_BED TIME STORIES_
Toodle and Noodle Flat-Tail
(THE JOLLY BEAVER BOYS)
By HOWARD R. GARIS
Author of "SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL," "JOHNNIE AND
BILLIE BUSHYTAIL," "CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL,"
"UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP," "UNCLE WIGGILY'S
ADVENTURES," "UNCLE WIGGILY'S JOURNEY," ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED BY LOUIS WISA_
A. L. BURT COMPANY
Publishers
New York
THE FAMOUS BED TIME STORIES
Books intended for reading aloud to the Little Folk each night. Each
volume contains 8 colored illustrations and 31 stories--one for each
night in the month. Handsomely bound in cloth. Size 6-1/2 by 8-1/4.
BED TIME ANIMAL STORIES
by HOWARD R. GARIS
SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL
JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL
LULU, ALICE AND JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE
JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW WOW
BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG
JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT
CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK
NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL
BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL
NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL
JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL
JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL
CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL
TOODLE AND NOODLE FLAT-TAIL
DOTTIE AND WILLIE LAMBKIN
UNCLE WIGGILY BED TIME STORIES
UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES
UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS
UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE
UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE
UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE
UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP
UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS
UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM
UNCLE WIGGILY'S JOURNEY
For sale at all booksellers, or sent, prepaid, on
receipt of price by the publishers.
A. L. BURT COMPANY,
114-120 East 23 Street
New York City
Copyright, 1919, by
R. F. Fenno & Company
TOODLE AND NOODLE FLAT-TAIL
CONTENTS
I Toodle and Noodle Flat-Tail
II Toodle Cuts a Tree
III Noodle Builds a Dam
IV Toodle and Noodle Dig a Canal
V Grandpa Whackum is Caught
VI Toodle Builds a House
VII How Toodle Saved Noodle
VIII Toodle's and Noodle's Sister
IX Toodle and Noodle Slide Down
X Toodle and Noodle at School
XI How Crackie Broke the Doll
XII Toodle and Noodle Play Indian
XIII Noodle's Long Swim
XIV Toodle's Fire Engine
XV Toodle and Noodle Help Billie
XVI Crackie's Secret
XVII Toodle and the Big Log
XVIII Toodle and the Trap
XIX Toodle Saves Bully
XX Crackie Goes to School
XXI Toodle and His Roller Skates
XXII Noodle and the Pop Corn
XXIII Toodle and Noodle in Trouble
XXIV Toodle and the Chestnuts
XXV Toodle and Noodle on the Ice
XXVI Toodle and Noodle Play Football
XXVII Crackie and Joie Kat
XXVIII Toodle and Jimmie
XXIX Noodle Helps Uncle Wiggily
XXX Toodle, Noodle and Mrs. Bushytail
XXXI Toodle and the Singing Bird
Toodle and Noodle Flat-Tail
STORY I
TOODLE AND NOODLE FLAT-TAIL
Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, when every one was
younger than he is now, but when the sun shone just as brightly and the
wind blew just as sweetly, there lived in a curious little house, built
right in the middle of a pond of water, a family of animals called
beavers. They looked something like Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat
lady who took care of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman,
only these beavers were larger than Nurse Jane, and they had long,
broad, flat tails, which they could fold up under themselves and sit
on, just like a stool. That's why I have named them "Flat-tail," and
I'm going to tell you some stories about these beavers, who are really
very wonderful animals. They are covered with soft fur.
In the Flat-tail family there was, of course, Mamma and Papa Flat-tail,
and there was also dear old Grandpa Whackum. Grandpa had such a funny
name, not because he was fond of whacking the little beavers, but
because, when there was any danger, the old gentleman beaver would
whack or pound his broad, flat tail on the ground two or three times.
That made a sound like a drum, and whenever the other beavers heard it
they would rush for the pond, dive down in it, swim to the front door
of their house, the door being under water, and, once inside, they
would be safe. So that is why the oldest beaver of them all was called
Grandpa Whackum.
Well, then, to begin on the story--
Oh, dear me! I beg your pardon. I'm forgetting the most important part.
Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, to be sure! Toodle and Noodle were the two
small boy beavers of the family, and without them and the funny things
they did, and dangers they got into, and out of again, there would be
very few stories to tell. Toodle wore a spotted suit of clothes, and
Noodle one that was striped. Now you can tell who is which.
Now, then, to start all over again.
Toodle Flat-tail, the little boy-beaver, came out of the under-water
door of his home one day, dived down under the pond, holding his breath
so the water would not get in his nose, and swam to shore. Then he sat
up on his broad, flat tail and looked back toward his house.
"I wonder where Noodle is?" spoke Toodle, as he turned his head from
side to side. "He said he'd come right out and play. What can be
keeping him?"
But Noodle, the brother of Toodle, was not in sight.
There were other beaver children, and some grown-up ones, to be seen
about the pond. Some were putting mud-plaster on their houses, others
were cutting down trees with their four strong, orange-colored front
teeth, and the nice green bark of these trees would be eaten by the
beavers during the long, cold winter. But Noodle Flat-tail was not with
the others.
"I guess he must be playing a trick on me," said Toodle, as he picked
up a piece of a birch twig in his front paw and began chewing the soft
bark. A beaver's front paw, you know, is almost like a monkey's, and he
can hold things in it almost as well as you can in your hand. His hind
feet, though, are made for swimming and are webbed like a duck's.
All of a sudden Toodle felt some one pushing him from behind, and
before he knew what had happened he went kerflop! off the little hill
on which he was sitting, into the water.
"Wow!" cried Toodle. "Who did that, I wonder? If it was a bad fox, or a
lynx, or some animal that wants to eat me, I'd better stay under water,
or go back home."
But Toodle Flat-tail was a brave little chap and he wanted to see who
it was that had pushed him into the water. So he swam around a little,
and then he carefully stuck his nose up, and then his eyes, and then,
sitting in the same place where he had been sitting, he saw his brother
Noodle. Noodle was laughing as hard as he could laugh.
"Oh, ho! So it was you who pushed me in, eh?" cried Toodle. "Well, I'll
fix you for that!"
Out of the water he came with a rush and raced after Noodle. But Noodle
waddled away and soon the two little beaver boys were having a regular
game of tag.
Finally Toodle caught Noodle and pushed him into the water. But do you
s'pose Noodle minded that? Not a bit of it, for he was more at home
in the water than on land. In fact beavers have to go quite slowly on
land, and they walk with a waddle like a duck, but in the water they
can swim so fast that scarcely anything can catch them.
Toodle and Noodle splashed each other about in the pond, throwing water
all over themselves, wrestling, playing tag and hide-and-go-seek, and
when they were tired they climbed out on the bank and rested.
They looked at the other beavers working away. Some of the older ones
were mending a hole in the dam. The beaver dam, you know, is just like
a time when it rains and the gutter in front of your house fills with
water. Then if your mamma lets you, you take some sticks and stones and
mud, and pile it in the gutter so the water can't run down. This is
called a dam, and it holds back the water, making it deeper back of the
dam and shallow in front.
Beavers do the same thing. They build a dam across a little brook, so
as to make a deep pond, for beavers have to have deep water to live in,
and build their houses in; and in this pond, back of the dam, they also
keep their food for the winter, big pieces of trees with soft bark on.
The beaver dam is made of tree trunks and branches, sticks, mud, grass,
stones--in fact, anything the beavers can get. When the dam breaks all
the beavers work together to mend it.
So Toodle and Noodle watched their papa and mamma and the other big
beaver folk mending the hole in the dam. A bad bear had clawed the
hole there, hoping that all the water would run out of the pond so he
could catch and eat the beavers. But the bear's plan did not work, I'm
glad to say.
"I hope I didn't hurt you when I crawled up behind you and pushed you
in the water," said Noodle to his brother most politely.
"Oh, no," said Toodle. "I liked it. First, though, I thought it was a
fox after me."
"Ho! If it had been a fox!" exclaimed Noodle, "I guess you would have
heard Grandpa Whackum pounding on the ground with his big tail to tell
us there was danger."
"Yes, I guess we would," said Toodle. "Oh, Noodle!" he cried suddenly,
"let's go over where those nice, juicy aspen trees grow, and get some
bark off them. I'm just hungry for an aspen-bark ice cream cone."
"But papa said we weren't to go there without him," objected Noodle.
"You know he said there was an old wolf not far from there, and he
might get us."
"Oh, I don't believe there is any danger just now," said Toodle. "It's
daylight. Besides, Grandpa Whackum can see that far and he'll bang with
his tail if there's any danger. Come on!"
So the two little beaver boys went over to where some aspen and willow
trees grew, though it was not just exactly right. They swam through the
water and then came out and waddled over the land. Soon they were in
the grove of trees.
"You take a willow tree and I'll take an aspen," said Toodle, "and
after we each cut off a nice piece with the juicy bark on we'll take
them home and divide them."
So, sitting up on their big tails, which were like stools to them, the
little beaver boys began to gnaw away. A beaver's gnawing teeth are
as good to cut with as a carpenter's chisel. There are four gnawing
teeth, and the funny part of it is that they are colored yellow, like
an orange.
Well, Toodle and Noodle were gnawing away, and they had almost cut down
two little trees when, all of a sudden they heard:
"Whack! Whack! Thud! Thud!"
"Hark! What's that?" cried Toodle.
"It's Grandpa Whackum, telling us there's danger!" shouted Noodle.
"Run, Toodle! Run!"
Away they ran for the water, and only just in time, for the bad old
wolf sprang after them. But he did not get either of them, for Toodle
and Noodle slipped into the water just in time and swam safely home.
From where he was working Grandpa Whackum had seen the wolf stealing up
on the two little chaps and had warned them. So the wolf didn't have a
beaver dinner that day, and Papa Flat-tail made Toodle and Noodle stay
in the house the rest of the afternoon for not minding him.
But they were not always like that, and so in the next story, if the
stove poker doesn't take the teakettle out to the moving picture show,
I'll tell you about Toodle Flat-tail cutting down a tree.
STORY II
TOODLE CUTS A TREE
"Hey, Toodle, wake up! Wake up!" called Noodle Flat-tail, the little
beaver boy, to his brother one morning. "Wake up! Breakfast is ready!"
Toodle turned over on the bed of white birch chips in the beaver house
that was built in the middle of the pond of water, and said, sleepily:
"Oh, please let me alone, Noodle. I don't want to open my eyes yet. Let
me sleep!"
"But don't you know what we're going to do today?" asked Noodle. "Have
you forgotten what papa said?"
"Oh, it is a picnic? Are we going on a picnic?" asked Toodle, and this
time he sat up on his tail and rubbed the sleepy feeling out of his
eyes with his handlike paws.
"No, it isn't exactly a picnic," answered Noodle, as he combed out his
fur with his hind claws so as to be nice and neat for breakfast. "But
papa said he'd show us how to cut down a big tree today. Don't you want
to learn how to do that?"
"Indeed I do!" cried Toodle, and he rolled from his bed in such a
hurry that he nearly fell out of the front door, which led into the
water. In that case Toodle would have had a swim before breakfast.
Not that he would have minded that much, for, like all beavers, he
loved being in the water just as much as being on land. In fact,
beavers, when they wear any clothes at all, as they have to, in stories
of course, wear a kind that water cannot hurt--sort of rubber garments,
you know.
"Oh, goodie!" cried Toodle. "That's what I want to do--cut down a
tree," and he opened his mouth and felt his four sharp, orange-colored
front teeth that were purposely made for gnawing. They were always
sharp, too, and made in such a way that when they grew dull they
sharpened themselves. No scissors-grinder ever had to come to the
beaver colony to sharpen their teeth. Nature did that for the queer
animals.
"Let's see who'll be first at breakfast," cried Noodle, and then he and
his brother washed their paws and faces, brushed some dirt off their
broad, flat tails, combed out their fur until it shone like Grandfather
Goosey Gander's silk hat, and went into the dining-room, where Mamma
Flat-tail was getting breakfast for her husband and for Grandpa
Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all.
"Good morning, Toodle and Noodle," said their papa, as he helped
himself to some willow bark pancakes, flavored with water-lily root
sauce. "You are a little late this morning, and if you are going to be
working beavers, and learn how to cut down trees, you must get around
earlier than this."
"I should say so!" exclaimed Grandpa Whackum, as he spread some
watercress butter on his piece of birch bark bread. "Why, when I was a
boy I used to get up before breakfast every morning, and cut down two
or three trees. Then I'd float them down the canal to the dam we were
building."
"Well, anyhow, we got up before breakfast," said Toodle, winking at his
brother.
"Yes, but you haven't chopped even a tooth-pick," laughed their mamma.
"What's a canal, Grandpa?" asked Noodle, who wanted to learn all he
could about beaver work.
"Oh, it's like a little stream of water, or a brook," said the old
gentleman beaver, "only it's deeper, and we have to make it ourselves.
We cut through the dirt and grass and take out the stones, and make a
place for the water to run from one pond to another. Then we can float
our logs through the canal, just as you boys play float your toy ships."
"I see," said Noodle, and he made up his mind he would soon dig a canal.
Well, the two little beaver boys ate their breakfast, and then got
ready to go with their papa who was to give them their first lesson in
cutting down a tree. Grandpa Whackum, who, as I told you before, used
to whack on the ground with his tail to give warning of danger, went
along also.
Mrs. Flat-tail stayed home to do the dishes in her kitchen. Of course,
not all beaver families have a house with as many rooms in it as the
Flat-tails had. But then Mr. and Mrs. Flat-tail were quite rich. Most
beavers have only one room in their house.
So Mr. Flat-tail, the two boys, Toodle and Noodle, and Grandpa Whackum
swam out of the front door of the water-house and across the pond to a
little wood where some sweet willow trees grew. This was near the place
where the wolf had nearly caught the two boy beavers the day before,
as I told you in the first story. But now, with their papa and grandpa
beavers to look after them, Toodle and Noodle were not afraid.
"Now, Toodle," said Mr. Flat-tail, when they had come out of the water
and were all waddling along on land, "I'll give you a lesson in
tree-cutting first. Then I'll show Noodle. Meanwhile, Noodle, you can
go with Grandpa Whackum and get some fresh aspen bark for dinner."
So Grandpa Whackum and Noodle went off to another place, while Papa
Flat-tail began to give Toodle his first lesson.
"We'll cut this tree," said Mr. Flat-tail, as he put his paw on one
that was about as big around as a clothes post in your yard.
"Oh. I never can cut down such a big tree," said Toodle. "It would take
me a week."
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mr. Flat-tail. "You don't know what you can do
until you try. Now get a good seat on your tail and reach up with your
four sharp front teeth and bite into the tree. Pull off the slivers and
chips, and soon you will have cut through the trunk and the tree will
fall."
"Gracious!" cried Toodle, "I hope it doesn't fall on me. It's no fun to
have a tree fall on you."
"Of course not," laughed Mr. Flat-tail. "But that is what you must look
out for, Toodle. Don't let the tree fall on you, or on any one else.
And when you see that it is just ready to topple over, whack on the
ground with your tail, just as your grandpa does. That will tell every
one else around you to get out of the way. And another thing. Always
pick out a tree that won't fall on top of another and get all tangled
up, so it can't be moved."
"Will this tree do that?" asked Toodle, looking up into the top of the
tree his papa wanted him to cut down.
"No," said Mr. Flat-tail, "it will not. Begin now, Toodle. This tree
will fall just right."
Toodle thought he could never cut down such a large tree, but then he
was a brave little beaver boy, and he was not going to give up without
trying. So, sitting on his big, thick, broad tail, which, as I have
told you is like a stool, he began. Into the soft wood he sank his
sharp orange-colored front teeth, and soon the bark and chips began to
fly, just as they do when a woodman cuts a log.
Mr. Flat-tail saw that his little son was learning his lesson well, so
he said:
"Now, Toodle, I'll go over here and cut down a large tree by myself.
But don't forget what I told you about whacking your tail on the ground
just before your tree falls."
"I won't," promised Toodle.
Well, he was cutting and cutting away with his teeth, and then he began
to think what fun he and his brother would have that afternoon, playing
water-tag.
And Toodle was thinking so much about the fun that he forgot all about
what his papa had told him. All of a sudden he heard a sound he knew
well.
"Whack! Whack! Thud! Thud!" echoed through the woods.
"That's Grandpa Whackum!" exclaimed Toodle. "Good gracious sakes alive!
There must be some danger. I must run!"
Poor Toodle started to run, but alas he was not quick enough. Down
crashed the tree he had been cutting, and one limb struck him on the
back, pinning him fast to the ground. Poor Toodle could not move. It
was just as though he had been caught in a trap.
"Oh, dear!" he cried. "Oh, dear! My tree fell on me!"
And had it not been that Grandpa Whackum and Papa Flat-tail were there
in the woods Toodle might never have gotten loose. But the two old
beaver gentlemen soon came up and gnawed through the tree branches so
Toodle could get up. His brother Noodle helped, too.
"Why didn't you watch out to see when your tree was going to fall?"
asked Papa Flat-tail when they were on their way home again.
"I--I forgot," said Toodle, sort of ashamed-like.
"Well, if I hadn't seen it falling, and whacked on the ground with my
tail," said his grandpa, "you might have been killed. Be more careful
after this."
Toodle said he would, and he was quite proud after all that he had cut
down a tree all by himself. Then they all swam home.
And on the next page, if the shoe horn doesn't blow so loudly that it
wakes up the rubber doll in the puppy dog's hammock, I'll tell you
about Noodle building a dam.
STORY III
NOODLE BUILDS A DAM
Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, was so lame and sore from
having been caught under the tree he was gnawing down, as I told you in
the story before this, that the day afterward he could not leave the
house in the pond to go out and play.
"Cutting down trees is more dangerous than I thought it was," said
Toodle when Dr. Possum came to put some sassafras liniment on his sore
places.
"Indeed it is," said Dr. Possum. "I can climb trees very well, and hang
on by my tail, but I never tried cutting one down. I don't believe I
could do it. Though often I have heard of hunters, who when they are
after friends of mine, cut down trees to get them out."
"How dreadful!" exclaimed Mrs. Flat-tail who was baking some
apple-bread for dinner. "But, Dr. Possum, do you think Toodle will have
to stay in the house long?"
"Well, maybe two or three days more," said the old gentleman doctor.
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady. "Boys are so
troublesome when they are in the house!"
And I guess this is so. Anyhow Noodle, who was the brother of Toodle,
stayed in to play with him, and the two of them frisked around and got
up all sorts of games, and nearly upset the piano and did all things
like that. At least Noodle did, for Toodle was too sore and stiff to
do much. But Noodle was trying to amuse his sick brother you see, and
really he did not mean to make trouble.
"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Dr. Possum, as he closed up his
birch bark satchel filled with all sorts of colored medicines. "On my
way back home I'll stop and tell Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat
lady, to come over and take care of Toodle. Then Noodle can go out and
play, and your house will be quiet, Mrs. Flat-tail."
"Oh, that will be fine!" exclaimed the beaver lady, and Toodle said the
same thing.
Noodle said he would be very glad to go out and play, for though he did
not much mind staying in the house to amuse his brother, still he would
much rather have gone out, to swim around in the pond, play on top of
the big dam, that made the beaver pond, or even cut down a little tree
so he could gnaw the green, sweet bark.
So Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy came from Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump
bungalow, and she read stories to Toodle and told him how she could
swim under water, almost as well as the beavers could, and how she
could make a fiddle out of a cornstalk and play a tune on it. And she
did, and it was such a nice, sleepy sort of tune, all about going to
by-low land, that, before he knew it, Toodle was fast, fast asleep, and
the house was quiet.
But what happened to Noodle? Ah, ha! We must find out about that before
we go much further. For Noodle had made up his mind to do something,
and when he did that something almost always happened.
As Noodle did not have to stay in the house any more to play with his
little sick brother, he dived down through the front door, which was
under water, so no bad animals could get in, and out the little beaver
boy swam into the pond. This pond was made by a big dam being built
across the lower end, to keep the water from running away, as I have
told you, and in this pond were many beaver houses, built of sticks,
mud, grass, stones and pieces of trees.
On the dam, which was wide enough on the top for several beavers to
walk, there were a number of the animal folk talking, laughing and
doing different things.
Some were gnawing pieces of tender bark, which they had stripped off
the aspen or willow trees. Others were carrying in their front paws
mud or sticks to mend holes in the roofs of their houses. Some beaver
children were playing tag and pushing each other into the water.
"I wish I could make a dam," thought Noodle. "I would like to make a
little one and have a pond of water all to myself. Then I'd build a
house in it, and when Toodle gets well he and I can have lots of fun in
it. I think that's what I'll do. I'll build a dam and have a toy beaver
pond just for us boys."
The more Noodle thought of this the better he liked it, so he swam off
up the big pond until he came to a place in the woods where a little
brook ran along over the green stones, singing a pretty song all to
itself.
"Here is where I will make my dam," said Noodle.
He remembered how his papa had told him to do it--to cut down little
trees, pile them across the brook, then how to pile sticks and stones
and mud and grass against the trees until the water could not trickle
through. Then it would stop running and there would be a pond, just as
the children make one in the gutter after a rain storm.
Noodle was soon a very busy little beaver boy. But he was careful only
to gnaw down small trees, so that even if they fell on him before he
could get out of the way he would not be caught or hurt, as his brother
had been. Soon he had quite a pile of wood, and then, pulling it in his
strong teeth or paws, he piled it across the brook. Then he carried
sticks and stones and grass until he had made a fine little dam.
Of course it wasn't as large as the big dam, nor made so well, but
really it was quite good for a small beaver boy, and Noodle was quite
proud of it. The water back of the dam got deeper, and soon there was
enough of it for Noodle to swim in. And how he could swim!
He could dive, and float on his back, and stay under water so long that
it is a wonder how he could hold his breath. With his strong hind paws,
and sometimes by using his tail like the propeller on a steamboat,
Noodle went back and forth across the pond he had made by building the
dam.
"Now I'll begin the play-house," thought the little beaver boy. "I
can't finish it today, but when Toodle gets well he can help me."
So Noodle began. He gathered a lot of sticks and pushed them down in
the mud of his pond. Then he got more and arranged them around in a
pile, plastering them with mud he dug up from the bottom, under the
water. This mud he carried in his front paws, walking on his hind ones
like a bear in the circus.
Soon the play-house began to look almost like the real ones beavers
make. And while Noodle was taking a rest and glancing from side to side
to see that there was no danger, all of a sudden, out from the woods
sprang a bad old fox. He made a run for Noodle, and almost caught him,
but the little beaver boy, thudding on the ground with his tail, to
warn others who might be near of the danger, gave a jump into the water
and dived down under it.
"I'll fool that fox!" thought Noodle. "I'll just swim along and stay
under water until he goes away."
So he stayed under, but after a while he wanted to get some air to
breathe, and of course he had to come up. And, as it happened, he came
up near shore where the fox was waiting for him.
"Ah ha! I have you!" cried the fox, and he made a grab for Noodle. But
Noodle dived under water again. The fox didn't dare go in water, you
know, for he couldn't swim as well as Noodle.
"I fooled him again," thought the little beaver boy. "I guess he must
be gone by this time, and I can come out." Noodle had to come up for
another breath of air, but no sooner was his nose out of the water than
the fox, who had been watching, made another grab for him, and Noodle
only got a sniff of air.
"No you don't get me!" cried Noodle, and down he went again. But he
was getting tired, and out of breath, and I don't know what would have
happened if Grandpa Whackum, the old gentleman beaver, hadn't come
along just then. He saw what the trouble was, and the danger Noodle was
in. So Grandpa Whackum gathered up a big ball of mud on the end of his
tail, and, when that fox was making another grab for Noodle, Grandpa
Whackum threw the mud in the eyes of the fox.
"Oh, wow!" cried the fox, and then he couldn't see (not even with his
glasses on) to bite Noodle, so the little beaver boy got safely away,
and so did Grandpa Whackum, and all the fox had to eat that day was
peanut shells. But it served him right, I think.
So that's how Noodle built a dam, and what happened afterward, and
next, in case the man in the moon doesn't come down and take my straw
hat to play ball with, I'll tell you about Toodle and Noodle in the
canal.
STORY IV
TOODLE AND NOODLE DIG A CANAL
"Come, boys," said Mrs. Flat-tail to Toodle and Noodle, the little
beaver chaps, one morning when they were swimming around the house in
the pond, playing tag; "come boys, I want you to go to the store for
me."
Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, had swam out of the front door of her
house, and was sitting up on the roof, looking to see if there were any
holes there where the snow might come in during the winter. She saw a
small one, and made up her mind that her husband or Grandpa Whackum,
would have to plaster that hole up with mud before cold weather set in.
"What do you want from the store, mamma?" asked Toodle, as he dived
down under the water, and began swimming toward his brother, who had
his back turned. Toodle was going to tickle the other little beaver
boy, and make believe it was a water snake that had done it.
"Well, if you'll keep still long enough for me to tell you what I want,
I'll do so, and give you the green-leaf money to get it," said Mrs.
Flat-tail, laughing, for she loved to see her two boys play in the
water.
Up came Toodle from the bottom of the pond, where he had dived--up he
shot, right under Noodle, and he upset Noodle, who went toppling head
over tail, and then the two beaver boys splashed around in the water
and had a lot of fun. Oh, it's great to be a beaver, I tell you!
"Well, are you done playing?" asked Mrs. Flat-tail, after a while.
"If you are I'd like to have you get me some cat-tail flour and some
candied cocoanut from the store. I'm going to make a cake!"
"Oh, goodie!" cried Noodle. "I'm going to carry the cocoanut!"
"No, I am!" said his brother. "You might eat some on the way home."
"Huh! You mean you would yourself," cried Noodle.
"Well," said their mamma, "I'll give you a basket with a water-proof
rubber cloth on it, so you can dive down under the water with the
things in it if you have to, and then you won't get them wet. So you
may each carry half the basket with the cocoanut in it."
Toodle and Noodle thought this a good plan, and soon they were swimming
on toward the store, which was kept by a nice old water rat, and the
store was in an old rowboat that no one wanted any more. Mr. Rat had
stuffed up the holes in it with cheese, and it did very well for a
grocery.
There were two troubles with it, however. One was that often Mr. Rat
got hungry and then he would graw some of the cheese out of the holes.
That would make the boat leak, and the grocery store got wet. The other
trouble, which was almost quite as bad, was that the boat would float
away all over the beaver pond, and when you started out to find it you
could never tell just where it was going to be, whether at one end of
the pond or the other. So going to the store was not as easy as might
seem, but still no one minded much.
But this time Noodle and Toodle were quite lucky. They soon found
the floating boat store, and bought what their mamma had sent them
for, putting the things in the basket and covering them up with the
water-proof cloth so as to keep them dry.
"Now let's see how quickly we can go home," said Noodle.
"All right," agreed Toodle. "The sooner we get home the quicker mamma
can bake the cake and--" Then he stopped and laughed. So did Noodle.
"I know what you're thinking of," said Toodle, blinking his eyes.
"What?" asked Noodle.
"You're thinking that maybe we'll get some of the cake," spoke his
brother, and truly, that was right. Oh, those beaver boys were just
like you real children! Indeed they were.
So, carrying the basket, with the candy cocoanut for the cake, between
them, Toodle and Noodle swam away from Mr. Rat's floating boat store.
Then they had to get out on dry land, for this pond did not go all the
way to the pond where the Flat-tail house was built.
"Now we must be very careful," said Toodle, as he and his brother
crawled out on shore. "Look carefully around for danger, Noodle, for
you know we can't go as fast on the land as we can in the water, and
something may catch us. So if you see a fox, or a wolf, or a bear, bang
your tail on the ground as Grandpa Whackum does, and we'll both run."
Of course, Noodle said he would, but for some time the two little
beaver boys went on together and saw nothing to alarm them. Then, all
at once, when they were almost to the pond where they lived, and were
ready to plunge in it and swim home, they saw a big, savage lynx on
the path ahead of them. A lynx is like a wolf, only worse, and he has
sofa-cushion tassles on the tips of his ears, so you can always tell
him when you see him. In a picture, I mean, not real. I wouldn't want
you to meet a real lynx.
"Oh, the lynx!" whispered Noodle. "He'll get us sure if we don't look
out! Let's go back to Mr. Rat's pond."
"No, wait until I bang the ground with my tail," said Toodle. "Maybe
papa or Grandpa Whackum will hear it and come to help us."
"No, don't make a noise with your tail now," said Noodle, "or the lynx
will hear it and come for us."
"Then let's run," suggested Toodle. "We'll go back to the other pond."
"I'm afraid if we do that the lynx will see us, and chase after us,"
spoke Noodle. "Oh, dear!"
"Then what can we do?" asked his brother in a whisper.
"Dig a canal," was the answer. "Listen! We are not far from our own
pond. If we can dig a canal from here to there we can walk down in it,
for it will be like a ditch without any water in it, and the lynx won't
see us. Then we can run along and when we get to our pond we can easily
swim home."
"That's what we'll do!" cried the other beaver. So keeping down low
in the grass, where the lynx would not see them, they began digging a
ditch. With their strong claws Toodle and Noodle could easily do this,
for they had often watched the older beavers doing it. They wished
there was water at the place where they had begun to dig, for that
would have made it easier for them, but it could not be helped. They
hid the grocery basket under a bush in the grass as they began to dig.
My! how the dirt did fly! The two little beaver boys worked very hard,
for they wanted to get away from that lynx. As for that bad animal,
there he lay in the sun, just wishing some fat beaver, or some other
poor chap, would come along to be eaten.
Pretty soon Toodle said:
"I think we're near our pond now, Noodle."
"I think so, too," whispered Noodle. "Soon the water will rush into
our canal and we will be safe. Then we can tell papa and he'll get the
basket of groceries."
The beaver boys dug a little more and then, all of a sudden, with a
rush, the canal filled with water, and Toodle and Noodle were swimming.
This was just what they wanted.
Then something happened. All at once a lot of beavers came paddling
down the new canal Toodle and Noodle had made, and among them was
Grandpa Whackum.
"Oh, ho!" cried the old gentleman beaver. "Look here! What's this? Who
dug this canal?"
"We did," answered Toodle proudly. "Noodle and I dug it to get away
from the lynx. Isn't it a good one?"
"The canal is all right," said Grandpa Whackum, with a laugh, as
he splashed water with his broad tail, "but you made your canal so
low down that all the water is running out of our pond into it. We
will have no water left if we don't stop up your canal, boys. Hurry,
friends!" cried Grandpa Whackum to the other beavers. "Make a dam
across the boys' canal and that will keep the water in our pond. It
won't all run out then."
So the beavers did this, bringing mud and sticks and grass for a dam,
and soon the canal was dry again, and the beaver pond stopped running
out. Then the big beavers stole softly up to where that lynx was and
they threw stones at him until he was glad enough to run home.
Then Grandpa Whackum got the basket of cocoanut and flour which Toodle
and Noodle had hid in the grass and brought it home, so Mrs. Flat-tail
could make a cake. She did, and the two beaver boys each had a large
piece.
So that's all now, but in case the baker man doesn't let his cake of
ice roll over our lawn and spoil the watering can, I'll tell you next
about Grandpa Whackum being caught.
STORY V
GRANDPA WHACKUM IS CAUGHT
"Come, boys!" called Grandpa Whackum, the old gentleman beaver, to
Toodle and Noodle, the little beaver boys, as they awoke one morning in
their mud and stick house in the pond. "We must be off early today for
we have a great deal to do."
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Toodle. "I was going to play ball with Bully
No-tail, the green frog, this morning."
"And I was going to play tag on the flat lily pad leaves with Bawly,
his brother," spoke Noodle. "What do we have to do, grandpa?"
"I am going to show you how to dig a canal," answered the old gentleman
beaver.
Toodle looked at Noodle, and Noodle looked at Toodle. Then they both
looked sort of ashamed-like.
"Do you mean a canal like the one we dug the other day, when we wanted
to get away from the bad lynx?" asked Noodle, brushing a mosquito off
his ear.
"No," answered Grandpa Whackum with a laugh, as he got up from where
he was sitting on his tail. "You dug that canal all right, only you
didn't look where it was going to end, and you nearly let all the water
from our pond run away through it. No, I'll show you how to make a
canal just right."
You remember I told you how, when Toodle and Noodle went to the store
for their mamma, they had to dig a canal to get away from a bad animal.
"Well, I guess then we'd better go with you," said Toodle, "for we must
learn how to make canals in the right way. Sometimes we might want to
get away from a bear by swimming in one of them."
"That's so," agreed Noodle. So he and his brother gave up the idea of
playing ball or tag, and off they set with their grandpa, who was the
oldest beaver in all the beaver colony, or city, and the wisest and
strongest.
"You'll have plenty of time to play after you practice your
canal-digging lesson," went on the old gentleman. "Come along, we're
going over to the aspen tree grove."
"Hadn't we better take along some sandwiches, or maybe an ice cream
cone to eat," suggested Toodle. "We've just had our breakfast, I know,"
he added as he saw his mamma looking at him, "but we may be gone a long
while."
"Oh, there will be plenty to eat where we are going boys," said
Grandpa Whackum, with a laugh and a whistle through his big,
orange-colored front teeth. "There are sweet aspen trees there, and
willows with nice, thick, juicy bark--indeed, you'll not get hungry,
even though you don't have an ice cream cone. Come along."
So off the old gentleman beaver went, with Toodle and Noodle frisking
on ahead. Mr. Flat-tail, their papa, stayed home to plaster with mud a
hole his wife had found on the roof of the house in the pond. It would
never do to have a hole there, for a bad water rat might easily scratch
it larger, and some night, when Toodle and Noodle were asleep he might
sneak in and bite them. No, indeed!
As Grandpa Whackum and the two boys swam along the pond, and then
went out on dry land to waddle for a short distance, Toodle suddenly
exclaimed:
"Why, I know where this is!"
"Where?" asked his brother Noodle.
"It's the same place where I had my first lesson in cutting down a
tree!" cried the little beaver boy. "That time I was caught under it,
you know."
"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Noodle. "Is that where we are going, Grandpa
Whackum?"
"The very place," said the old beaver gentleman, as he kindly stopped
to allow a toad that accidentally sat on his tail to hop off. "And,
boys, we are going to dig a canal so we can float down through it, on
the water that will run in, the very tree Toodle cut down. That tree is
good to eat, Toodle, my boy," went on Grandpa Whackum, "and it will be
very good this winter."
"Oh, fine!" cried Toodle, and he was very glad that he could be of some
use to the other beavers, even if it was only in cutting down one tree
for use as food.
"I wish I could cut down a tree!" exclaimed Noodle.
"Well, you can soon," promised his grandpa. "But now I need you both
to help dig the canal. We will soon begin. Here is a little brook that
runs into our pond. Now if we dig a sort of ditch from this brook to
where Toodle's tree is, we can float it right to our house, and that's
what we'll do."
Soon the work of digging the canal was started. The old gentleman
beaver and Toodle and Noodle used their sharp claws to loosen the
earth. Then they would carry it off to one side, either holding it in
their front paws, which were like hands, or by taking a lot of it on
their tail, and holding their tail close to their body so the dirt
would not slip off. In this way they soon had quite a ditch dug, and
when the water from the little brook ran in it would be a canal.
"You boys are doing very well," said Grandpa Whackum, after a bit. "I
think I will leave you for a little while and go off in the wood to see
if there are any more good trees to cut down for winter. If there are
I'll show Noodle, tomorrow, how to cut them. While I'm gone you boys
can finish the canal."
So Grandpa Whackum, washing the mud from his tail, went off in the
aspen grove, and Toodle and Noodle worked harder than ever on the
canal. Soon it was dug all the way to where lay the tree Toodle had cut
down.
"Now let's rest," suggested Noodle. "When Grandpa comes back he'll show
us how to cut down the little wall of dirt that is between the brook
and our canal, and that will let in the water. Then we can float the
tree home."
"And while we're waiting let's eat," suggested his brother. So they
gnawed off some sweet willow bark, which is as good to them as are
lollypops or popcorn candies to you children.
Toodle and Noodle were just finishing their little bark lunch, when,
all of a sudden, they heard a voice calling:
"Help! Help! Help!"
"Hark! Who's that?" asked Toodle.
Then they heard a whistle and the sound:
"Whack! Whack! Thud-ud-dud!"
"That's Grandpa Whackum!" cried Noodle. "He must be in trouble!"
"Help! Oh, boys, come and help me!" they heard the old beaver gentleman
calling. "I'm caught in a trap!"
Toodle and Noodle rushed as fast as they could toward where they heard
the sounds. All the while the old beaver gentleman was thumping his
flat tail on the ground, to tell his little grandsons how to reach him.
Pretty soon they came to where he was, and there poor Grandpa Whackum
stood, caught fast by his hind leg in a wooden trap.
"Oh, boys!" he cried. "Hurry and get me out! I was walking along,
looking up at the trees to make sure which were the best to cut, when I
stepped into this trap. It has snapped shut on my paw, and I can't turn
around to gnaw myself loose! Can you do it for me?"
"Of course we can!" cried Toodle bravely.
"Right away, quick!" cried Noodle.
Then with their orange-colored front teeth those beaver boys gnawed and
gnawed on the wooden trap until they had gnawed it all to pieces and
their grandpa could come out. He was not much hurt, I'm glad to say.
And the hunter who set the trap, thinking to catch a beaver, was much
disappointed that night, I guess.
"It was very foolish of me not to look where I was going," said Grandpa
Whackum, a few days later as he rubbed some witch hazel leaves on his
sore paw, which was nearly well now. "I'll never get caught again, and
I hope you boys will not, either. How is the canal coming on?"
"It is all done," said Toodle.
"Good!" cried Grandpa Whackum. Then he went with the two beaver boys
to where they had dug. With a few strokes of his strong claws the old
gentleman soon tore down the last bit of the earth, and that let the
water into the canal. It was filled very shortly, and then the three
beavers rolled into it the tree which Toodle had cut down.
"Now, sit on the log," said Grandpa Whackum. "Hold up your broad, flat
tails for sails and we'll ride home." And they did, as nicely as you
please, and every one was glad to see them.
So that's how Toodle and Noodle dug a canal and how Grandpa Whackum was
caught and got out again. And on the next page, if I don't lose all
my money, so I have to walk down town instead of going on my roller
skates, I'll tell you about Toodle making a house.
STORY VI
TOODLE BUILDS A HOUSE
"Hurray!" cried Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, as he hopped
out of his clean shavings bed one morning, and tickled his brother
Toodle with a turkey feather. "Hurray! no school today!"
"That's so," spoke Toodle, rubbing the sleepy feeling from his eyes so
he could look out of the window and see if the sun was up yet. As it
was quite high in the sky, it shone, making the beaver pond sparkle
like silver.
Most beaver houses have no windows, and they are all dark inside, but
the one where Toodle and Noodle lived had several windows in it, for
Mr. Flat-tail was a very rich beaver.
Besides there was Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all, and
he helped make the windows. So if some of you children have seen real
beaver houses, and have never noticed the windows, don't say they never
have any. Because this Flat-tail family of beavers was different from
those you may know.
"Well, I guess we may as well get up," said Toodle, when he saw how
high the sun was. "And I'm glad it's Saturday, so we don't have to go
to school."
I believe I forgot to tell you that Toodle and Noodle went to school
just the same as any animal children do, and later on in these stories
I'm going to tell you some of the things they did there.
"Yes, we can have a lot of fun," spoke Noodle. "Bully No-tail, the
frog, is going to have a ball game, with the broad lily pad leaves for
bases, and you and I can play."
"Good!" cried Toodle.
So the two little beaver boys hurried down to their breakfast of
willow bark oatmeal with frizzled watercress pancakes, and soon they
had dived down through the water, in their rubber cloth suits, out of
the front door, and across the pond they swam.
Down on the beaver dam, which was built to keep the water from running
out of the pond where the animal folk lived, were a number of the
grown-up beavers, and they were very busy. They were bringing mud and
sticks and stones and grass in their paws, and putting it in a pile
near where Grandpa Whackum stood on his hind legs sitting on his tail
for a stool.
"That's right!" the old gentleman beaver was saying. "Hurry now,
everybody, bring a lot of mud and plaster it over the hole. Hurry,
everybody!"
"What's the matter?" asked Noodle. "Is there a fire?"
"No, but in the night a bad bear tore a hole in our dam, to let all the
water out of our pond, so he could tear open our houses and get us,"
said a policeman beaver, who was sitting on top of the police station,
looking out for danger. And when he saw any he was ready to whack his
tail on the water, making a noise like a fire-cracker. When the other
beavers heard this they would all run and hide.
"A bear; eh?" exclaimed Toodle. "Wow!"
"Yes, and you boys must be careful where you play today," said Grandpa
Whackum, as he showed the other beavers how to mend the hole the bear
had torn in the dam. "I can't be with you to look out for danger."
"Oh, we'll be careful," said Noodle, sort of easy-like, as all boys are.
They watched the mending of the dam for a little while, and then they
went on to play ball with Bully, the frog, Jimmie Wibblewobble, the
duck, and some other of their animal friends.
Well, this story isn't about the ball game, though I will tell you one
like that some time. But now I must relate what happened when Toodle
built his play-house. So I'll just say that there was lots of fun at
the ball game, and that Noodle's side won.
Soon after that Noodle had to go to the store for his mamma, and as
Toodle did not want to go along he stayed home.
"But I would like to have some fun," said this little beaver boy to
himself, "so I guess I'll build a play-house. Then, when Noodle comes
back it will be a surprise to him and he and I can stay in it, and play
soldier, and Indians, and all things like that."
So Toodle began to build his house. Perhaps if Grandpa Whackum, or his
papa, or some of the older beavers had seen him they might not have let
Toodle do this, for he started his house away off at one end of the
pond, near the wood where the bears and wolves lived.
"But if we are going to play Indian in our house," said Toodle to
himself, "we don't want it too near the other houses. The people will
make a fuss if we yell and holler."
So off he went by himself, while all the grown beavers were mending
the hole the bear had torn in the dam. Other boy and girl beavers were
playing around, some swimming, some sliding down slippery, muddy banks,
that were just like coasting-hills, and some girl beavers were playing
with their dolls, which were made out of pieces of wood.
Toodle had watched other beavers making houses, some of them very
large, so he thought he knew how to do it. But he only wanted a small
play-house. He gathered a lot of sticks, and then, diving down to the
bottom of the pond, and holding his breath, he scooped up a little pile
of mud and grass roots. This was the bottom part of his house. On top
of this he laid sticks, and more sticks, until his house was above the
water. Then he brought still more sticks and mud and grass roots up
from the bottom of the pond.
Toodle then piled some long poles up slanting, just as you might take a
lot of bean poles and stand them up in a circle in the garden, to make
an Indian tent. Toodle did this, and then he spread mud all over the
outside, and when this had partly dried in the sun, there he had a nice
little house.
"Won't Noodle be surprised when he sees this!" cried the little beaver
boy.
If you had been there you could not have seen any door to the queer
house, but there was one just the same. The entrance to it was under
water, and when he wanted to go in Toodle had to dive down below the
water and swim up along a dark front hall to get into his house. It was
safer that way, as no other animal dared come in.
Well, the little beaver boy finished his house, and then he began
to wish for his brother to come along so they could have a good
time. Toodle was sitting on the roof, putting some mud plasters on
a few holes he saw, when all of a sudden, there was a swirl in the
water, and along came the bad old skillery-scalery alligator with the
double-jointed tail. He swam straight for Toodle, crying: