‘I’m afraid not, Mr. Raphael,’ spoke up a voice. The company parted about the speaker and Raphael saw the sleek body of an otter with his dark snake-like head. ‘I was down in the river among the trout,’ he confessed, ‘and I know the river is dammed in many places so that one cannot pass to and fro.’
‘Thank you,’ said Raphael. ‘In that case the river would be out of the question.’
‘Yes,’ replied the otter. ‘I hunt and see strange things. I have watched the river turn great wheels.’
‘It is those wheels,’ explained Raphael, ‘which make electricity for lights and heaters and for running power motors.’
‘That may well be,’ said the otter. ‘As for me, I do not understand man things. They are best left to men.’
‘I agree with you,’ squeaked the mouse in a flash of spirit. ‘I do not like boxes that run on wheels.’
‘Nor,’ joined in the birds, ‘great insects that fly through the air.’
‘We have been caught in traps and poisoned,’ bayed the wolves.
‘We are shot at with bullets for our horns,’ belled the moose.
All the animals began to cry out in their languages.