was around. Just as Jerry stopped speaking, Paddy thumped the
ground with his tail, which is his way of warning people to watch
out, and suddenly scurried away as fast as he could run. Sammy
Jay was so surprised that he couldn't find his tongue for a
minute, and he didn't notice anything peculiar about that tree.
Then suddenly he felt himself falling. With a frightened scream,
he spread his wings to fly, but branches of the tree swept him
down with them right into the Laughing Brook. You see, while
Sammy had been speaking his mind, Paddy the Beaver had cut down
the very tree in which he was sitting.

Sammy wasn't hurt, but he was wet and muddy and terribly
frightened--the most miserable-looking Jay that ever was seen. It
was too much for all the little people who were hiding. They just
had to laugh. Then they all came out to pay their respects to
Paddy the Beaver.



CHAPTER V Paddy Keeps His Promise.

Paddy the Beaver kept right on working just as if he hadn't any
visitors. You see, it is a big undertaking to build a dam. And
when that was done there was a house to build and a supply of
food for the winter to cut and store. Oh, Paddy the Beaver had no
time for idle gossip, you may be sure! So he kept right on
building his dam. It didn't look much like a dam at first, and
some of Paddy's visitors turned up their noses when they first
saw it. They had heard stories of what a wonderful dam-builder
Paddy was, and they had expected to see something like the