Kettu scorned such things, but Sikku enjoyed them all in the course of the summer, and thought he fared like a prince. When the weather was very rainy and cold, however, he would begin, toward evening, to long for the porridge pot. Oh, that nice warm porridge pot, that he could scrape and scrape, eating all the porridge there was left anywhere in it! Kettu got the porridge ladle to lick, and stole Miss Pussy's milk from the broken earthen dish which stood on the floor near the water-tub, though he seldom got the milk without a battle!
The master of Anttilla Farm was stingy and grasping and his wife was like him, but what mattered that to Sikku? He had his freedom, and the only thing he was responsible for was that all the fifteen cows returned to the farm every evening to be milked. Not another care in the world had Sikku, and for a time all went well and happily.
One day he climbed up the highest peak of the mountain while Kettu watched the cows in the valley. There was a wide beautiful view over forests, marshes, and small lonely lakes, but no houses were in sight. Sikku had never in his life thought that the world could be so big! His heart warmed within him as he saw the sun sparkle on the lakes between the dark branches of the pines. When a cloud sailed over the sky, one gleam after another flashed, vanished in shadow and shone out anew in another spot. Sikku sang and sang, blowing his wooden horn between times. The sounds rang out merrily up there on the mountain and turned into a little song:
"Oh, Sipuri Mountain! Tu-tu´! Falidu´! Tu-tu´! Falidu´! In all the whole world not a boy can be found Who is tending his cows, with such grandeur around. Tu-tu´! Falidu´!"
While he was singing, there suddenly appeared before him a hideous little old woman who said to him, "All the land that you see shall be yours if you will be my boy and obey me."
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed Sikku, observing the woman closely and recognizing her as the troll woman from Allis Farm.
"Give me the white cow, Kimmo," continued she, "and say when you go home that the wolf caught her."
Sikku's eyes grew big and he answered: "Indeed I will not. I am no such rascal as that!"
"Then blame yourself for what happens," said the troll woman; and with that she hopped, crow fashion, down the mountain.