“Danger! Danger!” cried a lot of other beavers who were working near by. “A tree is going to fall! Run, everybody! Danger!”
“See!” exclaimed Toto to his brother. “We can make the old beavers run out of the way just as Cuppy made Don and me run.”
“Yes, you beaver boys are growing up,” said Mr. Beaver, who had waited to see that his two sons gave the danger signal properly. “You are learning very well. Now here goes the tree.”
He gave a few more bites, or gnaws, at the place where the tree was almost cut through, and then Mr. Beaver himself ran out of the way.
[“Crash! Bang!” went the big tree] down in the forest. It broke down several other smaller trees, and finally was stretched out on the ground near the waters of Winding River.
“We helped do that!” said Toto to Sniffy, when the woods were again silent.
“Yes, you have learned how to cut down big trees,” said their father. “You are no longer playing beavers—you are working beavers. Now we must dig the canal to float the tree nearer the dam, as it is too heavy for us to roll or pull along, and we do not want to cut it.”
I will tell you, a little farther on, how the beavers cut canals to float logs to the places where they want to use them. Just now all I’ll say about them is that it took some time to get the tree Toto and Sniffy had helped cut to the place where it was needed for the dam. The two beaver boys and many others of the wonderful animals were busy for a week or more.
Then, one day, when the tree was in place, Toto asked his mother if he might go off into the woods and look for some more aspen bark, as all that had been stored in the stick house had been eaten.
“Yes, you may go,” said Mrs. Beaver. “But don’t go too far, nor stay too long.”