ply passed the time of day with
Old Man Coyote and hurried on to tell every one else, and the very last
one they met was Sammy Jay.

Sammy was terribly put out to think that anything should be going on
that he didn't know about first. You know he is very fond of prying into
the affairs of other people, and he loves dearly to boast that there is
nothing going on in the Green Forest or on the Green Meadows that he
doesn't know about. So now his pride was hurt, and he was in a terrible
rage as he started after the Merry Little Breezes for the place deep in
the Green Forest where they said Paddy the Beaver was at work. He didn't
believe a word of it, but he would see for himself.

IV

SAMMY JAY SPEAKS HIS MIND

When Sammy Jay reached the place deep in the Green Forest where Paddy
the Beaver was so hard at work, he didn't hide as had the little
four-footed people. You see, of course, he had no reason to hide,
because he felt perfectly safe. Paddy had just cut a big tree, and it
fell with a crash as Sammy came hurrying up. Sammy was so surprised
that for a minute he couldn't find his tongue. He had not supposed
that anybody but Farmer Brown or Farmer Brown's boy could cut down so
large a tree as that, and it quite took his breath away. But he got it
again in a minute. He was boiling with anger, anyway, to think that he
should have been the last to learn that Paddy had come down from the
North to make his home in the Green Forest, and here was a chance to
speak his mind.

"Thief! thief! thief!" he screamed in his harshest voice.

Paddy the Beaver looked up with a twinkle in his eyes. "Hello, Mr. Jay!
I see you haven't any better manners than your cousin who lives up where
I came from," said he.

"Thief! thief! thief!" screamed Sammy, hopping up and down, he was
so angry.

"Meaning yourself, I suppose," said Paddy. "I never did see an honest
Jay, and I don't suppose I ever will."

"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed Peter Rabbit, who had quite forgotten that he
was hiding.

"Oh, how do you do, Mr. Rabbit? I'm very glad you have called on me this
morning," said Paddy, just as if he hadn't known all the time just where
Peter was. "Mr. Jay seems to have gotten out of the wrong side of his
bed this morning."

Peter laughed again. "He always does," said he. "If he didn't, he
wouldn't be happy. You wouldn't think it to look at him, but he is happy
right now. He doesn't know it, but he is. He always is happy when he can
show