Some one cried:
"Ha! Now I'll get you! Now I have you! Oh, you can't get away from me now."
And then another voice said:
"Meaouw! Meaouw! Meaouw!"
Next there came a big thump on top of the beaver house that was built in the middle of the pond, and a voice cried out:
"Oh! whoever is in there please let me in! Toodle! Noodle! Please let me in!"
"My goodness!" cried Crackie, and she jumped up so suddenly that her rubber doll, who was asleep in her lap, fell to the floor. But it doesn't hurt rubber dolls to fall, and this one went right on sleeping just as if nothing had happened. "What can that be?" thought Crackie, wishing her mamma would come back.
"Oh, please let me in!" cried the voice again, and there was a pounding on the roof of the house. Outside, as though it came from the opposite bank of the beaver pond, another voice said:
"Oh, ho! You can't get away from me that way. I'll be there in a minute!"
There was a splashing in the water, and the voice on the beaver house roof begged once more: