THE HISTORY OF AN OLD FKIEND. 199 



dome upon the lake. After the parent has completed 

 his toilet he gives one or two caressing touches to that 

 of his young heir. A moment more they sit, eyeing the 

 bubbles or floating nuts descending the stream, or watch- 

 ing, their faces reflected hi the moonlight waters. Who 

 can say that they do not appreciate the beauty of the 

 night, or the soft, murmuring music of the woods, or the 

 fragrance of the air, laden with the odor of calamus buds 

 and the breath of the birch and sassafras ? Presently, 

 diving down together, they disappear under the water, 

 from whence, after a moment, they reappear, each with 

 several muscles clasped to his breast by his fore paws, 

 and, resuming their seats on the roots, they eat their 

 food ^ith the readiness of squirrels, casting the shells 

 down r:t their feet, which fall on the pile of pearly bivalves 

 that adorn the entrance to their home. Another pause 

 follows, while they look up and down the brook. 



Are they not comely in their dark-brown coat and 

 black feet? Does not their soft hair, that sheds the 

 water, and the strong flat tail, that steers their course, 

 or flattens their masonry-work, befit well their pursuits ? 

 Do not their manners well become their place ? Is it 

 not true they are free from cares and inordinate greed 

 that they know their simple duties and enjoy them? 



You say they are idle ? Wait till you have seen their 

 whole life. 



Presently the father swims off on the water and 

 across the brook. We may not see him go, for only his 

 head is above the surface, and his tail floats like a 



