Once upon a time, the beaver learned to build things. There were more beavers than there were ponds. So the beaver learned how to build dams across streams. Some of the water from the stream collected behind the dam and created a pond. The ponds were good for many animals. Beavers built lodges in the ponds. Frogs and fish multiplied in the ponds. Birds lived next to the ponds. And the wolves came to the ponds, for the wolves liked to eat all the other animals that lived in, on, or near them.

Now the beaver was a clever animal, very clever in the ways of wood. But the beaver was not very clever in the ways of snakes.

One day, Snake slithered up to Beaver and said, "Hello, Beaver. How are you this fine day?"

"Hello, Snake," Beaver replied. "I am fine. I just figured out how to use the thin trunks of the birch tree to plug holes in my dam. I am impressed with my own cleverness."

"As well you should be!" Snake enthused. "As well you should be!"

Snake stretched out on the shore, next to where Beaver was working. For several minutes, Beaver worked on trimming the branches from a birch tree while Snake basked in the sun.

"Say, Beaver," Snake began, "do you like berries?"

"Oh, yes," said Beaver. "I like all kinds of berries: blackberries, dewberries, loganberries, marionberries..."

"I thought you might," Snake said. If Beaver was cleverer about snakes, he might have seen the devious glint in Snake's eye.

"What would you say if I told you I could bring you all the berries you can eat?" Snake asked.

"Now exactly how many berries do you mean by 'all the berries you can eat'?" asked Beaver. "Do you mean all the berries my family and I can eat?"

Beaver was very impressed with his own shrewdness.

"Oh-ho-ho!" laughed Snake. "I told Coyote that Beaver was very shrewd, much shrewder than he thought. I can tell you are a perceptive animal, Beaver, and no one could swindle you!

"You see," continued Snake, "I have recently been talking to Wolf. Wolf rather enjoys eating the ducks and trout that live in the pond. But there are more wolves than there are ponds.

"There are also more berry patches than there are wolves. I am sure that if you were to build a dam for Wolf, I could get you all the berries your family and you could ever eat."

Beaver was excited. He would get to build another dam and his family would get all the berries they could eat. What could go wrong?

The next morning Beaver set off for the new stream. He saw fresh lumber everywhere he looked. He attacked the new dam with great energy.

"This," said Beaver to himself, "will be the finest dam ever built. Other beavers will see this dam and remark on my cleverness."

Several days passed with Beaver working by himself on the new dam. One day Snake came to see Beaver. "Have you finished the dam yet?" asked Snake.

"Well, no," replied Beaver, somewhat flustered. "Building a dam takes time. You can not rush it."

"When will it be done?" asked Snake. "Wolf has been asking me uncomfortable questions about the dam. You know he has very sharp teeth."

"You can never know for sure when a dam will be done," answered Beaver. "For example, just this morning I discovered that the channel in the middle of the stream is deeper than I originally thought. I could not know that until I actually started laying down wood."

"Wolf is quite insistent that I give him a specific day when the dam will be ready," Snake said. "Have I mentioned his very sharp teeth?"

Snake laid his tail across Beaver's shoulders in what Snake thought was a companionable fashion. "Would it help," Snake began unctuously, "if I were to bring in some other beavers to help you?"

"Do your eggs hatch any faster if thirty snakes lay on them?" retorted Beaver, who was beginning to lose his patience with Snake. "And where are my berries? I told my family about the berries and they are waiting to eat them."

"You see," said Snake, who was no longer quite so companionable, "Wolf is concerned that you are not really building him a dam at all. So Wolf will not give me any berries until he knows when the dam will be finished. And if I do not get any berries, you do not get any berries."

"Of course I am building him a dam!" exclaimed Beaver. "I take umbrage at the suggestion that I would not do something to which I agreed. All Wolf need do is come and see my work."

"Oh, yes, you and I know that," said Snake, "but Wolf is not as smart as us. To him, it just looks like you are dumping wood into the stream. Wolf feels that anyone can throw sticks in a river. Until you can give me a date that you absolutely guarantee the dam will be ready, you will get no berries.

"Perhaps," continued Snake, "the dam would be done quicker if you were to work longer?"

"I am already working from sunrise to sundown! What else do you want?" cried Beaver.

"Yes, I know," said Snake. "But if we do not finish this dam soon, it will be crunch time, when Wolf crunches on our bones. Is there not still a little light after the sun has first gone down? Could you not wait until you can see nothing before you go home?"

"But what about my family?" asked Beaver. "If I wait that late, I will never see my family. All I would do is work and sleep. I would not even have time to enjoy the berries you refuse to bring!"

"Just until we finish the dam," Snake said. "Then I promise that things will return to normal. And you will have all the berries your family can eat."

Beaver did not feel very convinced. Beaver was beginning to wonder if snakes might not be quite as nice as beavers. But the dam would not build itself, so Beaver went back to work.

Many days later Snake came to see Beaver again.

"Wolf has become quite insistent," said Snake. Beaver thought Snake sounded less confident.

"Do you see my tail?" asked Snake while waving his tail indignantly under Beaver's nose.

"He bit my tail! He said he wanted me to understand how much he wants this dam."

"Fortunately I have just finished the dam," said Beaver proudly. "I have been working from the gray hours of false dawn until the sky is completely dark. This is definitely the best dam I have ever made and, if I might say so myself, the best dam anyone has ever made."

Beaver slapped his tail quite loudly on the pond and asked, "Now, Snake, where are my berries?"

"Now that you have finally finished the dam, I shall see what I can salvage of my deal with Wolf."

"Salvage?" shouted Beaver. "I have done exactly what I agreed to do. In fact, I have built Wolf a masterpiece. No other beaver could have done a better job or a quicker job. And a wolf certainly could not!"

"Beaver, Beaver, Beaver," Snake said, sadly shaking his head. "You are quite clever in the ways of wood, but you are not very clever in the ways of the forest. That is just not the way things work. You have too simple of a view of the world. I will do the best that I can."

With that, Snake slithered off into the forest while Beaver fumed.

Beaver returned to his family and spent several days fixing his dam. With all the time that he had spent on Wolf's dam, Beaver had let his own dam fall into disrepair. One day while swimming in his pond, Beaver decided he had waited long enough for his berries. He left the pond and went looking for Snake.

"Snake!" Beaver said when he finally found the snake in the grass. "Where have you been? I have had the hardest time finding you. It was almost like you did not want to see me."

"Uh, no," said Snake somewhat nervously. "I have been very busy."

"Oh, you must have been busy collecting all of my berries, right?" asked Beaver.

"It turns out Wolf's sister would also like her own pond. I have been looking for…"

Suddenly Snake realized that he had said too much.

"You are doing it again?" inquired Beaver. "First you cheat me out of the best dam work ever. And now you are trying to do it again? Wolf never gave a single berry for my dam. What makes you think his sister would?"

"Well, actually," Snake corrected, "Wolf did give me quite a few berries. I would say he paid a fair price for his dam."

"If he gave you berries," asked Beaver, "then where are mine?"

"By the time I was done eating," answered Snake, "there were no berries left for you."

"That, that, that is not fair!" exclaimed Beaver.

"Silly Beaver," said Snake. "I told you that you did not understand the ways of the forest. That is just the risk you take. Sometimes you get no berries no matter how hard you work."

"But I did all the work and you got all the berries!" shouted Beaver.

Snake just laughed at Beaver and crawled off into the grass.

Mouse came to see Beaver many days later. Despite being quite small, Mouse had a very big smile on his face.

"Why are you so happy?" asked Beaver.

"Have you heard about Snake?" asked Mouse.

Beaver slapped his tail quite loudly on the pond.

"Snake! I do not like Snake. He cheated me out of all the berries my family and I could eat."

"Then you will be happy to hear," gloated Mouse, "that Wolf has eaten Snake."

The moral to our story: snakes may swindle you, but if you're really, really lucky, someone will eat them.