Oyvind: "I am so little at home."

The school-master looks at Ole. The latter feels that he must now rush
into the fire; he clears his throat a couple of times, and begins
hastily and shortly,--

"It was--it is--yes. What I meant was that you should be in a certain
way established--that you should--yes--be the same as at home up yonder
with us,--be there, when you were not away."

"Many thanks for the offer, but I should rather remain where I now
live."

Ole looks at the school-master, who says,--

"Ole's brain seems to be in a whirl to-day. The fact is he has been
here once before, and the recollection of that makes his words get all
confused."

Ole, quickly: "That is it, yes; I ran a madman's race. I strove
against the girl until the tree split. But let by-gones be by-gones;
the wind, not the snow, beats down the grain; the rain-brook does not
tear up large stones; snow does not lie long on the ground in May; it
is not the thunder that kills people."

They all four laugh; the school-master says:

"Ole means that he does not want you to remember that time any longer;
nor you, either, Thore."