[Illustration: “_They were not very Clean_”]
The kapetah, or foxskin coat, was after the same pattern as your sweaters, that is, without any opening down the front or back, and to the neck was sewed a round hood, the opening made to just fit about her little face. This coat her mother pulled on over baby’s head and well down over her nannookies, so that here too no cold air could chill the little girl.
About the wrists and around the face opening of the hood, foxtails were sewed, which helped very much to keep her face and hands warm. This costume was made by a woman named AH-NI-GHI´-TO; so, when the baby was christened, she too was called AH-NI-GHI´-TO. She was also named Marie for her only aunt, who was waiting in the far-off home land to greet her little niece.
[Illustration: “_There were only two Pieces in this Suit_”]
At last, one day about the middle of February, the great yellow sun popped up above the tops of the mountains and covered everything with the brightest sunlight.
Little AH-NI-GHI´-TO was asleep when the sun first looked into the room, but in a few minutes she woke up, and as the room had been specially warmed to give her a sun bath, her mother took her out of her little nest and placed her, all white and naked, in the sunlight on the bed.
How the big blue eyes did open at the strange sight. How she laughed and jumped and stretched her little hands out in the yellow light, just as if she was bathing in perfumed golden water. It was the first time she had ever seen the sun.
After this, every sunshiny day she had her sun bath, when she would try to seize the sunbeams slanting through the room, and failing in this would try to pick up bits of sunlight on the bed.
[Illustration: “_Stretched her Little Hands out in the Yellow Light_”]
On every pleasant day she was dressed in her little fur suit, tucked into her deerskin bag, and carried out.
Do you know how the tulip and hyacinth and narcissus bulbs grow and blossom after they are brought out of the cold, dark cellar into the warm, sunny window?
[Illustration: “_Some Dogs were bought for Her_”]
Well, little AH-NI-GHI´-TO was just a little human bulb that had been kept in the cold and dark for five months and now was brought out into the bright sunlight; and she grew like a tulip, and her eyes grew brighter and bluer, and her cheeks were like “Jack” roses. So rapidly did she grow that very soon she was too heavy for mother to carry.