THE BEAVER'S STORY 373 



Then, if we see a freshet coming, we make a gap in tlie 

 dam to let the water off, or if it rises too quickly, as 

 sometimes in early spring, we swim for refuge to our 

 summer bank burrows. Sometimes our woodpile grows 

 water-soaked and sour, and we are glad when a thaw 

 lets us cut down a fresh supply ; but usually our win- 

 ter life is happy and comfortable, for here in this spot 

 no trappers may come to harry us from our homes. 



" ' Our children stay with us until they are two years 

 old, so each lodge harbors, besides the parents, the eiglit 

 or ten children of two seasons. We are affectionate 

 among ourselves, but are bound to keep Beaver law, 

 which says that the young of every lodge, Avhen fully 

 grown, shall go out, find mates, and build lodges for 

 themselves. Also, that they shall always go further 

 down stream than their old homes. Down stream 

 means the building of new dams and extra labor, which 

 is most suitable for those with strong young teeth. 

 The older Beavers, when they need new lodges, may 

 go up stream to easy quarters ; for as a Beaver grows 

 old, and toward the end of his fifteen years of life, his 

 teeth are dulled, and he cannot cut wood so easily for 

 house and dam building. Beaver law despises laziness 

 and says no Beaver shall steal from another Beaver's 

 woodpile, and the penalty for such a theft is death ! 

 The Indians know these laws and how well we keep 

 them. Often in a long cold winter, when all our bark 

 is eaten, we gnaw up the hard wood itself for food, or 

 pinch and starve rather than break the law. 



"'Each pair of lieavers are rulers in their lodge, 

 building and i*epairiiig their own dams unaided except 

 by members of their families ; for sociable as we are, we 



