It was very dry weather. A beaver was working, while a flea watched him. “What are you making?” asked the flea. “I'm making a dam,” replied the beaver. “There's no rain, so I'm going to dam this little stream and make a pond.”

He finished cutting down an alder sapling with his big front teeth. “Why do you ask?” he inquired. “Oh, I just wanted to know. I've never seen a dam before,” answered the flea. “I wonder when it's going to rain?” the beaver mused. “Nobody seems to know,” he added, “so I'm going to make a house in the pond. When it does rain, I will have a home to go to.”

“It never rains here,” the flea informed him.

“It will some day,” Beaver said.

“Then, I should look for shelter too,” stated the flea, “because, if it should happen to rain, I don't want to drown.”

“Why don't you make a shelter like mine?” asked Beaver.

“Do you think I have time?” queried the flea.

“Sure,” said Beaver. “There's no sign of rain yet—no clouds or anything. If you can't get your shelter finished in time, you can come into my hair and have shelter there.”

It was not long before the rain came. The Beaver said to the flea, “It's too late to finish your shelter now. Come on, jump into my hair and I'll take you into my house.”

“Okay,” said the flea, “here I come,” and he jumped into the beaver's fur.

When Beaver got inside his shelter, he started to itch. “You can come out of my fur now,” he said to the flea, but flea did not come out. He liked it in the beaver's fur. Beaver shook and scratched, and shook some more. Finally the little flea fell out, but the beaver did not see where flea went.

If you enjoyed this beaver tale, click here to read more about John Tod and the beaver.