Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo), 1874-1965 / 2008-07-30 00:00:00


Everybody knew that Paddy the Beaver was laying up a supply of
food for the winter, and everybody thought it was queer food.
That is, everybody but Prickly Porky the Porcupine thought so.
Prickly Porky likes the same kind of food, but he never lays up a
supply. He just goes out and gets it when he wants it, winter or
summer. What kind of food was it? Why, bark, to be sure. Yes,
Sir, it was just bark--the bark of certain kinds of trees.
Now Prickly Porky can climb the trees and eat the bark right
there, but Paddy the Beaver cannot climb, and if he would just
eat the bark that he can reach from the ground, it would take
such a lot of trees to keep him filled up that he would soon
spoil the Green Forest. You know, when the bark is taken off a
tree all the way around, the tree dies. That is because all the
things that a tree draws out of the ground to make it grow and
keep it alive are carried up from the roots in the sap, and the
sap cannot go up the tree trunks and into the branches when the
bark is taken off, because it is up the inside of the bark that
it travels. So when the bark is taken from a tree all the way
around the trunk, the tree just starves to death.
Now Paddy the Beaver loves the Green Forest as dearly as you and
I do, and perhaps even a little more dearly. You see, it is his
home. Besides, Paddy never is wasteful. So he cuts down a tree so
that he can get all the bark instead of killing a whole lot of
trees for a very little bark, as he might do if he were lazy.
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