avers
appeared upon the dam, scrambling up and down, and examining the great
hole through which the water was fast leaking out of their pond. Then,
following a big fellow, who was evidently the boss beaver, they swam to
the bank. He stationed himself near a tree about twenty inches in
circumference, and his four boys at once started to fell it. I tell you
they worked like hustlers, each one sawing on it in turn with his sharp
teeth, and sometimes two of them together on different parts of the
trunk.

"At last the tree--it was an ash--fell, toppling into the water just
where the beavers wanted it. They pushed and tugged it down-stream for
about ten yards, to the dam, and propped it against the opening which I
had made. I couldn't see the rest of the operations clearly; but I
caught glimpses of them, marching about on their hind-legs, carrying mud
snug up to their chins like this," here Cyrus folded his arms across his
chest. "And before daybreak that dam was perfectly repaired, with never
a leak in it.

"You know they build the dams in very shallow water, only a few inches
deep; and they generally roll in a couple of long logs for a solid
foundation. It was one of these which I had torn out. Now, Neal, what do
you say about the beaver's intelligence?"

"If I didn't know you, Cyrus, I'd say you were making up as you went
along," answered Neal. "It seems one of those things which a fellow can
scarcely believe in. Hulloa! What's that?"

A loud report, like the bang of a gun, made all the boys, who had been
standing very quietly, gazing at the dam, suddenly jump.

"It's only a beaver striking the water with his tail," laughed Cyrus.
"He has been swimming about somewhere up-stream, and has scented us, and
dived. I have heard one do that a dozen times in the night, if he
detected the presence of man; but it's very unusual in the daytime, for
they rarely venture out in broad light. In diving, if suddenly alarmed,
they strike the surface of the water a tremendous whack with their
tails, as a signal of alarm, making this report, which in still weather
resounds for a great distance.

"I'm very glad you heard it, boys; for your chances of seeing the master
beaver or any of his colony are mighty slim. But we'll probably come on
their lodge a little higher up."

Above the shallow water where the dam was built, the stream widened into
a broad, deep pool. About fifty yards ahead, in the centre of this, was
a tiny island. On it