At the first sound of her voice, Nellie and Tom came racing from the big room where they were still stringing colored popcorn. Then such low exclamations of joy! Such a rush as there was as they bundled all the packages inside, then paused to hug their benefactors, Mary, Speed, and even the startled Bill Sparks.
“How did you get here?” Nellie cried at last. “All those presents! How could they?”
“Santa never fails,” laughed Speed at last. “At least hardly ever, and surely he could not fail in Eskimo-land.”
It was no time at all until Mary and the three children were busy trimming a more gorgeous tree than the children of Eskimo-land had ever known.
CHAPTER XXI
THE SECRET OF THE GREAT STUMP
It was two hours before the beginning of Christmas festivities, when the tree trimming came to an end.
“Let’s take a walk,” Speed suggested to Mary. “This is enchanted land. Think of it, Christmas Eve in Eskimo-land.”
“Yes, let’s walk,” Mary agreed.
“Boo! Such a coldness!” she exclaimed as they stepped outside.
“Snow fog’s drifted in too,” Speed surveyed the landscape. “Two hundred foot ceiling and growing less. Good thing we’re in.”