noise. Then, the fat little beaver plunged 
headlong into the water, and swam desper¬ 
ately, until lack of breath forced him to the 
surface. He must get away from that awful 
place at once. 
O-Go’s fright had been a fortunate one, for, 
while he was still under water, a great white 
owl, as fierce as any eagle, swept low over the 
spot which he had just left. Those talons and 
that hooked beak would have made short work 
of any small beaver that they encountered. 
Perhaps the twittering bird had sensed the ap¬ 
proach of that enemy, and had unwittingly 
communicated its alarm to O-Go. It is in such 
manner that squirrels very often warn the deer 
of the approaching hunter. 
At any rate, O-Go was now in the cool water 
of the beaver pond, swimming, he hoped, to¬ 
wards home. In reality, however, he was going 
in quite a wrong direction. As he swam, he 
passed within a hundred yards of his mother, 
but as both travelled silently, and as odors do 
not carry far over water, neither was aware 
of the other. 
Thus it came about that, while Mother 
Beaver was frantically searching the shore for 
O-Go, he was climbing out of the water at 
a point almost as far from home as that from 
which he had started. And while Mother Beav¬ 
er was sadly returning to the lodge, O-Go was 
40 
