There was once an old couple who lived with their married son and his wife. The son’s name was Helli. He was a dutiful son but his wife was a scold. She was always finding fault with the old people and with her husband and for that matter with everybody else as well.
One morning when she saw her husband taking out his bow and arrows she said:
“Where are you going now?”
“I’m going hunting,” he told her.
“Isn’t that just like you!” she cried. “You’re going off to have a good time hunting and you don’t give a thought to me who have to stay home alone with two stupid old people!”
“If I didn’t go hunting,” Helli said, “and shoot something, we’d have nothing to put in the pot for dinner and then you would have reason to scold.”
At that the woman burst into tears.
“Of course, as usual blame me! Whatever happens it’s my fault!”
Poor Helli hurried off, hoping that by the time he returned his wife would be in a calmer state of mind. He had small success with his hunting. He shot arrow after arrow but always missed his mark. Then when he had only one arrow left he saw a Grouse standing in some brushwood so near that there was little likelihood of his missing it.
He took good aim but before he could fire the Grouse said:
“Don’t shoot me, brother! Take me home alive.”
Helli paused, then he shook his head.
“I’ve got to shoot you for we’ve nothing to put in the pot for dinner.”
Again he aimed his arrow and again the Grouse said:
“Don’t shoot me, brother! Take me home alive.”
For the second time Helli paused.
“I’d like to spare you,” he said, “but what would my wife say if I came home empty-handed?”
He took aim again and a third time the Grouse said:
“Don’t shoot me, brother! Take me home alive.”
At that Helli dropped his arrow.
“I don’t care what she says! I can’t shoot a creature that begs so pitifully for its life! Very well, Mr.Grouse, I’ll do as you say: I’ll take you home alive. But don’t blame me if my wife wrings your neck.”
He took the Grouse up in his arms and started homewards.
“Feed me for a year,” the Grouse said, “and I’ll reward you.”
When they reached home and Helli’s wife saw the Grouse, she cried out petulantly:
“Is that all you’ve got and out hunting all morning! That won’t be dinner enough for four!”
“This Grouse isn’t to be killed,” Helli announced. “I’m going to keep it for a year and feed it.”
“It won’t take much to feed a Grouse,” the old man remarked.
But the wife flew into a passion.
“What! Feed a useless bird when there isn’t enough to feed your own flesh and blood!”
But Helli was firm and despite her threats his wife did not dare to maltreat the Grouse.
At the end of a year the Grouse grew a copper feather in its tail which it dropped in the dooryard. Then it disappeared.
“Ha!” laughed Helli’s wife. “A copper feather! That’s your reward for feeding that thankless bird a whole year! And now it’s escaped!”
But the next day the Grouse returned.
“Feed me for another year,” it said to Helli, “and I’ll reward you.”
His wife raised an awful to-do over this, but Helli was firm and for another year he fed and petted the Grouse.
At the end of the second year the Grouse grew a silver feather in its tail which it dropped in the dooryard. Then it disappeared.
“One silver feather!” Helli’s wife cried. “So that’s all you get for feeding that thankless bird a whole year! And now it’s escaped!”
But it hadn’t. It returned the very next day.
“Feed me for another year,” it said to Helli, “and I’ll reward you.”
At the end of the third year the Grouse grew a golden feather in its tail and when it dropped that in the dooryard the scolding wife hadn’t so much to say, for a golden feather was after all pretty good pay for a few handfuls of grain.
For a day the Grouse disappeared and then when it returned it said to Helli:
“Get on my back and I’ll reward you.”
Helli did so and the Grouse, rising high in the air, flew far away. On, on it flew until it reached the broadOcean. Over the Ocean it flew until Helli could see nothing but water in whatever direction he looked.
On it flew until it reached the broad Ocean
“Ha!” he said to himself with a shudder, “I hope I can hold on!”
As he spoke, the Grouse slipped from beneath him and he fell down, down, down. However, before he touched water the Grouse swooped under him and caught him up again high into the air. He had this same terrible experience a second time and a third time and each time he thought his last moment had arrived.
“Now,” the Grouse told him, “you know what my feelings were when you threatened three times to shoot me with your arrow.”
“You have taught me a lesson,” Helli said.
After that the Grouse flew on and on. At last it said:
“Look straight ahead, master, and tell me what you see.”
Helli shaded his eyes and looked.
“Far, far ahead I see what looks like a copper column.”
“Good!” the Grouse said. “That is the home of my oldest sister. She will be overjoyed to see us and when she hears how you have spared my life she will want to make you a present and will offer you variousthings. Take my advice and tell her that the only thing you want is her little locked box the key to which is lost. If she won’t give you that, accept nothing.”
The Grouse’s oldest sister received them most hospitably and when she had heard their story at once offered Helli anything he might like from among her treasures.
“Then give me your little locked box the key to which is lost,” Helli said.
The oldest sister shook her head.
“My little locked box! Who told you about that? I’m sorry, but I cannot give you that! Take anything else!”
“No,” Helli said, “that or nothing!”
When the oldest sister could not be prevailed upon to give away her little locked box, the Grouse had Helli mount his back once more and off they flew.
“We’ll visit my second sister now,” he said. “If she offers you a present, ask her for her little locked box without a key and accept nothing else.”
On, on they flew until the oldest sister’s castle was far behind.
“Look, master,” the Grouse said, “look straight ahead and tell me what you see.”
Helli shaded his eyes and looked.
“Far ahead I see something that is like a silver cloud.”
“That,” said the Grouse, “is the silver castle of my second sister.”
At the silver castle the second sister received them with joy and when she heard who Helli was at once declared that she wanted to show him her gratitude by making him a gift.
“Ask from me what you will,” she said, “and you shall have it.”
But when he asked for her little locked box without a key, she cried out:
“No! No! Not that! Anything else!”
“But I don’t want anything else!” Helli said.
When the Grouse saw that his second sister was not to be parted from her little locked box, he bade Helli mount his back and off they flew again.
“We’ll go to my youngest sister this time,” he said. “If she offers you a present, ask for the same thing.”
On, on they flew until the silver castle was lost to view.
“Now, master, look ahead and tell me what you see.”
Helli shaded his eyes and looked.
“I seem to see a golden haze like the sun behind a cloud.”
“That is the golden castle of my youngest sister.”
They arrived and the youngest sister threw her arms about the Grouse for she loved him dearly and had not seen him for a long time.
“Welcome, brother!” she said. “And welcome also to you, Helli!”
Then she offered Helli a present and when he asked for her little locked box without a key she gave it to him at once.
“It is my most precious possession,” she said, “but you may have it for you spared my dear brother’s life when you might have taken it.”
After they had rested and feasted they bade the youngest sister farewell and Helli with his precious box held tightly in one hand mounted the Grouse’s back and off they flew towards home.
“Be careful of the box,” the Grouse said, “and don’t let it out of your hands until we reach some beautiful spot where you’d like always to live.”
They passed high mountains and wooded lakes and fertile valleys.
“Shall we stop here?” the Grouse asked. “Or here? Or here?”
But always Helli said:
“No, not here.”
At last they reached home and the Grouse told Helli that now they must part forever.
“By sparing my life three times,” the Grouse said, “and then feeding me for three years you have broken the enchantment that bound me and now I shall not have to go about any longer as a grouse but shall be able to resume my natural shape. Farewell, Helli, and when you find the spot where you think you would like always to live, drop the box and you will find you have a treasure that will more than reward you for your kindness to me.”
The Grouse disappeared and Helli said to himself:
“Where do I want to live always but right here at home with my dear old father and mother and my wife who is my wife even if she does scold me sometimes!”
So there at home after they all had supper together, he dropped the box on the floor. It broke and out of it arose a beautiful castle with servants and riches and everything that Helli had always wanted and never had. And Helli and his old father and mother and his wife lived in it and were happy. And gradually his wife got over her habit of scolding for when you’re happy you haven’t anything to scold about.
The Story of an Honest Finn and a Wicked Troll
THE TERRIBLE OLLI
There was once a wicked rich old Troll who lived on a Mountain that sloped down to a Bay. A decent Finn, a farmer, lived on the opposite side of the Bay. The farmer had three sons. When the boys had reached manhood he said to them one day:
“I should think it would shame you three strong youths that that wicked old Troll over there should live on year after year and no one trouble him. We work hard like honest Finns and are as poor at the end of the year as at the beginning. That old Troll with all his wickedness grows richer and richer. I tell you, if you boys had any real spirit you’d take his riches from him and drive him away!”
His youngest son, whose name was Olli, at once cried out:
“Very well, father, I will!”
But the two older sons, offended at Olli’s promptness, declared:
“You’ll do no such thing! Don’t forget your place in the family! You’re the youngest and we’re not going to let you push us aside. Now, father, we two will go across the Bay and rout out that old Troll. Olli may come with us if he likes and watch us while we do it.”
Olli laughed and said: “All right!” for he was used to his brothers treating him like a baby.
So in a few days the three brothers walked around the Bay and up the Mountain and presented themselves at the Troll’s house. The Troll and his old wife were both at home. They received the brothers with great civility.
“You’re the sons of the Finn who lives across the Bay, aren’t you?” the Troll said. “I’ve watched you boys grow up. I am certainly glad to see you for I have three daughters who need husbands. Marry my daughters and you’ll inherit my riches.”
The old Troll made this offer in order to get the young men into his power.
“Be careful!” Olli whispered.
But the brothers were too delighted at the prospect of inheriting the Troll’s riches so easily to pay any heed to Olli’s warning. Instead they accepted the Troll’s offer at once.
Well, the old Troll’s wife made them a fine supper and after supper the Troll sent them to bed with his three daughters. But first he put red caps on the three youths and white caps on the three Troll girls. He made a joke about the caps.
“A red cap and a white cap in each bed!” he said.
The older brothers suspected nothing and soon fell asleep. Olli, too, pretended to fall asleep and when he was sure that none of the Troll girls were still awake he got up and quietly changed the caps. He put the white caps on himself and his brothers and the red caps on the Troll girls. Then he crept back to bed and waited.
Presently the old Troll came over to the beds with a long knife in his hand. There was so little light in the room that he couldn’t see the faces of the sleepers, but it was easy enough to distinguish the white caps from the red caps. With three swift blows he cut off the heads under the red caps, thinking of course they were the heads of the three Finnish youths. Then he went back to bed with the old Troll wife and Olli could hear them both chuckling and laughing. After a time they went soundly to sleep as Olli could tell from their deep regular breathing and their loud snores.
Olli now roused his brothers and told them what hadhappened and the three of them slipped quietly out of the Troll house and hurried home to their father on the other side of the Bay.
After that the older brothers no longer talked of despoiling the Troll. They didn’t care to try another encounter with him.
“He might have cut our heads off!” they said, shuddering to think of the awful risk they had run.
Olli laughed at them.
“Come on!” he kept saying to them day after day. “Let’s go across the Bay to the Troll’s!”
“We’ll do no such thing!” they told him. “And you wouldn’t suggest it either if you weren’t so young and foolish!”
“Well,” Olli announced at last, “if you won’t come with me I’m going alone. I’ve heard that the Troll has a horse with hairs of gold and silver. I’ve decided I want that horse.”
“Olli,” his father said, “I don’t believe you ought to go. You know what your brothers say. That old Troll is an awfully sly one!”
But Olli only laughed.
“Good-by!” he called back as he waved his hand. “When you see me again I’ll be riding the Troll’s horse!”
Olli and the Troll’s horse
The Troll wasn’t at home but the old Troll wife was there. When she saw Olli she thought to herself:
“Mercy me, here’s that Finnish boy again, the one that changed the caps! What shall I do? I must keep him here on some pretext or other until the Troll comes home!”
So she pretended to be very glad to see him.
“Why, Olli,” she said, “is that you? Come right in!”
She talked to him as long as she could and when she could think of nothing more to say she asked him would he take the horse and water it at the Lake.
“That will keep him busy,” she thought to herself, “and long before he gets back from the Lake the Troll will be here.”
But Olli, instead of leading the horse down to the Lake, jumped on its back and galloped away. By the time the Troll reached home, he was safely on the other side of the Bay.
When the Troll heard from the old Troll wife what had happened, he went down to the shore and hallooed across the Bay:
“Olli! Oh, Olli, are you there?”
Olli made a trumpet of his hands and called back:
“Yes, I’m here! What do you want?”
“Olli, have you got my horse?”
“Yes, I’ve got your horse but it’s my horse now!”
“Olli! Olli!” his father cried. “You mustn’t talk that way to the Troll! You’ll make him angry!”
And his brothers looking with envy at the horse with gold and silver hairs warned him sourly:
“You better be careful, young man, or the Troll will get you yet!”
A few days later Olli announced:
“I think I’ll go over and get the Troll’s money-bag.”
His father tried to dissuade him.
“Don’t be foolhardy, Olli! Your brothers say you had better not go to the Troll’s house again.”
But Olli only laughed and started gaily off as though he hadn’t a fear in the world.
Again he found the old Troll wife alone.
“Mercy me!” she thought to herself as she saw him coming, “here is that terrible Olli again! Whatever shall I do? I mustn’t let him off this time before the Troll gets back! I must keep him right here with me in the house.”
So when he came in she pretended that she was tired and that her back ached and she asked him would he watch the bread in the oven while she rested a few moments on the bed.
“Certainly I will,” Olli said.
So the old Troll wife lay down on the bed and Olli sat quietly in front of the oven. The Troll wife really was tired and before she knew it she fell asleep.
“Ha!” thought Olli, “here’s my chance!”
Without disturbing the Troll wife he reached under the bed, pulled out the big money-bag full of silver pieces, threw it over his shoulder, and hurried home.
He was measuring the money when he heard the Troll hallooing across to him:
“Olli! Oh, Olli, are you there?”
“Yes,” Olli shouted back, “I’m here! What do you want?”
“Olli, have you got my money-bag?”
“Yes, I’ve got your money-bag but it’s my money-bag now!”
A few days later Olli said:
“Do you know, the Troll has a beautiful coverlet woven of silk and gold. I think I’ll go over and get it.”
His father as usual protested but Olli laughed at him merrily and went. He took with him an auger and a can of water. He hid until it was dark, then climbed the roof of the Troll’s house and bored a hole right over the bed. When the Troll and his wife went to sleep he sprinkled some water on the coverlet and on their faces.
The Troll woke with a start.
“I’m wet!” he said, “and the bed’s wet, too!”
The old Troll wife got up to change the covers.
“The roof must be leaking,” she said. “It never leaked before. I suppose it was that last wind.”
She threw the wet coverlet up over the rafters to dry and put other covers on the bed.
When she and the Troll were again asleep, Olli made the hole a little bigger, reached in his hand, and got the coverlet from the rafters.
The next morning the Troll hallooed across the Bay:
“Olli! Oh, Olli, are you there?”
“Yes,” Olli shouted back, “I’m here! What do you want?”
“Have you got my coverlet woven of silk and gold?”
“Yes,” Olli told him, “I’ve got your coverlet but it’s my coverlet now!”
A few days later Olli said:
“There’s still one thing in the Troll’s house that I think I ought to get. It’s a golden bell. If I get that golden bell then there will be nothing left that had better belong to an honest Finn.”
So he went again to the Troll’s house taking with him a saw and an auger. He hid until night and, when the Troll and his wife were asleep, he cut a hole throughthe side of the house through which he reached in his hand to get the bell. At the touch of his hand the bell tinkled and woke the Troll. The Troll jumped out of bed and grabbed Olli’s hand.
“Ha! Ha!” he cried. “I’ve got you now and this time you won’t get away!”
Olli didn’t try to get away. He made no resistance while the Troll dragged him into the house.
“We’ll eat him—that’s what we’ll do!” the Troll said to his wife. “Heat the oven at once and we’ll roast him!”
So the Troll wife built a roaring fire in the oven.
“He’ll make a fine roast!” the Troll said, pinching Olli’s arms and 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 threwthe 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 Story of the Boy Who Wouldn’t Lose His Temper
THE DEVIL’S HIDE
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 temperwill 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 secondbrother 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’renot 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 Deviltried 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 toErkki’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 yourtemper over a little thing like a house a-fire, are you? Remember our bargain!”