t of the depths of her faithful blue eyes, that from
this time I must always remember that she was fond of me, however unkind
the others were.

We heard them calling us, and--what we had never thought of doing
before--Susanna hurried on by herself a little way, so that we each came
back to the others alone.

* * * * *

It was far on into the morning of the next day, when Anne Kvaen roused me
with a shake, as she had been accustomed to do since I was a child, and
told me that my father had started that morning for Tromsoe. He had been
up to my room before he went, and when he came down again said that I
lay smiling in my sleep, and "looked so happy, poor boy"!

It was very seldom that any sympathetic words came from my father, so
these are imprinted on my memory.

My father himself at that time was anything but cheerful. The steamboat
dispute lay heavy on his heart, and he now wanted to try, as a last
resort, to have the matter thoroughly aired in the newspapers, and it
was about this that he now wanted to apply personally to a solicitor at
Tromsoe.

These circumstances, however, did not come to my knowledge at that time.

CHAPTER V

_CONFIRMATION_

While matters were in this state between our parents, the time came for
Susanna and me to be confirmed. As I was not entered until some time
after the confirmation course had begun, it was arranged that, besides
the class in the church every Monday, I was to read alone with the
minister on Fridays.

In his abrupt way my father made me a little private speech, in which he
expressed a hope that I would not disgrace him before the minister.

The lesson up in the minister's study was an entirely new mental
development for me. The big, grey-haired man, with his broad, powerful
face, and massive silver spectacles, generally pushed up on to his
forehead above the heavy eyebrows, sat on the sofa with his big
meerschaum pipe in his mouth, and expounded, while I, smart and
attentive, listened in the chair on the opposite side of the table.

I became more and more convinced that the minister must be an honourable
and thoroughly sincere man, but at the same time hard and severe; for
he always talked about our duties, and that we must not think that
pardon would be given us if we tried to escape from them. Sometimes,
too, he would be in the humour for reflections which were not quite
intended for me; there were all kinds of attempts to