Can you imagine the surprise on the boy’s face when he looked up from fixing his fishing tackle, on the bank of the creek, to hear a voice saying, “Hello, Rusty, my name is Keeo; I’m the talking Beaver.” It really was the look of surprise that made Keeo think fast.
“Oh, Excuse me,” he said, “Rusty is what we named you; that is, me and my friends, the other beavers. We’ve called you Rusty and your sister, Bubbles, and I’m Keeo.”
Now it was Rusty’s turn to be surprised. After all, what do you say to a silver beaver, who comes up out of the creek and starts to talk to you. “Well,” he said, “I’m surprised to see you, I mean, to hear you; no, to see you and hear you, I’m surprised! But I’m certainly pleased to meet you.” With that, Rusty stuck out his hand and shook Keeo by the front paw. “I must call my sister to meet you,” said Rusty and, with an excited holler, he called Bubbles. Bubbles had been in the kitchen, helping mother make muffins for supper. She ran over of Rusty with two muffins in her hand.
“What are you so excited about?” she asked.
“Well, you are going to be excited , too, when I introduce you to our new friend. Keeo, meet my sister; by the way, sis, they are calling you Bubbles.”
“Who is calling me Bubbles?” she asked.
“Why Keeo, the silver beaver, and all our friends, the beavers, up the creek.”
With that Keeo spoke up, “I’m very pleased to meet you, Bubbles.”
“Well,” Bubbles said, “I’m certainly very pleased to meet you.” and, really not knowing what to do next she offered Keeo one of the freshly baked muffins.
It was the first muffin he had ever seen in his whole life. He wondered whether every time they met a human being they would be given a muffin. But since he saw Rusty eat his with great satisfaction, he thought he’d better do the same thing. It really tasted very nice. Maybe not as good as a willow root he had this morning, but certainly something new, and quit pleasant.
Bubbles and Rusty sat on the grass, facing Keeo. “Keeo,” said Rusty, “how about telling us the whole story.” And Keeo did just that: how he became a talking, silver beaver. He told them about the names which the friends of the forest had given the Jones family; and it was soon easy to see that everyone was going to be very good friends. Keeo said that, really, this had been so exciting for him, he thought he better get back and tell the other beavers.
“Well, that’s a splendid idea,” said Bubbles, “because we would like to tell Rainbow and Hawkeye the whole story.”
With that they parted the best of friends, agreeing to meet tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 o’clock. This time they were going to meet at the beaver pond because Keeo wanted to introduce the other beavers to Rusty and Bubbles.