The Beaver

The Beaver By Mrs. Wilson

A few days ago, our neighbor caught a young beaver, perhaps eight months old. He brought it home and kept it several days as a pet. It is certainly interesting to watch how intelligently he acts and works. The beaver is a fur-bearing animal. The outside of the fur is hairy, but next to the hide it is as soft as silk and so thick that water never wets the hide, no matter how long the beaver is in water. He has a squirrel-like skull, very short ears, and small, round eyes. His legs remind one of a kangaroo, the front legs being so much shorter than the hind legs. Five toes are on each foot, and each toe has a long, hard claw. The second toe of each hind foot has a split claw used for a comb and louse trap. Lice are companions to the beaver. The hind feet are webbed, used in swimming. His flat tail reminds me of a piece of dark rubber, covered with tiny scales, the tail is about the shape of the tongue of a beef, though not quite so pointed on the end. In making dams the beaver carries mud on his tail; sometimes he will swim in water with it but always keeps the mud out of the water. They gnaw bark, twigs, roots and grass for food. When they get a mouthful they will sit up and grind it by working the lower jaw from one side to another very rapidly. They live in the water. When a piece of ice gets in the pond of this little beaver he takes it with his front feet and legs, using them as a person does his arms and hands, carrying the ice out of the pond, swimming with his hind feet. Near here are many beaver dams which are certainly some of the most remarkable undertakings seen in nature's wilds. These dams are structures of sticks, stones, roots, mud, and so.d, laid across a running stream of water. The ponds are deep enough to afford protection in summer, and not to freeze to the bottom in winter. Sticks, faced with mud, are laid against the stream, and the water allowed to trickle over the entire dam. In some places the dams have been made like a solid bank, and the water is permitted to flow at one place only thus changing the course of the stream. In the dams, at the deepest part of the stream, are quantities of brushwood, each stick is placed butt against the current and covered with mud at upper stream-

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end. The quaking asp trees are used mostly, with willows and brush. Along the stream one will see trees gnawed off that are as large as one foot in diameter. The beavers work mostly at night, but we see them occasionally at work in the day time. There seems to be a boss who sits and chatters while the

Beavers at work on a dam ; beaver houses in the background.

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rest work. The beaver spends much time in the water. When he comes out of the water he washes his face, eyes, and ears almost as a person does. His home is found near a pond of water, the entrance is in the pond below the water line, leads through a passage to a dry chamber which is located under roots, stumps, or clumps of brush, so they get air from a hole in the top of the roof. Often the inside of the roof is strengthened by interlaced sticks. One can gain lessons of industry in watching the beavers, who show an intelligence in their work almost on a par with that of man. Boulder, Utah.

The Great American Handicap By Will Dobson

"The last tobacco I sold was smoked up four years ago, and I'm just getting my pay for it now!" With these cryptic words my neighbor on the north greeted me over his garden fence the other morning. His manner as well as his abrupt speech showed that there was something on his mind, something that had made him forget his usual cheery "good morning." "How is that?" was my natural query. Johnson is a useful and respected citizen in our community, and not easilystirred to fervid speech. "Perhaps you can see for yourself," and he pointed with a grim gesture to his boy, Arthur, headed for main street with tilted cigarette alight, absorbed in making his stride and bearing match the approved movie mode. There was real grief in my neighbor's face, mingled with a yearning pride in the youthful author of the provocative smoke screen. I thought, indeed, that I could see his point. My neighbor has never used tobacco himself. "Maybe he would have smoked anyhow," I philosophized in an effort to comfort my friend. "That isn't it," my neighbor argued, "the fact remains that I have been guilty of selling tobacco. Now tobacco is punishing me." Again I got his meaning.