this_ pond, to tell me
all this, when you could have done it just as well at _my_ pond?"

"I jest wanted the excuse," answered Jabe, "fer takin' a day off from
cruisin'. Now, come on, an' I'll show ye some more likely ponds."

CHAPTER VII

Winter Under Water

FOR three days more the Boy and Jabe remained in the beaver country;
and every hour of the time, except when he had to sleep, the Boy found
full of interest. In the daytime he compared the ponds and the dams
minutely, making measurements and diagrams. At night he lay in hiding,
beside a different pond each night, and gained a rich store of
knowledge of the manners and customs of the little wilderness
engineers. On one pond--his own, be it said--he made a rude raft of
logs, and by its help visited and inspected the houses on the island.
The measurements he obtained here made his note-book pretty complete,
as far as beaver life in summer and fall was concerned.

Then Jabe finished his cruising, having covered his territory. The
packs were made up and slung; the two campers set out on their three
days' tramp back to the settlements; and the solemn autumn quiet
descended once more upon the placid beaver ponds, the shallow-running
brooks, and the low-domed Houses in the Water.

As the weather grew colder; and the earlier frosts began to sheathe
the surface of the pond with clear, black ice, not melting out till
noon; and the bitten leaves, turning from red and gold to brown, fell
with ghostly whisperings through the gray branches, the little beaver
colony in Boy's Pond grew feverishly active. Some subtle prescience
warned them that winter would close in early, and that they must make
haste to finish their storing of supplies. The lengthening of their
new canal completed, their foraging grew easier. Trees fell every
night, and the brush pile reached a size that guaranteed them immunity
from hunger till spring. By the time the dam had been strengthened to
withstand the late floods, there had been some sharp snow-flurries,
and the pond was half frozen over. Then, in haste, the beavers brought
up a quantity of mud and grass roots, and plastered the domes of their
houses thickly till they no longer looked like heaps of sticks, but
rather resembled huge ant-hills. No sooner was this task done than, as
if the beavers had been notified of its coming, the real cold came.
In one night the pond froze to a depth of several inches; and over the
roof of the House in th