Then, too, they had a certain amount of 
work to do on the dam, which had at some 
points been weakened by the pressure of the 
winter’s ice. Such places they strengthened 
with sticks, which they plastered into posi¬ 
tion with mud brought up from the bottom 
of the pond. Their tools for this work were 
their hand-like forepaws. With these they 
packed the mud as tightly as need be and 
patted it smooth in a workmanlike manner. 
They performed all their tasks in a silence as 
deep as that of the night that surrounded 
them; yet they seemed never to hesitate, never 
to blunder, never to get in one another’s way. 
Mother Beaver and the other females of 
the colony could have worked on the dam 
with as much skill as was shown by their 
mates. But their entire time and thought, 
during those weeks, was given to their help¬ 
less young ones. Mother Beaver, for exam¬ 
ple, hated to leave O-Go, Ilg, and Ela even 
for the short time necessary to get her dinner 
from the storage pile. Indeed on her return 
to the lodge, she swam faster and faster, fairly 
bursting through the water that blocked the 
entrance to the home tunnel, as if thinking 
to herself, “Just suppose that something had 
happened to those three wonderful babies, 
while I have been away!” 
19 
