THE beaver's story 367 



tinged variously with yellow and sometimes veiled with 

 black. My under-fur is all plain brown, about half an 

 inch long and soft as a Seal's. It was this fur that led 

 my race into trouble, and caused us to be so popular 

 with trappers that we were killed out from about the 

 rivers and ponds where House Children might have 

 seen our lodges and runways as freely as they do those 

 of the Muskrat. Our soft, even fur made fine Beaver 

 hats ; our pelts were strong and elastic — they made 

 good gloves ; our tails were layered with fat — they 

 made good eating for the Indians. Once we were so 

 important that the great Fur Company of Hudson's 

 Bay stamped our name upon a coin for a sign of value, 

 "1 Made Beaver." 



" ' So we were trapped in and out of season, cruelly 

 and wastefully, young and old together, until we are but 

 a small tribe, and in all this wide country we inhabit 

 but a few solitary spots, and so you do not know us. 



"'I am a wonder to the Wise Men, and there are 

 many things about me that they cannot understand. 

 According to their ways of measuring and judging, I 

 am low among the Mammals. They find that I have a 

 small heart and lungs, that I breathe slowly, have no 

 skill as a hunter, and prefer to live on harsh vegetable 

 food, such as the bark of soft-wooded trees. They look 

 at my teeth and put me in the tribe of gnawers, ^ the 

 family of Rats, Mice, and other nuisance animals. But 

 when they come to watch me at my work, and see that I 

 am a wood-chopper, architect, engineer, and mason, they 

 are indeed puzzled, for they say : " A Beaver has a small, 

 smooth brain ; people who think have wrinkled brains. 

 How comes this, for a Beaver thinks and plans ? " Then 



