"Oh, this is a new kind," said Mrs. Flat-tail. "I'll give you some of the pudding for supper."
So Noodle started to swim over to Mrs. Wibblewobble's house. He found the duck lady busy in her kitchen, and she got the salt for him, putting it in a cup so that it would not spill.
"You had better hurry," said Mrs. Wibblewobble to Noodle. "My boy Jimmie started for school some time ago."
"Oh, I'll hurry as soon as I go home with this salt," spoke Noodle.
So off the little beaver boy swam once more, but he had not gone very far before he looked around behind him, and he saw something coming after him in the water. He could not see exactly who it was—just a sort of little flurry in the beaver pond, and Noodle said:
"Perhaps this is Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy or some of my friends. I'll wait and see."
So he swam slowly, and the creature in the water swam faster toward him, and then, all of a sudden, Noodle saw that it was no friend of his at all, but the bad old skillery-scalery alligator, who was swimming down under water so Noodle couldn't see him so plainly. But the alligator happened to stick his nose up for a second, to try and bite a fly, and then it was that the little beaver boy knew who the bad creature was.
"Mercy me!" cried Noodle. "That alligator is after me! And he looks hungry, too. I've got to swim with all my might to get away from him. Oh, dear!"
Then Noodle began his long swim to get away from the bad old alligator. Beavers can swim very fast, you know, on top of water, or under it, though when they swim under water they have to come up to breathe every once in a while. And alligators can swim fast, too.
So there was a race between Noodle and the 'gator. The little beaver boy swam on top of the water for a while, and then he would dive down underneath. And he held his spelling book, which had a rubber cover, so it wouldn't get wet, on top of the cup of salt so no water would get in that.