the same for you all along,
the same as now. Only I sent the money by your mother, and she--well,
she, poor girl, had another one to look after, and no father to pay for
it. So she made my money do for both. Hahaha! Well, poor girl, we
can't blame her for that. Anyhow, we'll have to look after that little
half-sister of yours now, I suppose, till she grows up. Don't you think
so yourself?"

Peer felt the tears coming. Think so!--indeed he did.

Next day Peer's father went away. He stood there, ready to start, in the
living-room at Troen, stiff felt hat and overcoat and all, and said,
in a tone like the sheriff's when he gives out a public notice at the
church door:

"And, by the way, you're to have the boy confirmed this year."

"Yes, to be sure we will," the old mother hastened to say.

"Then I wish him to be properly dressed, like the best of the other
youngsters. And there's fifty crowns for him to give the school-teacher
and the parson as a parting gift." He handed over some more notes.

"Afterwards," he went on, "I mean, of course, to look after him until
he can make his own way in a respectable position. But first we must see
what he has a turn for, and what he'd like to be himself. He'd better
come to town and talk it over with me--but I'll write and arrange all
that after he's confirmed. Then in case anything unexpected should
happen to me, there's some money laid by for him in a savings bank
account; he can apply to a friend of mine, who knows all about it. Well,
good-bye, and very many thanks!"

And the great man smiled to right and left, and shook them all by the
hand, and waved his hat and was gone.

For the next few days Peer walked on air, and found it hard to keep his
footing at all on the common earth. People were for ever filling his
head with talk about that savings bank account--it might be only a few
thousands of crowns--but then again, it might run up to a million. A
million! and here he was, eating herrings for dinner, and talking to
Tom, Dick, and Harry just like any one else. A million crowns!

Late in the autumn came the confirmation, and the old wooden church,
with its tarred walls, nestled among its mighty tree-tops, sent its
chimes ringing and ringing out into the blue autumn air. It seemed
to Peer like some kindly old grandmother, calling so lovingly: "Come,
come--old and young--old and young--from fjord and valley--northways and
southways; come, come--this day of all days--this d