THe Muskrats are Building 
tussocks or among the roots of the old stumps. All 
these months the water had been low in the ditch, 
and the beds among the tussocks had been safe and 
dry enough. 
Now the autumnal rains have filled river and ditch, 
flooded the tunnels, and crept up into the beds under 
the tussocks. Even a muskrat will creep out of his 
bed when cold, wet water creeps in. What shall he do 
for a house? He does not want to leave his meadow. 
The only thing to do is to build, — move from under 
the tussock, out upon the top, and here, in the deep, 
wiry grass, make a new bed, high and dry above the 
rising water, and close the new bed in with walls 
that circle and dome and defy the winter. 
Such a house will require a great deal of work to 
build. Why not combine, make it big enough to hold 
half a dozen, save labor and warmth, and, withal, live 
sociably together? So they left, each one his bed, 
and joining efforts, started, about the middle of Octo- 
ber, to build this winter house. 
Slowly, night after night, the domed walls have 
been rising, although for several nights at a time 
there would be no apparent progress with the work. 
The builders were in no hurry, it seems; the cold 
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