The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver
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Thornton W. Burgess >> The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver
"Do, and then come tell us," begged Peter, who was growing so
curious that he couldn't sit still.
So Jerry swam out to where Paddy was so busy. "Is this your food
supply, Cousin Paddy?" he asked.
"Yes," replied Paddy, crawling up on the side of his house to
rest. "Yes, this is my food supply. Isn't it splendid?"
"I guess it is," replied Jerry, trying to be polite, "though I
like lily roots and clams better. But what are you going to do
with it? Where is your storehouse?"
"This pond is my storehouse," replied Paddy. "I will make a great
pile right here close to my house, and the water will keep it
nice and fresh all winter. When the pond is frozen over, all I
will have to do is to slip out of one of my doorways down there
on the bottom, swim over here and get a stick, and fill my
stomach. Isn't it handy?"
CHAPTER XIV A Footprint in the Mud.
Very early one morning Paddy the Beaver heard Sammy Jay making a
terrible fuss over in the aspen trees on the edge of the pond
Paddy had made in the Green Forest. Paddy couldn't see because he
was inside his house, and it has no window, but he could hear. He
wrinkled up his brows thoughtfully.
"Seems to me that Sammy is very much excited this morning," said
he, a way he has because he is so much alone. "When he screams
like that, Sammy is usually trying to do two things at once--make
trouble for somebody and keep somebody else out of trouble; and
when you come to think of it, that's rather a funny way of doing.
It shows that he isn't all bad, and at the same time he is a long
way from being all good. Now, I should say from the sounds that
Sammy has discovered Reddy Fox trying to steal up on someone over
where my aspen trees are growing. Reddy is afraid of me, but I
suspect that he knows that Peter Rabbit has been hanging around
here a lot lately, watching me work, and he thinks perhaps he can
watch Peter. I shall have to whisper in one of Peter's long ears
and tell him to watch out."
After a while he heard Sammy Jay's voice growing fainter and
fainter in the Green Forest. Finally he couldn't hear it at all.
"Whoever was here has gone away, and Sammy has followed just to
torment them," thought Paddy. He was very busy making a bed. He
is very particular about his bed, is Paddy the Beaver. He makes
it of fine splinters of wood which he splits off with those
wonderful great cutting teeth of his. This makes the driest kind
of a bed. It requires a great deal of patience and work, but
patience is one of the first things a little Beaver learns, and
honest work well done is one of the greatest pleasures in the
world, as Paddy long ago found out for himself. So he kept at
work on his bed for some time after all was still outside.
At last Paddy decided that he would go over to his aspen trees
and look them over to decide which ones he would cut the next
night. He slid down one of his long halls, out the doorway at the
bottom on the pond, and then swam up to the surface, where he
floated for a few minutes with just his head out of water. And
all the time his eyes and nose and ears were busy looking,
smelling, and listening for any sign of danger. Everything was
still. Sure that he was quite safe, Paddy swam across to the
place where the aspen trees grew, and waddled out on the shore.
Paddy looked this way and looked that way. He looked up in the
treetops, and he looked off up the hill, but most of all he
looked at the ground. Yes, Sir, Paddy just studied the ground.
You see, he hadn't forgotten the fuss Sammy Jay had been making
there, and he was trying to find out what it was all about. At
first he didn't see anything unusual, but by and by he happened
to notice a little wet place, and right in the middle of it was
something that made Paddy's eyes open wide. It was a footprint!
Someone had carelessly stepped in the mud.
"Ha!" exclaimed Paddy, and the hair on his back lifted ever so
little, and for a minute he had a prickly feeling all over. The
footprint was very much like that of Reddy Fox, only it was
larger.
"Ha!" said Paddy again. "That certainly is the foot print of Old
Man Coyote! I see I have got to watch out more sharply than I had
thought for. All right, Mr. Coyote; now that I know you are
about, you'll have to be smarter than I think you are to catch
me. You certainly will be back here tonight looking for me, so I
think I'll do my cutting right now in the daytime."
CHAPTER XV Sammy Jay Makes Paddy a Call.
Paddy the Beaver was hard at work. He had just cut down a good-
sized aspen tree and now he was gnawing it into short lengths to
put in his food pile in the pond. As he worked, Paddy was doing a
lot of thinking about the footprint of Old Man Coyote in a little
patch of mud, for he knew that meant that Old Man Coyote had
discovered his pond, and would be hanging around, hoping to catch
Paddy off his guard. Paddy knew it just as well as if Old Man
Coyote had told him so. That was why he was at work cutting his food
supply in the daytime. Usually he works at night, and he knew
that Old Man Coyote knew it.
"He'll try to catch me then," thought Paddy, "so I'll do my working
on land now and fool him."
The tree he was cutting began to sway and crack. Paddy cut out
One more big chip, then hurried away to a safe place while the
tree fell with a crash.
"Thief! thief! thief!" screamed a voice just back of Paddy.
"Hello, Sammy Jay! I see you don't feel any better than usual
this morning," said Paddy. "Don't you want to sit up in this tree
while I cut it down?"
Sammy grew black in the face with anger, for he knew that Paddy
was laughing at him. You remember how only a few days before he
had been so intent on calling Paddy bad names that he actually
hadn't noticed that Paddy was cutting the very tree in which he
was sitting, and so when it fell he had had a terrible fright.
"You think you are very smart, Mr. Beaver, but you'll think
differently one of these fine days!" screamed Sammy. "If you knew
what I know, you wouldn't be so well satisfied with yourself."
"What do you know?" asked Paddy, pretending to be very much
alarmed.
"I'm not going to tell you what I know," retorted Sammy Jay.
"You'll find out soon enough. And when you do find out, you'll
never steal another tree from our Green Forest. Somebody is going
to catch you, and it isn't Farmer Brown's boy either!"
Paddy pretended to be terribly frightened. "Oh, who is it? Please
tell me, Mr. Jay," he begged.
Now to be called Mr. Jay made Sammy feel very important. Nearly
everybody else called him Sammy. He swelled himself out trying to
look as important as he felt, and his eyes snapped with pleasure.
He was actually making Paddy the Beaver afraid. At least, he
thought he was.
"No, Sir, I won't tell you," he replied. "I wouldn't be you for a
great deal, though! Somebody who is smarter than you are is going
to catch you, and when he gets through with you, there won't be
anything left but a few bones. No, Sir, nothing but a few bones!"
"Oh, Mr. Jay, this is terrible news! Whatever am I to do?" cried
Paddy, all the time keeping on at work cutting another tree.
"There's nothing you can do," replied Sammy, grinning wickedly at
Paddy's fright. "There's nothing you can do unless you go right
straight back to the North where you came from. You think you are
very smart, but--"
Sammy didn't finish. Crack! Over fell the tree Paddy had been
cutting and the top of it fell straight into the alder in which
Sammy was sitting. "Oh! Oh! Help!" shrieked Sammy, spreading his
wings and flying away just in time.
Paddy sat down and laughed until his sides ached. "Come make me
another call someday, Sammy!" he said. "And when you do, please
bring some real news. I know all about Old Man Coyote. You can
tell him for me that when he is planning to catch people he
should be careful not to leave footprints to give himself away."
Sammy didn't reply. He just sneaked off through the Green Forest,
looking quite as foolish as he felt.
CHAPTER XVI Old Man Coyote is Very Crafty.
Coyote has a crafty brain;
His wits are sharp his ends to gain.
There is nothing in the world more true than that. Old Man Coyote
has the craftiest brain of all the little people of the Green
Forest or the Green Meadows. Sharp as are the wits of old Granny
Fox, they are not quite so sharp as the wits of Old Man Coyote.
If you want to fool him, you will have to get up very early in
the morning, and then it is more than likely that you will be the
one fooled, not he. There is very little going on around him that
he doesn't know about. But once in a while something escapes him.
The coming of Paddy the Beaver to the Green Forest was one of
these things. He didn't know a thing about Paddy until Paddy had
finished his dam and his house, and was cutting his supply of
food for the winter.
You see, it was this way: When the Merry Little Breezes of Old
Mother West Wind first heard what was going on in the Green Forest
and hurried around over the Green Meadows and through the Green
Forest to spread the news, as is their way, they took the
greatest pains not to even hint it to Old Man Coyote because they
were afraid that he would make trouble and perhaps drive Paddy
away. The place that Paddy had chosen to build his dam was so
deep in the Green Forest that Old Man Coyote seldom went that
way. So it was that he knew nothing about Paddy, and Paddy knew
nothing about him for some time.
But after awhile Old Man Coyote noticed that the little people of
the Green Meadows were not about as much as usual. They seemed to
have a secret of some kind. He mentioned the matter to his
friend, Digger the Badger.
Digger had been so intent on his own affairs that he hadn't
noticed anything unusual, but when Old Man Coyote mentioned the
matter he remembered that Blacky the Crow headed straight for the
Green Forest every morning. Several times he had seen Sammy Jay
flying in the same direction as if in a great hurry to get
somewhere.
Old Man Coyote grinned. "That's all I need to know, friend
Digger," said he. "When Blacky the Crow and Sammy Jay visit a
place more than once, something interesting is going on there. I
think I'll take a stroll up through the Green Forest and have a
look around."
With that, off Old Man Coyote started. But he was too sly and
crafty to go straight to the Green Forest. He pretended to hunt
around over the Green Meadows just as he usually did, all the
time working nearer and nearer to the Green Forest. When he
reached the edge of it, he slipped in among the trees, and when
he felt that no one was likely to see him, he began to run this
way and that way with his nose to the ground.
"Ha!" he exclaimed presently, "Reddy Fox has been this way
lately."
Pretty soon he found another trail. "So," said he, "Peter Rabbit
has been over here a good deal of late, and his trail goes in the
same direction as that of Reddy Fox. I guess all I have to do now
is to follow Peter's trail, and it will lead me to what I want to
find out."
So Old Man Coyote followed Peter's trail, and he presently came
to the pond of Paddy the Beaver. "Ha!" said he, as he looked out
and saw Paddy's new house. "So there is a newcomer to the Green
Forest! I have always heard that Beaver is very good eating. My
stomach begins to feel empty this very minute." His mouth began
to water, and a fierce, hungry look shone in his eyes.
It was just then that Sammy Jay saw him and began to scream at
the top of his lungs so that Paddy the Beaver over in his house
heard him. Old Man Coyote knew that it was of no use to stay
longer with Sammy Jay about, so he took a hasty look at the pond
and found where Paddy came ashore to cut his food. Then, shaking
his fist at Sammy Jay, he started straight back for the Green
Meadows. "I'll just pay a visit here in the night," said he, "and
give Mr. Beaver a surprise while he is at work."
But with all his craft, Old Man Coyote didn't notice that he left
a footprint in the mud.
CHAPTER XVII Old Man Coyote is Disappointed.
Old Man Coyote lay stretched out in his favorite napping place on
the Green Meadows. He was thinking of what he had found out up in
the Green Forest that morning--that Paddy the Beaver was living
there. Old Man Coyote's thoughts seemed very pleasant to
himself, though really they were very dreadful thoughts. You see,
he was thinking how easy it was going to be to catch Paddy the
Beaver, and what a splendid meal he would make. He licked his
chops at the thought.
"He doesn't know I know he's here," thought Old Man Coyote. "In
fact, I don't believe heaven knows that I am anywhere around. Of
course he won't be watching for me. He cuts his trees at night,
so all I will have to do is to hide right close by where he is at
work, and he'll walk right into my mouth. Sammy Jay knows I was
up there this morning, but Sammy sleeps at night, so he will not
give the alarm. My, my, how good that Beaver will taste!" He
licked his chops once more, then yawned and closed his eyes for a
nap.
Old Man Coyote waited until jolly, round red Mr. Sun had gone to
bed behind the Purple Hills, and the Black Shadows had crept out
across the Green Meadows. Then, keeping in the blackest of them,
and looking very much like a shadow of himself, he slipped into
the Green Forest. It was dark in there, and he made straight for
Paddy's new pond, trotting along swiftly without making a sound.
When he was near the aspen trees which he knew Paddy was planning
to cut, he crept forward very slowly and carefully. Everything
was still as still could be.
"Good!" thought Old Man Coyote. "I am here first, and now all I
need do is to hide and wait for Paddy to come ashore."
So he stretched himself flat behind some brush close beside the
little path Paddy had made up from the edge of the water and
waited. It was very still, so still that it seemed almost as if
he could hear his heart beat. He could see the little stars
twinkling in the sky and their own reflections twinkling back at
them from the water of Paddy's pond. Old Man Coyote waited and
waited. He is very patient when there is something to gain by it.
For such a splendid dinner as Paddy the Beaver would make, he
felt that he could well afford to be patient. So he waited and
waited, and everything was as still as if no living thing but the
trees where there. Even the trees seemed to be asleep.
At last, after a long, long time, he heard just the faintest
splash. He pricked up his ears and peeped out on the pond with
the hungriest look in his yellow eyes. There was a little line of
silver coming straight toward him. He knew that it was made by
Paddy the Beaver swimming. Nearer and nearer it drew. Old Man
Coyote chuckled way down deep inside, without making a sound. He
could see Paddy's head now, and Paddy was coming straight in, as
if he hadn't a fear in the world.
Almost to the edge of the pond swam Paddy. Then he stopped. In a
few minutes he began to swim again, but this time it was back in
the direction of his house, and he seemed to be carrying
something. It was one of the little food logs he had cut that
day, and he was taking it out to his storehouse. Then back he
came for another. And so he kept on, never once coming ashore.
Old Man Coyote waited until Paddy had carried the last log to his
storehouse and then, with a loud whack on the water with his
broad tail, had dived and disappeared in his house.
Then Old Man Coyote arose and started elsewhere to look for his
dinner, and in his heart was bitter disappointment.
CHAPTER XVIII Old Man Coyote Tries Another Plan.
For three nights Old Man Coyote had stolen up through the green
Forest with the coming of the Black Shadows and had hidden among
the aspen trees where Paddy the Beaver cut his food, and for
three nights Paddy had failed to come ashore. Each night he had
seemed to have enough food logs in the water to keep him busy
without cutting more. Old Man Coyote lay there, and the hungry
look in his eyes changed to one of doubt and then to suspicion.
Could it be that Paddy the Beaver was smarter than he thought? It
began to look very much as if Paddy knew perfectly well that he
was hiding there each night. Yes, Sir, that's the way it looked.
For three nights Paddy hadn't cut a single tree, and yet each
night he had plenty of food logs ready to take to his storehouse
in the pond.
"That means that he comes ashore in the daytime and cuts his
trees," thought Old Man Coyote as, tired and with black anger in
his heart, he trotted home the third night. "He couldn't have
found out about me himself; he isn't smart enough. It must be
that someone has told him. And nobody knows that I have been over
there but Sammy Jay. It must be he who has been the tattletale. I
think I'll visit Paddy by daylight tomorrow, and then we'll see!"
Now the trouble with some smart people is that they are never
able to believe that others may be as smart as they. Old Man
Coyote didn't know that the first time he had visited Paddy's
pond he had left behind him a footprint in a little patch of soft
mud. If he had known it, he wouldn't have believed that Paddy
would be smart enough to guess what that footprint meant. So Old
Man coyote laid all the blame at the door of Sammy Jay, and that
very morning, when Sammy came flying over the Green Meadows, Old
Man Coyote accused him of being a tattletale and threatened the
most dreadful things to Sammy if ever he caught him.
Now Sammy had flown down to the green Meadows to tell Old Man
Coyote how Paddy was doing all his work on land in the daytime.
But when Old Man Coyote began to call him a tattletale and
accuse him of having warned Paddy, and to threaten dreadful
things, he straightway forgot all his anger at Paddy and turned
it all on Old Man Coyote. He called him everything he could think
of, and this was a great deal, for Sammy has a wicked tongue.
When he hadn't any breath left, he flew over to the Green Forest,
and there he hid where he could watch all that was going on.
That afternoon Old Man Coyote tried his new plan. He slipped into
the Green Forest, looking this way and that way to be sure that
no one saw him. Then very, very softly, he crept up through the
Green Forest toward the pond of Paddy the Beaver. As he drew
near, he heard a crash, and it make him smile. He knew what it
meant. It meant that Paddy was at work cutting down trees. With
his stomach almost on the ground, he crept forward little by
little, little by little, taking the greatest care not to rustle
so much as a leaf. Presently he reached a place where he could
see the aspen trees, and there, sure enough, was Paddy, sitting
up on his hind legs and hard at work cutting another tree.
Old Man Coyote lay down for a few minutes to watch. Then he
wriggled a little nearer. Slowly and carefully he drew his legs
under him and made ready for a rush. Paddy the Beaver was his at
last! At just that very minute a harsh scream rang out right over
his head:
"Thief! thief! thief!"
It was Sammy Jay, who had followed him all the way. Paddy the
Beaver didn't stop to even look around. He knew what that meant,
and he scrambled down his little path to the water as he never
had scrambled before. And as he dived with a great splash, Old Man
Coyote landed with a great jump on the very edge of the pond.
CHAPTER XIX Paddy and Sammy Jay Become Friends.
Paddy the Beaver floated in his pond and grinned in the most
provoking way at Old Man Coyote, who had so nearly caught him. Old
Man Coyote fairly danced with anger on the bank. He had felt so
sure of Paddy that time that it was hard work to believe that Paddy
had really gotten away from him. He bared his long, cruel teeth,
and he looked very fierce and ugly.
"Come on in; the water's fine!" called Paddy.
Now, of course this wasn't a nice thing for Paddy to do, for it
only made Old Man Coyote all the angrier. You see, Paddy knew
perfectly well that he was absolutely safe, and he just couldn't
resist the temptation to say some unkind things. He had had to be
on the watch for days lest he should be caught, and so he hadn't
been able to work quite so well as he could have done with
nothing to fear, and he still had a lot of preparations to make
for winter. So he told Old Man Coyote just what he thought of
him, and that he wasn't as smart as he thought he was or he never
would have left a foot print in the mud to give him away.
When Sammy Jay, who was listening and chuckling as he listened,
heard that, he flew down where he would be just out of reach of
Old Man Coyote, and then he just turned that tongue of his loose,
and you know that some people say that Sammy's tongue is hung in
the middle and wags at both ends. Of course this isn't really so,
but when he gets to abusing people it seems as if it must be
true. He called Old Man Coyote every bad name he could think of.
He called him a sneak, a thief, a coward, a bully, and a lot of
other things.
"You said I had warned Paddy that you were trying to catch him
and that was why you failed to find him at work at night, and all
the time you had warned him yourself!" screamed Sammy. "I used to
think that you were smart, but I know better now. Paddy is twice
as smart as you are.
"Mr. Coyote is every so sly;
Mr. Coyote is clever and spry;
If you believe all you hear.
Mr. Coyote is naught of the kind;
Mr. Coyote is stupid and blind;
He can't catch a flea on his ear."
Paddy the Beaver laughed till the tears came at Sammy's foolish
verse, but it made Old Man Coyote angrier than ever. He was angry
with Paddy for escaping from him, and he was angry with Sammy,
terribly angry, and the worst of it was he couldn't catch either
one, for one was at home in the water and the other was at home
in the air and he couldn't follow in either place. Finally he saw
it was of no use to stay there to be laughed at, so, muttering
and grumbling, he started for the Green Meadows.
As soon as he was out of sight Paddy turned to Sammy Jay.
"Mr. Jay," said he, knowing how it pleased Sammy to be called
mister. "Mr. Jay, you have done me a mighty good turn today, and
I am not going to forget it. You can call me what you please and
scream at me all you please, but you won't get any satisfaction
out of it, because I simply won't get angry. I will say to
myself, 'Mr. Jay saved my life the other day,' and then I won't
mind your tongue."
Now this made Sammy feel very proud and very happy. You know it
is very seldom that he hears anything nice said of him. He flew
down on the stump of one of the trees Paddy had cut. "Let's be
friends," said he.
"With all my heart!" replied Paddy.
CHAPTER XX Sammy Jay Offers To Help Paddy.
Paddy sat looking thoughtfully at the aspen trees he would have
to cut to complete his store of food for the winter. All those
near the edge of his pond had been cut. The others were scattered
about some little distance away. "I don't know," said Paddy out
loud. "I don't know."
"What don't you know?" asked Sammy Jay, who, now that he and
Paddy had become friends, was very much interested in what Paddy
was doing.
"Why," replied Paddy, "I don't know just how I am going to get
those trees. Now that Old Man Coyote is watching for me, it isn't
safe for me to go very far from my pond. I suppose I could dig a
canal up to some of the nearest trees and then float them down to
the pond, but it is hard to work and keep watch for enemies at
the same time. I guess I'll have to be content with some of these
alders growing close to the water, but he bark of aspens is so
much better that I--I wish I could get them."
"What's a canal?" asked Sammy abruptly.
"A canal? Why a canal is a kind of ditch in which water can run,"
replied Paddy.
Sammy nodded. "I've seen Farmer Brown dig one over on the Green
Meadows, but it looked like a great deal of work. I didn't
suppose that anyone else could do it. Do you really mean that you
can dig a canal, Paddy?"
"Of course I mean it," replied Paddy, in a surprised tone of
voice. "I have helped dig lots of canals. You ought to see some
of them back where I came from."
"I'd like to," replied Sammy. "I think it is perfectly wonderful.
I don't see how you do it."
"It's easy enough when you know how," replied Paddy. "If I dared
to, I'd show you."
Sammy had a sudden idea. It almost made him gasp. "I tell you
what, you work and I'll keep watch!" he cried. "You know my eyes
are very sharp."
"Will you?" cried Paddy eagerly. "That would be perfectly
splendid. You have the sharpest eyes of anyone whom I know, and I
would feel perfectly safe with you on watch. But I don't want to
put you to all to that trouble, Mr. Jay."
"Of course I will," replied Sammy, "and it won't be any trouble
at all. I'll just love to do it." You see, it made Sammy feel
very proud to have Paddy say that he had such sharp eyes. "When
will you begin?"
"Right away, if you will just take a look around and see that it
is perfectly safe for me to come out on land."
Sammy didn't wait to hear more. He spread his beautiful blue
wings and started off over the Green Forest straight for the
Green Meadows. Paddy watched him go with a puzzled and
disappointed air. "That's funny," thought he. "I thought he
really meant it, and now off he goes without even saying
good-by."