time when the work had been interrupted, and 
the felling of these was soon completed. Then, 
the beavers began the task of cutting the 
branches into lengths suitable for storage. At 
this work, even little beavers were of use; there¬ 
fore O-Go, Ilg, and Ela went daily into the 
slashing to help their parents. 
Ilg’s assistance did not amount to much, for 
he was so greedy that he kept his mouth about 
as busy as his paws. But O-Go and Ela were 
enthusiastic workers, although they, too, were 
at times somewhat of a nuisance. This was 
because in their eagerness, they kept getting in 
the way of their elders, and had to be shoved 
aside. Whenever this had to be done, it was 
done gently, for the grown beavers knew that 
the little ones were doing as well as they could. 
Wrecking the fallen trees was a far more 
tedious job than the felling of them had been, 
since each branch must first be removed from 
the trunk and must then be cut into pieces of 
proper length. Some of these pieces were poles 
six or eight feet long, but the majority were 
considerably shorter. This was necessary in 
order that they might be dragged through the 
tunnels and into the lodges, when it was time 
for them to be used. 
As fast as the foodsticks were prepared, a 
second group of workers dragged them down 
the skidway that led to the canal. There, a 
114 
