f the igloo was a sort of lamp,
or stove, made of stone, filled with oil in which floated a wick that
was burning. This lamp-stove was all the Eskimos had to heat and cook
with. But as they wore their fur clothes all winter long, never taking
them off, they did not catch cold.

"Look!" said Ski, the Eskimo boy, as he pulled the Plush Bear out from
under his fur coat and set the toy down on a shelf of ice in the igloo,
where the rays from the oil lamp fell upon it. "See what I have!" and
his father and mother and his brothers and sisters leaned forward to
look at the strange object.

There was not much room in the igloo, and the Eskimo family was rather
crowded. But they did not mind this, as it was much warmer than if they
had lived in a big room. In fact, except in the center, one could not
stand up in the igloo. The roof was too low.

"Where did you get that?" asked Ski's father, as he looked at the Plush
Bear.

"He was in the big igloo, far over the snow, near the big ice mountain,"
answered the Eskimo boy. "I saw him through a window, and I wanted him.
When all in the igloo were asleep I breathed on the ice pane, opened the
window, and took this Bear. Now he is mine!"

"Yes, I know that big igloo," said Ski's father. "There was none like it
where we came from. I do not know what it is."

Ski's family had just moved to North Pole Land, and they had never heard
of Santa Claus, though the other Eskimos of this country were well
acquainted with Saint Nicholas. To Ski and his family the workshop of
Santa Claus was just a big "igloo."

"Is not this Bear nice?" asked Ski, of his brothers and sisters.

"But he is not like the bears here," said Kiki, one of the Eskimo girls.
"He is brown, like the seals. The North Bears are white."

"There was a white Bear in the big igloo, but I would rather have this
one," said Ski. "I will always keep him."

During this time the Plush Bear, of course, had not dared to say a word
or move by himself. He was being watched too closely. But he could hear
what was said, and he wondered what was going to happen to him.

"I shall be dreadfully lonesome if I have to stay here," thought the
Plush Bear. "There is not another toy in the whole place!"

There was another toy, but the Plush Bear did not know it. This toy was
a rudely carved Wooden Doll, owned by Kiki. She had wrapped this Wooden
Doll in a bit of sealskin and put it in her bed to keep it warm. For to
Kiki the piece of wood,