Part 1

_BED TIME STORIES_

Toodle and Noodle Flat-Tail

(THE JOLLY BEAVER BOYS)

By HOWARD R. GARIS

Author of "SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL," "JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL," "CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL," "UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP," "UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES," "UNCLE WIGGILY'S JOURNEY," ETC.

_ILLUSTRATED BY LOUIS WISA_

A. L. BURT COMPANY Publishers New York

THE FAMOUS BED TIME STORIES

Books intended for reading aloud to the Little Folk each night. Each volume contains 8 colored illustrations and 31 stories--one for each night in the month. Handsomely bound in cloth. Size 6-1/2 by 8-1/4.

BED TIME ANIMAL STORIES

by HOWARD R. GARIS

SAMMIE AND SUSIE LITTLETAIL JOHNNIE AND BILLIE BUSHYTAIL LULU, ALICE AND JIMMIE WIBBLEWOBBLE JACKIE AND PEETIE BOW WOW BUDDY AND BRIGHTEYES PIGG JOIE, TOMMIE AND KITTIE KAT CHARLIE AND ARABELLA CHICK NEDDIE AND BECKIE STUBTAIL BULLY AND BAWLY NO-TAIL NANNIE AND BILLIE WAGTAIL JOLLIE AND JILLIE LONGTAIL JACKO AND JUMPO KINKYTAIL CURLY AND FLOPPY TWISTYTAIL TOODLE AND NOODLE FLAT-TAIL DOTTIE AND WILLIE LAMBKIN

UNCLE WIGGILY BED TIME STORIES

UNCLE WIGGILY'S ADVENTURES UNCLE WIGGILY'S TRAVELS UNCLE WIGGILY'S FORTUNE UNCLE WIGGILY'S AUTOMOBILE UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE SEASHORE UNCLE WIGGILY'S AIRSHIP UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE WOODS UNCLE WIGGILY ON THE FARM UNCLE WIGGILY'S JOURNEY

For sale at all booksellers, or sent, prepaid, on receipt of price by the publishers.

A. L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23 Street New York City

Copyright, 1919, by R. F. Fenno & Company

TOODLE AND NOODLE FLAT-TAIL

CONTENTS

I Toodle and Noodle Flat-Tail

II Toodle Cuts a Tree

III Noodle Builds a Dam

IV Toodle and Noodle Dig a Canal

V Grandpa Whackum is Caught

VI Toodle Builds a House

VII How Toodle Saved Noodle

VIII Toodle's and Noodle's Sister

IX Toodle and Noodle Slide Down

X Toodle and Noodle at School

XI How Crackie Broke the Doll

XII Toodle and Noodle Play Indian

XIII Noodle's Long Swim

XIV Toodle's Fire Engine

XV Toodle and Noodle Help Billie

XVI Crackie's Secret

XVII Toodle and the Big Log

XVIII Toodle and the Trap

XIX Toodle Saves Bully

XX Crackie Goes to School

XXI Toodle and His Roller Skates

XXII Noodle and the Pop Corn

XXIII Toodle and Noodle in Trouble

XXIV Toodle and the Chestnuts

XXV Toodle and Noodle on the Ice

XXVI Toodle and Noodle Play Football

XXVII Crackie and Joie Kat

XXVIII Toodle and Jimmie

XXIX Noodle Helps Uncle Wiggily

XXX Toodle, Noodle and Mrs. Bushytail

XXXI Toodle and the Singing Bird

Toodle and Noodle Flat-Tail

STORY I

TOODLE AND NOODLE FLAT-TAIL

Once upon a time, not so very many years ago, when every one was younger than he is now, but when the sun shone just as brightly and the wind blew just as sweetly, there lived in a curious little house, built right in the middle of a pond of water, a family of animals called beavers. They looked something like Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat lady who took care of Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, only these beavers were larger than Nurse Jane, and they had long, broad, flat tails, which they could fold up under themselves and sit on, just like a stool. That's why I have named them "Flat-tail," and I'm going to tell you some stories about these beavers, who are really very wonderful animals. They are covered with soft fur.

In the Flat-tail family there was, of course, Mamma and Papa Flat-tail, and there was also dear old Grandpa Whackum. Grandpa had such a funny name, not because he was fond of whacking the little beavers, but because, when there was any danger, the old gentleman beaver would whack or pound his broad, flat tail on the ground two or three times.

That made a sound like a drum, and whenever the other beavers heard it they would rush for the pond, dive down in it, swim to the front door of their house, the door being under water, and, once inside, they would be safe. So that is why the oldest beaver of them all was called Grandpa Whackum.

Well, then, to begin on the story--

Oh, dear me! I beg your pardon. I'm forgetting the most important part. Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, to be sure! Toodle and Noodle were the two small boy beavers of the family, and without them and the funny things they did, and dangers they got into, and out of again, there would be very few stories to tell. Toodle wore a spotted suit of clothes, and Noodle one that was striped. Now you can tell who is which.

Now, then, to start all over again.

Toodle Flat-tail, the little boy-beaver, came out of the under-water door of his home one day, dived down under the pond, holding his breath so the water would not get in his nose, and swam to shore. Then he sat up on his broad, flat tail and looked back toward his house.

"I wonder where Noodle is?" spoke Toodle, as he turned his head from side to side. "He said he'd come right out and play. What can be keeping him?"

But Noodle, the brother of Toodle, was not in sight.

There were other beaver children, and some grown-up ones, to be seen about the pond. Some were putting mud-plaster on their houses, others were cutting down trees with their four strong, orange-colored front teeth, and the nice green bark of these trees would be eaten by the beavers during the long, cold winter. But Noodle Flat-tail was not with the others.

"I guess he must be playing a trick on me," said Toodle, as he picked up a piece of a birch twig in his front paw and began chewing the soft bark. A beaver's front paw, you know, is almost like a monkey's, and he can hold things in it almost as well as you can in your hand. His hind feet, though, are made for swimming and are webbed like a duck's.

All of a sudden Toodle felt some one pushing him from behind, and before he knew what had happened he went kerflop! off the little hill on which he was sitting, into the water.

"Wow!" cried Toodle. "Who did that, I wonder? If it was a bad fox, or a lynx, or some animal that wants to eat me, I'd better stay under water, or go back home."

But Toodle Flat-tail was a brave little chap and he wanted to see who it was that had pushed him into the water. So he swam around a little, and then he carefully stuck his nose up, and then his eyes, and then, sitting in the same place where he had been sitting, he saw his brother Noodle. Noodle was laughing as hard as he could laugh.

"Oh, ho! So it was you who pushed me in, eh?" cried Toodle. "Well, I'll fix you for that!"

Out of the water he came with a rush and raced after Noodle. But Noodle waddled away and soon the two little beaver boys were having a regular game of tag.

Finally Toodle caught Noodle and pushed him into the water. But do you s'pose Noodle minded that? Not a bit of it, for he was more at home in the water than on land. In fact beavers have to go quite slowly on land, and they walk with a waddle like a duck, but in the water they can swim so fast that scarcely anything can catch them.

Toodle and Noodle splashed each other about in the pond, throwing water all over themselves, wrestling, playing tag and hide-and-go-seek, and when they were tired they climbed out on the bank and rested.

They looked at the other beavers working away. Some of the older ones were mending a hole in the dam. The beaver dam, you know, is just like a time when it rains and the gutter in front of your house fills with water. Then if your mamma lets you, you take some sticks and stones and mud, and pile it in the gutter so the water can't run down. This is called a dam, and it holds back the water, making it deeper back of the dam and shallow in front.

Beavers do the same thing. They build a dam across a little brook, so as to make a deep pond, for beavers have to have deep water to live in, and build their houses in; and in this pond, back of the dam, they also keep their food for the winter, big pieces of trees with soft bark on. The beaver dam is made of tree trunks and branches, sticks, mud, grass, stones--in fact, anything the beavers can get. When the dam breaks all the beavers work together to mend it.

So Toodle and Noodle watched their papa and mamma and the other big beaver folk mending the hole in the dam. A bad bear had clawed the hole there, hoping that all the water would run out of the pond so he could catch and eat the beavers. But the bear's plan did not work, I'm glad to say.

"I hope I didn't hurt you when I crawled up behind you and pushed you in the water," said Noodle to his brother most politely.

"Oh, no," said Toodle. "I liked it. First, though, I thought it was a fox after me."

"Ho! If it had been a fox!" exclaimed Noodle, "I guess you would have heard Grandpa Whackum pounding on the ground with his big tail to tell us there was danger."

"Yes, I guess we would," said Toodle. "Oh, Noodle!" he cried suddenly, "let's go over where those nice, juicy aspen trees grow, and get some bark off them. I'm just hungry for an aspen-bark ice cream cone."

"But papa said we weren't to go there without him," objected Noodle. "You know he said there was an old wolf not far from there, and he might get us."

"Oh, I don't believe there is any danger just now," said Toodle. "It's daylight. Besides, Grandpa Whackum can see that far and he'll bang with his tail if there's any danger. Come on!"

So the two little beaver boys went over to where some aspen and willow trees grew, though it was not just exactly right. They swam through the water and then came out and waddled over the land. Soon they were in the grove of trees.

"You take a willow tree and I'll take an aspen," said Toodle, "and after we each cut off a nice piece with the juicy bark on we'll take them home and divide them."

So, sitting up on their big tails, which were like stools to them, the little beaver boys began to gnaw away. A beaver's gnawing teeth are as good to cut with as a carpenter's chisel. There are four gnawing teeth, and the funny part of it is that they are colored yellow, like an orange.

Well, Toodle and Noodle were gnawing away, and they had almost cut down two little trees when, all of a sudden they heard:

"Whack! Whack! Thud! Thud!"

"Hark! What's that?" cried Toodle.

"It's Grandpa Whackum, telling us there's danger!" shouted Noodle. "Run, Toodle! Run!"

Away they ran for the water, and only just in time, for the bad old wolf sprang after them. But he did not get either of them, for Toodle and Noodle slipped into the water just in time and swam safely home.

From where he was working Grandpa Whackum had seen the wolf stealing up on the two little chaps and had warned them. So the wolf didn't have a beaver dinner that day, and Papa Flat-tail made Toodle and Noodle stay in the house the rest of the afternoon for not minding him.

But they were not always like that, and so in the next story, if the stove poker doesn't take the teakettle out to the moving picture show, I'll tell you about Toodle Flat-tail cutting down a tree.

STORY II

TOODLE CUTS A TREE

"Hey, Toodle, wake up! Wake up!" called Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, to his brother one morning. "Wake up! Breakfast is ready!"

Toodle turned over on the bed of white birch chips in the beaver house that was built in the middle of the pond of water, and said, sleepily:

"Oh, please let me alone, Noodle. I don't want to open my eyes yet. Let me sleep!"

"But don't you know what we're going to do today?" asked Noodle. "Have you forgotten what papa said?"

"Oh, it is a picnic? Are we going on a picnic?" asked Toodle, and this time he sat up on his tail and rubbed the sleepy feeling out of his eyes with his handlike paws.

"No, it isn't exactly a picnic," answered Noodle, as he combed out his fur with his hind claws so as to be nice and neat for breakfast. "But papa said he'd show us how to cut down a big tree today. Don't you want to learn how to do that?"

"Indeed I do!" cried Toodle, and he rolled from his bed in such a hurry that he nearly fell out of the front door, which led into the water. In that case Toodle would have had a swim before breakfast.

Not that he would have minded that much, for, like all beavers, he loved being in the water just as much as being on land. In fact, beavers, when they wear any clothes at all, as they have to, in stories of course, wear a kind that water cannot hurt--sort of rubber garments, you know.

"Oh, goodie!" cried Toodle. "That's what I want to do--cut down a tree," and he opened his mouth and felt his four sharp, orange-colored front teeth that were purposely made for gnawing. They were always sharp, too, and made in such a way that when they grew dull they sharpened themselves. No scissors-grinder ever had to come to the beaver colony to sharpen their teeth. Nature did that for the queer animals.

"Let's see who'll be first at breakfast," cried Noodle, and then he and his brother washed their paws and faces, brushed some dirt off their broad, flat tails, combed out their fur until it shone like Grandfather Goosey Gander's silk hat, and went into the dining-room, where Mamma Flat-tail was getting breakfast for her husband and for Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all.

"Good morning, Toodle and Noodle," said their papa, as he helped himself to some willow bark pancakes, flavored with water-lily root sauce. "You are a little late this morning, and if you are going to be working beavers, and learn how to cut down trees, you must get around earlier than this."

"I should say so!" exclaimed Grandpa Whackum, as he spread some watercress butter on his piece of birch bark bread. "Why, when I was a boy I used to get up before breakfast every morning, and cut down two or three trees. Then I'd float them down the canal to the dam we were building."

"Well, anyhow, we got up before breakfast," said Toodle, winking at his brother.

"Yes, but you haven't chopped even a tooth-pick," laughed their mamma.

"What's a canal, Grandpa?" asked Noodle, who wanted to learn all he could about beaver work.

"Oh, it's like a little stream of water, or a brook," said the old gentleman beaver, "only it's deeper, and we have to make it ourselves. We cut through the dirt and grass and take out the stones, and make a place for the water to run from one pond to another. Then we can float our logs through the canal, just as you boys play float your toy ships."

"I see," said Noodle, and he made up his mind he would soon dig a canal.

Well, the two little beaver boys ate their breakfast, and then got ready to go with their papa who was to give them their first lesson in cutting down a tree. Grandpa Whackum, who, as I told you before, used to whack on the ground with his tail to give warning of danger, went along also.

Mrs. Flat-tail stayed home to do the dishes in her kitchen. Of course, not all beaver families have a house with as many rooms in it as the Flat-tails had. But then Mr. and Mrs. Flat-tail were quite rich. Most beavers have only one room in their house.

So Mr. Flat-tail, the two boys, Toodle and Noodle, and Grandpa Whackum swam out of the front door of the water-house and across the pond to a little wood where some sweet willow trees grew. This was near the place where the wolf had nearly caught the two boy beavers the day before, as I told you in the first story. But now, with their papa and grandpa beavers to look after them, Toodle and Noodle were not afraid.

"Now, Toodle," said Mr. Flat-tail, when they had come out of the water and were all waddling along on land, "I'll give you a lesson in tree-cutting first. Then I'll show Noodle. Meanwhile, Noodle, you can go with Grandpa Whackum and get some fresh aspen bark for dinner."

So Grandpa Whackum and Noodle went off to another place, while Papa Flat-tail began to give Toodle his first lesson.

"We'll cut this tree," said Mr. Flat-tail, as he put his paw on one that was about as big around as a clothes post in your yard.

"Oh. I never can cut down such a big tree," said Toodle. "It would take me a week."

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mr. Flat-tail. "You don't know what you can do until you try. Now get a good seat on your tail and reach up with your four sharp front teeth and bite into the tree. Pull off the slivers and chips, and soon you will have cut through the trunk and the tree will fall."

"Gracious!" cried Toodle, "I hope it doesn't fall on me. It's no fun to have a tree fall on you."

"Of course not," laughed Mr. Flat-tail. "But that is what you must look out for, Toodle. Don't let the tree fall on you, or on any one else. And when you see that it is just ready to topple over, whack on the ground with your tail, just as your grandpa does. That will tell every one else around you to get out of the way. And another thing. Always pick out a tree that won't fall on top of another and get all tangled up, so it can't be moved."

"Will this tree do that?" asked Toodle, looking up into the top of the tree his papa wanted him to cut down.

"No," said Mr. Flat-tail, "it will not. Begin now, Toodle. This tree will fall just right."

Toodle thought he could never cut down such a large tree, but then he was a brave little beaver boy, and he was not going to give up without trying. So, sitting on his big, thick, broad tail, which, as I have told you is like a stool, he began. Into the soft wood he sank his sharp orange-colored front teeth, and soon the bark and chips began to fly, just as they do when a woodman cuts a log.

Mr. Flat-tail saw that his little son was learning his lesson well, so he said:

"Now, Toodle, I'll go over here and cut down a large tree by myself. But don't forget what I told you about whacking your tail on the ground just before your tree falls."

"I won't," promised Toodle.

Well, he was cutting and cutting away with his teeth, and then he began to think what fun he and his brother would have that afternoon, playing water-tag.

And Toodle was thinking so much about the fun that he forgot all about what his papa had told him. All of a sudden he heard a sound he knew well.

"Whack! Whack! Thud! Thud!" echoed through the woods.

"That's Grandpa Whackum!" exclaimed Toodle. "Good gracious sakes alive! There must be some danger. I must run!"

Poor Toodle started to run, but alas he was not quick enough. Down crashed the tree he had been cutting, and one limb struck him on the back, pinning him fast to the ground. Poor Toodle could not move. It was just as though he had been caught in a trap.

"Oh, dear!" he cried. "Oh, dear! My tree fell on me!"

And had it not been that Grandpa Whackum and Papa Flat-tail were there in the woods Toodle might never have gotten loose. But the two old beaver gentlemen soon came up and gnawed through the tree branches so Toodle could get up. His brother Noodle helped, too.

"Why didn't you watch out to see when your tree was going to fall?" asked Papa Flat-tail when they were on their way home again.

"I--I forgot," said Toodle, sort of ashamed-like.

"Well, if I hadn't seen it falling, and whacked on the ground with my tail," said his grandpa, "you might have been killed. Be more careful after this."

Toodle said he would, and he was quite proud after all that he had cut down a tree all by himself. Then they all swam home.

And on the next page, if the shoe horn doesn't blow so loudly that it wakes up the rubber doll in the puppy dog's hammock, I'll tell you about Noodle building a dam.

STORY III

NOODLE BUILDS A DAM

Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, was so lame and sore from having been caught under the tree he was gnawing down, as I told you in the story before this, that the day afterward he could not leave the house in the pond to go out and play.

"Cutting down trees is more dangerous than I thought it was," said Toodle when Dr. Possum came to put some sassafras liniment on his sore places.

"Indeed it is," said Dr. Possum. "I can climb trees very well, and hang on by my tail, but I never tried cutting one down. I don't believe I could do it. Though often I have heard of hunters, who when they are after friends of mine, cut down trees to get them out."

"How dreadful!" exclaimed Mrs. Flat-tail who was baking some apple-bread for dinner. "But, Dr. Possum, do you think Toodle will have to stay in the house long?"

"Well, maybe two or three days more," said the old gentleman doctor.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady. "Boys are so troublesome when they are in the house!"

And I guess this is so. Anyhow Noodle, who was the brother of Toodle, stayed in to play with him, and the two of them frisked around and got up all sorts of games, and nearly upset the piano and did all things like that. At least Noodle did, for Toodle was too sore and stiff to do much. But Noodle was trying to amuse his sick brother you see, and really he did not mean to make trouble.

"I'll tell you what I'll do," said Dr. Possum, as he closed up his birch bark satchel filled with all sorts of colored medicines. "On my way back home I'll stop and tell Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat lady, to come over and take care of Toodle. Then Noodle can go out and play, and your house will be quiet, Mrs. Flat-tail."

"Oh, that will be fine!" exclaimed the beaver lady, and Toodle said the same thing.

Noodle said he would be very glad to go out and play, for though he did not much mind staying in the house to amuse his brother, still he would much rather have gone out, to swim around in the pond, play on top of the big dam, that made the beaver pond, or even cut down a little tree so he could gnaw the green, sweet bark.

So Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy came from Uncle Wiggily's hollow stump bungalow, and she read stories to Toodle and told him how she could swim under water, almost as well as the beavers could, and how she could make a fiddle out of a cornstalk and play a tune on it. And she did, and it was such a nice, sleepy sort of tune, all about going to by-low land, that, before he knew it, Toodle was fast, fast asleep, and the house was quiet.

But what happened to Noodle? Ah, ha! We must find out about that before we go much further. For Noodle had made up his mind to do something, and when he did that something almost always happened.

As Noodle did not have to stay in the house any more to play with his little sick brother, he dived down through the front door, which was under water, so no bad animals could get in, and out the little beaver boy swam into the pond. This pond was made by a big dam being built across the lower end, to keep the water from running away, as I have told you, and in this pond were many beaver houses, built of sticks, mud, grass, stones and pieces of trees.

On the dam, which was wide enough on the top for several beavers to walk, there were a number of the animal folk talking, laughing and doing different things.

Some were gnawing pieces of tender bark, which they had stripped off the aspen or willow trees. Others were carrying in their front paws mud or sticks to mend holes in the roofs of their houses. Some beaver children were playing tag and pushing each other into the water.

"I wish I could make a dam," thought Noodle. "I would like to make a little one and have a pond of water all to myself. Then I'd build a house in it, and when Toodle gets well he and I can have lots of fun in it. I think that's what I'll do. I'll build a dam and have a toy beaver pond just for us boys."