The Great Brown Beaver had a very important announcement to make. He swam to the middle of the pond and slapped his tail. Smack, smack, smack, on the water, three times. All of the other beavers in the pond heard the signal and hurried over to the beaver dam built by the Brown Beavers, where they knew the Meeting would be held.
“What do you suppose can be happening?” asked the little beaver with the sharp front teeth.
“Its something about the people in the new cottage” said one of the twin beavers.
“I know it is,” said the other, “because Brown Beaver was swimming down the creek it that direction this morning.”
From all over the pond beavers swam strongly to the meeting place. Brown Beaver was sitting on a log looking very solemn indeed. He was such a wise beaver. He knew so much about the forest and the pond, and all the animals and birds were his friends. He clapped his two front paws for silence. The fifteen beavers who were gathered in the circle around him became very quiet.
“Big and little beavers,” he said, “I have something important to tell you. Down the creek, in the clearing by the lake, four humans are building a cottage. There are two big ones and two little ones and I know you are going to be happy to hear they seem very friendly. The boy saw me and pointed me out to the others. They all waved and when I slapped my tail back they seemed very excited.”
“On my way back up the creek to tell you the news I met Tic Tac, the squirrel. He told me they were called the Jones family and, since they are going to be our friends, big and little beavers, I called this meeting today so we can give them names. All friends of the forest must have names, as you know.
“Well then, said Brown Beaver, “that’s why we’re all going down the creek this afternoon to have a look at the Jones family.”
There was much excitement among all the beavers as they prepared to swim down towards the site where the Jounces were busily building their new summer cottage. At first no one noticed the beavers as they arrived and quietly peeked over the side of the bank.
It was Father Jones who finally said, “Look kids, look Mother, I think we have some company. Don’t turn around too fast or you might frighten them away.” All of the Joneses turned and saw the beavers. They were really pleased about this.
“Didn’t I tell you we’d have lots of friends in the forest?” said Mother.
“I think we must have a beaver colony in the dam up the creek,” said Father.
The beavers looked carefully, each watching the humans to see it they could pick a name that would describe them suitably. The girl had come down close to the bank of the creek and was slowly taking off her shoes. The beavers cautiously moved back a little into deeper water and the girl began to paddle around in the cool water. The boy, mother and father had walked quietly over to the bank and were now watching the beavers swim about. The mother said that she was sure the beavers were looking at them.
“I think.” the boy said, “they’re trying to see if we’re friendly,”
Father said, “It will take a little while but I know they’ll find out.”
Just then a loud smack from the Brown Beaver signalled the others to return. Up the creek they went to hold the meeting to decide their names for the humans. With great wisdom Brown Beaver said, “Beavers, the father saw us first, he saw us before we really had turned the bend in the creek. I think we’ll call him Hawkeye.”
“Oh, that’s a splendid name,” said all the beavers.
The twins began to chatter. “Did you see the bright coloured clothes the mother was wearing? They were really pretty. We’ll have to call her ‘Rainbow’. She had such beautiful colours on.” they said.
“Good for you, twins!” said the other beavers. “That’s the name we’ll call her - Rainbow!”
“I was the closest beaver to the girl when she came in the water and, you know, she did a lot of splashing about and made such big bubbles with her feet,” said the beaver with the shortest tail. “How about calling her bubbles?"
“We like that very much,” said several beavers. “That’s a good name for her to have.”
The brown Beaver said, “And, the boy, did you see the colour of his hair? We’re going to call him, Rusty.”
“ Well, those are the names we’ll give them,” said all the beavers at once, slapping their tails with pleasure. “That’s what we’ll call them and we’ll be friends together.”
And that’s how the Beaver colony named its four new human friends.