Part 3

"But I would like to have some fun," said this little beaver boy to himself, "so I guess I'll build a play-house. Then, when Noodle comes back it will be a surprise to him and he and I can stay in it, and play soldier, and Indians, and all things like that."

So Toodle began to build his house. Perhaps if Grandpa Whackum, or his papa, or some of the older beavers had seen him they might not have let Toodle do this, for he started his house away off at one end of the pond, near the wood where the bears and wolves lived.

"But if we are going to play Indian in our house," said Toodle to himself, "we don't want it too near the other houses. The people will make a fuss if we yell and holler."

So off he went by himself, while all the grown beavers were mending the hole the bear had torn in the dam. Other boy and girl beavers were playing around, some swimming, some sliding down slippery, muddy banks, that were just like coasting-hills, and some girl beavers were playing with their dolls, which were made out of pieces of wood.

Toodle had watched other beavers making houses, some of them very large, so he thought he knew how to do it. But he only wanted a small play-house. He gathered a lot of sticks, and then, diving down to the bottom of the pond, and holding his breath, he scooped up a little pile of mud and grass roots. This was the bottom part of his house. On top of this he laid sticks, and more sticks, until his house was above the water. Then he brought still more sticks and mud and grass roots up from the bottom of the pond.

Toodle then piled some long poles up slanting, just as you might take a lot of bean poles and stand them up in a circle in the garden, to make an Indian tent. Toodle did this, and then he spread mud all over the outside, and when this had partly dried in the sun, there he had a nice little house.

"Won't Noodle be surprised when he sees this!" cried the little beaver boy.

If you had been there you could not have seen any door to the queer house, but there was one just the same. The entrance to it was under water, and when he wanted to go in Toodle had to dive down below the water and swim up along a dark front hall to get into his house. It was safer that way, as no other animal dared come in.

Well, the little beaver boy finished his house, and then he began to wish for his brother to come along so they could have a good time. Toodle was sitting on the roof, putting some mud plasters on a few holes he saw, when all of a sudden, there was a swirl in the water, and along came the bad old skillery-scalery alligator with the double-jointed tail. He swam straight for Toodle, crying:

"Ah, ha! This is the time I have you! Wuff!"

"No, you haven't!" cried the little beaver boy, and with that he gave a dive off the roof of his play-house into the water, and swimming with his paws and his broad, flat tail, he soon had found his front door. The next minute he was up inside his house.

"Now you can't get me!" he cried through the sides to the skillery-scalery alligator.

"I can't, eh? You just watch me!" cried the bad old 'gator.

With that he began to scratch and claw, and to claw and to scratch at Toodle's house, scattering all over the sticks and the mud, that was not yet hard and dry.

"Oh, dear!" thought the little beaver boy. "I shouldn't have come in here. When I was in the water I should have swum home; for I can go faster in the pond than that 'gator can. Now he'll get me sure! And I don't dare go out now, or he'll grab me. Oh, dear! I wish I'd made my house nearer the dam, where Grandpa Whackum is. He'd save me."

Well, the 'gator went on clawing away at Toodle's nice little house, and he had it almost clawed apart, and was going to reach in and grab Toodle, when, all of a sudden, Noodle, who had come back from the store, came swimming along, looking for his brother.

"Help! Help! Oh, will no one help me?" cried poor Toodle in his little play-house.

"Yes, I will!" said Noodle. He had with him two ice cream cones, one for himself and one for Toodle, and they were full, and heavy with ice cream. But Noodle knew there was but one thing to do. First he threw one cone at the bad 'gator, and the sharp point stuck in one eye. Then Noodle threw the other cone, and the sharp point of that stuck in the 'gator's other eye. Then the 'gator couldn't see to scratch or claw Toodle's house any more, and he couldn't see to grab the little beaver boy, who easily swam out and got safely away with his brother.

Of course, the ice cream cones were lost, for the 'gator took them away with him, and had to go to a dentist to have them pulled out of his eyes. But, anyhow, Toodle was saved by Noodle, whom he thanked very much. And Toodle never built a house so far away from the dam again.

So this is all now, but on the page after this, if it happens that the butterfly spreads some honey on a cracker for the rag doll to eat, I'll tell you about Toodle saving Noodle.

STORY VII

HOW TOODLE SAVED NOODLE

Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the two little beaver boys, sat on top of the big dam, that kept the water in the pond from flowing all away, as the water does in your gutter on a rainy day, unless you make a pile of mud and sticks to hold it back. Toodle was gnawing a bit of sweet bark from an aspen tree, and Noodle was making a whistle out of a bit of willow wood.

"Well," said Noodle after a while, when he had blown on the whistle, making a noise like a toy choo-choo engine, "is this all we're going to do today, Toodle?"

"Oh, I don't know," answered Toodle as he looked at the stick to see if there was any more eating-bark on it, and, finding there was none, he threw it away. "I don't know," said Toodle again, "what would you like to do to have fun?"

"Let's go away in the woods," spoke Noodle, "and gnaw down some trees with our teeth, the way Grandpa Whackum showed us, and we can build a little cabin and play Indian."

"That would be fun," agreed Toodle, "only suppose a bad bear or an unpleasant wolf should get after us?"

"Then I would just blow on my whistle," said his brother, "and Grandpa Whackum, or maybe papa, or some of the big folks would hear it and come to save us. I say let's go off to the woods," and he blew his whistle quite loudly, so that Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all, who was mending a hole in the dam where the water was running away, Grandpa Whackum, as I say, came running up, banging his broad, flat tail on the ground, and asking:

"What's the matter, boys? Is some one trying to catch you? Are you in a trap?"

"Neither one, thank you kindly, Grandpa Whackum," said Noodle, speaking very politely, as he had been taught to do, "we are in no danger, and I was just blowing on my whistle to show Toodle how I could call for help if we went to the woods."

"I see," spoke the old gentleman beaver. "I heard the whistle, all right, but if you boys go off to the woods I could not get to you as soon as I did this time. So you want to be very careful if you do go."

"We will," promised Noodle. "Come on, Toodle. Let's go have some fun."

So the two little beaver boys jumped down from the big dam, and began swimming toward the woods some distance off. The beavers could swim in the water much better than they could waddle, or walk, on land, even if they did stand up on their hind legs. And they were much safer in the water, but of course they could not stay in it all the while.

On and on swam Noodle and Toodle, and sometimes the little beaver boys would see gold or silver fish in the water around them, and they'd stop for a minute and talk about how warm the pond was, and whether there would be a fishball game that day, and all things like that.

And sometimes Toodle and Noodle would see some little girl beaver friends of theirs playing with their dolls, and their hair ribbons, and their sewing on top of the big beaver houses that stuck up out of the water.

"Well, here we are at the woods," said Noodle, after awhile, and he swam to the bank, and climbed out of the water.

"Yes, we're here," said Noodle, as he climbed out and sat down beside his brother, to dry off a little. Both the little beaver boys sat on their big tails, which were as good as little stools to them, as I have told you in the stories before this one.

"Now for some fun!" cried Toodle, as he turned a somersault and part of a peppersault, while Noodle blew on his whistle, not very loudly, you know, for he did not want to scare Grandpa Whackum and make him come running up, thinking there was danger.

Then the two beaver boys began to play. With their four strong orange-colored teeth they gnawed down small trees, and began to pile them on shore to make a little log cabin. They did not build a regular beaver house, which is almost always made in the water. This time Toodle and Noodle were just playing, and they wanted a cabin on shore.

"Now it's almost done!" exclaimed Toodle, as he went inside and looked out of the window.

"Yes, a few more logs and it will be ready for us to play in," spoke his brother. "Then you can be an Indian part of the time, and I'll be a soldier, and make believe chase and shoot a bang-bang gun at you, and then it will be your turn to be a soldier with a gun, and I'll be an Indian."

And just then, all of a sudden, something fell down out of the air, and came down, cracko-whacko! hitting Toodle on the head as he was looking out of the play-cabin window.

"Wow," cried Toodle. "Did you do that, Noodle?"

"Indeed, I didn't," said his brother. "Can't you see that I'm busy here gnawing down this tree to make the bang-bang gun with? I didn't hit you."

Just then Toodle heard some one laughing, and, looking up, he saw Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, sitting on a tree branch right over the log cabin. Billie was eating a hickory nut.

"Excuse me, Toodle," said Billie, the squirrel boy. "I hit you, but I didn't mean to. I was eating a nut and it fell out of my paws and landed on your head. Did it hurt you very much, Toodle?"

"Oh, hardly any," said the little beaver boy. "You see I have a lot of fur on top of my head, Billie, and it bounced right off--the nut did, I mean--not my head."

I guess if the nut had hurt him, Toodle wouldn't have said so. Boys are like that, you know. That's the reason they don't cry, after they get over being babies.

"Come on down and play with us," said Noodle.

"Yes, do," invited Toodle. So Billie, the squirrel boy, scrambled down from the tree, and soon he and the two beaver brothers were playing in the little log cabin.

Oh, such fun as they had! They made up all sorts of games, including the one about Indians and soldiers, and then they played a new game called "Don't bite your Paws when all alone. You try to eat An Ice Cream Cone." That is a very funny game, only you have to have ice cream cones to play it, and it was a lucky thing Uncle Wiggily Longears, the old gentleman rabbit, came along just as Toodle, Noodle and Billie were ready to start it, for he had the ice cream cones with him in his valise, and he gave them to the boy animals to use.

Well, the old rabbit gentleman watched them playing about for some time, and then he hopped off to see his friend, Grandfather Goosey Gander, and Billie, the squirrel, went with him. So that left Toodle and Noodle alone. They played some more, and then Noodle thought he would make himself a little toy boat to go sailing in.

Noodle went off by himself down to the edge of the water where a nice little tree grew, and he was cutting this tree down with his sharp teeth, while Toodle was up in the play-cabin making believe he was a soldier on guard, when all of a sudden something happened.

A great big, old, gray wolf, who hadn't had anything to eat in a long, long time--not since Fourth of July I guess--this bad, old, gray wolf sprang out of the bushes and grabbed Noodle in his paws.

"Now I've got you!" growled the wolf, and really he had. There was no mistake about that. The wolf had poor Noodle!

"Oh, dear," cried the little beaver boy. "Let me go! Oh, please let me go, and I'll give you all the money I have home in my tin bank."

"No! No!" growled the bad old wolf, and he started to take Noodle off to his den. Noodle tried to blow on his willow whistle to call for help, but it was in his pocket where he couldn't reach it. And it looked as if the wolf would take him away.

But have no fear, little ones. I have a plan to save Noodle.

Toodle, up in the cabin, saw what had happened, and he cried:

"I'm coming, Noodle! I'm coming!" Down the hill ran Toodle, and going close up to where the wolf was with his brother, Toodle stood in the water, and with his broad, flat tail, which is just like a pancake-turner, that brave little beaver boy splashed water all over that wolf. In the wolf's eyes and nose and mouth it went, making him sneeze and gasp and choke. Of course Noodle got all wet too, but he didn't mind that a bit. He liked it. And finally the wolf was so soaking wet, and he sneezed and choked so hard, that he had to let go of Noodle, who at once ran away and was safe, for Toodle had saved him, just as I said he would.

"Come on, I guess we'd better go home," said Toodle, and he and Noodle went back to the beaver dam. As for the wolf he had to go to the doctor to get something to make him stop sneezing, and it served him right, I think.

So no more now, if you please, but if the little chicken next door doesn't come in and pick a hole in the baby's red circus balloon so that it bursts, I'll tell you next about Toodle's and Noodle's little sister.

STORY VIII

TOODLE'S AND NOODLE'S LITTLE SISTER

"Well, boys," said Grandpa Whackum, the old gentleman beaver, one morning, as he swam out of the house in the pond and took a seat on his tail, on top of the dam, next to where Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail were sitting; "well, boys, I think you might take a few more swimming lessons today, for after you start going to school I won't find much time to teach you."

"School!" cried Noodle, "are we going to school, grandpa?"

"Of course," said the old gentleman beaver, slowly blinking both his eyes.

"But school for the other animals began some time ago," spoke Toodle. "Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, have been going two weeks, and so has Sammie Littletail, the rabbit. I thought we wouldn't have to go."

"Yes," said Grandpa Whackum, "it is true you two boys will start in a little late, but that is because your papa and mamma first wanted you to have some lessons at home in tree cutting, and in house and dam making and things like that. But when you do start to school, say in a week or so, you can easily catch up to the others.

"So, as I said, I'll give you your last swimming lesson now, and then you will always be able to get away from any animals that chase after you in the water."

Now Toodle and Noodle liked the water very much, and they so enjoyed having Grandpa Whackum show them the best way to swim and dive and float, as well as stay under water without breathing for a long time--they liked this so much, I say, that they forgot about soon having to go to school.

My! how they splashed about in the pond, using their hind paws, which were something like a duck's feet. They fairly rushed through the water, and when they wanted to go very specially fast they used their broad, flat tail just like a propeller on a steamboat.

"That's the way to do it!" cried Grandpa Whackum, as he told the beaver boys what to do. "Turn around quickly in the water, and dive down when an alligator or a sea lion chases you," said the old gentleman beaver, showing them how.

So Toodle and Noodle practiced their swimming lesson, and then their grandpa said:

"Now, boys, come up on this old stump and do some diving. Jump right into the water; don't be afraid!"

Grandpa Whackum showed them how to do this, springing off his hind feet and going away down under water where no one could see him until he popped up again.

Toodle and Noodle did this after him, and, though at first they were not very good at it, soon they got so they could dive as nicely as could be.

"Now you are good swimmers," said the old gentleman beaver, "and you may have time to play. But be careful not to go too far away, over to the woods, or the bad wolf may get you."

Toodle and Noodle said they would be careful, and then they began playing tag, and hide your tail, and jump over your chewing gum, and all games like that. Finally they swam away up to one end of the beaver pond, and they were just going to climb out on land, and sit on their tails for a while, until they thought of a new game, or until some of their friends came home from school, when, all of a sudden, something happened.

No, it wasn't a rustling in the bushes, and no bad animal jumped out on them. Goodness knows that takes place often enough, as you well know. But it was something different this time.

Toodle and Noodle heard a gentle little voice somewhere off in the woods, and it kept saying:

"Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! What shall I do? Who will take care of me? Oh dear!"

"Hark!" cried Noodle. "Did you hear that?"

"Indeed, I did," answered his brother. "Come on, let's go home!" and he started toward the pond.

"Go home!" exclaimed Noodle. "What for? Let's go see what that is."

"No, sir! Never!" cried Toodle. "Why most likely it's a bear or a wolf, making believe cry like that so we'll come closer, and then he can grab us. No, sir! don't you go see what it is at all. Come on home!"

"Oh, don't be a silly!" exclaimed Noodle. "That's some little boy or girl animal in trouble. A wolf or a bear couldn't cry in such a tiny, weeny voice as that. I say let's see what it is."

Toodle listened to the crying voice again. Truly it did sound like some little animal, and not like a bad bear, and finally Toodle said:

"Well, let's go take a look. But be all ready to run in case there's danger. Remember Grandpa Whackum isn't here to help us."

"Oh, I'll be careful," promised Noodle.

Slowly and carefully the two little beaver boys went toward where they heard the voice. It was still crying away like this:

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Will no one come and take care of me? Oh, dear!"

"It's in that old stump over there," said Toodle after a bit of looking about.

"Yes, that's where it is," agreed Noodle. "The stump is hollow and some poor chap is inside it."

So Toodle and Noodle went up to the hollow stump, and they stood up on their tippy-toes, and they looked in, and at first it was so dark they couldn't see anything, and then--and then--all of a sudden--they looked once more, and--what do you think they found?

Why, there was the dearest, sweetest, cutest little baby beaver girl you ever saw! She was all dressed in a long blue-pink-yellow dress, and she had a little bottle of milk in one paw and a rubber rattle-box in the other, but she was crying, this little baby beaver girl was, and she seemed so lonesome and afraid that Toodle and Noodle felt very sorry for her, and loved her at once.

"Oh, look!" cried Toodle. "A baby in a hollow stump!"

"Yes, and maybe we can take her home and keep her for our little sister," said Noodle. "Oh, joy!"

"Oh, dear!" said the little baby beaver.

"What's the matter?" asked Noodle.

"Oh, I'm left all alone," said the baby. "I was out in the woods with my papa and mamma, and a bear and a wolf chased us. My papa and mamma ran as fast as they could, but the bear and wolf kept after them, and finally they got so close that my papa and mamma couldn't get away. Then my mamma hid me in this stump, hoping, I guess, that some one would find me, and then she and papa ran on and--and----"

But the little baby beaver cried so hard that she couldn't talk. Toodle and Noodle felt the tears coming into their eyes also, but Toodle asked, very, very softly:

"What happened after that, baby?"

"The--the bear and wolf carried my papa and mamma away to their dens," said the baby beaver, "and--and I'm left all alone. Nobody loves me! Oh, dear!"

"Don't cry any more!" said Toodle, and with his handkerchief he wiped the eyes of the baby beaver. "We love you, and we'll take care of you, won't we, Noodle?"

"Indeed we will!" exclaimed the other beaver boy. "We'll take you home with us, and you can be our little sister."

"Will you really?" asked the baby, who was old enough to talk, you see, and she could walk a little. "That will be lovely!" she said, and she stopped crying.

So Toodle and Noodle helped her out of the hollow stump, and then they made a little boat out of a piece of tree which they gnawed down, and they rowed the baby beaver across the pond to their house. And Mrs. Flat-tail said her boys did just right to bring the poor little thing home; and she took her for her very own baby and for a sister to Noodle and Toodle.

They named her Crackie, for she used to drop the dishes and cups and crack them. But no one minded that very much, for they loved Crackie so. And one day a wolf chased her and she threw an ice cream cone at him and cracked that, but it scared the wolf so that he ran away, which was what Crackie wanted.

So that's how Toodle and Noodle got a little sister, whom they loved very much, and some day Grandpa Whackum said he might find that bad wolf and bear and make them let Crackie's papa and mamma go. But lots of things happened before that.

And in the next story, if the cocoanut pie doesn't roll off the table and break the cream pitcher's leg, I'll tell you tomorrow night about Toodle and Noodle sliding down hill.

STORY IX

TOODLE AND NOODLE SLIDE DOWN

Once upon a time Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boys, went sliding down hill when there wasn't any snow on the ground, and a very strange thing happened to them. I'm going to tell you all about it, if you'd like to hear it. So, if you will kindly not wiggle too much, and not call the dog over here to rub his wet tail on my newly polished shoes and take all the shine off so I can't go to the party, I'll tell you all about it.

It began this way. Toodle said to Noodle, his brother, one day:

"Let's have some fun."

"All right," said Noodle to Toodle, "we will. What shall we do?"

"Let's go out on the dam and look around," said Toodle. "Maybe we'll see something there."

The dam, you know, was the big wall of sticks and stones, and grass and mud, that held the water of the beaver pond from running away and leaving all the beaver houses on dry land. Because the beaver animals, you know, like to have their houses in water.

"Shall we take Crackie with us?" asked Noodle. Crackie, you remember, was the new little baby sister of the beaver boys. They had found her in a hollow stump. "Shall we take Crackie?" asked Noodle.

"Why, yes, I guess so," answered Toodle. "She'd like to come and have some fun."

So they swam back to the beaver house, dived down under water where the front door was (so no bad animals could get in without at least getting wet) and then Noodle called:

"Hi there, Crackie! Want to come with us?"

"Of course I do," answered Crackie, and then something sounded "Bango!"

"My goodness! What is that?" cried Mrs. Flat-tail, mother of the beaver children. "What did you break that time, Crackie?"

"Only the looking glass. Oh, dear!" answered the little baby beaver. "It's all cracked to pieces."

"Oh, Crackie!" cried Toodle, sadly like.

That's the reason her name was "Crackie," as I told you in the story before this one. The poor little girl did not mean to do it, but she was always cracking or breaking something. Some people are like that; aren't they?

"I--I was just looking in the glass to see if my hair ribbon was on straight," said Crackie, "when the mirror just fell out of my claws and broke!"

Crackie was getting to be quite a girl, you see, to have hair ribbons and all things like that. Oh, beaver children grow very fast, you know. They are something like mushrooms that spring up over night.