"Let's land there, my brave old salt!" He said that, making believe he was a sailor, you understand.
"Ha! We will land there, messmate!" replied Noodle to Toodle, also making believe he was a sailor.
So they steered their boat toward the island and landed there. There were no orange trees, I am sorry to say, and no cocoanut ones, though I suppose I could just as well as not have written about them growing there. Perhaps next time I will. But, anyhow, as the hand organ man says occasionally, Toodle and Noodle saw a hickory nut tree there, and the two beaver boys thought they would get some of the nuts.
"We can eat some," said Toodle.
"And with the others we can play marbles," said Noodle.
With that they began to gnaw down the tree, for that to them, was easier than climbing up, as Billie or Johnnie Bushytail, the squirrel brothers, would have done.
Well, Toodle and Noodle had the tree almost gnawed down, and they were thinking how good the nuts would taste, when, all of a sudden, the bad wolf, who owned the island and the trees, and all on it, came along, and he growled:
"Ah, ha! This is the time I have those beaver boys! Taking my trees, eh? Just for that I'll take them both off to jail and bite them on each of their ears. Wow!"
Wasn't he the bad old wolf, though?
So before Toodle or Noodle could run away, for they were not very quick on their feet on land, as I have told you, before they could get away the wolf had them both. He held Toodle in one paw and Noodle in the other, and he just glared at them, worse than a rag doll stares at the ceiling when she's asleep.