[Subsection]

One school day followed the next. School was fine. There were wet autumn days. The earth smelled black and wet. Per smelled it in the morning on the way to school and in the afternoon on the way home. He tried to find out again and again whether Father's prophecy had come true. But it had not.

He still preferred to be with Åsne Bakken. Åsne said to him when the first week was over: "My, you're bright at school."

He did not reply but felt happy. She had said it enviously.

"Are you going to be a pastor?" she said again.

He did not understand.

"A pastor?"

"Yes. Signe has a brother who was so bright at school that he has to be a pastor. He goes to school even though he's grown-up! Because he's going to be made into a pastor."

Per was on the point of bursting out that he was going to stay at Bufast to the end of his days, but then it struck him that this was a way out! He would be brighter than all the rest of them at school; then they would have to make him into a pastor.

"Are you?" she asked, demanding a straight answer at once.

Immediately he was terrified that this escape route might be closed if Father and the others got to know about it. He must keep it secret! Simply be so bright that they would have to make him into a pastor.

"No, I'm not!" he said cuttingly. "You do talk nonsense."

The term continued. He noticed how light-hearted many of them were about their lessons. He had to learn his and had to know them better than the others. He did know them better.

He kept Åsne company, but less and less. She was a girl,   [p. 50]   and it was difficult to be with a girl in the middle of a crowd of boys, even though nobody dared tease him to his face. They had felt his fists by now.

Signe drifted away from him entirely. When he saw her, she was always with another girl, and it didn't matter to him what she was called.

Then he found Olav Bringa.

They were about the same height and were a little afraid of each other---afraid of being the loser---so they did not test their strength except in friendship. The others hated them at once because they did not draw in a third. It was sweet to be hated a little when you felt strong.