If any one had invited AH-NI-GHI´-TO to go back to the Snowland the day after her return to her Grossmamma’s house, she would not have listened a moment; for there was so much to tell, and do, and see, and learn that in her opinion she could not possibly spare time for another visit to the far-away land.

Yet, the next summer, when her father went off again in the great black ship, to the land where all AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S queer fur-clad friends lived, there was a big lump in her throat, and something that looked very much like tears in her eyes, when she found that she and mother were going to remain at home this time.

But she was nearly five years old now, and father said she must soon go to school and learn a great deal by the time he returned; and if she would be a very good girl, and do just what mother said, he would tell Santa Claus to bring her a sister.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO was much pleased. She wanted a playmate very much and promised to do all she was told; and father sailed away.

All through that summer AH-NI-GHI´-TO roamed about on a farm, where everything was new to her. She had bunnies to pet; chickens to feed; nests to hunt; cows to be driven to pasture in the morning and brought back in the evening; butter to be churned; flowers to be gathered and arranged; and really so many things to be done of which she had never even heard, that the days were hardly long enough.

The summer came to an end quickly and AH-NI-GHI´-TO returned to her “Grossy’s” home and to her kindergarten, of which she was very fond.

Then Christmas came bringing many pretty toys for her, and soon afterward, coming home from the kindergarten one day, AH-NI-GHI´-TO found the dearest little sister waiting for her. At first she thought father had brought her, and was quite disappointed to learn that she had been sent, but as sister brought a letter from “dear old Dad” in which he told AH-NI-GHI´-TO that she must be very good so that she might set sister a good example, she began at once to take the part of elder sister.

All through the winter and spring and well into the summer AH-NI-GHI´-TO was a happy little girl. Each day sister grew to be more of a playmate, and the two little girls had merry times together; sometimes on the bed, sometimes on the floor, and often on the white, warm sand of the seashore. But one morning sister was not well and did not care to frolic with AH-NI-GHI´-TO. She would lie still and only smile a little sometimes, too sick to enjoy the fun. The next evening she went to sleep and even AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S kisses could not awaken her. Poor AH-NI-GHI´-TO, this was her first grief and she was nearly heart-broken. It was a long time before she could believe it was better for sister to be an angel in heaven where she would have no pain and where AH-NI-GHI´-TO would rejoin her some day and they would never be separated again.

It seemed that AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S happy days were over for a while, for soon after this the big black ship which had sailed for the Snowland early in the summer to bring AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father news of her and his homeland, returned with the sad tidings that he had been caught by the cruel Jack Frost far up in the Snow country during the cold, dark winter and had his feet frozen. Though his letters told AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her mother that he was quite well now, still they had their doubts, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO said, “Oh, mother, can’t we go to father? I think he must need us to take care of him.” Her mother agreed that when the ship went north again the next June, she and AH-NI-GHI´-TO would go too. AH-NI-GHI´-TO could not see why they must wait so long. Why not go at once? She had quite forgotten that in the far north the long, cold night was now beginning and that all the sea was frozen solid. For four months father would have no sunlight: only the faint light of the stars and once a month the moon. Only when the summer came again with its bright warm sun to thaw the ice and allow the ship to plough her way through, could she go to him.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO was six years old now and was going to real school, but all her spare time she spent in getting ready for her coming visit to father in the Snowland.

She made many picture scrap-books, and paper dolls (with dozens of dresses for them) to give to the little Danish children who had been so kind to her when father’s ship stopped at their villages on the way home with the great Star stone. All her pennies were carefully saved that she might buy other presents for her many little friends. So the winter and spring passed, and at last came the day, July 7, when AH-NI-GHI´-TO bade Grossy and Tante good-bye, promising to surely return in the early Fall and perhaps bring father too.