fellow, indeed!"

It was Miss Ptarmigan. She had changed her white gown for a brown one!

CHAPTER III

HE GETS HIS HEAD THUMPED

"Who put all those rocks there, I wonder?" mused Little White Fox,
scratching his head and looking puzzled. "They are white and all the
same size. How queer!"

Little White Fox had climbed almost to the top of Cape Prince of Wales
Mountain. He had crept around among the rocks until he was way out on a
ledge looking out over the great blue sea. And here he had found these
strange rocks, all gathered in one little pile by themselves. As he
looked around, he presently saw more piles here and there, and all just
the same size. "Now, what do you think of that!" he said to himself,
scratching his head again, and more puzzled than ever.

He was still rubbing his head thoughtfully, when a sound behind him made
him look around, and his bright eyes fell on a group of the strangest
little people any small fox ever came across. There were seven of them.
They all stood in a row, and each was as straight up and down as the big
whalebone over the grave Omnok, the hunter, had made for his father.
Little White Fox had seen some of these strange folks when he was with
his mother a few days before. She had told him that they belonged to the
Sea Parrot family. "There is a very large family of them," she had said.
"They live almost anywhere on the ocean most of the year, but they make
Alaska their summer home."

These seven little black sea parrots all stood up stiffly in a row, and
not one word did they say, either to Little White Fox or to one another.
But Little White Fox felt that they were looking at him, and he didn't
like it a bit. "What business is it of theirs if I walk around here and
see what I can see?" he thought to himself. "They are very ugly little
people, anyway. Look at their faces! They are nearly all nose! And such
ugly, bent noses I never saw before in all my life, either!"

Just then a strange, pleasing smell came to Little White Fox's quivering
nostrils. Could it come from those strange, round rocks? He would see.
He walked up to one of the piles, and, putting his nose down close, gave
a big, long sniff. Yes, sir, that's just where it did come from! "How
queer!" thought he. "I never saw such rocks before. Guess I'll push one
of them around and see what will happen." At that, he stretched out one
of his front paws, and began to roll one of the rocks about. Bing!
something st