The woman took the cover off the pot and filled three dishes with the
good-smelling soup. Each of the three now placed his dish before him on
the ground, and the meal began.
Nothing had ever tasted so good to Sami in all his life as this soup. It
was not a thin soup, it was as thick as pulp, of cooked peas and
potatoes, and with this quite large lumps of meat came into his spoon.
When he had finished, the woman said:
"You can go to sleep whenever you want to. In the back of the wagon there
is room, and your bundle will make a good pillow."
This seemed a little strange to Sami, and he said:
"Must I sleep in my clothes?"
The woman thought he would find that he would not be too warm in the
night. He would be ready all the sooner in the morning. Then he could
wash his face quickly down in the lake and be all in order again for
the next day.
Sami was tired. He went immediately to the wagon and climbed up from the
back, and was able to slip in under the big cover. There was a little
room where he could lie down, and next him came the four little children,
one after another. Sami sat down and said his evening prayer. Then he
thought of his grandmother for a while, and what she would say if she
could see him thus in the wagon, and know that he would have to sleep all
the time in his clothes, and if only she could see how it looked in the
wagon, so dirty and in disorder.
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