Shaggycoat: The Biography of a Beaver

by Mrs. Molesworth

  CHAPTER I

  FUGITIVES

  At the time when our story begins, Shaggycoat was a two-year-old beaver,fleeing with his grandfather from he knew not what. They had been sohappy in the woodland lake, which was their home before the terribleintrusion, that the whole matter seemed more like a hideous dream than areality.

  When Shaggycoat thought of the old days and his family, he couldremember warm summer afternoons upon clean sand banks, where he and hisbrothers and sisters frolicked together. Then there were such delightfulswims in the deep lake, where they played water-tag, and all sorts ofgames, diving and plunging and swimming straight away, not to mentiondeep plunges to the bottom of the lake where they vied with one anotherin staying down. Then when they were hungry, the bulbs of the lily and acluster of wild hops made a dinner that would make a beaver's mouthwater; with perhaps some spicy bark added as a relish.

  Then came the cold and the pond was covered with ice. They could stillsee the sun by day and the stars by night, but they could not come tothe surface to breathe as they had done before. There were a great manyair holes, and places under the ice where the water did not reach it,but for breathing space they had to depend largely upon the queerconical houses in which they lived and their burrows along the bank.

  There was still another way to breathe that I had nearly forgotten. Abeaver or any of these little Water Folks can come up to the surface andbreathe against the ice. A big flat bubble is at once formed and as itstrikes the ice it is purified and then the beaver breathes it in againand it is almost as fresh as though it came from the upper air. This hecan do three or four times before having to find an air hole or goinginto one of the houses or burrows.

  The beavers were very snug under the ice which kept away the wind andcold, and also their worst enemy, man.

  The breath of the family made the houses warm, and as the walls werefrozen solid, and were two or three feet thick, they were very hard tobreak into.

  A store of wood had been laid up from which the bark was stripped forfood as fast as it was needed, so that Beaver City had been very snugand comfortable, before the trouble came.

  Then when they were sleeping through the short winter days, and prowlingabout the lake in the night in search of fresh twigs or sticks that hadbeen frozen into the ice, the trouble began.

  First there came the sound of pounding and soon there were holes in theice near their supply of wood. Then occasionally a beaver who was hungryand had gone for breakfast was missed from the family or lodge where helived. At first they thought he had gone for a swim on the lake andwould soon come back, but when several had gone out to the winter'sstore and had not returned, the truth dawned upon some of the older andwiser beavers. Their forest lake had been invaded by some enemy,probably man, and one by one the colony was being slaughtered.

  There is but one thing to do at such a time and that is to take safetyin flight, for the beaver does not consider that he can match hiscunning against that of man.

  While the beavers were still considering whether to go at once or waitanother day, there were sounds of heavy blows upon the tops of theirhouses and then there was a loud explosion and the water began to fall.Then they fled in every direction, some taking refuge in the burrowsthat they had dug under the banks all along the lake for such anemergency, while others sought to leave the lake altogether; some goingup stream and some down. But the destruction of Beaver City had beenplanned very carefully by their cunning enemy, man, and most of themperished while leaving the lake.

  When the men who were watching on the ice above saw a beaver swimming inthe water under them, they would follow upon the ice, going just wherethe beaver went. The beaver would stay near the bottom of the lake aslong as he could hold his breath, but finally he would have to come tothe surface for air when the trapper would strike a hard blow upon theice, stunning him, or perhaps killing him outright. Then he would cut ahole in the ice and fish out his unfortunate victim.

  It was from such perils as these, although they were not fullyunderstood by the beavers, that Shaggycoat and his grandfather fled thesecond night of this reign of terror. They would gladly have gone in alarger company, with Shaggycoat's brothers and sisters and with hisfather and mother, but all the rest of their immediate family weremissing and they never saw them again.

  They went in the inky night, before the moon had risen. Silently, likedark shadows, they glided along the bottom of the lake, which was stillabout half full of water, for the white man's thunder had not been ableto entirely destroy the beaver's strong dam.

  Shaggycoat's grandfather, being very old, and wise according to hisyears, took the lead, and the younger beaver followed, keeping close tothe tail of his guide. They swam near the bottom and were careful toavoid the bright light of the great fires that men had built upon theice in many places to prevent their escape.

  By the time the moon had risen they were near the upper end of the lake.They at once took refuge in an old burrow that the trappers hadoverlooked and lay still until the moon went under a cloud when theycame out and crept along the bank, still going under the ice. When themoon appeared again they hid under the roots of a tree that made a sortof natural burrow. There they lay for all the world like the ends of twoblack logs, until a friendly cloud again obscured the moon when theypushed on. Once the trappers came very near to them when they werehiding behind some stones, waiting for a friendly cloud, and Shaggycoatwas about to dash away and betray their whereabouts, when hisgrandfather nipped him severely in the shoulder which kept him still,and alone saved his fine glossy coat.

  They were now getting well up into the river that had supplied theirlake, and it was not so easy to find breathing places as it had been inthe lake where the water was low. But they could usually find some crackor crevice or some point where there were a few inches between the waterand the ice and where they could fill their lungs before they journeyedon.

  They had come so far and so fast that poor Shaggycoat's legs ached withthe ceaseless motion, but the older beaver gave him no rest, and led himon and on, swimming with easy, steady strokes. Although his own legswere weary and a bit rheumatic, he valued his life more than he did hislegs and so set his teeth and breasted the current bravely. They bothheld their fore paws close up under them and used their hind legsentirely for propelling themselves, so these had to do double duty,plying away like the screw wheel on a great steamer.

  When Shaggycoat remonstrated against going any farther, saying in beaverlanguage that his legs were ready to drop off, his senior reminded himthat his skin would drop off if they stopped, and, with a new wildterror tugging at his heart, he fled on.

  When daylight came, they had covered five good English miles up theriver, and were nearly eight miles from their dam and the beautifulwoodland lake that had been their home.

  Then the old beaver began looking for some burrow or overhanging bankwhere they might hide during the day and get some sleep, of which theywere in great need. Finally they found a suitable place where the bankhad shelved in, leaving a natural den, high and dry above the water.Here they rested and passed the day, getting nothing better to eat thana few frozen lily stems and some dead bark from a log that had beenfrozen into the ice. The dry lifeless bark was not much like the tenderjuicy bark that they were used to, but it helped a little to still thegnawings of hunger, and in this retreat they soon fell asleep and sleptnearly the whole of the day.

  But the older beaver was always watchful, sleeping with one eye open, asyou might say, and waking very easily.

  Once, when he was awakened by a sense of danger, he saw a large otterswim leisurely by their hiding-place and his heart beat hard and fastuntil he was out of sight, for he knew that if the otter discoveredthem, he would at once attack them and the battle would probably end inhis favor.

  Shaggycoat would be of little help in a real fight for life and the oldbeaver was far past his prime, his teeth being dull and broken. When theotter was out of sight, the watchman lay down and resumed his nap.
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  When Shaggycoat awoke, he knew it was evening for he could plainly seethe stars shining through the ice.

  His legs were cramped and stiff and there was a gnawing sensation in theregion of his stomach, but there was nothing in sight to eat. Hisgrandfather informed him in beaver language that there were weary milesto cover before they could rest again.

  As soon as it was fairly dark, they came out from under the overhangingbank that had shielded them so nicely during the day and resumed theirjourney, swimming like two ocean liners, on and on. Their track was notas straight as that of the boats would have been, for they dodged in andout, going where the darker ice and projecting banks gave them cover,and stopping when they scented danger.

  When they had gone about a mile, they found a spot where the river hadset back over the bank, freezing in some alder bushes. Upon the stems ofthese they made a scant meal and went on feeling a bit better. Thisnight seemed longer and wearier to Shaggycoat than the first had. He wasnot so fresh and the first excitement was over, but the old beaver wouldnot let him rest as he knew their only safety lay in putting a longdistance between them and their destroyers.

  They were not so fortunate in finding a hiding-place as they had beenthe day before, but they finally took refuge in a deserted otter'sburrow, which made them a very good nest, although it was possible thatsome wandering otter might happen in, and dispossess them.

  When night again came round, they made a light supper on frozen lilystems and pushed on. They covered less distance that night than they haddone before, for both were feeling the strain of the long flight, and sothey rested frequently and took more time to hunt for food.

  About daybreak of this third night of their journey, they found an openplace in the ice where the stream was rapid and went ashore; here theysoon satisfied their hunger upon the bark of the poplar and birch.

  When they had made a good meal, the prudent old beaver, assisted byShaggycoat, felled several small poplars and cutting them in piecesabout three feet long dragged them under the ice to a protected bank andhid them against the time of need, for he had decided to spend a fewdays where they were, getting the rest and sleep which they bothneeded.