time. 'You are not kind to me,' I said to Him. 'Have you prayed me to
be so?' asked He. No; I had not done so. Then I prayed, and since
then all has been truly well with me."

Ole is silent; but now the school-master, too, is silent.

Finally Ole says:--

"I have a grandchild; she knows what would please me before I am taken
away, but she does not do it."

The school-master smiles.

"Possibly it would not please her?"

Ole makes no reply.

The school-master: "There are many things which trouble you; but as far
as I can understand they all concern the gard."

Ole says, quietly,--

"It has been handed down for many generations, and the soil is good.
All that father after father has toiled for lies in it; but now it does
not thrive. Nor do I know who shall drive in when I am driven out. It
will not be one of the family."

"Your granddaughter will preserve the family."

"But how can he who takes her take the gard? That is what I want to