“I see, I see,” said Snoutie, shaking his snunk. “I agree.” He had great respect for Robin the Elder, but he did get slightly tired from Robin’s Instructive Speeches. Then he exclaimed, “Luck! Yes, that’s it! Luck!”
“What do you mean to say by that, little Snoutie?” asked Robin importantly, raising his right eyebrow and sweeping his beak around to be sure that the boat was moving in the right direction.
“From now on our boat will be known as Luck. After all, that is exactly what we need today,” said Snoutie, easily pushing aside a log that was floating by with his pole.
Success sailed confidently forth towards the island, where the Economical Lover of Acorns was waiting for his friends’ arrival. Burly Boary also believed in luck.
All the big and small creatures of the Forest had gathered by the shores of the overflowing river and were watching with undisguised interest as the unusually round, orange boat floated past them.
“Snoutie and Robin the Elder are probably taking a trip along the river,” said Loppy the Believing Bunny. “Good for them! That’s an excellent sport!”
“Yes, good for them, of course, but today isn’t the best day for punting,” croaked Croaky the Feel Good Froggy, scratching behind his ear.
“Who is punting, and do I need to be afraid of him? Does he swim quickly?” chattered the Littlest Beaver Cub, who had scampered up onto a large, white mushroom and was listening in on the discussion between Loppy and Croaky.
“Punting, my little one, is sailing in boats with the help of a long pole,” explained Croaky the Feel Good Froggy with some authority.
“How can you talk about sailing in boats and punting? How can you even talk about water sports at all when all our supplies are soaking wet!” said Housey Mousey crossly. “Punting! Pudding! Punting is not pudding, and pudding is exactly what we need in this weather.”
“Yes, p-u-u-u-dding,” said Littlest Beaver Cub dreamily, stretching out the word. “Chocolate mixed with vanilla!” This topic got him so excited that he even took a bite out of the white mushroom he was sitting on.
“I don’t think that Snoutie has set out on a trip along the river,” said Wise Old Owl, shaking his head. “If that were really the case, then I would assume that I would have known something about it. I think that Snoutie has some other Idea in Mind. This isn’t about punting. Or pudding, for that matter,” said Owl gaily, nodding at the Littlest Beaver Cub.
The creatures on the shore had absolutely no idea that the event taking place in front of their eyes was nothing less than an Operation to Save the Lover of Acorns.
“Snoutie is sailing! Snoutie is sailing!” cried the beaver cubs, jumping happily along the shore as they watched the orange Luck sail straight for the island.
Luck made it there right on time: the water had risen right up to the supplies of acorns. Burly Boary, who was standing in the water grunting in alarm, was trying to raise the basket even higher.
“Hop on board, my friend Boary!” cried out Snoutie, pushing the boat right up to the island. “Hurry!” he shouted, fighting against the current to keep the pumpkin in place.
“Take the acorns first!” A worried Burly Boary handed Snoutie the basket, which Snoutie placed on the bottom of the pumpkin. “Now we can get going,” said Boary, satisfied, as he jumped lightly aboard Luck.
Luck swayed dangerously and tilted to the side, but the experienced sportsman Boary scrambled to the middle of the boat, and it straightened.
“Give me the pole, Snoutie,” said Boary, taking the initiative into his hoof. “Ah, this takes me back to my good old days as a student!” Grunting sportily, Boary pushed powerfully off from the shore with the pole.
But Luck didn’t move an inch. Burly Boary wrinkled up his snout crossly, stamped his hoof, and then pushed off again with even more strength. But the boat refused to budge.
“As Wise Old Owl says, my friends, there is Reason to Believe that we have run aground,” announced Robin the Elder.
“Run aground?” answered Boary crossly. “I wonder why? It must be because the boat is too small.”
“That could be,” said Robin the Elder, “but it might also be the case that a member of its crew is a little too heavy.”
Snoutie looked happily at his round tummy and shrugged, while Burly Boary bent over the side and started studying the water around the boat carefully.
“I don’t really understand what you’re talking about, Robin,” he finally said, “but the boat needs a push or else it won’t move and we’ll be stuck on this island forever!”
“We’ll help you,” said Beaver the Builder. “Sometimes even Luck needs help. Hey, cubs, get to work!”
So Beaver and his cubs placed their paws against the boat and pushed Luck as one. The boat jumped and started to sail away from the island.
“We’ll guide you,” continued Beaver the Builder. “It’s better to accompany Luck. Let’s swim, cubs!”
“Chart your course for Snoutie’s house,” commanded Robin the Elder.
The friends happily set off down the river. They got so involved in their conversation that they didn’t notice that Littlest Beaver Cub had disappeared from sight. But they did soon notice that somehow the boat was slowly beginning to fill with water. They couldn’t find the cause of this and started to get worried.
“Snoutie, Boary, Beaver! Sound the alarm! There’s a leak in the boat,” chirped Robin the Elder, flapping his wings.
Beaver the Builder quickly counted his cubs. When he found that one was missing, he disappeared under the water. He soon resurfaced, pulling Littlest Beaver Cub with him and looking very stern. The cub seemed quite satisfied and was earnestly chewing on something.
“Mmmm! I’ve never tried anything like that before,” Beaver Cub announced happily, smacking his lips and narrowing his eyes with pleasure, even though Beaver the Builder was holding him by the ear.
“This little fellow chewed through the bottom of the boat,” explained Beaver the Builder.
“Right now we don’t have Time for Instructive Discussions with the Foolish Younger Generation, nor, my friends, do we even have much time to think,” frowned Robin the Elder. “We need to come up with a way to reach Snoutie’s house as quickly as possible.”
“We need to sail faster before water floods the whole boat,” said the representative of the Foolish Younger Generation, who was at that time finishing up a piece of pumpkin and looking rather guilty.
“Raise up your snouts, my friends,” said Burly Boary, trying to encourage the crew. Then he let out such a loud and lengthy grunt that Robin the Elder flapped his wings nervously and Snoutie jumped as if he had just heard a ship’s horn.
“‘The louder your grunt, the faster you’ll get there!’ That was our punting team’s motto. We always finished first at Cambridge!” explained Boary. For some reason he then started to mount the pole in the middle of the boat. “I think you’ve all already guessed who the captain of that team was!” he added.
“Uncle Boary, what if someone grunted quietly, or didn’t even grunt at all? Then what would happen?” asked curious and uncontrollable Littlest Beaver Cub.
“Anyone who didn’t grunt missed the boat!” Boary raised his hooves as if he was giving a lecture. “Remember that, little one!”
When the pole was in place, Burly Boary quickly slipped off his raincoat and threw the hood over the top of the pole. He handed one half of the coat to Snoutie and held the other half himself.
“Let’s set sail!” pronounced a satisfied Captain Boary.
The wind blew at Boary’s raincoat and the sailboat Luck quickly sailed right up to Snoutie’s house, even though water continued to fill the boat. Almost as soon as the brave crew stepped onto dry land (with the rescued supplies, the umbrella, and the raincoat, of course), the boat started to sink into the water with a loud gurgle and disappeared entirely from view a few minutes later. Snoutie and his friends looked gratefully after it.