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 the summer, so that it would be dry enough to burn in the winter.
If mice came about the houses and buildings in the fall, the Icelanders would fear a hard winter, and much damage to their sheep; for when the winter grew very severe, and the mice could get nothing else to eat, they would climb upon the sheep's backs, while they were lying close together in the sheds, and would burrow into the wool, back of the shoulder-blades, and eat the flesh, very often causing the death of the poor animals.
The Icelanders used sheep's milk a great deal, and I liked it. Sheep's milk is richer and sweeter than cow's milk. They used to put up a lot of milk in barrels, and put in some rennet, which would make it curdle into something like cottage cheese. This they would set aside for winter use, and all were very fond of it. The family would be considered very poor who could not put up from eight to ten barrels of this food.
They sometimes, also, would churn mutton tallow, or whale oil, in the sheep's milk, and make a kind of butter. Whale oil makes a better butter than the tallow, and I think I like would it even yet.
While most people had dishes and knives and forks, it was not customary to set the table, unless there was company present. Each one had a cup for himself, made of wood with staves like a barrel, and curiously bound with whale-bone hoops. They had handles upon them, but I do not know how fastened. A child's cup would hold about a quart, and a man's cup sometimes as much as three quarts. When each one had gotten his cup filled, he would take his place at any convenient spot in the room, on the bed, or anywhere, and proceed to empty the cup with great haste. We all had ravenous appetites, but did not always have enough to eat. In the spring we had a great treat, when the eggs and flesh of wild fowl were to be had. We fared well when fish were plenty, but at other times a porridge made of Iceland moss and the curdled milk made up our fare. Some seasons they can raise a few vegetables in Iceland, but this is not often. Of late years they cannot raise grain, although they used to raise good oats.