When Mrs. Beaver saw how nicely the work went on, she was quite cured of her low spirits, and by fall she had almost forgotten that she had ever lived anywhere else.
By the time cold weather came they had quit, finished their dam, and had also built themselves a very nice house. It was made of branches piled up cross-ways, and mixed with mud and stones, with a roof in the shape of a dome, and it was so strong and tight that no rain or snow could get through it. In this house they made very neat little beds of dried grass, and here they lived very happily, sleeping and playing, and eating the nice bark and roots which they had stored up in the fall.
[CHAPTER II.]
IDLERS DRIVEN OUT.
IN the spring, Mr. Beaver took a very long journey, as beavers are used to do at that time of the year; and when he came home he found that his wife had a nice little family of five young ones, big enough to run about and help in the work of the house. That summer two more pairs of beavers came and set up housekeeping on the banks of the stream. They were very good-natured, helpful people, willing to do their share of all the work which was going on, and Mr. and Mrs. Beaver gave them a warm welcome, showing them where the best bark grew, and where the white lily roots were sweetest, for beavers are usually very polite and kind to one another.
The next year there were many young beavers frisking about the dam and in the water, and in the course of time the colony grew to be a very large one. They had not been disturbed by hunters or trappers; they always had plenty to eat; they were kind to one another, and upon the whole, they were very happy.
However, nobody gets through the world without some trouble, and the beavers had their share. One year three or four of the young beavers refused to work at the dam, or at bringing in bark and branches for food. They did not like rooting in the mud, they said, or gnawing at branches till their jaws ached. They were made perfect slaves of, and they would stand it no longer. And with that they set up their backs, and showed their teeth, and tried to look very grand and independent, but they only succeeded in looking cross. Their fathers and mothers talked to them kindly about their faults, and then tried punishing them, but all did no good. They were just as idle and naughty as before.
When the other beavers saw this, they called a council to consult as to what was to be done; and after talking the matter over, they agreed that unless the idle beavers came to their senses, and were willing to do their fair share of the work, they must be driven from the village, and live by themselves as they best could.
The idlers said they did not care; they could live well enough anywhere. So the old beavers drove them out of the village, and would not let them come back any more. They also warned the other young beavers to have nothing to do with them in any way, for they were wise enough to know how soon good manners are spoiled by bad company.
So these idlers went away and lived in the woods, not very far from the beaver dam. They were too lazy and stupid to build nice houses, so they just scratched holes in the ground to sleep in, and spent their whole time in doing nothing at all, which is just the hardest work in the world when one has too much of it.