s extreme edge Joe pointed out the beaver lodge. It
was shaped something like a huge beehive, being about a dozen feet in
diameter and five feet high. The outside seemed to be entirely covered
with mud and fibrous roots, through which the sticks which formed its
framework poked out here and there.

"The doors are all underwater," said Cyrus, "and so far down that
they'll be beneath the ice when the stream freezes in winter. Otherwise
the beavers could not reach their pile of food-wood, which they keep at
the bottom, and would starve to death. They are clerks of the weather,
if you like. They seem to know when the first hard frost is coming, and
sink their stores a day or two before. Man has not yet discovered their
mysterious knack of sinking wood, and keeping it stationary through many
months.

"They feed on the inner bark of poplar, white birch, and willow trees.
In autumn they fell these along the banks, generally so that they will
fall into the water, tug and push them down-stream, and float them near
to their lodges. If the trees are too big to be easily handled, they saw
them into convenient lengths."

"I call it tough luck, not being able to get a sight of the animals,
after seeing so much of their works," grumbled Royal.

"Ye might wait here till midnight, and not have any better," said Joe.
"That fellow's tail was like a fire-alarm to them. They ain't to home
now, you bet! They've dusted out of their house as if it was on fire;
and they've either dived to the bottom, or hidden themselves in holes
along the bank. Guess we'd better be moving on. It's a'most time to
think about making camp."

"The beavers have been working here!" exclaimed the guide a few minutes
later, as he strode ahead. "These white birches were felled by 'em; and
a dandy job they did too."

He pointed to two slim birches which lay prone with their tops in the
water, and to a third, the trunk of which was partly sawn through in
more than one place. The ground was strewn with little clippings of
timber, bearing the saw-marks of the beavers' teeth. The boys gathered
them up as curiosities.

"Oh, the skilful little animals can beat this work by long odds!"
exclaimed Doc. "These trunks only measure from eight to twelve inches in
circumference. I've seen a tree fully two feet round which was felled by
them. Say, Joe! don't you think we'd better camp to-night somewhere on
the _brulee?_"

"Just what I'm planning, Doc," answered Joe. "We must