ed deer,--all mine."

"All the needs of the mountain Lapps are supplied by the reindeer,"
Lieutenant Ekman told the children. "These useful animals furnish their
owners with food, clothing, bedding and household utensils. They are
horse, cow, express messenger and freight train. In summer they carry
heavy loads on their backs; in winter they draw sledges over the snow."

Some of the reindeer were lying down, but others were eating the short,
greenish-white moss which grows in patches among the rocks, tearing it
off with their forefeet. They showed no signs of fear at the approach of
the strangers, and did not even stop to look up at them.

Two or three moved slowly toward Erik when he spoke to them, but not one
would touch the moss which he held out in his hand.

"This is my own deer," Erik told Birger, showing a mark on the ear of a
reindeer which had splendid great antlers. "He was given to me when I was
born, to form the beginning of my herd. I have ten deer now, but I would
gladly give them all to my father if he would let me go to Stockholm with
you."

Lieutenant Ekman turned to the father. "It shall cost him nothing," he
said. "Are you willing that he should go?"

"Yes, if he does not want to stay here," replied the father, who had
hoped that the sight of the reindeer would make his son forget his
longing to leave home.

Erik nodded his head. "I want to go," he said.

"Then it is settled," said Lieutenant Ekman, "and I will see that he
learns a good trade."

"Yes, it is settled," agreed Erik's father; "but I had hoped that my son
would live here in Lapland and become an owner of reindeer. There are not
so many owners as there should be."

"Why, I thought that all Laplanders owned reindeer!" exclaimed Birger.

"No," said his father, "there are about seven thousand Lapps in Sweden,
but only three or four hundred of them own herds. There are the fisher
Lapps who live on the coast; and then there are the field Lapps who live
on the river-banks and cultivate little farms. It is only the mountain
Lapps who own reindeer and spend all their lives wandering up and down
the country, wherever their herds lead them."

"What do the reindeer live on in the winter when the snow covers the
moss?" questioned Birger.

"The Lapps have to find places where the snow is not more than four or
five feet deep, and then the animals can dig holes in the snow with their
forefeet until they reach the moss," replied his father.