"Just remember, if it hadn't been for me it might have stayed up there till spring."
"You run in, Kaviak, or you'll have no ears."
But that gentleman pulled up his hood and stood his ground.
"How did it get on the roof, in the name o' the nation?" asked the Colonel, stamping his feet.
"Never hear of Santa Claus? Didn't I tell you, Kaviak, he drove his reindeer team over the roofs?"
"Did you hear any dogs go by in the night?"
"I didn't; Nicholas brought it, I s'pose, and was told to cache it up there. Maybe that's why he came late to give us a surprise."
"Don't believe it; we'd have heard him. Somebody from the mission came by in the night and didn't want to wake us, and saw there were dogs—"
"It's froze too hard to cut," interrupted Salmon P. Hardy, who had been trying his jack-knife on one end; "it's too big to go in any mortal pot."
"And it'll take a month to thaw!"