I
need these trees, and I've 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. You know he can't talk without
screaming, and the more excited he gets, the louder he screams.
"No such thing! 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, pointing at Sammy Jay. "Nobody
does. He's the greatest trouble-maker in the Green Forest or on
the Green Meadows. He would steal from his own relatives. Don't
mind what he says, Cousin Paddy."
Now all this time Paddy had been working away just as if no one
was around. Just as Jerry stopped speaking, Paddy thumped the
ground with his tail, which is 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 branches of the tree 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.
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