The sun. (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1906-04-28

Suddenly, just as the yellow sunlight
overhead had begun to fade, the fiat
faced Finn, whose name he had told me
was Felix Estlander, cried joyfully-
"Polushaite! Look, Excellency! All!
The road at last!" H|
And as we glanced before us we saw
that his quick, well-trained eyes had de-
tected away in the twilight, at some dis
lance, path traversing our vista among
the gray-green treetrunks. Then, hur-
rying along, we found ourselves upon
track, on which we turned to the right
a track, rough and deeply-rutted by the
felled trunks that were dragged along 1t
to the nearest river.
Elma made a gesture of renewed hope,
and all three of us redoubled our pace,
expecting every moment to come upon
some log hut, the owner of which would
surely give us hospitality for the night.
But darkness came on quickly, and yet
we still pushed forward. Poor Elma was
limping, and I knew that her injured
foot was paining her, even though she
could tell me nothing.
At last, however, after walking for
nearly four hours in the almost impen-
etrable forest gloom, always fearing lest
we might miss the path, our hearts sud
denly beat quickly by seeing before us a
light shining in q window, and five min
utes later Felix was knocking at the
door, and asking in Finnish the occupant
to give hospitality to u lady lost in the
forest.
We heard low growl like muttered
imprecation within, and when the door
opened there stood upon the threshold a
tall, bearded, muscular old fellow in a
dirty red shirt, with big revolver shin
ing in his hand. A quick glance at us
satisfied him that we were not thieves,
and he invited us in while Felix ex-
planned that we had landed from the
lake, and our boat having drifted away
we had been compelled to take to the
woods. The man heard the Firms pic
turesque story, and then said something
to me which Felix translated into Rus,
sian.
"Your Excellency is welcome to all the
poor fare he has. He gives up his bed
in the room yonder to the lady, 80 that
she may rest. He is honored by your
Excellency's presence"
And while he was making this expla.
nation the herculean wood.cutter in the
red shirt stirred the red embers where
upon a big pot was simmeripg, and send
ing forth an appetizing odor, and in five
minutes we were all three sitting down
to a stew of capercailzie, with foaminr
light beer as fitting beverage. We fin
ished the dish with such lightning rapid
ity that our host boiled us a number Of
eggs, which, fear, denuded his larder.
The place was poor one OF two low
rooms, built of rough log pines, will
double windows for the winter and 9
high brick stove. Cleanliness was moi
exactly its characteristic, nevertheless
we oil passed very comfortable hour
and received warm welcome from thu
lonely old fellow who passed his life 81
far beyond European civilization, ant
whose house, he told us, was Otter
showed up and cut off from oil the worlt
for three or four months at time.
After we had finished our meal.
asked the sturdy old fellow for a pencil
but the nearest thing he possessed was 6
stick OF charcoal, and with that it wa,
surely difficult to communicate with oul
fair companion. Therefore she rose
gave me her hand, bowed smilingly, ant
then passed into the inner room anC
closed the door.
The old wood-cutter gave us som,
coarse tobacco, and after smoking ant
chatting for an hour we threw ourselye,
wearily upon the wooden benches ant
slept soundly.
Suddenly, however, at early dawn, W,
were startled by loud banging at tn,
door, the Gathering of hoofs, and au
thoritative shouts in Russian The OLD
wood-cutter sprang up, and looking
through q chink in the heavy shutters