"Thank you," said Billie, "but I guess we can get down, Toodle."
Up the chestnut tree scrambled the squirrel boys and soon they were throwing down lots of chestnuts to Toodle, who gathered them into a pile. Once in a while, a chestnut would hit the little beaver boy on the head, but he did not mind that.
"You want to look out, though, if any of the big, round, stickery chestnut burrs fall on you," said Billie. "Of course we wouldn't mean to throw any on you and there are not many left that aren't opened, but one might accidentally hit you."
"Oh, I'll look out," laughed Toodle.
Well, some of the prickly burrs did come down, but they did not hit Toodle, and he brushed them to one side, in a pile, with his thick, strong tail, which even a chestnut burr could not hurt.
"Well, I guess we have all the nuts off this tree," said Billie, after a bit. "Come on down, Johnnie, and we'll go look for another one," and down the squirrel boys scrambled, as quickly as a monkey on a stick, or a jumping-jack, if you prefer that. So Toodle didn't have to gnaw the tree down.
"We'll go over there by that old stump," said Billie, pointing to it with his tail.
"Shall I come?" asked Toodle.
"No, you had better stay here and keep guard over the chestnuts on the ground," said Johnnie. "Some one might come and take them while we are gone. We won't be long, and if there are any nuts on the trees over there we'll come back and get you, and these nuts too."
So away went Billie and Johnnie, leaving Toodle on guard by the chestnuts. At first nothing happened, and Toodle was thinking he could even take a little sleep, when, all of a sudden, out from behind a stump came a big, black bear. Oh, but he was a bad one; and he came closer and closer to Toodle, until he stood right in front of the little beaver boy, all ready to grab him.