The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-09
STORY OF THE BEAVERS.

Many years ago there lived in this
country number of beavers who were
just like those Of the present day, ex-
cept that their tails were long and thin,
like those of muSkratS inst cad of being
large and fiat as they are now. And the
reason that the tails of the beaver folk
became SO changed in shape is this:
Even in those early da. the beavers
lived in fine houses which they built in
ponds and streams, and in which they
laid by great store of food, to last
them through the winter, when ice should
chain up the water courses and keep the
animals prisoners in their own homes.
Of course, they took good care to be
snugly at home before the cold weather
arrived, but once (and you shall hear
how nearly they came to losing their
lives through their carelessness) a party
of incautious young beavers went too
far in search of some par ,icularly deSira-
returning to the stream which held their
homes that its surface was covered with
a thick coating of ice.
They had been so hard at work over
the logs that they had failed to notice the
increasing cold, but now the unexpected
sight of the ice sent a chill to their very
hearts. Still they did not intend to sit
still and freeze, but set about their re-
turn as speedily as possible, hoping that
some charitable relative had remembered
their absence and kept a passage open by
which they might return to their fine
warm houses. But, alas! when they
ice was solid as rock and only the tops
of the domelike houses rose above the
CLASSY surface. The entrances were all
far below near the bottom of the stream,
and nowhere did they find an opening by
which they might enter The poor beav-
ers were in despair; the cold was stead
lily increasing and chilling them to the
very marrow of their bones, and they felt
that whatever they did was to be done
quickly, or else they would die there in
the bitter atmosphere, withinsa few feet
of their relatives and friends, who were
doubtless at that very moment busily
eating or taking long, cosy winter maps
in their warm, comfortable houses.
The unfortunate exiles made frantic
Efforts to dig through the ice, but they
found that 1t only wore out their toe
nails and made their feet dredfully sore,
all to no purpose. Then they tried to
dig their way, through the top of one of
the houses, but the frost had rendered
the mud plastered sticks of which it
Was built as hard as stone; so they
We're obliged to abandon that idea also.
They jumped up and down and banged
the houses, hoping to attract the atten-
ton of some of the Inhabitants, who
might in some way aid then in effect
ing an entrance, but all their efforts
about to resign themselves to their fate
and lie down on the ice to die when
the top of the partly ruined house, on
which they had been jumping as last
You may be sure that it did not take
the freezing animals long to scramble
through the opening, and make their
way by various underway passages to
their several homes, where, after
hearty meal they at once settled down
to sleep without disturbing any of their
friends who were one and all found
wrapped in deep slumber.
But the next spring, when the ice melt
ed and the village awoke the beavers
who had so narrowly escaped death told
the others all that had befallen them
And then the chief of the beavers. an
animal so old that his wlhiskers were
gray with age, issued a proclama ton in
which he ordered all of his people to fas-
ten wooden paddles to their tiles, so.
that in case of similar occurrence they
would be able to make enough noise to
be heard by those below who could cas-
lily break through the roof from within.
And the beavers, obeying this order as
soon found that these paddles were of the
greatest assistance in building and plas-
tering their houses; and gradually,
through much exercise in using the
wooden instruments, the shapes of their