"Bur-r-r-r-r! don't speak of winter!" cried a voice behind an old stump that Toodle and Noodle had just passed. "You young chaps don't know what it means to have snow and ice and all that."
Toodle and Noodle stopped short. They looked at each other and then they looked around the corner at the stump.
"Do you s'pose that's a bear?" asked Toodle to Noodle.
"Maybe it's a wolf," said Noodle to Toodle.
"Ha! Ha!" laughed a voice behind the stump, and out popped Grandpa Whackum, the oldest beaver gentleman of them all. "I didn't mean to frighten you, Toodle and Noodle," he said, "but when I heard you talking about snow and ice I just couldn't help calling out. You see winter makes a lot of trouble for us. Sometimes the beaver pond freezes so hard that we can't swim in it.
"Of course we can stay in our houses and sleep during the winter, but even that makes it very hard. We have to dive down under the icy water to get at the soft pieces of bark we have stored away to eat, and in winter the hunters come with their traps and dogs to catch us. Oh, ice and snow are not as much fun as boys and girls think they are.
"But never mind. We all want you to have as much fun as you can, even if it does get cold. So run along to school now, and when winter really comes, I'll show you how to make a sled out of a piece of hickory bark and skates out of some old bones."
So Toodle and Noodle hurried on, getting nice and warm as they hopped, skipped and jumped, as they talked about snow and ice and sleds and skates and all things like that.
"Do you s'pose any dogs and hunters will come after us this winter?" asked Toodle of Noodle.
"I hope not," said Noodle to Toodle. "We must have some lessons in how to keep out of traps, and what to do when dogs chase us."