arrangement, I suppose."

"You'll understand it right enough when I've bought one."

"How much does it cost?"

"Seven and a half marks, and the oil separate at one mark the
can."

"Seven and a half marks and the oil as well! Why, for that you
might buy parea for many a long day--that is, of course, if you
were inclined to waste money on such things at all, but when Pekka
splits them not a penny is lost."

"And you'll lose nothing by the lamp, either! Pare wood costs
money too, and you can't find it everywhere on our land now as you
used to. You have to get leave to look for such wood, and drag it
hither to the bog from the most out-of-the-way places--and it's
soon used up, too."

Mother knew well enough that pare wood is not so quickly used up
as all that, as nothing had been said about it up to now, and that
it was only an excuse to go away and buy this lamp. But she wisely
held her tongue so as not to vex father, for then the lamp and all
would have been unbought and unseen. Or else some one else might
manage to get a lamp first for his farm, and then the whole parish
would begin talking about the farm that had been the FIRST, after
the parsonage, to use a lighted lamp. So mother thought the matter
over, and then she said to father: