it's ready, anyhow, and now I must go to the store to get some--"
"Look out, Crackie!" exclaimed Mrs. Flat-tail, "or you'll tell your
secret before you know it."
"Oh, then I'm going to hurry right away," said Crackie, "and you boys
had better go to school, or you'll be late, won't they, mamma?"
"I guess so," answered Mrs. Flat-tail. "Run along Toodle and Noodle."
The two beaver boys looked at their little sister, who was named
Crackie because she so often dropped things and cracked them--such
things as cups and saucers and once in a while she'd drop her doll.
But then this was a rubber baby, and it did not so much matter, for
they can't crack until they get very old, and Crackie's rubber doll was
quite young.
"I wonder what it was Crackie didn't want mamma to tell us?" spoke
Toodle as he got his books ready to go to school.
"I don't know," answered his brother Noodle, "but we'll find out when
we come home from our lessons."
"That's what we will," answered Toodle. "But come on now. We don't
want to be late the way we were the other day when we helped Billie
Bushytail move."
"No indeed!" said Noodle.
So off the beaver boys swam to school. They swam instead of walking,
you know, because they lived in a house that was in the middle of a
pond of water, and the only way they could get to shore was by swimming.
And the school was in an old boat, as I have told you before, and
Professor Rat was the teacher. Sometimes the old boat would float away,
and none of the school children could find it. Then there would be no
lessons that day. And oh, how sorry those animal children were that
they could not go to school! Oh, dear me, yes indeed! I guess so!
But this didn't happen to be one of the days when the school was lost,
and soon Toodle and Noodle had reached the place, meeting a number of
their friends and having a good time.
But, all the while, Toodle and Noodle were wondering what their mamma
and sister Crackie had been talking about in the kitchen, and why
it was they weren't let into the secret. In fact, Toodle and Noodle
thought so much about it that they didn't study as they should have
done.
And when Professor Rat asked Noodle: "How much are two apples and one
apple?"
Noodle answered: "It's a secret."
"What!" exclaimed the teacher, surprised like. "A secret! Why every one
knows what the answer is. And what every one knows is no secret. Susie
Littletail, you may tell us how much one apple and two apples are."
"Three," said Susie.
"Exactly," went on Professor Rat. "So you see it was no secret, Noodle
Flat-tail."
"Oh, I guess I was thinking of something else," replied the little
beaver boy.
"Well, in school you must think only about your lessons," said Mr. Rat.
And that is very true. I only tell you that about Noodle to show how
much he was thinking of what Crackie had said. How he did wish he knew
the secret!
But now I must tell you about Crackie herself. The little beaver girl
did not go to school, being too small, but she was big enough to go to
the store, and that is where she swam after Toodle and Noodle had left.
And Crackie bought sugar and spice, and everything nice, just as it
tells about in the story book, and home she went with them.
"Now, mamma," she said, "you show me how and I'll make it, and when
Toodle and Noodle come home they'll be so surprised! Won't they, mamma?"
"Indeed they will, Crackie," said the beaver lady.
So she and Crackie began to make it. What's that? You want to know what
it was? Oh, I'm not allowed to tell, for it's still a secret, you
know. But in a little while you shall find out. Anyhow, I'm allowed to
tell you this much. When it was all done Mrs. Flat-tail put IT in the
oven, and--Well, I'll give you three guesses, not another one.
Anyhow, when it was in the oven Crackie said:
"Well, I guess I'll go out and play a little bit, mamma. I'll go see
Jennie Chipmunk. She is ill today and didn't go to school. I'll be back
when it's done."
Off swam Crackie, and soon she and Jennie were having a fine time
playing under the trees; for beavers play out on dry land as well as in
the water. Jennie felt better after school was out. I've often heard of
real boys and girls who were just like that.
By and by Crackie went back home, and when her mamma opened the oven
door there came out the loveliest smell you can imagine.
"Oh, goodie!" cried Crackie. "It's all done, and how nice and brown it
is. Now I'm going to fool the boys."
So what did she do but take the secret out of the oven, her mamma
helping her, of course, and then Crackie wrapped it all up in a nice
clean paper and a clean cloth--the secret, you know--not the oven.
And when the secret was all wrapped up, Crackie took it outside in
the yard and she made a big mud pie--a pie out of nice clean mud, such
as the beaver animals use to plaster their houses. Inside the mud pie
Crackie put her secret, and then she waited for Toodle and Noodle to
come home from school.
The beaver boys were not long in coming, either. They did not stop much
to play on the way, for they were very anxious to find out the secret.
Soon they were at their house. Out in front was Crackie, making believe
stuff sugar plums in her mud pie. The sugar plums were only stones, but
it was easy enough to pretend with them. I've often done it.
"Where's the secret?" cried Toodle.
"Oh, Crackie, are you going to tell us?" said Noodle.
"There it is," said Crackie, and she pointed to the mud pie she had
made.
"That!" cried Noodle.
"Pooh! What a secret!" exclaimed Toodle.
"Wouldn't you like a piece?" asked Crackie, and she looked over at her
mother and smiled. Mrs. Flat-tail laughed. Toodle and Noodle looked
disappointed-like.
"Only a mud pie," said Noodle.
"Come on, let's play ball," suggested Toodle.
"You'd better wait until I cut my mud pie," said Crackie, and then,
while her brothers watched she broke open the mud pie, which she had
baked hard and dry in the sun, and there, inside it, covered over
with clean, green grape leaves, was a lovely apple pie, all brown and
sugary, with birch bark frosting in one place, and watercress candy in
another, and inside--oh, my! I can't write any more about it, for it
makes me too hungry.
"That's my secret!" said Crackie. "I baked the real pie all by myself,
only mamma helped me, of course. And I put it inside the mud pie just
for fun. I wrapped it up so it wouldn't get soiled. Will you have some,
boys?"
"Will we!" cried Toodle, quickly.
"I guess we will!" shouted Noodle, and they both together kissed little
Crackie. And then they ate a piece of her secret pie. Wasn't that nice?
I think so, even if I did write this story myself. And on the next
page, if the coffee strainer doesn't take the piano out to a moving
picture show and leave it there for the banana man, I'll tell you about
Toodle and the big log.
STORY XVII
TOODLE AND THE BIG LOG
One day, when Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boys, were
on their way to school, Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver gentleman in
the beaver town, called to them:
"I say, boys, when you come home from school this afternoon I'll have
something for you to do."
"Is it a secret?" asked Noodle, wishing he did not have to go to school
that day, for he didn't know his reading lesson.
"No, not a secret," answered Grandpa Whackum. "But swim along now. I'll
tell you when you come home."
"If it is a secret I hope it's one like Crackie's apple-mud pie," spoke
Toodle. "Oh, wasn't that good?" he asked his brother.
"Yum! Yum!" exclaimed Noodle, smacking his lips, and flopping his big
tail up and down. "I should say it was! I wish we had some now, and a
piece for recess."
"So do I," went on Toodle. "Well, anyhow, if we go somewhere with
Grandpa Whackum he's sure to treat us. Maybe he'll get us ice cream
cones."
"It's getting too cold for them," spoke Noodle. "I'd rather have some
candied water-lily roots, or maybe a birch bark lollypop."
"Oh, I guess I would, too," said his brother.
Well, they went on and on to school, but in the night the wind had
blown pretty hard, and the schoolhouse, which, as I have told you, was
in an old boat, had drifted off. So Toodle and Noodle couldn't find it
right away. Neither could some of the other animal boys and girls who
were on their way to recite their lessons.
"Let's look over this way for it," said Bully No-Tail, the frog,
pointing one paw toward an old stump where a bear used to live. But
the bear had gone off to act in a circus so he wasn't there any more.
"Let's look over that way," went on Bully. "Maybe the boat is hidden
behind the bushes."
"Oh, no, don't let's look any more," suggested Jillie Longtail, the
mousie girl. "I--I don't want to go to school, anyhow."
"Neither do I," added Toodle. "Besides, we've looked pretty good,
anyhow, and if we can't find it it isn't our fault."
Well, some of the other animal children said the same thing, and they
were just thinking about giving up the search for the school-boat, when
along it came floating in the pond, and out in front was Professor Rat
himself.
"Good morning, children!" exclaimed Professor Rat.
"Good morning, teacher!" said all the animal children, sort of
disappointed-like.
"I'm sorry I am late bringing the school to you this morning," went on
Mr. Rat, "and I would have been later only Miss Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy kindly
pulled the school along for me. It had drifted away off this time."
"Indeed it had," said Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, who used to take care
of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, when he had the
rheumatism. "But now, children, you have your school back again, and I
hope you also have your lessons. Good-by."
Off swam Nurse Jane, and some of the animal children--in fact, all of
them, thanked her kindly, as did Professor Rat. Still, all the children
would have been more thankful if Nurse Jane had not brought the school
to them. But there it was, and inside they had to go to study their
lessons.
But I started to tell you about Toodle and the big log, and it's about
time I began, isn't it?
By and by, after a while, not so very long, school was out, and Toodle
and Noodle hurried home, for they wanted to find out what Grandpa
Whackum wanted of them.
Soon the two boys saw the old beaver gentleman waiting for them, and
as they swam up to him, Grandpa Whackum said:
"Now, boys, you know winter will soon be here, and we beavers must
begin to store away the things that we are going to eat when the cold
weather comes. Real people put a lot of coal in their cellars, but in
our cellars we will put sticks and logs of wood, covered with bark, and
we will eat this bark all winter.
"We will store it down under the water, where, even when the pond is
covered with ice, we can get it. And besides logs and sticks of wood,
we can also eat grass and roots that grow on the bottom of the pond.
But we must have lots of bark. So now if you will come with me to the
woods, we'll gnaw down some trees and bring them home to put in the
cellar for winter. That is something all young beavers must learn, and
it is time you began."
"All right," said Toodle.
"We'll be glad to come with you," said Noodle. And he smiled, for he
saw, sticking from his grandpa's pocket, some nice, sweet, juicy,
mushroom lollypops, which he and his brother like very much.
Well, soon Toodle and Noodle were in the woods gnawing down little
trees with their four sharp orange-colored front teeth, about which I
have told you. Grandpa Whackum also gnawed down trees with his teeth.
By and by, somehow or other, Toodle wandered away from his grandpa and
brother, and soon he was in a lonely part of the forest. But he didn't
mind that--at least not just then.
"Ah, there is a fine big aspen tree!" exclaimed Toodle, as he looked
at a large one. "That will be dandy for us this winter. I'll gnaw that
down."
And he started to do it, sitting on his broad, flat tail, which was
like a stool for him, as I have told you before.
Soon Toodle had almost cut the tree down, and when it began to fall he
hurried out of the way, and whacked with his tail on the ground, to
give warning to any other beavers, that might be nearby, to get out of
the way. But Toodle was all alone. None of his animal friends was in
sight.
When the tree was down Toodle tried to drag it toward the pond, so it
would float like a boat to his house. But Toodle found that the tree
was too heavy for him to pull. He wished he had not cut down such a
big one, but he did not want to have to ask his grandpa and brother to
help him. Toodle was sort of proud, you know, and he wanted to get this
large log to his house all by himself, just as you want to do things
all for your own self sometimes.
"Well, I can cut the top branches off and then I think I can pull the
rest of the log," said Toodle.
So, sitting down on his tail again, Toodle gnawed the top off the log.
Then he thought surely he could pull it to the water. But though he
strained and tugged and pushed and pulled with all his might, still he
couldn't do it.
"I guess, after all, I'll have to get grandpa to help me," he said.
"But I don't want to. I'll try once more."
My! how hard Toodle tried. And just as he was going to give up, and
call his brother to help him, out of the bushes jumped a big black bear.
"Oh, dear!" cried Toodle. "Now I am a goner! This bear will get me
surely!" and he was so frightened that he couldn't jump into the water
and swim away; this little beaver boy couldn't. He just sat there
shivering and sort of hiding down behind the log, hoping the bear
hadn't seen him. But the bear had, and the bear said:
"Ah, ha! There you are!"
"Ye--yes," stammered Toodle. "Are you going to--going to eat me--all
up?"
"Why, no, indeed!" laughed the bear in a jolly voice. "I just came to
help you, Toodle. I have been watching you trying to roll that big log
into the water. It is too much for you, so I'll help. Let me get hold
of it."
So the bear stuck his long claws into the log and he pushed, and Toodle
pulled, and in a jiffy, which is a very short time, indeed, that log
was in the water. Then Toodle could very easily swim along and push it
with his paws.
"Thank you very much--thank you twice, Mr. Bear," he called out.
"Why twice?" asked the bear, wiggling his short tail.
"Once for not eating me," said Toodle, "and once for helping me."
"Pray do not mention it," said the bear, blinking both eyes. And then
he went back in the woods to go to sleep.
So that's how Toodle gnawed down a big log, and how he got it home with
the help of the kind bear. And Noodle and Grandpa Whackum were very
much surprised when Toodle told them about it.
And in the next story--that is if the clothespin doesn't pinch the
table leg and make it dance so the sugar bowl rolls off and tickles the
parlor rug--I'll tell you about Noodle finding a trap.
STORY XVIII
NOODLE AND THE TRAP
"Boys, come over here, I want to give you a talking to," said Grandpa
Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all. He spoke to Toodle and Noodle,
the little boy beavers, one morning when there was no school.
"A--a talking to," said Toodle.
"I wonder if we've been bad?" asked Noodle.
"Nonsense! Bad? Of course not," said Grandpa Whackum, who heard what
his little grandson said. "I just want to give you a little lesson."
"Lessons today--when it's Saturday, and there's no school?" cried
Noodle.
"Oh, don't be worried!" exclaimed Grandpa Whackum, who had such a funny
name because he used to whack his big tail on the ground (making a
noise like a bass drum in the circus) whenever there was any danger.
That's the way he used to warn the other beavers to look out. So his
name was Whackum. Some of you may, perhaps have thought he was called
that because he used to whack the little beavers. Never! Grandpa
Whackum never did that. He gave them ice cream cones, or lollypops,
instead.
"Don't be worried," said Grandpa Whackum to Toodle and Noodle, who
were almost like twins--but not quite. "This will not be a very hard
lesson. Besides, animal children, you know, have to always learn
things--whether in school or not. And, for that matter, so do real
children. Your school teacher can tell you how to add up two apples
and three apples, and how to spell cat and dog and boy, and things
like that. But she can't always be with you, to teach you how to look
out for danger, and how to be polite--though, of course, all school
teachers are always polite themselves--and she can't teach you how to
eat nicely at the table.
"These things have to be done at home," said Grandpa Whackum, "and so,
you see, there are lessons on Saturdays and Sundays, too, as well as on
school days."
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Toodle, looking to see if Noodle was stepping on
his tail--but he was not.
"So we've got to study!" spoke Noodle, with a sigh.
"Oh, not very much," said their Grandpa Whackum. "I am just going to
give you a few lessons in how to keep out of danger. And one big danger
is traps."
"Traps, eh?" asked Toodle. "Are there any around here?" and he looked
all about him.
"You never can tell," replied Grandpa Whackum. "It is coming on winter
now, and you know we beavers get our thicker coats of fur then to keep
us warm. And whenever our fur gets nice and thick hunters like to catch
us, take off our fur and make muffs and caps and overcoats of it."
"Does it hurt to have your fur taken off?" asked Toodle.
"I should say so!" cried Grandpa Whackum. "Of course I never had it
done to me, but lots of my friends have, and they never lived after it.
So look out for hunters and dogs. And when a hunter hasn't a gun he may
have a trap."
"What's a trap?" asked Noodle.
"A trap," answered Grandpa Whackum, "is something made of steel, with
strong springs. Hunters put them near our houses, or where we have to
walk along near the dam that holds in the waters of our pond. They
cover up their traps, and if you are not careful you may step into one.
"As soon as you do, snap! it goes shut, catching you by the leg. And,
unless you can pull your leg out you're caught. Then along comes the
hunter, and--well, the next part isn't nice to talk about, so we'll
skip that," said Grandpa Whackum. "Anyhow, you want to keep away from
traps, and today I'll give you a lesson in how to do it."
Well, Toodle and Noodle thought it wouldn't be so bad after all, to
have a lesson on Saturday, when there was no school, so they followed
after Grandpa Whackum.
The old beaver gentleman led Toodle and Noodle off through the woods,
and along the edge of the beaver pond. He walked on ahead in order to
be the first one to see the traps.
"For you know," he said to Toodle and Noodle, "you may step into a trap
before you see it. They may be hidden under leaves or even under water.
You can't be too careful."
So Grandpa Whackum went on with Toodle and Noodle, giving them a lesson
on the way. All of a sudden he stopped short.
"There!" he cried, pointing to a pile of leaves. "There's a trap. The
hunter thought he hid it, but I saw it."
He led Toodle and Noodle close up, and there they saw the trap. The
sharp steel jaws were open, all ready to spring shut in case any one
stepped ever so lightly on the part called the trigger. You know how a
toy gun shoots. Well, a trap goes off just like that.
So Grandpa Whackum told the boy beavers all about traps, the different
kinds, and how they were baited and set. And he found some more traps,
and let the boys look at them--but not too close, you know.
"Oh, I hope I never get caught in a trap," said Noodle.
"What can we do if we are ever caught in one?" asked Toodle.
"Bang your tail on the ground for help, and, if any of us hear you,
we'll come," said Grandpa Whackum. "But if you do get caught--well--I
don't like to talk about it. Let's go get some lollypops."
So they went, and Toodle and Noodle were more glad than ever that they
had had a lesson in traps, even on Saturday.
"Now you may go off and play--lessons are over," said Grandpa Whackum
with a smile, and Toodle and Noodle ran off to meet some of their
friends.
"I wonder if I can ever find a trap?" thought Noodle, as he was playing
ball with Sammie Littletail, Bully, the frog, and others of his
friends. "I guess I'll go look, when this game is finished," he said.
So, when the ball game was over, Noodle started off to find a trap. He
asked his brother Toodle to come with him, but Toodle said he wanted
to play tag with Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel boys. So
Noodle went off by himself.
As he was walking through the woods, looking on all sides for a trap,
the way Grandpa Whackum had taught him to do, the little beaver boy saw
the kind old bear who had helped Toodle pull the log into the water.
"Hello, Toodle," said the bear.
"If you please," said Noodle, "I'm not Toodle; I'm his brother."
"Oh, excuse me," said the bear, and he was just going back in the
forest to sleep some more, when Noodle saw that the kind bear was about
to step into a big bear trap that was right behind him. The bear hadn't
seen it.
"Look out!" cried the beaver boy. "A trap! A trap!"
"Mercy me!" exclaimed the bear, and he stepped to one side just in
time. "Say, that certainly is a trap," he went on. "Some hunter is
after me. But I'll fool him." So the bear sprung the trap shut with a
piece of wood, and left it there to show the hunter that some bears
were smart. "And I'm glad you told me of the trap," said the bear to
the beaver boy. "Otherwise, I might have been caught."
Then Noodle went on a little farther, looking for beaver traps, and all
of a sudden he heard a snap, and something caught him by the paw, and
there he was, held fast. He had found another trap, but before he had
seen it he was caught in it!
"Oh, dear!" he cried, and he pulled and tugged, trying to get loose,
but he couldn't. Oh, how badly he felt. After all his Grandpa's lessons
to be caught this way. Wasn't it too bad?
"Oh, what shall I do?" he cried. "Soon the hunter may come along and
take off my fur. Oh, I know. I'll whack my tail on the ground the way
Grandpa told me to. Maybe some one will come to save me."
Noodle's tail wasn't fast in the trap, so he could bang it on the
ground. And he had only hit two or three times before the kind bear
came rushing up.
"Hello! What's this? In trouble, eh?" said the kind bear. "Well, well!
I must help you, since you were so kind to me." So the bear, with his
strong paws, easily opened the beaver trap, which was small, and not
like a big bear trap. Then Noodle was loose, though his paw hurt him
very much.
So he thanked the good bear, and hurried home to tell Grandpa Whackum,
and all the other beavers how he had found a trap, and how the bear had
helped him out of it.
And now I know you must be tired and sleepy, and want to go to bed. So
I'll say good-by, and next, if the frying pan doesn't fall on the gas
stove and scare the milk bottle, so all the cream turns sour, I'll tell
you about Toodle saving Bully, the frog.
STORY XIX
TOODLE SAVES BULLY
Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, was coming home from school
all alone. The reason of this was that his brother, Noodle, and all his
other friends had gone on ahead, not waiting for Toodle.
No, Toodle didn't have to stay in--don't think it! He hadn't whispered,
or chewed gum in school, or anything like that. Still he didn't get
out when the others did because, you see, he happened to lose a penny
out of his pocket, and he stayed to find it--find the penny, not the
pocket, you understand, for the pocket was still fast in his little
spotted trousers.
The penny which Toodle lost was one Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver
of them all had given him with which to buy a birch bark lollypop.
Toodle had not had time to buy the candy on a stick before school, and
so kept his penny in his pocket all that afternoon, while he said his
lessons.
And, every once in a while, he would put his paw in his pocket to see
if his money were safe. And it was--all except the last time.
Toodle was just feeling of his penny when Professor Rat, who kept
school, called out:
"Toodle Flat-tail, please stand up and spell me the word 'fox!'"
Well, if you will kindly believe me, Toodle was so excited when he
heard that word "fox," thinking, for all I know, that maybe a fox was
trying to get in a window, that he jumped up quickly, pulled his paw
out of his pocket, and, alas! the penny came with it. Away rolled the
money, over the schoolroom floor, rattle-te-bang! and down a crack it
went.
"Oh, dear!" cried Toodle, and all the other animal children laughed.
"Never mind," said Professor Rat, kindly. "You did not mean to do it,
Toodle. Now you may recite your lesson, and after school you may stay
in and look for your penny."
So that is why the little beaver boy had to stay in to find his penny.
His brother Noodle said he'd stay and help him hunt for it, but Toodle
said: