An episode appeared twice a month
in The Michigan Farmer magazine.
Flattail Learns about Traps
"Are you going to tell us the trap story today, Uncle Joe?"
Jerry asked eagerly as he climbed into the tower house.
"Trap story," said Uncle Joe pretending to be puzzled. "What
trap story?"
"The one you told us about last time," Jerry recalled half-impatiently.
"When you told us about the eagle you mentioned about Flattail
being caught in a trap.
"Hm-m, so I did," Uncle Joe continued, "and there's
quite a story behind it.
"It was late in the following fall that it happened," Uncle
Joe began. Flattail was more than a year old and I suppose he should
have known better. But he had never had any experience to guide him
in this respect and he was very curious.
"It was one morning just before the beavers started upstream to
cut the days' part of the yearly supply of wood. Flattail was old enough
to work with the beavers and he had been doing his share of the work.
He had also learned to cut trees down without having them fall on him.
He had learned how to cut trees with his teeth and float the pieces
down to the lodge by pushing them ahead of him. But he hadn't learned
to keep away from traps.
"As you remember from one of the other stories, trapping is not
allowed in Friendly Forest. But someone without regard for law or the
safety of the animals had set a trap — a number of traps I found
out later.
"Flattail started out to his work as usual. As he swam he kept
watching the banks of Friendly Creek. He swam slowly, as if he were
tired and in no hurry to get to the tree-cutting grounds. This was unusual
for him, since he was typically the first one there. Then, quite suddenly,
just above the lodge, he stopped.
"Flattail knew every bit of his part of Friendly Creek by this
time and today he had seen something unusual; something which had not
been there before; something which was shiny and glittery. He could
very easily see it through the clear waters of Friendly Creek.
"Flattail swam around the shiny thing first. Then he stopped right
in front of it. It didn't move but still he was fascinated. He reached
out his paw cautiously and touched it.
"The trap seemed to jump and Flattail was a prisoner."
"Where were you, Uncle Joe?"" Jerry asked. "Did
you help him?"
"To answer your question, I was here in the tower," Uncle
Joe replied. "I'll tell you about the second part.
"Mrs. Spence came to the tower and I left immediately for Friendly
Creek. I wanted to do two things. I wanted to help Flattail and I wanted
to catch the trapper and thus prevent him from setting more traps. The
man was following his trap line when I arrived at Friendly Creek. We
were upstream and going towards the lodge. I didn't let him see me,
but after he looked at each trap and was gone, I set the trap off and
hauled it out on the bank. Since we were on the way to Flattail, and
it would prevent other beavers from getting caught in the traps, I felt
the time was well spent.
"The man had a number of traps in Friendly Creek but it wasn't
long before we came to the one in which Flattail was caught. The man
was just pulling in the trap with Flattail's foot in it when I came.
"Did you arrest him?" Jerry asked.
Uncle Joe nodded. "I had to. But before I took him to town he
helped me carry Flattail to my cabin.
"When the man saw how badly the little beaver had been hurt, he
said how very sorry he was that he had any part in it."
Click HERE to read "Flattail
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