STORY XXV

TOODLE AND NOODLE ON THE ICE

"Come, boys! Get up!" called Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, who was the mother of the two little beaver boys. "Time to get up or you'll be late for school!" and she pounded on the ceiling with a nice piece of birch tree stick, from which she gnawed the bark so that from it she could make griddle cakes for breakfast.

Toodle put one paw out of his bed, which had been made in a pile of nice clean shavings.

"Bur-r-r-r-r-r!" he cried, pulling his paw back quickly again under the warm bed quilt, made of soft brown leaves, sewed together. "Bur-r-r-r-r! It's awful cold!"

"Is it?" asked Noodle, rubbing his eyes with his paws. "Is it cold, Toodle?"

"Indeed it is," replied Toodle. "Just put your paw out and see."

Noodle did so.

"My goodness me, sakes alive, and some icicle soup!" he cried. "I should say it was cold! There'll be skating this morning, I guess. Is Grandpa Whackum down there?" he called to his mamma, who was already cooking the griddle cakes, and putting the maple sugar on the back of the stove, where it would keep warm.

"Yes, I'm here," answered Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver of them all. "I'm down here, boys, and if you don't soon come down here too, I'll go up there and tickle you so you won't know whether you're standing on your head or on your tail. Are you coming?"

"Indeed we are," answered Noodle, and then, getting brave, he suddenly threw back the leaf-bedquilt and jumped out into the middle of the room that was built upstairs in the beaver house, which stood in the middle of a pond of water.

Beavers, you know, are little animals like muskrats, and they just love the water, as I have already told you. They love it so much that nearly always they build their houses right in a pond, which they make by raising a dam to keep the water from running away, just as you do in the gutter on a rainy day.

"See who'll be dressed first!" cried Noodle, and then Toodle jumped out on the cold floor. Soon they were both dressed, for beaver boys have so much fur that they do not need to wear many clothes, even in winter.

"I won!" cried Noodle, who finished the last button on his shoes just as his brother Toodle was beginning to fasten his. "I'm dressed first."

"Oh, well, I don't mind," said Toodle. "I'll be washed first!" and he was, because there was only one wash basin in the boys' room and only one of them could get his paws in it at a time.

"Come! Come!" cried Mrs. Flat-tail again. "The cakes are getting cold, boys."

"I'll be down stairs first!" cried Noodle, and he ran for the banister, reached it ahead of his brother, and down he slid—"ker-bang!" landing on the kitchen rug. So he was downstairs first. Then both the little beaver boys ate as many birch bark pancakes as were good for them, and Crackie, their little sister, ate two and part of another one.

"Oh, look at our pond!" cried Toodle, as he gazed out of the window. "It's all frozen over!"

"So it is!" said Noodle. "Oh, it must be very cold!"

"Yes, you had better get out your skates and skate to school," said Grandpa Whackum, who had finished his breakfast.

"But we have no ice skates," said Toodle, "and I don't believe roller skates would be very good."

"Not on ice," answered Grandpa Whackum. "But I'll show you how to make ice skates. If I had some long, clean bones now—"

"I know where there are some!" cried Crackie. "I saw Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys, dragging some bones over on shore yesterday."

"The very thing!" cried Grandpa Whackum. "I'll swim to shore, under the ice, and get them. Then I'll make skates for you two beaver boys."

While the children were finishing their nice warm breakfast, Grandpa Whackum dived out through the front door of the beaver house. This door was under water, and the old gentleman beaver soon found himself under the ice that covered the top of the pond. But he was used to that. So he swam to shore until he found a place where the ice was broken through in a round hole.

Then, he popped out and along the frozen bank of the beaver pond he ran until he found the bones the little puppy dog boys had been playing with the day before.

"These bones will make fine skates for the boys," said Grandpa Whackum. "They are long and straight and smooth."

Down under the ice he went again, and soon he was once more in the beaver house. Toodle and Noodle were getting their books ready to start for school.

"I think it is too cold for you to go today, Crackie," said Mrs. Flat-tail.

"Oh, mamma, I don't want to stay home! I want to go to school today!" cried the little beaver girl. "I know all my lessons."

"We could pull her along on our tails for a sled," said Toodle.

"Especially if we skate," added his brother.

"Oh, you'll skate, all right!" said Grandpa Whackum, as he went on making the bone skates. It was quite easy. All he had to do was to fasten some strings to the bones, so Toodle and Noodle could tie them to their hind paws. Then they could glide along on the bones, over the ice, just as you boys and girls use your roller skates.

Toodle and Noodle were delighted with the bone skates their grandpa made for them.

"It won't take us long to get to school on these," said Toodle.

"That is, if we don't fall down much," agreed Noodle.

"Oh! I'll show you how to skate so you will not fall down very much," said Grandpa Whackum.

So they all went out on the ice, the old gentleman beaver himself putting on a pair of bone skates. Then he showed Toodle and Noodle how to strike out, and how to glide, and they were soon able to skate very well.

"Ding-dong!" rang the school bell.

"Come on!" cried Toodle. "We'll be late!"

"Wait for me! Wait for me!" cried Crackie, as her brothers started off without her.

"Sit on my tail, Crackie," invited Toodle. "I'll give you a ride first, and then Noodle can take a turn. And you can carry our books."

So little Crackie sat down on the broad flat tail of her brother Toodle, which, as you can see by the picture, was almost as good as a sled. I wish I could show you a picture of Crackie riding to school this way, but I am not allowed, as I don't know how to draw.

Anyhow, off the two little beaver boys started, over the ice, on their bone skates, that were tied fast to their hind paws. Crackie went with them.

"Ding-dong!" rang the school bell. Faster and faster skated Toodle and Noodle. They felt sure they would not be late this time.

Pretty soon Crackie jumped over on Noodle's tail, and on they went faster than ever.

But something happened. They were almost at the school, which was in an old boat, that was now frozen fast in the ice, when, all of a sudden, out from behind a stump popped a hungry bear. Oh, he was so hungry! He hadn't had his breakfast, and when he saw Toodle and Noodle and Crackie, he just smacked his lips, and rolled out his red tongue, nearly biting it with his sharp teeth, and that bear cried:

"Oh, ho! Now I will have something to eat!"

He ran after the beaver children, and Crackie called:

"Oh, Toodle! Oh, Noodle! Skate! Skate as fast as you can away from that bear!"

"That's what we will!" shouted Toodle. Then the two beaver boys skated faster than they had ever skated before, Noodle pulling Crackie along on his tail. On came the bear. He was getting nearer and nearer, when, all of a sudden, Noodle cried:

"Quick, Toodle, turn to the left. There's a hole right through the ice!"

Toodle and Noodle both turned aside and skated past the hole, but the bear couldn't stop himself, nor turn quickly enough, and "plump!" he went into the ice-cold water, making a spray just like a fountain. And he got all wet and frozen, and his feet stuck to the ice when he got out, so he couldn't chase Toodle and Noodle or Crackie any more, and the beaver children got safely to school, a little out of breath, but otherwise all right. Every one said they were very brave.

So that's how Toodle and Noodle skated on the ice and saved Crackie from the bear, and next, if the water pitcher doesn't fall down the cellar and put the furnace fire out in the ash can to sleep all night, I'll tell you about Toodle and Noodle playing football.