THE CHRISTMAS VISION
It was late when Kutok and his family reached the camp near the Valley
of the Good Spirit. It had been a wonderful journey. The snow had been
just right and the reindeer had traveled steadily and fast, for they
were in splendid condition. Now they were fastened out, each tied by a
long line to a hummock under the snow. There was plenty of food here and
the deer at once began to paw down to get it. It is one of the
advantages in traveling with reindeer that their food does not have to
be carried for them. They will get their own food at the end of the
day’s trip.
Kutok and Navaluk had no thought for anything but rest after the evening
meal. But not so the two children. They could not forget that they were
in sight of the hills around the Valley of the Good Spirit and that it
might be that over there in that Valley were the eight missing deer. So,
when their father and mother were asleep, they slipped out from the hut
for a look over toward the wonderful valley, for was it not from that
valley that the marvelous Northern Lights flashed up through the sky?
There was no wind. The cold was intense. But Tuktu and Aklak were
dressed for it and they minded it not at all. It seemed as if the stars
were so close that they could be reached. It was not moonlight, for this
was the period when the moon was not visible. But the starlight almost
made up for it.
And then as they stood there, looking over toward the Valley of the Good
Spirit, a long streamer of light suddenly flashed out, and up, up, up,
until it was quite overhead. It quivered, almost died down, then shot up
again! Then came another and another and another. The Northern
Lights--the Merry Dancers of the Sky--dimmed the stars and made the
night almost as light as day. At first, these Northern Lights were
simply white; and then they were shot with yellow and red.
All their lives Tuktu and Aklak had been familiar with these fires of
the sky, but never had they seen them as they now saw them. They caught
their breath and held to each other with a little bit of fear. Those
fires were no longer mere flashing white, shimmering, dancing streamers
of light. They were yellow and red in many shades, and they appeared, as
if in very truth they were fires leaping high up in the sky. And as they
had so often heard it said, those dancing, leaping lights were coming
out of the Valley of the Good Spirit. Certainly, they were flashing from
directly behind the hills that shut away that valley, so of course they
must be coming from the valley.
The lights died down. For a few moments there was no light save from the
stars. Then from directly over the Valley of the Good Spirit a long
streamer of white flickering light crept up and up, and as it crept, it
broadened until it was like a broad path across the sky toward the
south. There was the tinkle of silver bells. Tuktu touched Aklak. “See,
Aklak! See the deer!” she whispered.
But Aklak had already seen them. On that broad shining path a pair of
reindeer had appeared. He knew them instantly. They were two of the deer
he had trained, and which had disappeared. Out of the shimmering light
behind them moved two more. And these he recognized. There could be no
doubt. He would have known them among ten thousand deer. They were
harnessed two and two, and as they moved forward, another pair appeared,
and then another.
Clinging together, breathless, round-eyed, Aklak and Tuktu stared. Eight
deer they counted--eight deer harnessed two and two. Would there be
more? The curtain of light low above the hilltop seemed to burst in a
glory of color such as made what they had seen before seem as nothing.
And out of the midst of that glory, drawn by the eight deer, came a
sled. On it Tuktu recognized instantly Santa Claus, the Good Spirit,
whom she had seen in the Valley.
He was short and jolly and round and fat,
With a fur-trimmed coat and a fur-trimmed hat.
He laughed “Ha! Ha!” and he laughed “Ho! Ho!”
“Hello, Little Folk,” he cried, “Hello!
The boys and girls of the world this year
Will see for themselves my splendid deer;
Will see and love them and surely know
That the reindeer come, though there be no snow.
For they’re magic deer for my magic sleigh,
And we circle the world in a single day.
There is naught so faithful and naught so quick
To carry the message of Old St. Nick.
By training my steeds you have saved for me
Some weeks of labor; and so you see
It happens I’m able to start this year
In time for the children to see the deer.
And all who see them I tell you true
A Christmas greeting will send to you.
“As you will have given joy to all the little folk of the Great World
this year, in like degree will your own Christmas be merry, and will
happiness fill your hearts. And now, my dears, I must away.”
Santa waved a mittened hand to them, then turned to his deer and cried:
“‘Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!’”
Down a shining path of light, across the sky toward the south, the eight
deer dashed, until in a breath they were mere specks. Up from the
valley the orange and red lights streamed higher and higher, until all
the sky was a blaze of beautiful light. When they died down, only the
stars were to be seen, twinkling so close that it seemed as if they
might be picked from the sky.
With shining eyes Tuktu and Aklak returned to the hut. “No one will
believe us if we tell it,” whispered Tuktu. “They’ll say we dreamed it.
We’ll wait, Aklak, until the blessed deer are returned to us by the Good
Spirit next summer, and we can show his ear-mark. Then all will know
that we speak truly.”
Thus it was that it was made possible for the boys and girls of the
Great World to really see Santa Claus and his blessed reindeer. And thus
it was that Tuktu and Aklak found happiness and great content, and the
real joy of the blessed Christmas Spirit.