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?"
[Illustration]
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,
talking to himself, 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 some one 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 catch 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 there
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 of 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 tree
tops, 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! 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 was
very much like that of Reddy Fox, only it was larger.
"Ha!" said Paddy again, "that certainly is the footprint 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 to-night looking for me, so I think I'll do my cutting right
now in the daytime."
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 right 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 some day, 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.
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 as 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 a while 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 sure 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 yellow 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 had left a
footprint in the mud.
[Illustration]
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 he even 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 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
were 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
towards 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.
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 some one 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
to-morrow, 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
towards the pond of Paddy the Beaver. As he drew near, he heard a crash,
and it made 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 silently followed him all the way. Paddy the
Beaver didn't stop to even look around. He knew what that scream 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.
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 footprint 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 ever 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 to-day, 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.
[Illustration]
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 sharp 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 the 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 any one
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."