STORY IV

TOODLE AND NOODLE DIG A CANAL

"Come, boys," said Mrs. Flat-tail to Toodle and Noodle, the little beaver chaps, one morning when they were swimming around the house in the pond, playing tag; "come boys, I want you to go to the store for me."

Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, had swam out of the front door of her house, and was sitting up on the roof, looking to see if there were any holes there where the snow might come in during the winter. She saw a small one, and made up her mind that her husband or Grandpa Whackum, would have to plaster that hole up with mud before cold weather set in.

"What do you want from the store, mamma?" asked Toodle, as he dived down under the water, and began swimming toward his brother, who had his back turned. Toodle was going to tickle the other little beaver boy, and make believe it was a water snake that had done it.

"Well, if you'll keep still long enough for me to tell you what I want, I'll do so, and give you the green-leaf money to get it," said Mrs. Flat-tail, laughing, for she loved to see her two boys play in the water.

Up came Toodle from the bottom of the pond, where he had dived—up he shot, right under Noodle, and he upset Noodle, who went toppling head over tail, and then the two beaver boys splashed around in the water and had a lot of fun. Oh, it's great to be a beaver, I tell you!

"Well, are you done playing?" asked Mrs. Flat-tail, after a while. "If you are I'd like to have you get me some cat-tail flour and some candied cocoanut from the store. I'm going to make a cake!"

"Oh, goodie!" cried Noodle. "I'm going to carry the cocoanut!"

"No, I am!" said his brother. "You might eat some on the way home."

"Huh! You mean you would yourself," cried Noodle.

"Well," said their mamma, "I'll give you a basket with a water-proof rubber cloth on it, so you can dive down under the water with the things in it if you have to, and then you won't get them wet. So you may each carry half the basket with the cocoanut in it."

Toodle and Noodle thought this a good plan, and soon they were swimming on toward the store, which was kept by a nice old water rat, and the store was in an old rowboat that no one wanted any more. Mr. Rat had stuffed up the holes in it with cheese, and it did very well for a grocery.

There were two troubles with it, however. One was that often Mr. Rat got hungry and then he would graw some of the cheese out of the holes. That would make the boat leak, and the grocery store got wet. The other trouble, which was almost quite as bad, was that the boat would float away all over the beaver pond, and when you started out to find it you could never tell just where it was going to be, whether at one end of the pond or the other. So going to the store was not as easy as might seem, but still no one minded much.

But this time Noodle and Toodle were quite lucky. They soon found the floating boat store, and bought what their mamma had sent them for, putting the things in the basket and covering them up with the water-proof cloth so as to keep them dry.

"Now let's see how quickly we can go home," said Noodle.

"All right," agreed Toodle. "The sooner we get home the quicker mamma can bake the cake and—" Then he stopped and laughed. So did Noodle.

"I know what you're thinking of," said Toodle, blinking his eyes.

"What?" asked Noodle.

"You're thinking that maybe we'll get some of the cake," spoke his brother, and truly, that was right. Oh, those beaver boys were just like you real children! Indeed they were.

So, carrying the basket, with the candy cocoanut for the cake, between them, Toodle and Noodle swam away from Mr. Rat's floating boat store. Then they had to get out on dry land, for this pond did not go all the way to the pond where the Flat-tail house was built.

"Now we must be very careful," said Toodle, as he and his brother crawled out on shore. "Look carefully around for danger, Noodle, for you know we can't go as fast on the land as we can in the water, and something may catch us. So if you see a fox, or a wolf, or a bear, bang your tail on the ground as Grandpa Whackum does, and we'll both run."

Of course, Noodle said he would, but for some time the two little beaver boys went on together and saw nothing to alarm them. Then, all at once, when they were almost to the pond where they lived, and were ready to plunge in it and swim home, they saw a big, savage lynx on the path ahead of them. A lynx is like a wolf, only worse, and he has sofa-cushion tassles on the tips of his ears, so you can always tell him when you see him. In a picture, I mean, not real. I wouldn't want you to meet a real lynx.

"Oh, the lynx!" whispered Noodle. "He'll get us sure if we don't look out! Let's go back to Mr. Rat's pond."

"No, wait until I bang the ground with my tail," said Toodle. "Maybe papa or Grandpa Whackum will hear it and come to help us."

"No, don't make a noise with your tail now," said Noodle, "or the lynx will hear it and come for us."

"Then let's run," suggested Toodle. "We'll go back to the other pond."

"I'm afraid if we do that the lynx will see us, and chase after us," spoke Noodle. "Oh, dear!"

"Then what can we do?" asked his brother in a whisper.

"Dig a canal," was the answer. "Listen! We are not far from our own pond. If we can dig a canal from here to there we can walk down in it, for it will be like a ditch without any water in it, and the lynx won't see us. Then we can run along and when we get to our pond we can easily swim home."

"That's what we'll do!" cried the other beaver. So keeping down low in the grass, where the lynx would not see them, they began digging a ditch. With their strong claws Toodle and Noodle could easily do this, for they had often watched the older beavers doing it. They wished there was water at the place where they had begun to dig, for that would have made it easier for them, but it could not be helped. They hid the grocery basket under a bush in the grass as they began to dig.

My! how the dirt did fly! The two little beaver boys worked very hard, for they wanted to get away from that lynx. As for that bad animal, there he lay in the sun, just wishing some fat beaver, or some other poor chap, would come along to be eaten.

Pretty soon Toodle said:

"I think we're near our pond now, Noodle."

"I think so, too," whispered Noodle. "Soon the water will rush into our canal and we will be safe. Then we can tell papa and he'll get the basket of groceries."

The beaver boys dug a little more and then, all of a sudden, with a rush, the canal filled with water, and Toodle and Noodle were swimming. This was just what they wanted.

Then something happened. All at once a lot of beavers came paddling down the new canal Toodle and Noodle had made, and among them was Grandpa Whackum.

"Oh, ho!" cried the old gentleman beaver. "Look here! What's this? Who dug this canal?"

"We did," answered Toodle proudly. "Noodle and I dug it to get away from the lynx. Isn't it a good one?"

"The canal is all right," said Grandpa Whackum, with a laugh, as he splashed water with his broad tail, "but you made your canal so low down that all the water is running out of our pond into it. We will have no water left if we don't stop up your canal, boys. Hurry, friends!" cried Grandpa Whackum to the other beavers. "Make a dam across the boys' canal and that will keep the water in our pond. It won't all run out then."

So the beavers did this, bringing mud and sticks and grass for a dam, and soon the canal was dry again, and the beaver pond stopped running out. Then the big beavers stole softly up to where that lynx was and they threw stones at him until he was glad enough to run home.

Then Grandpa Whackum got the basket of cocoanut and flour which Toodle and Noodle had hid in the grass and brought it home, so Mrs. Flat-tail could make a cake. She did, and the two beaver boys each had a large piece.

So that's all now, but in case the baker man doesn't let his cake of ice roll over our lawn and spoil the watering can, I'll tell you next about Grandpa Whackum being caught.