14G ANIMALS AND INSECTS 



they begin to cut a tree to look up and see that the 

 top is not entangled by other tree-tops, so it will fall 

 easily when cut. And some of the older beavers are 

 thoughtful enough to cut a tree so it will fall toward 

 the water, for by falling in that direction it will make 

 the distance less over which they must transport the 

 wood. 



You know that oftentimes your mother or father 

 will say to you, ''Why didn't you stop to think? 

 You could have done that so much better if you had 

 thought a moment before you did it." 



It seems remarkable that these small animals 

 apparently stop to think about their work, and to 

 plan it, as men do. They have not been taught or 

 trained by men, either, as oiu* dogs and horses and 

 elephants have been. For the beavers are wild 

 animals. They have been trained by that ''still 

 small voice" which we name instinct, and, guided 

 by that voice, they do what we would think im- 

 possible for an animal to do if we did not surely 

 know that this building work was theirs. 



After the dam has been made water-tight, the 

 house must be built that is to be their home for the 

 long winter. With this work the little beavers 

 help. Back and forth they swim from the wood 

 pile on the shore, carrying wood to the spot near the 

 middle of the pond where they have chosen to build 

 their house. 



While some cut the juiciest trees into lengths one 

 and a half to two feet long to be used as food for the 

 winter, others take the longer sticks and poles and 

 start to build the house. They go to work the way 



