“He thought about this a great deal, but instead of going to Old Mother Nature and complaining, as most of his neighbors would have done in his place, he studied and studied to find some way to make the work easier.  One day he noticed that a lot of sticks had caught in the stream where he made his home, and that because the water could not work its way between them as fast as where nothing hindered it, it made a little pool just above the sticks.  That made him think harder than ever.  He brought some of the logs and sticks from which he had gnawed the bark and fastened them with the others, and right away the pool grew bigger.  The more sticks he added, the bigger the pool grew.  Mr. Beaver had discovered what a dam is for and how to build it.

“‘Why,’ thought he, ’if I make a pond at the place nearest to my food trees, I can carry the water to the trees instead of the trees to the water; and that will be easier and ever so much safer as well.’

“So Mr. Beaver built a dam at just the right place, while all the other little people laughed at him and made fun of him for working so hard.  Just as he had thought it would do, the dam made a pond, and the pond grew bigger and bigger, until it reached the very place where his food trees grew.  Mr. Beaver built him a big, comfortable house out in the pond, and then he went to work as hard as ever he could to cut down trees and then cut them up into the right sized pieces to store away in his big food pile for the winter.

“Now cutting down trees is hard work.  Yes, Siree, cutting down trees is the hardest kind of hard work.  Mr. Beaver had to sit up on his hind legs to do it, and his legs grew very, very tired.  In those days he had a tail very much like the tail of Jerry Muskrat.  It was very useful when he was swimming, but it was of no use at all at any other time.  Sometimes he tried to brace himself with it—­when he was sitting up to cut trees, and found it of no help.  But he didn’t complain; he just kept right on working, and only stopped to rest when his legs ached so that he had to.

“He was working just as usual one day when Old Mother Nature came along to see how he was getting on.  She saw the new dam and the new pond, and she asked Mr. Beaver who had made them.  He told her that he had and explained why.  Old Mother Nature was greatly pleased, but she didn’t say so.  She just passed the time of day with him and then sat down to watch him cut a tree.  She saw him try to brace himself with his useless tail, and she saw him stop to rest his tired legs.

“‘That looks to me like pretty hard work,’ said Old Mother Nature.

“‘So it is,’ replied Mr. Beaver, stretching first one leg and then another.  ‘But things worth having are worth working for,’ and with that he began cutting again.

“‘You ought to have something to sit on,’ said Old Mother Nature, her eyes twinkling.

“Mr. Beaver grinned.  ‘It would be very nice,’ he confessed, ’but I never waste time wishing for things I haven’t got and can’t get,’ and went right on cutting.