"Sharp his tongue and sharp his eyes--
Sammy guards against surprise.
If 'twere not for Sammy Jay
I could do no work today."
When Sammy overheard Paddy the Beaver say that to Jerry Muskrat,
it made him swell up all over with pure pride. You see, Sammy is
so used to hearing bad things about himself that to hear
something nice like that pleased him immensely. He straightway
forgot all the mean things he had said to Paddy when he first saw
him--how he had called him a thief because he had cut the aspen
trees he needed. He forgot all this. He forgot how Paddy had made
him the laughingstock of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows
by cutting down the very tree in which he had been sitting. He
forgot everything but that Paddy had trusted him to keep watch
and now was saying nice things about him. He made up his mind
that he would deserve all the nice things that Paddy could say,
and he thought that Paddy was the finest fellow in the world.
Jerry Muskrat looked doubtful. He didn't trust Sammy, and he took
care not to go far from the water when he heard that Old Man
Coyote had been hanging around. But Paddy worked away just as if
he hadn't a fear in the world.
"The way to make people want to be trusted is to trust them" said
he to himself. "If I show Sammy Jay that I don't really trust
him, he will think it is of no use to try and will give it up.
But if I do trust him, and he knows that I do, he'll be the best
watchman in the Green Forest."
And this shows that Paddy the Beaver has a great deal of wisdom,
for it was just as he thought. Sammy was on hand bright and early
every morning. He made sure that Old Man Coyote was nowhere in
the Green Forest, and then he settled himself comfortably in the
top of a tall pine tree where he could see all that was going on
while Paddy the Beaver worked.
Paddy had finished his canal, and a beautiful canal it was,
leading straight from his pond up to the aspen trees. As soon as
he had finished it, he began to cut the trees. As soon as one was
down he would cut it into short lengths and roll them into the
canal. Then he would float them out to his pond and over to his
storehouse. He took the larger branches, on which there was
sweet, tender bark, in the same way, for Paddy is never wasteful.
After a while he went over to his storehouse, which, you know,
was nothing but a great pile of aspen logs and branches in his
pond close by his house. He studied it very carefully. Then he
swam back and climbed up on the bank of his canal.
"Mr. Jay," said he, "I think our work is about finished."
"What!" cried Sammy, "Aren't you going to cut the rest of those
aspen trees?"
"No," replied Paddy. "Enough is always enough, and I've got
enough to last me all winter. I want those trees for next year.
Now I am fixed for the winter. I think I'll take it easy for a
while."
Sammy looked disappointed. You see, he had just begun to learn
that the greatest pleasure in the world comes from doing things
for other people. For the first time since he could remember,
someone wanted him around land it gave him such a good feeling
down deep inside! Perhaps it was because he remembered that good
feeling that the next spring he was so willing and anxious to
help poor Mrs. Quack. What he did for her and all about her
terrible adventures I will tell you in the next book.
The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver by
Thornton W. Burgess
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