"Oh, is it conceivable, Abbe is kneeling and scrubbing the kitchen floor! However, he stops immediately when Madicken enters.
'I'm just wiping it down a bit,' he explains to her. But he has already scrubbed half the kitchen."
"Dad is washing the kitchen floor. No other dad in the whole town would do that, Madicken knows that. But her dad isn't like other dads, she knows that too. And that's why she loves him so much."
I think it's a coincidence, but it's beautifully connected 😁
(Note: the quotes are my translation from the books in polish)
Abbe is 15 years old at the end of August and later at the end of April. So his birthday is someday between May and August (though I suppose not May, as he might have been described rather "almost 16" than just "15" on 30.04). Madicken, on the other hand, is almost 7 at the end of August, so her birthday is probably in September.
No wonder Abbe convinced the girls to give him all their meatballs during their "trip". This boy is hungry. He's growing rapidly and needs more calories than everyone else. That's why he's "unusually thin".
Scaring Madicken was mean, though I think Abbe underestimated how sensitive she really was. I think he wanted to scare her, but not to death. Imho this situation shows how much of a kid he still is.
He seems to genuinely like Madicken, he even made a carousel on ice for the girls and admired little Kajsa.
He says he earned every öre for the new lamp himself. Dear boy, you earn everything in your house yourself. But to be fair, I guess he must have been selling the pretzels at the market, so his mother was not involved in earning those money.
He thinks his mother is "the most valuable thing in their home", but I think he idealises her a bit (though that's natural when compared to his father). E.g. she also didn't think about a Christmas present for him.
After pulling Lisabet out of the well, he wrote on Madicken's notice that he had purchased a slave as a slave trader. Madicken was angry with him, but I believe he was just playing along and (again) didn't think she would take it seriously.
He expects nothing, but I think he dreams of a greater care within the family. It can be seen in his preparation for Christmas and his listening to Engströms' singing.
I believe that uncle Nilsson is depressed, as he's "lazy" and "doesn't feel life in himself", and tries to feel better by drinking, but that worsens the situation.
We see Abbe mainly through Madicken's eyes, so it's uncertain how he interacts with other people. He talks a lot with Madicken only when they are alone in the kitchen, he stood alone during the bonfire and there's no mention about him going out or having any guests. That may be just Madicken's perspective or a coincidence, or his workload, or introversion.
Only he makes sure there is wood in the woodshed, and his father has not been in there for two years. It seems that Abbe took over most of his father's responsibilities after finishing school when he was 13.
I think that he's parentified on a physical level, but not on emotional level.
"Abbe likes incredible books". He must have read about all the things he talks about - sailing, ghosts, murderers, war, flying, trans-siberian railway and treasure hunting. It seems to me that uncle Nilsson likes poetry due to his flowery speech and one time starting to recitate something about radiant constellations.
It's awfully sad that uncle Nilsson, after almost being a reason of his son's death, restrained from drinking only for a few weeks.
Fun fact from Swedish Wikipedia: at the age of 18, Abbe will have to join the army for eight months of conscript training. I guess aunt Nillson will have to find some additional job at that time, as I doubt that uncle Nilsson will lift a finger.
