Since we have been covering the Iditarod for so long, the Junior Dispatch specializes in Iditarod-style fun, just take a look:

TUNDRA: This comic strip hosted by the Junior Dispatch mostly focuses on the antics of arctic animals. You can read it every day here.

PRINCE JAN, ST. BERNARD: This feature tells the story of a dog and his travels from St. Bernard Pass and back again. Along the way, he meets plenty of interesting friends. Read the chapter story here.

PICTURES & BOOKS: Looking for good book about Alaska? A librarian helped us discover five of the best for kids like you. Get the details here.

LITTLE WHITE FOX & HIS ARCTIC FRIENDS: This feature contains multiple short stories about an arctic fox living in Alaska as he searches for food, gets in trouble and has quite a bit of fun. Find his adventures here.

MORE DOGS: While Belevedere isn’t likely to be running in the Iditarod any time soon, the fiesty little pooch is with them in spirit. Read the comic strip here!

View more Iditarod Fast-Facts here.

The votes are in! After a two-step selection process, the Junior Dispatch staff (which is really the staff of The York Dispatch) is ready to name the winners for our coloring contest.

Jordyn's winning entry in the coloring contest.

As first described in the contest rules, we were actually awarding two first prizes. Why? Because we had two amazingly cute stuffed animals to give away!

It’s a good thing that we did too, because out of the 60-plus entries, we ended up having a two-way tie for the top vote-getters.

The winners both submitted their entries through the York Jewish Community Center, and they are … (drum roll please!) …

• Lexi, age 8
• Jordyn, age 11

Congratulations to our two winners! We will be dropping those cute and adorable huskies off at the York JCC  in a few days.

See all the entries in this slideshow.

More prizes: All the entrants to our coloring contest earned one of our mammoth-sized Junior Dispatch water bottles. If you entered the coloring contest through the library, a class or a daycare, we’ll soon be bringing you and your classmates water bottles. If you entered through the mail or e-mailed us an entry, you can come to the York Dispatch offices (205 North George St. in York, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.)  and pick up a water bottle.

Lexi's winning entry in the coloring contest!

The details: The coloring contest was held in conjunction with our coverage of the 2012 Iditarod dog sled race and featured a scene inspired by our “Little White Fox” reading project.

The reading project features a kid-friendly story, videos, more coloring pages and other activities to promote reading.

You can learn more about the “Little White Fox” reading project here. Read our Iditarod coverage here.

How voting worked: After we collected all the 60-plus entries, we picked two staffers to each select their five favorites.

Then we posted the top ten entries and had all of our staffers vote for their three favorites.

The two coloring efforts by Jordyn and Lexi got the most votes and were declared the winners.

You can check out even more coloring pages here!

What’s next? We have a big contest planned for this summer. Keep an eye out for news on that coming soon!

The Junior Dispatch recently ran a coloring contest as part of our presentation of “Little White Fox and his Arctic Friends.”

Here’s a look at all of the entries — more than 60 — we received.

Look for our announcement of the two grand prize winners sometime next week!

CHAPTER 18

When Little White Fox looked all around him very carefully, this way and that, and didn’t see a thing he had ever seen before and not a person who knew him in all this new tundra and all these new hills, he felt very blue, you may be sure. But he didn’t cry about it. He was too happy at being off that bit of roof to the great ocean for that. So he looked as far as he could see in every direction, and at last he spied some little lakes way down on the tundra. “I’ll just go over there and see if there is any one I know,” he said to himself, and went trotting away as fast as ever he could. He came right down by the lakes and at last he saw some one he had met in his own home land.

It was Mr. Widgeon Junior, a son of Old Mrs. Widgeon Duck, who was killed by Omnok the hunter.

“Hello,” said Little White Fox.

Widgeon Junior looked up quick, in a frightened sort of way, but he never said a word. He just stretched out his long neck and flapped his strong wings and began to fly. And all the time he pointed with his bill straight ahead and with his feet straight behind, as if to say, “Follow me; this is the way home.”

“I just believe that is the way home!” said Little White Fox. “His mother had her nest right down on our tundra last summer, and I believe he is going there right now!” So he picked up his feet lively and ran along behind Widgeon Junior but he couldn’t near keep up! It wasn’t any time at all before he was so far behind that he couldn’t see Widgeon Junior at all! And before long he was just as badly lost as before. But he trotted on cheerfully, “For,” he said to himself, “I’ll see some one else I know very soon.”

And sure enough, all of a sudden there was a clap, clap of wings, and some one that looked just like Who-Who, the big white owl, went soaring over his head. But when Little White Fox shouted “Hello” in his very best voice, the great white owl never answered a word, but went flapping on till he lit on the top of a whalebone which one of Omnok’s relatives had put up to mark a grave.

“Well,” said Little White Fox to himself, “I guess that isn’t Who-Who, but anyway, it is one of his cousins, and he is very wise. All the Owl folks are. He will tell me the way home.”

So he hurried over to the foot of the whalebone and said, “Please, Mr. White Owl, won’t you tell me the way home?”

The big white owl never answered a word, but he winked his eye very cunningly, as much as to say, “Look, I’ll show you.” Then he flapped his great, white wings, and away he flew, and away after him, as fast as ever he could trot, came Little White Fox, never once looking this way or that to see where he was going, so proud was he to be able almost to keep up with this new friend. He ran and ran and ran until he was out of breath, when he saw the big, white owl spread his wings out straight and light on a whalebone sticking right out of the ground and looking for all the world like the one he had flown away from just a little while before. Little White Fox ran up to the whalebone and looked up at the big white owl.

The big white owl closed one eye and winked very knowingly as if to say, “Am I not a very wise old owl?”

Little White Fox looked all around at the tundra and the hills, and sure enough, that was the very same whalebone, sticking up out of the ground! The big white owl had led him a long way, all around in a circle! You may be sure Little White Fox was disgusted. 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.

You have a chance to win this stuffed animal when you submit your entry in the Junior Dispatch's coloring contest!

In conjunction with its Iditarod coverage and its “Little White Fox & His Arctic Friends” reading project, the Junior Dispatch is holding a coloring contest where you can win one of two soft and squishy stuffed animals — a pair of huskies. You’ll only win one of them for your coloring effort, but we assure they have more than enough cuddle.

THE RULES

Ages: This contest is open to kids ages 3 to 13.

Get the image: Here is a PDF of the image.  (Don’t try printing the JPG at right; the PDF will work much better!)

Color it: Color the image of the little fox meeting the seal, which is a scene from our current reading project. Although the fox in that story is called “Little White Fox,” you don’t have to color this fox white. You can color it with crayons, markers, colored pencils or anything else you like, including computerized coloring through programs such as PhotoShop.

Don’t forget: Include your name, age and a parent’s phone number so we can contact you.

Submit it: You can deliver it to the Junior Dispatch in a number of ways. Email a digital scan to juniordispatch@yorkdispatch.com. Mail your entry to:

Junior Dispatch
c/o The York Dispatch
205 N. George St.
York, PA 17401

You can drop off entries at the same location.

Deadline: Entries must be postmarked by Friday, March 23, 2012.

Prizes: Every submission earns a Junior Dispatch water bottle. The top two entries will win a stuffed animal husky dog

Notes: All decisions by the Junior Dispatch contest staff are final. Entries become the property of Junior Dispatch. Submission prizes (Junior Dispatch water bottles) must be picked up at the York Dispatch offices while supplies last, except bulk deliveries to classes or libraries. Submission prizes are only available while supplies last. Submissions will be judged on creativity and other factors. Only one entry per person.

Click on this PDF link  for a printer-friendly version of this drawing, color it and then mail it back to us so we can post it here. Get even more coloring pages at the Junior Dispatch’s COLORING PAGE section!

CHAPTER 17

Little White Fox went on a strange journey one day, and when he arrived at its end, he didn’t know where he was! You see, he had been living for a long time with his mother off the bounty of Big White Bear. Now the snow had almost all gone from the mountains and the tundra.

Little Mrs. White Fox had gone over to the land and told Little White Fox to watch sharp and see if Big White Bear came up out of his kitchen and left anything for them to eat. She was going over to see if she could find any perfectly good blueberries which had been hidden all winter under the snow.

Little White Fox loitered about on the roof to the ocean and dreamed, as little folks will in the springtime. The weather was fine, and the sun was shining now, all day and all night. A great deal of the roof to the ocean had floated mysteriously away, one night, but there was a great deal of it left, and Little White Fox felt very safe. But all of a sudden, Scratch! Scratch! he heard Big White Bear come up out of his kitchen. Then he knew that there was going to be a feast, just as there had been so many times before.

He waited and waited until Swish, Swish he heard Big White Bear tumble back into the water and swim away. Then such a feast as he did have!

Well, Little White Fox ate so much and the sun shone so brightly, that he began to feel very, very sleepy, and almost before he knew anything about it, he was curled up on the roof to the ocean fast asleep, dreaming as hard as ever a white fox dreamed.

I don’t know how long Little White Fox slept; hours and hours I imagine.

But when he awoke and looked about him, all he could see was the dark, deep ocean everywhere. He jumped to his feet and peered this side of him and that side, but it was all the same dark, deep water. There was nothing but ocean everywhere. The big waves had come along and carried off the part of the roof to the ocean that Little White Fox was sleeping on!

What was Little White Fox to do? He could not swim very far, and it was a long way to land; in fact, he could not see any land at all. Besides, the water was very, very cold. He couldn’t think of a thing to do. He just curled up in a heap and shivered and shivered and shivered, he was so lonesome and frightened.

“Hello!” shouted Tusks the Walrus, sticking his head out of the water. He looked and looked. “That’s strange,” he said to himself. “I thought I saw Little White Fox over here on a piece of the ocean’s roof. Guess not, though. I don’t see him now.” And away he swam for a frolic with one of his cousins.

“Hello!” cried Little Brown Seal, turning a somersault in the water.

When he turned the somersault, he looked at the piece of the ocean’s roof. “My! My!” he sighed. “These eyes of mine must be getting very bad indeed! I thought I saw Little White Fox on that piece of roof.” And he too went paddling away to play.

And all the time Little White Fox was hiding his nose in a little snow bank, and closing his pink eyes because he was so very much afraid of every one, even his best friends, out here on the silent, lonesome sea.

Big White Bear popped right up out of the ocean!

Very soon he was nearly frightened to death. Big White Bear popped right up out of the ocean! He climbed up on one end of the piece of roof and tipped it up so Little White Fox thought he would surely be tipped into the sea. But he dug in his toes and hid his nose, and closed his eyes very tight. Pretty soon Big White Bear thought of something he wanted to do and tumbled back into the sea.

Little White Fox floated on and on, for hours and hours and hours, over the silent sea. But by and by when he was very, very hungry and very sure that he would never see his dear home and his dear mother again, there came a dreadful storm. Little White Fox had to dig his toe nails in tight, again, and once the piece of the roof broke right in two and nearly threw him into the sea! But finally he felt a bump. His piece of roof had struck something hard. Bump! Bump! He nearly stood on his head, and in a minute the piece of roof was perfectly still. Little White Fox looked up, and right by the piece of roof was the finest sandy beach you ever saw. He gave one big run and jumped on the beach, and scampered away, as fast as ever he could, just before a big wave came and carried the piece of roof back to sea.

It wasn’t any time at all until he was up on the edge of the finest hill, eating the richest, juiciest blueberries that had ever been kept under a snow bank all the long winter through. And pretty soon he was all dry, and feeling fine and not hungry at all.

“But where in the world am I?” thought Little White Fox, scratching his head. “I’ll have to see if I can find some of my friends who can tell me how to go home. It must be a long, long way.”

VOCABULARY

Look up and define these words:

• Loiter —
• Shiver –
• Lonesome -–
• Scamper -–

YOUR REACTIONS TO THE CHAPTER

In this chapter, Little White Fox  goes for a ride on a piece of ice that takes him over the ocean. Have you ever went on a fun ride or trip? Maybe you went on a roller coaster, flew on an airplane or rode a snowmobile. Tell us how in a story, the comments below or by drawing a picture. When you’re done e-mail it to us at juniordispatch@yorkdispatch.com or mail it to us.

Our address is: Junior Dispatch, 205 North George St., York, Pa. 17401

YOUR VIDEO FOR TODAY

See what happens when “the roof of the ocean” drifts away: http://youtu.be/3fgKLpWbodA

CHAPTER 16

One day Little White Fox was out in front of his house sunning himself.

He and his mother were living off the bounty of Big White Bear these days, so there was nothing to worry about. He just stretched himself out there on the white snow and looked away at the wide, white world, as contented as could be. But all at once he saw a strange, strange thing.

Out on the roof of the silent sea, Little Brown Seal was sunning himself too, right close to the door of his home. He was taking little “cat” naps.

You see, Little Brown Seal could not sleep down in his house in the ocean. It was far too damp down there. So he was lying there by his door, sleeping just two or three minutes at a time, then looking up to see if there was any danger near.

Now that wasn’t such a strange thing. Little White Fox had seen Little Brown Seal do that nearly every day, but the strange thing was that there was some one else out on the ice who seemed to be doing the very same thing that Little Brown Seal was doing — taking “cat” naps. And stranger still, he did not seem to be one of Little Brown Seal’s relatives! He was too long, and he didn’t wiggle his body right!

Little White Fox could see all that, but Little Brown Seal was so low down on the ice that all he could see was the stranger’s head.

He might have known even then that it was not one of his cousins, if he had had as sharp eyes as Little White Fox. But he didn’t, for his eyes were very poor.

So Little Brown Seal thought it was one of his own cousins taking a nap now and then, just as he was. Once it looked to Little White Fox as if he were beginning to understand that the stranger was not one of his cousins, for he stayed awake a long, long time and looked and looked and looked. The stranger seemed to be sleeping a long time, and that made Little Brown Seal suspicious. But just then the stranger bobbed his head and looked all around this way and that way, just as any real, wise seal would do, and Little Brown Seal decided it was all right, that this stranger was one of his really truly cousins.

And who do you think the stranger, who acted so very much like a seal, was? It was Omnok, the hunter, with his terrible gun sliding right along beside him! He had learned how Little Brown Seal took his “cat” naps, and he was going to slip right up to him and kill him. He kept creeping up closer, closer, closer. But Little Brown Seal had made up his mind that it was one of his cousins, and so he didn’t ask himself any more questions about it. He just kept on taking his little “cat” naps and waking up to look all around, this way and that way, but never paying any attention to this stranger who was coming nearer all the time.

“My,” Little White Fox thought to himself, “he will surely be killed. Yes, sir! I am very, very sure Little Brown Seal is going to be killed!”

But just when Omnok was getting very close, and just before he was going to raise his terrible gun and kill Little Brown Seal, a strange thing happened. I don’t know how it happened. Perhaps Little White Fox was sorry the sun was going down so soon that day, or perhaps he was lonesome for his mother. Perhaps he was sorry for Little Brown Seal, because he was going to get killed in just another minute; but whatever it was, Little White Fox began to feel bad all at once. He wanted to cry, and he did cry! He lifted his pink little nose into the air and cried, “Ah! Ah! Ah! Yak! Yak! Yak!”

Now Little Brown Seal may not have very good eyes, but he has very good ears, and he had just wakened from a “cat” nap when he heard that lonesome wail from Little White Fox. And he didn’t wait one minute, nor one second! He tumbled down into his house in the ocean as quick as a wink, just as Omnok the hunter was getting ready to shoot him!

Perhaps you think Omnok wasn’t angry! But he had heard Little White Fox cry. He would get Little White Fox’s coat. Then he would be even. But Little White Fox was nowhere about when Omnok climbed the hill. No, you may be sure he wasn’t! He was way under the great rock in his own little home, where Omnok couldn’t get near him. So all Omnok could do was to put his terrible gun over his shoulder and go back home.

Little Brown Seal was sunning himself on the ice.

VOCABULARY

Look up and define these words:

• Sunning —
• Cousin –
• Wiggle -–
• Bobbed -–

YOUR REACTIONS TO THE CHAPTER

In this chapter, Little White Fox helps his friend the seal avoid Omnok the hunter and in this case, he helps Little Brown Seal avoid getting shot. How have you helped your friends in the past? Tell us how in a story, the comments below or by drawing a picture. When you’re done e-mail it to us at juniordispatch@yorkdispatch.com or mail it to us.

Our address is: Junior Dispatch, 205 North George St., York, Pa. 17401

YOUR VIDEO FOR TODAY

What’s cuter than an baby animals falling asleep: http://youtu.be/zZDCBJdCa1k

CHAPTER 15

Little White Fox was hungry again. It would seem that a little white fox is hungry most of the time. He went wandering all over the tundra, looking for something to eat. At last he came to the bank of the river.

He was sniffing about there when he spied a door right in the ground near the ice roof of the river. “Hello!” said he, stopping short, “I wonder who made that door in there.” He looked into the door but could see no one. It was too dark. He shouted into the door, but no one answered. He crept part way down the stairway. Then he stopped and listened. He heard nothing, so he ventured on, and almost before he knew it, he found himself in one of the biggest caves he had ever seen. It was as wide as half the river and as long as he could see in each direction. It had an ice roof and a good solid floor. Only the floor stopped pretty soon, and then there was water.

“I don’t believe anybody in the world could build a house like this! said Little White Fox. “I guess it just happened to be here, and some one has discovered it. I wonder who it could be?”

He walked down close to where the water was, and there he found tracks. Oh! hundreds and hundreds of them! But he could not tell whose tracks they were. He had never seen such tracks before.

“Anyway, I believe there is something good to eat in that water,” he said to himself. “If there wasn’t, that fellow wouldn’t come down here and stand around so much. It is nice and warm down here out of the wind, and I guess I’ll stand around a little myself and see what will happen.”

Meanwhile, down below in the river, two of the little river people were having a talk all by themselves. They were Unfortunate Flounder and Mr. Salmon Trout. Salmon Trout is a very graceful fellow who always holds himself erect in the water. When he swims, he goes so swiftly that you can hardly see him. But Unfortunate Flounder goes floating around on one side all the time, and looks more like a dead leaf than any member of the fish family.

“Why do you not stand straight up in the water as I do?” said Salmon Trout.

“Well,” said Unfortunate Flounder, “it’s only a little my fault. Can’t you see that my eyes are on one of my flat sides and my stomach on the other? It wouldn’t be very pleasant to go about looking one way and going another, would it? When I was going south, I’d be looking west; don’t you see?”

“How does it happen that you are that way?”

“I was born that way. All my children are the same, and so were my parents before me. You see, it’s really a matter of ancestry. Way back somewhere, one of my great grandparents found out it was easier to lop around sidewise in the water than to stand straight up as you do, so he lopped around all his life long. His son followed his example and lopped around a little worse. So it went on, until to-day we could not straighten up if we were to try. At least, it would take whole generations before we could balance ourselves as well as you do. As for me, I don’t see as it matters much, for, after all, I quite agree with my great grandfather that it is best to be comfortable, even if it does make you ugly, ungraceful, and slow.”

But just then Unfortunate Flounder learned what an unhappy thing it was to be slow. Little White Fox from his station on the bank had been watching, watching very sharply two dark spots that had appeared in the water. He had watched them come closer and closer. At last he thought he could reach out and grab one of them without getting in the water.

“Look out!” cried Salmon Trout, as he glided swiftly away. But poor Unfortunate Flounder was too slow, and he felt Little White Fox’s sharp teeth close down on him.

Just then something happened. “Here! what are you doing in my fishing house?” demanded an angry voice. It frightened Little White Fox so badly that he dropped Unfortunate Flounder back into the river and looked around.

It was Mr. Golden Marten, and this was his fishing house. At least, he called it his, for he had made the stairway down to it. It took Little White Fox only a moment to discover that while Golden Marten was not quite as large as he was, his teeth were very sharp. The door to the stairway was quite close to him, and before Golden Marten could stop him Little White Fox was out of the door and racing for home as fast as his little legs could carry him.

“All the same,” he said to his mother that night, after he had told her of the cave, “when I am as old as you are, I am going to have a fish house all my own!”

VOCABULARY

Look up and define these words:

• Discover —
• Flounder –
• Trout -–
• Marten -–

YOUR REACTIONS TO THE CHAPTER

In this chapter, Little White Fox goes exploring down into a mysterious ice cave. Write a story or draw a picture about what it’s like inside of cave. It doesn’t have to be an ice cave either. It can be a cave with strange creatures and monsters inside. Or it can be a cave with a hidden treasure. Or it can be something else entirely. When you’re done e-mail it to us at juniordispatch@yorkdispatch.com or mail it to us.

Our address is: Junior Dispatch, 205 North George St., York, Pa. 17401

YOUR VIDEOS FOR TODAY

Here’s a flounder fish changing colors: http://youtu.be/kOembW28AGw

Check out this pine marten: http://youtu.be/pACaNzQXn4o

CHAPTER 14

When Omnok returned from hunting Big White Bear he sat down and began to think. “White bears about,” he thought to himself. “There must be white foxes about too, for they always stay close to white bears. I must go out and set some traps.” And that is just what he did the very next evening. He threw the cruel looking traps, with their ugly steel jaws, over his shoulder and went out to look for a good place to set them. At last he came to a place where there were many white bear tracks.

“I guess this will do,” he said to himself. He took out his great knife and cut out a cake of snow that was nearly as hard as ice. He cut this up into four little snow boards, very square and very smooth. Then he made a little hole in the snow and put a trap there. Next he made a thin shingle of snow,–so thin that the least touch would break it right in two. He put this over the trap and smoothed it over so carefully that no one in all the world could tell there was a trap hidden there.

Then he made a little house over it with the four boards,–a very fine looking house with a roof and three sides, and with one side left open for the door. He put some nice pieces of meat inside of the house, so when any little fox came to live there he wouldn’t have to go away hungry.

Finally he spilled a few drops of delicious smelling seal oil around the house and went away.

Now who should happen by that way, almost right away, but our own Little White Fox, looking, looking everywhere for Big White Bear. Right away the west wind blew a little whiff of the rich seal oil in front of his nose, and almost before he knew it, Little White Fox was standing in front of the little house that Omnok built, wondering how it came there and how there happened to be such delicious looking meat inside of it.

He wasn’t quite sure it was safe to go inside, so he just licked up all the drops of seal oil around the outside. It was very good, but it was only a taste, and it made him hungrier than ever.

“I just believe I am going to have that meat!” he said to himself. He was about to put his paw on the little snow shingle that was so thin and would break so easily, when he heard a great, gruff voice right behind him.

“Here! What you doing there?” Little White Fox just tumbled a back somersault away from the little house and ran as fast as ever he could, for there, right behind him, was Big White Bear! It’s one thing to be looking for some one very much larger than yourself, but quite another thing for that big person to be looking at you.

Little White Fox didn’t take any chances. But when he was a long distance away, and Big White Bear wasn’t following him, he turned around to see what would happen to the little house. He wished Big White Bear would go away, so he could get all that delicious meat.

But Big White Bear did not go away. He bent his long neck and put his great nose right up to the little house and gave a great “Woof!” The little house was far too small for Big White Bear to enter, so he put out one of his ponderous, powerful paws and sent the little house flying every way. But his ponderous, powerful paw went too deep. It touched the thin shingle, and Snap! the trap came down on Big White Bear’s paw. Came down hard too! Ow-e-e-e! How it did hurt! How Big White Bear roared! One might have thought he was being killed!

He ran limping to the ocean, dragging the little fox trap after him. When he got there, he stuck his paw up in the air, and moved it round and round, round and round, till the chain on the trap went Ziz! Ziz! Ziz! just like that. All of a sudden the trap came loose and tumbled into the sea, and I think Steadfast Starfish’s children are playing with it still.

Little White Fox ran straight home to tell his mother how he had found Big White Bear and all the things that had happened.

“Well,” said his mother, “I think Big White Bear has found you, and I am sure it is a good thing he did!” Then she sat down and told Little White Fox all about the dangers of nice smelling meat and the little houses that Omnok builds.

VOCABULARY

Look up and define these words:

• Trap —
• Shingle –
• Steadfast -–
• Ponderous -–

YOUR REACTIONS TO THE CHAPTER

In this chapter, Omnok the hunter sets a steel trap for an arctic fox by hiding it under the snow and ends up catching Big White Bear instead. Back in the early 1900s when “Little White Fox and His Arctic Friends” was written, trapping animals was fairly common. Now it’s not widely practiced because many people believe it’s a cruel form of hunting. Those that trap say it helps them get food to eat and fur to wear. What do you think? Is trapping necessary or is it cruel? Write down your thoughts or draw a picture about trapping. When you’re done e-mail it to us at juniordispatch@yorkdispatch.com or mail it to us.

Our address is: Junior Dispatch, 205 North George St., York, Pa. 17401

YOUR VIDEOS FOR TODAY

Learn the trappers’ code of ethics: http://youtu.be/0iCCuvPXNXo

In this video, a barn owl is accidentally caught in a steel trap: http://youtu.be/70z_atDsqe4

CHAPTER 13

“I mustn’t lose Big White Bear,” thought Little White Fox, “and I mustn’t let him see me. Oh! My! No! I mustn’t do that, for he is a big, big fellow and who knows what he might do to me?” So he slipped along behind very slyly, hiding behind this rock and that one, behind this snow pile and that one, very carefully indeed.

But Big White Bear was nearly as badly frightened as Little White Fox.

“What was that great big laugh?” he kept thinking to himself. And every time he thought of it, he looked behind him, and I am sure he really expected to see Omnok, the hunter, step right out with his terrible gun.

But by and by, when he had gone down the mountain and across the tundra and over the little lakes, he was not so much afraid, and he began to grow hungry.

Now that was just what Little White Fox hoped would happen, for he was very hungry himself and very curious besides to see where Big White Bear kept his pantry. Where would it be? Would it be in the tall mountains, or on the tundra, or out on the roof of the sea? How interesting it would be to know!

Pretty soon Big White Bear began to go straight ahead, without turning to one side or the other. Then Little White Fox was sure he had started for his kitchen, and he was glad as could be! Big White Bear went right out on the roof to the ocean and on and on and on, till Little White Fox was good and tired. When he came to the dark, dark waters of the ocean, Big White Bear didn’t stop one moment. He just tumbled right into the water and disappeared all at once!

“My!” said Little White Fox, opening his eyes very wide. “He will surely be drowned.”

And then all at once he thought of the fine dinner he had been expecting to get and how far it was back to the great rock where his mother was to wait for him. And then, of course, he remembered what his mother had said about coming back to call her. How sorry he was now that he had forgotten all about that. Oh! if they could only find Big White Bear’s kitchen! Just then Little White Fox heard a scratching on the ice and bounded behind an ice boulder before he was seen.

Big White Bear had come right up out of the ocean with the biggest dinner you have ever seen. His kitchen was right down in the water under the roof of the ocean, and he had brought his dinner out on the ice to eat it in the sunshine.

Little White Fox thought Big White Bear would never, never get through eating, but he finally did. And there was quite a big dinner left for Little White Fox. When Big White Bear was fast asleep on the ice, taking his after-dinner nap, Little White Fox crept up and began to eat his dinner too.

“He didn’t ask me,” said Little White Fox, “but then I didn’t give him a chance, I am sure he would if I had.”

It was a very good dinner and how Little White Fox’s sides did stick out when he had finished! But he didn’t stay to say thank you, so I guess he wasn’t very sure that Big White Bear would have invited him. He just hid behind an ice boulder and waited for Big White Bear to wake up. He mustn’t lose Big White Bear. He began to think about that fine dinner he had just eaten and about how he had found Big White Bear all by himself and how he had frightened him.

It made him feel so good he just wanted to laugh.

The more he thought, the more he wanted to laugh, and the first thing, before he knew it, he was laughing right out loud, “Ha! Ha! Yak! Yak! Yak! Yak!”

Just that minute Big White Bear woke up, and he didn’t stop to see who was laughing! He tumbled right into the ocean and went paddling away as fast as ever he could. He didn’t stop till he was almost out of sight, then he looked back once for just a moment and went paddling on and on, till he was way out of sight. Little White Fox had lost Big White Bear. All the fine dinners he was to have in the future were lost, just because he had laughed at the wrong time.

I don’t know what Little Mrs. White Fox had to say to him when he came home, for I wasn’t there, but there are some very fine switches made out of reindeer moss lying all over the tundra. However, Little White Fox was a very young fellow and had a great many things to learn, so perhaps his mother did not punish him very hard.

VOCABULARY

Look up and define these words:

• Pantry —
• Boulder –
• Frighten -–
• Chance -–

YOUR REACTIONS TO THE CHAPTER

In this chapter, Little White Fox does it again — sneaking into a place he wasn’t invited, which is very bad. Make up a list of rules that Little White Fox should follow and when you’re done e-mail it to us at juniordispatch@yorkdispatch.com or mail it to us.

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YOUR VIDEOS FOR TODAY

An icy record — Swimming the North Pole: http://youtu.be/6sS8OcEwXNs