pond. A brown spot showed and was
gone. A second appeared, to vanish as the first had done. Later, a
Muskrat crawled out on the shore, waddled along for twenty feet, then,
plunging in, swam below, came up at the other bank, and crawled under
a lot of overhanging roots. A minute later the Mink appeared, his hair
all plastered close till he looked like a four-legged Snake. He landed
where the Muskrat had come out, followed the trail so that it was
lost, then galloped up and down the shore, plunged in, swam across,
and beat about the other shore. At last he struck the trail and
followed. Under the root there were sounds of a struggle, the snarling
of the mink, and in two or three minutes he appeared dragging out the
body of the Muskrat. He sucked its blood and was eating the brains
when again the gray Cat came prowling up the edge of the pond and,
not ten feet off, stood face to face with the Mink, as she had done
before.

The Water Weasel saw his enemy but made no attempt to escape from
her. He stood with forepaws on his victim and snarling a warning and
defiance to the Cat. Pussy, after glaring for a few seconds, leaped
lightly to the high bank, passed above the Mink, then farther on
leaped down, and resumed her journey up the shore.

Why should the Mink fear the Cat the first time, and the Cat the Mink
the second? Yan believed that ordinarily the Cat could "lick,"
but that now the Mink had right on his side; he was defending his
property, and the Cat, knowing that, avoided a quarrel; whereas the
same Cat would have faced a thousand Mink in defense of her Kittens.

These two scenes did not happen the same day, but are told together
because Yan always told them together afterward to show that the
animals understand something of right and wrong.

But later Yan had another experience with the Muskrats. He and Sam
were smoothing out the lower album for the night, when a long stream
of water came briskly down the middle of the creek bed, which had been
dry for more than a week.

"Hallo," said Woodpecker, "where's that from?"

"A leak in the dam," said Little Beaver, with fear in his voice.

The boys ran up to the dam and learned that the guess was right.
The water had found an escape round the end of the dam, and a close
examination showed that it had been made by a burrowing Muskrat.

It was no little job to get it tightly closed up. But the spade was
handy, and a close-driven row of stakes with plenty of stiff clay