Howard Roger Garis

“ Billie was eating a hickory nut.
"Excuse me, Toodle," said Billie, the squirrel boy. "I hit you, but I didn't mean to. I was eating a nut and it fell out of my paws and landed on your head. Did it hurt you very much, Toodle?"
"Oh, hardly any," said the little beaver boy. "You see I have a lot of fur on top of my head, Billie, and it bounced right off—the nut did, I mean—not my head."
I guess if the nut had hurt him, Toodle wouldn't have said so. Boys are like that, you know. That's the reason they don't cry, after they get over being babies.
"Come on down and play with us," said Noodle. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then the bird sang about how nice it is in winter, with no mosquitoes to bite you, and how lovely the snow looks as it sifts down, and what jolly fun it is to go sleigh riding and skating, and how much fun it is to make snow men, and then how, in the middle of the night, Santa Claus comes riding over the housetops with his reindeer and their jingling bells—and all that, until Toodle cried out:
"Oh, winter is the jolliest time of all! I'm glad winter is coming. ”

“ In fact beavers have to go quite slowly on land, and they walk with a waddle like a duck, but in the water they can swim so fast that scarcely anything can catch them.
Toodle and Noodle splashed each other about in the pond, throwing water all over themselves, wrestling, playing tag and hide-and-go-seek, and when they were tired they climbed out on the bank and rested.
They looked at the other beavers working away. Some of the older ones were mending a hole in the dam. The beaver dam, you know, is just like a time when it rains and the gutter in front of your house fills with water. ”

“ Never!" cried Toodle. "Why most likely it's a bear or a wolf, making believe cry like that so we'll come closer, and then he can grab us. No, sir! don't you go see what it is at all. Come on home!"
"Oh, don't be a silly!" exclaimed Noodle. "That's some little boy or girl animal in trouble. A wolf or a bear couldn't cry in such a tiny, weeny voice as that. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The beaver pond began to get lower and lower.
"Oh, dear!" cried Noodle. "Look what we did!"
"Yes, I guess we'd better be getting home, boys," said Samuel Littletail. "The beavers will think we did that, Billie Bushytail."
"You're right!" cried the squirrel boy. Then he and all the others were going to leave Toodle and Noodle, when Bully, the frog, cried out:
"Oh, say! That isn't fair! When we are playing ball, and we break a window, we all help pay for it. Now that the dam is broken, though we didn't do it, we must help Toodle and Noodle fix it. Come on, boys." ”

“ Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the little beaver boys, were playing on the bank of the pond in which their house was built. They had made a mud slide, which was slippery with water, and down that they were coasting, having almost as much fun as if there was snow and ice on the ground and they had red sleds, with blue tops, to ride on down the long hill. ”

“ But, all the while, Toodle and Noodle were wondering what their mamma and sister Crackie had been talking about in the kitchen, and why it was they weren't let into the secret. In fact, Toodle and Noodle thought so much about it that they didn't study as they should have done.
And when Professor Rat asked Noodle: "How much are two apples and one apple?"
Noodle answered: "It's a secret."
"What!" exclaimed the teacher, surprised like. "A secret! Why every one knows what the answer is. And what every one knows is no secret. Susie Littletail, you may tell us how much one apple and two apples are." ”

“ 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!" ”

“ Girls can't play Indian!" said Noodle. "You could be a Red-Cross nurse if you wanted to, though, and take care of us when we get shot."
"I don't want to do that," said the little beaver girl. "I want to be a real Indian myself and play with you."
"Oh, girls can't be Indians," said Toodle, and with that he and his brother, thinking no more of Crackie, began to make their bows and arrows. ”

“ For just one cent I'll let it go."
"Oh, Toodle!" cried Noodle, "have you a cent? If you have let's buy this balloon!"
"But how do we know who is selling it, or where he is, or whether it's really a balloon or not?" asked Toodle, looking in his pocket to see if he still had the penny Grandpa Whackum had given him the night before.
"Well, we can look under the bridge;" said Noodle, "and find out. Any one who sells balloons—especially red ones—is sure to be kind and good. I'm going to take a look through the crack in the bridge. We have time before the last bell rings." ”

“ A few days after Toodle had got the water-pistol from Sammie Littletail, Noodle Flat-tail found some old firecrackers that had been left over from the Fourth of July. They had fallen down a crack in the floor, and there they had been hiding ever since. Firecrackers always like to sleep in cracks you know.
"Oh, goodie!" cried Noodle. "Come on, Toodle. We'll fire them off and have a lot of fun. We'll make believe having a war, and shooting, and all that." ”

“ So Grandpa Whackum told the boy beavers all about traps, the different kinds, and how they were baited and set. And he found some more traps, and let the boys look at them—but not too close, you know.
"Oh, I hope I never get caught in a trap," said Noodle.
"What can we do if we are ever caught in one?" asked Toodle.
"Bang your tail on the ground for help, and, if any of us hear you, we'll come," said Grandpa Whackum. "But if you do get caught—well—I don't like to talk about it. Let's go get some lollypops." ”

“ So, without stopping to think that she, a little beaver girl, could not do much against a bad wolf, Crackie started out. And she had not gone very far before she came up behind a blackberry bush, on which strawberries happened to be growing, and on the other side of that bush sat the wolf, holding Toodle in one paw and Noodle in the other. The wolf had become tired and had stopped to rest.
"You boys are a regular nuisance," growled the wolf. ”

“ Some were gnawing pieces of tender bark, which they had stripped off the aspen or willow trees. Others were carrying in their front paws mud or sticks to mend holes in the roofs of their houses. Some beaver children were playing tag and pushing each other into the water.
"I wish I could make a dam," thought Noodle. "I would like to make a little one and have a pond of water all to myself. Then I'd build a house in it, and when Toodle gets well he and I can have lots of fun in it. I think that's what I'll do. I'll build a dam and have a toy beaver pond just for us boys." ”

“ Mrs. Flat-tail laughed. Toodle and Noodle looked disappointed-like.
"Only a mud pie," said Noodle.
"Come on, let's play ball," suggested Toodle.
"You'd better wait until I cut my mud pie," said Crackie, and then, while her brothers watched she broke open the mud pie, which she had baked hard and dry in the sun, and there, inside it, covered over with clean, green grape leaves, was a lovely apple pie, all brown and sugary, with birch bark frosting in one place, and watercress candy in another, and inside—oh, my! I can't write any more about it, for it makes me too hungry. ”

“ 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. ”

“ So on the beaver children went to the hollow-stump school, and along the way they met more of their friends, all of whom thought it was just the finest idea in the world to carry a lunch, and they all said—from Sammie and Susie Littletail, the rabbits, down to Jollie and Jillie Longtail, the mousie boy and girl—they all said that, the next day, they were going to do as Toodle and Noodle and Crackie had done, and bring something to eat for the noon recess. ”

“ All of a sudden poppity-pop-pop! it went, just like a lot of firecrackers, and the popper was so full that the cover flew off, and the white pop corn was scattered all over the room.
It showered on the fox just like snow, and the bad creature was so frightened at hearing the popping noise, and at seeing the snow white kernels burst out, that he cried:
"Oh, wow! Double wow and some pepperhash. Oh, I am shot! I am caught in a snow storm! Excuse me!"
And with that he let go of Crackie, and out of the door he rushed, home to his den where he belonged. ”

“ But Noodle Flat-tail was not with the others.
"I guess he must be playing a trick on me," said Toodle, as he picked up a piece of a birch twig in his front paw and began chewing the soft bark. A beaver's front paw, you know, is almost like a monkey's, and he can hold things in it almost as well as you can in your hand. His hind feet, though, are made for swimming and are webbed like a duck's. ”

“ Rat. "A school is no place for water-pistols. You may bring it here, Sammie, and then you had better study your lessons."
So Sammie had to bring his water-pistol up to the teacher's desk, and Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, and all the other animal boys and girls, looked on. And Sammie got all red around his ears, he was so ashamed like.
"Oh, dear!" thought Toodle Flat-tail the beaver boy, as Sammie gave up the toy, "a real water-pistol. It's too bad teacher has it, for he won't know how to have fun with it. ”