ry, and so am I. Just wait
a minute."

Master Barred Seal disappeared in the water, reappearing from time to
time with a fish in his mouth.

"Now," he said, when he had finished fishing, "we will have dinner."
Before Little White Fox was spread the most tempting array of fish he
had ever seen.

"This is the finest home in the world," said Barred Seal proudly. "Your
dinner comes right to your front door. Look!"

Little White Fox looked, and sure enough, there in the water were plenty
more fish swimming round and round.

"But what if Omnok, the hunter, should find us here?" Little White Fox
shivered suddenly.

[Illustration: "Now," he said, when he had finished fishing, "we will
have dinner." _Page 38_]

"What if he should?" repeated the other. "There are four feet of solid
ice between us and the top. He will not come down in the water to get
us, so what could he do?"

"But very soon, Mother tells me," said Little White Fox, "the ice will
all melt, or the wind will blow it out to sea."

"Oh, well, in that case," replied Barred Seal, smiling, "there is still
the wild, free ocean to live in as always."

"Not for me!" said Little White Fox, turning white in the face and
losing his appetite all at once. "How can I get out of here?"

"You don't want to go so soon," answered Barred Seal. "Stay with me
awhile. I rather like you. And, as you see, we have plenty of good fish
to eat."

"I thank you," said Little White Fox very politely, "but I'd very much
rather go back home." And at that moment he had a frightful vision of
all that ice going out, out to sea.

"Very well," said Barred Seal, "I'll go in the water and stand on my
tail; then you can climb out on my back. Only don't dig in your toe
nails."

In another moment Little White Fox was out in the bright sunshine, and
you may be very sure he was glad to be there. "I guess the world was
made about right," he said to himself. "And I am glad the hills, the
tundra, and my own little home are just as they are, and I am glad I am
Little White Fox."

CHAPTER VI

LITTLE WHITE FOX HELPS HIMSELF

Little White Fox was hungry again, and it was the hard, cold, winter
time, when all of the little folks of the tundra have to hunt far and
wide for food. He had asked Tdariuk, the reindeer, to invite him out to
dinner. Tdariuk was very nice about it, but said he had only some
lichens, which men call reindeer moss, to eat. When Little White Fox
tasted them, he sa