Storytime with Brian #4
The Adventures of Paddy Beaver — Chapters 10–12
Welcome back to Storytime with Brian.
In this episode, we continue reading The Adventures of Paddy Beaver by Thornton W. Burgess, originally published in 1917.
This installment includes Chapters 10–12.
Music & Attribution
Opening and closing music:
“Gentle Nightfall Vol. 6” – Pixabay Music
https://pixabay.com/music/ambient-gentle-nightfallvol6-405778/
Background ambience (this episode):
“Nature British Woods Ambient Noise” – Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/nature-british-woods-ambient-noise-24942/
Transcript
Hey everyone, Brian here. Welcome to Storytime with Brian.
Today we are picking back up with The Adventures of Paddy Beaver by Thornton W. Burgess, starting with Chapter 10. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the story.
Chapter 10: Paddy Starts His House
Jerry Muskrat was very much interested when he found that Paddy the Beaver — who, you know, is his cousin — was building a house.
Jerry is a house builder himself, and deep down in his heart he very much doubted if Paddy could build as good a house as he could. His house was down in the Smiling Pool, and Jerry thought it a very wonderful house indeed, and was very proud of it.
It was built of mud and sod and little alder and willow twigs and bulrushes. Jerry had spent one winter in it, and he had decided to spend another there after he had fixed it up a little. So as long as he didn't have to build a brand-new house, he could afford the time to watch his cousin Paddy.
Perhaps he hoped that Paddy would ask his advice.
But Paddy did nothing of the kind.
He had seen Jerry Muskrat’s house, and he had smiled. But he had taken great pains not to let Jerry see that smile. He wouldn't have hurt Jerry’s feelings for the world. He is too polite and good-natured to do anything like that.
So Jerry sat on the end of an old log and watched Paddy work.
The first thing to build was the foundation. This was of mud and grass, with sticks worked into it to hold it together. Paddy dug the mud from the bottom of his new pond. And because the pond was new, there was a great deal of grassy sod there, which was just what Paddy needed.
It was very convenient.
Jerry watched a little while, and then, because Jerry is a worker himself, he just had to get busy and help. Rather timidly, he told his big cousin that he would like to have a share in building the new house.
“All right,” replied Paddy. “That will be fine. You can bring mud while I am getting the sticks and grass.”
So Jerry dived down to the bottom of the pond and dug up mud and piled it on the foundation, and was happy.
The little stars looked down and twinkled merrily as they watched the two workers.
So the foundation grew and grew down under the water.
Jerry was very much surprised at the size of it. It was ever and ever so much bigger than the foundation for his own house. You see, he had forgotten how much bigger Paddy is.
Each night Jerry and Paddy worked, resting during the daytime. Occasionally Bobby Coon or Reddy Fox or Uncle Billy Possum or Jimmy Skunk would come to the edge of the pond to see what was going on. Peter Rabbit came every night, but they couldn't see much because, you know, Paddy and Jerry were working underwater.
But at last Peter was rewarded. There just above the water was a splendid platform of mud and grass and sticks.
A great many sticks were carefully laid as soon as the platform was above the water, for Paddy was very particular about this. You see, it was to be the floor for the splendid room he was planning to build.
When it suited him, he began to pile mud in the very middle.
Jerry puzzled and puzzled over this. Where was Paddy’s room going to be if he piled up the mud that way? But he didn’t like to ask questions, so he kept right on helping.
Paddy would dive down to the bottom and then come up with double handfuls of mud, which he held against his chest. He would scramble out onto the platform and waddle over to the pile in the middle, where he would put the mud and pat it down, then back to the bottom for more mud.
And so the mud pile grew and grew until it was quite two feet high.
“Now,” said Paddy, “I’ll build the walls, and I guess you can’t help me much with those. I’m going to begin them tomorrow night. Perhaps you would like to see me do it, Cousin Jerry.”
“I certainly will,” replied Jerry, still puzzling over that pile of mud in the middle.
Chapter 11: Peter Rabbit and Jerry Muskrat Are Puzzled
Jerry Muskrat was more and more sure that his big cousin Paddy the Beaver didn’t know quite so much as he might about house building.
Jerry would have liked to offer some suggestions, but he didn’t quite dare. You see, he was very anxious not to displease his big cousin. But he felt that he simply had got to speak his mind to someone, so he swam across to where he had seen Peter Rabbit almost every night since Paddy began to build.
Sure enough, Peter was there, sitting up very straight and staring with big round eyes at the platform of mud and sticks out in the water where Paddy the Beaver was at work.
“Well, Peter, what do you think of it?” asked Jerry.
“What is it?” asked Peter innocently. “Is it another dam?”
Jerry threw back his head and laughed and laughed.
Peter looked at him suspiciously. “I don’t see anything to laugh at,” said he.
“Why, it’s a house, you stupid. It’s Paddy’s new house,” replied Jerry, wiping the tears of laughter from his eyes.
“I’m not stupid,” retorted Peter. “How was I to know that that pile of mud and sticks is meant for a house? It certainly doesn’t look it. Where is the door?”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t think it is much of a house myself,” replied Jerry. “It has got a door all right. In fact, it has got three. You can’t see them because they are underwater, and there is a passage from each right up through that platform of mud and sticks, which is the foundation of the house. It really is a very fine foundation, Peter. It really is. But what I can’t understand is what Paddy is thinking of by building that great pile of mud right in the middle. When he gets his walls built, where will his bedroom be? There won’t be any room at all. It won’t be a house at all — just a big, useless pile of sticks and mud.”
Peter scratched his head and then pulled his whiskers thoughtfully as he gazed out at the pile in the water where Paddy was at work.
“It does look foolish. That’s a fact,” said he. “Why don’t you point out to him the mistake he is making, Jerry? If you have built such a splendid house yourself, you ought to be able to help Paddy and show him his mistakes.”
Jerry smiled a very self-satisfied smile when Peter mentioned his fine house, but he shook his head at the suggestion that he should give Paddy advice.
“I don’t just like to,” he confessed. “You know, he might not like it, and it doesn’t seem as if it would be polite.”
Peter sniffed. “That wouldn’t trouble me any if he were my cousin,” said he.
Jerry shook his head. “No, I don’t believe it would,” he replied. “But it does trouble me. And — well — I think I’ll wait a while.”
Now all this time Paddy had been hard at work. He was bringing the longest branches which he had cut from the trees out of which he had built his dam, and a lot of slender willow and alder poles. He pushed these ahead of him as he swam.
When he reached the foundation of his house, he would lean them against the pile of mud in the middle, with their big ends resting on the foundation.
So he worked all the way around until by and by the mud pile in the middle couldn’t be seen. It was completely covered with sticks, and they were cunningly fastened together at the tops.
Chapter 12: Jerry Muskrat Learned Something
“If you think you know it all,
You are riding for a fall.
Use your ears and use your eyes,
But hold your tongue and you’ll be wise.”
Jerry Muskrat will tell you that is as true as true can be. Jerry knows — he found it out for himself.
Now he is very careful what he says about other people or what they are doing. But he wasn’t so careful when his cousin Paddy the Beaver was building his house. No sir, Jerry wasn’t so careful then.
He thought he knew more about building a house than Paddy did. He was very sure of it when he watched Paddy heap up a great pile of mud right in the middle where his room ought to be, and then build a wall of sticks around it. He said as much to Peter Rabbit.
Now it is never safe to say anything to Peter Rabbit that you don’t care to have others know.
Peter has a great deal of respect for Jerry Muskrat’s opinion on house building. You see, he very much admires Jerry’s snug house in the Smiling Pool. It really is a very fine house. And Jerry may be excused for being proud of it — but that doesn’t excuse Jerry for thinking that he knows all there is to know about house building.
Of course Peter told everyone he met that Paddy the Beaver was making a foolish mistake in building his house, and that Jerry Muskrat, who ought to know, said so.
So whenever they got the chance, the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows would steal up to the shore of Paddy’s new pond and chuckle as they looked out at the great pile of sticks and mud which Paddy had built for a house — but in which he had forgotten to make a room.
At least they supposed that he had forgotten this very important thing.
It was a great joke.
They laughed a lot about it, and they lost a great deal of the respect for Paddy which they had had since he built his wonderful dam.
Jerry and Peter sat in the moonlight talking it over.
Paddy had stopped bringing sticks for his wall. He had dived down out of sight, and he was gone a long time.
Suddenly Jerry noticed that the water had grown very, very muddy all around Paddy’s new house.
He wrinkled his brows, trying to think what Paddy could be doing.
Presently Paddy came up for air. Then he went down again, and the water grew muddier than ever.
This went on for a long time. Every little while Paddy would come up for air and a few minutes of rest. Then down he would go, and the water would grow muddier and muddier.
At last Jerry could stand it no longer. He just had to see what was going on.
He slipped into the water and swam over to where the water was muddiest.
Just as he got there, up came Paddy.
“Hello, Cousin Jerry,” said he. “I was just going to invite you over to see what you think of my house inside. Just follow me.”
Paddy dived, and Jerry dived after him.
He followed Paddy in at one of the three doorways underwater and up a smooth hall right into the biggest, nicest bedroom Jerry had ever seen in all his life.
He just gasped in sheer surprise.
He couldn’t do anything else. He couldn’t find his tongue to say a word.
Here he was in this splendid great room up above the water — and he had been so sure that there wasn’t any room at all.
Paddy’s eyes twinkled.
“Well,” said he, “what do you think of it?”
“I think it is splendid — just perfectly splendid. But I don’t understand it at all, Cousin Paddy. Where is that great pile of mud I helped you build in the middle?”
Jerry looked as foolish as he felt when he asked this.
“Why, I’ve dug it all away. That’s what made the water so muddy,” replied Paddy.
“But what did you build it for in the first place?” Jerry persisted.
“Because I had to have something to rest my sticks against while I was building my walls, of course,” replied Paddy. “When I got the tops fastened together for a roof, they didn’t need support any longer. And then I dug it away to make this room. I couldn’t have built such a big room any other way. I see you don’t know very much about house building, Cousin Jerry.”
“I am afraid I don’t,” confessed Jerry sadly.
Alright, well thanks for joining me for this tale.
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And until next time, keep drawing, keep imagining, and keep telling stories.
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Learn more about my books and artwork at bdcrowell.com.
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