etly and wait
for me. I loved my pony and thought there was nothing in the world like
him. But this long ride was very hard on us, and finally the teacher
made arrangement so that we could live close to the school.

The school system was very different in some respects from American
schools. The teacher was always the minister, and the school was
connected with the church. A scholar had first to learn to read, and
must keep at it until he could read better than the teacher. Then he was
called upon to commit to memory large portions of history and of the
Bible; and when he had learned them so well that he could repeat from
beginning to end without the book, he was allowed to begin to write. He
could not take pen in hand before that. After learning to write, he was
taught figures; and after that I do not know what was done.

The teacher never laid a hand on the scholar in punishment. If he did
anything wrong, a note was sent to his parents, and they flogged him
soundly.

I enjoyed the life in Iceland, for I saw and learned so much that was
new.

Some time in the spring there was a holiday, in which the young folks
would cut up pranks, something like the tricks of April-fool Day here.
The girls would try to fasten a small sack of ashes upon the clothing of
the boys, and they, in return, would seek to place a pebble in the
pockets of the girls, endeavoring to do it so slyly that the sack or
pebble would be carried about all day without the one who bore it
knowing anything about it.

On one of these days, a girl tied a small sack into the beard of one of
the men, while he was asleep, and he wore it all day before anyone told
him, and then they had a great laugh at his expense. I thought I would
try my hand at this, so I made a little sack and tucked it into the
corner of a patch, which a big fellow wore upon his pants, the corner
being ripped just enough to let the sack slip inside. I had great fun
watching him all day, and when night came, he boasted that none of the
girls had fooled him that day. "Oh, yes," said one of his companions,
"the smallest girl in the house has fooled you badly." He felt pretty
cheap when I pointed to the patch, and he found the sack sticking out so
that he might have seen it easily.

Picking up fuel was hard work, and took a great deal of time. They had
but little wood, and no coal, so that it was necessary to gather the
droppings of animals, and make great piles of this kind of stuff in t