THE LIFE OF A BEAVER COLONY 139 



hard to imagine and yet, see the same creature 

 when danger threatens its young. See how careless 

 it is of its own safety ; thinking, just as many birds 

 do, only to decoy the enemy away, it will approach 

 to within a few feet of man and feign a crippled 

 condition, falling down and showing every evidence 

 of powerlessness. Almost will it allow itself to be 

 caught if the danger to the young seems imminent, 

 and so it will coax its enemy further and further, 

 while the subject of all this solicitude watches a 

 suitable opportunity, and vanishes the very moment 

 it finds it is not observed. No sooner is it in safety 

 than the parent regains her vigour and makes off 

 with all possible speed. Evidently the beaver is 

 not a coward, but a born believer in peace, a 

 suitable emblem for all peace conferences, for it 

 believes in industrious, not lazy, peacefulness, and 

 is thoroughly against everything in the way of 

 fights and conflicts. It asks only to be left alone 

 when it will work unceasingly in the accomplish- 

 ment of what the Designer of the world intended it 

 should do. 



