s several acres in extent, seemed to him an extremely
spacious domain for the dwellers in these two houses.

Presently he marked a black trail, as it were, moving down in the
middle of the radiance from the upper end of the pond. It was
obviously the trail of some swimmer, but much too broad, it seemed, to
be made by anything so small as a beaver. It puzzled him greatly. In
his eagerness he pushed noiselessly forward, seeking a better view,
till he was within some thirty feet of the dam. Then he made out a
small dark spot in the front of the trail,--evidently a beaver's head;
and at last he detected that the little swimmer was carrying a bushy
branch, one end held in his mouth while the rest was slung back
diagonally across his shoulders.

The Boy crept forward like a cat, his gray eyes shining with
expectancy. His purpose was to gain a point where he could crouch in
ambush behind the dam, and perhaps get a view of the lake-dwellers
actually at work. He was within six or eight feet of the dam,
crouching low (for the dam was not more than three feet in height),
when his trained and cunning ear caught a soft swirling sound in the
water on the other side of the barrier. Instantly he stiffened to a
statue, just as he was, his mouth open so that not a pant of his
quickened breath might be audible. The next moment the head of a
beaver appeared over the edge of the dam, not ten feet away, and
stared him straight in the face.

The beaver had a stick of alder in its mouth, to be used, no doubt, in
some repairing of the dam. The Boy, all in gray as he was, and
absolutely motionless, trusted to be mistaken for one of the gnarled,
gray stumps with which the open space below the dam was studded. He
had read that the beaver was very near-sighted, and on that he based
his hopes, though he was so near, and the moonlight so clear, that he
could see the bright eyes of the newcomer staring straight into his
with insistent question. Evidently, the story of that near-sightedness
had not been exaggerated. He saw the doubt in the beaver's eye fade
gradually into confidence, as the little animal became convinced that
the strange gray figure was in reality just one of the stumps. Then,
the industrious dam-builder began to climb out upon the crest of the
dam, dragging his huge and hairless tail, and glancing along as if to
determine where the stick which he carried would do most good. At this
critical moment, when the eager watcher felt that