“Then I would venture,” she said, looking dauntlessly at them. “It would be nice to own the house ourselves, don’t you think so, Pelle?”
“No, I think it’s quite mad,” Pelle answered. “We shall be saddled with a house-rent of seven hundred and fifty kroner.”
Ellen was not afraid of the house-rent; the house and garden would bear that. “And in a few years we can sell the ground for building and make a lot of money.” She was red with excitement.
Pelle laughed. “Yes, speculation! Isn’t that what the hill farmer has gone to pieces over?” Pelle had quite enough on his hands and had no desire to have property to struggle with.
But Ellen became only more and more bent upon it. “Then buy it yourself!” said Pelle, laughing. “I’ve no desire to become a millionaire.”
Ellen was quite ready to do it. “But then the house’ll be mine,” she declared. “And if I make money on it, I must be allowed to spend it just as I like. It’s not to go into your bottomless common cashbox!” The men laughed.
“Brun and I are going for a walk,” said Pelle, “so we’ll go in and write a contract note for you at once.”
They went down the garden and followed the edge of the hill to the south. The weather was clear; it had changed to slight frost, and white rime covered the fields. Where the low sun’s rays fell upon them, the rime had melted and the withered green grass appeared. “It’s really pretty here,” said Brun. “See how nice the town looks with its towers—only one shouldn’t live there. I was thinking of that last night when the child was lying there with her cough. The work-people really get no share of the sun, nor do those who in other respects are decently well off. And then I thought I’d like to build houses for our people on the ridge of the hill on both sides of ‘Daybreak.’ The people of the new age ought to live in higher and brighter situations than others. I’ll tell you how I thought of doing it. I should in the meantime advance money for the plots, and the business should gradually redeem them with its surplus. That is quite as practical as dividing the surplus among the workmen, and we thereby create values for the enterprise. Talking of surplus—you’ve worked well, Pelle! I made an estimate of it last night and found it’s already about ten thousand this year. But to return to what we were talking about—mortgage loans are generally able to cover the building expenses, and with amortization the whole thing is unencumbered after some years have passed.”
“Who’s to own it?” asked Pelle. He was chewing a piece of grass and putting his feet down deliberately like a farmer walking on ploughed land.
“The cooperative company. It’s to be so arranged that the houses can’t be made over to others, nor encumbered with fresh loan. Our cooperative enterprises must avoid all form of speculation, thereby limiting the field for capital. The whole thing should be self-supporting and be able to do away with private property within its boundaries. You see it’s your own idea of a community within the community that I’m building upon. At present it’s not easy to find a juridical form under which the whole thing can work itself, but in the meantime you and I will manage it, and Morten if he will join us. I expect he’ll come home with renewed strength.”
“And when is this plan to be realized? Will it be in the near future?”
“This very winter, I had thought; and in this way we should also be able to do a little for the great unemployment. Thirty houses! It would be a beginning anyhow. And behind it lies the whole world, Pelle!”
“Shall you make the occupation of the houses obligatory for our workmen?”
“Yes, cooperation makes it an obligation. You can’t be half outside and half inside! Well, what do you think of it?”
“It’s a strong plan,” said Pelle. “We shall build our own town here on the hill.”
The old man’s face shone with delight. “There’s something in me after all, eh? There’s old business-blood in my veins too. My forefathers built a world for themselves, and why should I do less than they? I ought to have been younger, Pelle!”
They walked round the hill and came to the farm from the other side. “The whole piece wouldn’t really be too large if we’re to have room to extend ourselves,” said Pelle, who was not afraid of a large outlay when it was a question of a great plan.
“I was thinking the same thing,” answered Bran. “How much is there here? A couple of hundred acres? There’ll be room for a thousand families if each of them is to have a fair-sized piece of land.”
They then went in and took the whole for a quarter of a million.
“But Ellen!” exclaimed Pelle, when they were on their way home again. “How are we going to come to terms with her?”
“Bless my soul! Why, it was her business we went upon! And now we’ve done business for ourselves! Well, I suppose she’ll give in when she hears what’s been done.”
“I’m not so sure of that,” said Pelle, laughing. “Perhaps when you tackle her.”
“Well, did you get the house?” asked Ellen, from the house door, where she was standing to receive them.
“Yes, we got much more,” said Brun airily. “We bought the whole concern.”
“Is that a fact, Pelle?”
Pelle nodded.
“What about my house then?” she asked slowly.
“Well, we bought that together with all the rest,” said Brun. “But as far as that goes it can easily be separated from the rest, only it’s rather soon to break up the cooperation before it’s started.” He waited a little, expecting that Ellen would say something, and when she continued silent he went on, rather shortly: “Well, then there’s nothing more to be said about that? Fair
