Stina pulled a face of great disappointment and retired to the ranks of the women.
Ibba came forward, to offer him a huge round rock as big as his head. Again he examined it gravely, but decided that it was not the same as the stones in his mother's arran. Woman after woman and stone after stone he inspected and rejected, and the roars of laughter from the gathered herdfolk grew louder as the stones were more and more unfit for a hearth. At last came Tranta, Elsa's friend, to insult him by offering him a handful of pebbles and bark bits for his hearth. Again he refused, asking loudly of the surrounding folk, is there no woman here who can build a hearth fit for a new hut such as this?'
The huddle of women parted and Elsa stepped out. Her warm skin was flushed even rosier than usual, her eyes shining bright. She wore a new cap of red wool and her black hair shone where it peeped from beneath it. Instead of a tunic of caribou hide, she wore a cloak of white fox fur over a woven shirt and a knee-length skirt of woven wool with fringes around the hem. A murmur of approval rose from the folk as she slowly approached the hut. In her two hands she held a fine flat arran stone.
Heckram took it from her gravely, their eyes meeting for a long moment as he received the weight of it. He turned it in his big hands, examining it gravely over and over again, until the crowd began to murmur at the delay. Elsa's dark eyes were wide when he finally looked up from the stone. He tried to keep the mischief out of his eyes.
'This, for a hearth stone?' he asked dubiously, and at the outraged cries of the women, he dropped the jest hastily and added, 'will make the finest arran a man could warm himself at. Your hearth stone I will take into the hut, and you with it.'
He put it gravely back into her hands and stepped back inside the hut to allow her passage. In the center of the hut, under the smoke hole, was an area left free of birch twigs. Here she put the stone. She worked carefully to set it into the earth. All was quiet as she left the hut and then returned with another stone to fit into place beside the first one. Again, and yet again, and then at last she came bearing a burning torch kindled from her mother's hearth. Her mother, Missa, and Ristin came behind her, bearing wood for the new fire. Early evening was falling, and the torch burned very brightly in the twilight. Once more Heckram lifted the doorhide to let her pass through. This time Missa and Ristin followed her, and faces crowded the door as Elsa knelt to build and kindle the first fire on the new hearth stones.
When the flames burned hot and high, she moved to Heckram's side. Together they turned to the folk clustered at the door. 'Why do you stand about outside in the cold night?' Heckram demanded. 'Come in and warm yourself at the fine fire my woman has built on our hearth.'
'Do not stand under the sky. Come into the tight hut my man has built for me and warm yourselves. We are poor folk, newly joined, but we will share with you what we have!'
The silence broke in a hubbub of voices as well-wishers pushed inside. All loudly admired the tight walls and bright flames of the fire. Then, one after another, they found fault with the new home, is there nothing to sit on but birch twigs?' demanded Kuoljok loudly. 'Well, I have here a poor rabbit hide that may keep the twigs from their skin!' So saying the bride's father unrolled a finely cured bear hide before the new hearth.
'Will they offer their guests nothing to eat?' panted Stina. 'Well, I've a small pot of tea I can spare them.' With a grunt of effort, she set a heavy pot of stew, still simmering from her own hearth's heat, onto the stones of the new arran.
'And how will they stir it? With a stick or a finger?' demanded Ibba. She plunged a newly carved bone ladle deep into the savory stew.
'She'll be a lazy wife that has put aside no cheese for the winter,' Lasse predicted woefully and proceeded to hang six large ones from the new rafters.
Heckram and Elsa could but sit on the bear hide before the new hearth, admitting their poverty and incompetence at home building, as their friends and relatives contributed to the new hearth. Tomorrow they would fetch from their old homes their possessions, but tonight their comfort would depend on the generosity of others. Elsa's eyes shone as her fingers stroked the bear rug they sat on. Ristin bore in spits of meat to set over the flames, all the while telling her neighbors how relieved she was to get her lazy son out of her hut. Missa, cutting cheese and ladling up stew for the guests, loudly confided to them that her daughter knew nothing at all of keeping a home warm and well supplied. Laughter greeted every disparaging remark, and the predictions of misfortune and misery grew wilder as every guest took a turn.
'So poor a hunter will feed his wife on shrews and mice!'
'The hair will slip from the hides she tans and her weaving come unwound!'
'His crooked arrows will fly into the trees, and her cheeses be rank and spoiled.'
'Am I too late to offer a stone for the hearth?'
All eyes turned to the hut's door and the late arrival who stood there. Kari was framed there, managing to look at once timorous and arrogant. No others of the herdlord's family had seen fit to attend this joining. The slight had been felt, though not commented on. Now she was unexpected, and no one moved to welcome her. Her cheeks blushed dark red, and her eyes shone. In her hand she held out a lump of amber as big as her fist. Kuoljok gasped audibly. Silence fell like a heavy snow, swirling among the guests as all stared at the proffered wealth. It was an awkward offering, out of keeping with their tradition. The quiet grew longer and the girl's discomfort grew.
Lasse stepped into the awkwardness, 'I never saw a stone like that in my mother's hearth!' he exclaimed. The guests laughed nervously.
'I shall set it by the arran,' Kari exclaimed loudly, her voice cracking in her nervousness. Eyes and silence followed her as she crossed to the hearth and knelt to set the yellow lump before the new couple.
Stina looked at Lasse and cleared her old throat. Her voice cracked as she observed,
'Don't set it there! Elsa will mix it with the kindling and try to burn it for wood!'
The jest was close enough for people anxious to be at ease. The moment of embarrassment passed, and the talk and laughter rose again in the night. Kari looked at Lasse gratefully and he responded by offering her some of the freshly roasted meat.
The talk grew louder; a keg of juobmo and then a keg of beer were opened. Someone brought in sausages from the meat racks. The fuel on the hearth was replenished and the flames leaped high again. Ristin made another trip to the meat racks. The air in the hut grew thick with the odors of people, roasting meat, and beer. Dark eyes shone and wide cheeks flushed as unjoined women flirted outrageously with the young men, and the older couples recalled the warming memories of their own joinings.
Several hides now graced the twig-strewn floor, and sundry tools and implements hung from the rafters. These, the poorer folk of the herd, had been generous. A komse, of wood and leather, was propped unabashedly in the corner, in the calm expectation that Elsa would fill it before the year was out. Cradle of a nomadic folk, it was fitted with straps so the baby could be hung from a pack saddle or hooked on a tree branch.
The buzzing voices and sudden shouts of laughter spilled into the night as the herdfolk rejoiced. And Elsa, squirming closer to Heckram, observed softly, 'Late as the night is, you would think they would seek their own hearths!'
'But the night is young still,' he protested and then, as he looked down into her face and saw her warm eagerness, felt a similar impatience stir within him. She knelt beside him on the bear skin. He was suddenly aware of her thigh warm against his. Her mouth parted in a smile as she saw the interest kindled in his eyes. Heedless of the others, he bent suddenly to kiss her. Her mouth was wet under his, and warm, tasting of the southern beer.
He did not see Lasse's grin, but heard it in his voice as he yawned loudly and exclaimed, 'Well, some of us have to hunt tomorrow. And those that do will want to sleep tonight.' He rose slowly.
'Kuoljok said he saw wolf signs on the south ridge,' Ristin observed, 'I think I will hunt there tomorrow.'
Lasse was holding the doorhide aside as Kari slipped out into the night. Ibba and Bror were not far behind.
'It's not such a bad hut, after all,' Kuoljok observed, and Missa nodded, her eyes shining with moisture as she stepped away from her daughter's hearth.
'The fire burns well,' Ristin agreed. She followed them out the door.
Heckram and Elsa sat before their hearth as their guests, with various inconsequential remarks, slipped out into the night. Stina puttered about a moment longer after the others had left, banking the fire and lifting a pot from
