llttfft (Consemftontefe 



pers and who lived in a burrow on the bank, 

 could display but one. In the Moraine Colony 

 the three sets of youngsters numbered two, 

 three, and five. Great times these had as they 

 were growing up. They played over the house, 

 and such fun they had nosing and pushing each 

 other off a large boulder into the water ! A thou- 

 sand merry ripples they sent to the shore as 

 they raced, wrestled, and dived in the pond, 

 both in the sunshine and in the shadows of the 

 willows along the shore. 



The beaver has a rich birthright, though born 

 in a windowless hut of mud. Close to the primi- 

 tive place of his birth the wild folk of both woods 

 and water meet and often mingle; around it 

 are the ever-changing, never-ending scenes and 

 silences of the water or the shore. He grows up 

 with the many-sided wild, playing amid the 

 enameled flowers, the great boulders, the Ice 

 King's marbles, and the fallen logs in the 

 edge of the mysterious forest; learning to swim 

 and slide; listening to the strong, harmonious 

 stir of wind and water; living with the stars in 

 the sky and the stars in the pond; beginning 



37 



