Matti had, in his mind, so many times thanked the overwhelming liking of the hansa merchants for squirrel skin; how many winters had these skins not helped Matti, his wife Aino and their endlessly growing family to survive! Matti used to exchange the squirrel skins for sacks of grain provided by the merchants. Matti did have a field of his own, but just a tiny little one. The only cabbage land sometimes gave more harvest than they needed. Matti was very proud of his hard-working wife who used to spin and weave as often as she could find time from her other work.

Matti had a cottage of his own in which lived not only his family but in the heart of winter also his cow, sheep and chickens. The pig that Matti had bought at the fair last spring had been the childrens' favourite. Huge was the sorrow and weeping when it was slaughtered in the autumn. By Christmas the grief had, however, been forgotten.