Was it not quite natural that he should be the favorite of the
whole town? We all felt obliged to trade with Halfvorson, after
Petter Nord came there. Even the old Mayor himself was proud when
Petter Nord took him apart into a dark corner and showed him the
cages of the white mice. It was nervous work to show the mice, for
Halfvorson had forbidden him to have them in the shop.

But then in the brightening February there came a few days of warm,
misty weather. Petter Nord became suddenly serious and silent. He
let the white mice nibble the steel bars of their cages without
feeding them. He attended to his duties in the most irreproachable
way. He fought with no more street boys. Could Petter Nord not bear
the change in the weather?

Oh no, the matter was that he had found a fifty-crown note on one
of the shelves. He believed that it had got caught in a piece of
cloth, and without any one's seeing him he had pushed it under a
roll of striped cotton which was out of fashion and was never taken
down from the shelf.

The boy was cherishing great anger in his heart against Halfvorson.
The latter had destroyed a, whole family of mice for him, and now
he meant to be revenged. Before his eyes he still saw the white
mother with her helpless offspring. She had not made the slightest
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 to look
for the fifty crowns. He wished to see the same despair in his
watery eyes as he had seen in the ruby red ones of the white mouse.