[Introduction ]11
I. [The Fugitives ]23
II. [Alone in the World ]39
III. [The Courtship of Shaggycoat ]53
IV. [How the Great Dam was Built ]67
V. [A Beaver Lodge ]81
VI. [How the Winter Went ]97
VII. [Life in the Water World ]111
VIII. [A Bit of Tragedy ]125
IX. [Strangers at the Lake ]141
X. [A Troublesome Fellow ]163
XI. [A Bank Beaver ]181
XII. [The Builders ]195
XIII. [Beaver Joe ]211
XIV. [Running-Water ]225
XV. [King of Beavers ]243
XVI. [Old Shag ]261
[Reached down and gripped his brother ]Frontispiece
[The final touches were put upon this curious dome-shaped house ]Facing page 86
[Tearing at their house and filling the night with awful sounds ]96
[The buck gave a mighty leap and fell midway in the stream ]122
[There is where the hunter and hunted met ]193

A FOURFOOTED AMERICAN

Introductory

Just how long the red man, in company with his wild brothers, the deer, the bear, the wolf, the buffalo, and the beaver had inhabited the continent of North America, before the white man came, is a problem for speculation; but judging from all signs it was a very long time. The Mound Builders of Ohio and the temple builders of Mexico speak to us out of a dim prehistoric past, but the song and story of the red man and many a quaint Indian tradition tell us how he lived, and something of his life and religion.

If we look carefully into these quaint tales and folk-lore of the red man, we shall find that he lived upon very intimate relations with all his wild brothers and while he hunted them for meat and used their skins for garments and their hides for bowstrings, yet he knew and understood them and treated them with a reverence that his white brother has never been able to feel.