to dance
the polska. The ball was turned from its course and became a
dancing-school. All said that they had never known before what it
was to dance. And Petter Nord was a great man for that evening. He
had to dance with all the fine ladies, and they were exceedingly
kind to him. He was only a boy, and such a madcap besides. No one
could help making a pet of him.

Petter Nord felt that this was happiness. To be the favorite of the
ladies, to dare to talk to them, to be in the midst of lights, of
movement, to be made much of, to be petted, surely this was happiness.

When the ball was over, he was too happy to think about it. He
needed to come home to be able to think over quietly what had
happened to him that evening.

Halfvorson was not married, but he had in his house a niece who
worked in the office. She was poor and dependent on Halfvorson, but
she was quite haughty towards both him and Petter Nord. She had
many friends among the more important people of the town and was
invited to families where Halfvorson could never come. She and
Petter Nord went home from the ball together.

"Do you know, Nord," asked Edith Halfvorson, "that a suit is soon
to be brought against Halfvorson for illicit trading in brandy? You
might tell me how it really is."

"There is nothing worth making a fuss about," said Petter Nord.

Edith sighed. "Of course there is nothing. But there will be a
lawsuit and fines and shame without end. I wish that I really knew
how it is."

"Perhaps it is best not to know anything," said Petter Nord.

"I wish to rise in the world, do you see," continued Edith, "and I
wish to drag Halfvorson up with me, but he always drops back again.
And then he does something so that I become impossible too. He is
scheming something now. Do you not know what it is? It would be
good to know."

"No," said Petter Nord, and not another word would he say. It was
inhuman to talk to him of such things on the way home from his
first ball.

Beyond the shop there was a little dark room for the shop-boy.
There sat Petter Nord of to-day and came to an understanding with
Petter Nord of yesterday. How pale and cowardly the churl looked.
Now he heard what he really was. A thief and a miser. Did he know
the seventh commandment? By rights he ought to have forty stripes.
That was what he deserved.

God be blessed and praised for having let him go to the ball and
get a new view of it all. Usch! what ugly thoughts he had had; b