STORY XXX

TOODLE, NOODLE AND MRS. BUSHYTAIL

The next day after Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boy, forgot his reader book, and had to go home after it (when he saved Uncle Wiggily from the fox, you know) there were so many of the animal boys and girls who forgot their books, or their pencils, or something or other that Professor Rat, in the hollow stump school, said with a laugh:

"Oh, ho! I see how it is! You all think I will send you home, as I did Noodle, so you may have adventures. Not so! I will go get your books and things myself. Miss Lady Bug, the teacher, will go with me. You can't fool the old professor that way. Oh, no, indeed!"

So what did Mr. Rat do, but put on his tall hat, and take his silver-headed cane, and call to Miss Lady Bug, the teacher:

"Come! you and I will go around to the different houses of these forgetful animal children, and get their books for them. As for them, they may stay in school and try to study so they will remember better next time."

Then combing some cracker dust out of his whiskers with a bathroom sponge, Professor Rat started off, and the lady bug teacher went with him.

He had to go to the homes of Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrels, who had forgotten their arithmetics, and to the burrow where Sammie Littletail, the rabbit, lived; for Sammie, hoping he would himself be sent back for them, had left his pencils home. And Joie and Tommie Kat had forgotten their multiplication tables, thinking they would be sent home after them, as Noodle Flat-tail was sent to get his reading book.

"I'll teach those forgetful boys and girls a lesson," said Professor Rat to Miss Lady Bug as he walked along combing the ice cream cones out of his whiskers with the lawn mower.

"But, Professor Rat," said Miss Lady Bug, politely fluttering her wings, "while you and I are out of school there can be no lessons. It is almost the same as if you let the children go home for their things themselves."

"Dear me! Dear me!" exclaimed Professor Rat, snapping his paws. "I never thought of that. So it is, isn't it? They won't study while we're away, and they can't recite. Dear, dear me! How careless," and he was so excited that he combed his whiskers out of the strawberry shortcake with the looking glass.

"Oh, well. However, be that as it may," went on Professor Rat, hunching up his shoulders like an old clothes man when he wants to buy a pair of rubber boots, "no matter! Since we have started, Miss Lady Bug, we will keep on, and go to the homes of the different animal children.

"It will be a little holiday for us, and, really, I am almost as tired of school as the children can possibly be. Come along. It is a beautiful day, the sun is shining, though winter will soon be here again. The leaves are very prettily colored, and everything is lovely. Come along and let us be happy."

So he took Miss Lady Bug's wing, and away they went, side by each, through the woods after the things the animal children had purposely forgotten and left at home.

And what was happening back there at the hollow stump school? Let us go and see, as they say in story books.

When Professor Rat and Miss Lady Bug started off, Toodle Flat-tail, who had forgotten to bring his geography book, sort of looked at his brother and said:

"Well, it seems to me that this is just as good as if we went home ourselves. We have no one to teach us—no lessons to say—come, let us be jolly! No one will mind!"

"That's what I say!" cried Susie Littletail, and then such fun as there was in the hollow stump school. And, really, have you the heart to blame those little animal children? I have not, at least.

Well, they were playing stump tag, and hide the hickory nut, and all games like that, including a new one called "Never put a Snowball on a Red Hot Stove," only, of course there was only a make believe stove and a make believe snowball, too. They were playing these games, when some one knocked on the school door.

All at once the animal children were as quiet as mice. They crept to their seats on tiptoes, and no one said anything. The knock came again.

"That can't be Professor Rat," whispered Toodle Flat-tail. "He would come right in."

Once more the knock.

"Come—come in," invited Noodle in a weak little voice, not at all like the one with which he shouted when he was playing ball.

The door opened and in came Mrs. Bushytail, the mother of Johnnie and Billie, the squirrels.

"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs. Bushytail, surprised like. "Where is the teacher?"

"He's gone, ma," said Billie, "after our books and things. We forgot and he went to get them for us."

"Is anything the matter, ma?" asked Johnnie, anxiously.

"Oh, nothing much," said Mrs. Bushytail. "I am cleaning house, that is all, and there is so much to do that I thought I would come and ask Professor Rat to let you and Billie come home to help me. I want you to dust things with your fluffy tails, and I need some one to beat the rugs and carpets."

"Were—were your rugs and carpets bad—that you want them beaten?" asked Crackie Flat-tail, sister of Toodle and Noodle, in a squeaky little voice that made all the others laugh.

"Oh, no, they were not bad," said Mrs. Bushytail, "only we have to beat them to get the dust out. But as long as Professor Rat is not here, there is no school, so you may come home with me, Billie and Johnnie, I will explain to the teacher when I see him."

So Billie and Johnnie went home with their mamma to help her clean house. Then, as long as there was no one to hear their lessons, the other animal pupils thought they might as well go home also. So they went, and Toodle wrote all about it on the blackboard, so Professor Rat could read about it when he and Miss Lady Bug came back to the hollow stump.

"Well, there's no school; what shall we do?" asked Toodle of Noodle.

"Let's go around and watch Billie and Johnnie help their mamma clean house," said Noodle to Toodle. So they went, taking Crackie with them.

Wasn't it odd to have the teacher go away from the school so the children had to go home? Do you wish that would happen?

Of course, you do not.

Well, Noodle and Toodle, with their sister Crackie, soon came to where the squirrel family lived. And, oh! how busy Mrs. Bushytail and her two boys were; to say nothing of little Jennie Chipmunk, who lived with them. They simply made the dust fly.

"Now," said Mrs. Bushytail, coming out with a big grass rug, "this is very dusty. Beat it well, boys. Get all the dirt out of it."

Johnnie and Billie tried, but they were not very strong, and the sticks they used were not very heavy, so they did not get much dust out of the rug.

"I'll tell you what it is," said Toodle, "you had better let Noodle and me beat that rug, with our big, broad, flat tails, Mrs. Bushytail."

"Oh, if you would be so kind!" exclaimed the squirrel lady. "You could do it quite nicely, I believe. There, Billie and Johnnie, put the rug on the grass. Toodle and Noodle will beat it for us."

And I wish you could have seen those beaver boys beat that rug! No, on second thought, I am glad you were not there, for the dust was very thick. It made everybody sneeze, and if you have the epizootic, as a little girl I know up in Montclair has, the dust would set you to coughing like anything. Every once in a while Toodle and Noodle had to stop and go:

"Aker-choo! Aker-choo! A-ker-choo-o-o-o!"

Well, everything was going along nicely, and the housecleaning was almost over, when, all of a sudden, along came a hungry bear. He wanted something to eat—a beaver or a squirrel—he didn't much care which. And he was just going to grab up little Crackie Flat-tail, when, all at once, Toodle and Noodle saw him.

"Quick!" cried Noodle. "Beat the rug with all your might, Toodle!" And they did, and their tails made such a loud noise the bear thought it was a gun being fired at him, and he thought the dust was powder smoke, and away he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. So that's how Toodle and Noodle helped Mrs. Bushytail, and also saved their sister Crackie.

And then along came Professor Rat and Miss Lady Bug, to get Billie Bushytail's forgotten books and when the school teacher heard how all the children had left the school he laughed like anything, and said they did just right.

"But it must not happen again," he said, and it did not.

So now I've got to stop, but next, in case the teakettle doesn't bite the nutmeg grater and stick the rolling pin in the pie, while they try to tag the sugar bowl, I'll tell you about Toodle and the singing bird.