It is a bit eccentric to read this Estonian classic online in a facsimile of its original 1912 edition. If you are already a fan of “Kevade” (Spring) from one of the 20 or so reprint editions though, it is kind of fascinating to go back and see where it all began when Oskar Luts had to self-publish the first part of his “Tootsi lood” (Tales of Toots) because no publisher would accept it.

The story of "Kevade I" is quite self-contained as it goes from the start of the school year through to a picturesque Christmas with the main tension of the plot centring around the mystery of who among the Estonians sank the raft belonging to the rival school with its Germanic landowner sons. Young schoolboy Arno Tali struggles with issues of truth, friendship and first-love as he arrives at school to meet the prankster Joosep Toots (who became the charismatic focus of the later books), the snobbish Georg Adniel Kiir, the stolid Tõnisson and, of course, the later lost love of his youth Raja Teele.

The digital restoration by the Estonian Literary Museum online at http://kreutzwald.kirmus.ee/et/lisamaterjalid/ajatelje_materjalid?item_id=156&am... is immaculate and makes for an easy online reading experience, except for the fact that you have to get used to seeing the Germanic “w” used for the present day “v” throughout.
There are probably several differences with later published versions, but I especially noticed that the famous opening line of Chapter I was originally written as “Kui Arno isaga koolimajasse jõudis, olid tunnid juba peale hakanud.” (When Arno arrived at the schoolhouse with his father, the classes had already started.) The line later became ""Kui Arno isaga koolimajja jõudis, olid tunnid juba alanud” (same English meaning).
Another curiousity in the 1912 edition is that Chapter IX begins with “Joosep Tootsiga, sündinud aastal 1883, jäi asi niiwiisi…” (With Joosep Toots, born in the year 1883, things remained as they were…). Later editions drop the birth-year, presumably in an effort to not date the book too specifically, although it is obviously still taking place during a time when Estonia was part of the Russian Tsarist Empire.For instance, the snowball fight makes all sorts of references to the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War with the schoolboys lining up on opposing Russian and Turkish sides with Joosep Toots playing General Mikhail Skobolev in the attack on the Grivitsa redoubt at the Battle of Pleven. ( )