STORY VI

TOODLE BUILDS A HOUSE

"Hurray!" cried Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, as he hopped out of his clean shavings bed one morning, and tickled his brother Toodle with a turkey feather. "Hurray! no school today!"

"That's so," spoke Toodle, rubbing the sleepy feeling from his eyes so he could look out of the window and see if the sun was up yet. As it was quite high in the sky, it shone, making the beaver pond sparkle like silver.

Most beaver houses have no windows, and they are all dark inside, but the one where Toodle and Noodle lived had several windows in it, for Mr. Flat-tail was a very rich beaver.

Besides there was Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all, and he helped make the windows. So if some of you children have seen real beaver houses, and have never noticed the windows, don't say they never have any. Because this Flat-tail family of beavers was different from those you may know.

"Well, I guess we may as well get up," said Toodle, when he saw how high the sun was. "And I'm glad it's Saturday, so we don't have to go to school."

I believe I forgot to tell you that Toodle and Noodle went to school just the same as any animal children do, and later on in these stories I'm going to tell you some of the things they did there.

"Yes, we can have a lot of fun," spoke Noodle. "Bully No-tail, the frog, is going to have a ball game, with the broad lily pad leaves for bases, and you and I can play."

"Good!" cried Toodle.

So the two little beaver boys hurried down to their breakfast of willow bark oatmeal with frizzled watercress pancakes, and soon they had dived down through the water, in their rubber cloth suits, out of the front door, and across the pond they swam.

Down on the beaver dam, which was built to keep the water from running out of the pond where the animal folk lived, were a number of the grown-up beavers, and they were very busy. They were bringing mud and sticks and stones and grass in their paws, and putting it in a pile near where Grandpa Whackum stood on his hind legs sitting on his tail for a stool.

"That's right!" the old gentleman beaver was saying. "Hurry now, everybody, bring a lot of mud and plaster it over the hole. Hurry, everybody!"

"What's the matter?" asked Noodle. "Is there a fire?"

"No, but in the night a bad bear tore a hole in our dam, to let all the water out of our pond, so he could tear open our houses and get us," said a policeman beaver, who was sitting on top of the police station, looking out for danger. And when he saw any he was ready to whack his tail on the water, making a noise like a fire-cracker. When the other beavers heard this they would all run and hide.

"A bear; eh?" exclaimed Toodle. "Wow!"

"Yes, and you boys must be careful where you play today," said Grandpa Whackum, as he showed the other beavers how to mend the hole the bear had torn in the dam. "I can't be with you to look out for danger."

"Oh, we'll be careful," said Noodle, sort of easy-like, as all boys are.

They watched the mending of the dam for a little while, and then they went on to play ball with Bully, the frog, Jimmie Wibblewobble, the duck, and some other of their animal friends.

Well, this story isn't about the ball game, though I will tell you one like that some time. But now I must relate what happened when Toodle built his play-house. So I'll just say that there was lots of fun at the ball game, and that Noodle's side won.

Soon after that Noodle had to go to the store for his mamma, and as Toodle did not want to go along he stayed home.

"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.