BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD 21

told to do something. Now May*a, the mistress,
comes into the living-room and snatches up Jussi
in her stride to her breast to suckle. Going on
for three years old, Jussi has not yet been weaned.
Maija has quite simply put off weaning him.

Maija knows her duties as mistress. She orders
Kustaa and Marke to practise their reading.
Kustaa goes to fetch his Catechism, but Marke
hesitates. " You wait till your father comes/'
threatens Maija.

Kustaa has just got well into his drone:
" Answer, the old Adam who still dwelleth within
us every day—er-er—repentance and improve-
ment—er-er—and all evil lusts—er—shall be
drowned and—and each day rise again—er—,"
when Aapeli, who wants a good light for the
joint he is fitting together, growls at him, cc Boy,
come and hold a light.3*

The hiss of a plane, the humming of a spinning-
wheel, gabbled lines from the Catechism. Pen-
jami himself has come into the living-room with
a bundle of torchwood under his arm and begun
to whittle torches. He has been sober all day,
and on such days the others cannot help noting a
certain dignity in him.

A couple of hours later these people of diverse
ages are all asleep. Around them sighs the end-
less, gloomy night of the backwoods, like a single
living entity watching over ignorant human
beings struggling helplessly in the sea of Time,