[Elsie at the World’s Fair by Martha Finley]@TWC D-Link book
Elsie at the World’s Fair

CHAPTER XV
3/9

There was no chimney; some of the smoke escaped through a little hole in the roof, if the wind was right.

But if the wind comes from the wrong direction the smoke stays in the house, and the people enjoy it.

It does not, however, improve their complexions, which are said to be, in their native state, not unlike the color of a well-cured ham.
King Bull they found had the largest house, and a very large family.
The Laplanders marry young, and it is not unusual for a grandfather to be under twenty-five years of age.

King Bull was one hundred and twelve years old and had great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren, and every day he played for a little while with the youngest of those.
Our friends learned that he had with him a son, Bals Bull, ninety years old, that he had a son aged seventy-three, he had a daughter aged fifty-nine, she a son aged forty-one, who had a son aged twenty-nine, who had a daughter aged fourteen, and she a daughter two years old.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Rosie, on hearing this, "how old it makes a body feel! Why, just think! the mother of that two-year-old child is a year younger than you, Grace Raymond; and you don't consider yourself much more than a child yet, do you ?" "No, indeed! and don't want to be anything but my father's own little girl," returned Grace, giving him a loving look that said more than her words.
"Can you tell us if this looks like the real Lapland village, Harold!" asked Walter.
"I am told it does," replied his brother; "that it is as nearly as possible a reproduction of one, though of course it is not very large, there being but twenty-four Laplanders here." "What do they eat, papa ?" asked little Elsie.
"Fish and reindeer meat, and cheese made of the milk.

The reindeer is their most valuable possession: its skin is used for clothing, the fur is woven into cloth, they drink the milk, and use the bones in the making of their sledges.


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