So Toodle and Noodle watched their papa and mamma and the other big beaver folk mending the hole in the dam. A bad bear had clawed the hole there, hoping that all the water would run out of the pond so he could catch and eat the beavers. But the bear's plan did not work, I'm glad to say.
"I hope I didn't hurt you when I crawled up behind you and pushed you in the water," said Noodle to his brother most politely.
"Oh, no," said Toodle. "I liked it. First, though, I thought it was a fox after me."
"Ho! If it had been a fox!" exclaimed Noodle, "I guess you would have heard Grandpa Whackum pounding on the ground with his big tail to tell us there was danger."
"Yes, I guess we would," said Toodle. "Oh, Noodle!" he cried suddenly, "let's go over where those nice, juicy aspen trees grow, and get some bark off them. I'm just hungry for an aspen-bark ice cream cone."
"But papa said we weren't to go there without him," objected Noodle. "You know he said there was an old wolf not far from there, and he might get us."
"Oh, I don't believe there is any danger just now," said Toodle. "It's daylight. Besides, Grandpa Whackum can see that far and he'll bang with his tail if there's any danger. Come on!"
So the two little beaver boys went over to where some aspen and willow trees grew, though it was not just exactly right. They swam through the water and then came out and waddled over the land. Soon they were in the grove of trees.
"You take a willow tree and I'll take an aspen," said Toodle, "and after we each cut off a nice piece with the juicy bark on we'll take them home and divide them."
So, sitting up on their big tails, which were like stools to them, the little beaver boys began to gnaw away. A beaver's gnawing teeth are as good to cut with as a carpenter's chisel. There are four gnawing teeth, and the funny part of it is that they are colored yellow, like an orange.