122 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



down large birches, the bark of which has a very 

 different flavour. These birches, growing as they 

 did among the older trees, often presented difficult 

 problems. One large one in particular, which had 

 a very heavy top of branches, was cut after many 

 nights of hard work. Unfortunately it lodged in 

 a neighbouring birch and would not fall. Another 

 cutting was decided on and continued until the 

 twenty-two inches (diameter) had been gnawed 

 through. But even this did not accomplish its 

 purpose, for, though the trunk shifted a few feet, 

 the top remained entangled. The tree against 

 which it rested in such an aggravating way was 

 nearly as large as the one that had been cut, but 

 even that did not daunt the little wood-cutters, 

 who went to work with renewed determination to 

 cut through its massive trunk. By the third night 

 they had cut most of the way through, but the 

 trunk, creaking with the great weight of the tree 

 which leaned against it, filled the beaver with fear, 

 for should it fall there was great danger of being 

 caught beneath the mass of branches. So they 

 left the task unfinished, perhaps hoping that the 

 two trees would fall of their own accord. 



Fortune favoured them, when a few nights later 

 a violent storm swept over the country, the roaring 

 winds screeched through the forest, snapping off 

 branches and uprooting many large trees. The 

 winds lashed the water of the lake into a mass of 

 foam, threatening even to tear the wood-pile away 



