Downsizing

My wife and I were downsizing the other day. Actually, we’ve been downsizing for the past 10 years, but that’s an entirely different story for another time. 

Anyway, during this phase of our Decade of Downsizing we were going through some old books and ran across “volume 10 of The Famous Burgess Bedtime Story Books”. Well, needless to say, I was intrigued. I was even more intrigued when I read the captivating title of volume 10, “The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver”. 

Now I love children’s story books, and wondered how in the world I missed this one. The picture on the dust jacket alone was enough to grab the heart of the little boy that still lives in this old man’s body.

Paddy is sitting there on his house of mud and sticks, in the middle of the pond that was created by his having dammed up Laughing Brook, talking and gesturing to Peter Rabbit. (Apparently Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit of 1902 wasn’t copyrighted, because Thornton Burgess’s Peter Rabbit looks just like him . . . cute little jacket and all.)

So for the next hour or so I read aloud to my wife (and me) all 180, very large print, 5 inch by 7 inch pages of this charming little tome. I learned more about beaver behavior and habitat during this hour than I’d learned in my entire life from my Dad and Mom’s encyclopedias, and I’d referred to those encyclopedias a lot as a kid. But what captured my attention the most were the values and morals that this book taught, things such as;

Chapter 1 - “Paddy the Beaver Begins Work” - The work ethic alone taught in this book makes it worth reading to your kids and, in my case, grandkid. To Paddy, work is a pleasurable and rewarding endeavor, and before one can truly relax, one must work!

“Work, work all the night

While the stars are shining bright;

Work, work all the day,

I have got no time to play.”

Chapter 2 - “Paddy Plans a Pond” - But Paddy’s work wasn’t simply work in order to keep busy. Paddy was a planner, and planned his work well, scouting around Green Forest for the perfect building site for his house, determining where to dam up Laughing Brook in order to create his pond, and even making sure that the backed up waters of Laughing Brook that created his pond would eventually overflow his dam and restore Smiling Pool. Not only was Paddy an engineer, he was a conservationist! 

Chapter 5 - “Paddy Keeps His Promise” – Paddy was an animal of his word. He assured the rest of the forest animals that his dam and new pond wouldn’t keep Laughing Brook quiet very long, but that Laughing Brook would in fact laugh once again. As the animals watched Laughing Brook dry up downstream of his dam, they were skeptical and ridiculed his work as destructive to their heretofore happy neighborhood.

“So day by day the dam grew, and the pond grew, and one morning Grandfather Frog, down in what once had been Smiling Pool, heard a sound that made his heart jump for joy. It was a murmur that kept growing and growing, until at last it was the merry laugh of the Laughing Brook. Then he knew that Paddy had kept his word, and water would once more fill the Smiling Pool.”

Chapter 19 - “Paddy and Sammy Jay Become Friends” – Sammy Jay the Blue Jay, like most animals and humans, created his own problems. He was judgmental, argumentative, and nosey, and wondered why no one liked him very much. He scolded animals with his querulous squawk for whatever he deemed the righteous cause of the moment, and Paddy was no exception. But Paddy was an exception to the other animals of Green Forest and Green Meadow in his response to the annoyances of the irascible Sammy Jay. For instance, Paddy addressed Sammy as Mr. Jay, “knowing how it pleased Sammy to be called mister.” 

“Now this made Sammy feel very proud and very happy. You know it is very seldom that he hears anything nice said of him. He flew down on the stump of one of the trees Paddy had cut. ‘Let’s be friends,’ said he. ‘With all my heart!’ replied Paddy.”

And there is more, oh so much more, but suffice it to say that maybe it’s time you did some downsizing yourself. It’s hard to tell what you might find in that basement, garage, or closet that might remind you of those tried and tested values for living that so many have forgotten. 

By the way, if you don’t find them in your basement like we did, “The Famous Burgess Bedtime Story Books” have been reprinted time and time again and can be found on Amazon.