"What number am I?" "And I?" "And I, I?"
"Silence! uproarious children,---no noise here; be quiet, and then I will tell you."
He looked slowly round him. "You are Number 2," he said to a lad with blue eyes looking beseechingly at him, and the lad danced out of the circle. "You are Number 3,"--he touched a red-haired quick little boy who stood and pulled at his coat; "You are Number 5;" "You Number 8," &c. He caught sight of Marit,--"You are Number One of the girls." She blushed crimson over her face and neck, but tried to smile. "You, Number 12, have been lazy, you idle worthless scamp;" "Number 11, you couldn't expect to stand higher, my lad;" "You, Number 13, must read diligently before the confirmation or else you won't succeed!"
Ovind could not bear it any longer. Number One had certainly not been named, and yet he had stood the whole time so that the schoolmaster could see him. "Schoolmaster?" He did not hear. "Schoolmaster!" Three times he had to call before he was heard.
At last the schoolmaster looked at him--"Number 9 or 10, can't say exactly which," said he, and turned quickly to another.
"Who is Number One then?" asked Hans, who was Ovind's best friend.
"Not you, you curly head!" and tapped him on the hand with a paper roll.
"Who is it then?" asked many. "Who is it?" "Yes, who is it?"
"He will get to know it himself!" said the schoolmaster decidedly. He would not have more questions.
"Now go nicely home children, thank God, and make your parents happy! Thank your old schoolmaster too, if it had not been for him you would not have been good for much!"