ed man, to a small extent.
He can read, and, above all, he possesses the Word of God in a language
which he understands.

In bodily size, however, the Red Indian beats him; for as a race the
Lapps are particularly small, though they are well proportioned and
active.

They are seldom visited by strangers; and it is not improbable that when
the two carts dashed into their village our friends were the first
Englishmen they had ever seen.

It happened to rain heavily during the last part of the journey to the
Lapp village. To the surprise and amusement of the travellers, Bob
Bowie drew forth from his cart a huge red cotton umbrella which he had
purchased at Bergen, and which, seeing the sky cloudy, he had brought
with him in the hope that he might have occasion to use (that is, to
display) it.

The rain, however, did not depress the spirits of the party a whit.
Nothing in the shape of water could damp their enthusiasm.

If any one wants to see a poor, ragged, diminutive, wizened, yet jolly
race of human beings,--a race of beings who wear hairy garments, sup
reindeer's milk with wooden spoons, and dwell in big bee-hives,--he has
only got to go to Lapland and see the Lapps.

Quitting the carts at the outskirts of the village, the travellers
advanced into the centre of it just as the natives were driving a herd
of reindeer into an enclosure to be milked.

There could not have been fewer than three hundred reindeer-stags, does,
and numerous fawns; and these, they afterwards learned, constituted the
entire wealth of three families of Lapps.

As Fred and his friends strode into the enclosure, and came upon these
good people rather suddenly, their amazement was unspeakable at finding
they had bagged a party of giants along with their deer. Even scraggy
Sam Sorrel looked quite big compared with them.

After the first gaze and shout of surprise, they crowded round the
strangers, and they all--men, women, and children--began to eye and paw
them over, and to examine their costumes with deep interest. The
diminutive size of the Lapps became very apparent as they were thus
engaged. None of the men were much, if at all, above five feet, several
were considerably under that height, and the women were short in
proportion.

If the bosoms of these Lapps were small, their hearts must certainly
have been very large, for they received their visitors with great warmth
and delight. Altogether they were a jovial and hearty, thoug