"Splish-splash!" went Crackie into the water, and she laughed and shouted, it was such fun.
"She slides as well as we do, Noodle," said Toodle.
"Indeed she does!" said Noodle to Toodle.
Then the beaver children took more turns sliding down the muddy hill. Sometimes they slid separately, and often all three of them would go down together. Then Toodle got a long piece of birch bark for a sled, and they all sat on that, holding their tails up in the air, and down they went, whizzing along until they hit the water with a splash.
Oh, it was great fun!
Then, all of a sudden, when Toodle and Noodle had gone sliding down together, leaving Crackie standing alone on the top of the muddy hill, to come down after them, all of a sudden, up out of the water came the bad old skillery-scalery alligator, and before Toodle or Noodle knew what was happening the savage creature, with the double-jointed tail, had grabbed them both in his paws.
"Oh, let us go! Let us go!" cried Toodle.
"Yes, please let us go!" begged Noodle, and he tried to make his tail go "whack!" on the water, the way his grandpa had taught him to do to call for help. But the alligator held him too tightly, and Noodle couldn't move even his nose.
"Oh, will no one help us?" shouted Toodle.
"No, there is no one here to help you," barked the alligator, just like a dog. "I am going to take you off to my den!"