Little White Bear knew right away what he had done.Page52
Little White Bear looked this way and that, and suddenly he spied some little black things going up and down, up and down, over a little snow hill. Sometimes there were four, sometimes three, sometimes two, and sometimes none at all. "Must be JimRaven and his crowd," said Little White Bear. "Well,theywon't get away from me! I'll just slip up to that little hill and then jump right over it so quick they won't have time to fly away!" He slipped up very quietly, Oh! just as quietly as any little bear could. He crept round this little hill and that little salmon-berry bush until he was right under the snow hill. "Now," he said to himself, "Now's the time!" He couldn't see the black things going up and down, but he knew they were there, so he gave one big, big spring and then, "Oh! Oh! Ow! Wow! E-e-e! Let me go!" he cried, and bounded away as fast as he could. What could have scratched him so? Where had Jim Raven and his crowd gone? Pretty soon he looked around, and rightthere in the snow where he had jumped was a little bear just about his own size and a great deal like him, but black as black could be!
"What'd you jump on my stomach for?" said the stranger. Then Little White Bear knew right away what he had done. The black things he thought were Jim Raven and his crowd were not those people at all, but they were Little Black Bear's feet sticking up over the hill, as he rolled around on the snow, having a frolic all by himself.
"Well," said Little White Bear, "where did you come from?"
"Oh! My home is just a little way up in the hills," said Little Black Bear politely. "We have a great many cousins in this cold country; there is Little Brown Bear andBig Barren Ground Grizzly Bear, and I don't know how many more, but we seldom get to see any of our white cousins. How are you? I am glad to see you."
"I think I shall be very fine when I get over my scratches," smiled Little White Bear. "You must have very sharp claws."
"They are quite sharp," said Little Black Bear slowly. "I am sorry I scratched you. Let's find something to play, and you will forget all about it."
"All right!" said Little White Bear gleefully, and away they went, looking for some adventure in the great, white world.
"Comeon," cried Little White Bear, almost standing on his head in his eagerness to be at play with this new friend.
"Let's go exploring," said Little Black Bear. "That's the most fun of all!"
"All right," shouted Little White Bear, turning a handspring. And away they went,—two little bears out to see what they could find in the great, white world.
They went down by the lakes and saw where Widgeon had made her nests in the warm summer time; they wandered overthe hills and said "Woof Woof!" in the doorway to Little Mrs. White Fox's home; they went here and there, but at last they came upon something really very strange.
"What can it be?" said Little White Bear, standing on one foot and looking very wise.
"Whatcanit be!" said Little Black Bear, scratching his head. And what indeed could it be? It was right down at the foot of the mountain. There was a big, black, square thing right in the snow, and in the middle of that there was another little square that was brown. Did any one in the wide world ever hear of finding such a strange thing in a great white wilderness? There wasn't a square thing anywhere else on the whole tundra. Things were round and crooked andmade of little angles, but who ever saw a square thing in real tundra land?
The two little Bears walked round and round it and tried to think what it could be. At last Little Black Bear put one foot on it very timidly. "There!" he said bravely, "I stepped on it! Do you dare?"
"Of course I do!" said Little White Bear, walking right out on the big square. "See me!" he shouted and went racing right across the thing. That is, he started across, but just when he was on the little brown square, he felt his feet begin to sink. There was a rip—ripping of something, and down he went, till he struck kerwhack! on something far below. He jumped to his feet very quickly. Where was he? There werebrown walls all about him, like the walls of the cave where his home was. And look as he might, Little White Bear could see no way to get out except to climb back up through the hole he had made when he fell in. And that was far, far above his head. He could never get out that way. And what was worst of all, as he began to look around, he was more and more sure of one dreadful thing. And that was that he was in the house of Omnok the hunter. My! That was a terrible thought. But it was true! They had been playing on Omnok's roof, and Little White Bear had fallen right through the window in the roof. Omnok had made a curtain out of the coats of many eider ducks, and this was the brown square that Little White Bear had started to run across.
Well, there wasn't a thing he could do. He just wandered round and round, but he couldn't find the least little place where he could get out. "What a strange place to live!" he thought to himself. "How does he ever get into it himself?"
But Little White Bear wasn't the least bit doubtful that Omnok would be able to get into his house when he came home. And you may be very sure he wasn't a bit happy. He just went way over in the corner under Omnok's bed and sucked his thumb while he wished he was at home in his own dear cave. All of a sudden he heard a noise. Omnok was coming! Little White Bear heard his voice, very big and very angry, outside! "Who has stolen my 'pooksack'?" Omnok growled. "Who has broken my window?"
How poor Little White Bear trembled. He crouched down under the bed just as far as he could. Now he could hear Omnok come closer to his house. And then he saw Omnok's face at the side of the wall. Ah! Yes! There was a little curtain there! Why had he not seen it! But suddenly a happy thought came to Little White Bear. Just when Omnok was standing up, with his terrible gun in his hand, Little White Bear rushed right at him and tumbled against his feet so hard that Omnok went sprawling to the floor, and his terrible gun went clattering after.
Little White Bear bounded out of the little door. But there was just a little alley and then another room with a window high up in the wall. He looked quickly, and saw alittle shelf, like Omnok's bed, only higher up, right under the window! Little White Bear jumped up but tumbled back. He tried it again and fell back. But the third time he found himself on the shelf, and in another minute he was out in the fine old world, running as fast as ever he could for home. And you may be very sure he was glad to be with his mother safe in their cave that night.
Whatwas Little Black Bear doing all the time Little White Bear was down in Omnok's house, and what about Omnok's "pooksack"? Well, Little Black Bear looked down into Omnok's house and wished his little playmate would hurry out, so they could discover some more things. But when he had waited what seemed a long, long time, he went on a little exploring trip all by himself. And he discovered something right away. It had four legs like Tdariuk, the reindeer. But it was ever so much largerthan Tdariuk, and its legs were straighter. Little Black Bear wasn't long in finding out that this was not really any one at all, but just a rack Omnok had made on which to keep his meat. And there was meat up there! Oh! strips and strips of it! But it was all high out of reach. Little Black Bear sniffed and sniffed, and My! It did smell good! But even when he stood on his tiptoes he couldn't reach the least little mouthful. Therewasone thing closer to the ground. And such a strange thing as it was! It looked like a coat that had belonged to one of Little Brown Seal's cousins, but he couldn't be in the coat right then, for the collar was tied up tight as could be, and so were the sleeves.
"If there was any one in that coat, hewould smother right away," said Little Black Bear, scratching his head. "But there is something in it! See how its sides bulge out! I'll just give it a good poke and see what happens."
Now that strange thing was just hung up by one string, and it swung about very easily. When Little Black Bear gave it a great poke, it went up in the air quickly! It came down quickly too, and it hit Little Black Bear square on his nose. He spun about and tumbled down in the snow, and at first he had a notion to be angry.
When the thing had stopped swinging, he stood on his tiptoes and smelled of it. "E-ee-ee! How good it smells," he cried. "I just believe that is Omnok's 'pooksack' of seal oil which mother has been talkingabout!" Little Black Bear's mouth began to water and water, for his mother had told him there was nothing half so good in the world as fine, rich seal oil.
Now how was Little Black Bear going to get that oil out of that "pooksack"? He thought and thought and thought. At last he remembered the sleeves which were tied up. They were tied way down at the ends, and there must be seal oil right down to the very tips. His mouth was too small to bite the "pooksack", but one of these sleeves,—that was the very thing! He would bite one of those, hard! with his sharp teeth, and the oil would come right out into his mouth!
He had to stand on his tiptoes to reach, but at last he set his teeth hard andAh-ne-ca!How good that seal oil did taste! It went gurgle, gurgle, right down his throat so fast he could hardly get time to swallow.
But very soon he began to feel as if he had had quite enough. How was he going to stop the seal oil from coming out? Well, he couldn't do that. He would just have to open his mouth and dodge right out of the way quick. "That will be easy," he thought to himself. Anyway, he took two or three more swallows, then he opened his mouth wide, andAh-ne-ca!before he could move one bit, that seal oil shot him right in the eyes and ears and began to run down his back so fast he couldn't even give one grunt. You should have seen that little bear! He was oil from head to foot! And as for hisfine, silky, glossy, black coat, he was just sure it was ruined! He didn't stop a minute to see if Little White Bear was out of Omnok's house, but ran home as fast as ever he could.
"Why! Why!" cried his mother, as he came into the house. "Where have you been?"
Little Black Bear couldn't say a word. He just crawled over in one corner and looked down at his toes.
And was his coat really ruined? Ask puss if her coat is ruined some day when she comes in out of the rain, and see what she will say. Mother Black Bear cleaned that coat up that very night so it looked better then new, but how she did it I wouldn't pretend to say.
Little White Bearand Little Black Bear met at the snow hill next day, but Little White Bear didn't jump into Little Black Bear's sharp claws, and you may be very, very sure they didn't go exploring around Omnok's house! They did go way, way out on the white roof of the ocean. There were splendid hills of ice to hide behind, and everywhere were great ice boulders over which they could play leap-frog.
Little White Bear had just started to leap over one fine, large boulder, and LittleBlack Bear was coming right after him, when all of a sudden Little White Bear turned a backward somersault and tumbled right into Little Black Bear.
"Wow!" howled Little Black Bear. "What's the matter?"
"Shish!" whispered Little White Bear. "I saw something!"
"On the ice?" asked Little Black Bear, beginning to be frightened.
"Right out there a little bit farther," whispered Little White Bear. "And it was the biggest thing! Oh! My! I can't tell how big it was!" Then Little Black Bear was frightened! What could it be, way out here on the ice, miles and miles from shore? Little White Bear hadn't seen it move, but how could it get way outhere if it weren't alive? Trees and things like that couldn't grow on the roof of the ocean.
They lay crouched down behind that big ice boulder until Little White Bear's foot had gone to sleep, and Little Black Bear was catching cold from sitting on the ice.
"I am going to peek round and see if it has moved," said Little White Bear bravely. He looked, and it hadn't moved one little bit, so it seemed as if it couldn't really be alive! Perhaps it was something that Omnok had left there. They crept up toward it, little by little, until they were right up to it, and what do you think? It was nothing but Omnok's big whaling boat he had left on the ice.
They looked all around to see if Omnok were about, then they tumbled right into that boat for a frolic. There were a great many things in the boat, but the most interesting of all was a great, long "pooksack." It wasn't full of seal oil. If it had been, I am quite sure Little Black Bear would have had nothing to do with it. It was just full of air. Omnok had used it for a sled when he drew his boat over the roof of the ocean. And what a splendid football it did make, and how they did knock it about! First Little White Bear would give it a boost with his big, clumsy paws, then Little Black Bear would boost it right over Little White Bear's head! Then there would be a scramble to see who would get to it first. But one time LittleBlack Bear kicked it right over Little White Bear's head so high that it tumbled off the roof of the ocean and down into the great dark sea. And Little White Bear tumbled right into the ocean after it! Yes, sir! Right into the water, and you never saw water so cold in all your life! Little White Bear didn't scramble out as fast as ever he could! He just climbed up on that "pooksack", happy as a clam, and wanted Little Black Bear to come in too! Little Black Bear, however, had a notion that the water was cold, so he touched it with his toe and "Um-m-m! Um-m-m!" he didn't want any swim that day. But Little White Bear wouldn't come out of the water and play, so all Little Black Bear could do was to skip along home and tellhis mother that he was quite sure that Little White Bear would freeze to death that very night.
"Oh, no!" said Madam Black Bear, looking very wise. "Little White Bear won't freeze to death."
"Why," said Little Black Bear, opening his eyes wide, "I'm sure I'd freeze right away."
"So you would," said his mother. "You were a wise young fellow to try the water before you ventured in. But Little White Bear is quite different. He has a very warm coat and is very fat. He is used to the cold water and will live in it all winter. But just you wait," she added, with a sly wink. "You will have a surprise for him some day! When he comes to look foryou some cold, cold time, won't he be surprised to find you snugly tucked away in bed and sleeping all day and all night? Won't he, though?"
Madam Black Bear laughed a big bear laugh, and Little Black Bear laughed a little bear laugh, so together they were after all two of the happiest bears in all the world.
When Omnok went out on the roof of the sea to get his big boat, he saw what Little White Bear and Little Black Bear had done. He was very angry when he saw that his "pooksack" was gone. He thought Big White Bear had been there.
"I'll go hunting for him to-morrow morning," he said to himself. "And I'll take Huskie, my Malemute dog, along!"
"Now, I'll tell you," Omnok said to Huskie, "Big White Bear is a great big bully. He likes to fight all the little folks of the tundra and sea because he is so big. It would be a good thing if we could show him that he isn't so awfully big, after all. Wouldn't it?"
"Ki, yi, yiyi," said Huskie, which meant he thought it would.
"Well, then, this is what you must do. Go running about on the ocean ice everywhere and hunt for him. I will be huntingtoo. If you find him first, run away, then call me. I will shoot him. Do you see?"
"Ki, yiyi," answered Huskie again, meaning this time, "I do."
Huskie ran up and down, in and out among the ice piles, until his feet were sore. He was very anxious to find Big White Bear. Whenever a little fellow has a chance to harm a big fellow he thinks is a bully, he always wants to do it. Did you ever notice that?
So Huskie ran on and on, even if his feet were sore.
"Hello!" He had just gone around something he thought was an ice pile when he heard a voice.
Looking up, he saw the face of Big White Bear. What he was going around wasn'tice at all. It was Big White Bear. And, my! What a monster he was! Huskie had to look away off at Cape Prince of Wales Mountain and look again at Big White Bear before he could tell which was the larger, bear or mountain.
He wanted to run away. But Big White Bear was so very near he didn't dare to, so he just said "Hello!" But to himself he said, "Big White Bear is a big, big bully, just as Omnok said. I am glad he is going to get killed."
"Who are you?" asked Big White Bear.
"I'm Huskie, the Malemute dog. Who are you?"
"I am a Polar Bear. Where did you come from?"
"My home's over there on the shore,"said Huskie, pointing his nose toward shore. "Where'd you come from?"
"I came from far, far North. I've never been here before. Didn't mean to come this time. Last night I went to sleep on a corner of Old Ocean's blanket. Old Ocean put up his knee in his sleep, and my corner of the blanket slid right down here. What do you think about that?"
"Very strange."
Now Huskie is a great fighter himself, for a little fellow. And great fighters like fight stories. He was just itching to know all about Big White Bear's big fights.
"Who'd you kill last?" he asked.
"Who did I kill?" said Big White Bear, opening his eyes very wide.
"Yes, was it a very bad fight?"
"A bad fight?"
"Yes, you don't seem much scratched up for a great fighter. Look at me; one leg bent, nose split, and scarred up all over," said Huskie proudly.
"Do you think I'm a great fighter?"
"Of course you are. Omnok says—" Huskie caught himself just in time. If Big White Bear knew all about Omnok, he'd run away.
"Why, I never fight anybody," said Big White Bear gravely.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Huskie. "That's a good story. You never fight any one. What a fib!"
"It's the truth."
"The truth? Ha! Ha! Of course that's not true. You're a bear. All bears arefighters, and great big bullies, besides! Why! I bet you've got claws three inches long."
"You think so?" Big White Bear put out his front paw which was as big as the trunk of a small tree. Huskie dodged.
"Look," said Big White Bear.
Huskie looked at Big White Bear's claws. They were not as long as his own. They were broad and blunt, just sharp enough for climbing over the ice.
"I don't know why they name me Bear," said Big White Bear; "Old Buster Grizzly, Buster Brown, and Buster Black, now, are very distant relatives of mine. Indeed, they have long claws and are great fighters. But my nearest relative, Tusks, the Walrus, is no fighter at all, and believe me, neither am I."
But Huskie was a very quarrelsome and suspicious fellow.
"That will do to tell," said he; "but I know it is not true. As for those claws of yours, I can guess how that is. They look very harmless now. But when you want to fight, you run them out like a cat's."
"It's no such thing," said Big White Bear.
"Oh, yes, it is. Omnok says it is. I am going to tell him now, and he'll fix you!" Vain boast! Huskie had forgotten himself.
"I am going to make your teeth chatter so you can't call your master."Page81
In another instant, before he could dodge, Big White Bear had grabbed him and hugged him tight. Huskie could not call out at all. His voice became the tiniest little squeak.
"Let me go! Let me go!" he squeaked. "I won't tell! I won't tell! Oh! Oh! Please, Mr. Bear, let me go!"
But Big White Bear only grinned, and said "Huh?"
"Oh, I'll not kill you," said Big White Bear finally. "It's just as I have told you. I am no fighter. I never hurt anybody, unless I am driven to do so. I'll not kill you, but I am going to make your teeth chatter so you can't call your master."
At that, Big White Bear dropped right down into the cold, cold water with Huskie in his arms.
Now Big White Bear lives half the time in water, and he does not mind it a bit. But poor Huskie! When Big White Bear put him back on the ice, he couldn't have said a word to save his life.
"Now, go and tell your master that you have seen Big White Bear," said Big WhiteBear, grinning. "But you don't know where he is just now."
Then he dropped into the water and disappeared.
Huskie did not wait to hunt up his master. He ran home as fast as he could go. Try as he might, Omnok has never been able to get him to go hunting for Big White Bear again.
Little White Foxwent hunting for Big White Bear! And he didn't have a gun or a spear or a bow and arrow! Now what do you think of that! You see, it was this way. It was winter time, and food was becoming very scarce on the hills and the tundra. All the delicious roots were frozen hard in the earth, and the berries were all gone. Little White Fox was very hungry, and he told Little Mrs. White Fox about it.
"Well," said his mother, "I guess we will have to go and find a Big White Bear."
"Find a Big White Bear!" cried Little White Fox. "Why, he'd eat us!"
"But you mustn't let him do that," said Mrs. White Fox.
"But what do we want to find him for?" said Little White Fox, scratching his head.
"Listen," said Mrs. White Fox very mysteriously. "Big White Bear is a very wasteful fellow. He has a big, big kitchen, and he has the greatest amount of food stored there. Oh! piles and piles of it! He doesn't like to eat his food in his kitchen. He brings some out every day and always leaves plenty. Now, if we can find him, we will just follow him about until his dinner hour. When he is gone, we will have plenty to eat. See?"
Little White Fox did see and, though he was half afraid of Big White Bear, he was also very hungry, and so he was anxious to go on the hunt right away.
"You go one way, and I'll go the other," said Madam White Fox. "When you find Big White Bear, you come right back to this rock. I will come back too, and we will follow him about for weeks and weeks and have plenty to eat."
Away went Little White Fox, looking, looking everywhere for Big White Bear! He looked behind the cliff on the mountain. But Big White Bear wasn't there. He looked on the sand bars, but he wasn't there. He went peering all around the little lakes, but he wasn't there.
And where do you think Big White Bearwas? He wasn't in very good business, I assure you. He was over on the other side of the mountain. Tusks the Walrus had just climbed out of the water and had gone to sleep on the beach close to the mountain. Tusks was a great, good natured fellow, with a monstrous, heavy body and a pair of terrible looking tusks, which were not really terrible at all, for Tusks never used them except for digging clams. Big White Bear was up on the rocks, way, way above Tusks, and he had a great rock in his powerful paws, as big a rock as he could lift! He was going to throw it right down on Tusks and kill him. He had plenty to eat at home, but he thought this would be a fine chance to get some fresh meat.
Just when he was getting ready to throwit, something happened. Little White Fox came round the corner of the hill, looking here, there, and everywhere for Big White Bear. He came on round and round till he was just above Big White Bear, and then all at once he saw him! He was so glad he had found Big White Bear, that he stood right up on his two feet and gave one big, big laugh, "Ho! Ho! Ha! Ha! Yak! Yak! Yak!" just like that.
There was never a worse scared bear than Big White Bear in all the world! He had a guilty conscience, for he knew it was not right to throw a rock on poor, tired Tusks, and when he heard Little White Fox laugh, he didn't know who it was. It might be some one very big and dangerous. It might be Omnok, the hunter, with his terrible gun!Big White Bear just trembled and trembled, and the rock fell from his powerful paws and went splashing into the water without hurting Tusks at all. But when he looked around to see who had laughed at him, he couldn't see any one at all. Little White Fox knew a whole lot better than to let Big White Bear see him just then! But just after that Little White Fox did a very thoughtless thing. He was so hungry and wanted so much to see where Big White Bear had his kitchen, that he forgot all about his mother telling him to come back to the big rock, and away he went, after Big White Bear all by himself.
"I mustn'tlose Big White Bear," thought Little White Fox, "and I mustn't let him see me. Oh! My! No! I mustn't do that, for he is a big, big fellow and who knows what he might do to me?" So he slipped along behind very slyly, hiding behind this rock and that one, behind this snow pile and that one, very carefully indeed.
But Big White Bear was nearly as badly frightened as Little White Fox. "What was that great big laugh?" he kept thinking to himself. And every time he thought of it, he looked behind him, and I am surehe really expected to see Omnok, the hunter, step right out with his terrible gun. But by and by, when he had gone down the mountain and across the tundra and over the little lakes, he was not so much afraid, and he began to grow hungry. Now that was just what Little White Fox hoped would happen, for he was very hungry himself and very curious besides to see where Big White Bear kept his pantry. Where would it be? Would it be in the tall mountains, or on the tundra, or out on the roof of the sea? How interesting it would be to know!
Pretty soon Big White Bear began to go straight ahead, without turning to one side or the other. Then Little White Fox was sure he had started for his kitchen, and he was glad as could be! Big White Bearwent right out on the roof to the ocean and on and on and on, till Little White Fox was good and tired. When he came to the dark, dark waters of the ocean, Big White Bear didn't stop one moment. He just tumbled right into the water and disappeared all at once!
"My!" said Little White Fox, opening his eyes very wide. "He will surely be drowned." And then all at once he thought of the fine dinner he had been expecting to get and how far it was back to the great rock where his mother was to wait for him. And then, of course, he remembered what his mother had said about coming back to call her. How sorry he was now that he had forgotten all about that. Oh! if they could only find Big White Bear'skitchen! Just then Little White Fox heard a scratching on the ice and bounded behind an ice boulder before he was seen. Big White Bear had come right up out of the ocean with the biggest dinner you have ever seen. His kitchen was right down in the water under the roof of the ocean, and he had brought his dinner out on the ice to eat it in the sunshine.
Little White Fox thought Big White Bear would never, never get through eating, but he finally did. And there was quite a big dinner left for Little White Fox. When Big White Bear was fast asleep on the ice, taking his after-dinner nap, Little White Fox crept up and began to eat his dinner too. "He didn't ask me," said Little White Fox, "but then I didn't give him a chance,I am sure he would if I had." It was a very good dinner and how Little White Fox's sides did stick out when he had finished! But he didn't stay to say thank you, so I guess he wasn't very sure that Big White Bear would have invited him. He just hid behind an ice boulder and waited for Big White Bear to wake up. He mustn't lose Big White Bear. He began to think about that fine dinner he had just eaten and about how he had found Big White Bear all by himself and how he had frightened him. It made him feel so good he just wanted to laugh. The more he thought, the more he wanted to laugh, and the first thing, before he knew it, he was laughing right out loud, "Ha! Ha! Yak! Yak! Yak! Yak!"
Just that minute Big White Bear wokeup, and he didn't stop to see who was laughing! He tumbled right into the ocean and went paddling away as fast as ever he could. He didn't stop till he was almost out of sight, then he looked back once for just a moment and went paddling on and on, till he was way out of sight. Little White Fox had lost Big White Bear. All the fine dinners he was to have in the future were lost, just because he had laughed at the wrong time.
I don't know what Little Mrs. White Fox had to say to him when he came home, for I wasn't there, but there are some very fine switches made out of reindeer moss lying all over the tundra. However, Little White Fox was a very young fellow and had a great many things to learn, so perhaps his mother did not punish him very hard.
WhenOmnok returned from hunting Big White Bear he sat down and began to think. "White bears about," he thought to himself. "There must be white foxes about too, for they always stay close to white bears. I must go out and set some traps." And that is just what he did the very next evening. He threw the cruel looking traps, with their ugly steel jaws, over his shoulder and went out to look for a good place to set them. At last he came to a place where there were many white bear tracks. "I guess this willdo," he said to himself. He took out his great knife and cut out a cake of snow that was nearly as hard as ice. He cut this up into four little snow boards, very square and very smooth. Then he made a little hole in the snow and put a trap there. Next he made a thin shingle of snow,—so thin that the least touch would break it right in two. He put this over the trap and smoothed it over so carefully that no one in all the world could tell there was a trap hidden there. Then he made a little house over it with the four boards,—a very fine looking house with a roof and three sides, and with one side left open for the door. He put some nice pieces of meat inside of the house, so when any little fox came to live there he wouldn't have to go away hungry.Finally he spilled a few drops of delicious smelling seal oil around the house and went away.
Now who should happen by that way, almost right away, but our own Little White Fox, looking, looking everywhere for Big White Bear. Right away the west wind blew a little whiff of the rich seal oil in front of his nose, and almost before he knew it, Little White Fox was standing in front of the little house that Omnok built, wondering how it came there and how there happened to be such delicious looking meat inside of it. He wasn't quite sure it was safe to go inside, so he just licked up all the drops of seal oil around the outside. It was very good, but it was only a taste, and it made him hungrier than ever.
"I just believe I am going to have that meat!" he said to himself. He was about to put his paw on the little snow shingle that was so thin and would break so easily, when he heard a great, gruff voice right behind him.
"Here! What you doing there?" Little White Fox just tumbled a back somersault away from the little house and ran as fast as ever he could, for there, right behind him, was Big White Bear! It's one thing to be looking for some one very much larger than yourself, but quite another thing for that big person to be looking at you. Little White Fox didn't take any chances. But when he was a long distance away, and Big White Bear wasn't following him, he turned around to see what would happen to thelittle house. He wished Big White Bear would go away, so he could get all that delicious meat.
But Big White Bear did not go away. He bent his long neck and put his great nose right up to the little house and gave a great "Woof!" The little house was far too small for Big White Bear to enter, so he put out one of his ponderous, powerful paws and sent the little house flying every way. But his ponderous, powerful paw went too deep. It touched the thin shingle, and Snap! the trap came down on Big White Bear's paw. Came down hard too! Ow-e-e-e! How it did hurt! How Big White Bear roared! One might have thought he was being killed! He ran limping to the ocean, dragging the little foxtrap after him. When he got there, he stuck his paw up in the air, and moved it round and round, round and round, till the chain on the trap went Ziz! Ziz! Ziz! just like that. All of a sudden the trap came loose and tumbled into the sea, and I think Steadfast Starfish's children are playing with it still.
Little White Fox ran straight home to tell his mother how he had found Big White Bear and all the things that had happened.
"Well," said his mother, "I think Big White Bear has found you, and I am sure it is a good thing he did!" Then she sat down and told Little White Fox all about the dangers of nice smelling meat and the little houses that Omnok builds.
Little White Foxwas hungry again. It would seem that a little white fox is hungry most of the time. He went wandering all over the tundra, looking for something to eat. At last he came to the bank of the river. He was sniffing about there when he spied a door right in the ground near the ice roof of the river. "Hello!" said he, stopping short, "I wonder who made that door in there." He looked into the door but could see no one. It was too dark. He shouted into the door, but no one answered.He crept part way down the stairway. Then he stopped and listened. He heard nothing, so he ventured on, and almost before he knew it, he found himself in one of the biggest caves he had ever seen. It was as wide as half the river and as long as he could see in each direction. It had an ice roof and a good solid floor. Only the floor stopped pretty soon, and then there was water.
"I don't believe anybody in the world could build a house like this!" said Little White Fox. "I guess it just happened to be here, and some one has discovered it. I wonder who it could be?"
He walked down close to where the water was, and there he found tracks. Oh! hundreds and hundreds of them! But he couldnot tell whose tracks they were. He had never seen such tracks before.
"Anyway, I believe there is something good to eat in that water," he said to himself. "If there wasn't, that fellow wouldn't come down here and stand around so much. It is nice and warm down here out of the wind, and I guess I'll stand around a little myself and see what will happen."
Meanwhile, down below in the river, two of the little river people were having a talk all by themselves. They were Unfortunate Flounder and Mr. Salmon Trout. Salmon Trout is a very graceful fellow who always holds himself erect in the water. When he swims, he goes so swiftly that you can hardly see him. But Unfortunate Flounder goes floating around on one side all thetime, and looks more like a dead leaf than any member of the fish family.
"Why do you not stand straight up in the water as I do?" said Salmon Trout.
"Well," said Unfortunate Flounder, "it's only a little my fault. Can't you see that my eyes are on one of my flat sides and my stomach on the other? It wouldn't be very pleasant to go about looking one way and going another, would it? When I was going south, I'd be looking west; don't you see?"
"How does it happen that you are that way?"
"I was born that way. All my children are the same, and so were my parents before me. You see, it's really a matter of ancestry. Way back somewhere, one of mygreat grandparents found out it was easier to lop around sidewise in the water than to stand straight up as you do, so he lopped around all his life long. His son followed his example and lopped around a little worse. So it went on, until to-day we could not straighten up if we were to try. At least, it would take whole generations before we could balance ourselves as well as you do. As for me, I don't see as it matters much, for, after all, I quite agree with my great grandfather that it is best to be comfortable, even if it does make you ugly, ungraceful, and slow."
But just then Unfortunate Flounder learned what an unhappy thing it was to be slow. Little White Fox from his station on the bank had been watching, watchingvery sharply two dark spots that had appeared in the water. He had watched them come closer and closer. At last he thought he could reach out and grab one of them without getting in the water.
"Look out!" cried Salmon Trout, as he glided swiftly away. But poor Unfortunate Flounder was too slow, and he felt Little White Fox's sharp teeth close down on him.
Just then something happened. "Here! what are you doing in my fishing house?" demanded an angry voice. It frightened Little White Fox so badly that he dropped Unfortunate Flounder back into the river and looked around.
It was Mr. Golden Marten, and this was his fishing house. At least, he called it his, for he had made the stairway down to it.It took Little White Fox only a moment to discover that while Golden Marten was not quite as large as he was, his teeth were very sharp. The door to the stairway was quite close to him, and before Golden Marten could stop him Little White Fox was out of the door and racing for home as fast as his little legs could carry him.
"All the same," he said to his mother that night, after he had told her of the cave, "when I am as old as you are, I am going to have a fish house all my own!"
Oneday Little White Fox was out in front of his house sunning himself. He and his mother were living off the bounty of Big White Bear these days, so there was nothing to worry about. He just stretched himself out there on the white snow and looked away at the wide, white world, as contented as could be. But all at once he saw a strange, strange thing. Out on the roof of the silent sea, Little Brown Seal was sunning himself too, right close to the door of his home. He was taking little"cat" naps. You see, Little Brown Seal could not sleep down in his house in the ocean. It was far too damp down there. So he was lying there by his door, sleeping just two or three minutes at a time, then looking up to see if there was any danger near.
Now that wasn't such a strange thing. Little White Fox had seen Little Brown Seal do that nearly every day, but the strange thing was that there was some one else out on the ice who seemed to be doing the very same thing that Little Brown Seal was doing,—taking "cat" naps. And stranger still, he did not seem to be one of Little Brown Seal's relatives! He was too long, and he didn't wiggle his body right!
Little White Fox could see all that, but Little Brown Seal was so low down on the ice that all he could see was the stranger's head. He might have known even then that it was not one of his cousins, if he had had as sharp eyes as Little White Fox. But he didn't, for his eyes were very poor. So Little Brown Seal thought it was one of his own cousins taking a nap now and then, just as he was. Once it looked to Little White Fox as if he were beginning to understand that the stranger was not one of his cousins, for he stayed awake a long, long time and looked and looked and looked. The stranger seemed to be sleeping a long time, and that made Little Brown Seal suspicious. But just then the stranger bobbed his head and looked all around thisway and that way, just as any real, wise seal would do, and Little Brown Seal decided it was all right, that this stranger was one of his really truly cousins.
And who do you think the stranger, who acted so very much like a seal, was? It was Omnok, the hunter, with his terrible gun sliding right along beside him! He had learned how Little Brown Seal took his "cat" naps, and he was going to slip right up to him and kill him. He kept creeping up closer, closer, closer. But Little Brown Seal had made up his mind that it was one of his cousins, and so he didn't ask himself any more questions about it. He just kept on taking his little "cat" naps and waking up to look all around, this way and that way, but never paying any attention tothis stranger who was coming nearer all the time.
"My," Little White Fox thought to himself, "he will surely be killed. Yes, sir! I am very, very sure Little Brown Seal is going to be killed!"
But just when Omnok was getting very close, and just before he was going to raise his terrible gun and kill Little Brown Seal, a strange thing happened. I don't know how it happened. Perhaps Little White Fox was sorry the sun was going down so soon that day, or perhaps he was lonesome for his mother. Perhaps he was sorry for Little Brown Seal, because he was going to get killed in just another minute; but whatever it was, Little White Fox began to feel bad all at once. He wanted to cry,and hedidcry! He lifted his pink little nose into the air and cried, "Ah! Ah! Ah! Yak! Yak! Yak!"
Now Little Brown Seal may not have very good eyes, but he has very good ears, and he had just wakened from a "cat" nap when he heard that lonesome wail from Little White Fox. And he didn't wait one minute, nor one second! He tumbled down into his house in the ocean as quick as a wink, just as Omnok the hunter was getting ready to shoot him!
Perhaps you think Omnok wasn't angry! But he had heard Little White Fox cry. He would get Little White Fox's coat. Then he would be even. But Little White Fox was nowhere about when Omnok climbed the hill. No, you may be sure he wasn't!He was way under the great rock in his own little home, where Omnok couldn't get near him. So all Omnok could do was to put his terrible gun over his shoulder and go back home.
Little White Foxwent on a strange journey one day, and when he arrived at its end, he didn't know where he was! You see, he had been living for a long time with his mother off the bounty of Big White Bear. Now the snow had almost all gone from the mountains and the tundra. Little Mrs. White Fox had gone over to the land and told Little White Fox to watch sharp and see if Big White Bear came up out of his kitchen and left anything for them to eat. She was going over to see if shecould find any perfectly good blueberries which had been hidden all winter under the snow.
Little White Fox loitered about on the roof to the ocean and dreamed, as little folks will in the springtime. The weather was fine, and the sun was shining now, all day and all night. A great deal of the roof to the ocean had floated mysteriously away, one night, but there was a great deal of it left, and Little White Fox felt very safe. But all of a sudden, Scratch! Scratch! he heard Big White Bear come up out of his kitchen. Then he knew that there was going to be a feast, just as there had been so many times before. He waited and waited until Swish, Swish he heard Big White Bear tumble back into the water and swim away.Then such a feast as he did have! Well, Little White Fox ate so much and the sun shone so brightly, that he began to feel very, very sleepy, and almost before he knew anything about it, he was curled up on the roof to the ocean fast asleep, dreaming as hard as ever a white fox dreamed.
I don't know how long Little White Fox slept; hours and hours I imagine. But when he awoke and looked about him, all he could see was the dark, deep ocean everywhere. He jumped to his feet and peered this side of him and that side, but it was all the same dark, deep water. There was nothing but ocean everywhere. The big waves had come along and carried off the part of the roof to the ocean that Little White Fox was sleeping on!
What was Little White Fox to do? He could not swim very far, and it was a long way to land; in fact, he could not see any land at all. Besides, the water was very, very cold. He couldn't think of a thing to do. He just curled up in a heap and shivered and shivered and shivered, he was so lonesome and frightened.
"Hello!" shouted Tusks the Walrus, sticking his head out of the water. He looked and looked. "That's strange," he said to himself. "I thought I saw Little White Fox over here on a piece of the ocean's roof. Guess not, though. I don't see him now." And away he swam for a frolic with one of his cousins.