of the pond to be explored, and the big luscious
lily-roots to be dug up for a change of diet. It was a peaceful time, a
time of rest from the labors of the past year, and of growing fat and
strong for those of the year to come. We have much goods laid up for
many months; let us eat, drink, and be merry, and hope that the trappers
will not come to-morrow.

The babies came in May, and I suppose that the young father and mother
were almost as proud and happy as some of you who are in similar
circumstances. The Beaver did not wander very far from home that spring
and summer, nor was he away very long at a time.

There were five of the children, and they were very pretty--about as
large as rats, and covered with thick, soft, silky, reddish-brown fur,
but without any of the longer, coarser, chestnut-colored hairs that
formed their parents' outer coats. They were very playful, too, as the
father and mother had been in their own youthful days. For a while they
had to be nursed, like other babies; but by and by the old beavers began
to bring in little twigs for them, about the size of lead-pencils; and
if you had been there, and your eyes had been sharp enough to pierce the
gloom, you might have seen the youngsters exercising their brand new
teeth, and learning to sit up and hold sticks in their baby hands while
they ate the bark. And wouldn't you have liked to be present on the
night when they first went swimming down the long, dark tunnel; and,
rising to the surface, looked around on their world of woods and
water--on the quiet pond, with its glassy smoothness broken only by
their own ripples; on the tall trees, lifting their fingers toward the
sky; and on the stars, marching silently across the heavens, and looking
down with still, unwinking eyes on another family of babies that had
come to live and love and be happy for a little while on God's earth?

One of the children was killed by an otter before the summer was over,
but I am glad to say that the other four grew up and were a credit to
their parents.

The babies were not the only addition to the new city during that year,
for about mid-summer another pair of beavers came and built a lodge near
the upper end of the pond. It was a busy season for everybody--for our
old friends as well as for the new-comers. The food-sticks which had
been peeled off their bark during the winter furnished a good supply of
construction material, and the dam was built up several inches hig