Invisible Links

ren and know the name of every one of its dogs. Who ever walked up the street knew to which window he must raise his eyes to see a lovely fa

done, it was as great a shame as if it had happened in one's own family; but at the smallest adventure, at a fire or a fight in the mar

pped lilac bushes will captivate my fascinated gaze. Again shall I see the old Mayor who rules the whole town walking down the street with elephantine tread. What a feeling of security there is in knowing that you are walking ther

orson's shop; he who amused the customers with his small mechanical inventions and his white mice. There is a long story abou

magine that he was from any other place. His native land had equipped him with its excellent qualities. He was quick at his work, nimble with his fingers, ready with his tongue, clear in his thoughts. And, moreover, full of fun, good

tle automatic wagons. And while he told the customers of his very last love-affair, he kept his eye on the quart measure, into which the brown molasses was slowly curling. It delighted his admiring listeners to

Petter Nord came there. Even the old Mayor himself was proud when Petter Nord took him apart into a dark corner and showed hi

and silent. He let the white mice nibble the steel bars of their cages without feeding them. He attended to his duties

that it had got caught in a piece of cloth, and without any one's seeing him he had pushed it

test attempt to escape; she had remained in her place with steadfast heroism, staring with red, burning eyes on the heartless murderer. Did he not deserve a short time of anxiety? Petter Nord wished to see him come out pale as death from his office and begin t

nd bright, and had big numbers in all the corners. When Petter Nord was alone in the shop, he put a step-ladder against t

ened to the fifty crowns. Then he pretended to look for something on the shelf, and groped

thing living in it? The figures surrounded by wide rings were like magnetic eyes. The

sorts of thoughts a

uire for it. Perhaps i

in the shop for a lo

had any

and ended with Astor and Jay Gould. Halfvorson knew all their histories; he knew how they had striven and denied themselves; what they had discovered and ventured. He grew eloquent when

other hand, he could not hear his own voice. It rolled out as strangely monotonous as the roar of a distant waterfall. But his

g and cloth of a coat which they had bought at a pawnbroker's sale; or that it had been won at cards, or had been given to them in alms by a beautiful and charitable lady. After they had

s; the floor heaved white with silver, and the indistinct patterns on the dirty wall-paper changed into banknotes, big as handkerchiefs. But directly before his eyes fluttered the fif

ring work, Petter Nord, is one; and the other is renunciation. Renunciation of play and love, of talk and laughter, of morning sleep and ev

r Nord was fighting with the street boys, the noble lady should stop her coach at the shop-door, and invite the V?rmland boy to the place at her side. But now Halfvorson's voice still rolled in his ears. His brain was

w-spirited, orderly and industrious. He attended to all his duties so irreproachably that any one could see that

old man. "So, you did not. Well, then I invite you. And be sure that

ed and promised

es of the town, delicate, dressed in white, adorned with flowers. But of course Petter Nord would not b

o take part, but he had been firm and said no. He could not dance any of those dances. Neither

m. After a little while he was so sparklingly happy that, if joy had been fire, he would have been surrounded by bursting flames. And if love were it, as many say it is, it would have been the same. He was always in love w

s! Something was dragging and pulling him and trying to hurl him out on the floor like a whipped ball. He could still resist it, although his excitement grew stronger a

lively character] struck up. The peasant boy was quite beside himse

was at home in the barn at the midsummer dance. He came forward, his knees bent, his head drawn down between his shoulders.

f a dance it was, but suddenly it went quite of itself. The mystery of the dance was revealed to her. The

s an inch thick float over the unplaned barn floor. They whirl about, light as leaves in an autumn wind. It is supple,

ball-room. At first people laughed, but then they all recognized that this was d

d short and passed his hand over his forehead. There was no black barn floor, no leafy walls, no light blue

he young ladies crowded about the shop-boy

l. 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

ladies, to dare to talk to them, to be in the midst of lights, of mo

bout it. He needed to come home to be able to think

son, but she was quite haughty towards both him and Petter Nord. She had many friends among the more important people of th

it is soon to be brought against Halfvorson for illicit

th making a fuss abou

there will be a lawsuit and fines and shame wit

not to know anything

with me, but he always drops back again. And then he does something so that I become impossi

ould he say. It was inhuman to talk to him of

e was a little dark

of to-day and came t

day. How pale and cow

really was. A thief a

t? By rights he ought

what he

were worth sacrificing conscience and the soul's freedom for their sake! As if they were worth as much as a white mouse, if the heart could not be glad at the same time!

re him the next morning, search for the note and find it. He might easily think that Petter Nord had hidden it to keep it. The thought gave him no peace. He tried to shake it of

n his eyes; a hand was fumbling under his pillo

who stood in the doorway to his room. "You see that I was right," said Halfvorson. "You see that it

poor Petter Nord. "I

hid the

stood with their backs turned to the room

of a sudden pitifully weak and small. H

d Edith, "he

e walked forward and looked at the boy. "You can weep

a joke-to make you angry. I wanted to pay you back for the mice

ave tortured him enough now, p

pirits. "I have had my eye on you for a long time," he said to the boy. "You have always something you are tucking a

will no one help me?" he cried. Halfvorson was gone, a

olice, and while he is away you can escape. The young lady can go out

of hurry the boy was ready. He kissed both the women on

ked after him. When he was gon

lfvorson say?

ad," answered

he boy, I think. I guess that

best one we have had in

him to give testimony in t

door, through which Halfvorson could see into the shop. She would have liked, she too, to have fled out into the world, away from all this meanness. She hear

ned the cage door. Mouse after mouse scampered

e," said Edith. "May you do i