Little White Fox and his Arctic Friends Part 5

"Who did I kill?" said Big White Bear, opening his eyes very wide.

"Yes, was it a very bad fight?"

"A bad fight?"

"Yes, you don't seem much scratched up for a great fighter. Look at me; one leg bent, nose split, and scarred up all over," said Huskie proudly.

"Do you think I'm a great fighter?"

"Of course you are. Omnok says--" Huskie caught himself just in time. If Big White Bear knew all about Omnok, he'd run away.

"Why, I never fight anybody," said Big White Bear gravely.

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Huskie. "That's a good story. You never fight any one. What a fib!"

"It's the truth."

"The truth? Ha! Ha! Of course that's not true. You're a bear. All bears are fighters, and great big bullies, besides! Why! I bet you've got claws three inches long."

"You think so?" Big White Bear put out his front paw which was as big as the trunk of a small tree. Huskie dodged.

"Look," said Big White Bear.

Huskie looked at Big White Bear's claws. They were not as long as his own. They were broad and blunt, just sharp enough for climbing over the ice.

"I don't know why they name me Bear," said Big White Bear; "Old Buster Grizzly, Buster Brown, and Buster Black, now, are very distant relatives of mine. Indeed, they have long claws and are great fighters. But my nearest relative, Tusks, the Walrus, is no fighter at all, and believe me, neither am I."

But Huskie was a very quarrelsome and suspicious fellow.

"That will do to tell," said he; "but I know it is not true. As for those claws of yours, I can guess how that is. They look very harmless now. But when you want to fight, you run them out like a cat's."

"It's no such thing," said Big White Bear.

"Oh, yes, it is. Omnok says it is. I am going to tell him now, and he'll fix you!" Vain boast! Huskie had forgotten himself.

In another instant, before he could dodge, Big White Bear had grabbed him and hugged him tight. Huskie could not call out at all. His voice became the tiniest little squeak.

"Let me go! Let me go!" he squeaked. "I won't tell! I won't tell! Oh!

Oh! Please, Mr. Bear, let me go!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I am going to make your teeth chatter so you can't call your master." _Page 81_]

But Big White Bear only grinned, and said "Huh?"

"Oh, I'll not kill you," said Big White Bear finally. "It's just as I have told you. I am no fighter. I never hurt anybody, unless I am driven to do so. I'll not kill you, but I am going to make your teeth chatter so you can't call your master."

At that, Big White Bear dropped right down into the cold, cold water with Huskie in his arms.

Now Big White Bear lives half the time in water, and he does not mind it a bit. But poor Huskie! When Big White Bear put him back on the ice, he couldn't have said a word to save his life.

"Now, go and tell your master that you have seen Big White Bear," said Big White Bear, grinning. "But you don't know where he is just now."

Then he dropped into the water and disappeared.

Huskie did not wait to hunt up his master. He ran home as fast as he could go. Try as he might, Omnok has never been able to get him to go hunting for Big White Bear again.

CHAPTER XII

LITTLE WHITE FOX GOES HUNTING

Little White Fox went hunting for Big White Bear! And he didn't have a gun or a spear or a bow and arrow! Now what do you think of that! You see, it was this way. It was winter time, and food was becoming very scarce on the hills and the tundra. All the delicious roots were frozen hard in the earth, and the berries were all gone. Little White Fox was very hungry, and he told Little Mrs. White Fox about it.

"Well," said his mother, "I guess we will have to go and find a Big White Bear."

"Find a Big White Bear!" cried Little White Fox. "Why, he'd eat us!"

"But you mustn't let him do that," said Mrs. White Fox.

"But what do we want to find him for?" said Little White Fox, scratching his head.

"Listen," said Mrs. White Fox very mysteriously. "Big White Bear is a very wasteful fellow. He has a big, big kitchen, and he has the greatest amount of food stored there. Oh! piles and piles of it! He doesn't like to eat his food in his kitchen. He brings some out every day and always leaves plenty. Now, if we can find him, we will just follow him about until his dinner hour. When he is gone, we will have plenty to eat.

See?"

Little White Fox did see and, though he was half afraid of Big White Bear, he was also very hungry, and so he was anxious to go on the hunt right away.

"You go one way, and I'll go the other," said Madam White Fox. "When you find Big White Bear, you come right back to this rock. I will come back too, and we will follow him about for weeks and weeks and have plenty to eat."

Away went Little White Fox, looking, looking everywhere for Big White Bear! He looked behind the cliff on the mountain. But Big White Bear wasn't there. He looked on the sand bars, but he wasn't there. He went peering all around the little lakes, but he wasn't there.

And where do you think Big White Bear was? He wasn't in very good business, I a.s.sure you. He was over on the other side of the mountain.

Tusks the Walrus had just climbed out of the water and had gone to sleep on the beach close to the mountain. Tusks was a great, good natured fellow, with a monstrous, heavy body and a pair of terrible looking tusks, which were not really terrible at all, for Tusks never used them except for digging clams. Big White Bear was up on the rocks, way, way above Tusks, and he had a great rock in his powerful paws, as big a rock as he could lift! He was going to throw it right down on Tusks and kill him. He had plenty to eat at home, but he thought this would be a fine chance to get some fresh meat.

Just when he was getting ready to throw it, something happened. Little White Fox came round the corner of the hill, looking here, there, and everywhere for Big White Bear. He came on round and round till he was just above Big White Bear, and then all at once he saw him! He was so glad he had found Big White Bear, that he stood right up on his two feet and gave one big, big laugh, "Ho! Ho! Ha! Ha! Yak! Yak! Yak!" just like that.

There was never a worse scared bear than Big White Bear in all the world! He had a guilty conscience, for he knew it was not right to throw a rock on poor, tired Tusks, and when he heard Little White Fox laugh, he didn't know who it was. It might be some one very big and dangerous.

It might be Omnok, the hunter, with his terrible gun! Big White Bear just trembled and trembled, and the rock fell from his powerful paws and went splashing into the water without hurting Tusks at all. But when he looked around to see who had laughed at him, he couldn't see any one at all. Little White Fox knew a whole lot better than to let Big White Bear see him just then! But just after that Little White Fox did a very thoughtless thing. He was so hungry and wanted so much to see where Big White Bear had his kitchen, that he forgot all about his mother telling him to come back to the big rock, and away he went, after Big White Bear all by himself.

CHAPTER XIII

BIG WHITE BEAR'S KITCHEN