know," smiled the eyes, "perhaps the fifty crowns up on the shelf
is just such a foundation?"

"Mark my words," said Halfvorson, "that, after the foundation, two
things are necessary for those who wish to reach the heights. Work,
untiring work, Petter Nord, is one; and the other is renunciation.
Renunciation of play and love, of talk and laughter, of morning
sleep and evening strolls. In truth, in truth, two things are
necessary for him who would win fortune. One is called work, and
the other renunciation."

Petter Nord looked as if he would like to weep. Of course he wished
to be rich, naturally he wished to be fortunate, but fortune should
not be so anxiously and sadly won. Fortune ought to come of
herself. Just as Petter Nord was fighting with the street boys, the
noble lady should stop her coach at the shop-door, and invite the
Värmland boy to the place at her side. But now Halfvorson's voice
still rolled in his ears. His brain was full of it. He thought of
nothing else, knew nothing else. Work and renunciation, work and
renunciation, that was life and the object of life. He asked
nothing else, dared not think that he had ever wished anything
else.

The next day he did not dare to kiss the fifty-crown note, did not
dare even to look at it. He was silent and low-spirited, orderly
and industrious. He attended to all his duties so irreproachably
that any one could see that there was something wrong with him. The
old Mayor was troubled about the boy and did what he could to cheer
him.