His mother asked him the reason of this, and he replied that he was still thinking of Louhi's daughter and longing for her as his bride, but that first he must shoot the wild[p. 83] swan. But his mother answered: 'Do not think of the wild swan, nor yet of Louhi's daughters. Return with me to Kalevala to thy home, and thank and praise thy Maker, Ukko, that he hath saved thee, for I alone could never have saved thee from dismal Manala.'
So Lemminkainen hastened home with his mother,—back again to his pleasant home in Kalevala.
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Every one expressed satisfaction that Lemminkainen had been restored to life—'for, you see,' said Mimi, 'though he was really a bad man, he did so many wonderful things that you just can't help wishing for him not to be killed.'
But now it had grown quite late, nearly nine o'clock, and so they all ate their supper and then Erik and Father Mikko sat smoking and talking while Mother Stina and the little ones went into the other room to bed,—for Erik had actually two rooms in his house,—and it isn't every Finnish country cabin that has that, you know. They talked of their country, for that was the dearest subject to both of them,—they were intelligent men for their class,—and when Father Mikko told how the Russian Tsar was taking their liberties away from them, and was beginning to break all[p. 84] his oaths and promises and would no doubt end up by making them as badly off as the people on the south side of the Finnish Gulf—when Father Mikko related all this, Erik's eyes flashed and he longed to be able to draw the sword to defend his beloved country's liberty.
But at last they had gone over all these things and were sleepy themselves, so they made up their beds on some sheep-skin rugs on the floor, and soon fell into a sound sleep.
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The next day it was still storming, and so Father Mikko gave up all idea of leaving that day. About three o'clock in the afternoon—it was dark as night then—they had all finished dinner and settled down around the fire as on the day before, and Father Mikko was easily persuaded to go on with his stories.
Erik was at work on a pair of snow-shoes, just like those that Lemminkainen wore in the story of the hunt after the Hisi-deer. They were nearly finished—about six feet long and five inches wide in the broadest part, with a place in the middle to fasten them on to the feet, and the front ends were turned up. All that now remained to be done was to polish them off, and Erik worked at this while Father Mikko told his[p. 85] stories. The children had enough to do to watch 'Pappa' Mikko's face and listen to the wonderful tales, and Mother Stina was busy with some sewing—she couldn't spin because the noise of the wheel would have drowned Father Mikko's voice.
'Now that we have brought Lemminkainen back from the Death-river,' the old man said, 'we will see what Wainamoinen was doing all this while.' So he began as follows: