e sheet almost as colourless as itself.
But she breathed regularly; that was an ascertained fact. Nils was
frequently visited. He gave audible tokens as to how he was enjoying
himself. The mother sat down for the fifth or sixth time, as it might
be, in the great, quiet room. She did not enter upon any of her
favourite branches of home industry; she thought them too noisy for the
occasion. She was not a reader. She could but nod a little in her chair,
and then make another round of observation.

At last, towards evening, the schoolmistress was fairly awake; and such
a dish of porridge as she was obliged to consume! Such a series of
inquiries she was subjected to as to her symptoms and sensations as
would have done credit to a young medical practitioner examining his
first patient, though the questions, in this case, were practically
rather than scientifically put, and could actually be understood by the
respondent.

To have quiet was all that the little schoolmistress craved, and that
she was at last allowed. As for Nils, it was plain that he considered
that small apartment his sleeping-car, for which his ticket had been
taken for the livelong night.

The schoolmistress rose early. Her room was soon in perfect order. She
was reading devoutly in the Bible: that had been an accessory in the
arrangement of her room, as of all the other small dormitories, since
the hostess "had her way in her own house."

Tora suddenly heard a quick repeated knock at her door. The permission
to enter was hardly given when Nils burst in, his face glowing with
delight.

"It's all right with me, teacher!" he exclaimed--"it's all right with
me! You know that hymn I've tried to learn so many times, and couldn't
make out. The first line came into my head yesterday in our
troubles--'God is our stronghold and defence;' but I could not get any
further."

"Perhaps that was far enough just then, Nils," said Tora. "I thought of
that line too myself when I first suspected how matters stood, as I sat
there with my book before me."

"But, teacher, I'm all right. This morning I thought I would read that
hymn all over, and I did--twice. And then, O teacher, I'm all right, for
the whole hymn just repeated itself in my mind as if I had the book
before me. I asked mother to hear me, and when she saw I could say it
all through without a stumble, she put her arms round my neck and cried
and talked about herself dreadfully. She said she had been such a si