Thornton W. Burgess
1917
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.
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 atbuilding the dam which was to make the pond he so much desireddeep in the Green Forest. Of course it wasn't quite true, thatabout working all night and all day. Nobody could do that, youknow, and keep it up. Everybody has to rest and sleep. Yes, andeverybody has to play a little to be at their best. So it wasn'tquite true that Paddy worked all day after working all night. Butit was true that Paddy had no time to play. He had too much todo. He had had his playtime during the long summer, and now hehad to get ready for the long, cold winter.
Now, of all the little workers in the Green Forest, on the GreenMeadows, and in the Smiling Pool, none can compare with Paddy theBeaver, not even his cousin, Jerry Muskrat. Happy Jack Squirreland Striped Chipmunk store up food for the long, cold months whenrough Brother North Wind and Jack Frost rule, and Jerry Muskratbuilds a fine house wherein to keep warm and comfortable, but allthis is as nothing to the work of Paddy the Beaver.
As I said before, Paddy had had a long playtime through thesummer. He had wandered up and down the Laughing Brook. He hadfollowed it way up to the place where it started. And all thetime he had been studying and studying to make sure that hewanted to stay in the Green Forest. In the first place, he had tobe 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 nearwhere this particular food grew. Last of all, he had to satisfyhimself that if he did make a pond and build a home, he would bereasonably safe in it. And all these things he had done in hisplaytime. Now he was ready to go to work, and when Paddy beginswork, he sticks to it until it is finished. He says that is theonly 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 PeterRabbit and Bobby Coon can, and he likes the night best, becausehe feels safest then. But he can see in