paws or, if that pleased him better, in his 
mouth, delivered it to the carpenter-masons 
who were doing the actual building. 
The carpenter-mason beavers set each stick 
into position in the wall of the building, and 
plastered it there with soft wet mud, which 
they spread with their fore paws, and patted 
as much as might be needed to make it hold 
firmly. They had to work very slowly and 
carefully, lest they push out of place work 
already done but not yet dry. This was the 
more true, because the wall they were build¬ 
ing did not go straight up, but curved gently 
in as it rose. 
Mud to be used as plaster was brought up 
from the bottom of the canal. Thus, two 
purposes were served by doing one piece of 
work; the beavers supplied themselves with a 
useful building material, and at the same time 
cleared the canal of earth that had washed 
into it during the past year. 
O-Go and Ela helped get that mud from 
the bottom of the canal. Ilg would have 
helped, too, had he not been so busy at his 
eating that he was unable to spare any time 
for work. Ilg’s eating took up most of the 
time that he did not pass in sleeping. O-Go 
on the contrary was a restless little fellow, 
who must always be doing something. There¬ 
fore, he kept busily at his digging until long 
78 
