“White Feet smelled at them, but he couldn’t make out what Dainten intended to do.”
IX
White Feet Finds a Way of Serving Man
“One day,” continued Mother Reindeer, “some driftwood was washed up by the sea. Dainten pulled the pieces up on the beach. He found two that were crooked near the end. These pieces were of the same length, and the crooked ends were bent in about the same way.
“White Feet smelled at them, but he couldn’t make out what Dainten intended to do as he watched him place the two pieces side by side, a short distance apart. Dainten then took some shorter pieces of driftwood, placed them crosswise on the others, and lashed them fast with sealskin thongs. It was a strange-looking thing he had made. The crooked ends bent upward. To the crosspiece nearest these he fastened a stout rope of sealskin thongs. He then placed his little sister and brother on the thing and pulled them over the snow.”
“I know!” exclaimed White Sox, quickly. “That was a sled.”
“It was,” said Mother Reindeer. “White Feet stood and watched them use the sled. He was doing some hard thinking. He wanted to do everything he saw Dainten do. When the bigger boy had given his little brother and sister one ride, White Feet asked Dainten to let him draw the sled. Of course Dainten didn’t know what White Feet was saying; but when White Feet put his neck under the rope and tried to take his place in front of the sled, Dainten began to understand.
“He laughed and patted White Feet. He put the rope around his neck and tied it so it would not slip and choke him. Then he tied a small piece of rope to the right side of the halter band that White Feet was still wearing, and another piece to the left side. It was the hour after sunset. The snow, which had been soft and mushy at noon, was now hard and crusted.
“‘To prevent its running against his heels, he swerved to the left, giving the riders a great spill.’”
“Dainten took his place on the front end of the sled and held the lines in his hands. His sister and brother sat behind him. When all was ready, he gave a slap of the lines on the fawn’s sides. White Feet understood. He started very slowly and carefully, but he found that the loaded sled was easy to draw over the trail of hard snow. When Dainten urged him to go faster, he broke into a trot. All the other fawns joined the party. It was wonderful fun.
“On their return to the starting place, Dainten thought he would see how fast they could go. He gave a harder slap of the lines. Away they went down the gentle slope. The snow from the hind hoofs of White Feet hit their faces and made the children laugh. How glad they were, and how happy! And how proud White Feet was to be of service to them!
“They were going so fast as they neared the bottom of the slope that White Feet could not keep ahead of the sled. To prevent its running against his heels, he swerved to the left, giving the riders a great spill.”
“Mother, that’s a wonderful story!” cried White Sox. “That was the first sled reindeer, the first reindeer harness, the first reindeer ride, and the first spill!”
“Yes, my son,” said Mother Reindeer, “the very first. It was the beginning of a new kind of service to man. As I told you before, the hunter was away. He came home while the children were sledding on the snow. He stepped from his boat and watched them in great surprise. And oh, how he laughed when the sled upset! He patted White Feet and spoke kindly to him, and he nodded his head upward and downward several times. Then he put the harness on Blackie and tied him in front of the little sled.
“White Feet told Blackie to watch for the signal and go very carefully. Dainten’s brother drove him. Blackie did good work. You see, he had watched White Feet and had learned how to do as he did. Dainten’s brother was very proud of Blackie.
“After a while the hunter went to his boat. All the children and the fawns followed him to see what he had brought from his hunting trip. First he took out a lot of ducks, some geese, and a swan. Then he unloaded a great many brown and white ptarmigan. His wife was much pleased when she saw that he had brought her two hair seals. She and the children carried the birds and dragged the seals up to the tent. But the fawns didn’t follow then. The hunter was pulling some fresh caribou skins out of his boat.”
“Oh!” cried White Sox, in excitement.
“Yes,” said Mother Reindeer, “and the very first skin White Feet smelled at was his own mother’s. The neck and hind legs were all chewed up by the teeth of wolves. Of course he felt very badly about it. The world seemed a lonely place to him after losing his mother. But he knew again that a leader must not think of himself. He smelled at the other skins. They all showed the teeth marks of wolves, and all of them were the skins of old mothers.
“White Feet knew that the old mothers were usually the weaklings of the herd. Their death saved many fawns from being caught. Then it came to White Feet that the death of these mothers might be the means of saving his own little band of fawns. The hunter and his family would now have plenty of caribou skins for the coming winter. They would not need his and Blackie’s and those of the doe fawns.
“It was while White Feet was smelling at the skins that Dainten returned from the tent. The boy stood beside White Feet and looked at him, just for all the world as if he understood that the poor torn skin had belonged to White Feet’s mother. From that minute Dainten and White Feet became lifelong friends. Dainten patted the fawn and tried to comfort him. To White Feet a human being had taken the place of his own dear old mother.
“Later, the hunter helped the boys make better harness for White Feet and Blackie. It was the kind now used by our herders. Instead of the curved piece of wood for each shoulder, he used a strap of sealskin about as broad as your ear, placing it over the left shoulder and neck and between the fore legs. The two ends of this band were fastened to the end of the single trace, back of the right fore leg, where they passed under the belly band. The trace stretched from the ends of the collar band to the sled, outside of the right hind leg.
“With these harnesses the hunter trained White Feet and Blackie to work together. He was well pleased with them and sent his five dogs to his brother, who lived a day’s journey down the beach. The hunter knew that it would require much of the dried meat he had put up through the summer to feed his team dogs through the winter. His new sled deer didn’t eat meat. That meant less work for the hunter and his wife.
“Of course the hunter was anxious to try out these sled deer with a heavy load. Luckily for White Feet and Blackie, their muscles were hard and strong by the time the first new snow came. They had plenty of back-fat too. All their work had been but play, but now they were to be of real service to man. The hunter’s supplies, gathered during the summer, must be moved from the spit to a small grove of alders a day’s journey inland. This was the hunter’s winter home.”