as
anything you're just on the point of saying right out in Finnish that
it's first-rate, and you've never tasted anything so good.... So I
have to put in a word myself or you'll spoil it all. 'A little more,
if you please, my lady?' Like that."

But here the girl could contain herself no longer, and laughed
outright.

"What are you laughing at? That's not right a bit. No, you just blush,
and go on nibbling at a crust of bread, just like a tiny mouse....

"And the men nudge each other to look. Here's a fine lady sitting down
to eat as natural as can be, for all there's neither plate nor fork.
And it's all I can do to keep from laughing myself, and you have to
bite your lips and bend down behind me.

"Then I take out our milk bottle, that's been warming by the fire.

"'How'll they manage now?' says one, and all the rest look on to see.

"'Why, we'll just have to share and share about, unless the lady's to
go without,' say I. And then I make believe to whisper something in
your ear.

"And you nod, and take the bottle and drink, and hand it to me after.

"''Tis as good as newly milked,' say I. And you laugh, and the men
laugh too.

"Then I take a drink, and you again. I wipe the mouth of the bottle on
my sleeve each time before giving it you. And the men, of course, they
think that's a mighty fine way of doing things.

"'Never would have thought it,' says one of them. And they go on with
their meal.

"'Do as the folks you fall in with, it seems,' says one bolder than
the rest.

"'Just so,' say I, 'and that's as it should be'; and there's no saying
anything against that, and so we get on finely.

"Then when the meal's over, we lie down by the fire a bit. One man
takes out some leaf tobacco from his pack, and cuts it up on a tree
stump--hadn't had time before. Then he passes it round, and I fill my
pipe too, for all that I'm in company with a fine lady.

"And then we go on our way. But when we've got a few paces off, I turn
round suddenly and say, 'Here, you, Heikki, give us a bit of a sermon
for the young lady. 'Tis just the place for church.'

"'H'm,' says Heikki. 'I doubt it wouldn't do.'

"''Twill please her, for sure--I'll answer for that,' say I. 'And you
do it better than anything else. Antti can help with the service.'

"'Yes, yes!' cry the others. 'If she's wanting to see things out here.
Sermon, Heikki!'

"Heikki climbs up on a big rock, and Antti on a tree stump, and Heikki
starts off, grum