"OH, HO!" EXCLAIMED SIKKU, RECOGNIZING HER AS THE TROLL WOMAN.
"Indeed I will not. I am no such rascal as that!" answered Sikku, offended.
"Blame yourself then for what happens," said the troll; and with that off he went, turning somersaults all the way.
Kettu began to bark. Sikku ran at once to the herd and found Mustikka lying dead among the trees on a hillside. She had eaten some poisonous plant and could not be restored to life. Sikku, distressed and crying, made a birch-bark cone, in which he brought water from the spring and dashed over her head; but it was of no use. He must go home with only thirteen cows and report the misfortune. This time he was shut up in the cellar without food for three days. The fourth day he was sent out with the thirteen cows and the usual lunch-bag. Being very hungry he no sooner reached the gate than he opened the bag, but found in it only a gray stone!
Sikku drove the cows toward the mountain, ate berries in the forest, and sat down, full of grief, on a stump right in the midst of the herd, so that no further ill might befall. Then there came to him the pretty little troll maiden from Allis, who held out toward him a fresh wheaten roll, patted his thin cheek, and said:
"Give me the red cow, Mansikka, and tell them when you go home that a bear tore her to pieces, and you shall have this nice fresh roll and all the land you can see from the top of Sipuri besides."
Sikku was so hungry that he could have swallowed a roll of moss! He looked at the wheaten roll, he looked at the pretty little troll maiden and had to bite his tongue to keep from instantly answering yes. But the troll maiden laughed and that offended Sikku, and he answered:
"Indeed I will not. I am no such rascal as that!"