usted. He would never ask another
thing of a big white owl again, if he lived a thousand years! But away
he trotted toward some other little ponds he had seen some time before.

He was slipping along as quietly as he could in the grass when he heard
a splash, splash in the water, and there was Mrs. Swan. Of all the
people in all the world, besides his own dear mother, Little White Fox
liked Mrs. Swan best! Her white gown was always so smooth and tidy, her
neck so graceful, and she seemed so kind, that Little White Fox thought
she was just the most perfect lady that ever was! To be sure he had been
tempted once to steal one of the big eggs out of her great nest, on the
beach the summer before, but he hadn't done it, and now, you may be very
sure, he was glad he hadn't, for perhaps she would tell him the way
home.

"Please, Mrs. Swan," he said, making a very graceful bow, "will you tell
me the way home?" Mrs. Swan looked at him very kindly but never said a
word. Very soon she flapped her great, white wings, and putting her bill
right out before her and her feet straight behind, out she went flapping
away to the northward. Then Little White Fox knew that was the way home,
for she was going back to his own dear beach to make a new nest and to
hatch out some more little Swanfolks.

[Illustration: She was going back to his own dear beach. _Page 128_]

I wish I had time to tell you of all the adventures that befell Little
White Fox on his way home, but I haven't. Perhaps some other time we
will hear all about that. But one day, when the sun was shining brightly
and the flowers were beginning to bloom, who should little Mrs. White
Fox see come trotting up the path by the big rock but her own long-lost
son, Little White Fox. And you may well believe that she was glad to see
him! She had thought she would never see him again. And the things he
had to tell her! How she did listen, and how the other little Foxes,
Violet Blue Fox and Little Cross Fox and the Silver Fox twins and all
the rest, how they listened! Oh, Little White Fox was quite a person in
his family that evening! But when he had been given a good dinner with a
piece of blueberry pie such as only Little Mrs. White Fox can make, and
had curled himself up on the moss cot by the side of the great rock, he
went to sleep thinking that after all there was no place in all the
world like his own home under the big rock, and no one in all the world
quite so good as his own m