WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG
Little Spot, the wilful young reindeer, trembled as he crowded up to his
mother. He couldn’t get close enough to her. He no longer wanted to be
out in the Great World by himself. He wondered that his mother did not
run. Every moment or two he looked back to see if those wolves were
coming up over the hill. But Big Spot seemed in no hurry at all. You
see, she was wise with the wisdom of experience. She didn’t want Little
Spot to get over his fright so soon that he would forget the lesson he
had learned. Then, too, she wanted him to get rested a little and get
his wind back.
At last, she quieted Little Spot’s fears. “Those wolves did not chase
you, my son,” said she. “They chased the young caribou, and it is very
fortunate for you that they did.”
“I’m sure I could run faster than those wolves,” said Little Spot
boastfully.
“Yes, you could,” replied his mother. “You could run faster than they
could for a while, but you do not know the patience of wolves, my dear.
You would have run so hard and so fast that presently you would have
tired yourself out so that the wolves would have had no trouble in
catching you. Ever since you were a little fawn I have told you about
the wolves, and that they are our worst enemies; but I don’t think you
ever have believed it. Now you have seen them and you know what they are
like. The wolves are very smart people. They watch for a deer to stray
away. Then they get between the herd and that deer. When this happens,
that deer will not live long.”
“Have the deer always been afraid of the wolves?” asked Little Spot.
“Ever since the days when the world was young,” replied his mother.
“Tell me about the days when the world was young,” begged Little Spot.
For a few moments his mother said nothing. Gradually, into her big, dark
eyes there crept a far-away look. “Once upon a time,” she began at
last, “the world was mostly water, like the salt water that you saw in
the summer.”
“But where did the deer live then?” interrupted Little Spot.
“There were no deer then,” said his mother. “There were no deer and
there were no wolves and there were none of those two-legged creatures
called men. You see, Old Mother Nature had not made them yet, for there
was no land for them to live on. But by and by there was land and then
for a very long time Old Mother Nature was very, very busy making the
different kinds of people to live on the land. Some of these people she
made to live where it was summer all the year round.”
You should have seen Little Spot’s big ears prick up at that. “Is there
such a place?” he cried.
His mother nodded. “Yes,” said she, “I am told there is a land where it
is summer all the time. How do you think you would like that?”
Little Spot thought it over for a moment. “I shouldn’t like it,” he
decided. “Why, if it is summer all the time, there can be no snow! What
a queer land it must be without the beautiful snow. I shouldn’t like
it.”
His mother again nodded her head approvingly. “Neither should I, my
son,” said she. “But it seems that in those days when the world was
young, all the people, big and little, wanted to live where it was
summer. So after awhile it became difficult for all the people to get
food enough. It was then that the hard times began, and some of the big
people began to hunt the little people for food.
“Now, it happened that Mr. and Mrs. Caribou, the first of all the
caribou, had wandered beyond the land where it was summer all the time.
They had come to the land where it was summer for half the year and
winter for the other half. When the winter came, they moved back,
because you see they were not fitted to make their living when snow
covered the ground, and they were not clothed warmly enough to stand the
bitter winds. But they always stayed as long as they could before moving
south, for they loved the Northland. Then, too, they felt safer there,
for there were fewer to hunt them.
“It was on the edge of the Northland that Old Mother Nature found Mr.
and Mrs. Caribou looking longingly at the land they must leave because
of the coming of the snow and ice. ‘How would you like to live in the
Northland all of the time?’ asked Old Mother Nature.
“Mr. Caribou looked at Mrs. Caribou, and Mrs. Caribou looked at Mr.
Caribou, and then both looked at Old Mother Nature. Mr. Caribou spoke
rather hesitatingly. ‘We could not eat when all the ground is covered
with snow,’ said he.
“‘There is always plenty of food beneath the snow,’ replied Old Mother
Nature. ‘You could dig away the snow with your feet and find plenty.’
“‘But we should freeze,’ protested Mrs. Caribou, and shivered; for in
those days the coats of the caribou were thin.
“‘But supposing I gave you warm coats and fitted you to live in the
Northland; would you do it?’ Old Mother Nature asked.
“Again Mr. Caribou looked at Mrs. Caribou and Mrs. Caribou looked at
Mr. Caribou, then both nodded.
“So Mother Nature gave them warm coats. She gave them each a thick
mantle of long hair on the neck, so that it hung down and the wind could
not get through it. She fashioned their feet so that they were different
from the feet of any other of the deer family, and they could walk in
snow and on soft ground, where others could not go. Then she sent them
into the Northland, and there the caribou have been ever since.”
“But what about the reindeer?” cried Little Spot.
“I am coming to that,” replied his mother.
[Illustration] CHAPTER XV
THE FIRST REINDEER
Mr. and Mrs. Caribou were the first of all the caribou to make their
home in the Far North, and they loved it. Old Mother Nature had told
them truly that they would find plenty of food. So they and their
children and their children’s children took possession of all the great
land where the snow lay most of the year. “They found the moss, which
you like so well, my son,” said his mother. “They found the moss, and
they found that it was best in winter. It isn’t true moss you know, but
is called reindeer moss by everybody. In the summer they lived on grass
and other plants, just as we do. So in time there became very many
caribou, and they lived in peace, for it was long before others came to
live in the Land of Snow.
“But there came a time when these two-legged creatures called men
appeared. They were hunters, and they hunted the caribou. They needed
the meat for food and the skins for clothing and to make their tents. So
the caribou became necessary to men. Then one day the hunters surrounded
a band of caribou and captured alive all the fawns and young caribou.
These they kept watch over and protected from the wolves and the bears,
which had by this time come to live in the Northland. And because there
were no wise old deer to protect these young deer, the young deer did
not try to run away. They were content to graze near the homes of the
hunters. In time, they grew and had fawns of their own, and these grew,
and the herd increased. And these, my son, were the first reindeer. They
were necessary to man if he would live in the Far North, and they found
that man was necessary to them.
“They furnished man with food and clothing. From their antlers he made
tools. Man furnished them protection and found the best feeding grounds
for them, so that they lived better and more contentedly than their
cousins, the wild caribou, for the latter had always by day and night to
be on the watch for enemies.
“Then one day a boy fastened a halter to a pet deer and fastened him so
that he could not stray away. In time that deer became used to the
halter and to being fastened. Then the boy built a sled. It wasn’t such
a nice sled as the sleds of to-day, because you know this was the first
sled of its kind. Then he fastened the deer to the sled and, with a long
line fastened to the halter on each side of the deer’s head, so that he
might guide him, the boy climbed on the sled. Of course, that deer was
frightened and he ran. By and by the sled upset. But the boy still held
the reins. That was the first reindeer to be driven by man. The boy’s
father had seen all that happened. He built a better sled, and he and
the boy trained that deer and other deer. Then with these deer they made
long journeys. So it was that the reindeer became of still more use to
man.”
“But I don’t want to be harnessed and driven and have to drag a sled,”
said Little Spot.
“That shows your lack of wisdom, my son,” replied his mother. “The deer
who best draw the sleds are the deer that are cared for best, and will
live longest. Other deer are killed for food and for their skins, but
not the deer who draw the sleds. Those are the deer that are thought
most of, and it is my hope that you will one day be the finest sled-deer
in all the herd. Who knows? Perhaps you may be chosen in the Valley of
the Good Spirit to be one of the eight deer who once in the early winter
of each year carry the Good Spirit on a wonderful journey out into the
Great World, that he may spread Love and Happiness. Do you remember, my
son, how on the day we left the Valley of the Good Spirit, all we mother
deer and all you youngsters stood while the finest bucks in all the herd
milled around us? And how every once in a while they stopped?”
Little Spot bobbed his head. “I remember,” said he.
“Each time they stopped,” replied his mother, “the Good Spirit chose
one of their number to be added to his team for that wonderful journey
out into the Great World. They become magic deer just for a little
while, at a time that men folk call Christmas. They become magic deer,
and all the children of the Great World love them, though they never
have seen them. So, my son, be wise in the wisdom of the deer folk. Be
not unruly, should it be that you are chosen to draw the sled of a man,
for it is only the best sled-deer that are chosen by the Good Spirit and
become the Christmas deer for that magic journey into the Great World.
Now, we must be getting back to the herd, or those wolves may get upon
our trail.”
Little Spot trotted beside his mother, Big Spot, over the snow-covered
prairie, and as he trotted he thought deeply of all his mother had told
him. And as he thought, his eyes were opened, so that by the time they
reached the big herd, Little Spot was no longer a wilful young deer. He
no longer thought that he knew all there was to know, but he did his
very best to try to learn all there was for a wise deer to know. And
you know when one tries to learn, it is surprisingly easy.
So, from being the most wilful and unruly of all the young deer, Little
Spot became the most obedient and the best-mannered.