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 c.o.o.n, 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?"
[Ill.u.s.tration]
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 sh.o.r.e.
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 p.r.i.c.kly 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.
"h.e.l.lo, 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.