little late. Then she won't worry."
You see it's too bad to make mammas worry, and if ever we can do
anything to stop that it's a good thing. Toodle knew that.
So, as I said, he stayed in after school to hunt for his penny, when
all the other pupils went home. And when Professor Rat had finished
cleaning off the blackboard, he helped Toodle look for the lost money.
And, all of a sudden, as they were looking for it, and when the kind
old rat gentleman teacher was partly under a desk, Toodle cried:
"Oh, I see it!"
"Where?" asked Professor Rat, and he jumped up so quickly that his
head bumped on the underside of the desk, and jiggled the ink bottle,
and the ink ran all over his collar, and made it all striped black and
white like a zebra in the circus.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" cried Toodle, when he saw what had happened.
"Oh, never mind," spoke Professor Rat, wiping the ink out of his left
ear with the end of his tail. "Where did you see your penny, Toodle?"
"It rolled down a crack," said the little beaver boy. "I can see it,
but I can't get it."
"Then we will call Jillie Longtail, the little mouse girl, to get it for
you," said Professor Rat. Jillie Longtail lived near the school, and
she was at her house helping her mamma get supper. She soon came over,
and, being very small, she could get into little cracks. She quickly
slipped into this one and brought up Toodle's lost penny.
"Oh, thank you, so much!" said the little beaver boy. "I'll give you
some of my lollypop."
Off Toodle hurried to the candy store that was kept by an old gentleman
duck who lived in a molasses barrel, and the little beaver boy bought
the nicest birch bark flavored lollypop he could see. Then he went back
to Jillie's house to give her a bite. And by this time it was getting
rather late, so Toodle thought he had better hurry home.
As he was walking along he heard a rustling in the bushes and, before
he could run away, out jumped a bad old fox, who cried:
"Give me that lollypop!" And he was going to take it away from poor
Toodle, when, all of a sudden, a big, deep, bass voice cried:
"Here! You let my friend Toodle alone! Don't you dare take his candy,
or I'll bite you!"
And that fox was so frightened that he ran away, taking his tail with
him, and he never touched Toodle or the lollypop either. The little
beaver boy wondered who it was that had saved him, when, out from
behind a stump came Bully, the frog boy, laughing as hard as he could.
"Did you hear me?" asked Bully. "Did you hear me scare him?"
"I surely did," said Toodle. "I'm much obliged to you. How did you do
it?"
"Why, I have a bad cold," said Bully, "and my voice is very deep and
hoarse, just like an automobile horn. I guess when that bad fox heard
it he thought maybe I was a giant, and so he ran away."
"I'm glad he did," said Toodle, "for he might have bitten me. Here,
Bully, have a bit of my lollypop. It will be good for your sore throat."
So Toodle broke off, with a stone, a bit of his nice lollypop, and gave
Bully some. And Bully liked it very much. He said it made him feel
better.
Well, the frog boy and the beaver boy walked on through the woods
together, talking of many things, such as how to keep out of traps, and
how to get away from hunters and dogs, and all like that. Pretty soon,
they came to the beaver pond, where Toodle's house was built.
"Come on," cried Toodle. "Let's see who can swim across this pond,
Bully."
Into the water sprang the frog and the beaver boy, and they were
swimming away, first one and then the other being ahead, when all of a
sudden, Bully saw something red in the water.
"Oh, here is a cinnamon lollypop," cried Bully. "Wait until I get it."
"Maybe it's a trap," said Toodle, careful like.
"No, I'm sure it's a lollypop," spoke Bully, who, like all frogs, liked
very much anything that was red. Up Bully swam to it, and as quick as
a wink, he bit it, intending to carry it away with him. But a second
later he cried:
"Oh, dear! I'm caught. You're right, Toodle! It was a trap!"
And, what do you think? That red thing was a piece of red flannel, and
it was fast to a hook that a boy had thus baited, and put into the
water, hoping to catch a frog. And he had caught Bully. Oh, dear!
Poor Bully squirmed and twisted, and tried to get loose from the hook,
but he could not. It had fastened itself in his mouth when he bit on
the red flannel that he thought was a cinnamon lollypop.
"Oh, what shall I do?" cried Bully.
"Hold on! I'll save you!" shouted Toodle, swimming as fast as he could
toward Bully. The boy, up on the bank of the pond, where he had his
pole and hook and line, was trying to pull Bully out of the water. But
Toodle took a tight hold of the frog in his paws and then with his big
tail, Toodle splashed a whole lot of water in that boy's face, as he
sat near the edge of the beaver pond.
"Oh, dear!" cried the boy, surprised like. "It's raining! I guess I'd
better go home before I get wet!" You see, he never knew it was Toodle
who had splashed him, for he could not see the little beaver chap.
So the boy ran home to his mamma, leaving his pole there. Of course
poor Bully was still fast to the hook, but when the boy was gone he and
Toodle swam out on the bank, and then Toodle hurried off and got Dr.
Possum, who soon took the hook out of Bully's mouth.
Of course it hurt some, just as when you have a tooth pulled, but it's
better to have a hook or an aching tooth, out of your mouth than in.
And Bully was very much obliged to Toodle for saving him, and he said
he'd never bite on anything red again, unless he was sure what it was.
Then Toodle gave Bully some more lollypop, and the two friends got home
just in time for their suppers and that's all there is to this story.
But in the next one, if the potato masher doesn't fall on the doll's
toes so she can't go roller skating with the sewing machine, I'll tell
you about Crackie Flat-tail going to school.
STORY XX
CRACKIE GOES TO SCHOOL
"Come on, boys, wake up!" called Grandpa Whackum, the old beaver
gentleman, to Toodle and Noodle, the two beaver boys, at their home in
the pond one morning. "Be lively, now! I guess you forget what morning
this is."
"Ha! Is it Christmas?" asked Noodle, as he rubbed his sleepy eyes with
his paw.
"Or Fourth of July?" asked Toodle, flopping his big, broad tail up and
down to see if any mosquitoes had bitten him in the night. But none
had, I'm glad to say.
"No, it isn't Fourth of July or Christmas," answered Grandpa Whackum,
looking out on the beaver dam that held the waters of the pond from
running away. The old gentleman beaver wanted to see if, in the dam,
there were any holes that needed mending.
"Today is when your little sister, Crackie, starts for school," went on
Grandpa Whackum. He was called that, you know, because he used to whack
his tail on the ground to tell when there was danger coming, so the
other beavers could go and hide away.
And the little beaver girl was called Crackie because she was always
dropping dishes and things and cracking them. She didn't mean to, of
course, and lately she didn't drop nearly so many as she used to at
first.
"My goodness!" cried Toodle, hopping out of bed. "And so Crackie is to
go to school today?"
"Yes; and you and Noodle are to take her," said Grandpa Whackum. "So
hurry down to breakfast. You don't want to be late for school the first
day Crackie goes, you know."
"No, indeed," said Noodle. "Come on, Toodle, we'll have a race to see
who gets dressed first."
So the beaver boys raced at putting on their rubber clothes, which they
could wear in the water without getting wet, for beavers are very fond
of swimming, you know, and live in the water half the time.
"May I wear my red dress and brown hair ribbons?" asked Crackie of her
mamma at the breakfast table.
"I guess so," said Mrs. Flat-tail, who felt a little sorry because her
only daughter was growing up big enough to go to school.
Well, pretty soon, in a little while, not so very long, Toodle and
Noodle and Crackie were all ready for school. Off they started, after
kissing their mamma and Grandpa Whackum good-by. Into the water they
jumped, and away they swam.
The school was in an old boat, as I have told you, and often this boat
would float away, making it so hard for the animal children to find it
that they were sometimes late. But this time Professor Rat, the school
teacher, had tied the boat fast to an old stump, so it was easily
found, and no one was late.
Toodle and Noodle took their little sister inside the school.
"Ah, ha!" said Professor Rat, kindly. "A new little pupil! Well,
Crackie, we are glad to see you. We hope you will like it here. I think
first I will put you in the kindergarten class. Later on, when you
learn more, you may sit with Toodle and Noodle and Sammie and Susie
Littletail and the others."
So Crackie went in the kindergarten class and had a little chair all to
herself. Her teacher was a nice lady bug, who could play a tin piano
solo so tickily-ickly-like that you would always want to dance. And
sometimes she let her pupils march around the room while she played.
Well, after a bit, Crackie looked around, and over on one side of the
room she saw her brothers, Toodle and Noodle.
"Say, Toodle!" cried Crackie, right out loud in school, "I'm hungry.
Can't I have some of that ginger-bread cake mamma gave you to put in
your pocket?"
"Oh, hush, Crackie, dear!" cried Toodle, but all the other animal
children laughed to hear Crackie call out loud that way in school.
"But I am hungry!" said Crackie, and tears came into her eyes. You see
she had never been to school before, and she did not quite know how to
act. "I'm very hungry!" the little beaver girl went on. "Can't you give
me something to eat, Noodle, dear?"
Noodle got red behind his ears to think that his sister acted so in
school. Professor Rat looked up over his glasses.
"You must not talk in school, Crackie, dear," he said gently. "The
others can't study if you talk."
"But I am hungry," went on Crackie. "Maybe if I had something to eat I
wouldn't talk. You could try it, Mr. Rat."
Everybody laughed at that--it sounded so funny--and Mr. Rat tried not
to smile as he said:
"No, Crackie, we're not allowed to eat in school. You must please be
quiet."
"School is a funny place," said Crackie, still speaking out loud. "You
can't talk and you can't eat. What can you do?"
"Really, my dear," said Professor Rat, "you must keep quiet. I'm
afraid you're not old enough to come to school."
So Crackie kept quiet for a little while and played with her
kindergarten blocks and cut some funny things out of paper. But at last
she could not stand it any longer. She cried out:
"Isn't it time to eat yet, Toodle?"
Well, it was so quiet just then, with no one saying anything, or
reciting, that Crackie's voice sounded very loudly, and every one
laughed.
"Crackie," said Professor Rat, and he had to speak sharply, "you really
must keep quiet, or else go home."
"Then please let me go home," said Crackie. "I don't have to keep so
quiet there and I can get something to eat. Toodle, Noodle, please
take me home," and she got up out of her seat, and walked over to her
brothers.
"Oh, Crackie!" cried the lady bug teacher, sadly like.
"You mustn't do that," said Professor Rat, and really he didn't know
what to do himself. He had never had any one like Crackie in school
before. And, really, she didn't mean to be bad. She just didn't know
any better. It was her first day, you see.
"I want to talk, I'm hungry, I want to go home," said Crackie, as if
that was all there was to it. She didn't see why she couldn't do just
as she had been used to doing at home.
"Come on, Toodle and Noodle," she called. "School is no fun. I'm going
home!"
Well, of course that upset everything. All the boy and girl animals
laughed, and they couldn't study. The lady bug teacher, and Professor
Rat himself, did not know what to do with Crackie. Mr. Rat was just
thinking that perhaps he had better send one of her brothers home with
Crackie when the little beaver girl, who was standing next to the
window, cried out:
"Oh, the alligator! The bad, old skillery alligator! He is coming right
in at the side door!"
And that was so. Crackie had gotten up just in time to see the
alligator, and, only for her, maybe the bad creature would have gotten
into the school before any one could stop him.
"Ha!" cried Professor Rat. "The skillery-scalery alligator, eh? I'll
fix him! I'm glad you told me, Crackie."
Then the rat gentleman took two blackboard erasers in his paws. He
clapped them together--the erasers, I mean--making a noise like a gun,
and a lot of chalk dust that was on the erasers flew out, making it
look just like smoke from a cannon, and when the 'gator saw this, and
when he heard the bang-bang noise, he cried out:
"Wow! I guess I made a mistake. This must be where hunters or
soldiers live. This is no place for me!" And away he went, taking his
double-jointed tail with him.
"Crackie," said Professor Rat, "you saved us all from the alligator by
seeing him in time for me to scare him away. I guess, after all, it's a
good thing you came to school, even if you did talk."
"And may I have something to eat?" asked the little beaver girl. "If I
may I don't want to go home."
"Give her some of that ginger-bread cake," said Mr. Rat to Toodle. "I
guess it won't hurt to let her eat in school, and she is so little, and
she was so brave."
So Crackie ate some cake, and she felt better, and all the other animal
children wished they had some. Then they had more lessons, and soon
school was out, and, after all, Crackie was glad she came.
So, on the next page, if the peanut man doesn't take away our
refrigerator to roast his chestnuts on at the moving picture show, I'll
tell you about Toodle's roller skates.
STORY XXI
TOODLE AND HIS ROLLER SKATES
"Mamma," said Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy one afternoon
as he came in from school, and looked around in the ice box to see if
there was any cake left over from dinner, "would you do me a favor,
mamma?"
"Well, Toodle," said Mrs. Flat-tail, wiping some flour off the end of
her nose with her paw, for she was making a raisin pudding for supper,
"well, Toodle, it depends on what the favor is."
"Oh, ma," went on Toodle, making his tail go up and down like a palm
leaf fan on Christmas eve, "I do want a pair of roller skates awful
bad."
"Roller skates!" cried Mrs. Flat-tail, raising both her paws in the
air, she was so surprised like. "Why, you know they cost a lot of
money, Toodle, and your father hasn't any too much. You know winter
is coming on, and there will be lots of things to buy. Besides, there
will soon be snow and ice all over the ground, and ice skates would be
better than rollers, I should think. Grandpa Whackum can show you how
to make ice skates out of a flat bone."
"I'd rather have roller skates, ma," said Toodle. "It won't be winter
for quite a while yet, and I could have lots of fun. I saw one of the
Bushytail squirrel boys with a pair coming from school, and he went
along like anything--so fast!
"Say, ma, if I had a pair of roller skates I could go to the store
for you twice as quick when you wanted anything. Mayn't I have a
pair--please?"
"Now, Toodle, said Mrs. Flat-tail. Don't tease, that's a good boy.
You know if you had a pair Noodle would want some also, and so would
Crackie. And three pairs of roller skates--my gracious goodness me
sakes alive! Why your papa would be the poorest beaver in all this pond
if he had to buy three pairs of roller skates with winter coming on.
I'm afraid you can't get them."
"Oh dear!" said Toodle, with a sigh. "Oh dear!"
He felt so badly that he didn't want to eat much of the nice green
willow bark sandwiches they had for supper, and Grandpa Whackum said:
"What's the matter with that boy? Is he sick?"
"He wants roller skates," said Mrs. Flat-tail.
"If he has a pair I want some, too," said Noodle.
"That's how I thought it would be," said Mrs. Flat-tail, with a look at
her husband.
"Well, I'm afraid no one can have roller skates this year," said the
beaver gentleman. "This is going to be a hard winter. There aren't
many trees left around here for food any more, and we'll have to bring
them from a long way off. And the pond will soon be frozen over, too.
Ice skates would be much better for you, Toodle, and you can make them
yourself."
"I'll show you how," spoke Grandpa Whackum.
"I'd--I'd rather have roller skates," said the little beaver boy.
"Well, you had better study your school home work lesson now," said his
papa, as he sat down to read the evening paper.
But Toodle did not feel much like studying. You know how it is
yourself, when you want a rubber doll, or maybe a water-pistol, or a
bicycle, or something that your papa or mamma can't let you have, for
one reason or another. You keep thinking of that, and nothing else, and
it seems as if you really must have it.
That's the way it was with Toodle. He thought of nothing much but
roller skates. The next day in school when Professor Rat asked him how
to spell horse, Toodle said:
"R-o-l-l-e-r--roller, s-k-a-t-e--skate--roller skates," and all the
animal children laughed at him.
"Next," said the teacher, and poor Toodle had to go down to the foot of
the class. Oh, how badly he felt.
But, coming home from school that afternoon, something happened to
Toodle and, after that he didn't want roller skates at all any more.
I'll tell you about it.
Toodle was walking along by himself. His brother Noodle and the other
boys had asked him to come with them to play football, but Toodle was
thinking so much about his roller skates that he didn't want to do
anything else. So he would not go.
So he was walking along through the woods, feeling rather sad and
miserable, and wishing his papa was a rich beaver, when, all of a
sudden, Toodle saw a little bear on the path in front of him. The bear
was such a small chap, not much bigger than Toodle himself, that the
beaver boy wasn't a bit afraid.
Of course he looked around to see if the big papa or mamma bear was
in sight, but they were not, and so when the baby bear said "Hello!"
Toodle answered back, "Hello!" as bravely as anything.
"What are you doing out here?" asked Toodle of the baby bear.
"Oh just walking along," said the baby bear. "What are you doing here?
You don't look very happy, my little beaver boy. Are you looking for
anything?"
"Yes, I'm looking for a pair of roller skates," said Toodle. "Of
course, I don't believe I'll find 'em out here, but I'm looking just
the same."
Then a sharp, cunning look came over the face of that baby bear, and he
said:
"Well, now, if this isn't the best luck! Say, beaver boy, come with me,
and maybe my father will give you his roller skates. He's going to take
a long winter sleep soon, and he won't need them. I'll ask him to let
you take his."
"Will you really?" cried Toodle in delight. "That's fine! I'll come
right along with you."
Now Toodle had been told never to believe what a bear--even a baby
bear--said, or to go with one of them. But he was thinking so much
about roller skates that he couldn't think of anything else. And so he
forgot to be careful.
"Just come along to the den where I live," said the baby bear, "and
maybe I'll get you some roller skates."
Toodle felt very happy to hear this, and walked along through the woods
at the side of the brown baby bear. Pretty soon they came to the bear's
den. At first Toodle was a little afraid when he saw the papa and mamma
bear, but the baby bear waved his paws at them, and cried out:
"I've brought a nice fat beaver boy home with me. He wants some roller
skates. I told him maybe he could have your old ones, papa, for you're
going to take a long sleep."
"That's right," said Mr. Bear. "That's right."
Toodle thought it was funny for the baby bear to speak about how he had
brought a fat beaver boy home.
"I wonder why he said I was fat," thought Toodle. Oh, if he had only
known how bears like fat beavers just before they take a long winter
sleep! Oh my, but just wait and see what happens.
"I'll go in and get the skates," said Mr. Bear. Then he said to his
wife: "You stay out here with this nice fat beaver boy. Oh, isn't he
fat!"
"I wonder why they're so glad I'm fat?" thought Toodle.
Well he sat down on his tail outside the bear's stone cave and waited.
Mr. Bear and the little baby bear went inside.
Pretty soon, through an open window in the cave, Toodle heard voices
speaking. They were the voices of the papa bear and the baby bear
talking together.
"Didn't I do well to bring home a nice, fat beaver boy for our supper?"
asked the baby bear. "I saw him in the woods, and when he said roller
skates I could see that he wanted them very much. I knew you had an old
pair, so I told him to come along."
"Yes," said Mr. Bear. "I'll make believe to give the skates to him, and
then we'll ask him in the den to try them on, and then we can grab him,
and----"
"Yum! Yum!" exclaimed the little bear, smacking his lips, and Toodle
knew by that how hungry the little bear was.
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the beaver boy. "So this is a trick, eh? The roller
skates are only to fool me! Those bears want to get me in their den and
then they'll eat me. I'm not going to stay here!" And with that he ran
off toward a pond of water, where he knew he would be safe, for a bear
can never catch a beaver in water.
"Here! Where are you going?" cried Mrs. Bear. "Come back for your
roller skates, beaver boy!"
"I--I guess I don't want any," said Toodle, slyly-like, and with that
he jumped into the water and swam safely home, though the big papa bear
tried to catch him. But he didn't, I'm glad to say. So you see it was
all a trick about the roller skates, and the baby bear tried to fool
Toodle with them.
And when Toodle reached home he was all over the notion of wanting
roller skates, which had nearly gotten him into a lot of trouble.
"Never believe what bears say--even a baby bear--unless they are good
bears," said Grandpa Whackum when he heard what had happened, and Papa
Flat-tail said the same thing. "And soon I'll show you how to make ice
skates," said Grandpa Whackum.
So that is the story of Toodle, and how he didn't get his roller skates
after all, and it's a good thing he didn't, I guess. And in the next
story, if the spelling book doesn't jump over the geography and spill
the ink bottle out of the parlor window, I'll tell you about Noodle and
the pop corn.
STORY XXII
NOODLE AND THE POPCORN
One day, when Noodle and Toodle and little Crackie Flat-tail, the
beaver children were on their way to school, which, as I have told you,
was in an old boat, kept by Professor Rat, the three little animal
children saw Grandfather Goosey Gander, the old duck gentleman, going
along with a bag over his shoulder.
"Ha! Where do you s'pose he's going with that bag?" asked Toodle of
Noodle, as the beaver boys stopped on the path to watch.
"I don't know," said Noodle to Toodle. "Maybe he is pretending to be
Santa Claus."
"It is too early--Christmas is too far off--for anyone to be practicing
Santa Claus now," said Toodle. "And anyhow, Grandpa Goosey hasn't a red
coat on, all trimmed with white, and he hasn't any white whiskers, so
he can't be Santa Claus."
"That's so," said Noodle. "Let's ask him what he's got in that bag.
He'll tell us, and if it's something good to eat maybe he'll give us
some."
"You boys had better come on to school," said Crackie, "or else you
may be late."
"Oh, this won't take a minute," said Noodle. "I'll run after Grandpa
Goosey and ask him. You and Toodle can go on, Crackie, and tell
Professor Rat that I'm coming."
So Toodle and Crackie, the two little beaver children, went on to
school, holding their broad, flat tails up out of the mud. Their tails
were so large that when they grew tired the beaver children could sit
on them, just as you children sit on a stool.
Noodle ran after the old duck gentleman, who had kept wobbling along
with the bag over his shoulder, and, when the little beaver boy got
near enough, he saw that the bag was very heavy indeed, and that
Grandpa Goosey had hard work to carry it.
"Good morning, Grandfather Goosey Gander," said Noodle politely. "Don't
you want me to help you carry that bag?" You see, Noodle wanted to know
what was in it, but he knew it wasn't just nice to ask at once. So he
offered first to help the duck gentleman.
"Ha! Hum!" exclaimed Grandfather Goosey, with a sneeze that made his
hat fall off. Noodle kindly picked it up for him.