"I went last time," said Noodle, sort of quick like.
"Well, I went with you, so it's your turn to go now all alone," spoke
Toodle.
"Come, boys," cried Mrs. Flat-tail. "I'm in a hurry. I want a cocoanut
to make a cake."
"Oh, I'll go!" cried Toodle, before his brother could say anything.
"I'll go, mamma!"
"Ha!" laughed Jimmie Wibblewobble. "I guess I'll go too, Toodle. I
could help you carry the cocoanut if you happened to drop it."
"Let's all go!" suggested Noodle. "Because if the cocoanut does fall
and break, some one would have to pick up the pieces, and if there were
any very little ones it might be better to eat them instead of letting
them go to waste. We'll all go!"
So it was decided and the two beaver boys and Jimmie Wibblewobble,
the duck, started out, Mrs. Flat-tail giving them the money for the
cocoanut and also some for a cake of soap. But, of course, a cake of
soap is not good to eat.
On and on the boy beavers and the duck went to the store, and soon
they reached it. The store was kept by an old beaver gentleman named
Skilly-scaly, because he was always weighing things on his scales. But
he was no relation to the skillery-scalery alligator, with the humps on
his tail.
Toodle and Noodle got what their mamma had sent them for and Toodle
said:
"I'll carry the cocoanut; you might drop it, Noodle."
"So might you," said his brother. "We can carry it between us and
Jimmie will take the cake of soap. See, we will tie the cocoanut to a
long pole and carry it between us."
"That's a good plan," said the little duck boy.
So the round, brown, shaggy cocoanut was fixed up that way and slung on
a pole between Toodle and Noodle, who carried it on their shoulders.
Jimmie carried the soap on his back, where it would not get wet.
On the way home the beaver boys and the little duck chap came to a new
pond of water. It had been built by some new beavers, who raised up a
dam at one end, so the water could not run away, for they wanted to
have their houses in the water, you see.
"Oh, let's swim across this pond!" cried Noodle.
"I'm with you," said Jimmie, who, being a duck, could swim very well,
you know.
Of course, being a duck, Jimmie Wibblewobble could not swim under water
as can beaver boys. But for all that Jimmie did very well.
"It won't hurt the cocoanut to get wet," said Toodle. "We can jump in
the water and pull it after us like a boat."
"To be sure," said Noodle.
"And I can swim with the soap on my back, so that will not get wet and
melt," said Jimmie.
Into the water plunged the three friends, and Toodle and Noodle,
pulling the cocoanut between them, watched the big beavers at work, and
made up their minds that they would tell their papa and mamma about the
new neighbors, so they could pay them a visit.
Well, everything was going along nicely, when, all of a sudden, as
Jimmie was swimming close by an old log, he gave a sudden cry.
"Quack! Quack! Quackity-quack!" he yelled. "Oh, dear!"
"Why, what is the matter?" asked Toodle, quickly swimming up close to
his friend.
"Oh, something has hold of my leg, down under water," said the duck
boy. "I think it is a bad water rat. Oh, dear!"
Jimmie pulled and tugged, trying to get loose, but he could not. He was
held fast.
"Quick!" cried Toodle to his brother Noodle. "You swim home and get
Grandpa Whackum. He'll know what to do. I'll stay by Jimmie!"
Off swam Noodle for help and Toodle stayed with the duck boy. And then
the bad water rat, who had hold of Jimmie's leg under water, began
pulling him along to his den beneath the rushes.
"Oh, save me! Save me!" cried poor Jimmie. "The rat is taking me away."
"I'll see if I can save you!" cried Toodle, and down under the water he
dived. Surely enough, he saw the bad rat who had hold of Jimmie's leg.
"Let go my friend!" cried Toodle, bravely.
"No, no!" snapped the rat. "I'm going to eat him!" and that rat showed
his teeth under water, which made them look very big, and he growled at
Toodle so that the little beaver boy was frightened.
Up he came out of the water. He did not know how to save Jimmie, until,
all of a sudden, he saw the cake of soap on the duck's back. It had not
fallen off, very luckily.
"Ha!" cried Toodle. "I have it. I'll make a lot of soapsuds in the
water; it will get in the rat's eyes, and he'll have to let Jimmie go."
No sooner said than done. Holding the cake of soap in his paws, Toodle
sozzled it around in the water until he had made a thick lather. Of
course, none got in his eyes, or in Jimmie's. But the bad rat's eyes
got full of soapsuds, and so did his mouth, and you know how badly soap
tastes. So the rat let go of Jimmie's leg and swam off to wash in some
clean water, crying:
"Oh, dear! How my eyes hurt! Oh, that Toodle Flat-tail is too smart for
me."
And so Toodle saved Jimmie, and when Grandpa Whackum came swimming
back with Noodle there was nothing for him to do. So the duck and the
beavers swam home together, and Mrs. Flat-tail made a lovely cocoanut
cake, without any soap in it, and gave them all some.
And next, if the cork doesn't pop out of the ink bottle and blacken the
eye of the needle, when it tries to sew a button on the bean bag, I'll
tell you about Noodle helping Uncle Wiggily.
STORY XXIX
NOODLE HELPS UNCLE WIGGILY
Noodle and Toodle Flat-tail, the two little beaver boys, were in the
hollow stump school, where Professor Rat and Miss Lady Bug taught and
heard the lessons of the animal children. School had just begun, and
the pupils were singing a little song that went something like this:
"We dearly love our teacher,
We love our nice school, too.
We love to sing about our flag,
The red, the white, the blue!
"We love to know our lessons,
And then, when school is out,
We laugh and sing like anything,
And skip and jump about."
"Very good!" said Professor Rat, combing some cobwebs out of his
whiskers with a piece of chalk. "Now, Miss Lady Bug and I will sing a
song."
So first Professor Rat sang this:
"It's nice to be a pupil
In a hollow tree-stump school.
It's nice to come in early,
And never break a rule."
Then it was Miss Lady Bug's turn, and, fluttering her wings, she sang:
"The school bell goes 'ding-dong, ding-dong!'
That's really half of this--my song.
The other half I now will sing:
The school bell goes 'dong-ding, dong-ding!'"
Well, I wish you could have heard the animal boys and girls laugh at
that. They laughed so much they could not study. Really, I wish you
could have heard them. Oh, no, on second thought perhaps I don't wish
that.
No; if you had heard them you wouldn't want to study your lessons, and
then you might be kept in, and you'd blame me for telling you about it.
I guess it's better, after all, that you didn't hear them.
Well, to go on with the story. I just wrote that first part while I was
thinking up something else, just as the man in the circus goes hopping
around on one leg, while he's waiting for the elephant to get through
eating peanuts so he can jump over his back.
I mean the man can jump over the elephant's back. Gracious! I hope you
didn't think I meant that the elephant would leap over the man's back.
No, indeed! Just supposing he should fall--I mean the elephant fall on
the man. There wouldn't be anything left of him; would there? I mean
anything left of the man.
Well, anyhow, now to go on with the story.
After the animal children got through laughing at Miss Lady Bug's funny
little song, Professor Rat said:
"Noodle Flat-tail, you may stand up and read me the lesson in the book
about the old lady hen finding a grain of corn, and planting it so that
it grew up to be an orange tree with lemonade lollypops on it."
Now all the children liked that story better than any other in the
book, so Noodle, the little beaver boy, was very glad indeed to stand
up before all the class and read it.
But when he looked among his books for his reader he could not find it.
A queer look came over his funny face, and he said:
"Oh, teacher, I guess I forgot, and left my book at home."
"You did?" cried Professor Rat, combing some more shavings out of his
whiskers with one of the blackboard erasers.
"Left your book home?"
"I think I must have--my reading book isn't here," went on Noodle, sort
of flustered like.
"Teacher! Teacher!" cried Joie Kat, snapping his paws like anything.
"Teacher! Teacher!"
"Well, what is it?" asked Professor Rat.
"Maybe Noodle's book is under his tail--he may be sitting on it," said
Joie, all excited like.
And this may have been so, for beavers have very broad, flat tails, you
know, and something might easily have been hidden under Noodle's.
Noodle lifted his tail up, when Joie Kat said that, but no reader book
was there.
"No, I must have left it home," said Noodle.
"Well, then you had better go home after it," said Professor Rat,
though not at all crossly. "Hurry along, Noodle, and you may read the
lesson when you get back."
"Oh-o-o-o-o!" cried all the other animal girls and boys. And Billie
Bushytail, the squirrel boy, said to his brother Johnnie, in a whisper,
of course:
"Say, I'm going to leave all my books home tomorrow."
"So am I," spoke Johnnie, and Toodle Flat-tail said the same thing.
Noodle tried to look as if he didn't care when he left the school to
go home after his reader book. But he was very glad to get out in the
fresh air and sunshine, for it was a nice, fall day, although it did
look as if it might snow soon.
Well, Noodle reached his house all right, and got his book. His mamma
was quite surprised to see him, and said he must not be so careless
next time. Noodle said he would not.
The little beaver boy was going along through the woods on his way
back to school, when all of a sudden, just ahead of him, he saw a fox
sneaking along.
"Ah, ha!" thought Noodle. "I had better be careful. I will go around
another way, I guess."
Well, just as he was going to do this, and maybe find a canal of water,
so he could swim in that to school (knowing quite well that the fox
would not go in water), just as Noodle was going to do this, he saw
Uncle Wiggily, the old rabbit gentleman, hopping along. And Uncle
Wiggily hadn't noticed the bad old fox.
But the bad old fox saw Uncle Wiggily Longears, and before Noodle could
call out, to warn the rabbit gentleman, the fox sprang out, and grabbed
him. Yes, sir; that fox grabbed Uncle Wiggily by the ears, and started
to take him off to his den.
"Oh, this must never be!" cried Noodle. "That fox must not eat Uncle
Wiggily! How can I stop him? I know. I'll run on ahead and hide behind
a stump. Then, when the fox gets there, I'll jump out suddenly, and
bark like old dog Percival. That will scare the fox so I hope he'll run
away."
So brave Noodle Flat-tail hurried on ahead, and hid behind the stump.
And when the fox came up, dragging poor Uncle Wiggily by the ears, the
beaver boy cried:
"Boo! Bow-wow! Bur-r-r-r-r! Wuff! Skip out of here!"
And that fox was so frightened, thinking maybe a hunter and his dog
were after him, that he dropped the rabbit gentleman and away he ran,
without once looking back. If he had done so he'd have seen that it was
only little Noodle. But he didn't.
"Oh, Noodle!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You saved my life! But, oh dear!
That fox broke my crutch when he jumped on me, and he scared me so that
my rheumatism is worse than ever. I can't walk, and, if I stay here in
the woods alone, the bad fox may come back and get me."
"Have no fears," said Noodle bravely, just as the boy always spoke in
the reader book. "Have no fears, Uncle Wiggily, I will gnaw you out
another crutch."
So Noodle did this, with his strong orange-colored teeth. But, even
with the new crutch, Uncle Wiggily Longears could not walk, and he
said:
"Oh, Noodle, I don't know what to do! I think perhaps you had better
go get Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy to come for me in a wheelbarrow, or my
automobile, if she can run it."
"But," said Noodle, "if I go for Nurse Jane I shall have to leave you
here alone, and the fox may come back."
"That is so," said Uncle Wiggily sadly.
"Ha! I know what I'll do!" cried Noodle. "You shall sit on my broad,
flat tail, and I can drag it along the ground with you on it, and that
will give you as good a ride as in a wheelbarrow. Then the fox can't
get you."
"Fine and dandy!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit.
So he managed to hop over on Noodle's tail, where he sat down, and off
the little beaver schoolboy started, drawing the old rabbit gentleman.
And, though it was hard work, Noodle did very well. He took Uncle
Wiggily to school, because he thought that was the best and safest
place, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the kind muskrat, could come there
and get him.
"Ah, so that is what made you so long getting back, is it, Noodle?"
asked Professor Rat. "You had to save Uncle Wiggily, while going home
after your books."
"Yes," said Noodle, "I did."
"And I am glad you did," went on the rat gentleman. All the animal
children were very glad to see Uncle Wiggily, whom they all loved,
and Mr. Rat said the rabbit gentleman could tell a fairy story to the
pupils while he was waiting for Nurse Jane. So Uncle Wiggily did, and
everybody liked it.
Then, after Uncle Wiggily went away in his automobile with Nurse Jane,
Noodle read his reading lesson, and soon it was recess time.
So that's all to this story, which I hope you liked, and next, if the
telephone doesn't talk in its sleep, and wake up the player piano down
in the coal bin, I'll tell you about the beaver boys helping Mrs.
Bushytail.
STORY XXX
TOODLE, NOODLE AND MRS. BUSHYTAIL
The next day after Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, forgot his
reader book, and had to go home after it (when he saved Uncle Wiggily
from the fox, you know) there were so many of the animal boys and girls
who forgot their books, or their pencils, or something or other that
Professor Rat, in the hollow stump school, said with a laugh:
"Oh, ho! I see how it is! You all think I will send you home, as I did
Noodle, so you may have adventures. Not so! I will go get your books
and things myself. Miss Lady Bug, the teacher, will go with me. You
can't fool the old professor that way. Oh, no, indeed!"
So what did Mr. Rat do, but put on his tall hat, and take his
silver-headed cane, and call to Miss Lady Bug, the teacher:
"Come! you and I will go around to the different houses of these
forgetful animal children, and get their books for them. As for them,
they may stay in school and try to study so they will remember better
next time."
Then combing some cracker dust out of his whiskers with a bathroom
sponge, Professor Rat started off, and the lady bug teacher went with
him.
He had to go to the homes of Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the
squirrels, who had forgotten their arithmetics, and to the burrow where
Sammie Littletail, the rabbit, lived; for Sammie, hoping he would
himself be sent back for them, had left his pencils home. And Joie and
Tommie Kat had forgotten their multiplication tables, thinking they
would be sent home after them, as Noodle Flat-tail was sent to get his
reading book.
"I'll teach those forgetful boys and girls a lesson," said Professor
Rat to Miss Lady Bug as he walked along combing the ice cream cones out
of his whiskers with the lawn mower.
"But, Professor Rat," said Miss Lady Bug, politely fluttering her
wings, "while you and I are out of school there can be no lessons. It
is almost the same as if you let the children go home for their things
themselves."
"Dear me! Dear me!" exclaimed Professor Rat, snapping his paws. "I
never thought of that. So it is, isn't it? They won't study while we're
away, and they can't recite. Dear, dear me! How careless," and he was
so excited that he combed his whiskers out of the strawberry shortcake
with the looking glass.
"Oh, well. However, be that as it may," went on Professor Rat, hunching
up his shoulders like an old clothes man when he wants to buy a pair of
rubber boots, "no matter! Since we have started, Miss Lady Bug, we will
keep on, and go to the homes of the different animal children.
"It will be a little holiday for us, and, really, I am almost as
tired of school as the children can possibly be. Come along. It is a
beautiful day, the sun is shining, though winter will soon be here
again. The leaves are very prettily colored, and everything is lovely.
Come along and let us be happy."
So he took Miss Lady Bug's wing, and away they went, side by each,
through the woods after the things the animal children had purposely
forgotten and left at home.
And what was happening back there at the hollow stump school? Let us go
and see, as they say in story books.
When Professor Rat and Miss Lady Bug started off, Toodle Flat-tail,
who had forgotten to bring his geography book, sort of looked at his
brother and said:
"Well, it seems to me that this is just as good as if we went home
ourselves. We have no one to teach us--no lessons to say--come, let us
be jolly! No one will mind!"
"That's what I say!" cried Susie Littletail, and then such fun as
there was in the hollow stump school. And, really, have you the heart
to blame those little animal children? I have not, at least.
Well, they were playing stump tag, and hide the hickory nut, and all
games like that, including a new one called "Never put a Snowball on a
Red Hot Stove," only, of course there was only a make believe stove and
a make believe snowball, too. They were playing these games, when some
one knocked on the school door.
All at once the animal children were as quiet as mice. They crept to
their seats on tiptoes, and no one said anything. The knock came again.
"That can't be Professor Rat," whispered Toodle Flat-tail. "He would
come right in."
Once more the knock.
"Come--come in," invited Noodle in a weak little voice, not at all like
the one with which he shouted when he was playing ball.
The door opened and in came Mrs. Bushytail, the mother of Johnnie and
Billie, the squirrels.
"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Bushytail, surprised like. "Where is the teacher?"
"He's gone, ma," said Billie, "after our books and things. We forgot
and he went to get them for us."
"Is anything the matter, ma?" asked Johnnie, anxiously.
"Oh, nothing much," said Mrs. Bushytail. "I am cleaning house, that is
all, and there is so much to do that I thought I would come and ask
Professor Rat to let you and Billie come home to help me. I want you
to dust things with your fluffy tails, and I need some one to beat the
rugs and carpets."
"Were--were your rugs and carpets bad--that you want them beaten?"
asked Crackie Flat-tail, sister of Toodle and Noodle, in a squeaky
little voice that made all the others laugh.
"Oh, no, they were not bad," said Mrs. Bushytail, "only we have to beat
them to get the dust out. But as long as Professor Rat is not here,
there is no school, so you may come home with me, Billie and Johnnie, I
will explain to the teacher when I see him."
So Billie and Johnnie went home with their mamma to help her clean
house. Then, as long as there was no one to hear their lessons, the
other animal pupils thought they might as well go home also. So they
went, and Toodle wrote all about it on the blackboard, so Professor Rat
could read about it when he and Miss Lady Bug came back to the hollow
stump.
"Well, there's no school; what shall we do?" asked Toodle of Noodle.
"Let's go around and watch Billie and Johnnie help their mamma clean
house," said Noodle to Toodle. So they went, taking Crackie with them.
Wasn't it odd to have the teacher go away from the school so the
children had to go home? Do you wish that would happen?
Of course, you do not.
Well, Noodle and Toodle, with their sister Crackie, soon came to where
the squirrel family lived. And, oh! how busy Mrs. Bushytail and her two
boys were; to say nothing of little Jennie Chipmunk, who lived with
them. They simply made the dust fly.
"Now," said Mrs. Bushytail, coming out with a big grass rug, "this is
very dusty. Beat it well, boys. Get all the dirt out of it."
Johnnie and Billie tried, but they were not very strong, and the sticks
they used were not very heavy, so they did not get much dust out of the
rug.
"I'll tell you what it is," said Toodle, "you had better let Noodle and
me beat that rug, with our big, broad, flat tails, Mrs. Bushytail."
"Oh, if you would be so kind!" exclaimed the squirrel lady. "You could
do it quite nicely, I believe. There, Billie and Johnnie, put the rug
on the grass. Toodle and Noodle will beat it for us."
And I wish you could have seen those beaver boys beat that rug! No, on
second thought, I am glad you were not there, for the dust was very
thick. It made everybody sneeze, and if you have the epizootic, as
a little girl I know up in Montclair has, the dust would set you to
coughing like anything. Every once in a while Toodle and Noodle had to
stop and go:
"Aker-choo! Aker-choo! A-ker-choo-o-o-o!"
Well, everything was going along nicely, and the housecleaning was
almost over, when, all of a sudden, along came a hungry bear. He wanted
something to eat--a beaver or a squirrel--he didn't much care which.
And he was just going to grab up little Crackie Flat-tail, when, all at
once, Toodle and Noodle saw him.
"Quick!" cried Noodle. "Beat the rug with all your might, Toodle!" And
they did, and their tails made such a loud noise the bear thought it
was a gun being fired at him, and he thought the dust was powder smoke,
and away he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. So that's how
Toodle and Noodle helped Mrs. Bushytail, and also saved their sister
Crackie.
And then along came Professor Rat and Miss Lady Bug, to get Billie
Bushytail's forgotten books and when the school teacher heard how all
the children had left the school he laughed like anything, and said
they did just right.
"But it must not happen again," he said, and it did not.
So now I've got to stop, but next, in case the teakettle doesn't bite
the nutmeg grater and stick the rolling pin in the pie, while they try
to tag the sugar bowl, I'll tell you about Toodle and the singing bird.
STORY XXXI
TOODLE AND THE SINGING BIRD
"Children," said Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, to Toodle, Noodle and
their little sister, Crackie, one morning as they were starting for
school, "I think you had better take your lunch, and not come home to
dinner this noon; I am going to be very busy, canning sweet-flag root,
and birch bark, so we will have something to eat this winter. I really
wouldn't have time to get you anything to eat."
"Oh, it will be much more fun to take our lunch!" cried Crackie, as she
accidentally dropped her pencil and cracked the point. That was why she
was called Crackie--she so often dropped things. Once she dropped an
egg--but there, I'll tell you about that later.
"Yes, I think it'll be real jolly to take our lunch," spoke Toodle, as
he strapped his school books together so he could carry them in one paw.
"And we can go out in the woods, back of the hollow stump school, to
eat it," added Noodle, who was busy finishing the last of the red-apple
pancakes his mother had made for breakfast.
Then the school bell rang: "Ding-dong!" and also "Dong-ding!" and
Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver gentleman in the pond, called out
from where he was reading the morning paper near the fireplace:
"Come, children, hurry off, or you'll be late!"
So Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, put up a nice lunch for each of her
children, wrapping birch bark sandwiches and hickory nut cake in clean
leaves for them to take to school. Off they started, as three happy
little beavers as you would meet if you walked a mile, or maybe a mile
and a half, for all I know.
On the way they met Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys.
"We're not going home to dinner today," said Toodle to Peetie.
"Why not? Isn't there anything to eat at your house?" asked Peetie.
"If there isn't," went on Jackie, very kindly, "you may come to
our house. We have lots of things, and I'll give you a piece of my
puppy-cake."
"Oh, that's not the reason," spoke Noodle quickly. "Thank you just the
same. Our mamma is going to be so busy that she gave us our lunch to
take to school."
Then Noodle and Toodle and Crackie showed their little bundles of lunch
and Peetie and Jackie said:
"Oh, dear! We wish we could bring our lunch. We'll do it tomorrow!"
"Then we'll all have a regular picnic!" exclaimed Crackie.