Spring came and work in the fields began. The brothers ploughed and harrowed their field, cleared meadowland in the backwoods and worked at their new cowhouse on the echoing clearing. All this labour seemed irksome enough to them in the beginning; but, compelling themselves to keep to it, they were able in the end to work all through the week from morning to eve. And thus their cowhouse was completed, their field transformed into a plain of finely-sifted mould, and ever bigger grew the new meadow in the forest. Full of tree-stumps and hummocks, but productive of much hay, the fine new meadow spread before them. Then sowing-time came round; the brothers sold a new patch of their forest and bought rye with the money. And Tuomas sowed the new field on Impivaara, strewing three barrels of rye into its dusty plots. And soon a promising crop had sprouted and flourished mightily in the fresh September winds.

But the birches yellowed, the aspen stood in its purple garment, and the dank fogs of evening hid the new meadow in their gleaming embrace. Autumn had come again, and the brothers were alive to the winter’s needs; and they had now three heifers and one young hornless bull in their cowhouse. Work in the open was over, for everything lay under the drifted snow; and as in the cabin other tasks began, the struggle with the alphabet was resumed. Diligently the brothers worked again at their reading, and their skill increased, though slowly. They could read fairly well by now, and were trying to learn the paragraphs in the a-b-c book by heart; jabbering and mumbling to themselves in every corner of the room, they strove to reach the cockerel at the end of the book. And one after the other they arrived at their goal: first Lauri, then Aapo and Simeoni and finally Tuomas, while Juhani and Timo toiled far in the rear. At last, even Timo was in haven, but still Juhani sweated, sighed and puffed angrily over his confession of faith. It cut him to the heart that he was the last, but the others’ pity could not aid him, but only his own diligence and application. He read perhaps a little better and with greater speed than Timo, but at learning by heart Timo beat him.

Those who already had the a-b-c book tucked away in their memories, now decided to keep holiday for a few days and enjoy a backward glance at all the toil and trouble endured. Gun in hand they ski’d around the forests, and their bullets felled white-furred hares under the snow-clad trees, felled a male capercaillie as, with ruffled feathers and heavy with the cold, it sat on the branch of a bearded spruce just where a sombre forest and an echoing heath met. Meanwhile Juhani sat in the cabin, stripped to his shirt and oozing sweat at the table’s end, a-b-c book in hand. Greatly enraged and tearing his hair, he fingered his stout-leaved book. It often happened that, grinding his teeth with rage and almost shedding tears, he would bound up from his stool, snatch the chopping-block from its corner, lift it on high and dash it fiercely to the ground; and at such moments the cabin shook and the man’s skimpy shirt fluttered. Thus he would pounce at intervals on the chopping-block; for only with much toil did the alphabet take root in the man’s head. But he would always sit down again at the table corner and go through a stiff paragraph anew. And at last, as spring came round, he too knew his book from cover to cover; and with pride in his glance could close it.

The snowdrifts melted, flowing down in water to the meadow and from the meadow to Sompio Bog; and now the brothers set to work to build their barn; they laid its foundations some distance from the cabin on the smoothest part of the clearing; and again the clash of axes and the thud of mallets echoed far around. And when the sun rolled over the sky at its highest, when the forests and meadows were green and the ear was on the rye, the barn stood ready on Impivaara. Nature wore then its fairest summer raiment, the scented field bloomed, and the hopes of the men of Impivaara were at their highest. But the wind suddenly veered round to the north and blew thence strongly a whole long summer day, making the air cool and chilly. Tirelessly it blew, until at last with the fall of evening it was still and sank down to rest. Like a grave, so cold and silent was the night, and on the bosom of the field a grey frost lay like a choking nightmare on the blooming breasts of a young maid. And the next day the sun looked down with mournful eye on the deeds of night, on the rime-covered, frozen, sprouting corn. The brothers too emerged early from their cabin; they saw with horror the ruin worked by the frost, and their minds grew dark. Two or three days later they saw the flourishing crops white and withered.

JUHANI. There went our hopes, our golden harvest. The stalks are left, but the ears hang dry, without sap or life. Ay, boys, next year’s food has been snatched from us.

TUOMAS. A hard blow, especially if we think how scarce game has already become. Didn’t we course the forests like lynxes last autumn, and hardly got our winter grub?

JUHANI. What is to be done then? We cannot leave our field altogether, the field which we dug with so much toil and sweat from the hard surface of the clearing.

TUOMAS. That we will not do, but will sow the field again next autumn, knowing as we do that frosty and frostless years come in turns here and that on the whole there are more frostless years than of those damned rime-whiskered ones.

AAPO. I believe we shall perhaps have a visit from the frost every spring, so long as Sompio Bog down yonder is a home for frogs and whortleberries. Ay, I fear so. Therefore, if we wish to save our field from frost from now on, we shall have to drain the bog, lead the water and moisture under it away, by clearing it and digging drains. There too we shall be hitting two birds with one stone: at one stroke we shall be protecting our field from the frost and making new meadow-land for ourselves.

TUOMAS. That, I should say, we are all agreed is best. That’s what we shall have to do, if we mean to build up a farm for ourselves out here in the wilds.

With spades and axes on their shoulders they set out one day for the bog. They dug the main ditch first, straight and deep, and then led smaller drains into it; and soon high ridges of moss, mud and clay rose along the sides of these ditches. Here grew stunted, dwarfed birches; these were felled and gathered into heaps for burning the next summer; and new meadow-land was added to Impivaara Farm. Thus they laboured for many heavy days from early morning to late eve. And at length the greatest part of dismal Sompio Bog lay ditched, and day by day its surface now began to dry. But sowing-time had come, and again Tuomas sowed the field, and soon the grain had sprouted. The brothers spent the winter as they had done the last, practising reading; and finally the Lesser Catechism had been memorized. And Eero, Lauri and Aapo stopped not even here, but continued their studies ever further afield towards the last page of the Catechism. With hungry stomachs they sat by their books for days at a time; for game had been scarce that autumn and they had had less time than before for hunting. They scoured the forests even now on their skis, but little was the gain from their labour.

Came at last the verdant spring, and the rye grew thick on Impivaara field. But once again the wind veered suddenly to the north, whence it blew fiercely all through the summer day, until at even fall it was stilled and sank to rest. Like the grave, so silent and cold was the night, and on the bosom of the field a grey frost lay, breathing a chilly death. And early the next morning the brothers came out of their cabin and looked terror-stricken upon the havoc wrought in their field. And soon the crops, newly so flourishing, gleamed white and withered. The men now pondered what to do and what step to take next, and deemed it best to drain Sompio Bog thoroughly, whence they knew the frost rose on to their fields. This they decided to do, and on the misty bog they grubbed and dug while the hot summer passed, often prey to a depressing hunger. At such times the day of labour was heavy; wearily they returned to their home only when the sun was setting, and black lines of pain and fatigue ringed the lips of the pallid men.

But by the approach of autumn the bog was ditched from end to end and its surface had been transformed into a dry carpet of grass; and now the brothers had a fine new meadow, flat Sompio Meadow. Once more the field was sown; new plots were hoed for spring-sowing the next year. The supply of game, however, had been greatly affected by the coldness of the spring, and smaller than ever was the stock of winter provision the brothers were able to collect. Bitterly were they therefore assailed by hunger this winter, when the snowdrifts hid the ground a fathom deep and the frosts were severe. Walls, crackled stones and rocks split into two, and little birds fell down like stone-flakes, fell dead from the sky. A wayfarer would often see the saliva freeze into a ball of ice as it fell from his mouth, and when it reached the ground, roll tinkling along the smooth sleigh-tracks. On one such day, with the north wind shrieking under a pale, bright sky that sparkled with cold, the brothers sat in their cabin in perspiring heat, talking over their situation and the means by which a moaning stomach might be satisfied.

JUHANI. This won’t do. Over a day has gone by since I last ate. And what tit-bit was it I ate then, and how big a chunk? A thousand blazing imps! it was the two dry, resiny legs of a squirrel. A full-grown man’s belly hardly notices a meal like that. What dost thou say, Tuomas?

TUOMAS. Tighten thy belt.

JUHANI. Look! I’m as small in the middle as the most gracious lady, small as a brown ant; but this trick won’t help us for ever. It won’t help long, so whatever it is we have to do, let’s do it and soon. My heart chokes, brothers, my heart chokes and dismal melancholy makes my mind sink.

SIMEONI. Is there any other way out for us but the highway, the beggar’s long and stony road?

JUHANI. Let that be our last road to salvation. Oh, my breath seems to come from an empty barrel. Isn’t there a single trick or wheeze left that Aapo’s brains could find out?

AAPO. What can we build up out of nothing?

JUHANI. The whole of this world was created out of nothing. So why couldn’t even a little bit of chaff-bread be made out of it?

AAPO. Ay, if we were almighty beings.

JUHANI. Ah! if we were only their errand-boys, we’d be jumping about in those golden halls, and manna, boys, pure manna would be our grub, and we’d be drinking honey like water from a river. That’s the kind of time we’d be having, and we’d listen spitting to some poor beggar from the earth tell us of seven wretched brothers down there beside muddy Sompio Bog, dawdling in a smoky cabin on each others’ necks like bats in a hollow pine and hungry as wolves.

EERO. Why fancy such things? Let’s go to Kuokkala’s backwoods and search the part we left so easily last autumn a bit more carefully.

JUHANI. The bears have gone to Hell from there, that’s almost sure.

EERO. Almost! What foolishness to sit here hungry with crossed arms, when we might be getting ourselves a fine joint. There’s not much hope, but let us try, let’s look up those woods, and even if we don’t find a bear, we might find some other game. And even if that fails, there’s Kuokkala Farm nearby, where we can at least borrow a loaf each and perhaps a bushel or two of peas. We’ve got to turn to others for help in the end, if all our own attempts fail. But we’ll only borrow and pay when we can.

Thus spoke Eero, and at last the others deemed it best to follow his advice. With their guns under their arms they set out with their dogs to ski to Kuokkala backwoods. Smoothly the skis ran over the hard snow, but panting and much slower than before the brothers made their way; the former strength of their knees seemed to have vanished. Finally they reached the intended woods and began skiing hither and thither in all directions, seeking, though vainly, for a bear. Evening drew nigh and the brothers lost hope, but at Eero’s exhortation they decided to search once more the surroundings of a certain wooded rock. When they came to this spot, a violent barking was soon heard and out of a dense grove of spruce a bear dashed forth and hastened away, the snow eddying in his tracks. He ran twisting among the trees, and the brothers followed by tortuous ways on their shining skis, and the fierce frost air rang hoarsely with the angry yelping of the dogs. At last a shot was heard from Tuomas’s gun and, bleeding, the bear crawled on the snow. At it charged the dogs; a man drew nigh with his bear-spear, and there with hardly a struggle the bear met his death at the man’s spear and the dogs’ teeth. Down he fell on his palms and blew out his life into the bloody snow. But hardly had this happened and the brothers gathered round their kill, when a new furious barking and yelping was heard from the forest. Two year-old bears, fleeing from the dogs, shambled out of their lairs, a few hundred paces from the winter lair where the first bear had been found. And now a fierce struggle arose between the shaggy cubs and bold Killi and Kiiski, which endured, hot and bloody, until the brothers had come to the dogs’ help with their spears. Soon they had felled the furiously struggling bear-cubs and made an end of a fight in which the fur flew fast.

But now evening had fallen; the rich prey was borne to the foot of a spruce-covered, mossy rock and a fire made. And on the windward side of the fire beds were made of moss-covered branches and a screen of twigs lifted on to poles to prevent the wind from fanning the blaze and to allow the flames to burn steadily. Then the brothers began preparing a tasty supper; they scored and flayed the big bear’s magnificent thigh, and cutting tender slices from this, roasted them in the fire and joyfully filled their hungry stomachs; nor did they forget Killi and Kiiski. And soon they slept on their mossy beds, after their weary bodies had been nourished and the dread of starvation driven away for many days to come. Sweetly the dogs too rested, after running long and hard; muzzle on paw they rested, now and again opening their eyes, which with a noble calmness were directed towards the blood-stained carcases on the snow. There they all rested while the camp-fire blazed and the stars twinkled; but around the frost crackled in the dry spruce and cold, sighing winds sang in the austere forest. And when morning dawned the brothers set off to ski home with their burden; and their burden was heavy, but pleasant.

The following spring came early and fine. The brothers fished diligently on bright Lake Ilvesjärvi; and in their nets or on their hooks many a bull-necked roach and golden-ribbed rudd was caught. On the bank, in the shelter of a scented bird-cherry, they sat out the dawn of many a pale summer morning, pulling out with their hooks the shining denizens of the lake. Wild duck flew croaking over the oily surface of the water, and the brothers’ bullets dropped many of these in their flight. Beautiful was the spring both on the banks of Ilvesjärvi and in the meadows and fields around Impivaara cabin, where a splendid crop flourished, growing in the gleaming sunshine of day and the gentle coolness of night. This year too the fierce north wind often raged, bringing a chilly and windless night; but deep at the bottom of Sompio Bog lay the frost, cocking its ears, but powerless to lift its head above the grassy carpet. So grew the grain in the fields and the hay in the meadows that sunshiny summer, and sometimes a gentle rain refreshed the perfumed ground. The meadows were mown and the fields reaped in blazing sunshine; and in high towers the ricks on the meadows and the stacks by the cabin rose heavenward. The richest harvest was yielded that summer, which the brothers ever afterwards remembered as ‘the golden summer’.

But when the grain had been reaped and the autumn sowings were over, the brothers set forth one Saturday morning on a long-planned excursion, intending to go to the rectory to be examined by the rector. In fatherly, gentle fashion they were received by the rector, who to his exceeding joy soon found them to be irreproachable readers, some of them even highly commendable readers; Lauri he declared to be the best reader in the big village of Toukola. He also found their conception of dogma to be fairly clear and honest. And so, when they returned home a week later from Communion Service, each carried in his hand a leather-bound New Testament, a gift from the rector for their diligence. Satisfied, though with solemn air, they entered their cabin, which Kyösti Tammisto, their cattle-tender for the past week, had swept and garnished with leaves. And when they had eaten and Kyösti had gone, they sat down apart to pore over their Bibles; and a deep silence reigned in the room.

So passed the pleasant summer, autumn came fresh and cool, came winter and a new happy summer. And the years which now followed brought happiness and prosperity to the farm. Industry is the spring of happiness, and the brothers toiled industriously, with the result that the fields grew apace, grain gathered in their bins, horses in their stable and cows under the beams of their cowhouse.

Old wall-eyed Valko still stood in the stable, but on each side of him a sturdy foal stood in its box, one bought from Tammisto, the other from old man Kuokkala. Neatly the foals munched the clean meadow-hay, and with childishly carefree glances would tease now and again the old veteran between them, trying to pass the time of day with him over the low partition. But crusty-tempered and with hanging ears Valko stood there, his hanging underlip among the hay, as his old worn teeth ground bluntly at his provender. Ten head of cattle stood in the cowhouse. Wert thou to open its door, eight guileless and solemn cows’ faces would stare at thee, and two bulls like two mighty tree-stumps. The elder of the two has already been sentenced to lose his liberty next spring, and to submit to the fate of a draught-ox, but the younger there is still to hoof it in the pastures at his own will. So stood matters in the cowhouse, where Simeoni’s blameless hand worked the hardest.

Gradually all the buildings needed on a farm grew up in Impivaara yard. Thus a fine bath-house was built where yard and field met, and after that the platform vanished from the cabin, together with the stone-covered fireplace near the door, and in its stead a chimneyed stove was built of the kind usual in farms. A stout floor was built of split logs, which reached the whole length of the room, instead of stopping half-way as before. Three large windows replaced the former apertures in the walls. And now looking southward from the room, thou sawest the farm fields and a big meadow below these, with another bigger meadow farther down, formerly Sompio Bog. Across the fields and meadows the farm track led towards the church and their former home; it led from the meadow into a dense spruce-wood, then along the heath to the top of Teerimäki, which rose majestically in the south to the rim of the clouds. Looking westward, thou sawest behind the fields mossy tongues of rock, with here and there a low, but thick pine, in whose swaying crown the sun often shone on summer evenings. The cabin’s northern window looked boldly at Impivaara’s steep fell. So would the world have shown itself to him who looked at it from the windows of the spacious cabin. But if he had opened the cabin’s heavy door and looked eastward and northeast, he would have seen the stony, stump-covered clearing, and at its edge a heath and an echoing pine-wood from whose bosom the sun rose into the sky in summer. Such was the face of nature around Impivaara, which was now fast becoming a prosperous farm.

Rumours of the change which was taking place in the brothers and through them in the fields and yard of Impivaara, soon spread around the parish. At first they were discredited, but the rumours proving true, they awakened wonder; and gradually the brothers began to gain in honour and respect. They, however, seldom left their own lands; they were unwilling to see their birthplace until the time came when Jukola would be their own again. They had made such a promise, and therefore they avoided seeing the beloved fields of their home even at a distance.

Came the last summer of the ten years for which Jukola had been given to a stranger to till; and the brothers were entitled next autumn to take over their old home again. In June came a clear and warm Sunday. Through the open door of the cabin the bright sunlight flowed in, drawing golden patterns on the leaf-strewn floor. At the table Tuomas and Simeoni sat in silence, each reading his New Testament; Juhani, Timo and Eero walked in the fields viewing with delight the flourishing beauty of the summer; Lauri wandered silently in the woods and Aapo had gone to visit Kyösti Tammisto. Blue stretched the sky, a faint west wind breathed in the air, the birch gleamed on the hill in its new cloak of green and a white-foaming rowan spread its perfume far around. In the fields wave gently pursued wave, and the rye flashed in the rays of a fiery sun, which already hastened up to its midday height. But soon the brothers came home again: the walkers from the fields, Aapo from Tammisto and Lauri from the bosom of the heath. With a hidden smile on their lips they drew near to their noble dwelling, which smiled peacefully in turn at the comers, and on its sunlit roof danced the silvery heat of that day. With contented hearts and open countenances they entered the leaf-strewn, spacious room.

And when they had eaten, they sat down again, each where he listed and thinking his own thoughts, or looking at the open book before him. Beside the back window, which opened westward, Aapo sat, fussing with his pipe, and one saw that his thoughts were busy with some important matter. At last he opened his mouth and a conversation ensued.

AAPO. I met the tanner at Tammisto and spoke with him about our common business. He has got a job as miller and would already be willing to leave Jukola in the beginning of next September, of which I gave him good hopes.

TUOMAS. Best for him to get out of our way quicker than usual; for his hand has not improved Jukola, but pulled it down all the deeper; and of his rent he has not paid us a single grain.

AAPO. All of which the law might sentence him to pay, but how is he to do it?

TUOMAS. He’ll always lack the power to do that, unless he pawns his miserable soul.

AAPO. The law might make him work off his debt, but the rag has a sickly wife and a lot of mewling children.

JUHANI. Let the poor lout go in God’s name. Ay, his score with us can be wiped off. He has had hard luck too during these ten years; that we can’t deny. But even if the best of luck had hugged him, he was never born to build up a farm; a bonnier boy’s needed for that, but there’s as little sign of that in him as in an old glove. Let him go therefore and clatter away at his mill, and we’ll show people that Jukola can be made into the grandest farm in the parish.

AAPO. It’s always nobler, anyway, to see before us a farm, whose ploughed fields and cleared meadows we know to be the work of our own hands. Three of us can stay to look after this new farm, while the others dig and plough on Jukola’s soil; but in all bigger, urgent tasks we will set to work together with the strength of seven men, both here and in our former home. And soon we shall have two fine farms and two crofts, all of the best, and there’ll be property, land and room for each of us separately when the final division is made, and all of our futures settled. And let us hope that everything will be for the best in the end. Ay, all will be well at last, if only commonsense and justice are always our guiding stars down here while we tread the path of life.

TIMO. A lot depends on the wife and her work under the rafters, whether the good man’s labours outside, in sun and rain, are to bring riches or poverty in the end.

AAPO. Listen to Timo! He speaks like a man of experience. It’s just as thou sayest. The wife either raises a household to power and glory, or tears it down right to the foundation-logs. I’m not speaking, mind you, of a farm whose master is quite crazy, who can waste the fruits of years in one moment; such farms I do not mean, for even the wealth of a manor wouldn’t help there, or the toil of a wife, even though she were as nimble as a weasel and as close as an old Jew woman. But take an ordinary farm and an ordinary spendthrift master, and look you, if the mistress of that farm is tight-fisted and saving, the farm’ll stand in spite of everything. On the other hand, a farm where the mistress is wasteful is soon lost beyond mercy, lost even though the master were to fight against it like ten men. True, a master may get royally drunk and fight in the village, for which the law salts his back according to his deserts; yet we can regard such shipwrecks as little sores, as bleeding wounds in a human body, to which I now compare a farm. But a wife who is wasteful is the daily worm in a farm’s body, its canker that wastes all its juices and at last undermines and ruins the whole building. I remember a story I once heard from our grandfather, that ever wise, cautious and far-seeing man. And this is what he told me: There were once two brothers, both sober and hardworking, each with a farm equal in every respect to the other’s and each with a wife and children. One remained always prosperous, but the other became poorer day by day, and many were the guesses made at the cause of this difference in the brothers’ households, without anyone finding the real reason. Then one Saturday evening our grandfather had some errand to both of these farms. He came first to the rich brother’s house, where the wife, having finished churning, was sharing out bread and butter to the children; from there he went on to the poor brother’s house, where the wife was also giving the children of her churning; but look you, the woman put at least twice as much butter on the bread as her neighbour did, and now the old man had found the reason for the riches of the one and the poverty of the other. For just as the poor man’s wife used twice as much butter, so, though almost in unseen ways, twice as much of everything else slipped through her fingers. And thus she would have needed two such farms to keep level with her neighbour’s one farm. So said an old man famous for his wisdom.

JUHANI. He judged the matter rightly. A bad and wasteful wife is the devouring rat of a household and as ugly to behold as an old boot in a puddle.

AAPO. Let marriage therefore be, as it ought to be, the most serious step in our lives. For a bad wife is a man’s ruin, while a good and loving wife is his greatest joy, his best friend, his honour, who makes his home a haven of joy and peace. And let him keep such a wife as the apple of his eye, as his soul’s dearest treasure. And I also believe there’d be many fewer, bad wives, if husbands were always to correct the mistakes of their young better halves with kind words and loving glances, taking great care never to harp in a nagging spirit on the example of ‘my neighbour’s good wife’ and to let that ‘good mistress, my dear dead mother’ rest in peace in her grave. Ay, brothers, perhaps all of us will soon have wives beside us and little nippers around us, and that is why I am not speaking so much because of a passing whim, but of set purpose, meaning to sow these words in the bottom of your hearts.

JUHANI. Thou hast done everything well, and hast given us much valuable advice. Truly, thou hast led us in the night of these forests with a father’s mind and tongue. Brothers, let us thank Aapo, he has done a great work.

AAPO. Go away! Why talk nonsense? Oh--well! Ay! We’re here anyhow now and together we have fought: struggled, strained and wrestled to escape from the tangled backwoods of hard fortune to a free and open clearing. Look! the weather is bright and calm, the sun sinks to its setting and the carp will be spawning now in swarms amongst the reeds of Ilvesjärvi. Let’s go and lay our osier-nets and we shall have a tasty breakfast tomorrow.

They went down to Lake Ilvesjärvi to lay nets for the gold-ribbed carp, which spawned merrily just then, so that the lake’s reedy margin flashed. Simeoni and Timo stayed at home to look after the cattle--lowing and with a clatter of bells the crooky-horned cows returned from their pasture along the heather-clad heath. And on the stump-bestrewn, dry clearing they milked the champing cows and drove them into the pen, where they sank down one after the other on their couches of spruce-twigs. But yonder on Ilvesjärvi’s calm surface the others rowed their blunt-nosed log punt, sinking the osier-nets into the bright depths of the lake along the many-tongued edge of the reeds; and in the crowns of the pines in the north-west a fiery-red sunset glowed.