Pretty soon, through an open window in the cave, Toodle heard voices speaking. They were the voices of the papa bear and the baby bear talking together.
"Didn't I do well to bring home a nice, fat beaver boy for our supper?" asked the baby bear. "I saw him in the woods, and when he said roller skates I could see that he wanted them very much. I knew you had an old pair, so I told him to come along."
"Yes," said Mr. Bear. "I'll make believe to give the skates to him, and then we'll ask him in the den to try them on, and then we can grab him, and——"
"Yum! Yum!" exclaimed the little bear, smacking his lips, and Toodle knew by that how hungry the little bear was.
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed the beaver boy. "So this is a trick, eh? The roller skates are only to fool me! Those bears want to get me in their den and then they'll eat me. I'm not going to stay here!" And with that he ran off toward a pond of water, where he knew he would be safe, for a bear can never catch a beaver in water.
"Here! Where are you going?" cried Mrs. Bear. "Come back for your roller skates, beaver boy!"
"I—I guess I don't want any," said Toodle, slyly-like, and with that he jumped into the water and swam safely home, though the big papa bear tried to catch him. But he didn't, I'm glad to say. So you see it was all a trick about the roller skates, and the baby bear tried to fool Toodle with them.
And when Toodle reached home he was all over the notion of wanting roller skates, which had nearly gotten him into a lot of trouble.
"Never believe what bears say—even a baby bear—unless they are good bears," said Grandpa Whackum when he heard what had happened, and Papa Flat-tail said the same thing. "And soon I'll show you how to make ice skates," said Grandpa Whackum.
So that is the story of Toodle, and how he didn't get his roller skates after all, and it's a good thing he didn't, I guess. And in the next story, if the spelling book doesn't jump over the geography and spill the ink bottle out of the parlor window, I'll tell you about Noodle and the pop corn.