The Beaver's Secret Clock

The Beaver's Secret Clock Çınar BİBER

Barnaby the beaver lived in a cozy lodge at the edge of a wide, winding pond. Every morning he swam out to check his dams, his broad flat tail steering him through the cool green water. He carried a small olive tool pouch on a belt around his waist, because a beaver never knows when a dam might need fixing. Barnaby was curious about everything, and he always wanted to know how things worked. 1

One bright morning, Barnaby dove deep to inspect the oldest part of his dam. Down among the smooth stones and waving weeds, something shiny caught his eye. It was round and metal, half buried in the mud, and it went tick, tick, tick. Barnaby's amber eyes went wide, and his two long front teeth showed in a delighted grin. He had never heard a stone tick before. 2

Barnaby dug the round thing out with his strong front paws. It was a clock, with a cracked glass face and little golden hands that moved all by themselves. Tick, tick, tick, it said, even underwater. Barnaby turned it over and over, but he could not find a key, a battery, or a winding knob anywhere. He tucked it into his tool pouch and swam home, bubbling with questions. 3

All afternoon Barnaby sat on his dam, tapping the clock and frowning. He poked it, shook it, and even blew on it, but it just kept ticking. His small round ears twitched with impatience. How could a clock tick with no one to wind it? He decided he needed help from the smartest animal he knew, a muskrat named Pip who lived across the pond. 4

Pip's burrow was tucked into the bank, lined with soft dry grass. Pip was slender and small, about half Barnaby's size, with silvery fur on his belly and a long thin tail. He wore round wire-rimmed spectacles and a red knitted scarf wrapped twice around his neck. When Barnaby plopped the ticking clock on the floor, Pip's tiny dark eyes lit up with wonder. 5

Pip turned the clock slowly, listening. His long whiskers twitched as he studied every crack and corner. Then he held one paw up for silence and pressed his ear to the metal. "Listen, Barnaby," he whispered. "Do you hear that tiny splashing inside? This is no ordinary clock. I think the water itself is making it tick." Barnaby blinked. Water that tells time? That sounded impossible. 6

Pip wrapped his scarf tighter and led Barnaby back to the deep part of the pond. Down they swam, past sleepy fish and swaying weeds, until they reached the spot where the clock had lain. Pip pointed at a small wheel on the clock's back, with little curved paddles. "Watch," he said. Water flowed through the wheel, and each push made the paddles turn, tick by tick. 7

Barnaby stared at the spinning wheel. "So the current turns the wheel, and the wheel moves the hands?" he asked. Pip nodded proudly. "Exactly! Water power. But the wheel is bent, so it sticks and stops." Barnaby's tail slapped the water with excitement. He had found a mystery, and Pip had found the answer hidden inside it. Now the clock only needed one small repair. 8

Back in Pip's burrow, they laid the clock on a flat stone. Pip took off his spectacles and polished them carefully. "I can straighten the wheel," he said, "but my paws are too small to hold it steady." Barnaby grinned, showing his long front teeth. "And my paws are too big to bend anything so tiny," he said. "So we shall do it together." They bumped noses like a promise. 9

Barnaby held the clock steady with his strong front paws. Pip leaned close, tongue poking out in concentration, and gently straightened each little paddle. It was slow, careful work. Twice the wheel slipped, and twice they started again. "Patience," Pip murmured. "Teamwork is just patience with a friend." Barnaby nodded and held on tighter, his tail planted firmly on the floor. 10

When the last paddle clicked into place, Pip set the clock gently into the stream behind his burrow. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the current caught the wheel, and it began to turn. Tick, tick, tick! The hands swept forward, and both friends cheered so loudly that a frog fell off his lily pad. "It works!" cried Barnaby, splashing his flat tail. "Water really does tell time!" 11

Pip laughed and adjusted his red scarf. "Curiosity found it," he said, "but teamwork made it work." Barnaby liked that very much. They carried the clock to the middle of the pond, where the current was strong and steady, and mounted it on a smooth stone post. Now every animal in the pond could see the time, shining bright beneath the water. 12

Word spread quickly through the pond. Otters paused to watch the golden hands, and fish gathered in shiny crowds to see the tick, tick, tick. Barnaby and Pip became famous for their underwater clock. But the best part was quieter than that. Every morning the two friends met by the stone post, one small and one sturdy, to check that the wheel was turning. 13

Barnaby began inventing new things with the water's help. He built a little water wheel that rocked a cradle of reeds, and Pip sketched plans for a current-powered bell. "Your curiosity starts the ideas," said Pip, tapping his spectacles, "and my tinkering finishes them." They made a fine team, the eager beaver and the patient muskrat, one dreaming up puzzles and the other untangling them.