SHAGGYCOAT
Reading edition
The Biography of a Beaver by CLARENCE HAWKES
Author of Black Bruin, The Biography of a Bear Shovelhorns, The Biography of a Moose, etc.
Illustrations by CHARLES COPELAND
PHILADELPHIA MACRAE SMITH COMPANY PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1906, By George W. Jacobs & Company
All rights reserved Printed in U. S. A.
Dedicated to my Little Brother, the Venetian, who, living in a house that his hands have made, surrounded by a moat of his own device, the head of a large family and a citizen in a goodly community, is more like man in his mode of life, than any other of God's creatures.
Reached down and gripped his brother
KING OF ALL THE BEAVERS Till he came unto a streamlet In the middle of the forest, To a streamlet still and tranquil, That had overflowed its margin, To a dam made by the beavers, To a pond of quiet water, Where knee-deep the trees were standing, Where the water-lilies floated, Where the rushes waved and whispered. On the dam stood Pau-Puk-Keewis, On the dam of trunks and branches, Through whose chinks the water spouted, O'er whose summit flowed the streamlet. From the bottom rose the beaver, Looked with two great eyes of wonder, Eyes that seemed to ask a question, At the stranger Pau-Puk-Keewis. —Longfellow.
Introduction 11
I. The Fugitives 23
II. Alone in the World 39
III. The Courtship of Shaggycoat 53
IV. How the Great Dam was Built 67
V. A Beaver Lodge 81
VI. How the Winter Went 97
VII. Life in the Water World 111
VIII. A Bit of Tragedy 125
IX. Strangers at the Lake 141
X. A Troublesome Fellow 163
XI. A Bank Beaver 181
XII. The Builders 195
XIII. Beaver Joe 211
XIV. Running-Water 225
XV. King of Beavers 243
XVI. Old Shag 261
Reached down and gripped his brother Frontispiece
The final touches were put upon this curious dome-shaped house Facing page 86
Tearing at their house and filling the night with awful sounds 96
The buck gave a mighty leap and fell midway in the stream 122
There is where the hunter and hunted met 193