e $pdt of 



Scores of aspens were felled in the grove 

 where the notched ones were. They were 

 trimmed, cut into sections, and limbs, logs, and 

 all taken over the route of the one I had fol- 

 lowed, and at last placed in a pile beside the big 

 house. This harvest gathering went on for a 

 month. All about was busy, earnest prepara- 

 tion for winter. The squirrels from the tree- tops 

 kept a rattling rain of cones on the leaf-strewn 

 forest floor, the cheery chipmunk foraged and 

 frolicked among the withered leaves and plants, 

 while aspens with leaves of gold fell before the 

 ivory sickles of the beaver. Splendid glimpses, 

 grand views, I had of this strange harvest-home. 

 How busy the beavers were! They were busy 

 in the grove on the steep mountainside; they 

 tugged logs along the runways; they hurried 

 them across the water-basins, wrestled with 

 them in canals, and merrily piled them by the 

 rude house in the water. And I watched them 

 through the changing hours; I saw their shad- 

 owy activity in the starry, silent night; I saw 

 them hopefully leave home for the harvest 

 groves in the serene twilight, and I watched 



58 



