And the beaver said, "I can build dams across streams so as to make
beautiful lakes, such as they have in parks, and I can build a nice,
round house in the lake to live in and large enough for a little bear
to live in, if he can only get inside without getting wet."
And the Cub Bear said, "That would be fine, because we could have a
park for the animals to play in, and some of the animals would rather
live in the water, anyway, than live in a cave."
So the beaver said, "All right; I will make you a dam and a beautiful
lake."
So they all went down to the stream, and the beaver went up to a tree,
and he commenced to bite it. He bit, and he bit, and he bit, and the
chips just flew, and he bit, and he bit, and he bit, and the chips just
flew, and the first thing they knew, the tree fell over. Then he went
to another tree, not a very large tree, only about so thick (three
inches). Then he went to another tree, and he bit, and he bit, and bit,
and the first thing they knew, that tree fell over. So he kept on until
he had cut down a great many trees, and then he took them down and
put them in the stream, and he put in leaves; and then the water began
to rise higher and higher, and the beaver kept piling in and piling in
leaves and trees, and soon he had a high dam clear across the stream.
The next morning when they looked, the water had filled up above the
dam and made a beautiful lake. Soon the beaver went to work, and made
a house out of mud. He used his fore feet like hands, walking on his
hind feet, and he used his flat tail to make a beautiful mud house, big
enough to live in himself, and big enough for little Cub Bear to get
in, if he could only get in without getting wet. Could you make so nice
a mud house?
And the little Cub Bear said, "Thank you, Mr. Beaver," very politely.
"I am very glad my brother was good to Mr. Beaver in the circus."
As soon as they had seen the dam built by the beaver, all of the
animals began to work again as hard as they could work to make the cave
larger, because it was much too small for the animals that were already
there, and the elephant could not get in at all.
At night they were all very tired, but as soon as the Papa Bear
sat down, the little Cub Bear ran over and got as close as he
could to his papa and asked him to tell another story about the
"Little-One-Eared-Bear-that-would-not-mind-his-papa." So although he
was very tired, the Papa Bear began the story of: