[Illustration: THE HUNTED BEAVER.]
It is said that a Beaver (a creature which lives chiefly in the water)
has a certain part about him which is good in physic, and that, upon
this account, he is often hunted down and killed. Once upon a time, as
one of these creatures was hard pursued by the dogs, and knew not how to
escape, recollecting with himself the reason of his being thus
persecuted, with a great resolution and presence of mind, he bit off the
part which his hunters wanted, and throwing it towards them, by these
means escaped with his life.