"And as big a one as I ever set eyes on," said the other. "I don't see how you ever dared to tackle him, Henrik. I should have hesitated for a moment, myself." It was so late in the day when they all got back to the camp that father said: "Boys, you had better stay all night, unless you think your mother will worry about you." "We told her we might not come home to-day," said Ole. "It is such a long tramp, she said we had better not try, for we would get too tired. So it is all right." How good the bear steak looked when it was set on the rough supper-table. It was smoked a good deal,--that was certain; but no one spoke or even thought of that. And the table was not elegant, for there was no cloth to cover the rough pine boards. But the fresh cheese, the kind mother had sent, the hard brown bread baked by the men, with plenty of bear steak and a bowl of steaming coffee, made a supper "fit for a king," as the boys declared when they could eat no more. CHAPTER IX. THE LAPPS "PERHAPS this seems a cold place to you, when you think of the warm farmhouse you left yesterday," said one of the workmen to Henrik. "You ought to go to the far north, and visit the Lapps. Ah! you will find plenty of cold weather there. But those queer people don't seem to notice it very much. I suppose that is because they have got used to it, since they never lived anywhere else." "Do tell us about them," begged Ole. "I didn't know you had ever been to Lapland, Adolf." [Illustration: "'IT IS ALWAYS IN THE SHAPE OF A MOUND.'"] "Yes, when I was a young man I was a great hunter, Ole. I have travelled all over this country and have seen many strange sights." "I should like to be a hunter, too," said Henrik. "It must be great sport getting the wild reindeer. But go on, Adolf, and tell us about the homes of the Lapps, and their herds of tame reindeer, as well as the queer ways of the people." "They are a strange people, that is a fact," said Adolf. "They are queer-looking and queer in their ways. They are very small, few of them over five feet tall, and they are quite stout. Their skin is of a dark yellow; the hair is jet-black, coarse and straight; their cheek-bones, high; and their eyes are blue and small. Their little noses turn up in a comical way, and their mouths are often open as though they were surprised at something." "I suppose they dress in fur, don't they?" asked Ole. "O yes, from head to foot. But they get all they need from the skins of their reindeer. They wear high boots bound tightly around their legs in winter-time, so they are able to keep dry, even if they are out in the worst snow-storm." "What are their houses made of?" asked Henrik. "I suppose lumber is scarce where they live." "Sometimes the people make a frame-work of timber and cover it first with skins and then with turf. Sometimes the hut is built of stones, over which the turf is thickly laid. But it is always in the shape of a mound." "Are there any windows in the hut?"