"
"If you had money, I dare say you would like to buy yourself a gard?"
"Yes, but keep the mills."
"Then you had better enter the agricultural school."
"Do pupils learn as much there as at the seminary?"
"Oh, no! but they learn what they can make use of later."
"Do they get numbers there too?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I should like to be a good scholar."
"That you can surely be without a number."
They walked on in silence again until they saw Pladsen; a light shone
from the house, the cliff hanging over it was black now in the winter
evening; the lake below was covered with smooth, glittering ice, but
there was no snow on the forest skirting the silent bay; the moon
sailed overhead, mirroring the forest trees in the ice.
"It is beautiful here at Pladsen," said the school-master.
There were times when Oyvind could see these things with the same eyes
with which he looked when his mother told him nursery tales, or with
the vision he had when he coasted on the hill-side, and this was one of
those times,--all lay exalted and purified before him.
"Yes, it is beautiful," said he, but he sighed.
"Your father has found everything he wanted in this home; you, too,
might be contented here."
The joyous aspect of the spot suddenly disappeared. The school-master
stood as if awaiting an answer; receiving none, he shook his head and
entered the house with Oyvind.
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