nreal. As she went on to open the door, she
thought:

"This must be the person little Mats promised to send me."

She was right, for it was Thumbietot come to talk to her about her
father.

When he saw that she was not afraid of him, he told her in a few words
where her father was and how to reach him.

While he was speaking, Osa, the goose girl, gradually regained
consciousness; when he had finished she was wide awake.

Then she was so terrified at the thought of talking with an elf that she
could not say thank you or anything else, but quickly shut the door.

As she did that she thought she saw an expression of pain flash across
the elf's face, but she could not help what she did, for she was beside
herself with fright. She crept into bed as quickly as she could and drew
the covers over her head.

Although she was afraid of the elf, she had a feeling that he meant well
by her. So the next day she made haste to do as he had told her.

WITH THE LAPLANDERS

One afternoon in July it rained frightfully up around Lake Luossajaure.
The Laplanders, who lived mostly in the open during the summer, had
crawled under the tent and were squatting round the fire drinking
coffee.

The new settlers on the east shore of the lake worked diligently to have
their homes in readiness before the severe Arctic winter set in. They
wondered at the Laplanders, who had lived in the far north for centuries
without even thinking that better protection was needed against cold and
storm than thin tent covering.

The Laplanders, on the other hand, wondered at the new settlers giving
themselves so much needless, hard work, when nothing more was necessary
to live comfortably than a few reindeer and a tent.

They only had to drive the poles into the ground and spread the covers
over them, and their abodes were ready. They did not have to trouble
themselves about decorating or furnishing. The principal thing was to
scatter some spruce twigs on the floor, spread a few skins, and hang the
big kettle, in which they cooked their reindeer meat, on a chain
suspended from the top of the tent poles.

While the Laplanders were chatting over their coffee cups, a row boat
coming from the Kiruna side pulled ashore at the Lapps' quarters.

A workman and a young girl, between thirteen and fourteen, stepped from
the boat. The girl was Osa. The Lapp dogs bounded down to them, barking
loudly, and a native poked his head out of the tent opening to see