CHAPTER IV
WHEN LITTLE FOXES QUARREL
There apparently were more little Foxes together on the tundra that afternoon than there ever had been before. Little White Fox had just come around a bunch of muckluck grass and spied them, all very much interested in something they had found.
"Ha! Ha!" chuckled Little White Fox to himself. "They'll get their heads pecked good and hard pretty soon!" For those little Foxes there on the tundra had found some of those same round objects that Little White Fox had thought were stones and later learned were eggs. The only difference was that these were much larger and were out on the tundra near one of the salt ponds.
The young Foxes had been playing happily together when they found the eggs. There were the Silver Fox twins, the Black Fox triplets, Reynard Red Fox, Violet Blue Fox, and Baby Cross Fox. Rather a large gathering of Foxes, I admit, but there are more of the Fox family in Alaska than in any other part of the world.
Little White Fox slipped behind the muckluck grass and listened. His relatives were quarrelling over who should have the extra egg. You see here were eight little Foxes and nine eggs, so the question was who should take the extra egg?
"We should have the egg," said the Silver Fox twins boastfully, "because we belong to the most aristocratic branch of the family. Our mother's coat alone is worth three hundred dollars."
"You have no more right to hold up your heads than we have," one of the Black Fox triplets answered him. "Our mother's coat is worth quite as much as any Silver Fox's that ever lived."
"Fie! Fie! you are both wrong," reproved Reynard Red Fox. "The best known should always be considered first. Now my father is known all over the world. Whole books have been written about our family."
"I should have it, because I am a baby," wailed Baby Cross Fox.
"I'd like to see any of you get it," cried Violet Blue Fox, seizing the egg and attempting to carry it away. But the greedy miss, while trying to carry it, let go of the one she already had, so she was not a whit ahead.
The fact of the matter was that one of those eggs was all any little Fox could carry, and it certainly was all he could possibly eat. But of course not one of them had thought about that.
Now Little White Fox had lain hid behind the muckluck grass nearly splitting himself with laughter at the thought of the whacking their heads were going to get after awhile. But when he had waited a long time and no one had come to molest his cousins, he began to want one of those eggs for himself. It happened that this was the nest of Old Mrs. Long Neck, the widgeon duck. And Omnok, the hunter, had captured her two days before, so she would never come back to protect her eggs.
Little White Fox stood it as long as he could, and then he came marching boldly out from his hiding place.
"If you don't mind," he said very importantly, "I'll take the extra egg, and that will settle the difficulty."
But that only started the discussion going faster than ever. "You didn't!" "I did!" "You can't!" "I can!" "I will!" "You won't!" and so on and so on they went. Probably they would be quarrelling yet, if Little White Fox had not caught sight of a very tall person coming through the muckluck grass. It was the dreadful Omnok, the hunter!
"Look out!" he cried.
But he was too late. Bang! went the hunter's terrible gun, and a hot bullet whizzed by his ear. The Foxes scattered in every direction, Little White Fox making for his home as fast as his legs would carry him. And his heart beat so fast that even when he had been for half an hour safe under the big flat rock, his breath still came pantingly.
"Ah-ne-ca!" cried Omnok, out on the tundra. "What did I shoot at them for? Their coats are not worth a penny till old winter gets at them and makes them thick and strong. My, but they were a fine bunch! If I can catch half of them next winter, I can buy a whole herd of reindeer and become a reindeer man. But what have we here? Ho-ho! So this is what they were making such a fuss about! Old Long Neck's nest! Well, I guess nine good eggs will be fine eating for my wife and the children."
With that Omnok put the eggs in his hunting sack and went stalking away.