STORY XXIV

TOODLE AND THE CHESTNUTS

"Oh, but I'm glad there's no school today!" cried Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, as he made a noise like a popcorn ball and ran up one side of a tree and down the other.

"So am I!" cried his brother Johnnie, who was trying to see how long he could stand on his head without sneezing.

"Why are you so glad?" asked Toodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy. "It's Saturday and you know there's never any school that day."

"I know there isn't," spoke Johnnie, "but then, you see, on account of there being none yesterday, when Professor Rat had the toothache in his spectacles, I thought maybe he'd make us come this morning."

"I didn't hear the bell ring, so I'm sure there's no school," said Toodle. "And if it's just the same to you, Billie and Johnnie, I wish you wouldn't speak about yesterday. I want to forget all about how Noodle and I rolled the big stones down the mud slide and broke the dam, making a lot of trouble for Grandpa Whackum."

"All right, we won't speak any more about it," said Johnnie, pleasantly. "But I'll tell you why I'm so glad there's no school today. It's because Billie and I are going after chestnuts."

"Chestnuts!" exclaimed Toodle, the beaver boy, looking at his tail to be sure there were no stickery bramble briars on it. "Where are they?"

"Oh, they grow on a tree like hickory nuts," said Johnnie, "only they come all wrapped up in a big burr, with sharp points on, and we have to wait for the frost to open the burr before we can get the nuts out."

"And when we do get them! Oh, yum-yum!" cried Billie. "How good they are—even better than ice cream!"

"Oh, now I know what you mean," said Toodle. "I have seen chestnuts, but I always thought they came roasted, and grew on a wagon that an Italian gentleman pushed around the street, on two wheels. So chestnuts grow on trees, eh?"

"To be sure," said Billie, "and if you like you may come with Johnnie and me when we gather some today."

"I'd just love to!" cried Toodle and he felt so happy that he tried to stand up on the end of his tail. But it was too broad and flat, and, though it was, as are all beavers' tails, good to sit on, like a stool, Toodle could not stand upon its end.

So, the consequence was, Toodle fell over backward, but his coat of fur (getting ready for winter) was so thick that he never felt his tumble any more than if he had landed in a feather bed, or in a basket of soap bubbles, which are as soft as anything I know of.

"Where's Noodle?" asked Johnnie, when Toodle had picked himself up and brushed the dirt off his coat by fanning himself with his wide tail. "Where is Noodle, Toodle?"

"Oh, he went to the store for mamma. She wanted some molasses to make a birch bark pudding with. We needn't wait for Noodle, if you are going after chestnuts. I heard him say he was going to play football with Munchie Trot, the pony boy, when he came back from the store. If we get any chestnuts I'll save him some, anyhow."

"Oh, we're sure to get some," spoke Billie.

"Yes, for we know where lots of trees grow," added Johnnie. "Come along now, Toodle."

So Toodle, the little beaver boy, and Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, started after chestnuts.

On and on they went through the woods and as they went Toodle sang this little song, which he made up all himself, without anyone helping him:

"Well, well!" laughed Billie Bushytail. "That's pretty good!"

"It surely is," said his brother Johnnie. "But how can you tell when you're going to fall, Toodle, so as to have the feather bed with you?"

"I guess you'd have to take it along each time you went nutting," said the little beaver boy. "I only put the feather bed in the verse to make it rhyme, anyhow. You don't really need it."

Then they went on a little farther and soon they had come to the place where the chestnut trees grew.

"Now, Billie and I will climb up," said Johnnie. "We'll knock the chestnuts down to you, Toodle, and you can gather them into a pile. When we have all we want we'll divide them."

"Very good," said the little beaver boy, who knew he could not climb a tree as well as can squirrels. "And if you get up the tree and can't get down again, I can gnaw it down for you, with my big orange-colored teeth. And I'll let it fall so gently that you won't be hurt."

"Thank you," said Billie, "but I guess we can get down, Toodle."

Up the chestnut tree scrambled the squirrel boys and soon they were throwing down lots of chestnuts to Toodle, who gathered them into a pile. Once in a while, a chestnut would hit the little beaver boy on the head, but he did not mind that.

"You want to look out, though, if any of the big, round, stickery chestnut burrs fall on you," said Billie. "Of course we wouldn't mean to throw any on you and there are not many left that aren't opened, but one might accidentally hit you."

"Oh, I'll look out," laughed Toodle.

Well, some of the prickly burrs did come down, but they did not hit Toodle, and he brushed them to one side, in a pile, with his thick, strong tail, which even a chestnut burr could not hurt.

"Well, I guess we have all the nuts off this tree," said Billie, after a bit. "Come on down, Johnnie, and we'll go look for another one," and down the squirrel boys scrambled, as quickly as a monkey on a stick, or a jumping-jack, if you prefer that. So Toodle didn't have to gnaw the tree down.

"We'll go over there by that old stump," said Billie, pointing to it with his tail.

"Shall I come?" asked Toodle.

"No, you had better stay here and keep guard over the chestnuts on the ground," said Johnnie. "Some one might come and take them while we are gone. We won't be long, and if there are any nuts on the trees over there we'll come back and get you, and these nuts too."

So away went Billie and Johnnie, leaving Toodle on guard by the chestnuts. At first nothing happened, and Toodle was thinking he could even take a little sleep, when, all of a sudden, out from behind a stump came a big, black bear. Oh, but he was a bad one; and he came closer and closer to Toodle, until he stood right in front of the little beaver boy, all ready to grab him.

"Ah, ha!" growled the bear. "Now I have you!"

"Oh, dear!" cried Toodle. "What do you want?"

"I want you and the chestnuts, too," said the bad bear. "Come, get ready! I'm going to carry you off to my den!" and he came nearer to poor Toodle.

The little beaver boy looked to see if he could find anyone to help him. But Billie and Johnnie Bushytail were far off, looking for more chestnut trees, and no one else was near. Even when Toodle whacked with his tail on the ground, the way his papa had taught him to do when there was danger, no one came to help the beaver boy.

"Well, here's where I grab you!" growled the bear, and he was just going to hug Toodle in his sharp claws and maybe scratch him, for all I can tell, when, all of a sudden, Toodle saw a big pile of the prickly chestnut burrs he had brushed together.

"Ah, ha!" thought Toodle. "These will do for that bear."

And with one sweep of his tail along the ground, Toodle sent those burrs in a regular shower in the bear's face. The sharp, prickly stickers stuck in the soft and tender nose of that bear and made him sneeze and cough, and have the toothache and turn a somersault all at once. And then the bear cried:

"Oh, woe is me! I'm all stuck up. I guess I'll go home!"

And home to his den he went, leaving Toodle and the chestnuts alone, and pretty soon Billie and Johnnie came back, not having found any more nut-trees. So Toodle told them about the bear, and how he had driven him off, and the squirrels said the beaver boy was very brave. Then they divided the chestnuts, and went home, and now it's time for you to go to bed.

But on the page after this, if the piece of cheese doesn't jump out of the mouse-trap and scare the clothesline into the waste paper basket, I'll tell you about Toodle and Noodle on the ice.