have the sharpest eyes of any one whom I know, and I would feel
perfectly safe with you on watch. But I don't want to put you to all
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."
In a little while back came Sammy, all out of breath. "It's all right,"
he panted. "You can go to work just as soon as you please."
Paddy looked more puzzled than ever. "How do you know?" he asked. "I
haven't seen you looking around."
"I did better than that," replied Sammy. "If Old Man Coyote had been
hiding somewhere in the Green Forest, it might have taken me some time
to find him. But he isn't. You see, I flew straight over to his home in
the Green Meadows to see if he is there, and he is. He's taking a
sun-bath and looking as cross as two sticks. I don't think he'll be back
here this morning, but I'll keep a sharp watch while you work."
Paddy made Sammy a low bow. "You certainly are smart, Mr. Jay," said
he. "I wouldn't have thought of going over to Old Man Coyote's home to
see if he was there. I'll feel perfectly safe with you on guard. Now
I'll get to work."
XXI
PADDY AND SAMMY JAY WORK TOGETHER
Jerry Muskrat had been home at the Smiling Pool for several days. But
he couldn't stay there long. Oh, my, no! He just had to get back to see
what his big cousin, Paddy the Beaver, was doing. So as soon as he was
sure that everything was all right at the Smiling Pool he hurried back
up the Laughing Brook to Paddy's pond, deep in the Green Forest. As soon
as he was in sight of it, he looked eagerly for Paddy. At first he
didn't see him. Then he stopped and gazed over at the place where Paddy
had been cutting aspen-trees for food. Something was going on there,
something queer. He couldn't make it out.
Just then Sammy Jay came flying over.
"What's Paddy doing?" Jerry asked.
Sammy Jay dropped down to the top of an alder-tree and fluffed out all
his feathers in a very important way. "Oh," said he, "Paddy and I are
building something!"
"You! Paddy and you! Ha, ha! Paddy and you building something!"
Jerry laughed.
"Yes, me!" snapped Sammy angrily. "That's what I said; Paddy and I are
building something."
Jerry had begun to swim across the pond by this time, and Sammy was
flying across. "Why don't you tell the truth, Sammy, and say that Paddy
is building something and you are making him all the trouble you can?"
called Jerry.
Sammy's eyes snapped angrily, and he darted down at Jerry's little brown
head. "It isn't true!" he shrieked. "You ask Paddy if I'm not helping!"
Jerry ducked under water to escape Sammy's sharp bill. When he came up
again, Sammy was over in the little grove of aspen-trees where Paddy was
at work. Then Jerry discovered something. What was it? Why a little
water-path led right up to the aspen-trees, and there, at the end of the
little water-path, was Paddy the Beaver hard at work. He was digging and
piling the earth on one side very neatly. In fact, he was making the
water-path longer. Jerry swam right up the little water-path to where
Paddy was working. "Good morning, Cousin Paddy," said he. "What are you
doing?"
"Oh," replied Paddy, "Sammy Jay and I are building a canal."
Sammy Jay looked down at Jerry in triumph, and Jerry looked at Paddy as
if he thought that he was joking.
"Sammy Jay? What's Sammy Jay got to do about it?" demanded Jerry.
"A whole lot," replied Paddy. "You see, he keeps watch while I work. If
he didn't, I couldn't work, and there wouldn't be any canal. Old Man
Coyote has been trying to catch me, and I wouldn't dare work on shore if
it wasn't that I am sure that the sharpest eyes in the Green Forest are
watching for danger."
Sammy Jay looked very much pleased indeed and very proud. "So you see it
takes both of us to make this canal; I dig while Sammy watches. So we
are building it together," concluded Paddy with a twinkle in his eyes.
"I see," said Jerry slowly. Then he turned to Sammy Jay. "I beg your
pardon, Sammy," said he. "I do, indeed."
"That's all right," replied Sammy airily. "What do you think of
our canal?"
"I think it is wonderful," replied Jerry.
And indeed it was a very fine canal, straight, wide, and deep enough
for Paddy to swim in and float his logs out to the pond. Yes, indeed, it
was a very fine canal.
XXII
PADDY FINISHES HIS HARVEST
"Sharp his tongue and sharp his eyes--
Sammy guards against surprise.
If 'twere not for Sammy Jay
I could do no work to-day."
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 laughing-stock 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 some one wanted him around
and it gave him such a good feeling down deep inside!
THE END