“Are we going to learn how to dig canals, too?”
“Yes, building dams and canals and cutting down trees are the three main things for a beaver to know,” said his father. “But learn one thing at a time. Just now you are to learn how to cut down this tree. Now gnaw your best—each of you!”
So Toto and Sniffy gnawed, taking turns, and their father helped them when they were tired. Soon a deep, white ridge was cut in the side of the tree.
“The tree is almost ready to fall now,” said Mr. Beaver. “You boys may take a little rest, and I’ll finish the gnawing. But I want you to watch and see how I do it. Thus you will learn.”
“May I go over there by the spring of water and get some sweet bark?” asked Toto.
“Yes, I’ll wait for you,” answered his father. “I won’t finish cutting the tree down until you come back.”
“Bring me some bark,” begged Sniffy, as he sat down on his broad, flat tail.
“I will,” promised Toto.
The little beaver boy waddled away, and soon he was near an aspen tree. Beavers like the bark from this tree better than almost any other. Toto was gnawing away, stripping off some bark for his brother, when, all at once, he heard a rustling sound in the bushes, and a big animal sprang out and stood in front of Toto.