There seemed no end of things to be done to show gladness. Maja wove garlands of flowers, while Juhani and his friends cut down great branches of birch trees in the forest, with which to decorate the houses. Lilja and her girl friends were also busy. They went to the fields and wound colored yarn around the rye stalks, arranging them to indicate joy and sorrow, love and hate. Before the grain was harvested these marked stalks would be found and the year's fortune foretold according to which was highest.
Big bonfires, called kokko, were lit on all the highest points, and also on rafts on the lake in honor of the Sun. These were kept burning for twenty-four hours, for it is considered unlucky for them to go out sooner. Around these the people gathered to dance, many of them coming from a distance in farm carts trimmed with birch and filled with hay. There was a feast, too, of warm soup, cold salmon, and fancy cakes. The swings must not be forgotten. Several of them had been erected and not merely for the children. On some, young men and women swung together, while they sang the beautiful melancholy songs about this beautiful fleeting time.
During this season tourists invaded the country districts, some on their way to Aavasaksa Hill where the sun can then be seen at midnight, shedding gray, faintly luminous rays. Among those who came were many Russians of the wealthy and middle classes.
It was not all play. There was much, very much hard work in which the children all had their set tasks. Juhani had to drive the cattle through the woodlands, assist Lilja with the milking, and help make hay. Maja had to gather berries, of which there was a great abundance. It is true there were compensations for all these tasks. If children had to gather berries, they could also eat big bowls of them with thick cream added, at every meal. Some of the berries Maja gathered she sold to passengers on the lake steamers. When she intended doing so, she made birch baskets for them by stripping off a foot square of bark and bending it into the shape of a box without a lid, then sewing the sides with twigs.
She had also to gather sacks full of luikku, a soft white cotton flower with an odd perfume, to be used for stuffing the family pillows.
Although it was vacation there was one school task that all the children had to do or cared to do. It was gathering, pressing, and mounting as many as possible of the numerous wild flowers everywhere found in the woods and fields. The best presented at the beginning of the school term were always put on exhibition.
The only disagreeable part of the warm weather was the annoyance from mosquitoes. This made it necessary to light smoldering fires for the protection of the cattle who seemed to appreciate the fires, for without being driven they would cluster around them. Twigs of juniper were burned in the house for the same purpose. It was not always easy to get juniper, for it grows only in clay soil and Maja and her friends sometimes had a long tramp after it.
Once, remembering the story of the Lapp children, Juhani smeared tar all over his face and hands and then teased Maja by threatening to put some on her too.
After July, the long magic days grew shorter, and when the days and nights were again almost equal, the children found themselves planning what they would do when school reopened.
THE END