Here the mule is doing the watching, the wood is being watched. The mule is the subject of the sentence, the wood the object, the difference being that the subject is the ‘doer’, the object is on the receiving end and is ‘done to’. Latin makes this clear by having different endings for subject and object.
 

Mulum silva spectat.
The wood is watching the mule.

Now silva no longer has a final ‘m’, and mulus has been changed to mulum. This makes silva the subject and mulum the object. English word order is more restricted because we recognise a subject by its position in a sentence, not by its ending. Latin’s word order is more flexible: in general the subject appears before the object, with the verb at the end to complete a sentence or word-group, although variations, for a particular emphasis or rhythm, often occur. The verb’s place at the end may seem strange at first, but you will get used to it. Reading is a process of anticipation and completion of meaning; in English this function is often performed by the object:

Today the milkman delivered ...... ['bottles of milk' is the anticipated object, 'the post' would come as a surprise and 'twins' even more so].

Latin has us predicting the action, not the object:

Today the milkman ... two pints of milk ... ['delivered' is what we are expecting, ahead of 'stole' or 'threw at the boy on the skateboard'].

Paulus in silva
Paulus in silva ambulat. Mulus cum Paulo ambulat. Mulus non Paulum sed sarcinam portat. Fessus est Paulus et mulus est lentus. Mulus silvam non amat. Mulus silvam spectat. Silva mulum spectat. Mulus est territus. 

amat   likes, loves;  ambulat   walks, is walking;  cum   with, in the company of;  est   is;  et   and; fessus   tired; in   in, on; lentus   slow; mulus, mulum, mulo   mule;  non   not;  Paulus, ;  aulum, Paulo   Paul;  portat   carries, is carrying;  sarcina, sarcinam   bag;  sed   but; silva, silvam   wood; spectat   watches, is watching;  territus   scared.
 

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