GUNNAR SOLWALD

Gunnar went to military school at the advice of his neighbor, who was a soldier. He went with a friend, Olaf Omnaes, who was cutting timber with him, and they took the color-sergeant exam together.

They stated in sleeping quarters overnight when they arrived at the school. The soldiers in the room next to them had been drinking beer and were very drunk. When they were offered beer to drink, he and Olaf told them they were “teetotalers” so that they would not be offered beer again. It worked.

They were given new uniforms that fit badly, but no one cared if the uniforms fit the new recruits. The captain that came to inspect them told them they could not have long names, so “Olaf Rarndal” was “Ram,” and “Gunnar Kragset” was “Krogh.” When one of their superiors entered, Gunnar stood up, but Omnaes did not and was reprimanded even though they had not been told to do so.

They went to school from nine in the morning until noon and then had lunch, uniform and weapon cleaning, and homework. At three they had gymnastics practice, weapon handling, or "quick walking", "quick running", or high and long jumping. When they came home, they had homework in military rules, landscape painting, fortification, military bookkeeping, and other subjects.

Gunnar made friends with a man named Hans Skan who was soon promoted to lieutenant.  After his promotion, he was engaged and then quickly married, so he moved out of the quarters. Gunnar missed him a lot and visited him regularly.

Gunnar was not provided with the updated textbook that his teacher required, so he had to buy one at the shop. He went to a bread sale to spend his last four skillings on bread, but the bread was five skillings. The girl at the counter allowed him to take the bread anyway, and when he came back the next day to pay the extra skilling, he noticed that she was very different from the other girls he had seen.

Later on, he began to see the girl he had bought the bread from a lot more often because she was the sister of a man he was staying with. He felt she was good-natured, calm, nice, and had wise judgement. Gunnar wanted to break it off because he did not want to be distracted from his studies, but it was no use, he looked forward to seeing her and enjoyed it a great deal. She left for a job in Arendal, and Gunnar felt as if he had lost his best friend.