It was about two years after the idlers were driven from the village that Binney was born. As soon as he was able to notice anything, he found himself lying on a nice bed of hay with three other little beavers just like himself. They all had bright black eyes, short stout legs, very long strong fore-feet, and hind-feet webbed like those of a goose, having long claws, with which they soon learned to comb their soft fur, and keep it in nice order. They had also broad, flat tails, shaped like a mason's trowel, and clothed with scales instead of hair. They were merry little things, and soon began to have fine games of play with the other little beavers in the town. With these little friends they swam in the pond, dived from the dam, and ran about the banks of the stream all day long.
But they soon found out that life was not to be all play. As soon as they were big enough, their mothers began to teach them to work. First they learned to bring grass and straw for the nest, holding the load under their chins with one paw, and walking with the other three. Then they were taught to dive for mud and moss at the bottom of the pond, and at last to gnaw down twigs and sticks for the dam.
At first Binney thought it would be a fine thing to work like a grown-up beaver, but he soon found out that work is not as easy as play. After a time he began to be idle, and would slip away from his work to play in the woods on the bank of the stream. His mother talked to him very kindly about his fault, and told him what would be the consequence of it—that he would be driven from the town, and forced to live in the woods, where he would often be cold and hungry, and where none of his friends and relations would visit him, or speak to him.
Binney promised to be more industrious, and for a time was very good; but he pretty soon forgot his loving mother's advice and grew idle again, and the others began to look coldly upon him, and to forbid their children to play with him, for it is thought very mean and disgraceful in a beaver to be idle.
One day he was hanging about in the woods, whither he had been sent for some birch twigs with which to mend the house. His was not a hard or disagreeable task, for the twigs were small and tender, and the bark was sweet and pleasant to the taste; but Binney had learned to hate the very name of work. Still he did not dare to return without the twigs which he had been sent for, as his father had been angry with him that very morning, and said he would punish him severely unless he did better.
So he was hanging about the woods, as I have said, feeling cross and low spirited, wishing that his work was done, and yet unable to make up his mind to go about it. All at once, as he walked along, he came upon a beaver whom he had never met before.
[CHAPTER III.]
BAD COMPANIONS.
THE beaver that Binney met in the woods did not look at all like Binney's friends in the village. His fur was ragged and dirty, and full of burrs and straws, as though it had not been combed in a long time. His eyes were partly closed, as if he were fast asleep, and he lounged along in a careless, lazy way, very different from the active, busy pace of the beavers in the town.
"Hollo, young one!" cried he, as he caught sight of Binney. "Who are you, and what are you about here?"