Chapter 7

Justin guided Nate and Morgan and the newlyweds, Penny and Ned, on a hike. As they wandered among the trees, the primal atmosphere began to impinge itself on Morgan once again. The feeling of oneness with the forest came over him, and he wondered how a man born and bred in the heart of a large US city could have this affinity for a place to which he’d never been.

They followed the stream back from the waterfall in the clearing and came to a beaver dam behind which was a pond, the beaver lodge rising out of the water near the center. They crouched at its edge. Justin told them to be as quiet as they could. After a time, a pair of beavers appeared on the opposite bank, dragging birch branches to the pond. They swam to the lodge and disappeared beneath the surface, pulling the branches after them. “They’re storing food for the winter,” Justin said in a whisper.