doubtless it was. As they emerged
from the pond they gradually assumed the shape of a miniature mountain,
very bold and steep on the south side, and running down a long gentle
grade to the surface of the water on the north. One could see that the
little architect hauled all his material up this easy slope, and thrust
it out boldly around the other side. Every mouthful was distinctly
defined. After they were two feet or more above the water, I expected
each day to see that the finishing stroke had been given and the work
brought to a close. But higher yet, said the builder. December drew
near, the cold became threatening, and I was apprehensive that winter
would suddenly shut down upon those unfinished nests. But the wise
rats knew better than I did; they had received private advices from
headquarters that I knew not of. Finally, about the 6th of December, the
nests assumed completion; the northern incline was absorbed or carried
up, and each structure became a strong massive cone, three or four
feet high, the largest nest of the kind I had ever seen. Does it mean a
severe winter? I inquired. An old farmer said it meant "high water,"
and he was right once, at least, for in a few days afterward we had the
heaviest rainfall known in this section for half a century. The creeks
rose to an almost unprecedented height. The sluggish pond became a
seething, turbulent watercourse; gradually the angry element crept up
the sides of these lake dwellings, till, when the rain ceased, about
four o'clock they showed above the flood no larger than a man's hat.
During the night the channel shifted till the main current swept over
them, and next day not a vestige of the nests was to be seen; they
had gone down-stream, as had many other dwellings of a less temporary
character. The rats had built wisely, and would have been perfectly
secure against any ordinary high water, but who can foresee a flood? The
oldest traditions of their race did not run back to the time of such a
visitation.

Nearly a week afterward another dwelling was begun, well away from the
treacherous channel, but the architects did not work at it with much
heart; the material was very scarce, the ice hindered, and before the
basement-story was fairly finished, winter had the pond under his lock
and key.

In other localities I noticed that where the nests were placed on the
banks of streams, they were made secure against the floods by being
built amid a small clump of bu