By and by, there came from the big poplar 
tree a loud, snapping crack, and Father Beaver 
knew at once that it was high time for him 
to leave the place where he was working. 
Accordingly, he went around to Mother Bea¬ 
ver’s side of the tree. Then, both beavers, stand¬ 
ing as tall as they could, pushed hard and 
steadily with their hand-like fore paws. The 
snapping sound was repeated, and the poplar 
tree leaned slowly and gracefully forward; 
then it toppled, falling with a great crash 
into the only space open to receive it. 
There was now an abundance of food at 
hand in the tender top-branches, and O-Go, 
Ilg, and Ela went eagerly to work at dis¬ 
posing of as much of it as they could eat. 
Their parents, however, ate sparingly, for they 
had yet much work to do. They must pro¬ 
vide sticks of wood of proper length and 
thickness to be used by the builders, and until 
they had a good supply of such material they 
would not rest a great deal. 
For the present, they entirely disregarded 
the lower part of the tree, as thick, heavy 
logs were not to be used in the building of 
the lodge. But all that portion of the tree, 
above the point where it had tapered to a 
size of three inches, was usable, the inner bark 
as food, the wood itself as building material. 
There was another reason, too, why the bark 
70 
