<h2 ><SPAN name="Brownie" id="Brownie">XVII</SPAN></h2><h3>WHAT BROWNIE WANTED</h3>
<p>Nimble Deer had stopped at Brownie
Beaver's pond to get a drink. Just as he
raised his head from the water he spied
Brownie a little way off, on the bank,
gnawing at a box alder tree.</p>
<p>"Good evening!" Nimble called to him.</p>
<p>"Good evening!" Brownie Beaver answered.</p>
<p>"I see you're busy, as usual," Nimble
remarked.</p>
<p>"Yes!" Brownie replied. "And what
are you doing—if I may ask?"</p>
<p>"Oh! I'm just rambling about," Nimble
explained.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</SPAN></span>"Then you're not doing much of anything,"
said Brownie Beaver.</p>
<p>Nimble admitted that he wasn't.</p>
<p>"Since you're not working, perhaps
you'll be willing to help me," Brownie
suggested.</p>
<p>"Certainly!" Nimble cried. He liked
Brownie Beaver. Everybody liked him—unless
it was Timothy Turtle, who had a
grudge against the whole Beaver tribe.</p>
<p>"Maybe I can make arrangements with
you to——" Brownie began.</p>
<p>"Of course you can!" Nimble interrupted.</p>
<p>"That's very kind of you," Brownie
said. "I'm sure I'm much obliged to
you."</p>
<p>"You're quite welcome," Nimble assured
him.</p>
<p>"You're sure you won't mind!"
Brownie Beaver inquired.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</SPAN></span>"Not at all! No, indeed! What is it
you want me to do for you? Do you want
me to help you roll a log into the water,
when you've finished cutting down that
tree? I might use my horns for a cant
hook, such as the lumbermen have."</p>
<p>"No! It's not that—thank you!"
Brownie Beaver mumbled. He had not
stopped working, while he talked. And
having some chips in his mouth he did not
speak any too clearly.</p>
<p>"Maybe you'd like me to walk back and
forth along the top of your dam and make
it firmer," Nimble suggested.</p>
<p>"No, it's not that," Brownie told him.
"The dam is firm. It has been here a great
many years, ever since my great-great-grandfather's
time.... You've noticed
my house, I dare say," he went on.</p>
<p>"I have," Nimble answered. "It's a
good one, though the chimney looks a bit<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</SPAN></span>
lopsided, to me. Shall I give it a push and
see if I can straighten it?"</p>
<p>"No, indeed—thank you!" said Brownie
hurriedly. "For mercy's sake, don't
touch my chimney! I worked a long time
to make it. And if I do say so, it's the best
one in the whole village."</p>
<p>Well, Nimble Deer couldn't guess what
it was that Brownie Beaver wanted him
to do. He couldn't think of any other way
in which he might help.</p>
<p>"Then what—" he demanded—"what
is it you want?"</p>
<p>"There's something I need for my
house," Brownie explained.</p>
<p>"Shingles!" Nimble cried.</p>
<p>"No!" Brownie said, as he shook his
head.</p>
<p>"I hope you don't want a pair of antlers
to fasten over your chimney piece!"
Nimble exclaimed. "I shouldn't care to<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</SPAN></span>
part with my antlers—not just at
present!"</p>
<p>"No!" Brownie said once more.</p>
<p>"I'm glad of that," Nimble replied.
For a moment he had been worried.</p>
<p>And then Brownie Beaver told him
what he had in mind: "I need a flag to
fly over my house."</p>
<p>"That would be fine," Nimble observed.
"But I don't see how I could help you
with that."</p>
<p>"I've heard that you have a flag. I
thought perhaps you'd let me have it—or
borrow it, at least," Brownie Beaver
told him.</p>
<p>Nimble Deer looked puzzled.</p>
<p>"I haven't any flag," he said. And
then he cried, "Yes! Yes, I have one!"</p>
<p>"Ah! I was told you had," said
Brownie Beaver.</p>
<p>"Who told you?"</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</SPAN></span>"Old Mr. Crow!" Brownie Beaver said.</p>
<p>"I might have known it," Nimble muttered.
"He has played a joke on you. It's
true that I have a flag; but it's not the
kind of flag you want. Some people call
my tail a flag, on account of the way I
wave it in the air when I'm startled. Of
course you wouldn't care to have my tail
on the top of your house."</p>
<p>And Brownie Beaver admitted that he
shouldn't.</p>
<p>"But I can't help being disappointed,"
he confessed.</p>
<span class="totoc"><SPAN href="#toc">Contents</SPAN></span>
<hr />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</SPAN></span></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />