“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.

Paddy laughed.  “Just the bark,” said he, “and I have to have a great deal of it.”

Jerry looked as disappointed as he felt.  “Of course you can’t stay then,” said he, “and —­ and I had thought that we would have such good times together.”

Paddy’s eyes twinkled.  “Perhaps we may yet,” said he.  “You see I have about made up my mind that I will stay a while along the Laughing Brook in the Green Forest, and you can come to see me there.  On our way down I saw a very nice hole in the bank that I think will make me a good house for the present, and you can come up there to see me.  But if I do stay, you and Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle must keep my secret.  No one must know that I am there.  Will you?”

“Of course we will!” cried Jerry Muskrat and Grandfather Frog and Spotty the Turtle together.

“Then I’ll stay,” said Paddy the Beaver, diving into the Smiling Pool with a great splash.

And so one of Jerry Muskrat’s greatest adventures ended in the finding of his biggest cousin, Paddy the Beaver.  Now Jerry has a lot of cousins, and one of them lives on the Green Meadows not far from the Smiling Pool.  His name is Danny Meadow Mouse, and Danny is forever having adventures too.  He has them every day.  In the next book you will be told about some of these, if you care to read about them.