I?"--"And I?"--"And I--I?"

"Hush! you overgrown young ones! No uproar here! Be quiet and you
shall hear about it, children." He looked slowly around. "You are
number two," said he to a boy with blue eyes, who was gazing up at him
most beseechingly; and the boy danced out of the circle. "You are
number three," he tapped a red-haired, active little fellow who stood
tugging at his jacket. "You are number five; you number eight," and so
on. Here he caught sight of Marit. "You are number one of the
girls,"--she blushed crimson over face and neck, but tried to smile.
"You are number twelve; you have been lazy, you rogue, and full of
mischief; you number eleven, nothing better to be expected, my boy;
you, number thirteen, must study hard and come to the next examination,
or it will go badly with you!"

Oyvind could bear it no longer; number one, to be sure, had not been
mentioned, but he had been standing all the time so that the
school-master could see him.

"School-master!" He did not hear. "School-master!" Oyvind had to
repeat this three times before it was heard. At last the school-master
looked at him.

"Number nine or ten, I do not remember which," said he, and turned to
another.

"Who is number one, then?" inquired Hans, who was Oyvind's best friend.

"It is not you, curly-head!" said the school-master, rapping him over
the hand with a roll of paper.

"Who is it, then?" asked others. "Who is it? Yes; who is it?"

"He will find that out who has the number," replied the school-master,
sternly. He would have no more questions. "Now go home nicely,
children. Give thanks to your God and gladden your parents. Thank
your old school-master too; you would have been in a pretty fix if it
had not been for him."

They thanked him, laughed, and went their way jubilantly, for at this
moment when they were about to go home to their parents they all felt
happy. Only one remained behind, who could not at once find his books,
and who when he had found them sat down as if he must read them over
again.

The school-master went up to him.

"Well, Oyvind, are you not going with the rest?"

There was no reply.

"Why do you open your books?"

"I want to find out what I answered wrong to-day."

"You answered nothing wrong."

Then Oyvind looked at him; tears filled his eyes, but he gazed intently
at the school-master, while one by one trickled down his cheeks, and
not a word did he say. The school-maste