“Aunty Mousey, Burly Boary probably didn’t hear you!” she heard someone say behind her. She turned to see Beaver the Builder’s Littlest Beaver Cub sitting next to her. “You’ll need a different approach, or even a Special Approach, as Royal Chef Rabbit likes to say,” he continued, gaily scrambling up onto the windowsill. “Well, it’s exactly as I thought,” he confirmed happily when he saw Boary jumping rope with all his might.
“Good morning, Uncle Boary! You have a visitor,” he announced and skittered back down off the windowsill and onto the wet grass.
“Interrupting the Schedule! This is a disgrace!” huffed Burly Boary crossly, and he went to open the door.
After hearing what Economical Housey Mousey had to say, Boary went right down to his cellar to make sure that his supply of acorns hadn’t gotten wet. They hadn’t, and in fact they couldn’t have, because they simply weren’t there at all. The thing was that Burly Boary had always believed that one should eat one’s fill before going off to sleep, especially if that sleep is going to be a long one due to rainy weather. What’s more, Boary believed that the acorns would go bad if they were stored for too long. So, in short, Boary’s supplies never lasted for long: he would eat them as soon as they appeared in his cellar, which is why his cellar was now completely empty.
After looking around the cellar disapprovingly and grunting crossly, Burly Boary glanced at his Weekly Schedule, which was hanging on the wall right next to his Daily Schedule. According to this Schedule, Supply Day was due to take place the next day, but Boary wanted to eat right then and there.
“Well, this is totally unacceptable! It’s against the Schedule!” Burly Boary crossly kicked an empty apple box with his hind legs.
He decided to start filling out his supplies right away. Grabbing his largest basket from the cellar, Boary put on his favorite green raincoat, adjusted his hood, and grabbed his black umbrella with the wooden handle that always stood in the same place under the coat rack in the mud room.
He wanted to finish this job quickly and get back to his Daily Schedule, so he decided to go to the largest oak tree in the forest that had the most acorns. He galloped over to the foot of this thick oak tree, which grew on a little hill near the river, and got down to work. He became so involved in collecting acorns that it took him awhile to notice that the sun had disappeared behind thickening clouds and that the rain had started to pour down again.
“The most important thing is to finish what I started!” With these words, Burly Boary neatly opened his umbrella over his basket, put on his galoshes, and started collecting acorns faster.
Meanwhile, this fresh downpour was causing the water in the river to rise quickly. It slowly began to surround the little hill where the thick oak grew. When he had filled his basket all the way up to the top, Boary realized that he was now standing on an island. He had no fear at all of the water, because he was a good swimmer and was easily able to steer a raft with a pole. He had even won prizes in punting when he was a student at Cambridge. But in this case it was impossible to swim because the strong current would have turned the basket over and sent all the acorns down to the bottom. And this was something Boary just could not allow to happen. So he moved closer to the oak, held tightly onto his basket, and looked off into the distance.
The rain stopped and the sky turned pink. But the water in the river continued to rise higher and higher and was already coming right up to the hooves of our Lover of Acorns. Boary became seriously worried about his supplies.
“Cro-o-o-a-a-a-k-k-k!” heard Boary from somewhere very close by. “What a current! I can barely stay on my lily pad! Cro-o-o-a-a-a-k-k-k!” announced Croaky the Feel Good Froggy as he floated by. Then he fell off his lily pad.
“Look! Look! Burly Boary is stuck in the water!” shouted the little beaver cubs, who had climbed up out of the river and onto a neighboring island hill. Beaver the Builder followed after them.
“Good to see you, Burly Boary! I thought you would be warming your hooves by the fire in weather like this. I was even planning to drop by to sit by the fire with you,” said Beaver. “But I see the river has decided to spoil our plans.”
“The river’s no big deal,” snorted Boary in response. “I would have swum across it long ago without any trouble at all if it weren’t for my supplies! What am I going to do with all these acorns?” he asked, lifting the basket even higher.
“First we need an Assessment of the Situation,” said Beaver the Builder wisely. “This will help us put together a Plan of Action. My Assessment of the Situation is such: Burly Boary can be saved, but his supplies probably cannot. The Plan of Action is still not clear.”
“I don’t like your Assessment of the Situation,” grunted Boary crossly in reply. “And your Plan of Action doesn’t suit me either.”
“But the water is getting closer and closer to your supplies,” laughed Beaver.
“I’d rather eat all the acorns right here, right now then lose them!” With that, Boary sank his snout into the basket. All that could be heard was the sound of loud chewing and the crunch of acorns.
“Good evening, young creatures,” said Robin the Elder from somewhere up in the branches of the Oak. “Lose the supplies or eat too much – neither is a great choice. But allow me to offer you an Alternative Option, as our friend Royal Chef Rabbit loves to say. I know who can help us! Hang on!” Flapping his wings, Robin the Elder flew off in the direction of the edge of the Big Forest.
While all this was going on, Snoutie was trying to organize his pantry, since the weather did not allow him to play happily in the garden. As he was cleaning up, he came across the very same pumpkin that had recently served as a house for the future Young Ostrich. Snoutie realized that such a wonderful vegetable might come in handy around the house, and he started to think about how he could use it.
“Perhaps I should give it to someone?” But before Snoutie could finish his thought, he heard a knock on the window and ran upstairs. Robin the Elder was sitting on the window sill.
“Your friend needs your help! I know you’ll come up with something!” Robin chirped, and he went on to tell Snoutie all about Beaver the Builder’s Disappointing Assessment of the Situation and his Unsuitable Plan of Action.
Snoutie grew worried and confused, and he started stroking his big ears and shifting his snunk from side to side, which is what he usually did when he felt this way. But then he had an excellent idea.
Inspired, he hurried back down to the cellar, leaving Robin the Elder at a loss. As he ran down the stairs, he wrote a new song:
My friend Burly Boary
Is sinking in water far from the shorey!
But I know what will do the trick
To help me reach him nice and quick!
A minute later, Snoutie rolled his famous pumpkin out onto the porch. He picked up the longest pole he could find in the garden and dragged the pumpkin over to the water that was lapping up against the garden. He jumped into the pumpkin, pushed off as hard as he could with the pole, and set sail. Robin the Elder perched on the edge of the pumpkin and starting giving Snoutie directions to the island where Burly Boary was waiting for an Alternative Option for saving his acorns.
“What is our Rescue Ship called, Snoutie?” asked Robin the Elder.
“I don’t know,” puffed Snoutie in reply, pushing hard with the pole and shifting from hoof to hoof in order to keep his balance. “For some reason, I didn’t have the chance to think of one. Do we really need one anyway?”
“We most certainly do, Snoutie,” Robin objected. “And it has to be a Correct Name, a Suitable Name, and an Appropriate Name. I would even say that it should be a Momentous Name. It’s not uncommon for the fate of a boat to depend on its name.”