[STORY XII]
TOODLE AND NOODLE PLAY INDIAN
One day Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver gentleman of them all, came in from where he had been looking at the dam which held the water in the pond from running out. Grandpa Whackum, who was called that, you remember, because he used to whack his tail on the ground, to warn his friends of danger—Grandpa Whackum brought with him to the beaver house where Toodle and Noodle and Crackie Flat-tail lived, some long, slender pieces of wood he had picked up.
They were left over after a hole in the dam had been mended, and the hole was made by the bad skillery-scalery alligator sticking in his double-jointed tail.
"There, boys," said Grandpa Whackum to Toodle and Noodle as he tossed them the sticks, "there is something you can make bows and arrows of."
"Oh, goodie!" cried Noodle.
"And we can play Indian!" said Toodle. "That will be fun; eh, Noodle?"
"Sure," said Noodle.
"May I play?" asked Crackie, who was making a sawdust dress for her wooden doll, the same one the wolf bit in two and Uncle Wiggily Longears, the rabbit gentleman, mended, you remember.
"Pooh! Girls can't play Indian!" said Noodle. "You could be a Red-Cross nurse if you wanted to, though, and take care of us when we get shot."