to be the best: he could tell by the timber. Its height
proved the depth of earth. When the trees grew shorter, a hidden
treasure of limestone flag lay beneath the surface, useful for drains
and building. And even the entangled cedar swamp was most desirable, as
furnishing the best wood for rail-fences and logs for a house.

But nothing could look more unpromising. Blackish pools of water
alternated with a network of massive roots all over the soil, underneath
broad evergreen branches; trunks of trees leaned in every direction, as
if top-heavy. Wilder confusion of thicket could not be conceived. 'The
cedars troublesome! I should think so,' groaned their owner.

'This is the worst bit,' acknowledged Sam. 'Now, if we could see it, the
lake is down yonder; perhaps if we strike a diagonal across the lot, we
may come to some rising ground.' With the pocket compass for guide they
left the blazed line, which they had followed hitherto. After a short
distance the bush began to thin, and the forest twilight brightened.

'A beaver meadow!' exclaimed Sam Holt, who was foremost. Green as emerald,
the small semicircular patch of grass lay at the foot of gentle slopes,
as if it had once been a lakelet itself. 'Two acres ready cleared, with
the finest dairy grass only waiting to be eaten,' continued encouraging
Sam. 'And the clearing on the hill will command the best view in the
township; there's the site for your house, Wynn. Altogether you've had
rare luck in this lot.'

'But why is that green flat called a _beaver_ meadow?' asked Robert.

'Do you see the creek running alongside? No, you can't for the underbrush;
but it's there all the same. Well, they say that long ago beavers dammed
up the current in such places as this with clay and brushwood, so that
the water spread over all level spaces near; and when the Indians and
French were at war, the red men cut away the dams and killed the beavers
wholesale to spite their enemies. You're to take that just as an _on
dit_, recollect.'

'And is all that verdure an appearance or a reality?'

'Something of both. I don't say but you will occasionally find it
treacherous footing, needing drainage to be comfortable. See! there's
the pond at last.'

They had been climbing out of the denser woods, among a younger growth
on the face of the slope; and when they turned, the sheet of water was
partially visible over the sunken cedar swamp.

'A pond!' exclaimed Arthur; 'why, it must be thre