A TROUBLESOME FELLOW
The first time that Shaggycoat saw the brown fisherman, he came sliding
over the surface of the beavers' pond, and the manner of his coming both
astonished and angered Shaggycoat.
The thing that astonished him was to see the otter slide, and he was
angry, because the stranger acted just as though the pond belonged to
him and Shaggycoat knew that it was his own. Had he not spent days and
weeks searching in the wilderness for a spot where he could make his
home and had not he and Brighteyes built the dam that flowed the meadow?
It was all his and the manner of this merry stranger made him furious.
He would show him who was master here, so the beaver began swimming
rapidly about under the ice, trying vainly to find an escape to the
outer air. But Jack Frost had shut down a transparent ice window over
the pond the night before, and, although Shaggycoat could still see the
sky and the trees along the shore, yet the outer world would not be his
again until spring. He could find an airhole by going up-stream two or
three miles to some rapids, but the return trip overland was not
inviting, for he, like other beavers, was a poor pedestrian and would
not go any long distance except by water. So true is this of the beaver,
that one naturalist says he may be kept a prisoner in a certain portion
of a stream, simply by placing wire netting across the current and
running it inland for a hundred feet in either direction. A beaver so
held between two wire fences at right angles to the stream, will spend
several days in captivity before he will venture around the end of the
fence to freedom.
It was out of the question for Shaggycoat to go two miles up-stream and
think of returning overland merely to fight, so he gave up the plan and
amused himself by watching the otter.
He had never seen any one so agile before and he would have been amused
at the otter's pranks, had it not been upon his own particular pond.
The otter would go up the bank where it was steep and give three or four
great jumps. When he struck the surface ice, he would double his fore
legs up so that they lay along his sides, and slide across the ice on
his breast, trailing his hind legs.
Then he would scramble up the opposite bank and repeat the performance,
carrying him nearly back to the other side. Shaggycoat thought he had
never seen anything quite so interesting in his life and he swam about
under the ice watching his visitor.
Finally in one of his slides the otter passed over the spot where
Shaggycoat was and saw him for the first time.
He could not stop in his slide in time to pay his compliments to the
beaver, but he soon came slipping and sliding back and glared down at
the owner of the pond showing a set of teeth, almost as good as the
beaver's own.
Shaggycoat glared back at him and they both knew the fight would come
some other day.
The otter seemed to say by his looks, "Come up here and I will shake you
out of that drab coat," and the beaver's countenance replied, "You just
come down here and I'll drown you and then tear you to pieces just to
see what your brown coat is made of."
Shaggycoat saw a great deal of the otter on these crisp, clear days,
before the ice became clouded, and his coming and going always made the
beaver uneasy.
Sometimes this playful coaster would slide the entire length of the
pond, going half a mile in two or three minutes. He would stick his
sharp claws into the ice and give two or three bounds, then he would
slide a long distance.
The momentum that he got from the springs would usually carry him
seventy-five or a hundred yards.
Shaggycoat thought it must be great sport, but the coaster should play
upon his own pond, if he had one, and leave other people's undisturbed.
Finally a great fall of snow spread a soft, white, impenetrable blanket
over the ice, and the beaver saw no more of his enemy until spring.
At last with their golden key the sun-beams unlocked the ice door over
the lake and the denizens of beaver city were again free to go and come
in the outer world. Then Shaggycoat swam a mile or so up-stream to look
for elderberry wood. There was something in the pungent acid sap of the
elderberry that he craved after the inactive life of winter. This was
his spring medicine, a tonic that the beaver always seeks if he can find
it, when the first great thaw opens the ice in the river.
He also was fond of the sweet maple sap and stopped to girdle a small
soft maple on the way. He would remember that maple and come again. The
sap would run freely during the day and freeze at night and in the
morning the ice would be covered with syrup, white, transparent, and
sweet as honey. This was a primitive sugar-making in which the beaver
indulged.
He had satisfied his spring craving for both sweet and sour with maple
and elder sap and was swimming leisurely down-stream toward his lake
when he heard a sound on shore. Something was coming through the woods,
for he heard the snow crackling. Shaggycoat kept very still and watched
and listened. Nearer and nearer the sounds came and presently he saw the
otter coming with long jumps, breaking the crust at every spring. They
discovered each other almost at the same instant and the otter was all
fight in a second. The fur stood up on his neck, his eyes snapped, and
his lips parted showing a white, gleaming set of teeth.
He made straight for the beaver, covering the snow with great jumps and
Shaggycoat saw that his best course was to meet his enemy in the water.
On land he would be no match for so agile a foe. So he swam in
mid-stream and clambered upon a low rock and waited for the attack. This
was the hour for which he had longed all through the winter months, but
now that it was at hand, he almost wished that he was back in his snug
house on the lake. The otter was a third larger than he, and he swam so
easily and his every motion was so quick and strong that the beaver
feared him even before he had found how good a fighter he was.
He began by swimming about the rock several times, snapping at his
adversary at every chance. This necessitated Shaggycoat's turning very
fast and as he was not as quick as his foe, he got his tail nipped twice
almost before he knew it. Then he concluded the rock was no place for
him so made a clumsy spring for the otter's back. But when he fell in
the water with a great splash, the otter was not where he had been a
second before, but was glaring at the beaver from the rock which he had
reached in some unaccountable manner.
While Shaggycoat was still wondering what to do next, the otter took
matters into his own hands, by jumping squarely upon the beaver's back,
and setting his teeth into his neck. It would have been a sorry day for
poor Shaggycoat had not a projecting rock been near by, under which he
plunged, scraping off his enemy, and thus saving his neck from being
badly chewed, if not broken. He was getting decidedly the worst of it,
so when the otter went back to the rock, Shaggycoat swam out from his
hiding-place, and started for the lake at his best speed with his foe in
hot pursuit.
What a swim that was and how they churned up the water in that running
fight back to the lake. The beaver with his strong hind legs working
desperately, doubling, twisting, and turning, snapping at his enemy
whenever that agile fellow gave him a chance, and the otter gliding with
swift, strong strokes, swimming over and under the beaver and punishing
him at every turn. Foam and blood flecked the water and a line of
bubbles marked their progress.
It seemed to Shaggycoat that his stronghold toward which he was
retreating, fighting off his heavy foe so valiantly, was miles away, but
at last, to his great joy, it was reached, and there, at the upper end
of the lake was Brighteyes, licking at the maple stump that he had
girdled that morning. Like a faithful helpmate she flew to his relief,
and the otter, seeing that he had two beavers to fight instead of one,
gave up the chase and swam away.
It is doubtful if he would have fought a female beaver, for there is a
certain chivalry shown the sex, even in the woods.
The next otter that Shaggycoat saw was much smaller than his enemy and
he at once concluded that it was a female, which proved to be the case.
She was lying upon a rock in mid-stream, watching the water closely.
Her intense manner at once attracted the beaver's attention, so he kept
quiet and watched just to find out what she was doing.
Presently she sprang from the rock like a flash and swam down-stream
with a rapidity that fairly took Shaggycoat's breath away, good swimmer
that he was. But he was still more astonished, when a second later she
struck out for the shore bearing a large fish in her jaws. The fish was
giving a few last feeble flops with its tail.
What she wanted with the nasty fish, Shaggycoat could not imagine, so he
kept still and watched. She lay down upon the sand, and holding the fish
down with one paw, began tearing it to pieces and eating it. She had not
been long at work when Shaggycoat noticed two otter pups, that had
previously escaped his attention, playing in the sand near the old
otter. They were as playful as kittens and were rolling and tumbling
about having a merry time. When the old otter had finished her fish, she
called the youngsters to her, and lying down upon the sand, gave them
their own supper, which was neither flesh nor fish.
When they were satisfied, she tried to coax them into the water. She
would plunge in herself, and then face about and stand pleading with
them, but they were afraid and would not venture in. Finally, one a
little bolder than the other, came to the water's edge, and dipped his
paw in it, but evidently did not like it, for he went back on the bank.
Then the old otter resorted to a strange stratagem, and got her way as
mothers will.
She lay down upon the sand and romped and rolled with her pups, tumbling
them over and over. Finally at the height of the play, they were coaxed
upon her back, when she slipped quickly into the stream, where she
tumbled them off, and left them kicking and sputtering. A moment later
they scrambled out looking like drowned rats. But the lesson that she
had sought to teach them had been learned. They had discovered that the
water did them no harm and before the shades of night had fallen and the
stars appeared, they were playing in the stream of their own accord.
All this amused Shaggycoat so much that he forgot to be angry with the
old otter, and finally went away to look for his own supper of poplar
bark.
Later in the summer, he did really meet his enemy face to face, but
under such strange conditions that the beaver never forgot the incident.
He was swimming rapidly down-stream on the return trip to Brighteyes and
his own forest lake. There were other lakes in the wilderness that he
visited each summer during his long rambles but none quite like his, so
he was hastening in the autumn twilight, for he knew that in two or
three days he would again be at home.
Suddenly, as he rounded a sharp bend in the stream, he came upon his
enemy close at hand. The otter seemed to be engaged in wrestling with
something in the water. He was near shore and making quite a splash.
All of the old fury came back to Shaggycoat. This was the fellow who had
so punished him on that memorable day, but Shaggycoat was now larger and
stronger than he had been the year before. He felt that he was a match
for the otter. He would punish him now so that he would never dare to
slide upon his pond again.
Shaggycoat started forward noiselessly to take his enemy by surprise and
had gotten within twenty yards before the otter saw him and then that
bold fellow seemed greatly frightened. He plunged about frantically and
churned up the water, roiling the stream. Then it was that Shaggycoat
noticed something strange which sent the fur up on his neck and all
along his back and recalled sensations that were anything but pleasant.
When the otter reared and plunged, the beaver saw that his forepaw was
firmly held in the cruel thing that had caught him the year before.
Now was his time. The trap would hold the otter tight and he would
punish him. Again the otter reared and plunged, and a new possibility
came to Shaggycoat. Perhaps there were more traps all about them. Maybe
there was one right under his paws this very minute. His fury at his
enemy gave way to fear for his own safety and he fled precipitately not
even waiting to see if his enemy got free. As he fled, the terror of
traps grew upon him, so that for miles he did not dare to touch his paws
on the bottom of the stream.
At last, weary and exhausted, he crawled under an overhanging bank and
slept, and in sleep forgot the fear that had pursued him all through the
night. But his enemy never troubled him again, either upon the streams
that he frequented in summer, or on his own forest lake in winter.