Mighty Mikko Part 9

When he came near home he saw the spinning wheel still on the roof and the figure still seated before it.

"Why haven't you got my dinner ready?" he called out angrily.

The figure at the spinning wheel made no answer.

"What's the matter with you?" Wetehinen cried. "Why are you sitting there like a wooden image instead of cooking my dinner?"

Still the figure made no answer and in a rage Wetehinen began climbing up the roof. He reached out blindly and clutched at Lisa's skirt and jerked it so hard that the churn came clattering down on his head. It knocked him off the roof and he fell all the way to the ground and cracked his wicked old head wide open.

"Ouch! Ouch!" he roared in pain. "Just wait till I get hold of that Lisa!"

He crawled to the forbidden room and poured over himself the water that was in the pitcher marked _Water of Life_. But it wasn't the _Water of Life_ at all, it was the _Water of Death_, and so it didn't help his wicked old cracked head at all. In fact it just made it worse and worse _and_ worse.

Lisa and her sisters were never again troubled by him nor was any one else that lived on the sh.o.r.es of that lake.

"Wonder what's become of wicked old Wetehinen?" people began saying.

Lisa thought she knew but she didn't tell.

[Decoration]

LOG

[Decoration]

_The Story of the Hero Who Released the Sun_

LOG

[Decoration]

There was once a poor couple who had no children. Their neighbors all had boys and girls in plenty but for some reason G.o.d didn't send them even one.

"If I can't have a flesh and blood baby," the woman said one day, "I'm going to have a wooden baby."

She went to the woods and cut a log of alder just the size of a nice fat baby. She dressed the log in baby clothes and put it in a cradle.

Then for three whole years she and her husband rocked the cradle and sang lullabies to the log baby.

At the end of three years one afternoon, when the man was out chopping wood and the woman was driving the cows home from pasture, the log baby turned into a real baby! It was so strong and hearty that by the time its parents got home it had crawled out of the cradle and was sitting on the floor yelling l.u.s.tily for food. It ate and ate and ate and the more it ate the faster it grew. It wasn't any time at all in pa.s.sing from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood. From its beginnings it was known in the village as Log and never received any other name.

Log's parents knew from the first that Log was destined to be a great hero. That was why he was so strong and so good. There was no one in the village as strong as he nor any one as kind and gentle.

Now just at this time a great calamity overtook the world. The Sun and the Moon and the Dawn disappeared from the sky and as a result the earth was left in darkness.

"Who have taken from us the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn?" the people cried in terror.

"Whoever they are," the King said, "they shall have to restore them!

Where, O where are the heroes who will undertake to find the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn and return them to their places in the sky?"

There were many men willing to offer themselves for the great adventure but the King realized that something more was needed than willingness.

"It is only heroes of exceptional strength and endurance," he said, "who should risk the dangers of so perilous an undertaking."

So he called together all the valiant youths of the kingdom and tested them one by one. He had some waters of great strength and it was his hope to find three heroes the first of whom could drink three bottles of the strong waters, the second six bottles, and the third nine bottles.

Hundreds of youths presented themselves and out of them all the King found at last two, one of whom was able to take three bottles of the strong waters, the other six bottles.

"But we need three heroes!" the King cried. "Is there no one in all this kingdom strong enough to drink nine bottles?"

"Try Log!" some one shouted.

All the youths present instantly took up the cry:

"Log! Log! Send for Log!"

So the King sent for Log and sure enough when Log came he was able to drink down nine bottles of the strong waters without any trouble at all.

"Here now," the King proclaimed, "are the three heroes who are to release the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn from whoever are holding them in captivity and restore them to their places in the sky!"

He equipped the three heroes for a long journey furnishing them money and food and drink of the strong waters, each according to his strength. He mounted them each on a mighty horse with sword and arrow and dog.

So the three heroes rode off in the dark and the women of the kingdom wept to see them go and the men cheered and wished that they, too, were going.

They rode on and on for many days that seemed like nights until they had crossed the confines of their own country and entered the boundaries of an unknown kingdom beyond. Here the darkness was less dense. There was no actual daylight but a faint grayness as of approaching dawn.

They rode on until they saw looming up before them the towers of a mighty castle. They dismounted near the castle at the door of a little hut where they found an old woman.

"Good day to you, granny!" Log called out.

"Good day, indeed!" the old woman said. "It's little enough we see of the day since the Evil One cursed the Sun and handed it over to Suyettar's wicked offspring, the Nine-Headed Serpent!"

"The Evil One!" Log exclaimed. "Tell me, granny, why did the Evil One curse the Sun?"

"Because he's evil, my son, that's why! He said the Sun's rays blistered him, so he cursed the Sun and gave him over to the Nine-Headed Serpent. And he cursed the Moon, too, because at night when the Moon shone he could not steal. Yes, my son, he cursed the Moon and handed her over to Suyettar's second offspring, the Six-Headed Serpent. Then he cursed the Dawn because he said he couldn't sleep in the morning because of the Dawn. So he cursed the Dawn and gave her over to Suyettar's third offspring, the Three-Headed Serpent."

"Tell me, granny," Log said, "where do the three Serpents keep prisoner the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn?"

"Listen, my son, and I will tell you: When they go far out in the Ocean they carry with them the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn. The Three-Headed Serpent stays out there one day and then returns at night. The Six-Headed Serpent stays two days and then returns, and the mighty Nine-Headed Monster does not return until the third night. As each returns a faint glow spreads over the land. That is why we are not in utter darkness."

Log thanked the old woman and then he and his companions pushed on towards the castle. As they neared it they saw a strange sight which they could not understand. One half of the great castle was laughing and rocking as if in merriment and the other half was weeping as if in grief.

"What can this mean?" Log cried out. "We had better ask the old woman before we go on."

So they went back to the hut and the old woman told them all she knew.