The Adventures of Paddy Beaver by Thornton W. Burgess

  Jerry watched a little while and then, because Jerry is a workerhimself, he just had to get busy and help. Rather timidly he told hisbig cousin that he would like to have a share in building the new house.

  "All right," replied Paddy, "that will be fine. You can bring mud whileI am getting the sticks and grass."

  So Jerry dived down to the bottom of the pond and dug up mud and piledit on the foundation and was happy. The little stars looked down andtwinkled merrily as they watched the two workers. So the foundation grewand grew down under the water. Jerry was very much surprised at the sizeof it. It was ever and ever so much bigger than the foundation for hisown house. You see, he had forgotten how much bigger Paddy is.

  Each night Jerry and Paddy worked, resting during the daytime.Occasionally Bobby Coon or Reddy Fox or Unc' Billy Possum or Jimmy Skunkwould come to the edge of the pond to see what was going on. PeterRabbit came every night. But they couldn't see much because, you know,Paddy and Jerry were working under water.

  But at last Peter was rewarded. There, just above the water, was asplendid platform of mud and grass and sticks. A great many sticks werecarefully laid as soon as the platform was above the water, for Paddywas very particular about this. You see, it was to be the floor for thesplendid room he was planning to build. When it suited him, he began topile mud in the very middle.

  Jerry puzzled and puzzled over this. Where was Paddy's room going tobe, if he piled up the mud that way? But he didn't like to askquestions, so he kept right on helping. Paddy would dive down to thebottom and then come up with double handfuls of mud, which he heldagainst his chest. He would scramble out onto the platform and waddleover to the pile in the middle, where he would put the mud and pat itdown. Then back to the bottom for more mud.

  And so the mud pile grew and grew, until it was quite two feet high."Now," said Paddy, "I'll build the walls, and I guess you can't help memuch with those. I'm going to begin them to-morrow night. Perhaps youwill like to see me do it, Cousin Jerry."

  "I certainly will," replied Jerry, still puzzling over that pile of mudin the middle.

  XI

  PETER RABBIT AND JERRY MUSKRAT ARE PUZZLED

  Jerry Muskrat was more and more sure that his big cousin, Paddy theBeaver, didn't know quite so much as he might about house-building.Jerry would have liked to offer some suggestions, but he didn't quitedare. You see, he was very anxious not to displease his big cousin. Buthe felt that he simply had got to speak his mind to some one, so he swamacross to where he had seen Peter Rabbit almost every night since Paddybegan to build. Sure enough, Peter was there, sitting up very straightand staring with big round eyes at the platform of mud and sticks out inthe water where Paddy the Beaver was at work.

  "Why it's a house you stupid. It's Paddy's new house,"replied Jerry. _Page 57_.]

  "Well, Peter, what do you think of it?" asked Jerry.

  "What is it?" asked Peter innocently. "Is it another dam?"

  Jerry threw back his head and laughed and laughed.

  Peter looked at him suspiciously. "I don't see anything to laugh at,"said he.

  "Why, it's a house, you stupid. It's Paddy's new house," replied Jerry,wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes.

  "I'm not stupid!" retorted Peter. "How was I to know that that pile ofmud and sticks is meant for a house? It certainly doesn't look it. Whereis the door?"

  "To tell you the truth, I don't think it is much of a house myself,"replied Jerry. "It has got a door, all right. In fact, it has got three.You can't see them because they are under water, and there is a passagefrom each right up through that platform of mud and sticks, which is thefoundation of the house. It really is a very fine foundation, Peter; itreally is. But what I can't understand is what Paddy is thinking of bybuilding that great pile of mud right in the middle. When he gets hiswalls built, where will his bedroom be? There won't be any room at all.It won't be a house at all--just a big useless pile of sticks and mud."

  Peter scratched his head and then pulled his whiskers thoughtfully as hegazed out at the pile in the water where Paddy the Beaver was at work.

  "It does look foolish, that's a fact," said he. "Why don't you pointout to him the mistake he is making, Jerry? You have built such asplendid house yourself that you ought to be able to help Paddy and showhim his mistakes."

  Jerry had smiled a very self-satisfied smile when Peter mentioned hisfine house, but he shook his head at the suggestion that he should givePaddy advice.

  "I--I don't just like to," he confessed. "You know, he might not like itand--and it doesn't seem as if it would be quite polite."

  Peter sniffed. "That wouldn't trouble me any if he were my cousin,"said he.

  Jerry shook his head. "No, I don't believe it would," he replied, "butit does trouble me and--and--well, I think I'll wait awhile."

  Now all this time Paddy had been hard at work. He was bringing thelongest branches which he had cut from the trees out of which he hadbuilt his dam, and a lot of slender willow and alder poles. He pushedthese ahead of him as he swam. When he reached the foundation of hishouse, he would lean them against the pile of mud in the middle withtheir big ends resting on the foundation. So he worked all the wayaround until by and by the mud pile in the middle couldn't be seen. Itwas completely covered with sticks, and they were cunningly fastenedtogether at the tops.

  XII

  JERRY MUSKRAT LEARNS SOMETHING

  If you think you know it all You are riding for a fall. Use your ears and use your eyes, But hold your tongue and you'll be wise.

  Jerry Muskrat will tell you that is as true as true can be.

  Jerry knows. He found it out for himself. Now he is very careful whathe says about other people or what they are doing. But he wasn't socareful when his cousin, Paddy the Beaver, was building his house. No,Sir, Jerry wasn't so careful then. He thought he knew more aboutbuilding a house than Paddy did. He was sure of it when he watchedPaddy heap up a great pile of mud right in the middle where his roomought to be, and then build a wall of sticks around it. He said as muchto Peter Rabbit.

  Now it is never safe to say anything to Peter Rabbit that you don'tcare to have others know. Peter has a great deal of respect for JerryMuskrat's opinion on house-building. You see, he very much admiresJerry's snug house in the Smiling Pool. It really is a very fine house,and Jerry may be excused for being proud of it. But that doesn'texcuse Jerry for thinking that he knows all there is to know abouthouse-building. Of course Peter told every one he met that Paddy theBeaver was making a foolish mistake in building his house, and thatJerry Muskrat, who ought to know, said so.

  So whenever they got the chance, the little people of the Green Forestand the Green Meadows would steal up to the shore of Paddy's new pondand chuckle as they looked out at the great pile of sticks and mud whichPaddy had built for a house, but in which he had forgotten to make aroom. At least they supposed that he had forgotten this very importantthing. He must have, for there wasn't any room. It was a great joke.They laughed a lot about it, and they lost a great deal of the respectfor Paddy which they had had since he built his wonderful dam.

  Jerry and Peter sat in the moonlight talking it over. Paddy had stoppedbringing sticks for his wall. He had dived down out of sight, and he wasgone a long time. Suddenly Jerry noticed that the water had grown very,very muddy all around Paddy's new house. He wrinkled his brows trying tothink what Paddy could be doing. Presently Paddy came up for air. Thenhe went down again, and the water grew muddier than ever. This went onfor a long time. Every little while Paddy would come up for air and afew minutes of rest. Then down he would go, and the water would growmuddier and muddier.

  At last Jerry could stand it no longer. He just had to see what wasgoing on. He slipped into the water and swam over to where the water wasmuddiest. Just as he got there up came Paddy.

  "Hello, Cousin Jerry!" said he. "I was just going to invite you over tosee what you think of my house inside. Just follow me."

  Paddy dived, and Jerry dived after him. He
followed Paddy in at one ofthe three doorways under water and up a smooth hall right into thebiggest, nicest bedroom Jerry had ever seen in all his life. He justgasped in sheer surprise. He couldn't do anything else. He couldn't findhis tongue to say a word. Here he was in this splendid great room upabove the water, and he had been so sure that there wasn't any room atall! He just didn't know what to make of it.

  Paddy's eyes twinkled. "Well," said he, "what do you think of it?"

  "I--I--think it is splendid, just perfectly splendid! But I don'tunderstand it at all, Cousin Paddy. I--I--Where is that great pile ofmud I helped you build in the middle?" Jerry looked as foolish as hefelt when he asked this.

  "Why, I've dug it all away. That's what made the water so muddy,"replied Paddy.

  "But what did you build it for in the first place?" Jerry persisted.

  "Because I had to have something to rest my sticks against while I wasbuilding my walls, of course," replied Paddy. "When I got the topsfastened together for a roof, they didn't need a support any longer, andthen I dug it away to make this room. I couldn't have built such a bigroom any other way. I see you don't know very much about house-building,Cousin Jerry."

  "I--I'm afraid I don't," confessed Jerry sadly.

  XIII

  THE QUEER STOREHOUSE

  Everybody knew that Paddy the Beaver was laying up a supply of food forthe winter, and everybody thought it was queer food. That is, everybodybut Prickly Porky the Porcupine thought so. Prickly Porky likes the samekind of food, but he never lays up a supply. He just goes out and getsit when he wants it, winter or summer. What kind of food was it? Why,bark, to be sure. Yes, Sir, it was just bark--the bark of certain kindsof trees.

  Now Prickly Porky can climb the trees and eat the bark right there, butPaddy the Beaver cannot climb, and if he should just eat the bark thathe can reach from the ground it would take such a lot of trees to keephim filled up that he would soon spoil the Green Forest. You know, whenthe bark is taken off a tree all the way around, the tree dies. That isbecause all the things that a tree draws out of the ground to make itgrow and keep it alive are carried up from the roots in the sap, and thesap cannot go up the tree trunks and into the branches when the bark istaken off, because it is up the inside of the bark that it travels. Sowhen the bark is taken from a tree all the way around the trunk, thetree just starves to death.

  Now Paddy the Beaver loves the Green Forest as dearly as you and I do,and perhaps even a little more dearly. You see, it is his home. Besides,Paddy never is wasteful. So he cuts down a tree so that he can get allthe bark instead of killing a whole lot of trees for a very little bark,as he might do if he were lazy. There isn't a lazy bone in him--not one.The bark he likes best is from the aspen. When he cannot get that, hewill eat the bark from the poplar, the alder, the willow, and even thebirch. But he likes the aspen so much better that he will work very hardto get it. Perhaps it tastes better because he does have to work so hardfor it.

  There were some aspen-trees growing right on the edge of the pond Paddyhad made in the Green Forest. These he cut just as he had cut the treesfor his dam. As soon as a tree was down, he would cut it into shortlengths, and with these swim out to where the water was deep, close tohis new house. He took them one by one and carried the first ones to thebottom, where he pushed them into the mud just enough to hold them.Then, as fast as he brought more, he piled them on the first ones. Andso the pile grew and grew.

  Jerry Muskrat, Peter Rabbit, Bobby Coon, and the other little people ofthe Green Forest watched him with the greatest interest and curiosity.They couldn't quite make out what he was doing. It was almost as if hewere building the foundation for another house.

  "What's he doing, Jerry?" demanded Peter, when he could keep stillno longer.

  "I don't exactly know," replied Jerry. "He said that he was going tolay in a supply of food for the winter, just as I told you, and Isuppose that is what he is doing. But I don't quite understand what heis taking it all out into the pond for. I believe I'll go ask him."

  "Do, and then come tell us," begged Peter, who was growing so curiousthat 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 likelily-roots and clams better. But what are you going to do with it? Whereis your storehouse?"

  "This pond is my storehouse," replied Paddy. "I will make a great pileright here close to my house, and the water will keep it nice and freshall winter. When the pond is frozen over, all I will have to do is toslip out of one of my doorways down there on the bottom, swim over hereand get a stick, and fill my stomach. Isn't it handy?"

  XIV

  A FOOTPRINT IN THE MUD

  Very early one morning Paddy the Beaver heard Sammy Jay making aterrible fuss over in the aspen-trees on the edge of the pond Paddyhad made in the Green Forest. Paddy couldn't see because he was insidehis house, and it has no window, but he could hear. He wrinkled up hisbrows thoughtfully.

  "Seems to me that Sammy is very much excited this morning," said he,talking to himself, a way he has because he is so much alone. "When hescreams like that, Sammy is usually trying to do two things atonce--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. Itshows that he isn't all bad, and at the same time he is a long way frombeing all good. Now, I should say from the sounds that Sammy hasdiscovered Reddy Fox trying to steal up on some one over where myaspen-trees are growing. Reddy is afraid of me, but I suspect that heknows that Peter Rabbit has been hanging around here a lot lately,watching me work, and he thinks perhaps he can catch Peter. I shall haveto 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 inthe Green Forest. Finally he couldn't hear it at all. "Whoever was therehas gone away, and Sammy has followed just to torment them," thoughtPaddy. He was very busy making a bed. He is very particular about hisbed, is Paddy the Beaver. He makes it of fine splinters of wood which hesplits off with those wonderful great cutting teeth of his. This makesthe 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, andhonest work well done is one of the greatest pleasures in the world, asPaddy long ago found out for himself. So he kept at work on his bed forsome time after all was still outside.

  At last Paddy decided that he would go over to his aspen-trees and lookthem over to decide which ones he would cut the next night. He slid downone of his long halls, out the doorway at the bottom of the pond, andthen swam up to the surface, where he floated for a few minutes withjust his head out of water. And all the time his eyes and nose and earswere busy looking, smelling, and listening for any sign of danger.Everything was still. Sure that he was quite safe, Paddy swam across tothe 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 theground. Yes, Sir, Paddy just studied the ground. You see, he hadn'tforgotten the fuss Sammy Jay had been making there, and he was trying tofind 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 themiddle of it was something that made Paddy's eyes open wide. It was afootprint! Some one 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 wasvery much like that of Reddy Fox, only it was larger.

  "Ha!" said Paddy again, "that certainly is the footprint of Old ManCoyote! I see I have got to watch out more sharply than I had thoughtfor. All right, Mr. Coyote; now that I know you are about, you'll haveto be smarter than I think you are t
o catch me. You certainly will beback here to-night looking for me, so I think I'll do my cutting rightnow in the daytime."

  XV

  SAMMY JAY MAKES PADDY A CALL

  Paddy the Beaver was hard at work. He had just cut down a good-sizedaspen-tree and now he was gnawing it into short lengths to put in hisfood pile in the pond. As he worked, Paddy was doing a lot of thinkingabout the footprint of Old Man Coyote in a little patch of mud, for heknew that meant that Old Man Coyote had discovered his pond, and wouldbe hanging around, hoping to catch Paddy off his guard. Paddy knew itjust as well as if Old Man Coyote had told him so. That was why he wasat work cutting his food supply in the daytime. Usually he works atnight, and he knew that Old Man Coyote knew it.

  "He'll try to catch me then," thought Paddy, "so I'll do my working onland now and fool him."

  The tree he was cutting began to sway and crack. Paddy cut out onemore big chip, then hurried away to a safe place while the tree fellwith a crash.

  "Thief! thief! thief!" screamed a voice just back of Paddy.