*

'I think Aino was very stupid not to want to leave that horrid Lapland,'
said Mimi; 'but then I suppose she didn't know what a beautiful country
ours is,' she added thoughtfully.

Here Antero, who only cared for the stories, mustered up enough courage
to ask Pappa Mikko to go on, which the old man did at once.

[Illustration]

AINO'S FATE

The next morning the lovely Aino went early to the forest to gather
birch shoots and tassels. After she had finished gathering them she
hastened off towards home, but as she was going along the path near the
border of the woods she met Wainamoinen, who began thus:

'Aino, fairest maid of the north, do not wear thy gold and pearls for
others, but only for me; wear for me alone thy golden tresses.'

'Not for thee,' Aino replied, 'nor for others either, will I wear my
jewels. I need them no longer; I would rather wear the plainest clothing
and live upon a crust of bread, if only I might live for ever with my
mother.'

And as she said this she tore off her jewels and the ribbons from her
hair, and threw them from her into the bushes, and then she hurried
home, weeping. At the door of the dairy sat her mother, skimming milk.
When she saw Aino weeping she asked her what it was that troubled her.
Aino, in reply, told her all that had happened in the forest, and how
she had thrown away from her all her ornaments.

Her mother, to comfort her, told her to go to a hill-top near by and
open the storehouse there, and there in the largest room, in the largest
box in that room, she would find six golden girdles and seven
rainbow-tinted dresses, made by the daughters of the Moon and of the
Sun. 'When I was young,' her mother said, 'I was out upon the hills one
day seeking berries. And by chance I overheard the daughters of the Sun
and Moon as they were weaving and spinning upon the borders of the
clouds above the fir-forest. I went nearer to them, and crept up on a
hill within speaking distance of them. Then I began to beseech them,
saying: "Give some of your silver, lovely daughters of the Moon, to a
poor but worthy maid; and I beg you, daughters of the Sun, give me some
of your gold." And then the Moon's daughters gave me silver from their
treasure, and the Sun's daughters gave me gold that I might adorn my
hair and forehead. I hastened joyfully home with my treasures to my
mother's house, and for three days I wore them. Then I took them off
and laid them in boxes, and I hav