"No, you haven't!" cried the little beaver boy, and with that he gave a
dive off the roof of his play-house into the water, and swimming with
his paws and his broad, flat tail, he soon had found his front door.
The next minute he was up inside his house.
"Now you can't get me!" he cried through the sides to the
skillery-scalery alligator.
"I can't, eh? You just watch me!" cried the bad old 'gator.
With that he began to scratch and claw, and to claw and to scratch at
Toodle's house, scattering all over the sticks and the mud, that was
not yet hard and dry.
"Oh, dear!" thought the little beaver boy. "I shouldn't have come in
here. When I was in the water I should have swum home; for I can go
faster in the pond than that 'gator can. Now he'll get me sure! And I
don't dare go out now, or he'll grab me. Oh, dear! I wish I'd made my
house nearer the dam, where Grandpa Whackum is. He'd save me."
Well, the 'gator went on clawing away at Toodle's nice little house,
and he had it almost clawed apart, and was going to reach in and grab
Toodle, when, all of a sudden, Noodle, who had come back from the
store, came swimming along, looking for his brother.
"Help! Help! Oh, will no one help me?" cried poor Toodle in his little
play-house.
"Yes, I will!" said Noodle. He had with him two ice cream cones, one
for himself and one for Toodle, and they were full, and heavy with ice
cream. But Noodle knew there was but one thing to do. First he threw
one cone at the bad 'gator, and the sharp point stuck in one eye. Then
Noodle threw the other cone, and the sharp point of that stuck in the
'gator's other eye. Then the 'gator couldn't see to scratch or claw
Toodle's house any more, and he couldn't see to grab the little beaver
boy, who easily swam out and got safely away with his brother.
Of course, the ice cream cones were lost, for the 'gator took them away
with him, and had to go to a dentist to have them pulled out of his
eyes. But, anyhow, Toodle was saved by Noodle, whom he thanked very
much. And Toodle never built a house so far away from the dam again.
So this is all now, but on the page after this, if it happens that the
butterfly spreads some honey on a cracker for the rag doll to eat, I'll
tell you about Toodle saving Noodle.
STORY VII
HOW TOODLE SAVED NOODLE
Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the two little beaver boys, sat on top of
the big dam, that kept the water in the pond from flowing all away, as
the water does in your gutter on a rainy day, unless you make a pile of
mud and sticks to hold it back. Toodle was gnawing a bit of sweet bark
from an aspen tree, and Noodle was making a whistle out of a bit of
willow wood.
"Well," said Noodle after a while, when he had blown on the whistle,
making a noise like a toy choo-choo engine, "is this all we're going to
do today, Toodle?"
"Oh, I don't know," answered Toodle as he looked at the stick to see if
there was any more eating-bark on it, and, finding there was none, he
threw it away. "I don't know," said Toodle again, "what would you like
to do to have fun?"
"Let's go away in the woods," spoke Noodle, "and gnaw down some trees
with our teeth, the way Grandpa Whackum showed us, and we can build a
little cabin and play Indian."
"That would be fun," agreed Toodle, "only suppose a bad bear or an
unpleasant wolf should get after us?"
"Then I would just blow on my whistle," said his brother, "and Grandpa
Whackum, or maybe papa, or some of the big folks would hear it and come
to save us. I say let's go off to the woods," and he blew his whistle
quite loudly, so that Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all,
who was mending a hole in the dam where the water was running away,
Grandpa Whackum, as I say, came running up, banging his broad, flat
tail on the ground, and asking:
"What's the matter, boys? Is some one trying to catch you? Are you in a
trap?"
"Neither one, thank you kindly, Grandpa Whackum," said Noodle, speaking
very politely, as he had been taught to do, "we are in no danger, and I
was just blowing on my whistle to show Toodle how I could call for help
if we went to the woods."
"I see," spoke the old gentleman beaver. "I heard the whistle, all
right, but if you boys go off to the woods I could not get to you as
soon as I did this time. So you want to be very careful if you do go."
"We will," promised Noodle. "Come on, Toodle. Let's go have some fun."
So the two little beaver boys jumped down from the big dam, and began
swimming toward the woods some distance off. The beavers could swim in
the water much better than they could waddle, or walk, on land, even if
they did stand up on their hind legs. And they were much safer in the
water, but of course they could not stay in it all the while.
On and on swam Noodle and Toodle, and sometimes the little beaver boys
would see gold or silver fish in the water around them, and they'd stop
for a minute and talk about how warm the pond was, and whether there
would be a fishball game that day, and all things like that.
And sometimes Toodle and Noodle would see some little girl beaver
friends of theirs playing with their dolls, and their hair ribbons, and
their sewing on top of the big beaver houses that stuck up out of the
water.
"Well, here we are at the woods," said Noodle, after awhile, and he
swam to the bank, and climbed out of the water.
"Yes, we're here," said Noodle, as he climbed out and sat down beside
his brother, to dry off a little. Both the little beaver boys sat on
their big tails, which were as good as little stools to them, as I have
told you in the stories before this one.
"Now for some fun!" cried Toodle, as he turned a somersault and part of
a peppersault, while Noodle blew on his whistle, not very loudly, you
know, for he did not want to scare Grandpa Whackum and make him come
running up, thinking there was danger.
Then the two beaver boys began to play. With their four strong
orange-colored teeth they gnawed down small trees, and began to pile
them on shore to make a little log cabin. They did not build a regular
beaver house, which is almost always made in the water. This time
Toodle and Noodle were just playing, and they wanted a cabin on shore.
"Now it's almost done!" exclaimed Toodle, as he went inside and looked
out of the window.
"Yes, a few more logs and it will be ready for us to play in," spoke
his brother. "Then you can be an Indian part of the time, and I'll be a
soldier, and make believe chase and shoot a bang-bang gun at you, and
then it will be your turn to be a soldier with a gun, and I'll be an
Indian."
And just then, all of a sudden, something fell down out of the air, and
came down, cracko-whacko! hitting Toodle on the head as he was looking
out of the play-cabin window.
"Wow," cried Toodle. "Did you do that, Noodle?"
"Indeed, I didn't," said his brother. "Can't you see that I'm busy here
gnawing down this tree to make the bang-bang gun with? I didn't hit
you."
Just then Toodle heard some one laughing, and, looking up, he saw
Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, sitting on a tree branch right over
the log cabin. Billie was eating a hickory nut.
"Excuse me, Toodle," said Billie, the squirrel boy. "I hit you, but
I didn't mean to. I was eating a nut and it fell out of my paws and
landed on your head. Did it hurt you very much, Toodle?"
"Oh, hardly any," said the little beaver boy. "You see I have a lot of
fur on top of my head, Billie, and it bounced right off--the nut did, I
mean--not my head."
I guess if the nut had hurt him, Toodle wouldn't have said so. Boys are
like that, you know. That's the reason they don't cry, after they get
over being babies.
"Come on down and play with us," said Noodle.
"Yes, do," invited Toodle. So Billie, the squirrel boy, scrambled down
from the tree, and soon he and the two beaver brothers were playing in
the little log cabin.
Oh, such fun as they had! They made up all sorts of games, including
the one about Indians and soldiers, and then they played a new game
called "Don't bite your Paws when all alone. You try to eat An Ice
Cream Cone." That is a very funny game, only you have to have ice cream
cones to play it, and it was a lucky thing Uncle Wiggily Longears, the
old gentleman rabbit, came along just as Toodle, Noodle and Billie
were ready to start it, for he had the ice cream cones with him in his
valise, and he gave them to the boy animals to use.
Well, the old rabbit gentleman watched them playing about for some
time, and then he hopped off to see his friend, Grandfather Goosey
Gander, and Billie, the squirrel, went with him. So that left Toodle
and Noodle alone. They played some more, and then Noodle thought he
would make himself a little toy boat to go sailing in.
Noodle went off by himself down to the edge of the water where a nice
little tree grew, and he was cutting this tree down with his sharp
teeth, while Toodle was up in the play-cabin making believe he was a
soldier on guard, when all of a sudden something happened.
A great big, old, gray wolf, who hadn't had anything to eat in a long,
long time--not since Fourth of July I guess--this bad, old, gray wolf
sprang out of the bushes and grabbed Noodle in his paws.
"Now I've got you!" growled the wolf, and really he had. There was no
mistake about that. The wolf had poor Noodle!
"Oh, dear," cried the little beaver boy. "Let me go! Oh, please let me
go, and I'll give you all the money I have home in my tin bank."
"No! No!" growled the bad old wolf, and he started to take Noodle off
to his den. Noodle tried to blow on his willow whistle to call for
help, but it was in his pocket where he couldn't reach it. And it
looked as if the wolf would take him away.
But have no fear, little ones. I have a plan to save Noodle.
Toodle, up in the cabin, saw what had happened, and he cried:
"I'm coming, Noodle! I'm coming!" Down the hill ran Toodle, and
going close up to where the wolf was with his brother, Toodle stood
in the water, and with his broad, flat tail, which is just like a
pancake-turner, that brave little beaver boy splashed water all over
that wolf. In the wolf's eyes and nose and mouth it went, making him
sneeze and gasp and choke. Of course Noodle got all wet too, but he
didn't mind that a bit. He liked it. And finally the wolf was so
soaking wet, and he sneezed and choked so hard, that he had to let go
of Noodle, who at once ran away and was safe, for Toodle had saved him,
just as I said he would.
"Come on, I guess we'd better go home," said Toodle, and he and Noodle
went back to the beaver dam. As for the wolf he had to go to the
doctor to get something to make him stop sneezing, and it served him
right, I think.
So no more now, if you please, but if the little chicken next door
doesn't come in and pick a hole in the baby's red circus balloon so
that it bursts, I'll tell you next about Toodle's and Noodle's little
sister.
STORY VIII
TOODLE'S AND NOODLE'S LITTLE SISTER
"Well, boys," said Grandpa Whackum, the old gentleman beaver, one
morning, as he swam out of the house in the pond and took a seat on
his tail, on top of the dam, next to where Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail
were sitting; "well, boys, I think you might take a few more swimming
lessons today, for after you start going to school I won't find much
time to teach you."
"School!" cried Noodle, "are we going to school, grandpa?"
"Of course," said the old gentleman beaver, slowly blinking both his
eyes.
"But school for the other animals began some time ago," spoke Toodle.
"Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, have been going two
weeks, and so has Sammie Littletail, the rabbit. I thought we wouldn't
have to go."
"Yes," said Grandpa Whackum, "it is true you two boys will start in a
little late, but that is because your papa and mamma first wanted you
to have some lessons at home in tree cutting, and in house and dam
making and things like that. But when you do start to school, say in a
week or so, you can easily catch up to the others.
"So, as I said, I'll give you your last swimming lesson now, and then
you will always be able to get away from any animals that chase after
you in the water."
Now Toodle and Noodle liked the water very much, and they so enjoyed
having Grandpa Whackum show them the best way to swim and dive and
float, as well as stay under water without breathing for a long
time--they liked this so much, I say, that they forgot about soon
having to go to school.
My! how they splashed about in the pond, using their hind paws, which
were something like a duck's feet. They fairly rushed through the
water, and when they wanted to go very specially fast they used their
broad, flat tail just like a propeller on a steamboat.
"That's the way to do it!" cried Grandpa Whackum, as he told the beaver
boys what to do. "Turn around quickly in the water, and dive down when
an alligator or a sea lion chases you," said the old gentleman beaver,
showing them how.
So Toodle and Noodle practiced their swimming lesson, and then their
grandpa said:
"Now, boys, come up on this old stump and do some diving. Jump right
into the water; don't be afraid!"
Grandpa Whackum showed them how to do this, springing off his hind feet
and going away down under water where no one could see him until he
popped up again.
Toodle and Noodle did this after him, and, though at first they were
not very good at it, soon they got so they could dive as nicely as
could be.
"Now you are good swimmers," said the old gentleman beaver, "and you
may have time to play. But be careful not to go too far away, over to
the woods, or the bad wolf may get you."
Toodle and Noodle said they would be careful, and then they began
playing tag, and hide your tail, and jump over your chewing gum, and
all games like that. Finally they swam away up to one end of the beaver
pond, and they were just going to climb out on land, and sit on their
tails for a while, until they thought of a new game, or until some of
their friends came home from school, when, all of a sudden, something
happened.
No, it wasn't a rustling in the bushes, and no bad animal jumped out on
them. Goodness knows that takes place often enough, as you well know.
But it was something different this time.
Toodle and Noodle heard a gentle little voice somewhere off in the
woods, and it kept saying:
"Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! What shall I do? Who will take care of me?
Oh dear!"
"Hark!" cried Noodle. "Did you hear that?"
"Indeed, I did," answered his brother. "Come on, let's go home!" and he
started toward the pond.
"Go home!" exclaimed Noodle. "What for? Let's go see what that is."
"No, sir! Never!" cried Toodle. "Why most likely it's a bear or a wolf,
making believe cry like that so we'll come closer, and then he can grab
us. No, sir! don't you go see what it is at all. Come on home!"
"Oh, don't be a silly!" exclaimed Noodle. "That's some little boy or
girl animal in trouble. A wolf or a bear couldn't cry in such a tiny,
weeny voice as that. I say let's see what it is."
Toodle listened to the crying voice again. Truly it did sound like some
little animal, and not like a bad bear, and finally Toodle said:
"Well, let's go take a look. But be all ready to run in case there's
danger. Remember Grandpa Whackum isn't here to help us."
"Oh, I'll be careful," promised Noodle.
Slowly and carefully the two little beaver boys went toward where they
heard the voice. It was still crying away like this:
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Will no one come and take care of me? Oh, dear!"
"It's in that old stump over there," said Toodle after a bit of looking
about.
"Yes, that's where it is," agreed Noodle. "The stump is hollow and some
poor chap is inside it."
So Toodle and Noodle went up to the hollow stump, and they stood up on
their tippy-toes, and they looked in, and at first it was so dark they
couldn't see anything, and then--and then--all of a sudden--they looked
once more, and--what do you think they found?
Why, there was the dearest, sweetest, cutest little baby beaver girl
you ever saw! She was all dressed in a long blue-pink-yellow dress,
and she had a little bottle of milk in one paw and a rubber rattle-box
in the other, but she was crying, this little baby beaver girl was,
and she seemed so lonesome and afraid that Toodle and Noodle felt very
sorry for her, and loved her at once.
"Oh, look!" cried Toodle. "A baby in a hollow stump!"
"Yes, and maybe we can take her home and keep her for our little
sister," said Noodle. "Oh, joy!"
"Oh, dear!" said the little baby beaver.
"What's the matter?" asked Noodle.
"Oh, I'm left all alone," said the baby. "I was out in the woods with
my papa and mamma, and a bear and a wolf chased us. My papa and mamma
ran as fast as they could, but the bear and wolf kept after them, and
finally they got so close that my papa and mamma couldn't get away.
Then my mamma hid me in this stump, hoping, I guess, that some one
would find me, and then she and papa ran on and--and----"
But the little baby beaver cried so hard that she couldn't talk. Toodle
and Noodle felt the tears coming into their eyes also, but Toodle
asked, very, very softly:
"What happened after that, baby?"
"The--the bear and wolf carried my papa and mamma away to their dens,"
said the baby beaver, "and--and I'm left all alone. Nobody loves me!
Oh, dear!"
"Don't cry any more!" said Toodle, and with his handkerchief he wiped
the eyes of the baby beaver. "We love you, and we'll take care of you,
won't we, Noodle?"
"Indeed we will!" exclaimed the other beaver boy. "We'll take you home
with us, and you can be our little sister."
"Will you really?" asked the baby, who was old enough to talk, you see,
and she could walk a little. "That will be lovely!" she said, and she
stopped crying.
So Toodle and Noodle helped her out of the hollow stump, and then they
made a little boat out of a piece of tree which they gnawed down, and
they rowed the baby beaver across the pond to their house. And Mrs.
Flat-tail said her boys did just right to bring the poor little thing
home; and she took her for her very own baby and for a sister to Noodle
and Toodle.
They named her Crackie, for she used to drop the dishes and cups and
crack them. But no one minded that very much, for they loved Crackie
so. And one day a wolf chased her and she threw an ice cream cone at
him and cracked that, but it scared the wolf so that he ran away, which
was what Crackie wanted.
So that's how Toodle and Noodle got a little sister, whom they loved
very much, and some day Grandpa Whackum said he might find that bad
wolf and bear and make them let Crackie's papa and mamma go. But lots
of things happened before that.
And in the next story, if the cocoanut pie doesn't roll off the table
and break the cream pitcher's leg, I'll tell you tomorrow night about
Toodle and Noodle sliding down hill.
STORY IX
TOODLE AND NOODLE SLIDE DOWN
Once upon a time Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boys,
went sliding down hill when there wasn't any snow on the ground, and a
very strange thing happened to them. I'm going to tell you all about
it, if you'd like to hear it. So, if you will kindly not wiggle too
much, and not call the dog over here to rub his wet tail on my newly
polished shoes and take all the shine off so I can't go to the party,
I'll tell you all about it.
It began this way. Toodle said to Noodle, his brother, one day:
"Let's have some fun."
"All right," said Noodle to Toodle, "we will. What shall we do?"
"Let's go out on the dam and look around," said Toodle. "Maybe we'll
see something there."
The dam, you know, was the big wall of sticks and stones, and grass
and mud, that held the water of the beaver pond from running away and
leaving all the beaver houses on dry land. Because the beaver animals,
you know, like to have their houses in water.
"Shall we take Crackie with us?" asked Noodle. Crackie, you remember,
was the new little baby sister of the beaver boys. They had found her
in a hollow stump. "Shall we take Crackie?" asked Noodle.
"Why, yes, I guess so," answered Toodle. "She'd like to come and have
some fun."
So they swam back to the beaver house, dived down under water where the
front door was (so no bad animals could get in without at least getting
wet) and then Noodle called:
"Hi there, Crackie! Want to come with us?"
"Of course I do," answered Crackie, and then something sounded "Bango!"
"My goodness! What is that?" cried Mrs. Flat-tail, mother of the beaver
children. "What did you break that time, Crackie?"
"Only the looking glass. Oh, dear!" answered the little baby beaver.
"It's all cracked to pieces."
"Oh, Crackie!" cried Toodle, sadly like.
That's the reason her name was "Crackie," as I told you in the story
before this one. The poor little girl did not mean to do it, but she
was always cracking or breaking something. Some people are like that;
aren't they?
"I--I was just looking in the glass to see if my hair ribbon was on
straight," said Crackie, "when the mirror just fell out of my claws and
broke!"
Crackie was getting to be quite a girl, you see, to have hair ribbons
and all things like that. Oh, beaver children grow very fast, you know.
They are something like mushrooms that spring up over night.
"Well, never mind, Crackie, my dear," said Mrs. Flat-tail. "You
couldn't help it, I know. You didn't do it on purpose. Run along out
with the boys and play."
"Yes, come on, Crackie!" cried Toodle. "We're going to have some fun!"
Say, I guess, I'd better begin telling about that sliding down hill
without any snow on the ground pretty soon, had I not? or else I'll get
to the end of this story without putting it in.
Well, anyhow, as the telephone girl says sometimes, Toodle and Noodle
and Crackie, the three beaver children, swam out of the house in the
pond and began looking for something so that they might have a good
time.
They looked over toward where Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of
them all, was showing another beaver gentleman, who had just gone to
housekeeping, how to stop a leak in his roof. And the animal children
saw their grandpa climb up on the roof with some plastermud in his
paws to fix the hole, and then, when he had used up the plaster, they
saw him slide down the roof for more, going splash! into the water.
"Say, that's what we can do to have some fun!" exclaimed Toodle.
"Do what?" asked Noodle.
"Slide down hill," answered Toodle.
"How can we slide down hill when there isn't any snow," asked Crackie,
who was a very smart little beaver baby girl.
"I'll show you," said Toodle. "You know mud is very slippery, and the
roofs of lots of our houses are made of mud. Grandpa Whackum just slid
down one, sitting on his flat tail, and we can do the same."
"That's right," cried Noodle. "We'll find an old house, where no one
lives any more, and we'll wet the roof by splashing water on it, and
then we'll take turns sliding down into the pond. That will be jolly
fun!"
Toodle thought so, too, and so did Crackie. She swam along with her
brothers, carrying her rubber doll in one paw. The rubber doll didn't
mind being wet, you know.
Well, finally the beaver children found a big house, that was rounding
on top just like a hill, and no one lived in it. The roof was covered
with dried mud, but with their tails Toodle and Noodle and Crackie
soon splashed water on it and made it as slippery as the most
slippy-ippy hill covered with snow or ice that you ever saw. For you
know how sluppy-slippy wet mud is if you have ever fallen down in it
when you were going to school. Or maybe your rubber has stuck in the
slippery-sticky mud and come off. Mine did once, and I dropped my ice
cream cone in a puddle of water, and the worst of it was I didn't have
any more money to get another, either.
Well, finally the rounding, hilly top part of the roof of the beaver
house was all wet and slippery mud, and Toodle and Noodle began to
slide down it. They wanted to try it first before they let their little
sister Crackie go on it, to be sure it was safe for her.
And it was all right, I'm glad to say, and when the beaver boys sat
on their tails and gave themselves a little push away they went down
the muddy hill, without any snow on it, almost as fast as a choo-choo
train, or maybe even an automobile, for all I know. Think of that!
"Now may I try it?" asked Crackie.
"Yes, come along," said Toodle.
"We'll give you a good push!" said Noodle.
Crackie let her rubber doll swim in the water while she climbed up on
top of the house-hill and got ready to slide down into the water. It
was like shooting the chutes at Coney Island, you know.
"Splish-splash!" went Crackie into the water, and she laughed and
shouted, it was such fun.
"She slides as well as we do, Noodle," said Toodle.
"Indeed she does!" said Noodle to Toodle.