STORY XIII

NOODLE'S LONG SWIM

"Come on, Noodle!" called Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, to his brother one morning as he slid down off the roof of the house in the pond and slipped into the water with a splash. "Come on or you'll be late for school."

"Oh, it's early yet," said Noodle. "We've got lots of time. I just want to finish making this little canoe out of birch bark. Maybe then we can paddle to school."

"Swimming is good enough for me," said Toodle, as he took a little ball of soft mud up on the end of his flat tail and threw it at his sister Crackie. It hit her on the back, but was so soft that it did not hurt her.

Toodle wouldn't have hurt his little sister Crackie for anything—not if you were to give him two ice cream cones and part of another one.

Crackie only laughed, and then she turned a peppersault into the water to wash off the mud. Beaver children, you know, play in the mud and water a good deal of the time, and how they love it! Why, you should see them make mud pies, with white stones for raisins. Some day I'll tell you about that.

"Well, are you coming?" called Toodle to Noodle, as he started to swim to school. "You'd better, Noodle, or you'll be late. The first bell has rung."

"Oh, I've got time enough," spoke the other little beaver boy. "I just want to see if my birch bark boat will sail."

"Well, I'm going, anyway," said Toodle, and away he started.

"I wish I could go to school," spoke Crackie, sort of sadly like. "I don't like to stay home alone when you boys go away to your lessons."

"Never mind," whispered Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all. "Some day, Crackie, you shall go to school, and you'll learn as much as Toodle and Noodle," and then the old gentleman animal gave Crackie a whole ice cream cone for herself, and she let it fall on a stone and broke it. That's why she was called Crackie—she was always dropping things and cracking or breaking them.

But it didn't hurt the ice cream cone much, for only the sharp point was cracked off, and the little beaver girl didn't like that part, anyhow. None of the ice cream was spilled, I'm glad to say.

So Toodle started off to school, and as he swam away he looked back and called to his brother: "You'll be late, Noodle."

"Oh, I guess not," answered Noodle. "I'm coming right along now."

Well, Noodle finished making his birch bark boat, and it sailed very nicely, but there was not enough wind for the beaver boy to sail to school in it, so he thought he had better swim. He was just starting off, having said good-by to his sister Crackie, and he was wondering if he knew his spelling lesson, when Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, called out:

"Oh, I say, Noodle, do you think you'd have time to swim over to Mrs. Wibblewobble's, the duck lady, and borrow a cupful of salt for me? I want to make a sweet-grass pudding and I need a little salt for it."

"Of course, I'll go, mamma," said Noodle. "I have time enough, for I'll swim very fast. But I thought you put sugar in pudding, instead of salt."

"Oh, this is a new kind," said Mrs. Flat-tail. "I'll give you some of the pudding for supper."

So Noodle started to swim over to Mrs. Wibblewobble's house. He found the duck lady busy in her kitchen, and she got the salt for him, putting it in a cup so that it would not spill.

"You had better hurry," said Mrs. Wibblewobble to Noodle. "My boy Jimmie started for school some time ago."

"Oh, I'll hurry as soon as I go home with this salt," spoke Noodle.

So off the little beaver boy swam once more, but he had not gone very far before he looked around behind him, and he saw something coming after him in the water. He could not see exactly who it was—just a sort of little flurry in the beaver pond, and Noodle said:

"Perhaps this is Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy or some of my friends. I'll wait and see."

So he swam slowly, and the creature in the water swam faster toward him, and then, all of a sudden, Noodle saw that it was no friend of his at all, but the bad old skillery-scalery alligator, who was swimming down under water so Noodle couldn't see him so plainly. But the alligator happened to stick his nose up for a second, to try and bite a fly, and then it was that the little beaver boy knew who the bad creature was.

"Mercy me!" cried Noodle. "That alligator is after me! And he looks hungry, too. I've got to swim with all my might to get away from him. Oh, dear!"

Then Noodle began his long swim to get away from the bad old alligator. Beavers can swim very fast, you know, on top of water, or under it, though when they swim under water they have to come up to breathe every once in a while. And alligators can swim fast, too.

So there was a race between Noodle and the 'gator. The little beaver boy swam on top of the water for a while, and then he would dive down underneath. And he held his spelling book, which had a rubber cover, so it wouldn't get wet, on top of the cup of salt so no water would get in that.

"Oh, if I can only get home before the alligator grabs me I'll be all right," said Noodle.

On and on swam Noodle, but home seemed far off. Sometimes the beaver boy would dive down suddenly, and swim under water. Then, for a little while, the alligator would not know what had become of Noodle. But soon the bad creature, with his long nose, would smell Noodle in the water and take after him again.

Noodle swam this way and that, hoping he could fool the 'gator, but he couldn't seem to, and Noodle was getting tired, for he had swum a long way. It was farther to Mrs. Wibblewobble's house, and back again, than he had thought.

All at once the 'gator made a big spring, giving a jump through the water. He grabbed Noodle.

"Ah, ha!" the bad creature cried. "Now I have you! You gave me a long chase but I have you!"

Poor Noodle didn't know what to do. There he was caught; and he couldn't go to school any more, and he could not go home to give his mamma the cup of salt and—

"Ha!" thought Noodle suddenly. "The salt! Maybe if I throw it in the 'gator's eyes it will make him sneeze, and he will let me go!"

No sooner said than done. Just as the 'gator was opening his mouth to show Noodle his sharp teeth and red tongue, the little beaver boy quickly tossed the cup of salt right into the eyes and nose and mouth of Mr. Alligator.

"A-ker-choo! Foo-do-do! Ker-snoo-ker-choo!" sneezed the 'gator, and he was so excited that he let go of Noodle to reach for his own pocket handkerchief. That was just what the little beaver boy wanted, and a second later he had dived down and swum away.

And the alligator couldn't get Noodle again, either, for he couldn't see with all that salt in his eyes, so Noodle swam safely back to his beaver house again.

He had lost the salt, of course, but Mrs. Flat-tail said that was all right, as she would go herself and borrow some more of Mrs. Littletail, the rabbit lady.

"And you had better hurry on to school, and don't let any more alligators chase you," said Noodle's mamma to him.

"I won't," he answered, and on he went to school, safely and he didn't miss a single lesson. I'm glad to say, getting there just as the last bell rang, so he wasn't even late.

And on the next page, if a little girl named Elizabeth doesn't turn my typewriter upside down to take the ribbon off it for her lollypop doll, I'll tell you about Toodle Flat-tail's fire engine.