STORY XXIX

NOODLE HELPS UNCLE WIGGILY

Noodle and Toodle Flat-tail, the two little beaver boys, were in the hollow stump school, where Professor Rat and Miss Lady Bug taught and heard the lessons of the animal children. School had just begun, and the pupils were singing a little song that went something like this:

"Very good!" said Professor Rat, combing some cobwebs out of his whiskers with a piece of chalk. "Now, Miss Lady Bug and I will sing a song."

So first Professor Rat sang this:

Then it was Miss Lady Bug's turn, and, fluttering her wings, she sang:

Well, I wish you could have heard the animal boys and girls laugh at that. They laughed so much they could not study. Really, I wish you could have heard them. Oh, no, on second thought perhaps I don't wish that.

No; if you had heard them you wouldn't want to study your lessons, and then you might be kept in, and you'd blame me for telling you about it. I guess it's better, after all, that you didn't hear them.

Well, to go on with the story. I just wrote that first part while I was thinking up something else, just as the man in the circus goes hopping around on one leg, while he's waiting for the elephant to get through eating peanuts so he can jump over his back.

I mean the man can jump over the elephant's back. Gracious! I hope you didn't think I meant that the elephant would leap over the man's back. No, indeed! Just supposing he should fall—I mean the elephant fall on the man. There wouldn't be anything left of him; would there? I mean anything left of the man.

Well, anyhow, now to go on with the story.

After the animal children got through laughing at Miss Lady Bug's funny little song, Professor Rat said:

"Noodle Flat-tail, you may stand up and read me the lesson in the book about the old lady hen finding a grain of corn, and planting it so that it grew up to be an orange tree with lemonade lollypops on it."

Now all the children liked that story better than any other in the book, so Noodle, the little beaver boy, was very glad indeed to stand up before all the class and read it.

But when he looked among his books for his reader he could not find it. A queer look came over his funny face, and he said:

"Oh, teacher, I guess I forgot, and left my book at home."

"You did?" cried Professor Rat, combing some more shavings out of his whiskers with one of the blackboard erasers.

"Left your book home?"

"I think I must have—my reading book isn't here," went on Noodle, sort of flustered like.

"Teacher! Teacher!" cried Joie Kat, snapping his paws like anything. "Teacher! Teacher!"

"Well, what is it?" asked Professor Rat.

"Maybe Noodle's book is under his tail—he may be sitting on it," said Joie, all excited like.

And this may have been so, for beavers have very broad, flat tails, you know, and something might easily have been hidden under Noodle's.

Noodle lifted his tail up, when Joie Kat said that, but no reader book was there.

"No, I must have left it home," said Noodle.

"Well, then you had better go home after it," said Professor Rat, though not at all crossly. "Hurry along, Noodle, and you may read the lesson when you get back."

"Oh-o-o-o-o!" cried all the other animal girls and boys. And Billie Bushytail, the squirrel boy, said to his brother Johnnie, in a whisper, of course:

"Say, I'm going to leave all my books home tomorrow."

"So am I," spoke Johnnie, and Toodle Flat-tail said the same thing.

Noodle tried to look as if he didn't care when he left the school to go home after his reader book. But he was very glad to get out in the fresh air and sunshine, for it was a nice, fall day, although it did look as if it might snow soon.

Well, Noodle reached his house all right, and got his book. His mamma was quite surprised to see him, and said he must not be so careless next time. Noodle said he would not.

The little beaver boy was going along through the woods on his way back to school, when all of a sudden, just ahead of him, he saw a fox sneaking along.

"Ah, ha!" thought Noodle. "I had better be careful. I will go around another way, I guess."

Well, just as he was going to do this, and maybe find a canal of water, so he could swim in that to school (knowing quite well that the fox would not go in water), just as Noodle was going to do this, he saw Uncle Wiggily, the old rabbit gentleman, hopping along. And Uncle Wiggily hadn't noticed the bad old fox.

But the bad old fox saw Uncle Wiggily Longears, and before Noodle could call out, to warn the rabbit gentleman, the fox sprang out, and grabbed him. Yes, sir; that fox grabbed Uncle Wiggily by the ears, and started to take him off to his den.

"Oh, this must never be!" cried Noodle. "That fox must not eat Uncle Wiggily! How can I stop him? I know. I'll run on ahead and hide behind a stump. Then, when the fox gets there, I'll jump out suddenly, and bark like old dog Percival. That will scare the fox so I hope he'll run away."

So brave Noodle Flat-tail hurried on ahead, and hid behind the stump. And when the fox came up, dragging poor Uncle Wiggily by the ears, the beaver boy cried:

"Boo! Bow-wow! Bur-r-r-r-r! Wuff! Skip out of here!"

And that fox was so frightened, thinking maybe a hunter and his dog were after him, that he dropped the rabbit gentleman and away he ran, without once looking back. If he had done so he'd have seen that it was only little Noodle. But he didn't.

"Oh, Noodle!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "You saved my life! But, oh dear! That fox broke my crutch when he jumped on me, and he scared me so that my rheumatism is worse than ever. I can't walk, and, if I stay here in the woods alone, the bad fox may come back and get me."

"Have no fears," said Noodle bravely, just as the boy always spoke in the reader book. "Have no fears, Uncle Wiggily, I will gnaw you out another crutch."

So Noodle did this, with his strong orange-colored teeth. But, even with the new crutch, Uncle Wiggily Longears could not walk, and he said:

"Oh, Noodle, I don't know what to do! I think perhaps you had better go get Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy to come for me in a wheelbarrow, or my automobile, if she can run it."

"But," said Noodle, "if I go for Nurse Jane I shall have to leave you here alone, and the fox may come back."

"That is so," said Uncle Wiggily sadly.

"Ha! I know what I'll do!" cried Noodle. "You shall sit on my broad, flat tail, and I can drag it along the ground with you on it, and that will give you as good a ride as in a wheelbarrow. Then the fox can't get you."

"Fine and dandy!" exclaimed the old gentleman rabbit.

So he managed to hop over on Noodle's tail, where he sat down, and off the little beaver schoolboy started, drawing the old rabbit gentleman. And, though it was hard work, Noodle did very well. He took Uncle Wiggily to school, because he thought that was the best and safest place, and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the kind muskrat, could come there and get him.

"Ah, so that is what made you so long getting back, is it, Noodle?" asked Professor Rat. "You had to save Uncle Wiggily, while going home after your books."

"Yes," said Noodle, "I did."

"And I am glad you did," went on the rat gentleman. All the animal children were very glad to see Uncle Wiggily, whom they all loved, and Mr. Rat said the rabbit gentleman could tell a fairy story to the pupils while he was waiting for Nurse Jane. So Uncle Wiggily did, and everybody liked it.

Then, after Uncle Wiggily went away in his automobile with Nurse Jane, Noodle read his reading lesson, and soon it was recess time.

So that's all to this story, which I hope you liked, and next, if the telephone doesn't talk in its sleep, and wake up the player piano down in the coal bin, I'll tell you about the beaver boys helping Mrs. Bushytail.