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]
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.
