20 Olof Krarer. 



The school system was very different in some re- 

 spects from American schools. The teacher was al- 

 ways 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, some- 

 thing 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 



