Bea pulls a long stick from the dam, and water splashes through toward a yellow flower and a small wooden boat.

A PICTURE BOOK

Bertie Badger and the Sideways Stream

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Bertie Badger and the Sideways Stream

Bertie Badger stands beside a wide blue stream crossing the grass. A tiny rust-colored boat and a yellow flower float past, while a thin dry riverbed winds away behind him.

Bertie Badger liked to count things as he walked. Three red mushrooms. Four smooth stones. Five fat raindrops on a leaf.

One bright morning, Bertie reached the little river behind his burrow. Usually, it hurried downhill to the reeds. But today, the water had spread across the grass in a shallow stream and trickled over the path.

“That is not where the river goes,” Bertie said. He looked downhill. The usual river channel below the path was nearly dry.

A yellow buttercup bobbed past his paws in the shallow water. Then a tiny wooden toy boat sailed by, upright and bow-first. Bertie trotted beside the new watery path, counting as he went. One bend. Two willow trees. Three slippery stepping-stones.

Bea Beaver pushes a long stick onto a stick-and-mud dam beside a pool while Bertie points toward the water.

At the top of the hill was a round pool. In its middle stood a beaver dam made of sticks and mud. Water was piling up behind it, then spilling around the side and across the grass.

On the dam, Bea Beaver shoved a stick with her nose. “This stick will not fit,” she puffed. “I need it for my new pond.”

Bertie looked from the high water to the slow, dry river channel below. “Your dam is blocking the river,” he said. “The water is spilling into this wrong-side stream instead.”

Bea’s ears drooped. “I only wanted a quiet place for my toy boats to float.”

Bea watches Bertie standing in a shallow pool near a muddy bank and the old stick dam.

Bertie pointed to a wide muddy patch beside the pool. “Could you make your pond there?”

Bea blinked. Then she tugged one long stick from the dam. Splash! Water burst through the gap and hurried down the normal channel toward the reeds. The buttercup spun around, and the little wooden boat sailed bow-first beside it.

Bertie stands in shallow water holding Bea’s small rust-colored boat while Bea waits on the muddy bank.

At the reeds below the pool, the buttercup bobbed free. The boat caught gently between two green reeds. Bertie waded in and lifted it out with both paws. “Got it!” he said. Bea smiled and carried her dry boat back to the muddy patch.

Together, Bertie and Bea carried sticks to the muddy patch. Bea made a small curved wall. Bertie pressed soft mud along its bottom with his broad paws. Soon a calm little pond filled beside the river.

Bea sits beside a calm pond with her little boat floating on it. Bertie walks away past mushrooms and stones, while a blue river curves behind them.

Bea set her recovered toy boat on the pond. It floated in one slow, happy circle. Bertie watched the river hurry downhill where it belonged.

“One river,” said Bertie. “One pond.”

“And one very good helper,” said Bea.

Bertie smiled as he walked away. He counted six smooth stones, seven red mushrooms, and one little boat floating quietly in its very own pond.