you will stay and make your home here."

Paddy the Beaver looked back at the great black shadow which he knew
was the Green Forest. Way over in the middle of it he heard the
hunting-call of Hooty the Owl. Then he looked out over the Green
Meadows, and from way over on the far side of them sounded the bark
of Reddy Fox, and it was answered by the deep voice of Bowser the
Hound up in Farmer Brown's dooryard. For some reason that last sound
made Paddy the Beaver shiver a little, just as the voice of Hooty
the Owl made the smaller people of the Green Forest and the Green
Meadows shiver when they heard it. Paddy wasn't afraid of Hooty or
of Reddy Fox, but Bowser's great voice was new to him, and somehow
the very sound of it made him afraid. You see, the Green Meadows
were so strange and open that he didn't feel at all at home, for he
dearly loves the deepest part of the Green Forest.

"No," said Paddy the Beaver, "I can't possibly live here in the
Smiling Pool. It is a very nice pool, but it wouldn't do at all for
me, Cousin Jerry. I wouldn't feel safe here a minute. Besides,
there is nothing to eat here."

"Oh, yes, there is," Jerry Muskrat interrupted. "There are
lily-roots and the nicest fresh-water clams and --"

"But there are no trees," said Paddy the Beaver, "and you know I
have to have trees."

Jerry stared at Paddy as if he didn't understand. "Do -- do you eat
trees?" he asked finally.