Shaggycoat The Biography of a Beaver
By Clarence Hawkes
When they were hungry, the bulbs of the lily and a cluster of wild hops made a dinner that would make a beaver’s mouth water, perhaps with some spicy bark added as a relish.
Then came the cold and the pond was covered with ice. They could still see the sun by day and the stars by night, but they could not come to the surface to breathe as they had done before. There were a great many air holes, and places under the ice where the water did not reach it, but for breathing space they had to depend largely upon the queer conical houses in which they lived and their burrows along the bank.
There was still another way to breathe that I had nearly forgotten. A beaver or any of these little Water Folks can come up to the surface and breathe against the ice. A big flat bubble is at once formed and as it strikes the ice it is purified and then the beaver breathes it in again and it is almost as fresh as though it came from the upper air. This he can do three or four times before having to find an air hole or go into one of the houses or burrows.
The beavers were very snug under the ice which kept away the wind and cold, and also their worst enemy, man.
The breath of the family made the houses warm, and as the walls were frozen solid, and were two or three feet thick, they were very hard to break into.
A store of wood had been laid up from which the bark was stripped for food as fast as it was needed so that Beaver City had been very snug and comfortable before the trouble came.
Then when they were sleeping through the short winter days, and prowling about the lake in the night in search of fresh twigs or sticks that had been frozen into the ice, the trouble began.
First, there came the sound of pounding and soon there were holes in the ice near their supply of wood. Then occasionally a beaver who was hungry and had gone for breakfast was missed from the family or lodge where he lived.
Genre: Young Readers
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Clarence Hawkes
Clarence Hawkes (December 16, 1869 – January 19, 1954) was an American author and lecturer, known for his nature stories and poetry. One of his most well-known works is his autobiography, titled “The Darkened Path: A Story of Blindness and Its Triumphs,” published in 1918.
Biography
Born in Goshen, Massachusetts, Hawkes was physically disabled at a young age; part of one leg was amputated when he was nine, and he became blind four years later after a gun discharged in his face during a hunting accident. He was subsequently educated at the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, where he befriended the young Helen Keller. In 1899, he married Bessie Bell, who illustrated his first book, and the couple moved to Hadley. His prolific career saw the publication of over 100 volumes on a variety of topics; upon his death, the New York Times referred to him as the “blind poet of Hadley”.
In 2009, English professor James A. Freeman published the book Clarence Hawkes: America’s Blind Naturalist and the World He Lived In to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Hadley’s birth.
Selected list of works
- Pebbles and Shells: Verses (1895)
- Shaggycoat: The Biography of a Beaver (1906)
- Black Bruin: The Biography of a Bear (1908)
- King Of The Thundering Herd: The Biography Of An American Bison (1911)
- Piebald, King of Bronchos: The Biography of a Wild Horse (1912)
- Bing: The Story of a Small Dog’s Love (1920)
- Dapples of the Circus: The Story of a Shetland Pony and a Boy (1923)
Clarence Hawkes
