Shaggycoat: The Biography of a Beaver Page 8

  CHAPTER VI

  HOW THE WINTER WENT

  December came and went, and the first of the new year found the beaverssnugly caught beneath a barricade of six inches of ice. The water fromthe little brook that fed their pond was very clear, so that the ice wasas transparent as glass. This enabled them to see what was going onoutside almost as well as they could before the ice had formed, andbesides, it kept out the wind and the cold.

  You may wonder at this, and think that no place on earth could be colderthan the bottom of an ice-bound pond; but I am sure that a thermometerunder water would have registered much higher temperature than oneabove, for if this were not so, the water would freeze solid to thebottom.

  Did you ever have your playmates bury you in the snow just for fun? Thesnow looks cold, and seems uninviting, but once snugly tucked away init, it is quite a warm white blanket. People of northern latitudesfrequently save their lives, when caught out in a cold storm, bycovering themselves in the snow. In the same manner the dog teams inAlaska pass the bitter cold nights of an arctic winter buried in thesnow. So the ice made the beavers' pond snug in the same manner.

  Besides being warmed by its coating of ice, the frost folks had alsomade the pond very beautiful. Wherever there was an uneven spot in theice, the sunlight was broken into a wonderful rainbow prism of dazzlingcolors, that showed more plainly under the ice than above. There weregreen, blue, opal, and many shades of light red, all of which made abeautiful roof for the beavers' winter palace.

  In addition to this, all the grasses and reeds along the edge of thepond were gemmed with ice-diamonds. These globules of ice caught thesun's rays, and in many cases refracted them as brilliantly as realdiamonds would have done. In all the little inlets where reeds and flagshad been frozen into the ice, the frost folks had played queer pranks,so that the pond was a most beautiful place, as well as a very snug one.

  The phrase "as busy as a beaver" was anything but descriptive of theirlife now, for they did little but sleep and eat bark. They had providedwell for these cold months, and now they had nothing to do but enjoythemselves. I am inclined to think that the maxim about working like abeaver only applies to two or three months in the autumn, for the restof the year the beaver is a very lazy fellow. All through the wintermonths he sleeps in his snug house, or nibbles away at his store ofbark. Then, as soon as the ice breaks up, all the male beavers overthree years of age start on their annual wanderings through lakes andstreams. There is no particular object in this quest, but it is just anomadic habit, an impulse that stirs in the blood, as soon as the sapstarts in the maple, and keeps them moving until some time in September.

  One day must have been very much like another under their covering ofice. Inside the lodge, the diameter was three or four feet and about thesame in height. Each beaver has his own particular bed, which he alwaysoccupies, and the house is kept very neat and clean. I do not imaginethere was much regularity in their meals, but whenever they felt hungry,one would go to the pile of logs near the dam and select a piece. Thiswas then dragged into the lodge and peeled leisurely. When it was whiteand shining, it was taken back and thrust into some crevice in the dam,or piled by itself. It had served its turn, and was now discarded.

  One enemy the beavers had who gave them considerable annoyance and someanxiety. This was the gluttonous wolverine, which is a mongrel wolf,meaner than any other member of the family. His prey is small animals,and his particular delicacy is beaver meat. He is also a lover ofcarrion and dark deeds, and is altogether a despicable fellow.

  The crowning event in the life of the beaver lodge during that firstwinter, was the coming of four fuzzy, awkward, beaver babies. They werevery queer looking little chaps, with long, clumsy hind legs, which theynever knew quite how to use until they were shown the mysteries of thewater world and swimming. These mites of beavers were not as well cladas their parents, for their fur was very short, but they nestled closeto their mother, and, by dint of wriggling into her warm coat, kept warmuntil spring.

  Shaggycoat was much busier after the young beavers came. He now had tobring all the wood into the lodge, for Brighteyes stuck close to herchildren and Shaggycoat was glad to wait upon her. So, when she washungry, he brought logs into the mud house and peeled them for her.

  Several times during the winter, they heard sounds of some animaldigging at the outer wall of their castle, and occasionally an uglylooking wolfish muzzle was thrust in at the vent, which at first gavethem great uneasiness, but, by degrees, this wore away, as they foundout how strong the house was and how little the digging of their enemyaccomplished.

  At last the spring rains came, and the ice began to break up. Then, asthe water rose, and the ice was tumbled about by the current, which wasswollen, there were loud reports from the cracking ice that echoedacross the valley, just as they had when the great pines fell.

  Huge cakes of ice were piled upon their island, and one struck the mudhouse, threatening to demolish it, but it withstood the shock.

  The dam was severely tried during these spring freshets. The ice poundedand ground away at it, and the water set back, until the pond was twicethe size it had been in the autumn. The beavers were nearly drowned outof their lodge during this high water, but finally a portion of the damgave way and the water fell. Then the ice went churning and scrapingthrough the break. Driftwood and brush and all sorts of debris came downwith the flood, and the water was full of silt and gravel. The pond wasnot the crystal lake it had been.

  It gradually settled, and things looked as they had in the autumn; thetrees were leafless, and the landscape cheerless. The pond also frozeover along the edges at night and thawed by day.

  Away down in the heart of the earth, the secret forces of nature werestirring. The maple had already felt the touch of life, and its sapcoursed gleefully in its veins. The awakening had not come yet, but itwas coming. The flowers and the buds had been sleeping, the nuts and theseeds had been waiting patiently, but their time of waiting was nearlyover.

  Already daffodil and arbutus stirred uneasily in their slumber. Theirdreams were light, like the sleep of early morning. Into their dreamswould steal a sense of soft winds and warm sunshine.

  Then, one day, the sense of this life about them became so certain, andtheir dreams were so real, that they awoke, and spring had really come.Up they sprang like children who had overslept and opened their heartsto the joy of living in the warmth of the new spring.

  Now the pond was no longer frozen over along the bank, but the shoreswere very muddy with the coming out of the frost. Soon birds began tosing in the bushes along the pond, and a sense of restlessness came overShaggycoat, for everything seemed to be moving. The birds were all goingsomewhere, and why not he?

  He first cut a good supply of fresh poplar logs at the upper end of thepond and floated them down near the lodge. This took him several days,during which time the spring had been advancing, so, when this task wasfinished, the frogs were singing in his pond. This was a sure sign ofspring and one that should not go unheeded.

  The water was pouring through several large breaks in his dam, but whatcared he? There was still water enough in the pond to keep the entrancesto the lodge under water, but even if it did not, the house could beabandoned, and his family could live in one of the burrows along thebank for a while.

  There were Brighteyes and the four frolicsome young beavers to keep him,but the rush of distant waters was in his ears, and he felt just likeswimming miles and miles away. Distant waterfalls and rapids werecalling to him; deep pools in the river, and wonderful mountain lakeswere all waiting for him.

  So, one day, when the air was soft and sweet, and the water was gettingwarm, he slipped away, and Brighteyes knew that she should not see himagain until early in September. He was gone to the world ofwater-wonders, far beyond their limited horizon. She would stay and takecare of the babies until his return.