The Sign of the Beaver

After two or three days, Matt decides he enjoys living and working alone. His father isn’t around to tell him how to do chores, so Matt can do them how he likes. Matt spends his days chinking the cabin with clay from the creek, felling trees, stacking wood, and learning to keep his fire going. He must carry water from the creek to water the corn patch, but since the water feeds the weeds as well as the corn, he constantly pulls weeds. The crows and other wildlife also menace the corn patch.

All the work makes Matt hungrier than he’s ever been, so to preserve the flour, he relies on his gun. He’s no longer in awe of the gun, which he takes out daily to shoot rabbits or ducks for dinner. Matt isn’t confident enough yet to shoot a deer, but he promises himself he’ll shoot one soon.

Matt is happy, though he does worry about Native Americans. He’s not afraid, as his father was told that there hasn’t been an attack since the last treaty with the tribes. But Matt often feels like someone is watching him, and he can’t forget the horrible stories. He remembers his father telling him to greet any Native Americans like he would a minister, as they value respect above all else. Matt even saw his father greet a Native American man once with a solemn wave—but how is Matt supposed to be respectful to a shadow?

Still, Matt is now used to the stillness and to the forest. He can identify animals by the sounds they make, and none of them scare him anymore. Most of the time he’s content on his own, but he misses having someone to talk to. He even wishes he could talk to his sister Sarah, though he mostly ignored her back home. Because of all this, Matt is slow to respond when someone arrives.