WHEN father bought the lamp, or a little before that, he said to mother

"A lamp? What sort of a lamp?" | "What! Don't you know that the storekeeper who lives in the market town has brought from St. Petersburg lamps that actually burn better than ten päreä?[1] They've already got a lamp of the sort at the parsonage." | "Oh, yes! Is n't it one of those things which shines in the middle of the room so that we can see to read in every corner, just as if it was broad daylight?" | "That's just it. There's oil that burns in it, and you only have to light it of an evening, and it burns on without going out till the next morning." | "But how can the wet oil burn?" | "You might as well ask—how can brandy burn?" | Juhani Aho. "When Father Brought Home the Lamp," Translated by R. Nisbet Bain. in: Stories by Foreign Authors–Scandinavian, Cassell Publishing Co. 1898.