“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.
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:
OR FISHING
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.”
