The Christmas Reindeer

THE CHRISTMAS REINDEER

Whitefoot goes astray
BY THORNTON W. BURGESS ILLUSTRATED BY RHODA CHASE NEW YORK THE BOOK LEAGUE OF AMERICA 1929 Copyright, 1926, By THORNTON W. BURGESS All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1926. Reprinted August, 1928. Special edition published by arrangement with The Macmillan Company. Printed in the United States of America
To the beautiful faith of childhood, the perpetuation of a charming fable, and to a world made better by the Christmas spirit, this little volume is dedicated.
The Author



THE CHRISTMAS REINDEER
TUKTU was a little Eskimo girl. Tuktu means caribou. She had been given this name, because only a few days before her birth, a relative named Tuktu had died; and as is the custom, this name had been given to the baby. She was well named, for caribou were to have much to do with her life. On the very day that she was born, Kutok, her father, had killed a caribou when food was greatly needed. That year, for some unknown reason, caribou had moved from their usual feeding grounds, and Kutok and his family had had to depend almost wholly on seal and polar bear, and these had been none too plentiful. So this caribou had brought great joy to the home of Kutok. In the days following, he found the caribou back in their old feeding grounds. Later, Kutok was to become a herder of reindeer, and the rein deer, you know, are first cousins of the caribou. So it was that Tuktu was well named.