The Sign of the Beaver

Attean shows up at the cabin. He brings a large, freshly killed rabbit, and Matt thanks him for the food. Attean is covered in grease to protect against bugs; to Matt, he smells bad. Attean doesn’t want to be there but sits at the cabin table.

Matt draws, with a sharp stick on birchbark, the letter “A.” He opens Robinson Crusoe and asks Attean to find an A. Attean does so but doesn’t understand the concept of a letter. Matt tries to explain that many words begin with A. Attean asks how long the lessons will take. Matt says they’ll require more than a month, and Attean angrily shoves the book off the table and stomps out. A relieved Matt figures the lessons are over and skins the rabbit.

Attean appears again the next day, so Matt tries a different approach: He reads a dramatic passage from Robinson Crusoe about the narrator’s escape from a sinking ship during a storm. Attean seems interested. The next day, Matt reads a scene where Crusoe swims out to the half-sunken ship to retrieve valuables. Attean snorts that he wouldn’t have to swim out for things because he can make whatever he needs.

Matt realizes that he, too, has lived off the land for the past several weeks. In the book, Crusoe salvages nails, bullets, hatchets, and a hammock from the ship; Matt thinks, “Robinson Crusoe had lived like a king on that desert island!” (38). However, Attean doesn’t understand the use of Crusoe’s things.

Some days later, Matt asks Attean how he killed the rabbit, which had no holes in it. Attean shrugs and leads Matt to the cabin’s clearing. He pulls up a root, slices and splices it until it’s a long rope, places a stout stick between two young trees, fashions the root-rope into a noose, and suspends it under the stick. The trap is meant for unassuming rabbits to walk into.

Attean tells Matt to make more snares. Matt does so, but Attean doesn’t think much of them. However, one trap catches a partridge, and Attean reluctantly admits that Matt is making progress.

Attean continues to bring food for Matt. He learns dutifully, if not enthusiastically, and soon picks out words from Robinson Crusoe. Matt reads the scene where Crusoe rescues another character, Friday, from cannibals; in return, Friday offers to be Crusoe’s slave. An angry Attean says it would be better to die than to live as a slave. He walks out, and Matt wonders if he is right.

Attean appears for another lesson, and Matt assures him that Friday becomes Crusoe’s companion, not his slave. This isn’t strictly true, as Matt omits moments when Friday calls Crusoe “Master.” Though Attean continues to listen and enjoy the story, Matt now wonders why Friday, a Caribbean man, doesn’t have much to teach Crusoe.

Attean then invites Matt to go fishing. Delighted, Matt brings his fishing pole and, ankle still aching, struggles to catch up to Attean, who takes them to a quiet part of the nearby creek. Attean finds a stick, sharpens one end, wades in, and quickly spears a fish. The fish is too small, so Attean talks to it for a moment and throws it back into the creek. He catches a much larger fish, then encourages Matt to do the same. Matt sharpens a stick, stands in the water, nearly spears a large fish, but slips and falls.

Matt tries to catch a big fish with his pole, but the fish breaks the line and gets away, taking Matt’s only hook with him. Attean shows Matt how to make a two-sided hook with a twig, then ties it onto Matt’s fishing line. Matt finds worms for both sides and quickly catches a big fish. He guts the fish and finds the hook, but it’s broken. Attean says, “Easy make new hook […] Make many hooks” (49). Matt realizes he’ll have all the fishhooks he needs from now on.

Hungry, Attean pulls a quartz-embedded stone from his pouch and strikes it to ignite a small pile of grass and pine needles for a campfire. Matt, who has used the same method many times, realizes he can use stones other than his flint. Attean skewers the fish onto long sticks, and each boy cooks a fish over the fire. Matt finishes his and says that “that was the best fish I ever ate” (50). Attean’s eyes gleam.

Matt asks Attean what he said to the small fish he threw back. Attean told the fish not to tell the other fish what happened, as it would scare them away. Matt says Attean’s ploy worked. Attean grins; it’s the first smile Matt has seen on him.

As per Chapter 1, Matt has notched seven sticks: It’s time for his father to return with the rest of the family, including his mother, his sister, Sarah, and a new baby. Matt hopes his mother will take over Attean’s English lessons.

Attean still doesn’t like learning English, but often lingers to watch Matt work (i.e., fishing and making snares). One day, Attean brings his dog—his name being Aremus, which simply means “dog.” The dog has a mangled muzzle and shredded ears from fights. Attean says Aremus is “Good for nothing. No good for hunt. No sense. Him fight anything—bear, moose” (53)—but says so with pride. Aremus is wary of Matt but happily wags his tail for Attean.

The boys hike deep into the woods, where Attean shows Matt a beaver dam and house. Etched into the bark of a nearby tree is the “Sign of beaver” (55), which marks the dam as belonging to Attean’s Beaver clan.

On the way back to the cabin, Attean shows Matt how to mark the trail with signs—stones, tufts of grass, broken sticks—and Matt says his father does the same by making marks on trees. Attean makes signs for himself alone, so outsiders can’t find their way to the beaver dam and hunt there. Matt tries to spy on Attean’s trail signs and realizes the two of them have reversed the Robinson Crusoe story: Now, Attean (an Indigenous boy) is in charge, while he (an outsider, a visiting European boy) must follow.

Attean breaks off some sap from a spruce tree and offers a piece to Matt. The latter finds the sap bitter, but the small pieces form a gum that slowly tastes of pine—a pleasant taste. The boys continue their hike, chewing contentedly.

Matt envies the bow that Attean sometimes carries. When he was younger, Matt made bows and arrows and played “Indians.” Now, he wants to be able to bring down a duck, as he saw Attean do. He tries making his own weapon, but it works poorly. Attean says he used the wrong wood.

Attean carefully selects a long ash branch and has Matt remove the bark and shave it down to the right width. Using fat from a simmering fish stew, Attean rubs down the branch. He spends hours making a bowstring from spruce tree roots, then carefully bends the bow and hooks the string onto the notches at each end. He then shows Matt the best type of birchwood for whittling into arrows.

The bow is stiff and difficult to fire; Matt’s arrows fly off in all directions. Patiently, he practices until the string starts to fray. Attean gifts him with a string of animal sinew that will last longer. Matt finally hits a birchbark target attached to a tree trunk.

While hiking, Attean and Matt find a fox caught in a leg trap. Colonists use such traps, but this one is hidden too cleverly: It was set by an Indigenous person working for colonists. The trap is in Turtle clan territory, so the boys can’t take the fox.

Matt protests that the fox will suffer; Attean points out that the animal has already nearly gnawed off its trapped leg and will escape. Attean says Saknis forbids such traps: The colonists use them to catch animals only for their hides. This has caused valuable animal populations to dwindle.

Matt feels angry and confused about Attean’s contempt for colonists and “cruelty” toward animals. Still, he admires Attean’s skills and clearly benefits from them. He daydreams about somehow rescuing Attean—from a bear, a snake, an enemy attack—and winning his respect. All Matt has to offer Attean is English lessons, and the latter clearly holds this skill in contempt.

Despite his attitude, Attean learns new English words quickly and his spoken English has improved. Sometimes, he mimics Matt or uses some words from Robinson Crusoe. Matt, in turn, uses some of Attean’s words.

Matt finishes Robinson Crusoe, having only read the action scenes. Attean says he relates the story to his clan at night. Matt realizes that the family Bible also contains great stories—“Samson! David and Goliath! Joseph and his coat of many colors!” (88)—and the boys start them.

Matt begins with the story of Noah’s ark. Attean enjoys it and says his people also have a flood story. The hero of this story, Gluskabe, comes from the north, climbs a tree during a flood, sends out three ducks, and one, like Noah’s dove, returns with a sign that the flood has ended. Gluskabe then creates all animals and people. To Matt, Gluskabe sounds like a hero from the old folk stories his mother told him.

Attean witnesses Matt makes his first kill with an arrow—a rabbit that simply sat while he took careful aim. Matt feels proud.

Afraid to leave the rabbit behind for another animal to steal, Matt brings it when he and Attean walk to the beaver dam. On the way, Attean suddenly halts: Just ahead, a bear cub pushes its snout through a bush. A giant paw shoves it back under the bush, and the mother bear rears up, angry and growling.

Without thinking, Matt hurls his rabbit at the bear. The carcass bounces off the bear’s snout, momentarily distracting her while Attean notches an arrow and shoots her in the head and body. The bear stumbles, and Attean leaps on her, driving his knife into her head. Matt joins him and stabs at the bear, but she’s already dead.

Attean addresses the bear solemnly, apologizing for killing her while she tended a cub. He compliments Matt on his quick reflexes and says he will tell his family about the kill; the women will dismember the bear and bring the meat home.

Matt wishes he could keep a part of the bear as a token—a claw, perhaps, to show his father—but Attean’s compliment will have to do.