TOTO ON A BOAT
True enough, Toto, the bustling beaver, was caught in a trap. Some one
had set the trap in the woods, covering it over with dried leaves so
it could not be seen. And an apple had been put near the trap, so that
it would attract, or call by its smell, some animal. And Toto was that
animal.
“Snap!” had gone the jaws of the trap, closing together on Toto’s leg,
and the beaver boy was in great pain.
“Oh, dear! Ouch! Oh, let me go!” cried Toto, in beaver talk. But the
trap did not let him go, and, pull as he did, Toto could not get loose.
After struggling for a while, pulling this way and that, and still
feeling himself held fast, Toto grew quiet and lay down on the dried
leaves.
He had pulled the trap out into plain view now, and he could see where
the steel jaws were shut fast on his leg. Toto was glad of one thing,
and this was that the jaws of the trap were not sharp and jagged like a
barbed wire fence. Some traps, Toto knew, were made with iron teeth in
them, and when they fastened on an animal’s leg they cut into it. This
trap was an easier kind.
“If the trap wasn’t fast to a chain, and the chain fast to a stump, I
could pull the trap along with me, and maybe Cuppy and my father could
get it loose from my leg,” thought Toto. But the boy who had set the
trap had known that any animal which got caught in it would try to pull
it away, so he had made it fast to a stump. All the pulling Toto did
would not loosen the trap.
“Well, I’m caught, and that’s all there is to it,” thought poor Toto.
“I can’t get loose, but maybe if I could call some of the other
beavers they could help me,” he went on. He knew that to call the
other beavers, or to warn them of danger, he must flap his tail on
the ground. If he had been near water he would have flapped it on the
water, and it would have made a louder sound. But he was away from the
water and had to do the best he could.
Thump! Thump! Thump! went Toto’s tail on the ground. His tail was not
caught in the trap, and he was glad of that. Thump! Thump! Thump! went
his tail again. Then Toto listened. But none of the other beavers came
to help him.
After a while the pain in his leg was not quite so bad. He was sure the
bone was not broken, and he was glad of that.
“But what is going to happen to me?” thought Toto. “Dad always told me
to be careful and keep away from traps, and here I have gone and walked
right into one!
“But that apple did smell so good!” went on Toto. “I just couldn’t help
wanting it!” He had managed to get one bite of the apple before the
trap snapped shut on his leg. And now, as he saw the fruit lying near
him, Toto thought he might as well eat the rest of it, which he did.
Hardly had he finished eating when he heard a noise in the bushes and
among the leaves, and he knew some one was coming. Toto’s heart beat
very fast, and, as any wild animal would have done, he tried to get
away, forgetting, for the moment, that he was held fast by the trap. A
tug at the chain and a pain in his leg brought to his mind that he was
still a prisoner, and he fell back among the leaves.
And then through the bushes came a boy. In an instant he saw Toto in
the trap.
“Oh, I’ve caught a beaver! I’ve caught a beaver!” cried the boy,
jumping up and down.
The boy walked toward Toto. Once again the little animal tried to get
away, but the chain and trap held him. The beaver crouched down in the
leaves and the boy put out his hand to stroke his fur.
Toto showed his orange-colored teeth, opening his lips as a dog does
when he snarls. Toto knew he could bite and bite hard, and that was all
he thought of now.
“Oh ho! showing your teeth, are you?” exclaimed the boy, as he drew
back his hand. “Well, I must be careful! But I won’t hurt you, poor
fellow. I’m sorry you are caught in my trap, but I am glad I didn’t use
one with sharp teeth.
“And I want a beaver for a pet, or else I’d let you go. But I’ll be
good to you. I’ll take you home with me and you can have a nice little
cage to live in, and I’ll give you apples and bark to eat every day. I
guess you like apples, ’cause you ate the one I used to bait my trap,”
went on the boy.
Toto looked at this boy. For a moment the beaver thought he might be
the same one who had chased the tramps, but of this Toto could not be
sure. He did not know much about boys or men.
“Yes, I’ll take you home to our houseboat and treat you kindly,” went
on the boy. “Dad said I couldn’t catch anything in my trap, but I did.
And now I wonder how I can get you home without having you bite me? I
guess I can put you in a bag.”
The boy had a cloth bag in his pocket, and, opening this, he poked
Toto into it, using a stick. The beaver tried not to go in, for he was
afraid the bag was a worse trap than the one in which he was already
caught. But the chain held the beaver fast and he had to do just as the
boy wanted.
And so, a little later, Toto found himself shut up in a bag, trap,
chain and all, and being carried away over the boy’s shoulder. The trap
was still fast to the beaver’s leg, and he wished it would be loosened,
for it hurt.
Then, if Toto had been a boy or a girl, he would have cried. But
beavers don’t do that.
Toto did not know where the boy was taking him, but it seemed a long
way through the woods, and, after a while, the beaver felt himself
being set down, inside the bag as he was.
“Where have you been?” asked some one of the boy.
“Oh, I’ve been off in the woods, Dad!” answered the boy. “And, what do
you think? I caught a beaver in my trap! A beaver!”
Of course Toto did not understand these words, but he could hear the
boy and his father talking. Then the bag was opened, and Toto tried
to jump out. But some one caught him round the middle of his body, in
strong hands, and Toto could not turn his head to bite. Toto saw that
a man was holding him, and the boy was standing near. And all around
was water. Toto could see it and smell it.
At first he thought he was back at the dear old beaver pond, and he
looked for the dam, for Cuppy, for his father and the others. But
a second look showed him that this was not the beaver pond. It was
another body of water――much larger. But still Toto wished, with all his
heart, that he was in that water.
“I’d soon get away from them by swimming, if they’d let me go and would
take this trap off my leg,” thought Toto.
But the man was not going to let him go. He held tightly to Toto, and
the beaver could not bite.
“Take the trap off his leg, Donald,” said the boy’s father. “It must
hurt him. I hope the leg isn’t broken. If you want a beaver for a pet
you should have used a box trap, that would not have hurt him.”
“I didn’t know I was going to catch a beaver,” replied the boy. “But
I’m glad I did. I’ll make a little cage for him, and feed him bark and
apples. You hold him, Dad, while I take off the trap.”
So while the man held Toto, with his hands on the middle of the fat
beaver’s body, the boy opened the trap and slipped it from the animal’s
leg. And you can well guess that Toto was very glad of this. The pain
stopped when the trap was taken off, and, aside from a little sore
place on his leg, the beaver was not hurt.
[Illustration: And then, through the bushes, came a boy.]
“We’ll put him in a box, and then we must start the boat,” said the man.
Toto did not know what a boat was, but a little later he found himself
in a box, with a wire screen over the side which was open. Toto could
look out, he could smell the air and the water, and he could see the
water itself, but he could not get out. And then, by the way the wind
blew and by the manner in which the sun sparkled on the little waves,
Toto knew that he was moving along.
“But it’s queer I’m not swimming,” thought the beaver. “I am moving
along on the water, and yet I am not wet. How is that, I wonder?”
The truth was that Toto had been brought on board a houseboat――that is,
a boat made somewhat like a house. Donald, his father and his mother
were traveling down the river on a houseboat, and when they “tied
up” for a day Donald had gone on shore and set his trap. And he had
caught Toto. Now Toto was on the boat and more adventures were going to
happen.