Dear Parents,--We have a great deal more to read now, but as I am much
more up to the others, it is not such hard work. When I come home I
shall make great changes in father's farm, for there is a great deal
that is very bad, and it is a wonder that things have hung together as
they have. But I shall put all to rights, for I have learnt many things
here. I should like to be in a place where I can have things as I now
know they should be; so when I am ready I must seek for a good
situation. All here say that Jon Hatlen is not so clever as they think
at home, but he has his own farm, so that is no matter. Many who come
from here get a very high salary, and they are so well paid because
this is the best agricultural school in the country. Some say that
there is a better in the next county, but that is not true.
There are two words here, the one is called Theory, and the other
Practice; one is nothing without the other, but it is well to know them
both; the last, however, is the best. Theory is to know the reason why
a thing should be done, and practice is to be able to do it. Here we
learn both. The Principal is so clever that nobody can come up to him.
At the last General Agricultural Meeting he brought forward two
subjects for discussion, while the principals from the other schools
had none of them more than one, and in the discussions they found he
was always right. But the last meeting, when he wasn't there, ended in
nothing but talk. The lieutenant, who teaches us surveying, was engaged
only because he is so very clever; the other schools have no
lieutenant.
The schoolmaster asks if I go to church; yes, certainly I go to church,
for now the pastor has got a curate who preaches so that everybody is
terrified, and it is a pleasure to hear him. He comes from the college
in Christiania, and people think he is too strict, but it is good for
them.
At present we are reading history that we have never read before, and
it is wonderful to see all that has happened in the world, especially
in our country, for we have constantly conquered except when we have
lost, and that has been only when we haven't been equal. Now we have
more liberty than any other country except America, but there they are
not happy; and our liberty we must prize above all things.
Now I must conclude for this time, for I have written a great deal. The
schoolmaster will read this letter, and when he answers for you, ask
him to tell me some news about one or another, for this he doesn't do.
With best love,
Your attached son,
Ovind Thoresen Pladsen.
Dear Parents,
I must now tell you that we have had an examination, and I stand very
high in many things. I am high in writing, and land measuring, but not
so good in composition. The principal says this is because I have not
read enough, and he has given me some books by Ole Vig, which are very
easy to understand.
Everything here is so small to what it is in other countries; we
understand next to nothing, we learn everything from the Scotch and
Swiss, but gardening most from Holland.
I have now been here nearly a year, and I thought I had learnt a great
deal; but when I saw what those who left at the last examination knew,
and thought that not even they knew anything in comparison to the
foreigners, I felt quite disheartened. I am now in the first class, and
must stay here another year before I am ready. But most of my
companions are gone, and I long for home. It seems as if I stood alone,
though I certainly do not, but it feels so strange when one has been
long away.
What am I to do when I leave here? I shall naturally come home first,
and then I must seek for some situation, but it must not be far away.
Good-bye dear parents. Remember me kindly to those who ask after me,
and say I am well, but I long to come home.
Your attached son,
Ovind Thoresen Pladsen.
Dear Schoolmaster,
This is to ask you if you will be so good as to send the enclosed
letter, but be sure and say nothing about it to anybody. If you will
not, then it must be burnt.
Ovind Thoresen Pladsen.
To Marit Knudsdatter Heidegaard.
You will very likely be surprised to receive a letter from me, but you
need not be, for I will only ask how you fare, and this you must let me
know as soon as possible and in every respect.
Respecting myself, I have only to say that I shall be ready to leave
here in one year.
Respectfully,
Ovind Pladsen.
To Ovind Pladsen,
At the Agricultural School.
I duly received your letter from the schoolmaster, and will answer it
as you ask me, though I am rather afraid, because you are now so
learned; I have a letter book but it doesn't suit. However, I will do
my best, and you must take the will for the deed; but you musn't show
it, or else you are not what I think you are; and you musn't hide it
because any one might easily get hold of it, but you must burn it, that
you must promise me. There are a great many things that I wanted to
write about, but I dare not. We have had a good Autumn; potatoes are
high, and here at Heidegaard we have plenty of them. But the bears have
made sad havoc among the stock this Summer; they killed two of Ole
Nedregaard's cows, and injured one of our tenant's calves so that it
was obliged to be killed.
I am weaving a very large web like the Scotch plaid, and it is very
difficult. And now I must tell you that I am still at home, though
there are some who would have it otherwise.