198 THE FUR TRADE OF AMERICA 



They cower in the terrible pen, knowing nothing at all about 

 their hides being valued all the way from fifty cents to #20, accord- 

 ing to the quality ; nothing about the dignity of being a coin of 

 the realm in the Northern wilderness, where one beaver skin sets 

 the value for mink, otter, marten, bear, and all other skins, one 

 pound of tobacco, one kettle, five pounds of shot, a pint of brandy, 

 and half a yard of cloth ; nothing about the rascally Indians long 

 ago bartering forty of their hides for a scrap of iron and a great 

 company sending one hundred thousand beaver skins in a single 

 year to make hats and cloaks for the courtiers of Europe ; nothing 

 about the laws of man forbidding the killing of beaver till their 

 number increase. 



All the little beaver remembers is that it opened its eyes to day- 

 light in the time of soft, green grasses ; and that as soon as it got 

 strong enough on a milk diet to travel, the mother led the whole 

 family of kittens — usually three or four — down the slanting 

 doorway of their dim house for a swim ; and that she taught them 

 how to nibble the dainty, green shrubs along the bank ; and then 

 the entire colony went for the most glorious, pell-mell splash up- 

 stream to fresh ponds. No more sleeping in that stifling lodge ; 

 but beds in soft grass like a goose-nest all night, and tumbling in 

 the water all day, diving for the roots of the lily-pads. But the 

 old mother is always on guard, for the wolves and bears are ravenous 

 in spring. Soon the cubs can cut the hardening bark of alder and 

 willow as well as their two-year-old brothers ; and the wonderful 

 thing is — if a tooth breaks, it grows into perfect shape. 



By August the little fellows are great swimmers, and the colony 

 begins the descent of the stream for their winter home. If un- 

 molested, the old dam is chosen ; but if the hated man-smell is 

 there, new water-ways are sought. Burrows and washes and 

 channels and retreats are cleaned out. Trees are cut and a great 

 supply of branches laid up for winter store near the lodge, not a 

 chip of edible bark being wasted. Just before the frost they begin 

 building or repairing the dam. Each night's frost hardens the 



