Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Beavers -- Juvenile fiction; Children's literature
When he reached the village he found that all his neighbors had been
looking everywhere for him.
"That is," Grandaddy Beaver explained, "we looked everywhere except
near the tree where you had that adventure a few nights ago. I said
you wouldn't be there, for I advised you to keep away from that spot,
as you will recall."
Now, Brownie Beaver said nothing more. He knew that it was an
unheard-of thing for one of the Beaver family to be caught by a falling
tree. To have everyone know what had happened to him would be a good
deal like a disgrace.
But there are plenty of people who would think they had done something
quite clever if they had gnawed through a tree with their teeth--though
that was something that never once entered Brownie Beaver's
head.
XVIII
MR. FROG'S QUESTION
"Why don't you get some new clothes?"
It was Mr. Frog that asked the question; and he asked it of Brownie
Beaver, who was at work on top of his house. Mr. Frog had been hiding
among the lily-pads, watching Brownie. But Brownie hadn't noticed him
until he stuck his head out of the water and spoke.
At first Mr. Frog's question made Brownie a bit peevish.
"What's the matter with my clothes?" he asked hotly.
"There's nothing the matter with them--nothing at all," said Mr.
Frog--"except that they are not as becoming to you as they might be.
Of course," he added, as he saw that Brownie Beaver was frowning, "you
look handsome in them. But you've no idea how you'd look in clothes of
_my_ making."
Brownie Beaver felt more agreeable as soon as Mr. Frog had told him
what he meant.
"Do _you_ make clothes?" he inquired.
"I'm a tailor," Mr. Frog replied. "And I've just opened a shop at the
upper end of the pond."
"What's the matter with my tail?" Brownie snapped. He was angry again.
Then Mr. Frog explained that a tailor made suits.
"We've nothing to do with _tails,"_ he said--"unless it's coat-tails."
"What about cattails?" Brownie asked. "You're pretty close to some
right now. So you can hardly say you have nothing to do with them."
Mr. Frog smiled.
"I see you're a joker," he said. "And it really seems a pity," he went
on, "that a bright young fellow like you shouldn't wear the finest
clothes to be had anywhere. If you'll come to my shop I'll make you a
suit such as you never saw before in all your life."
"I'll come!" Brownie Beaver promised. "I'll be there at sunset."
And he went. Mr. Frog was waiting for him, with a broad smile on his
face. Any smile of his just had to be broad, because he had such a
wide mouth.
"Come right in!" Mr. Frog said. "I'll measure you at once." So Brownie
Beaver stepped inside Mr. Frog's shop to be measured for his new suit.
It was all over in a few minutes. Mr. Frog scratched some figures on a
flat stone. And then he went into the back room of his shop.
He stayed there a long time. And when he came into the front part
again he found Brownie Beaver still there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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