Chapter VI: Part 6

"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.

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.

STORY XXXI

TOODLE AND THE SINGING BIRD

"Children," said Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, to Toodle, Noodle and their little sister, Crackie, one morning as they were starting for school, "I think you had better take your lunch, and not come home to dinner this noon; I am going to be very busy, canning sweet-flag root, and birch bark, so we will have something to eat this winter. I really wouldn't have time to get you anything to eat."

"Oh, it will be much more fun to take our lunch!" cried Crackie, as she accidentally dropped her pencil and cracked the point. That was why she was called Crackie--she so often dropped things. Once she dropped an egg--but there, I'll tell you about that later.

"Yes, I think it'll be real jolly to take our lunch," spoke Toodle, as he strapped his school books together so he could carry them in one paw.

"And we can go out in the woods, back of the hollow stump school, to eat it," added Noodle, who was busy finishing the last of the red-apple pancakes his mother had made for breakfast.

Then the school bell rang: "Ding-dong!" and also "Dong-ding!" and Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver gentleman in the pond, called out from where he was reading the morning paper near the fireplace:

"Come, children, hurry off, or you'll be late!"

So Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, put up a nice lunch for each of her children, wrapping birch bark sandwiches and hickory nut cake in clean leaves for them to take to school. Off they started, as three happy little beavers as you would meet if you walked a mile, or maybe a mile and a half, for all I know.

On the way they met Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys.

"We're not going home to dinner today," said Toodle to Peetie.

"Why not? Isn't there anything to eat at your house?" asked Peetie.

"If there isn't," went on Jackie, very kindly, "you may come to our house. We have lots of things, and I'll give you a piece of my puppy-cake."

"Oh, that's not the reason," spoke Noodle quickly. "Thank you just the same. Our mamma is going to be so busy that she gave us our lunch to take to school."

Then Noodle and Toodle and Crackie showed their little bundles of lunch and Peetie and Jackie said:

"Oh, dear! We wish we could bring our lunch. We'll do it tomorrow!"

"Then we'll all have a regular picnic!" exclaimed Crackie.

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.

"Ding-dong!" went the last bell, and all the animal children scampered into the hollow stump and took their seats, while Miss Lady Bug, the teacher played on the tin-pan piano so they could sing the morning song.

Then Professor Rat heard the lessons, and some of the pupils went up head, and some went down foot, for there was not room at the head of the class for all of them, you see.

Well, when noon time came all the animal children, except Toodle and Noodle and Crackie hurried home to get their dinners. But the little beavers took their packages of lunch and went out in a small grove of trees back of the hollow stump school. There, sitting on their broad, flat tails, which were like stools to them, with the brown leaves rustling all around, and a sweet, spicy smell coming up from the earth, they ate the lunches their mamma had put up for them.

And oh! How good everything tasted! Really twice as good as if they had gone home and had sat down to the table to eat.

Pretty soon Noodle said: "I'm going off in the woods a little way and see if I can find any chestnut trees. If I can, I'll tell Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels, and after school they can climb up and get the nuts. Come on, Toodle."

"Oh, I don't want to," spoke the other little beaver boy. "I haven't quite finished my lunch yet."

"I'll go with you," said Crackie to Noodle. "I've finished eating and I'd like to look for chestnut trees."

"All right, come on, little sister," said Noodle, and taking Crackie's paw in his, so she wouldn't fall and break her nose, off they started. Mind, I'm not saying for sure that Crackie would have fallen and broken her nose, but it might have happened, mightn't it?

That left Toodle all alone eating his lunch there in the grove of trees. He was taking his time about it, and thinking that pretty soon he would be through, and could go off and meet his sister and brother, when, all at once, he heard a bird singing in the tree over his head.

And it was such a sad song which the bird sang that Toodle felt the tears coming into his eyes, though he did not quite know why. The bird sang about how summer had gone, and all the pretty leaves were falling off the trees, and how soon it would be cold and icy, and nearly everyone would freeze. Brr-r-r-r!

"And I shall have to fly far, far away from here," sang the bird, most sadly.

"Oh, dear me!" cried Toodle. "I wonder why I feel so badly?"

Then the bird, looking down, and seeing how sad Toodle was, chirped once or twice and said:

"Oh, excuse me, Toodle, I did not mean to make you feel so badly. Wait, I will sing a different kind of song."

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. And anyhow, Singing Bird, you can come back here in the spring!"

"Yes, I suppose I can," said the bird. And then she suddenly cried out: "Oh, dear! I dropped it!"

"Dropped what?" asked Toodle, as he heard something fall.

"My pocketbook," answered the singing bird. "It had all my money in it, and my airship ticket to go down South. I had it in my claw, but I dropped it and it fell into that pond of water, and now I can't go away and I'll freeze to death. Oh, dear! My lost pocketbook!"

"Ha! So your pocketbook fell into the water, did it?" asked Toodle, looking at a little pond that was near where he had eaten his lunch. "Well, don't worry," he went on to the bird. "I am a good swimmer, and I just love to go into the water. I'll get your pocketbook back for you!"

With that into the pond he dived, and, reaching down under water with his front paws, Toodle brought up the singing bird's pocketbook.

Then Toodle swam with it out on dry land, and the money was all safe and so was the airship ticket to go down South, and the bird was so thankful that she sang another song for Toodle.

And, just as it was about finished, what should happen but that out of the woods came a bad old wolf, sneaking along to get Toodle, who was so interested in the bird's song that he never noticed the bad creature.

Nearer and nearer came the wolf, and then the bird saw him, and she knew he was after Toodle, and the bird cried out:

"Come, friends! Come, all you birds! Help save Toodle from the wolf!"

Then about a thousand birds that were going South to spend the winter where it was warm and sunny, came flying along, and they fluttered all about that wolf, and they pricked him and nipped him all over, from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail, so that the wolf was glad enough to run back to his den and let Toodle alone.

Then the beaver boy thanked the birds very kindly, and they sang him a little good-by song, and away they flew to be gone until spring. Then Noodle and Crackie came back, having found a chestnut tree, and the noon recess was over, and all the animal children had to go back in school.

But they had lots of fun there, for Professor Water Rat told them some jolly stories, and Miss Lady Bug, the teacher, sang a little song, so that Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail, the beavers, were quite happy.

And so we will say good-by to them while they are having such a good time. For we have come to the end of this book. There is no more room in it for any more stories.

But I am going to make another book next year, and in that I am going to put some stories of little sheep, who had the most jolly times you can think of in the green meadow by the sparkling brook.

The new book will be called: "Bedtime Stories, Dottie and Willie Lambkin," and I hope you will like it. So, until I can get that book ready, I will say just what you said to Toodle and Noodle Flat-tail--and that is--"Good-bye!"

THE END