This was easier now, because
he could float them down from where he was cutting. He would put them in
place on the top of the dam, then hurry for more. Wherever it was
needed, he would put in mud. He even rolled a few stones in to help hold
the mass.

So the dam grew and grew, and so did the pond above the dam. Of course,
it took a good many days to build so big a dam, and a lot of hard work!
Every morning the little people of the Green Forest and the Green
Meadows would visit it, and every morning they would find that it
had grown a great deal in the night, for that is when Paddy likes
best to work.

By this time, the Laughing Brook had stopped laughing, and down in the
Smiling Pool there was hardly water enough for the minnows to feel safe
a minute. Billy Mink had stopped making fun of the dam, and all the
little people who live in the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool were
terribly worried.

To be sure Paddy had warned them of what he was going to do, and had
promised that just as soon as his pond was big enough, the water would
once more run in the Laughing Brook. They tried to believe him, but they
couldn't help having just a wee bit of fear that he might not be wholly
honest. You see, they didn't know him, for he was a stranger. Jerry
Muskrat was the only one who seemed absolutely sure that everything
would be all right. Perhaps that was because Paddy is his cousin, and
Jerry couldn't help but feel proud of such a big cousin and one who was
so smart.

So day by day the dam grew, and the pond grew, and then one morning
Grandfather Frog, down in what had once been the Smiling Pool, heard a
sound that made his heart jump for joy. It was a murmur that kept
growing and growing, until at last it was the merry laugh of the
Laughing Brook. Then he knew that Paddy had kept his word and water
would once more fill the Smiling Pool.

VI

FARMER BROWN'S BOY GROWS CURIOUS

Now it happened that the very day before Paddy the Beaver decided that
his pond was big enough, and so allowed the water to run in the Laughing
Brook once more, Farmer Brown's boy took it into his head to go fishing
in the Smiling Pool. Just as usual he went whistling down across the
Green Meadows. Somehow, when he goes fishing, he always feels like
whistling. Grandfather Frog heard him coming and dived into the little
bit of water remaining in the Smiling Pool and stirred up the mud at the
bottom so that Farmer Brown's boy shouldn't see