e Water was a casing of armour hard as stone.

The frost continued for several days, till the stone-like roof was a
good foot in thickness, as was the ice over the surface of the pond.
Then a thick, feather-soft, windless snow-fall, lasting twenty-four
hours, served as a blanket against the further piercing of the frost;
and the beavers, warm-housed, well-provisioned, and barricaded against
all their enemies but man, settled themselves down to their long
seclusion from the white, glittering, bitter, outside world.

When the winter had tightened its grip, this outside world was full of
perils. Hungry lynxes, foxes, and fishers ("black cat," the woodsman
called them) hunted through the silent and pallid aisles of the
forest. They all would have loved a meal of warm, fat beaver-meat; and
they all knew what these low, snow-covered mounds meant. In the roof
of each house the cunning builders had left several tiny, crooked
openings for ventilation, and the warm air steaming up through these
made little chimney holes in the snow above. To these, now and then,
when stung by the hunger-pangs, a lynx or fox would come, and sniff
with greedy longing at the appetizing aroma. Growing desperate, the
prowler would dig down, through perhaps three feet of snow, till he
reached the stony roof of the house. On this he would tear and scratch
furiously, but in vain. Nothing less than a pick-axe would break
through that stony defence; and the beavers, perhaps dimly aware of
the futile assault upon their walls, would go on calmly nibbling
birch-sticks in their safe, warm dark.

[Illustration: "HUNTED THROUGH THE SILENT AND PALLID AISLES OF THE
FOREST."]

Inside the house everything was clean and dry. All refuse from the
clean repasts of the family was scrupulously removed, and even the
entrances, far out in the pond, were kept free from litter. When food
was needed, a beaver would slip down into the dark water of the
tunnel, out into the glimmering light of the pond, and straight to the
brush pile. Selecting a suitable stick, he would tow it back to the
house, up the main entrance, and into the dry, dark chamber. When all
the tender bark was eaten off, the bare stick would be carried away
and deposited on the dam. It was an easy life; and the beavers grew
fat while all the rest of the wild kindreds, save the porcupine and
the bear, were growing lean with famine. There was absolutely nothing
to do but eat, sleep and take such exercise as t