"By Jove!" said Hayter, when the boy came into the room first. "Look there. 'Huckleberry Finn!'"
And then the younger brother came in, and we stared in wonder upon "Tom Sawyer." It seemed as if the pair of them had stepped direct from Mr. Mark Twain's book and merely forgotten the soft, drawling mother-tongue of the Mississippi Valley in transit.
But they were not permitted to enjoy the luxury of staring at the foreigner, and posturing before him for long. The bustling, hard-visaged madame came in and sent them off about some farm business, and then she brought us in a couple of armfuls of hay to make up beds on the floor. But we knew the ways of Lapland hay, and with the naked eye we could see the live-stock pervading the hay she brought. So we thanked her profusely, and said we preferred to sleep on the boards of the floor. She did not seem inclined to give way at first. She was a masterful woman, accustomed to having her own wishes carried out to the letter, and she had all the rest of that slack, Finnish household (with the possible exception of Huckleberry and Tom) under her large and most capable thumb. In fact, to be precise, she was a travelling midwife, and she had come to the house professionally, and at a time when her wishes would be obeyed. But sleep on that tick-pervaded hay we would not, and so finally after a lot of loud-voiced expostulations--she always spoke in a shout--she took it out and left us in peace.
Then the Lapp carriers came in to be paid off, and as they took such pains to assure us that the way down to Küstula was now easy, and that we should have not the smallest difficulty in finding transport on the morrow, we began to have distinct visions of a further block in the journey. However, carriers or no carriers, it was a certain thing that we could get no more work out of these three Lapps, and we were rather ashamed of ourselves for having pressed willing men too hard already. It was a fact that they were terribly foot-sore and knocked up. So we gave them their hard-earned wages, and a trifle beyond, which they did not expect; and presented them with a black cake of _Windward's_ tobacco apiece, and our united blessings; all of which luxuries they accepted with delighted noise and laughter. As a fitting climax to all his other pleasing eccentricities, Johann tried to sell us the little brass finger-ring which he wore tied in the end of his neck-handkerchief. He said it was his betrothal ring and was made of gold, and he would sacrifice it to us for the absurdly small sum of twenty marks. But as he had become engaged, according to his own account, to every marriageable woman we had met along the road, we thought that others would have a better claim on it than we, and so forbore to present him with a further sovereign. At which he nearly lifted the roof off with his great shouts of laughter: it was all the same to Johann whether he swindled us successfully or whether he got caught in the act; he was equally amused with either occurrence.