some in the
sixth class. When now the two were well tucked in their beds, Ritz said:
"Edi, was it a sin that I said Auntie must not always remind?" Edi
thought a bit, such a case had never come to him. After a while he said:
"You see, Ritz, it goes thus: if you have done something that is a sin,
then you must go at once to Daddy and confess, there is no help for it;
but if you do that, then everything comes again in order and you feel
happy again, and afterwards you look out not to do the sinful thing
again. I can tell you that, Ritz. But if you do not confess, then you
are always full of fear when a door is slammed or a letter-carrier
unexpectedly brings a letter, then you think at once: 'There now,
everything will come out.' And so you are never sure nor safe and you
feel a pressure in the chest. But there is another thing that presses so
hard that you can think of nothing else, for example, if you have given
away a rabbit, you regret it afterwards. But there is a remedy and I
have tried it many a time, and it helps. You must think of something
dreadful, like a large fire, when everything is burnt up, the fortress
and the soldiers in it and all historical books, and--all at once you
think everything backwards and you have everything; then you are so glad
that you think: what difference does a rabbit make? You still have
everything else. Now Ritz, try that and see if it helps you, then you
can find out whether everything passes away or whether you have to tell
Daddy tomorrow."

"Yes, I will try it," said Ritz somewhat indistinctly, and soon after he
took such deep breaths that Edi knew what was going on. He heaved a sigh
and said: "Oh, Ritz, you are asleep and I wanted to tell you so much
about the old Egyptian."

A little while afterwards the whole peaceful parsonage of Upper Wood lay
in deep sleep; only old 'Lizebeth went about the passage calling: "Bs,
bs, bs." She wanted to get the old grey cat into the kitchen to catch
the mice during the night. 'Lizebeth had been in the parsonage of Upper
Wood as long as one could remember, for there had always been a son, and
when the time had come, then he had become parson in Upper Wood. First
'Lizebeth had served the grandfather, then the father and now the son,
and she had long since elected Edi as the future minister, and intended
to look after his house when he should be the master here.

CHAPTER II

_A Call in the Village_

The friendly village Upper Wood lay