SHAGGYCOAT

_CONTENTS_


INTRODUCTION 11

I. THE FUGITIVES 23

II. ALONE IN THE WORLD 39

III. THE COURTSHIP OF SHAGGYCOAT 53

IV. HOW THE GREAT DAM WAS BUILT 67

V. A BEAVER LODGE 81

VI. HOW THE WINTER WENT 97

VII. LIFE IN THE WATER WORLD 111

VIII. A BIT OF TRAGEDY 125

IX. STRANGERS AT THE LAKE 141

X. A TROUBLESOME FELLOW 163

XI. A BANK BEAVER 181

XII. THE BUILDERS 195

XIII. BEAVER JOE 211

XIV. RUNNING-WATER 225

XV. KING OF BEAVERS 243

XVI. OLD SHAG 261




_ILLUSTRATIONS_


Reached down and gripped his brother _Frontispiece_

The final touches were put upon this curious
dome-shaped house _Facing page_ 86

Tearing at their house and filling the night
with awful sounds " 96

The buck gave a mighty leap and fell midway in
the stream " 122

There is where the hunter and hunted met " 193




A FOURFOOTED AMERICAN

INTRODUCTORY


Just how long the red man, in company with his wild brothers, the deer,
the bear, the wolf, the buffalo, and the beaver had inhabited the
continent of North America, before the white man came, is a problem for
speculation; but judging from all signs it was a very long time. The
Mound Builders of Ohio and the temple builders of Mexico speak to us out
of a dim prehistoric past, but the song and story of the red man and
many a quaint Indian tradition tell us how he lived, and something of
his life and religion.

If we look carefully into these quaint tales and folk-lore of the red
man, we shall find that he lived upon very intimate relations with all
his wild brothers and while he hunted them for meat and used their
skins for garments and their hides for bowstrings, yet he knew and
understood them and treated them with a reverence that his white brother
has never been able to feel.

Before the red man bent the bow he sought pardon from the deer or bear
for the act that he was about to commit. Often when he had slain the
wild creature, he made offerings to its departed spirit, and also wore
its likeness tattooed upon his skin as a totem. Thus we see that these
denizens of the wilderness were creatures of importance, playing their
part in the life of the red man, even before the white man came to these
shores. But that they should have continued to play a prominent part
after the advent of the white man is still more vital to us.