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However, it was an unwritten rule that; "You better hurry home and help bring water to the animals around lunch!" In the afternoon it was always; "Remember to come straight home and move the sheep before mid-evening!" One time, early in my schooling, I ended up being absent from school for a very long time. Then one day I was sent on an errand to see the blacksmith and this trip brought me right past the school. As I passed by, the principal, whose name was Mads Bi Aagesen, came out to see me and to inquire as to why I wasn't in school. I replied that I was unable to attend because I didn't have any pants. He then looked me up and down and became very quiet.

As the family grew (I think that by this time I was seventh in line) we were too many to fit into the two beds and the aforementioned bench (slaugh bænk). We boys were moved to the room that housed the hired farm hands. This room had been built in the barn where the cows were kept. The thinking was that the farm hands should be within the immediate vicinity of the animals in case they got loose

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and sometimes the cattle would be standing there licking my head while I was sleeping. The door to the room lead directly to the courtyard and there was a hook on the inside so that we could lock it when we went to sleep. However, for those who came in late, we had cut a hole in the door allowing them to stick their arm through it and unlatch the door. The door was often allowed to remain open, especially during the summer, when it wasn't uncommon for the chickens to come in and lay eggs in our beds. Not to mention the pigs, the sow would sometimes come in and take a nap, but they lay on the floor and not in our beds.

On August 1st 1845 my father passed away and at this point my family wasn't completely free of our villeinage responsibilities. Once, when we had to plow for our landlord I tagged along. Wearing my clogs, I walked alongside the lead horse because this particular time we had hitched four horses to the plow, and sometimes I might even be allowed to ride on the horse on the left. Another time I was helping gathering buschels of wheat and another time we were spreading cut grass in a meadow that bore the name; "Saltemad." A few days later we raked it all together and that same day we drove it to the Count's estate where it was to be used as animal feed during the winter months.