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!
What was Little White Fox to do? He could not swim very far, and it was
a long way to land; in fact, he could not see any land at all. Besides,
the water was very, very cold. He couldn't think of a thing to do. He
just curled up in a heap and shivered and shivered and shivered, he was
so lonesome and frightened.
"Hello!" shouted Tusks the Walrus, sticking his head out of the water.
He looked and looked. "That's strange," he said to himself. "I thought I
saw Little White Fox over here on a piece of the ocean's roof. Guess
not, though. I don't see him now." And away he swam for a frolic with
one of his cousins.
"Hello!" cried Little Brown Seal, turning a somersault in the water.
When he turned the somersault, he looked at the piece of the ocean's
roof. "My! My!" he sighed. "These eyes of mine must be getting very bad
indeed! I thought I saw Little White Fox on that piece of roof." And he
too went paddling away to play.
[Illustration: Big White Bear popped right up out of the ocean!
_Page 119_]
And all the time Little White Fox was hiding his nose in a little snow
bank, and closing his pink eyes because he was so very much afraid of
every one, even his best friends, out here on the silent, lonesome sea.
Very soon he was nearly frightened to death. Big White Bear popped right
up out of the ocean! He climbed up on one end of the piece of roof and
tipped it up so Little White Fox thought he would surely be tipped into
the sea. But he dug in his toes and hid his nose, and closed his eyes
very tight. Pretty soon Big White Bear thought of something he wanted
to do and tumbled back into the sea.
Little White Fox floated on and on, for hours and hours and hours, over
the silent sea. But by and by when he was very, very hungry and very
sure that he would never see his dear home and his dear mother again,
there came a dreadful storm. Little White Fox had to dig his toe nails
in tight, again, and once the piece of the roof broke right in two and
nearly threw him into the sea! But finally he felt a bump. His piece of
roof had struck something hard. Bump! Bump! He nearly stood on his head,
and in a minute the piece of roof was perfectly still. Little White Fox
looked up, and right by the piece of roof was the finest sandy beach
you ever saw. He gave one big run and jumped on the beach, and scampered
away, as fast as ever he could, just before a big wave came and carried
the piece of roof back to sea.
It wasn't any time at all until he was up on the edge of the finest
hill, eating the richest, juiciest blueberries that had ever been kept
under a snow bank all the long winter through. And pretty soon he was
all dry, and feeling fine and not hungry at all.
"But where in the world am I?" thought Little White Fox, scratching his
head. "I'll have to see if I can find some of my friends who can tell me
how to go home. It must be a long, long way."