3n 



From time to time I dropped around to see 

 the struggle, one day coming upon the scene 

 while the beaver were completing a blockade. 

 For a time the beaver hesitated ; then they partly 

 resumed operations and carried material to the 

 spot, but without showing themselves entirely 

 above water. When it appeared that they must 

 have enough to complete the blockade, I advanced 

 a trifle nearer so as to have a good view while 

 they placed the accumulated material. For a time 

 not a beaver showed himself. By and by an aged 

 one climbed out of the water, pretending not 

 to notice me, and deliberately piled things right 

 and left until he had completed the ditch-dam- 

 ming to his satisfaction. This act was audacious 

 and truly heroic. The hero was Flat-top. 



In this contest with the rancher, the beaver 

 persisted and worked so effectively that they at 

 last won and saved their homes, in the face of what 

 appeared to be an unconquerable opposition. 



A little while after this incident, a home-seeker 

 came along, and, liking the place, built a cabin in 

 a clump of pines close to the southern shore. 

 Though he was a gray old man without a family 



190 



