i6 



under the sagging beams, and you could 

 sometimes hear a trout jumping among the 

 Brother f oam bubbles in the twilight. But you did 

 no t g so far if you wanted to find where 

 the Little Brother to the Bear lived. 



As you followed the wood road you came 

 suddenly to a little clearing, with a brook 

 and a wild meadow and a ledge all covered 

 with ferns. The road twisted about here, as 

 a road always does in going by a pretty 

 place, as if it were turning back for another 

 look. There was a little old house under 

 the ledge wherein some shy, silent children 

 lived; and this was the only dwelling of 

 man on the three-mile road. Just beyond, 

 at a point where the underbrush was thick- 

 est, an unnoticed cart path stole away from 

 the wood road and brought you to a little 

 pond in the big woods, at the spot where, 

 centuries ago, the beavers had made a dam 

 and a deep place for stowing their winter's 

 wood. If you took a. long pole and prodded 

 deep in the mud here, you would sometimes 

 find a cut stick of the beaver's food wood, 

 its conical ends showing the strong tooth 



v..- 



