GREAT RIVERS OF FINLAND. 199 



quite equal, curious as it may seem to say so, to 

 any hotel in Europe. 



At our modest inn an acquaintance of the train 

 turned up who could speak a word or two of English, 

 making the usual reference to the useful Finnish 

 or Swedish vocabulary quite unnecessary. It was 

 now ten o'clock in the evening, and the sun was 

 still shining brightly when we retired to bed, having 

 closed a door leading into the next room, where a 

 deep and evidently serious discussion between three 

 was being carried on. One is supposed to hear 

 everything which goes on in a wooden house, even a 

 person's thoughts. Our friends in the adjoining 

 room were evidently holding an all-night sitting of 

 a more wordy and party character than even the 

 British House of Commons, and their voices mixed 

 with one's dreams, until at six in the morning nature 

 rebelled, and we awoke. Judging by the sound, 

 personal violence might have been expected to ensue 

 at any moment. The emphatic " Ya ! ya !" or affir- 

 mative adverb) was followed by as emphatic a nega- 

 tive, accompanied with heavy blows upon the table 

 and a torrent of words, sounding all the more con- 

 clusive because their meaning was unknown. 



The end was near at hand, and when we next 

 awoke to consciousness the sunlight was gleaming 

 brightly through an open window, while it could 

 hardly be said to have really set; and a girl was 

 standing at the bedside with such cream and coffee as 

 only Swedes and Finlanders know how to make. It 



