“Well, we’re going to get it’” thought Keeo, “another storm for sure.”
The wind had stopped and it was the silence that was most noticeable. The stillness that suddenly comes before a great storm. The leaves had stopped rustling and the rain hadn’t yet begun to fall. There was quietness over the pond and the rest of the forest as all the animals took cover, all except Keeo. He sat on the biggest log above the beaver dam. None of the other beavers knew why he was staying there.
“He really should come in.” they said. “We don’t like to see any of the animals out when there is lighting and maybe trees falling and crashing around.”
Later on, all the beavers had a different story to tell. A different way they saw it happen, but they all agreed it was the second bolt of lighting that did it. That was the bolt that seemed to hit the log on which Keeo was sitting. As the lighting flashed down, and then away, a strange glow came over the huge beaver. At first, the other beavers thought that the lightning had blinded them all because, as they looked at Keeo on the log, he seemed to have a shine about him, almost as if he were silver.
They were worried because they thought he had been badly burnt. But the more they looked, the more they saw what really had happened. He actually had turned completely silver. Keeo himself was stunned. He felt so strange. He knew something had changed him. As he looked down at his fur he saw that he had turned completely silver, but that wasn’t the strangest thing of all. He was thinking differently. He was thinking thoughts he never had before, He felt the strangest feeling come over him. He knew, with great surprise, and then delight, that he was thinking not only like a beaver, but also like a human being. He could think like the people in the cottage down the creek. He felt very important, and called all the other beavers over to tell them the news.
He told them in beaver language of how he seemed to be able to think like a man. In front of all his friends he even spoke a few words of human talk, to show them that he could, indeed, do it.
“What a great responsibility you have, Keeo,” said the beavers. “It will be up to you now to talk on behalf of all the animals of the forest and especially us beavers. You will be able to learn so much from each other,” they all agreed. “We animals can learn from our human friends and they can learn all the important things in nature from us. You Keeo, will be the one who will talk for us all.”
Keeo wondered if, indeed, he could do it. Such an important job, but he knew that there must have been a reason for him being made to talk like this, and the bolt of lightning turned him into the silver beaver must have been meant to happen. He wondered how the humans at the cottage, their friends the Joneses, would react to his talking to them. It would be a shock for them. Perhaps, he thought, he ought to talk to the young ones first. With that, he slid off the log and headed down the creek to the cottage, to see how, first of all, he would meet and talk to Rusty and Bubbles.