Everybody knew that Paddy the Beaver was laying up a supply of
food for the winter, and everybody thought it was queer food.
That is, everybody but Prickly Porky the Porcupine thought so.
Prickly Porky likes the same kind of food, but he never lays up a
supply. He just goes out and gets it 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 kinds of trees.
Now Prickly Porky can climb the trees and eat the bark right
there, but Paddy the Beaver cannot climb, and if he would just
eat the bark that he can reach from the ground, it would take
such a lot of trees to keep him filled up that he would soon
spoil the Green Forest. You know, when the bark is taken off a
tree all the way around, the tree dies. That is because all the
things that a tree draws out of the ground to make it grow and
keep it alive are carried up from the roots in the sap, and the
sap cannot go up the tree trunks and into the branches when the
bark is taken off, because it is up the inside of the bark that
it travels. So when the bark is taken from a tree all the way
around the trunk, the tree 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 all the 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, he will eat the bark
from the poplar, the alder, the willow, and even the birch. But
he likes the aspen so much better that he will work very hard to
get it. Perhaps it tastes better because he does have to work so
hard for it.
There were some aspen trees growing right on the edge of the pond
Paddy had made in the Green Forest. These he cut just as he had
cut the trees for his dam. As soon as a tree was down, he would
cut it into short lengths, and with these swim out to where the
water was deep, close to his new house. He took them one by one
and carried the first ones to the bottom, 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. And so the pile
grew and grew.
Jerry Muskrat, Peter Rabbit, Bobby Coon, and the other little
people of the 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 he were building the foundation for another
house.
"What's he doing, Jerry?" demanded Peter, when he could keep
still no longer.
"I don't exactly know," replied Jerry. "He said that he was going
to lay in a supply of food for the winter, just as I told you,
and I suppose that is what he is doing. But I don't quite
understand what he is 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
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?"