over it for a long time.

So now he made sure that a tree was going to fall clear and just
where he wanted it. Then he sat up on his hind legs, and with his
great broad tail for a brace, began to make the chips fly. You
know Paddy has the most wonderful teeth for cutting. They are
long and broad and sharp. He would begin by making a deep bite,
and then another just a little way below. Then he would pry out
the little piece of wood between. When he had cut very deep on
one side so that the tree would fall that way, he would work
around to the other side. Just as soon as the tree began to lean
and he was sure that it was going to fall, he would scamper away
so as to be out of danger. He loved to see those tall trees lean
forward slowly, then faster and faster, till they struck the
ground with a crash.

Just as soon as they were down, he would trim off the branches
until the trees where just long poles. This was easy work, for he
could take off a good-sized branch with one bite. On many he left
their bushy tops. When he had trimmed them to suit him and had
cut them into the right lengths, he would tug and pull them down
to the place where he meant to build his dam.

There he placed the poles side by side, not across the Laughing
Brook like a bridge, but with the big ends pointing up the
Laughing Brook, which was quite broad but shallow right there. To
keep them from floating away, he rolled stones and piled mud on
the bushy ends. Clear across on both sides he laid those poles
until the water began to rise. Then he dragged more poles and
piled them on top of these and wedged short sticks crosswise