• The Boy Who Wouldn't Lose His Temper
• The Mysterious Servant

The Boy Who Wouldn't Lose His Temper

There was once a boy who got the best of the devil. His name was Erkki. Erkki had two brothers who were older than him. They both tried their luck with the devil and got the worst of it. Then Erkki tried his luck. They were sure Erkki would be worsted too, but no. Here is the whole story:

One day the oldest brother said: "It's time for me to go out into the world and earn my living. You two younger ones wait here at home till you hear how I get on."

The younger boys agreed to this and the oldest brother started out. He was unable to get employment till by chance he met the devil. The devil at once offered him a place but on very strange terms.

"Come work for me," the devil said, "and I promise that you'll be comfortably housed and well fed. We'll make this bargain: the first of us who loses his temper will forfeit to the other enough of his own hide to sole a pair of boots. If I lose my temper first, you may exact from me a big patch of my hide. If you lose your temper first, I'll exact the same from you."

The oldest brother agreed to this and the devil at once took him home and set him to work. "Take this axe," he said, "and go out behind the house and chop me some firewood."

The oldest brother took the axe and went out to the woodpile. "Chopping wood is easy enough," he thought to himself.

But at the first blow he found that the axe had no edge. Try as he would he couldn't cut a single log. "I'd be a fool to stay here and waste my time with such an axe!" he cried. He threw down the axe and ran away thinking to escape the devil and get work somewhere else. But the devil had not in mind to let him escape. He ran after him, overtook him, and asked him what he meant leaving thus without notice.

"I don't want to work for you!" the oldest brother cried, petulantly.

"Very well," the devil said, "but don't lose your temper about it."

"I lose my temper as I will!" the oldest brother declared. "What tomfoolery - expecting me to cut wood with such an axe!"

"Well," the devil remarked, "since you insist on losing your temper, you'll have to forfeit me enough of your hide to sole a pair of boots. That was our bargain."

The oldest brother howled and protested but to no purpose. The devil was firm. He took out a long knife and slit off enough of the oldest brother's hide to sole a pair of big boots.

"Now then, my boy," he said, "now you may go."

The oldest brother went limping home, complaining bitterly at the hard fate that had befallen him.

"I'm tired and sick," he told his brothers, "and I'm going to stay home and rest. One of you will have to go out and get work."

The second brother at once said that he'd be delighted to try his luck in the world. He started out and experienced exactly the same as the older brother. At first he could get no work, then he met the devil and the devil made just the same bargain with him. He took the second brother home with him, gave him the same dull axe, and sent him out to the woodpile. After the first stroke the second brother threw down the axe in disgust and tried to run off, and the devil wouldn't let him go till he had got a great patch of the boy's hide.

After a short time the brother came limping home, complaining bitterly of his fate.

"What ails you two?" Erkki said.

"You go out into the cruel world and hunt work," they told him, "and you'll find out soon enough what ails us. And when you find out you needn't come limping home and expect sympathy from us, for you won't easily get it!"

The next day Erkki started out, leaving his brothers at home nursing their sore backs and their injured feelings. Erkki experienced just the same thing as them. At first he could get work nowhere, and then later he met the devil and went into his employ on the same terms as his brothers.

The devil handed him the same dull axe and sent him out to the woodpile. At the first blow Erkki knew that the axe had lost its edge and would never cut a single log. But instead of being discouraged and losing his temper, he only laughed.

"I suppose the devil thinks I'll lose my hide over a trifle like this!" he said. "Well, I just won't!"

He dropped the axe and, going over to the woodpile, began pulling it down. Under all the logs he found the devil's cat. It was a keen-eyed creature with a grey head.

"Hm!" guessed Erkki, "I bet you have got something to do with this!"

He raised the dull axe and with one blow cut off the creature's head. The axe at once recovered its edge, and after that Erkki had no trouble at all with chopping as much firewood as the devil wanted.

That night at supper the devil said, "Well, Erkki, did you finish the work I gave you?"

"Yes, master, I've chopped all that wood."

The devil was surprised. "Really?"

"You can go out and see for yourself."

"Then you found something in the woodpile, didn't you?"

"Nothing but an old cat."

The devil started. "Did you do anything to that cat?"

"I only chopped its head off and threw it away."

"What!" the devil cried angrily. "Didn't you know that was my cat!"

"There now, master," Erkki said soothingly, "you're not going to lose your temper over a dead cat, are you? Don't forget our bargain!"

The devil swallowed his anger and murmured: "No, I'm not going to lose my temper, but I must say that was no way to treat my cat."

The next day the devil ordered Erkki to go out to the forest and bring home some logs on the ox sledge.

"My black dog will go with you," he said, "and as you come home you are to take exactly the same course the dog takes."

Well, Erkki went out to the forest and loaded the ox sledge with logs and then drove the oxen home, following the devil's black dog. As they reached the devil's house the black dog jumped through a hole in the gate.

"I must follow master's orders," Erkki said to himself. So he cut up the oxen into small pieces and put them through the same hole in the gate; he chopped up the logs and pitched them through the hole; and he broke up the sledge into pieces small enough to follow the oxen and the logs. Then he crept through the hole himself.

That night at supper the devil said, "Well, Erkki, did you come home the way I told you?"

"Yes, sir, I followed the black dog."

"What!" the devil cried. "Do you mean to say you brought the oxen and the sledge and the logs through the hole in the gate?"

"Yes, master, that's what I did."

"But you couldn't!" the devil declared.

"Well," Erkki said, "just go out and see."

The devil went outside and when he saw how Erkki had carried out his orders he was furious. But Erkki quieted him by saying, "There now, you're not going to lose your temper over a trifling matter like this, are you? Remember our bargain!"

"N-n-no," the devil said, again swallowing his anger, "I'm not going to lose my temper, but I want you to understand that I think you've acted very badly in this!"

All that evening the devil fumed and fussed about Erkki.

"We've got to get rid of that boy! That's all there is about it!" he said to his wife. Whenever Erkki was in sight the devil tried to smile and look pleasant, but when Erkki was gone, he went back at once to his grievance. He said emphatically, "There's no living in peace and comfort with such a boy around!"

"Well," his wife said, "if you feel that way about it, why don't you kill him tonight when he's asleep? We could throw his body into the lake and no one will find out of it."

"That's a fine idea!" the devil said. "Wake me up some time after midnight and I'll do it!"

Now Erkki overheard this little plan, so that night he kept awake. When he knew from their snoring that the devil and his wife were sound asleep, he slipped over to their bed, quietly lifted the devil's wife in his arms, and without waking her up placed her gently in his own bed. Then he put on some of her clothes and laid himself down beside the devil in the wife's place.

Presently he nudged the devil awake.

"What do you want?" the devil mumbled.

"Shh!" Erkki whispered. "Isn't it time we got up and killed Erkki?"

"Yes," the devil answered, "it is. Come along."

They got up quietly and the devil reached down a great sword from the wall. Then they crept over to Erkki's bed. With one blow the devil cut off the head of the person lying there asleep.

"Now," he said, "we'll just carry out the bed and all and dump it in the lake."

So Erkki took one end of the bed and the devil the other, and, stumbling and slipping in the darkness, they carried it down to the lake and pitched it in.

"That's a good job done!" the devil said with a laugh.

Then they went back to bed together and the devil fell asleep at once. Next morning when he got up for breakfast, there was Erkki stirring the porridge.

"How – did you get here?" the devil asked. "I mean – I mean where's my wife?"

"Your wife? Don't you remember," Erkki said, "you cut off her head last night and then we threw her into the lake, bed and all! But no one will know about it!"

"What!" the devil cried, and he was about to fly into an awful rage when Erkki restrained him by saying, "There now, you're not going to lose your temper over a wife, are you? Remember our bargain!"

So the devil was forced again to swallow his anger.

"No, I'm not going to lose my temper," he said, "but I tell you frankly that I don't think that was a nice trick for you to play on me!"

The devil felt lonely now he did not have a wife about the house, so in a few days he decided to go off wooing for a new one.

"And, Erkki," he said, "I expect you to keep busy while I'm gone. Here's a keg of red paint. Get to work and have the house all blazing red by the time I get back."

"All blazing red," Erkki repeated. "Very well, trust me to have it all blazing red by the time you get back!"

As soon as the devil was gone, Erkki set the house afire and in a short time the whole sky was lighted up with the red glow of the flames. In great fright the devil hurried back and got there in time to see the house one mass of fire.

"You see," Erkki said, "I've done exactly as you told me. It looks very pretty, doesn't it? All blazing red!"

The devil almost choked with rage. "You – you –" he began, but Erkki restrained him by saying, "There now, you're not going to lose your temper over just a house afire, are you? Remember our bargain!"

The devil swallowed hard and said, "N – no, I'm not going to lose my temper, but I must say I'm very much annoyed with you!"

Next day the devil wanted to go wooing again and before he started he said to Erkki, "Now, no nonsense this time! While I'm gone you are to build three bridges over the lake, but they are not to be built of wood or stone or iron or earth. Do you understand?"

Erkki pretended to be frightened. "That's a pretty hard task you've given me," he said.

"Hard or easy, see that you get it done!" the devil said.

Erkki waited till the devil was gone, then he went out to the field and slaughtered all the devil's cattle. From the bones of the cattle he laid three bridges across the lake, using the skulls for one bridge, the ribs for another and the legs and the hoofs for the third. Then when the devil got back, Erkki met him and pointing to the bridges said, "See, master, there they are, three bridges put together without stick, stone, iron, or bit of earth!"

When the devil found out that all his cattle had been slaughtered to give bones for the bridges, he was ready to kill Erkki, but Erkki quieted him by saying, "There now, you're not going to lose your temper over a few cattle, are you? Remember our bargain!"

Once again the devil managed to swallow his anger. "No," he said, "I'm not going to lose my temper, but I just want to tell you that I don't think you're behaving well!"

The devil had success with his wooing, and quite soon he brought home a new wife. The new wife didn't like having Erkki around, so the devil promised her he'd kill the boy.

"I'll do it tonight," he said, "when he's asleep."

Erkki overheard this and that night he put the milk churn in his bed under the covers, and where his head ordinarily would be he put a big round stone. Then he himself curled up on the stove and went comfortably to sleep.

During the night the devil took his great sword from the wall and went over to Erkki's bed. His first blow hit the round stone and nicked the sword. His second blow struck sparks.

"Mercy me!" the devil thought. "He's got a mighty hard head! I had better strike lower!"

With the third stroke he hit the churn a mighty blow. The hoops flew apart and the churn collapsed.

The devil went chuckling back to bed. "Ha!" he said to his wife, "I got him that time!"

But next morning when he woke up, there was Erkki as lively as ever and pretending that nothing had happened. "What!" cried the devil amazed, "didn't you feel anything strike you last night while you were asleep?"

"I felt a few mosquitoes brushing my cheek," Erkki said.

"Steel doesn't touch him!" the devil said to his wife. "I think I'll try fire on him."

So that night the devil told Erkki to sleep in the threshing barn. Erkki carried his cot down to the threshing floor and then when it was dark he shifted it into the hay barn where he slept comfortably all night.

During the night the devil set fire to the threshing barn. In the early dawn Erkki carried his cot back to the place of the threshing barn and in the morning when the devil came out, the first thing he saw was Erkki unharmed and peacefully sleeping among the smoking ruins,

"Mercy me, Erkki!" he shouted, shaking him awake, "have you been asleep all night?"

Erkki sat up and yawned. "Yes, I've had a fine night's sleep. But I did feel a little chilly."

"Chilly!" the devil gasped.

After that the devil's one thought was to get rid of Erkki. "That boy's getting on my nerves!" he told his wife. "I just cannot stand this much longer! What are we going to do about him?"

They discussed one plan after another and at last decided that the only way they'd ever get rid of him would be to move away and leave him behind.

"I'll send him out to the forest to chop wood all day," the devil said, "and while he's gone we'll row ourselves and all our belongings out to an island, and when he comes back he won't know where we've gone."

Erkki overheard the plan and the next day when they were sure he was safely at work in the forest, he slipped back and hid himself in the bedclothes. Then, when they got to the island and began unpacking their things there was Erkki in the bedclothes!

The devil's new wife complained bitterly. "If you really loved me," she said, "you'd cut off that boy's head!"

"But I've tried to cut it off!" the devil declared, "and I never can do it! I've always known the good Finns were an obstinate lot but I must say I've never met one as Erkki!"

But the devil's wife kept on complaining until at last the devil promised that he would try once again to cut off Erkki's head.

"Very well," his wife said, "tonight when he's asleep I'll wake you."

But the moving and everything had made the wife very tired, and as soon as she went to bed she fell asleep. That gave Erkki just the chance he needed to try on the new wife the trick he had played on the old one. Without waking her he carried her to his bed and then laid himself down in her place beside the devil. Then he woke up the devil and reminded him in the bedroom darkness that he had promised to cut off Erkki's head.

The got up and went over to Erkki's bed and cut off the head of his new wife without knowing it was her. Next morning when he had found out what he had done, he was furious.

"You get right out of here, Erkki!" he roared. "I never want to see you again!"

"There now," Erkki said, "you're not going to lose your temper over a dead wife, are you?"

"I am so going to lose my temper!" the devil shouted. "And what's more, I liked this wife, I did, and I don't know where I'll get another one I like as well as her! So you just clear out of here and be quick about it, too!"

"Very well, then," said Erkki, "I'll go, but not until you pay me what you owe me."

"What I owe you!" bellowed the devil. "What about all you owe me for my house, my cattle, my old wife, my dear new wife and everything!"

"You've lost your temper," Erkki said, "and now you've got to pay me a patch of your hide big enough to sole a pair of boots. That was our bargain!"

The devil roared and blustered but Erkki was firm. He wouldn't budge a step till the devil had allowed him to slit a great patch of hide off his back.

That piece of the devil's hide made the finest soles that a pair of boots ever had. It wore for years and years. In fact, Erkki is still tramping around on those same soles. The fame of them has spread over all the land and it has got so that now people stop Erkki on the highway to look at his wonderful boots soled with the devil's hide. Travellers from foreign countries are deeply interested when they hear about the boots, and when they meet Erkki they question him closely.

"Tell us," they beg him, "how did you get the devil's hide in the first place?"

Erkki always laughs and makes the same answer, "I got it by not losing my temper!"

As for the devil, he's never again made a bargain like the one he made with the tree brothers.

The Mysterious Servant

There was once a rich merchant who had an only son. As he lay dying, he said, "Matti, my boy, my end is approaching and there are two things I want to say to you: The first is that I am leaving you all my wealth. If you are careful you will have enough to suffice you for life. The second thing I have to say is to beg you never to leave this, your native village. At your birth there was a prophecy which declared that if ever you left this village you would have to marry a woman with horns. Now that I have warned you in time it will be your own fault if ever you have to meet this fate."

The merchant died and Matti was left alone. He had never before wanted to travel but now that he knew of the fate which would overtake him if he did, he couldn't bear the thought of remaining forever a prisoner in his native village.

"What is the use of riches," he asked himself, "if one cannot travel over the broad world and see wonderful sights? Besides, if it's my fate to marry a horned woman, I don't see why sitting quietly at home is going to save me. No! I'm going to take my chances like a man and come and go as I like!"

So he gathered his riches together, closed the old house where he had been born, and started out into the bright world. He travelled many days, meeting strange peoples and seeing strange sights. At last he settled down in a large city and became a merchant like his father.

One afternoon as he was out walking, he saw a crowd of men dragging the body of a dead man in the gutter. They were kicking and abusing the dead body and calling it evil names.

Matti stopped them. "What is this you are doing?" he demanded. "Stop abusing this poor dead body and bury it decently, or God will punish you!"

"Let us alone!" the men cried. "He deserves all that we are giving him! When he was alive he borrowed money from us all and then he died without repaying us. Are we to have no satisfaction at all?"

With that they resumed their abuse of the dead body,

"Wait!" Matti cried. "Tell me what the dead man owed you and I will pay it!"

"He owed me ten gold coins!" said one.

"And me a hundred!" shouted another.

"And me five hundred!"

"And me a thousand!"

"Come all of you to my house," Matti said, "and I will pay you, but only on condition that first you hand over the body to me and help me give it a decent burial."

The men agreed. They helped Matti bury the dead man and then went home with him.

Each told Matti the amount the dead man owed him and, true to his promise, Matti paid them all.

When he had paid the last man he found that he had nothing left for himself but nine silver coins. The dead man's debts had exhausted all the wealth his father had left him.

"No matter!" Matti thought to himself. "My riches would have done me no good if I had stood by and allowed a poor dead man to be abused. What if I have nothing left? I'm young and strong and I can go out into the world and make my livelihood somehow. I'll go home and have one last look at my native village and then begin life anew."

So, dressed in shabby old clothes with nothing in his pockets but the nine silver coins, Matti left the city where people were beginning to know him as a merchant and started back to his native village.

He was soon met by a man who addressed him respectfully and asked to be engaged as his servant.

"My servant!" Matti repeated with a laugh. "My dear fellow, I'm too poor to have a servant! All I have in the world by now are nine silver coins!"

"No matter," the man said. "Take me anyhow. I will serve you well and I think you won't regret our bargain."

So Matti agreed and they walked on together. The sun was hot and by the middle of the afternoon Matti was feeling faint with hunger and fatigue.

"Master," the servant said, "I will run ahead to the next village and order the landlord at the inn to prepare you a fine dinner. Come along slowly and by the time you arrive, the dinner will be ready."

"But remember," Mattie warned him, "I have no money to pay for a fine dinner!"

"Trust me!" the servant said and off he hurried.

At the next village he hunted out the best inn and ordered the landlord to prepare his finest dinner without delay. He was so particular that everything should be the best that the landlord supposed his master must be some great lord.

When Matti arrived on foot, tired and travel-stained and shabby, the landlord was amazed.

"It's fine lords we have nowadays!" he muttered scornfully, and he wished he had not been in such haste to cook the best food in the house. But it was cooked and ready to serve and so, with an ill grace, he served it.

Matti and his man ate their fill of good cabbage soup and fish and fowl tender and juicy. It quite enraged the landlord to see poor men with such good appetites.

"They eat as if their pockets were lined with gold!" he muttered angrily. "Well, let them eat while they can, for they'll lose their appetites once they see the reckoning!"

When they finished eating, they rested and then called for the reckoning. It was much more than it should have been but neither Matti nor the servant objected.

"Like a good fellow," the servant said, "will you please to lend me your five litres measure."

"Like a good fellow, indeed!" the landlord muttered to himself. "Who are you to call me like a good fellow, I'd like to know!" Nevertheless he went out and got the measure.

"Now, master," the servant said, "give me three of your nine silver coins."

The servant threw the three silver coins into the measure, shook the measure three times and lo! it was filled to the brim with silver coins! The servant counted out the amount of the reckoning and handed the rest of the money to his master. Then he and Matti went on their way, leaving the landlord gaping after them with open mouth.

Day after day the servant paid the reckoning in the same way at the various inns where they stopped till they reached at last Matti's native village and the old house that still belonged to him.

They settled themselves there and one day the servant said to Matti, "Now, master, you know your fate: for having left your native village you know you are destined to marry a horned woman. You might as well do it at once, for you'll have to do it sooner or later."

Mattie said, "Yes, and if I knew the whereabouts of the horned woman who is my fate I should marry her at once."

"In that case we'll lose no more time," the servant said. "The king has three daughters, and all of them are horned. Let us go to the palace so that you can ask the king to give you one of them as your bride. The king will listen in friendly manner to what you ask of him, for there are not many suitors for daughters with horns. He will try to make you take the oldest. She has big horns and a hoarse voice. When she sees you, she'll whisper: 'Take me! Take me!' But shake your head and answer: *No! Not this one!' Then the king will send for his second daughter. Her horns are not so big and her voice is so hoarse. She, too, will whisper you: 'Take me! Take me!' But again shake your head and answer: 'No! Not this one!' Be firm and the king will finally have to send for his youngest daughter. Her horns are just soft little baby horns and her voice is just a little husky. Take her, and soon all will be well."

So Matti and the servant went to the palace and were granted an audience with the king.

"My master, Matti," the servant said, addressing the king, "wants to marry a wife with horns."

The king was interested at once. "As it happens, I have a daughter with horns," he said. "I'll have her come in."

He sent for his oldest daughter and very soon she appeared. Her horns were long and thick. "Take me! Take me!" she whispered hoarsely as she passed Matti.

"See what a fine girl she is!" the king said, "and what well grown horns she has!"

But Matti shook his head. "Well, no, I don't think I want to marry this one."

"Of course you must follow the dictates of your heart," the king said drily. "However, my second daughter also has horns. Maybe you'd like to consider her."

So the second daughter was called in. Her horns were not as large as her sister's, and her voice was not as horse either. But Matti remembered the servant's warning and refused to take her too. The king seemed surprised and even annoyed that Matti should refuse his daughters so glibly, but when he found that Matti was firm he said, "I have got another daughter, my youngest. However, if I is horns you are looking for, I don't believe you will be interested in her at all since her horns are so small and soft that they are hardly noticeable at all. However, as you are here you might as well have a look at her too."

The youngest princess was sent for, and at once Matti knew that she was the one he wanted to marry. She wasn't all beautiful, but she was gentle and modest. And when she passed Matti her cheeks flushed and she wasn't able to whisper anything. But Matti felt very sure that if she had whispered her voice would have been scarcely husky.

"This, king," he said, "is my choice! Let me marry your youngest daughter."

The king would have preferred to marry off the older princesses first, for their horns were getting to be very troublesome, but as they all had horns he was afraid to refuse Matti's offer. After a little talk he gave Matti the youngest and in a short time they were married.

After the wedding feast the king led the young couple to the bridal chamber and closed the door. In the meantime, Matti's servant had gone out to the woods and cut some stout switches of birch. When the palace was quiet and all were asleep, he crept softly into the bridal chamber and, dragging the bride out of bed, he beat her unmercifully.

"Oh! Oh!" she cried in pain.

Her screams woke Matti. In fright he jumped out of bed and tried to stop the servant.

"Wait!" the servant said. "She is under an evil enchantment and I am delivering her!" So he kept on beating her till he had drawn blood. Then at once the horns fell from her head and there she stood a beautiful young girl released from the evil enchantment that had disfigured her.

The servant handed her over to her husband who fell in love with her on sight and has loved her ever since.

"Now farewell, Matti," the servant said. "My work is done and you will need me no longer. You have married a beautiful princess and the king will soon make you his heir."

With these words the servant disappeared, and Matti was left alone with his lovely bride.