Storytime with Brian #2
The Adventures of Paddy Beaver — Chapters 4–6
Welcome back to Storytime with Brian.
In this episode, we continue The Adventures of Paddy Beaver by Thornton W. Burgess (1917), illustrated by Harrison Cady.
Today’s reading includes:
- Chapter 4 – Sammy Jay Speaks His Mind
- Chapter 5 – Paddy Keeps His Promise
- Chapter 6 – Farmer Brown’s Boy Grows Curious
Transcript
Hello everyone. Brian here. Welcome to Storytime with Brian.
Today we are picking back up with The Adventures of Paddy Beaver, starting with Chapter Four where we left off last time.
So sit back, relax, and let’s get into it.
Chapter Four
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.
But he got his breath back 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.
“Meaning yourself, I suppose,” said Paddy. “I never did see an honest Jay, and I don’t suppose I ever will.”
“Hahaha!” laughed Peter Rabbit, who had quite forgotten that he was hiding.
“Oh, how do you do, Mr. Rabbit? I am 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 what a bad temper he has.”
Sammy Jay glared down at Peter, then at Paddy, and all the time he still shrieked “Thief!” as hard as ever he could.
Paddy kept right on working, paying no attention.
This made Sammy more angry than ever.
He kept coming nearer and nearer, until at last he was in the very tree that Paddy happened to be cutting.
Paddy’s eyes twinkled.
“I’m no thief!” he exclaimed suddenly.
“You are! You are! Thief! Thief!” shrieked Sammy. “You’re stealing our trees!”
“They’re not your trees,” retorted Paddy. “They belong to the great forest. And the Green Forest belongs to all who love it. We all have a perfect right to take what we need from it. I need these trees, and I have just as much right to take them as you have to take the fat acorns that drop in the fall.”
“No such thing!” screamed Sammy. “Acorns are food! They are meant to eat! I have to have them to live! But you are cutting down whole trees. You are spoiling the Green Forest. You don’t belong here. Nobody invited you and nobody wants you. You’re a thief!”
Then up spoke Jerry Muskrat, who you know is cousin to Paddy the Beaver.
“Don’t you mind him,” said he. “Nobody does. He’s the greatest troublemaker in the Green Forest or on the Green Meadows. He would steal from his own relatives. Don’t mind what he says, Cousin Paddy.”
All this time Paddy had been working away just as if no one were around.
Just as Jerry stopped speaking, Paddy thumped the ground with his tail — his way of warning people to watch out — and suddenly scurried away as fast as he could run.
Sammy Jay was so surprised that he couldn’t find his tongue for a minute, and he didn’t notice anything peculiar about that tree.
Then suddenly he felt himself falling.
With a frightened scream, he spread his wings to fly — but the branches swept him down with them right into the Laughing Brook.
You see, while Sammy had been speaking his mind, Paddy the Beaver had cut down the very tree in which he was sitting.
Sammy wasn’t hurt — but he was wet and muddy and terribly frightened — the most miserable-looking Jay ever seen.
It was too much for all the little people who were hiding. They just had to laugh.
Then they all came out to pay their respects to Paddy the Beaver.
Chapter Five
Paddy Keeps His Promise
Paddy kept right on working just as if he hadn’t had any visitors.
You see, it is a big undertaking to build a dam. And when that was done, there was a house to build and a supply of food for the winter to cut and store.
Oh, Paddy the Beaver had no time for idle gossip, you may be sure.
So he kept right on building his dam.
It didn’t look much like a dam at first, and some of Paddy’s neighbors turned up their noses when they first saw it. They had heard stories of what a wonderful dam builder Paddy was and had expected to see something like the smooth, grass-covered bank with which Farmer Brown kept the big river from running back on his lowlands.
Instead, all they saw was a great pile of poles and sticks.
“Poo!” exclaimed Billy Mink. “I guess we needn’t worry about the Laughing Brook and the Smiling Pool if that is the best Paddy can do. Why, the water of the Laughing Brook will work through that in no time!”
Of course, Paddy heard him.
But he said nothing.
He just kept right on working.
Jerry Muskrat pointed out that already the Laughing Brook was over its banks above the dam.
Billy looked a wee bit foolish.
For sure enough, there was a little pool just above the dam — and it was growing bigger.
Paddy still kept at work, digging mud and grass and stuffing it between the sticks, patting it down carefully.
The dam grew.
The pond grew.
The Laughing Brook stopped laughing.
Down in the Smiling Pool there was hardly water enough for the minnows to feel safe.
The little people were worried.
Paddy had promised that as soon as his pond was big enough, the water would once more run in the Laughing Brook.
They tried to believe him — but he was still a stranger.
Only Jerry Muskrat seemed perfectly sure.
And then one morning, Grandfather Frog heard a sound that made his heart jump for joy.
It was a murmur that grew and grew — until at last it was the merry laugh of the Laughing Brook.
Paddy had kept his word.
Chapter Six
Farmer Brown’s Boy Grows Curious
Now it happened that the very day before Paddy decided his pond was big enough, 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.
Nearer and nearer drew the whistle.
Suddenly it stopped short.
Farmer Brown’s Boy had come in sight of the Smiling Pool — or rather, what used to be the Smiling Pool.
Now there wasn’t any Smiling Pool.
There were great banks of mud.
Jerry Muskrat’s house stood wholly out of water.
The Laughing Brook wasn’t laughing.
It wasn’t even a brook anymore — just pools with tiny trickles winding between.
Farmer Brown’s Boy scratched his head.
“I don’t understand it,” said he. “Something must have gone wrong with the springs that supply the Laughing Brook.”
He decided he would go investigate that very afternoon.
And for once, as he walked home across the Green Meadows, he wasn’t whistling.
He was too busy thinking.
In fact, he was so busy thinking that he almost stepped on Jimmy Skunk.
Jimmy merely grinned.
“I should think folks would have learned by this time that if they don’t bother me, I won’t bother them,” he muttered.
Somehow folks never seem to understand him.
All right, I think we will leave off here for today.
Thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed reading more about Paddy Beaver and the other denizens of the forest.
If you like this story, please like and subscribe to catch other illustrated classic stories, as well as some of my own that will slide in there.
You can learn more about me and my artwork and books at bdcrowell.com.
Until next time — have a pleasant day.
About This Recording
Book: The Adventures of Paddy Beaver
Author: Thornton W. Burgess
Illustrator: Harrison Cady
Originally Published: 1917
Source Text: Project Gutenberg
Opening & Closing Music
“Gentle Nightfall (Vol. 6)” — Pixabay
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Background Ambience (This Episode)
“Nature British Woods Ambient Noise” — Pixabay
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Learn more about my books and artwork at bdcrowell.com.
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