Most of the little girl animals—such as Susie Littletail, Dottie Trot, the pony girl; Kittie Kat, the little pussy girl—and, of course, Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, the duck girls, went along with Crackie Flat-tail to the woods, to play with their dolls.
When Toodle and Noodle, and their boy friends, came running around the beaver pond—some of them, like Bully No-tail, the frog, swimming in it—the beaver lady said:
"My goodness, my sakes alive and some cherry potpie! What does this mean, Toodle—Noodle? Why are you home from school at this hour? It isn't out, is it?"
"There isn't any school, ma," said Toodle, putting away his books. "Professor Rat has the toothache in his spectacles. Oh, I'm so glad!"
"What!" cried Mrs. Flat-tail, "glad that any one is in pain?"
"Oh, no, ma," said Noodle, quickly. "Toodle meant that he was glad there was no school."
"That's it," said Toodle. "Come on, boys, let's have some fun. We'll go play around the dam, and I'll show you how we coast down the mud slide."
"Be very careful," said Mrs. Flat-tail. "There is a lot of water in the pond, on account of the big rain and the dam is not very strong. Don't do anything to break it, for that would make a lot of trouble. All the water would run out."
"We won't, ma," said Noodle, and really he meant it at the time he said it, of course.
Well, the boys who had come home with Toodle and Noodle began playing. They had lots of fun, and when the beaver boys slid down the slippery mud slide by sitting on their big tails, why, Sammie Littletail said it was as good as a circus, and wished he had a big tail such as all beavers have.