Mr. Beaver squinted at Roz’s stump.
“I’ve never built a foot before.” He stroked his whiskers and muttered to himself. “There are really three problems to solve. The foot needs to grip the ground. And it needs to be durable. And then there’s the issue of fixing it to the leg. I might have to consult a few friends.”
“Will she ever walk again?” said Brightbill.
“What’s that?” Mr. Beaver was lost in thought. “Oh, not to worry. You just sit back and leave everything to me. I love a challenge!”
Mr. Beaver plunked into the pond, and returned a while later rolling a large section of a tree trunk. “Say hello to your new foot!” he said, slapping the wood with his tail.
“Hello, new foot,” said the robot.
“That’s the spirit! This beauty is from one of the hardest trees I ever chewed. I just need to make a few modifications.”
Mr. Beaver placed the piece of wood next to Roz. He squinted, repositioned the piece, and squinted some more. With his claws, he marked different spots on the wood. And then he put his big chompers to work. The beaver chewed and gnawed and carved up that piece of wood, turning it over and over in his paws.
Chitchat looked down from a branch and chattered through the quiet moments. “This reminds me of the time I saw a fox catch a lizard by the tail and somehow the lizard’s tail fell off and he got away and later I saw that the lizard got a new tail and now Roz is going to get a new foot and everything will be fine…”
The wooden foot took shape, and before long Mr. Beaver was standing beside a beautiful carving that resembled a boot. He tried to slide it over Roz’s stump, but the opening was too small. So he scraped out more wood until it was a perfect fit.
“Very good,” he said, spitting out a wood chip. “My friends should be arriving any minute with the next few things we’ll need. And there they are now! I’d like you all to meet Bumpkin, Lumpkin, and Rumpkin. But I call them the Fuzzy Bandits.”
Three fat raccoons shuffled into the garden, dragging a tangle of vines behind them.
“Good day,” said Bumpkin.
“Good day,” said Lumpkin.
“Good day,” said Rumpkin.
You might already know this, reader, but raccoons have very nimble hands. And the Fuzzy Bandits used theirs to skillfully tie those vines around the robot’s leg and around her new foot. The vines caught nicely on all the dings and dents and scrapes. Once they were tied good and tight, Mr. Beaver threw back his head and hollered, “Trunktap! We could use your assistance!”
There was silence.
And then three quick taps echoed down from the forest canopy.
“Ah, that’ll be him,” said Mr. Beaver, smiling.
A very handsome woodpecker swooped into the garden. “You called?” came the woodpecker’s musical voice.
“Indeed I did! Everyone, this is my wood-pecking pal, Trunktap. Now, Trunky, we need some tree resin, the really sticky stuff. Can you help us out?”
“Of course I can!” said the woodpecker. “You’ve got a perfect pine right here!”
Trunktap hopped over to a crusty old pine tree and pecked a few deep holes in the bark. Thick, syrupy resin began oozing down the trunk. Mr. Beaver scooped up handfuls of the resin and smeared it all over the wooden foot and the vines until everything was glistening with stickiness. And when the resin dried a short time later, Roz’s foot was finished.
“This is wonderful!” said the robot as she strolled around her garden. “I am as good as new!”
Mr. Beaver and Trunktap and the Fuzzy Bandits went away feeling pretty happy with themselves. They’d done a very nice thing. But it was the first wooden foot any of them had ever made. And within a week the vines were coming undone and the foot was sliding loose. So they returned, determined to get it right. They found even harder wood and even tougher vines. They experimented with resin, heating it by the fire, letting it boil and thicken, until it became an indestructible glue. They kept tinkering with their design until, finally, Roz had herself a wooden foot that she could rely on.
“Huzzah!” Mr. Beaver rapped his knuckles on the new-and-improved creation. “I knew we’d get it right.”
Roz moved slower than before, and she had a slight limp, but she was back to her old self again, and that was a relief to everyone, especially Brightbill.