The Sign of the Beaver

It's not perfect. But The Sign of the Beaver is a good story. Good enough to be named a Newbery Honor Book, as a matter of fact.

It tells of thirteen-year-old Matt, who is left to guard the new home they built in the wilderness of Maine, when his father heads off to bring the rest of the family from their old house in Quincy, Massachusetts. He loses his hunting rifle to a thief, and worries that he may starve. But some locals Indians help him in exchange for Matt teaching the young Attean to read.

"An uncomfortable doubt had long been troubling Matt. Now, before Attean went away, he had to know. 'This land,' he said slowly, 'this place where my father built his cabin. Did it belong to your grandfather? Did he own it once?'

'How one man own ground?' Attean questioned.

'Well, my father owns it now. He bought it.'

'I not understand.' Attean scowled. 'How can man own land? Land same as air. Land for all people to live on. For beaver and deer. Does deer own land?'

How could you explain, Matt wondered, to someone who did not want to understand? Somewhere in the back of his mind there was a sudden suspicion that Attean was making sense and he was not. It was better not to talk about it. Instead he asked, 'Where will you go?'

'My grandfather say much forest where sun go down. White man not come so far.'

To the west. Matt had heard his father talk about the west. There was good land there for the taking. Some of their neighbors in Quincy had chosen to go west instead of buying land in Maine. How could he tell Attean that there would be white men there too?"