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The cowhouse is warm and dusky. You can see the dark outlines of the cows. The straws are rustling and the joints are creaking when the cows are changing their position. Someone lays herself down, someone gets on her feet in order to stretch the legs. The cows are chewing their fodder that has been very generous today – it is Christmas night after all. The horn-heads are in their places side by side and with their tails they are driving flies away, not only from their own loins but also from their neighbour’s loins. But something else is happening, too. Someone is sneaking on the passage. Is it a cat or has someone come to the cowhouse by mistake? No, not at all. It is the guardian spirit of the cowhouse, the cowhouse elf. He moves softly and quietly. The cows don’t like loud voices or sudden movements. However, they know where the elf is moving. When he moves, the ears of the cows turn always toward him. The elf is on his nightly rounds. He makes sure that the water cups are full and everyone has got its fodder and that no one has any harms. Sometimes a cow has quarrels with her neighbour. Then the elf has to whisper to the housewife that Bilberry must be moved from the side of Strawberry to the middle of Viola and Rose. The housewife understands right away that she must do so. |
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 On Christmas night the cowhouse elf likes to tell the cows a fairy tale. When the elf has seen that everything is all right he sits down on the stool of the the cowhouse passage. One of the younger cows is so delighted that she begins to moo. Otherwise the cows are waiting quite calmly for the fairy tale – they know that the tale is the same every Christmas. The fact is that the cows like it so very much that there is no need to change it. So it has been through many tens of years. Once the elf tried to change it by telling another story, but the result was unhappy mooing and swaying of horns. Well, it was then. The story will always be the one and only:
The story: ‘Christmas present of the elf’ by Juhani Aho |
