legs. "I think we ought to invite the other Troll folk to come and
help us eat him up. Suppose I just go over the Mountain and gather
them in. You can manage here without me. As soon as the oven is well
heated just take Olli and slip him in and close the door and by the
time we come he'll be done."
"Very well," the Troll wife said, "but don't be too long! He's young
and tender and will roast quickly!"
So the Troll went out to invite to the feast the Troll folk who lived
on the other side of the Mountain and Olli was left alone with the
Troll wife.
When the oven was well heated she raked out the coals and said to
Olli:
"Now then, my boy, sit down in front of the oven with your back to the
opening and I'll push you in nicely."
Olli pretended he didn't quite understand. He sat down first one way
and then another, spreading himself out so large that he was too big
for the oven door.
"Not that way!" the Troll wife kept saying. "Hunch up little, straight
in front of the door!"
"You show me how," Olli begged.
So the old Troll wife sat down before the oven directly in front of
the opening, and she hunched herself up very compactly with her chin
on her knees and her arms around her legs.
"Oh, that way!" Olli said, "so that you can just take hold of me and
push me in and shut the door!"
And as he spoke he took hold of her and pushed her in and slammed the
door! And that was the end of the old Troll wife!
Olli let her roast in the oven until she was done to a turn. Then he
took her out and put her on the table all ready for the feast.
Then he filled a sack with straw and dressed the sack up in some of
the old Troll wife's clothes. He threw the dressed up sack on the bed
and, just to glance at it, you'd suppose it was the Troll wife asleep.
Then Olli took the golden bell and went home.
Well, presently the Troll and all the Troll folk from over the
Mountain came trooping in.
"Yum! Yum! It certainly smells good!" they said as they got the first
whiff from the big roast on the table.
"See!" the Troll said, pointing to the bed. "The old woman's asleep!
Well, let her sleep! She's tired! We'll just sit down without her!"
So they set to and feasted and feasted.
"Ha! Ha!" said the Troll. "This is the way to serve a troublesome
young Finn!"
Just then his knife struck something hard and he looked down to see
what it was.
"Mercy me!" he cried, "if here isn't one of the old woman's beads!
What can that mean? You don't suppose the roast is not Olli after all
but the old woman! No! No! It can't be!"
He got up and went over to the bed. Then he came back shaking his head
sadly.
"My friends," he said, "we've been eating the old woman! However,
we've eaten so much of her that I suppose we might as well finish
her!"
So the Troll folk sat all night feasting and drinking.
At dawn the Troll went down to the water and hallooed across:
"Olli! Oh, Olli, are you there?"
Olli who was safely home shouted back:
"Yes, I'm here! What do you want?"
"Have you got my golden bell?"
"Yes, I've got your golden bell but it's my golden bell now!"
"One thing more, Olli: did you roast my old woman?"
"Your old woman?" Olli echoed. "Look! Is that she?"
Olli pointed at the rising sun which was coming up behind the Troll.
The Troll turned and looked. He looked straight at the sun and then,
of course, he burst!
So that was the end of him!
Well, after that no other Troll ever dared settle on that side of the
Mountain. They were all too afraid of the Terrible Olli!
THE DEVIL'S HIDE
[Decoration]
_The Story of the Boy Who Wouldn't Lose His Temper_
THE DEVIL'S HIDE
[Decoration]
There was once a Finnish boy who got the best of the Devil. His name
was Erkki. Erkki had two brothers who were, of course, older than he.
They both tried their luck with the Devil and got the worst of it.
Then Erkki tried his luck. They were sure Erkki, too, would be
worsted, but he wasn't. Here is the whole story:
One day the oldest brother said:
"It's time for me to go out into the world and earn my living. Do you
two younger ones wait here at home until you hear how I get on."
The younger boys agreed to this and the oldest brother started out. He
was unable to get employment until by chance he met the Devil. The
Devil at once offered him a place but on very strange terms.
"Come work for me," the Devil said, "and I promise that you'll be
comfortably housed and well fed. We'll make this bargain: the first of
us who loses his temper will forfeit to the other enough of his own
hide to sole a pair of boots. If I lose my temper first, you may exact
from me a big patch of my hide. If you lose your temper first, I'll
exact the same from you."
The oldest brother agreed to this and the Devil at once took him home
and set him to work.
"Take this ax," he said, "and go out behind the house and chop me some
firewood."
The oldest brother took the ax and went out to the woodpile.
"Chopping wood is easy enough," he thought to himself.
But at the first blow he found that the ax had no edge. Try as he
would he couldn't cut a single log.
"I'd be a fool to stay here and waste my time with such an ax!" he
cried.
So he threw down the ax and ran away thinking to escape the Devil and
get work somewhere else. But the Devil had no intention of letting him
escape. He ran after him, overtook him, and asked him what he meant
leaving thus without notice.
"I don't want to work for you!" the oldest brother cried, petulantly.
"Very well," the Devil said, "but don't lose your temper about it."
"I will so lose my temper!" the oldest brother declared. "The
idea--expecting me to cut wood with such an ax!"
"Well," the Devil remarked, "since you insist on losing your temper,
you'll have to forfeit me enough of your hide to sole a pair of boots!
That was our bargain."
The oldest brother howled and protested but to no purpose. The Devil
was firm. He took out a long knife and slit off enough of the oldest
brother's hide to sole a pair of big boots.
"Now then, my boy," he said, "now you may go."
The oldest brother went limping home complaining bitterly at the hard
fate that had befallen him.
"I'm tired and sick," he told his brothers, "and I'm going to stay
home and rest. One of you will have to go out and get work."
The second brother at once said that he'd be delighted to try his luck
in the world. So he started out and he had exactly the same
experience. At first he could get no work, then he met the Devil and
the Devil made exactly the same bargain with him that he had made with
the oldest brother. He took the second brother home with him, gave him
the same dull ax, and sent him out to the woodpile. After the first
stroke the second brother threw down the ax in disgust and tried to
run off and the Devil, of course, wouldn't let him go until he, too,
had submitted to the loss of a great patch of hide. So it was no time
at all before the second brother came limping home complaining
bitterly at fate.
"What ails you two?" Erkki said.
"You go out into the cruel world and hunt work," they told him, "and
you'll find out soon enough what ails us! And when you do find out you
needn't come limping home expecting sympathy from us for you won't get
it!"
So the very next day Erkki started out, leaving his brothers at home
nursing their sore backs and their injured feelings.
Well, Erkki had exactly the same experience. At first he could get
work nowhere, then later he met the Devil and went into his employ on
exactly the same terms as his brothers.
The Devil handed him the same dull ax and sent him out to the
woodpile. At the first blow Erkki knew that the ax had lost its edge
and would never cut a single log. But instead of being discouraged and
losing his temper, he only laughed.
"I suppose the Devil thinks I'll lose my hide over a trifle like
this!" he said. "Well, I just won't!"
He dropped the ax and, going over to the woodpile, began pulling it
down. Under all the logs he found the Devil's cat. It was an evil
looking creature with a gray head.
"Ha!" thought Erkki, "I bet anything you've got something to do with
this!"
He raised the dull ax and with one blow cut off the evil creature's
head. Sure enough the ax instantly recovered its edge and after that
Erkki had no trouble at all in chopping as much firewood as the Devil
wanted.
That night at supper the Devil said:
"Well, Erkki, did you finish the work I gave you?"
"Yes, master, I've chopped all that wood."
The Devil was surprised.
"Really?"
"Yes, master. You can go out and see for yourself."
"Then you found something in the woodpile, didn't you?"
"Nothing but an awful looking old cat."
The Devil started.
"Did you do anything to that cat?"
"I only chopped its head off and threw it away."
"What!" the Devil cried angrily. "Didn't you know that was my cat!"
"There now, master," Erkki said soothingly, "you're not going to lose
your temper over a little thing like a dead cat, are you? Don't forget
our bargain!"
The Devil swallowed his anger and murmured:
"No, I'm not going to lose my temper but I must say that was no way to
treat my cat."
The next day the Devil ordered Erkki to go out to the forest and bring
home some logs on the ox sledge.
"My black dog will go with you," he said, "and as you come home you're
to take exactly the same course the dog takes."
Well, Erkki went out to the forest and loaded the ox sledge with logs
and then drove the oxen home following the Devil's black dog. As they
reached the Devil's house the black dog jumped through a hole in the
gate.
"I must follow master's orders," Erkki said to himself.
So he cut up the oxen into small pieces and put them through the same
hole in the gate; he chopped up the logs and pitched them through the
hole; and he broke up the sledge into pieces small enough to follow
the oxen and the logs. Then he crept through the hole himself.
That night at supper the Devil said:
"Well, Erkki, did you come home the way I told you?"
"Yes, master, I followed the black dog."
"What!" the Devil cried. "Do you mean to say you brought the oxen and
the sledge and the logs through the hole in the gate?"
"Yes, master, that's what I did."
"But you couldn't!" the Devil declared.
"Well, master," Erkki said, "just go out and see."
The Devil went outside and when he saw the method by which Erkki had
carried out his orders he was furious. But Erkki quieted him by
saying:
"There now, master, you're not going to lose your temper over a
trifling matter like this, are you? Remember our bargain!"
"N-n-no," the Devil said, again swallowing his anger, "I'm not going
to lose my temper, but I want you to understand, Erkki, that I think
you've acted very badly in this!"
All that evening the Devil fumed and fussed about Erkki.
"We've got to get rid of that boy! That's all there is about it!" he
said to his wife.
Of course whenever Erkki was in sight the Devil tried to smile and
look pleasant, but as soon as Erkki was gone he went back at once to
his grievance. He declared emphatically:
"There's no living in peace and comfort with such a boy around!"
"Well," his wife said, "if you feel that way about it, why don't you
kill him to-night when he's asleep? We could throw his body into the
lake and no one be the wiser."
"That's a fine idea!" the Devil said. "Wake me up some time after
midnight and I'll do it!"
Now Erkki overheard this little plan, so that night he kept awake.
When he knew from their snoring that the Devil and his wife were sound
asleep, he slipped over to their bed, quietly lifted the Devil's wife
in his arms, and without awakening her placed her gently in his own
bed. Then he put on some of her clothes and laid himself down beside
the Devil in the wife's place.
Presently he nudged the Devil awake.
"What do you want?" the Devil mumbled.
"Sst!" Erkki whispered. "Isn't it time we got up and killed Erkki?"
"Yes," the Devil answered, "it is. Come along."
They got up quietly and the Devil reached down a great sword from the
wall. Then they crept over to Erkki's bed and the Devil with one blow
cut off the head of the person who was lying there asleep.
"Now," he said, "we'll just carry out the bed and all and dump it in
the lake."
So Erkki took one end of the bed and the Devil the other and,
stumbling and slipping in the darkness, they carried it down to the
lake and pitched it in.
"That's a good job done!" the Devil said with a laugh.
Then they went back to bed together and the Devil fell instantly
asleep.
The next morning when he got up for breakfast, there was Erkki
stirring the porridge.
"How--did you get here?" the Devil asked. "I mean--I mean where is my
wife?"
"Your wife? Don't you remember," Erkki said, "you cut off her head
last night and then we threw her into the lake, bed and all! But no
one will be the wiser!"
"W-wh-what!" the Devil cried, and he was about to fly into an awful
rage when Erkki restrained him by saying:
"There now, master, you're not going to lose your temper over a little
thing like a wife, are you? Remember our bargain!"
So the Devil was forced again to swallow his anger.
"No, I'm not going to lose my temper," he said, "but I tell you
frankly, Erkki, I don't think that was a nice trick for you to play on
me!"
Well, the Devil felt lonely not having a wife about the house, so in a
few days he decided to go off wooing for a new one.
"And, Erkki," he said, "I expect you to keep busy while I'm gone.
Here's a keg of red paint. Now get to work and have the house all
blazing red by the time I get back."
"All blazing red," Erkki repeated. "Very well, master, trust me to
have it all blazing red by the time you get back!"
As soon as the Devil was gone, Erkki set the house a-fire and in a
short time the whole sky was lighted up with the red glow of the
flames. In great fright the Devil hurried back and got there in time
to see the house one mass of fire.
"You see, master," Erkki said, "I've done as you told me. It looks
very pretty, doesn't it? all blazing red!"
The Devil almost choked with rage.
"You--you--" he began, but Erkki restrained him by saying:
"There now, master, you're not going to lose your temper over a
little thing like a house a-fire, are you? Remember our bargain!"
[Illustration: _From the bones of the cattle he laid three bridges_]
The Devil swallowed hard and said:
"N--no, I'm not going to lose my temper, but I must say, Erkki, that
I'm very much annoyed with you!"
The next day the Devil wanted to go a-wooing again and before he
started he said to Erkki:
"Now, no nonsense this time! While I'm gone you're to build three
bridges over the lake, but they're not to be built of wood or stone or
iron or earth. Do you understand?"
Erkki pretended to be frightened.
"That's a pretty hard task you've given me, master!"
"Hard or easy, see that you get it done!" the Devil said.
Erkki waited until the Devil was gone, then he went out to the field
and slaughtered all the Devil's cattle. From the bones of the cattle
he laid three bridges across the lake, using the skulls for one
bridge, the ribs for another, and the legs and the hoofs for the
third. Then when the Devil got back, Erkki met him and pointing to the
bridges said:
"See, master, there they are, three bridges put together without
stick, stone, iron, or bit of earth!"
When the Devil found out that all his cattle had been slaughtered to
give bones for the bridges, he was ready to kill Erkki, but Erkki
quieted him by saying:
"There now, master, you're not going to lose your temper over a little
thing like the slaughter of a few cattle, are you? Remember our
bargain!"
So again the Devil had to swallow his anger.
"No," he said, "I'm not going to lose my temper exactly but I just
want to tell you, Erkki, that I don't think you're behaving well!"
The Devil's wooing was successful and pretty soon he brought home a
new wife. The new wife didn't like having Erkki about, so the Devil
promised her he'd kill the boy.
"I'll do it to-night," he said, "when he's asleep."
Erkki overheard this and that night he put the churn in his bed under
the covers, and where his head ordinarily would be he put a big round
stone. Then he himself curled up on the stove and went comfortably to
sleep.
During the night the Devil took his great sword from the wall and went
over to Erkki's bed. His first blow hit the round stone and nicked the
sword. His second blow struck sparks.
"Mercy me!" the Devil thought, "he's got a mighty hard head! I better
strike lower!"
With the third stroke he hit the churn a mighty blow. The hoops flew
apart and the churn collapsed.
The Devil went chuckling back to bed.
"Ha!" he said boastfully to his wife, "I got him that time!"
But the next morning when he woke up he didn't feel like laughing for
there was Erkki as lively as ever and pretending that nothing had
happened.
"What!" cried the Devil in amazement, "didn't you feel anything strike
you last night while you were asleep?"
"Oh, I did feel a few mosquitoes brushing my cheek," Erkki said.
"Nothing else."
"Steel doesn't touch him!" the Devil said to his wife. "I think I'll
try fire on him."
So that night the Devil told Erkki to sleep in the threshing barn.
Erkki carried his cot down to the threshing floor and then when it was
dark he shifted it into the hay barn where he slept comfortably all
night.
During the night the Devil set fire to the threshing barn. In the
early dawn Erkki carried his cot back to the place of the threshing
barn and in the morning when the Devil came out the first thing he
saw was Erkki unharmed and peacefully sleeping among the smoking
ruins.
"Mercy me, Erkki!" he shouted, shaking him awake, "have you been
asleep all night?"
Erkki sat up and yawned.
"Yes, I've had a fine night's sleep. But I did feel a little chilly."
"Chilly!" the Devil gasped.
After that the Devil's one thought was to get rid of Erkki.
"That boy's getting on my nerves!" he told his wife. "I just can't
stand him much longer! What are we going to do about him?"
They discussed one plan after another and at last decided that the
only way they'd ever get rid of him would be to move away and leave
him behind.
"I'll send him out to the forest to chop wood all day," the Devil
said, "and while he's gone we'll row ourselves and all our belongings
out to an island and when he comes back he won't know where we've
gone."
Erkki overheard this plan and the next day when they were sure he was
safely at work in the forest he slipped back and hid himself in the
bedclothes.
Well, when they got to the island and began unpacking their things
there was Erkki in the bedclothes!
The Devil's new wife complained bitterly.
"If you really loved me," she said, "you'd cut off that boy's head!"
"But I've tried to cut it off!" the Devil declared, "and I never can
do it! Plague take such a boy! I've always known the Finns were an
obstinate lot but I must say I've never met one as bad as Erkki! He's
too much for me!"
But the Devil's wife kept on complaining until at last the Devil
promised that he would try once again to cut off Erkki's head.
"Very well," his wife said, "to-night when he's asleep I'll wake you."
Well, what with the moving and everything the wife herself was tired
and as soon as she went to bed she fell asleep. That gave Erkki just
the very chance he needed to try on the new wife the trick he had
played on the old one. Without waking her he carried her to his bed
and then laid himself down in her place beside the Devil. Then he
waked up the Devil and reminded him that he had promised to cut off
Erkki's head.
The poor old Devil got up and went over to Erkki's bed and of course
cut off the head of his new wife.
The next morning when he had found out what he had done, he was
perfectly furious.
"You get right out of here, Erkki!" he roared. "I never want to see
you again!"
"There now, master," Erkki said, "you're not going to lose your temper
over a little thing like a dead wife, are you?"
"I am so going to lose my temper!" the Devil shouted. "And what's more
it isn't a little thing! I liked this wife, I did, and I don't know
where I'll get another one I like as well! So you just clear out of
here and be quick about it, too!"
"Very well, master," Erkki said, "I'll go but not until you pay me
what you owe me."
"What I owe you!" bellowed the Devil. "What about all you owe me for
my house and my cattle and my old wife and my dear new wife and
everything!"
"You've lost your temper," Erkki said, "and now you've got to pay me a
patch of your hide big enough to sole a pair of boots. That was our
bargain!"
The Devil roared and blustered but Erkki was firm. He wouldn't budge a
step until the Devil had allowed him to slit a great patch of hide off
his back.
That piece of the Devil's hide made the finest soles that a pair of
boots ever had. It wore for years and years and years. In fact Erkki
is still tramping around on those same soles. The fame of them has
spread over all the land and it has got so that now people stop Erkki
on the highway to look at his wonderful boots soled with the Devil's
hide. Travelers from foreign countries are deeply interested when they
hear about the boots and when they meet Erkki they question him
closely.
"Tell us," they beg him, "how did you get the Devil's hide in the
first place?"
Erkki always laughs and makes the same answer:
"I got it by not losing my temper!"
As for the Devil, he's never again made a bargain like that with a
Finn!
[Decoration]
THE MYSTERIOUS SERVANT
[Decoration]
_The Story of a Young Man Who Respected the Dead_
THE MYSTERIOUS SERVANT
[Decoration]
There was once a rich merchant who had an only son. As he lay dying,
he said:
"Matti, my boy, my end is approaching and there are two things I want
to say to you: The first is that I am leaving you all my wealth. If
you are careful you will have enough to suffice you for life. The
second thing I have to say is to beg you never to leave this, your
native village. At your birth there was a prophecy which declared that
if ever you left this village you would have to marry a woman with
horns. Now that I have warned you in time it will be your own fault if
ever you have to meet this fate."
The merchant died and Matti was left alone. He had never before wanted
to travel but now that he knew of the fate which would overtake him if
he did, he couldn't bear the thought of remaining forever a prisoner
in his native village.
"What is the use of riches," he asked himself, "if one can't travel
over the broad world and see wonderful sights? Besides, if it's my
fate to marry a horned woman, I don't see why sitting quietly at home
is going to save me. No! I'm going to take my chances like a man and
come and go as I like!"
So he gathered his riches together, closed the old house where he had
been born, and started out into the bright world. He traveled many
days, meeting strange peoples and seeing strange sights. At last he
settled down in a large city and became a merchant like his father.
One afternoon as he was out walking, he saw a crowd of men dragging
the body of a dead man in the gutter. They were kicking and abusing
the dead body and calling it evil names.
Matti stopped them.
"What is this you are doing?" he demanded. "Don't you know that
disrespect to the dead is disrespect to God? Give over abusing this
poor dead body and bury it decently or God will punish you!"
"Let us alone!" the men cried. "He deserves the abuse we are giving
him! When he was alive he borrowed money from us all and then he died
without repaying us. Are we to have no satisfaction at all?"
With that they resumed their abuse of the dead body.
"Wait!" Matti cried. "Tell me what the dead man owed you and I will
pay it!"
"He owed me ten ducats!" said one.
"And me a hundred!" shouted another.
"And me five hundred!"
"And me a thousand!"
"Come all of you to my house," Matti said, "and I will pay you, but
only on condition that first you hand over the body to me and help me
give it a decent burial."
The men agreed. They helped Matti bury the dead man and then went home
with him.
Each told Matti the amount the dead man owed him and, true to his
promise, Matti paid them all.
When he had paid the last man he found that he had nothing left for
himself but nine silver kopeks. The dead man's debts had exhausted all
the wealth his father had left him.
"No matter!" Matti thought to himself. "My riches would have done me
no good if I had stood by and allowed a poor dead man to be abused.
What if I have nothing left? I'm young and strong and I can go out
into the world and make my livelihood somehow. I'll go home and have
one last look at my native village and then begin life anew."
So, dressed in shabby old clothes with nothing in his pockets but the
nine silver kopeks, Matti left the city where people were beginning to
know him as a merchant and started back to his native village. He was
soon met by a man who addressed him respectfully and asked to be
engaged as his servant.