So the bear took the two little beaver boys to his den, and as his wife was not at home just then, having gone down to the five and ten cent store to buy a new pair of slippers, the bear said:
"I'll just tie you two chaps to a tree until my wife gets back!"
So what did that bear do but take some strong telegraph wire and wind it around Toodle and Noodle, making them fast to a tree.
"I suppose I could tie you fast with a piece of grapevine," said the bear, "but I know you have sharp teeth, and could soon gnaw yourselves loose. But you can't bite through wire."
And Toodle and Noodle knew with sorrow that they could not, and the bear knew he could go to sleep and safely leave them tied up, which is just what he did.
Down on the ground in front of his den lay the bear, and soon he was sound asleep and snoring. Toodle and Noodle tried to break loose, but the wire was too strong.
"I—I guess this is the end of us," said Noodle sadly. "We are gone!" Toodle thought so, too, and I don't know what would have happened if Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the kind muskrat lady, had not happened to come swimming along. She had been to market to get Uncle Wiggily something for breakfast.
As soon as Nurse Jane saw poor Noodle and Toodle tied up there she came softly out on the island, without waking the bear, and then with her tail, which is just like a rat-tail file you know, Nurse Jane easily cut and filed through that telegraph wire in a jiffy, which is very quickly indeed, and soon Toodle and Noodle were all loose, the cut ends of the wire being bent back.
"Quick now!" whispered Nurse Jane. "Let's get away before the bear wakes up, or his wife comes back!" And they did, the beaver boys and the muskrat lady swimming off under water.
So Toodle and Noodle got safely away, thanks to Nurse Jane and her file-tail, and when that bear woke up, and found his dinner all gone he was mad as hops—and there is nothing madder than them. But it served him right, I think, for being so mean, don't you?