Confirmation and Direction in Life

Abstract

The two brothers went home to Gjerstad for the two-week summer holidays. They were back in Christiania and at school again by August 13^th. Only a few days later the message came that their beloved grandmother, Elisabeth Abel, had died. On August 20,1817, Vicar Abel wrote to his dean, on the eve of his mother’s funeral: “The times have become stark raving mad, and for the remainder, the Elements seem to have united purely to lead us into Misery. Now I can certainly say that Poverty is becoming my Lot in life.”