to the sleigh. Father and mother wrap themselves in fur coats and put
a fur coat on the baby, and away they go over the snow to church, it
may be ten or even fifteen miles, for the reindeer can go a good deal
faster than a horse.

But the old Lapland custom of caring for the babies while the grown
people are in church, you never would guess. For as soon as the
reindeer is made secure, the father Lapp shovels out a snug little bed
in the snow, and when it is ready the mother Lapp wraps the baby snug
and warm in skins and lays it down there. Then the father Lapp piles
the snow around and over the baby, when they go into the church and
leave the baby in the snow. So common is this that sometimes there are
twenty or thirty babies, down to the little wee-est ones, buried in
snow around the church.

You might think the babies would suffocate, but they do not, nor do
they freeze. In fact, the snow does not make them cold. For when it
covers anyone all over, if they have clothes enough on, so the snow
will not melt and wet them, it will keep them warm. And as the little
Lapland babies are not strong enough to knock the snow away and let in
the cold, they just lie there safe and warm and go to sleep.

When church is out the father Lapp goes to the spot where his baby is,
puts his hands down into the snow, pulls the baby our and shakes the
snow off it; then the reindeer is unfastened, father and mother tuck
themselves and the baby in the sleigh, and over the snow away they
trot home again.--_Written for Dew Drops by Adele E. Thompson._

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