"That's Grandpa Whackum!" cried Noodle. "He must be in trouble!"
"Help! Oh, boys, come and help me!" they heard the old beaver gentleman calling. "I'm caught in a trap!"
Toodle and Noodle rushed as fast as they could toward where they heard the sounds. All the while the old beaver gentleman was thumping his flat tail on the ground, to tell his little grandsons how to reach him.
Pretty soon they came to where he was, and there poor Grandpa Whackum stood, caught fast by his hind leg in a wooden trap.
"Oh, boys!" he cried. "Hurry and get me out! I was walking along, looking up at the trees to make sure which were the best to cut, when I stepped into this trap. It has snapped shut on my paw, and I can't turn around to gnaw myself loose! Can you do it for me?"
"Of course we can!" cried Toodle bravely.
"Right away, quick!" cried Noodle.
Then with their orange-colored front teeth those beaver boys gnawed and gnawed on the wooden trap until they had gnawed it all to pieces and their grandpa could come out. He was not much hurt, I'm glad to say. And the hunter who set the trap, thinking to catch a beaver, was much disappointed that night, I guess.
"It was very foolish of me not to look where I was going," said Grandpa Whackum, a few days later as he rubbed some witch hazel leaves on his sore paw, which was nearly well now. "I'll never get caught again, and I hope you boys will not, either. How is the canal coming on?"
"It is all done," said Toodle.