MEN OF THE TREES 



to Canada. The news came as a blow to them, but when 

 they found that I had set my heart on it, they showed 

 great fortitude as I packed up and set out on my first 

 real adventure, which I have never since regretted. 



For three and a half years I was in the hard school of 

 the open spaces, but it proved the best sort of char- 

 acter training. I homesteaded South of Saskatoon and 

 pitched my tent on Beaver Creek, where in the small 

 hours of the morning I took delight in watching the 

 beavers and their interesting ways. It was then that I 

 had my first experience of stalking these timid folk. 

 They worked with great caution, and it was some time 

 before I became skilful enough to be able to creep up 

 close to them without being observed. I was impressed 

 with their industry, which resulted in the beneficial 

 control of the stream flow, for they catch and save 

 from loss tremendous quantities of the earth's best plant 

 food. They appealed to me as real little forest conserva- 

 tors. There, on Beaver Creek their work continued for 

 many weeks, and I watched it with increasing interest. 

 Finally they constructed a dam across which I could 

 walk. It was over forty feet in width across a stream 

 which had been less than a dozen feet wide when they 

 started building. In the winter I returned and was 

 thrilled to find a large beaver house, whose top pro- 

 truded above the ice to a height of three or four feet. 

 This looked like a miniature crater of a volcano, with 

 hot air and steam instead of smoke exuding from the 

 summit, upon whose fringe the snow had melted to 



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