“There you go again! Asking more questions!” laughed Toto. “Well, a dam is a lot of sticks, stones, and grass piled across a stream to make it stop running away. Then the water makes a big pond back of the dam, and in that pond of deep water we beavers build our homes. With our teeth we gnaw down big trees so they will fall across the brook to help in making the dam.”
“My! I should say you were bustling!” exclaimed Winkie. “But in all your bustling about have you seen Blinkie, Blunk, or my father or mother?”
“More questions!” laughed Toto, the beaver. “No,” he answered, after taking another drink of water from the brook, “I haven’t seen them, I am sorry to say. Are they lost?”
Then Winkie told of the blasting, how the Woodchuck family had been shut up in the burrow, how she had found a way out and how they had all separated, much frightened, when the big noise came again that morning.
“You certainly have had a lot of trouble,” agreed Toto. “I wish I could help you, but I must now bustle back to my work—we beavers are very busy animals. However, if I see any of your family I’ll tell them where to find you.”
“Please do,” begged Winkie, as Toto hastened along. The beaver waddled off a little way, moving in a queer fashion, for beavers are rather awkward on land, though very swift in swimming.
Then Toto came to a stop. He turned and looked at Winkie.
“I say,” asked Toto, “were you ever in a book, Winkie?”
“Book? No, I never was in a book,” answered Winkie. “What is a book?”
“I’ve been in one,” went on Toto. “I haven’t time to tell you about it now. Maybe I will some other day. Good-bye, Winkie. I’m glad I met you!”