tick??" 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