Page:Pontoppidan - Emanuel, or Children of the Soil (1896).djvu/185

 You may have heard tell of him. I daresay he's known all over the country."

Emanuel remembered very well having heard Sandinge High School spoken of as the place which the youth of the neighbourhood frequented, under the weaver's direction, when they wished to reach a higher intellectual development than the village school afforded; so he moved nearer to the three peasants, to hear something more about these peculiar teaching institutions which had gained so much ground in the country in the last few years, and which he had often wished to know better.

He then heard to his great astonishment that Sandinge was barely six miles off, a short distance from the opposite shore. They could plainly see the heath-clad hills, behind which the town was hidden, from the place where they sat. The man with the fair beard was himself a former pupil, and gave such a glowing account of the life and teaching at the school, that Emanuel was quite anxious to make the acquaintance of this man, and made up his mind to visit him at no distant date.

In the meantime, baskets of provisions were brought out by the married women, some of the girls handed sandwiches on the lids of baskets or dock leaves, while others went about with bottles of milk. The carpenter took charge of a jar of small beer, and altogether acted as master of the ceremonies, while the weaver,