SUNDAY
PREPARATIONS for going to church next morning were soon made. Some
things that we should consider unusual were taken, including a big lunch
and a couple of hammocks. Two row boats carried the party some distance
down the lake to a much larger boat, called the Church Boat. It was
already half filled. After a short wait, other peasants arrived, greeted
their friends soberly and sat down.
The men had on somber-looking suits, with big felt hats and high boots.
The women's costumes varied, although the majority had on black
shapeless jackets with a white kerchief crossed under the chin; some,
however, had on bright bodices, embroidered aprons, and blue or crimson
kerchiefs. Most of the women carried their prayer-books wrapped in
white handkerchiefs. When all were seated, the young women, as well as
the young men, seized hold of the oars and the boat left the pier.
It was a slow journey, stops being made at a few places where people
stood waiting. It was rather solemn, too; there was no idle chatter; at
the minister's suggestion, however, hymns were sung.
The Lutheran Church, at which the party at last arrived, was a plain
building both inside and out. It was built entirely of timber and had a
separate bell tower. As the people walked in, the women all took their
places on one side, the men on the other.
The services lasted until three in the afternoon. Maja yawned and almost
put herself asleep counting the stitches in the woman's jacket in front
of her. But when it was all over and the people filed out of the
building, they seemed to leave some of their somberness there. They
gathered in groups and together departed either for a swim in the lake
or with hammocks and lunches for a picnic in the silent woods.
[Illustration: "THINGS TASTED SO GOOD OUT OF DOORS"]
Things tasted so good out of doors that Maja and Juhani smiled much at
each other, although Juhani would always put on a particularly serious
look afterwards. Then the two swung on one of the hammocks and also on a
huge swing near the Church. "Come on for a ramble with us in the woods,"
two passing children of their own age called to them. "Come," said Maja,
taking hold of Juhani's hand, and away they went over the greenish gray
mosses through the rosy and pale yellow underbrush. There were bright
red cranberries here and there with which they filled their pockets as
they discussed, not church affairs, but wood nymphs, the kind ugly
_tomtar_ or brownies, and the little gray man in the woods who has a
fiery tail.
Suddenly Maja stopped, looking so scared that all followed her example.
"What is it?" asked her brother.
"A brownie!" Maja could hardly make herself heard.
The boys laughed at her as they rushed forward and made a big brown
squirrel scamper away into the branches of a tree.
"Nevertheless I'd like to believe that there were brownies around,"
Juhani confessed when the girls had come up. "Do you know that they are
so kind that on Christmas they bring a gift to every animal that lives
near?"
The others nodded. "I'd rather see one than a wood nymph," one of them
declared. "I'd be afraid of her. My! but she must be ugly from behind if
she's really hollow there as they say. She's apt to do you harm too, if
you see her from the back."
By this time they had reached a little one-room hut evidently deserted,
for the door swung on only one hinge. Before they peeked in, Juhani,
with a curious look on his face, cautioned each to say "Good Day to all
here" on entering even if they saw no one, for a _Tomty_ might be hidden
in some corner.
It was a very old type of house. The upper half of the walls were
stained black. There was a big fire place but no chimney, the smoke
having evidently been allowed to escape through a hole in the roof.
A long thin piece of resinous wood was still fastened to one wall. This
was called a _pare_, and when lit served instead of lamp or candle.
There was a small clearing around the house, and half buried in leaves
near the door was an old-time harrow that had once been formed from a
bundle of stout fir top branches.
Later they paused to ask for a drink of water at a small two-room
cottage of unhewn, unpainted wood surrounded by a little pasture but
with no garden or other sign of cultivation around, nothing but the
vast impressive forest. A savage-looking dog that looked as if it might
have been crossed with a fox, snarled at them but was called away by a
very old woman who explained that she was there alone, her son having
lately gone to a timber camp. "He'll come back with enough money," she
added with a trembling voice, "to see us through the winter, which is
going to be a hard one."
"Why do you say that, Granny?" asked Juhani.
"Couldn't you see it for yourself," the old woman returned rather
sharply, "by the great number of berries?"
"Are you not lonely here?" Maja inquired with sympathy.
"Aye, lonely," repeated the woman, "but contented too, for have I not
the forest with me day and night and is it not a part of my very soul?"
A long drawn whistle here made the children realize that the church
parties were breaking up and that they must make haste to return, so
thanking the old woman they raced back apparently as fresh as if they
had not already had a long tramp. Where the forest was thickest it was
quite dark. "If it gets any darker," said Maja, "we'll have to stop and
pray to the Twilight Maiden to spin for us a thread of gold to lead us
safely home."
"There are also others to help us," said Juhani, and half playfully he
called on all the woodland fairy folk whose names are found in the great
Finland epic, "The Kalevala": on _Mielikki_, hostess of the forest;
_Tuometar_, nymph of the bird cherry; _Katejatar_, nymph of the juniper;
_Pillajatar_, nymph of the mountain ash; _Matka-Teppo_, god of the road;
_Hongatar_, ruler of the pines; _Sinetar_, that beauteous elf who paints
the flowers the blue of the sky, and on _Sotka's daughter_ who protects
wild game from harm.