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+Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Brownie Beaver, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Brownie Beaver
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Posting Date: January 26, 2013 [EBook #6754]
+Release Date: October, 2004
+First Posted: January 23, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Phil McLaury, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Frog Had Been Hiding Among the Lily-pads]
+
+THE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVER
+
+BY
+
+ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I A QUEER PLACE TO LIVE
+
+II HOW TO FELL A TREE
+
+III STICKS AND MUD
+
+IV THE FRESHET
+
+V BROWNIE SAVES THE DAM
+
+VI A HAPPY THOUGHT
+
+VII A NEWFANGLED NEWSPAPER
+
+VIII MR. CROW IS UPSET
+
+IX THE SIGN ON THE TREE
+
+X A HOLIDAY
+
+XI BAD NEWS
+
+XII GRANDADDY BEAVER THINKS
+
+XIII A LUCKY FIND
+
+XIV WAS IT A GUN?
+
+XV JASPER JAY'S STORY
+
+XVI LOOKING PLEASANT
+
+XVII BROWNIE ESCAPES
+
+XVIII MR. FROG'S QUESTION
+
+XIX THE NEW SUIT
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A QUEER PLACE TO LIVE
+
+
+The village near one end of Pleasant Valley where Farmer Green often
+went to sell butter and eggs was not the only village to be seen from
+Blue Mountain. There was another which Farmer Green seldom visited,
+because it lay beyond the mountain and was a long distance from his
+house. Though he owned the land where it stood, those that lived there
+thought they had every right to stay there as long as they pleased,
+without being disturbed.
+
+It was in this village that Brownie Beaver and his neighbors lived. It
+was a different sort of town, too, from the one where Farmer Green
+went each week. Over beyond Blue Mountain all the houses were built in
+a pond. And all their doors were under water. But nobody minded that
+because--like Brownie Beaver--everybody that dwelt there was a fine
+swimmer.
+
+Years and years before Brownie's time his forefathers had come there,
+and finding that there were many trees in the neighborhood with the
+sort of bark they liked to eat--such as poplars, willows and box
+elders--they had decided that it was a good place to live. There was a
+small stream, too, which was really the beginning of Swift River. And
+by damming it those old settlers made a pond in which they could build
+their houses.
+
+They had ideas of their own as to what a house should be like--and
+very good ideas they were--though you, perhaps, might not care for
+them at all. They wanted their houses to be surrounded by water,
+because they thought they were safer when built in that manner. And
+they always insisted that a door leading into a house should be far
+beneath the surface of the water, for they believed that that made a
+house safer too.
+
+To you such an idea may seem very strange. But if you were chased by
+an enemy you might be glad to be able to swim under water, down to the
+bottom of a pond, and slip inside a door which led to a winding hall,
+which in its turn led upwards into your house.
+
+Of course, your enemy might be able to swim as well as you. But maybe
+he would think twice--or even three times--before he went prowling
+through your crooked hall. For if you had enormous, strong, sharp
+teeth--with which you could gnaw right through a tree--he would not
+care to have you seize him as he poked his head around a corner in a
+dark passage of a strange house.
+
+It was in a house of that kind that Brownie Beaver lived. And he built
+it himself, because he said he would rather have a neat, new house
+than one of the big, old dwellings that had been built many years
+before, when his great-great-grandfather had helped throw the dam
+across the stream.
+
+The dam was there still. It was so old that trees were growing on it.
+And there was an odd thing about it: it was never finished. Though
+Brownie Beaver was a young chap, he worked on the dam sometimes, like
+all his neighbors. You see, the villagers kept making the dam wider.
+And since it was built of sticks and mud, the water sometimes washed
+bits of it away: so it had to be kept in repair.
+
+If Brownie Beaver and his friends had neglected their dam, they would
+have waked up some day and found that their pond was empty; and
+without any water to hide their doorways they would have been safe no
+longer.
+
+They would have had no place, either, to store their winter's food.
+For they were in the habit of cutting down trees and saving the bark
+and branches too, in order to have plenty to eat when cold weather
+came and the ice closed their pond.
+
+Some of their food they carried into their houses through a straight
+hall which was made for that very purpose. And some of the branches
+they fastened under water, near the dam. It was just like putting
+green things into a refrigerator, so they will keep.
+
+Now you see why Brownie Beaver would no more have thought of building
+his house on dry land than you would think of building one in a pond.
+Everybody likes his own way best. And it never once occurred to
+Brownie Beaver that his way was the least bit strange.
+
+Perhaps it was because his family had always lived in that fashion.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+HOW TO FELL A TREE
+
+
+Brownie Beaver could do many things that other forest-people (except
+his own relations) were not able to do at all. For instance, cutting
+down a tree was something that nobody but one of the Beaver family
+would think of attempting. But as for Brownie Beaver--if he ever saw a
+tree that he wanted to cut down he set to work at once, without even
+going home to get any tools. And the reason for that was that he
+always had his tools with him. For strange as it may seem, he used his
+teeth to do all his wood-cutting.
+
+The first thing to be done when you set out to fell a tree with your
+teeth is to strip off the bark around the bottom of the trunk, so that
+a white band encircles it. At least, that was the way Brownie Beaver
+always began. And no doubt he knew what he was about.
+
+After he had removed the band of bark Brownie began to gnaw away chips
+of wood, where the white showed. And as he gnawed, he slowly sidled
+round and round the tree, until at last only the heart of the tree was
+left to keep the tree from toppling over.
+
+Then Brownie Beaver would stop his gnawing and look all about, to pick
+out a place where he wanted the tree to fall. And as soon as Brownie
+had made up his mind about that, he quickly gnawed a few more chips
+out of the heart of the tree on the side toward the spot where he
+intended it to come toppling down upon the ground.
+
+Brownie Beaver would not have to gnaw long before the tree would begin
+to lean. All the time it leaned more and more. And the further over it
+sagged, the faster it tipped. Luckily, Brownie Beaver always knew just
+the right moment to jump out of the way before the tree fell.
+
+If you had ever seen him you might have thought he was frightened,
+because he never failed to run away and hide as the tree crashed down
+with a sound almost like thunder.
+
+But Brownie was not at all frightened. He was merely careful. Knowing
+what a loud noise the falling tree would make, and that it might lead
+a man (or some other enemy) to come prowling around, to see what had
+happened, Brownie used to stay hidden until he felt quite sure that no
+one was going to trouble him.
+
+You can understand that waiting, as he did, was no easy matter when
+you stop to remember that one of Brownie's reasons for cutting down a
+tree was that he wanted to eat the tender bark to be found in the
+tree-top. It was exactly like knowing your dinner was on the table,
+all ready for you, and having to hide in some dark corner for half an
+hour, before going into the dining-room. You know how hungry you would
+get, if you had to do that.
+
+Well, Brownie Beaver used to get just as hungry as any little boy or
+girl. How he did tear at the bark, when he finally began to eat! And
+how full he stuffed his mouth! And how he did enjoy his meal! But
+everybody will admit that he had a right to enjoy his dinner, for he
+certainly worked hard enough to get it.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+STICKS AND MUD
+
+
+Like the dam that held back the water to form the pond where Brownie
+Beaver lived, Brownie's house was made of sticks and mud. He cut the
+sticks himself, from trees that grew near the bank of the pond; and
+after dragging and pushing them to the water's edge he swam with them,
+without much trouble, to the center of the pond, where he wished to
+build his house. Of course, the sticks floated in the water; so
+Brownie found that part of his work to be quite easy.
+
+He had chosen that spot in the center of the pond because there was
+something a good deal like an island there--only it did not rise quite
+out of the water. A good, firm place on which to set his
+house--Brownie Beaver considered it.
+
+While he was building his house Brownie gathered his winter's food at
+the same time. Anyone might think he would have found it difficult to
+do two things at once like that. But while he was cutting sticks to
+build his new house it was no great trouble to peel the bark off them.
+The bark, you know, was what Brownie Beaver always ate. And when he
+cut sticks for his house there was only one thing about which he had
+to be careful; he had to be particular to use only certain kinds of
+wood. Poplar, cottonwood, or willow; birch, elm, box elder or
+aspen--those were the trees which bore bark that he liked. But if he
+had cut down a hickory or an ash or an oak tree he wouldn't have been
+able to get any food from them at all because the bark was not the
+sort he cared for. That was lucky, in a way, because the wood of those
+trees was very hard and Brownie would have had much more work cutting
+them down.
+
+A good many of Brownie Beaver's neighbors thought he was foolish to go
+to the trouble of building a new house, when there were old ones to be
+had. And there was a lazy fellow called Tired Tim who laughed openly
+at Brownie.
+
+"When you're older you'll know better than to work like that," Tired
+Tim told him. "Why don't you do the way I did?" he asked. "I dug a
+tunnel in the bank of the pond; and it's a good enough house for
+anybody. It's much easier than building a house of sticks and mud."
+
+But Brownie told Tired Tim that he didn't care to live in a hole in
+the bank.
+
+"Nobody but a very lazy person would be willing to have a house like
+that," Brownie said.
+
+Tired Tim only laughed all the harder.
+
+"Old Grandaddy Beaver has been talking to you," he remarked. "I saw
+him taking you over to the dam day before yesterday and telling you
+where to work on it. Of course, that's all right if you're willing to
+work for the whole village. But I say, let others do the work! As for
+me, I've never put a single stick nor a single armful of mud on that
+dam; and what's more, I never intend to, either.
+
+"My tunnel in the bank suits me very well. Of course, it may not be so
+airy in summer as a house such as you're making for yourself. But I
+don't live in my house in summer. So what's the difference to me? In
+summer I go up the stream, or down--just as it suits me--and I see
+something of the world and have a fine time. There's nothing like
+travel, you know, to broaden one," said Tired Tim.
+
+Brownie Beaver stopped just a moment and looked at the lazy fellow. He
+was certainly broad enough, Brownie thought. He was so fat that his
+sides stuck far out. But it was no wonder--for he never did any work.
+
+"You'd better take my advice," Tired Tim told Brownie.
+
+But Brownie Beaver had returned to his wood-cutting. He didn't even
+stop to answer. To him, working was just fun. And building a fine
+house was as good as any game.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE FRESHET
+
+
+The rain had fallen steadily for two days and two nights-not just a
+gentle drizzle, but a heavy downpour.
+
+For some time it did not in the least disturb Brownie Beaver and his
+neighbors--that is to say, all but one of them. For there was a very
+old gentleman in the village known as Grandaddy Beaver who began to
+worry almost as soon as it began to rain.
+
+"We're a-going to have a freshet," he said to everybody he met. "I've
+seen 'em start many a time and I can always tell a freshet almost as
+soon as I see it coming."
+
+Grandaddy Beaver's friends paid no heed to his warning. And some of
+them were so unkind as to laugh when the old gentleman crawled on top
+of his house and began to mend it.
+
+"You young folks can poke fun at me if you want to," said Grandaddy
+Beaver, "but I'm a-going right ahead and make my house as strong as I
+can. For when the freshet gets here I don't want my home washed away."
+
+All day long people would stop to watch the old fellow at work upon
+his roof. And everybody thought it was a great joke--until the second
+day came and everybody noticed that it was raining just as hard as
+ever.
+
+But no one except Grandaddy Beaver had ever heard of a freshet at that
+time of year. So even then nobody else went to work on his house,
+though some people _did_ stop smiling. A freshet, you know, is a
+serious thing.
+
+As the second day passed, the rain seemed to fall harder. And still
+Grandaddy Beaver kept putting new sticks on the roof of his house and
+plastering mud over them. And at last Brownie Beaver began to think
+that perhaps the old gentleman was right, after all, and that maybe
+everybody else was wrong.
+
+So Brownie went home and set to work. And all his neighbors at once
+began to smile at him.
+
+But Brownie Beaver didn't mind that.
+
+"My roof needed mending, anyhow," he said. "And if we _should_
+have a freshet. I'll be ready for it. And if we don't have one,
+there'll be no harm done."
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Crow Called Down the Chimney]
+
+Now, all this time the water had been rising slowly. But that was no
+more than everyone expected, since it was raining so hard. But when
+the second night came, the water began to rise very fast. It rose so
+quickly that several families found their bedroom floors under water
+almost before they knew it.
+
+Then old Grandaddy Beaver went through the village and stopped at
+every door.
+
+"What do you think about it now?" he asked. "Is it a freshet or isn't
+it?"
+
+In the houses where the water had climbed above the bedroom floors the
+people all agreed that it was a freshet and that Grandaddy Beaver had
+been right all the time. But there were still plenty of people who
+thought the old gentleman was mistaken.
+
+"The water won't come any higher," they said. "It never has, at this
+time of year." But they looked a bit worried, in spite of what they
+said.
+
+"It's a-going to be the worst freshet that's happened since you were
+born," their caller croaked. "You mark my words!"
+
+When he came to Brownie Beaver's house Grandaddy found that there was
+one person, at least, that had taken his advice.
+
+"I see you're all ready for the freshet!" the old gentleman remarked.
+"They laughed at me; but I was right," he said.
+
+"They laughed at me, too," Brownie Beaver told him.
+
+"There's nobody in this village that'll laugh again tonight,"
+Grandaddy said very solemnly, "for there's a-going to be a flood
+before morning."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+BROWNIE SAVES THE DAM
+
+
+Brownie Beaver was always glad that he had taken Grandaddy's advice
+about the freshet. And Brownie's neighbors were glad that he had, too.
+For that was really the only thing that saved the village from being
+carried away by the flood of water that swept down upon the pond,
+after it had rained for two days and two nights.
+
+The pond rose so quickly and the water rushed past so fast that people
+had to scramble out of their houses and begin working on them, to keep
+them from being washed away.
+
+That rush of water meant only one thing. The pond was full and running
+over! And just as likely as not the dam would be carried away--the dam
+on which Grandaddy Beaver had worked when he was a youngster, and on
+which his own grandaddy had worked before him. It would take years and
+years to build another such dam as that.
+
+Now, with almost everybody working on his own house, there was almost
+no one left to work upon the dam. But people never stopped to think
+about that. They never once remembered that out of the whole village
+old Grandaddy and Brownie Beaver were the only persons whose houses
+had been made ready for the freshet and that those two were the only
+people with nothing to do at home.
+
+"There'll be plenty to help save the dam," everybody said to himself.
+"I'll just work on my house."
+
+Now, Brownie Beaver knew that there was nothing more he could do to
+make his house safe, so he swam over to the dam, expecting to find a
+good many of his neighbors there. But old Grandaddy Beaver was the
+only other person he found. And he seemed worried.
+
+"It's a great pity!" he said to Brownie. "Here's this fine dam, which
+has taken so many years to build, and it's a-going to be washed
+away--you mark my words!"
+
+"What makes you think that?" asked Brownie.
+
+"There's nobody here to do anything," said Grandaddy Beaver. "The
+spillways of this dam ought to be made as big as possible, to let the
+freshet pass through. But I can't do it, for I can't swim as well as I
+could once."
+
+Brownie Beaver looked at the rushing water which poured over the top
+of the dam in a hundred places and was already carrying off mud and
+sticks, eating the dam away before his very eyes.
+
+"I'll save the dam!" he cried. "You?" Grandaddy Beaver exclaimed.
+"Why, what do you think you can do?" Being so old, he couldn't help
+believing that other people were too young to do difficult things.
+
+"Watch me and I'll show you!" Brownie Beaver told him. And without
+saying another word he swam to the nearest spillway and began making
+it bigger.
+
+Sometimes he had to fight the freshet madly, to keep from being swept
+over the dam himself. Sometimes, too, as he stood on the dam it
+crumbled beneath him and he found himself swimming again.
+
+How many narrow escapes he had that day Brownie Beaver could never
+remember. When they happened, he didn't have time to count them, he
+was working so busily. And if old Grandaddy Beaver hadn't told
+everyone afterward, how Brownie saved the great dam from being swept
+away, and how hard he had worked, and how he had swum fearlessly into
+the torrent, people wouldn't have known anything about it.
+
+To be sure, they had noticed that the water went down almost as
+suddenly as it rose. But they hadn't stopped to think that there must
+have been some reason for that. And when they learned that Brownie
+Beaver was the reason, the whole village gave him a vote of thanks.
+
+They wanted to give him a gold-headed cane, too. But they were unable
+to find one anywhere.
+
+When Brownie Beaver heard of that he said it was just as well, because
+he seldom walked far on land and there wasn't much use in a person's
+carrying a cane when he swam, anyhow. Although it was sometimes done,
+he had always considered it a silly practice--and one that he would
+not care to follow.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A HAPPY THOUGHT
+
+
+Brownie Beaver liked to know what was going on in the world. But
+living far from Pleasant Valley as he did, he seldom heard any news
+before it was quite old.
+
+"I wish--" he said to Mr. Crow one day, when that old gentleman was
+making him a visit--"I wish someone would start a newspaper in this
+neighborhood."
+
+Mr. Crow told Brownie that he would be glad to bring him an old
+newspaper whenever he happened to find one. "Thank you!" Brownie
+Beaver said. "You're very kind. But an old newspaper would be of no
+use to me."
+
+"Why not?" Mr. Crow inquired. "They make very good beds, I've been
+told. And I suppose that is what you want one for."
+
+"Not at all!" Brownie replied. "I'd like to know what's happening over
+in Pleasant Valley. It takes so long for news to reach us here in our
+pond that it's often hardly worth listening to when we hear it--it's
+so old. Now, what I'd really prefer is a newspaper that would tell me
+everything that's going to happen a week later."
+
+Mr. Crow said he never heard of a newspaper like that.
+
+"Well, somebody ought to start one," Brownie Beaver answered.
+
+Mr. Crow thought deeply for some minutes without saying a word. And at
+last He cried suddenly:
+
+"I have an idea!"
+
+"Have you?" Brownie Beaver exclaimed. "What is it, Mr. Crow?"
+
+"I'll be your newspaper!" Mr. Crow told him.
+
+At that Brownie Beaver looked somewhat doubtful.
+
+"That's very kind of you," he said. "But I'm afraid it wouldn't do me
+much good. You're so black that the ink wouldn't show on you at
+all---unless," he added, "they use _white_ ink to print on you."
+
+"You don't understand," old Mr. Crow said. "What I mean is this: I'll
+fly over here once a week and tell you everything that's happened. Of
+course," he continued, "I can't very well tell you everything that is
+going to take place the following week. But I'll do my best."
+
+Brownie Beaver was delighted. And when Mr. Crow asked him what day he
+wanted his newspaper Brownie said that Saturday afternoon would be a
+good time.
+
+"That's the last day of the week," Brownie Beaver remarked, "so you
+ought to have plenty of news for me. You know, if you came the first
+day of the week there would be very little to tell."
+
+"That's so!" said Mr. Crow. "Well say 'Saturday,' then. And you shall
+have your newspaper without fail--unless," he explained--"unless there
+should be a bad storm, or unless I should be ill. And, of course, if
+Farmer Green should want me to help him in his cornfield, I wouldn't
+be able to come. There might be other things, too, to keep me at home,
+which I can't think of just now," said Mr. Crow.
+
+Again Brownie Beaver looked a bit doubtful.
+
+"I hope you'll try to be regular," he told Mr. Crow. "When a person
+takes a newspaper he doesn't like to be disappointed, you know."
+
+Old Mr. Crow said that he hoped nothing would prevent his coming to
+Brownie's house every Saturday afternoon.
+
+"There's only one more thing I can think of," he croaked, "that would
+make it impossible for me to be here. And that is if I should lose
+count of the days of the week or have to see a baseball game or fly
+south for the winter."
+
+"But that's _three_ things, instead of only _one_," Brownie Beaver
+objected.
+
+"Well--maybe it is," Mr. Crow replied--"the way you count. But I call
+it only one because I said it all in one breath, without a single
+pause."
+
+"I hope you won't tell me the news as fast as that," said Brownie
+Beaver, "for if you did I should never be able to remember one-half of
+it."
+
+But Mr. Crow promised that he would talk very slowly.
+
+"You'll be perfectly satisfied," he told Brownie. "And now I must go
+home at once, to begin gathering news."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+A NEWFANGLED NEWSPAPER
+
+
+After Mr. Crow flew back to Pleasant Valley to gather news for him,
+Brownie Beaver carefully counted each day that passed. Since Mr. Crow
+had agreed to be his newspaper, and come each Saturday afternoon to
+tell him everything that had happened during the week, Brownie was in
+a great hurry for Saturday to arrive.
+
+In order to make no mistake, he put aside a stick in which he gnawed a
+notch each day. And in that way he knew exactly when Saturday came.
+
+That was probably the longest day in Brownie Beaver's life. At least,
+it seemed so to him. Whenever he saw a bird soaring above the tree-tops
+he couldn't help hoping it was Mr. Crow. And whenever he heard a
+_caw_--_caw_ far off in the distance Brownie Beaver dropped whatever
+he happened to be doing, expecting that Mr. Crow would flap into sight
+at any moment.
+
+Brownie had many disappointments. But Mr. Crow really came at last. He
+lighted right on top of Brownie Beaver's house and called "Paper!"
+down the chimney--just like that!
+
+Brownie happened to be inside his house. And in a wonderfully short
+time his head appeared above the water and he soon crawled up beside
+Mr. Crow.
+
+"Well, I _am_ glad to see you!" he told Mr. Crow.
+
+"Peter Mink caught a monstrous eel in the duck pond on Monday," Mr.
+Crow said. Being a newspaper, he thought he ought to say nothing
+except what was news--not even "Good afternoon!"
+
+"Mr. Rabbit, of Pine Ridge, with his wife and fourteen children, is
+visiting his brother, Mr. Jeremiah Rabbit. Mrs. Jeremiah Rabbit says
+she does not know when her husband's relations are going home," Mr.
+Crow continued to relate in a singsong voice.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Brownie Beaver exclaimed.
+
+"Fatty Coon--" Mr. Crow said--"Fatty Coon was confined to his house by
+illness Tuesday night. He ate too many dried apples."
+
+"Well, well!" Brownie Beaver murmured. And he started to ask Mr. Crow
+a question. But Mr. Crow interrupted him with more news.
+
+"Mrs. Bear had a birthday on Wednesday. An enjoyable time was had by
+all--except the pig."
+
+"Pig?" Brownie Beaver asked. "What pig?"
+
+"The pig they ate," said Mr. Crow. And he went right on talking. "On
+Thursday Mr. Woodchuck went to visit his cousins in the West. Mrs.
+Woodchuck is worried."
+
+"What's she worried about?" Brownie inquired.
+
+"She's afraid he's coming back again," Mr. Crow explained.
+
+"I _have_ heard he was lazy," Brownie said. "What happened on Friday?"
+
+"Tommy Fox made a visit. But he didn't have a good time at all," Mr.
+Crow reported, "and he left faster than he came."
+
+Brownie Beaver wanted to know where Tommy Fox made his visit.
+
+"At Farmer Green's hen-house," Mr. Crow explained.
+
+"Why did he hurry away?" Brownie asked.
+
+"Old dog Spot chased him," Mr. Crow replied. "But you mustn't ask
+questions," he complained. "You can't ask questions of a newspaper,
+you know."
+
+"Well--what happened on Saturday?"
+
+"There you go again!" cried Mr. Crow. "Another question! I declare, I
+don't believe you ever took a newspaper before--did you?"
+
+Brownie Beaver admitted that he never had.
+
+"Then--" said Mr. Crow--"then don't interrupt me again, please! I'll
+tell you all the news I've brought. And when I've finished I'll stop
+being a newspaper and be myself for a while. And then we can talk. But
+not before!" he insisted.
+
+Brownie Beaver nodded his head. He was afraid that if he said another
+word Mr. Crow would grow angry and fly away without telling him any
+more news.
+
+"On Saturday--this morning, to be exact"--said Mr. Crow, "there came
+near being a bad accident. Jimmy Rabbit almost cut off Frisky
+Squirrel's tail."
+
+Mr. Crow paused and looked at Brownie Beaver out of the corner of his
+eye. He knew that Brownie would want to know what prevented the
+accident. But he was in no hurry to tell him.
+
+For a few moments Brownie waited to hear the rest. But a few moments
+was more than he could endure.
+
+"Why didn't Jimmy cut off his tail?" Brownie asked eagerly.
+
+"There!" said Mr. Crow. "You've done just as I told you not to. So I
+shall not tell you the rest until next Saturday.... You see, you have
+a few things to learn about taking a newspaper." And 'he would give
+Brownie no more news that day. To be sure, he was willing to talk--but
+only about things that had happened where Brownie Beaver lived.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+MR. CROW IS UPSET
+
+
+Brownie Beaver couldn't help feeling that Mr. Crow had not treated him
+very well, because Mr. Crow hadn't told him all the news about Frisky
+Squirrel's tail. He thought that maybe there were things about a
+newspaper that even Mr. Crow didn't know.
+
+Another week had passed. Brownie knew that it had, because since Mr.
+Crow's last call he had cut a notch in a stick each day. And there
+were now seven of them.
+
+Late Saturday afternoon Mr. Crow came back again. He lighted on top of
+Brownie's house and called "Paper!" down the chimney, just as he had a
+week before.
+
+Brownie Beaver came swimming up once more.
+
+"Look here!" he said to Mr. Crow. "I don't believe yon know much about
+being a newspaper, do you?"
+
+That surprised Mr. Crow.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"A newspaper--" said Brownie Beaver--"a newspaper is always left on, a
+person's doorstep. I've talked with a good many people and not one of
+them ever heard of a paper being left on the roof."
+
+Mr. Crow's face seemed to grow blacker than ever, he was so angry.
+
+"How can anybody leave a newspaper on your doorstep, when the step's
+under water?" he growled.
+
+Brownie Beaver did not answer that question, for he had something else
+to say to Mr. Crow.
+
+"I've talked with a good many people," he said once more, "and not one
+of them ever heard of such rudeness as _shouting down a person's
+chimney_. If there was anybody asleep in the house, it would
+certainly wake him; and if a person had a fire in his house, shouting
+down the chimney might put it out."
+
+Mr. Crow looked rather foolish.
+
+"I'll try to think of some way of leaving your newspaper that will
+suit us both," he said. Then he _hemmed_ and began to tell Brownie
+the week's news.
+
+"On Sunday," said Mr. Crow, "there was a freshet."
+
+"I knew that before you did," said Brownie Beaver.
+
+Mr. Crow looked disappointed.
+
+"How?" he asked.
+
+"Why, I live further up the river than you," said Brownie Beaver. "And
+since freshets always come _down_ a river, this one didn't reach you
+till after it had passed me."
+
+Something made Mr. Crow peevish.
+
+"I don't believe you'd care to hear any more of my news," he said.
+"You appear to know it already. Perhaps you'll be kind enough to tell
+me the sort of news you prefer to hear."
+
+"Certainly!" Brownie Beaver replied. "Now, there's the weather! I've
+talked with a good many people and they all say that a good newspaper
+ought to tell the weather for the next day."
+
+Mr. Crow cocked an eye up at the sky.
+
+"To-morrow will be fair," he said.
+
+"I'm told that a good newspaper ought to tell a few jokes," Brownie
+Beaver continued.
+
+But Mr. Crow sneered openly at that. "I'm a _newspaper_--not a
+_jest-book_," he announced.
+
+"Then you refuse to tell any jokes, do you?" Brownie Beaver asked him.
+
+"I certainly do!" Mr. Crow cried indignantly.
+
+"Very well!" Brownie said. "I see I'll have to take some other
+newspaper, though I must say I hate to change--after taking this one
+so long."
+
+"I hope you'll find one to suit you," Mr. Crow said in a cross voice.
+And he flew away without another word. He was terribly upset. You see,
+he had enjoyed being a newspaper, because it gave him an excuse for
+asking people the most inquisitive questions. He had intended all that
+week to ask Aunt Polly Woodchuck whether she wore a wig. But he hadn't
+been able to find her at home. And now it was too late--for Mr. Crow
+was a newspaper no longer.
+
+As for Brownie Beaver, he succeeded in getting Jasper Jay to be his
+newspaper. Though Jasper told him many jokes, Brownie found that he
+could not depend upon Jasper's news. And as a matter of fact, Jasper
+made up most of it himself. He claimed that the _newest news_ was
+the best.
+
+"That's why I invent it myself, right on the spot," he explained.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE SIGN ON THE TREE
+
+
+On one of Brownie Beaver's long excursions down the stream he came
+upon a tree to which a sign was nailed. Now, Brownie had never learned
+to read. But he had heard that Uncle Jerry Chuck could tell what a
+sign said. So Brownie asked a pleasant young fellow named Frisky
+Squirrel if he would mind asking Uncle Jerry to come over to Swift
+River on a matter of important business.
+
+When Uncle Jerry Chuck appeared, Brownie Beaver said he was glad to
+see him and that Uncle Jerry was looking very well.
+
+"I've sent for you," said Brownie, "because I wanted you to see this
+sign. I can tell by the tracks under the tree that the sign was put up
+only to-day. And I thought you ought to know about it at once, Uncle
+Jerry."
+
+As soon as he heard that, Uncle Jerry Chuck stepped close to the tree
+and began to read the sign.
+
+Now, there was something about Uncle Jerry's reading that Brownie
+Beaver had heard. People had told him that Uncle Jerry Chuck couldn't
+tell what a sign said unless he read it _aloud_. That was why Brownie
+Beaver had sent for him, for Brownie knew Uncle Jerry well enough to
+guess that if anybody _asked_ Uncle Jerry to read the sign, Uncle
+Jerry would insist on being paid for his trouble.
+
+But now Uncle Jerry was going to read the sign for himself. And
+Brownie Beaver moved up beside him, to hear what he said.
+
+The sign looked like this:
+
+NO HUNTING
+
+OR FISHING
+
+ALOUD
+
+Uncle Jerry repeated the words in a sing-song tone.
+
+"I don't think much of that," he said. "It's bad enough to be hunted
+by people who make a noise, though you have _some_ chance of getting
+away then. But if they can't make a noise it will be much more
+dangerous for all of us forest-people."
+
+If Tommy Fox hadn't happened to come along just then Uncle Jerry
+wouldn't have found out his mistake. But Tommy Fox soon set him right.
+As soon as he had talked a bit with Uncle Jerry he said:
+
+"What the sign really means is that no hunting or fishing will be
+permitted. That last word should be 'allowed,' instead of 'aloud.'
+It's spelled wrong," he explained.
+
+"That's better!" Uncle Jerry cried. "Now there'll be no more hunting
+in the neighborhood and we'll all be quite safe.... Farmer Green is
+kinder than I supposed."
+
+When Brownie Beaver heard that, he said good-by and started home at
+once to tell the good news to all his friends. He had leaped into the
+river and was swimming up-stream rapidly when Uncle Jerry called to
+him to stop.
+
+"There's something I want to say," Uncle Jerry shouted. "I think you
+ought to pay me for reading the sign."
+
+But Brownie Beaver shook his head.
+
+"I didn't ask you to read the sign for me," he declared. "You read it
+for _yourself_, Uncle Jerry. And besides, you didn't know what it
+meant until Tommy Fox came along and told you.... If you want to know
+what I think, I'll tell you. I think you ought to pay Tommy Fox
+something."
+
+Uncle Jerry at once began to look worried. He said nothing more, but
+plunged out of sight into some bushes, as if he were afraid Tommy Fox
+might come back and find him.
+
+[Illustration: Brownie Beaver Returned to His Wood-cutting]
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+A HOLIDAY
+
+
+There was great rejoicing in the little village in the pond when
+Brownie Beaver returned with the good news that there would be no more
+hunting and fishing. And when old Grandaddy Beaver said that everybody
+ought to take a holiday to celebrate the occasion, all the villagers
+said it was a fine idea.
+
+So they stopped working, for once, and began to plan the celebration.
+They thought that there ought to be swimming races and tree-felling
+contests. And Brownie Beaver said that after the holiday was over he
+would suggest that someone be chosen to go down and thank Farmer Green
+for putting the notice on the tree.
+
+The whole village agreed to Brownie's proposal and they voted to see
+who should be sent. Brownie Beaver himself passed his hat around to
+take up the votes. And it was quickly found that every vote was for
+Brownie Beaver. He had even voted for himself. But no one seemed to
+care about that.
+
+Then the swimming races began. There was a race under water, a race
+with heads out of water--and another in which each person who took
+part had to stay beneath the surface as long as he could.
+
+That last race caused some trouble. A young scamp called Slippery Sam
+won it. And many people thought that he had swum up inside his house,
+where he could get air, without being seen. But no one could prove it;
+so he won the race, just the same.
+
+Next came the tree-felling contest. There were six, including Brownie
+Beaver, that took part in it. Grandaddy Beaver had picked out six
+trees of exactly the same size. Each person in the contest had to try
+to bring his tree to the ground first. And that caused some trouble,
+too, because some claimed that their trees were of harder wood than
+others--and more difficult to gnaw--while others complained that the
+bark of their trees tasted very bitter, and of course that made their
+task unpleasant.
+
+Those six trees, falling one after another, made such a racket that
+old Mr. Crow heard the noise miles away and flew over to see what was
+happening.
+
+After everybody crept out of his hiding-place some time afterward
+(everyone had to hide for a while, you know), there was Mr. Crow
+sitting upon one of the fallen trees.
+
+"What's going on?" he inquired. "You're not going to cut down the
+whole forest, I hope."
+
+Then they told him about the celebration. And Mr. Crow began to laugh.
+
+"What are you going to do next?" he asked.
+
+"We're a-going to send Brownie Beaver over to Pleasant Valley to thank
+Farmer Green for his kindness in putting an end to hunting and
+fishing," said old Grandaddy Beaver. "And he's a-going to start right
+away."
+
+Mr. Crow looked around. And there was Brownie Beaver, with a
+lunch-basket in his hand, all ready to begin his long journey.
+
+"Say good-by to him then," said Mr. Crow, "for you'll never see him
+again."
+
+"What do you mean?" Grandaddy Beaver asked. And as for Brownie--he was
+so frightened that he dropped his basket right in the water.
+
+"I mean----" said Mr. Crow--"I mean that it's a very dangerous errand.
+You don't seem to have understood that sign. In the first place, it
+was not Farmer Green, but his son Johnnie, who nailed It to the tree."
+
+"Ah!" Brownie Beaver cried. "_That_ is why one of the words was
+misspelled!"
+
+"No doubt!" Mr. Crow remarked. As a matter of fact, not being able to
+read he hadn't known about the word that was spelled wrong. "In the
+second place," he continued, "the sign doesn't mean that hunting and
+fishing are to be stopped. It means that no one but Johnnie Green is
+going to hunt and fish in this neighborhood. He wants all the hunting
+and fishing for himself. That's why he put up that sign. And instead
+of hunting and fishing being stopped, I should say that they were
+going to begin to be more dangerous than ever.... They tell me," he
+added, "that Johnnie Green had a new gun on this birthday."
+
+Brownie Beaver said at once that he was not going on the errand of
+thanks.
+
+"I resign," he said, "and anyone that wants to go in my place is
+welcome to do so."
+
+But nobody cared to go. And the whole village seemed greatly
+disappointed, until Grandaddy Beaver made a short speech.
+
+"We've all had a good holiday, anyhow," he said. "And I should say
+that was something to be thankful for."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+BAD NEWS
+
+
+"Have you heard the news?" Tired Tim asked Brownie Beaver one day.
+"There's going to be a cyclone."
+
+"A cyclone?" Brownie exclaimed. "What's that? I never heard of one."
+
+"It's a big storm, with a terrible wind," Tired Tim explained. "The
+wind will blow so hard that it will snap off big trees."
+
+"Good!" Brownie Beaver cried. "Then I won't have to cut down any more
+trees in order to reach the tender bark that grows in their tops."
+
+Tired Tim laughed. "You won't think it's very 'good,'" he said, "when
+the cyclone strikes the village."
+
+"Why not?" Brownie inquired.
+
+"Because--" said Tired Tim--"because the wind will blow every house
+away. It will snatch up the sticks of which the houses are built and
+carry them over the top of Blue Mountain. Then I guess you'll wish you
+had taken my advice and not built that new house of yours.
+
+"_I_ shall be safe enough," the lazy rascal continued. "All I'll
+have to do will be to crawl inside my house in the bank; for the wind
+can't very well blow the ground away."
+
+Brownie Beaver thought that Tired Tim was just trying to scare him.
+
+"I don't believe there's going to be any such thing!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Don't you?" Tim grinned. "You just go and ask Grandaddy Beaver. He's
+the one that says there's going to be a cyclone."
+
+At that Brownie Beaver stopped working and hurried off to find old
+Grandaddy Beaver. And to his great dismay, Grandaddy said that what
+Tired Tim had told him was the truth.
+
+"It's a-coming!" Grandaddy Beaver declared. "I saw one once before in
+these parts, years before anybody else in this village was born. And
+when I see a cyclone a-coming I can generally tell it a long way off."
+
+"When is it going to get here?" Brownie asked in a quavering voice.
+
+"Next Tuesday!" Grandaddy replied.
+
+"What makes you think it's coming?"
+
+"Well--everything looks just the way it did before the last cyclone,"
+Grandaddy Beaver explained, as he took a mouthful of willow bark. "The
+moon looks just the same and the sun looks just the same. I had a
+twinge of rheumatics in my left shoulder yesterday; and to-day the
+pain's in my right. It was exactly that way before the last cyclone."
+
+Brownie Beaver did not doubt that the old gentleman knew what he was
+talking about. He remembered that Grandaddy Beaver had warned everyone
+there was going to be a freshet. And though people had laughed at the
+old chap, the freshet had come.
+
+Sadly worried, Brownie went and called on all his neighbors and asked
+them what they were going to do. And to his surprise he found that
+they were laughing at Grandaddy once more. They seemed to have
+forgotten about the freshet.
+
+But Brownie Beaver could not forget that dreadful night. And now he
+tried to think of some way to keep his new house from being blown away
+by the great wind, which Grandaddy Beaver said was coming on Tuesday
+without fail.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+GRANDADDY BEAVER THINKS
+
+
+It was on a Friday that Brownie Beaver first heard the cyclone was
+coming. And after making sure that Grandaddy Beaver knew what he was
+talking about when he said the great wind would sweep down upon the
+village on the following Tuesday, Brownie spent a good deal of time
+wondering what he had better do.
+
+He wanted to save his house from being blown over the top of Blue
+Mountain. And he wanted to save himself from being carried along at
+the same time.
+
+Before Friday was gone Brownie Beaver began to heap more mud and
+sticks upon his house, to make it stronger. And when Tired Tim came
+swimming past the lazy scamp laughed harder than ever.
+
+"I see you're afraid of the cyclone," he called. "But what you're
+doing won't help you any. The wind will blow away those sticks easily
+enough.... What you ought to do is to dig a house like mine in the
+bank. Then you won't have to worry about any cyclone."
+
+So Brownie set to work and made him a house like Tired Tim's. On
+Monday he had finished it. But he didn't like his new home at all.
+
+"It's no better than a rat's hole," he said. "My family have never
+lived in such a place and I'm not used to it. I prefer my house that's
+built of sticks and mud. And I'm going to see if there isn't some way
+I can make it safe."
+
+So Brownie went to Grandaddy Beaver again and asked him what he ought
+to do.
+
+The old gentleman said he would try to think of a plan to save
+Brownie's house.
+
+"I wish you would hurry," Brownie urged him. "To-day is Monday; and
+tomorrow the cyclone will be here.... What are you going to do to your
+own house, Grandaddy?"
+
+"My house----" said Grandaddy Beaver--"my house is very old. It has
+had mud and sticks piled upon it every season for over a hundred
+years. You can see for yourself that it's much bigger than yours. And
+I reckon it's strong enough to stay where it is, no matter how hard
+the wind blows. But your house is different.... Let me think a
+minute!" the old gentleman said.
+
+Brownie waited in silence while the old gentleman thought, with his
+eyes shut tight. Brownie watched him for a long time. Once or twice he
+thought he heard something that sounded like a snore. But he knew it
+couldn't be that--it was only the thoughts trying to get inside
+Grandaddy's head.
+
+At last Grandaddy sat up with a start.
+
+"Have you thought of something?" Brownie inquired.
+
+"What's that?" Grandaddy asked. "Oh, yes! I've a good idea," he said.
+"What you must do is to tie your house so the wind can't blow it
+away."
+
+Brownie thanked him. And he went away feeling quite happy again--until
+he reached home and started to follow Grandaddy's advice. Then he saw
+that he had forgotten something. He hadn't anything with which to tie
+his house and make it safe from the cyclone.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A LUCKY FIND
+
+
+Brownie Beaver almost wished he hadn't spent so much time waiting for
+Grandaddy to tell him to tie down his house so it wouldn't be carried
+away by the big wind on the following day. With no rope--or anything
+else--to tie the house with, Brownie could not see that Grandaddy's
+advice was of any use to him.
+
+Anyhow, he was glad he had done as Tired Tim had suggested and dug a
+house in the bank, where he could hide until the storm passed. But he
+felt sad at the thought of losing his comfortable home. And since he
+could hardly bear to look at it and imagine how dreadful it would be
+to have it blown over the top of Blue Mountain into Pleasant Valley,
+Brownie went for a stroll through the woods to try to forget his
+trouble.
+
+He found himself at last in a clearing, where loggers had been at
+work. They had chopped down many trees. And the sight made Brownie
+Beaver angry.
+
+"This is an outrage!" he cried aloud. "I'd like to know who has been
+stealing our trees. I suppose it's Farmer Green; for they say he's
+always up to such tricks." He took a good look around. And then he
+turned to go back to the village and tell what he had discovered.
+
+Just as he turned he tripped on something. And something clinked
+beneath his feet. It didn't sound like a stone. So Brownie Beaver
+looked down to see what was there.
+
+Now, in his anger he had quite forgotten the great storm. But as he
+saw what had tripped him he remembered it again. But he was no longer
+worried.
+
+"Hurrah!" Brownie cried. "Here's just what I need!" And then he
+hurried back home again--but not to tell about the trees that had been
+stolen. He hastened home to _chain down his house_ and save it from
+the great wind. For Brownie Beaver had found a chain, which the
+loggers had used to haul the logs out of the woods, and had forgotten.
+
+It was almost dark when Brownie reached his house in the village in
+the pond. He was never a very good walker. And dragging that heavy
+chain behind him through the forest only made him slower than ever.
+Sometimes the chain caught on a bush and tripped him. But Brownie was
+so pleased with his find that he only laughed whenever he fell, for he
+was not hurt.
+
+The whole village gathered round his house to watch him while he tied
+the chain on it and anchored the ends of the chain to the bottom of
+the pond with a big stone.
+
+"Why do you do that?" people asked.
+
+"He's afraid of the cyclone to-morrow," Tired Tim piped up, without
+waiting for Brownie to answer. "You know, old Grandaddy Beaver says
+that there's going to be a great wind. This young feller----" said
+Tim--"he's already dug a house in the bank near mine--ha! ha! He
+thinks Grandaddy knows. But I say that Grandaddy Beaver is a--a fine,
+noble, old gentleman," Tired Tim stammered. He had happened to glance
+around while he was talking; and to his surprise there was Grandaddy
+floating in the water close behind him.
+
+"He certainly is," everybody agreed. "But we hope he's mistaken about
+the great wind."
+
+When Tuesday came--which was the very next day--Brownie Beaver crept
+into his tunnel in the bank at sunrise. And he never came outside
+again until the sun had set.
+
+When he saw that his house was still there, in the middle of the pond,
+he shouted with joy.
+
+"Hurrah!" he cried. "The chain saved my house!" Then he noticed that
+all the other houses were still there, too. "How's this?" he asked
+Tired Tim, who stood on the bank beside him. "Did my chain save the
+whole village?"
+
+Tired Tim grinned--for he was not too lazy to do that.
+
+"There wasn't any cyclone," he said. "There wasn't a breath of wind
+all day. And old Grandaddy Beaver is so upset that he's gone to bed
+and won't talk with anybody."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+WAS IT A GUN?
+
+
+Everybody in the village where Brownie Beaver lived was very much
+upset. Most people were angry, too. And no doubt it was natural that
+they should feel that way, because while they were taking their midday
+naps a man had come and paddled about their village in a boat.
+
+Brownie Beaver was the first to hear him and he quickly spread the
+alarm. There was a great scurrying as all the villagers stole out of
+their houses and swam away under water to hide in holes in the bank of
+the pond and in other places they knew.
+
+Toward night, when they all came back again, the man had gone. But
+Brownie and his neighbors were still angry. You must remember that
+their rest had been disturbed and they were feeling somewhat sleepy.
+
+So far as they could see, the man had done no damage either to their
+houses or to the dam. But people felt a bit uneasy just the same,
+until old Grandaddy Beaver looked all around and reported that the man
+had set no traps. You see, Grandaddy knew a great deal about traps. He
+had been caught in one when he was young. Luckily, he managed to get
+away; and he learned a few things that he never forgot.
+
+Now, Brownie Beaver had begun to cut down a tree the night before.
+Something had interrupted him and he had left the tree not quite
+gnawed through and needing only a few more bites to bring it down. He
+was intending to finish his task soon after dark--which was the time
+he liked best for working.
+
+Accordingly, after Brownie had finished his supper and had called at
+every house in the village to talk over the visit of the strange man,
+he swam to the shore of the pond and made his way to the slanting
+tree, which stood a short distance from the water.
+
+It was quite dark. And that was what Brownie liked, because he could
+work without being disturbed--at least, that was what he thought.
+
+Since he could see quite well in spite of the dark he had no trouble
+in finding his tree. And he lost no time in setting to work on it
+again.
+
+He began to gnaw at it once more. But he hadn't moved more than
+half-way around the tree-trunk when something happened that almost
+frightened him out of his skin.
+
+Right out of the darkness came a blinding flash of light. And at the
+same time a queer _click_ sounded in the bushes close by.
+
+Just for a moment Brownie Beaver was stiff with fear. But when the
+darkness closed in upon him again he ran for his life toward the pond.
+And plunging into the water he swam quickly to the bottom and hurried
+up his winding hall into his bedroom, where he crouched trembling upon
+his bed, wondering whether he had been shot.
+
+Brownie knew that at night a gun made a flash of light. But this gun
+(if it was a gun) made no roar such as was made by the guns Brownie
+had sometimes heard at a distance in the woods. He wished that old
+Grandaddy Beaver was there. For he did not doubt that the old
+gentleman could tell him exactly what had happened.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+JASPER JAY'S STORY
+
+
+After the blinding flash of light and the queer click had sent Brownie
+Beaver hurrying home from his partly gnawed tree, he stayed in his
+house for a long time before he ventured out again.
+
+Indeed, the night was half gone when he at last he stole forth to find
+Grandaddy Beaver and tell him about his awful fright.
+
+Brownie found the old gentleman resting after several hours' work upon
+the big dam. And when young Brownie told Grandaddy what had happened,
+the old gentleman didn't know just what to think.
+
+"It couldn't have been a moonbeam," he said, "because there's no moon
+to-night. And I don't see how it could have been a gun, because there
+was no roar.... Did you hear a sort of whistle?" he asked. "Anything
+that sounded like a bullet passing over your head?"
+
+Brownie Beaver shuddered at the mere mention of a bullet.
+
+"I heard nothing but that odd click," he replied.
+
+"That's what a gun sounds like when it's cocked," said Grandaddy
+Beaver. "But with a gun, the click comes first, the flash next, and
+the roar last of all. And here you tell me the flash came first, the
+click next, and there was no roar at all.... What's a body a-going to
+think, I'd like to know? It wasn't a gun--that's sure. And if you want
+to know what I say about it, why--I say that it was a very strange
+thing that happened to you. And I'd keep away from that tree for a
+long time."
+
+"I had made up my mind that I'd do that," Brownie told him. And then
+he went home again. But he never went to sleep until almost noon the
+following day; for whenever he closed his eyes he seemed to see that
+blinding flash of light again.
+
+When Jasper Jay came on Saturday afternoon to tell Brownie Beaver what
+had happened in the world during the past week he had an astounding
+piece of news.
+
+"Here's something about you," Jasper told Brownie, as soon as he could
+catch his breath. Jasper had flown faster than usual that day, because
+he had such interesting news. "Your picture," he told Brownie, "is in
+the photographer's window, way over in the town where Farmer Green
+goes sometimes."
+
+Brownie Beaver gave Jasper a quick look.
+
+"I've often suspected," he said, "that you don't always tell me the
+truth. And now I know it. I've never been to the photographer's in my
+life. So how could he have my picture, I should like to know?"
+
+"But you don't have to go to the photographer's to have your picture
+taken," Jasper Jay retorted. "Why couldn't the photographer come to
+you?"
+
+"I suppose he could," Brownie Beaver said. "But he's never been here."
+
+Jasper Jay gave one of his loud laughs.
+
+"That--" he said--"that is just where you are mistaken. And when I
+explain how I came by this news, maybe you'll believe me.
+
+"Tommy Fox told it to me," Jasper went on, "and old dog Spot told it
+to him. Everybody knows that old Spot sometimes goes to town with his
+master. They were there yesterday. And Spot saw your picture himself.
+What's more, he heard the photographer tell Farmer Green that he came
+up here almost a week ago, hid his camera in some bushes, and set a
+flashlight near a half--gnawed tree. And when you started to work on
+the tree that night you brushed against a wire, and the flashlight
+flared up, and the camera took your picture before you could jump
+away.... Now what do you say?" Jasper Jay demanded. "Now do you think
+I'm telling you the truth?"
+
+Brownie Beaver was so surprised that it was several minutes before he
+could speak. Then he said:
+
+"Grandaddy Beaver was right. It wasn't a gun. I was just having my
+picture taken." Brownie was actually pleased, because he knew he was
+the only person in his village that had ever had such a thing happen
+to him.
+
+After that he was ready to believe everything Jasper Jay told him. So
+Jasper related some wonderful news. And it would hardly be fair for
+anyone not present at the time to say that it wasn't perfectly
+true--every word of it.
+
+[Illustration: The Chain Caught on a Bush and Tripped Him]
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+LOOKING PLEASANT
+
+
+After Jasper Jay left Brownie Beaver, on that day when Jasper told
+Brownie that the photographer had made a flashlight picture of him,
+Brownie could hardly wait for it to grow dark. He had made up his mind
+that he would go back to that same tree, which was still not quite
+gnawed through; and he hoped that he would succeed in having his
+picture taken again. Like many other people, Brownie Beaver felt that
+he could not have too much of a good thing.
+
+There was another reason, too, for his going back to the tree. If the
+light flared again and the click sounded in the bushes, Brownie
+intended to go right into the thicket and get his picture before
+anybody else could carry it away with him. (You can understand how
+little he understood about taking photographs.)
+
+Well, the dark found Brownie back at the tree once more. And he began
+once more to gnaw at it. He tried to look pleasant, too, because he
+had heard that that was the way one should look when having his
+picture taken.
+
+He found it rather difficult, gnawing chips out of the tree and
+smiling at the same time. But he was an earnest youngster and he did
+the best he could.
+
+Brownie Beaver kept wishing the flashlight would go off, because--what
+with smiling and gnawing--his face began to ache. But no glare of
+light broke through the darkness.
+
+It was not long before Brownie had gnawed away so many chips that the
+tree began to nod its head further and further toward the ground. And
+Brownie wished that the flash-light would hurry and go off before the
+tree fell.
+
+But there was not even the faintest flicker of light. It was most
+annoying. And Brownie was so disappointed that for once he forgot to
+be careful when he was cutting down a tree. He kept his eyes on the
+bushes all the time, instead of on the tree--as he should have done.
+And all the time the tree leaned more and more.
+
+At last there was a _snap!_ Brownie Beaver should have known what
+that meant. But he was so eager to have his picture taken that he
+mistook the _snap_ for the _click_ that he had first heard almost a
+week before.
+
+He thought it must be the click of a camera hidden in the bushes. And
+he stood very still and looked extremely pleasant. Now, Brownie Beaver
+should have known better. But like most people, for once he made a
+mistake. What he really heard was the tree snapping. And before he
+could jump out of the way the tree came crashing down upon him and
+pinned him fast to the ground. He saw a flash of light, to be sure,
+and a good many stars. But all that only came from the knock on his
+head which the tree gave him.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+BROWNIE ESCAPES
+
+
+When the tree crashed down upon Brownie Beaver and held him fast, it
+was some time before he came to his senses. Then he did not know, at
+first, where he was nor what had happened to him. But at last he
+remembered that he had been cutting down a tree not far from the pond
+and he saw that it must have fallen upon him.
+
+Of course, the first thing that occurred to him was to call for help.
+But just as he opened his mouth to shout, another thought came into
+his head. _Perhaps some man might hear him--or a bear!_ And Brownie
+Beaver closed his mouth as quickly as he had opened it.
+
+Then he tried to squirm from under the tree-trunk. But he couldn't
+move himself at all. Next he tried to push the tree away from him. But
+he couldn't move the tree either.
+
+For a long while Brownie Beaver struggled, first at one impossible
+thing, and then at the other. And all the time the tree seemed to grow
+heavier and heavier.
+
+Finally, Brownie stopped trying to get free and began to feel hungry.
+
+You can see that he must have been worried, because there was the
+tree, with plenty of bark on it which he could eat. But he never
+noticed it for a long time.
+
+At last, however, he happened to remember that in the beginning he had
+started to cut down that very tree so he could reach the bark and eat
+it.
+
+Then Brownie Beaver had a good meal. And just as he finished eating,
+another thought came into his head. _Why shouldn't he gnaw right
+through the tree?_
+
+Since there seemed to be no answer to that question, he began to gnaw
+big chips out of the wood. And in a surprisingly short time he had cut
+the tree apart just where it pressed upon him.
+
+Then, of course, all he had to do was to get up and walk away.
+
+When he reached the village he found that all his neighbors had been
+looking everywhere for him.
+
+"That is," Grandaddy Beaver explained, "we looked everywhere except
+near the tree where you had that adventure a few nights ago. I said
+you wouldn't be there, for I advised you to keep away from that spot,
+as you will recall."
+
+Now, Brownie Beaver said nothing more. He knew that it was an
+unheard-of thing for one of the Beaver family to be caught by a falling
+tree. To have everyone know what had happened to him would be a good
+deal like a disgrace.
+
+But there are plenty of people who would think they had done something
+quite clever if they had gnawed through a tree with their teeth--though
+that was something that never once entered Brownie Beaver's
+head.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+MR. FROG'S QUESTION
+
+
+"Why don't you get some new clothes?"
+
+It was Mr. Frog that asked the question; and he asked it of Brownie
+Beaver, who was at work on top of his house. Mr. Frog had been hiding
+among the lily-pads, watching Brownie. But Brownie hadn't noticed him
+until he stuck his head out of the water and spoke.
+
+At first Mr. Frog's question made Brownie a bit peevish.
+
+"What's the matter with my clothes?" he asked hotly.
+
+"There's nothing the matter with them--nothing at all," said Mr.
+Frog--"except that they are not as becoming to you as they might be.
+Of course," he added, as he saw that Brownie Beaver was frowning, "you
+look handsome in them. But you've no idea how you'd look in clothes of
+_my_ making."
+
+Brownie Beaver felt more agreeable as soon as Mr. Frog had told him
+what he meant.
+
+"Do _you_ make clothes?" he inquired.
+
+"I'm a tailor," Mr. Frog replied. "And I've just opened a shop at the
+upper end of the pond."
+
+"What's the matter with my tail?" Brownie snapped. He was angry again.
+
+Then Mr. Frog explained that a tailor made suits.
+
+"We've nothing to do with _tails,"_ he said--"unless it's coat-tails."
+
+"What about cattails?" Brownie asked. "You're pretty close to some
+right now. So you can hardly say you have nothing to do with them."
+
+Mr. Frog smiled.
+
+"I see you're a joker," he said. "And it really seems a pity," he went
+on, "that a bright young fellow like you shouldn't wear the finest
+clothes to be had anywhere. If you'll come to my shop I'll make you a
+suit such as you never saw before in all your life."
+
+"I'll come!" Brownie Beaver promised. "I'll be there at sunset."
+
+And he went. Mr. Frog was waiting for him, with a broad smile on his
+face. Any smile of his just had to be broad, because he had such a
+wide mouth.
+
+"Come right in!" Mr. Frog said. "I'll measure you at once." So Brownie
+Beaver stepped inside Mr. Frog's shop to be measured for his new suit.
+
+It was all over in a few minutes. Mr. Frog scratched some figures on a
+flat stone. And then he went into the back room of his shop.
+
+He stayed there a long time. And when he came into the front part
+again he found Brownie Beaver still there.
+
+"What are you waiting for?" Mr. Frog asked. He seemed surprised that
+Brownie had not left.
+
+"I'm waiting for my suit, of course," Brownie Beaver said.
+
+"Oh! That won't be ready for three days," Mr. Frog told him. "I have
+to make it, you know."
+
+Brownie thought that Mr. Frog must be a slow worker; and he told him
+as much.
+
+But Mr. Frog did not agree with him.
+
+"I'm very spry!" he claimed. "On the jump every minute!"
+
+As Brownie started away, Mr. Frog called him back.
+
+"I'd get a new hat if I were you," he suggested.
+
+"What's the matter with this hat?" Brownie wanted to know. "It's a
+beaver hat--one my great-grandfather used to wear. It's been in our
+family a good many years and I'd hate to part with it."
+
+"You needn't part with it," Mr. Frog said pleasantly. "Just don't wear
+it--that's all! For it won't look well with the clothes I'm going to
+make for you."
+
+Then Brownie Beaver moved away once more. And again Mr. Frog stopped
+him.
+
+"I'd buy a collar if I were you," he said.
+
+"What's the matter with this neckerchief?" Brownie Beaver demanded.
+"It belonged to my great-grandmother."
+
+"Then I'd be careful of it if I were you," Mr. Frog told him. "And
+please get a stiff white collar to wear."
+
+"Won't it get limp in the water?" Brownie asked, doubtfully.
+
+"Get a celluloid one, of course," Mr. Frog replied. "That's the only
+kind of collar you ought to wear."
+
+So Brownie Beaver left the tailor-shop. And he was feeling quite
+unhappy. He had always been satisfied with his clothes. But now he
+began to dislike everything he had on. And he could hardly wait for
+three day to pass, he was in such a hurry for Mr. Frog to finish his
+new suit.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE NEW SUIT
+
+
+Three days had passed. And as soon as he had finished his breakfast
+Brownie Beaver hastened to the tailor-shop of Mr. Frog, who had been
+making him a suit of clothes.
+
+Much to Brownie's disappointment, he found that Mr. Frog's door was
+locked. But he sat down on the doorstep and waited a long time. And at
+last Mr. Frog appeared.
+
+After bidding Brownie Beaver good-morning, Mr. Frog yawned widely,
+remarking that he had been out late the night before, "at a
+singing-party," he said. "What can I do for you?" he asked Brownie
+Beaver.
+
+"You can let me have my new suit of clothes," Brownie told him.
+
+"You must be mistaken," Mr. Frog replied. "I don't remember you. I'm
+not making any suit for you."
+
+At that Brownie Beaver became much excited.
+
+"Why--" he exclaimed--"I was here three days ago and you measured
+me.... Don't you know me now?" he asked.
+
+"Sorry to say I don't," was Mr. Frog's answer.
+
+Brownie Beaver was desperate. He had looked forward eagerly to having
+his new suit. And he wanted it at once.
+
+"You advised me to get a new hat and a collar," Brownie reminded him.
+
+Mr. Frog smiled.
+
+"Ah! That's it!" he cried. "You're wearing them now; and it's no
+wonder I didn't recognize you. You look ten years younger."
+
+Brownie Beaver was puzzled.
+
+"I'm not ten yet," he said. "So if I look ten years younger, I must
+appear very young indeed."
+
+"The new clothes will fix that," Mr. Frog assured him.
+
+"But you just told me you were not making a suit for me," said
+Brownie.
+
+"Quite true, too!" answered Mr. Frog--"because it's all finished. So,
+of course, I'm not making it now."
+
+They had stepped inside the shop. And Mr. Frog carefully took some
+garments off a peg and spread them before Brownie Beaver.
+
+"There!" he said with an air of pride. "The finest suit you ever saw!"
+
+"I'll slip it on," said Brownie.
+
+"Oh! I wouldn't do that!" Mr. Frog told him. "You might stretch it."
+
+But nothing could have kept Brownie Beaver out of his new suit. He
+scrambled into it quickly, while the tailor stood by with a worried
+look upon his face.
+
+"The coat seems to be all right," Brownie remarked. "But there's
+something wrong with the trousers. I can't see my feet!" He bent over
+and gazed down where his feet ought to have been. But they had
+vanished. And an end of each trouser-leg trailed on the floor. "These
+trousers are too long!" Brownie declared.
+
+"Then you stretched them, putting them on," Mr. Frog said. "I warned
+you, you know."
+
+"I was very careful," Brownie said. "I'm sure it can't be that."
+
+"Then your legs are too short," Mr. Frog told him glibly. "They look
+to me to be _much_ shorter than they were when I measured you."
+
+"My legs--" Brownie Beaver exclaimed--"my legs are exactly the same
+length they were three days ago! You've made a mistake, Mr. Frog.
+That's what's the matter with these trousers!"
+
+But Mr. Frog shook his head.
+
+"I made them according to your measurements," he insisted.
+
+"Let me see your figures!" Brownie Beaver cried.
+
+But Mr. Frog shook his head again.
+
+"I don't do business that way," he explained. "As soon as I've
+finished a suit I throw away the stone on which I've written the
+measurements. It saves trouble, if there's any complaint afterwards."
+
+"Well!" said Brownie. "What can we do about this? I can't wear the
+trousers as they are."
+
+"You'll have to get your legs stretched," Mr. Frog told him. "Just tie
+a stone to each foot and wear the trousers for a few days. As soon as
+you see your feet, take off the stones.... It's simple enough." He
+helped tie some heavy stones to Brownie's feet. And then Brownie swam
+away.
+
+Now, swimming with your feet weighted like that is no easy matter. But
+Brownie managed to reach home. He stayed there, too, for the rest of
+the day, because it was hard for him to move about. And since he had
+nothing else to do, he went to sleep.
+
+When he awoke, about an hour before sunset, he couldn't think at first
+what made his feet feel so heavy. He thought he must be ill--until he
+remembered about the stones being tied to his feet.
+
+Then he looked down. And to his great surprise and joy there were his
+feet sticking out of his trousers, just as they ought to stick out!
+
+Brownie untied the stones. He had not supposed his legs would stretch
+so quickly as that. And he told himself that Mr. Frog was a good
+tailor. He certainly knew his business. Now, as a matter of fact, Mr.
+Frog was a very careless person. He had thrown away Brownie's
+measurements _before_ he made his clothes, instead of _afterwards_.
+And he had made the new suit entirely by guesswork. It was only
+natural that he would make some mistake; and so he had cut the
+trousers entirely too long.
+
+When he discovered that, he wanted to get Brownie out of his shop. And
+what happened next was simply this: After Brownie's trousers were wet
+in the pond, they dried while he was sleeping. And while they were
+drying they were shrinking at the same time.
+
+Though Brownie Beaver didn't know it, his legs had not stretched at
+all. They were exactly the same length they had always been.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Brownie Beaver, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Brownie Beaver, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+#4 in our series by Arthur Scott Bailey
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+Title: The Tale of Brownie Beaver
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6754]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on January 23, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVER ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Phil McLaury, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Frog Had Been Hiding Among the Lily-pads]
+
+THE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVER
+
+BY
+
+ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+I A QUEER PLACE TO LIVE
+
+II HOW TO FELL A TREE
+
+III STICKS AND MUD
+
+IV THE FRESHET
+
+V BROWNIE SAVES THE DAM
+
+VI A HAPPY THOUGHT
+
+VII A NEWFANGLED NEWSPAPER
+
+VIII MR. CROW IS UPSET
+
+IX THE SIGN ON THE TREE
+
+X A HOLIDAY
+
+XI BAD NEWS
+
+XII GRANDADDY BEAVER THINKS
+
+XIII A LUCKY FIND
+
+XIV WAS IT A GUN?
+
+XV JASPER JAY'S STORY
+
+XVI LOOKING PLEASANT
+
+XVII BROWNIE ESCAPES
+
+XVIII MR. FROG'S QUESTION
+
+XIX THE NEW SUIT
+
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+A QUEER PLACE TO LIVE
+
+
+The village near one end of Pleasant Valley where Farmer Green often
+went to sell butter and eggs was not the only village to be seen from
+Blue Mountain. There was another which Farmer Green seldom visited,
+because it lay beyond the mountain and was a long distance from his
+house. Though he owned the land where it stood, those that lived there
+thought they had every right to stay there as long as they pleased,
+without being disturbed.
+
+It was in this village that Brownie Beaver and his neighbors lived. It
+was a different sort of town, too, from the one where Farmer Green
+went each week. Over beyond Blue Mountain all the houses were built in
+a pond. And all their doors were under water. But nobody minded that
+because--like Brownie Beaver--everybody that dwelt there was a fine
+swimmer.
+
+Years and years before Brownie's time his forefathers had come there,
+and finding that there were many trees in the neighborhood with the
+sort of bark they liked to eat--such as poplars, willows and box
+elders--they had decided that it was a good place to live. There was a
+small stream, too, which was really the beginning of Swift River. And
+by damming it those old settlers made a pond in which they could build
+their houses.
+
+They had ideas of their own as to what a house should be like--and
+very good ideas they were--though you, perhaps, might not care for
+them at all. They wanted their houses to be surrounded by water,
+because they thought they were safer when built in that manner. And
+they always insisted that a door leading into a house should be far
+beneath the surface of the water, for they believed that that made a
+house safer too.
+
+To you such an idea may seem very strange. But if you were chased by
+an enemy you might be glad to be able to swim under water, down to the
+bottom of a pond, and slip inside a door which led to a winding hall,
+which in its turn led upwards into your house.
+
+Of course, your enemy might be able to swim as well as you. But maybe
+he would think twice--or even three times--before he went prowling
+through your crooked hall. For if you had enormous, strong, sharp
+teeth--with which you could gnaw right through a tree--he would not
+care to have you seize him as he poked his head around a corner in a
+dark passage of a strange house.
+
+It was in a house of that kind that Brownie Beaver lived. And he built
+it himself, because he said he would rather have a neat, new house
+than one of the big, old dwellings that had been built many years
+before, when his great-great-grandfather had helped throw the dam
+across the stream.
+
+The dam was there still. It was so old that trees were growing on it.
+And there was an odd thing about it: it was never finished. Though
+Brownie Beaver was a young chap, he worked on the dam sometimes, like
+all his neighbors. You see, the villagers kept making the dam wider.
+And since it was built of sticks and mud, the water sometimes washed
+bits of it away: so it had to be kept in repair.
+
+If Brownie Beaver and his friends had neglected their dam, they would
+have waked up some day and found that their pond was empty; and
+without any water to hide their doorways they would have been safe no
+longer.
+
+They would have had no place, either, to store their winter's food.
+For they were in the habit of cutting down trees and saving the bark
+and branches too, in order to have plenty to eat when cold weather
+came and the ice closed their pond.
+
+Some of their food they carried into their houses through a straight
+hall which was made for that very purpose. And some of the branches
+they fastened under water, near the dam. It was just like putting
+green things into a refrigerator, so they will keep.
+
+Now you see why Brownie Beaver would no more have thought of building
+his house on dry land than you would think of building one in a pond.
+Everybody likes his own way best. And it never once occurred to
+Brownie Beaver that his way was the least bit strange.
+
+Perhaps it was because his family had always lived in that fashion.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+HOW TO FELL A TREE
+
+
+Brownie Beaver could do many things that other forest-people (except
+his own relations) were not able to do at all. For instance, cutting
+down a tree was something that nobody but one of the Beaver family
+would think of attempting. But as for Brownie Beaver--if he ever saw a
+tree that he wanted to cut down he set to work at once, without even
+going home to get any tools. And the reason for that was that he
+always had his tools with him. For strange as it may seem, he used his
+teeth to do all his wood-cutting.
+
+The first thing to be done when you set out to fell a tree with your
+teeth is to strip off the bark around the bottom of the trunk, so that
+a white band encircles it. At least, that was the way Brownie Beaver
+always began. And no doubt he knew what he was about.
+
+After he had removed the band of bark Brownie began to gnaw away chips
+of wood, where the white showed. And as he gnawed, he slowly sidled
+round and round the tree, until at last only the heart of the tree was
+left to keep the tree from toppling over.
+
+Then Brownie Beaver would stop his gnawing and look all about, to pick
+out a place where he wanted the tree to fall. And as soon as Brownie
+had made up his mind about that, he quickly gnawed a few more chips
+out of the heart of the tree on the side toward the spot where he
+intended it to come toppling down upon the ground.
+
+Brownie Beaver would not have to gnaw long before the tree would begin
+to lean. All the time it leaned more and more. And the further over it
+sagged, the faster it tipped. Luckily, Brownie Beaver always knew just
+the right moment to jump out of the way before the tree fell.
+
+If you had ever seen him you might have thought he was frightened,
+because he never failed to run away and hide as the tree crashed down
+with a sound almost like thunder.
+
+But Brownie was not at all frightened. He was merely careful. Knowing
+what a loud noise the falling tree would make, and that it might lead
+a man (or some other enemy) to come prowling around, to see what had
+happened, Brownie used to stay hidden until he felt quite sure that no
+one was going to trouble him.
+
+You can understand that waiting, as he did, was no easy matter when
+you stop to remember that one of Brownie's reasons for cutting down a
+tree was that he wanted to eat the tender bark to be found in the
+tree-top. It was exactly like knowing your dinner was on the table,
+all ready for you, and having to hide in some dark corner for half an
+hour, before going into the dining-room. You know how hungry you would
+get, if you had to do that.
+
+Well, Brownie Beaver used to get just as hungry as any little boy or
+girl. How he did tear at the bark, when he finally began to eat! And
+how full he stuffed his mouth! And how he did enjoy his meal! But
+everybody will admit that he had a right to enjoy his dinner, for he
+certainly worked hard enough to get it.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+STICKS AND MUD
+
+
+Like the dam that held back the water to form the pond where Brownie
+Beaver lived, Brownie's house was made of sticks and mud. He cut the
+sticks himself, from trees that grew near the bank of the pond; and
+after dragging and pushing them to the water's edge he swam with them,
+without much trouble, to the center of the pond, where he wished to
+build his house. Of course, the sticks floated in the water; so
+Brownie found that part of his work to be quite easy.
+
+He had chosen that spot in the center of the pond because there was
+something a good deal like an island there--only it did not rise quite
+out of the water. A good, firm place on which to set his house--
+Brownie Beaver considered it.
+
+While he was building his house Brownie gathered his winter's food at
+the same time. Anyone might think he would have found it difficult to
+do two things at once like that. But while he was cutting sticks to
+build his new house it was no great trouble to peel the bark off them.
+The bark, you know, was what Brownie Beaver always ate. And when he
+cut sticks for his house there was only one thing about which he had
+to be careful; he had to be particular to use only certain kinds of
+wood. Poplar, cottonwood, or willow; birch, elm, box elder or aspen--
+those were the trees which bore bark that he liked. But if he had cut
+down a hickory or an ash or an oak tree he wouldn't have been able to
+get any food from them at all because the bark was not the sort he
+cared for. That was lucky, in a way, because the wood of those trees
+was very hard and Brownie would have had much more work cutting them
+down.
+
+A good many of Brownie Beaver's neighbors thought he was foolish to go
+to the trouble of building a new house, when there were old ones to be
+had. And there was a lazy fellow called Tired Tim who laughed openly
+at Brownie.
+
+"When you're older you'll know better than to work like that," Tired
+Tim told him. "Why don't you do the way I did?" he asked. "I dug a
+tunnel in the bank of the pond; and it's a good enough house for
+anybody. It's much easier than building a house of sticks and mud."
+
+But Brownie told Tired Tim that he didn't care to live in a hole in
+the bank.
+
+"Nobody but a very lazy person would be willing to have a house like
+that," Brownie said.
+
+Tired Tim only laughed all the harder.
+
+"Old Grandaddy Beaver has been talking to you," he remarked. "I saw
+him taking you over to the dam day before yesterday and telling you
+where to work on it. Of course, that's all right if you're willing to
+work for the whole village. But I say, let others do the work! As for
+me, I've never put a single stick nor a single armful of mud on that
+dam; and what's more, I never intend to, either.
+
+"My tunnel in the bank suits me very well. Of course, it may not be so
+airy in summer as a house such as you're making for yourself. But I
+don't live in my house in summer. So what's the difference to me? In
+summer I go up the stream, or down--just as it suits me--and I see
+something of the world and have a fine time. There's nothing like
+travel, you know, to broaden one," said Tired Tim.
+
+Brownie Beaver stopped just a moment and looked at the lazy fellow. He
+was certainly broad enough, Brownie thought. He was so fat that his
+sides stuck far out. But it was no wonder--for he never did any work.
+
+"You'd better take my advice," Tired Tim told Brownie.
+
+But Brownie Beaver had returned to his wood-cutting. He didn't even
+stop to answer. To him, working was just fun. And building a fine
+house was as good as any game.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+THE FRESHET
+
+
+The rain had fallen steadily for two days and two nights-not just a
+gentle drizzle, but a heavy downpour.
+
+For some time it did not in the least disturb Brownie Beaver and his
+neighbors--that is to say, all but one of them. For there was a very
+old gentleman in the village known as Grandaddy Beaver who began to
+worry almost as soon as it began to rain.
+
+"We're a-going to have a freshet," he said to everybody he met. "I've
+seen 'em start many a time and I can always tell a freshet almost as
+soon as I see it coming."
+
+Grandaddy Beaver's friends paid no heed to his warning. And some of
+them were so unkind as to laugh when the old gentleman crawled on top
+of his house and began to mend it.
+
+"You young folks can poke fun at me if you want to," said Grandaddy
+Beaver, "but I'm a-going right ahead and make my house as strong as I
+can. For when the freshet gets here I don't want my home washed away."
+
+All day long people would stop to watch the old fellow at work upon
+his roof. And everybody thought it was a great joke--until the second
+day came and everybody noticed that it was raining just as hard as
+ever.
+
+But no one except Grandaddy Beaver had ever heard of a freshet at that
+time of year. So even then nobody else went to work on his house,
+though some people _did_ stop smiling. A freshet, you know, is a
+serious thing.
+
+As the second day passed, the rain seemed to fall harder. And still
+Grandaddy Beaver kept putting new sticks on the roof of his house and
+plastering mud over them. And at last Brownie Beaver began to think
+that perhaps the old gentleman was right, after all, and that maybe
+everybody else was wrong.
+
+So Brownie went home and set to work. And all his neighbors at once
+began to smile at him.
+
+But Brownie Beaver didn't mind that.
+
+"My roof needed mending, anyhow," he said. "And if we _should_
+have a freshet. I'll be ready for it. And if we don't have one,
+there'll be no harm done."
+
+[Illustration: Mr. Crow Called Down the Chimney]
+
+Now, all this time the water had been rising slowly. But that was no
+more than everyone expected, since it was raining so hard. But when
+the second night came, the water began to rise very fast. It rose so
+quickly that several families found their bedroom floors under water
+almost before they knew it.
+
+Then old Grandaddy Beaver went through the village and stopped at
+every door.
+
+"What do you think about it now?" he asked. "Is it a freshet or isn't
+it?"
+
+In the houses where the water had climbed above the bedroom floors the
+people all agreed that it was a freshet and that Grandaddy Beaver had
+been right all the time. But there were still plenty of people who
+thought the old gentleman was mistaken.
+
+"The water won't come any higher," they said. "It never has, at this
+time of year." But they looked a bit worried, in spite of what they
+said.
+
+"It's a-going to be the worst freshet that's happened since you were
+born," their caller croaked. "You mark my words!"
+
+When he came to Brownie Beaver's house Grandaddy found that there was
+one person, at least, that had taken his advice.
+
+"I see you're all ready for the freshet!" the old gentleman remarked.
+"They laughed at me; but I was right," he said.
+
+"They laughed at me, too," Brownie Beaver told him.
+
+"There's nobody in this village that'll laugh again tonight,"
+Grandaddy said very solemnly, "for there's a-going to be a flood
+before morning."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+BROWNIE SAVES THE DAM
+
+
+Brownie Beaver was always glad that he had taken Grandaddy's advice
+about the freshet. And Brownie's neighbors were glad that he had, too.
+For that was really the only thing that saved the village from being
+carried away by the flood of water that swept down upon the pond,
+after it had rained for two days and two nights.
+
+The pond rose so quickly and the water rushed past so fast that people
+had to scramble out of their houses and begin working on them, to keep
+them from being washed away.
+
+That rush of water meant only one thing. The pond was full and running
+over! And just as likely as not the dam would be carried away--the dam
+on which Grandaddy Beaver had worked when he was a youngster, and on
+which his own grandaddy had worked before him. It would take years and
+years to build another such dam as that.
+
+Now, with almost everybody working on his own house, there was almost
+no one left to work upon the dam. But people never stopped to think
+about that. They never once remembered that out of the whole village
+old Grandaddy and Brownie Beaver were the only persons whose houses
+had been made ready for the freshet and that those two were the only
+people with nothing to do at home.
+
+"There'll be plenty to help save the dam," everybody said to himself.
+"I'll just work on my house."
+
+Now, Brownie Beaver knew that there was nothing more he could do to
+make his house safe, so he swam over to the dam, expecting to find a
+good many of his neighbors there. But old Grandaddy Beaver was the
+only other person he found. And he seemed worried.
+
+"It's a great pity!" he said to Brownie. "Here's this fine dam, which
+has taken so many years to build, and it's a-going to be washed away--
+you mark my words!"
+
+"What makes you think that?" asked Brownie.
+
+"There's nobody here to do anything," said Grandaddy Beaver. "The
+spillways of this dam ought to be made as big as possible, to let the
+freshet pass through. But I can't do it, for I can't swim as well as I
+could once."
+
+Brownie Beaver looked at the rushing water which poured over the top
+of the dam in a hundred places and was already carrying off mud and
+sticks, eating the dam away before his very eyes.
+
+"I'll save the dam!" he cried. "You?" Grandaddy Beaver exclaimed.
+"Why, what do you think you can do?" Being so old, he couldn't help
+believing that other people were too young to do difficult things.
+
+"Watch me and I'll show you!" Brownie Beaver told him. And without
+saying another word he swam to the nearest spillway and began making
+it bigger.
+
+Sometimes he had to fight the freshet madly, to keep from being swept
+over the dam himself. Sometimes, too, as he stood on the dam it
+crumbled beneath him and he found himself swimming again.
+
+How many narrow escapes he had that day Brownie Beaver could never
+remember. When they happened, he didn't have time to count them, he
+was working so busily. And if old Grandaddy Beaver hadn't told
+everyone afterward, how Brownie saved the great dam from being swept
+away, and how hard he had worked, and how he had swum fearlessly into
+the torrent, people wouldn't have known anything about it.
+
+To be sure, they had noticed that the water went down almost as
+suddenly as it rose. But they hadn't stopped to think that there must
+have been some reason for that. And when they learned that Brownie
+Beaver was the reason, the whole village gave him a vote of thanks.
+
+They wanted to give him a gold-headed cane, too. But they were unable
+to find one anywhere.
+
+When Brownie Beaver heard of that he said it was just as well, because
+he seldom walked far on land and there wasn't much use in a person's
+carrying a cane when he swam, anyhow. Although it was sometimes done,
+he had always considered it a silly practice--and one that he would
+not care to follow.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+A HAPPY THOUGHT
+
+
+Brownie Beaver liked to know what was going on in the world. But
+living far from Pleasant Valley as he did, he seldom heard any news
+before it was quite old.
+
+"I wish--" he said to Mr. Crow one day, when that old gentleman was
+making him a visit--"I wish someone would start a newspaper in this
+neighborhood."
+
+Mr. Crow told Brownie that he would be glad to bring him an old
+newspaper whenever he happened to find one. "Thank you!" Brownie
+Beaver said. "You're very kind. But an old newspaper would be of no
+use to me."
+
+"Why not?" Mr. Crow inquired. "They make very good beds, I've been
+told. And I suppose that is what you want one for."
+
+"Not at all!" Brownie replied. "I'd like to know what's happening over
+in Pleasant Valley. It takes so long for news to reach us here in our
+pond that it's often hardly worth listening to when we hear it--it's
+so old. Now, what I'd really prefer is a newspaper that would tell me
+everything that's going to happen a week later."
+
+Mr. Crow said he never heard of a newspaper like that.
+
+"Well, somebody ought to start one," Brownie Beaver answered.
+
+Mr. Crow thought deeply for some minutes without saying a word. And at
+last He cried suddenly:
+
+"I have an idea!"
+
+"Have you?" Brownie Beaver exclaimed. "What is it, Mr. Crow?"
+
+"I'll be your newspaper!" Mr. Crow told him.
+
+At that Brownie Beaver looked somewhat doubtful.
+
+"That's very kind of you," he said. "But I'm afraid it wouldn't do me
+much good. You're so black that the ink wouldn't show on you at all---
+unless," he added, "they use _white_ ink to print on you."
+
+"You don't understand," old Mr. Crow said. "What I mean is this: I'll
+fly over here once a week and tell you everything that's happened. Of
+course," he continued, "I can't very well tell you everything that is
+going to take place the following week. But I'll do my best."
+
+Brownie Beaver was delighted. And when Mr. Crow asked him what day he
+wanted his newspaper Brownie said that Saturday afternoon would be a
+good time.
+
+"That's the last day of the week," Brownie Beaver remarked, "so you
+ought to have plenty of news for me. You know, if you came the first
+day of the week there would be very little to tell."
+
+"That's so!" said Mr. Crow. "Well say 'Saturday,' then. And you shall
+have your newspaper without fail--unless," he explained--"unless there
+should be a bad storm, or unless I should be ill. And, of course, if
+Farmer Green should want me to help him in his cornfield, I wouldn't
+be able to come. There might be other things, too, to keep me at home,
+which I can't think of just now," said Mr. Crow.
+
+Again Brownie Beaver looked a bit doubtful.
+
+"I hope you'll try to be regular," he told Mr. Crow. "When a person
+takes a newspaper he doesn't like to be disappointed, you know."
+
+Old Mr. Crow said that he hoped nothing would prevent his coming to
+Brownie's house every Saturday afternoon.
+
+"There's only one more thing I can think of," he croaked, "that would
+make it impossible for me to be here. And that is if I should lose
+count of the days of the week or have to see a baseball game or fly
+south for the winter."
+
+"But that's _three_ things, instead of only _one_," Brownie Beaver
+objected.
+
+"Well--maybe it is," Mr. Crow replied--"the way you count. But I call
+it only one because I said it all in one breath, without a single
+pause."
+
+"I hope you won't tell me the news as fast as that," said Brownie
+Beaver, "for if you did I should never be able to remember one-half of
+it."
+
+But Mr. Crow promised that he would talk very slowly.
+
+"You'll be perfectly satisfied," he told Brownie. "And now I must go
+home at once, to begin gathering news."
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+A NEWFANGLED NEWSPAPER
+
+
+After Mr. Crow flew back to Pleasant Valley to gather news for him,
+Brownie Beaver carefully counted each day that passed. Since Mr. Crow
+had agreed to be his newspaper, and come each Saturday afternoon to
+tell him everything that had happened during the week, Brownie was in
+a great hurry for Saturday to arrive.
+
+In order to make no mistake, he put aside a stick in which he gnawed a
+notch each day. And in that way he knew exactly when Saturday came.
+
+That was probably the longest day in Brownie Beaver's life. At least,
+it seemed so to him. Whenever he saw a bird soaring above the tree-tops
+he couldn't help hoping it was Mr. Crow. And whenever he heard a
+_caw_--_caw_ far off in the distance Brownie Beaver dropped whatever
+he happened to be doing, expecting that Mr. Crow would flap into sight
+at any moment.
+
+Brownie had many disappointments. But Mr. Crow really came at last. He
+lighted right on top of Brownie Beaver's house and called "Paper!"
+down the chimney--just like that!
+
+Brownie happened to be inside his house. And in a wonderfully short
+time his head appeared above the water and he soon crawled up beside
+Mr. Crow.
+
+"Well, I _am_ glad to see you!" he told Mr. Crow.
+
+"Peter Mink caught a monstrous eel in the duck pond on Monday," Mr.
+Crow said. Being a newspaper, he thought he ought to say nothing
+except what was news--not even "Good afternoon!"
+
+"Mr. Rabbit, of Pine Ridge, with his wife and fourteen children, is
+visiting his brother, Mr. Jeremiah Rabbit. Mrs. Jeremiah Rabbit says
+she does not know when her husband's relations are going home," Mr.
+Crow continued to relate in a singsong voice.
+
+"Goodness gracious!" Brownie Beaver exclaimed.
+
+"Fatty Coon--" Mr. Crow said--"Fatty Coon was confined to his house by
+illness Tuesday night. He ate too many dried apples."
+
+"Well, well!" Brownie Beaver murmured. And he started to ask Mr. Crow
+a question. But Mr. Crow interrupted him with more news.
+
+"Mrs. Bear had a birthday on Wednesday. An enjoyable time was had by
+all--except the pig."
+
+"Pig?" Brownie Beaver asked. "What pig?"
+
+"The pig they ate," said Mr. Crow. And he went right on talking. "On
+Thursday Mr. Woodchuck went to visit his cousins in the West. Mrs.
+Woodchuck is worried."
+
+"What's she worried about?" Brownie inquired.
+
+"She's afraid he's coming back again," Mr. Crow explained.
+
+"I _have_ heard he was lazy," Brownie said. "What happened on Friday?"
+
+"Tommy Fox made a visit. But he didn't have a good time at all," Mr.
+Crow reported, "and he left faster than he came."
+
+Brownie Beaver wanted to know where Tommy Fox made his visit.
+
+"At Farmer Green's hen-house," Mr. Crow explained.
+
+"Why did he hurry away?" Brownie asked.
+
+"Old dog Spot chased him," Mr. Crow replied. "But you mustn't ask
+questions," he complained. "You can't ask questions of a newspaper,
+you know."
+
+"Well--what happened on Saturday?"
+
+"There you go again!" cried Mr. Crow. "Another question! I declare, I
+don't believe you ever took a newspaper before--did you?"
+
+Brownie Beaver admitted that he never had.
+
+"Then--" said Mr. Crow--"then don't interrupt me again, please! I'll
+tell you all the news I've brought. And when I've finished I'll stop
+being a newspaper and be myself for a while. And then we can talk. But
+not before!" he insisted.
+
+Brownie Beaver nodded his head. He was afraid that if he said another
+word Mr. Crow would grow angry and fly away without telling him any
+more news.
+
+"On Saturday--this morning, to be exact"--said Mr. Crow, "there came
+near being a bad accident. Jimmy Rabbit almost cut off Frisky
+Squirrel's tail."
+
+Mr. Crow paused and looked at Brownie Beaver out of the corner of his
+eye. He knew that Brownie would want to know what prevented the
+accident. But he was in no hurry to tell him.
+
+For a few moments Brownie waited to hear the rest. But a few moments
+was more than he could endure.
+
+"Why didn't Jimmy cut off his tail?" Brownie asked eagerly.
+
+"There!" said Mr. Crow. "You've done just as I told you not to. So I
+shall not tell you the rest until next Saturday.... You see, you have
+a few things to learn about taking a newspaper." And 'he would give
+Brownie no more news that day. To be sure, he was willing to talk--but
+only about things that had happened where Brownie Beaver lived.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+MR. CROW IS UPSET
+
+
+Brownie Beaver couldn't help feeling that Mr. Crow had not treated him
+very well, because Mr. Crow hadn't told him all the news about Frisky
+Squirrel's tail. He thought that maybe there were things about a
+newspaper that even Mr. Crow didn't know.
+
+Another week had passed. Brownie knew that it had, because since Mr.
+Crow's last call he had cut a notch in a stick each day. And there
+were now seven of them.
+
+Late Saturday afternoon Mr. Crow came back again. He lighted on top of
+Brownie's house and called "Paper!" down the chimney, just as he had a
+week before.
+
+Brownie Beaver came swimming up once more.
+
+"Look here!" he said to Mr. Crow. "I don't believe yon know much about
+being a newspaper, do you?"
+
+That surprised Mr. Crow.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked.
+
+"A newspaper--" said Brownie Beaver--"a newspaper is always left on, a
+person's doorstep. I've talked with a good many people and not one of
+them ever heard of a paper being left on the roof."
+
+Mr. Crow's face seemed to grow blacker than ever, he was so angry.
+
+"How can anybody leave a newspaper on your doorstep, when the step's
+under water?" he growled.
+
+Brownie Beaver did not answer that question, for he had something else
+to say to Mr. Crow.
+
+"I've talked with a good many people," he said once more, "and not one
+of them ever heard of such rudeness as _shouting down a person's
+chimney_. If there was anybody asleep in the house, it would
+certainly wake him; and if a person had a fire in his house, shouting
+down the chimney might put it out."
+
+Mr. Crow looked rather foolish.
+
+"I'll try to think of some way of leaving your newspaper that will
+suit us both," he said. Then he _hemmed_ and began to tell Brownie
+the week's news.
+
+"On Sunday," said Mr. Crow, "there was a freshet."
+
+"I knew that before you did," said Brownie Beaver.
+
+Mr. Crow looked disappointed.
+
+"How?" he asked.
+
+"Why, I live further up the river than you," said Brownie Beaver. "And
+since freshets always come _down_ a river, this one didn't reach you
+till after it had passed me."
+
+Something made Mr. Crow peevish.
+
+"I don't believe you'd care to hear any more of my news," he said.
+"You appear to know it already. Perhaps you'll be kind enough to tell
+me the sort of news you prefer to hear."
+
+"Certainly!" Brownie Beaver replied. "Now, there's the weather! I've
+talked with a good many people and they all say that a good newspaper
+ought to tell the weather for the next day."
+
+Mr. Crow cocked an eye up at the sky.
+
+"To-morrow will be fair," he said.
+
+"I'm told that a good newspaper ought to tell a few jokes," Brownie
+Beaver continued.
+
+But Mr. Crow sneered openly at that. "I'm a _newspaper_--not a
+_jest-book_," he announced.
+
+"Then you refuse to tell any jokes, do you?" Brownie Beaver asked him.
+
+"I certainly do!" Mr. Crow cried indignantly.
+
+"Very well!" Brownie said. "I see I'll have to take some other
+newspaper, though I must say I hate to change--after taking this one
+so long."
+
+"I hope you'll find one to suit you," Mr. Crow said in a cross voice.
+And he flew away without another word. He was terribly upset. You see,
+he had enjoyed being a newspaper, because it gave him an excuse for
+asking people the most inquisitive questions. He had intended all that
+week to ask Aunt Polly Woodchuck whether she wore a wig. But he hadn't
+been able to find her at home. And now it was too late--for Mr. Crow
+was a newspaper no longer.
+
+As for Brownie Beaver, he succeeded in getting Jasper Jay to be his
+newspaper. Though Jasper told him many jokes, Brownie found that he
+could not depend upon Jasper's news. And as a matter of fact, Jasper
+made up most of it himself. He claimed that the _newest news_ was
+the best.
+
+"That's why I invent it myself, right on the spot," he explained.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+THE SIGN ON THE TREE
+
+
+On one of Brownie Beaver's long excursions down the stream he came
+upon a tree to which a sign was nailed. Now, Brownie had never learned
+to read. But he had heard that Uncle Jerry Chuck could tell what a
+sign said. So Brownie asked a pleasant young fellow named Frisky
+Squirrel if he would mind asking Uncle Jerry to come over to Swift
+River on a matter of important business.
+
+When Uncle Jerry Chuck appeared, Brownie Beaver said he was glad to
+see him and that Uncle Jerry was looking very well.
+
+"I've sent for you," said Brownie, "because I wanted you to see this
+sign. I can tell by the tracks under the tree that the sign was put up
+only to-day. And I thought you ought to know about it at once, Uncle
+Jerry."
+
+As soon as he heard that, Uncle Jerry Chuck stepped close to the tree
+and began to read the sign.
+
+Now, there was something about Uncle Jerry's reading that Brownie
+Beaver had heard. People had told him that Uncle Jerry Chuck couldn't
+tell what a sign said unless he read it _aloud_. That was why Brownie
+Beaver had sent for him, for Brownie knew Uncle Jerry well enough to
+guess that if anybody _asked_ Uncle Jerry to read the sign, Uncle
+Jerry would insist on being paid for his trouble.
+
+But now Uncle Jerry was going to read the sign for himself. And
+Brownie Beaver moved up beside him, to hear what he said.
+
+The sign looked like this:
+
+NO HUNTING
+
+OR FISHING
+
+ALOUD
+
+Uncle Jerry repeated the words in a sing-song tone.
+
+"I don't think much of that," he said. "It's bad enough to be hunted
+by people who make a noise, though you have _some_ chance of getting
+away then. But if they can't make a noise it will be much more
+dangerous for all of us forest-people."
+
+If Tommy Fox hadn't happened to come along just then Uncle Jerry
+wouldn't have found out his mistake. But Tommy Fox soon set him right.
+As soon as he had talked a bit with Uncle Jerry he said:
+
+"What the sign really means is that no hunting or fishing will be
+permitted. That last word should be 'allowed,' instead of 'aloud.'
+It's spelled wrong," he explained.
+
+"That's better!" Uncle Jerry cried. "Now there'll be no more hunting
+in the neighborhood and we'll all be quite safe.... Farmer Green is
+kinder than I supposed."
+
+When Brownie Beaver heard that, he said good-by and started home at
+once to tell the good news to all his friends. He had leaped into the
+river and was swimming up-stream rapidly when Uncle Jerry called to
+him to stop.
+
+"There's something I want to say," Uncle Jerry shouted. "I think you
+ought to pay me for reading the sign."
+
+But Brownie Beaver shook his head.
+
+"I didn't ask you to read the sign for me," he declared. "You read it
+for _yourself_, Uncle Jerry. And besides, you didn't know what it
+meant until Tommy Fox came along and told you.... If you want to know
+what I think, I'll tell you. I think you ought to pay Tommy Fox
+something."
+
+Uncle Jerry at once began to look worried. He said nothing more, but
+plunged out of sight into some bushes, as if he were afraid Tommy Fox
+might come back and find him.
+
+[Illustration: Brownie Beaver Returned to His Wood-cutting]
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+A HOLIDAY
+
+
+There was great rejoicing in the little village in the pond when
+Brownie Beaver returned with the good news that there would be no more
+hunting and fishing. And when old Grandaddy Beaver said that everybody
+ought to take a holiday to celebrate the occasion, all the villagers
+said it was a fine idea.
+
+So they stopped working, for once, and began to plan the celebration.
+They thought that there ought to be swimming races and tree-felling
+contests. And Brownie Beaver said that after the holiday was over he
+would suggest that someone be chosen to go down and thank Farmer Green
+for putting the notice on the tree.
+
+The whole village agreed to Brownie's proposal and they voted to see
+who should be sent. Brownie Beaver himself passed his hat around to
+take up the votes. And it was quickly found that every vote was for
+Brownie Beaver. He had even voted for himself. But no one seemed to
+care about that.
+
+Then the swimming races began. There was a race under water, a race
+with heads out of water--and another in which each person who took
+part had to stay beneath the surface as long as he could.
+
+That last race caused some trouble. A young scamp called Slippery Sam
+won it. And many people thought that he had swum up inside his house,
+where he could get air, without being seen. But no one could prove it;
+so he won the race, just the same.
+
+Next came the tree-felling contest. There were six, including Brownie
+Beaver, that took part in it. Grandaddy Beaver had picked out six
+trees of exactly the same size. Each person in the contest had to try
+to bring his tree to the ground first. And that caused some trouble,
+too, because some claimed that their trees were of harder wood than
+others--and more difficult to gnaw--while others complained that the
+bark of their trees tasted very bitter, and of course that made their
+task unpleasant.
+
+Those six trees, falling one after another, made such a racket that
+old Mr. Crow heard the noise miles away and flew over to see what was
+happening.
+
+After everybody crept out of his hiding-place some time afterward
+(everyone had to hide for a while, you know), there was Mr. Crow
+sitting upon one of the fallen trees.
+
+"What's going on?" he inquired. "You're not going to cut down the
+whole forest, I hope."
+
+Then they told him about the celebration. And Mr. Crow began to laugh.
+
+"What are you going to do next?" he asked.
+
+"We're a-going to send Brownie Beaver over to Pleasant Valley to thank
+Farmer Green for his kindness in putting an end to hunting and
+fishing," said old Grandaddy Beaver. "And he's a-going to start right
+away."
+
+Mr. Crow looked around. And there was Brownie Beaver, with a
+lunch-basket in his hand, all ready to begin his long journey.
+
+"Say good-by to him then," said Mr. Crow, "for you'll never see him
+again."
+
+"What do you mean?" Grandaddy Beaver asked. And as for Brownie--he was
+so frightened that he dropped his basket right in the water.
+
+"I mean----" said Mr. Crow--"I mean that it's a very dangerous errand.
+You don't seem to have understood that sign. In the first place, it
+was not Farmer Green, but his son Johnnie, who nailed It to the tree."
+
+"Ah!" Brownie Beaver cried. "_That_ is why one of the words was
+misspelled!"
+
+"No doubt!" Mr. Crow remarked. As a matter of fact, not being able to
+read he hadn't known about the word that was spelled wrong. "In the
+second place," he continued, "the sign doesn't mean that hunting and
+fishing are to be stopped. It means that no one but Johnnie Green is
+going to hunt and fish in this neighborhood. He wants all the hunting
+and fishing for himself. That's why he put up that sign. And instead
+of hunting and fishing being stopped, I should say that they were
+going to begin to be more dangerous than ever.... They tell me," he
+added, "that Johnnie Green had a new gun on this birthday."
+
+Brownie Beaver said at once that he was not going on the errand of
+thanks.
+
+"I resign," he said, "and anyone that wants to go in my place is
+welcome to do so."
+
+But nobody cared to go. And the whole village seemed greatly
+disappointed, until Grandaddy Beaver made a short speech.
+
+"We've all had a good holiday, anyhow," he said. "And I should say
+that was something to be thankful for."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+BAD NEWS
+
+
+"Have you heard the news?" Tired Tim asked Brownie Beaver one day.
+"There's going to be a cyclone."
+
+"A cyclone?" Brownie exclaimed. "What's that? I never heard of one."
+
+"It's a big storm, with a terrible wind," Tired Tim explained. "The
+wind will blow so hard that it will snap off big trees."
+
+"Good!" Brownie Beaver cried. "Then I won't have to cut down any more
+trees in order to reach the tender bark that grows in their tops."
+
+Tired Tim laughed. "You won't think it's very 'good,'" he said, "when
+the cyclone strikes the village."
+
+"Why not?" Brownie inquired.
+
+"Because--" said Tired Tim--"because the wind will blow every house
+away. It will snatch up the sticks of which the houses are built and
+carry them over the top of Blue Mountain. Then I guess you'll wish you
+had taken my advice and not built that new house of yours.
+
+"_I_ shall be safe enough," the lazy rascal continued. "All I'll
+have to do will be to crawl inside my house in the bank; for the wind
+can't very well blow the ground away."
+
+Brownie Beaver thought that Tired Tim was just trying to scare him.
+
+"I don't believe there's going to be any such thing!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Don't you?" Tim grinned. "You just go and ask Grandaddy Beaver. He's
+the one that says there's going to be a cyclone."
+
+At that Brownie Beaver stopped working and hurried off to find old
+Grandaddy Beaver. And to his great dismay, Grandaddy said that what
+Tired Tim had told him was the truth.
+
+"It's a-coming!" Grandaddy Beaver declared. "I saw one once before in
+these parts, years before anybody else in this village was born. And
+when I see a cyclone a-coming I can generally tell it a long way off."
+
+"When is it going to get here?" Brownie asked in a quavering voice.
+
+"Next Tuesday!" Grandaddy replied.
+
+"What makes you think it's coming?"
+
+"Well--everything looks just the way it did before the last cyclone,"
+Grandaddy Beaver explained, as he took a mouthful of willow bark. "The
+moon looks just the same and the sun looks just the same. I had a
+twinge of rheumatics in my left shoulder yesterday; and to-day the
+pain's in my right. It was exactly that way before the last cyclone."
+
+Brownie Beaver did not doubt that the old gentleman knew what he was
+talking about. He remembered that Grandaddy Beaver had warned everyone
+there was going to be a freshet. And though people had laughed at the
+old chap, the freshet had come.
+
+Sadly worried, Brownie went and called on all his neighbors and asked
+them what they were going to do. And to his surprise he found that
+they were laughing at Grandaddy once more. They seemed to have
+forgotten about the freshet.
+
+But Brownie Beaver could not forget that dreadful night. And now he
+tried to think of some way to keep his new house from being blown away
+by the great wind, which Grandaddy Beaver said was coming on Tuesday
+without fail.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+GRANDADDY BEAVER THINKS
+
+
+It was on a Friday that Brownie Beaver first heard the cyclone was
+coming. And after making sure that Grandaddy Beaver knew what he was
+talking about when he said the great wind would sweep down upon the
+village on the following Tuesday, Brownie spent a good deal of time
+wondering what he had better do.
+
+He wanted to save his house from being blown over the top of Blue
+Mountain. And he wanted to save himself from being carried along at
+the same time.
+
+Before Friday was gone Brownie Beaver began to heap more mud and
+sticks upon his house, to make it stronger. And when Tired Tim came
+swimming past the lazy scamp laughed harder than ever.
+
+"I see you're afraid of the cyclone," he called. "But what you're
+doing won't help you any. The wind will blow away those sticks easily
+enough.... What you ought to do is to dig a house like mine in the
+bank. Then you won't have to worry about any cyclone."
+
+So Brownie set to work and made him a house like Tired Tim's. On
+Monday he had finished it. But he didn't like his new home at all.
+
+"It's no better than a rat's hole," he said. "My family have never
+lived in such a place and I'm not used to it. I prefer my house that's
+built of sticks and mud. And I'm going to see if there isn't some way
+I can make it safe."
+
+So Brownie went to Grandaddy Beaver again and asked him what he ought
+to do.
+
+The old gentleman said he would try to think of a plan to save
+Brownie's house.
+
+"I wish you would hurry," Brownie urged him. "To-day is Monday; and
+tomorrow the cyclone will be here.... What are you going to do to your
+own house, Grandaddy?"
+
+"My house----" said Grandaddy Beaver--"my house is very old. It has
+had mud and sticks piled upon it every season for over a hundred
+years. You can see for yourself that it's much bigger than yours. And
+I reckon it's strong enough to stay where it is, no matter how hard
+the wind blows. But your house is different.... Let me think a
+minute!" the old gentleman said.
+
+Brownie waited in silence while the old gentleman thought, with his
+eyes shut tight. Brownie watched him for a long time. Once or twice he
+thought he heard something that sounded like a snore. But he knew it
+couldn't be that--it was only the thoughts trying to get inside
+Grandaddy's head.
+
+At last Grandaddy sat up with a start.
+
+"Have you thought of something?" Brownie inquired.
+
+"What's that?" Grandaddy asked. "Oh, yes! I've a good idea," he said.
+"What you must do is to tie your house so the wind can't blow it
+away."
+
+Brownie thanked him. And he went away feeling quite happy again--until
+he reached home and started to follow Grandaddy's advice. Then he saw
+that he had forgotten something. He hadn't anything with which to tie
+his house and make it safe from the cyclone.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+A LUCKY FIND
+
+
+Brownie Beaver almost wished he hadn't spent so much time waiting for
+Grandaddy to tell him to tie down his house so it wouldn't be carried
+away by the big wind on the following day. With no rope--or anything
+else--to tie the house with, Brownie could not see that Grandaddy's
+advice was of any use to him.
+
+Anyhow, he was glad he had done as Tired Tim had suggested and dug a
+house in the bank, where he could hide until the storm passed. But he
+felt sad at the thought of losing his comfortable home. And since he
+could hardly bear to look at it and imagine how dreadful it would be
+to have it blown over the top of Blue Mountain into Pleasant Valley,
+Brownie went for a stroll through the woods to try to forget his
+trouble.
+
+He found himself at last in a clearing, where loggers had been at
+work. They had chopped down many trees. And the sight made Brownie
+Beaver angry.
+
+"This is an outrage!" he cried aloud. "I'd like to know who has been
+stealing our trees. I suppose it's Farmer Green; for they say he's
+always up to such tricks." He took a good look around. And then he
+turned to go back to the village and tell what he had discovered.
+
+Just as he turned he tripped on something. And something clinked
+beneath his feet. It didn't sound like a stone. So Brownie Beaver
+looked down to see what was there.
+
+Now, in his anger he had quite forgotten the great storm. But as he
+saw what had tripped him he remembered it again. But he was no longer
+worried.
+
+"Hurrah!" Brownie cried. "Here's just what I need!" And then he
+hurried back home again--but not to tell about the trees that had been
+stolen. He hastened home to _chain down his house_ and save it from
+the great wind. For Brownie Beaver had found a chain, which the
+loggers had used to haul the logs out of the woods, and had forgotten.
+
+It was almost dark when Brownie reached his house in the village in
+the pond. He was never a very good walker. And dragging that heavy
+chain behind him through the forest only made him slower than ever.
+Sometimes the chain caught on a bush and tripped him. But Brownie was
+so pleased with his find that he only laughed whenever he fell, for he
+was not hurt.
+
+The whole village gathered round his house to watch him while he tied
+the chain on it and anchored the ends of the chain to the bottom of
+the pond with a big stone.
+
+"Why do you do that?" people asked.
+
+"He's afraid of the cyclone to-morrow," Tired Tim piped up, without
+waiting for Brownie to answer. "You know, old Grandaddy Beaver says
+that there's going to be a great wind. This young feller----" said
+Tim--"he's already dug a house in the bank near mine--ha! ha! He
+thinks Grandaddy knows. But I say that Grandaddy Beaver is a--a fine,
+noble, old gentleman," Tired Tim stammered. He had happened to glance
+around while he was talking; and to his surprise there was Grandaddy
+floating in the water close behind him.
+
+"He certainly is," everybody agreed. "But we hope he's mistaken about
+the great wind."
+
+When Tuesday came--which was the very next day--Brownie Beaver crept
+into his tunnel in the bank at sunrise. And he never came outside
+again until the sun had set.
+
+When he saw that his house was still there, in the middle of the pond,
+he shouted with joy.
+
+"Hurrah!" he cried. "The chain saved my house!" Then he noticed that
+all the other houses were still there, too. "How's this?" he asked
+Tired Tim, who stood on the bank beside him. "Did my chain save the
+whole village?"
+
+Tired Tim grinned--for he was not too lazy to do that.
+
+"There wasn't any cyclone," he said. "There wasn't a breath of wind
+all day. And old Grandaddy Beaver is so upset that he's gone to bed
+and won't talk with anybody."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+WAS IT A GUN?
+
+
+Everybody in the village where Brownie Beaver lived was very much
+upset. Most people were angry, too. And no doubt it was natural that
+they should feel that way, because while they were taking their midday
+naps a man had come and paddled about their village in a boat.
+
+Brownie Beaver was the first to hear him and he quickly spread the
+alarm. There was a great scurrying as all the villagers stole out of
+their houses and swam away under water to hide in holes in the bank of
+the pond and in other places they knew.
+
+Toward night, when they all came back again, the man had gone. But
+Brownie and his neighbors were still angry. You must remember that
+their rest had been disturbed and they were feeling somewhat sleepy.
+
+So far as they could see, the man had done no damage either to their
+houses or to the dam. But people felt a bit uneasy just the same,
+until old Grandaddy Beaver looked all around and reported that the man
+had set no traps. You see, Grandaddy knew a great deal about traps. He
+had been caught in one when he was young. Luckily, he managed to get
+away; and he learned a few things that he never forgot.
+
+Now, Brownie Beaver had begun to cut down a tree the night before.
+Something had interrupted him and he had left the tree not quite
+gnawed through and needing only a few more bites to bring it down. He
+was intending to finish his task soon after dark--which was the time
+he liked best for working.
+
+Accordingly, after Brownie had finished his supper and had called at
+every house in the village to talk over the visit of the strange man,
+he swam to the shore of the pond and made his way to the slanting
+tree, which stood a short distance from the water.
+
+It was quite dark. And that was what Brownie liked, because he could
+work without being disturbed--at least, that was what he thought.
+
+Since he could see quite well in spite of the dark he had no trouble
+in finding his tree. And he lost no time in setting to work on it
+again.
+
+He began to gnaw at it once more. But he hadn't moved more than
+half-way around the tree-trunk when something happened that almost
+frightened him out of his skin.
+
+Right out of the darkness came a blinding flash of light. And at the
+same time a queer _click_ sounded in the bushes close by.
+
+Just for a moment Brownie Beaver was stiff with fear. But when the
+darkness closed in upon him again he ran for his life toward the pond.
+And plunging into the water he swam quickly to the bottom and hurried
+up his winding hall into his bedroom, where he crouched trembling upon
+his bed, wondering whether he had been shot.
+
+Brownie knew that at night a gun made a flash of light. But this gun
+(if it was a gun) made no roar such as was made by the guns Brownie
+had sometimes heard at a distance in the woods. He wished that old
+Grandaddy Beaver was there. For he did not doubt that the old
+gentleman could tell him exactly what had happened.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+JASPER JAY'S STORY
+
+
+After the blinding flash of light and the queer click had sent Brownie
+Beaver hurrying home from his partly gnawed tree, he stayed in his
+house for a long time before he ventured out again.
+
+Indeed, the night was half gone when he at last he stole forth to find
+Grandaddy Beaver and tell him about his awful fright.
+
+Brownie found the old gentleman resting after several hours' work upon
+the big dam. And when young Brownie told Grandaddy what had happened,
+the old gentleman didn't know just what to think.
+
+"It couldn't have been a moonbeam," he said, "because there's no moon
+to-night. And I don't see how it could have been a gun, because there
+was no roar.... Did you hear a sort of whistle?" he asked. "Anything
+that sounded like a bullet passing over your head?"
+
+Brownie Beaver shuddered at the mere mention of a bullet.
+
+"I heard nothing but that odd click," he replied.
+
+"That's what a gun sounds like when it's cocked," said Grandaddy
+Beaver. "But with a gun, the click comes first, the flash next, and
+the roar last of all. And here you tell me the flash came first, the
+click next, and there was no roar at all.... What's a body a-going to
+think, I'd like to know? It wasn't a gun--that's sure. And if you want
+to know what I say about it, why--I say that it was a very strange
+thing that happened to you. And I'd keep away from that tree for a
+long time."
+
+"I had made up my mind that I'd do that," Brownie told him. And then
+he went home again. But he never went to sleep until almost noon the
+following day; for whenever he closed his eyes he seemed to see that
+blinding flash of light again.
+
+When Jasper Jay came on Saturday afternoon to tell Brownie Beaver what
+had happened in the world during the past week he had an astounding
+piece of news.
+
+"Here's something about you," Jasper told Brownie, as soon as he could
+catch his breath. Jasper had flown faster than usual that day, because
+he had such interesting news. "Your picture," he told Brownie, "is in
+the photographer's window, way over in the town where Farmer Green
+goes sometimes."
+
+Brownie Beaver gave Jasper a quick look.
+
+"I've often suspected," he said, "that you don't always tell me the
+truth. And now I know it. I've never been to the photographer's in my
+life. So how could he have my picture, I should like to know?"
+
+"But you don't have to go to the photographer's to have your picture
+taken," Jasper Jay retorted. "Why couldn't the photographer come to
+you?"
+
+"I suppose he could," Brownie Beaver said. "But he's never been here."
+
+Jasper Jay gave one of his loud laughs.
+
+"That--" he said--"that is just where you are mistaken. And when I
+explain how I came by this news, maybe you'll believe me.
+
+"Tommy Fox told it to me," Jasper went on, "and old dog Spot told it
+to him. Everybody knows that old Spot sometimes goes to town with his
+master. They were there yesterday. And Spot saw your picture himself.
+What's more, he heard the photographer tell Farmer Green that he came
+up here almost a week ago, hid his camera in some bushes, and set a
+flashlight near a half--gnawed tree. And when you started to work on
+the tree that night you brushed against a wire, and the flashlight
+flared up, and the camera took your picture before you could jump
+away.... Now what do you say?" Jasper Jay demanded. "Now do you think
+I'm telling you the truth?"
+
+Brownie Beaver was so surprised that it was several minutes before he
+could speak. Then he said:
+
+"Grandaddy Beaver was right. It wasn't a gun. I was just having my
+picture taken." Brownie was actually pleased, because he knew he was
+the only person in his village that had ever had such a thing happen
+to him.
+
+After that he was ready to believe everything Jasper Jay told him. So
+Jasper related some wonderful news. And it would hardly be fair for
+anyone not present at the time to say that it wasn't perfectly true--
+every word of it.
+
+[Illustration: The Chain Caught on a Bush and Tripped Him]
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+LOOKING PLEASANT
+
+
+After Jasper Jay left Brownie Beaver, on that day when Jasper told
+Brownie that the photographer had made a flashlight picture of him,
+Brownie could hardly wait for it to grow dark. He had made up his mind
+that he would go back to that same tree, which was still not quite
+gnawed through; and he hoped that he would succeed in having his
+picture taken again. Like many other people, Brownie Beaver felt that
+he could not have too much of a good thing.
+
+There was another reason, too, for his going back to the tree. If the
+light flared again and the click sounded in the bushes, Brownie
+intended to go right into the thicket and get his picture before
+anybody else could carry it away with him. (You can understand how
+little he understood about taking photographs.)
+
+Well, the dark found Brownie back at the tree once more. And he began
+once more to gnaw at it. He tried to look pleasant, too, because he
+had heard that that was the way one should look when having his
+picture taken.
+
+He found it rather difficult, gnawing chips out of the tree and
+smiling at the same time. But he was an earnest youngster and he did
+the best he could.
+
+Brownie Beaver kept wishing the flashlight would go off, because--what
+with smiling and gnawing--his face began to ache. But no glare of
+light broke through the darkness.
+
+It was not long before Brownie had gnawed away so many chips that the
+tree began to nod its head further and further toward the ground. And
+Brownie wished that the flash-light would hurry and go off before the
+tree fell.
+
+But there was not even the faintest flicker of light. It was most
+annoying. And Brownie was so disappointed that for once he forgot to
+be careful when he was cutting down a tree. He kept his eyes on the
+bushes all the time, instead of on the tree--as he should have done.
+And all the time the tree leaned more and more.
+
+At last there was a _snap!_ Brownie Beaver should have known what
+that meant. But he was so eager to have his picture taken that he
+mistook the _snap_ for the _click_ that he had first heard almost a
+week before.
+
+He thought it must be the click of a camera hidden in the bushes. And
+he stood very still and looked extremely pleasant. Now, Brownie Beaver
+should have known better. But like most people, for once he made a
+mistake. What he really heard was the tree snapping. And before he
+could jump out of the way the tree came crashing down upon him and
+pinned him fast to the ground. He saw a flash of light, to be sure,
+and a good many stars. But all that only came from the knock on his
+head which the tree gave him.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+BROWNIE ESCAPES
+
+
+When the tree crashed down upon Brownie Beaver and held him fast, it
+was some time before he came to his senses. Then he did not know, at
+first, where he was nor what had happened to him. But at last he
+remembered that he had been cutting down a tree not far from the pond
+and he saw that it must have fallen upon him.
+
+Of course, the first thing that occurred to him was to call for help.
+But just as he opened his mouth to shout, another thought came into
+his head. _Perhaps some man might hear him--or a bear!_ And Brownie
+Beaver closed his mouth as quickly as he had opened it.
+
+Then he tried to squirm from under the tree-trunk. But he couldn't
+move himself at all. Next he tried to push the tree away from him. But
+he couldn't move the tree either.
+
+For a long while Brownie Beaver struggled, first at one impossible
+thing, and then at the other. And all the time the tree seemed to grow
+heavier and heavier.
+
+Finally, Brownie stopped trying to get free and began to feel hungry.
+
+You can see that he must have been worried, because there was the
+tree, with plenty of bark on it which he could eat. But he never
+noticed it for a long time.
+
+At last, however, he happened to remember that in the beginning he had
+started to cut down that very tree so he could reach the bark and eat
+it.
+
+Then Brownie Beaver had a good meal. And just as he finished eating,
+another thought came into his head. _Why shouldn't he gnaw right
+through the tree?_
+
+Since there seemed to be no answer to that question, he began to gnaw
+big chips out of the wood. And in a surprisingly short time he had cut
+the tree apart just where it pressed upon him.
+
+Then, of course, all he had to do was to get up and walk away.
+
+When he reached the village he found that all his neighbors had been
+looking everywhere for him.
+
+"That is," Grandaddy Beaver explained, "we looked everywhere except
+near the tree where you had that adventure a few nights ago. I said
+you wouldn't be there, for I advised you to keep away from that spot,
+as you will recall."
+
+Now, Brownie Beaver said nothing more. He knew that it was an
+unheard-of thing for one of the Beaver family to be caught by a falling
+tree. To have everyone know what had happened to him would be a good
+deal like a disgrace.
+
+But there are plenty of people who would think they had done something
+quite clever if they had gnawed through a tree with their teeth--
+though that was something that never once entered Brownie Beaver's
+head.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+MR. FROG'S QUESTION
+
+
+"Why don't you get some new clothes?"
+
+It was Mr. Frog that asked the question; and he asked it of Brownie
+Beaver, who was at work on top of his house. Mr. Frog had been hiding
+among the lily-pads, watching Brownie. But Brownie hadn't noticed him
+until he stuck his head out of the water and spoke.
+
+At first Mr. Frog's question made Brownie a bit peevish.
+
+"What's the matter with my clothes?" he asked hotly.
+
+"There's nothing the matter with them--nothing at all," said Mr.
+Frog--"except that they are not as becoming to you as they might be.
+Of
+course," he added, as he saw that Brownie Beaver was frowning, "you
+look handsome in them. But you've no idea how you'd look in clothes of
+_my_ making."
+
+Brownie Beaver felt more agreeable as soon as Mr. Frog had told him
+what he meant.
+
+"Do _you_ make clothes?" he inquired.
+
+"I'm a tailor," Mr. Frog replied. "And I've just opened a shop at the
+upper end of the pond."
+
+"What's the matter with my tail?" Brownie snapped. He was angry again.
+
+Then Mr. Frog explained that a tailor made suits.
+
+"We've nothing to do with _tails,"_ he said--"unless it's coat-tails."
+
+"What about cattails?" Brownie asked. "You're pretty close to some
+right now. So you can hardly say you have nothing to do with them."
+
+Mr. Frog smiled.
+
+"I see you're a joker," he said. "And it really seems a pity," he went
+on, "that a bright young fellow like you shouldn't wear the finest
+clothes to be had anywhere. If you'll come to my shop I'll make you a
+suit such as you never saw before in all your life."
+
+"I'll come!" Brownie Beaver promised. "I'll be there at sunset."
+
+And he went. Mr. Frog was waiting for him, with a broad smile on his
+face. Any smile of his just had to be broad, because he had such a
+wide mouth.
+
+"Come right in!" Mr. Frog said. "I'll measure you at once." So Brownie
+Beaver stepped inside Mr. Frog's shop to be measured for his new suit.
+
+It was all over in a few minutes. Mr. Frog scratched some figures on a
+flat stone. And then he went into the back room of his shop.
+
+He stayed there a long time. And when he came into the front part
+again he found Brownie Beaver still there.
+
+"What are you waiting for?" Mr. Frog asked. He seemed surprised that
+Brownie had not left.
+
+"I'm waiting for my suit, of course," Brownie Beaver said.
+
+"Oh! That won't be ready for three days," Mr. Frog told him. "I have
+to make it, you know."
+
+Brownie thought that Mr. Frog must be a slow worker; and he told him
+as much.
+
+But Mr. Frog did not agree with him.
+
+"I'm very spry!" he claimed. "On the jump every minute!"
+
+As Brownie started away, Mr. Frog called him back.
+
+"I'd get a new hat if I were you," he suggested.
+
+"What's the matter with this hat?" Brownie wanted to know. "It's a
+beaver hat--one my great-grandfather used to wear. It's been in our
+family a good many years and I'd hate to part with it."
+
+"You needn't part with it," Mr. Frog said pleasantly. "Just don't wear
+it--that's all! For it won't look well with the clothes I'm going to
+make for you."
+
+Then Brownie Beaver moved away once more. And again Mr. Frog stopped
+him.
+
+"I'd buy a collar if I were you," he said.
+
+"What's the matter with this neckerchief?" Brownie Beaver demanded.
+"It belonged to my great-grandmother."
+
+"Then I'd be careful of it if I were you," Mr. Frog told him. "And
+please get a stiff white collar to wear."
+
+"Won't it get limp in the water?" Brownie asked, doubtfully.
+
+"Get a celluloid one, of course," Mr. Frog replied. "That's the only
+kind of collar you ought to wear."
+
+So Brownie Beaver left the tailor-shop. And he was feeling quite
+unhappy. He had always been satisfied with his clothes. But now he
+began to dislike everything he had on. And he could hardly wait for
+three day to pass, he was in such a hurry for Mr. Frog to finish his
+new suit.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE NEW SUIT
+
+
+Three days had passed. And as soon as he had finished his breakfast
+Brownie Beaver hastened to the tailor-shop of Mr. Frog, who had been
+making him a suit of clothes.
+
+Much to Brownie's disappointment, he found that Mr. Frog's door was
+locked. But he sat down on the doorstep and waited a long time. And at
+last Mr. Frog appeared.
+
+After bidding Brownie Beaver good-morning, Mr. Frog yawned widely,
+remarking that he had been out late the night before, "at a
+singing-party," he said. "What can I do for you?" he asked Brownie
+Beaver.
+
+"You can let me have my new suit of clothes," Brownie told him.
+
+"You must be mistaken," Mr. Frog replied. "I don't remember you. I'm
+not making any suit for you."
+
+At that Brownie Beaver became much excited.
+
+"Why--" he exclaimed--"I was here three days ago and you measured
+me.... Don't you know me now?" he asked.
+
+"Sorry to say I don't," was Mr. Frog's answer.
+
+Brownie Beaver was desperate. He had looked forward eagerly to having
+his new suit. And he wanted it at once.
+
+"You advised me to get a new hat and a collar," Brownie reminded him.
+
+Mr. Frog smiled.
+
+"Ah! That's it!" he cried. "You're wearing them now; and it's no
+wonder I didn't recognize you. You look ten years younger."
+
+Brownie Beaver was puzzled.
+
+"I'm not ten yet," he said. "So if I look ten years younger, I must
+appear very young indeed."
+
+"The new clothes will fix that," Mr. Frog assured him.
+
+"But you just told me you were not making a suit for me," said
+Brownie.
+
+"Quite true, too!" answered Mr. Frog--"because it's all finished. So,
+of course, I'm not making it now."
+
+They had stepped inside the shop. And Mr. Frog carefully took some
+garments off a peg and spread them before Brownie Beaver.
+
+"There!" he said with an air of pride. "The finest suit you ever saw!"
+
+"I'll slip it on," said Brownie.
+
+"Oh! I wouldn't do that!" Mr. Frog told him. "You might stretch it."
+
+But nothing could have kept Brownie Beaver out of his new suit. He
+scrambled into it quickly, while the tailor stood by with a worried
+look upon his face.
+
+"The coat seems to be all right," Brownie remarked. "But there's
+something wrong with the trousers. I can't see my feet!" He bent over
+and gazed down where his feet ought to have been. But they had
+vanished. And an end of each trouser-leg trailed on the floor. "These
+trousers are too long!" Brownie declared.
+
+"Then you stretched them, putting them on," Mr. Frog said. "I warned
+you, you know."
+
+"I was very careful," Brownie said. "I'm sure it can't be that."
+
+"Then your legs are too short," Mr. Frog told him glibly. "They look
+to me to be _much_ shorter than they were when I measured you."
+
+"My legs--" Brownie Beaver exclaimed--"my legs are exactly the same
+length they were three days ago! You've made a mistake, Mr. Frog.
+That's what's the matter with these trousers!"
+
+But Mr. Frog shook his head.
+
+"I made them according to your measurements," he insisted.
+
+"Let me see your figures!" Brownie Beaver cried.
+
+But Mr. Frog shook his head again.
+
+"I don't do business that way," he explained. "As soon as I've
+finished a suit I throw away the stone on which I've written the
+measurements. It saves trouble, if there's any complaint afterwards."
+
+"Well!" said Brownie. "What can we do about this? I can't wear the
+trousers as they are."
+
+"You'll have to get your legs stretched," Mr. Frog told him. "Just tie
+a stone to each foot and wear the trousers for a few days. As soon as
+you see your feet, take off the stones.... It's simple enough." He
+helped tie some heavy stones to Brownie's feet. And then Brownie swam
+away.
+
+Now, swimming with your feet weighted like that is no easy matter. But
+Brownie managed to reach home. He stayed there, too, for the rest of
+the day, because it was hard for him to move about. And since he had
+nothing else to do, he went to sleep.
+
+When he awoke, about an hour before sunset, he couldn't think at first
+what made his feet feel so heavy. He thought he must be ill--until he
+remembered about the stones being tied to his feet.
+
+Then he looked down. And to his great surprise and joy there were his
+feet sticking out of his trousers, just as they ought to stick out!
+
+Brownie untied the stones. He had not supposed his legs would stretch
+so quickly as that. And he told himself that Mr. Frog was a good
+tailor. He certainly knew his business. Now, as a matter of fact, Mr.
+Frog was a very careless person. He had thrown away Brownie's
+measurements _before_ he made his clothes, instead of _afterwards_.
+And he had made the new suit entirely by guesswork. It was only
+natural that he would make some mistake; and so he had cut the
+trousers entirely too long.
+
+When he discovered that, he wanted to get Brownie out of his shop. And
+what happened next was simply this: After Brownie's trousers were wet
+in the pond, they dried while he was sleeping. And while they were
+drying they were shrinking at the same time.
+
+Though Brownie Beaver didn't know it, his legs had not stretched at
+all. They were exactly the same length they had always been.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Brownie Beaver, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF BROWNIE BEAVER ***
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