106 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



In less than three weeks, they made their bow to the 

 great outdoor world, swimming about without effort 

 or fear, in evident enjoyment of the bright sunlight 

 that was such a contrast to their dark home. A short 

 swim sufficed for the first day, and one by one, of 

 their own accord, they dived (without having to 

 be taught as our fanciful writers would make us 

 believe) and returned to their lodge to dry off and 

 sleep after these first exertions. 



The day and weeks that followed were filled 

 with the joy of living. Spring flowers blossomed 

 and passed to give way to later ones, the birds 

 returned from their winter journeys in the balmy 

 south, and filled the green-clad forests with their 

 varied songs. It was their season of courtship and 

 nest-building, all following the laws of their kind 

 with a precision that no man can understand. At 

 a certain time the home of each particular species 

 would be completed, nor did they vary more than 

 a few days from one year to another. What 

 almanacs did they consult that they should be so 

 exact ? Yet had they not arrived, each species at 

 its own exact time, all arrayed in their brightest 

 dress, whether of yellow, blue or scarlet, or the 

 more sombre hues, to stay in the northern land for 

 a definite period and for a definite purpose ? The 

 young beavers played about to the music of the 

 woodland birds, yet no one dare say that they paid 

 the slightest attention even to that most exquisite 

 of songsters, the hermit thrush, whose rich, full 



