“You certainly are,” he said. Matti then took a chisel and cut the girls’ initials into the log. “Now you can find your special log after we put our house together.”
Matti’s whole body ached when he lay down to sleep that night. He would rather haul milk pails all the way to Soudan than have to pull on that drawknife another day.
CHAPTER 32
As the days passed, Matti searched for a way to cheer up Billy but nothing seemed to work. At times Billy joked with his favorite customers and seemed to return to his old self, but as soon as the store emptied of people, his glumness returned. One afternoon Matti took a chance. He sat down with a pen and paper. After looking up a half dozen words in his dictionary and trying several different beginnings, he decided to be direct.
Dear Mrs. McKenzie,
I hope you are not angry at me for writing, but I wanted to tell you how much Billy misses you. Though the folks may seem hard at times in these parts, they are good people. And I am sure that Billy and I are not the only ones who miss you. For what will Black Jack do without his licorice and chewing tobacco deliveries?
You really should see the springtime up here. The first flowers are just beginning to blossom. Billy told me about the time he met you and how beautiful the moon was on that steamboat ride across Big Bay.
The moon will soon be turning full again. I wish you were here to share it with Billy.
Your friend,
Matti Ojala
On the way to the depot to mail the letter, Matti thought about turning back. Maybe it was none of his business. He was probably just wasting a penny buying a stamp. Mr. Saari helped him fill out the front of the envelope:
MRS. CLARA HUGHES MCKENZIE
SUMMIT AVENUE
ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA
“St. Paul is a mighty big place,” Mr. Saari said. “I don’t know if this address will get your letter to the right house.”
“I owe it to Billy to try,” Matti said.
“Good morning, brother.”
Matti turned. It was Timo, grinning broadly.
“What are you doing up so early? Or haven’t you been to bed?”
“I really have given up on those saloons.” His eyes were clear and bright.
“What about your wagon driving job?” Matti asked.
“I’m off until the roads dry out.” He slapped Matti on the back. “Let’s go!” They talked the whole way to the cabin.
Mother and the girls gave Timo a big hug, and then everyone sat down for coffee to hear about his sleigh driving.
When Timo pushed back his stool, he said, “We’d better finish peeling those logs, Matti. I’m sure Mother wants her house done in time for the wedding.” Matti was so impressed that Timo had called him Matti, rather than little brother, that at first he didn’t notice the word wedding. Then Matti remembered the nice girl Timo had brought to the store.
“Wedding?” Mother said. “What wedding?”
“Why, didn’t I tell you?” Timo said with a sly grin. “I’m getting married in June.”
Mother jumped up and squealed like a little girl. She and the twins asked a million questions as Timo explained that his wife-to-be, Ida, was the daughter of a man named Arne Koski, who worked at the Pioneer mine in Ely. Mother was relieved to hear that the girl was both a Finn and a Lutheran. Since the Koskis had grown up in Soudan, the wedding would be at the Lutheran church there.
Bored by the wedding talk, Matti finally stood up.
“I better help, Matti,” Timo said. He looked glad to have an excuse to escape the house.
Matti was impressed by Timo’s new attitude. He was twice the worker he’d been last fall. When Timo noticed Matti’s back was hurting, he was careful to make sure that Matti didn’t strain himself with any heavy lifting.
They finished peeling the logs three days later. Matti and Timo put down their drawknives and stepped back to admire their work. Timo said, “We did good—”
“Look.” Matti cut him off. Together they turned toward the lake.
Timo said, “The ice is gone!”
Waves were rippling across the silver water. “I can’t believe I missed it,” Matti moaned. For the last week the ice had been darkening to a honeycombed sheet, and Matti had promised himself that he would see it go out. This morning there had been a big raft of ice in the middle of the lake, yet it had suddenly vanished.
They walked to the shore. “It sounds like summer again,” Timo said. Matti nodded. After listening to the mournful winds of winter, the lapping of the waves was heaven-sent music.
Just then Matti heard a shout. “Hey there, Kapteeni.”
It was Father. “For a minute I thought squatters had taken over my homestead claim.” He stepped forward and pumped Matti’s arm, but when Timo reached out to shake his hand, Father turned cold. “What brings you to the woods?” he asked. “Have you come out here to have your little brother teach you how to work? He’s been a godsend since I had to go off to the lumber camp.” Matti couldn’t believe his ears. For once his hard work had not gone unnoticed.
“I know I let you down,” Timo said. “But it won’t happen again.”
Father looked Timo in the eye for a long time. Finally he extended his hand. “Put her there,” he said in English. “I’m learning American talk from the men in camp.”
As the two men shook hands, Matti asked, “Are you done for the season, Father?”
“Not quite. I’ve been chomping at the bit ever since the bottom fell out of the ice roads, but I got stuck doing a heap of end-of-the-season repairs.”
The minute Father walked inside, Mother said, “Timo’s getting married.”
“What?” Father turned to Timo. When Timo nodded, Father grinned slowly. “If you’re set on making me into a grandpa, I’ll have to start looking for a rocking chair.”
“You don’t have a long enough beard to be a grandpa,” Kari said, and everyone laughed.
Mother added, “I think your father’s a bit too frisky for a rocking chair just yet.” Matti added, “Unless we can find one with wheels and a steam engine.”
At dawn the following morning, the men were hauling their tools down from the barn to start work on the cabin when Black Jack hollered from the shore. “Anybody home?” he said. “I thought you’d have the walls half done by now.” Maude trotted down to say hello.
“What a voice!” Timo said, shaking his head. “I’d forgotten all about your neighbor.”
Father nodded. “I figured he might stop over to help, but I didn’t expect him this early.”
“This isn’t so early for Black Jack.” Matti recalled last spring when Black Jack had often rousted him out of his blankets.
Anna and Kari ran out the door when they heard the commotion. “It’s Mr. Black Jack,” Kari shouted.
“You’ve got that right,” he called. “How about if you little ladies help this old lumberjack tie up his boat?”
Kari looped his stern rope over the dock post while Anna tied the front of his boat to a tree on shore. Using his axe handle for a cane, Black Jack planted his stump on the dock and climbed out of his boat. “That’s good, girls,” he said; then he reached in his pocket and handed them each a shiny penny.
“I don’t hear any chopping,” Black Jack called as his peg leg thumped on the dock. “Is that slugabed Matti up yet?”
“Morning, Jack,” Father said, grinning because Black Jack could see that Matti was standing right beside him.
Only a few minutes later Eino Saari and Tapio walked down the driveway, carrying axes. As Father shook Eino’s hand, Matti said, “Good morning, Tapio,” in English, and Tapio said “Good morning” back to Matti.
“Talk Finn, so a man can understand you,” Black Jack scolded.
“Times change, Jack,” Father said. “I’ve been thinking about asking Matti to give me English lessons, too.”
“That’d be a waste of time if you ask me,” Black Jack said. Then he turned to Eino. “Your boy looks a mite runty to heft a
n axe.”
“He may be little,” Eino countered, “but he’s a hard worker.”
Timo picked up a shovel and turned to Matti. “You ready to hit her hard, brother?”
Once the cornerstones were set, they divided into three crews. Father and Black Jack notched and fit the logs on one side, while Timo and Eino Saari took the opposite side. Matti and Tapio did the skidding.
As soon as Matti hitched up Maude and Katie and dragged the first log to the building site, the wood chips began to fly. The men worked so fast that by the time Tapio and Matti got a log positioned on one side, the fellows were calling for a log on the other side. Tapio got along with Katie, who took an instant liking to him, and with Black Jack, who decided that Tapio had “big sisu for a little guy.” As usual Black Jack whistled as he chopped, but this time his song had new parts to it.
Mother’s cooking helped keep everyone happy. Black Jack couldn’t get enough of the fresh baked pulla that Mother offered during the midmorning coffee break. Just before noon Mrs. Saari arrived with some piirakka, a delicious rye-crust pie filled with meat and potatoes and carrots, to go along with Mother’s soup.
When Black Jack raved about the food, Father said, “What do you know about fine cooking, Jack? You’d like anything that hadn’t sat in your stewpot for a month.”
“Stew ain’t eatable until it’s aged a bit.”
Only a week later Matti and Timo nailed the last roof board in place on their cabin. Though Mr. Saari had to work at the depot that day, Tapio stopped by to help them celebrate. After Matti hammered down the final nail, Father hung a birch bough on the gable for good luck. Then just as Timo tossed his hammer to the ground, Matti heard a loud caw.
He looked up and saw a crow sitting on the peak of the sauna roof. It tipped its head one way and then the other, then flew straight toward the new cabin. Just when it looked as if the bird were going to land at Matti’s feet, it flapped its wings and arced upward. As the crow passed overhead, it let out a sharp caw and rolled over twice in midair.
“I’ve never seen a crow do that,” Tapio said.
Father looked at Matti and smiled. Father’s eyes asked the same question that was turning in Matti’s mind, but Matti decided that he would never know the answer for sure.
While they picked up the tools, Black Jack walked over to the rowan tree. “This little beauty sure is growing fine,” he said.
Matti hadn’t looked at the rowan in a long time, and he was amazed to see tiny leaves opening on the branches.
“I thought those caterpillars had chewed it dead,” Father said.
“Can we decorate it for the wedding, Mother?” Anna asked.
“Wedding?” Black Jack said.
Father nodded. “Timo’s getting married in June.”
Black Jack’s eyes lit up. “I’ll make sure that I have my fiddle tuned and ready.”
CHAPTER 33
The next morning Timo needed to return to town. Before he said goodbye, he turned to Mother and Father. “Ida and I have been talking,” he said, “and we were wondering if you’d mind if we filed a homestead claim next to yours.”
“Mind?” Father said. “We’d be proud to have you as neighbors. And that way we could pass our section on to Matti one day—he surely deserves it.”
“What did you say?” Matti stared at Father.
“Is there something wrong with your ears? I said one day this farm will be yours.” He paused and smiled at Matti. “You earned it.”
“I’ll take a trip to the courthouse this week.” Timo waved and started down the path, then stopped. “I almost forgot. Ida’s parents would like you to come to dinner next Sunday.”
As Timo walked away, Father clapped Matti on the shoulder and said, “Your mother and I have been talking about how we could make things right by you. This will at least be a start.”
Matti stared at the cabin and the fields beyond. It took a long time for Father’s words to sink in. Could this land really be his someday? All Matti had ever wanted was Father’s respect. But having his own farm would be more than he’d ever dreamed.
Before the family could move their things from the sauna to the new cabin, Father and Matti had to tarpaper the roof. When they finished, Father climbed down and stepped inside the cabin. Though it was dark as a cave, Father paced the length of the room. “Our kitchen will go there,” he said, waving his hands, “and we’ll cut out a nice window overlooking the lake there. Then—”
“Anybody in here?” Mother poked her head into the room. “Why are you two standing in the dark? I’ll get the lamp.”
As she left, Father winked and said, “I think a saw would be a better idea. Don’t you?”
By the time Mother returned, Father had stepped outside and drawn pencil marks for a window, and Matti had fetched the brace and bit and a saw.
Father drilled a row of parallel holes and slid in the saw blade. Then as Matti cut down one vertical line, Father drilled starter holes on the other side. When both cuts were done, Father handed Matti the sledgehammer and said, “Would you do the honors? You’ve put a whole lot more labor into these logs than I have.”
Stepping into the cabin, which was lit only by sunlight from the rough-cut doorway and the flickering of Mother’s lamp, Matti thought back to his long shifts in the Soudan mine. As he hefted the hammer, he recalled the candle smoke and the ore dust and the constant powder smell of his steel-drilling days. If only Uncle Wilho could be here to share this moment!
Matti took a swing at the middle log. The wall just shivered. “Harder, Matti,” Kari yelled from the other side.
“Stand back,” Matti yelled, swinging with all his might. He hit the wall once and then again. The third blow brought a loud crack, and the girls yelled, “Hooray!” as the logs tumbled onto the ground. Dust rose into the air, and golden light poured through the opening. “How’s the view?” Father asked.
“Perfect!”
Anna and Kari ran to the doorway and hopped inside. “It’s as big as a castle,” Kari cried, extending her arms and twirling like a dancer in the middle of the floor.
“That makes us twin princesses,” Anna said.
Mother and the girls gave the cabin a good sweeping. Then Matti helped Mother carry in her dishes and her carved wooden trunk while the girls lugged the bedding and blankets. Mother opened her trunk. She picked up her porcelain bellpull with its braided velvet cord. Light flashed off the gilt rim and blue flowers. She held it in the corner. “How would it look here?” she asked.
“Perfect,” Matti said.
Anna and Kari were about to go outside when Matti asked, “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
They both thought for a moment, then they turned to each other. “Our special log,” they said, squeezing Matti’s hands. The girls searched every wall, but they couldn’t find their initials.
“Did you turn the log wrong-side out?” Kari asked.
Matti shook his head.
After the girls looked around the room one more time, Matti said, “Do you give up?”
They both nodded. “I’ll show you,” he said. Matti picked them both up. Turning slowly, he faced each wall in turn, saying, “It’s not there or there or there.” The girls looked confused. “But we’re getting very warm.”
Finally he tipped back their heads so that they could scan the long tie beam that ran down the middle of the cabin. The letters A.O. and K.O. were carved side by side along with the date, May 15, 1901. Matti had added it this morning.
“That’s the prettiest log in the whole house,” Kari said.
“No,” Anna said, “it’s the prettiest log in America.”
CHAPTER 34
The rest of the month was a mad rush for Mother to prepare for Timo’s wedding and for Matti and Father to ready the fields for planting. Luckily Father’s Christmas dynamite made their plowing much easier than last year. They seeded twice the ground and Father was confident that they would have extra grain and potatoes to sell in the fall.<
br />
Mother and Father had been all smiles since they returned from their dinner at the Koskis’. Mother called Mrs. Koski and Ida “dears,” and Father was convinced that he’d found another sauna partner in Mr. Koski. They also brought back a milk cow. Father said that it made sense to spend the money because they could sell enough cream and butter in a year to pay for it.
The girls were excited that they would have their very own cow, but when Father noticed Matti’s silence, he said, “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happiest of the lot, now that you won’t have to lug those milk pails from the Saaris’.”
“I was just thinking ahead.”
“To what?”
“To the cow barn we’re going to have to build,” Matti said.
Father slapped him on the back. “You’re beginning to understand how the world works.”
On the day before Timo’s wedding, Maude started eeoowing loudly up at the barn. Matti looked out on the lake and was surprised to see Black Jack rowing across with a passenger. Matti thought he might be out fishing with someone, but he kept pulling straight for their shore. Matti walked down to the end of the dock.
“My lady friend and I thought we’d come for a little visit,” Black Jack called.
The lady was Mrs. Winston. She smiled at Black Jack’s joke and waved. As Matti helped her out of the boat, she said, “Mr. Mattson was kind enough to escort me.”
Mother and the girls met the visitors halfway between the shore and the house. The girls trailed behind the ladies, whispering in awe about Mrs. Winston’s beautiful white hat and green gingham dress. Mother invited Mrs. Winston into the house for coffee while Matti took Black Jack to the barn to see Father.
After the visitors left, Matti and Father walked into the cabin and found Mother sitting at the table dabbing her eyes with a hanky. Her right hand was clenched in a tight fist.
Song of Sampo Lake Page 16