The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver

Adventures of Paddy Beaver, by Thornton W. Burgess

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Title: The Adventures of Paddy Beaver
Author: Thornton W. Burgess
Illustrator: Harrison Cody
Release Date: August 21, 2006 [EBook #19092]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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[Illustration: Paddy pretended to be terribly frightened. Page 80.]
THE ADVENTURES OF
Paddy BEAVER
THORNTON W. BURGESS

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY BOSTON TORONTO
Copyright 1917 by Thornton W. Burgess
Illustrations by Harrison Cody
* * * * *

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I
PADDY THE BEAVER BEGINS WORK
II PADDY PLANS A POND
III PADDY HAS MANY VISITORS
IV SAMMY JAY SPEAKS HIS MIND
V PADDY KEEPS HIS PROMISE
VI FARMER BROWN'S BOY GROWS CURIOUS
VII FARMER BROWN'S BOY GETS ANOTHER SURPRISE
VIII PETER RABBIT GETS A DUCKING
IX PADDY PLANS A HOUSE
X PADDY STARTS HIS HOUSE
XI PETER RABBIT AND JERRY MUSKRAT ARE PUZZLED
XII JERRY MUSKRAT LEARNS SOMETHING
XIII THE QUEER STOREHOUSE
XIV A FOOTPRINT IN THE MUD
XV SAMMY JAY MAKES PADDY A CALL
XVI OLD MAN COYOTE IS VERY CRAFTY
XVII OLD MAN COYOTE IS DISAPPOINTED
XVIII OLD MAN COYOTE TRIES ANOTHER PLAN
XIX PADDY AND SAMMY JAY BECOME FRIENDS
XX SAMMY JAY OFFERS TO HELP PADDY
XXI PADDY AND SAMMY JAY WORK TOGETHER
XXII PADDY FINISHES HIS HARVEST
* * * * *

THE ADVENTURES OF PADDY THE BEAVER
I
PADDY THE BEAVER BEGINS WORK
Work, work all the night While the stars are shining bright; Work, work all the day; I have got no time to play.
This little rhyme Paddy the Beaver made up as he toiled at building the dam which was to make the pond he so much desired deep in the Green Forest. Of course it wasn't quite true, that about working all night and all day. Nobody could do that, you know, and keep it up. Everybody has to rest and sleep. Yes, and everybody has to play a little to be at their best. So it wasn't quite true that Paddy worked all day after working all night. But it was true that Paddy had no time to play. He had too much to do. He had had his playtime during the long summer, and now he had to get ready for the long cold winter.
Now of all the little workers in the Green Forest, on the Green Meadows, and in the Smiling Pool, none can compare with Paddy the Beaver, not even his cousin, Jerry Muskrat. Happy Jack Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk store up food for the long cold months when rough Brother North Wind and Jack Frost rule, and Jerry Muskrat builds a fine house wherein to keep warm and comfortable, but all this is as nothing to the work of Paddy the Beaver.
As I said before, Paddy had had a long playtime through the summer. He had wandered up and down the Laughing Brook. He had followed it way up to the place where it started. And all the time he had been studying and studying to make sure that he wanted to stay in the Green Forest. In the first place, he had to be sure that there was plenty of the kind of food that he likes. Then he had to be equally sure that he could make a pond near where this particular food grew. Last of all, he had to satisfy himself that if he did make a pond and build a home, he would be reasonably safe in it. And all these things he had done in his playtime. Now he was ready to go to work, and when Paddy begins work, he sticks to it until it is finished. He says that is the only way to succeed, and you know and I know that he is right.
Now Paddy the Beaver can see at night just as Reddy Fox and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon can, and he likes the night best, because he feels safest then. But he can see in the daytime too, and when he feels that he is perfectly safe and no one is watching, he works then too. Of course the first thing to do was to build a dam across the Laughing Brook to make the pond he so much needed. He chose a low open place deep in the Green Forest, around the edge of which grew many young aspen-trees, the bark of which is his favorite food. Through the middle of this open place flowed the Laughing Brook. At the lower edge was just the place for a dam. It would not have to be very long, and when it