is services
in Finland during the recent war. He was a tall, dark-haired man, with a
restless light in his deep-set eyes, and a gentleman in his demeanor. He
entered into our plans with interest, and the evening was spent in
consultation concerning them. Finally, it was decided that Herr
Forstrom should send a messenger up the river to Palajoki (forty miles
off), to engage Lapps and reindeer to take us across the mountains to
Kautokeino, in Norway. As the messenger would be absent three or four
days, we had a comfortable prospect of rest before us, and I went to bed
with a light heart, to wake to the sixth birthday I have passed in
strange lands.

In the morning, I went with Mr. Wolley to call upon a Finn, one of whose
children was suffering from inflamed eyes, or snowthalmia, as it might
be called. The family were prolific, as usual--children of all sizes,
with a regular gradation of a year between. The father, a short,
shock-headed fellow, sat in one corner; the mother, who, like
nine-tenths of all the matrons we had seen between Lapland and
Stockholm, gave promise of additional humanity, greeted us with a
comical, dipping courtesy--a sudden relaxing and stiffening again of the
muscles of the knees--which might be introduced as a novelty into our
fashionable circles. The boy's eyes were terribly blood-shot, and the
lids swollen, but a solution of nitrate of silver, which Mr. W. applied,
relieved him greatly in the course of a day or two. We took occasion to
visit the stable, where half a dozen cows lay in darkness, in their warm
stalls, on one side, with two bulls and some sheep on the other. There
was a fire in one corner, over which hung a great kettle filled with a
mixture of boiled hay and reindeer moss. Upon this they are fed, while
the sheep must content themselves with bunches of birch, willow and
aspen twigs, gathered with the leaves on. The hay is strong and coarse,
but nourishing, and the reindeer moss, a delicate white lichen, contains
a glutinous ingredient, which probably increases the secretion of milk.
The stable, as well as Forstrom's, which we afterwards inspected, was
kept in good order. It was floored, with a gutter past each row of
stalls, to carry off the manure. The cows were handsome white animals,
in very good condition.

Mr. Wolley sent for his reindeer in the course of the morning, in order
to give us a lesson in driving. After lunch, accordingly, we prepared
ourselves for the new sensation