"How do you know when it"s damaged, Beaver?" queried Mooswa. "Supposing it was done when you were asleep--you don"t make your bed in the water, I suppose."
"No, we have a nice, dry shelf all around on the inside of the lodge, just above--we call it the second-story; but we keep our tails in the water always, so as soon as it commences to lower we feel it, you know."
"That is wise," gravely a.s.sented Mooswa. "Have I not said that Umisk is almost as clever as our King?"
"He may be," chirruped Jay; "but Francois never caught the Black King, and he catches many Beaver. Last winter he took out a Pack of their thick, brown coats, and I heard him say there were fifty pelts in it."
"That"s just it," concurred Carcajou. "I admire Umisk as much as anybody. He"s an honest, hard-working little chap, and looks after his family and relations better than any of us; but if there was any trouble on we couldn"t consult him, for at the first crack of a Firestick, or bark of a Train Dog, he"s down under the water, and either hidden away in his lodge, or in one of the many hiding-holes he has dug in the banks for just such emergencies. We must have some one who can get about and warn us all."
"I object to him because he"s got Fleas," declared Jay, solemnly.
"Fleas!" a chorus of voices exclaimed in indignant protest.
The Coyote, who had been digging viciously at the back of his ear with a sharp-clawed foot, dropped his leg, got up, and stretched himself, with a yawn, hoping that n.o.body had observed his petulant scratching.
"That"s silly!" declared Mooswa. "A chap that lives under the water have Fleas?"
"Is it?" piped Whisky-Jack. "What"s his thick fur coat, with the strong, black guard-hairs for? Do you suppose that doesn"t keep his hide dry? If one of you land-dwellers were out in a stiff shower you"d be wet to the skin; but he won"t, though he stay under water a month.
If he hasn"t got Fleas, what is that double nail on his left hind-foot for?"
"Perhaps he hasn"t got a split-nail," ventured Fisher--"I haven"t."
"Nor I!" declared Mink.
"My nails are all single!" a.s.serted Muskrat.
"Look for yourselves if you don"t believe me," commanded Jack. "If he hasn"t got it, I"ll take back what I said, and you can make him King if you wish."
This made Black Fox nervous. "Will you show our Comrades your toes, please?" he commanded Beaver, with great politeness.
Umisk held up his foot deprecatingly. There sure enough, on the second toe, was a long, black, double claw, like a tiny pincers. "What did I tell you?" shrieked Jack. "He can pin a Flea with that as easily as Mink seizes a wriggling Trout. He"s got half-a-dozen different kinds of Fleas, has Umisk. I won"t have a King who is little better than a bug-nursery. A King must be above that sort of thing."
"This is all nonsense," exclaimed Carcajou angrily, for he had fleas himself; "it"s got nothing to do with the matter. Umisk has to live under the ice nearly all Winter, and would be of no more service to us than Muskwa--that"s the real objection."
"My!" cried Beaver, patting the ground irritably with his trowel-tail, "one really never knows just how vile he is till he gets running for office. Besides, I don"t want to be King--I"m too busy. Perhaps sometime when I was here governing the Council, Francois, or another enemy, would break my dam and murder the whole family; besides, it"s too dusty out here--I like the nice, clean water. My feet get sore walking on the land."
"Oh, he doesn"t want to be King!" declared Jay, ironically. "Next!
next! Who else is there, Frog-legged Carcajou?"
"Well, there"s Muskrat," suggested Lynx; "I like him."
"Yes, to eat!" interrupted Whisky-Jack. "If Wuchusk were King, we"d come home some day and find that he"d been eaten by one of his own subjects--by the sneaking Lynx--"Slink" it should be."
"You shouldn"t say that," declared Black Fox; "because you"re our Mail Carrier you shouldn"t take so many liberties."
"I"m only telling the truth. It has always been the custom at these meetings for each one to speak just what he thought, and no hard feelings afterward."
Carcajou pulled his long, curved claws through his whiskers reflectively. "What"s the use of wrangling like this--we"re as silly as a lot of Men. Last Winter when I was down at Grand Rapids I sat up on the roof of a Shack listening to those two-legged creatures squabbling.
They were all arguing fiercely about the different ways of getting to Heaven. According to each one he was on the right road, and the rest were all wrong. Fresh Meat! but it was stupid; for I gathered from what they said that the one way to get there was to be good; only each had a different way."
"What place did you say?" queried the Jay.
"Grand Rapids."
"No, no! the place they all wanted to go to."
"Heaven."
"Where"s that?"
"I don"t know, and you needn"t bother; for the Men said it was a place for the good, only."
Beaver"s fat sides fairly shook as he chuckled delightedly over the snub Carcajou had given Jack.
"Ha, ha!" roared Bear; "Sweet Berries! but Humpback is too many for you, Birdie," and the woods echoed with his laughter.
"Rats!" screamed the Jay; "that"s the subject under discussion. Our friend wanders from his theme trying to be personal."
"Oh, n.o.body"s personal here," sighed Lynx. "I"m a "Slink," but that doesn"t count."
"Yes, talking of Rats," recommenced Carcajou, "like Lynx, I admire our busy little Brother, Beaver, though I never ate one in my life--"
"Pisew did!" chirruped the bird-voice from over their heads.
"Though I never ate one," solemnly repeated Wolverine; "but if Umisk won"t do for King, there is no use discussing Wuchusk"s chances. He has all Trowel Tail"s failings, without his great wisdom, and even can"t build a decent house, though he lives in one. Half the time he hasn"t anything to eat for his family; you"ll see him skirmishing about Winter or Summer, eating Roots, or, like our friends Mink and Otter, chasing Fish. Anyway, I get tired of that horrible odour of musk always. His house smells as bad as a Trapper"s Shack with piles of fur in it--I hate people who use musk, it shows bad taste; and to carry a little bag of it around with one all the time--it"s detestable!"
"You should take a trip to the Barren Lands, my fastidious friend, as I did once," interposed Mooswa, "and get a whiff of the Musk Ox. Much Fodder! it turned my stomach."
"You took too much of it, old Blubbernose," yelled Jay, fiendishly; "Wolverine hasn"t got a nose like the head of a Sturgeon Fish. Anyway, you"re out of it, Mister Rat; if the Lieutenant says you"re not fit for King, why you"re not--I must say I"m glad of it."
"There are still the two cousins, Otter, and Mink," said Carcajou.
"Fish Thieves--both of them," declared Whisky-Jack. "So is Fisher, only he hasn"t nerve to go in the water after Fish; he waits till Man catches and dries them, then robs the cache. That"s why they call him Fisher--they should name him Fish-stealer."
"Look here, Jack," retorted Wolverine, "last Winter I heard Francois say that you stole even his soap."
"I thought it was b.u.t.ter," chuckled Jay--"it made me horribly sick. But their b.u.t.ter was so bad, I thought the soap was an extra good pat of it."
"I may say," continued Carcajou, "that these two cousins, Otter and Mink, like Muskrat, have too limited a knowledge for either to be Chief of the Boundaries. While they know all about streams and water powers, they"d be lost on land. Why, in deep snow, Nekik with his short, little legs makes a track as though somebody had pulled a log along--that wouldn"t do."
"I don"t want to be King!" declared Otter.
"Nor I!" added Mink.
"And we don"t want you--so that settles it; all agreed!" cried Whisky-Jack, gleefully. "Nothing like having peace and harmony in the meeting. It always comes to the same thing: people"s names are put up, they"re blackguarded and abused, and in the end n.o.body"s fit for the billet but Black Fox; and Carcajou, of course, is his Lieutenant."
"We have now considered everybody"s claims," began Carcajou--