"They are a stupid lot, these Swedes!" said the man from Dägo, who believed that his superior bodily strength gave him the right to say what he liked.
"Oh, you mustn't talk ill of the Swedes," said the other, who in such a nocturnal tête-à-tête did not venture to use a more impolite form of speech.
"Well, can one imagine less enterprising people than these fishermen? If they knew what the eider-birds' down was worth in Russia, they would be able to make a pile of money."
"Yes, but you see the Swedes think it wrong to deprive the birds of the down which they need for hatching their eggs."
"That is just their stupidity; for if they don't take it, foreigners will, like they take everything else."
"No, it is not stupidity, it is consideration to think of our successors, who also should derive profit from the birds which would disappear, if disturbed."
"That is not true; but if foreigners came, they would take both eggs and down together."
"They can do that if they have no conscience; Swedes would rather be poor than behave so badly."
"That is why I call them stupid. But now, to speak of another matter. Why don't you hunt ermines and squirrels here as they do inland?"
"Because we have enough to do with the fish and prefer the certain to the uncertain."