108 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 
an animated but very subdued conversation like 
the muffled whining of very young babies. 
While still quite small the beaver took to solid 
food, nibbling the bark from thin, tender twigs, so 
that the process of weaning was very gradual. 
During the summer months they spent much of 
their time outdoors, frequently without their 
parents ; at the slightest suspicion of danger, they 
would slap the water with their tails in quaint 
imitation of their parents. The sound they pro- 
duced was faint, but still loud enough to arouse 
the mother, who usually came out to see what 
threatened her little family and make them seek 
shelter either in the lodge, a burrow, or, more 
frequently among the thick grass which lined the 
pond. When they were about two months old 
they took up their quarters for a time in a large 
burrow which had been made for the purpose, the 
lodge being left, probably for the annual spring 
cleaning, which simply means the destroying of 
the insect parasites (platypsyllus castoris), with 
which the bedding becomes more or less infested, 
but which is believed to be dependent on the living 
creature for its own existence. 
Only too quickly the summer passed. The 
lowering skies and cooler nights foretold the 
coming of autumn. But the warm, bright weather 
had served its great purpose. The birds had given 
to the world a new population to take the place of 
those that had died or been killed. In the warm 
