“To make the water deep enough for our houses in places where it is otherwise too shallow,” answered Mr. Beaver. “By putting a lot of trees, sticks, clumps of grass, and mud across a stream the water backs up, and gets deep behind the dam, over which it flows, making a waterfall. We need to build our houses behind the dam, so as to have our doors under water. If we didn’t, other animals from the land would come in and get us. But land animals can not get into our houses as long as the front doors are under water, though it is easy for us to dive down and come up inside where the water does not reach. Did anything else happen to you, Toto?” asked his father.
“Well, I swam home under the ice as fast as I could,” answered the little beaver boy.
“Did you see anything of Mr. Cuppy?” asked Mrs. Beaver.
“No, I didn’t,” Toto answered. “Did some one try to catch him in a trap, too?”
“No. But he said he’d send you home if he met you,” replied Mrs. Beaver. “Of course he didn’t meet you. I’ll go out and tell him he needn’t look for you any more, as you are now at home.”
“Yes, and I’m hungry, too,” said Toto. “The bark on the bush under which I hid was full of thorns. I couldn’t eat it.”
“Here is some nice aspen bark,” said Mr. Beaver. “Let me see your teeth, Toto?”
“What for?” the little beaver boy wanted to know.
“To see if they are going to be strong enough to help us gnaw down trees this summer,” went on Mr. Beaver.
Toto opened his mouth. His teeth were strong and white, that is all except the four front, or gnawing teeth. Two of these in his upper jaw and two in his lower jaw were a sort of red, or orange, color. All beavers have orange-colored gnawing teeth, and the rest are white, like yours.