A few of them sank under the water and disappeared entirely, but most of them Baree could watch as they drew themselves out on shore.
The beavers lost no time in getting at their labor, and Baree watched and listened without so much as rustling a blade of the grass in which he was concealed.

He was trying to understand.

He was striving to place these curious and comfortable-looking creatures in his knowledge of things.

They did not alarm him; he felt no uneasiness at their number or size.

His stillness was not the quiet of discretion, but rather of a strange and growing desire to get better acquainted with this curious four-legged brotherhood of the pond.