"THINGS TASTED SO GOOD OUT OF DOORS"
Things tasted so good out of doors that Maja and Juhani smiled much at each other, although Juhani would always put on a particularly serious look afterwards. Then the two swung on one of the hammocks and also on a huge swing near the Church. "Come on for a ramble with us in the woods," two passing children of their own age called to them. "Come," said Maja, taking hold of Juhani's hand, and away they went over the greenish gray mosses through the rosy and pale yellow underbrush. There were bright red cranberries here and there with which they filled their pockets as they discussed, not church affairs, but wood nymphs, the kind ugly tomtar or brownies, and the little gray man in the woods who has a fiery tail.
Suddenly Maja stopped, looking so scared that all followed her example. "What is it?" asked her brother.
"A brownie!" Maja could hardly make herself heard.
The boys laughed at her as they rushed forward and made a big brown squirrel scamper away into the branches of a tree.
"Nevertheless I'd like to believe that there were brownies around," Juhani confessed when the girls had come up. "Do you know that they are so kind that on Christmas they bring a gift to every animal that lives near?"
The others nodded. "I'd rather see one than a wood nymph," one of them declared. "I'd be afraid of her. My! but she must be ugly from behind if she's really hollow there as they say. She's apt to do you harm too, if you see her from the back."
By this time they had reached a little one-room hut evidently deserted, for the door swung on only one hinge. Before they peeked in, Juhani, with a curious look on his face, cautioned each to say "Good Day to all here" on entering even if they saw no one, for a Tomty might be hidden in some corner.
It was a very old type of house. The upper half of the walls were stained black. There was a big fire place but no chimney, the smoke having evidently been allowed to escape through a hole in the roof.
A long thin piece of resinous wood was still fastened to one wall. This was called a pare, and when lit served instead of lamp or candle.