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.