to him good, but to
show that he was attending.

"But," continued Jabe, "what would ye say would most upset the beaver
and make 'em careless?"

The Boy thought for a moment.

"Breaking their dam!" he answered tentatively.

"_Eg_zactly!" answered the woodsman. "Well, now, to ketch beaver sure,
make two or three breaks in their dam, an' set the traps jest a leetle
ways above the break, on the upper slope, where they're sure to step
into 'em when hustlin' round to mend the damage. That gits 'em, every
time. Ye chain each trap to a stake, driven into three or four foot of
water; an' ye drive another stake about a foot an' a half away from
the first. When the beaver finds himself caught, he dives straight for
deep water,--his way of gittin' clear of most of his troubles. But
this time he finds it don't work. The trap keeps a holt, bitin' hard.
An' in his struggle he gits the chain all tangled up 'round the two
stakes, an' drowns himself. There you have him safe, where no lynx nor
fox kin git at him."

"Then, when one of them dies so dreadfully, right there before their
eyes," said the Boy, "I suppose the others skin out and let the
broken dam go! They must be scared to death themselves!"

"Not on yer life, they don't!" responded Jabe. "The dam's the thing
they care about. They jest keep on hustlin' round; an' they mend up
that dam if it takes half the beaver in the pond to do it. Oh, they're
grit, all right, when it comes to standin' by the dam."

"Hardly seems fair to take them that way, does it?" mused the Boy
sympathetically.

"It's a good way," asserted Jabe positively, "quick an' sure! Then, in
winter there's another good an' sure way,--where ye don't want to
clean out the whole house, which is killin' the goose what lays the
golden egg, like the Injuns does! Ye cut a hole in the ice, near the
bank. Then ye git a good, big, green sapling of birch or willow, run
the little end 'way out into the pond under the ice, an' ram the big
end, sharpened, deep into the mud of the bank, so the beaver can't
pull it out. Right under this end you set yer trap. Swimmin' round
under the ice, beaver comes across this fresh-cut sapling an' thinks
as how he's got a good thing. He set right to work to gnaw it off,
close to the bank, to take it back to the house an' please the
family. First thing, he steps right into the trap. An' that's the end
of him. But other beaver'll come along an' take the sapling, all the
same!"

"You s