One day, when Noodle and Toodle and little Crackie Flat-tail, the beaver children were on their way to school, which, as I have told you, was in an old boat, kept by Professor Rat, the three little animal children saw Grandfather Goosey Gander, the old duck gentleman, going along with a bag over his shoulder.
"Ha! Where do you s'pose he's going with that bag?" asked Toodle of Noodle, as the beaver boys stopped on the path to watch.
"I don't know," said Noodle to Toodle. "Maybe he is pretending to be Santa Claus."
"It is too early—Christmas is too far off—for anyone to be practicing Santa Claus now," said Toodle. "And anyhow, Grandpa Goosey hasn't a red coat on, all trimmed with white, and he hasn't any white whiskers, so he can't be Santa Claus."
"That's so," said Noodle. "Let's ask him what he's got in that bag. He'll tell us, and if it's something good to eat maybe he'll give us some."
"You boys had better come on to school," said Crackie, "or else you may be late."
"Oh, this won't take a minute," said Noodle. "I'll run after Grandpa Goosey and ask him. You and Toodle can go on, Crackie, and tell Professor Rat that I'm coming."
So Toodle and Crackie, the two little beaver children, went on to school, holding their broad, flat tails up out of the mud. Their tails were so large that when they grew tired the beaver children could sit on them, just as you children sit on a stool.
Noodle ran after the old duck gentleman, who had kept wobbling along with the bag over his shoulder, and, when the little beaver boy got near enough, he saw that the bag was very heavy indeed, and that Grandpa Goosey had hard work to carry it.
"Good morning, Grandfather Goosey Gander," said Noodle politely. "Don't you want me to help you carry that bag?" You see, Noodle wanted to know what was in it, but he knew it wasn't just nice to ask at once. So he offered first to help the duck gentleman.
"Ha! Hum!" exclaimed Grandfather Goosey, with a sneeze that made his hat fall off. Noodle kindly picked it up for him.
"Excuse me," went on Grandfather Goosey, speaking through his yellow bill. "You see I have a bad cold in my head. I can't talk very well, and I can't hear very well. Jimmie Wibblewobble, my little grandson, dropped part of his ice cream cone down my back the other night, at the duck party, and that gave me a cold. Oh dear!" and poor Grandfather Goosey Gander sneezed again. This time his spectacles flew off, and bounced into the pond of water.
But, in a second, Noodle, who could swim better than a fish, jumped in and got them out.
"Thank you very kindly," said Grandfather Goosey Gander, as he put his glasses on his ears—I beg your pardon—I mean his nose.
"What was it you asked me, Noodle?—just before I sneezed—excuse me—here I go again—aker-choo-choo-choo!" and surely enough, the duck gentleman sneezed like a choo-choo engine. This time a penny jumped out of his pocket, he sneezed so hard, and when Noodle picked up the money, Grandfather Goosey said the little beaver boy could keep it for himself.
"I asked if I couldn't help you carry your bag, Grandfather Goosey," said Noodle, when the sneezing had ended. "It seems too heavy for you. Maybe there is gold in it," he added, for, through a hole in the bag, the little beaver boy saw something yellow, just like gold.
"Gold! Ha! ha! No, I wish it were," said Grandfather Goosey Gander. "Then I would be as rich as Uncle Wiggly Longears, the rabbit gentleman.
"No, Noodle, this isn't gold. It is yellow corn, that we ducks will eat this winter, just as you beavers will eat the bark of trees."
"Do you want me to help you carry it?" asked Noodle. Somehow or other he was just a little sorry that the bag didn't have in it some Santa Claus Christmas presents. But then there was time enough for them later, he thought.
"Oh, bless your tail, no!" said Grandpa Goosey Gander, with a laughing quack. "I shall manage it very well. But, since you were so kind as to offer to help, Noodle, I will give you an ear of corn. It isn't the yellow kind that we ducks eat, but a white kind.
"And if you shell off the kernels and put them in a popper or a pan over the fire the corn will pop, and you can put butter on it, and salt; or you can put sugar on it, just like down on the board walk at Asbury Grove. Here is your ear of pop corn."
"Oh, thank you very much," said the little beaver boy, as Grandpa Goosey gave him the extra white ear of pop corn. "I'll pop it tonight and give Toodle and Crackie some," said Noodle.
"Very good," spoke Grandpa Goosey, and then, slinging his bag over his shoulder he started for home, while Noodle went on to school. He left the ear of pop corn outside in a hollow stump, where no one could find it, for he did not want to take it in school with him.
"Well, what did Grandpa Goosey have in the bag?" asked Toodle of Noodle at recess that day.
"Corn," answered Noodle, "and he gave me some of my own to pop. We'll have a good time home tonight."
Well, when evening came in the Flat-tail house, and when the lessons were all done, Noodle brought out his ear of corn, and he and Toodle and Crackie shelled off the kernels. There was a fire on the open fire place, and when the logs had burned down to red, glowing coals, Noodle put the popper over them and shook it back and forth, just as Grandpa Goosey had told him to do, so the corn would not burn.
"Now, children," said Mrs. Flat-tail to them, "your papa and I are going over to call on Uncle Wiggily Longears for a few minutes. Grandpa Whackum is out to a moving picture show, and so you will be all alone. But I know you will be all right."
"Yes, mamma," said Toodle and Crackie.
Then Noodle shook the popper some more, while his papa and mamma went out. The corn was rather slow in popping, and the beaver children were just wondering whether Grandpa Goosey had not made a mistake, and given Noodle the wrong kind, when, all of a sudden, the front door quietly opened, and in came creeping softly—oh! so softly!—a bad old fox!
He wanted to get one of the beaver children, but neither Noodle nor Toodle nor Crackie heard the fox, as they were so busy watching for the corn to pop.
Nearer and nearer crept the fox, and the bad creature suddenly stuck out his paws and grabbed Crackie.
"Now, I have you!" cried the fox, and at that Noodle, who was shaking the popper, turned around to see what had happened. And when he saw that the fox had hold of his sister Crackie, Noodle was so surprised that he forgot to shake the popper. That made the corn get very hot, and it quickly began to pop all at once.
All of a sudden poppity-pop-pop! it went, just like a lot of firecrackers, and the popper was so full that the cover flew off, and the white pop corn was scattered all over the room.
It showered on the fox just like snow, and the bad creature was so frightened at hearing the popping noise, and at seeing the snow white kernels burst out, that he cried:
"Oh, wow! Double wow and some pepperhash. Oh, I am shot! I am caught in a snow storm! Excuse me!"
And with that he let go of Crackie, and out of the door he rushed, home to his den where he belonged. And so he didn't get Crackie after all, nor Toodle nor Noodle. And the beaver children weren't frightened any more, and they popped corn, and made some with butter on, and some with sugar, and their papa and mamma and Grandpa Whackum said it was just fine.
So that's the story of Noodle and his pop corn, that Grandpa Goosey Gander gave him, and I hope you liked it. And next, if the puppy dog doesn't pull off the baby's stockings to play tag with in the gold-fish tank, I'll tell you about Toodle and Noodle in trouble.
Of course, they didn't mean to do it. Children, whether they are animals, like little beaver boys, or real boys and girls like yourselves, never do mean to get into trouble, I suppose, but, sometimes they do, just the same.
And now, if you'd like to hear it, and won't wiggle too much, I'll tell you how Toodle and Noodle, the two little beaver boys, made a lot of trouble, just because they didn't stop to think.
It was one cool day, when there was no school, because Professor Rat had to go to the dentist's to have his spectacles fixed, that this happened.
Toodle and Noodle, with their sister Crackie, had started for school, and on the way, as they often did, they met Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels, and Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbit children, and Buddy and Brighteyes, the guinea pigs, and many more of their friends.
And when they reached the school, which was in an old boat that floated around the pond, there was a sign on the door reading:
"No School Today. Come Tomorrow."
"Oh, joy!" cried Toodle.
"Oh, happiness!" said Noodle.
"Now we can have some fun," spoke Bully the frog. "Come on, boys, what shall we do?"
"Come over by our beaver pond and maybe we can have some fun there," suggested Toodle.
"Yes, you can coast down our mud slide into the water," added Noodle.
"Oh, I couldn't do that—rabbits are not supposed to do that," said Sammie Littletail.
"Well, come on, anyhow," urged Noodle. "We'll find some way to have fun."
So many of the animal boys went with Toodle and Noodle over to the beaver pond, where there was a dam, or a long, low wall of mud, stones, sticks and grass to keep the water from running away. It was just such a dam as you children build in the gutter on a rainy day, only the beaver dam was larger.
Most of the little girl animals—such as Susie Littletail, Dottie Trot, the pony girl; Kittie Kat, the little pussy girl—and, of course, Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girls, went along with Crackie Flat-tail to the woods, to play with their dolls.
When Toodle and Noodle, and their boy friends, came running around the beaver pond—some of them, like Bully No-tail, the frog, swimming in it—the beaver lady said:
"My goodness, my sakes alive and some cherry potpie! What does this mean, Toodle—Noodle? Why are you home from school at this hour? It isn't out, is it?"
"There isn't any school, ma," said Toodle, putting away his books. "Professor Rat has the toothache in his spectacles. Oh, I'm so glad!"
"What!" cried Mrs. Flat-tail, "glad that any one is in pain?"
"Oh, no, ma," said Noodle, quickly. "Toodle meant that he was glad there was no school."
"That's it," said Toodle. "Come on, boys, let's have some fun. We'll go play around the dam, and I'll show you how we coast down the mud slide."
"Be very careful," said Mrs. Flat-tail. "There is a lot of water in the pond, on account of the big rain and the dam is not very strong. Don't do anything to break it, for that would make a lot of trouble. All the water would run out."
"We won't, ma," said Noodle, and really he meant it at the time he said it, of course.
Well, the boys who had come home with Toodle and Noodle began playing. They had lots of fun, and when the beaver boys slid down the slippery mud slide by sitting on their big tails, why, Sammie Littletail said it was as good as a circus, and wished he had a big tail such as all beavers have.
But of course when Toodle and Noodle slid down the mud slide that wasn't much fun for any one else, because the slide ran right into the water, into which Toodle and Noodle would go "ker-splash" every time they got to the bottom.
"I'll tell you what we can do," said Noodle, after a bit. "We can all go up to the top of the mud slide, and roll stones down it. The one who sends his stone the longest distance wins the game."
"That will be fun," cried Toodle. "Let's all get stones and roll them down."
Now this is what Toodle and Noodle should not have done, for the mud slide was close to the big dam that held in the waters of the beaver pond. And when the stones rolled down the slide they might break a hole in the dam. But Toodle and Noodle didn't think.
Soon all the boys were rolling stones, and many of the rocks hit the dam, bouncing off, turning somersaults over it, and some of them landing on it.
"Now for a big stone," cried Noodle, as he climbed up the slide, with a large rock on his tail, which was like a sled, you see.
"Oh, I have a bigger one!" cried Toodle, and up he came with one, too.
If Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all, had been there he never would have let the boys play such a game, and, really, Toodle and Noodle should have known better. But they didn't think.
All of a sudden Toodle and Noodle rolled their big stones down the slide, which was made slippery with water from the pond. Toodle's stone struck the dam near the middle and Noodle's over a little to one side.
And then something happened. The stones broke large holes in the dam, and through these holes the water began rushing out. The beaver pond began to get lower and lower.
"Oh, dear!" cried Noodle. "Look what we did!"
"Yes, I guess we'd better be getting home, boys," said Samuel Littletail. "The beavers will think we did that, Billie Bushytail."
"You're right!" cried the squirrel boy. Then he and all the others were going to leave Toodle and Noodle, when Bully, the frog, cried out:
"Oh, say! That isn't fair! When we are playing ball, and we break a window, we all help pay for it. Now that the dam is broken, though we didn't do it, we must help Toodle and Noodle fix it. Come on, boys."
The little beavers, who had felt sad when they saw all their friends going to leave them, were happy now. By this time the water was fast rushing out of the pond, through the holes the stones had made in the dam. And from their houses came rushing the grown-up beavers, wondering what had happened.
When they saw the trouble Toodle and Noodle had made they cried out:
"Oh, dear!"
For you know if the dam breaks and all the water in the pond runs out the beavers have to make another, or else they could not live in their houses. For their front doors have to be under water, you see, to keep out bad animals.
Just then up came Grandpa Whackum. He saw right away that something must be done.
"Quick, boys," he called to Toodle and Noodle and their boy friends. "Bring me mud and sticks and leaves and grass and stones and pieces of wood. We'll mend the dam!"
Those animal boys who were good swimmers jumped into the pond and brought to Grandpa Whackum the things the other animals gathered from the woods. Soon the old beaver gentleman had many willing helpers, and with his paws, which were like a monkey's hands, and his big tail he stopped up the holes in the dam. Toodle and Noodle helped also.
But, oh! what a lot of trouble they had made, though they did not mean to. Soon the dam was all fixed and the water was stopped from running out of the pond. Then Grandpa Whackum gave all the animal boys a penny for ice cream sandwiches and everybody was happy. Toodle and Noodle said they would never roll big stones down the mud slide again.
"Well, I hope there is school tomorrow," said Grandpa Whackum, with a sigh, as he sat down on his tail to rest.
So that's how Toodle and Noodle made trouble, though not meaning to, and on the next page, if the jam doesn't fall on the toy balloon and make it so sticky that it can't go out in the baby carriage with the rubber doll, I'll tell you about Toodle and the chestnuts.
"Oh, but I'm glad there's no school today!" cried Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, as he made a noise like a popcorn ball and ran up one side of a tree and down the other.
"So am I!" cried his brother Johnnie, who was trying to see how long he could stand on his head without sneezing.
"Why are you so glad?" asked Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy. "It's Saturday and you know there's never any school that day."
"I know there isn't," spoke Johnnie, "but then, you see, on account of there being none yesterday, when Professor Rat had the toothache in his spectacles, I thought maybe he'd make us come this morning."
"I didn't hear the bell ring, so I'm sure there's no school," said Toodle. "And if it's just the same to you, Billie and Johnnie, I wish you wouldn't speak about yesterday. I want to forget all about how Noodle and I rolled the big stones down the mud slide and broke the dam, making a lot of trouble for Grandpa Whackum."
"All right, we won't speak any more about it," said Johnnie, pleasantly. "But I'll tell you why I'm so glad there's no school today. It's because Billie and I are going after chestnuts."
"Chestnuts!" exclaimed Toodle, the beaver boy, looking at his tail to be sure there were no stickery bramble briars on it. "Where are they?"
"Oh, they grow on a tree like hickory nuts," said Johnnie, "only they come all wrapped up in a big burr, with sharp points on, and we have to wait for the frost to open the burr before we can get the nuts out."
"And when we do get them! Oh, yum-yum!" cried Billie. "How good they are—even better than ice cream!"
"Oh, now I know what you mean," said Toodle. "I have seen chestnuts, but I always thought they came roasted, and grew on a wagon that an Italian gentleman pushed around the street, on two wheels. So chestnuts grow on trees, eh?"
"To be sure," said Billie, "and if you like you may come with Johnnie and me when we gather some today."
"I'd just love to!" cried Toodle and he felt so happy that he tried to stand up on the end of his tail. But it was too broad and flat, and, though it was, as are all beavers' tails, good to sit on, like a stool, Toodle could not stand upon its end.
So, the consequence was, Toodle fell over backward, but his coat of fur (getting ready for winter) was so thick that he never felt his tumble any more than if he had landed in a feather bed, or in a basket of soap bubbles, which are as soft as anything I know of.
"Where's Noodle?" asked Johnnie, when Toodle had picked himself up and brushed the dirt off his coat by fanning himself with his wide tail. "Where is Noodle, Toodle?"
"Oh, he went to the store for mamma. She wanted some molasses to make a birch bark pudding with. We needn't wait for Noodle, if you are going after chestnuts. I heard him say he was going to play football with Munchie Trot, the pony boy, when he came back from the store. If we get any chestnuts I'll save him some, anyhow."
"Oh, we're sure to get some," spoke Billie.
"Yes, for we know where lots of trees grow," added Johnnie. "Come along now, Toodle."
So Toodle, the little beaver boy, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, started after chestnuts.
On and on they went through the woods and as they went Toodle sang this little song, which he made up all himself, without anyone helping him:
"Chestnuts grow on big trees,Almost to the sky.And if you ever climb oneDon't go up too high."If you take a tumble,Don't fall on your head,Unless you put under youMamma's feather bed."
"Chestnuts grow on big trees,Almost to the sky.And if you ever climb oneDon't go up too high.
"Chestnuts grow on big trees,
Almost to the sky.
And if you ever climb one
Don't go up too high.
"If you take a tumble,Don't fall on your head,Unless you put under youMamma's feather bed."
"If you take a tumble,
Don't fall on your head,
Unless you put under you
Mamma's feather bed."
"Well, well!" laughed Billie Bushytail. "That's pretty good!"
"It surely is," said his brother Johnnie. "But how can you tell when you're going to fall, Toodle, so as to have the feather bed with you?"
"I guess you'd have to take it along each time you went nutting," said the little beaver boy. "I only put the feather bed in the verse to make it rhyme, anyhow. You don't really need it."
Then they went on a little farther and soon they had come to the place where the chestnut trees grew.
"Now, Billie and I will climb up," said Johnnie. "We'll knock the chestnuts down to you, Toodle, and you can gather them into a pile. When we have all we want we'll divide them."
"Very good," said the little beaver boy, who knew he could not climb a tree as well as can squirrels. "And if you get up the tree and can't get down again, I can gnaw it down for you, with my big orange-colored teeth. And I'll let it fall so gently that you won't be hurt."
"Thank you," said Billie, "but I guess we can get down, Toodle."
Up the chestnut tree scrambled the squirrel boys and soon they were throwing down lots of chestnuts to Toodle, who gathered them into a pile. Once in a while, a chestnut would hit the little beaver boy on the head, but he did not mind that.
"You want to look out, though, if any of the big, round, stickery chestnut burrs fall on you," said Billie. "Of course we wouldn't mean to throw any on you and there are not many left that aren't opened, but one might accidentally hit you."
"Oh, I'll look out," laughed Toodle.
Well, some of the prickly burrs did come down, but they did not hit Toodle, and he brushed them to one side, in a pile, with his thick, strong tail, which even a chestnut burr could not hurt.
"Well, I guess we have all the nuts off this tree," said Billie, after a bit. "Come on down, Johnnie, and we'll go look for another one," and down the squirrel boys scrambled, as quickly as a monkey on a stick, or a jumping-jack, if you prefer that. So Toodle didn't have to gnaw the tree down.
"We'll go over there by that old stump," said Billie, pointing to it with his tail.
"Shall I come?" asked Toodle.
"No, you had better stay here and keep guard over the chestnuts on the ground," said Johnnie. "Some one might come and take them while we are gone. We won't be long, and if there are any nuts on the trees over there we'll come back and get you, and these nuts too."
So away went Billie and Johnnie, leaving Toodle on guard by the chestnuts. At first nothing happened, and Toodle was thinking he could even take a little sleep, when, all of a sudden, out from behind a stump came a big, black bear. Oh, but he was a bad one; and he came closer and closer to Toodle, until he stood right in front of the little beaver boy, all ready to grab him.
"Ah, ha!" growled the bear. "Now I have you!"
"Oh, dear!" cried Toodle. "What do you want?"
"I want you and the chestnuts, too," said the bad bear. "Come, get ready! I'm going to carry you off to my den!" and he came nearer to poor Toodle.
The little beaver boy looked to see if he could find anyone to help him. But Billie and Johnnie Bushytail were far off, looking for more chestnut trees, and no one else was near. Even when Toodle whacked with his tail on the ground, the way his papa had taught him to do when there was danger, no one came to help the beaver boy.
"Well, here's where I grab you!" growled the bear, and he was just going to hug Toodle in his sharp claws and maybe scratch him, for all I can tell, when, all of a sudden, Toodle saw a big pile of the prickly chestnut burrs he had brushed together.
"Ah, ha!" thought Toodle. "These will do for that bear."
And with one sweep of his tail along the ground, Toodle sent those burrs in a regular shower in the bear's face. The sharp, prickly stickers stuck in the soft and tender nose of that bear and made him sneeze and cough, and have the toothache and turn a somersault all at once. And then the bear cried:
"Oh, woe is me! I'm all stuck up. I guess I'll go home!"
And home to his den he went, leaving Toodle and the chestnuts alone, and pretty soon Billie and Johnnie came back, not having found any more nut-trees. So Toodle told them about the bear, and how he had driven him off, and the squirrels said the beaver boy was very brave. Then they divided the chestnuts, and went home, and now it's time for you to go to bed.
But on the page after this, if the piece of cheese doesn't jump out of the mouse-trap and scare the clothesline into the waste paper basket, I'll tell you about Toodle and Noodle on the ice.
"Come, boys! Get up!" called Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, who was the mother of the two little beaver boys. "Time to get up or you'll be late for school!" and she pounded on the ceiling with a nice piece of birch tree stick, from which she gnawed the bark so that from it she could make griddle cakes for breakfast.
Toodle put one paw out of his bed, which had been made in a pile of nice clean shavings.
"Bur-r-r-r-r-r!" he cried, pulling his paw back quickly again under the warm bed quilt, made of soft brown leaves, sewed together. "Bur-r-r-r-r! It's awful cold!"
"Is it?" asked Noodle, rubbing his eyes with his paws. "Is it cold, Toodle?"
"Indeed it is," replied Toodle. "Just put your paw out and see."
Noodle did so.
"My goodness me, sakes alive, and some icicle soup!" he cried. "I should say it was cold! There'll be skating this morning, I guess. Is Grandpa Whackum down there?" he called to his mamma, who was already cooking the griddle cakes, and putting the maple sugar on the back of the stove, where it would keep warm.
"Yes, I'm here," answered Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all. "I'm down here, boys, and if you don't soon come down here too, I'll go up there and tickle you so you won't know whether you're standing on your head or on your tail. Are you coming?"
"Indeed we are," answered Noodle, and then, getting brave, he suddenly threw back the leaf-bedquilt and jumped out into the middle of the room that was built upstairs in the beaver house, which stood in the middle of a pond of water.
Beavers, you know, are little animals like muskrats, and they just love the water, as I have already told you. They love it so much that nearly always they build their houses right in a pond, which they make by raising a dam to keep the water from running away, just as you do in the gutter on a rainy day.
"See who'll be dressed first!" cried Noodle, and then Toodle jumped out on the cold floor. Soon they were both dressed, for beaver boys have so much fur that they do not need to wear many clothes, even in winter.
"I won!" cried Noodle, who finished the last button on his shoes just as his brother Toodle was beginning to fasten his. "I'm dressed first."
"Oh, well, I don't mind," said Toodle. "I'll be washed first!" and he was, because there was only one wash basin in the boys' room and only one of them could get his paws in it at a time.
"Come! Come!" cried Mrs. Flat-tail again. "The cakes are getting cold, boys."
"I'll be down stairs first!" cried Noodle, and he ran for the banister, reached it ahead of his brother, and down he slid—"ker-bang!" landing on the kitchen rug. So he was downstairs first. Then both the little beaver boys ate as many birch bark pancakes as were good for them, and Crackie, their little sister, ate two and part of another one.
"Oh, look at our pond!" cried Toodle, as he gazed out of the window. "It's all frozen over!"
"So it is!" said Noodle. "Oh, it must be very cold!"
"Yes, you had better get out your skates and skate to school," said Grandpa Whackum, who had finished his breakfast.
"But we have no ice skates," said Toodle, "and I don't believe roller skates would be very good."
"Not on ice," answered Grandpa Whackum. "But I'll show you how to make ice skates. If I had some long, clean bones now—"
"I know where there are some!" cried Crackie. "I saw Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys, dragging some bones over on shore yesterday."
"The very thing!" cried Grandpa Whackum. "I'll swim to shore, under the ice, and get them. Then I'll make skates for you two beaver boys."
While the children were finishing their nice warm breakfast, Grandpa Whackum dived out through the front door of the beaver house. This door was under water, and the old gentleman beaver soon found himself under the ice that covered the top of the pond. But he was used to that. So he swam to shore until he found a place where the ice was broken through in a round hole.
Then, he popped out and along the frozen bank of the beaver pond he ran until he found the bones the little puppy dog boys had been playing with the day before.
"These bones will make fine skates for the boys," said Grandpa Whackum. "They are long and straight and smooth."
Down under the ice he went again, and soon he was once more in the beaver house. Toodle and Noodle were getting their books ready to start for school.
"I think it is too cold for you to go today, Crackie," said Mrs. Flat-tail.
"Oh, mamma, I don't want to stay home! I want to go to school today!" cried the little beaver girl. "I know all my lessons."
"We could pull her along on our tails for a sled," said Toodle.
"Especially if we skate," added his brother.
"Oh, you'll skate, all right!" said Grandpa Whackum, as he went on making the bone skates. It was quite easy. All he had to do was to fasten some strings to the bones, so Toodle and Noodle could tie them to their hind paws. Then they could glide along on the bones, over the ice, just as you boys and girls use your roller skates.
Toodle and Noodle were delighted with the bone skates their grandpa made for them.
"It won't take us long to get to school on these," said Toodle.
"That is, if we don't fall down much," agreed Noodle.
"Oh! I'll show you how to skate so you will not fall down very much," said Grandpa Whackum.
So they all went out on the ice, the old gentleman beaver himself putting on a pair of bone skates. Then he showed Toodle and Noodle how to strike out, and how to glide, and they were soon able to skate very well.
"Ding-dong!" rang the school bell.
"Come on!" cried Toodle. "We'll be late!"
"Wait for me! Wait for me!" cried Crackie, as her brothers started off without her.
"Sit on my tail, Crackie," invited Toodle. "I'll give you a ride first, and then Noodle can take a turn. And you can carry our books."
So little Crackie sat down on the broad flat tail of her brother Toodle, which, as you can see by the picture, was almost as good as a sled. I wish I could show you a picture of Crackie riding to school this way, but I am not allowed, as I don't know how to draw.
Anyhow, off the two little beaver boys started, over the ice, on their bone skates, that were tied fast to their hind paws. Crackie went with them.
"Ding-dong!" rang the school bell. Faster and faster skated Toodle and Noodle. They felt sure they would not be late this time.
Pretty soon Crackie jumped over on Noodle's tail, and on they went faster than ever.
But something happened. They were almost at the school, which was in an old boat, that was now frozen fast in the ice, when, all of a sudden, out from behind a stump popped a hungry bear. Oh, he was so hungry! He hadn't had his breakfast, and when he saw Toodle and Noodle and Crackie, he just smacked his lips, and rolled out his red tongue, nearly biting it with his sharp teeth, and that bear cried:
"Oh, ho! Now I will have something to eat!"
He ran after the beaver children, and Crackie called:
"Oh, Toodle! Oh, Noodle! Skate! Skate as fast as you can away from that bear!"
"That's what we will!" shouted Toodle. Then the two beaver boys skated faster than they had ever skated before, Noodle pulling Crackie along on his tail. On came the bear. He was getting nearer and nearer, when, all of a sudden, Noodle cried:
"Quick, Toodle, turn to the left. There's a hole right through the ice!"
Toodle and Noodle both turned aside and skated past the hole, but the bear couldn't stop himself, nor turn quickly enough, and "plump!" he went into the ice-cold water, making a spray just like a fountain. And he got all wet and frozen, and his feet stuck to the ice when he got out, so he couldn't chase Toodle and Noodle or Crackie any more, and the beaver children got safely to school, a little out of breath, but otherwise all right. Every one said they were very brave.
So that's how Toodle and Noodle skated on the ice and saved Crackie from the bear, and next, if the water pitcher doesn't fall down the cellar and put the furnace fire out in the ash can to sleep all night, I'll tell you about Toodle and Noodle playing football.
It was quite cold and shivery one day when Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boys, started for school. It was not quite as cold as the day they had skated on the ice, riding their sister Crackie on their tails, when they got away from the bear, who fell into the water, as I told you yesterday.
No, it was not quite as cold as that, but still it was very shivery, and as Toodle and Noodle hurried along, with their books tucked under their left forelegs, they put their paws in their pockets.
"There'll be lots of skating if this keeps on," said Noodle.
"Indeed there will," said his brother Toodle.
And the reason there was no skating just then was because there had been a little warm spell, and the ice on the beaver pond had melted, cracking all up, and was floating about in chunks, like little boats. But they were cold little boats, and the beavers did not like to swim among them.
Crackie was not going to school that day, as she had the sniffle-snuffles and her nose was all red and her eyes ached and filled with water, and she had to have a piece of red flannel around her throat. Oh, well, you know how it is when you have the sniffle-snuffles, don't you? So there's no use in me stopping any longer over that part. I may as well get on with the story.
"I wish it would snow," said Toodle, as he stumbled over a humpy place in the woods through which he and his brother were going just then to get to the school, which had been moved to a hollow stump, instead of being in the boat, as before.
Professor Rat, the principal, said it was getting too cold to have school in the boat any longer so he and the lady bug teacher, and the janitor, and the blackboards and the bell, all moved into the hollow stump—not the one where the bear lived, though. No, indeed! I guess not!
Of course the bell and blackboards didn't move themselves from the boat-school into the school stump. No, the janitor and Professor Rat did that, and the lady bug teacher looked on and said:
"Oh, dear! Isn't it dreadful hard work to move a school?"
"Why do you wish it to snow?" asked Noodle of Toodle, after a while.
"So we could go sleigh riding and build a snow house—"
"Oh, that's so! I forgot what fun we can have when it snows!" cried Noodle. "I was thinking that it would spoil the skating, but there isn't any to spoil now. Let's wish real hard that it would snow."
So the beaver boys wished as hard as they could, and looked up at the sky, hoping to see some of the white flakes sifting down. But they saw none.
"We'd better hurry," called Noodle. "There goes the first bell and we've got quite a long way to go yet!"
So the two little beaver boys hurried on and, just as they got to the bridge over the tiny little brook that sang a merry song in the summer, but which did not sing so merrily in winter, Toodle and Noodle heard some one saying:
"Oh, who will buy? Oh, who will buy,My last balloon before I cry?"
"Oh, who will buy? Oh, who will buy,My last balloon before I cry?"
"Oh, who will buy? Oh, who will buy,
My last balloon before I cry?"
"Hark! What's that?" whispered Noodle.
"I don't know," answered Toodle. "It sounded like—like—somebody!"
"Of course it was somebody," spoke Noodle. "But who? That's the question."
They stood on the little bridge over the small brook and once more they heard the voice saying, louder than before, this time:
"Oh, buy it quick! Oh, buy it quickMy red balloon upon a stick."
"Oh, buy it quick! Oh, buy it quickMy red balloon upon a stick."
"Oh, buy it quick! Oh, buy it quick
My red balloon upon a stick."
"That's funny," said Toodle, looking at his brother, who was sitting down on his tail to rest himself. "Do you s'pose that could be the circus elephant? He used to like balloons."
"It doesn't sound like the elephant," answered Noodle. "Still, you never can tell—"
Then the voice, that seemed to come from under the bridge, interrupted the little beaver boy by saying:
"Please buy this red balloon of me.It is my last one; can't you see?I'll make the price—Oh, very low.For just one cent I'll let it go."
"Please buy this red balloon of me.It is my last one; can't you see?I'll make the price—Oh, very low.For just one cent I'll let it go."
"Please buy this red balloon of me.
It is my last one; can't you see?
I'll make the price—Oh, very low.
For just one cent I'll let it go."
"Oh, Toodle!" cried Noodle, "have you a cent? If you have let's buy this balloon!"
"But how do we know who is selling it, or where he is, or whether it's really a balloon or not?" asked Toodle, looking in his pocket to see if he still had the penny Grandpa Whackum had given him the night before.
"Well, we can look under the bridge;" said Noodle, "and find out. Any one who sells balloons—especially red ones—is sure to be kind and good. I'm going to take a look through the crack in the bridge. We have time before the last bell rings."
So Noodle peeked down through a crack in the bridge floor, and there sitting on a stone near the water was a little monkey-doodle boy, with one red balloon tied to a stick.
"Do you really want to sell that balloon for a penny?" asked Noodle. "We'll buy it from you if you do."
The monkey looked up and saw the beaver boys, and in an instant he had scrambled up on the bridge.
"It is my last balloon," said the monkey-doodle. "I am all sold out except this one, so I am going to let you have it for a penny. Circus time is past, and I want to go and take a long sleep. I don't need the balloon any more."
"Well, then, we'll take it," said Toodle, lifting the penny out of his pocket. "We can have fun flying it."
"Oh, I can tell you how to have more fun with it than that," said the monkey-doodle, as he got ready to go away down South where it is warm, for monkeys like it warm in the winter. "You can play football with that balloon, and football is a very nice game for cold weather. It warms you. You must get some leather and make a covering for the red balloon. Then, when you kick it, the balloon won't burst. Make a football of it, I say."
"I guess we will," agreed Toodle.
Well, the beaver boys went on to school, with their red balloon, and, in order that the teacher would not take it away from them in the class room, they tied it outside in a tree, the way Mary told her lamb to stay outside. But the lamb wouldn't stay outside, and neither would the red balloon-football.
A window happened to be open, and all of a sudden the ball blew into the school, though it was still tied to the string on the tree branch. All the animal children in the hollow-stump school laughed and so did the teacher.
"What are you going to do with it?" asked the lady bug of Toodle and Noodle, when they told her about their balloon, and when the window had been shut so it couldn't come in again.
"Make a football of it," answered Toodle.
"Only we have to cover it with leather," said Noodle, "so it won't break."
"Oh, I'll do that for you," said the lady bug teacher, who liked boys. So that night she took the red balloon home with her and she made a leather cover for it, bringing it back next morning. Oh, it was a fine football then!
"Let's have a game!" cried Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, as he gave the new football a kick that sent it away over the fence. It was so light you see—the football I mean, not the fence—that it flew all over.
"All right, we'll have some fun!" cried Toodle, and then he and Noodle and Billie Bushytail and Sammie Littletail and all the animal boys, including Munchie Trot, the pony, played football in the school yard until it was time to go in.
Now, though the boys didn't know it, there was hiding behind the fence the same old bear that had chased Toodle and Noodle and Crackie one day on the ice.
"I'll just wait until one of those animal boys comes near this hole in the fence," thought the bad bear, "then I'll grab him and have a nice lunch."
Well, Toodle was going to kick the football and Noodle got away over by the fence to grab it when it came down.
"Kick away!" called Noodle to Toodle.
"And now is my chance to get him," thought the bear. Toodle kicked the balloon-football as hard as he could and just as Noodle was going to get it, the bear made a grab for him. But all of a sudden, the wind blew the football off to one side, and instead of Noodle getting it, that football hit the bear on the nose. Smacko! Cracko!
The football was so light and fluffy that it tickled the bear and made him sneeze, and whenever a bear sneezes he can bite no one except his own tongue. That's what this bear did, and he was so angry that he gave three howls and part of another one, and then he ran home to his den where he belonged.
Then the football game went on until it was time to go into school and all the boy animals said they had had a fine time.
They thanked Toodle and Noodle for buying the balloon-football from the monkey-doodle and many times that winter, when it was not too cold, there were football games.
So no more just now, if you please, but in the next story, if the rocking chair doesn't step on the molasses jug's ear and make the popcorn balls cry to go to the moving pictures, I'll tell you about Crackie Flat-tail and Joie Kat.
"Mamma, is Crackie going to school today?" asked Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, one morning, when it was almost time for the first bell to ring.
Mrs. Flat-tail looked out of the window of the beaver house in the pond behind the dam, and said:
"No, I think not. Her sniffle-snuffles are not much better today than they were yesterday. Besides, it is rather warm weather now, the pond is not frozen and it looks like snow. I think I shall keep her home until tomorrow, at least. Now run along, Toodle—you and Noodle. And be good boys."
"We will," promised Noodle, as he caught up the red balloon-football, covered with leather. He and his brother and the other animal boys thought they would have a fine game that day.
Crackie, the little beaver girl, felt very lonesome after her brothers had left her. She had not been going to school very long, and she was in the kindergarten, but still she liked her teacher and her schoolmates. However, when a beaver girl has the sniffle-snuffles she can't very well go to school, for she sneezes all the time; and when the teacher asks how many three and two are she has to say:
"Ak-er-choo," which isn't the right answer at all.
So, as I say, Crackie felt a little lonesome. But her mamma let her help dry the breakfast dishes, and Crackie only dropped a saucer, which didn't break very much, only about half of it falling off.
"You are doing very well, Crackie," said Mrs. Flat-tail with a smile at the little beaver girl. "Soon we won't have to call you Crackie at all." You see Crackie had such an odd name because she used to be always dropping and cracking such things as dishes, and ice cream cones, and lollypops and all like that.
Well, after the dishes were dried Grandpa Whackum, the old beaver gentleman, said:
"I think I will go out and take a look at the dam. It may have some holes in it, where a bear or wolf tried to tear it down last night, and if the dam breaks, and all the water runs out of our pond, we will have a hard time, for it will not rain much more this year."
So Grandpa Whackum started out, but just as he was going to dive down through the front door, which was under water so no bad animals could get in, the old beaver gentleman cried:
"Oh, dear me, suz dud! There's a button off my overcoat right where it goes around my neck. I must have it sewed on, or the cold wind will come in, and I'll have the epizootic, and the sniffle-snuffles, too."
"I'll sew it on for you, Grandpa Whackum," said Crackie, kindly.
So sitting down on her tail, which was like a stool, you know, the little beaver girl used a thorn from the bramble briar bush for a needle, and some strong strings of dried grass for thread, and so she sewed the button on her grandpa's coat.
Then he went out to look at the dam, that kept the water in the pond from running off—maybe to a moving picture show—and Mrs. Flat-tail said:
"Well, I do declare! It's almost ten o'clock, and I promised I'd go over to Mrs. Wibblewobble's house, and show her how to make corn-meal fritters. Would you mind staying alone a little while, Crackie?"
"Oh, no, mamma, of course not," answered the little beaver girl. "I'll just make a new dress for my doll Anna Jane Huckelberry Puddingstick. She needs a new dress very badly."
Mrs. Flat-tail went out and that left Crackie all alone in the beaver house. But still she did not mind. She was sewing away, and wondering whether she should put a thing-a-ma-bob on the skirt, with three rows of lace inserted on the bias, or whether the dress would look nicer with some apple pie frosting, trimmed with cocoanut macaroons, on the what-you-may-call-it. She had just about decided to use the ice cream puffs on the sleeves, when, all of a sudden, Crackie heard a terrible noise outside.
Some one cried:
"Ha! Now I'll get you! Now I have you! Oh, you can't get away from me now."
And then another voice said:
"Meaouw! Meaouw! Meaouw!"
Next there came a big thump on top of the beaver house that was built in the middle of the pond, and a voice cried out:
"Oh! whoever is in there please let me in! Toodle! Noodle! Please let me in!"
"My goodness!" cried Crackie, and she jumped up so suddenly that her rubber doll, who was asleep in her lap, fell to the floor. But it doesn't hurt rubber dolls to fall, and this one went right on sleeping just as if nothing had happened. "What can that be?" thought Crackie, wishing her mamma would come back.
"Oh, please let me in!" cried the voice again, and there was a pounding on the roof of the house. Outside, as though it came from the opposite bank of the beaver pond, another voice said:
"Oh, ho! You can't get away from me that way. I'll be there in a minute!"
There was a splashing in the water, and the voice on the beaver house roof begged once more:
"Oh, will no one let me in? Toodle! Noodle!"
"Who—who are you?" asked Crackie, thinking maybe it was a bad fox, trying to play a trick on her, and pretending to be some one in trouble. "Who are you, and what is the matter?" went on Crackie.
"Oh, I am Joie Kat, the brother of Tommie and Kittie Kat," was the answer. "I was out walking in the woods, and a bad dog chased me. I ran up a tree and out on a limb that was high up in the air, right over your house. Then I slipped and fell, but the dog still kept after me. I fell on the roof of your house, where I am now, and if you don't let me in that dog will soon swim over here from shore and grab me. Oh, please, let me in, whoever you are!"
"I'm Crackie Flat-tail," said the little beaver girl. "I couldn't go to school today because I have the sniffle-snuffles, but my brothers went, and I'm home all alone, and—"
"Oh, if you please," meaouwed Joie, "you can tell me all that when I get in. The dog is coming—the dog is swimming to get me!"
And Crackie could hear the dog going: "Bow—wow—wow," like anything; really she could.
"Of course, I'll let you in," said the little beaver girl, so she opened a window near the roof, and Joie Kat, being a very good climbing kitten boy, easily got in it, and so he was safe from the dog for a while, anyhow.
"Oh, ho!" growled the dog, when he saw what Joie had done. "You needn't think you can get away from me. I'm going to stay here until you come out; that's what I'll do!"
"Will he?" asked Crackie.
"I—I'm afraid he will," said Joie, sadly like.
"Just wait until my Grandpa Whackum comes back," said Crackie. "He'll attend to your case; you bad old dog!" and, leaning out of the window, Crackie threw the potato masher at the growling-barking creature. But girls—even beaver girls—can't throw very straight, so Crackie did not hit the dog.
"Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!" laughed the dog. "You can't scare me! I'm not afraid of you."
"Oh, what shall I do?" asked Joie Kat, who was all in a tremble. "I wish I'd never climbed the big tree!"
"Oh, I'll think of a way to save you," said Crackie.
Just then along came Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all. He saw the dog on shore, but, very wisely, Grandpa Whackum dived down under water and swam into the house without the dog seeing him. Then Crackie and Joie told the old beaver gentleman what had happened.
"Ha! I'll fix that dog!" cried Grandpa Whackum. So he called all the other big beavers together under water and they slipped up on shore behind that dog, when he wasn't looking, and when he was just thinking and wondering how he could get Joie, all the beavers threw mud with their tails all over that dog until he looked like a mud pie, or maybe a mud puddle.
"Oh, wow!" cried the dog, and then he had to run home and jump in the bath tub to get clean.
"Now he's gone and you can safely go home, Joie," said Crackie.
"Oh, but your house is in the middle of water and I can't swim," said the little kitten boy. "How can I get home?"
"I'll tell you," spoke Crackie. "We'll get a wooden box and make a little boat of it and in that you can sail to shore, and go home without even getting your tail wet."
And that's what they did. Grandpa Whackum made the box boat and Crackie helped Joie get into it through the outside upper window, for the front door of the beaver house was under water. Then Joie sailed safely home, and he never climbed tall trees again.
So no more now, but in the next story, if the clothes basket doesn't go to sleep out in the hammock and catch cold in its handles, I'll tell you about Toodle and Jimmie Wibblewobble.
Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boys, were playing on the bank of the pond in which their house was built. They had made a mud slide, which was slippery with water, and down that they were coasting, having almost as much fun as if there was snow and ice on the ground and they had red sleds, with blue tops, to ride on down the long hill.
"Come on!" called Toodle, when he had slid down backward, just to see how it would feel, "let's go down backward again, Noodle, and see who will slide the farthest."
"All right," agreed Noodle. "Wait until I get to the top, so we can both start even and at the same time."
Up the mud slide, which was just a bank of dirt near an old stump, scrambled Toodle and Noodle and then they got ready to go down backward.
"Are you all ready?" asked Noodle.
"All ready!" cried Toodle.
"Then here we go!" shouted Noodle, and down the mud slide they went backward.
But, oh, dear me! something happened. Just as they got to the bottom of the little slippery hill, old Mr. Chunky-lunky, the biggest, fattest beaver gentleman in the pond, came walking along. He was so fat that he couldn't see his shoes when he stood up straight and his neck was so thick he couldn't bend it, so of course he did not see Toodle and Noodle sliding right toward him.
The first thing he knew his hind paws were knocked out from under him, and down he came—"ker-flummux!"
"Ugh!" grunted old Mr. Chunky-lunky, and that was all he could say just then, for the breath was knocked out of him. He nearly sat down on Toodle and Noodle, who had bumped into him without in the least meaning to, and, if old Mr. Chunky-lunky had sat down on either of the beaver boys he would have squashed him flatter than a pancake. But this did not happen, I'm glad to say.
"Why—er—what—er—what happened?" panted old Mr. Chunky-lunky as he got up and brushed the dirt out of his ears.
"I—I guess we happened," said Toodle.
"You see, we were sliding down the mud-hill backward," explained Noodle.
"No," spoke Mr. Chunky-lunky, "I didn't see—that was the trouble. But, never mind, boys, you didn't mean to do it, I'm sure."
"Oh, no, we wouldn't think of doing such a thing!" cried Noodle. "Would we, Toodle?"
"No, indeed!" answered Toodle, and then he picked up old Mr. Chunky-lunky's hat to hand to him. The hat was a little muddy, but just then along came Jimmie Wibblewobble, the boy duck, and with his wing feathers he dusted the dirt off the beaver gentleman's hat until it was as good as new.
"Now, boys, don't slide down any more hills backward," said old Mr. Chunky-lunky as he waddled away, with his head high in the air, because he was too fat to look down.
Well, Toodle and Noodle played on the mud slide for some time longer, and then, all of a sudden—no, a big black bear did not jump out from behind a lollypop ice cream cone. I was going to put a bear in this story, but I've changed my mind about it.
So, all of a sudden, Mrs. Flat-tail called out from the front stoop:
"Hi, Noodle, Toodle! I want one of you to go to the store for me."
"Let Toodle go, ma!" cried Noodle.
"Oh, no, let Noodle go, ma!" cried Toodle.
"I went last time," said Noodle, sort of quick like.
"Well, I went with you, so it's your turn to go now all alone," spoke Toodle.
"Come, boys," cried Mrs. Flat-tail. "I'm in a hurry. I want a cocoanut to make a cake."
"Oh, I'll go!" cried Toodle, before his brother could say anything. "I'll go, mamma!"
"Ha!" laughed Jimmie Wibblewobble. "I guess I'll go too, Toodle. I could help you carry the cocoanut if you happened to drop it."
"Let's all go!" suggested Noodle. "Because if the cocoanut does fall and break, some one would have to pick up the pieces, and if there were any very little ones it might be better to eat them instead of letting them go to waste. We'll all go!"
So it was decided and the two beaver boys and Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck, started out, Mrs. Flat-tail giving them the money for the cocoanut and also some for a cake of soap. But, of course, a cake of soap is not good to eat.
On and on the boy beavers and the duck went to the store, and soon they reached it. The store was kept by an old beaver gentleman named Skilly-scaly, because he was always weighing things on his scales. But he was no relation to the skillery-scalery alligator, with the humps on his tail.
Toodle and Noodle got what their mamma had sent them for and Toodle said:
"I'll carry the cocoanut; you might drop it, Noodle."
"So might you," said his brother. "We can carry it between us and Jimmie will take the cake of soap. See, we will tie the cocoanut to a long pole and carry it between us."
"That's a good plan," said the little duck boy.
So the round, brown, shaggy cocoanut was fixed up that way and slung on a pole between Toodle and Noodle, who carried it on their shoulders. Jimmie carried the soap on his back, where it would not get wet.
On the way home the beaver boys and the little duck chap came to a new pond of water. It had been built by some new beavers, who raised up a dam at one end, so the water could not run away, for they wanted to have their houses in the water, you see.
"Oh, let's swim across this pond!" cried Noodle.
"I'm with you," said Jimmie, who, being a duck, could swim very well, you know.
Of course, being a duck, Jimmie Wibblewobble could not swim under water as can beaver boys. But for all that Jimmie did very well.
"It won't hurt the cocoanut to get wet," said Toodle. "We can jump in the water and pull it after us like a boat."
"To be sure," said Noodle.
"And I can swim with the soap on my back, so that will not get wet and melt," said Jimmie.
Into the water plunged the three friends, and Toodle and Noodle, pulling the cocoanut between them, watched the big beavers at work, and made up their minds that they would tell their papa and mamma about the new neighbors, so they could pay them a visit.
Well, everything was going along nicely, when, all of a sudden, as Jimmie was swimming close by an old log, he gave a sudden cry.
"Quack! Quack! Quackity-quack!" he yelled. "Oh, dear!"
"Why, what is the matter?" asked Toodle, quickly swimming up close to his friend.
"Oh, something has hold of my leg, down under water," said the duck boy. "I think it is a bad water rat. Oh, dear!"
Jimmie pulled and tugged, trying to get loose, but he could not. He was held fast.
"Quick!" cried Toodle to his brother Noodle. "You swim home and get Grandpa Whackum. He'll know what to do. I'll stay by Jimmie!"
Off swam Noodle for help and Toodle stayed with the duck boy. And then the bad water rat, who had hold of Jimmie's leg under water, began pulling him along to his den beneath the rushes.
"Oh, save me! Save me!" cried poor Jimmie. "The rat is taking me away."
"I'll see if I can save you!" cried Toodle, and down under the water he dived. Surely enough, he saw the bad rat who had hold of Jimmie's leg.
"Let go my friend!" cried Toodle, bravely.
"No, no!" snapped the rat. "I'm going to eat him!" and that rat showed his teeth under water, which made them look very big, and he growled at Toodle so that the little beaver boy was frightened.
Up he came out of the water. He did not know how to save Jimmie, until, all of a sudden, he saw the cake of soap on the duck's back. It had not fallen off, very luckily.
"Ha!" cried Toodle. "I have it. I'll make a lot of soapsuds in the water; it will get in the rat's eyes, and he'll have to let Jimmie go."
No sooner said than done. Holding the cake of soap in his paws, Toodle sozzled it around in the water until he had made a thick lather. Of course, none got in his eyes, or in Jimmie's. But the bad rat's eyes got full of soapsuds, and so did his mouth, and you know how badly soap tastes. So the rat let go of Jimmie's leg and swam off to wash in some clean water, crying:
"Oh, dear! How my eyes hurt! Oh, that Toodle Flat-tail is too smart for me."
And so Toodle saved Jimmie, and when Grandpa Whackum came swimming back with Noodle there was nothing for him to do. So the duck and the beavers swam home together, and Mrs. Flat-tail made a lovely cocoanut cake, without any soap in it, and gave them all some.
And next, if the cork doesn't pop out of the ink bottle and blacken the eye of the needle, when it tries to sew a button on the bean bag, I'll tell you about Noodle helping Uncle Wiggily.