Several nodded assent.
"Maybe there is someone sitting there."
"Nay, 'tis only a bit of a bush or something. But 'tis the very same spot where she sat, that's true."
"What's the story?" asks one—a newcomer, on his first trip to
Nuolijoki. "Some fairy tale or other?"
"Fairy tale?" one of the elders breaks in. "You're a stranger, young man, that's plain to see. 'Tis a true story enough, and not so long since it all happened neither."
"Fourteen years," says Antti, knocking the ashes from his pipe. "I remember it all as plain as yesterday. Ay, there's queer things happen in life."
"Did you see it yourself, then?"
"Ay, I did that—and not likely to forget it. 'Twas on that rock I saw her first time, and a young lad with her."
Some of the men sat up and began filling their pipes afresh.
"Her betrothed, maybe?"