nts, or--he still sat rehearsing when he was called.

A fifth had taken a special fancy to the Sermon on the Mount; he had
dreamed about the Sermon on the Mount; he was sure of being questioned
on the Sermon on the Mount; he kept repeating the Sermon on the Mount
to himself; he had to go out doors and read over the Sermon on the
Mount--when he was called up to be examined on the great and the small
prophets.

A sixth thought of the priest who was an excellent man and knew his
father so well; he thought, too, of the school-master, who had such a
kindly face, and of God who was all goodness and mercy, and who had
aided so many before both Jacob and Joseph; and then he remembered that
his mother and brothers and sisters were at home praying for him, which
surely must help.

The seventh renounced all he had meant to become in this world. Once
he had thought that he would like to push on as far as being a king,
once as far as general or priest; now that time was over. But even to
the moment of his coming here he had thought of going to sea and
becoming a captain; perhaps a pirate, and acquiring enormous riches;
now he gave up first the riches, then the pirate, then the captain,
then the mate; he paused at sailor, at the utmost boatswain; indeed, it
was possible that he would not go to sea at all, but would take a
houseman's place on his father's gard.

The eighth was more hopeful about his case but not certain, for even
the aptest scholar was not certain. He thought of the clothes he was
to be confirmed in, wondering what they would be used for if he did not
pass. But if he passed he was going to town to get a broadcloth suit,
and coming home again to dance at Christmas to the envy of all the boys
and the astonishment of all the girls.

The ninth reckoned otherwise: he prepared a little account book with
the Lord, in which he set down on one side, as it were, "Debit:" he
must let me pass, and on the other "Credit:" then I will never tell any
more lies, never tittle-tattle any more, always go to church, let the
girls alone, and break myself of swearing.

The tenth, however, thought that if Ole Hansen had passed last year it
would be more than unjust if he who had always done better at school,
and, moreover, came of a better family, did not get through this year.

By his side sat the eleventh, who was wrestling with the most alarming
plans of revenge in the event of his not being passed: either to burn
down the sch