The Tale of Timothy Turtle | Page 9

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 nobody 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
nobody 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 fashion.
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."
And everybody said that it was a great pity.

XIII
THE PLOT
Of all the creatures that walked or swam