which his own grandaddy had worked before him. It would take years and
years to build another such dam as that.

Now, with almost everybody working on his own house, there was almost
no one left to work upon the dam. But people never stopped to think
about that. They never once remembered that out of the whole village
old Grandaddy and Brownie Beaver were the only persons whose houses
had been made ready for the freshet and that those two were the only
people with nothing to do at home.

"There'll be plenty to help save the dam," everybody said to himself.
"I'll just work on my house."

Now, Brownie Beaver knew that there was nothing more he could do to
make his house safe, so he swam over to the dam, expecting to find a
good many of his neighbors there. But old Grandaddy Beaver was the
only other person he found. And he seemed worried.

"It's a great pity!" he said to Brownie. "Here's this fine dam, which
has taken so many years to build, and it's a-going to be washed away--
you mark my words!"

"What makes you think that?" asked Brownie.

"There's nobody here to do anything," said Grandaddy Beaver. "The
spillways of this dam ought to be made as big as possible, to let the
freshet pass through. But I can't do it, for I can't swim as well as I
could once."

Brownie Beaver looked at the rushing water which poured over the top