them, now behind them, now at their side, 
keeping them close together. They were hers, 
and she was determined not to lose any of 
them. 
When they reached the dam, O-Go, Ilg, 
and Ela had their first outdoors meal, for 
Mother Beaver brought down one of the slen¬ 
der aspen saplings, which had sprung up from 
live wood built into the earthwork. The sweet 
and tender inside bark of that young tree was 
very tasty indeed to O-Go, and he gnawed 
lustily at it, as did Ilg and Ela also. But right 
in the middle of their meal, Mother Beaver 
suddenly hit the water a tremendous thwack 
with her tail, and slipped quickly beneath the 
surface of the pond, to come up many feet 
away from shore. There she lay quietly, with 
only her eyes and nose above water. 
O-Go, Ilg, and Ela did not know what to 
make of such peculiar conduct. They stopped 
eating, and waited anxiously for their mother 
to return to them, but this she did not do. 
Therefore, as they were not at all accustomed 
to being separated from her, and as it was 
plain that she did not intend to come back to 
them, they joined her in the water. As soon 
as they had done this, she again led them 
back to their abandoned dinner, but let them 
eat for only a few minutes. Then, “thwack”. 
Once more she slapped the water and dived. 
28 
