Toto, the Bustling Beaver: His Many Adventures

by Richard Barnum

“I will!” mewed Blackie. Then she walked off toward the field, and Toto began to eat some of the poplar bark.

You remember I told you I would put in this story something about how beavers dig canals to float the logs they cut down to the dam. And I guess this is a good place for that.

With their paws the beavers dig a ditch in the dirt, starting it from the place where the fallen tree lies, and heading it toward the waters of their pond. The beavers are fast diggers, too, almost as fast as they are gnawers, and many of them, working together, will dig a little canal in a few days. They take out the dirt and stones, placing them to one side. They carry the dirt and stones out of their way in their front paws.

Foot by foot the canal, which is yet only a dry ditch in the ground, is brought to the edge of the beaver pond. Then the little animals cut through the remaining wall of earth, so the water from the pond flows into the canal. The water goes all the way back to where the big tree trunk lies on the bank of the little canal. The beavers now, pushing all together, roll the heavy log into the canal which, after this, can easily be floated through the canal to the beaver pond, and used to make the dam bigger and stronger.

One day Mr. Beaver called out and said:

“Come on, Toto and Sniffy. You must help Cuppy and some of the others dig canals to-day. It will soon be winter again, and we want to get a lot of wood and bark stored away before cold weather comes.”

Beavers do not sleep all through the winter as bears, and some other animals, do. The beavers stay awake, move about, and have to eat. So they need plenty of food.

“Digging canals is fun!” laughed Toto. “I like it; don’t you, Sniffy?”

“Yes,” answered his brother, “I do. Here comes Dumple!” he added. “Let’s have some fun with him!”

So the three beaver boys tumbled about on the ground as they went along to where the canal was being dug. There they found Cuppy and many other animals at work, for several large trees had been cut down, and they must be floated in canals to the dam.