five in the
morning
To run an animal until it was tired out , hanging on to its tail and beating it all round the meadow only to revenge one 's self , was also stupid ; it made the whole flock restless and difficult to manage for the rest of the day . Pelle weighed the end and the means against one another ; he learned to quench his thirst for revenge with good practical reasons . Pelle was a boy , and he was not an idle one . All day , from five in the morning until nine at night , he was busy with something or other , often most useless things . For hours he practiced walking on his hands , turning a somersault , and jumping the stream ; he was always in motion . Hour after hour he would run unflaggingly round in a circle on the grass , like a tethered foal , leaning toward the center as he ran , so that his hand could pluck the grass , kicking up behind , and neighing and snorting . He was pouring forth energy from morning till night with open-handed profusion .