26 BEARS AND BEAVERS. 



quite possible he conceived he had a grievance 

 against me, because I divided my affections among 

 too many. To do your memory justice you were 

 always a kindly beast, and willing to give up what- 

 ever you had when your master required it. 



I had at that time also a pair of young beavers ; 

 they were most interesting pets but very mischievous, 

 for they would gnaw the legs of tables and chairs 

 with equal industry, and had a penchant at night, if 

 shut up in a room, to gather every available cushion 

 or rug and place them against the crevice under the 

 door as if with the intention of shutting out the 

 draught. Their demonstrations of affection were 

 also frequently too fulsome, and thus required repress- 

 ing; in this course it was difficult to find a medium, 

 for if done gently they would pay no attention to 

 me, if sharply, they would sulk for several hours, 

 when they would deny themselves their most 

 favourite food. The young bears seemed to treat 

 them as quite unworthy of any consideration, but 

 possibly this might have been assumed, as a trick 

 that was afterwards perpetrated by them on the 

 beavers induces me to imagine. 



To keep the young rodents out of the house as 

 much as possible, I had a long box lined with tin 

 made for their habitation ; at the upper end there 

 was a comfortable dormitory, the under end being 

 partially immersed in water. This I had placed upon 

 a slope, so that the box could be raised or lowered 

 at will, by means of a rope attached to the limb of a 

 tree. The gravity of the box would always take it as 

 far into the water as desirable, thus it was ever 

 necessary to see that the rope was securely tied to 

 prevent the misfortune of the cage floating out to 

 sea. Now it was just such an accident as this that 

 happened ; the rope was cut, the box floated off, and 

 the beavers inside were consequently drowned. I 

 have no doubt that the bears did gnaw the rope 



