The Tale Of Timothy Turtle Part 5

"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.

"You see that stick??" said Brownie, pointing to a stout piece of box elder that stuck out of the dam.

"I'm not blind," Timothy Turtle snarled back at him.

"Well, please don't bite it, anyhow!" Brownie Beaver begged him.

That was enough for Timothy Turtle. The mere fact that he thought somebody didn't want him to do a certain thing was sure to make him do it. So without saying another word he seized that stick in his powerful jaws. And bracing his feet against the inner side of the dam, half in the water and half out, he pulled with all his strength.

Now and then he turned his beady eyes toward Brownie Beaver and frowned at him, as if to say, "Don't give _me_ any orders, young fellow! I shall do just as I please; and n.o.body can stop me."

Timothy noticed that Brownie went to a number of the other workers and whispered to them. And when everyone to whom he spoke called to Timothy and asked him if he wouldn't just as soon let go of that stick and grab another one, that crusty old codger made up his mind that n.o.body should move him from that spot. He took an even firmer hold and tugged as if he meant to tear the whole dam down.

But the Beaver family knew that he couldn't do any damage. And as soon as it was light enough they all went home to take a nap, leaving Timothy Turtle to pull away to his heart's content.

XII

KIND TIMOTHY TURTLE

All day long Timothy Turtle stayed on the Beaver dam. And when the Beavers returned in the evening, to resume their work, they found Timothy still clinging to the box elder stick.

To Timothy Turtle's deep disgust the plump workers gathered round him and laughed. He could never bear to hear people laugh--laughing was so silly, he always said. And now Brownie Beaver laughed louder than all the rest.

"Look!" Brownie cried, pointing straight at Timothy Turtle. "Isn't he kind? He has stopped up that big hole for us all day.... And now"--Brownie added, turning to Timothy Turtle--"now if you'll kindly _stop working_ for us and move aside we'll fill that hole that's right under you, with mud."

Timothy Turtle never felt more ashamed in all his long life. There he had been working all day long, helping the Beaver family by plugging a hole in their dam with his flat body--and he had never guessed what he was doing!

He let go of the stick and sank hastily in the pond, where the water was deepest, to bury himself in the soft bottom. And there he stayed and sulked for the rest of the week, until his visit was done. If he stuck his head out of the water now and then for a breath of air, he was careful to let no one see him.

He did not even bid the Beaver family good-by at the end of his visit, but left in the middle of the day, when everybody was sound asleep.

Grandaddy Beaver said it was no more than one could expect of a person so rude as Timothy Turtle.

"He was just like that in my great-grandfather's time," the old gentleman explained.

And all the rest of the villagers remarked that Timothy Turtle was old enough to have better manners. Certainly, they said, the youngest Beaver child knew better than to treat people in such a rude fas.h.i.+on.

Brownie Beaver's mother especially announced that she had never in all her life met a gentleman who had treated her so disrespectfully as old Mr. Turtle. And she grew red and pale by turns as she recalled how he had seized her by the tail and held her fast for a whole day.

"I hope," she said, "that by the time he comes here again he will have learned how to behave himself."

But Grandaddy Beaver shook his head.

"Timothy Turtle," he declared, "will be no different even if he lives to be a thousand years old."