wings and flying
away just in time.

Paddy sat down and laughed until his sides ached. "Come make me another
call some day, Sammy!" he said. "And when you do, please bring some real
news. I know all about Old Man Coyote. You can tell him for me that when
he is planning to catch people he should be careful not to leave
footprints to give himself away."

Sammy didn't reply. He just sneaked off through the Green Forest,
looking quite as foolish as he felt.

XVI

OLD MAN COYOTE IS VERY CRAFTY

Coyote has a crafty brain;
His wits are sharp his ends to gain.

There is nothing in the world more true than that. Old Man Coyote has
the craftiest brain of all the little people of the Green Forest or the
Green Meadows. Sharp as are the wits of old Granny Fox, they are not
quite as sharp as the wits of Old Man Coyote. If you want to fool him,
you will have to get up very early in the morning, and then it is more
than likely that you will be the one fooled, not he. There is very
little going on around him that he doesn't know about. But once in a
while something escapes him. The coming of Paddy the Beaver to the Green
Forest was one of these things. He didn't know a thing about Paddy until
Paddy had finished his dam and his house, and was cutting his supply of
food for the winter.

You see, it was this way: When the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother
West Wind first heard what was going on in the Green Forest and hurried
around over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest to spread the
news, as is their way, they took the greatest pains not to even hint it
to Old Man Coyote because they were afraid that he would make trouble
and perhaps drive Paddy away. The place that Paddy had chosen to build
his dam was so deep in the Green Forest that Old Man Coyote seldom went
that way. So it was that he knew nothing about Paddy, and Paddy knew
nothing about him for some time.

But after a while Old Man Coyote noticed that the little people of
the Green Meadows were not about as much as usual. They seemed to have
a secret of some kind. He mentioned the matter to his friend, Digger
the Badger.

Digger had been so intent on his own affairs that he hadn't noticed
anything unusual, but when Old Man Coyote mentioned the matter he
remembered that Blacky the Crow headed straight for the Green Forest
every morning. Several times he had seen Sammy Jay flying in the same
direction as if in a great hurry to get somewhere.