"I am going to show you how to dig a canal," answered the old gentleman beaver.
Toodle looked at Noodle, and Noodle looked at Toodle. Then they both looked sort of ashamed-like.
"Do you mean a canal like the one we dug the other day, when we wanted to get away from the bad lynx?" asked Noodle, brushing a mosquito off his ear.
"No," answered Grandpa Whackum with a laugh, as he got up from where he was sitting on his tail. "You dug that canal all right, only you didn't look where it was going to end, and you nearly let all the water from our pond run away through it. No, I'll show you how to make a canal just right."
You remember I told you how, when Toodle and Noodle went to the store for their mamma, they had to dig a canal to get away from a bad animal.
"Well, I guess then we'd better go with you," said Toodle, "for we must learn how to make canals in the right way. Sometimes we might want to get away from a bear by swimming in one of them."
"That's so," agreed Noodle. So he and his brother gave up the idea of playing ball or tag, and off they set with their grandpa, who was the oldest beaver in all the beaver colony, or city, and the wisest and strongest.
"You'll have plenty of time to play after you practice your canal-digging lesson," went on the old gentleman. "Come along, we're going over to the aspen tree grove."
"Hadn't we better take along some sandwiches, or maybe an ice cream cone to eat," suggested Toodle. "We've just had our breakfast, I know," he added as he saw his mamma looking at him, "but we may be gone a long while."
"Oh, there will be plenty to eat where we are going boys," said Grandpa Whackum, with a laugh and a whistle through his big, orange-colored front teeth. "There are sweet aspen trees there, and willows with nice, thick, juicy bark—indeed, you'll not get hungry, even though you don't have an ice cream cone. Come along."