to take that first swim, and Mother Beaver 
showed plainly that she was proud of him. 
She had reason for her pride, since it was 
through their play that she must teach her 
little ones all those things that they needed to 
know. This seems to be the way of all four- 
footed animals in the training of their young. 
Baby wolves play at fighting, or worry a 
small piece of fur, and so do young lynxes 
and foxes. For such games as those, however, 
O-Go, Ilg, and Ela had no need. This was be¬ 
cause beavers do not learn to fight or to hunt, 
since their food is all vegetable, and their ref¬ 
uge is the water. But they must learn while 
very young all that is to be known about 
diving and swimming. 
Mother Beaver, therefore, went seriously to 
work to teach Ilg and Ela the lesson that 
O-Go had already learned. Time and again 
she went out through the tunnel, followed by 
O-Go. Time and again she returned, until 
Ilg too, finally grasped the lesson and would 
follow her. But Ela, for some reason or other, 
seemed to be too timid to do as did the others, 
so her mother was forced to use sterner meas¬ 
ures. She first crowded Ela slowly down the 
long, sloping tunnel, and then half pushed, 
half carried her through its water-filled portion. 
For a moment after coming to the surface, 
Ela was still terribly frightened. But Mother 
22 
