STORY OF THE REINDEER. 
The most enjoyable sleigh ride I ever took was behind a pair of reindeer. 
After that trip of nearly four hundred miles I could readily understand why 
Santa Claus selected the reindeer to carry him on his annual gift-making 
tour. The reindeer is a rapid, sure-footed traveler, and is guided as easily 
as one would guide a well-trained horse. 
My companion on this trip was a Laplander, or a Lap, as we commonly 
call the inhabitants of Lapland. He was a well-to-do little fellow who lived 
m comfort, for he had a large herd of reindeer. The wealth of a Lap does 
not depend on the amount of money or land in his possession, but upon 
the number of deer he owns. If he owns from four to six hundred head 
he is rich; from two hundred to three hundred he is in comfortable circum¬ 
stances; if he possesses only one hundred he leads a hand-to-mouth exist¬ 
ence; if he has but fifty head, he is obliged to join his animals with the herd 
of a richer man in order to make a living. The reindeer serves the Lap 
as a beast of burden and supplies him with food and clothing. 
From the nature of the country it inhabits,'the reindeer is compelled 
to lead a migratory life, in which the natives, who have to depend entirely 
for their subsistence on the animal, have to participate. Troops of them 
during the winter months reside in the woods, feeding on the lichens that 
hang from the boughs of the trees, as well as on those that grow upon the 
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