The Sign of the Beaver

Four days later, Attean returns. He says he understands Matt’s desire to protect his father’s cabin, as he would have done the same. He brings gifts from Saknis and Grandmother—snowshoes and a small basket of costly maple sugar.

Attean announces that the village won’t be returning. The colonists have been cutting down the forest, making hunting more difficult. Matt reminds Attean that Saknis wants him to learn English so he can understand the colonists’ treaties. Attean retorts that the village will move far away and won’t need treaties. Matt asks if his father’s cabin is on land owned by the village. Attean replies that owning land makes no sense because it’s there for everyone.

Attean also gives Matt a gift—his dog Aremus, who has been slowed by his leg injury (from the trap in Chapter 18)—as he should stay with “white brother” (117-18). Stunned by Attean’s willingness to give up his beloved dog, and honored to hear himself referred to as brother, Matt feels he must offer a worthy gift in return. He decides to give his father’s pocket watch to Attean. It’s not something Attean needs, but he knows it means a great deal to Matt, so he feels pleased.

The boys shake hands, and Attean walks away. Aremus tries to follow, but Attean gives him a command, and the dog lies down with a whine. Matt goes to the dog and puts a hand on his head.

Matt continues to keep the cabin in good shape. His foodstuffs now include a small harvest of corn and pumpkin, as well as nuts and berries collected from the forest. He eats these items sparingly, as they’re mostly for his family. With his bow, Matt hunts small animals (that have become sparse with winter’s approach) and fish in the pond. Still, he and Aremus are often hungry.

To replace his threadbare pants, Matt fashions one of his two blankets into a rough pair of breeches; he uses small, sharpened bones as needles, as he had seen the village women do. He makes rabbit pelts into mittens and traps a fisher—a type of weasel—and converts its pelt into a fur hat.

Matt also makes things for his family—wooden bowls for his mother, a rocking cradle for the baby, and a cornhusk doll for his sister Sarah. He remembers how Sara would pester him to take her on his adventures, and how she was curious and resentful that she couldn’t go to school. He wishes she could have known Attean’s sister Marie.

Despite cutting daily notches into sticks, Matt has lost track of which day it is. One evening, it begins to snow. The next morning, three feet of snow block the cabin door, and it takes Matt a while to dig a way out. He puts on Saknis’s snowshoes, quickly learns how to walk in them, and hikes through the forest, checking his traps and readjusting them. The traps have caught nothing, but Matt is too happy with his snowshoes to care. Back at the cabin, he makes tea and soup. He feels warm and content.

Three days later, Aremus barks at something moving up the frozen creek: It’s Matt’s father, dragging his mother and sister on a sled. Overjoyed, Matt hugs them all, then helps them into the cabin. His mother looks thin and weak; his father explains that they all came down with typhus, but Matt’s mother insisted they go to the cabin anyway, so Matt wouldn’t be alone.

Matt says he befriended the local Penobscot people, and his parents are aghast. His father looks about and sees snowshoes, a bow instead of his rifle, and other Penobscot artifacts; he says nothing. As the family unpack the sled, Matt asks about the new baby. His father says the baby died after five days.

The family furnishes the cabin. Matt’s mother admires the corn, pumpkin, nuts, berries, and jerky that Matt collected. She observes her son: “You’re so brown I’d have taken you for an Indian” (134). Matt jokes that he almost was. Matt’s mother then reports that they expect new neighbors, perhaps a mill, and before long, a town. Matt wonders if Saknis’s clan has found a new place to live.

Stepping outside, Matt gazes at the cabin, now full of life. He plans to make stew and “Then he would tell them about Attean” (135).