"During the winter we saw very little of our beavers. Through the cold
season they lay snug in their houses--although not in a state of
torpidity, as the beaver does not become torpid in winter. He only
keeps within doors, and spends most of his time in eating and sleeping;
but he goes out of his house at intervals to wash and clean himself, for
the beaver is an animal of very precise habits. He is not compelled,
however, to go abroad in search of food. As we have seen, he lays up a
stock which serves him throughout the cold season.
"For several weeks in mid-winter, the dam was frozen over with ice
strong enough to bear our weight; and we visited the houses of the
beavers that stood up like so many hay-stacks. We found them so hard
and firm, that we could climb upon them, and pounce down upon their
tops, without the least danger of breaking them in. In fact, it would
have been anything but an easy task to have opened one of them from
above; and no animal--not even the wolverene with his crooked claws,--
could have done it. We observed that in every case the doors were far
below the ice, so that the entrance still remained open to the animals
within; and, moreover, when any one stamped heavily upon the roof,
through the clear ice we could see the frightened creatures making their
escape by darting off into the water. Sometimes we remained to see if
they would return, but in no instance did they come back. At the time
we wondered at this--as we knew they could not possibly live under the
ice, where there was no air. We soon found, however, that these cunning
creatures knew what they were about; and that they had already provided
means to escape from the danger of being drowned.
"Along one side of the dam there was a bank, that rose considerably
above the water; and into this bank they had made large holes, or as
they are termed `washes.' These were so constructed that the entrances
to them could not be frozen up; and we found that whenever the beavers
were disturbed or frightened from their houses, they invariably betook
themselves to these washes, where they could crawl quietly up above the
surface of the water, and breathe in safety!
"This was the proper season to trap the beaver, as their fur is more
valuable in winter than at any other time; but, as I have already said,
it was not our intention to disturb them, until they should become very
numerous.
"The ice upon the dam was exceedingly smooth, and of course suggested
the idea of skates. Both Frank and Harry were very fond of this
amusement, and, indeed, I was rather partial to it myself.
"Skates then must be had, at all cost, and again we had recourse to the
_bois d'arc_, the wood of which was sufficiently light and compact for
our purpose Cudjo, with his hammer and a good hickory-fire, soon drew
out the shoeing for them, making it very thin--as our stock of iron
consisted in what we had taken from the body of the wagon, and was of
course very precious, and not to be wasted upon articles designed merely
for amusement. However, we knew it would not be lost upon the skates;
as we could take it from them, whenever we should want to apply it to a
more useful purpose. In a short time, we had three pairs; and,
strapping them firmly to our feet with strips of deerskin, were soon
gliding over the dam, and spinning around the beaver-houses--no doubt to
the great wonderment of such of the animals as came out under the ice to
look at us. Mary, with Cudjo and the children, stood watching us from
the shore, and clapping their hands with delight.
"With these and such-like innocent recreations, we passed the winter
very agreeably. It was but a very short winter; and as soon as the
spring returned, Cudjo, with his wooden plough, turned up our little
field, and we planted our corn. It occupied nearly an acre of ground;
and we had now the pleasant prospect that, in six weeks' time, we should
gather about fifty bushels. We did not neglect our hundred grains of
wheat, but sowed that carefully in a corner by itself. You may fancy
that it did not take up much ground. Mary had also her garden, with
beds of wild potatoes, and other roots, which she had discovered in the
valley. One of these was the species of turnip already mentioned as the
_pomme-blanche_, or Indian turnip. She had found wild onions too, which
proved of great service in soup-making. In her garden were many others
of which I only know the names; but three of them, the `kamas,' the
`kooyah,' and `yampah' roots are worth mentioning, as thousands of the
miserable Indians who inhabit the American Desert subsist chiefly on
them. The widely scattered tribes known as the `Diggers,' take their
name from the fact of their digging for, and living upon, these roots.
"The flowers now came out in full bloom; and some of the openings near
the upper end of the valley were a sight to behold. They were literally
covered with beautiful blossoms--_malvas, cleomes, asclepiae_, and
_helianthi_. We frequently visited this part, making pic-nic excursions
to all the places of note in our little dominion. The cataract where
the stream dashed over the cliff, the salt spring, and such-like places,
formed points of interest; and we rarely failed in any of these
excursions to draw some useful lesson from the school of Nature.
Indeed, Mary and I frequently designed them, for the purpose of
instructing our children in such of the natural sciences as we ourselves
knew. We had no books, and we illustrated our teachings by the objects
around us.
"One day we had strayed up as usual among the openings. It was very
early in the spring, just as the flowers were beginning to appear. We
had sat down to rest ourselves in the middle of a glade, surrounded by
beautiful magnolias. There was a bed of large blue flowers close by;
and Frank, taking little Mary by the hand, had gone in among them to
gather a bouquet for his mother. All at once the child uttered a
scream, and then continued to cry loudly! Had she been bitten by a
snake? Alarmed at the thought, we all started to our feet, and ran for
the spot. The little creature still cried--holding out her hand, which
we at once perceived was the seat of the pain. The cause of it was
evident--she had been stung by a bee. No doubt she had clasped a
flower, upon which some bee had been making his honey, and the angry
insect had punished such a rude interference with his pleasures.
"As soon as the child had been pacified by a soothing application to the
wound, a train of reflection occurred to the minds of all of us. `There
are bees, then, in the place,' said we. We had not known this fact
before. In the autumn previous we had been too busy with other things
to notice them; and of course during the winter season they were not to
be seen. They were just now coming out for the early spring flowers.
"It was natural to infer, that where there were bees there should also
be honey; and the word `honey' had a magic sound in the ears of our
little community. Bees and honey now became the topic of conversation;
and not a sentence was uttered for some minutes that did not contain an
allusion to bees or bees' nests, or bee-trees, or bee-hunters, or honey.
"We all scattered among the flowers to assure ourselves that it really
was a bee, and not some rascally wasp that had wounded our little Mary.
If it was a bee, we should find some of his companions roaming about
among the blossoms of the helianthus.
"In a short time Harry was heard crying out, `A bee!--a bee!' and almost
at the same instant Frank shouted, `Another!' `Hya--hya!' cried Cudjo,
`yar's de oder one--see 'im!--biz-z-z. Gollies! how he am loaded with
de wax!'
"Two or three others were now discovered, all busily plying their
industrious calling; and proving that there was one hive, at least, in
some part of the valley.
"The question now arose, how this hive was to be found? No doubt it was
in some hollow tree--but how were we to find this tree, standing as it
likely did among hundreds of others, and not differing from the rest in
appearance? This was the question that puzzled us.
"It did not puzzle all of us though. Fortunately there chanced to be a
bee-hunter among us--a real old bee-hunter, and that individual was our
famous Cudjo. Cudjo had `treed' bees many's the time in the woods of
`Ole Vaginny,' and cut down the trees too, and licked the honey--for
Cudjo was as sweet upon honey as a bear. Yes, Cudjo had `treed' bees
many's the time, and knew how--that did Cudjo.
"We should have to return to the house, however, to enable him to make
ready his implements; and as the day was now pretty far advanced, we
determined to leave our bee-hunting for the morrow."