"No," said she. "No. Stubtail
and Paddy are no more closely related than the rest of you. Stubtail
isn't a Beaver at all. His proper name is Sewellel. Sometimes he
is called Showt'l and sometimes the Boomer, and sometimes the
Chehalis, but most folks call him the Mountain Beaver."
"Is it because he looks like Paddy the Beaver?" Striped Chipmunk asked.
"No," replied Old Mother Nature. "He looks more like Jerry Muskrat
than he does like Paddy. He is about Jerry's size and looks very
much as Jerry would if he had no tail."
"Hasn't he any tail at all?" asked Peter.
"Yes, he has a little tail, a little stub of a tail, but it is so
small that to look at him you would think he hadn't any," replied
Old Mother Nature. "He is found out in the same mountains of the
Far West where Whistler and Little Chief live, but instead of
living way up high among the rocks he is at home down in the valleys
where the ground is soft and the trees grow thickly. Stubtail has
no use for rocks. He wants soft, wet ground where he can tunnel
and tunnel to his heart's content. In one thing Stubtail is very
like Yap Yap the Prairie Dog."
"What is that?" asked Johnny Chuck quickly, for, you know, Yap Yap
is Johnny's cousin.
"In his social habits," replied Old Mother Nature. "Stubtail isn't
fond of living alone. He wants company of his own kind.
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