"Well, there's no school; what shall we do?" asked Toodle of Noodle.
"Let's go around and watch Billie and Johnnie help their mamma clean house," said Noodle to Toodle. So they went, taking Crackie with them.
Wasn't it odd to have the teacher go away from the school so the children had to go home? Do you wish that would happen?
Of course, you do not.
Well, Noodle and Toodle, with their sister Crackie, soon came to where the squirrel family lived. And, oh! how busy Mrs. Bushytail and her two boys were; to say nothing of little Jennie Chipmunk, who lived with them. They simply made the dust fly.
"Now," said Mrs. Bushytail, coming out with a big grass rug, "this is very dusty. Beat it well, boys. Get all the dirt out of it."
Johnnie and Billie tried, but they were not very strong, and the sticks they used were not very heavy, so they did not get much dust out of the rug.
"I'll tell you what it is," said Toodle, "you had better let Noodle and me beat that rug, with our big, broad, flat tails, Mrs. Bushytail."
"Oh, if you would be so kind!" exclaimed the squirrel lady. "You could do it quite nicely, I believe. There, Billie and Johnnie, put the rug on the grass. Toodle and Noodle will beat it for us."
And I wish you could have seen those beaver boys beat that rug! No, on second thought, I am glad you were not there, for the dust was very thick. It made everybody sneeze, and if you have the epizootic, as a little girl I know up in Montclair has, the dust would set you to coughing like anything. Every once in a while Toodle and Noodle had to stop and go: