The children must learn both the Lapp language and the Swedish language, if they live in Sweden. They learn both the Lapp language and the Norwegian, if they live in Norway. First they learn to read, write, and work with numbers. After they can read and write a little, they begin other lessons. They learn about the plants and animals of the north land. They learn how to raise and care for the reindeer. They are taught, too, how to care for their own bodies—how to bathe, brush their teeth, cook their food, and clean their huts. But they do not learn those lessons of cleanliness and care of the body well, because their mothers and fathers do not practise them in the homes. Perhaps in a few years when the Lapp children grow up they will be cleaner than their mothers and fathers are. At least that is what the teachers hope.
CHILDREN IN A LAPP SCHOOL
The Lapps make trinkets of reindeer horns and bone, moccasins of the skins and plaited grass, and dolls dressed as Lapp children dress. When the boats which carry tourists along the seas of Norway come near the camp, the Lapps go to meet the boats. They carry with them bags of the trinkets to sell to the people from other countries who are on the boats.
In Sweden many Lapps ride on the trains. Sometimes they carry boxes filled with trinkets which they have made. They put them in shops that sell such wares to visitors in Sweden. If you rode on a train across the northern part of Sweden, you would see many Lapps, and you would see their trinkets in the shops—bone letter-openers, fur moccasins, fur mittens, dolls dressed in fur.
Not all Lapps follow the reindeer. Some of them live in one place all the year and earn a living by fishing and farming. Their homes are not much better than the huts of the wandering mountain Lapps, but they dress much like their Norwegian and Swedish neighbors. These people are called Sea Lapps.
Through Farm Lands of Norway
As Roald climbed into the two-wheeled buggy beside his mother and sister Annie, he was too excited to speak. If only his father would let him drive the pretty dun-colored horse hitched to the buggy!
Roald knew little about horses. He lived in Oslo, a city in Norway. He had never owned a pony of his own, and really had never visited in the country where boys ride and drive horses.