human
This, said he,
gpt
Beaver here?
human
Why, not more'n nor a mile or so up this creek, I've killed piles on 'em. Why, I seed a company on 'em, up there, once, of two or three hundred. They com'd down one spring and clear'd off acres of ground that had grown up to birch saplings, that they wanted to build a dam with, and there they let the trees lie until August. Then they started to build their houses all over the low water in the mash--great houses four or five feet through--and they work'd in companies of four or five on a house till they got 'em done. You jist ought to see 'em carry mud and stones between their fore-paws and throat, and see 'em lay it down and slap it with their tails, like men who work with a trowel.
gpt
Well, said I,
human
When they got 'em done, then they all jined in to build a dam, to raise up the water, so't wouldn't freeze up the doors of their houses. And then there was a time on't. You might see 'em by moonlight, pitching in the trees, and swimming down the stream with 'em, and laying 'em in the current of the creek, like so many boys.
gpt
Pshaw!
human
Yes, sir! I seed one night a lot of beavers drawing one of the biggest trees they had cut. It was more'n six inches through. They got it part over the bank, when it stuck fast. Jest the top of the tree was in the water, and there were four or five on 'em sousing round in the water, pulling this way and that, and as many more on the bank jerking at it, until byme-by it went in kerswash; the beavers all took hold on't, then, and towed it to the dam.
gpt
And so they really built a dam?
human
A dam three feet high, and forty or fifty long--all laid up with birch trees, and mud and stones, so tight 'tain't gone yet. The beaver have gone long ago, but the dam hain't.
gpt
How did you catch 'em?
human
When the fur is good, in the winter, we jest went round with our ice-chisels and knocked their houses to pieces, when away they would go for their _washes_, as we used to call 'em, where we fastened 'em in and catch'd 'em.
gpt
Washes? what are they?
human
Holes the beavers dig in the bank, partly under water, where they can run in and breathe without being seen.