Shaggycoat: The Biography of a Beaver Read online

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  SHAGGYCOAT

  The Biography of a Beaver by CLARENCE HAWKES

  _Author of Black Bruin, The Biography of a Bear_

  _Shovelhorns, The Biography of a Moose, etc._

  _Illustrations by CHARLES COPELAND_

  PHILADELPHIA MACRAE SMITH COMPANY PUBLISHERS

  Copyright, 1906, BY GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY

  _All rights reserved_ Printed in U. S. A.

  * * * * *

  _Dedicated to my Little Brother, the Venetian, who, living in a house that his hands have made, surrounded by a moat of his own device, the head of a large family and a citizen in a goodly community, is more like man in his mode of life, than any other of God's creatures.

  * * * * *

  KING OF ALL THE BEAVERS

  Till he came unto a streamlet In the middle of the forest, To a streamlet still and tranquil, That had overflowed its margin, To a dam made by the beavers, To a pond of quiet water, Where knee-deep the trees were standing, Where the water-lilies floated, Where the rushes waved and whispered. On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis, On the dam of trunks and branches, Through whose chinks the water spouted, O'er whose summit flowed the streamlet. From the bottom rose the beaver, Looked with two great eyes of wonder, Eyes that seemed to ask a question, At the stranger Pau-Puk-Keewis.

  --LONGFELLOW.

  * * * * *

  REACHED DOWN AND GRIPPED HIS BROTHER]

  _CONTENTS_

  INTRODUCTION 11

  I. THE FUGITIVES 23

  II. ALONE IN THE WORLD 39

  III. THE COURTSHIP OF SHAGGYCOAT 53

  IV. HOW THE GREAT DAM WAS BUILT 67

  V. A BEAVER LODGE 81

  VI. HOW THE WINTER WENT 97

  VII. LIFE IN THE WATER WORLD 111

  VIII. A BIT OF TRAGEDY 125

  IX. STRANGERS AT THE LAKE 141

  X. A TROUBLESOME FELLOW 163

  XI. A BANK BEAVER 181

  XII. THE BUILDERS 195

  XIII. BEAVER JOE 211

  XIV. RUNNING-WATER 225

  XV. KING OF BEAVERS 243

  XVI. OLD SHAG 261

  _ILLUSTRATIONS_

  Reached down and gripped his brother _Frontispiece_

  The final touches were put upon this curious dome-shaped house _Facing page_ 86

  Tearing at their house and filling the night with awful sounds " 96

  The buck gave a mighty leap and fell midway in the stream " 122

  There is where the hunter and hunted met " 193