"Oh, it will be much more fun to take our lunch!" cried Crackie, as she accidentally dropped her pencil and cracked the point. That was why she was called Crackie—she so often dropped things. Once she dropped an egg—but there, I'll tell you about that later.
"Yes, I think it'll be real jolly to take our lunch," spoke Toodle, as he strapped his school books together so he could carry them in one paw.
"And we can go out in the woods, back of the hollow stump school, to eat it," added Noodle, who was busy finishing the last of the red-apple pancakes his mother had made for breakfast.
Then the school bell rang: "Ding-dong!" and also "Dong-ding!" and Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver gentleman in the pond, called out from where he was reading the morning paper near the fireplace:
"Come, children, hurry off, or you'll be late!"
So Mrs. Flat-tail, the beaver lady, put up a nice lunch for each of her children, wrapping birch bark sandwiches and hickory nut cake in clean leaves for them to take to school. Off they started, as three happy little beavers as you would meet if you walked a mile, or maybe a mile and a half, for all I know.
On the way they met Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dog boys.
"We're not going home to dinner today," said Toodle to Peetie.
"Why not? Isn't there anything to eat at your house?" asked Peetie.
"If there isn't," went on Jackie, very kindly, "you may come to our house. We have lots of things, and I'll give you a piece of my puppy-cake."