after Ela had gone back into the woods to 
join Ilg and their parents. 
O-Go had a really wonderful time with that 
mud, for he was both playing and working 
at one and the same time. First, he would 
dive down to the bottom of the canal, and 
would come up with as much mud as he 
could squeeze between his fore paws. Then, 
holding his ball of mud in this manner, and 
kicking out strongly with his well-webbed hind 
feet, he would swim over to the new lodge. 
There, he would hand his mud to one of the 
workers, and then go back for more. 
Perhaps, O-Go was as much a nuisance as 
he was a help in all this, for his paws were 
still very small, and therefore the amount of 
material he was able to bring at each load 
amounted to but little. But the older beavers 
gave no sign that they noticed this. They 
took what he brought, with as much serious¬ 
ness as they showed when one of the adults 
arrived with a load. 
When the walls of the house had been 
carried up for a distance of two feet, the bea¬ 
vers began to carpet its floor. This had to 
be done at that time, because later on there 
would be no way of bringing in the leaves 
and moss except by carrying them under water. 
That would never do, for a wet carpet would 
be worse than none at all. 
79 
