tryin' to jolly you, but just go out and see for
yourself--"

"No, sir, you've waked the wrong passenger!"

"They're tryin' it on _us_," said Potts, and subsided into his place at
the breakfast-table.

During the later morning, while the Colonel wrestled with the dinner
problem, the Boy went through the thick-falling snow to see if the tree
was all right, and the dogs had not appropriated the presents. Half-way
up to the cotton-wood, he glanced back to make sure Kaviak wasn't
following, and there, sure enough, just as the Little Cabin men had
said--there below him on the broad-eaved roof was a bundle packed round
and nearly covered over with snow. He went back eyeing it suspiciously.

Whatever it was, it seemed to be done up in sacking, for a bit stuck
out at the corner where the wind struck keen. The Boy walked round the
cabin looking, listening. Nobody had followed him, or nothing would
have induced him to risk the derision of the camp. As it was, he would
climb up very softly and lightly, and nobody but himself would be the
wiser even if it was a josh. He brushed away the snow, touching the
thing with a mittened hand and a creepy feeling at his spine. It was
precious heavy, and hard as iron. He tugged at the sacking. "Jee! if I
don't b'lieve it's meat." The lid of an old cardboard box was bound
round the frozen mass with a string, and on the cardboard was written:
"Moose and Christmas Greeting from Kaviak's friends at Holy Cross to
Kaviak's friends by the Big Chimney."

"H'ray! h'ray! Come out, you fellas! Hip! hip! hurrah!" and the Boy
danced a breakdown on the roof till the others had come out, and then
he hurled the moose-meat down over the stockade, and sent the placard
flying after. They all gathered round Mac and read it.

"Be the Siven!"

"Well, I swan!"

"Don't forget, Boy, you're not takin' any."

"Just remember, if it hadn't been for me it might have stayed up there
till spring."

"You run in, Kaviak, or you'll have no ears."

But that gentleman pulled up his hood and stood his ground.

"How did it get on the roof, in the name o' the nation?" asked the
Colonel, stamping his feet.

"Never hear of Santa Claus? Didn't I tell you, Kaviak, he drove his
reindeer team over the roofs?"

"Did you hear any dogs go by in the night?"

"I didn't; Nicholas brought it, I s'pose, and was told to cache it up
there. Maybe that's why he came late to give us a surprise."

"Don't believe it; we'd have hear