Part 5 (1/2)

”It's a change for me,” was Timothy's reply. ”After I've spent a week with you I'll be pretty glad to get back home again. And I won't want to go on another excursion for a whole year--or maybe two.

”It's twenty years since I was here before. And I sha'n't care to come again for forty, at least.”

Now, such dreadfully rude remarks hurt the Beaver family's feelings. And when Timothy Turtle seized a fat lady by the tail one day and wouldn't let her go until sunset, her feelings were hurt most of all. She cried that she had never been so insulted in all her life.

Timothy Turtle merely said that she ought not to object. He explained that he had been _giving her a rest_--for of course she couldn't cut down a tree, nor work upon the dam that held the water in the pond, while he clung fast to her tail.

Well, this fat lady happened to be Brownie Beaver's mother. And after her disagreeable experience with the stranger, Brownie made up his mind that he _would make Timothy Turtle work_. That was the worst punishment he could think of.

Whenever the members of the Beaver family were not sleeping, or eating, either they were gathering food by cutting down trees, or they were mending their dam.

The dam always had leaks here and there. And sooner or later every one of them had to be stopped, before it grew so big that the water would rush through it and tear a hole so great that the pond would be drained dry.

During his stay among the Beavers Timothy Turtle often crawled on top of the dam and stretched himself out and watched the Beavers at their task. He said that if there was one thing that he liked to see more than another it was ”a gang of men working.” But he complained that they ought to work in the daytime, when the sun was s.h.i.+ning, because then it would have been ”much pleasanter for him.”

”Don't you want to help us?” asked the brisk fellow who had told Grandaddy Beaver that he thought Timothy Turtle ought to go to work.

That question actually made Timothy snort.

”_Me work_?” he snapped scornfully, as he glared at the speaker.

Everybody knew what he meant. And everybody knew how Timothy felt, too, when he edged along the dam and made a savage pa.s.s at the plump gentleman who had spoken to him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Timothy began to climb the steep bluff.]

Luckily the brisk Beaver jumped aside before Timothy Turtle's jaws closed on him. And he did not say another word to the stranger during the rest of his stay at the pond.

But Timothy Turtle became quite talkative. He stopped all he met--old and young both--and warned them that n.o.body need try to get him to work, for he never had worked, and he never intended to.

XI

ON THE BEAVER DAM

Timothy Turtle was so angry that he went about snapping at everybody and everything. And since the whole Beaver family kept carefully out of his way, he had to content himself with setting his jaws upon roots and sticks.

Now, the Beavers' dam was made of sticks and mud. So Timothy found plenty of chances to bite. And because he could not hurt the sticks, no matter how much he tried, n.o.body cared.

Really he acted in a most silly, surly fas.h.i.+on.

Out of a corner of his eye Brownie Beaver watched Timothy Turtle closely. Brownie had not forgotten how Timothy seized his mother by the tail. And while he was helping his elders on the dam, at the same time he was trying to think of some way to outwit Timothy Turtle.

It happened that just at that time the dam needed a great deal of mending. There were so many holes to be filled that the Beavers worked all night long. And in spite of all their efforts they saw that even then a few leaks would have to go unmended. But they did not get snappish nor lose their tempers. They were not like Timothy Turtle.

Though he slept a great part of the night, and waked up to watch the workers early in the morning, his temper was worse than ever.

He was paddling through the water close to the dam when Brownie Beaver called to him.