to flow over the low open place and make a pond there. Paddy's eyes
twinkled when he first saw it. It was right then that he made up his
mind to stay in the Green Forest.

So now that he was ready to begin his dam he went up the Laughing
Brook to a place where alders and willows grew, and there he began
work; that work was the cutting of a great number of trees by means
of his big front teeth which were given him for just this purpose.
And as he worked, Paddy was happy, for one can never be truly happy
who does no work.

II

PADDY PLANS A POND

Paddy the Beaver was busy cutting down trees for the dam he had planned
to build. Up in the woods of the North from which he had come to the
Green Forest he had learned all about tree-cutting and dam-building and
canal-digging and house-building. Paddy's father and mother had been
very wise in the ways of the Beaver world, and Paddy had been quick to
learn. So now he knew just what to do and the best way of doing it. You
know a great many people waste time and labor doing things the wrong
way, so that they have to be done over again. They forget to be sure
they are right, and so they go ahead until they find they are wrong,
and all their work goes for nothing.

But Paddy the Beaver isn't this kind. Paddy would never have leaped
into the spring with the steep sides without looking, as Grandfather
Frog did. So now he carefully picked out the trees to cut. He could
not afford to waste time cutting down a tree that wasn't going to be
just what he wanted when it was down. When he was sure that the tree
was right, he looked up at the top to find out whether, when he had
cut it, it would fall clear of other trees. He had learned to do that
when he was quite young and heedless. He remembered just how he had
felt when after working hard, oh, so hard, to cut a big tree, he had
warned all his friends to get out of the way so that they would not be
hurt when it fell, and then it hadn't fallen at all because the top had
caught in another tree. He was so mortified that he didn't get 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