"That is good, for I have heard that the Lapps don't stay in one place all their lives. They are a wandering people, aren't they?" "Yes, Ole, but one reason for that is the need of finding good feeding-grounds for their deer. When one place becomes bare, they must seek another. Then, again, in the summer-time they like to go to the rivers and camp beside them for the sake of the salmon fishing. They are as fond as we of a good dish of salmon for dinner." "What do the reindeer feed on?" asked Henrik. "In winter they paw away the snow and find the lichen, which is a little gray plant very much like the moss you see growing on the mountainside about here. In summer they eat the young and tender shoots on the bushes and low trees. They are very hardy creatures and among the most useful." "Just think!" cried Ole. "The reindeer furnish the Lapps with everything they need,--their clothing, food, and shelter; and, as if that were not enough, they make good beasts of burden, and carry their masters wherever they wish to go." "I shall tell Mari all about them when I get home," Ole went on. "I know one question my busy little sister will ask at once. She will say, 'What do the women and children do with themselves all the time?' How shall I answer that question, Adolf?" "You may tell Mari there is plenty of work for them. They dress the reindeer skins, and make lovely rugs and warm slippers turned up at the toes and bound with red." "Why, yes, Ole, your mother has a pair of slippers made by the Lapp women," interrupted his father. "I bought them for her at Bergen, and she wears them on cold winter mornings." "That is so, I remember them; but I never thought about the Lapps when I looked at them," answered Ole. "Is there anything else the women of Lapland make, Adolf?" "Many things. They showed me knives and spoons they had shaped out of the horns of the reindeer. They were very pretty, and a great deal of time must have been spent on the carving. The men and boys do most of this last work. I really think the most wonderful thing I saw was the thread the women make of the reindeer sinews. It is fine and even, yet very strong. I wish I could have seen them making it." Adolf yawned. "I am so sleepy I think it must be bedtime. There's a hard day's work before us to-morrow." After fresh wood had been laid on the fire, the party quickly settled themselves for the night's rest. CHAPTER X. HOLIDAY FROLICS "FATHER'S coming, father's coming!" cried Mari as she stood looking down the snow-covered valley. She rushed into the house and put on her skis, then skimmed across the fields with long strides. "Everything is ready," she told her father as soon as she reached him. "And now we shall have a lovely Christmas because you have come."