Paddy the Beaver¹ kept right on working just as if he hadn't any visitors. You see, it is a big undertaking² 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 visitors turned up their noses when they first saw it. They had heard stories of what a wonderful dam-builder Paddy was, and they had expected to see something like the smooth, grass-covered bank with which Farmer Brown kept the Big River from running back on his low lands. Instead, all they saw was a great pile of poles and sticks which looked like anything but a dam.

 

"Pooh!" exclaimed Billy Mink³, "I guess we needn't worry about the Laughing Brook⁴ 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, just kept right on working.

 

"Just look at the way he has laid those sticks!" continued Billy Mink. "Seems as if anyone would know enough to lay them across the Laughing Brook instead of just the other way. I could build a better dam than that."

 

Paddy said nothing; he just kept right on working.

 

"Yes, Sir," Billy boasted. "I could build a better dam than that.

Why, that pile of sticks will never stop the water."

"Is something the matter with your eyesight, Billy Mink?" inquired Jerry Muskrat⁵.

 

"Of course not!" retorted Billy indignantly. "Why?"

 

"Oh, nothing much, only you don't seem to notice that already the

Laughing Brook is over its banks above Paddy's dam," replied

Jerry, who had been studying the dam with a great deal of

interest.

Billy looked a wee bit foolish, for sure enough there was a little pool just above the dam, and it was growing bigger.

 

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