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  Speaker 1: Volume six. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Barbara Best. Hans
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  Speaker 1: Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales and Short Stories, Volume six, eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty six, eighteen seventy three by Hans Christian Andersen, translated
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  Speaker 1: by H. P. Paul Lucky Pierre, Part one one. In
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  Speaker 1: the principal street there stood a fine, old fashioned house.
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  Speaker 1: The wall above the courtyard had bits of glass worked
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  Speaker 1: into it, so that when the sun or moonshine, it
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  Speaker 1: was as if covered with diamonds. That was a sign
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  Speaker 1: of wealth, and there was wealth inside there. Folks said
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  Speaker 1: that the merchant was a man who could just put
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  Speaker 1: away two barrels of gold in his best parlor. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: could put a heap of gold pieces as a savings
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  Speaker 1: bank against the future outside the door of the room
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  Speaker 1: where his little son was born. This little fellow had
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  Speaker 1: arrived in the rich house. There was great joy from
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  Speaker 1: the cellar up to the garret, and up there there
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  Speaker 1: was still greater joy. An hour or two afterward. The
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  Speaker 1: warehouse man and his wife lived up there, and here
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  Speaker 1: too there entered just then a little son, given by
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  Speaker 1: our Lord, brought by the stork, and exhibited by the mother.
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  Speaker 1: And here too there was a heap outside the door,
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  Speaker 1: quite accidentally, but it was not a gold heap. It
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  Speaker 1: was a heap of sweepings. The rich merchant was a
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  Speaker 1: very considerate good man. His wife, delicate and gentle born,
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  Speaker 1: dressed well, was pious, and besides was kind and good
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  Speaker 1: to the poor. Everybody congratulated these two people on now
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  Speaker 1: having a little son who would grow up and, like
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  Speaker 1: his father, be rich and happy. At the font, the
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  Speaker 1: little boy was called Felix, which means in Latin lucky,
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  Speaker 1: and that he was, and his parents still more, the
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  Speaker 1: warehouse man, a right sound fellow and good to the
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  Speaker 1: bottom of his heart, and his wife, an honest and
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  Speaker 1: industrious woman, were blessed by all who knew them, how
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  Speaker 1: lucky they were at getting their little boy, and he
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  Speaker 1: was called peer. The boy on the first floor and
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  Speaker 1: the boy in the garret each got just as many
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  Speaker 1: kisses from his parents, and just as much sunshine from
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  Speaker 1: our Lord. But still they were placed a little differently,
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  Speaker 1: one downstairs and one up. Pierre sat the highest away
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  Speaker 1: up in the garret, and he had his own mother
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  Speaker 1: for a nurse. Little Felix had a stranger for his nurse,
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  Speaker 1: but she was a good and honest girl. You could
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  Speaker 1: see that in her character book. The rich child had
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  Speaker 1: a pretty little wagon and was drawn about by his
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  Speaker 1: spruce nurse. The child from the garret was carried in
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  Speaker 1: the arms of his own mother both when he was
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  Speaker 1: in his sunday clothes and when he had his every
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  Speaker 1: day things on, and he was just as much pleased.
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  Speaker 1: They were both pretty children. They both kept growing and
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  Speaker 1: soon could show with their hands how tall they were,
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  Speaker 1: and say single words in their mother tongue. Equally sweet,
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  Speaker 1: equally dainty, and petted were they both. As they grew up.
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  Speaker 1: They had a like pleasure out of the merchants, horses
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  Speaker 1: and carriages. Felix got permission from his nurse to sit
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  Speaker 1: by the coachman and look at the horses. He fancied
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  Speaker 1: himself driving. Peer got permission to sit at the garret
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  Speaker 1: window and looked down into the yard when the master
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  Speaker 1: and mistress went out to drive, and when they were
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  Speaker 1: fairly gone, he placed two chairs one in front, the
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  Speaker 1: other behind up there in the room, and so he
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  Speaker 1: drove himself. He was the real coachman. That was a
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  Speaker 1: little more than fancying himself to be the coachman. They
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  Speaker 1: had noticed each other, these two, but it was not
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  Speaker 1: until they were two years old that they spoke to
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  Speaker 1: each other. Felix went elegantly dressed in silk and velvet,
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  Speaker 1: with bare knees after the English style. The poor child
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  Speaker 1: will freeze, said the family in the garret. Peer had
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  Speaker 1: trousers that came down to his ankles. But one day
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  Speaker 1: his clothes were torn right across his knees, so that
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  Speaker 1: he had as much of a draft and was just
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  Speaker 1: as much under dressed as the merchant's little delicate boy.
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  Speaker 1: Felix came with his mother and wanted to go out.
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  Speaker 1: Peer came with his and wanted to go in. Give
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  Speaker 1: little Peer your hand, said the merchant's lady. You two
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  Speaker 1: can talk to each other, And one said Peer, and
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  Speaker 1: the other said Felix. Yes, that was all they said
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  Speaker 1: that time. The rich lady petted her boy, but there
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  Speaker 1: was one who petted Peer just as much, and that
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  Speaker 1: was his grandmother. She was weak sighted, and yet she
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  Speaker 1: saw much more in little Peer than his father or
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  Speaker 1: mother could see. Yes, more than anybody at all could discover.
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  Speaker 1: The dear child, said, she is going to get on
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  Speaker 1: in the world. He is born with a gold apple
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  Speaker 1: in his hand. There is the shining apple. And she
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  Speaker 1: kissed the child's little hand. His parents could see nothing,
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  Speaker 1: nor Peer either, But as he grew to know more,
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  Speaker 1: no doubt he would find that out too. That is
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  Speaker 1: such a story, such a real wonder story that grandmother tells,
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  Speaker 1: said the parents. Indeed, Grandmother could tell stories, and Peer
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  Speaker 1: was never tired of hearing always the same ones. She
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  Speaker 1: taught him a psalm and to repeat the Lord's prayer,
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  Speaker 1: and he knew it not as a gabble, but as
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  Speaker 1: words which meant something, every single petition in it, she
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  Speaker 1: explained to him. Especially he thought about what grandmother said
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  Speaker 1: on the words give us this day our daily bread.
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  Speaker 1: He was to understand that it was necessary for one
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  Speaker 1: to get wheat bread, for another to get black bread.
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  Speaker 1: One must have a great house when he had a
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  Speaker 1: great deal of company, another in small circumstances could live
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  Speaker 1: quite as happily in a little room in the garret.
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  Speaker 1: So each person has what he calls daily bread Pierre
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  Speaker 1: had regularly his good daily bread and very delightful days too,
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  Speaker 1: but they were not to last always stern years of
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  Speaker 1: war began. The young were to go away, the old
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  Speaker 1: to stay home. Pierre's father was among those who were enrolled,
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  Speaker 1: and soon it was heard that he was one of
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  Speaker 1: the first who fell in battle against the victorious enemy.
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  Speaker 1: There was terrible grief in the little room in the garret.
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  Speaker 1: The mother cried, The grandmother and little Peer cried, and
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  Speaker 1: every time one of the neighbors came up to see them,
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  Speaker 1: they talked about father, and then they cried all together.
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  Speaker 1: The widow meanwhile received permission the first year to lodge
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  Speaker 1: rent free, and afterwards she was to pay only a
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  Speaker 1: small rent. The grandmother stayed with the mother, who supported
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  Speaker 1: herself by washing for several single fine gentlemen, as she
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  Speaker 1: called them. Peer had neither sorrow nor want. He had
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  Speaker 1: his fill of meat and drink, and grandmother told him
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  Speaker 1: stories so extraordinary and wonderful about the wide world, that
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  Speaker 1: he asked her one day if they too might not
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  Speaker 1: go on Sunday to foreign lands and come home again
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  Speaker 1: as prince and princess with gold crowns on. I am
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  Speaker 1: too old for that, said grandmother, And you must first
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  Speaker 1: learn a terrible lot of things, become great and strong,
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  Speaker 1: but you must always be a good and affectionate child,
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  Speaker 1: just as you are now. Peer rode around the room
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  Speaker 1: on hobby horses. He had two such, but the merchant
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  Speaker 1: son had a real live horse. It was so little
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  Speaker 1: that it might as well have been called a baby horse,
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  Speaker 1: as Peer called it, and it never could become any bigger.
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  Speaker 1: Felix rode it about in the yard. He even rode
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  Speaker 1: outside the the gate with his father and a riding
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  Speaker 1: master from the King's stable for the first half hour.
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  Speaker 1: Peer did not like his horses and would not ride them.
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  Speaker 1: They were not real. He asked his mother why he
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  Speaker 1: could not have a real horse like little Felix, and
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  Speaker 1: his mother said, Felix lives down on the first floor,
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  Speaker 1: close by the stables. That you live high up under
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  Speaker 1: the roof. One cannot have horses up in the garret,
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  Speaker 1: except like those you have, do you ride on them?
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  Speaker 1: And so Peer rode first to the chest of drawers,
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  Speaker 1: the great mountain full of treasures. Both Peer's Sunday clothes
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  Speaker 1: and his mothers were there, and there were the shining
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  Speaker 1: silver dollars which he laid aside for rent. He rode
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  Speaker 1: to the stove, which he called the black bear. It
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  Speaker 1: slept all summer long, but when winter came it must
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  Speaker 1: do something. Worm the room and cook the meals. Peer
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  Speaker 1: had a godfather who usually came every Sunday in winter
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  Speaker 1: and got a good, warm dinner. It was rather a
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  Speaker 1: coming down for him, said the mother and the grandmother.
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  Speaker 1: He had begun as a coachman. He took to and
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  Speaker 1: slept at his post, and that neither a soldier nor
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  Speaker 1: a coachman may do. Then he became a carter and
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  Speaker 1: drove a cart, and sometimes a drosky for gentlefolk. But
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  Speaker 1: now he drove a dirt cart and went from door
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  Speaker 1: to door, swinging his rattle. Sneerry worried, and out from
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  Speaker 1: all the houses came the girls and housewives with their
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  Speaker 1: buckets full, and turned these into the cart. Rags and tags,
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  Speaker 1: ashes and rubbish were all turned in. One day Pierre
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  Speaker 1: had come down from the garret. His mother had gone
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  Speaker 1: to town, and he stood at the open gate, and
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  Speaker 1: there outside was Godfather with his cart. Will you take
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  Speaker 1: a drive? He asked? Right willingly would Peer, but only
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  Speaker 1: as far as the corner his eyes shone as he
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  Speaker 1: sat on the seat alone with Godfather and was allowed
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  Speaker 1: to hold the whip. Peer drove with real live horses,
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  Speaker 1: drove quite to the corner. His mother came along just then.
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  Speaker 1: She looked rather dubious. It was not so grand to
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  Speaker 1: see her own little son riding on a dirt cart.
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  Speaker 1: He must get down at once. Still, she thanked Godfather.
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  Speaker 1: When they reached home, she forbade Peer to take that
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  Speaker 1: excursion again. One day he went again down to the gate.
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  Speaker 1: There was no Godfather there to entice him off for
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  Speaker 1: a drive, but there were other allurements. Three or four
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  Speaker 1: small street urchins were down in the gutter, poking about
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  Speaker 1: to see what they could find that had been lost
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  Speaker 1: or had hidden itself there. They had often found a
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  Speaker 1: button or a copper coin, but they had quite as
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  Speaker 1: often scratched themselves of the broken bottle or pricked themselves
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  Speaker 1: of the pin, which was just now the case. Peer
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  Speaker 1: must join them, and when he got down among the
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  Speaker 1: gutter stones he found a silver coin. Another day, he
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  Speaker 1: was down on his knees again digging with the other boys.
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  Speaker 1: They only got dirty fingers. He found a gold ring
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  Speaker 1: and showed with sparkling eyes his lucky find. And then
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  Speaker 1: the others threw dirt at him and called him lucky Pier.
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  Speaker 1: They would not let him be with them. Then, when
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  Speaker 1: they poked in the gutter back of the merchant's yard,
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  Speaker 1: there was some low ground which was to be filled
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  Speaker 1: up for building lots. Gravel and ashes were carded and
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  Speaker 1: tipped out. There, great heaps lay about. Godfather drove his cart,
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  Speaker 1: but Peer was not to drive with him. The street
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  Speaker 1: boys dug in the heaps. They dug with a stick,
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  Speaker 1: and with their bare hands they were always finding one
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  Speaker 1: thing or another which seemed worth picking up. Hither came
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  Speaker 1: little Peer. They saw him and cried out, clear out,
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  Speaker 1: lucky Peer, And when he came nearer, they flung lumps
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  Speaker 1: of dirt at him. One of these struck against his
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  Speaker 1: wooden shoe and fell to pieces. Something shiny dropped out.
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  Speaker 1: Peer took it up. It was a little heart made
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  Speaker 1: of amber. He ran home with it. The rest did
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  Speaker 1: not notice that, even when they threw dirt at him,
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  Speaker 1: he was a child of luck. The silver skilling which
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  Speaker 1: he had found was laid away in his little savings bank.
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  Speaker 1: The ring and the amber heart were shown downstairs to
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  Speaker 1: the merchant's wife, because the mother wanted to know if
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  Speaker 1: they were among the things found that ought to be
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  Speaker 1: given notice of to the police. How the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: the merchant's wife shone on seeing the ring. It was
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  Speaker 1: no other than her own engagement ring, which he had
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  Speaker 1: lost three years before. So long had it lain in
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  Speaker 1: the gutter. Peer was well rewarded, and the money rattled
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  Speaker 1: in his little box. The amber heart was a cheap thing,
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  Speaker 1: the lady said, Peer might just as well keep that.
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  Speaker 1: At night, the amber heart lay on the bureau, and
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  Speaker 1: the grandmother lay in bed ey. What is it that burns,
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  Speaker 1: so said she. It looks as if some candle were
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  Speaker 1: lighted there. She got up to sea, and it was
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  Speaker 1: the little heart of amber Ah. The grandmother, with her
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  Speaker 1: weak eyes, often saw more than all others could see.
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  Speaker 1: Now she had her private thoughts about this. The next
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  Speaker 1: morning she took a small, strong ribbon, drew it through
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  Speaker 1: the opening at the top of the heart, and put
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  Speaker 1: it round her little grandson's neck. You must never take
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  Speaker 1: it off, except to put a new ribbon into it,
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  Speaker 1: and you must not show it either to other boys.
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  Speaker 1: If they should take it from you, you would have
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  Speaker 1: the stomach ache. That was the only dreadful sickness. Little
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  Speaker 1: peer had thus far known. There was a strange power
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  Speaker 1: too in the heart. Grandmother showed him that when she
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  Speaker 1: rubbed it with her hand and a little straw was
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  Speaker 1: laid by it, the straw seemed to be alive and
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  Speaker 1: sprang to the heart of Ember and would not let
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  Speaker 1: it go. End of one two. The merchant's son had
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  Speaker 1: a tutor who heard him say his lessons alone and
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  Speaker 1: walked out with him. Pierre was also to have an education,
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  Speaker 1: so he went to school with a great quantity of
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  Speaker 1: other boys. They studied together, and that was more delightful
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  Speaker 1: than going alone with a tutor. Peer would not change.
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  Speaker 1: He was a lucky peer. But Godfather was also a
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  Speaker 1: lucky peer. Footnote Lucky pier is a familiar title given
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  Speaker 1: to a person and luck, much as we might say
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  Speaker 1: a lucky dog. End footnote. For all, he was not
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  Speaker 1: called pier. He won a prize in the lottery of
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  Speaker 1: two hundred rick's dollars on a ticket, which he shared
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  Speaker 1: with eleven others. He went at once and bought some
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  Speaker 1: better clothes, and he looked very well in them. Luck
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  Speaker 1: never comes alone, it always has company, and it did
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  Speaker 1: this time. Godfather gave up his dirt cart and joined the theater.
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  Speaker 1: For what in the world, said grandmother, is he going
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  Speaker 1: to the theater? What does he go as as a machinist.
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  Speaker 1: That was a real getting on, and he was now
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  Speaker 1: quite another man, and took a wonderful deal of enjoyment
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  Speaker 1: in the comedy, which he always saw from the top
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  Speaker 1: or from the side. The most charming thing was the ballet,
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  Speaker 1: but that indeed gave him the hardest work, and there
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  Speaker 1: was always some danger from fire. They danced, both in
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  Speaker 1: heaven and on earth. That was something for little Peer
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  Speaker 1: to see. And one evening, when there was to be
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  Speaker 1: a dress rehearsal of a new ballet, in which they
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  Speaker 1: were all dressed and adorned, as in the evening when
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  Speaker 1: people pay to see all the fine show, he had
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  Speaker 1: permission to bring Peer with him and put him in
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  Speaker 1: a place where he could see the hole. It was
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  Speaker 1: a scripture ballet, Samson. The Philistines danced about him, and
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  Speaker 1: he tumbled the whole house down over them and himself.
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  Speaker 1: But there were fire engines and firemen on hand in
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  Speaker 1: case of any accident. Pierre had never seen a comedy,
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  Speaker 1: still less a ballet. He put on his Sunday clothes
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  Speaker 1: and went with Godfather to the theater. It was just
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  Speaker 1: like a great drawing loft, with ever so many curtains
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  Speaker 1: and screens, great openings in the floor, lamps and lights.
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  Speaker 1: There was a host of nooks and crannies up and down,
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  Speaker 1: and people came out from these, just as in a
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  Speaker 1: great church with its balcony pews footnote. In Denmark, and
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  Speaker 1: still more in Norway one still sees great churches with
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  Speaker 1: private boxes for families, so to speak, hung like nests
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  Speaker 1: against the wall end footnote. The floor went down quite steeply,
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  Speaker 1: and there Peer was placed and told to stay there
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  Speaker 1: till it was all finished, And he was sent for
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  Speaker 1: he had three sandwiches in his pocket, so that he
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  Speaker 1: need not starve. Soon it grew lighter and lighter. There
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  Speaker 1: came up in front, just as if straight out of
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  Speaker 1: the earth, a number of musicians with both flutes and violins.
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  Speaker 1: At the side where Peer sat, people came dressed as
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  Speaker 1: if they were in the street. But there came also
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  Speaker 1: knights with gold helmets, beautiful maidens and gauze and flowers,
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  Speaker 1: even angels all in white with wings on their hacks.
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  Speaker 1: They were placed up and down on the floor and
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  Speaker 1: up in the balcony pews to be looked at. They
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  Speaker 1: were the whole force of the ballet dancers, but Peer
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  Speaker 1: did not know that. He believed they belonged in the
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  Speaker 1: fairy tales his grandmother had told him about. Then there
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  Speaker 1: came a woman who was the most beautiful of all,
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  Speaker 1: with the gold helmet and spear. She looked out over
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  Speaker 1: all the others, and sat between an angel and an
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  Speaker 1: imp Ah, how much there was to see, and yet
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  Speaker 1: the ballet was not even begun. There was a moment
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  Speaker 1: of quiet. A man dressed in black moved a little
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  Speaker 1: fairy wand over all the musicians, and then they began
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  Speaker 1: to play, so that there was a whistling of music,
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  Speaker 1: and the wall itself began to rise. One looked out
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  Speaker 1: on to a flower garden, where the sun shone, and
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  Speaker 1: all the people danced and leaped. Such a wonderful sight
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  Speaker 1: had Pier never imagined. There the soldiers marched, and there
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  Speaker 1: was fighting, and there were the guilds and the mighty
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  Speaker 1: Samson with his love. But she was as wicked as
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  Speaker 1: she was beautiful. She betrayed him. The Philistines plucked his
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  Speaker 1: eyes out. He had to grind in the mill and
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  Speaker 1: be set up for mockery in the dancing hall. But
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  Speaker 1: then he laid hold of the strong pillars which held
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  Speaker 1: the roof up, and shook them. In the whole house
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  Speaker 1: it fell, and there burst forth wonderful flames of red
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  Speaker 1: and green fire. Pierre could have sat there his whole
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  Speaker 1: life long and looked on, even if the sandwiches were
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  Speaker 1: all eaten. And they were all eaten, now here was
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  Speaker 1: something to tell about. When he got home, he was
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  Speaker 1: not to be got off to bed. He stood on
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  Speaker 1: one leg and laid the other upon the table. That
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  Speaker 1: was what Samson's Love and all the other ladies did.
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  Speaker 1: He made a treadmill out of grandmother's chair, and upset
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  Speaker 1: two chairs and a bolster over himself to show how
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  Speaker 1: the dancing hall came down. He showed this, and he
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  Speaker 1: gave it with all the music that belonged to it.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: There was no talking in the ballet. He sang high
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: and low with words and without. There was no connection
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: in it. It was just like the whole opera. The
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: most noticeable thing, meanwhile, of all, was his beautiful voice,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: clear as a bell. But no one spoke of that.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Pierre was before to have been a grocer's boy to
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: mind prunes and lump sugar. Now he found there was
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: something very much finer, and that was to get into
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the Samson story and dance in the ballet. There were
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: a great many poor children that went that way, said
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the grandmother, and became fine and honored people. Still, no
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: little girl of her fee family should ever get permission
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: to go that way a boy. While he stood more firmly,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Pierre had not seen a single one of the little
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: girls fall before the whole house fell, and then they
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: all fell together. He said, Pier certainly must be a
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: ballet dancer. He gives me no rest, said his mother.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: At last, his grandmother promised to take him one day
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: to the ballet master, who was a fine gentleman and
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: had his own house like the merchant. Would peer ever
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: get to that? Nothing is impossible. For our lord Pierre
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: had a gold apple in his hand when he was
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: a child, such had lain in his hands. Perhaps it
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: was also in his legs. Pierre went to the ballet
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: master and knew him at once It was Sampson himself.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: His eyes had not suffered at all at the hands
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: of the Philistines. That was only a part of the play,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: he was told, and Samson looked kindly and pleasantly on
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: him and told him to stand up straight, look right
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: at him, and show him his ankle. Peer showed his
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: whole foot and leg too, So he got a place
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: in the ballet, said grandmother. It was easily brought about
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: at the ballet master's house. But first his mother and
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: grandmother must needs make other preparations and talk with people
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: who knew about these things. First with the merchant's wife,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: who thought it a good career for a pretty well
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: formed boy without any prospect like Pierre. Then they talked
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: with miss Franson. She understood all about ballet. At one time,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: in the younger days of grandmother, she had been the
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: most favorite danseur at the theater. She had danced goddesses
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and princesses, had been cheered and applauded whenever she came out.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: But then she grew older, we all do, and then
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: she no longer had principal parts. She had to dance
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: behind the younger ones. And finally she went behind all
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the dancers quite into the dressing room where they dressed
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the others to be goddesses and princesses. So it goes,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: said miss Franson. The theater road is a delightful one
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to travel, but it is full of thorns. Checkane grows there. Checkane.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: That was a word peer did not understand, but he
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: came to understand it quite well. He is determined to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: go into the ballet, said his mother. He is a
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: pious Christian child, that he is, said grandmother. And well
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: brought up, said Miss Franston, well bred and moral. That
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: was I in my heyday. And so Pier went to
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: dancing school and got some summer clothes and thin soled
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: dancing shoes to make it easier. All the old dancers
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: kissed him and said that he was a boy good
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: enough to eat. He was told to stand up, stick
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: his legs out, and hold on by a post so
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: as not to fall. While he learned to kick, first
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: with his right leg, then with his left. It was
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: not so hard for him as for most of the dancers.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: The ballet master clapped him on the back and said
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: he would soon be in the ballet. He should be
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: a king's child who was carried on shields and wore
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: a gold crown. That was practiced at the dancing school
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and rehearsed at the theater itself. The mother and grandmother
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: must go to see little Peer in all his glory.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: And they looked, and they both cried, for all it
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: was so splendid. Peer, in all his glory and show,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: had not seen them at all, But the merchant's family
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: he had seen. They sat in the lows nearest the stage.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Little Felix was with them in his test clothes. He
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: wore buttoned gloves, just like grown up gentlemen, and sat
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: with an opera glass at his own eyes the whole evening.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Although he could see perfectly well, again, just like grown
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: up gentlemen, he looked at Pier, Pierre looked at him,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and Pierre was a king's child with a gold crown on.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: This evening brought the two children in closer relation to
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: one another. Some days after, as they met each other
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: in the yard, Felix went up to Peer and told
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: him he had seen him when he was a prince.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: He knew very well that he was not a prince
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: any longer, but then he had worn a prince's clothes
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: and had a gold crown on. I shall wear them
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: again on Sunday, said Peer. Felix did not see him then,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: but he thought about it the whole evening. He would
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: have liked very well to be in Peer's shoes. He
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: had not miss Franston's warning that the theater way was
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: a thorny one, and that chicken grew on it. Neither
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: did Pierre know this yet, but he would very soon
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: learn it. His young companions, the dancing children, were not
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: all as good as they ought to be, for all
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: that they sometimes were angels with wings to them. There
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: was a little girl, mal Nlimp, who always, when she
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: was dressed as page, and Pierre was a page, stepped
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: maliciously on the side of his foot so as to
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: see his stockings. Was a bad boy who always was
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: sticking pins in his back. And one day he ate
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: peer sandwiches by mistake. But that was impossible, for Peer
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: had some meat pie with his sandwich, and the other
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: boy had only bread and butter. He could not have
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: made a mistake. It would be in vain to recite
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: all the vexations that Peer endured in the two years.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: And the worst was not yet that was to come.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: There was a bally to be brought out, called the Vampire.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: In it, the smallest dancing children were dressed as bats,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: where gray tights that fitted snugly to their bodies. Black
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: gauze wings were stretched from their shoulders, and so they
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: were to run on tiptoe as if they were just flying,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: and then they were to whirl round on the floor.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: Peer could do this especially well, but his trousers and jacket,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: all of one piece, were old and worn. The threads
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: should not hold together, so that just as he whirled
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: round before the eyes of all the people, there was
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: a rip right down his back, straight from his neck
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: down to where the legs are fastened in, and all
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: his short little white shirt was to be seen. All
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the people laughed. Peer saw it and knew that he
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: was ripped all down the back. He whirled and whirled,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: but it grew worse and worse. Folks laughed louder and louder.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: The other vampires laughed with them and whirled into him,
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: and all the more dreadfully when the people clapped and shouted, Bravo,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: that is for the ripped vampire, said the dancing children,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and so they always called him Ripper. Rip. Pierre cried.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Miss Fransten comforted him. Tis only chicane, she said, And
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: now Peer knew what chicane was. Besides the dancing school,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: they had another one attached to the theater, where the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: children were taught to cipher and write, to learn history
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and geography. Ah, they had a teacher in religion. For
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: it is not enough to know how to dance. There
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: was something more in the world than wearing out dancing shoes.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Here too, Pierre was quick, the very luckiest of all,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and got plenty of good marks, but his companions still
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: called him Ripper Rip. It was only a joke. But
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: at last he would not stand it any longer, and
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: he struck out and boxed one of the boys, so
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that he was black and blue under the left eye,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and had to have it whitened in the evening when
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: he was to go in the ballet. Peer was talked
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: too sharply by the dancing master, and more harshly by
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the sweeping woman, for it was her son he had punished.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: End of two End of Lucky Pier Part one.