THE LIFE OF A BEAVER COLONY 189 
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. 
