queerly-dressed folk, but we did not see much expedition, and before we left Finland we fqund that the boasted hour and forty minutes advance on the clock really meant much the same thing as our own time, for about this period was always wasted in preparations, so that in the end England and Finland were about quits with the great enemy. Two delightful Finnish proverbs tell us, "Time is always before one," "God did not create hurry," and, as a nation, Finns gratefully accept the fact.
Every one seemed to be met by friends, showing how rarely strangers visit the land. Indeed the arrival of the Hull boat, once a week, is one of the great events of Helsingfors life, and every one who can goes down to see her come in.
A delightful lady—a Finlander—who had travelled with us, and had told us about her home in Boston, where she holds classes for Swedish gymnastics, was all excitement when her friends came on board. She travels to Suomi every year, spending nearly three weeks en route, to enjoy a couple of months' holiday in the summer at her father's parsonage, near Hangö. That remarkably fine specimen of his race, Herr S———, was met by wife, and brother, and a host of students—for he returned from Malmo, victorious, with the Finnish flag. He, with twenty-three friends, had just been to Sweden for a gymnastic competition, in which Finland had won great honours, and no wonder, if the rest of the twenty-three were as well-made and well-built as this hardy descendant of a Viking race.
Then again the Finnish gentleman had to be transhipped with his family, his horses, his groom, and his dogs, to wait for the next vessel to convey them nearer to his country seat, with its excellent fishing close to Imatra. He was said to be one of the wealthiest men in Finland, although he really lives in England, and merely returns to his native country in the summer months to catch salmon, trout, or grayling.
Then—oh yes, we must not forget them—there were the emigrants, nearly sixty in number, returning from America
