BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD 27

good-natured, and Jussi therefore only moves
nearer the door. May* a goes out again, slamming
the door behind her.

" What? I'll------" bursts out Penjami, getting

up. Nevertheless he does not follow her, but
sinks down slowly on to the bench again with a
wrathful air.

Taavetti makes a new attempt.

" Oh5 ay, the poor will need to do some
knowing next winter—I suppose you did manage
to cut a little rye at Nikkila."

"Don't snivel; come and have a drink,"
barks out Penjami. Taavetti follows him; a
drink is something to the good, even if he is
put out at his failure to get the old man to join
in his lamentations about the bad crops. They
go upstairs to the attic.

This chain of events and the impressions left
by it remained clear in Jussi3 s memory; right to
the end of his life he would sometimes catch the
feel of that afternoon in all its original vividness.

That same evening the cupper-woman's chil-
dren came to Nikkila. Jussi was naughty to them;
he spat on the boy and when the victim ran to
tell his father he was near to getting a thrashing.
The evening was one long confusion, but some-
how solemn. Later, Loviisa came to fetch
Taavetti. Taavetti had by then to be sup-
ported home. Loviisa handled him in a very
matter-of-fact way; she did not mind people