ose souls he captivated by showing and
explaining to them the interior of his watch. As the lecture was
delivered in English, it is not to be supposed that the audience
profited much by means of their ears, but their eyes did double duty
that day; at least one might reasonably suppose so, from the immense
size to which they were constantly expanded!

They evidently did not know whether to regard the watch as a mechanical
contrivance or a living creature. In the study of this mysterious thing
they were somewhat distracted by the presence of their first love the
umbrella, which the lecturer had erected over his head in order to
shield his timepiece from the rain. Fred and Grant went about
everywhere, looking at everything, and talking, as they best could, to
everybody.

Meanwhile the three hundred deer, in the midst of which they had been
standing all this time, kept moving about the enclosure, emitting a
peculiar grunting sound, and making a strange clicking noise with their
ankle-joints. This is a well-known peculiarity of the reindeer. Every
time they lift or set down their feet, the ankle-joints crack as do the
knuckles of a man when he pulls his fingers. As these deer were
constantly getting up and lying down, the twittering rattle of their
ankle-joints was unceasing.

Presently the schoolmaster's wife took a small wooden cup, milked one of
the does, and handed the proceeds to Fred. He was surprised to find the
milk as thick and as pleasant to the taste as the richest cream; and he
was still more surprised to be told that all that could be got from a
doe at any one time was about half a tea-cupful.

The deer varied in colour from dark brown to almost white. The stags
stood about three feet eight inches high at the shoulder, and the
antlers were about three feet long, following the curve.

Quitting the enclosure, the party next visited several of the huts,--
which were made of moss, turf, sticks, etcetera, put together in such a
confused way, that it was difficult to make out how they had been
formed. A hole in the side was the only door to each hut, and a hole in
the top was the window and chimney. In one of these they found an
extremely old woman seated on a pile of dirty deerskins. Sam Sorrel
said he was convinced she was the schoolmaster's great-grandmother. She
looked like a living mummy, so small and wrinkled and brown and dried up
was the poor old body. Yet she was lively enough to show signs