red the provisions for a second or two. Then, going over
to a dunnage bag near his bunk, he pulled its contents about until he
found a bright red silk handkerchief and a red flannel shirt. Their
colour was too gaudy for his taste. "These things are for your squaw,"
he said.

Sacobie was delighted. Archer tied the articles into a neat pack and
stood it in the corner, beside his guest's rifle.

"Now you had better turn in," he said, and blew out the light.

In ten minutes both men slept the sleep of the weary. The fire, a great
mass of red coals, faded and flushed like some fabulous jewel. The wind
washed over the cabin and fingered the eaves, and brushed furtive hands
against the door.

It was dawn when Archer awoke. He sat up in his bunk and looked about
the quiet, gray-lighted room. Sacobie Bear was nowhere to be seen.

He glanced at the corner by the door. Rifle and pack were both gone.
He looked up at the rafter where his slab of bacon was always hung. It,
too, was gone.

He jumped out of his bunk and ran to the door. Opening it, he looked
out. Not a breath of air stirred. In the east, saffron and scarlet,
broke the Christmas morning, and blue on the white surface of the world
lay the imprints of Sacobie's round snowshoes.

For a long time the trapper stood in the doorway in silence, looking out
at the stillness and beauty.

"Poor Sacobie!" he said, after a while. "Well, he's welcome to the
bacon, even if it is all I had."

He turned to light the fire and prepare breakfast. Something at the foot
of his bunk caught his eye. He went over and took it up. It was a cured
skin--a beautiful specimen of fox. He turned it over, and on the white
hide an uncultured hand had written, with a charred stick, "Archer."

"Well, bless that old red-skin!" exclaimed the trapper, huskily. "Bless
his puckered eyes! Who'd have thought that I should get a Christmas
present?"

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Children's Book of Christmas
Stories, by Various

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTMAS STORIES ***

***** This file should be named 5061.txt or 5061.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/6/5061/

Produced by Dianne Bean

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these