Chapter 19 Among the Lapps

The funeral is over.Orsa the goose girl was left alone in the little shack that belonged to her father.She closed the door and sat thinking of her brother.At last she threw herself on the table and cried bitterly: "What am I going to do without little Mats?" she whimpered. It was very late at night, and the goose-herding girl was very tired for the past few days, she fell asleep crying.In the dream she saw little Mats come into the house and come to her. "Now, Osa, it's time for you to go and find your father," he said. "I don't know where he is, how can I find him?" she answered him.

"Don't worry," said little Mats, with his usual haste and cheer, "I'll send you a man who can help you." At this time, Osa, the goose girl, heard someone knocking on the door of her room.She was still in a dream, not sure if someone was really knocking at the door or just a hallucination, but she stood up and went to open the door, she thought: "Now it must be Mats who promised me The sent man is here." When Osa the goose girl opened the door, she saw standing on the threshold a tiny, tiny figure, no taller than a raised hand.Even though it was the middle of the night, it was still as bright as day, and Osa could tell at a glance that this little man was the same little man she and Mats had met several times when they were wandering around the country.Orsa was still asleep, and thought she was still dreaming, and the little man was not at all frightened when he saw her, and told her where to find her father, and how she could get there, and so on.

While he was speaking, Orsa the goose girl gradually became sober, and when he finished, she was fully awake.She found that she was talking to a person who did not belong to the world. She was so frightened that she couldn't say a word of thanks. She just turned her head and ran into the room. She quickly climbed onto the bed and pulled the quilt over her eyes.She noticed at the time that the little man had a very sad expression on his face. Although she was afraid of the little man, she followed his instructions, and the next day she set off in haste to find her father. There is a small lake called Rusayalai tens of kilometers north of the Malmberg mining area, and on the west bank of the lake there is a small settlement inhabited by the Lapps.At that time, there were no passenger trains from the mining area to this small lake, only trains transporting stones.Osa, the goose girl, remembered that the little man said her father was with the Lapps who had camped on the west bank of Rusayalai Lake.With the help of mine workers and engineers, she came here on a stone train to find her father, accompanied by a worker named Shedberg, who spoke Lapp.

One afternoon in July, it rained terribly in the area of ​​Rusayalai. Many Lapps got into their tents, sat around the fire, and drank coffee.At this time, a boat came and docked beside the Lapp tent.Several Lapp dogs roared and ran towards the boat. A Lapp poked his head out from the entrance of the tent to see. It turned out that it was their good friend Shedberry, accompanied by a twelve-three year old girl.The Lapp hurriedly invited him and the little girl into the tent. "Looks like someone sent word for you to come here now, Shedbury," cried the Lapp. "The coffee pot is on the fire, and nobody can do anything in this rainy weather. You Come tell us the news!"

The workers got into the tent and came among the Lapps.Everyone talked and laughed and struggled to make room for him and the little girl in the tent.The workers immediately chatted with the masters in Lapp.Osa, the little girl who came with him, could not understand their conversation at all, but just sat quietly, looking curiously at the cauldron and coffee pot, the fire and the smoke with her big round eyes. , Lapp men and Lapp women, children and dogs, walls and floors, coffee cups and pipes, colorful clothing and tools carved out of antlers, and so on.Everything here is new to her, there is nothing she is familiar with.

But suddenly she lowered her eyelids and stopped looking because she noticed that all the people in the tent were looking at her.Osa knew that Schedberry must have been telling them something about her.She didn't want Schedberg to talk about her too much. What she wanted to know most now was whether these Lapps knew her father, and whether they knew where her father was.She had hoped that she would see her father as soon as she got here, but all the people in the tent were Lapps and had no father. She saw that the Lapp and Shedberg were talking more and more seriously, and the Lapp shook his head and patted his forehead with his hands.At this moment, Osa felt very disturbed, and she couldn't sit still any longer, so she asked Schedberg: "Do they know my father?"

"They say he's gone fishing," replied the workman. "They don't know if he'll be back in the tent tonight, but they'll send for him as soon as the weather improves." This morning, the weather was very clear.The most eminent of the Lapps, Ulla Selka, said he was going out in person to find Osa's father, Ron Axelsen.Osa's father is now a strange man who is terrified of children, and Ulla doesn't know how to tell him that his daughter is coming to him, so he doesn't hurry, but crouches in front of the tent and thinks about Ron Axelson. this person.

While Ulla Selka was thinking about the problem, Osa, the goose-herding girl, and Aslak, a young Lapp boy, were sitting in front of the tent and chatting.Aslak was educated and spoke Swedish.He told Osa about Sami life and assured her that it was better than everyone else's. "I think it's scary living here," Osa said. "I don't know what you're talking about," said Aslak, "you only have to live here a week to see that we are the happiest people in the whole world!" "If I lived here for a week, I would choke to death from the smoke in the tent," Osa replied.

"Don't you say that!" said the Rapp boy. "You don't know anything about us. I'm going to tell you a story, and when you hear it, you'll understand." "Once upon a time, there was a disease called the Black Death that spread across the country, I didn't know, it was prevalent in the real Sami areas as far north as we were, but it was very common in Jämtland It was rampant, and all the Sami people living in the big forests and high mountains there died except for a fifteen-year-old boy, and the Swedes who lived in the river valley had no adults survived except a little girl. , she is also fifteen years old.

"The two children met in the spring, and the girl asked the Lapp boy to accompany her to the south. She didn't want to stay in the desolate Jamtland any longer. 'Not now, it will wait until Only winter,' replied the boy, 'is spring, and my herd is going to the mountains to the west, and we Sami must go where the deer let us go.' "This little Swedish girl is a child of a rich family. She has always looked down on the poor mountain people, and thinks that people who live in the open air are very unfortunate. But she is afraid to go back to her estate in the valley, because there is nothing but the dead. 'Then at least let me go with you to the mountains,' she begged the boy, 'so I won't be left here alone, deaf to human voices!' Of course the boy readily agreed, In this way, the girl will have the opportunity to follow the deer herd to the mountains. The deer herd yearn for the fresh and rich pasture on the high mountain, and they walk a long way every day. They don’t have time to pitch a tent, so they have to go underground when the deer herd stop to graze. Once lying down, they slept on the snow for a while. Then they stepped on the snow that was about to melt and the ice that was about to break, running behind the deer. When they came to the high mountain area, they had rested for several weeks, waiting for more. The snow melted in the high mountains, and then went up. The girl kept complaining and sighing, and said many times that she was so tired that she must go back to the valley area below, but she still went up, because it was better than that. Much better to be alone.

"When they came to the top of the mountain, the boy set up a tent for the girl on a beautiful green grass slope facing the mountain river. At night, the boy milked the deer for her to drink. I found the dried venison and cheese that some people hid on the mountain. The girl kept complaining, saying that she didn't want to eat dried venison and cheese, and she was not used to sleeping in a tent with only a deerskin and some On the ground where the branches made a bed. But the Lapp boy just smiled at her complaints and didn't answer. "After a few days, the girl helped the boy milk the deer, make fires, carry water, and make cheese. They lived a wonderful life. As the weather warmed up, they set traps for birds, fished for trout in the rapids, and picked fish in the swamps. cloudberry. "After the summer passed, they moved down the mountain. When the snow fell and the lake began to freeze, they continued to migrate eastward. Boys taught girls to use deer tendon to twist rope, tan leather, sew clothes and shoes from deerskin, The antlers made combs and implements, and together they skied and traveled in sleighs drawn by deer. Together they passed through the dark winter when there was no sun all day, and in summer when the sun was almost all day, the boy said to the girl, Now he could go south with her to find her own people. But at that time, the girl looked at him in surprise. "'I have lived the life of a Sami for almost a year,' said the girl, 'and wandering freely in the mountains and forests for so long, I cannot go back to my people and live in a cramped house Please don't drive me away, let me stay! Your way of life is much better than ours.' "The girl has lived with the boy all her life and never wants to go back to the valley. Osa, once you stay with us for a month, you will never want to leave us again." Aslak, a Lapp boy, ended his story with these words, while his father, Ulla Selka, listened to them and figured out how to tell Ron Axelson about his daughter coming to him way. Ulla Selka walked along the shore of Lake Rusayalai until he came across a man sitting on a rock fishing. "You must have caught a lot of fish, Rong," the Lappi asked in Lapp as he walked over, "I have something I want to discuss with you. You know, I have a daughter who was born last year. died." "Well, I know." The angler replied briefly.His face was clouded, as if he didn't like the mention of a dead child.He speaks Lapp very well. "But it's not worth letting grief ruin your life," the Lapps said. "Yes, it's not worth it." "Now, I'm going to adopt a child. Do you think it's a good idea?" "That depends on what kind of child it is, Ulla." "I want to tell you what I know about this girl, Ron," said Ulla, and then he told the fisherman: There were two poor children, a boy and a girl, from They traveled a long distance to the Malmberg mining area to find their father. While they were waiting for their father, the little boy was killed by the rocks from the mine explosion. The little girl wanted to hold a grand ceremony for her brother. After the funeral ceremony, he went to the mine owner and others, and he described these things to the fisherman vividly and vividly. "She is really a brave and loving girl." Ulla said at the end of the narrative. "Is that the girl you're adopting in the tent, Ulla?" asked the fisherman. "Yes." The Lapp replied, "After hearing this, everyone couldn't help crying. We all said that such a good sister will definitely be a good daughter. We hope that she can come to us. Come." "She, that little girl, must be from your Lapp tribe?" Ron Axelson asked. "No," Ulla said, "she's not Sami." "Then she is probably the daughter of a new pioneer, used to life here in the north?" "No, she comes from far, far south," Ulla replied. "Then I don't think you should adopt her," he said. "She wasn't born here, and living in a tent during the winter would be too much for her." “She would stay in a tent with her kind parents and siblings,” Ulla Selka insisted. “It was worse to be alone than to be in the cold.” "Didn't you say she had a father in the Malmberg mines?" Ron Axelsen asked again. "He's dead," said the Lapp bluntly. "How do you know? Do you understand, Ulla?" Ron Axelsen pressed. "Isn't it necessary to understand this matter clearly?" the Lapp said contemptuously, "if this little girl and her brother have a living father, will they still be forced to walk across the country alone? If they still have a father, do these two children still need to earn money to support themselves? If her father is still alive, does this little girl still need to run to the mine owner alone? If her father If he hadn't died long ago, such a capable little girl would not be alone, would she? But the little girl herself believes that her father is still alive." "What's the little girl's name, Ulla?" he asked. The Lapp thought for a while. "I can't remember. I can ask her." "Ask her? Is she already here?" "Yes, she's in a tent on the shore." "What, Ulla? You didn't know what her father was thinking, so you brought her here?" The fisherman seemed to realize something, dropped his fishing rod and stood up. "I think her father was different from other people," the Lapp continued, "he was probably a seriously pessimistic man..." Before Wula finished speaking, the fisherman had already walked up the lake embankment. "Where are you going?" asked the Lapp. "I'm going to see your adopted daughter, Ula." Rong stepped forward. "Okay," said the Lapp, "go and see her! I think you'll think I've got a good daughter." After a while, Ulla said bluntly, "I can tell you now that she is honored." Daughter Osa, she came to us Sami to find her father, not to be my adopted daughter." The opponent just quickened his pace. "I think he must have been terrified when I threatened him with the idea of ​​adopting his daughter among us Sami people," Ulla said to herself. In the afternoon, the boat took the geese girls Osa and Ron Axelson away from the Lapp camp and rowed towards the mining area. The father and daughter sat close together and held hands affectionately on the board.The two of them were completely different from what they had been two or three hours ago. Ron Axelsen did not look as stooped and tired as he used to. Watching everything around her vigilantly, she now has an adult she can rely on and trust, as if she has become a child again.