STORY XXI

TOODLE AND HIS ROLLER SKATES

"Mamma," said Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy one afternoon as he came in from school, and looked around in the ice box to see if there was any cake left over from dinner, "would you do me a favor, mamma?"

"Well, Toodle," said Mrs. Flat-tail, wiping some flour off the end of her nose with her paw, for she was making a raisin pudding for supper, "well, Toodle, it depends on what the favor is."

"Oh, ma," went on Toodle, making his tail go up and down like a palm leaf fan on Christmas eve, "I do want a pair of roller skates awful bad."

"Roller skates!" cried Mrs. Flat-tail, raising both her paws in the air, she was so surprised like. "Why, you know they cost a lot of money, Toodle, and your father hasn't any too much. You know winter is coming on, and there will be lots of things to buy. Besides, there will soon be snow and ice all over the ground, and ice skates would be better than rollers, I should think. Grandpa Whackum can show you how to make ice skates out of a flat bone."

"I'd rather have roller skates, ma," said Toodle. "It won't be winter for quite a while yet, and I could have lots of fun. I saw one of the Bushytail squirrel boys with a pair coming from school, and he went along like anything—so fast!

"Say, ma, if I had a pair of roller skates I could go to the store for you twice as quick when you wanted anything. Mayn't I have a pair—please?"

"Now, Toodle, said Mrs. Flat-tail. Don't tease, that's a good boy. You know if you had a pair Noodle would want some also, and so would Crackie. And three pairs of roller skates—my gracious goodness me sakes alive! Why your papa would be the poorest beaver in all this pond if he had to buy three pairs of roller skates with winter coming on. I'm afraid you can't get them."

"Oh dear!" said Toodle, with a sigh. "Oh dear!"

He felt so badly that he didn't want to eat much of the nice green willow bark sandwiches they had for supper, and Grandpa Whackum said:

"What's the matter with that boy? Is he sick?"

"He wants roller skates," said Mrs. Flat-tail.

"If he has a pair I want some, too," said Noodle.

"That's how I thought it would be," said Mrs. Flat-tail, with a look at her husband.

"Well, I'm afraid no one can have roller skates this year," said the beaver gentleman. "This is going to be a hard winter. There aren't many trees left around here for food any more, and we'll have to bring them from a long way off. And the pond will soon be frozen over, too. Ice skates would be much better for you, Toodle, and you can make them yourself."

"I'll show you how," spoke Grandpa Whackum.

"I'd—I'd rather have roller skates," said the little beaver boy.

"Well, you had better study your school home work lesson now," said his papa, as he sat down to read the evening paper.

But Toodle did not feel much like studying. You know how it is yourself, when you want a rubber doll, or maybe a water-pistol, or a bicycle, or something that your papa or mamma can't let you have, for one reason or another. You keep thinking of that, and nothing else, and it seems as if you really must have it.

That's the way it was with Toodle. He thought of nothing much but roller skates. The next day in school when Professor Rat asked him how to spell horse, Toodle said:

"R-o-l-l-e-r—roller, s-k-a-t-e—skate—roller skates," and all the animal children laughed at him.

"Next," said the teacher, and poor Toodle had to go down to the foot of the class. Oh, how badly he felt.

But, coming home from school that afternoon, something happened to Toodle and, after that he didn't want roller skates at all any more. I'll tell you about it.

Toodle was walking along by himself. His brother Noodle and the other boys had asked him to come with them to play football, but Toodle was thinking so much about his roller skates that he didn't want to do anything else. So he would not go.

So he was walking along through the woods, feeling rather sad and miserable, and wishing his papa was a rich beaver, when, all of a sudden, Toodle saw a little bear on the path in front of him. The bear was such a small chap, not much bigger than Toodle himself, that the beaver boy wasn't a bit afraid.

Of course he looked around to see if the big papa or mamma bear was in sight, but they were not, and so when the baby bear said "Hello!" Toodle answered back, "Hello!" as bravely as anything.

"What are you doing out here?" asked Toodle of the baby bear.

"Oh just walking along," said the baby bear. "What are you doing here? You don't look very happy, my little beaver boy. Are you looking for anything?"

"Yes, I'm looking for a pair of roller skates," said Toodle. "Of course, I don't believe I'll find 'em out here, but I'm looking just the same."

Then a sharp, cunning look came over the face of that baby bear, and he said:

"Well, now, if this isn't the best luck! Say, beaver boy, come with me, and maybe my father will give you his roller skates. He's going to take a long winter sleep soon, and he won't need them. I'll ask him to let you take his."

"Will you really?" cried Toodle in delight. "That's fine! I'll come right along with you."

Now Toodle had been told never to believe what a bear—even a baby bear—said, or to go with one of them. But he was thinking so much about roller skates that he couldn't think of anything else. And so he forgot to be careful.

"Just come along to the den where I live," said the baby bear, "and maybe I'll get you some roller skates."

Toodle felt very happy to hear this, and walked along through the woods at the side of the brown baby bear. Pretty soon they came to the bear's den. At first Toodle was a little afraid when he saw the papa and mamma bear, but the baby bear waved his paws at them, and cried out:

"I've brought a nice fat beaver boy home with me. He wants some roller skates. I told him maybe he could have your old ones, papa, for you're going to take a long sleep."

"That's right," said Mr. Bear. "That's right."

Toodle thought it was funny for the baby bear to speak about how he had brought a fat beaver boy home.

"I wonder why he said I was fat," thought Toodle. Oh, if he had only known how bears like fat beavers just before they take a long winter sleep! Oh my, but just wait and see what happens.

"I'll go in and get the skates," said Mr. Bear. Then he said to his wife: "You stay out here with this nice fat beaver boy. Oh, isn't he fat!"

"I wonder why they're so glad I'm fat?" thought Toodle.

Well he sat down on his tail outside the bear's stone cave and waited. Mr. Bear and the little baby bear went inside.

Pretty soon, through an open window in the cave, Toodle heard voices speaking. They were the voices of the papa bear and the baby bear talking together.

"Didn't I do well to bring home a nice, fat beaver boy for our supper?" asked the baby bear. "I saw him in the woods, and when he said roller skates I could see that he wanted them very much. I knew you had an old pair, so I told him to come along."

"Yes," said Mr. Bear. "I'll make believe to give the skates to him, and then we'll ask him in the den to try them on, and then we can grab him, and——"

"Yum! Yum!" exclaimed the little bear, smacking his lips, and Toodle knew by that how hungry the little bear was.

"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the beaver boy. "So this is a trick, eh? The roller skates are only to fool me! Those bears want to get me in their den and then they'll eat me. I'm not going to stay here!" And with that he ran off toward a pond of water, where he knew he would be safe, for a bear can never catch a beaver in water.

"Here! Where are you going?" cried Mrs. Bear. "Come back for your roller skates, beaver boy!"

"I—I guess I don't want any," said Toodle, slyly-like, and with that he jumped into the water and swam safely home, though the big papa bear tried to catch him. But he didn't, I'm glad to say. So you see it was all a trick about the roller skates, and the baby bear tried to fool Toodle with them.

And when Toodle reached home he was all over the notion of wanting roller skates, which had nearly gotten him into a lot of trouble.

"Never believe what bears say—even a baby bear—unless they are good bears," said Grandpa Whackum when he heard what had happened, and Papa Flat-tail said the same thing. "And soon I'll show you how to make ice skates," said Grandpa Whackum.

So that is the story of Toodle, and how he didn't get his roller skates after all, and it's a good thing he didn't, I guess. And in the next story, if the spelling book doesn't jump over the geography and spill the ink bottle out of the parlor window, I'll tell you about Noodle and the pop corn.