this sort of thing was necessary to the job. 
As there was no part of the work which 
O-Go was fitted to do, and nothing new to 
him in seeing a tree felled, there was no par¬ 
ticular reason for him to remain in the slash¬ 
ing. Besides, only a short distance away, there 
were berries and mushrooms to be had for the 
taking. Then, too, there was always the possi¬ 
bility that his friend Wallace might have passed 
that way. In that case, there would be a potato 
for O-Go. Potatoes, in O-Go's opinion, were 
even better than pond lily roots; though he 
was the only beaver on Patou to hold such a 
view, since none of the others had ever tasted 
a farm-grown vegetable. 
O-Go found the mushrooms rather scanty 
in number, as the place had been gone over so 
often that not many mushrooms had been left 
to multiply. This had not been altogether the 
work of the beavers; for occasionally a bear 
had visited the place, and had dined there. 
Moreover, the season was by now so far ad¬ 
vanced that warm nights were very few; and 
such nights are necessary to the growth of 
mushrooms. Nevertheless, O-Go, having the 
place to himself, managed to find enough of 
the tasty bits to make a very fair meal. 
Here was food which did not need to be 
chiseled off, as did poplar bark; it need not be 
ground into pulp between his molars, before 
108 
