There, before Castle Cripsholm, he saw the schoolmaster, pushing a
perambulator over a green field, and carrying in his disengaged hand a
basket containing food, while a whole crowd of young men and women,
"who looked like country folk," followed in the rear. After dinner the
schoolmaster sang songs and turned somersaults with the youngsters. He
looked ten years younger and had all the ways of a ladies' man.
The proprietor, who was quite close to the party while they were
having dinner, overheard a little conversation between Mr. and Mrs.
Blom. When the young wife took a dish of crabs from the basket, she
apologised to Albert, because she had not been able to buy a single
female crab in the whole market. Thereupon the schoolmaster put his
arm round her, kissed her and said that it didn't matter in the least,
because male or female crabs, it was all the same to him. And when one
of the babies in the perambulator began to cry, the schoolmaster
lifted it out and hushed it to sleep again.
Well, all these things are mere details, but how people can get married
and bring up a family when they have not enough for themselves while
they are bachelors, is a riddle to me. It almost looks as if babies
brought their food with them when they come into this world; it really
almost does look as if they did.
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