` Oh ! there is father at last , ' cried the boy ; but the mother bade him cease from idle talking . ` But , mother , it is true ; father is coming ! ' repeated the child . And , to satisfy him , the woman turned round and perceived her husband . Oh , how glad they all were to be together again ! And when the wind whistled through the forest , and the snow stood in great banks round the door , the father used to take the little boy on his knee and tell him how he caught salmon in the Land of the Sun . How the Stalos Were Tricked -LSB- From the Journal of the Anthropological Institute . -RSB- ` Mother , I have seen such a wonderful man , ' said a little boy one day , as he entered a hut in Lapland , bearing in his arms the bundle of sticks he had been sent out to gather . ` Have you , my son ; and what was he like ? ' asked the mother , as she took off the child 's sheepskin coat and shook it on the doorstep . ` Well , I was tired of stooping for the sticks , and was leaning against a tree to rest , when I heard a noise of ` sh - ` sh , among the dead leaves . I thought perhaps it was a wolf , so I stood very still . But soon there came past a tall man -- oh ! twice as tall as father -- with a long red beard and a red tunic fastened with a silver girdle , from which hung a silver-handled knife . Behind him followed a great dog , which looked stronger than any wolf , or even a bear . But why are you so pale , mother ? ' ` It was the Stalo , ' replied she , her voice trembling ; ` Stalo the man-eater ! You did well to hide , or you might never had come back . But , remember that , though he is so tall and strong , he is very stupid , and many a Lapp has escaped from his clutches by playing him some clever trick . '
Not long after the mother and son had held this talk , it began to be whispered in the forest that the children of an old man called Patto had vanished one XXXXX one , no one knew whither .
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