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.
