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 he did cry! 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.
CHAPTER XVII
A STRANGE JOURNEY
Little White Fox went 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 she could 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!