All day long Timothy Turtle stayed on the Beaver dam. And when the Beavers returned in the evening, to resume their work, they found Timothy still clinging to the box elder stick.  
To Timothy Turtle's deep disgust the plump workers gathered round him and laughed. He could never bear to hear people laugh—laughing was so silly, he always said. And now Brownie Beaver laughed louder than all the rest.
 
"Look!" Brownie cried, pointing straight at Timothy Turtle. "Isn't he kind? He has stopped up that big holep. 57 for us all day.... And now"—Brownie added, turning to Timothy Turtle—"now if you'll kindly stop working for us and move aside we'll fill that hole that's right under you, with mud."
 
Timothy Turtle never felt more ashamed in all his long life. There he had been working all day long, helping the Beaver family by plugging a hole in their dam with his flat body—and he had never guessed what he was doing!
 
He let go of the stick and sank hastily in the pond, where the water was deepest, to bury himself in the soft bottom. And there he stayed and sulked for the rest of the week, until his visit was done. If he stuck his head out of the water now and then for a breath of air, he was careful to ............