Little White Fox and his Arctic Friends Part 3

That night Mr. Lemming closed up the tunnel to his house and made a new one under a rock, where he thought Little White Fox would not be able to find it.

Of course Little White Fox should have waited until Mr. Lemming came home, and then asked him for something to eat. But, you know, he was very hungry, and besides he was only a little white fox, after all.

CHAPTER VII

LITTLE WHITE BEAR AND LITTLE BLACK BEAR

Little White Bear stepped out from behind a great boulder that was black as black could be against the whitest of all white worlds. And my! It was a lonesome world! His mother had left him alone, years and years ago, it seemed to him, to find something to eat. At last he was so lonesome he just had to get out into the suns.h.i.+ne and see if there was any one in all the wide, white world who would play with a little white bear.

"I wonder! I do wonder if there is any one!" he said to himself.

"Chee! Chee!" said a very small voice right close to him. He looked and looked, and at last he spied Little Snow Bunting balancing herself on a salmon-berry bush.

"What does she mean by that?" thought Little White Bear. "Does she want to play with me?" But when he came closer to her, she said "Chee! Chee!"

so loudly and saucily he felt almost sure she didn't, and when she spread her snowy wings and flew far, far away, he was quite sure she didn't.

"My! What a world!" said Little White Bear. "I wonder--" But just then he heard a strange sound,--crack--crack--crackety, crackety, crack! What could it be? In just a moment Tdariuk, the reindeer, came trotting around the point, and Little White Bear knew it was Tdariuk's heels he had heard cracking. But Tdariuk didn't give him time to say a word. He just caught one whiff of bear smell, and away he went faster than ever,--crack--crack--crackety, crackety, crackety! Crack! Crack!

Down by the ocean things were no better. When Little Brown Seal saw him coming, he tumbled right into the ocean without so much as saying "How do you do."

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 Jim Raven and his crowd," said Little White Bear. "Well, _they_ won'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 right there 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 and Big 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."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Little White Bear knew right away what he had done.

_Page 52_]

"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.

CHAPTER VIII

TROUBLE FOR LITTLE WHITE BEAR

"Come on," 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 over the 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.

"What _can_ it 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 and made 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 were brown 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 a little 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.

CHAPTER IX

LITTLE BLACK BEAR'S DISCOVERY

What was 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 larger than 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.

There _was_ one 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, he would 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.