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.