u building something!"
Jerry laughed.

"Yes, me!" snapped Sammy angrily. "That's what I said; Paddy and I are
building something."

Jerry had begun to swim across the pond by this time, and Sammy was
flying across. "Why don't you tell the truth, Sammy, and say that Paddy
is building something and you are making him all the trouble you can?"
called Jerry.

Sammy's eyes snapped angrily, and he darted down at Jerry's little brown
head. "It isn't true!" he shrieked. "You ask Paddy if I'm not helping!"

Jerry ducked under water to escape Sammy's sharp bill. When he came up
again, Sammy was over in the little grove of aspen-trees where Paddy was
at work. Then Jerry discovered something. What was it? Why a little
water-path led right up to the aspen-trees, and there, at the end of the
little water-path, was Paddy the Beaver hard at work. He was digging and
piling the earth on one side very neatly. In fact, he was making the
water-path longer. Jerry swam right up the little water-path to where
Paddy was working. "Good morning, Cousin Paddy," said he. "What are you
doing?"

"Oh," replied Paddy, "Sammy Jay and I are building a canal."

Sammy Jay looked down at Jerry in triumph, and Jerry looked at Paddy as
if he thought that he was joking.

"Sammy Jay? What's Sammy Jay got to do about it?" demanded Jerry.

"A whole lot," replied Paddy. "You see, he keeps watch while I work. If
he didn't, I couldn't work, and there wouldn't be any canal. Old Man
Coyote has been trying to catch me, and I wouldn't dare work on shore if
it wasn't that I am sure that the sharpest eyes in the Green Forest are
watching for danger."

Sammy Jay looked very much pleased indeed and very proud. "So you see it
takes both of us to make this canal; I dig while Sammy watches. So we
are building it together," concluded Paddy with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I see," said Jerry slowly. Then he turned to Sammy Jay. "I beg your
pardon, Sammy," said he. "I do, indeed."

"That's all right," replied Sammy airily. "What do you think of
our canal?"

"I think it is wonderful," replied Jerry.

And indeed it was a very fine canal, straight, wide, and deep enough
for Paddy to swim in and float his logs out to the pond. Yes, indeed, it
was a very fine canal.

XXII

PADDY FINISHES HIS HARVEST

"Sharp his tongue and sharp his eyes--
Sammy guards against surprise.
If 'twere not for Sammy Jay
I could do no work to-day."

When Sammy overheard P