368 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



the Wise Men confess that I am the most interesting 

 animal on the whole Mammal tree (except man himself), 

 and that they really know very little about me. The 

 Indian, who knows all our ways, holds us more highly, 

 weaving many stories about us, welcoming us as pets in 

 the lodges, and loving us as House People love their 

 dogs. 



" ' Now you know how I look. I will tell you how 

 and where I live, beginning with the springtime, in 

 May, when every industrious pair of Beavers who own 

 a home burrow and a woodpile, have, maybe two, or 

 maybe half a dozen little Beavers in their house. As 

 you know, we live about ponds and watercourses, and 

 our summer homes are made in this fashion : Finding a 

 good bank of clay or loam, by a favorite stream, we look 

 for a place where the soil is braced by tree roots. Tlien 

 we dive and begin a burrow under the water, going up 

 into the bank, cutting through roots, and rolling out 

 stones, until we have made two chambers, — an outer one 

 for food, and an inner one above the water level for a 

 living room, with a place for air to come in at the top 

 among the tree roots. You may wonder why our door- 

 way is always under water. It is so that we may swim 

 out and not rise to the surface near our home, showing 

 enemies where we live. Does not the Ovenbird slip 

 from her nest, and, running through the underbrush, 

 make her flight at a distance, for the same reason ? 



" ' A few weeks after our young are born they begin 

 to gnaw soft bark, and then they soon join us in our 

 wood-cutting excursions. The trees we love best for 

 food are those with juicy bark, like the 3'ellow birch, 

 cotton- wood, poplar, and willow. If we are very hungry, 



