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 toward the pond of Paddy the Beaver. As he drew
near, he heard a crash, and it make 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.