arrots, and when
their wings and feet are strong, the babies will go swimming and flying
out over the shining sea."

Little White Fox was far too young to understand all this, but he could
understand how his head had been thumped. So you may be sure it was a
long, long time before he went back to that cliff. When he did so, the
Sea Parrots were all gone, and so were the strange things he had thought
were rocks.

CHAPTER IV

WHEN LITTLE FOXES QUARREL

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 th