The Lilac Fairy Book, part 23 · page 21 2101‘What’s that you’re humming?’ asked the old man.102‘Oh, only the words of an old rhyme that keeps running in my head,’ answered the old woman; and she raised her voice and went on:103Oh, Ahti, with the long, long beard, Who dwellest in the deep blue sea, A thousand cows are in thy herd, I pray thee give one onto me.104‘That’s a stupid sort of song,’ said Matte.105‘What else should one beg of the sea-king but fish?106But such songs are not for Sunday.’107His wife pretended not to hear him, and sang and sang the same tune all the time they were on the water.108Matte heard nothing more as he sat and rowed the heavy boat, while thinking of his cracked pipe and the fine tobacco.109Then they returned to the island, and soon after went to bed.110But neither Matte nor Maie could sleep a wink; the one thought of how he had profaned Sunday, and the other of Ahti’s cow.111About midnight the fisherman sat up, and said to his wife:112‘Dost thou hear anything?’113‘No,’ said she.114‘I think the twirling of the weathercock on the roof bodes ill,’ said he; ‘we shall have a storm.’115‘Oh, it is nothing but your fancy,’ said his wife.116Matte lay down, but soon rose again.117‘The weathercock is squeaking now,’ said he.118‘Just fancy!119Go to sleep,’ said his wife; and the old man tried to.120For the third time he jumped out of bed.121‘Ho! how the weather-cock is roaring at the pitch of its voice, as if it had a fire inside it!122We are going to have a tempest, and must bring in the net.’123Both rose.124The summer night was as dark as if it had been October, the weather-cock creaked, and the storm was raging in every direction.125As they went out the sea lay around them as white as now, and the spray was dashing right over the fisher-hut.126In all his life Matte had never remembered such a night.127To launch the boat and put to sea to rescue the net was a thing not to be thought of.128The fisherman and his wife stood aghast on the doorstep, holding on fast by the doorpost, while the foam splashed over their faces.129‘Did I not tell thee that there is no luck in Sunday fishing?’ said Matte sulkily; and his wife was so frightened that she never even once thought of Ahti’s cows.130As there was nothing to be done, they went in.131Their eyes were heavy for lack of slumber, and they slept as soundly as if there had not been such a thing as an angry sea roaring furiously around their lonely dwelling.132When they awoke, the sun was high in the heavens, the tempest had cased, and only the swell of the sea rose in silvery heavings against the red rock.1 2← previousThe Lilac Fairy Book, part 22next →The Lilac Fairy Book, part 24↑ back to The Lilac Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg3454/23/page/2/