Then, as the day was warm and sunny, all the tramps stretched out under the trees and went to sleep.
“Now would be a good time for Don to come along and scare them away,” thought Toto. “I wish he would. It isn’t good to have a camp of tramps so near our beaver dam. They may come and try to catch some of us.”
But Don, the dog, did not come, and after watching the ragged men for a while Toto thought he had better start back home. He stripped off some bark to take to his mother, who liked it very much, and then the bustling beaver waddled along until he came to a stream of water. Into this he jumped and swam the rest of the way, as that was easier than walking, or “waddling” as I call it, for Toto was rather fat, and he sort of “wobbled” as he walked.
“Well, did anything happen to you this time?” asked Mrs. Beaver, when Toto reached home.
“It didn’t exactly happen to me,” he said. “But I saw the camp of tramps Don was looking for.”
“Tramps! In our woods!” exclaimed Mr. Beaver, who came along just then. He was coming home to supper, having been at work with Cuppy and the others on the big dam. “Where did you see the tramps, Toto?”
The little beaver boy told his father, and that evening after they had eaten all the beavers gathered out on the big dam which held back the waters of the pond. It was a sort of meeting, and though it took place nearly every night, it was not always as serious as was this one.
On other nights the beavers gathered to talk to one another, the older ones looking to see that the dam was all right, and the younger ones, like Toto and Sniffy, playing about.
But this evening there was very little playing. After a few holes in the dam had been plastered shut with mud, which the beavers carried in their forepaws, and not on their tails, as many persons think, Cuppy whacked his tail on the ground. Every beaver grew silent on hearing that.
“There is no special danger just now,” said Cuppy, speaking to all the others. “I mean no tree is going to fall, or anything like that. But there is likely to be trouble. Toto, tell us about the tramp camp you saw in the woods.”