"I'll just taste some of that good smelling stuff," said Little White Fox happily, and was about to poke his small nose right into it, when ouch! something hit him a terrible whack right on the top of his head. My, how it hurt! It made his head ache so he could hardly think straight. And this time he knew who had done it. It was one of those ugly Parrot people.
"Now, I will bite her!" cried Little White Fox, and straight at that stiff row he dashed. And then at last the strangers found their tongues. Such a screaming and chattering Little White Fox had never heard before. But he found he couldn't bite them, after all, for every time he jumped at one of them, she leaped right over his head and hit him with her ugly face. So by and by Little White Fox was glad to run away home and leave the strange rocks to the ugly little people who were so savage and so bold.
Mother White Fox laughed and laughed when she heard of her son's strange adventure.
"But, mother," said Little White Fox, looking very much puzzled, "What did they care about those old rocks?"
"Care, child!" cried his mother, holding her sides, "those things were not rocks; they were their eggs. And the ledge you were on was their home. By and by those eggs will turn into little Sea Parrots, and when their wings and feet are strong, the babies will go swimming and flying out over the shining sea."
Little White Fox was far too young to understand all this, but he could understand how his head had been thumped. So you may be sure it was a long, long time before he went back to that cliff. When he did so, the Sea Parrots were all gone, and so were the strange things he had thought were rocks.