Temperate Love

From the day her daddy took her out of the tundra and gave her to the brown man, her life had improved. Hers was not the best of lines, and her people were not known to express the greatest of intelligences. On her tenth birthday, the day she was to be sold, her family chose to travel a great distance--chancing the noise and bustle of a major city.

She ran her iron up the sleeve of the crisp white shirt, then lifted it and buried her nose in the clean scent. Warm! It was so nice to be warm!