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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Wind in the Willows
+
+Author: Kenneth Grahame
+
+Illustrator: Paul Bransom
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2009 [EBook #27805]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Jen Haines and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     [Illustration: Front Cover]
+
+
+     THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
+
+     [Illustration: _The Piper at the Gates of Dawn_]
+
+
+
+
+     THE WIND
+     IN THE WILLOWS
+
+     BY
+     KENNETH GRAHAME
+
+     ILLUSTRATED BY
+     PAUL BRANSOM
+
+     [Illustration: Front Fly Leaf
+      showing the main characters enjoying a picnic]
+
+     [Illustration]
+
+     NEW YORK
+     CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+     MCMXIII
+
+    _Copyright, 1908, 1913, by_
+     CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+    _Published October, 1913_
+
+
+
+
+     CONTENTS
+
+
+     CHAPTER                                                   PAGE
+
+          I. THE RIVER BANK                                       1
+
+         II. THE OPEN ROAD                                       27
+
+        III. THE WILD WOOD                                       53
+
+         IV. MR. BADGER                                          79
+
+          V. DULCE DOMUM                                        107
+
+         VI. MR. TOAD                                           139
+
+        VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN                     167
+
+       VIII. TOAD'S ADVENTURES                                  191
+
+         IX. WAYFARERS ALL                                      219
+
+          X. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD                     253
+
+         XI. "LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS"              287
+
+        XII. THE RETURN OF ULYSSES                              323
+
+
+
+
+       ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+       The Piper at the Gates of Dawn                  _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                          Facing Page
+
+       It was the Water Rat                                       8
+
+       "Come on!" he said. "We shall just have to walk it"       50
+
+       In panic, he began to run                                 64
+
+       Through the Wild Wood and the snow                        94
+
+       Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon     164
+
+       He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor              196
+
+       "It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the Rat    240
+
+       Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and presence
+       of mind in emergencies                                   292
+
+       The Badger said, "Now then, follow me!"                  326
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE RIVER BANK
+
+
+The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning
+his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders
+and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he
+had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over
+his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in
+the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even
+his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent
+and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down
+his brush on the floor, said, "Bother!" and "O blow!" and also "Hang
+spring-cleaning!" and bolted out of the house without even waiting to
+put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and
+he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the
+gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer
+to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and
+scrooged, and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and
+scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself,
+"Up we go! Up we go!" till at last, pop! his snout came out into the
+sunlight and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great
+meadow.
+
+"This is fine!" he said to himself. "This is better than whitewashing!"
+The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated
+brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long
+the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.
+Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the
+delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the
+meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side.
+
+"Hold up!" said an elderly rabbit at the gap. "Sixpence for the
+privilege of passing by the private road!" He was bowled over in an
+instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the
+side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly
+from their holes to see what the row was about. "Onion-sauce!
+Onion-sauce!" he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could
+think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then they all started
+grumbling at each other. "How _stupid_ you are! Why didn't you tell
+him--" "Well, why didn't _you_ say--" "You might have reminded him--"
+and so on, in the usual way; but, of course, it was then much too
+late, as is always the case.
+
+It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the meadows
+he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding
+everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting--everything
+happy, and progressive, and occupied. And instead of having an uneasy
+conscience pricking him and whispering "whitewash!" he somehow could only
+feel how jolly it was to be the only idle dog among all these busy
+citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much
+to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.
+
+He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly
+along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his
+life had he seen a river before--this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied
+animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and
+leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that
+shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake
+and a-shiver--glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl,
+chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By
+the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the
+side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when
+tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on
+to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent
+from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
+
+As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the
+bank opposite, just above the water's edge, caught his eye, and
+dreamily he fell to considering what a nice, snug dwelling-place it
+would make for an animal with few wants and fond of a bijou riverside
+residence, above flood level and remote from noise and dust. As he
+gazed, something bright and small seemed to twinkle down in the heart
+of it, vanished, then twinkled once more like a tiny star. But it
+could hardly be a star in such an unlikely situation; and it was too
+glittering and small for a glow-worm. Then, as he looked, it winked at
+him, and so declared itself to be an eye; and a small face began
+gradually to grow up round it, like a frame round a picture.
+
+A brown little face, with whiskers.
+
+A grave round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had first
+attracted his notice.
+
+Small neat ears and thick silky hair.
+
+It was the Water Rat!
+
+Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously.
+
+"Hullo, Mole!" said the Water Rat.
+
+"Hullo, Rat!" said the Mole.
+
+"Would you like to come over?" enquired the Rat presently.
+
+"Oh, it's all very well to _talk_," said the Mole rather pettishly, he
+being new to a river and riverside life and its ways.
+
+The Rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened a rope and hauled on
+it; then lightly stepped into a little boat which the Mole had not
+observed. It was painted blue outside and white within, and was just
+the size for two animals; and the Mole's whole heart went out to it at
+once, even though he did not yet fully understand its uses.
+
+The Rat sculled smartly across and made fast. Then he held up his
+fore-paw as the Mole stepped gingerly down. "Lean on that!" he said.
+"Now then, step lively!" and the Mole to his surprise and rapture
+found himself actually seated in the stern of a real boat.
+
+"This has been a wonderful day!" said he, as the Rat shoved off and
+took to the sculls again. "Do you know, I've never been in a boat
+before in all my life."
+
+[Illustration: _It was the Water Rat_]
+
+"What?" cried the Rat, open-mouthed: "Never been in a--you never--well
+I--what have you been doing, then?"
+
+"Is it so nice as all that?" asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite
+prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the
+cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings,
+and felt the boat sway lightly under him.
+
+"Nice? It's the _only_ thing," said the Water Rat solemnly as he leant
+forward for his stroke. "Believe me, my young friend, there is
+_nothing_--absolute nothing--half so much worth doing as simply
+messing about in boats. Simply messing," he went on dreamily:
+"messing--about--in--boats; messing--"
+
+"Look ahead, Rat!" cried the Mole suddenly.
+
+It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the
+joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels
+in the air.
+
+"--about in boats--or _with_ boats," the Rat went on composedly,
+picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. "In or out of 'em, it
+doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of
+it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at
+your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you
+never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do
+anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always
+something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much
+better not. Look here! If you've really nothing else on hand this
+morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long
+day of it?"
+
+The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with
+a sigh of full contentment, and leant back blissfully into the soft
+cushions. "_What_ a day I'm having!" he said. "Let us start at once!"
+
+"Hold hard a minute, then!" said the Rat. He looped the painter
+through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above,
+and after a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat wicker
+luncheon-basket.
+
+"Shove that under your feet," he observed to the Mole, as he passed it
+down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls
+again.
+
+"What's inside it?" asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.
+
+"There's cold chicken inside it," replied the Rat briefly:
+"coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwiches
+pottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater--"
+
+"O stop, stop!" cried the Mole in ecstasies. "This is too much!"
+
+"Do you really think so?" enquired the Rat seriously. "It's only what
+I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are
+always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it _very_ fine!"
+
+The Mole never heard a word he was saying. Absorbed in the new life he
+was entering upon, intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the
+scents and the sounds and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in the water
+and dreamed long waking dreams. The Water Rat, like the good little
+fellow he was, sculled steadily on and forbore to disturb him.
+
+"I like your clothes awfully, old chap," he remarked after some half
+an hour or so had passed. "I'm going to get a black velvet smoking-suit
+myself some day, as soon as I can afford it."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the Mole, pulling himself together with an
+effort. "You must think me very rude; but all this is so new to me.
+So--this--is--a--River!"
+
+"_The_ River," corrected the Rat.
+
+"And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!"
+
+"By it and with it and on it and in it," said the Rat. "It's brother
+and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and
+(naturally) washing. It's my world, and I don't want any other. What
+it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not
+worth knowing. Lord! the times we've had together! Whether in winter
+or summer, spring or autumn, it's always got its fun and its
+excitements. When the floods are on in February, and my cellars and
+basement are brimming with drink that's no good to me, and the brown
+water runs by my best bedroom window; or again when it all drops away
+and shows patches of mud that smells like plum-cake, and the rushes
+and weed clog the channels, and I can potter about dry shod over most
+of the bed of it and find fresh food to eat, and things careless
+people have dropped out of boats!"
+
+"But isn't it a bit dull at times?" the Mole ventured to ask. "Just
+you and the river, and no one else to pass a word with?"
+
+"No one else to--well, I mustn't be hard on you," said the Rat with
+forbearance. "You're new to it, and of course you don't know. The bank
+is so crowded nowadays that many people are moving away altogether. O
+no, it isn't what it used to be, at all. Otters, king-fishers,
+dabchicks, moorhens, all of them about all day long and always wanting
+you to _do_ something--as if a fellow had no business of his own to
+attend to!"
+
+"What lies over _there_?" asked the Mole, waving a paw towards a
+background of woodland that darkly framed the water-meadows on one
+side of the river.
+
+"That? O, that's just the Wild Wood," said the Rat shortly. "We don't
+go there very much, we river-bankers."
+
+"Aren't they--aren't they very _nice_ people in there?" said the Mole
+a trifle nervously.
+
+"W-e-ll," replied the Rat, "let me see. The squirrels are all right.
+_And_ the rabbits--some of 'em, but rabbits are a mixed lot. And then
+there's Badger, of course. He lives right in the heart of it; wouldn't
+live anywhere else, either, if you paid him to do it. Dear old Badger!
+Nobody interferes with _him_. They'd better not," he added
+significantly.
+
+"Why, who _should_ interfere with him?" asked the Mole.
+
+"Well, of course--there--are others," explained the Rat in a hesitating
+sort of way. "Weasels--and stoats--and foxes--and so on. They're all right
+in a way--I'm very good friends with them--pass the time of day when we
+meet, and all that--but they break out sometimes, there's no denying it,
+and then--well, you can't really trust them, and that's the fact."
+
+The Mole knew well that it is quite against animal-etiquette to dwell
+on possible trouble ahead, or even to allude to it; so he dropped the
+subject.
+
+"And beyond the Wild Wood again?" he asked; "where it's all blue and
+dim, and one sees what may be hills or perhaps they mayn't, and
+something like the smoke of towns, or is it only cloud-drift?"
+
+"Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World," said the Rat. "And that's
+something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been
+there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at
+all. Don't ever refer to it again, please. Now then! Here's our
+backwater at last, where we're going to lunch."
+
+Leaving the main stream, they now passed into what seemed at first
+sight like a little landlocked lake. Green turf sloped down to either
+edge, brown snaky tree-roots gleamed below the surface of the quiet
+water, while ahead of them the silvery shoulder and foamy tumble of a
+weir, arm-in-arm with a restless dripping mill-wheel, that held up in
+its turn a grey-gabled mill-house, filled the air with a soothing
+murmur of sound, dull and smothery, yet with little clear voices
+speaking up cheerfully out of it at intervals. It was so very
+beautiful that the Mole could only hold up both fore-paws and gasp: "O
+my! O my! O my!"
+
+The Rat brought the boat alongside the bank, made her fast, helped the
+still awkward Mole safely ashore, and swung out the luncheon-basket.
+The Mole begged as a favour to be allowed to unpack it all by himself;
+and the Rat was very pleased to indulge him, and to sprawl at full
+length on the grass and rest, while his excited friend shook out the
+table-cloth and spread it, took out all the mysterious packets one by
+one and arranged their contents in due order, still gasping: "O my! O
+my!" at each fresh revelation. When all was ready, the Rat said, "Now,
+pitch in, old fellow!" and the Mole was indeed very glad to obey, for
+he had started his spring-cleaning at a very early hour that morning,
+as people _will_ do, and had not paused for bite or sup; and he had
+been through a very great deal since that distant time which now
+seemed so many days ago.
+
+"What are you looking at?" said the Rat presently, when the edge of
+their hunger was somewhat dulled, and the Mole's eyes were able to
+wander off the table-cloth a little.
+
+"I am looking," said the Mole, "at a streak of bubbles that I see
+travelling along the surface of the water. That is a thing that
+strikes me as funny."
+
+"Bubbles? Oho!" said the Rat, and chirruped cheerily in an inviting
+sort of way.
+
+A broad glistening muzzle showed itself above the edge of the bank,
+and the Otter hauled himself out and shook the water from his coat.
+
+"Greedy beggars!" he observed, making for the provender. "Why didn't
+you invite me, Ratty?"
+
+"This was an impromptu affair," explained the Rat. "By the way--my
+friend Mr. Mole."
+
+"Proud, I'm sure," said the Otter, and the two animals were friends
+forthwith.
+
+"Such a rumpus everywhere!" continued the Otter. "All the world seems
+out on the river to-day. I came up this backwater to try and get a
+moment's peace, and then stumble upon you fellows!--At least--I beg
+pardon--I don't exactly mean that, you know."
+
+There was a rustle behind them, proceeding from a hedge wherein last
+year's leaves still clung thick, and a stripy head, with high
+shoulders behind it, peered forth on them.
+
+"Come on, old Badger!" shouted the Rat.
+
+The Badger trotted forward a pace or two, then grunted, "H'm!
+Company," and turned his back and disappeared from view.
+
+"That's _just_ the sort of fellow he is!" observed the disappointed
+Rat. "Simply hates Society! Now we shan't see any more of him to-day.
+Well, tell us, _who's_ out on the river?"
+
+"Toad's out, for one," replied the Otter. "In his brand-new wager-boat;
+new togs, new everything!"
+
+The two animals looked at each other and laughed.
+
+"Once, it was nothing but sailing," said the Rat. "Then he tired of
+that and took to punting. Nothing would please him but to punt all day
+and every day, and a nice mess he made of it. Last year it was
+house-boating, and we all had to go and stay with him in his
+house-boat, and pretend we liked it. He was going to spend the rest of
+his life in a house-boat. It's all the same, whatever he takes up; he
+gets tired of it, and starts on something fresh."
+
+"Such a good fellow, too," remarked the Otter reflectively; "but no
+stability--especially in a boat!"
+
+From where they sat they could get a glimpse of the main stream across
+the island that separated them; and just then a wager-boat flashed
+into view, the rower--a short, stout figure--splashing badly and
+rolling a good deal, but working his hardest. The Rat stood up and
+hailed him, but Toad--for it was he--shook his head and settled
+sternly to his work.
+
+"He'll be out of the boat in a minute if he rolls like that," said the
+Rat, sitting down again.
+
+"Of course he will," chuckled the Otter. "Did I ever tell you that
+good story about Toad and the lock-keeper? It happened this way.
+Toad...."
+
+An errant May-fly swerved unsteadily athwart the current in the
+intoxicated fashion affected by young bloods of May-flies seeing
+life. A swirl of water and a "cloop!" and the May-fly was visible no
+more.
+
+Neither was the Otter.
+
+The Mole looked down. The voice was still in his ears, but the turf
+whereon he had sprawled was clearly vacant. Not an Otter to be seen,
+as far as the distant horizon.
+
+But again there was a streak of bubbles on the surface of the river.
+
+The Rat hummed a tune, and the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette
+forbade any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one's
+friends at any moment, for any reason or no reason whatever.
+
+"Well, well," said the Rat, "I suppose we ought to be moving. I wonder
+which of us had better pack the luncheon-basket?" He did not speak as
+if he was frightfully eager for the treat.
+
+"O, please let me," said the Mole. So, of course, the Rat let him.
+
+Packing the basket was not quite such pleasant work as unpacking the
+basket. It never is. But the Mole was bent on enjoying everything,
+and although just when he had got the basket packed and strapped up
+tightly he saw a plate staring up at him from the grass, and when the
+job had been done again the Rat pointed out a fork which anybody ought
+to have seen, and last of all, behold! the mustard pot, which he had
+been sitting on without knowing it--still, somehow, the thing got
+finished at last, without much loss of temper.
+
+The afternoon sun was getting low as the Rat sculled gently homewards
+in a dreamy mood, murmuring poetry-things over to himself, and not
+paying much attention to Mole. But the Mole was very full of lunch,
+and self-satisfaction, and pride, and already quite at home in a boat
+(so he thought), and was getting a bit restless besides: and presently
+he said, "Ratty! Please, _I_ want to row, now!"
+
+The Rat shook his head with a smile. "Not yet, my young friend," he
+said; "wait till you've had a few lessons. It's not so easy as it
+looks."
+
+The Mole was quiet for a minute or two. But he began to feel more and
+more jealous of Rat, sculling so strongly and so easily along, and his
+pride began to whisper that he could do it every bit as well. He
+jumped up and seized the sculls so suddenly that the Rat, who was
+gazing out over the water and saying more poetry-things to himself,
+was taken by surprise and fell backwards off his seat with his legs in
+the air for the second time, while the triumphant Mole took his place
+and grabbed the sculls with entire confidence.
+
+"Stop it, you _silly_ ass!" cried the Rat, from the bottom of the
+boat. "You can't do it! You'll have us over!"
+
+The Mole flung his sculls back with a flourish, and made a great dig
+at the water. He missed the surface altogether, his legs flew up above
+his head, and he found himself lying on the top of the prostrate Rat.
+Greatly alarmed, he made a grab at the side of the boat, and the next
+moment--Sploosh!
+
+Over went the boat, and he found himself struggling in the river.
+
+O my, how cold the water was, and O, how _very_ wet it felt! How it
+sang in his ears as he went down, down, down! How bright and welcome
+the sun looked as he rose to the surface coughing and spluttering! How
+black was his despair when he felt himself sinking again! Then a firm
+paw gripped him by the back of his neck. It was the Rat, and he was
+evidently laughing--the Mole could _feel_ him laughing, right down his
+arm and through his paw, and so into his--the Mole's--neck.
+
+The Rat got hold of a scull and shoved it under the Mole's arm; then
+he did the same by the other side of him and, swimming behind,
+propelled the helpless animal to shore, hauled him out, and set him
+down on the bank, a squashy, pulpy lump of misery.
+
+When the Rat had rubbed him down a bit, and wrung some of the wet out
+of him, he said, "Now then, old fellow! Trot up and down the
+towing-path as hard as you can, till you're warm and dry again, while
+I dive for the luncheon-basket."
+
+So the dismal Mole, wet without and ashamed within, trotted about till
+he was fairly dry, while the Rat plunged into the water again,
+recovered the boat, righted her and made her fast, fetched his
+floating property to shore by degrees, and finally dived successfully
+for the luncheon-basket and struggled to land with it.
+
+When all was ready for a start once more, the Mole, limp and dejected,
+took his seat in the stern of the boat; and as they set off, he said
+in a low voice, broken with emotion, "Ratty, my generous friend! I am
+very sorry indeed for my foolish and ungrateful conduct. My heart
+quite fails me when I think how I might have lost that beautiful
+luncheon-basket. Indeed, I have been a complete ass, and I know it.
+Will you overlook it this once and forgive me, and let things go on as
+before?"
+
+"That's all right, bless you!" responded the Rat cheerily. "What's a
+little wet to a Water Rat? I'm more in the water than out of it most
+days. Don't you think any more about it; and look here! I really think
+you had better come and stop with me for a little time. It's very
+plain and rough, you know--not like Toad's house at all--but you
+haven't seen that yet; still, I can make you comfortable. And I'll
+teach you to row and to swim, and you'll soon be as handy on the water
+as any of us."
+
+The Mole was so touched by his kind manner of speaking that he could
+find no voice to answer him; and he had to brush away a tear or two
+with the back of his paw. But the Rat kindly looked in another
+direction, and presently the Mole's spirits revived again, and he was
+even able to give some straight back-talk to a couple of moorhens who
+were sniggering to each other about his bedraggled appearance.
+
+When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and
+planted the Mole in an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a
+dressing-gown and slippers for him, and told him river stories till
+supper-time. Very thrilling stories they were, too, to an earth-dwelling
+animal like Mole. Stories about weirs, and sudden floods, and leaping
+pike, and steamers that flung hard bottles--at least bottles were
+certainly flung, and _from_ steamers, so presumably _by_ them; and
+about herons, and how particular they were whom they spoke to; and about
+adventures down drains, and night-fishings with Otter, or excursions far
+a-field with Badger. Supper was a most cheerful meal; but very shortly
+afterwards a terribly sleepy Mole had to be escorted upstairs by his
+considerate host, to the best bedroom, where he soon laid his head on
+his pillow in great peace and contentment, knowing that his new-found
+friend, the River, was lapping the sill of his window.
+
+This day was only the first of many similar ones for the emancipated
+Mole, each of them longer and full of interest as the ripening summer
+moved onward. He learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy
+of running water; and with his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at
+intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so constantly
+among them.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE OPEN ROAD
+
+
+"Ratty," said the Mole suddenly, one bright summer morning, "if you
+please, I want to ask you a favour."
+
+The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing a little song. He had
+just composed it himself, so he was very taken up with it, and would
+not pay proper attention to Mole or anything else. Since early morning
+he had been swimming in the river, in company with his friends, the
+ducks. And when the ducks stood on their heads suddenly, as ducks
+will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, just under where
+their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced to come
+to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking
+their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite _all_ you
+feel when your head is under water. At last they implored him to go
+away and attend to his own affairs and leave them to mind theirs. So
+the Rat went away, and sat on the river bank in the sun, and made up a
+song about them, which he called:
+
+            "DUCKS' DITTY."
+
+        All along the backwater,
+        Through the rushes tall,
+        Ducks are a-dabbling,
+        Up tails all!
+
+        Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,
+        Yellow feet a-quiver,
+        Yellow bills all out of sight
+        Busy in the river!
+
+        Slushy green undergrowth
+        Where the roach swim--
+        Here we keep our larder,
+        Cool and full and dim.
+
+        Everyone for what he likes!
+        _We_ like to be
+        Heads down, tails up,
+        Dabbling free!
+
+        High in the blue above
+        Swifts whirl and call--
+        _We_ are down a-dabbling
+        Up tails all!
+
+"I don't know that I think so _very_ much of that little song, Rat,"
+observed the Mole cautiously. He was no poet himself and didn't care
+who knew it; and he had a candid nature.
+
+"Nor don't the ducks neither," replied the Rat cheerfully. "They say,
+'_Why_ can't fellows be allowed to do what they like _when_ they like
+and _as_ they like, instead of other fellows sitting on banks and
+watching them all the time and making remarks and poetry and things
+about them? What _nonsense_ it all is!' That's what the ducks say."
+
+"So it is, so it is," said the Mole, with great heartiness.
+
+"No, it isn't!" cried the Rat indignantly.
+
+"Well then, it isn't, it isn't," replied the Mole soothingly. "But what
+I wanted to ask you was, won't you take me to call on Mr. Toad? I've
+heard so much about him, and I do so want to make his acquaintance."
+
+"Why, certainly," said the good-natured Rat, jumping to his feet and
+dismissing poetry from his mind for the day. "Get the boat out, and
+we'll paddle up there at once. It's never the wrong time to call on
+Toad. Early or late, he's always the same fellow. Always good-tempered,
+always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!"
+
+"He must be a very nice animal," observed the Mole, as he got into the
+boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably in
+the stern.
+
+"He is indeed the best of animals," replied Rat. "So simple, so
+good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's not very clever--we
+can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both boastful and
+conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady."
+
+Rounding a bend in the river, they came in sight of a handsome,
+dignified old house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns
+reaching down to the water's edge.
+
+"There's Toad Hall," said the Rat; "and that creek on the left, where
+the notice-board says, 'Private. No landing allowed,' leads to his
+boat-house, where we'll leave the boat. The stables are over there to
+the right. That's the banqueting-hall you're looking at now--very
+old, that is. Toad is rather rich, you know, and this is really one of
+the nicest houses in these parts, though we never admit as much to
+Toad."
+
+They glided up the creek, and the Mole shipped his sculls as they
+passed into the shadow of a large boat-house. Here they saw many
+handsome boats, slung from the cross-beams or hauled up on a slip, but
+none in the water; and the place had an unused and a deserted air.
+
+The Rat looked around him. "I understand," said he. "Boating is played
+out. He's tired of it, and done with it. I wonder what new fad he has
+taken up now? Come along and let's look him up. We shall hear all
+about it quite soon enough."
+
+They disembarked, and strolled across the gay flower-decked lawns in
+search of Toad, whom they presently happened upon resting in a wicker
+garden-chair, with a pre-occupied expression of face, and a large map
+spread out on his knees.
+
+"Hooray!" he cried, jumping up on seeing them, "this is splendid!" He
+shook the paws of both of them warmly, never waiting for an introduction
+to the Mole. "How _kind_ of you!" he went on, dancing round them. "I was
+just going to send a boat down the river for you, Ratty, with strict
+orders that you were to be fetched up here at once, whatever you were
+doing. I want you badly--both of you. Now what will you take? Come
+inside and have something! You don't know how lucky it is, your
+turning up just now!"
+
+"Let's sit quiet a bit, Toady!" said the Rat, throwing himself into an
+easy chair, while the Mole took another by the side of him and made
+some civil remark about Toad's "delightful residence."
+
+"Finest house on the whole river," cried Toad boisterously. "Or
+anywhere else, for that matter," he could not help adding.
+
+Here the Rat nudged the Mole. Unfortunately the Toad saw him do it, and
+turned very red. There was a moment's painful silence. Then Toad burst
+out laughing. "All right, Ratty," he said. "It's only my way, you know.
+And it's not such a very bad house, is it? You know, you rather like it
+yourself. Now, look here. Let's be sensible. You are the very animals I
+wanted. You've got to help me. It's most important!"
+
+"It's about your rowing, I suppose," said the Rat, with an innocent
+air. "You're getting on fairly well, though you splash a good bit
+still. With a great deal of patience and any quantity of coaching, you
+may--"
+
+"O, pooh! boating!" interrupted the Toad, in great disgust. "Silly
+boyish amusement. I've given that up _long_ ago. Sheer waste of time,
+that's what it is. It makes me downright sorry to see you fellows, who
+ought to know better, spending all your energies in that aimless manner.
+No, I've discovered the real thing, the only genuine occupation for a
+lifetime. I propose to devote the remainder of mine to it, and can only
+regret the wasted years that lie behind me, squandered in trivialities.
+Come with me, dear Ratty, and your amiable friend also, if he will be so
+very good, just as far as the stable-yard, and you shall see what you
+shall see!"
+
+He led the way to the stable-yard accordingly, the Rat following with
+a most mistrustful expression; and there, drawn out of the coach-house
+into the open, they saw a gipsy caravan, shining with newness, painted
+a canary-yellow picked out with green, and red wheels.
+
+"There you are!" cried the Toad, straddling and expanding himself.
+"There's real life for you, embodied in that little cart. The open
+road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the
+rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off
+to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The
+whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing! And
+mind! this is the very finest cart of its sort that was ever built,
+without any exception. Come inside and look at the arrangements.
+Planned 'em all myself, I did!"
+
+The Mole was tremendously interested and excited, and followed him
+eagerly up the steps and into the interior of the caravan. The Rat
+only snorted and thrust his hands deep into his pockets, remaining
+where he was.
+
+It was indeed very compact and comfortable. Little sleeping bunks--a
+little table that folded up against the wall--a cooking-stove,
+lockers, book-shelves, a bird-cage with a bird in it; and pots, pans,
+jugs, and kettles of every size and variety.
+
+"All complete!" said the Toad triumphantly, pulling open a locker.
+"You see--biscuits, potted lobster, sardines--everything you can
+possibly want. Soda-water here--baccy there--letter-paper, bacon, jam,
+cards, and dominoes--you'll find," he continued, as they descended the
+steps again, "you'll find that nothing whatever has been forgotten,
+when we make our start this afternoon."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the Rat slowly, as he chewed a straw, "but
+did I overhear you say something about '_we_,' and '_start_,' and
+'_this afternoon_'?"
+
+"Now, you dear good old Ratty," said Toad imploringly, "don't begin
+talking in that stiff and sniffy sort of way, because you know you've
+_got_ to come. I can't possibly manage without you, so please consider
+it settled, and don't argue--it's the one thing I can't stand. You
+surely don't mean to stick to your dull fusty old river all your life,
+and just live in a hole in a bank, and _boat_? I want to show you the
+world! I'm going to make an _animal_ of you, my boy!"
+
+"I don't care," said the Rat doggedly. "I'm not coming, and that's
+flat. And I _am_ going to stick to my old river, _and_ live in a hole,
+_and_ boat, as I've always done. And what's more, Mole's going to
+stick to me and do as I do, aren't you, Mole?"
+
+"Of course I am," said the Mole, loyally. "I'll always stick to you,
+Rat, and what you say is to be--has got to be. All the same, it sounds
+as if it might have been--well, rather fun, you know!" he added
+wistfully. Poor Mole! The Life Adventurous was so new a thing to him,
+and so thrilling; and this fresh aspect of it was so tempting; and he
+had fallen in love at first sight with the canary-coloured cart and
+all its little fitments.
+
+The Rat saw what was passing in his mind, and wavered. He hated
+disappointing people, and he was fond of the Mole, and would do
+almost anything to oblige him. Toad was watching both of them closely.
+
+"Come along in, and have some lunch," he said, diplomatically, "and
+we'll talk it over. We needn't decide anything in a hurry. Of course,
+_I_ don't really care. I only want to give pleasure to you fellows.
+'Live for others!' That's my motto in life."
+
+During luncheon--which was excellent, of course, as everything at Toad
+Hall always was--the Toad simply let himself go. Disregarding the Rat,
+he proceeded to play upon the inexperienced Mole as on a harp.
+Naturally a voluble animal, and always mastered by his imagination, he
+painted the prospects of the trip and the joys of the open life and
+the roadside in such glowing colours that the Mole could hardly sit in
+his chair for excitement. Somehow, it soon seemed taken for granted by
+all three of them that the trip was a settled thing; and the Rat,
+though still unconvinced in his mind, allowed his good-nature to
+over-ride his personal objections. He could not bear to disappoint his
+two friends, who were already deep in schemes and anticipations,
+planning out each day's separate occupation for several weeks ahead.
+
+When they were quite ready, the now triumphant Toad led his companions
+to the paddock and set them to capture the old grey horse, who,
+without having been consulted, and to his own extreme annoyance, had
+been told off by Toad for the dustiest job in this dusty expedition.
+He frankly preferred the paddock, and took a deal of catching.
+Meantime Toad packed the lockers still tighter with necessaries, and
+hung nose-bags, nets of onions, bundles of hay, and baskets from the
+bottom of the cart. At last the horse was caught and harnessed, and
+they set off, all talking at once, each animal either trudging by the
+side of the cart or sitting on the shaft, as the humour took him. It
+was a golden afternoon. The smell of the dust they kicked up was rich
+and satisfying; out of thick orchards on either side the road, birds
+called and whistled to them cheerily; good-natured wayfarers, passing
+them, gave them "Good day," or stopped to say nice things about their
+beautiful cart; and rabbits, sitting at their front doors in the
+hedgerows, held up their fore-paws, and said, "O my! O my! O my!"
+
+Late in the evening, tired and happy and miles from home, they drew up
+on a remote common far from habitations, turned the horse loose to
+graze, and ate their simple supper sitting on the grass by the side of
+the cart. Toad talked big about all he was going to do in the days to
+come, while stars grew fuller and larger all around them, and a yellow
+moon, appearing suddenly and silently from nowhere in particular, came
+to keep them company and listen to their talk. At last they turned in
+to their little bunks in the cart; and Toad, kicking out his legs,
+sleepily said, "Well, good night, you fellows! This is the real life
+for a gentleman! Talk about your old river!"
+
+"I _don't_ talk about my river," replied the patient Rat. "You _know_
+I don't, Toad. But I _think_ about it," he added pathetically, in a
+lower tone: "I think about it--all the time!"
+
+The Mole reached out from under his blanket, felt for the Rat's paw in
+the darkness, and gave it a squeeze. "I'll do whatever you like,
+Ratty," he whispered. "Shall we run away to-morrow morning, quite
+early--_very_ early--and go back to our dear old hole on the river?"
+
+"No, no, we'll see it out," whispered back the Rat. "Thanks awfully,
+but I ought to stick by Toad till this trip is ended. It wouldn't be
+safe for him to be left to himself. It won't take very long. His fads
+never do. Good night!"
+
+The end was indeed nearer than even the Rat suspected.
+
+After so much open air and excitement the Toad slept very soundly, and
+no amount of shaking could rouse him out of bed next morning. So the
+Mole and Rat turned to, quietly and manfully, and while the Rat saw to
+the horse, and lit a fire, and cleaned last night's cups and platters,
+and got things ready for breakfast, the Mole trudged off to the
+nearest village, a long way off, for milk and eggs and various
+necessaries the Toad had, of course, forgotten to provide. The hard
+work had all been done, and the two animals were resting, thoroughly
+exhausted, by the time Toad appeared on the scene, fresh and gay,
+remarking what a pleasant, easy life it was they were all leading now,
+after the cares and worries and fatigues of housekeeping at home.
+
+They had a pleasant ramble that day over grassy downs and along narrow
+by-lanes, and camped, as before, on a common, only this time the two
+guests took care that Toad should do his fair share of work. In
+consequence, when the time came for starting next morning, Toad was by
+no means so rapturous about the simplicity of the primitive life, and
+indeed attempted to resume his place in his bunk, whence he was hauled
+by force. Their way lay, as before, across country by narrow lanes,
+and it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road,
+their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen,
+sprang out on them--disaster momentous indeed to their expedition, but
+simply overwhelming in its effect on the after career of Toad.
+
+They were strolling along the high-road easily, the Mole by the
+horse's head, talking to him, since the horse had complained that he
+was being frightfully left out of it, and nobody considered him in
+the least; the Toad and the Water Rat walking behind the cart talking
+together--at least Toad was talking, and Rat was saying at intervals,
+"Yes, precisely; and what did _you_ say to _him_?"--and thinking all
+the time of something very different, when far behind them they heard
+a faint warning hum, like the drone of a distant bee. Glancing back,
+they saw a small cloud of dust, with a dark centre of energy,
+advancing on them at incredible speed, while from out the dust a faint
+"Poop-poop!" wailed like an uneasy animal in pain. Hardly regarding
+it, they turned to resume their conversation, when in an instant (as
+it seemed) the peaceful scene was changed, and with a blast of wind
+and a whirl of sound that made them jump for the nearest ditch. It was
+on them! The "Poop-poop" rang with a brazen shout in their ears, they
+had a moment's glimpse of an interior of glittering plate-glass and
+rich morocco, and the magnificent motor-car, immense, breath-snatching,
+passionate, with its pilot tense and hugging his wheel, possessed all
+earth and air for the fraction of a second, flung an enveloping cloud
+of dust that blinded and enwrapped them utterly, and then dwindled to
+a speck in the far distance, changed back into a droning bee once more.
+
+The old grey horse, dreaming, as he plodded along, of his quiet
+paddock, in a new raw situation such as this, simply abandoned himself
+to his natural emotions. Rearing, plunging, backing steadily, in spite
+of all the Mole's efforts at his head, and all the Mole's lively
+language directed at his better feelings, he drove the cart backward
+towards the deep ditch at the side of the road. It wavered an
+instant--then there was a heart-rending crash--and the canary-coloured
+cart, their pride and their joy, lay on its side in the ditch, an
+irredeemable wreck.
+
+The Rat danced up and down in the road, simply transported with passion.
+"You villains!" he shouted, shaking both fists. "You scoundrels, you
+highwaymen, you--you--road-hogs!--I'll have the law of you! I'll report
+you! I'll take you through all the Courts!" His home-sickness had quite
+slipped away from him, and for the moment he was the skipper of the
+canary-coloured vessel driven on a shoal by the reckless jockeying of
+rival mariners, and he was trying to recollect all the fine and biting
+things he used to say to masters of steam-launches when their wash, as
+they drove too near the bank, used to flood his parlour-carpet at home.
+
+Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs
+stretched out before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the
+disappearing motor-car. He breathed short, his face wore a placid,
+satisfied expression, and at intervals he faintly murmured "Poop-poop!"
+
+The Mole was busy trying to quiet the horse, which he succeeded in
+doing after a time. Then he went to look at the cart, on its side in
+the ditch. It was indeed a sorry sight. Panels and windows smashed,
+axles hopelessly bent, one wheel off, sardine-tins scattered over the
+wide world, and the bird in the bird-cage sobbing pitifully and
+calling to be let out.
+
+The Rat came to help him, but their united efforts were not sufficient
+to right the cart. "Hi! Toad!" they cried. "Come and bear a hand,
+can't you!"
+
+The Toad never answered a word, or budged from his seat in the road;
+so they went to see what was the matter with him. They found him in a
+sort of a trance, a happy smile on his face, his eyes still fixed on
+the dusty wake of their destroyer. At intervals he was still heard to
+murmur "Poop-poop!"
+
+The Rat shook him by the shoulder. "Are you coming to help us, Toad?"
+he demanded sternly.
+
+"Glorious, stirring sight!" murmured Toad, never offering to move.
+"The poetry of motion! The _real_ way to travel! The _only_ way to
+travel! Here to-day--in next week to-morrow! Villages skipped, towns
+and cities jumped--always somebody else's horizon! O bliss! O
+poop-poop! O my! O my!"
+
+"O _stop_ being an ass, Toad!" cried the Mole despairingly.
+
+"And to think I never _knew_!" went on the Toad in a dreamy monotone.
+"All those wasted years that lie behind me, I never knew, never even
+_dreamt_! But _now_--but now that I know, now that I fully realise! O
+what a flowery track lies spread before me, henceforth! What
+dust-clouds shall spring up behind me as I speed on my reckless way!
+What carts I shall fling carelessly into the ditch in the wake of my
+magnificent onset! Horrid little carts--common carts--canary-coloured
+carts!"
+
+"What are we to do with him?" asked the Mole of the Water Rat.
+
+"Nothing at all," replied the Rat firmly. "Because there is really
+nothing to be done. You see, I know him from of old. He is now
+possessed. He has got a new craze, and it always takes him that way,
+in its first stage. He'll continue like that for days now, like an
+animal walking in a happy dream, quite useless for all practical
+purposes. Never mind him. Let's go and see what there is to be done
+about the cart."
+
+A careful inspection showed them that, even if they succeeded in
+righting it by themselves, the cart would travel no longer. The axles
+were in a hopeless state, and the missing wheel was shattered into
+pieces.
+
+The Rat knotted the horse's reins over his back and took him by the
+head, carrying the bird-cage and its hysterical occupant in the other
+hand. "Come on!" he said grimly to the Mole. "It's five or six miles
+to the nearest town, and we shall just have to walk it. The sooner we
+make a start the better."
+
+"But what about Toad?" asked the Mole anxiously, as they set off
+together. "We can't leave him here, sitting in the middle of the road
+by himself, in the distracted state he's in! It's not safe. Supposing
+another Thing were to come along?"
+
+"O, _bother_ Toad," said the Rat savagely; "I've done with him."
+
+They had not proceeded very far on their way, however, when there was
+a pattering of feet behind them, and Toad caught them up and thrust a
+paw inside the elbow of each of them; still breathing short and
+staring into vacancy.
+
+"Now, look here, Toad!" said the Rat sharply: "as soon as we get to
+the town, you'll have to go straight to the police-station and see if
+they know anything about that motor-car and who it belongs to, and
+lodge a complaint against it. And then you'll have to go to a
+blacksmith's or a wheelwright's and arrange for the cart to be fetched
+and mended and put to rights. It'll take time, but it's not quite a
+hopeless smash. Meanwhile, the Mole and I will go to an inn and find
+comfortable rooms where we can stay till the cart's ready, and till
+your nerves have recovered their shock."
+
+"Police-station! Complaint!" murmured Toad dreamily. "Me _complain_ of
+that beautiful, that heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me!
+_Mend_ the _cart_! I've done with carts for ever. I never want to see
+the cart, or to hear of it, again. O Ratty! You can't think how
+obliged I am to you for consenting to come on this trip! I wouldn't
+have gone without you, and then I might never have seen that--that
+swan, that sunbeam, that thunderbolt! I might never have heard that
+entrancing sound, or smelt that bewitching smell! I owe it all to you,
+my best of friends!"
+
+[Illustration: _"Come on!" he said. "We shall just have to walk it"_]
+
+The Rat turned from him in despair. "You see what it is?" he said
+to the Mole, addressing him across Toad's head: "He's quite hopeless.
+I give it up--when we get to the town we'll go to the railway station,
+and with luck we may pick up a train there that'll get us back to
+river bank to-night. And if ever you catch me going a-pleasuring with
+this provoking animal again!"--He snorted, and during the rest of that
+weary trudge addressed his remarks exclusively to Mole.
+
+On reaching the town they went straight to the station and deposited
+Toad in the second-class waiting-room, giving a porter twopence to
+keep a strict eye on him. They then left the horse at an inn stable,
+and gave what directions they could about the cart and its contents.
+Eventually, a slow train having landed them at a station not very far
+from Toad Hall, they escorted the spellbound, sleep-walking Toad to
+his door, put him inside it, and instructed his housekeeper to feed
+him, undress him, and put him to bed. Then they got out their boat
+from the boat-house, sculled down the river home, and at a very late
+hour sat down to supper in their own cosy riverside parlour, to the
+Rat's great joy and contentment.
+
+The following evening the Mole, who had risen late and taken things
+very easy all day, was sitting on the bank fishing, when the Rat, who
+had been looking up his friends and gossiping, came strolling along to
+find him. "Heard the news?" he said. "There's nothing else being
+talked about, all along the river bank. Toad went up to Town by an
+early train this morning. And he has ordered a large and very
+expensive motor-car."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE WILD WOOD
+
+
+The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. He
+seemed, by all accounts, to be such an important personage and, though
+rarely visible, to make his unseen influence felt by everybody about
+the place. But whenever the Mole mentioned his wish to the Water Rat,
+he always found himself put off. "It's all right," the Rat would say.
+"Badger'll turn up some day or other--he's always turning up--and then
+I'll introduce you. The best of fellows! But you must not only take
+him _as_ you find him, but _when_ you find him."
+
+"Couldn't you ask him here--dinner or something?" said the Mole.
+
+"He wouldn't come," replied the Rat simply. "Badger hates Society, and
+invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing."
+
+"Well, then, supposing we go and call on _him_?" suggested the Mole.
+
+"O, I'm sure he wouldn't like that at _all_," said the Rat, quite
+alarmed. "He's so very shy, he'd be sure to be offended. I've never
+even ventured to call on him at his own home myself, though I know him
+so well. Besides, we can't. It's quite out of the question, because he
+lives in the very middle of the Wild Wood."
+
+"Well, supposing he does," said the Mole. "You told me the Wild Wood
+was all right, you know."
+
+"O, I know, I know, so it is," replied the Rat evasively. "But I think
+we won't go there just now. Not _just_ yet. It's a long way, and he
+wouldn't be at home at this time of year anyhow, and he'll be coming
+along some day, if you'll wait quietly."
+
+The Mole had to be content with this. But the Badger never came along,
+and every day brought its amusements, and it was not till summer was
+long over, and cold and frost and miry ways kept them much indoors,
+and the swollen river raced past outside their windows with a speed
+that mocked at boating of any sort or kind, that he found his thoughts
+dwelling again with much persistence on the solitary grey Badger, who
+lived his own life by himself, in his hole in the middle of the Wild
+Wood.
+
+In the winter time the Rat slept a great deal, retiring early and
+rising late. During his short day he sometimes scribbled poetry or did
+other small domestic jobs about the house; and, of course, there were
+always animals dropping in for a chat, and consequently there was a
+good deal of story-telling and comparing notes on the past summer and
+all its doings.
+
+Such a rich chapter it had been, when one came to look back on it all!
+With illustrations so numerous and so very highly-coloured! The pageant
+of the river bank had marched steadily along, unfolding itself in
+scene-pictures that succeeded each other in stately procession. Purple
+loosestrife arrived early, shaking luxuriant tangled locks along the
+edge of the mirror whence its own face laughed back at it. Willow-herb,
+tender and wistful, like a pink sunset cloud, was not slow to follow.
+Comfrey, the purple hand-in-hand with the white, crept forth to take its
+place in the line; and at last one morning the diffident and delaying
+dog-rose stepped delicately on the stage, and one knew, as if
+string-music had announced it in stately chords that strayed into a
+gavotte, that June at last was here. One member of the company was still
+awaited; the shepherd-boy for the nymphs to woo, the knight for whom the
+ladies waited at the window, the prince that was to kiss the sleeping
+summer back to life and love. But when meadow-sweet, debonair and
+odorous in amber jerkin, moved graciously to his place in the group,
+then the play was ready to begin.
+
+And what a play it had been! Drowsy animals, snug in their holes while
+wind and rain were battering at their doors, recalled still keen
+mornings, an hour before sunrise, when the white mist, as yet
+undispersed, clung closely along the surface of the water; then the
+shock of the early plunge, the scamper along the bank, and the radiant
+transformation of earth, air, and water, when suddenly the sun was
+with them again, and grey was gold and colour was born and sprang out
+of the earth once more. They recalled the languorous siesta of hot
+mid-day, deep in green undergrowth, the sun striking through in tiny
+golden shafts and spots; the boating and bathing of the afternoon, the
+rambles along dusty lanes and through yellow corn-fields; and the
+long, cool evening at last, when so many threads were gathered up, so
+many friendships rounded, and so many adventures planned for the
+morrow. There was plenty to talk about on those short winter days when
+the animals found themselves round the fire; still, the Mole had a
+good deal of spare time on his hands, and so one afternoon, when the
+Rat in his arm-chair before the blaze was alternately dozing and
+trying over rhymes that wouldn't fit, he formed the resolution to go
+out by himself and explore the Wild Wood, and perhaps strike up an
+acquaintance with Mr. Badger.
+
+It was a cold, still afternoon with a hard, steely sky overhead, when
+he slipped out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay
+bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had
+never seen so far and so intimately into the insides of things as on
+that winter day when Nature was deep in her annual slumber and seemed
+to have kicked the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries, and all
+hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in
+leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically,
+and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while,
+till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and
+entice him with the old deceptions. It was pitiful in a way, and yet
+cheering--even exhilarating. He was glad that he liked the country
+undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got down to the
+bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple. He did not
+want the warm clover and the play of seeding grasses; the screens of
+quickset, the billowy drapery of beech and elm seemed best away; and
+with great cheerfulness of spirit he pushed on towards the Wild Wood,
+which lay before him low and threatening, like a black reef in some
+still southern sea.
+
+There was nothing to alarm him at first entry. Twigs crackled under
+his feet, logs tripped him, funguses on stumps resembled caricatures,
+and startled him for the moment by their likeness to something
+familiar and far away; but that was all fun, and exciting. It led him
+on, and he penetrated to where the light was less, and trees crouched
+nearer and nearer, and holes made ugly mouths at him on either side.
+
+Everything was very still now. The dusk advanced on him steadily,
+rapidly, gathering in behind and before; and the light seemed to be
+draining away like flood-water.
+
+Then the faces began.
+
+It was over his shoulder, and indistinctly, that he first thought he
+saw a face, a little, evil, wedge-shaped face, looking out at him from
+a hole. When he turned and confronted it, the thing had vanished.
+
+He quickened his pace, telling himself cheerfully not to begin
+imagining things or there would be simply no end to it. He passed
+another hole, and another, and another; and then--yes!--no!--yes!
+certainly a little, narrow face, with hard eyes, had flashed up for an
+instant from a hole, and was gone. He hesitated--braced himself up for
+an effort and strode on. Then suddenly, and as if it had been so all
+the time, every hole, far and near, and there were hundreds of them,
+seemed to possess its face, coming and going rapidly, all fixing on
+him glances of malice and hatred: all hard-eyed and evil and sharp.
+
+If he could only get away from the holes in the banks, he thought,
+there would be no more faces. He swung off the path and plunged into
+the untrodden places of the wood.
+
+Then the whistling began.
+
+Very faint and shrill it was, and far behind him, when first he heard
+it; but somehow it made him hurry forward. Then, still very faint and
+shrill, it sounded far ahead of him, and made him hesitate and want to
+go back. As he halted in indecision it broke out on either side, and
+seemed to be caught up and passed on throughout the whole length of
+the wood to its farthest limit. They were up and alert and ready,
+evidently, whoever they were! And he--he was alone, and unarmed, and
+far from any help; and the night was closing in.
+
+Then the pattering began.
+
+He thought it was only falling leaves at first, so slight and delicate
+was the sound of it. Then as it grew it took a regular rhythm, and he
+knew it for nothing else but the pat-pat-pat of little feet still a
+very long way off. Was it in front or behind? It seemed to be first
+one, and then the other, then both. It grew and it multiplied, till
+from every quarter as he listened anxiously, leaning this way and
+that, it seemed to be closing in on him. As he stood still to hearken,
+a rabbit came running hard towards him through the trees. He waited,
+expecting it to slacken pace or to swerve from him into a different
+course. Instead, the animal almost brushed him as it dashed past, his
+face set and hard, his eyes staring. "Get out of this, you fool, get
+out!" the Mole heard him mutter as he swung round a stump and
+disappeared down a friendly burrow.
+
+The pattering increased till it sounded like sudden hail on the dry
+leaf-carpet spread around him. The whole wood seemed running now,
+running hard, hunting, chasing, closing in round something or--somebody?
+In panic, he began to run too, aimlessly, he knew not whither. He ran up
+against things, he fell over things and into things, he darted under
+things and dodged round things. At last he took refuge in the deep, dark
+hollow of an old beech tree, which offered shelter, concealment--perhaps
+even safety, but who could tell? Anyhow, he was too tired to run any
+further, and could only snuggle down into the dry leaves which had
+drifted into the hollow and hope he was safe for a time. And as he lay
+there panting and trembling, and listened to the whistlings and the
+patterings outside, he knew it at last, in all its fulness, that dread
+thing which other little dwellers in field and hedgerow had encountered
+here, and known as their darkest moment--that thing which the Rat had
+vainly tried to shield him from--the Terror of the Wild Wood!
+
+[Illustration: _In panic, he began to run_]
+
+Meantime the Rat, warm and comfortable, dozed by his fireside. His
+paper of half-finished verses slipped from his knee, his head fell
+back, his mouth opened, and he wandered by the verdant banks of
+dream-rivers. Then a coal slipped, the fire crackled and sent up a
+spurt of flame, and he woke with a start. Remembering what he had been
+engaged upon, he reached down to the floor for his verses, pored over
+them for a minute, and then looked round for the Mole to ask him if he
+knew a good rhyme for something or other.
+
+But the Mole was not there.
+
+He listened for a time. The house seemed very quiet.
+
+Then he called "Moly!" several times, and, receiving no answer, got up
+and went out into the hall.
+
+The Mole's cap was missing from its accustomed peg. His goloshes,
+which always lay by the umbrella-stand, were also gone.
+
+The Rat left the house, and carefully examined the muddy surface of
+the ground outside, hoping to find the Mole's tracks. There they were,
+sure enough. The goloshes were new, just bought for the winter, and
+the pimples on their soles were fresh and sharp. He could see the
+imprints of them in the mud, running along straight and purposeful,
+leading direct to the Wild Wood.
+
+The Rat looked very grave, and stood in deep thought for a minute or
+two. Then he re-entered the house, strapped a belt round his waist,
+shoved a brace of pistols into it, took up a stout cudgel that stood
+in a corner of the hall, and set off for the Wild Wood at a smart
+pace.
+
+It was already getting towards dusk when he reached the first fringe
+of trees and plunged without hesitation into the wood, looking
+anxiously on either side for any sign of his friend. Here and there
+wicked little faces popped out of holes, but vanished immediately at
+sight of the valorous animal, his pistols, and the great ugly cudgel
+in his grasp; and the whistling and pattering, which he had heard
+quite plainly on his first entry, died away and ceased, and all was
+very still. He made his way manfully through the length of the wood,
+to its furthest edge; then, forsaking all paths, he set himself to
+traverse it, laboriously working over the whole ground, and all the
+time calling out cheerfully, "Moly, Moly, Moly! Where are you? It's
+me--it's old Rat!"
+
+He had patiently hunted through the wood for an hour or more, when at
+last to his joy he heard a little answering cry. Guiding himself by
+the sound, he made his way through the gathering darkness to the foot
+of an old beech tree, with a hole in it, and from out of the hole came
+a feeble voice, saying "Ratty! Is that really you?"
+
+The Rat crept into the hollow, and there he found the Mole, exhausted
+and still trembling. "O Rat!" he cried, "I've been so frightened, you
+can't think!"
+
+"O, I quite understand," said the Rat soothingly. "You shouldn't
+really have gone and done it, Mole. I did my best to keep you from it.
+We river-bankers, we hardly ever come here by ourselves. If we have to
+come, we come in couples at least; then we're generally all right.
+Besides, there are a hundred things one has to know, which we
+understand all about and you don't, as yet. I mean passwords, and
+signs, and sayings which have power and effect, and plants you carry
+in your pocket, and verses you repeat, and dodges and tricks you
+practise; all simple enough when you know them, but they've got to be
+known if you're small, or you'll find yourself in trouble. Of course
+if you were Badger or Otter, it would be quite another matter."
+
+"Surely the brave Mr. Toad wouldn't mind coming here by himself, would
+he?" inquired the Mole.
+
+"Old Toad?" said the Rat, laughing heartily. "He wouldn't show his
+face here alone, not for a whole hatful of golden guineas, Toad
+wouldn't."
+
+The Mole was greatly cheered by the sound of the Rat's careless
+laughter, as well as by the sight of his stick and his gleaming
+pistols, and he stopped shivering and began to feel bolder and more
+himself again.
+
+"Now then," said the Rat presently, "we really must pull ourselves
+together and make a start for home while there's still a little light
+left. It will never do to spend the night here, you understand. Too
+cold, for one thing."
+
+"Dear Ratty," said the poor Mole, "I'm dreadfully sorry, but I'm
+simply dead beat and that's a solid fact. You _must_ let me rest here
+a while longer, and get my strength back, if I'm to get home at all."
+
+"O, all right," said the good-natured Rat, "rest away. It's pretty
+nearly pitch dark now, anyhow; and there ought to be a bit of a moon
+later."
+
+So the Mole got well into the dry leaves and stretched himself out,
+and presently dropped off into sleep, though of a broken and troubled
+sort; while the Rat covered himself up, too, as best he might, for
+warmth, and lay patiently waiting, with a pistol in his paw.
+
+When at last the Mole woke up, much refreshed and in his usual
+spirits, the Rat said, "Now then! I'll just take a look outside and
+see if everything's quiet, and then we really must be off."
+
+He went to the entrance of their retreat and put his head out. Then
+the Mole heard him saying quietly to himself, "Hullo! hullo!
+here--_is_--a--go!"
+
+"What's up, Ratty?" asked the Mole.
+
+"_Snow_ is up," replied the Rat briefly; "or rather, _down_. It's
+snowing hard."
+
+The Mole came and crouched beside him, and, looking out, saw the wood
+that had been so dreadful to him in quite a changed aspect. Holes,
+hollows, pools, pitfalls, and other black menaces to the wayfarer were
+vanishing fast, and a gleaming carpet of faery was springing up
+everywhere, that looked too delicate to be trodden upon by rough feet.
+A fine powder filled the air and caressed the cheek with a tingle in
+its touch, and the black boles of the trees showed up in a light that
+seemed to come from below.
+
+"Well, well, it can't be helped," said the Rat, after pondering. "We
+must make a start, and take our chance, I suppose. The worst of it is,
+I don't exactly know where we are. And now this snow makes everything
+look so very different."
+
+It did indeed. The Mole would not have known that it was the same
+wood. However, they set out bravely, and took the line that seemed
+most promising, holding on to each other and pretending with
+invincible cheerfulness that they recognised an old friend in every
+fresh tree that grimly and silently greeted them, or saw openings,
+gaps, or paths with a familiar turn in them, in the monotony of white
+space and black tree-trunks that refused to vary.
+
+An hour or two later--they had lost all count of time--they pulled up,
+dispirited, weary, and hopelessly at sea, and sat down on a fallen
+tree-trunk to recover their breath and consider what was to be done.
+They were aching with fatigue and bruised with tumbles; they had
+fallen into several holes and got wet through; the snow was getting so
+deep that they could hardly drag their little legs through it, and the
+trees were thicker and more like each other than ever. There seemed to
+be no end to this wood, and no beginning, and no difference in it,
+and, worst of all, no way out.
+
+"We can't sit here very long," said the Rat. "We shall have to make
+another push for it, and do something or other. The cold is too awful
+for anything, and the snow will soon be too deep for us to wade
+through." He peered about him and considered. "Look here," he went on,
+"this is what occurs to me. There's a sort of dell down here in front
+of us, where the ground seems all hilly and humpy and hummocky. We'll
+make our way down into that, and try and find some sort of shelter, a
+cave or hole with a dry floor to it, out of the snow and the wind, and
+there we'll have a good rest before we try again, for we're both of us
+pretty dead beat. Besides, the snow may leave off, or something may
+turn up."
+
+So once more they got on their feet, and struggled down into the dell,
+where they hunted about for a cave or some corner that was dry and a
+protection from the keen wind and the whirling snow. They were
+investigating one of the hummocky bits the Rat had spoken of, when
+suddenly the Mole tripped up and fell forward on his face with a
+squeal.
+
+"O my leg!" he cried. "O my poor shin!" and he sat up on the snow and
+nursed his leg in both his front paws.
+
+"Poor old Mole!" said the Rat kindly. "You don't seem to be having
+much luck to-day, do you? Let's have a look at the leg. Yes," he went
+on, going down on his knees to look, "you've cut your shin, sure
+enough. Wait till I get at my handkerchief, and I'll tie it up for
+you."
+
+"I must have tripped over a hidden branch or a stump," said the Mole
+miserably. "O, my! O, my!"
+
+"It's a very clean cut," said the Rat, examining it again attentively.
+"That was never done by a branch or a stump. Looks as if it was made
+by a sharp edge of something in metal. Funny!" He pondered awhile, and
+examined the humps and slopes that surrounded them.
+
+"Well, never mind what done it," said the Mole, forgetting his grammar
+in his pain. "It hurts just the same, whatever done it."
+
+But the Rat, after carefully tying up the leg with his handkerchief,
+had left him and was busy scraping in the snow. He scratched and
+shovelled and explored, all four legs working busily, while the Mole
+waited impatiently, remarking at intervals, "O, _come_ on, Rat!"
+
+Suddenly the Rat cried "Hooray!" and then
+"Hooray-oo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray!" and fell to executing a feeble jig in
+the snow.
+
+"What _have_ you found, Ratty?" asked the Mole, still nursing his leg.
+
+"Come and see!" said the delighted Rat, as he jigged on.
+
+The Mole hobbled up to the spot and had a good look.
+
+"Well," he said at last, slowly, "I _see_ it right enough. Seen the same
+sort of thing before, lots of times. Familiar object, I call it. A
+door-scraper! Well, what of it? Why dance jigs around a door-scraper?"
+
+"But don't you see what it _means_, you--you dull-witted animal?"
+cried the Rat impatiently.
+
+"Of course I see what it means," replied the Mole. "It simply means
+that some _very_ careless and forgetful person has left his
+door-scraper lying about in the middle of the Wild Wood, _just_ where
+it's _sure_ to trip _everybody_ up. Very thoughtless of him, I call
+it. When I get home I shall go and complain about it to--to somebody
+or other, see if I don't!"
+
+"O, dear! O, dear!" cried the Rat, in despair at his obtuseness.
+"Here, stop arguing and come and scrape!" And he set to work again and
+made the snow fly in all directions around him.
+
+After some further toil his efforts were rewarded, and a very shabby
+door-mat lay exposed to view.
+
+"There, what did I tell you?" exclaimed the Rat in great triumph.
+
+"Absolutely nothing whatever," replied the Mole, with perfect truthfulness.
+"Well, now," he went on, "you seem to have found another piece of
+domestic litter, done for and thrown away, and I suppose you're
+perfectly happy. Better go ahead and dance your jig round that if you've
+got to, and get it over, and then perhaps we can go on and not waste any
+more time over rubbish-heaps. Can we _eat_ a door-mat? Or sleep under a
+door-mat? Or sit on a door-mat and sledge home over the snow on it, you
+exasperating rodent?"
+
+"Do--you--mean--to--say," cried the excited Rat, "that this door-mat
+doesn't _tell_ you anything?"
+
+"Really, Rat," said the Mole, quite pettishly, "I think we've had
+enough of this folly. Who ever heard of a door-mat _telling_ any one
+anything? They simply don't do it. They are not that sort at all.
+Door-mats know their place."
+
+"Now look here, you--you thick-headed beast," replied the Rat, really
+angry, "this must stop. Not another word, but scrape--scrape and
+scratch and dig and hunt round, especially on the sides of the
+hummocks, if you want to sleep dry and warm to-night, for it's our
+last chance!"
+
+The Rat attacked a snow-bank beside them with ardour, probing with his
+cudgel everywhere and then digging with fury; and the Mole scraped
+busily too, more to oblige the Rat than for any other reason, for his
+opinion was that his friend was getting light-headed.
+
+Some ten minutes' hard work, and the point of the Rat's cudgel struck
+something that sounded hollow. He worked till he could get a paw
+through and feel; then called the Mole to come and help him. Hard at
+it went the two animals, till at last the result of their labours
+stood full in view of the astonished and hitherto incredulous Mole.
+
+In the side of what had seemed to be a snow-bank stood a solid-looking
+little door, painted a dark green. An iron bell-pull hung by the side,
+and below it, on a small brass plate, neatly engraved in square capital
+letters, they could read by the aid of moonlight
+
+        MR. BADGER.
+
+The Mole fell backwards on the snow from sheer surprise and delight.
+"Rat!" he cried in penitence, "you're a wonder! A real wonder, that's
+what you are. I see it all now! You argued it out, step by step, in
+that wise head of yours, from the very moment that I fell and cut my
+shin, and you looked at the cut, and at once your majestic mind said
+to itself, 'Door-scraper!' And then you turned to and found the very
+door-scraper that done it! Did you stop there? No. Some people would
+have been quite satisfied; but not you. Your intellect went on
+working. 'Let me only just find a door-mat,' says you to yourself,
+'and my theory is proved!' And of course you found your door-mat.
+You're so clever, I believe you could find anything you liked. 'Now,'
+says you, 'that door exists, as plain as if I saw it. There's nothing
+else remains to be done but to find it!' Well, I've read about that
+sort of thing in books, but I've never come across it before in real
+life. You ought to go where you'll be properly appreciated. You're
+simply wasted here, among us fellows. If I only had your head,
+Ratty--"
+
+"But as you haven't," interrupted the Rat, rather unkindly, "I suppose
+you're going to sit on the snow all night and _talk_? Get up at once
+and hang on to that bell-pull you see there, and ring hard, as hard as
+you can, while I hammer!"
+
+While the Rat attacked the door with his stick, the Mole sprang up at
+the bell-pull, clutched it and swung there, both feet well off the
+ground, and from quite a long way off they could faintly hear a
+deep-toned bell respond.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MR. BADGER
+
+
+They waited patiently for what seemed a very long time, stamping in
+the snow to keep their feet warm. At last they heard the sound of slow
+shuffling footsteps approaching the door from the inside. It seemed,
+as the Mole remarked to the Rat, like some one walking in carpet
+slippers that were too large for him and down at heel; which was
+intelligent of Mole, because that was exactly what it was.
+
+There was the noise of a bolt shot back, and the door opened a few
+inches, enough to show a long snout and a pair of sleepy blinking
+eyes.
+
+"Now, the _very_ next time this happens," said a gruff and suspicious
+voice, "I shall be exceedingly angry. Who is it _this_ time,
+disturbing people on such a night? Speak up!"
+
+"Oh, Badger," cried the Rat, "let us in, please. It's me, Rat, and my
+friend Mole, and we've lost our way in the snow."
+
+"What, Ratty, my dear little man!" exclaimed the Badger, in quite a
+different voice. "Come along in, both of you, at once. Why, you must
+be perished. Well, I never! Lost in the snow! And in the Wild Wood,
+too, and at this time of night! But come in with you."
+
+The two animals tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get
+inside, and heard the door shut behind them with great joy and relief.
+
+The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose slippers were
+indeed very down at heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw and
+had probably been on his way to bed when their summons sounded. He
+looked kindly down on them and patted both their heads. "This is not
+the sort of night for small animals to be out," he said paternally.
+"I'm afraid you've been up to some of your pranks again, Ratty. But
+come along; come into the kitchen. There's a first-rate fire there,
+and supper and everything."
+
+He shuffled on in front of them, carrying the light, and they
+followed him, nudging each other in an anticipating sort of way, down
+a long, gloomy, and, to tell the truth, decidedly shabby passage, into
+a sort of a central hall, out of which they could dimly see other long
+tunnel-like passages branching, passages mysterious and without
+apparent end. But there were doors in the hall as well--stout oaken,
+comfortable-looking doors. One of these the Badger flung open, and at
+once they found themselves in all the glow and warmth of a large
+fire-lit kitchen.
+
+The floor was well-worn red brick, and on the wide hearth burnt a fire
+of logs, between two attractive chimney-corners tucked away in the
+wall, well out of any suspicion of draught. A couple of high-backed
+settles, facing each other on either side of the fire, gave further
+sitting accommodations for the sociably disposed. In the middle of the
+room stood a long table of plain boards placed on trestles, with
+benches down each side. At one end of it, where an arm-chair stood
+pushed back, were spread the remains of the Badger's plain but ample
+supper. Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser
+at the far end of the room, and from the rafters overhead hung hams,
+bundles of dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs. It seemed
+a place where heroes could fitly feast after victory, where weary
+harvesters could line up in scores along the table and keep their
+Harvest Home with mirth and song, or where two or three friends of
+simple tastes could sit about as they pleased and eat and smoke and
+talk in comfort and contentment. The ruddy brick floor smiled up at
+the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged
+cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at
+pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over
+everything without distinction.
+
+The kindly Badger thrust them down on a settle to toast themselves at
+the fire, and bade them remove their wet coats and boots. Then he
+fetched them dressing-gowns and slippers, and himself bathed the
+Mole's shin with warm water and mended the cut with sticking-plaster,
+till the whole thing was just as good as new, if not better. In the
+embracing light and warmth, warm and dry at last, with weary legs
+propped up in front of them, and a suggestive clink of plates being
+arranged on the table behind, it seemed to the storm-driven animals,
+now in safe anchorage, that the cold and trackless Wild Wood just left
+outside was miles and miles away, and all that they had suffered in it
+a half-forgotten dream.
+
+When at last they were thoroughly toasted, the Badger summoned them to
+the table, where he had been busy laying a repast. They had felt
+pretty hungry before, but when they actually saw at last the supper
+that was spread for them, really it seemed only a question of what
+they should attack first where all was so attractive, and whether the
+other things would obligingly wait for them till they had time to give
+them attention. Conversation was impossible for a long time; and when
+it was slowly resumed, it was that regrettable sort of conversation
+that results from talking with your mouth full. The Badger did not
+mind that sort of thing at all, nor did he take any notice of elbows
+on the table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into
+Society himself, he had got an idea that these things belonged to the
+things that didn't really matter. (We know of course that he was
+wrong, and took too narrow a view; because they do matter very much,
+though it would take too long to explain why.) He sat in his arm-chair
+at the head of the table, and nodded gravely at intervals as the
+animals told their story; and he did not seem surprised or shocked at
+anything, and he never said, "I told you so," or, "Just what I always
+said," or remarked that they ought to have done so-and-so, or ought
+not to have done something else. The Mole began to feel very friendly
+towards him.
+
+When supper was really finished at last, and each animal felt that his
+skin was now as tight as was decently safe, and that by this time he
+didn't care a hang for anybody or anything, they gathered round the
+glowing embers of the great wood fire, and thought how jolly it was to
+be sitting up _so_ late, and _so_ independent, and _so_ full; and
+after they had chatted for a time about things in general, the Badger
+said heartily, "Now then! tell us the news from your part of the
+world. How's old Toad going on?"
+
+"Oh, from bad to worse," said the Rat gravely, while the Mole, cocked
+up on a settle and basking in the firelight, his heels higher than his
+head, tried to look properly mournful. "Another smash-up only last
+week, and a bad one. You see, he will insist on driving himself, and
+he's hopelessly incapable. If he'd only employ a decent, steady,
+well-trained animal, pay him good wages, and leave everything to him,
+he'd get on all right. But no; he's convinced he's a heaven-born
+driver, and nobody can teach him anything; and all the rest follows."
+
+"How many has he had?" inquired the Badger gloomily.
+
+"Smashes, or machines?" asked the Rat. "Oh, well, after all, it's the
+same thing--with Toad. This is the seventh. As for the others--you
+know that coach-house of his? Well, it's piled up--literally piled up
+to the roof--with fragments of motor-cars, none of them bigger than
+your hat! That accounts for the other six--so far as they can be
+accounted for."
+
+"He's been in hospital three times," put in the Mole; "and as for the
+fines he's had to pay, it's simply awful to think of."
+
+"Yes, and that's part of the trouble," continued the Rat. "Toad's
+rich, we all know; but he's not a millionaire. And he's a hopelessly
+bad driver, and quite regardless of law and order. Killed or
+ruined--it's got to be one of the two things, sooner or later. Badger!
+we're his friends--oughtn't we to do something?"
+
+The Badger went through a bit of hard thinking. "Now look here!" he
+said at last, rather severely; "of course you know I can't do anything
+_now_?"
+
+His two friends assented, quite understanding his point. No animal,
+according to the rules of animal etiquette, is ever expected to do
+anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the
+off-season of winter. All are sleepy--some actually asleep. All are
+weather-bound, more or less; and all are resting from arduous days and
+nights, during which every muscle in them has been severely tested,
+and every energy kept at full stretch.
+
+"Very well then!" continued the Badger. "_But_, when once the year has
+really turned, and the nights are shorter, and half-way through them
+one rouses and feels fidgety and wanting to be up and doing by
+sunrise, if not before--_you_ know!--"
+
+Both animals nodded gravely. _They_ knew!
+
+"Well, _then_," went on the Badger, "we--that is, you and me and our
+friend the Mole here--we'll take Toad seriously in hand. We'll stand
+no nonsense whatever. We'll bring him back to reason, by force if need
+be. We'll _make_ him be a sensible Toad. We'll--you're asleep, Rat!"
+
+"Not me!" said the Rat, waking up with a jerk.
+
+"He's been asleep two or three times since supper," said the Mole,
+laughing. He himself was feeling quite wakeful and even lively, though
+he didn't know why. The reason was, of course, that he being naturally
+an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of
+Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the
+Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on
+a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.
+
+"Well, it's time we were all in bed," said the Badger, getting up and
+fetching flat candlesticks. "Come along, you two, and I'll show you
+your quarters. And take your time to-morrow morning--breakfast at any
+hour you please!"
+
+He conducted the two animals to a long room that seemed half
+bedchamber and half loft. The Badger's winter stores, which indeed
+were visible everywhere, took up half the room--piles of apples,
+turnips, and potatoes, baskets full of nuts, and jars of honey; but
+the two little white beds on the remainder of the floor looked soft
+and inviting, and the linen on them, though coarse, was clean and
+smelt beautifully of lavender; and the Mole and the Water Rat, shaking
+off their garments in some thirty seconds, tumbled in between the
+sheets in great joy and contentment.
+
+In accordance with the kindly Badger's injunctions, the two tired
+animals came down to breakfast very late next morning, and found a
+bright fire burning in the kitchen, and two young hedgehogs sitting on
+a bench at the table, eating oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls. The
+hedgehogs dropped their spoons, rose to their feet, and ducked their
+heads respectfully as the two entered.
+
+"There, sit down, sit down," said the Rat pleasantly, "and go on with
+your porridge. Where have you youngsters come from? Lost your way in
+the snow, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, please, sir," said the elder of the two hedgehogs respectfully.
+"Me and little Billy here, we was trying to find our way to
+school--mother _would_ have us go, was the weather ever so--and of
+course we lost ourselves, sir, and Billy he got frightened and took
+and cried, being young and faint-hearted. And at last we happened up
+against Mr. Badger's back door, and made so bold as to knock, sir, for
+Mr. Badger he's a kind-hearted gentleman, as every one knows--"
+
+"I understand," said the Rat, cutting himself some rashers from a side
+of bacon, while the Mole dropped some eggs into a saucepan. "And
+what's the weather like outside? You needn't 'sir' me quite so much,"
+he added.
+
+"O, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is," said the hedgehog.
+"No getting out for the likes of you gentlemen to-day."
+
+"Where's Mr. Badger?" inquired the Mole as he warmed the coffee-pot
+before the fire.
+
+"The master's gone into his study, sir," replied the hedgehog, "and he
+said as how he was going to be particular busy this morning, and on no
+account was he to be disturbed."
+
+This explanation, of course, was thoroughly understood by every one
+present. The fact is, as already set forth, when you live a life of
+intense activity for six months in the year, and of comparative or
+actual somnolence for the other six, during the latter period you
+cannot be continually pleading sleepiness when there are people about
+or things to be done. The excuse gets monotonous. The animals well
+knew that Badger, having eaten a hearty breakfast, had retired to his
+study and settled himself in an arm-chair with his legs up on another
+and a red cotton handkerchief over his face, and was being "busy" in
+the usual way at this time of the year.
+
+The front-door bell clanged loudly, and the Rat, who was very greasy
+with buttered toast, sent Billy, the smaller hedgehog, to see who it
+might be. There was a sound of much stamping in the hall, and
+presently Billy returned in front of the Otter, who threw himself on
+the Rat with an embrace and a shout of affectionate greeting.
+
+"Get off!" spluttered the Rat, with his mouth full.
+
+"Thought I should find you here all right," said the Otter cheerfully.
+"They were all in a great state of alarm along River Bank when I
+arrived this morning. Rat never been home all night--nor Mole
+either--something dreadful must have happened, they said; and the snow
+had covered up all your tracks, of course. But I knew that when people
+were in any fix they mostly went to Badger, or else Badger got to
+know of it somehow, so I came straight off here, through the Wild Wood
+and the snow! My! it was fine, coming through the snow as the red sun
+was rising and showing against the black tree-trunks! As you went
+along in the stillness, every now and then masses of snow slid off the
+branches suddenly with a flop! making you jump and run for cover.
+Snow-castles and snow-caverns had sprung up out of nowhere in the
+night--and snow bridges, terraces, ramparts--I could have stayed and
+played with them for hours. Here and there great branches had been
+torn away by the sheer weight of the snow, and robins perched and
+hopped on them in their perky conceited way, just as if they had done
+it themselves. A ragged string of wild geese passed overhead, high on
+the grey sky, and a few rooks whirled over the trees, inspected, and
+flapped off homewards with a disgusted expression; but I met no
+sensible being to ask the news of. About half-way across I came on a
+rabbit sitting on a stump, cleaning his silly face with his paws. He
+was a pretty scared animal when I crept up behind him and placed a
+heavy fore-paw on his shoulder. I had to cuff his head once or
+twice to get any sense out of it at all. At last I managed to extract
+from him that Mole had been seen in the Wild Wood last night by one of
+them. It was the talk of the burrows, he said, how Mole, Mr. Rat's
+particular friend, was in a bad fix; how he had lost his way, and
+'They' were up and out hunting, and were chivvying him round and
+round. 'Then why didn't any of you _do_ something?' I asked. 'You
+mayn't be blessed with brains, but there are hundreds and hundreds of
+you, big, stout fellows, as fat as butter, and your burrows running in
+all directions, and you could have taken him in and made him safe and
+comfortable, or tried to, at all events.' 'What, _us_?' he merely
+said: '_do_ something? us rabbits?' So I cuffed him again and left
+him. There was nothing else to be done. At any rate, I had learnt
+something; and if I had had the luck to meet any of 'Them' I'd have
+learnt something more--or _they_ would."
+
+[Illustration: _Through the Wild Wood and the snow_]
+
+"Weren't you at all--er--nervous?" asked the Mole, some of yesterday's
+terror coming back to him at the mention of the Wild Wood.
+
+"Nervous?" The Otter showed a gleaming set of strong white teeth as he
+laughed. "I'd give 'em nerves if any of them tried anything on with
+me. Here, Mole, fry me some slices of ham, like the good little chap
+you are. I'm frightfully hungry, and I've got any amount to say to
+Ratty here. Haven't seen him for an age."
+
+So the good-natured Mole, having cut some slices of ham, set the
+hedgehogs to fry it, and returned to his own breakfast, while the
+Otter and the Rat, their heads together, eagerly talked river-shop,
+which is long shop and talk that is endless, running on like the
+babbling river itself.
+
+A plate of fried ham had just been cleared and sent back for more,
+when the Badger entered, yawning and rubbing his eyes, and greeted
+them all in his quiet, simple way, with kind inquiries for every one.
+"It must be getting on for luncheon time," he remarked to the Otter.
+"Better stop and have it with us. You must be hungry, this cold
+morning."
+
+"Rather!" replied the Otter, winking at the Mole. "The sight of these
+greedy young hedgehogs stuffing themselves with fried ham makes me
+feel positively famished."
+
+The hedgehogs, who were just beginning to feel hungry again after
+their porridge, and after working so hard at their frying, looked
+timidly up at Mr. Badger, but were too shy to say anything.
+
+"Here, you two youngsters, be off home to your mother," said the
+Badger kindly. "I'll send some one with you to show you the way. You
+won't want any dinner to-day, I'll be bound."
+
+He gave them sixpence a-piece and a pat on the head, and they went off
+with much respectful swinging of caps and touching of forelocks.
+
+Presently they all sat down to luncheon together. The Mole found
+himself placed next to Mr. Badger, and, as the other two were still
+deep in river-gossip from which nothing could divert them, he took the
+opportunity to tell Badger how comfortable and home-like it all felt
+to him. "Once well underground," he said, "you know exactly where you
+are. Nothing can happen to you, and nothing can get at you. You're
+entirely your own master, and you don't have to consult anybody or
+mind what they say. Things go on all the same overhead, and you let
+'em, and don't bother about 'em. When you want to, up you go, and
+there the things are, waiting for you."
+
+The Badger simply beamed on him. "That's exactly what I say," he
+replied. "There's no security, or peace and tranquillity, except
+underground. And then, if your ideas get larger and you want to
+expand--why, a dig and a scrape, and there you are! If you feel your
+house is a bit too big, you stop up a hole or two, and there you are
+again! No builders, no tradesmen, no remarks passed on you by fellows
+looking over your wall, and, above all, no _weather_. Look at Rat,
+now. A couple of feet of flood water, and he's got to move into hired
+lodgings; uncomfortable, inconveniently situated, and horribly
+expensive. Take Toad. I say nothing against Toad Hall; quite the best
+house in these parts, _as_ a house. But supposing a fire breaks
+out--where's Toad? Supposing tiles are blown off, or walls sink or
+crack, or windows get broken--where's Toad? Supposing the rooms are
+draughty--I _hate_ a draught myself--where's Toad? No, up and out of
+doors is good enough to roam about and get one's living in; but
+underground to come back to at last--that's my idea of _home_!"
+
+The Mole assented heartily; and the Badger in consequence got very
+friendly with him. "When lunch is over," he said, "I'll take you all
+round this little place of mine. I can see you'll appreciate it. You
+understand what domestic architecture ought to be, you do."
+
+After luncheon, accordingly, when the other two had settled themselves
+into the chimney-corner and had started a heated argument on the
+subject of _eels_, the Badger lighted a lantern and bade the Mole
+follow him. Crossing the hall, they passed down one of the principal
+tunnels, and the wavering light of the lantern gave glimpses on either
+side of rooms both large and small, some mere cupboards, others
+nearly as broad and imposing as Toad's dining-hall. A narrow passage
+at right angles led them into another corridor, and here the same
+thing was repeated. The Mole was staggered at the size, the extent,
+the ramifications of it all; at the length of the dim passages, the
+solid vaultings of the crammed store-chambers, the masonry everywhere,
+the pillars, the arches, the pavements. "How on earth, Badger," he
+said at last, "did you ever find time and strength to do all this?
+It's astonishing!"
+
+"It _would_ be astonishing indeed," said the Badger simply, "if I
+_had_ done it. But as a matter of fact I did none of it--only cleaned
+out the passages and chambers, as far as I had need of them. There's
+lots more of it, all round about. I see you don't understand, and I
+must explain it to you. Well, very long ago, on the spot where the
+Wild Wood waves now, before ever it had planted itself and grown up to
+what it now is, there was a city--a city of people, you know. Here,
+where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and talked, and slept,
+and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and
+feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They
+were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to
+last, for they thought their city would last for ever."
+
+"But what has become of them all?" asked the Mole.
+
+"Who can tell?" said the Badger. "People come--they stay for a while,
+they flourish, they build--and they go. It is their way. But we
+remain. There were badgers here, I've been told, long before that same
+city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an
+enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are
+patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be."
+
+"Well, and when they went at last, those people?" said the Mole.
+
+"When they went," continued the Badger, "the strong winds and
+persistent rains took the matter in hand, patiently, ceaselessly, year
+after year. Perhaps we badgers too, in our small way, helped a
+little--who knows? It was all down, down, down, gradually--ruin and
+levelling and disappearance. Then it was all up, up, up, gradually, as
+seeds grew to saplings, and saplings to forest trees, and bramble and
+fern came creeping in to help. Leaf-mould rose and obliterated,
+streams in their winter freshets brought sand and soil to clog and to
+cover, and in course of time our home was ready for us again, and we
+moved in. Up above us, on the surface, the same thing happened.
+Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters,
+settled down, spread, and flourished. They didn't bother themselves
+about the past--they never do; they're too busy. The place was a bit
+humpy and hillocky, naturally, and full of holes; but that was rather
+an advantage. And they don't bother about the future, either--the
+future when perhaps the people will move in again--for a time--as may
+very well be. The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all
+the usual lot, good, bad, and indifferent--I name no names. It takes
+all sorts to make a world. But I fancy you know something about them
+yourself by this time."
+
+"I do indeed," said the Mole, with a slight shiver.
+
+"Well, well," said the Badger, patting him on the shoulder, "it was
+your first experience of them, you see. They're not so bad really; and
+we must all live and let live. But I'll pass the word around
+to-morrow, and I think you'll have no further trouble. Any friend of
+_mine_ walks where he likes in this country, or I'll know the reason
+why!"
+
+When they got back to the kitchen again, they found the Rat walking up
+and down, very restless. The underground atmosphere was oppressing him
+and getting on his nerves, and he seemed really to be afraid that the
+river would run away if he wasn't there to look after it. So he had
+his overcoat on, and his pistols thrust into his belt again. "Come
+along, Mole," he said anxiously, as soon as he caught sight of them.
+"We must get off while it's daylight. Don't want to spend another
+night in the Wild Wood again."
+
+"It'll be all right, my fine fellow," said the Otter. "I'm coming
+along with you, and I know every path blindfold; and if there's a
+head that needs to be punched, you can confidently rely upon me to
+punch it."
+
+"You really needn't fret, Ratty," added the Badger placidly. "My
+passages run further than you think, and I've bolt-holes to the edge
+of the wood in several directions, though I don't care for everybody
+to know about them. When you really have to go, you shall leave by one
+of my short cuts. Meantime, make yourself easy, and sit down again."
+
+The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to be off and attend to his
+river, so the Badger, taking up his lantern again, led the way along a
+damp and airless tunnel that wound and dipped, part vaulted, part hewn
+through solid rock, for a weary distance that seemed to be miles. At
+last daylight began to show itself confusedly through tangled growth
+overhanging the mouth of the passage; and the Badger, bidding them a
+hasty good-bye, pushed them hurriedly through the opening, made
+everything look as natural as possible again, with creepers,
+brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated.
+
+They found themselves standing on the very edge of the Wild Wood. Rocks
+and brambles and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped and tangled;
+in front, a great space of quiet fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black
+on the snow, and, far ahead, a glint of the familiar old river, while
+the wintry sun hung red and low on the horizon. The Otter, as knowing
+all the paths, took charge of the party, and they trailed out on a
+bee-line for a distant stile. Pausing there a moment and looking back,
+they saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense, menacing, compact,
+grimly set in vast white surroundings; simultaneously they turned and
+made swiftly for home, for firelight and the familiar things it played
+on, for the voice, sounding cheerily outside their window, of the river
+that they knew and trusted in all its moods, that never made them afraid
+with any amazement.
+
+As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be
+at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly
+that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the
+ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening
+lingerings, the cultivated garden-plot. For others the asperities, the
+stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with
+Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places
+in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their
+way, to last for a lifetime.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+DULCE DOMUM
+
+
+The sheep ran huddling together against the hurdles, blowing out thin
+nostrils and stamping with delicate fore-feet, their heads thrown back
+and a light steam rising from the crowded sheep-pen into the frosty
+air, as the two animals hastened by in high spirits, with much chatter
+and laughter. They were returning across country after a long day's
+outing with Otter, hunting and exploring on the wide uplands, where
+certain streams tributary to their own River had their first small
+beginnings; and the shades of the short winter day were closing in on
+them, and they had still some distance to go. Plodding at random
+across the plough, they had heard the sheep and had made for them; and
+now, leading from the sheep-pen, they found a beaten track that made
+walking a lighter business, and responded, moreover, to that small
+inquiring something which all animals carry inside them, saying
+unmistakably, "Yes, quite right; _this_ leads home!"
+
+"It looks as if we were coming to a village," said the Mole somewhat
+dubiously, slackening his pace, as the track, that had in time become
+a path and then had developed into a lane, now handed them over to the
+charge of a well-metalled road. The animals did not hold with
+villages, and their own highways, thickly frequented as they were,
+took an independent course, regardless of church, post-office, or
+public-house.
+
+"Oh, never mind!" said the Rat. "At this season of the year they're
+all safe indoors by this time, sitting round the fire; men, women, and
+children, dogs and cats and all. We shall slip through all right,
+without any bother or unpleasantness, and we can have a look at them
+through their windows if you like, and see what they're doing."
+
+The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village
+as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery
+snow. Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either
+side of the street, where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage
+overflowed through the casements into the dark world without. Most of
+the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the
+lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea-table,
+absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each
+that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall
+capture--the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of
+observation. Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two
+spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness
+in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child
+picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out
+his pipe on the end of a smouldering log.
+
+But it was from one little window, with its blind drawn down, a mere
+blank transparency on the night, that the sense of home and the little
+curtained world within walls--the larger stressful world of outside
+Nature shut out and forgotten--most pulsated. Close against the white
+blind hung a bird-cage, clearly silhouetted, every wire, perch, and
+appurtenance distinct and recognisable, even to yesterday's dull-edged
+lump of sugar. On the middle perch the fluffy occupant, head tucked
+well into feathers, seemed so near to them as to be easily stroked,
+had they tried; even the delicate tips of his plumped-out plumage
+pencilled plainly on the illuminated screen. As they looked, the
+sleepy little fellow stirred uneasily, woke, shook himself, and raised
+his head. They could see the gape of his tiny beak as he yawned in a
+bored sort of way, looked round, and then settled his head into his
+back again, while the ruffled feathers gradually subsided into perfect
+stillness. Then a gust of bitter wind took them in the back of the
+neck, a small sting of frozen sleet on the skin woke them as from a
+dream, and they knew their toes to be cold and their legs tired, and
+their own home distant a weary way.
+
+Once beyond the village, where the cottages ceased abruptly, on either
+side of the road they could smell through the darkness the friendly
+fields again; and they braced themselves for the last long stretch,
+the home stretch, the stretch that we know is bound to end, some time,
+in the rattle of the door-latch, the sudden firelight, and the sight
+of familiar things greeting us as long-absent travellers from far
+over-sea. They plodded along steadily and silently, each of them
+thinking his own thoughts. The Mole's ran a good deal on supper, as it
+was pitch-dark, and it was all a strange country for him as far as he
+knew, and he was following obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving
+the guidance entirely to him. As for the Rat, he was walking a little
+way ahead, as his habit was, his shoulders humped, his eyes fixed on
+the straight grey road in front of him; so he did not notice poor Mole
+when suddenly the summons reached him, and took him like an electric
+shock.
+
+We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses,
+have not even proper terms to express an animal's inter-communications
+with his surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word
+"smell," for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills
+which murmur in the nose of the animal night and day, summoning,
+warning, inciting, repelling. It was one of these mysterious fairy
+calls from out the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness,
+making him tingle through and through with its very familiar appeal,
+even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. He stopped
+dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its
+efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that
+had so strongly moved him. A moment, and he had caught it again; and
+with it this time came recollection in fullest flood.
+
+Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft
+touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling
+and tugging, all one way! Why, it must be quite close by him at that
+moment, his old home that he had hurriedly forsaken and never sought
+again, that day when he first found the River! And now it was sending
+out its scouts and its messengers to capture him and bring him in.
+Since his escape on that bright morning he had hardly given it a
+thought, so absorbed had he been in his new life, in all its
+pleasures, its surprises, its fresh and captivating experiences. Now,
+with a rush of old memories, how clearly it stood up before him, in
+the darkness! Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet
+his, the home he had made for himself, the home he had been so happy
+to get back to after his day's work. And the home had been happy with
+him, too, evidently, and was missing him, and wanted him back, and was
+telling him so, through his nose, sorrowfully, reproachfully, but with
+no bitterness or anger; only with plaintive reminder that it was
+there, and wanted him.
+
+The call was clear, the summons was plain. He must obey it instantly,
+and go. "Ratty!" he called, full of joyful excitement, "hold on! Come
+back! I want you, quick!"
+
+"Oh, _come_ along, Mole, do!" replied the Rat cheerfully, still
+plodding along.
+
+"_Please_ stop, Ratty!" pleaded the poor Mole, in anguish of heart.
+"You don't understand! It's my home, my old home! I've just come
+across the smell of it, and it's close by here, really quite close.
+And I _must_ go to it, I must, I must! Oh, come back, Ratty! Please,
+please come back!"
+
+The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too far to hear clearly what
+the Mole was calling, too far to catch the sharp note of painful
+appeal in his voice. And he was much taken up with the weather, for he
+too, could smell something--something suspiciously like approaching
+snow.
+
+"Mole, we mustn't stop now, really!" he called back. "We'll come for
+it to-morrow, whatever it is you've found. But I daren't stop
+now--it's late, and the snow's coming on again, and I'm not sure of
+the way! And I want your nose, Mole, so come on quick, there's a good
+fellow!" And the Rat pressed forward on his way without waiting for an
+answer.
+
+Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, and a big
+sob gathering, gathering, somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to
+the surface presently, he knew, in passionate escape. But even under
+such a test as this his loyalty to his friend stood firm. Never for a
+moment did he dream of abandoning him. Meanwhile, the wafts from his
+old home pleaded, whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him
+imperiously. He dared not tarry longer within their magic circle. With
+a wrench that tore his very heart-strings he set his face down the
+road and followed submissively in the track of the Rat, while faint,
+thin little smells, still dogging his retreating nose, reproached him
+for his new friendship and his callous forgetfulness.
+
+With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting Rat, who began
+chattering cheerfully about what they would do when they got back, and
+how jolly a fire of logs in the parlour would be, and what a supper he
+meant to eat; never noticing his companion's silence and distressful
+state of mind. At last, however, when they had gone some considerable
+way further, and were passing some tree stumps at the edge of a copse
+that bordered the road, he stopped and said kindly, "Look here, Mole,
+old chap, you seem dead tired. No talk left in you, and your feet
+dragging like lead. We'll sit down here for a minute and rest. The
+snow has held off so far, and the best part of our journey is over."
+
+The Mole subsided forlornly on a tree stump and tried to control
+himself, for he felt it surely coming. The sob he had fought with so
+long refused to be beaten. Up and up, it forced its way to the air,
+and then another, and another, and others thick and fast; till poor
+Mole at last gave up the struggle, and cried freely and helplessly and
+openly, now that he knew it was all over and he had lost what he could
+hardly be said to have found.
+
+The Rat, astonished and dismayed at the violence of Mole's paroxysm of
+grief, did not dare to speak for a while. At last he said, very
+quietly and sympathetically, "What is it, old fellow? Whatever can be
+the matter? Tell us your trouble, and let me see what I can do."
+
+Poor Mole found it difficult to get any words out between the
+upheavals of his chest that followed one upon another so quickly and
+held back speech and choked it as it came. "I know it's a--shabby,
+dingy little place," he sobbed forth at last brokenly: "not like--your
+cosy quarters--or Toad's beautiful hall--or Badger's great house--but
+it was my own little home--and I was fond of it--and I went away and
+forgot all about it--and then I smelt it suddenly--on the road, when I
+called and you wouldn't listen, Rat--and everything came back to me
+with a rush--and I _wanted_ it!--O dear, O dear!--and when you
+_wouldn't_ turn back, Ratty--and I had to leave it, though I was
+smelling it all the time--I thought my heart would break.--We might
+have just gone and had one look at it, Ratty--only one look--it was
+close by--but you wouldn't turn back, Ratty, you wouldn't turn back! O
+dear, O dear!"
+
+Recollection brought fresh waves of sorrow, and sobs again took full
+charge of him, preventing further speech.
+
+The Rat stared straight in front of him, saying nothing, only patting
+Mole gently on the shoulder. After a time he muttered gloomily, "I see
+it all now! What a _pig_ I have been! A pig--that's me! Just a pig--a
+plain pig!"
+
+He waited till Mole's sobs became gradually less stormy and more
+rhythmical; he waited till at last sniffs were frequent and sobs only
+intermittent. Then he rose from his seat, and, remarking carelessly,
+"Well, now we'd really better be getting on, old chap!" set off up the
+road again over the toilsome way they had come.
+
+"Wherever are you (hic) going to (hic), Ratty?" cried the tearful
+Mole, looking up in alarm.
+
+"We're going to find that home of yours, old fellow," replied the Rat
+pleasantly; "so you had better come along, for it will take some
+finding, and we shall want your nose."
+
+"Oh, come back, Ratty, do!" cried the Mole, getting up and hurrying
+after him. "It's no good, I tell you! It's too late, and too dark, and
+the place is too far off, and the snow's coming! And--and I never
+meant to let you know I was feeling that way about it--it was all an
+accident and a mistake! And think of River Bank, and your supper!"
+
+"Hang River Bank, and supper, too!" said the Rat heartily. "I tell
+you, I'm going to find this place now, if I stay out all night. So
+cheer up, old chap, and take my arm, and we'll very soon be back there
+again."
+
+Still snuffling, pleading, and reluctant, Mole suffered himself to be
+dragged back along the road by his imperious companion, who by a flow
+of cheerful talk and anecdote endeavoured to beguile his spirits back
+and make the weary way seem shorter. When at last it seemed to the Rat
+that they must be nearing that part of the road where the Mole had
+been "held up," he said, "Now, no more talking. Business! Use your
+nose, and give your mind to it."
+
+They moved on in silence for some little way, when suddenly the Rat
+was conscious, through his arm that was linked in Mole's, of a faint
+sort of electric thrill that was passing down that animal's body.
+Instantly he disengaged himself, fell back a pace, and waited, all
+attention.
+
+The signals were coming through!
+
+Mole stood a moment rigid, while his uplifted nose, quivering
+slightly, felt the air.
+
+Then a short, quick run forward--a fault--a check--a try back; and
+then a slow, steady, confident advance.
+
+The Rat, much excited, kept close to his heels as the Mole, with
+something of the air of a sleep-walker, crossed a dry ditch, scrambled
+through a hedge, and nosed his way over a field open and trackless and
+bare in the faint starlight.
+
+Suddenly, without giving warning, he dived; but the Rat was on the
+alert, and promptly followed him down the tunnel to which his unerring
+nose had faithfully led him.
+
+It was close and airless, and the earthy smell was strong, and it
+seemed a long time to Rat ere the passage ended and he could stand
+erect and stretch and shake himself. The Mole struck a match, and by
+its light the Rat saw that they were standing in an open space, neatly
+swept and sanded underfoot, and directly facing them was Mole's little
+front door, with "Mole End" painted, in Gothic lettering, over the
+bell-pull at the side.
+
+Mole reached down a lantern from a nail on the wall and lit it, and the
+Rat, looking round him, saw that they were in a sort of fore-court. A
+garden-seat stood on one side of the door, and on the other a roller;
+for the Mole, who was a tidy animal when at home, could not stand having
+his ground kicked up by other animals into little runs that ended in
+earth-heaps. On the walls hung wire baskets with ferns in them,
+alternating with brackets carrying plaster statuary--Garibaldi, and the
+infant Samuel, and Queen Victoria, and other heroes of modern Italy.
+Down on one side of the fore-court ran a skittle-alley, with benches
+along it and little wooden tables marked with rings that hinted at
+beer-mugs. In the middle was a small round pond containing gold-fish and
+surrounded by a cockle-shell border. Out of the centre of the pond rose
+a fanciful erection clothed in more cockle-shells and topped by a large
+silvered glass ball that reflected everything all wrong and had a very
+pleasing effect.
+
+Mole's face beamed at the sight of all these objects so dear to him,
+and he hurried Rat through the door, lit a lamp in the hall, and took
+one glance round his old home. He saw the dust lying thick on
+everything, saw the cheerless, deserted look of the long-neglected
+house, and its narrow, meagre dimensions, its worn and shabby
+contents--and collapsed again on a hall-chair, his nose to his paws.
+"O Ratty!" he cried dismally, "why ever did I do it? Why did I bring
+you to this poor, cold little place, on a night like this, when you
+might have been at River Bank by this time, toasting your toes before
+a blazing fire, with all your own nice things about you!"
+
+The Rat paid no heed to his doleful self-reproaches. He was running
+here and there, opening doors, inspecting rooms and cupboards, and
+lighting lamps and candles and sticking them up everywhere. "What a
+capital little house this is!" he called out cheerily. "So compact! So
+well planned! Everything here and everything in its place! We'll make
+a jolly night of it. The first thing we want is a good fire; I'll see
+to that--I always know where to find things. So this is the parlour?
+Splendid! Your own idea, those little sleeping-bunks in the wall?
+Capital! Now, I'll fetch the wood and the coals, and you get a duster,
+Mole--you'll find one in the drawer of the kitchen table--and try and
+smarten things up a bit. Bustle about, old chap!"
+
+Encouraged by his inspiriting companion, the Mole roused himself and
+dusted and polished with energy and heartiness, while the Rat, running
+to and fro with armfuls of fuel, soon had a cheerful blaze roaring up
+the chimney. He hailed the Mole to come and warm himself; but Mole
+promptly had another fit of the blues, dropping down on a couch in
+dark despair and burying his face in his duster. "Rat," he moaned,
+"how about your supper, you poor, cold, hungry, weary animal? I've
+nothing to give you--nothing--not a crumb!"
+
+"What a fellow you are for giving in!" said the Rat reproachfully.
+"Why, only just now I saw a sardine-opener on the kitchen dresser,
+quite distinctly; and everybody knows that means there are sardines
+about somewhere in the neighbourhood. Rouse yourself! pull yourself
+together, and come with me and forage."
+
+They went and foraged accordingly, hunting through every cupboard and
+turning out every drawer. The result was not so very depressing after
+all, though of course it might have been better; a tin of sardines--a
+box of captain's biscuits, nearly full--and a German sausage encased
+in silver paper.
+
+"There's a banquet for you!" observed the Rat, as he arranged the
+table. "I know some animals who would give their ears to be sitting
+down to supper with us to-night!"
+
+"No bread!" groaned the Mole dolorously; "no butter, no--"
+
+"No _pâté de foie gras_, no champagne!" continued the Rat, grinning.
+"And that reminds me--what's that little door at the end of the
+passage? Your cellar, of course! Every luxury in this house! Just you
+wait a minute."
+
+He made for the cellar-door, and presently reappeared, somewhat dusty,
+with a bottle of beer in each paw and another under each arm,
+"Self-indulgent beggar you seem to be, Mole," he observed. "Deny
+yourself nothing. This is really the jolliest little place I ever was
+in. Now, wherever did you pick up those prints? Make the place look so
+home-like, they do. No wonder you're so fond of it, Mole. Tell us all
+about it, and how you came to make it what it is."
+
+Then, while the Rat busied himself fetching plates, and knives and
+forks, and mustard which he mixed in an egg-cup, the Mole, his bosom
+still heaving with the stress of his recent emotion, related--somewhat
+shyly at first, but with more freedom as he warmed to his subject--how
+this was planned, and how that was thought out, and how this was got
+through a windfall from an aunt, and that was a wonderful find and a
+bargain, and this other thing was bought out of laborious savings and
+a certain amount of "going without." His spirits finally quite
+restored, he must needs go and caress his possessions, and take a lamp
+and show off their points to his visitor and expatiate on them, quite
+forgetful of the supper they both so much needed; Rat, who was
+desperately hungry but strove to conceal it, nodding seriously,
+examining with a puckered brow, and saying, "wonderful," and "most
+remarkable," at intervals, when the chance for an observation was
+given him.
+
+At last the Rat succeeded in decoying him to the table, and had just
+got seriously to work with the sardine-opener when sounds were heard
+from the fore-court without--sounds like the scuffling of small feet
+in the gravel and a confused murmur of tiny voices, while broken
+sentences reached them--"Now, all in a line--hold the lantern up a
+bit, Tommy--clear your throats first--no coughing after I say one,
+two, three.--Where's young Bill?--Here, come on, do, we're all
+a-waiting--"
+
+"What's up?" inquired the Rat, pausing in his labours.
+
+"I think it must be the field-mice," replied the Mole, with a touch of
+pride in his manner. "They go round carol-singing regularly at this
+time of the year. They're quite an institution in these parts. And
+they never pass me over--they come to Mole End last of all; and I used
+to give them hot drinks, and supper too sometimes, when I could afford
+it. It will be like old times to hear them again."
+
+"Let's have a look at them!" cried the Rat, jumping up and running to
+the door.
+
+It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when
+they flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a
+horn lantern, some eight or ten little field-mice stood in a
+semicircle, red worsted comforters round their throats, their
+fore-paws thrust deep into their pockets, their feet jigging for
+warmth. With bright beady eyes they glanced shyly at each other,
+sniggering a little, sniffing and applying coat-sleeves a good deal.
+As the door opened, one of the elder ones that carried the lantern was
+just saying, "Now then, one, two, three!" and forthwith their shrill
+little voices uprose on the air, singing one of the old-time carols
+that their forefathers composed in fields that were fallow and held by
+frost, or when snow-bound in chimney corners, and handed down to be
+sung in the miry street to lamp-lit windows at Yule-time.
+
+                   _CAROL_
+
+        _Villagers all, this frosty tide,
+        Let your doors swing open wide,
+        Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
+         Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
+            Joy shall be yours in the morning!_
+
+        _Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,
+        Blowing fingers and stamping feet,
+        Come from far away you to greet--
+        You by the fire and we in the street--
+            Bidding you joy in the morning!_
+
+        _For ere one half of the night was gone,
+        Sudden a star has led us on,
+        Raining bliss and benison--
+        Bliss to-morrow and more anon,
+            Joy for every morning!_
+
+        _Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow--
+        Saw the star o'er a stable low;
+        Mary she might not further go--
+        Welcome thatch, and litter below!
+            Joy was hers in the morning!_
+
+        _And then they heard the angels tell
+       "Who were the first to cry _Nowell_?
+        Animals all, as it befell,
+        In the stable where they did dwell!
+            Joy shall be theirs in the morning!"_
+
+The voices ceased, the singers, bashful but smiling, exchanged
+sidelong glances, and silence succeeded--but for a moment only. Then,
+from up above and far away, down the tunnel they had so lately
+travelled was borne to their ears in a faint musical hum the sound of
+distant bells ringing a joyful and clangorous peal.
+
+"Very well sung, boys!" cried the Rat heartily. "And now come along
+in, all of you, and warm yourselves by the fire, and have something
+hot!"
+
+"Yes, come along, field-mice," cried the Mole eagerly. "This is quite
+like old times! Shut the door after you. Pull up that settle to the
+fire. Now, you just wait a minute, while we--O, Ratty!" he cried in
+despair, plumping down on a seat, with tears impending. "Whatever are
+we doing? We've nothing to give them!"
+
+"You leave all that to me," said the masterful Rat. "Here, you with
+the lantern! Come over this way. I want to talk to you. Now, tell me,
+are there any shops open at this hour of the night?"
+
+"Why, certainly, sir," replied the field-mouse respectfully. "At this
+time of the year our shops keep open to all sorts of hours."
+
+"Then look here!" said the Rat. "You go off at once, you and your
+lantern, and you get me--"
+
+Here much muttered conversation ensued, and the Mole only heard bits
+of it, such as--"Fresh, mind!--no, a pound of that will do--see you
+get Buggins's, for I won't have any other--no, only the best--if you
+can't get it there, try somewhere else--yes, of course, home-made, no
+tinned stuff--well then, do the best you can!" Finally, there was a
+chink of coin passing from paw to paw, the field-mouse was provided
+with an ample basket for his purchases, and off he hurried, he and his
+lantern.
+
+The rest of the field-mice, perched in a row on the settle, their
+small legs swinging, gave themselves up to enjoyment of the fire, and
+toasted their chilblains till they tingled; while the Mole, failing to
+draw them into easy conversation, plunged into family history and made
+each of them recite the names of his numerous brothers, who were too
+young, it appeared, to be allowed to go out a-carolling this year, but
+looked forward very shortly to winning the parental consent.
+
+The Rat, meanwhile, was busy examining the label on one of the
+beer-bottles. "I perceive this to be Old Burton," he remarked
+approvingly. "_Sensible_ Mole! The very thing! Now we shall be able to
+mull some ale! Get the things ready, Mole, while I draw the corks."
+
+It did not take long to prepare the brew and thrust the tin heater
+well into the red heart of the fire; and soon every field-mouse was
+sipping and coughing and choking (for a little mulled ale goes a long
+way) and wiping his eyes and laughing and forgetting he had ever been
+cold in all his life.
+
+"They act plays, too, these fellows," the Mole explained to the Rat.
+"Make them up all by themselves, and act them afterwards. And very
+well they do it, too! They gave us a capital one last year, about a
+field-mouse who was captured at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to
+row in a galley; and when he escaped and got home again, his lady-love
+had gone into a convent. Here, _you_! You were in it, I remember. Get
+up and recite a bit."
+
+The field-mouse addressed got up on his legs, giggled shyly, looked
+round the room, and remained absolutely tongue-tied. His comrades
+cheered him on, Mole coaxed and encouraged him, and the Rat went so
+far as to take him by the shoulders and shake him; but nothing could
+overcome his stage-fright. They were all busily engaged on him like
+watermen applying the Royal Humane Society's regulations to a case of
+long submersion, when the latch clicked, the door opened, and the
+field-mouse with the lantern reappeared, staggering under the weight
+of his basket.
+
+There was no more talk of play-acting once the very real and solid
+contents of the basket had been tumbled out on the table. Under the
+generalship of Rat, everybody was set to do something or to fetch
+something. In a very few minutes supper was ready, and Mole, as he
+took the head of the table in a sort of a dream, saw a lately barren
+board set thick with savoury comforts; saw his little friends' faces
+brighten and beam as they fell to without delay; and then let himself
+loose--for he was famished indeed--on the provender so magically
+provided, thinking what a happy home-coming this had turned out, after
+all. As they ate, they talked of old times, and the field-mice gave
+him the local gossip up to date, and answered as well as they could
+the hundred questions he had to ask them. The Rat said little or
+nothing, only taking care that each guest had what he wanted, and
+plenty of it, and that Mole had no trouble or anxiety about anything.
+
+They clattered off at last, very grateful and showering wishes of the
+season, with their jacket pockets stuffed with remembrances for the
+small brothers and sisters at home. When the door had closed on the
+last of them and the chink of the lanterns had died away, Mole and Rat
+kicked the fire up, drew their chairs in, brewed themselves a last
+nightcap of mulled ale, and discussed the events of the long day. At
+last the Rat, with a tremendous yawn, said, "Mole, old chap, I'm ready
+to drop. Sleepy is simply not the word. That your own bunk over on
+that side? Very well, then, I'll take this. What a ripping little
+house this is! Everything so handy!"
+
+He clambered into his bunk and rolled himself well up in the blankets,
+and slumber gathered him forthwith, as a swathe of barley is folded
+into the arms of the reaping machine.
+
+The weary Mole also was glad to turn in without delay, and soon had
+his head on his pillow, in great joy and contentment. But ere he
+closed his eyes he let them wander round his old room, mellow in the
+glow of the firelight that played or rested on familiar and friendly
+things which had long been unconsciously a part of him, and now
+smilingly received him back, without rancour. He was now in just the
+frame of mind that the tactful Rat had quietly worked to bring about
+in him. He saw clearly how plain and simple--how narrow, even--it all
+was; but clearly, too, how much it all meant to him, and the special
+value of some such anchorage in one's existence. He did not at all
+want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back
+on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there;
+the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down
+there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was
+good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all
+his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could
+always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+MR. TOAD
+
+
+It was a bright morning in the early part of summer; the river had
+resumed its wonted banks and its accustomed pace, and a hot sun seemed
+to be pulling everything green and bushy and spiky up out of the earth
+towards him, as if by strings. The Mole and the Water Rat had been up
+since dawn, very busy on matters connected with boats and the opening
+of the boating season; painting and varnishing, mending paddles,
+repairing cushions, hunting for missing boat-hooks, and so on; and
+were finishing breakfast in their little parlour and eagerly
+discussing their plans for the day, when a heavy knock sounded at the
+door.
+
+"Bother!" said the Rat, all over egg. "See who it is, Mole, like a
+good chap, since you've finished."
+
+The Mole went to attend the summons, and the Rat heard him utter a cry
+of surprise. Then he flung the parlour door open, and announced with
+much importance, "Mr. Badger!"
+
+This was a wonderful thing, indeed, that the Badger should pay a
+formal call on them, or indeed on anybody. He generally had to be
+caught, if you wanted him badly, as he slipped quietly along a
+hedgerow of an early morning or a late evening, or else hunted up in
+his own house in the middle of the Wood, which was a serious
+undertaking.
+
+The Badger strode heavily into the room, and stood looking at the two
+animals with an expression full of seriousness. The Rat let his
+egg-spoon fall on the table-cloth, and sat open-mouthed.
+
+"The hour has come!" said the Badger at last with great solemnity.
+
+"What hour?" asked the Rat uneasily, glancing at the clock on the
+mantelpiece.
+
+"_Whose_ hour, you should rather say," replied the Badger. "Why,
+Toad's hour! The hour of Toad! I said I would take him in hand as
+soon as the winter was well over, and I'm going to take him in hand
+to-day!"
+
+"Toad's hour, of course!" cried the Mole delightedly. "Hooray! I
+remember now! _We'll_ teach him to be a sensible Toad!"
+
+"This very morning," continued the Badger, taking an arm-chair, "as I
+learnt last night from a trustworthy source, another new and
+exceptionally powerful motor-car will arrive at Toad Hall on approval
+or return. At this very moment, perhaps, Toad is busy arraying himself
+in those singularly hideous habiliments so dear to him, which
+transform him from a (comparatively) good-looking Toad into an Object
+which throws any decent-minded animal that comes across it into a
+violent fit. We must be up and doing, ere it is too late. You two
+animals will accompany me instantly to Toad Hall, and the work of
+rescue shall be accomplished."
+
+"Right you are!" cried the Rat, starting up. "We'll rescue the poor
+unhappy animal! We'll convert him! He'll be the most converted Toad
+that ever was before we've done with him!"
+
+They set off up the road on their mission of mercy, Badger leading the
+way. Animals when in company walk in a proper and sensible manner, in
+single file, instead of sprawling all across the road and being of no
+use or support to each other in case of sudden trouble or danger.
+
+They reached the carriage-drive of Toad Hall to find, as Badger had
+anticipated, a shiny new motor-car, of great size, painted a bright
+red (Toad's favourite colour), standing in front of the house. As they
+neared the door it was flung open, and Mr. Toad, arrayed in goggles,
+cap, gaiters, and enormous overcoat, came swaggering down the steps,
+drawing on his gauntleted gloves.
+
+"Hullo! come on, you fellows!" he cried cheerfully on catching sight
+of them. "You're just in time to come with me for a jolly--to come for
+a jolly--for a--er--jolly--"
+
+His hearty accents faltered and fell away as he noticed the stern
+unbending look on the countenances of his silent friends, and his
+invitation remained unfinished.
+
+The Badger strode up the steps. "Take him inside," he said sternly to
+his companions. Then, as Toad was hustled through the door, struggling
+and protesting, he turned to the _chauffeur_ in charge of the new
+motor-car.
+
+"I'm afraid you won't be wanted to-day," he said. "Mr. Toad has
+changed his mind. He will not require the car. Please understand that
+this is final. You needn't wait." Then he followed the others inside
+and shut the door.
+
+"Now then!" he said to the Toad, when the four of them stood together
+in the Hall, "first of all, take those ridiculous things off!"
+
+"Shan't!" replied Toad, with great spirit. "What is the meaning of
+this gross outrage? I demand an instant explanation."
+
+"Take them off him, then, you two," ordered the Badger briefly.
+
+They had to lay Toad out on the floor, kicking and calling all sorts
+of names, before they could get to work properly. Then the Rat sat on
+him, and the Mole got his motor-clothes off him bit by bit, and they
+stood him up on his legs again. A good deal of his blustering spirit
+seemed to have evaporated with the removal of his fine panoply. Now
+that he was merely Toad, and no longer the Terror of the Highway, he
+giggled feebly and looked from one to the other appealingly, seeming
+quite to understand the situation.
+
+"You knew it must come to this, sooner or later, Toad," the Badger
+explained severely. "You've disregarded all the warnings we've given
+you, you've gone on squandering the money your father left you, and
+you're getting us animals a bad name in the district by your furious
+driving and your smashes and your rows with the police. Independence
+is all very well, but we animals never allow our friends to make fools
+of themselves beyond a certain limit; and that limit you've reached.
+Now, you're a good fellow in many respects, and I don't want to be too
+hard on you. I'll make one more effort to bring you to reason. You
+will come with me into the smoking-room, and there you will hear some
+facts about yourself; and we'll see whether you come out of that room
+the same Toad that you went in."
+
+He took Toad firmly by the arm, led him into the smoking-room, and
+closed the door behind them.
+
+"_That's_ no good!" said the Rat contemptuously. "_Talking_ to Toad'll
+never cure him. He'll _say_ anything."
+
+They made themselves comfortable in arm-chairs and waited patiently.
+Through the closed door they could just hear the long continuous drone
+of the Badger's voice, rising and falling in waves of oratory; and
+presently they noticed that the sermon began to be punctuated at
+intervals by long-drawn sobs, evidently proceeding from the bosom of
+Toad, who was a soft-hearted and affectionate fellow, very easily
+converted--for the time being--to any point of view.
+
+After some three-quarters of an hour the door opened, and the Badger
+reappeared, solemnly leading by the paw a very limp and dejected Toad.
+His skin hung baggily about him, his legs wobbled, and his cheeks were
+furrowed by the tears so plentifully called forth by the Badger's
+moving discourse.
+
+"Sit down there, Toad," said the Badger kindly, pointing to a chair.
+"My friends," he went on, "I am pleased to inform you that Toad has at
+last seen the error of his ways. He is truly sorry for his misguided
+conduct in the past, and he has undertaken to give up motor-cars
+entirely and for ever. I have his solemn promise to that effect."
+
+"That is very good news," said the Mole gravely.
+
+"Very good news indeed," observed the Rat dubiously, "if only--_if_
+only--"
+
+He was looking very hard at Toad as he said this, and could not help
+thinking he perceived something vaguely resembling a twinkle in that
+animal's still sorrowful eye.
+
+"There's only one thing more to be done," continued the gratified
+Badger. "Toad, I want you solemnly to repeat, before your friends
+here, what you fully admitted to me in the smoking-room just now.
+First, you are sorry for what you've done, and you see the folly of it
+all?"
+
+There was a long, long pause. Toad looked desperately this way and
+that, while the other animals waited in grave silence. At last he
+spoke.
+
+"No!" he said, a little sullenly, but stoutly; "I'm _not_ sorry. And
+it wasn't folly at all! It was simply glorious!"
+
+"What?" cried the Badger, greatly scandalised. "You backsliding
+animal, didn't you tell me just now, in there--"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, in _there_," said Toad impatiently. "I'd have said
+anything in _there_. You're so eloquent, dear Badger, and so moving,
+and so convincing, and put all your points so frightfully well--you
+can do what you like with me in _there_, and you know it. But I've
+been searching my mind since, and going over things in it, and I find
+that I'm not a bit sorry or repentant really, so it's no earthly good
+saying I am; now, is it?"
+
+"Then you don't promise," said the Badger, "never to touch a motor-car
+again?"
+
+"Certainly not!" replied Toad emphatically. "On the contrary, I
+faithfully promise that the very first motor-car I see, poop-poop! off
+I go in it!"
+
+"Told you so, didn't I?" observed the Rat to the Mole.
+
+"Very well, then," said the Badger firmly, rising to his feet. "Since
+you won't yield to persuasion, we'll try what force can do. I feared
+it would come to this all along. You've often asked us three to come
+and stay with you, Toad, in this handsome house of yours; well, now
+we're going to. When we've converted you to a proper point of view we
+may quit, but not before. Take him upstairs, you two, and lock him up
+in his bedroom, while we arrange matters between ourselves."
+
+"It's for your own good, Toady, you know," said the Rat kindly, as
+Toad, kicking and struggling, was hauled up the stairs by his two
+faithful friends. "Think what fun we shall all have together, just as
+we used to, when you've quite got over this--this painful attack of
+yours!"
+
+"We'll take great care of everything for you till you're well, Toad,"
+said the Mole; "and we'll see your money isn't wasted, as it has
+been."
+
+"No more of those regrettable incidents with the police, Toad," said
+the Rat, as they thrust him into his bedroom.
+
+"And no more weeks in hospital, being ordered about by female nurses,
+Toad," added the Mole, turning the key on him.
+
+They descended the stair, Toad shouting abuse at them through the
+keyhole; and the three friends then met in conference on the
+situation.
+
+"It's going to be a tedious business," said the Badger, sighing. "I've
+never seen Toad so determined. However, we will see it out. He must
+never be left an instant unguarded. We shall have to take it in turns
+to be with him, till the poison has worked itself out of his system."
+
+They arranged watches accordingly. Each animal took it in turns to
+sleep in Toad's room at night, and they divided the day up between
+them. At first Toad was undoubtedly very trying to his careful
+guardians. When his violent paroxysms possessed him he would arrange
+bedroom chairs in rude resemblance of a motor-car and would crouch on
+the foremost of them, bent forward and staring fixedly ahead, making
+uncouth and ghastly noises, till the climax was reached, when, turning
+a complete somersault, he would lie prostrate amidst the ruins of the
+chairs, apparently completely satisfied for the moment. As time
+passed, however, these painful seizures grew gradually less frequent,
+and his friends strove to divert his mind into fresh channels. But his
+interest in other matters did not seem to revive, and he grew
+apparently languid and depressed.
+
+One fine morning the Rat, whose turn it was to go on duty, went
+upstairs to relieve Badger, whom he found fidgeting to be off and
+stretch his legs in a long ramble round his wood and down his earths
+and burrows. "Toad's still in bed," he told the Rat, outside the door.
+"Can't get much out of him, except, 'O leave him alone, he wants
+nothing, perhaps he'll be better presently, it may pass off in time,
+don't be unduly anxious,' and so on. Now, you look out, Rat! When
+Toad's quiet and submissive, and playing at being the hero of a
+Sunday-school prize, then he's at his artfullest. There's sure to be
+something up. I know him. Well, now, I must be off."
+
+"How are you to-day, old chap?" inquired the Rat cheerfully, as he
+approached Toad's bedside.
+
+He had to wait some minutes for an answer. At last a feeble voice
+replied, "Thank you so much, dear Ratty! So good of you to inquire!
+But first tell me how you are yourself, and the excellent Mole?"
+
+"O, _we're_ all right," replied the Rat. "Mole," he added
+incautiously, "is going out for a run round with Badger. They'll be
+out till luncheon time, so you and I will spend a pleasant morning
+together, and I'll do my best to amuse you. Now jump up, there's a
+good fellow, and don't lie moping there on a fine morning like this!"
+
+"Dear, kind Rat," murmured Toad, "how little you realise my condition,
+and how very far I am from 'jumping up' now--if ever! But do not
+trouble about me. I hate being a burden to my friends, and I do not
+expect to be one much longer. Indeed, I almost hope not."
+
+"Well, I hope not, too," said the Rat heartily. "You've been a fine
+bother to us all this time, and I'm glad to hear it's going to stop.
+And in weather like this, and the boating season just beginning! It's
+too bad of you, Toad! It isn't the trouble we mind, but you're making
+us miss such an awful lot."
+
+"I'm afraid it _is_ the trouble you mind, though," replied the Toad
+languidly. "I can quite understand it. It's natural enough. You're
+tired of bothering about me. I mustn't ask you to do anything further.
+I'm a nuisance, I know."
+
+"You are, indeed," said the Rat. "But I tell you, I'd take any trouble
+on earth for you, if only you'd be a sensible animal."
+
+"If I thought that, Ratty," murmured Toad, more feebly than ever,
+"then I would beg you--for the last time, probably--to step round to
+the village as quickly as possible--even now it may be too late--and
+fetch the doctor. But don't you bother. It's only a trouble, and
+perhaps we may as well let things take their course."
+
+"Why, what do you want a doctor for?" inquired the Rat, coming closer
+and examining him. He certainly lay very still and flat, and his voice
+was weaker and his manner much changed.
+
+"Surely you have noticed of late--" murmured Toad. "But, no--why
+should you? Noticing things is only a trouble. To-morrow, indeed, you
+may be saying to yourself, 'O, if only I had noticed sooner! If only I
+had done something!' But no; it's a trouble. Never mind--forget that I
+asked."
+
+"Look here, old man," said the Rat, beginning to get rather alarmed,
+"of course I'll fetch a doctor to you, if you really think you want
+him. But you can hardly be bad enough for that yet. Let's talk about
+something else."
+
+"I fear, dear friend," said Toad, with a sad smile, "that 'talk' can
+do little in a case like this--or doctors either, for that matter;
+still, one must grasp at the slightest straw. And, by the way--while
+you are about it--I _hate_ to give you additional trouble, but I
+happen to remember that you will pass the door--would you mind at the
+same time asking the lawyer to step up? It would be a convenience to
+me, and there are moments--perhaps I should say there is _a_
+moment--when one must face disagreeable tasks, at whatever cost to
+exhausted nature!"
+
+"A lawyer! O, he must be really bad!" the affrighted Rat said to
+himself, as he hurried from the room, not forgetting, however, to lock
+the door carefully behind him.
+
+Outside, he stopped to consider. The other two were far away, and he
+had no one to consult.
+
+"It's best to be on the safe side," he said, on reflection. "I've
+known Toad fancy himself frightfully bad before, without the slightest
+reason; but I've never heard him ask for a lawyer! If there's nothing
+really the matter, the doctor will tell him he's an old ass, and cheer
+him up; and that will be something gained. I'd better humour him and
+go; it won't take very long." So he ran off to the village on his
+errand of mercy.
+
+The Toad, who had hopped lightly out of bed as soon as he heard the
+key turned in the lock, watched him eagerly from the window till he
+disappeared down the carriage-drive. Then, laughing heartily, he
+dressed as quickly as possible in the smartest suit he could lay
+hands on at the moment, filled his pockets with cash which he took
+from a small drawer in the dressing-table, and next, knotting the
+sheets from his bed together and tying one end of the improvised rope
+round the central mullion of the handsome Tudor window which formed
+such a feature of his bedroom, he scrambled out, slid lightly to the
+ground, and, taking the opposite direction to the Rat, marched off
+light-heartedly, whistling a merry tune.
+
+It was a gloomy luncheon for Rat when the Badger and the Mole at
+length returned, and he had to face them at table with his pitiful and
+unconvincing story. The Badger's caustic, not to say brutal, remarks
+may be imagined, and therefore passed over; but it was painful to the
+Rat that even the Mole, though he took his friend's side as far as
+possible, could not help saying, "You've been a bit of a duffer this
+time, Ratty! Toad, too, of all animals!"
+
+"He did it awfully well," said the crestfallen Rat.
+
+"He did _you_ awfully well!" rejoined the Badger hotly. "However,
+talking won't mend matters. He's got clear away for the time, that's
+certain; and the worst of it is, he'll be so conceited with what he'll
+think is his cleverness that he may commit any folly. One comfort is,
+we're free now, and needn't waste any more of our precious time doing
+sentry-go. But we'd better continue to sleep at Toad Hall for a while
+longer. Toad may be brought back at any moment--on a stretcher, or
+between two policemen."
+
+So spoke the Badger, not knowing what the future held in store, or how
+much water, and of how turbid a character, was to run under bridges
+before Toad should sit at ease again in his ancestral Hall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, Toad, gay and irresponsible, was walking briskly along the
+high road, some miles from home. At first he had taken by-paths, and
+crossed many fields, and changed his course several times, in case of
+pursuit; but now, feeling by this time safe from recapture, and the
+sun smiling brightly on him, and all Nature joining in a chorus of
+approval to the song of self-praise that his own heart was singing to
+him, he almost danced along the road in his satisfaction and conceit.
+
+"Smart piece of work that!" he remarked to himself chuckling. "Brain
+against brute force--and brain came out on the top--as it's bound to
+do. Poor old Ratty! My! won't he catch it when the Badger gets back! A
+worthy fellow, Ratty, with many good qualities, but very little
+intelligence and absolutely no education. I must take him in hand some
+day, and see if I can make something of him."
+
+Filled full of conceited thoughts such as these he strode along, his
+head in the air, till he reached a little town, where the sign of "The
+Red Lion," swinging across the road half-way down the main street,
+reminded him that he had not breakfasted that day, and that he was
+exceedingly hungry after his long walk. He marched into the Inn,
+ordered the best luncheon that could be provided at so short a notice,
+and sat down to eat it in the coffee-room.
+
+He was about half-way through his meal when an only too familiar sound,
+approaching down the street, made him start and fall a-trembling all
+over. The poop-poop! drew nearer and nearer, the car could be heard to
+turn into the inn-yard and come to a stop, and Toad had to hold on to
+the leg of the table to conceal his over-mastering emotion. Presently
+the party entered the coffee-room, hungry, talkative, and gay, voluble
+on their experiences of the morning and the merits of the chariot that
+had brought them along so well. Toad listened eagerly, all ears, for a
+time; at last he could stand it no longer. He slipped out of the room
+quietly, paid his bill at the bar, and as soon as he got outside
+sauntered round quietly to the inn-yard. "There cannot be any harm," he
+said to himself, "in my only just _looking_ at it!"
+
+The car stood in the middle of the yard, quite unattended, the
+stable-helps and other hangers-on being all at their dinner. Toad
+walked slowly round it, inspecting, criticising, musing deeply.
+
+"I wonder," he said to himself presently, "I wonder if this sort of
+car _starts_ easily?"
+
+Next moment, hardly knowing how it came about, he found he had hold of
+the handle and was turning it. As the familiar sound broke forth, the
+old passion seized on Toad and completely mastered him, body and soul.
+As if in a dream he found himself, somehow, seated in the driver's
+seat; as if in a dream, he pulled the lever and swung the car round
+the yard and out through the archway; and, as if in a dream, all sense
+of right and wrong, all fear of obvious consequences, seemed
+temporarily suspended. He increased his pace, and as the car devoured
+the street and leapt forth on the high road through the open country,
+he was only conscious that he was Toad once more, Toad at his best and
+highest, Toad the terror, the traffic-queller, the Lord of the lone
+trail, before whom all must give way or be smitten into nothingness
+and everlasting night. He chanted as he flew, and the car responded
+with sonorous drone; the miles were eaten up under him as he sped he
+knew not whither, fulfilling his instincts, living his hour, reckless
+of what might come to him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"To my mind," observed the Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates
+cheerfully, "the _only_ difficulty that presents itself in this
+otherwise very clear case is, how we can possibly make it sufficiently
+hot for the incorrigible rogue and hardened ruffian whom we see
+cowering in the dock before us. Let me see: he has been found guilty,
+on the clearest evidence, first, of stealing a valuable motor-car;
+secondly, of driving to the public danger; and, thirdly, of gross
+impertinence to the rural police. Mr. Clerk, will you tell us, please,
+what is the very stiffest penalty we can impose for each of these
+offences? Without, of course, giving the prisoner the benefit of any
+doubt, because there isn't any."
+
+The Clerk scratched his nose with his pen. "Some people would
+consider," he observed, "that stealing the motor-car was the worst
+offence; and so it is. But cheeking the police undoubtedly carries the
+severest penalty; and so it ought. Supposing you were to say twelve
+months for the theft, which is mild; and three years for the furious
+driving, which is lenient; and fifteen years for the cheek, which was
+pretty bad sort of cheek, judging by what we've heard from the
+witness-box, even if you only believe one-tenth part of what you
+heard, and I never believe more myself--those figures, if added
+together correctly, tot up to nineteen years--"
+
+"First-rate!" said the Chairman.
+
+"--So you had better make it a round twenty years and be on the safe
+side," concluded the Clerk.
+
+"An excellent suggestion!" said the Chairman approvingly. "Prisoner!
+Pull yourself together and try and stand up straight. It's going to be
+twenty years for you this time. And mind, if you appear before us
+again, upon any charge whatever, we shall have to deal with you very
+seriously!"
+
+Then the brutal minions of the law fell upon the hapless Toad; loaded
+him with chains, and dragged him from the Court House, shrieking,
+praying, protesting; across the market-place, where the playful
+populace, always as severe upon detected crime as they are sympathetic
+and helpful when one is merely "wanted," assailed him with jeers,
+carrots, and popular catch-words; past hooting school children, their
+innocent faces lit up with the pleasure they ever derive from the
+sight of a gentleman in difficulties; across the hollow-sounding
+drawbridge, below the spiky portcullis, under the frowning archway of
+the grim old castle, whose ancient towers soared high overhead; past
+guardrooms full of grinning soldiery off duty, past sentries who
+coughed in a horrid, sarcastic way, because that is as much as a
+sentry on his post dare do to show his contempt and abhorrence of
+crime; up time-worn winding stairs, past men-at-arms in casquet and
+corselet of steel, darting threatening looks through their vizards;
+across courtyards, where mastiffs strained at their leash and pawed
+the air to get at him; past ancient warders, their halberds leant
+against the wall, dozing over a pasty and a flagon of brown ale; on
+and on, past the rack-chamber and the thumbscrew-room, past the
+turning that led to the private scaffold, till they reached the door
+of the grimmest dungeon that lay in the heart of the innermost keep.
+There at last they paused, where an ancient gaoler sat fingering a
+bunch of mighty keys.
+
+[Illustration: _Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon_]
+
+"Oddsbodikins!" said the sergeant of police, taking off his helmet and
+wiping his forehead. "Rouse thee, old loon, and take over from us this
+vile Toad, a criminal of deepest guilt and matchless artfulness and
+resource. Watch and ward him with all thy skill; and mark thee well,
+greybeard, should aught untoward befall, thy old head shall answer for
+his--and a murrain on both of them!"
+
+The gaoler nodded grimly, laying his withered hand on the shoulder of
+the miserable Toad. The rusty key creaked in the lock, the great door
+clanged behind them; and Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest
+dungeon of the best-guarded keep of the stoutest castle in all the
+length and breadth of Merry England.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN
+
+
+The Willow-Wren was twittering his thin little song, hidden himself in
+the dark selvedge of the river bank. Though it was past ten o'clock at
+night, the sky still clung to and retained some lingering skirts of
+light from the departed day; and the sullen heats of the torrid
+afternoon broke up and rolled away at the dispersing touch of the cool
+fingers of the short midsummer night. Mole lay stretched on the bank,
+still panting from the stress of the fierce day that had been
+cloudless from dawn to late sunset, and waited for his friend to
+return. He had been on the river with some companions, leaving the
+Water Rat free to keep an engagement of long standing with Otter; and
+he had come back to find the house dark and deserted, and no sign of
+Rat, who was doubtless keeping it up late with his old comrade. It
+was still too hot to think of staying indoors, so he lay on some cool
+dock-leaves, and thought over the past day and its doings, and how
+very good they all had been.
+
+The Rat's light footfall was presently heard approaching over the
+parched grass. "O, the blessed coolness!" he said, and sat down,
+gazing thoughtfully into the river, silent and pre-occupied.
+
+"You stayed to supper, of course?" said the Mole presently.
+
+"Simply had to," said the Rat. "They wouldn't hear of my going before.
+You know how kind they always are. And they made things as jolly for
+me as ever they could, right up to the moment I left. But I felt a
+brute all the time, as it was clear to me they were very unhappy,
+though they tried to hide it. Mole, I'm afraid they're in trouble.
+Little Portly is missing again; and you know what a lot his father
+thinks of him, though he never says much about it."
+
+"What, that child?" said the Mole lightly. "Well, suppose he is; why
+worry about it? He's always straying off and getting lost, and turning
+up again; he's so adventurous. But no harm ever happens to him.
+Everybody hereabouts knows him and likes him, just as they do old
+Otter, and you may be sure some animal or other will come across him
+and bring him back again all right. Why, we've found him ourselves,
+miles from home, and quite self-possessed and cheerful!"
+
+"Yes; but this time it's more serious," said the Rat gravely. "He's
+been missing for some days now, and the Otters have hunted everywhere,
+high and low, without finding the slightest trace. And they've asked
+every animal, too, for miles around, and no one knows anything about
+him. Otter's evidently more anxious than he'll admit. I got out of him
+that young Portly hasn't learnt to swim very well yet, and I can see
+he's thinking of the weir. There's a lot of water coming down still,
+considering the time of the year, and the place always had a
+fascination for the child. And then there are--well, traps and
+things--_you_ know. Otter's not the fellow to be nervous about any
+son of his before it's time. And now he _is_ nervous. When I left, he
+came out with me--said he wanted some air, and talked about stretching
+his legs. But I could see it wasn't that, so I drew him out and pumped
+him, and got it all from him at last. He was going to spend the night
+watching by the ford. You know the place where the old ford used to
+be, in by-gone days before they built the bridge?"
+
+"I know it well," said the Mole. "But why should Otter choose to watch
+there?"
+
+"Well, it seems that it was there he gave Portly his first
+swimming-lesson," continued the Rat. "From that shallow, gravelly spit
+near the bank. And it was there he used to teach him fishing, and
+there young Portly caught his first fish, of which he was so very
+proud. The child loved the spot, and Otter thinks that if he came
+wandering back from wherever he is--if he _is_ anywhere by this time,
+poor little chap--he might make for the ford he was so fond of; or if
+he came across it he'd remember it well, and stop there and play,
+perhaps. So Otter goes there every night and watches--on the chance,
+you know, just on the chance!"
+
+They were silent for a time, both thinking of the same thing--the
+lonely, heart-sore animal, crouched by the ford, watching and waiting,
+the long night through--on the chance.
+
+"Well, well," said the Rat presently, "I suppose we ought to be
+thinking about turning in." But he never offered to move.
+
+"Rat," said the Mole, "I simply can't go and turn in, and go to sleep,
+and _do_ nothing, even though there doesn't seem to be anything to be
+done. We'll get the boat out, and paddle upstream. The moon will be up
+in an hour or so, and then we will search as well as we can--anyhow,
+it will be better than going to bed and doing _nothing_."
+
+"Just what I was thinking myself," said the Rat. "It's not the sort of
+night for bed anyhow; and daybreak is not so very far off, and then we
+may pick up some news of him from early risers as we go along."
+
+They got the boat out, and the Rat took the sculls, paddling with
+caution. Out in mid-stream, there was a clear, narrow track that
+faintly reflected the sky; but wherever shadows fell on the water from
+bank, bush, or tree, they were as solid to all appearance as the banks
+themselves, and the Mole had to steer with judgment accordingly. Dark
+and deserted as it was, the night was full of small noises, song and
+chatter and rustling, telling of the busy little population who were
+up and about, plying their trades and vocations through the night till
+sunshine should fall on them at last and send them off to their
+well-earned repose. The water's own noises, too, were more apparent
+than by day, its gurglings and "cloops" more unexpected and near at
+hand; and constantly they started at what seemed a sudden clear call
+from an actual articulate voice.
+
+The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one
+particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing
+phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the
+waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of
+the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began
+to see surfaces--meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river
+itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of
+mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference
+that was tremendous. Their old haunts greeted them again in other
+raiment, as if they had slipped away and put on this pure new apparel
+and come quietly back, smiling as they shyly waited to see if they
+would be recognised again under it.
+
+Fastening their boat to a willow, the friends landed in this silent,
+silver kingdom, and patiently explored the hedges, the hollow trees,
+the runnels and their little culverts, the ditches and dry water-ways.
+Embarking again and crossing over, they worked their way up the stream
+in this manner, while the moon, serene and detached in a cloudless
+sky, did what she could, though so far off, to help them in their
+quest; till her hour came and she sank earthwards reluctantly, and
+left them, and mystery once more held field and river.
+
+Then a change began slowly to declare itself. The horizon became
+clearer, field and tree came more into sight, and somehow with a
+different look; the mystery began to drop away from them. A bird piped
+suddenly, and was still; and a light breeze sprang up and set the
+reeds and bulrushes rustling. Rat, who was in the stern of the boat,
+while Mole sculled, sat up suddenly and listened with a passionate
+intentness. Mole, who with gentle strokes was just keeping the boat
+moving while he scanned the banks with care, looked at him with
+curiosity.
+
+"It's gone!" sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. "So
+beautiful and strange and new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost
+wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is
+pain, and nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once
+more and go on listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!" he
+cried, alert once more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space,
+spellbound.
+
+"Now it passes on and I begin to lose it," he said presently. "O Mole!
+the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy
+call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the
+call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole,
+row! For the music and the call must be for us."
+
+The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. "I hear nothing myself," he said,
+"but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers."
+
+The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard. Rapt, transported,
+trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing
+that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless
+but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp.
+
+In silence Mole rowed steadily, and soon they came to a point where the
+river divided, a long backwater branching off to one side. With a slight
+movement of his head Rat, who had long dropped the rudder-lines,
+directed the rower to take the backwater. The creeping tide of light
+gained and gained, and now they could see the colour of the flowers that
+gemmed the water's edge.
+
+"Clearer and nearer still," cried the Rat joyously. "Now you must
+surely hear it! Ah--at last--I see you do!"
+
+Breathless and transfixed, the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run
+of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and
+possessed him utterly. He saw the tears on his comrade's cheeks, and
+bowed his head and understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by
+the purple loosestrife that fringed the bank; then the clear imperious
+summons that marched hand-in-hand with the intoxicating melody imposed
+its will on Mole, and mechanically he bent to his oars again. And the
+light grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they were wont to
+do at the approach of dawn; and but for the heavenly music all was
+marvellously still.
+
+On either side of them, as they glided onwards, the rich meadow-grass
+seemed that morning of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable.
+Never had they noticed the roses so vivid, the willow-herb so riotous,
+the meadow-sweet so odorous and pervading. Then the murmur of the
+approaching weir began to hold the air, and they felt a consciousness
+that they were nearing the end, whatever it might be, that surely
+awaited their expedition.
+
+A wide half-circle of foam and glinting lights and shining shoulders
+of green water, the great weir closed the backwater from bank to bank,
+troubled all the quiet surface with twirling eddies and floating
+foam-streaks, and deadened all other sounds with its solemn and
+soothing rumble. In midmost of the stream, embraced in the weir's
+shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay anchored, fringed close with
+willow and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, but full of
+significance, it hid whatever it might hold behind a veil, keeping it
+till the hour should come, and, with the hour, those who were called
+and chosen.
+
+Slowly, but with no doubt or hesitation whatever, and in something of
+a solemn expectancy, the two animals passed through the broken,
+tumultuous water and moored their boat at the flowery margin of the
+island. In silence they landed, and pushed through the blossom and
+scented herbage and undergrowth that led up to the level ground, till
+they stood on a little lawn of a marvellous green, set round with
+Nature's own orchard-trees--crab-apple, wild cherry, and sloe.
+
+"This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to
+me," whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. "Here, in this holy place,
+here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!"
+
+Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that
+turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to
+the ground. It was no panic terror--indeed he felt wonderfully at
+peace and happy--but it was an awe that smote and held him and,
+without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august Presence
+was very, very near. With difficulty he turned to look for his friend,
+and saw him at his side, cowed, stricken, and trembling violently. And
+still there was utter silence in the populous bird-haunted branches
+around them; and still the light grew and grew.
+
+Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though
+the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still
+dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself
+waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on
+things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble
+head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while
+Nature, flushed with fulness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her
+breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and
+Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the
+growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes
+that were looking down on them humorously, while the bearded mouth
+broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on
+the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still
+holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw
+the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on
+the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves,
+sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round,
+podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one
+moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still,
+as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.
+
+"Rat!" he found breath to whisper, shaking. "Are you afraid?"
+
+"Afraid?" murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.
+"Afraid! Of _Him_? O, never, never! And yet--and yet--O, Mole, I am
+afraid!"
+
+Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and
+did worship.
+
+Sudden and magnificent, the sun's broad golden disc showed itself over
+the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level
+water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them.
+When they were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and
+the air was full of the carol of birds that hailed the dawn.
+
+As they stared blankly, in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realised
+all they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze,
+dancing up from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the
+dewy roses, and blew lightly and caressingly in their faces; and with
+its soft touch came instant oblivion. For this is the last best gift
+that the kindly demi-god is careful to bestow on those to whom he has
+revealed himself in their helping: the gift of forgetfulness. Lest the
+awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and
+pleasure, and the great haunting memory should spoil all the after-lives
+of little animals helped out of difficulties, in order that they should
+be happy and light-hearted as before.
+
+Mole rubbed his eyes and stared at Rat, who was looking about him in a
+puzzled sort of way. "I beg your pardon; what did you say, Rat?" he
+asked.
+
+"I think I was only remarking," said Rat slowly, "that this was the
+right sort of place, and that here, if anywhere, we should find him.
+And look! Why, there he is, the little fellow!" And with a cry of
+delight he ran towards the slumbering Portly.
+
+But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened
+suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can
+recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty of it, the beauty!
+Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly
+accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties; so Mole, after
+struggling with his memory for a brief space, shook his head sadly and
+followed the Rat.
+
+Portly woke up with a joyous squeak, and wriggled with pleasure at the
+sight of his father's friends, who had played with him so often in past
+days. In a moment, however, his face grew blank, and he fell to hunting
+round in a circle with pleading whine. As a child that has fallen
+happily asleep in its nurse's arms, and wakes to find itself alone and
+laid in a strange place, and searches corners and cupboards, and runs
+from room to room, despair growing silently in its heart, even so Portly
+searched the island and searched, dogged and unwearying, till at last
+the black moment came for giving it up, and sitting down and crying
+bitterly.
+
+The Mole ran quickly to comfort the little animal; but Rat, lingering,
+looked long and doubtfully at certain hoof-marks deep in the sward.
+
+"Some--great--animal--has been here," he murmured slowly and
+thoughtfully; and stood musing, musing; his mind strangely stirred.
+
+"Come along, Rat!" called the Mole. "Think of poor Otter, waiting up
+there by the ford!"
+
+Portly had soon been comforted by the promise of a treat--a jaunt on
+the river in Mr. Rat's real boat; and the two animals conducted him to
+the water's side, placed him securely between them in the bottom of
+the boat, and paddled off down the backwater. The sun was fully up by
+now, and hot on them, birds sang lustily and without restraint, and
+flowers smiled and nodded from either bank, but somehow--so thought
+the animals--with less of richness and blaze of colour than they
+seemed to remember seeing quite recently somewhere--they wondered
+where.
+
+The main river reached again, they turned the boat's head upstream,
+towards the point where they knew their friend was keeping his lonely
+vigil. As they drew near the familiar ford, the Mole took the boat in
+to the bank, and they lifted Portly out and set him on his legs on
+the tow-path, gave him his marching orders and a friendly farewell pat
+on the back, and shoved out into mid-stream. They watched the little
+animal as he waddled along the path contentedly and with importance;
+watched him till they saw his muzzle suddenly lift and his waddle
+break into a clumsy amble as he quickened his pace with shrill whines
+and wriggles of recognition. Looking up the river, they could see
+Otter start up, tense and rigid, from out of the shallows where he
+crouched in dumb patience, and could hear his amazed and joyous bark
+as he bounded up through the osiers on to the path. Then the Mole,
+with a strong pull on one oar, swung the boat round and let the full
+stream bear them down again whither it would, their quest now happily
+ended.
+
+"I feel strangely tired, Rat," said the Mole, leaning wearily over his
+oars, as the boat drifted. "It's being up all night, you'll say,
+perhaps; but that's nothing. We do as much half the nights of the
+week, at this time of the year. No; I feel as if I had been through
+something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over;
+and yet nothing particular has happened."
+
+"Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful," murmured
+the Rat, leaning back and closing his eyes. "I feel just as you do,
+Mole; simply dead tired, though not body-tired. It's lucky we've got
+the stream with us, to take us home. Isn't it jolly to feel the sun
+again, soaking into one's bones! And hark to the wind playing in the
+reeds!"
+
+"It's like music--far-away music," said the Mole, nodding drowsily.
+
+"So I was thinking," murmured the Rat, dreamful and languid.
+"Dance-music--the lilting sort that runs on without a stop--but with
+words in it, too--it passes into words and out of them again--I catch
+them at intervals--then it is dance-music once more, and then nothing
+but the reeds' soft thin whispering."
+
+"You hear better than I," said the Mole sadly. "I cannot catch the
+words."
+
+"Let me try and give you them," said the Rat softly, his eyes still
+closed. "Now it is turning into words again--faint but clear--_Lest
+the awe should dwell--And turn your frolic to fret--You shall look on
+my power at the helping hour--But then you shall forget!_ Now the
+reeds take it up--_forget, forget_, they sigh, and it dies away in a
+rustle and a whisper. Then the voice returns--
+
+"_Lest limbs be reddened and rent--I spring the trap that is set--As I
+loose the snare you may glimpse me there--For surely you shall
+forget!_ Row nearer, Mole, nearer to the reeds! It is hard to catch,
+and grows each minute fainter.
+
+"_Helper and healer, I cheer--Small waifs in the woodland wet--Strays
+I find in it, wounds I bind in it--Bidding them all forget!_ Nearer,
+Mole, nearer! No, it is no good; the song has died away into
+reed-talk."
+
+"But what do the words mean?" asked the wondering Mole.
+
+"That I do not know," said the Rat simply. "I passed them on to you as
+they reached me. Ah! now they return again, and this time full and
+clear! This time, at last, it is the real, the unmistakable thing,
+simple--passionate--perfect--"
+
+"Well, let's have it, then," said the Mole, after he had waited
+patiently for a few minutes, half-dozing in the hot sun.
+
+But no answer came. He looked, and understood the silence. With a
+smile of much happiness on his face, and something of a listening look
+still lingering there, the weary Rat was fast asleep.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+TOAD'S ADVENTURES
+
+
+When Toad found himself immured in a dank and noisome dungeon, and
+knew that all the grim darkness of a medieval fortress lay between him
+and the outer world of sunshine and well-metalled high roads where he
+had lately been so happy, disporting himself as if he had bought up
+every road in England, he flung himself at full length on the floor,
+and shed bitter tears, and abandoned himself to dark despair. "This is
+the end of everything" (he said), "at least it is the end of the
+career of Toad, which is the same thing; the popular and handsome
+Toad, the rich and hospitable Toad, the Toad so free and careless and
+debonair! How can I hope to be ever set at large again" (he said),
+"who have been imprisoned so justly for stealing so handsome a
+motor-car in such an audacious manner, and for such lurid and
+imaginative cheek, bestowed upon such a number of fat, red-faced
+policemen!" (Here his sobs choked him.) "Stupid animal that I was" (he
+said), "now I must languish in this dungeon, till people who were
+proud to say they knew me, have forgotten the very name of Toad! O
+wise old Badger!" (he said), "O clever, intelligent Rat and sensible
+Mole! What sound judgments, what a knowledge of men and matters you
+possess! O unhappy and forsaken Toad!" With lamentations such as these
+he passed his days and nights for several weeks, refusing his meals or
+intermediate light refreshments, though the grim and ancient gaoler,
+knowing that Toad's pockets were well lined, frequently pointed out
+that many comforts, and indeed luxuries, could by arrangement be sent
+in--at a price--from outside.
+
+Now the gaoler had a daughter, a pleasant wench and good-hearted, who
+assisted her father in the lighter duties of his post. She was
+particularly fond of animals, and, besides her canary, whose cage hung
+on a nail in the massive wall of the keep by day, to the great
+annoyance of prisoners who relished an after-dinner nap, and was
+shrouded in an antimacassar on the parlour table at night, she kept
+several piebald mice and a restless revolving squirrel. This
+kind-hearted girl, pitying the misery of Toad, said to her father one
+day, "Father! I can't bear to see that poor beast so unhappy, and
+getting so thin! You let me have the managing of him. You know how
+fond of animals I am. I'll make him eat from my hand, and sit up, and
+do all sorts of things."
+
+Her father replied that she could do what she liked with him. He was
+tired of Toad, and his sulks and his airs and his meanness. So that
+day she went on her errand of mercy, and knocked at the door of Toad's
+cell.
+
+"Now, cheer up, Toad," she said, coaxingly, on entering, "and sit up
+and dry your eyes and be a sensible animal. And do try and eat a bit
+of dinner. See, I've brought you some of mine, hot from the oven!"
+
+It was bubble-and-squeak, between two plates, and its fragrance filled
+the narrow cell. The penetrating smell of cabbage reached the nose of
+Toad as he lay prostrate in his misery on the floor, and gave him the
+idea for a moment that perhaps life was not such a blank and desperate
+thing as he had imagined. But still he wailed, and kicked with his legs,
+and refused to be comforted. So the wise girl retired for the time, but,
+of course, a good deal of the smell of hot cabbage remained behind, as it
+will do, and Toad, between his sobs, sniffed and reflected, and gradually
+began to think new and inspiring thoughts: of chivalry, and poetry, and
+deeds still to be done; of broad meadows, and cattle browsing in them,
+raked by sun and wind; of kitchen-gardens, and straight herb-borders, and
+warm snap-dragon beset by bees; and of the comforting clink of dishes set
+down on the table at Toad Hall, and the scrape of chair-legs on the floor
+as every one pulled himself close up to his work. The air of the narrow
+cell took a rosy tinge; he began to think of his friends, and how they
+would surely be able to do something; of lawyers, and how they would have
+enjoyed his case, and what an ass he had been not to get in a few; and
+lastly, he thought of his own great cleverness and resource, and all
+that he was capable of if he only gave his great mind to it; and the
+cure was almost complete.
+
+[Illustration: _He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor_]
+
+When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a
+cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot
+buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter
+running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from
+the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad,
+and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on
+bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings,
+when one's ramble was over, and slippered feet were propped on the
+fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy
+canaries. Toad sat up on end once more, dried his eyes, sipped his tea
+and munched his toast, and soon began talking freely about himself,
+and the house he lived in, and his doings there, and how important he
+was, and what a lot his friends thought of him.
+
+The gaoler's daughter saw that the topic was doing him as much good
+as the tea, as indeed it was, and encouraged him to go on.
+
+"Tell me about Toad Hall," said she. "It sounds beautiful."
+
+"Toad Hall," said the Toad proudly, "is an eligible, self-contained
+gentleman's residence, very unique; dating in part from the fourteenth
+century, but replete with every modern convenience. Up-to-date
+sanitation. Five minutes from church, post-office, and golf-links.
+Suitable for--"
+
+"Bless the animal," said the girl, laughing, "I don't want to _take_
+it. Tell me something _real_ about it. But first wait till I fetch you
+some more tea and toast."
+
+She tripped away, and presently returned with a fresh trayful; and Toad,
+pitching into the toast with avidity, his spirits quite restored to
+their usual level, told her about the boat-house, and the fish-pond, and
+the old walled kitchen-garden; and about the pig-styes and the stables,
+and the pigeon-house and the hen-house; and about the dairy, and the
+wash-house, and the china-cupboards, and the linen-presses (she liked
+that bit especially); and about the banqueting-hall, and the fun they
+had there when the other animals were gathered round the table and Toad
+was at his best, singing songs, telling stories, carrying on generally.
+Then she wanted to know about his animal-friends, and was very
+interested in all he had to tell her about them and how they lived, and
+what they did to pass their time. Of course, she did not say she was
+fond of animals as _pets_, because she had the sense to see that Toad
+would be extremely offended. When she said good-night, having filled his
+water-jug and shaken up his straw for him, Toad was very much the same
+sanguine, self-satisfied animal that he had been of old. He sang a
+little song or two, of the sort he used to sing at his dinner-parties,
+curled himself up in the straw, and had an excellent night's rest and
+the pleasantest of dreams.
+
+They had many interesting talks together, after that, as the dreary
+days went on; and the gaoler's daughter grew very sorry for Toad, and
+thought it a great shame that a poor little animal should be locked
+up in prison for what seemed to her a very trivial offence. Toad, of
+course, in his vanity, thought that her interest in him proceeded from
+a growing tenderness; and he could not help half-regretting that the
+social gulf between them was so very wide, for she was a comely lass,
+and evidently admired him very much.
+
+One morning the girl was very thoughtful, and answered at random, and
+did not seem to Toad to be paying proper attention to his witty
+sayings and sparkling comments.
+
+"Toad," she said presently, "just listen, please. I have an aunt who
+is a washerwoman."
+
+"There, there," said Toad, graciously and affably, "never mind; think
+no more about it. _I_ have several aunts who _ought_ to be
+washerwomen."
+
+"Do be quiet a minute, Toad," said the girl. "You talk too much,
+that's your chief fault, and I'm trying to think, and you hurt my
+head. As I said, I have an aunt who is a washerwoman; she does the
+washing for all the prisoners in this castle--we try to keep any
+paying business of that sort in the family, you understand. She takes
+out the washing on Monday morning, and brings it in on Friday evening.
+This is a Thursday. Now, this is what occurs to me: you're very
+rich--at least you're always telling me so--and she's very poor. A few
+pounds wouldn't make any difference to you, and it would mean a lot to
+her. Now, I think if she were properly approached--squared, I believe
+is the word you animals use--you could come to some arrangement by
+which she would let you have her dress and bonnet and so on, and you
+could escape from the castle as the official washerwoman. You're very
+alike in many respects--particularly about the figure."
+
+"We're _not_," said the Toad in a huff. "I have a very elegant
+figure--for what I am."
+
+"So has my aunt," replied the girl, "for what _she_ is. But have it
+your own way. You horrid, proud, ungrateful animal, when I'm sorry for
+you, and trying to help you!"
+
+"Yes, yes, that's all right; thank you very much indeed," said the
+Toad hurriedly. "But look here! you wouldn't surely have Mr. Toad, of
+Toad Hall, going about the country disguised as a washerwoman!"
+
+"Then you can stop here as a Toad," replied the girl with much spirit.
+"I suppose you want to go off in a coach-and-four!"
+
+Honest Toad was always ready to admit himself in the wrong. "You are a
+good, kind, clever girl," he said, "and I am indeed a proud and a
+stupid toad. Introduce me to your worthy aunt, if you will be so kind,
+and I have no doubt that the excellent lady and I will be able to
+arrange terms satisfactory to both parties."
+
+Next evening the girl ushered her aunt into Toad's cell, bearing his
+week's washing pinned up in a towel. The old lady had been prepared
+beforehand for the interview, and the sight of certain gold sovereigns
+that Toad had thoughtfully placed on the table in full view practically
+completed the matter and left little further to discuss. In return for
+his cash, Toad received a cotton print gown, an apron, a shawl, and a
+rusty black bonnet; the only stipulation the old lady made being that
+she should be gagged and bound and dumped down in a corner. By this not
+very convincing artifice, she explained, aided by picturesque fiction
+which she could supply herself, she hoped to retain her situation, in
+spite of the suspicious appearance of things.
+
+Toad was delighted with the suggestion. It would enable him to leave the
+prison in some style, and with his reputation for being a desperate and
+dangerous fellow untarnished; and he readily helped the gaoler's
+daughter to make her aunt appear as much as possible the victim of
+circumstances over which she had no control.
+
+"Now it's your turn, Toad," said the girl. "Take off that coat and
+waistcoat of yours; you're fat enough as it is."
+
+Shaking with laughter, she proceeded to "hook-and-eye" him into the
+cotton print gown, arranged the shawl with a professional fold, and
+tied the strings of the rusty bonnet under his chin.
+
+"You're the very image of her," she giggled, "only I'm sure you never
+looked half so respectable in all your life before. Now, good-bye,
+Toad, and good luck. Go straight down the way you came up; and if any
+one says anything to you, as they probably will, being but men, you
+can chaff back a bit, of course, but remember you're a widow woman,
+quite alone in the world, with a character to lose."
+
+With a quaking heart, but as firm a footstep as he could command, Toad
+set forth cautiously on what seemed to be a most hare-brained and
+hazardous undertaking; but he was soon agreeably surprised to find how
+easy everything was made for him, and a little humbled at the thought
+that both his popularity, and the sex that seemed to inspire it, were
+really another's. The washerwoman's squat figure in its familiar
+cotton print seemed a passport for every barred door and grim gateway;
+even when he hesitated, uncertain as to the right turning to take, he
+found himself helped out of his difficulty by the warder at the next
+gate, anxious to be off to his tea, summoning him to come along sharp
+and not keep him waiting there all night. The chaff and the humourous
+sallies to which he was subjected, and to which, of course, he had to
+provide prompt and effective reply, formed, indeed, his chief danger;
+for Toad was an animal with a strong sense of his own dignity, and the
+chaff was mostly (he thought) poor and clumsy, and the humour of the
+sallies entirely lacking. However, he kept his temper, though with
+great difficulty, suited his retorts to his company and his supposed
+character, and did his best not to overstep the limits of good taste.
+
+It seemed hours before he crossed the last courtyard, rejected the
+pressing invitations from the last guardroom, and dodged the outspread
+arms of the last warder, pleading with simulated passion for just one
+farewell embrace. But at last he heard the wicket-gate in the great
+outer door click behind him, felt the fresh air of the outer world
+upon his anxious brow, and knew that he was free!
+
+Dizzy with the easy success of his daring exploit, he walked quickly
+towards the lights of the town, not knowing in the least what he
+should do next, only quite certain of one thing, that he must remove
+himself as quickly as possible from the neighbourhood where the lady
+he was forced to represent was so well-known and so popular a
+character.
+
+As he walked along, considering, his attention was caught by some red
+and green lights a little way off, to one side of the town, and the
+sound of the puffing and snorting of engines and the banging of
+shunted trucks fell on his ear. "Aha!" he thought, "this is a piece of
+luck! A railway station is the thing I want most in the whole world at
+this moment; and what's more, I needn't go through the town to get it,
+and shan't have to support this humiliating character by repartees
+which, though thoroughly effective, do not assist one's sense of
+self-respect."
+
+He made his way to the station accordingly, consulted a time-table,
+and found that a train, bound more or less in the direction of his
+home, was due to start in half-an-hour. "More luck!" said Toad, his
+spirits rising rapidly, and went off to the booking-office to buy his
+ticket.
+
+He gave the name of the station that he knew to be nearest to the
+village of which Toad Hall was the principal feature, and mechanically
+put his fingers, in search of the necessary money, where his waistcoat
+pocket should have been. But here the cotton gown, which had nobly stood
+by him so far, and which he had basely forgotten, intervened, and
+frustrated his efforts. In a sort of nightmare he struggled with the
+strange uncanny thing that seemed to hold his hands, turn all muscular
+strivings to water, and laugh at him all the time; while other
+travellers, forming up in a line behind, waited with impatience, making
+suggestions of more or less value and comments of more or less
+stringency and point. At last--somehow--he never rightly understood
+how--he burst the barriers, attained the goal, arrived at where all
+waistcoat pockets are eternally situated, and found--not only no money,
+but no pocket to hold it, and no waistcoat to hold the pocket!
+
+To his horror he recollected that he had left both coat and waistcoat
+behind him in his cell, and with them his pocket-book, money, keys,
+watch, matches, pencil-case--all that makes life worth living, all
+that distinguishes the many-pocketed animal, the lord of creation,
+from the inferior one-pocketed or no-pocketed productions that hop or
+trip about permissively, unequipped for the real contest.
+
+In his misery he made one desperate effort to carry the thing off,
+and, with a return to his fine old manner--a blend of the Squire and
+the College Don--he said, "Look here! I find I've left my purse
+behind. Just give me that ticket, will you, and I'll send the money on
+to-morrow? I'm well-known in these parts."
+
+The clerk stared at him and the rusty black bonnet a moment, and then
+laughed. "I should think you were pretty well known in these parts,"
+he said, "if you've tried this game on often. Here, stand away from
+the window, please, madam; you're obstructing the other passengers!"
+
+An old gentleman who had been prodding him in the back for some
+moments here thrust him away, and, what was worse, addressed him as
+his good woman, which angered Toad more than anything that had
+occurred that evening.
+
+Baffled and full of despair, he wandered blindly down the platform
+where the train was standing, and tears trickled down each side of
+his nose. It was hard, he thought, to be within sight of safety and
+almost of home, and to be baulked by the want of a few wretched
+shillings and by the pettifogging mistrustfulness of paid officials.
+Very soon his escape would be discovered, the hunt would be up, he
+would be caught, reviled, loaded with chains, dragged back again to
+prison and bread-and-water and straw; his guards and penalties would
+be doubled; and O, what sarcastic remarks the girl would make! What
+was to be done? He was not swift of foot; his figure was unfortunately
+recognisable. Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He
+had seen this method adopted by schoolboys, when the journey-money
+provided by thoughtful parents had been diverted to other and better
+ends. As he pondered, he found himself opposite the engine, which was
+being oiled, wiped, and generally caressed by its affectionate driver,
+a burly man with an oil-can in one hand and a lump of cotton-waste in
+the other.
+
+"Hullo, mother!" said the engine-driver, "what's the trouble? You
+don't look particularly cheerful."
+
+"O, sir!" said Toad, crying afresh, "I am a poor unhappy washerwoman,
+and I've lost all my money, and can't pay for a ticket, and I _must_
+get home to-night somehow, and whatever I am to do I don't know. O
+dear, O dear!"
+
+"That's a bad business, indeed," said the engine-driver reflectively.
+"Lost your money--and can't get home--and got some kids, too, waiting
+for you, I dare say?"
+
+"Any amount of 'em," sobbed Toad. "And they'll be hungry--and playing
+with matches--and upsetting lamps, the little innocents!--and
+quarrelling, and going on generally. O dear, O dear!"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do," said the good engine-driver.
+"You're a washerwoman to your trade, says you. Very well, that's that.
+And I'm an engine-driver, as you well may see, and there's no denying
+it's terribly dirty work. Uses up a power of shirts, it does, till my
+missus is fair tired of washing of 'em. If you'll wash a few shirts
+for me when you get home, and send 'em along, I'll give you a ride on
+my engine. It's against the Company's regulations, but we're not so
+very particular in these out-of-the-way parts."
+
+The Toad's misery turned into rapture as he eagerly scrambled up into
+the cab of the engine. Of course, he had never washed a shirt in his
+life, and couldn't if he tried and, anyhow, he wasn't going to begin;
+but he thought: "When I get safely home to Toad Hall, and have money
+again, and pockets to put it in, I will send the engine-driver enough
+to pay for quite a quantity of washing, and that will be the same
+thing, or better."
+
+The guard waved his welcome flag, the engine-driver whistled in
+cheerful response, and the train moved out of the station. As the
+speed increased, and the Toad could see on either side of him real
+fields, and trees, and hedges, and cows, and horses, all flying past
+him, and as he thought how every minute was bringing him nearer to
+Toad Hall, and sympathetic friends, and money to chink in his pocket,
+and a soft bed to sleep in, and good things to eat, and praise and
+admiration at the recital of his adventures and his surpassing
+cleverness, he began to skip up and down and shout and sing snatches
+of song, to the great astonishment of the engine-driver, who had come
+across washerwomen before, at long intervals, but never one at all
+like this.
+
+They had covered many and many a mile, and Toad was already considering
+what he would have for supper as soon as he got home, when he noticed
+that the engine-driver, with a puzzled expression on his face, was
+leaning over the side of the engine and listening hard. Then he saw him
+climb on to the coals and gaze out over the top of the train; then he
+returned and said to Toad: "It's very strange; we're the last train
+running in this direction to-night, yet I could be sworn that I heard
+another following us!"
+
+Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once. He became grave and depressed,
+and a dull pain in the lower part of his spine, communicating itself to
+his legs, made him want to sit down and try desperately not to think of
+all the possibilities.
+
+By this time the moon was shining brightly, and the engine-driver,
+steadying himself on the coal, could command a view of the line behind
+them for a long distance.
+
+Presently he called out, "I can see it clearly now! It is an engine,
+on our rails, coming along at a great pace! It looks as if we were
+being pursued!"
+
+The miserable Toad, crouching in the coal-dust, tried hard to think of
+something to do, with dismal want of success.
+
+"They are gaining on us fast!" cried the engine-driver. "And the
+engine is crowded with the queerest lot of people! Men like ancient
+warders, waving halberds; policemen in their helmets, waving
+truncheons; and shabbily dressed men in pot-hats, obvious and
+unmistakable plain-clothes detectives even at this distance, waving
+revolvers and walking-sticks; all waving, and all shouting the same
+thing--'Stop, stop, stop!'"
+
+Then Toad fell on his knees among the coals, and, raising his clasped
+paws in supplication, cried, "Save me, only save me, dear kind Mr.
+Engine-driver, and I will confess everything! I am not the simple
+washerwoman I seem to be! I have no children waiting for me, innocent
+or otherwise! I am a toad--the well-known and popular Mr. Toad, a
+landed proprietor; I have just escaped, by my great daring and
+cleverness, from a loathsome dungeon into which my enemies had flung
+me; and if those fellows on that engine recapture me, it will be
+chains and bread-and-water and straw and misery once more for poor,
+unhappy, innocent Toad!"
+
+The engine-driver looked down upon him very sternly, and said, "Now
+tell the truth; what were you put in prison for?"
+
+"It was nothing very much," said poor Toad, colouring deeply. "I only
+borrowed a motor-car while the owners were at lunch; they had no need of
+it at the time. I didn't mean to steal it, really; but people--especially
+magistrates--take such harsh views of thoughtless and high-spirited
+actions."
+
+The engine-driver looked very grave and said, "I fear that you have
+been indeed a wicked toad, and by rights I ought to give you up to
+offended justice. But you are evidently in sore trouble and distress,
+so I will not desert you. I don't hold with motor-cars, for one thing;
+and I don't hold with being ordered about by policemen when I'm on my
+own engine, for another. And the sight of an animal in tears always
+makes me feel queer and soft-hearted. So cheer up, Toad! I'll do my
+best, and we may beat them yet!"
+
+They piled on more coals, shovelling furiously; the furnace roared,
+the sparks flew, the engine leapt and swung, but still their pursuers
+slowly gained. The engine-driver, with a sigh, wiped his brow with a
+handful of cotton-waste, and said, "I'm afraid it's no good, Toad. You
+see, they are running light, and they have the better engine. There's
+just one thing left for us to do, and it's your only chance, so attend
+very carefully to what I tell you. A short way ahead of us is a long
+tunnel, and on the other side of that the line passes through a thick
+wood. Now, I will put on all the speed I can while we are running
+through the tunnel, but the other fellows will slow down a bit,
+naturally, for fear of an accident. When we are through, I will shut
+off steam and put on brakes as hard as I can, and the moment it's safe
+to do so you must jump and hide in the wood, before they get through
+the tunnel and see you. Then I will go full speed ahead again, and
+they can chase me if they like, for as long as they like, and as far
+as they like. Now mind and be ready to jump when I tell you!"
+
+They piled on more coals, and the train shot into the tunnel, and the
+engine rushed and roared and rattled, till at last they shot out at
+the other end into fresh air and the peaceful moonlight, and saw the
+wood lying dark and helpful upon either side of the line. The driver
+shut off steam and put on brakes, the Toad got down on the step, and
+as the train slowed down to almost a walking pace he heard the driver
+call out, "Now, jump!"
+
+Toad jumped, rolled down a short embankment, picked himself up unhurt,
+scrambled into the wood and hid.
+
+Peeping out, he saw his train get up speed again and disappear at a
+great pace. Then out of the tunnel burst the pursuing engine, roaring
+and whistling, her motley crew waving their various weapons and
+shouting, "Stop! stop! stop!" When they were past, the Toad had a
+hearty laugh--for the first time since he was thrown into prison.
+
+But he soon stopped laughing when he came to consider that it was now
+very late and dark and cold, and he was in an unknown wood, with no
+money and no chance of supper, and still far from friends and home;
+and the dead silence of everything, after the roar and rattle of the
+train, was something of a shock. He dared not leave the shelter of the
+trees, so he struck into the wood, with the idea of leaving the
+railway as far as possible behind him.
+
+After so many weeks within walls, he found the wood strange and
+unfriendly and inclined, he thought, to make fun of him. Night-jars,
+sounding their mechanical rattle, made him think that the wood was
+full of searching warders, closing in on him. An owl, swooping
+noiselessly towards him, brushed his shoulder with its wing, making
+him jump with the horrid certainty that it was a hand; then flitted
+off, moth-like, laughing its low ho! ho! ho! which Toad thought in
+very poor taste. Once he met a fox, who stopped, looked him up and
+down in a sarcastic sort of way, and said, "Hullo, washerwoman! Half a
+pair of socks and a pillow-case short this week! Mind it doesn't occur
+again!" and swaggered off, sniggering. Toad looked about for a stone
+to throw at him, but could not succeed in finding one, which vexed him
+more than anything. At last, cold, hungry, and tired out, he sought
+the shelter of a hollow tree, where with branches and dead leaves he
+made himself as comfortable a bed as he could, and slept soundly till
+the morning.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+WAYFARERS ALL
+
+
+The Water Rat was restless, and he did not exactly know why. To all
+appearance the summer's pomp was still at fullest height, and although
+in the tilled acres green had given way to gold, though rowans were
+reddening, and the woods were dashed here and there with a tawny
+fierceness, yet light and warmth and colour were still present in
+undiminished measure, clean of any chilly premonitions of the passing
+year. But the constant chorus of the orchards and hedges had shrunk to
+a casual evensong from a few yet unwearied performers; the robin was
+beginning to assert himself once more; and there was a feeling in the
+air of change and departure. The cuckoo, of course, had long been
+silent; but many another feathered friend, for months a part of the
+familiar landscape and its small society, was missing too, and it
+seemed that the ranks thinned steadily day by day. Rat, ever observant
+of all winged movement, saw that it was taking daily a southing
+tendency; and even as he lay in bed at night he thought he could make
+out, passing in the darkness overhead, the beat and quiver of
+impatient pinions, obedient to the peremptory call.
+
+Nature's Grand Hotel has its Season, like the others. As the guests one
+by one pack, pay, and depart, and the seats at the _table-d'hôte_ shrink
+pitifully at each succeeding meal; as suites of rooms are closed, carpets
+taken up, and waiters sent away; those boarders who are staying on, _en
+pension_, until the next year's full re-opening, cannot help being
+somewhat affected by all these flittings and farewells, this eager
+discussion of plans, routes, and fresh quarters, this daily shrinkage in
+the stream of comradeship. One gets unsettled, depressed, and inclined to
+be querulous. Why this craving for change? Why not stay on quietly here,
+like us, and be jolly? You don't know this hotel out of the season, and
+what fun we have among ourselves, we fellows who remain and see the whole
+interesting year out. All very true, no doubt, the others always reply;
+we quite envy you--and some other year perhaps--but just now we have
+engagements--and there's the bus at the door--our time is up! So they
+depart, with a smile and a nod, and we miss them, and feel resentful. The
+Rat was a self-sufficing sort of animal, rooted to the land, and, whoever
+went, he stayed; still, he could not help noticing what was in the air,
+and feeling some of its influence in his bones.
+
+It was difficult to settle down to anything seriously, with all this
+flitting going on. Leaving the water-side, where rushes stood thick
+and tall in a stream that was becoming sluggish and low, he wandered
+country-wards, crossed a field or two of pasturage already looking
+dusty and parched, and thrust into the great sea of wheat, yellow,
+wavy, and murmurous, full of quiet motion and small whisperings. Here
+he often loved to wander, through the forest of stiff strong stalks
+that carried their own golden sky away over his head--a sky that was
+always dancing, shimmering, softly talking; or swaying strongly to
+the passing wind and recovering itself with a toss and a merry laugh.
+Here, too, he had many small friends, a society complete in itself,
+leading full and busy lives, but always with a spare moment to gossip,
+and exchange news with a visitor. To-day, however, though they were
+civil enough, the field-mice and harvest mice seemed pre-occupied.
+Many were digging and tunnelling busily; others, gathered together in
+small groups, examined plans and drawings of small flats, stated to be
+desirable and compact, and situated conveniently near the Stores. Some
+were hauling out dusty trunks and dress-baskets, others were already
+elbow-deep packing their belongings; while everywhere piles and
+bundles of wheat, oats, barley, beech-mast and nuts, lay about ready
+for transport.
+
+"Here's old Ratty!" they cried as soon as they saw him. "Come and bear
+a hand, Rat, and don't stand about idle!"
+
+"What sort of games are you up to?" said the Water Rat severely. "You
+know it isn't time to be thinking of winter quarters yet, by a long
+way!"
+
+"O yes, we know that," explained a field-mouse rather shamefacedly;
+"but it's always as well to be in good time, isn't it? We really
+_must_ get all the furniture and baggage and stores moved out of this
+before those horrid machines begin clicking round the fields; and
+then, you know, the best flats get picked up so quickly nowadays, and
+if you're late you have to put up with _anything_; and they want such
+a lot of doing up, too, before they're fit to move into. Of course,
+we're early, we know that; but we're only just making a start."
+
+"O, bother _starts_," said the Rat. "It's a splendid day. Come for a
+row, or a stroll along the hedges, or a picnic in the woods, or
+something."
+
+"Well, I _think_ not _to-day_, thank you," replied the field-mouse
+hurriedly. "Perhaps some _other_ day--when we've more _time_--"
+
+The Rat, with a snort of contempt, swung round to go, tripped over a
+hat-box, and fell, with undignified remarks.
+
+"If people would be more careful," said a field-mouse rather stiffly,
+"and look where they're going, people wouldn't hurt themselves--and
+forget themselves. Mind that hold-all, Rat! You'd better sit down
+somewhere. In an hour or two we may be more free to attend to you."
+
+"You won't be 'free' as you call it, much this side of Christmas, I
+can see that," retorted the Rat grumpily, as he picked his way out of
+the field.
+
+He returned somewhat despondently to his river again--his faithful,
+steady-going old river, which never packed up, flitted, or went into
+winter quarters.
+
+In the osiers which fringed the bank he spied a swallow sitting.
+Presently it was joined by another, and then by a third; and the
+birds, fidgeting restlessly on their bough, talked together earnestly
+and low.
+
+"What, _already_," said the Rat, strolling up to them. "What's the
+hurry? I call it simply ridiculous."
+
+"O, we're not off yet, if that's what you mean," replied the first
+swallow. "We're only making plans and arranging things. Talking it
+over, you know--what route we're taking this year, and where we'll
+stop, and so on. That's half the fun!"
+
+"Fun?" said the Rat; "now that's just what I don't understand. If
+you've _got_ to leave this pleasant place, and your friends who will
+miss you, and your snug homes that you've just settled into, why, when
+the hour strikes I've no doubt you'll go bravely, and face all the
+trouble and discomfort and change and newness, and make believe that
+you're not very unhappy. But to want to talk about it, or even think
+about it, till you really need--"
+
+"No, you don't understand, naturally," said the second swallow.
+"First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back come
+the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter
+through our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and
+circlings by day. We hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes
+and assure ourselves that it was all really true, as one by one the
+scents and sounds and names of long-forgotten places come gradually
+back and beckon to us."
+
+"Couldn't you stop on for just this year?" suggested the Water Rat,
+wistfully. "We'll all do our best to make you feel at home. You've no
+idea what good times we have here, while you are far away."
+
+"I tried 'stopping on' one year," said the third swallow. "I had grown
+so fond of the place that when the time came I hung back and let the
+others go on without me. For a few weeks it was all well enough, but
+afterwards, O the weary length of the nights! The shivering, sunless
+days! The air so clammy and chill, and not an insect in an acre of it!
+No, it was no good; my courage broke down, and one cold, stormy night
+I took wing, flying well inland on account of the strong easterly
+gales. It was snowing hard as I beat through the passes of the great
+mountains, and I had a stiff fight to win through; but never shall I
+forget the blissful feeling of the hot sun again on my back as I sped
+down to the lakes that lay so blue and placid below me, and the taste
+of my first fat insect! The past was like a bad dream; the future was
+all happy holiday as I moved southwards week by week, easily, lazily,
+lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call! No, I had
+had my warning; never again did I think of disobedience."
+
+"Ah, yes, the call of the South, of the South!" twittered the other
+two dreamily. "Its songs, its hues, its radiant air! O, do you
+remember--" and, forgetting the Rat, they slid into passionate
+reminiscence, while he listened fascinated, and his heart burned
+within him. In himself, too, he knew that it was vibrating at last,
+that chord hitherto dormant and unsuspected. The mere chatter of these
+southern-bound birds, their pale and second-hand reports, had yet
+power to awaken this wild new sensation and thrill him through and
+through with it; what would one moment of the real thing work in
+him--one passionate touch of the real southern sun, one waft of the
+authentic odour? With closed eyes he dared to dream a moment in full
+abandonment, and when he looked again the river seemed steely and
+chill, the green fields grey and lightless. Then his loyal heart
+seemed to cry out on his weaker self for its treachery.
+
+"Why do you ever come back, then, at all?" he demanded of the swallows
+jealously. "What do you find to attract you in this poor drab little
+country?"
+
+"And do you think," said the first swallow, "that the other call is
+not for us too, in its due season? The call of lush meadow-grass, wet
+orchards, warm, insect-haunted ponds, of browsing cattle, of
+haymaking, and all the farm-buildings clustering round the House of
+the perfect Eaves?"
+
+"Do you suppose," asked the second one, "that you are the only living
+thing that craves with a hungry longing to hear the cuckoo's note
+again?"
+
+"In due time," said the third, "we shall be home-sick once more for
+quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream. But
+to-day all that seems pale and thin and very far away. Just now our
+blood dances to other music."
+
+They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time
+their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and
+lizard-haunted walls.
+
+Restlessly the Rat wandered off once more, climbed the slope that rose
+gently from the north bank of the river, and lay looking out towards
+the great ring of Downs that barred his vision further southwards--his
+simple horizon hitherto, his Mountains of the Moon, his limit behind
+which lay nothing he had cared to see or to know. To-day, to him
+gazing South with a new-born need stirring in his heart, the clear sky
+over their long low outline seemed to pulsate with promise; to-day,
+the unseen was everything, the unknown the only real fact of life. On
+this side of the hills was now the real blank, on the other lay the
+crowded and coloured panorama that his inner eye was seeing so
+clearly. What seas lay beyond, green, leaping, and crested! What
+sun-bathed coasts, along which the white villas glittered against the
+olive woods! What quiet harbours, thronged with gallant shipping bound
+for purple islands of wine and spice, islands set low in languorous
+waters!
+
+He rose and descended river-wards once more; then changed his mind and
+sought the side of the dusty lane. There, lying half-buried in the
+thick, cool under-hedge tangle that bordered it, he could muse on the
+metalled road and all the wondrous world that it led to; on all the
+wayfarers, too, that might have trodden it, and the fortunes and
+adventures they had gone to seek or found unseeking--out there,
+beyond--beyond!
+
+Footsteps fell on his ear, and the figure of one that walked somewhat
+wearily came into view; and he saw that it was a Rat, and a very dusty
+one. The wayfarer, as he reached him, saluted with a gesture of
+courtesy that had something foreign about it--hesitated a moment--then
+with a pleasant smile turned from the track and sat down by his side
+in the cool herbage. He seemed tired, and the Rat let him rest
+unquestioned, understanding something of what was in his thoughts;
+knowing, too, the value all animals attach at times to mere silent
+companionship, when the weary muscles slacken and the mind marks time.
+
+The wayfarer was lean and keen-featured, and somewhat bowed at the
+shoulders; his paws were thin and long, his eyes much wrinkled at the
+corners, and he wore small gold ear rings in his neatly-set well-shaped
+ears. His knitted jersey was of a faded blue, his breeches, patched and
+stained, were based on a blue foundation, and his small belongings that
+he carried were tied up in a blue cotton handkerchief.
+
+When he had rested awhile the stranger sighed, snuffed the air, and
+looked about him.
+
+"That was clover, that warm whiff on the breeze," he remarked; "and
+those are cows we hear cropping the grass behind us and blowing softly
+between mouthfuls. There is a sound of distant reapers, and yonder
+rises a blue line of cottage smoke against the woodland. The river
+runs somewhere close by, for I hear the call of a moorhen, and I see
+by your build that you're a freshwater mariner. Everything seems
+asleep, and yet going on all the time. It is a goodly life that you
+lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are strong
+enough to lead it!"
+
+"Yes, it's _the_ life, the only life, to live," responded the Water
+Rat dreamily, and without his usual whole-hearted conviction.
+
+"I did not say exactly that," replied the stranger cautiously; "but no
+doubt it's the best. I've tried it, and I know. And because I've just
+tried it--six months of it--and know it's the best, here am I,
+footsore and hungry, tramping away from it, tramping southwards,
+following the old call, back to the old life, _the_ life which is mine
+and which will not let me go."
+
+"Is this, then, yet another of them?" mused the Rat. "And where have
+you just come from?" he asked. He hardly dared to ask where he was
+bound for; he seemed to know the answer only too well.
+
+"Nice little farm," replied the wayfarer, briefly. "Upalong in that
+direction--" he nodded northwards. "Never mind about it. I had
+everything I could want--everything I had any right to expect of life,
+and more; and here I am! Glad to be here all the same, though, glad
+to be here! So many miles further on the road, so many hours nearer to
+my heart's desire!"
+
+His shining eyes held fast to the horizon, and he seemed to be
+listening for some sound that was wanting from that inland acreage,
+vocal as it was with the cheerful music of pasturage and farmyard.
+
+"You are not one of _us_," said the Water Rat, "nor yet a farmer; nor
+even, I should judge, of this country."
+
+"Right," replied the stranger. "I'm a seafaring rat, I am, and the
+port I originally hail from is Constantinople, though I'm a sort of a
+foreigner there too, in a manner of speaking. You will have heard of
+Constantinople, friend? A fair city and an ancient and glorious one.
+And you may have heard too, of Sigurd, King of Norway, and how he
+sailed thither with sixty ships, and how he and his men rode up
+through streets all canopied in their honour with purple and gold; and
+how the Emperor and Empress came down and banqueted with him on
+board his ship. When Sigurd returned home, many of his Northmen
+remained behind and entered the Emperor's body-guard, and my ancestor,
+a Norwegian born, stayed behind too, with the ships that Sigurd gave
+the Emperor. Seafarers we have ever been, and no wonder; as for me,
+the city of my birth is no more my home than any pleasant port between
+there and the London River. I know them all, and they know me. Set me
+down on any of their quays or foreshores, and I am home again."
+
+"I suppose you go great voyages," said the Water Rat with growing
+interest. "Months and months out of sight of land, and provisions
+running short, and allowanced as to water, and your mind communing
+with the mighty ocean, and all that sort of thing?"
+
+"By no means," said the Sea Rat frankly. "Such a life as you describe
+would not suit me at all. I'm in the coasting trade, and rarely out of
+sight of land. It's the jolly times on shore that appeal to me, as
+much as any seafaring. O, those southern seaports! The smell of them,
+the riding-lights at night, the glamour!"
+
+"Well, perhaps you have chosen the better way," said the Water Rat,
+but rather doubtfully. "Tell me something of your coasting, then, if
+you have a mind to, and what sort of harvest an animal of spirit might
+hope to bring home from it to warm his latter days with gallant
+memories by the fireside; for my life, I confess to you, feels to me
+to-day somewhat narrow and circumscribed."
+
+"My last voyage," began the Sea Rat, "that landed me eventually in
+this country, bound with high hopes for my inland farm, will serve as
+a good example of any of them, and, indeed, as an epitome of my
+highly-coloured life. Family troubles, as usual, began it. The
+domestic storm-cone was hoisted, and I shipped myself on board a small
+trading vessel bound from Constantinople, by classic seas whose every
+wave throbs with a deathless memory, to the Grecian Islands and the
+Levant. Those were golden days and balmy nights! In and out of harbour
+all the time--old friends everywhere--sleeping in some cool temple or
+ruined cistern during the heat of the day--feasting and song after
+sundown, under great stars set in a velvet sky! Thence we turned and
+coasted up the Adriatic, its shores swimming in an atmosphere of
+amber, rose, and aquamarine; we lay in wide landlocked harbours, we
+roamed through ancient and noble cities, until at last one morning, as
+the sun rose royally behind us, we rode into Venice down a path of
+gold. O, Venice is a fine city, wherein a rat can wander at his ease
+and take his pleasure! Or, when weary of wandering, can sit at the
+edge of the Grand Canal at night, feasting with his friends, when the
+air is full of music and the sky full of stars, and the lights flash
+and shimmer on the polished steel prows of the swaying gondolas,
+packed so that you could walk across the canal on them from side to
+side! And then the food--do you like shell-fish? Well, well, we won't
+linger over that now."
+
+He was silent for a time; and the Water Rat, silent too and enthralled,
+floated on dream-canals and heard a phantom song pealing high between
+vaporous grey wave-lapped walls.
+
+"Southwards we sailed again at last," continued the Sea Rat, "coasting
+down the Italian shore, till finally we made Palermo, and there I
+quitted for a long, happy spell on shore. I never stick too long to
+one ship; one gets narrow-minded and prejudiced. Besides, Sicily is
+one of my happy hunting-grounds. I know everybody there, and their
+ways just suit me. I spent many jolly weeks in the island, staying
+with friends upcountry. When I grew restless again I took advantage of
+a ship that was trading to Sardinia and Corsica; and very glad I was
+to feel the fresh breeze and the sea-spray in my face once more."
+
+"But isn't it very hot and stuffy, down in the--hold, I think you call
+it?" asked the Water Rat.
+
+The seafarer looked at him with the suspicion of a wink. "I'm an old
+hand," he remarked with much simplicity. "The captain's cabin's good
+enough for me."
+
+"It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the Rat, sunk in deep
+thought.
+
+"For the crew it is," replied the seafarer gravely, again with the
+ghost of a wink.
+
+"From Corsica," he went on, "I made use of a ship that was taking
+wine to the mainland. We made Alassio in the evening, lay to, hauled
+up our wine-casks, and hove them overboard, tied one to the other by a
+long line. Then the crew took to the boats and rowed shorewards,
+singing as they went, and drawing after them the long bobbing
+procession of casks, like a mile of porpoises. On the sands they had
+horses waiting, which dragged the casks up the steep street of the
+little town with a fine rush and clatter and scramble. When the last
+cask was in, we went and refreshed and rested, and sat late into the
+night, drinking with our friends, and next morning I took to the great
+olive-woods for a spell and a rest. For now I had done with islands
+for the time, and ports and shipping were plentiful; so I led a lazy
+life among the peasants, lying and watching them work, or stretched
+high on the hillside with the blue Mediterranean far below me. And so
+at length, by easy stages, and partly on foot, partly by sea, to
+Marseilles, and the meeting of old shipmates, and the visiting of
+great ocean-bound vessels, and feasting once more. Talk of
+shell-fish! Why, sometimes I dream of the shell-fish of Marseilles,
+and wake up crying!"
+
+[Illustration: _"It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the
+Rat_]
+
+"That reminds me," said the polite Water Rat; "you happened to mention
+that you were hungry, and I ought to have spoken earlier. Of course,
+you will stop and take your mid-day meal with me? My hole is close by;
+it is some time past noon, and you are very welcome to whatever there
+is."
+
+"Now I call that kind and brotherly of you," said the Sea Rat. "I was
+indeed hungry when I sat down, and ever since I inadvertently happened
+to mention shell-fish, my pangs have been extreme. But couldn't you
+fetch it along out here? I am none too fond of going under hatches,
+unless I'm obliged to; and then, while we eat, I could tell you more
+concerning my voyages and the pleasant life I lead--at least, it is
+very pleasant to me, and by your attention I judge it commends itself
+to you; whereas if we go indoors it is a hundred to one that I shall
+presently fall asleep."
+
+"That is indeed an excellent suggestion," said the Water Rat, and
+hurried off home. There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a
+simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger's origin and
+preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a
+sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and
+cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled
+sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes. Thus laden, he
+returned with all speed, and blushed for pleasure at the old seaman's
+commendations of his taste and judgment, as together they unpacked the
+basket and laid out the contents on the grass by the roadside.
+
+The Sea Rat, as soon as his hunger was somewhat assuaged, continued
+the history of his latest voyage, conducting his simple hearer from
+port to port of Spain, landing him at Lisbon, Oporto, and Bordeaux,
+introducing him to the pleasant harbours of Cornwall and Devon, and so
+up the Channel to that final quayside, where, landing after winds long
+contrary, storm-driven and weather-beaten, he had caught the first
+magical hints and heraldings of another Spring, and, fired by these,
+had sped on a long tramp inland, hungry for the experiment of life on
+some quiet farmstead, very far from the weary beating of any sea.
+
+Spellbound and quivering with excitement, the Water Rat followed the
+Adventurer league by league, over stormy bays, through crowded
+roadsteads, across harbour bars on a racing tide, up winding rivers
+that hid their busy little towns round a sudden turn; and left him
+with a regretful sigh planted at his dull inland farm, about which he
+desired to hear nothing.
+
+By this time their meal was over, and the Seafarer, refreshed and
+strengthened, his voice more vibrant, his eye lit with a brightness that
+seemed caught from some far-away sea-beacon, filled his glass with the
+red and glowing vintage of the South, and, leaning towards the Water Rat,
+compelled his gaze and held him, body and soul, while he talked. Those
+eyes were of the changing foam-streaked grey-green of leaping Northern
+seas; in the glass shone a hot ruby that seemed the very heart of the
+South, beating for him who had courage to respond to its pulsation. The
+twin lights, the shifting grey and the steadfast red, mastered the Water
+Rat and held him bound, fascinated, powerless. The quiet world outside
+their rays receded far away and ceased to be. And the talk, the wonderful
+talk flowed on--or was it speech entirely, or did it pass at times into
+song--chanty of the sailors weighing the dripping anchor, sonorous hum of
+the shrouds in a tearing North-Easter, ballad of the fisherman hauling
+his nets at sundown against an apricot sky, chords of guitar and
+mandoline from gondola or caique? Did it change into the cry of the wind,
+plaintive at first, angrily shrill as it freshened, rising to a tearing
+whistle, sinking to a musical trickle of air from the leech of the
+bellying sail? All these sounds the spellbound listener seemed to hear,
+and with them the hungry complaint of the gulls and the sea-mews, the
+soft thunder of the breaking wave, the cry of the protesting shingle.
+Back into speech again it passed, and with beating heart he was following
+the adventures of a dozen seaports, the fights, the escapes, the rallies,
+the comradeships, the gallant undertakings; or he searched islands for
+treasure, fished in still lagoons and dozed day-long on warm white sand.
+Of deep-sea fishings he heard tell, and mighty silver gatherings of the
+mile-long net; of sudden perils, noise of breakers on a moonless night,
+or the tall bows of the great liner taking shape overhead through the
+fog; of the merry home-coming, the headland rounded, the harbour lights
+opened out; the groups seen dimly on the quay, the cheery hail, the
+splash of the hawser; the trudge up the steep little street towards the
+comforting glow of red-curtained windows.
+
+Lastly, in his waking dream it seemed to him that the Adventurer had
+risen to his feet, but was still speaking, still holding him fast with
+his sea-grey eyes.
+
+"And now," he was softly saying, "I take to the road again, holding on
+southwestwards for many a long and dusty day; till at last I reach the
+little grey sea town I know so well, that clings along one steep side
+of the harbour. There through dark doorways you look down flights of
+stone steps, overhung by great pink tufts of valerian and ending in a
+patch of sparkling blue water. The little boats that lie tethered to
+the rings and stanchions of the old sea-wall are gaily painted as
+those I clambered in and out of in my own childhood; the salmon leap
+on the flood tide, schools of mackerel flash and play past quay-sides
+and foreshores, and by the windows the great vessels glide, night and
+day, up to their moorings or forth to the open sea. There, sooner or
+later, the ships of all seafaring nations arrive; and there, at its
+destined hour, the ship of my choice will let go its anchor. I shall
+take my time, I shall tarry and bide, till at last the right one lies
+waiting for me, warped out into mid-stream, loaded low, her bowsprit
+pointing down harbour. I shall slip on board, by boat or along hawser;
+and then one morning I shall wake to the song and tramp of the
+sailors, the clink of the capstan, and the rattle of the anchor-chain
+coming merrily in. We shall break out the jib and the foresail, the
+white houses on the harbour side will glide slowly past us as she
+gathers steering-way, and the voyage will have begun! As she forges
+towards the headland she will clothe herself with canvas; and then,
+once outside, the sounding slap of great green seas as she heels to
+the wind, pointing South!
+
+"And you, you will come too, young brother; for the days pass, and
+never return, and the South still waits for you. Take the adventure,
+heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes! 'Tis but a
+banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are
+out of the old life and into the new! Then some day, some day long
+hence, jog home here if you will, when the cup has been drained and
+the play has been played, and sit down by your quiet river with a
+store of goodly memories for company. You can easily overtake me on
+the road, for you are young, and I am ageing and go softly. I will
+linger, and look back; and at last I will surely see you coming, eager
+and light-hearted, with all the South in your face!"
+
+The voice died away and ceased as an insect's tiny trumpet dwindles
+swiftly into silence; and the Water Rat, paralysed and staring, saw at
+last but a distant speck on the white surface of the road.
+
+Mechanically he rose and proceeded to repack the luncheon-basket,
+carefully and without haste. Mechanically he returned home, gathered
+together a few small necessaries and special treasures he was fond of,
+and put them in a satchel; acting with slow deliberation, moving about
+the room like a sleep-walker; listening ever with parted lips. He
+swung the satchel over his shoulder, carefully selected a stout stick
+for his wayfaring, and with no haste, but with no hesitation at all,
+he stepped across the threshold just as the Mole appeared at the door.
+
+"Why, where are you off to, Ratty?" asked the Mole in great surprise,
+grasping him by the arm.
+
+"Going South, with the rest of them," murmured the Rat in a dreamy
+monotone, never looking at him. "Seawards first and then on shipboard,
+and so to the shores that are calling me!"
+
+He pressed resolutely forward, still without haste, but with dogged
+fixity of purpose; but the Mole, now thoroughly alarmed, placed
+himself in front of him, and looking into his eyes saw that they
+were glazed and set and turned a streaked and shifting grey--not his
+friend's eyes, but the eyes of some other animal! Grappling with him
+strongly he dragged him inside, threw him down, and held him.
+
+The Rat struggled desperately for a few moments, and then his strength
+seemed suddenly to leave him, and he lay still and exhausted, with
+closed eyes, trembling. Presently the Mole assisted him to rise and
+placed him in a chair, where he sat collapsed and shrunken into
+himself, his body shaken by a violent shivering, passing in time into
+an hysterical fit of dry sobbing. Mole made the door fast, threw the
+satchel into a drawer and locked it, and sat down quietly on the table
+by his friend, waiting for the strange seizure to pass. Gradually the
+Rat sank into a troubled doze, broken by starts and confused
+murmurings of things strange and wild and foreign to the unenlightened
+Mole; and from that he passed into a deep slumber.
+
+Very anxious in mind, the Mole left him for a time and busied himself
+with household matters; and it was getting dark when he returned to
+the parlour and found the Rat where he had left him, wide awake
+indeed, but listless, silent, and dejected. He took one hasty glance
+at his eyes; found them, to his great gratification, clear and dark
+and brown again as before; and then sat down and tried to cheer him up
+and help him to relate what had happened to him.
+
+Poor Ratty did his best, by degrees, to explain things; but how could
+he put into cold words what had mostly been suggestion? How recall,
+for another's benefit, the haunting sea voices that had sung to him,
+how reproduce at second-hand the magic of the Seafarer's hundred
+reminiscences? Even to himself, now the spell was broken and the
+glamour gone, he found it difficult to account for what had seemed,
+some hours ago, the inevitable and only thing. It is not surprising,
+then, that he failed to convey to the Mole any clear idea of what he
+had been through that day.
+
+To the Mole this much was plain: the fit, or attack, had passed away,
+and had left him sane again, though shaken and cast down by the
+reaction. But he seemed to have lost all interest for the time in the
+things that went to make up his daily life, as well as in all pleasant
+forecastings of the altered days and doings that the changing season
+was surely bringing.
+
+Casually, then, and with seeming indifference, the Mole turned his
+talk to the harvest that was being gathered in, the towering wagons
+and their straining teams, the growing ricks, and the large moon
+rising over bare acres dotted with sheaves. He talked of the reddening
+apples around, of the browning nuts, of jams and preserves and the
+distilling of cordials; till by easy stages such as these he reached
+midwinter, its hearty joys and its snug home life, and then he became
+simply lyrical.
+
+By degrees the Rat began to sit up and to join in. His dull eye
+brightened, and he lost some of his listening air.
+
+Presently the tactful Mole slipped away and returned with a pencil and
+a few half-sheets of paper, which he placed on the table at his
+friend's elbow.
+
+"It's quite a long time since you did any poetry," he remarked. "You
+might have a try at it this evening, instead of--well, brooding over
+things so much. I've an idea that you'll feel a lot better when you've
+got something jotted down--if it's only just the rhymes."
+
+The Rat pushed the paper away from him wearily, but the discreet Mole
+took occasion to leave the room, and when he peeped in again some time
+later, the Rat was absorbed and deaf to the world; alternately
+scribbling and sucking the top of his pencil. It is true that he
+sucked a good deal more than he scribbled; but it was joy to the Mole
+to know that the cure had at least begun.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD
+
+
+The front door of the hollow tree faced eastwards, so Toad was called
+at an early hour; partly by the bright sunlight streaming in on him,
+partly by the exceeding coldness of his toes, which made him dream
+that he was at home in bed in his own handsome room with the Tudor
+window, on a cold winter's night, and his bed-clothes had got up,
+grumbling and protesting they couldn't stand the cold any longer, and
+had run downstairs to the kitchen fire to warm themselves; and he had
+followed, on bare feet, along miles and miles of icy stone-paved
+passages, arguing and beseeching them to be reasonable. He would
+probably have been aroused much earlier, had he not slept for some
+weeks on straw over stone flags, and almost forgotten the friendly
+feeling of thick blankets pulled well up round the chin.
+
+Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes first and his complaining toes next,
+wondered for a moment where he was, looking round for familiar stone wall
+and little barred window; then, with a leap of the heart, remembered
+everything--his escape, his flight, his pursuit; remembered, first and
+best thing of all, that he was free!
+
+Free! The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets. He was
+warm from end to end as he thought of the jolly world outside, waiting
+eagerly for him to make his triumphal entrance, ready to serve him and
+play up to him, anxious to help him and to keep him company, as it
+always had been in days of old before misfortune fell upon him. He
+shook himself and combed the dry leaves out of his hair with his
+fingers; and, his toilet complete, marched forth into the comfortable
+morning sun, cold but confident, hungry but hopeful, all nervous
+terrors of yesterday dispelled by rest and sleep and frank and
+heartening sunshine.
+
+He had the world all to himself, that early summer morning. The dewy
+woodland, as he threaded it, was solitary and still: the green fields
+that succeeded the trees were his own to do as he liked with; the road
+itself, when he reached it, in that loneliness that was everywhere,
+seemed, like a stray dog, to be looking anxiously for company. Toad,
+however, was looking for something that could talk, and tell him
+clearly which way he ought to go. It is all very well, when you have a
+light heart, and a clear conscience, and money in your pocket, and
+nobody scouring the country for you to drag you off to prison again,
+to follow where the road beckons and points, not caring whither. The
+practical Toad cared very much indeed, and he could have kicked the
+road for its helpless silence when every minute was of importance to
+him.
+
+The reserved rustic road was presently joined by a shy little brother in
+the shape of a canal, which took its hand and ambled along by its side in
+perfect confidence, but with the same tongue-tied, uncommunicative
+attitude towards strangers. "Bother them!" said Toad to himself. "But,
+anyhow, one thing's clear. They must both be coming _from_ somewhere,
+and going _to_ somewhere. You can't get over that, Toad, my boy!" So
+he marched on patiently by the water's edge.
+
+Round a bend in the canal came plodding a solitary horse, stooping
+forward as if in anxious thought. From rope traces attached to his
+collar stretched a long line, taut, but dipping with his stride, the
+further part of it dripping pearly drops. Toad let the horse pass, and
+stood waiting for what the fates were sending him.
+
+With a pleasant swirl of quiet water at its blunt bow the barge slid
+up alongside of him, its gaily painted gunwale level with the
+towing-path, its sole occupant a big stout woman wearing a linen
+sun-bonnet, one brawny arm laid along the tiller.
+
+"A nice morning, ma'am!" she remarked to Toad, as she drew up level
+with him.
+
+"I dare say it is, ma'am!" responded Toad politely, as he walked along
+the tow-path abreast of her. "I dare say it is a nice morning to them
+that's not in sore trouble, like what I am. Here's my married
+daughter, she sends off to me post-haste to come to her at once; so
+off I comes, not knowing what may be happening or going to happen, but
+fearing the worst, as you will understand, ma'am, if you're a mother,
+too. And I've left my business to look after itself--I'm in the
+washing and laundering line, you must know, ma'am--and I've left my
+young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and
+troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist, ma'am; and I've lost all
+my money, and lost my way, and as for what may be happening to my
+married daughter, why, I don't like to think of it, ma'am!"
+
+"Where might your married daughter be living, ma'am?" asked the
+barge-woman.
+
+"She lives near to the river, ma'am," replied Toad. "Close to a fine
+house called Toad Hall, that's somewheres hereabouts in these parts.
+Perhaps you may have heard of it."
+
+"Toad Hall? Why, I'm going that way myself," replied the barge-woman.
+"This canal joins the river some miles further on, a little above Toad
+Hall; and then it's an easy walk. You come along in the barge with
+me, and I'll give you a lift."
+
+She steered the barge close to the bank, and Toad, with many humble
+and grateful acknowledgments, stepped lightly on board and sat down
+with great satisfaction. "Toad's luck again!" thought he. "I always
+come out on top!"
+
+"So you're in the washing business, ma'am?" said the barge-woman
+politely, as they glided along. "And a very good business you've got
+too, I dare say, if I'm not making too free in saying so."
+
+"Finest business in the whole country," said Toad airily. "All the
+gentry come to me--wouldn't go to any one else if they were paid, they
+know me so well. You see, I understand my work thoroughly, and attend
+to it all myself. Washing, ironing, clear-starching, making up gents'
+fine shirts for evening wear--everything's done under my own eye!"
+
+"But surely you don't _do_ all that work yourself, ma'am?" asked the
+barge-woman respectfully.
+
+"O, I have girls," said Toad lightly: "twenty girls or thereabouts,
+always at work. But you know what _girls_ are, ma'am! Nasty little
+hussies, that's what _I_ call 'em!"
+
+"So do I, too," said the barge-woman with great heartiness. "But I
+dare say you set yours to rights, the idle trollops! And are you
+_very_ fond of washing?"
+
+"I love it," said Toad. "I simply dote on it. Never so happy as when
+I've got both arms in the wash-tub. But, then, it comes so easy to me!
+No trouble at all! A real pleasure, I assure you, ma'am!"
+
+"What a bit of luck, meeting you!" observed the barge-woman,
+thoughtfully. "A regular piece of good fortune for both of us!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean?" asked Toad, nervously.
+
+"Well, look at me, now," replied the barge-woman. "_I_ like washing,
+too, just the same as you do; and for that matter, whether I like it
+or not I have got to do all my own, naturally, moving about as I do.
+Now my husband, he's such a fellow for shirking his work and leaving
+the barge to me, that never a moment do I get for seeing to my own
+affairs. By rights he ought to be here now, either steering or
+attending to the horse, though luckily the horse has sense enough to
+attend to himself. Instead of which, he's gone off with the dog, to
+see if they can't pick up a rabbit for dinner somewhere. Says he'll
+catch me up at the next lock. Well, that's as may be--I don't trust
+him, once he gets off with that dog, who's worse than he is. But
+meantime, how am I to get on with my washing?"
+
+"O, never mind about the washing," said Toad, not liking the subject.
+"Try and fix your mind on that rabbit. A nice fat young rabbit, I'll
+be bound. Got any onions?"
+
+"I can't fix my mind on anything but my washing," said the barge-woman,
+"and I wonder you can be talking of rabbits, with such a joyful prospect
+before you. There's a heap of things of mine that you'll find in a corner
+of the cabin. If you'll just take one or two of the most necessary
+sort--I won't venture to describe them to a lady like you, but you'll
+recognise them at a glance--and put them through the wash-tub as we go
+along, why, it'll be a pleasure to you, as you rightly say, and a real
+help to me. You'll find a tub handy, and soap, and a kettle on the stove,
+and a bucket to haul up water from the canal with. Then I shall know
+you're enjoying yourself, instead of sitting here idle, looking at the
+scenery and yawning your head off."
+
+"Here, you let me steer!" said Toad, now thoroughly frightened, "and
+then you can get on with your washing your own way. I might spoil your
+things, or not do 'em as you like. I'm more used to gentleman's things
+myself. It's my special line."
+
+"Let you steer?" replied the barge-woman, laughing. "It takes some
+practice to steer a barge properly. Besides, it's dull work, and I
+want you to be happy. No, you shall do the washing you are so fond of,
+and I'll stick to the steering that I understand. Don't try and
+deprive me of the pleasure of giving you a treat!"
+
+Toad was fairly cornered. He looked for escape this way and that, saw
+that he was too far from the bank for a flying leap, and sullenly
+resigned himself to his fate. "If it comes to that," he thought in
+desperation, "I suppose any fool can _wash_!"
+
+He fetched tub, soap, and other necessaries from the cabin, selected a
+few garments at random, tried to recollect what he had seen in casual
+glances through laundry windows, and set to.
+
+A long half-hour passed, and every minute of it saw Toad getting
+crosser and crosser. Nothing that he could do to the things seemed to
+please them or do them good. He tried coaxing, he tried slapping, he
+tried punching; they smiled back at him out of the tub unconverted,
+happy in their original sin. Once or twice he looked nervously over
+his shoulder at the barge-woman, but she appeared to be gazing out in
+front of her, absorbed in her steering. His back ached badly, and he
+noticed with dismay that his paws were beginning to get all crinkly.
+Now Toad was very proud of his paws. He muttered under his breath
+words that should never pass the lips of either washerwomen or Toads;
+and lost the soap, for the fiftieth time.
+
+A burst of laughter made him straighten himself and look round. The
+barge-woman was leaning back and laughing unrestrainedly, till the
+tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+"I've been watching you all the time," she gasped. "I thought you must
+be a humbug all along, from the conceited way you talked. Pretty
+washerwoman you are! Never washed so much as a dish-clout in your
+life, I'll lay!"
+
+Toad's temper, which had been simmering viciously for some time, now
+fairly boiled over, and he lost all control of himself.
+
+"You common, low, _fat_ barge-woman!" he shouted; "don't you dare to
+talk to your betters like that! Washerwoman indeed! I would have you
+to know that I am a Toad, a very well-known, respected, distinguished
+Toad! I may be under a bit of a cloud at present, but I will _not_ be
+laughed at by a barge-woman!"
+
+The woman moved nearer to him and peered under his bonnet keenly and
+closely. "Why, so you are!" she cried. "Well, I never! A horrid,
+nasty, crawly Toad! And in my nice clean barge, too! Now that is a
+thing that I will _not_ have."
+
+She relinquished the tiller for a moment. One big, mottled arm shot
+out and caught Toad by a fore-leg, while the other gripped him fast by
+a hind-leg. Then the world turned suddenly upside down, the barge
+seemed to flit lightly across the sky, the wind whistled in his ears,
+and Toad found himself flying through the air, revolving rapidly as he
+went.
+
+The water, when he eventually reached it with a loud splash, proved
+quite cold enough for his taste, though its chill was not sufficient
+to quell his proud spirit, or slake the heat of his furious temper. He
+rose to the surface spluttering, and when he had wiped the duck-weed
+out of his eyes the first thing he saw was the fat barge-woman looking
+back at him over the stern of the retreating barge and laughing; and
+he vowed, as he coughed and choked, to be even with her.
+
+He struck out for the shore, but the cotton gown greatly impeded his
+efforts, and when at length he touched land he found it hard to climb
+up the steep bank unassisted. He had to take a minute or two's rest to
+recover his breath; then, gathering his wet skirts well over his arms,
+he started to run after the barge as fast as his legs would carry him,
+wild with indignation, thirsting for revenge.
+
+The barge-woman was still laughing when he drew up level with her.
+"Put yourself through your mangle, washerwoman," she called out,
+"and iron your face and crimp it, and you'll pass for quite a
+decent-looking Toad!"
+
+Toad never paused to reply. Solid revenge was what he wanted, not
+cheap, windy, verbal triumphs, though he had a thing or two in his
+mind that he would have liked to say. He saw what he wanted ahead of
+him. Running swiftly on he overtook the horse, unfastened the tow-rope
+and cast off, jumped lightly on the horse's back, and urged it to a
+gallop by kicking it vigorously in the sides. He steered for the open
+country, abandoning the tow-path, and swinging his steed down a rutty
+lane. Once he looked back, and saw that the barge had run aground on
+the other side of the canal, and the barge-woman was gesticulating
+wildly and shouting, "Stop, stop, stop!" "I've heard that song
+before," said Toad, laughing, as he continued to spur his steed onward
+in its wild career.
+
+The barge-horse was not capable of any very sustained effort, and its
+gallop soon subsided into a trot, and its trot into an easy walk; but
+Toad was quite contented with this, knowing that he, at any rate, was
+moving, and the barge was not. He had quite recovered his temper, now
+that he had done something he thought really clever; and he was
+satisfied to jog along quietly in the sun, steering his horse along
+by-ways and bridle-paths, and trying to forget how very long it was
+since he had had a square meal, till the canal had been left very far
+behind him.
+
+He had travelled some miles, his horse and he, and he was feeling
+drowsy in the hot sunshine, when the horse stopped, lowered his head,
+and began to nibble the grass; and Toad, waking up, just saved himself
+from falling off by an effort. He looked about him and found he was
+on a wide common, dotted with patches of gorse and bramble as far as
+he could see. Near him stood a dingy gipsy caravan, and beside it a
+man was sitting on a bucket turned upside down, very busy smoking and
+staring into the wide world. A fire of sticks was burning near by, and
+over the fire hung an iron pot, and out of that pot came forth
+bubblings and gurglings, and a vague suggestive steaminess. Also
+smells--warm, rich, and varied smells--that twined and twisted and
+wreathed themselves at last into one complete, voluptuous, perfect
+smell that seemed like the very soul of Nature taking form and
+appearing to her children, a true Goddess, a mother of solace and
+comfort. Toad now knew well that he had not been really hungry before.
+What he had felt earlier in the day had been a mere trifling qualm.
+This was the real thing at last, and no mistake; and it would have to
+be dealt with speedily, too, or there would be trouble for somebody or
+something. He looked the gipsy over carefully, wondering vaguely
+whether it would be easier to fight him or cajole him. So there he
+sat, and sniffed and sniffed, and looked at the gipsy; and the gipsy
+sat and smoked, and looked at him.
+
+Presently the gipsy took his pipe out of his mouth and remarked in a
+careless way, "Want to sell that there horse of yours?"
+
+Toad was completely taken aback. He did not know that gipsies were
+very fond of horse-dealing, and never missed an opportunity, and he
+had not reflected that caravans were always on the move and took a
+deal of drawing. It had not occurred to him to turn the horse into
+cash, but the gipsy's suggestion seemed to smooth the way towards the
+two things he wanted so badly--ready money, and a solid breakfast.
+
+"What?" he said, "me sell this beautiful young horse of mine? O, no;
+it's out of the question. Who's going to take the washing home to my
+customers every week? Besides, I'm too fond of him, and he simply
+dotes on me."
+
+"Try and love a donkey," suggested the gipsy. "Some people do."
+
+"You don't seem to see," continued Toad, "that this fine horse of mine
+is a cut above you altogether. He's a blood horse, he is, partly; not
+the part you see, of course--another part. And he's been a Prize
+Hackney, too, in his time--that was the time before you knew him, but
+you can still tell it on him at a glance, if you understand anything
+about horses. No, it's not to be thought of for a moment. All the
+same, how much might you be disposed to offer me for this beautiful
+young horse of mine?"
+
+The gipsy looked the horse over, and then he looked Toad over with
+equal care, and looked at the horse again. "Shillin' a leg," he said
+briefly, and turned away, continuing to smoke and try to stare the
+wide world out of countenance.
+
+"A shilling a leg?" cried Toad. "If you please, I must take a little
+time to work that out, and see just what it comes to."
+
+He climbed down off his horse, and left it to graze, and sat down by
+the gipsy, and did sums on his fingers, and at last he said, "A
+shilling a leg? Why, that comes to exactly four shillings, and no
+more. O, no; I could not think of accepting four shillings for this
+beautiful young horse of mine."
+
+"Well," said the gipsy, "I'll tell you what I will do. I'll make it
+five shillings, and that's three-and-sixpence more than the animal's
+worth. And that's my last word."
+
+Then Toad sat and pondered long and deeply. For he was hungry and
+quite penniless, and still some way--he knew not how far--from home,
+and enemies might still be looking for him. To one in such a
+situation, five shillings may very well appear a large sum of money.
+On the other hand, it did not seem very much to get for a horse. But
+then, again, the horse hadn't cost him anything; so whatever he got
+was all clear profit. At last he said firmly, "Look here, gipsy! I
+tell you what we will do; and this is _my_ last word. You shall hand
+me over six shillings and sixpence, cash down; and further, in
+addition thereto, you shall give me as much breakfast as I can
+possibly eat, at one sitting of course, out of that iron pot of yours
+that keeps sending forth such delicious and exciting smells. In
+return, I will make over to you my spirited young horse, with all the
+beautiful harness and trappings that are on him, freely thrown in. If
+that's not good enough for you, say so, and I'll be getting on. I know
+a man near here who's wanted this horse of mine for years."
+
+The gipsy grumbled frightfully, and declared if he did a few more
+deals of that sort he'd be ruined. But in the end he lugged a dirty
+canvas bag out of the depths of his trouser pocket, and counted out
+six shillings and sixpence into Toad's paw. Then he disappeared into
+the caravan for an instant, and returned with a large iron plate and a
+knife, fork, and spoon. He tilted up the pot, and a glorious stream of
+hot, rich stew gurgled into the plate. It was, indeed, the most
+beautiful stew in the world, being made of partridges, and pheasants,
+and chickens, and hares, and rabbits, and peahens, and guinea-fowls,
+and one or two other things. Toad took the plate on his lap, almost
+crying, and stuffed, and stuffed, and stuffed, and kept asking for
+more, and the gipsy never grudged it him. He thought that he had
+never eaten so good a breakfast in all his life.
+
+When Toad had taken as much stew on board as he thought he could possibly
+hold, he got up and said good-bye to the gipsy, and took an affectionate
+farewell of the horse; and the gipsy, who knew the riverside well, gave
+him directions which way to go, and he set forth on his travels again in
+the best possible spirits. He was, indeed, a very different Toad from the
+animal of an hour ago. The sun was shining brightly, his wet clothes were
+quite dry again, he had money in his pocket once more, he was nearing
+home and friends and safety, and, most and best of all, he had had a
+substantial meal, hot and nourishing, and felt big, and strong, and
+careless, and self-confident.
+
+As he tramped along gaily, he thought of his adventures and escapes,
+and how when things seemed at their worst he had always managed to
+find a way out; and his pride and conceit began to swell within him.
+"Ho, ho!" he said to himself, as he marched along with his chin in the
+air, "what a clever Toad I am! There is surely no animal equal to me
+for cleverness in the whole world! My enemies shut me up in prison,
+encircled by sentries, watched night and day by warders; I walk out
+through them all, by sheer ability coupled with courage. They pursue
+me with engines, and policemen, and revolvers; I snap my fingers at
+them, and vanish, laughing, into space. I am, unfortunately, thrown
+into a canal by a woman fat of body and very evil-minded. What of it?
+I swim ashore, I seize her horse, I ride off in triumph, and I sell
+the horse for a whole pocketful of money and an excellent breakfast!
+Ho, ho! I am The Toad, the handsome, the popular, the successful
+Toad!" He got so puffed up with conceit that he made up a song as he
+walked in praise of himself, and sang it at the top of his voice,
+though there was no one to hear it but him. It was, perhaps, the most
+conceited song that any animal ever composed.
+
+        "The world has held great Heroes,
+           As history-books have showed;
+         But never a name to go down to fame
+           Compared with that of Toad!
+
+        "The clever men at Oxford
+           Know all that there is to be knowed.
+         But they none of them know one half as much
+           As intelligent Mr. Toad!
+
+        "The animals sat in the Ark and cried,
+           Their tears in torrents flowed.
+         Who was it said, 'There's land ahead?'
+           Encouraging Mr. Toad!
+
+        "The army all saluted
+           As they marched along the road.
+         Was it the King? Or Kitchener?
+           No. It was Mr. Toad.
+
+        "The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting
+           Sat at the window and sewed.
+         She cried, 'Look! who's that _handsome_ man?'
+           They answered, 'Mr. Toad.'"
+
+There was a great deal more of the same sort, but too dreadfully
+conceited to be written down. These are some of the milder verses.
+
+He sang as he walked, and he walked as he sang, and got more inflated
+every minute. But his pride was shortly to have a severe fall.
+
+After some miles of country lanes he reached the high road, and as he
+turned into it and glanced along its white length, he saw approaching
+him a speck that turned into a dot and then into a blob, and then into
+something very familiar; and a double note of warning, only too well
+known, fell on his delighted ear.
+
+"This is something like!" said the excited Toad. "This is real life
+again, this is once more the great world from which I have been missed
+so long! I will hail them, my brothers of the wheel, and pitch them a
+yarn, of the sort that has been so successful hitherto; and they will
+give me a lift, of course, and then I will talk to them some more;
+and, perhaps, with luck, it may even end in my driving up to Toad Hall
+in a motor-car! That will be one in the eye for Badger!"
+
+He stepped confidently out into the road to hail the motor-car, which
+came along at an easy pace, slowing down as it neared the lane; when
+suddenly he became very pale, his heart turned to water, his knees
+shook and yielded under him, and he doubled up and collapsed with a
+sickening pain in his interior. And well he might, the unhappy animal;
+for the approaching car was the very one he had stolen out of the yard
+of the Red Lion Hotel on that fatal day when all his troubles began!
+And the people in it were the very same people he had sat and watched
+at luncheon in the coffee-room!
+
+He sank down in a shabby, miserable heap in the road, murmuring to
+himself in his despair, "It's all up! It's all over now! Chains and
+policemen again! Prison again! Dry bread and water again! O, what a
+fool I have been! What did I want to go strutting about the country
+for, singing conceited songs, and hailing people in broad day on the
+high road, instead of hiding till nightfall and slipping home quietly
+by back ways! O hapless Toad! O ill-fated animal!"
+
+The terrible motor-car drew slowly nearer and nearer, till at last he
+heard it stop just short of him. Two gentlemen got out and walked
+round the trembling heap of crumpled misery lying in the road, and one
+of them said, "O dear! this is very sad! Here is a poor old thing--a
+washerwoman apparently--who has fainted in the road! Perhaps she is
+overcome by the heat, poor creature; or possibly she has not had any
+food to-day. Let us lift her into the car and take her to the nearest
+village, where doubtless she has friends."
+
+They tenderly lifted Toad into the motor-car and propped him up with
+soft cushions, and proceeded on their way.
+
+When Toad heard them talk in so kind and sympathetic a way, and knew
+that he was not recognised, his courage began to revive, and he
+cautiously opened first one eye and then the other.
+
+"Look!" said one of the gentlemen, "she is better already. The fresh
+air is doing her good. How do you feel now, ma'am?"
+
+"Thank you kindly, sir," said Toad in a feeble voice, "I'm feeling a
+great deal better!" "That's right," said the gentleman. "Now keep
+quite still, and, above all, don't try to talk."
+
+"I won't," said Toad. "I was only thinking, if I might sit on the
+front seat there, beside the driver, where I could get the fresh air
+full in my face, I should soon be all right again."
+
+"What a very sensible woman!" said the gentleman. "Of course you
+shall." So they carefully helped Toad into the front seat beside the
+driver, and on they went again.
+
+Toad was almost himself again by now. He sat up, looked about him, and
+tried to beat down the tremors, the yearnings, the old cravings that
+rose up and beset him and took possession of him entirely.
+
+"It is fate!" he said to himself. "Why strive? why struggle?" and he
+turned to the driver at his side.
+
+"Please, Sir," he said, "I wish you would kindly let me try and drive
+the car for a little. I've been watching you carefully, and it looks
+so easy and so interesting, and I should like to be able to tell my
+friends that once I had driven a motor-car!"
+
+The driver laughed at the proposal, so heartily that the gentleman
+inquired what the matter was. When he heard, he said, to Toad's
+delight, "Bravo, ma'am! I like your spirit. Let her have a try, and
+look after her. She won't do any harm."
+
+Toad eagerly scrambled into the seat vacated by the driver, took the
+steering-wheel in his hands, listened with affected humility to the
+instructions given him, and set the car in motion, but very slowly and
+carefully at first, for he was determined to be prudent.
+
+The gentlemen behind clapped their hands and applauded, and Toad heard
+them saying, "How well she does it! Fancy a washerwoman driving a car
+as well as that, the first time!"
+
+Toad went a little faster; then faster still, and faster.
+
+He heard the gentlemen call out warningly, "Be careful, washerwoman!"
+And this annoyed him, and he began to lose his head.
+
+The driver tried to interfere, but he pinned him down in his seat with
+one elbow, and put on full speed. The rush of air in his face, the hum
+of the engines, and the light jump of the car beneath him intoxicated
+his weak brain. "Washerwoman, indeed!" he shouted recklessly. "Ho! ho!
+I am the Toad, the motor-car snatcher, the prison-breaker, the Toad
+who always escapes! Sit still, and you shall know what driving really
+is, for you are in the hands of the famous, the skilful, the entirely
+fearless Toad!"
+
+With a cry of horror the whole party rose and flung themselves on him.
+"Seize him!" they cried, "seize the Toad, the wicked animal who stole
+our motor-car! Bind him, chain him, drag him to the nearest police
+station! Down with the desperate and dangerous Toad!"
+
+Alas! they should have thought, they ought to have been more prudent,
+they should have remembered to stop the motor-car somehow before
+playing any pranks of that sort. With a half-turn of the wheel the
+Toad sent the car crashing through the low hedge that ran along the
+roadside. One mighty bound, a violent shock, and the wheels of the car
+were churning up the thick mud of a horse-pond.
+
+Toad found himself flying through the air with the strong upward rush
+and delicate curve of a swallow. He liked the motion, and was just
+beginning to wonder whether it would go on until he developed wings
+and turned into a Toad-bird, when he landed on his back with a thump,
+in the soft, rich grass of a meadow. Sitting up, he could just see the
+motor-car in the pond, nearly submerged; the gentlemen and the driver,
+encumbered by their long coats, were floundering helplessly in the
+water.
+
+He picked himself up rapidly, and set off running across country as
+hard as he could, scrambling through hedges, jumping ditches, pounding
+across fields, till he was breathless and weary, and had to settle
+down into an easy walk. When he had recovered his breath somewhat, and
+was able to think calmly, he began to giggle, and from giggling he
+took to laughing, and he laughed till he had to sit down under a
+hedge. "Ho! ho!" he cried, in ecstasies of self-admiration. "Toad
+again! Toad, as usual, comes out on the top! Who was it got them to
+give him a lift? Who managed to get on the front seat for the sake of
+fresh air? Who persuaded them into letting him see if he could drive?
+Who landed them all in a horse-pond? Who escaped, flying gaily and
+unscathed through the air, leaving the narrow-minded, grudging, timid
+excursionists in the mud where they should rightly be? Why, Toad, of
+course; clever Toad, great Toad, _good_ Toad!"
+
+Then he burst into song again, and chanted with uplifted voice--
+
+        "The motor-car went Poop-poop-poop,
+           As it raced along the road.
+         Who was it steered it into a pond?
+           Ingenious Mr. Toad!
+
+O, how clever I am! How clever, how clever, how very clev--"
+
+A slight noise at a distance behind him made him turn his head and
+look. O horror! O misery! O despair!
+
+About two fields off, a chauffeur in his leather gaiters and two large
+rural policemen were visible, running towards him as hard as they
+could go!
+
+Poor Toad sprang to his feet and pelted away again, his heart in his
+mouth. "O, my!" he gasped, as he panted along, "what an _ass_ I am!
+What a _conceited_ and heedless ass! Swaggering again! Shouting and
+singing songs again! Sitting still and gassing again! O my! O my! O
+my!"
+
+He glanced back, and saw to his dismay that they were gaining on him.
+On he ran desperately, but kept looking back, and saw that they still
+gained steadily. He did his best, but he was a fat animal, and his
+legs were short, and still they gained. He could hear them close
+behind him now. Ceasing to heed where he was going, he struggled on
+blindly and wildly, looking back over his shoulder at the now
+triumphant enemy, when suddenly the earth failed under his feet, he
+grasped at the air, and, splash! he found himself head over ears in
+deep water, rapid water, water that bore him along with a force he
+could not contend with; and he knew that in his blind panic he had run
+straight into the river!
+
+He rose to the surface and tried to grasp the reeds and the rushes
+that grew along the water's edge close under the bank, but the stream
+was so strong that it tore them out of his hands. "O my!" gasped poor
+Toad, "if ever I steal a motor-car again! If ever I sing another
+conceited song"--then down he went, and came up breathless and
+spluttering. Presently he saw that he was approaching a big dark hole
+in the bank, just above his head, and as the stream bore him past he
+reached up with a paw and caught hold of the edge and held on. Then
+slowly and with difficulty he drew himself up out of the water, till
+at last he was able to rest his elbows on the edge of the hole. There
+he remained for some minutes, puffing and panting, for he was quite
+exhausted.
+
+As he sighed and blew and stared before him into the dark hole, some
+bright small thing shone and twinkled in its depths, moving towards
+him. As it approached, a face grew up gradually around it, and it was
+a familiar face!
+
+Brown and small, with whiskers.
+
+Grave and round, with neat ears and silky hair.
+
+It was the Water Rat!
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+"LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS"
+
+
+The Rat put out a neat little brown paw, gripped Toad firmly by the
+scruff of the neck, and gave a great hoist and a pull; and the
+water-logged Toad came up slowly but surely over the edge of the hole,
+till at last he stood safe and sound in the hall, streaked with mud
+and weed, to be sure, and with the water streaming off him, but happy
+and high-spirited as of old, now that he found himself once more in
+the house of a friend, and dodgings and evasions were over, and he
+could lay aside a disguise that was unworthy of his position and
+wanted such a lot of living up to.
+
+"O, Ratty!" he cried. "I've been through such times since I saw you
+last, you can't think! Such trials, such sufferings, and all so nobly
+borne! Then such escapes, such disguises, such subterfuges, and all so
+cleverly planned and carried out! Been in prison--got out of it, of
+course! Been thrown into a canal--swam ashore! Stole a horse--sold him
+for a large sum of money! Humbugged everybody--made 'em all do exactly
+what I wanted! Oh, I _am_ a smart Toad, and no mistake! What do you
+think my last exploit was? Just hold on till I tell you--"
+
+"Toad," said the Water Rat, gravely and firmly, "you go off upstairs
+at once, and take off that old cotton rag that looks as if it might
+formerly have belonged to some washerwoman, and clean yourself
+thoroughly, and put on some of my clothes, and try and come down
+looking like a gentleman if you _can_; for a more shabby, bedraggled,
+disreputable-looking object than you are I never set eyes on in my
+whole life! Now, stop swaggering and arguing, and be off! I'll have
+something to say to you later!"
+
+Toad was at first inclined to stop and do some talking back at him. He
+had had enough of being ordered about when he was in prison, and here
+was the thing being begun all over again, apparently; and by a Rat,
+too! However, he caught sight of himself in the looking-glass over the
+hat-stand, with the rusty black bonnet perched rakishly over one eye,
+and he changed his mind and went very quickly and humbly upstairs to
+the Rat's dressing-room. There he had a thorough wash and brush-up,
+changed his clothes, and stood for a long time before the glass,
+contemplating himself with pride and pleasure, and thinking what utter
+idiots all the people must have been to have ever mistaken him for one
+moment for a washerwoman.
+
+By the time he came down again luncheon was on the table, and very
+glad Toad was to see it, for he had been through some trying
+experiences and had taken much hard exercise since the excellent
+breakfast provided for him by the gipsy. While they ate Toad told the
+Rat all his adventures, dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and
+presence of mind in emergencies, and cunning in tight places; and
+rather making out that he had been having a gay and highly-coloured
+experience. But the more he talked and boasted, the more grave and
+silent the Rat became.
+
+When at last Toad had talked himself to a standstill, there was
+silence for a while; and then the Rat said, "Now, Toady, I don't want
+to give you pain, after all you've been through already; but,
+seriously, don't you see what an awful ass you've been making of
+yourself? On your own admission you have been hand-cuffed, imprisoned,
+starved, chased, terrified out of your life, insulted, jeered at, and
+ignominiously flung into the water--by a woman, too! Where's the
+amusement in that? Where does the fun come in? And all because you
+must needs go and steal a motor-car. You know that you've never had
+anything but trouble from motor-cars from the moment you first set
+eyes on one. But if you _will_ be mixed up with them--as you generally
+are, five minutes after you've started--why _steal_ them? Be a
+cripple, if you think it's exciting; be a bankrupt, for a change, if
+you've set your mind on it: but why choose to be a convict? When are
+you going to be sensible and think of your friends, and try and be
+a credit to them? Do you suppose it's any pleasure to me, for
+instance, to hear animals saying, as I go about, that I'm the chap
+that keeps company with gaol-birds?"
+
+[Illustration: _Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and presence
+of mind in emergencies_]
+
+Now, it was a very comforting point in Toad's character that he was a
+thoroughly good-hearted animal, and never minded being jawed by those
+who were his real friends. And even when most set upon a thing, he was
+always able to see the other side of the question. So although, while
+the Rat was talking so seriously, he kept saying to himself
+mutinously, "But it _was_ fun, though! Awful fun!" and making strange
+suppressed noises inside him, k-i-ck-ck-ck, and poop-p-p, and other
+sounds resembling stifled snorts, or the opening of soda-water
+bottles, yet when the Rat had quite finished, he heaved a deep sigh
+and said, very nicely and humbly, "Quite right, Ratty! How _sound_ you
+always are! Yes, I've been a conceited old ass, I can quite see that;
+but now I'm going to be a good Toad, and not do it any more. As for
+motor-cars, I've not been at all so keen about them since my last
+ducking in that river of yours. The fact is, while I was hanging on to
+the edge of your hole and getting my breath, I had a sudden idea--a
+really brilliant idea--connected with motor-boats--there, there! don't
+take on so, old chap, and stamp, and upset things; it was only an
+idea, and we won't talk any more about it now. We'll have our coffee,
+_and_ a smoke, and a quiet chat, and then I'm going to stroll quietly
+down to Toad Hall, and get into clothes of my own, and set things
+going again on the old lines. I've had enough of adventures. I shall
+lead a quiet, steady, respectable life, pottering about my property,
+and improving it, and doing a little landscape gardening at times.
+There will always be a bit of dinner for my friends when they come to
+see me; and I shall keep a pony-chaise to jog about the country in,
+just as I used to in the good old days, before I got restless, and
+wanted to _do_ things."
+
+"Stroll quietly down to Toad Hall?" cried the Rat, greatly excited.
+"What are you talking about? Do you mean to say you haven't _heard_?"
+
+"Heard what?" said Toad, turning rather pale. "Go on, Ratty! Quick!
+Don't spare me! What haven't I heard?"
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," shouted the Rat, thumping with his little
+fist upon the table, "that you've heard nothing about the Stoats and
+Weasels?"
+
+"What, the Wild Wooders?" cried Toad, trembling in every limb. "No,
+not a word! What have they been doing?"
+
+"--And how they've been and taken Toad Hall?" continued the Rat.
+
+Toad leaned his elbows on the table, and his chin on his paws; and a
+large tear welled up in each of his eyes, overflowed and splashed on
+the table, plop! plop!
+
+"Go on, Ratty," he murmured presently; "tell me all. The worst is
+over. I am an animal again. I can bear it."
+
+"When you--got--into that--that--trouble of yours," said the Rat,
+slowly and impressively; "I mean, when you--disappeared from society
+for a time, over that misunderstanding about a--a machine, you know--"
+
+Toad merely nodded.
+
+"Well, it was a good deal talked about down here, naturally,"
+continued the Rat, "not only along the riverside, but even in the Wild
+Wood. Animals took sides, as always happens. The River-bankers stuck
+up for you, and said you had been infamously treated, and there was no
+justice to be had in the land nowadays. But the Wild Wood animals said
+hard things, and served you right, and it was time this sort of thing
+was stopped. And they got very cocky, and went about saying you were
+done for this time! You would never come back again, never, never!"
+
+Toad nodded once more, keeping silence.
+
+"That's the sort of little beasts they are," the Rat went on. "But
+Mole and Badger, they stuck out, through thick and thin, that you
+would come back again soon, somehow. They didn't know exactly how, but
+somehow!"
+
+Toad began to sit up in his chair again, and to smirk a little.
+
+"They argued from history," continued the Rat. "They said that no
+criminal laws had ever been known to prevail against cheek and
+plausibility such as yours, combined with the power of a long purse.
+So they arranged to move their things in to Toad Hall, and sleep
+there, and keep it aired, and have it all ready for you when you
+turned up. They didn't guess what was going to happen, of course;
+still, they had their suspicions of the Wild Wood animals. Now I come
+to the most painful and tragic part of my story. One dark night--it
+was a _very_ dark night, and blowing hard, too, and raining simply
+cats and dogs--a band of weasels, armed to the teeth, crept silently
+up the carriage-drive to the front entrance. Simultaneously, a body of
+desperate ferrets, advancing through the kitchen-garden, possessed
+themselves of the backyard and offices; while a company of skirmishing
+stoats who stuck at nothing occupied the conservatory and the
+billiard-room, and held the French windows opening on to the lawn.
+
+"The Mole and the Badger were sitting by the fire in the smoking-room,
+telling stories and suspecting nothing, for it wasn't a night for any
+animals to be out in, when those bloodthirsty villains broke down the
+doors and rushed in upon them from every side. They made the best
+fight they could, but what was the good? They were unarmed, and taken
+by surprise, and what can two animals do against hundreds? They took
+and beat them severely with sticks, those two poor faithful creatures,
+and turned them out into the cold and the wet, with many insulting and
+uncalled-for remarks!"
+
+Here the unfeeling Toad broke into a snigger, and then pulled himself
+together and tried to look particularly solemn.
+
+"And the Wild Wooders have been living in Toad Hall ever since,"
+continued the Rat; "and going on simply anyhow! Lying in bed half the
+day, and breakfast at all hours, and the place in such a mess (I'm
+told) it's not fit to be seen! Eating your grub, and drinking your
+drink, and making bad jokes about you, and singing vulgar songs,
+about--well, about prisons and magistrates, and policemen; horrid
+personal songs, with no humour in them. And they're telling the
+tradespeople and everybody that they've come to stay for good."
+
+"O, have they!" said Toad, getting up and seizing a stick. "I'll jolly
+soon see about that!"
+
+"It's no good, Toad!" called the Rat after him. "You'd better come
+back and sit down; you'll only get into trouble."
+
+But the Toad was off, and there was no holding him. He marched rapidly
+down the road, his stick over his shoulder, fuming and muttering to
+himself in his anger, till he got near his front gate, when suddenly
+there popped up from behind the palings a long yellow ferret with a
+gun.
+
+"Who comes there?" said the ferret sharply.
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" said Toad, very angrily. "What do you mean by
+talking like that to me? Come out of that at once or I'll--"
+
+The ferret said never a word, but he brought his gun up to his
+shoulder. Toad prudently dropped flat in the road, and _Bang_! a
+bullet whistled over his head.
+
+The startled Toad scrambled to his feet and scampered off down the
+road as hard as he could; and as he ran he heard the ferret laughing
+and other horrid thin little laughs taking it up and carrying on the
+sound.
+
+He went back, very crestfallen, and told the Water Rat.
+
+"What did I tell you?" said the Rat. "It's no good. They've got
+sentries posted, and they are all armed. You must just wait."
+
+Still, Toad was not inclined to give in all at once. So he got out the
+boat, and set off rowing up the river to where the garden front of
+Toad Hall came down to the water-side.
+
+Arriving within sight of his old home, he rested on his oars and
+surveyed the land cautiously. All seemed very peaceful and deserted
+and quiet. He could see the whole front of Toad Hall, glowing in the
+evening sunshine, the pigeons settling by twos and threes along the
+straight line of the roof; the garden, a blaze of flowers; the creek
+that led up to the boat-house, the little wooden bridge that crossed
+it; all tranquil, uninhabited, apparently waiting for his return. He
+would try the boat-house first, he thought. Very warily he paddled up
+to the mouth of the creek, and was just passing under the bridge,
+when ... _Crash_!
+
+A great stone, dropped from above, smashed through the bottom of the
+boat. It filled and sank, and Toad found himself struggling in deep
+water. Looking up, he saw two stoats leaning over the parapet of the
+bridge and watching him with great glee. "It will be your head next
+time, Toady!" they called out to him. The indignant Toad swam to
+shore, while the stoats laughed and laughed, supporting each other,
+and laughed again, till they nearly had two fits--that is, one fit
+each, of course.
+
+The Toad retraced his weary way on foot, and related his disappointing
+experiences to the Water Rat once more.
+
+"Well, _what_ did I tell you?" said the Rat very crossly. "And, now, look
+here! See what you've been and done! Lost me my boat that I was so fond
+of, that's what you've done! And simply ruined that nice suit of clothes
+that I lent you! Really, Toad, of all the trying animals--I wonder you
+manage to keep any friends at all!"
+
+The Toad saw at once how wrongly and foolishly he had acted. He
+admitted his errors and wrong-headedness and made a full apology to
+Rat for losing his boat and spoiling his clothes. And he wound up by
+saying, with that frank self-surrender which always disarmed his
+friends' criticism and won them back to his side, "Ratty! I see that I
+have been a headstrong and a wilful Toad! Henceforth, believe me, I
+will be humble and submissive, and will take no action without your
+kind advice and full approval!"
+
+"If that is really so," said the good-natured Rat, already appeased,
+"then my advice to you is, considering the lateness of the hour, to
+sit down and have your supper, which will be on the table in a minute,
+and be very patient. For I am convinced that we can do nothing until
+we have seen the Mole and the Badger, and heard their latest news, and
+held conference and taken their advice in this difficult matter."
+
+"Oh, ah, yes, of course, the Mole and the Badger," said Toad,
+lightly. "What's become of them, the dear fellows? I had forgotten all
+about them."
+
+"Well may you ask!" said the Rat reproachfully. "While you were riding
+about the country in expensive motor-cars, and galloping proudly on
+blood-horses, and breakfasting on the fat of the land, those two poor
+devoted animals have been camping out in the open, in every sort of
+weather, living very rough by day and lying very hard by night;
+watching over your house, patrolling your boundaries, keeping a
+constant eye on the stoats and the weasels, scheming and planning and
+contriving how to get your property back for you. You don't deserve to
+have such true and loyal friends, Toad, you don't, really. Some day,
+when it's too late, you'll be sorry you didn't value them more while
+you had them!"
+
+"I'm an ungrateful beast, I know," sobbed Toad, shedding bitter tears.
+"Let me go out and find them, out into the cold, dark night, and share
+their hardships, and try and prove by--Hold on a bit! Surely I heard
+the chink of dishes on a tray! Supper's here at last, hooray! Come
+on, Ratty!"
+
+The Rat remembered that poor Toad had been on prison fare for a
+considerable time, and that large allowances had therefore to be made.
+He followed him to the table accordingly, and hospitably encouraged
+him in his gallant efforts to make up for past privations.
+
+They had just finished their meal and resumed their arm-chairs, when
+there came a heavy knock at the door.
+
+Toad was nervous, but the Rat, nodding mysteriously at him, went
+straight up to the door and opened it, and in walked Mr. Badger.
+
+He had all the appearance of one who for some nights had been kept
+away from home and all its little comforts and conveniences. His shoes
+were covered with mud, and he was looking very rough and touzled; but
+then he had never been a very smart man, the Badger, at the best of
+times. He came solemnly up to Toad, shook him by the paw, and said,
+"Welcome home, Toad! Alas! what am I saying? Home, indeed! This is a
+poor home-coming. Unhappy Toad!" Then he turned his back on him, sat
+down to the table, drew his chair up, and helped himself to a large
+slice of cold pie.
+
+Toad was quite alarmed at this very serious and portentous style of
+greeting; but the Rat whispered to him, "Never mind; don't take any
+notice; and don't say anything to him just yet. He's always rather low
+and despondent when he's wanting his victuals. In half an hour's time
+he'll be quite a different animal."
+
+So they waited in silence, and presently there came another and a
+lighter knock. The Rat, with a nod to Toad, went to the door and
+ushered in the Mole, very shabby and unwashed, with bits of hay and
+straw sticking in his fur.
+
+"Hooray! Here's old Toad!" cried the Mole, his face beaming. "Fancy
+having you back again!" And he began to dance round him. "We never
+dreamt you would turn up so soon! Why, you must have managed to
+escape, you clever, ingenious, intelligent Toad!"
+
+The Rat, alarmed, pulled him by the elbow; but it was too late. Toad
+was puffing and swelling already.
+
+"Clever? O, no!" he said. "I'm not really clever, according to my
+friends. I've only broken out of the strongest prison in England,
+that's all! And captured a railway train and escaped on it, that's
+all! And disguised myself and gone about the country humbugging
+everybody, that's all! O, no! I'm a stupid ass, I am! I'll tell you
+one or two of my little adventures, Mole, and you shall judge for
+yourself!"
+
+"Well, well," said the Mole, moving towards the supper-table;
+"supposing you talk while I eat. Not a bite since breakfast! O my! O
+my!" And he sat down and helped himself liberally to cold beef and
+pickles.
+
+Toad straddled on the hearth-rug, thrust his paw into his
+trouser-pocket and pulled out a handful of silver. "Look at that!" he
+cried, displaying it. "That's not so bad, is it, for a few minutes'
+work? And how do you think I done it, Mole? Horse-dealing! That's how
+I done it!"
+
+"Go on, Toad," said the Mole, immensely interested.
+
+"Toad, do be quiet, please!" said the Rat. "And don't you egg him on,
+Mole, when you know what he is; but please tell us as soon as possible
+what the position is, and what's best to be done, now that Toad is
+back at last."
+
+"The position's about as bad as it can be," replied the Mole grumpily;
+"and as for what's to be done, why, blest if I know! The Badger and I
+have been round and round the place, by night and by day; always the
+same thing. Sentries posted everywhere, guns poked out at us, stones
+thrown at us; always an animal on the look-out, and when they see us,
+my! how they do laugh! That's what annoys me most!"
+
+"It's a very difficult situation," said the Rat, reflecting deeply.
+"But I think I see now, in the depths of my mind, what Toad really
+ought to do. I will tell you. He ought to--"
+
+"No, he oughtn't!" shouted the Mole, with his mouth full. "Nothing of
+the sort! You don't understand. What he ought to do is, he ought
+to--"
+
+"Well, I shan't do it, anyway!" cried Toad, getting excited. "I'm not
+going to be ordered about by you fellows! It's my house we're talking
+about, and I know exactly what to do, and I'll tell you. I'm going
+to--"
+
+By this time they were all three talking at once, at the top of their
+voices, and the noise was simply deafening, when a thin, dry voice
+made itself heard, saying, "Be quiet at once, all of you!" and
+instantly every one was silent.
+
+It was the Badger, who, having finished his pie, had turned round in
+his chair and was looking at them severely. When he saw that he had
+secured their attention, and that they were evidently waiting for him
+to address them, he turned back to the table again and reached out for
+the cheese. And so great was the respect commanded by the solid
+qualities of that admirable animal, that not another word was uttered,
+until he had quite finished his repast and brushed the crumbs from his
+knees. The Toad fidgeted a good deal, but the Rat held him firmly
+down.
+
+When the Badger had quite done, he got up from his seat and stood
+before the fireplace, reflecting deeply. At last he spoke.
+
+"Toad," he said severely. "You bad, troublesome little animal! Aren't
+you ashamed of yourself? What do you think your father, my old friend,
+would have said if he had been here to-night, and had known of all
+your goings on?"
+
+Toad, who was on the sofa by this time, with his legs up, rolled over
+on his face, shaken by sobs of contrition.
+
+"There, there!" went on the Badger, more kindly. "Never mind. Stop
+crying. We're going to let bygones be bygones, and try and turn over a
+new leaf. But what the Mole says is quite true. The stoats are on
+guard, at every point, and they make the best sentinels in the world.
+It's quite useless to think of attacking the place. They're too strong
+for us."
+
+"Then it's all over," sobbed the Toad, crying into the sofa cushions.
+"I shall go and enlist for a soldier, and never see my dear Toad Hall
+any more!"
+
+"Come, cheer up, Toady!" said the Badger. "There are more ways of
+getting back a place than taking it by storm. I haven't said my last
+word yet. Now I'm going to tell you a great secret."
+
+Toad sat up slowly and dried his eyes. Secrets had an immense
+attraction for him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed
+the sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when he went and told
+another animal, after having faithfully promised not to.
+
+"There--is--an--underground--passage," said the Badger, impressively,
+"that leads from the river-bank, quite near here, right up into the
+middle of Toad Hall."
+
+"O, nonsense! Badger," said Toad, rather airily. "You've been
+listening to some of the yarns they spin in the public-houses about
+here. I know every inch of Toad Hall, inside and out. Nothing of the
+sort, I do assure you!"
+
+"My young friend," said the Badger, with great severity, "your father,
+who was a worthy animal--a lot worthier than some others I know--was a
+particular friend of mine, and told me a great deal he wouldn't have
+dreamt of telling you. He discovered that passage--he didn't make it,
+of course; that was done hundreds of years before he ever came to live
+there--and he repaired it and cleaned it out, because he thought it
+might come in useful some day, in case of trouble or danger; and he
+showed it to me. 'Don't let my son know about it,' he said. 'He's a
+good boy, but very light and volatile in character, and simply cannot
+hold his tongue. If he's ever in a real fix, and it would be of use to
+him, you may tell him about the secret passage; but not before.'"
+
+The other animals looked hard at Toad to see how he would take it.
+Toad was inclined to be sulky at first; but he brightened up
+immediately, like the good fellow he was.
+
+"Well, well," he said; "perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular
+fellow such as I am--my friends get round me--we chaff, we sparkle, we
+tell witty stories--and somehow my tongue gets wagging. I have the
+gift of conversation. I've been told I ought to have a _salon_,
+whatever that may be. Never mind. Go on, Badger. How's this passage of
+yours going to help us?"
+
+"I've found out a thing or two lately," continued the Badger. "I got
+Otter to disguise himself as a sweep and call at the back-door with
+brushes over his shoulder, asking for a job. There's going to be a big
+banquet to-morrow night. It's somebody's birthday--the Chief Weasel's,
+I believe--and all the weasels will be gathered together in the
+dining-hall, eating and drinking and laughing and carrying on,
+suspecting nothing. No guns, no swords, no sticks, no arms of any sort
+whatever!"
+
+"But the sentinels will be posted as usual," remarked the Rat.
+
+"Exactly," said the Badger; "that is my point. The weasels will trust
+entirely to their excellent sentinels. And that is where the passage
+comes in. That very useful tunnel leads right up under the butler's
+pantry, next to the dining-hall!"
+
+"Aha! that squeaky board in the butler's pantry!" said Toad. "Now I
+understand it!"
+
+"We shall creep out quietly into the butler's pantry--" cried the
+Mole.
+
+"--with our pistols and swords and sticks--" shouted the Rat.
+
+"--and rush in upon them," said the Badger.
+
+"--and whack 'em, and whack 'em, and whack 'em!" cried the Toad in
+ecstasy, running round and round the room, and jumping over the
+chairs.
+
+"Very well, then," said the Badger, resuming his usual dry manner,
+"our plan is settled, and there's nothing more for you to argue and
+squabble about. So, as it's getting very late, all of you go right off
+to bed at once. We will make all the necessary arrangements in the
+course of the morning to-morrow."
+
+Toad, of course, went off to bed dutifully with the rest--he knew
+better than to refuse--though he was feeling much too excited to
+sleep. But he had had a long day, with many events crowded into it;
+and sheets and blankets were very friendly and comforting things,
+after plain straw, and not too much of it, spread on the stone floor
+of a draughty cell; and his head had not been many seconds on his
+pillow before he was snoring happily. Naturally, he dreamt a good
+deal; about roads that ran away from him just when he wanted them, and
+canals that chased him and caught him, and a barge that sailed into
+the banqueting-hall with his week's washing, just as he was giving a
+dinner-party; and he was alone in the secret passage, pushing onwards,
+but it twisted and turned round and shook itself, and sat up on its
+end; yet somehow, at the last, he found himself back in Toad Hall,
+safe and triumphant, with all his friends gathered round about him,
+earnestly assuring him that he really was a clever Toad.
+
+He slept till a late hour next morning, and by the time he got down he
+found that the other animals had finished their breakfast some time before.
+The Mole had slipped off somewhere by himself, without telling any one
+where he was going to. The Badger sat in the arm-chair, reading the paper,
+and not concerning himself in the slightest about what was going to happen
+that very evening. The Rat, on the other hand, was running round the room
+busily, with his arms full of weapons of every kind, distributing them in
+four little heaps on the floor, and saying excitedly under his breath, as
+he ran, "Here's-a-sword-for-the-Rat, here's-a-sword-for-the-Mole,
+here's-a-sword-for-the-Toad, here's-a-sword-for-the-Badger!
+Here's-a-pistol-for-the-Rat, here's-a-pistol-for-the-Mole,
+here's-a-pistol-for-the-Toad, here's-a-pistol-for-the-Badger!" And so on,
+in a regular, rhythmical way, while the four little heaps gradually grew
+and grew.
+
+"That's all very well, Rat," said the Badger presently, looking at the
+busy little animal over the edge of his newspaper; "I'm not blaming
+you. But just let us once get past the stoats, with those detestable
+guns of theirs, and I assure you we shan't want any swords or pistols.
+We four, with our sticks, once we're inside the dining-hall, why, we
+shall clear the floor of all the lot of them in five minutes. I'd have
+done the whole thing by myself, only I didn't want to deprive you
+fellows of the fun!"
+
+"It's as well to be on the safe side," said the Rat reflectively,
+polishing a pistol-barrel on his sleeve and looking along it.
+
+The Toad, having finished his breakfast, picked up a stout stick and
+swung it vigorously, belabouring imaginary animals. "I'll learn 'em
+to steal my house!" he cried. "I'll learn 'em, I'll learn 'em!"
+
+"Don't say 'learn 'em,' Toad," said the Rat, greatly shocked. "It's
+not good English."
+
+"What are you always nagging at Toad for?" inquired the Badger, rather
+peevishly. "What's the matter with his English? It's the same what I
+use myself, and if it's good enough for me, it ought to be good enough
+for you!"
+
+"I'm very sorry," said the Rat humbly. "Only I _think_ it ought to be
+'teach 'em,' not 'learn 'em.'"
+
+"But we don't _want_ to teach 'em," replied the Badger. "We want to
+_learn_ 'em--learn 'em, learn 'em! And what's more, we're going to
+_do_ it, too!"
+
+"Oh, very well, have it your own way," said the Rat. He was getting
+rather muddled about it himself, and presently he retired into a
+corner, where he could be heard muttering, "Learn 'em, teach 'em,
+teach 'em, learn 'em!" till the Badger told him rather sharply to
+leave off.
+
+Presently the Mole came tumbling into the room, evidently very pleased
+with himself. "I've been having such fun!" he began at once; "I've
+been getting a rise out of the stoats!"
+
+"I hope you've been very careful, Mole?" said the Rat anxiously.
+
+"I should hope so, too," said the Mole confidently. "I got the idea
+when I went into the kitchen, to see about Toad's breakfast being kept
+hot for him. I found that old washerwoman-dress that he came home in
+yesterday, hanging on a towel-horse before the fire. So I put it on,
+and the bonnet as well, and the shawl, and off I went to Toad Hall, as
+bold as you please. The sentries were on the look-out, of course, with
+their guns and their 'Who comes there?' and all the rest of their
+nonsense. 'Good morning, gentlemen!' says I, very respectful. 'Want
+any washing done to-day?' They looked at me very proud and stiff and
+haughty, and said, 'Go away, washerwoman! We don't do any washing on
+duty.' 'Or any other time?' says I. Ho, ho, ho! Wasn't I _funny_,
+Toad?"
+
+"Poor, frivolous animal!" said Toad, very loftily. The fact is, he
+felt exceedingly jealous of Mole for what he had just done. It was
+exactly what he would have liked to have done himself, if only he had
+thought of it first, and hadn't gone and overslept himself.
+
+"Some of the stoats turned quite pink," continued the Mole, "and the
+Sergeant in charge, he said to me, very short, he said, 'Now run away,
+my good woman, run away! Don't keep my men idling and talking on their
+posts.' 'Run away?' says I; 'it won't be me that'll be running away,
+in a very short time from now!'"
+
+"O _Moly_, how could you?" said the Rat, dismayed.
+
+The Badger laid down his paper.
+
+"I could see them pricking up their ears and looking at each other,"
+went on the Mole; "and the Sergeant said to them, 'Never mind _her_;
+she doesn't know what she's talking about.'"
+
+"'O! don't I?' said I. 'Well, let me tell you this. My daughter, she
+washes for Mr. Badger, and that'll show you whether I know what I'm
+talking about; and _you'll_ know pretty soon, too! A hundred
+bloodthirsty badgers, armed with rifles, are going to attack Toad Hall
+this very night, by way of the paddock. Six boatloads of Rats, with
+pistols and cutlasses, will come up the river and effect a landing in
+the garden; while a picked body of Toads, known as the Die-hards, or
+the Death-or-Glory Toads, will storm the orchard and carry everything
+before them, yelling for vengeance. There won't be much left of you to
+wash, by the time they've done with you, unless you clear out while
+you have the chance!' Then I ran away, and when I was out of sight I
+hid; and presently I came creeping back along the ditch and took a
+peep at them through the hedge. They were all as nervous and flustered
+as could be, running all ways at once, and falling over each other,
+and every one giving orders to everybody else and not listening; and
+the Sergeant kept sending off parties of stoats to distant parts of
+the grounds, and then sending other fellows to fetch 'em back again;
+and I heard them saying to each other, 'That's just like the weasels;
+they're to stop comfortably in the banqueting-hall, and have feasting
+and toasts and songs and all sorts of fun, while we must stay on guard
+in the cold and the dark, and in the end be cut to pieces by
+bloodthirsty Badgers!'"
+
+"Oh, you silly ass, Mole!" cried Toad, "You've been and spoilt
+everything!"
+
+"Mole," said the Badger, in his dry, quiet way, "I perceive you have
+more sense in your little finger than some other animals have in the
+whole of their fat bodies. You have managed excellently, and I begin
+to have great hopes of you. Good Mole! Clever Mole!"
+
+The Toad was simply wild with jealousy, more especially as he couldn't
+make out for the life of him what the Mole had done that was so
+particularly clever; but, fortunately for him, before he could show
+temper or expose himself to the Badger's sarcasm, the bell rang for
+luncheon.
+
+It was a simple but sustaining meal--bacon and broad beans, and a
+macaroni pudding; and when they had quite done, the Badger settled
+himself into an arm-chair, and said, "Well, we've got our work cut
+out for us to-night, and it will probably be pretty late before we're
+quite through with it; so I'm just going to take forty winks, while I
+can." And he drew a handkerchief over his face and was soon snoring.
+
+The anxious and laborious Rat at once resumed his preparations,
+and started running between his four little heaps, muttering,
+"Here's-a-belt-for-the-Rat, here's-a-belt-for-the-Mole,
+here's-a-belt-for-the-Toad, here's-a-belt-for-the-Badger!" and so on,
+with every fresh accoutrement he produced, to which there seemed
+really no end; so the Mole drew his arm through Toad's, led him out
+into the open air, shoved him into a wicker chair, and made him tell
+him all his adventures from beginning to end, which Toad was only too
+willing to do. The Mole was a good listener, and Toad, with no one to
+check his statements or to criticise in an unfriendly spirit, rather
+let himself go. Indeed, much that he related belonged more properly to
+the category of what-might-have-happened-had-I-only-thought-of-it-in-
+time-instead-of-ten-minutes-afterwards. Those are always the best and
+the raciest adventures; and why should they not be truly ours, as much
+as the somewhat inadequate things that really come off?
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE RETURN OF ULYSSES
+
+
+When it began to grow dark, the Rat, with an air of excitement and
+mystery, summoned them back into the parlour, stood each of them up
+alongside of his little heap, and proceeded to dress them up for the
+coming expedition. He was very earnest and thorough-going about it,
+and the affair took quite a long time. First, there was a belt to go
+round each animal, and then a sword to be stuck into each belt, and
+then a cutlass on the other side to balance it. Then a pair of
+pistols, a policeman's truncheon, several sets of handcuffs, some
+bandages and sticking-plaster, and a flask and a sandwich-case. The
+Badger laughed good-humouredly and said, "All right, Ratty! It amuses
+you and it doesn't hurt me. I'm going to do all I've got to do with
+this here stick." But the Rat only said, "_Please_, Badger. You know
+I shouldn't like you to blame me afterwards and say I had forgotten
+_anything_!"
+
+When all was quite ready, the Badger took a dark lantern in one paw,
+grasped his great stick with the other, and said, "Now then, follow
+me! Mole first, 'cos I'm very pleased with him; Rat next; Toad last.
+And look here, Toady! Don't you chatter so much as usual, or you'll be
+sent back, as sure as fate!"
+
+The Toad was so anxious not to be left out that he took up the
+inferior position assigned to him without a murmur, and the animals
+set off. The Badger led them along by the river for a little way, and
+then suddenly swung himself over the edge into a hole in the river
+bank, a little above the water. The Mole and the Rat followed
+silently, swinging themselves successfully into the hole as they had
+seen the Badger do; but when it came to Toad's turn, of course he
+managed to slip and fall into the water with a loud splash and a
+squeal of alarm. He was hauled out by his friends, rubbed down and
+wrung out hastily, comforted, and set on his legs; but the Badger was
+seriously angry, and told him that the very next time he made a
+fool of himself he would most certainly be left behind.
+
+[Illustration: _The Badger said, "Now then, follow me!"_]
+
+So at last they were in the secret passage, and the cutting-out
+expedition had really begun!
+
+It was cold, and dark, and damp, and low, and narrow, and poor Toad
+began to shiver, partly from dread of what might be before him, partly
+because he was wet through. The lantern was far ahead, and he could
+not help lagging behind a little in the darkness. Then he heard the
+Rat call out warningly, "_Come_ on, Toad!" and a terror seized him of
+being left behind, alone in the darkness, and he "came on" with such a
+rush that he upset the Rat into the Mole, and the Mole into the
+Badger, and for a moment all was confusion. The Badger thought they
+were being attacked from behind, and, as there was no room to use a
+stick or a cutlass, drew a pistol, and was on the point of putting a
+bullet into Toad. When he found out what had really happened he was
+very angry indeed, and said, "Now this time that tiresome Toad _shall_
+be left behind!"
+
+But Toad whimpered, and the other two promised that they would be
+answerable for his good conduct, and at last the Badger was pacified,
+and the procession moved on; only this time the Rat brought up the
+rear, with a firm grip on the shoulder of Toad.
+
+So they groped and shuffled along, with their ears pricked up and
+their paws on their pistols, till at last the Badger said, "We ought
+by now to be pretty nearly under the Hall."
+
+Then suddenly they heard, far away as it might be, and yet apparently
+nearly over their heads, a confused murmur of sound, as if people were
+shouting and cheering and stamping on the floor and hammering on
+tables. The Toad's nervous terrors all returned, but the Badger only
+remarked placidly, "They _are_ going it, the weasels!"
+
+The passage now began to slope upwards; they groped onward a little
+further, and then the noise broke out again, quite distinct this time,
+and very close above them. "Ooo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray-ooray!" they heard,
+and the stamping of little feet on the floor, and the clinking of
+glasses as little fists pounded on the table. "_What_ a time they're
+having!" said the Badger. "Come on!" They hurried along the passage
+till it came to a full stop, and they found themselves standing under
+the trap-door that led up into the butler's pantry.
+
+Such a tremendous noise was going on in the banqueting-hall that there
+was little danger of their being overheard. The Badger said, "Now,
+boys, all together!" and the four of them put their shoulders to the
+trap-door and heaved it back. Hoisting each other up, they found
+themselves standing in the pantry, with only a door between them and
+the banqueting-hall, where their unconscious enemies were carousing.
+
+The noise, as they emerged from the passage, was simply deafening. At
+last, as the cheering and hammering slowly subsided, a voice could be
+made out saying, "Well, I do not propose to detain you much
+longer"--(great applause)--"but before I resume my seat"--(renewed
+cheering)--"I should like to say one word about our kind host, Mr.
+Toad. We all know Toad!"--(great laughter)--"_Good_ Toad, _modest_
+Toad, _honest_ Toad!" (shrieks of merriment).
+
+"Only just let me get at him!" muttered Toad, grinding his teeth.
+
+"Hold hard a minute!" said the Badger, restraining him with
+difficulty. "Get ready, all of you!"
+
+"--Let me sing you a little song," went on the voice, "which I have
+composed on the subject of Toad"--(prolonged applause).
+
+Then the Chief Weasel--for it was he--began in a high, squeaky voice--
+
+        "Toad he went a-pleasuring
+         Gaily down the street--"
+
+The Badger drew himself up, took a firm grip of his stick with both
+paws, glanced round at his comrades, and cried--
+
+"The hour is come! Follow me!"
+
+And flung the door open wide.
+
+My!
+
+What a squealing and a squeaking and a screeching filled the air!
+
+Well might the terrified weasels dive under the tables and spring
+madly up at the windows! Well might the ferrets rush wildly for the
+fireplace and get hopelessly jammed in the chimney! Well might tables
+and chairs be upset, and glass and china be sent crashing on the
+floor, in the panic of that terrible moment when the four Heroes
+strode wrathfully into the room! The mighty Badger, his whiskers
+bristling, his great cudgel whistling through the air; Mole, black and
+grim, brandishing his stick and shouting his awful war-cry, "A Mole! A
+Mole!" Rat, desperate and determined, his belt bulging with weapons of
+every age and every variety; Toad, frenzied with excitement and
+injured pride, swollen to twice his ordinary size, leaping into the
+air and emitting Toad-whoops that chilled them to the marrow! "Toad he
+went a-pleasuring!" he yelled. "_I'll_ pleasure 'em!" and he went
+straight for the Chief Weasel. They were but four in all, but to the
+panic-stricken weasels the hall seemed full of monstrous animals,
+grey, black, brown and yellow, whooping and flourishing enormous
+cudgels; and they broke and fled with squeals of terror and dismay,
+this way and that, through the windows, up the chimney, anywhere to
+get out of reach of those terrible sticks.
+
+The affair was soon over. Up and down, the whole length of the hall,
+strode the four Friends, whacking with their sticks at every head that
+showed itself; and in five minutes the room was cleared. Through the
+broken windows the shrieks of terrified weasels escaping across the
+lawn were borne faintly to their ears; on the floor lay prostrate some
+dozen or so of the enemy, on whom the Mole was busily engaged in
+fitting handcuffs. The Badger, resting from his labours, leant on his
+stick and wiped his honest brow.
+
+"Mole," he said, "you're the best of fellows! Just cut along outside
+and look after those stoat-sentries of yours, and see what they're
+doing. I've an idea that, thanks to you, we shan't have much trouble
+from _them_ to-night!"
+
+The Mole vanished promptly through a window; and the Badger bade the
+other two set a table on its legs again, pick up knives and forks and
+plates and glasses from the _débris_ on the floor, and see if they
+could find materials for a supper. "I want some grub, I do," he said,
+in that rather common way he had of speaking. "Stir your stumps, Toad,
+and look lively! We've got your house back for you, and you don't
+offer us so much as a sandwich."
+
+Toad felt rather hurt that the Badger didn't say pleasant things to
+him, as he had to the Mole, and tell him what a fine fellow he was,
+and how splendidly he had fought; for he was rather particularly
+pleased with himself and the way he had gone for the Chief Weasel and
+sent him flying across the table with one blow of his stick. But he
+bustled about, and so did the Rat, and soon they found some guava
+jelly in a glass dish, and a cold chicken, a tongue that had hardly
+been touched, some trifle, and quite a lot of lobster salad; and in
+the pantry they came upon a basketful of French rolls and any quantity
+of cheese, butter, and celery. They were just about to sit down when
+the Mole clambered in through the window, chuckling, with an armful of
+rifles.
+
+"It's all over," he reported. "From what I can make out, as soon as
+the stoats, who were very nervous and jumpy already, heard the shrieks
+and the yells and the uproar inside the hall, some of them threw down
+their rifles and fled. The others stood fast for a bit, but when the
+weasels came rushing out upon them they thought they were betrayed;
+and the stoats grappled with the weasels, and the weasels fought to
+get away, and they wrestled and wriggled and punched each other, and
+rolled over and over, till most of 'em rolled into the river! They've
+all disappeared by now, one way or another; and I've got their rifles.
+So _that's_ all right!"
+
+"Excellent and deserving animal!" said the Badger, his mouth full of
+chicken and trifle. "Now, there's just one more thing I want you to
+do, Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I
+wouldn't trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done,
+and I wish I could say the same of every one I know. I'd send Rat, if
+he wasn't a poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there
+upstairs with you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up
+and made really comfortable. See that they sweep _under_ the beds, and
+put clean sheets and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the
+bed-clothes, just as you know it ought to be done; and have a can of
+hot water, and clean towels, and fresh cakes of soap, put in each
+room. And then you can give them a licking a-piece, if it's any
+satisfaction to you, and put them out by the back-door, and we shan't
+see any more of _them_, I fancy. And then come along and have some of
+this cold tongue. It's first rate. I'm very pleased with you, Mole!"
+
+The good-natured Mole picked up a stick, formed his prisoners up in a
+line on the floor, gave them the order "Quick march!" and led his
+squad off to the upper floor. After a time, he appeared again,
+smiling, and said that every room was ready and as clean as a new pin.
+"And I didn't have to lick them, either," he added. "I thought, on the
+whole, they had had licking enough for one night, and the weasels,
+when I put the point to them, quite agreed with me, and said they
+wouldn't think of troubling me. They were very penitent, and said
+they were extremely sorry for what they had done, but it was all the
+fault of the Chief Weasel and the stoats, and if ever they could do
+anything for us at any time to make up, we had only got to mention it.
+So I gave them a roll a-piece, and let them out at the back, and off
+they ran, as hard as they could!"
+
+Then the Mole pulled his chair up to the table, and pitched into the
+cold tongue; and Toad, like the gentleman he was, put all his jealousy
+from him, and said heartily, "Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all
+your pains and trouble to-night, and especially for your cleverness
+this morning!" The Badger was pleased at that, and said, "There spoke
+my brave Toad!" So they finished their supper in great joy and
+contentment, and presently retired to rest between clean sheets, safe
+in Toad's ancestral home, won back by matchless valour, consummate
+strategy, and a proper handling of sticks.
+
+The following morning, Toad, who had overslept himself as usual, came
+down to breakfast disgracefully late, and found on the table a
+certain quantity of egg-shells, some fragments of cold and leathery
+toast, a coffee-pot three-fourths empty, and really very little else;
+which did not tend to improve his temper, considering that, after all,
+it was his own house. Through the French windows of the breakfast-room
+he could see the Mole and the Water Rat sitting in wicker chairs out
+on the lawn, evidently telling each other stories; roaring with
+laughter and kicking their short legs up in the air. The Badger, who
+was in an arm-chair and deep in the morning paper, merely looked up
+and nodded when Toad entered the room. But Toad knew his man, so he
+sat down and made the best breakfast he could, merely observing to
+himself that he would get square with the others sooner or later. When
+he had nearly finished, the Badger looked up and remarked rather
+shortly: "I'm sorry, Toad, but I'm afraid there's a heavy morning's
+work in front of you. You see, we really ought to have a Banquet at
+once, to celebrate this affair. It's expected of you--in fact, it's
+the rule."
+
+"O, all right!" said the Toad, readily. "Anything to oblige. Though
+why on earth you should want to have a Banquet in the morning I cannot
+understand. But you know I do not live to please myself, but merely to
+find out what my friends want, and then try and arrange it for 'em,
+you dear old Badger!"
+
+"Don't pretend to be stupider than you really are," replied the
+Badger, crossly; "and don't chuckle and splutter in your coffee while
+you're talking; it's not manners. What I mean is, the Banquet will be
+at night, of course, but the invitations will have to be written and
+got off at once, and you've got to write 'em. Now sit down at that
+table--there's stacks of letter-paper on it, with 'Toad Hall' at the
+top in blue and gold--and write invitations to all our friends, and if
+you stick to it we shall get them out before luncheon. And _I'll_ bear
+a hand, too, and take my share of the burden. _I'll_ order the
+Banquet."
+
+"What!" cried Toad, dismayed. "Me stop indoors and write a lot of
+rotten letters on a jolly morning like this, when I want to go around
+my property and set everything and everybody to rights, and swagger
+about and enjoy myself! Certainly not! I'll be--I'll see you--Stop a
+minute, though! Why, of course, dear Badger! What is my pleasure or
+convenience compared with that of others! You wish it done, and it
+shall be done. Go, Badger, order the Banquet, order what you like;
+then join our young friends outside in their innocent mirth, oblivious
+of me and my cares and toils. I sacrifice this fair morning on the
+altar of duty and friendship!"
+
+The Badger looked at him very suspiciously, but Toad's frank, open
+countenance made it difficult to suggest any unworthy motive in this
+change of attitude. He quitted the room, accordingly, in the direction
+of the kitchen, and as soon as the door had closed behind him, Toad
+hurried to the writing-table. A fine idea had occurred to him while he
+was talking. He _would_ write the invitations; and he would take care
+to mention the leading part he had taken in the fight, and how he had
+laid the Chief Weasel flat; and he would hint at his adventures, and
+what a career of triumph he had to tell about; and on the fly-leaf he
+would set out a sort of a programme of entertainment for the
+evening--something like this, as he sketched it out in his head:--
+
+        SPEECH                                      BY TOAD.
+            (There will be other speeches by TOAD during
+                         the evening.)
+
+        ADDRESS                                     BY TOAD.
+        SYNOPSIS--Our Prison System--the Waterways of Old
+        England--Horse-dealing, and how to deal--Property,
+        its rights and its duties--Back to the Land--A
+        Typical English Squire.
+
+        SONG                                        BY TOAD.
+                   (_Composed by himself._)
+
+        OTHER COMPOSITIONS                          BY TOAD
+                 will be sung in the course of the
+                 evening by the           COMPOSER.
+
+The idea pleased him mightily, and he worked very hard and got all the
+letters finished by noon, at which hour it was reported to him that
+there was a small and rather bedraggled weasel at the door, inquiring
+timidly whether he could be of any service to the gentleman. Toad
+swaggered out and found it was one of the prisoners of the previous
+evening, very respectful and anxious to please. He patted him on the
+head, shoved the bundle of invitations into his paw, and told him to
+cut along quick and deliver them as fast as he could, and if he liked
+to come back again in the evening, perhaps there might be a shilling
+for him, or, again, perhaps there mightn't; and the poor weasel seemed
+really quite grateful, and hurried off eagerly to do his mission.
+
+When the other animals came back to luncheon, very boisterous and
+breezy after a morning on the river, the Mole, whose conscience had
+been pricking him, looked doubtfully at Toad, expecting to find him
+sulky or depressed. Instead, he was so uppish and inflated that the
+Mole began to suspect something; while the Rat and the Badger
+exchanged significant glances.
+
+As soon as the meal was over, Toad thrust his paws deep into his
+trouser-pockets, remarked casually, "Well, look after yourselves, you
+fellows! Ask for anything you want!" and was swaggering off in the
+direction of the garden, where he wanted to think out an idea or two
+for his coming speeches, when the Rat caught him by the arm.
+
+Toad rather suspected what he was after, and did his best to get away;
+but when the Badger took him firmly by the other arm he began to see
+that the game was up. The two animals conducted him between them into
+the small smoking-room that opened out of the entrance-hall, shut the
+door, and put him into a chair. Then they both stood in front of him,
+while Toad sat silent and regarded them with much suspicion and
+ill-humour.
+
+"Now, look here, Toad," said the Rat. "It's about this Banquet, and
+very sorry I am to have to speak to you like this. But we want you to
+understand clearly, once and for all, that there are going to be no
+speeches and no songs. Try and grasp the fact that on this occasion
+we're not arguing with you; we're just telling you."
+
+Toad saw that he was trapped. They understood him, they saw through
+him, they had got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered.
+
+"Mayn't I sing them just one _little_ song?" he pleaded piteously.
+
+"No, not _one_ little song," replied the Rat firmly, though his heart
+bled as he noticed the trembling lip of the poor disappointed Toad.
+"It's no good, Toady; you know well that your songs are all conceit
+and boasting and vanity; and your speeches are all self-praise
+and--and--well, and gross exaggeration and--and--"
+
+"And gas," put in the Badger, in his common way.
+
+"It's for your own good, Toady," went on the Rat. "You know you _must_
+turn over a new leaf sooner or later, and now seems a splendid time to
+begin; a sort of turning-point in your career. Please don't think that
+saying all this doesn't hurt me more than it hurts you."
+
+Toad remained a long while plunged in thought. At last he raised his
+head, and the traces of strong emotion were visible on his features.
+"You have conquered, my friends," he said in broken accents. "It was,
+to be sure, but a small thing that I asked--merely leave to blossom
+and expand for yet one more evening, to let myself go and hear the
+tumultuous applause that always seems to me--somehow--to bring out my
+best qualities. However, you are right, I know, and I am wrong.
+Henceforth I will be a very different Toad. My friends, you shall
+never have occasion to blush for me again. But, O dear, O dear, this
+is a hard world!"
+
+And, pressing his handkerchief to his face, he left the room, with
+faltering footsteps.
+
+"Badger," said the Rat, "I feel like a brute; I wonder what _you_ feel
+like?"
+
+"O, I know, I know," said the Badger gloomily. "But the thing had to
+be done. This good fellow has got to live here, and hold his own, and
+be respected. Would you have him a common laughing-stock, mocked and
+jeered at by stoats and weasels?"
+
+"Of course not," said the Rat. "And, talking of weasels, it's lucky we
+came upon that little weasel, just as he was setting out with Toad's
+invitations. I suspected something from what you told me, and had a
+look at one or two; they were simply disgraceful. I confiscated the
+lot, and the good Mole is now sitting in the blue _boudoir_, filling
+up plain, simple invitation cards."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At last the hour for the banquet began to draw near, and Toad, who on
+leaving the others had retired to his bedroom, was still sitting
+there, melancholy and thoughtful. His brow resting on his paw, he
+pondered long and deeply. Gradually his countenance cleared, and he
+began to smile long, slow smiles. Then he took to giggling in a shy,
+self-conscious manner. At last he got up, locked the door, drew the
+curtains across the windows, collected all the chairs in the room and
+arranged them in a semicircle, and took up his position in front of
+them, swelling visibly. Then he bowed, coughed twice, and, letting
+himself go, with uplifted voice he sang, to the enraptured audience
+that his imagination so clearly saw:
+
+                TOAD'S LAST LITTLE SONG
+
+        The Toad--came--home!
+        There was panic in the parlours and howling in the halls,
+        There was crying in the cow-sheds and shrieking in the stalls,
+        When the Toad--came--home!
+
+        When the Toad--came--home!
+        There was smashing in of window and crashing in of door,
+        There was chivvying of weasels that fainted on the floor,
+        When the Toad--came--home!
+
+        Bang! go the drums!
+        The trumpeters are tooting and the soldiers are saluting,
+        And the cannon they are shooting and the motor-cars are hooting,
+        As the--Hero--comes!
+
+        Shout--Hoo-ray!
+        And let each one of the crowd try and shout it very loud,
+        In honour of an animal of whom you're justly proud,
+        For it's Toad's--great--day!
+
+He sang this very loud, with great unction and expression; and when he
+had done, he sang it all over again.
+
+Then he heaved a deep sigh; a long, long, long sigh.
+
+Then he dipped his hairbrush in the water-jug, parted his hair in the
+middle, and plastered it down very straight and sleek on each side of
+his face; and, unlocking the door, went quietly down the stairs to
+greet his guests, who he knew must be assembling in the drawing-room.
+
+All the animals cheered when he entered, and crowded round to
+congratulate him and say nice things about his courage, and his
+cleverness, and his fighting qualities; but Toad only smiled faintly,
+and murmured, "Not at all!" Or, sometimes, for a change, "On the
+contrary!" Otter, who was standing on the hearthrug, describing to an
+admiring circle of friends exactly how he would have managed things
+had he been there, came forward with a shout, threw his arm round
+Toad's neck, and tried to take him round the room in triumphal
+progress; but Toad, in a mild way, was rather snubby to him, remarking
+gently, as he disengaged himself, "Badger's was the master mind; the
+Mole and the Water Rat bore the brunt of the fighting; I merely served
+in the ranks and did little or nothing." The animals were evidently
+puzzled and taken aback by this unexpected attitude of his; and Toad
+felt, as he moved from one guest to the other, making his modest
+responses, that he was an object of absorbing interest to every one.
+
+The Badger had ordered everything of the best, and the banquet was a
+great success. There was much talking and laughter and chaff among the
+animals, but through it all Toad, who of course was in the chair,
+looked down his nose and murmured pleasant nothings to the animals on
+either side of him. At intervals he stole a glance at the Badger and
+the Rat, and always when he looked they were staring at each other
+with their mouths open; and this gave him the greatest satisfaction.
+Some of the younger and livelier animals, as the evening wore on, got
+whispering to each other that things were not so amusing as they used
+to be in the good old days; and there were some knockings on the table
+and cries of "Toad! Speech! Speech from Toad! Song! Mr. Toad's song!"
+But Toad only shook his head gently, raised one paw in mild protest,
+and, by pressing delicacies on his guests, by topical small-talk, and
+by earnest inquiries after members of their families not yet old
+enough to appear at social functions, managed to convey to them that
+this dinner was being run on strictly conventional lines.
+
+He was indeed an altered Toad!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After this climax, the four animals continued to lead their lives, so
+rudely broken in upon by civil war, in great joy and contentment,
+undisturbed by further risings or invasions. Toad, after due
+consultation with his friends, selected a handsome gold chain and
+locket set with pearls, which he dispatched to the gaoler's daughter,
+with a letter that even the Badger admitted to be modest, grateful,
+and appreciative; and the engine-driver, in his turn, was properly
+thanked and compensated for all his pains and trouble. Under severe
+compulsion from the Badger, even the barge-woman was, with some
+trouble, sought out and the value of her horse discreetly made good
+to her; though Toad kicked terribly at this, holding himself to be an
+instrument of Fate, sent to punish fat women with mottled arms who
+couldn't tell a real gentleman when they saw one. The amount involved,
+it was true, was not very burdensome, the gipsy's valuation being
+admitted by local assessors to be approximately correct.
+
+Sometimes, in the course of long summer evenings, the friends would
+take a stroll together in the Wild Wood, now successfully tamed so far
+as they were concerned; and it was pleasing to see how respectfully
+they were greeted by the inhabitants, and how the mother-weasels would
+bring their young ones to the mouths of their holes, and say,
+pointing, "Look, baby! There goes the great Mr. Toad! And that's the
+gallant Water Rat, a terrible fighter, walking along o' him! And
+yonder comes the famous Mr. Mole, of whom you so often have heard your
+father tell!" But when their infants were fractious and quite beyond
+control, they would quiet them by telling how, if they didn't hush
+them and not fret them, the terrible grey Badger would up and get
+them. This was a base libel on Badger, who, though he cared little
+about Society, was rather fond of children; but it never failed to
+have its full effect.
+
+_The Wind in the Willows_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Wind in the Willows
+
+Author: Kenneth Grahame
+
+Illustrator: Paul Bransom
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2009 [EBook #27805]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Jen Haines and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="556"
+alt="Book Cover" title="Book Cover" />
+<span class="caption">Book Cover</span>
+</div>
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 630px;" >
+<img src="images/fly.jpg" width="630" height="423"
+alt="Front Fly Leaf" title="Fly Leaf" />
+<span class="caption">Front Fly Leaf</span>
+</div>
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="bbox"><h1>THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS</h1></div>
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><a name="Frontis" id="Frontis"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="420" height="572"
+alt="The Piper at the Gates of Dawn"
+title="The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" />
+<span class="caption">The Piper at the Gates of Dawn</span>
+</div>
+<p><br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/title.jpg" width="400" height="620"
+
+alt="
+THE WIND
+IN THE WILLOWS&nbsp;
+BY
+KENNETH GRAHAME
+&nbsp;
+ILLUSTRATED BY
+PAUL BRANSOM
+&nbsp;
+NEW YORK
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+MCMXIII
+"
+ />
+</div>
+
+<h5><i>Copyright, 1908, 1913, by</i></h5>
+<h4>CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</h4>
+<h5><i>Published October, 1913</i></h5>
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"
+    summary="Contents of Book with Hyperlinks">
+<tr><td class="td1">CHAPTER</td>
+    <td class="td3" colspan="2">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#I">I.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">THE RIVER BANK</td>
+    <td class="td3">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#II">II.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">THE OPEN ROAD</td>
+    <td class="td3">27</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#III">III.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">THE WILD WOOD</td>
+    <td class="td3">53</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#IV">IV.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">MR. BADGER</td>
+    <td class="td3">79</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#V">V.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">DULCE DOMUM</td>
+    <td class="td3">107</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#VI">VI.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">MR. TOAD</td>
+    <td class="td3">139</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#VII">VII.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN</td>
+    <td class="td3">167</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">TOAD'S ADVENTURES</td>
+    <td class="td3">191</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#IX">IX.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">WAYFARERS ALL</td>
+    <td class="td3">219</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#X">X.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD</td>
+    <td class="td3">253</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#XI">XI.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">"LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS"</td>
+    <td class="td3">287</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td1"><a href="#XII">XII.</a></td>
+    <td class="td2">THE RETURN OF ULYSSES</td>
+    <td class="td3">323</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0"
+    summary="List of Illustrations with Hyperlinks">
+<tr><td class="td2">The Piper at the Gates of Dawn</td>
+    <td class="td3"><i><a href="#Frontis">Frontispiece</a></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td3" colspan="2">Facing Page</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">It was the Water Rat</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page8pic">8</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">"Come on!" he said.
+        "We shall just have to walk it"</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page50pic">50</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">In panic, he began to run</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page64pic">64</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">Through the Wild Wood and the snow</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page94pic">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page164pic">164</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page196pic">196</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">"It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the Rat</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Pge240pic">240</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness,
+        and presence of mind in emergencies</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page292pic">292</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="td2">The Badger said, "Now then, follow me!"</td>
+    <td class="td3"><a href="#Page326pic">326</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 1 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox"><a name="I" id="I"></a><h2>I</h2>
+<h2>THE RIVER BANK</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 2 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 3 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE Mole had been working very hard all
+the morning, spring-cleaning his little
+home. First with brooms, then with dusters;
+then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a
+brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust
+in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash
+all over his black fur, and an aching back
+and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air
+above and in the earth below and around him,
+penetrating even his dark and lowly little house
+with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.
+It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly
+flung down his brush on the floor, said, "Bother!"
+and "O blow!" and also "Hang spring-cleaning!"
+and bolted out of the house without even
+waiting to put on his coat. Something up above
+was calling him imperiously, and he made for
+the steep little tunnel which answered in his
+<!-- Page 4 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by
+animals whose residences are nearer to the sun
+and air. So he scraped and scratched and
+scrabbled and scrooged, and then he scrooged
+again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped,
+working busily with his little paws and muttering
+to himself, "Up we go! Up we go!" till at
+last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight
+and he found himself rolling in the warm grass
+of a great meadow.</p>
+
+<p>"This is fine!" he said to himself. "This
+is better than whitewashing!" The sunshine
+struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his
+heated brow, and after the seclusion of the
+cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of
+happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost
+like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at
+once, in the joy of living and the delight of
+spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way
+across the meadow till he reached the hedge on
+the further side.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold up!" said an elderly rabbit at the
+gap. "Sixpence for the privilege of passing by
+the private road!" He was bowled over in an
+<!-- Page 5 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+instant by the impatient and contemptuous
+Mole, who trotted along the side of the hedge
+chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly
+from their holes to see what the row was
+about. "Onion-sauce! Onion-sauce!" he remarked
+jeeringly, and was gone before they could
+think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then
+they all started grumbling at each other. "How
+<i>stupid</i> you are! Why didn't you tell him&mdash;"
+"Well, why didn't <i>you</i> say&mdash;" "You might
+have reminded him&mdash;" and so on, in the usual
+way; but, of course, it was then much too late,
+as is always the case.</p>
+
+<p>It all seemed too good to be true. Hither
+and thither through the meadows he rambled
+busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses,
+finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding,
+leaves thrusting&mdash;everything happy, and
+progressive, and occupied. And instead of
+having an uneasy conscience pricking him and
+whispering "whitewash!" he somehow could
+only feel how jolly it was to be the only idle
+dog among all these busy citizens. After all,
+the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much
+<!-- Page 6 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+to be resting yourself, as to see all the other
+fellows busy working.</p>
+
+<p>He thought his happiness was complete when,
+as he meandered aimlessly along, suddenly he
+stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never
+in his life had he seen a river before&mdash;this
+sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and
+chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and
+leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on
+fresh playmates that shook themselves free,
+and were caught and held again. All was
+a-shake and a-shiver&mdash;glints and gleams and
+sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble.
+The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated.
+By the side of the river he trotted as one trots,
+when very small, by the side of a man who
+holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and
+when tired at last, he sat on the bank, while
+the river still chattered on to him, a babbling
+procession of the best stories in the world, sent
+from the heart of the earth to be told at last
+to the insatiable sea.</p>
+
+<p>As he sat on the grass and looked across the
+river, a dark hole in the bank opposite, just
+<!-- Page 7 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+above the water's edge, caught his eye, and
+dreamily he fell to considering what a nice, snug
+dwelling-place it would make for an animal
+with few wants and fond of a bijou riverside
+residence, above flood level and remote from
+noise and dust. As he gazed, something bright
+and small seemed to twinkle down in the heart
+of it, vanished, then twinkled once more like
+a tiny star. But it could hardly be a star in
+such an unlikely situation; and it was too
+glittering and small for a glow-worm. Then,
+as he looked, it winked at him, and so declared
+itself to be an eye; and a small face began gradually
+to grow up round it, like a frame round a
+picture.</p>
+
+<p>A brown little face, with whiskers.</p>
+
+<p>A grave round face, with the same twinkle in
+its eye that had first attracted his notice.</p>
+
+<p>Small neat ears and thick silky hair.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Water Rat!</p>
+
+<p>Then the two animals stood and regarded
+each other cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo, Mole!" said the Water Rat.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo, Rat!" said the Mole.
+<!-- Page 8 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to come over?" enquired
+the Rat presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's all very well to <i>talk</i>," said the Mole
+rather pettishly, he being new to a river and
+riverside life and its ways.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened
+a rope and hauled on it; then lightly
+stepped into a little boat which the Mole had
+not observed. It was painted blue outside and
+white within, and was just the size for two
+animals; and the Mole's whole heart went out
+to it at once, even though he did not yet fully
+understand its uses.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat sculled smartly across and made
+fast. Then he held up his fore-paw as the
+Mole stepped gingerly down. "Lean on that!"
+he said. "Now then, step lively!" and the
+Mole to his surprise and rapture found himself
+actually seated in the stern of a real boat.</p>
+
+<p>"This has been a wonderful day!" said he,
+as the Rat shoved off and took to the sculls
+again. "Do you know, I've never been in a
+boat before in all my life."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page8pic" id="Page8pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus01.jpg" width="420" height="559"
+alt="It was the Water Rat" title="It was the Water Rat" />
+<span class="caption">It was the Water Rat</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"What?" cried the Rat, open-mouthed:
+<!-- Page 9 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+"Never been in a&mdash;you never&mdash;well I&mdash;what
+have you been doing, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is it so nice as all that?" asked the Mole
+shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe
+it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed
+the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the
+fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway
+lightly under him.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice? It's the <i>only</i> thing," said the Water
+Rat solemnly as he leant forward for his stroke.
+"Believe me, my young friend, there is <i>nothing</i>&mdash;absolute
+nothing&mdash;half so much worth
+doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply
+messing," he went on dreamily: "messing&mdash;about&mdash;in&mdash;boats;
+messing&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Look ahead, Rat!" cried the Mole suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>It was too late. The boat struck the bank
+full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous oarsman,
+lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his
+heels in the air.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;about in boats&mdash;or <i>with</i> boats," the Rat
+went on composedly, picking himself up with
+a pleasant laugh. "In or out of 'em, it doesn't
+<!-- Page 10 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's
+the charm of it. Whether you get away, or
+whether you don't; whether you arrive at your
+destination or whether you reach somewhere
+else, or whether you never get anywhere at all,
+you're always busy, and you never do anything
+in particular; and when you've done it there's
+always something else to do, and you can do
+it if you like, but you'd much better not. Look
+here! If you've really nothing else on hand
+this morning, supposing we drop down the river
+together, and have a long day of it?"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness,
+spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment,
+and leant back blissfully into the
+soft cushions. "<i>What</i> a day I'm having!" he
+said. "Let us start at once!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hold hard a minute, then!" said the Rat.
+He looped the painter through a ring in his
+landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above,
+and after a short interval reappeared staggering
+under a fat wicker luncheon-basket.</p>
+
+<p>"Shove that under your feet," he observed to
+the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat.
+<!-- Page 11 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+Then he untied the painter and took the sculls
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"What's inside it?" asked the Mole, wriggling
+with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"There's&nbsp;cold&nbsp;chicken&nbsp;inside&nbsp;it,"&nbsp;replied&nbsp;the&nbsp;Rat&nbsp;briefly:<br />
+"coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrolls&ndash;<br />
+cresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"O stop, stop!" cried the Mole in ecstasies.
+"This is too much!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really think so?" enquired the Rat
+seriously. "It's only what I always take on
+these little excursions; and the other animals
+are always telling me that I'm a mean beast
+and cut it <i>very</i> fine!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole never heard a word he was saying.
+Absorbed in the new life he was entering upon,
+intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the
+scents and the sounds and the sunlight, he
+trailed a paw in the water and dreamed long
+waking dreams. The Water Rat, like the good
+little fellow he was, sculled steadily on and
+forbore to disturb him.</p>
+
+<p>"I like your clothes awfully, old chap," he
+<!-- Page 12 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+remarked after some half an hour or so had
+passed. "I'm going to get a black velvet smoking-suit
+myself some day, as soon as I can
+afford it."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," said the Mole, pulling
+himself together with an effort. "You must
+think me very rude; but all this is so new to
+me. So&mdash;this&mdash;is&mdash;a&mdash;River!"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>The</i> River," corrected the Rat.</p>
+
+<p>"And you really live by the river? What a
+jolly life!"</p>
+
+<p>"By it and with it and on it and in it," said
+the Rat. "It's brother and sister to me, and
+aunts, and company, and food and drink, and
+(naturally) washing. It's my world, and I don't
+want any other. What it hasn't got is not
+worth having, and what it doesn't know is
+not worth knowing. Lord! the times we've
+had together! Whether in winter or summer,
+spring or autumn, it's always got its fun and its
+excitements. When the floods are on in February,
+and my cellars and basement are brimming
+with drink that's no good to me, and the brown
+water runs by my best bedroom window; or
+<!-- Page 13 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
+again when it all drops away and shows patches
+of mud that smells like plum-cake, and the
+rushes and weed clog the channels, and I can
+potter about dry shod over most of the bed of
+it and find fresh food to eat, and things careless
+people have dropped out of boats!"</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't it a bit dull at times?" the Mole
+ventured to ask. "Just you and the river, and
+no one else to pass a word with?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one else to&mdash;well, I mustn't be hard on
+you," said the Rat with forbearance. "You're
+new to it, and of course you don't know. The
+bank is so crowded nowadays that many people
+are moving away altogether. O no, it
+isn't what it used to be, at all. Otters, king-fishers,
+dabchicks, moorhens, all of them about
+all day long and always wanting you to <i>do</i> something&mdash;as
+if a fellow had no business of his
+own to attend to!"</p>
+
+<p>"What lies over <i>there</i>?" asked the Mole,
+waving a paw towards a background of woodland
+that darkly framed the water-meadows on
+one side of the river.</p>
+
+<p>"That? O, that's just the Wild Wood," said
+<!-- Page 14 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+the Rat shortly. "We don't go there very much,
+we river-bankers."</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't they&mdash;aren't they very <i>nice</i> people
+in there?" said the Mole a trifle nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"W-e-ll," replied the Rat, "let me see. The
+squirrels are all right. <i>And</i> the rabbits&mdash;some
+of 'em, but rabbits are a mixed lot. And then
+there's Badger, of course. He lives right in the
+heart of it; wouldn't live anywhere else, either,
+if you paid him to do it. Dear old Badger!
+Nobody interferes with <i>him</i>. They'd better
+not," he added significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, who <i>should</i> interfere with him?" asked
+the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, of course&mdash;there&mdash;are others," explained
+the Rat in a hesitating sort of way.
+"Weasels&mdash;and stoats&mdash;and foxes&mdash;and so on.
+They're all right in a way&mdash;I'm very good
+friends with them&mdash;pass the time of day when
+we meet, and all that&mdash;but they break out sometimes,
+there's no denying it, and then&mdash;well, you
+can't really trust them, and that's the fact."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole knew well that it is quite against
+animal-etiquette to dwell on possible trouble
+<!-- Page 15 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+ahead, or even to allude to it; so he dropped
+the subject.</p>
+
+<p>"And beyond the Wild Wood again?" he
+asked; "where it's all blue and dim, and one
+sees what may be hills or perhaps they mayn't,
+and something like the smoke of towns, or is it
+only cloud-drift?"</p>
+
+<p>"Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide
+World," said the Rat. "And that's something
+that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've
+never been there, and I'm never going, nor you
+either, if you've got any sense at all. Don't
+ever refer to it again, please. Now then! Here's
+our backwater at last, where we're going to
+lunch."</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the main stream, they now passed
+into what seemed at first sight like a little landlocked
+lake. Green turf sloped down to either
+edge, brown snaky tree-roots gleamed below
+the surface of the quiet water, while ahead of
+them the silvery shoulder and foamy tumble of
+a weir, arm-in-arm with a restless dripping mill-wheel,
+that held up in its turn a grey-gabled
+<!-- Page 16 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+mill-house, filled the air with a soothing murmur
+of sound, dull and smothery, yet with little
+clear voices speaking up cheerfully out of it at
+intervals. It was so very beautiful that the
+Mole could only hold up both fore-paws and
+gasp: "O my! O my! O my!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat brought the boat alongside the bank,
+made her fast, helped the still awkward Mole
+safely ashore, and swung out the luncheon-basket.
+The Mole begged as a favour to be
+allowed to unpack it all by himself; and the
+Rat was very pleased to indulge him, and to
+sprawl at full length on the grass and rest, while
+his excited friend shook out the table-cloth
+and spread it, took out all the mysterious packets
+one by one and arranged their contents in
+due order, still gasping: "O my! O my!" at
+each fresh revelation. When all was ready, the
+Rat said, "Now, pitch in, old fellow!" and the
+Mole was indeed very glad to obey, for he had
+started his spring-cleaning at a very early hour
+that morning, as people <i>will</i> do, and had not
+paused for bite or sup; and he had been through
+a very great deal since that distant time which
+now seemed so many days ago.
+<!-- Page 17 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What are you looking at?" said the Rat
+presently, when the edge of their hunger was
+somewhat dulled, and the Mole's eyes were able
+to wander off the table-cloth a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I am looking," said the Mole, "at a streak of
+bubbles that I see travelling along the surface
+of the water. That is a thing that strikes me
+as funny."</p>
+
+<p>"Bubbles? Oho!" said the Rat, and chirruped
+cheerily in an inviting sort of way.</p>
+
+<p>A broad glistening muzzle showed itself above
+the edge of the bank, and the Otter hauled himself
+out and shook the water from his coat.</p>
+
+<p>"Greedy beggars!" he observed, making for
+the provender. "Why didn't you invite me,
+Ratty?"</p>
+
+<p>"This was an impromptu affair," explained
+the Rat. "By the way&mdash;my friend Mr. Mole."</p>
+
+<p>"Proud, I'm sure," said the Otter, and the
+two animals were friends forthwith.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a rumpus everywhere!" continued the
+Otter. "All the world seems out on the river
+to-day. I came up this backwater to try and
+get a moment's peace, and then stumble upon
+<!-- Page 18 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+you fellows!&mdash;At least&mdash;I beg pardon&mdash;I
+don't exactly mean that, you know."</p>
+
+<p>There was a rustle behind them, proceeding
+from a hedge wherein last year's leaves still
+clung thick, and a stripy head, with high
+shoulders behind it, peered forth on them.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on, old Badger!" shouted the Rat.</p>
+
+<p>The Badger trotted forward a pace or two,
+then grunted, "H'm! Company," and turned
+his back and disappeared from view.</p>
+
+<p>"That's <i>just</i> the sort of fellow he is!" observed
+the disappointed Rat. "Simply hates
+Society! Now we shan't see any more of him
+to-day. Well, tell us, <i>who's</i> out on the river?"</p>
+
+<p>"Toad's out, for one," replied the Otter.
+"In his brand-new wager-boat; new togs, new
+everything!"</p>
+
+<p>The two animals looked at each other and
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Once, it was nothing but sailing," said the
+Rat. "Then he tired of that and took to punting.
+Nothing would please him but to punt all
+day and every day, and a nice mess he made of
+it. Last year it was house-boating, and we all
+<!-- Page 19 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+had to go and stay with him in his house-boat,
+and pretend we liked it. He was going to
+spend the rest of his life in a house-boat. It's
+all the same, whatever he takes up; he gets
+tired of it, and starts on something fresh."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a good fellow, too," remarked the Otter
+reflectively; "but no stability&mdash;especially in a
+boat!"</p>
+
+<p>From where they sat they could get a glimpse
+of the main stream across the island that separated
+them; and just then a wager-boat flashed
+into view, the rower&mdash;a short, stout figure&mdash;splashing
+badly and rolling a good deal, but
+working his hardest. The Rat stood up and
+hailed him, but Toad&mdash;for it was he&mdash;shook
+his head and settled sternly to his work.</p>
+
+<p>"He'll be out of the boat in a minute if he
+rolls like that," said the Rat, sitting down again.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course he will," chuckled the Otter.
+"Did I ever tell you that good story about Toad
+and the lock-keeper? It happened this way.
+Toad...."</p>
+
+<p>An errant May-fly swerved unsteadily
+athwart the current in the intoxicated fashion
+<!-- Page 20 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+affected by young bloods of May-flies seeing
+life. A swirl of water and a "cloop!" and the
+May-fly was visible no more.</p>
+
+<p>Neither was the Otter.</p>
+
+<p>The Mole looked down. The voice was still in
+his ears, but the turf whereon he had sprawled
+was clearly vacant. Not an Otter to be seen,
+as far as the distant horizon.</p>
+
+<p>But again there was a streak of bubbles on
+the surface of the river.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat hummed a tune, and the Mole recollected
+that animal-etiquette forbade any sort
+of comment on the sudden disappearance of
+one's friends at any moment, for any reason or
+no reason whatever.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said the Rat, "I suppose we
+ought to be moving. I wonder which of us
+had better pack the luncheon-basket?" He did
+not speak as if he was frightfully eager for the
+treat.</p>
+
+<p>"O, please let me," said the Mole. So, of
+course, the Rat let him.</p>
+
+<p>Packing the basket was not quite such pleasant
+work as unpacking the basket. It never
+<!-- Page 21 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+is. But the Mole was bent on enjoying everything,
+and although just when he had got the
+basket packed and strapped up tightly he saw
+a plate staring up at him from the grass, and
+when the job had been done again the Rat
+pointed out a fork which anybody ought to
+have seen, and last of all, behold! the mustard
+pot, which he had been sitting on without
+knowing it&mdash;still, somehow, the thing got finished
+at last, without much loss of temper.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon sun was getting low as the
+Rat sculled gently homewards in a dreamy
+mood, murmuring poetry-things over to himself,
+and not paying much attention to Mole.
+But the Mole was very full of lunch, and self-satisfaction,
+and pride, and already quite at
+home in a boat (so he thought), and was getting
+a bit restless besides: and presently he said,
+"Ratty! Please, <i>I</i> want to row, now!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat shook his head with a smile. "Not
+yet, my young friend," he said; "wait till
+you've had a few lessons. It's not so easy as
+it looks."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole was quiet for a minute or two.
+<!-- Page 22 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+But he began to feel more and more jealous of
+Rat, sculling so strongly and so easily along,
+and his pride began to whisper that he could
+do it every bit as well. He jumped up and
+seized the sculls so suddenly that the Rat, who
+was gazing out over the water and saying more
+poetry-things to himself, was taken by surprise
+and fell backwards off his seat with his legs
+in the air for the second time, while the triumphant
+Mole took his place and grabbed the
+sculls with entire confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop it, you <i>silly</i> ass!" cried the Rat, from
+the bottom of the boat. "You can't do it!
+You'll have us over!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole flung his sculls back with a flourish,
+and made a great dig at the water. He missed
+the surface altogether, his legs flew up above
+his head, and he found himself lying on the top
+of the prostrate Rat. Greatly alarmed, he made
+a grab at the side of the boat, and the next
+moment&mdash;Sploosh!</p>
+
+<p>Over went the boat, and he found himself
+struggling in the river.</p>
+
+<p>O my, how cold the water was, and O, how
+<!-- Page 23 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+<i>very</i> wet it felt! How it sang in his ears as he
+went down, down, down! How bright and welcome
+the sun looked as he rose to the surface
+coughing and spluttering! How black was his
+despair when he felt himself sinking again!
+Then a firm paw gripped him by the back of
+his neck. It was the Rat, and he was evidently
+laughing&mdash;the Mole could <i>feel</i> him laughing,
+right down his arm and through his paw, and
+so into his&mdash;the Mole's&mdash;neck.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat got hold of a scull and shoved it
+under the Mole's arm; then he did the same
+by the other side of him and, swimming behind,
+propelled the helpless animal to shore, hauled
+him out, and set him down on the bank, a
+squashy, pulpy lump of misery.</p>
+
+<p>When the Rat had rubbed him down a bit,
+and wrung some of the wet out of him, he said,
+"Now then, old fellow! Trot up and down the
+towing-path as hard as you can, till you're
+warm and dry again, while I dive for the
+luncheon-basket."</p>
+
+<p>So the dismal Mole, wet without and ashamed
+within, trotted about till he was fairly dry, while
+<!-- Page 24 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
+the Rat plunged into the water again, recovered
+the boat, righted her and made her fast, fetched
+his floating property to shore by degrees, and
+finally dived successfully for the luncheon-basket
+and struggled to land with it.</p>
+
+<p>When all was ready for a start once more,
+the Mole, limp and dejected, took his seat in
+the stern of the boat; and as they set off, he
+said in a low voice, broken with emotion,
+"Ratty, my generous friend! I am very sorry
+indeed for my foolish and ungrateful conduct.
+My heart quite fails me when I think how I
+might have lost that beautiful luncheon-basket.
+Indeed, I have been a complete ass, and I know
+it. Will you overlook it this once and forgive
+me, and let things go on as before?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's all right, bless you!" responded the
+Rat cheerily. "What's a little wet to a Water
+Rat? I'm more in the water than out of it
+most days. Don't you think any more about
+it; and look here! I really think you had
+better come and stop with me for a little time.
+It's very plain and rough, you know&mdash;not like
+Toad's house at all&mdash;but you haven't seen
+<!-- Page 25 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+that yet; still, I can make you comfortable.
+And I'll teach you to row and to swim, and
+you'll soon be as handy on the water as any of
+us."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole was so touched by his kind manner
+of speaking that he could find no voice to
+answer him; and he had to brush away a tear
+or two with the back of his paw. But the
+Rat kindly looked in another direction, and
+presently the Mole's spirits revived again, and
+he was even able to give some straight back-talk
+to a couple of moorhens who were sniggering
+to each other about his bedraggled appearance.</p>
+
+<p>When they got home, the Rat made a bright
+fire in the parlour, and planted the Mole in an
+arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a
+dressing-gown and slippers for him, and told
+him river stories till supper-time. Very thrilling
+stories they were, too, to an earth-dwelling
+animal like Mole. Stories about weirs, and
+sudden floods, and leaping pike, and steamers
+that flung hard bottles&mdash;at least bottles were
+<!-- Page 26 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+certainly flung, and <i>from</i> steamers, so presumably
+<i>by</i> them; and about herons, and how particular
+they were whom they spoke to; and
+about adventures down drains, and night-fishings
+with Otter, or excursions far a-field with
+Badger. Supper was a most cheerful meal; but
+very shortly afterwards a terribly sleepy Mole
+had to be escorted upstairs by his considerate
+host, to the best bedroom, where he soon laid
+his head on his pillow in great peace and contentment,
+knowing that his new-found friend,
+the River, was lapping the sill of his window.</p>
+
+<p>This day was only the first of many similar
+ones for the emancipated Mole, each of them
+longer and full of interest as the ripening summer
+moved onward. He learnt to swim and to
+row, and entered into the joy of running water;
+and with his ear to the reed-stems he caught,
+at intervals, something of what the wind went
+whispering so constantly among them.
+<!-- Page 27 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="II" id="II"></a><h2>II</h2>
+<h2>THE OPEN ROAD</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 28 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 29 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">"RATTY," said the Mole suddenly, one
+bright summer morning, "if you please,
+I want to ask you a favour."</p>
+
+<p>The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing
+a little song. He had just composed it
+himself, so he was very taken up with it, and
+would not pay proper attention to Mole or anything
+else. Since early morning he had been
+swimming in the river, in company with his
+friends, the ducks. And when the ducks stood
+on their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would
+dive down and tickle their necks, just under
+where their chins would be if ducks had chins,
+till they were forced to come to the surface
+again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and
+shaking their feathers at him, for it is impossible
+to say quite <i>all</i> you feel when your head is under
+water. At last they implored him to go away
+<!-- Page 30 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+and attend to his own affairs and leave them
+to mind theirs. So the Rat went away, and
+sat on the river bank in the sun, and made up
+a song about them, which he called:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">"DUCKS' DITTY."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">All along the backwater,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through the rushes tall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ducks are a-dabbling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Up tails all!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yellow feet a-quiver,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Yellow bills all out of sight<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Busy in the river!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Slushy green undergrowth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where the roach swim&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Here we keep our larder,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Cool and full and dim.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Everyone for what he likes!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>We</i> like to be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Heads down, tails up,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dabbling free!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">High in the blue above<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Swifts whirl and call&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>We</i> are down a-dabbling<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Up tails all!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<!-- Page 31 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I think so <i>very</i> much of
+that little song, Rat," observed the Mole cautiously.
+He was no poet himself and didn't
+care who knew it; and he had a candid nature.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor don't the ducks neither," replied the
+Rat cheerfully. "They say, '<i>Why</i> can't fellows
+be allowed to do what they like <i>when</i> they like
+and <i>as</i> they like, instead of other fellows sitting
+on banks and watching them all the time and
+making remarks and poetry and things about
+them? What <i>nonsense</i> it all is!' That's what
+the ducks say."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is, so it is," said the Mole, with great
+heartiness.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it isn't!" cried the Rat indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well then, it isn't, it isn't," replied the Mole
+soothingly. "But what I wanted to ask you
+was, won't you take me to call on Mr. Toad?
+I've heard so much about him, and I do so
+want to make his acquaintance."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly," said the good-natured Rat,
+jumping to his feet and dismissing poetry from
+his mind for the day. "Get the boat out, and
+we'll paddle up there at once. It's never the
+<!-- Page 32 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+wrong time to call on Toad. Early or late, he's
+always the same fellow. Always good-tempered,
+always glad to see you, always sorry when you
+go!"</p>
+
+<p>"He must be a very nice animal," observed
+the Mole, as he got into the boat and took the
+sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably
+in the stern.</p>
+
+<p>"He is indeed the best of animals," replied
+Rat. "So simple, so good-natured, and so affectionate.
+Perhaps he's not very clever&mdash;we
+can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he
+is both boastful and conceited. But he has got
+some great qualities, has Toady."</p>
+
+<p>Rounding a bend in the river, they came in
+sight of a handsome, dignified old house of mellowed
+red brick, with well-kept lawns reaching
+down to the water's edge.</p>
+
+<p>"There's Toad Hall," said the Rat; "and
+that creek on the left, where the notice-board
+says, 'Private. No landing allowed,' leads to
+his boat-house, where we'll leave the boat.
+The stables are over there to the right. That's
+<!-- Page 33 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+the banqueting-hall you're looking at now&mdash;very
+old, that is. Toad is rather rich, you
+know, and this is really one of the nicest houses
+in these parts, though we never admit as much
+to Toad."</p>
+
+<p>They glided up the creek, and the Mole
+shipped his sculls as they passed into the shadow
+of a large boat-house. Here they saw many
+handsome boats, slung from the cross-beams or
+hauled up on a slip, but none in the water; and
+the place had an unused and a deserted air.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat looked around him. "I understand,"
+said he. "Boating is played out. He's tired
+of it, and done with it. I wonder what new
+fad he has taken up now? Come along and
+let's look him up. We shall hear all about it
+quite soon enough."</p>
+
+<p>They disembarked, and strolled across the gay
+flower-decked lawns in search of Toad, whom
+they presently happened upon resting in a wicker
+garden-chair, with a pre-occupied expression of
+face, and a large map spread out on his knees.</p>
+
+<p>"Hooray!" he cried, jumping up on seeing
+them, "this is splendid!" He shook the paws
+of both of them warmly, never waiting for an
+<!-- Page 34 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+introduction to the Mole. "How <i>kind</i> of you!"
+he went on, dancing round them. "I was just
+going to send a boat down the river for you,
+Ratty, with strict orders that you were to be
+fetched up here at once, whatever you were
+doing. I want you badly&mdash;both of you. Now
+what will you take? Come inside and have
+something! You don't know how lucky it is,
+your turning up just now!"</p>
+
+<p>"Let's sit quiet a bit, Toady!" said the Rat,
+throwing himself into an easy chair, while the
+Mole took another by the side of him and made
+some civil remark about Toad's "delightful residence."</p>
+
+<p>"Finest house on the whole river," cried Toad
+boisterously. "Or anywhere else, for that matter,"
+he could not help adding.</p>
+
+<p>Here the Rat nudged the Mole. Unfortunately
+the Toad saw him do it, and turned very
+red. There was a moment's painful silence.
+Then Toad burst out laughing. "All right,
+Ratty," he said. "It's only my way, you know.
+And it's not such a very bad house, is it? You
+know, you rather like it yourself. Now, look
+<!-- Page 35 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+here. Let's be sensible. You are the very
+animals I wanted. You've got to help me.
+It's most important!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's about your rowing, I suppose," said the
+Rat, with an innocent air. "You're getting on
+fairly well, though you splash a good bit still.
+With a great deal of patience and any quantity
+of coaching, you may&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"O, pooh! boating!" interrupted the Toad,
+in great disgust. "Silly boyish amusement.
+I've given that up <i>long</i> ago. Sheer waste of
+time, that's what it is. It makes me downright
+sorry to see you fellows, who ought to know
+better, spending all your energies in that aimless
+manner. No, I've discovered the real thing,
+the only genuine occupation for a lifetime. I
+propose to devote the remainder of mine to it,
+and can only regret the wasted years that lie
+behind me, squandered in trivialities. Come
+with me, dear Ratty, and your amiable friend
+also, if he will be so very good, just as far as
+the stable-yard, and you shall see what you
+shall see!"</p>
+
+<p>He led the way to the stable-yard accordingly,
+<!-- Page 36 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+the Rat following with a most mistrustful
+expression; and there, drawn out of the coach-house
+into the open, they saw a gipsy caravan,
+shining with newness, painted a canary-yellow
+picked out with green, and red wheels.</p>
+
+<p>"There you are!" cried the Toad, straddling
+and expanding himself. "There's real life for
+you, embodied in that little cart. The open
+road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common,
+the hedgerows, the rolling downs! Camps,
+villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off
+to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change,
+interest, excitement! The whole world before
+you, and a horizon that's always changing! And
+mind! this is the very finest cart of its sort that
+was ever built, without any exception. Come
+inside and look at the arrangements. Planned
+'em all myself, I did!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole was tremendously interested and
+excited, and followed him eagerly up the steps
+and into the interior of the caravan. The Rat
+only snorted and thrust his hands deep into his
+pockets, remaining where he was.</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed very compact and comfortable.
+<!-- Page 37 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+Little sleeping bunks&mdash;a little table that folded
+up against the wall&mdash;a cooking-stove, lockers,
+book-shelves, a bird-cage with a bird in it; and
+pots, pans, jugs, and kettles of every size and
+variety.</p>
+
+<p>"All complete!" said the Toad triumphantly,
+pulling open a locker. "You see&mdash;biscuits,
+potted lobster, sardines&mdash;everything you can
+possibly want. Soda-water here&mdash;baccy there&mdash;letter-paper,
+bacon, jam, cards, and dominoes&mdash;you'll
+find," he continued, as they descended
+the steps again, "you'll find that nothing
+whatever has been forgotten, when we make
+our start this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"I beg your pardon," said the Rat slowly, as
+he chewed a straw, "but did I overhear you say
+something about '<i>we</i>,' and '<i>start</i>,' and '<i>this
+afternoon</i>'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, you dear good old Ratty," said Toad
+imploringly, "don't begin talking in that stiff
+and sniffy sort of way, because you know you've
+<i>got</i> to come. I can't possibly manage without
+you, so please consider it settled, and don't
+argue&mdash;it's the one thing I can't stand. You
+<!-- Page 38 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
+surely don't mean to stick to your dull fusty
+old river all your life, and just live in a hole in
+a bank, and <i>boat</i>? I want to show you the
+world! I'm going to make an <i>animal</i> of you,
+my boy!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care," said the Rat doggedly. "I'm
+not coming, and that's flat. And I <i>am</i> going to
+stick to my old river, <i>and</i> live in a hole, <i>and</i>
+boat, as I've always done. And what's more,
+Mole's going to stick to me and do as I do,
+aren't you, Mole?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I am," said the Mole, loyally. "I'll
+always stick to you, Rat, and what you say is to
+be&mdash;has got to be. All the same, it sounds as
+if it might have been&mdash;well, rather fun, you
+know!" he added wistfully. Poor Mole! The
+Life Adventurous was so new a thing to him,
+and so thrilling; and this fresh aspect of it was
+so tempting; and he had fallen in love at first
+sight with the canary-coloured cart and all its
+little fitments.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat saw what was passing in his mind,
+and wavered. He hated disappointing people,
+and he was fond of the Mole, and would do
+<!-- Page 39 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+almost anything to oblige him. Toad was watching
+both of them closely.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along in, and have some lunch," he
+said, diplomatically, "and we'll talk it over.
+We needn't decide anything in a hurry. Of
+course, <i>I</i> don't really care. I only want to give
+pleasure to you fellows. 'Live for others!'
+That's my motto in life."</p>
+
+<p>During luncheon&mdash;which was excellent, of
+course, as everything at Toad Hall always was&mdash;the
+Toad simply let himself go. Disregarding
+the Rat, he proceeded to play upon the
+inexperienced Mole as on a harp. Naturally a
+voluble animal, and always mastered by his
+imagination, he painted the prospects of the
+trip and the joys of the open life and the roadside
+in such glowing colours that the Mole
+could hardly sit in his chair for excitement.
+Somehow, it soon seemed taken for granted by
+all three of them that the trip was a settled
+thing; and the Rat, though still unconvinced
+in his mind, allowed his good-nature to over-ride
+his personal objections. He could not bear
+to disappoint his two friends, who were already
+<!-- Page 40 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+deep in schemes and anticipations, planning out
+each day's separate occupation for several weeks
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>When they were quite ready, the now triumphant
+Toad led his companions to the paddock
+and set them to capture the old grey horse, who,
+without having been consulted, and to his own
+extreme annoyance, had been told off by Toad
+for the dustiest job in this dusty expedition.
+He frankly preferred the paddock, and took a
+deal of catching. Meantime Toad packed the
+lockers still tighter with necessaries, and hung
+nose-bags, nets of onions, bundles of hay, and
+baskets from the bottom of the cart. At last
+the horse was caught and harnessed, and they
+set off, all talking at once, each animal either
+trudging by the side of the cart or sitting on
+the shaft, as the humour took him. It was a
+golden afternoon. The smell of the dust they
+kicked up was rich and satisfying; out of thick
+orchards on either side the road, birds called
+and whistled to them cheerily; good-natured
+wayfarers, passing them, gave them "Good
+day," or stopped to say nice things about their
+<!-- Page 41 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+beautiful cart; and rabbits, sitting at their front
+doors in the hedgerows, held up their fore-paws,
+and said, "O my! O my! O my!"</p>
+
+<p>Late in the evening, tired and happy and
+miles from home, they drew up on a remote
+common far from habitations, turned the horse
+loose to graze, and ate their simple supper sitting
+on the grass by the side of the cart. Toad
+talked big about all he was going to do in the
+days to come, while stars grew fuller and larger
+all around them, and a yellow moon, appearing
+suddenly and silently from nowhere in particular,
+came to keep them company and listen to
+their talk. At last they turned in to their little
+bunks in the cart; and Toad, kicking out his
+legs, sleepily said, "Well, good night, you fellows!
+This is the real life for a gentleman!
+Talk about your old river!"</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>don't</i> talk about my river," replied the
+patient Rat. "You <i>know</i> I don't, Toad. But I
+<i>think</i> about it," he added pathetically, in a lower
+tone: "I think about it&mdash;all the time!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole reached out from under his blanket,
+felt for the Rat's paw in the darkness, and
+<!-- Page 42 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+gave it a squeeze. "I'll do whatever you like,
+Ratty," he whispered. "Shall we run away to-morrow
+morning, quite early&mdash;<i>very</i> early&mdash;and
+go back to our dear old hole on the river?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, we'll see it out," whispered back the
+Rat. "Thanks awfully, but I ought to stick by
+Toad till this trip is ended. It wouldn't be safe
+for him to be left to himself. It won't take
+very long. His fads never do. Good night!"</p>
+
+<p>The end was indeed nearer than even the
+Rat suspected.</p>
+
+<p>After so much open air and excitement the
+Toad slept very soundly, and no amount of
+shaking could rouse him out of bed next morning.
+So the Mole and Rat turned to, quietly
+and manfully, and while the Rat saw to the
+horse, and lit a fire, and cleaned last night's
+cups and platters, and got things ready for
+breakfast, the Mole trudged off to the nearest
+village, a long way off, for milk and eggs and
+various necessaries the Toad had, of course, forgotten
+to provide. The hard work had all been
+done, and the two animals were resting, thoroughly
+exhausted, by the time Toad appeared
+<!-- Page 43 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+on the scene, fresh and gay, remarking what a
+pleasant, easy life it was they were all leading
+now, after the cares and worries and fatigues of
+housekeeping at home.</p>
+
+<p>They had a pleasant ramble that day over
+grassy downs and along narrow by-lanes, and
+camped, as before, on a common, only this time
+the two guests took care that Toad should do his
+fair share of work. In consequence, when the
+time came for starting next morning, Toad was
+by no means so rapturous about the simplicity
+of the primitive life, and indeed attempted to
+resume his place in his bunk, whence he was
+hauled by force. Their way lay, as before,
+across country by narrow lanes, and it was not
+till the afternoon that they came out on the
+high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster,
+fleet and unforeseen, sprang out on them&mdash;disaster
+momentous indeed to their expedition,
+but simply overwhelming in its effect on
+the after career of Toad.</p>
+
+<p>They were strolling along the high-road easily,
+the Mole by the horse's head, talking to him,
+since the horse had complained that he was
+<!-- Page 44 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+being frightfully left out of it, and nobody considered
+him in the least; the Toad and the
+Water Rat walking behind the cart talking together&mdash;at
+least Toad was talking, and Rat
+was saying at intervals, "Yes, precisely; and
+what did <i>you</i> say to <i>him</i>?"&mdash;and thinking all
+the time of something very different, when far
+behind them they heard a faint warning hum,
+like the drone of a distant bee. Glancing back,
+they saw a small cloud of dust, with a dark
+centre of energy, advancing on them at incredible
+speed, while from out the dust a faint
+"Poop-poop!" wailed like an uneasy animal in
+pain. Hardly regarding it, they turned to resume
+their conversation, when in an instant (as
+it seemed) the peaceful scene was changed, and
+with a blast of wind and a whirl of sound that
+made them jump for the nearest ditch. It was
+on them! The "Poop-poop" rang with a brazen
+shout in their ears, they had a moment's glimpse
+of an interior of glittering plate-glass and rich
+morocco, and the magnificent motor-car, immense,
+breath-snatching, passionate, with its
+pilot tense and hugging his wheel, possessed all
+<!-- Page 45 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+earth and air for the fraction of a second, flung
+an enveloping cloud of dust that blinded and
+enwrapped them utterly, and then dwindled to
+a speck in the far distance, changed back into a
+droning bee once more.</p>
+
+<p>The old grey horse, dreaming, as he plodded
+along, of his quiet paddock, in a new raw situation
+such as this, simply abandoned himself to
+his natural emotions. Rearing, plunging, backing
+steadily, in spite of all the Mole's efforts at
+his head, and all the Mole's lively language
+directed at his better feelings, he drove the cart
+backward towards the deep ditch at the side of
+the road. It wavered an instant&mdash;then there
+was a heart-rending crash&mdash;and the canary-coloured
+cart, their pride and their joy, lay on
+its side in the ditch, an irredeemable wreck.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat danced up and down in the road,
+simply transported with passion. "You villains!"
+he shouted, shaking both fists. "You
+scoundrels, you highwaymen, you&mdash;you&mdash;road-hogs!&mdash;I'll
+have the law of you! I'll report
+you! I'll take you through all the Courts!"
+His home-sickness had quite slipped away from
+<!-- Page 46 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+him, and for the moment he was the skipper of
+the canary-coloured vessel driven on a shoal by
+the reckless jockeying of rival mariners, and he
+was trying to recollect all the fine and biting
+things he used to say to masters of steam-launches
+when their wash, as they drove too
+near the bank, used to flood his parlour-carpet
+at home.</p>
+
+<p>Toad sat straight down in the middle of the
+dusty road, his legs stretched out before him,
+and stared fixedly in the direction of the disappearing
+motor-car. He breathed short, his
+face wore a placid, satisfied expression, and at
+intervals he faintly murmured "Poop-poop!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole was busy trying to quiet the horse,
+which he succeeded in doing after a time. Then
+he went to look at the cart, on its side in the
+ditch. It was indeed a sorry sight. Panels and
+windows smashed, axles hopelessly bent, one
+wheel off, sardine-tins scattered over the wide
+world, and the bird in the bird-cage sobbing
+pitifully and calling to be let out.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat came to help him, but their united
+efforts were not sufficient to right the cart.
+<!-- Page 47 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+"Hi! Toad!" they cried. "Come and bear a
+hand, can't you!"</p>
+
+<p>The Toad never answered a word, or budged
+from his seat in the road; so they went to see
+what was the matter with him. They found
+him in a sort of a trance, a happy smile on his
+face, his eyes still fixed on the dusty wake of
+their destroyer. At intervals he was still heard
+to murmur "Poop-poop!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat shook him by the shoulder. "Are you
+coming to help us, Toad?" he demanded sternly.</p>
+
+<p>"Glorious, stirring sight!" murmured Toad,
+never offering to move. "The poetry of motion!
+The <i>real</i> way to travel! The <i>only</i> way to travel!
+Here to-day&mdash;in next week to-morrow! Villages
+skipped, towns and cities jumped&mdash;always
+somebody else's horizon! O bliss! O poop-poop!
+O my! O my!"</p>
+
+<p>"O <i>stop</i> being an ass, Toad!" cried the Mole
+despairingly.</p>
+
+<p>"And to think I never <i>knew</i>!" went on the
+Toad in a dreamy monotone. "All those wasted
+years that lie behind me, I never knew, never
+even <i>dreamt</i>! But <i>now</i>&mdash;but now that I know,
+<!-- Page 48 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+now that I fully realise! O what a flowery track
+lies spread before me, henceforth! What dust-clouds
+shall spring up behind me as I speed on
+my reckless way! What carts I shall fling carelessly
+into the ditch in the wake of my magnificent
+onset! Horrid little carts&mdash;common carts&mdash;canary-coloured
+carts!"</p>
+
+<p>"What are we to do with him?" asked the
+Mole of the Water Rat.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all," replied the Rat firmly.
+"Because there is really nothing to be done.
+You see, I know him from of old. He is now
+possessed. He has got a new craze, and it
+always takes him that way, in its first stage.
+He'll continue like that for days now, like an
+animal walking in a happy dream, quite useless
+for all practical purposes. Never mind him.
+Let's go and see what there is to be done about
+the cart."</p>
+
+<p>A careful inspection showed them that, even
+if they succeeded in righting it by themselves,
+the cart would travel no longer. The axles
+were in a hopeless state, and the missing wheel
+was shattered into pieces.
+<!-- Page 49 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Rat knotted the horse's reins over his
+back and took him by the head, carrying the
+bird-cage and its hysterical occupant in the
+other hand. "Come on!" he said grimly to the
+Mole. "It's five or six miles to the nearest
+town, and we shall just have to walk it. The
+sooner we make a start the better."</p>
+
+<p>"But what about Toad?" asked the Mole
+anxiously, as they set off together. "We can't
+leave him here, sitting in the middle of the road
+by himself, in the distracted state he's in! It's
+not safe. Supposing another Thing were to
+come along?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, <i>bother</i> Toad," said the Rat savagely;
+"I've done with him."</p>
+
+<p>They had not proceeded very far on their
+way, however, when there was a pattering of
+feet behind them, and Toad caught them up
+and thrust a paw inside the elbow of each of
+them; still breathing short and staring into
+vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look here, Toad!" said the Rat sharply:
+"as soon as we get to the town, you'll have to
+go straight to the police-station and see if they
+<!-- Page 50 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+know anything about that motor-car and who
+it belongs to, and lodge a complaint against it.
+And then you'll have to go to a blacksmith's
+or a wheelwright's and arrange for the cart to
+be fetched and mended and put to rights. It'll
+take time, but it's not quite a hopeless smash.
+Meanwhile, the Mole and I will go to an inn
+and find comfortable rooms where we can stay
+till the cart's ready, and till your nerves have
+recovered their shock."</p>
+
+<p>"Police-station! Complaint!" murmured Toad
+dreamily. "Me <i>complain</i> of that beautiful, that
+heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me!
+<i>Mend</i> the <i>cart</i>! I've done with carts for ever.
+I never want to see the cart, or to hear of it,
+again. O Ratty! You can't think how obliged
+I am to you for consenting to come on this trip!
+I wouldn't have gone without you, and then I
+might never have seen that&mdash;that swan, that
+sunbeam, that thunderbolt! I might never have
+heard that entrancing sound, or smelt that bewitching
+smell! I owe it all to you, my best of
+friends!"</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page50pic" id="Page50pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus02.jpg" width="420" height="559"
+alt="&quot;Come on!&quot; he said. &quot;We shall just have to walk it&quot;"
+title="&quot;Come on!&quot; he said. &quot;We shall just have to walk it&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;Come on!&quot; he said.
+     &quot;We shall just have to walk it&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Rat turned from him in despair. "You
+<!-- Page 51 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+see what it is?" he said to the Mole, addressing
+him across Toad's head: "He's quite hopeless.
+I give it up&mdash;when we get to the town we'll go
+to the railway station, and with luck we may
+pick up a train there that'll get us back to river
+bank to-night. And if ever you catch me going
+a-pleasuring with this provoking animal again!"&mdash;He
+snorted, and during the rest of that weary
+trudge addressed his remarks exclusively to
+Mole.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the town they went straight to
+the station and deposited Toad in the second-class
+waiting-room, giving a porter twopence to
+keep a strict eye on him. They then left the
+horse at an inn stable, and gave what directions
+they could about the cart and its contents.
+Eventually, a slow train having landed them at
+a station not very far from Toad Hall, they
+escorted the spellbound, sleep-walking Toad to
+his door, put him inside it, and instructed his
+housekeeper to feed him, undress him, and put
+him to bed. Then they got out their boat from
+the boat-house, sculled down the river home,
+and at a very late hour sat down to supper in
+<!-- Page 52 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+their own cosy riverside parlour, to the Rat's
+great joy and contentment.</p>
+
+<p>The following evening the Mole, who had
+risen late and taken things very easy all day,
+was sitting on the bank fishing, when the Rat,
+who had been looking up his friends and gossiping,
+came strolling along to find him. "Heard
+the news?" he said. "There's nothing else
+being talked about, all along the river bank.
+Toad went up to Town by an early train this
+morning. And he has ordered a large and very
+expensive motor-car."
+<!-- Page 53 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="III" id="III"></a><h2>III</h2>
+<h2>THE WILD WOOD</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 54 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 55 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE Mole had long wanted to make the
+acquaintance of the Badger. He seemed,
+by all accounts, to be such an important personage
+and, though rarely visible, to make his
+unseen influence felt by everybody about the
+place. But whenever the Mole mentioned his
+wish to the Water Rat, he always found himself
+put off. "It's all right," the Rat would
+say. "Badger'll turn up some day or other&mdash;he's
+always turning up&mdash;and then I'll introduce
+you. The best of fellows! But you must
+not only take him <i>as</i> you find him, but <i>when</i> you
+find him."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't you ask him here&mdash;dinner or
+something?" said the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"He wouldn't come," replied the Rat simply.
+"Badger hates Society, and invitations, and
+dinner, and all that sort of thing."
+<!-- Page 56 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, supposing we go and call on
+<i>him</i>?" suggested the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"O, I'm sure he wouldn't like that at <i>all</i>,"
+said the Rat, quite alarmed. "He's so very
+shy, he'd be sure to be offended. I've never
+even ventured to call on him at his own home
+myself, though I know him so well. Besides,
+we can't. It's quite out of the question, because
+he lives in the very middle of the Wild
+Wood."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, supposing he does," said the Mole.
+"You told me the Wild Wood was all right, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"O, I know, I know, so it is," replied the Rat
+evasively. "But I think we won't go there
+just now. Not <i>just</i> yet. It's a long way, and
+he wouldn't be at home at this time of year
+anyhow, and he'll be coming along some day,
+if you'll wait quietly."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole had to be content with this. But
+the Badger never came along, and every day
+brought its amusements, and it was not till
+summer was long over, and cold and frost and
+miry ways kept them much indoors, and the
+<!-- Page 57 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+swollen river raced past outside their windows
+with a speed that mocked at boating of any
+sort or kind, that he found his thoughts dwelling
+again with much persistence on the solitary
+grey Badger, who lived his own life by himself,
+in his hole in the middle of the Wild Wood.</p>
+
+<p>In the winter time the Rat slept a great deal,
+retiring early and rising late. During his short
+day he sometimes scribbled poetry or did other
+small domestic jobs about the house; and, of
+course, there were always animals dropping in
+for a chat, and consequently there was a good
+deal of story-telling and comparing notes on
+the past summer and all its doings.</p>
+
+<p>Such a rich chapter it had been, when one
+came to look back on it all! With illustrations
+so numerous and so very highly-coloured! The
+pageant of the river bank had marched steadily
+along, unfolding itself in scene-pictures that succeeded
+each other in stately procession. Purple
+loosestrife arrived early, shaking luxuriant tangled
+locks along the edge of the mirror whence
+its own face laughed back at it. Willow-herb,
+tender and wistful, like a pink sunset cloud, was
+<!-- Page 58 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+not slow to follow. Comfrey, the purple hand-in-hand
+with the white, crept forth to take its
+place in the line; and at last one morning the
+diffident and delaying dog-rose stepped delicately
+on the stage, and one knew, as if string-music
+had announced it in stately chords that strayed
+into a gavotte, that June at last was here. One
+member of the company was still awaited; the
+shepherd-boy for the nymphs to woo, the knight
+for whom the ladies waited at the window,
+the prince that was to kiss the sleeping summer
+back to life and love. But when meadow-sweet,
+debonair and odorous in amber jerkin, moved
+graciously to his place in the group, then the
+play was ready to begin.</p>
+
+<p>And what a play it had been! Drowsy animals,
+snug in their holes while wind and rain
+were battering at their doors, recalled still keen
+mornings, an hour before sunrise, when the white
+mist, as yet undispersed, clung closely along the
+surface of the water; then the shock of the
+early plunge, the scamper along the bank, and
+the radiant transformation of earth, air, and
+water, when suddenly the sun was with them
+<!-- Page 59 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+again, and grey was gold and colour was born
+and sprang out of the earth once more. They
+recalled the languorous siesta of hot mid-day,
+deep in green undergrowth, the sun striking
+through in tiny golden shafts and spots; the
+boating and bathing of the afternoon, the rambles
+along dusty lanes and through yellow corn-fields;
+and the long, cool evening at last, when
+so many threads were gathered up, so many
+friendships rounded, and so many adventures
+planned for the morrow. There was plenty to
+talk about on those short winter days when the
+animals found themselves round the fire; still,
+the Mole had a good deal of spare time on his
+hands, and so one afternoon, when the Rat in
+his arm-chair before the blaze was alternately
+dozing and trying over rhymes that wouldn't
+fit, he formed the resolution to go out by himself
+and explore the Wild Wood, and perhaps
+strike up an acquaintance with Mr. Badger.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cold, still afternoon with a hard,
+steely sky overhead, when he slipped out of
+the warm parlour into the open air. The country
+lay bare and entirely leafless around him,
+<!-- Page 60 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+and he thought that he had never seen so far
+and so intimately into the insides of things as
+on that winter day when Nature was deep in
+her annual slumber and seemed to have kicked
+the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries, and all
+hidden places, which had been mysterious mines
+for exploration in leafy summer, now exposed
+themselves and their secrets pathetically, and
+seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby
+poverty for a while, till they could riot in rich
+masquerade as before, and trick and entice him
+with the old deceptions. It was pitiful in a
+way, and yet cheering&mdash;even exhilarating. He
+was glad that he liked the country undecorated,
+hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got
+down to the bare bones of it, and they were
+fine and strong and simple. He did not want
+the warm clover and the play of seeding grasses;
+the screens of quickset, the billowy drapery of
+beech and elm seemed best away; and with
+great cheerfulness of spirit he pushed on towards
+the Wild Wood, which lay before him low
+and threatening, like a black reef in some still
+southern sea.
+<!-- Page 61 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to alarm him at first
+entry. Twigs crackled under his feet, logs
+tripped him, funguses on stumps resembled caricatures,
+and startled him for the moment by
+their likeness to something familiar and far
+away; but that was all fun, and exciting. It
+led him on, and he penetrated to where the light
+was less, and trees crouched nearer and nearer,
+and holes made ugly mouths at him on either
+side.</p>
+
+<p>Everything was very still now. The dusk
+advanced on him steadily, rapidly, gathering in
+behind and before; and the light seemed to be
+draining away like flood-water.</p>
+
+<p>Then the faces began.</p>
+
+<p>It was over his shoulder, and indistinctly,
+that he first thought he saw a face, a little, evil,
+wedge-shaped face, looking out at him from a
+hole. When he turned and confronted it, the
+thing had vanished.</p>
+
+<p>He quickened his pace, telling himself cheerfully
+not to begin imagining things or there
+would be simply no end to it. He passed
+another hole, and another, and another; and
+<!-- Page 62 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+then&mdash;yes!&mdash;no!&mdash;yes! certainly a little, narrow
+face, with hard eyes, had flashed up for an
+instant from a hole, and was gone. He hesitated&mdash;braced
+himself up for an effort and strode
+on. Then suddenly, and as if it had been so all
+the time, every hole, far and near, and there
+were hundreds of them, seemed to possess its
+face, coming and going rapidly, all fixing on
+him glances of malice and hatred: all hard-eyed
+and evil and sharp.</p>
+
+<p>If he could only get away from the holes in
+the banks, he thought, there would be no more
+faces. He swung off the path and plunged into
+the untrodden places of the wood.</p>
+
+<p>Then the whistling began.</p>
+
+<p>Very faint and shrill it was, and far behind
+him, when first he heard it; but somehow it
+made him hurry forward. Then, still very faint
+and shrill, it sounded far ahead of him, and made
+him hesitate and want to go back. As he halted
+in indecision it broke out on either side, and
+seemed to be caught up and passed on throughout
+the whole length of the wood to its farthest
+limit. They were up and alert and ready, evidently,
+<!-- Page 63 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+whoever they were! And he&mdash;he was
+alone, and unarmed, and far from any help;
+and the night was closing in.</p>
+
+<p>Then the pattering began.</p>
+
+<p>He thought it was only falling leaves at first,
+so slight and delicate was the sound of it. Then
+as it grew it took a regular rhythm, and he
+knew it for nothing else but the pat-pat-pat of
+little feet still a very long way off. Was it in
+front or behind? It seemed to be first one, and
+then the other, then both. It grew and it multiplied,
+till from every quarter as he listened
+anxiously, leaning this way and that, it seemed
+to be closing in on him. As he stood still to
+hearken, a rabbit came running hard towards
+him through the trees. He waited, expecting it
+to slacken pace or to swerve from him into a
+different course. Instead, the animal almost
+brushed him as it dashed past, his face set and
+hard, his eyes staring. "Get out of this, you
+fool, get out!" the Mole heard him mutter as
+he swung round a stump and disappeared down
+a friendly burrow.</p>
+
+<p>The pattering increased till it sounded like
+<!-- Page 64 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+sudden hail on the dry leaf-carpet spread around
+him. The whole wood seemed running now,
+running hard, hunting, chasing, closing in round
+something or&mdash;somebody? In panic, he began
+to run too, aimlessly, he knew not whither. He
+ran up against things, he fell over things and
+into things, he darted under things and dodged
+round things. At last he took refuge in the deep,
+dark hollow of an old beech tree, which offered
+shelter, concealment&mdash;perhaps even safety, but
+who could tell? Anyhow, he was too tired to
+run any further, and could only snuggle down
+into the dry leaves which had drifted into the
+hollow and hope he was safe for a time. And as
+he lay there panting and trembling, and listened
+to the whistlings and the patterings outside, he
+knew it at last, in all its fulness, that dread
+thing which other little dwellers in field and
+hedgerow had encountered here, and known as
+their darkest moment&mdash;that thing which the
+Rat had vainly tried to shield him from&mdash;the
+Terror of the Wild Wood!</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page64pic" id="Page64pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus03.jpg" width="420" height="572"
+alt="In panic, he began to run" title="In panic, he began to run" />
+<span class="caption">In panic, he began to run</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Meantime the Rat, warm and comfortable,
+dozed by his fireside. His paper of half-finished
+<!-- Page 65 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
+verses slipped from his knee, his head fell back,
+his mouth opened, and he wandered by the
+verdant banks of dream-rivers. Then a coal
+slipped, the fire crackled and sent up a spurt of
+flame, and he woke with a start. Remembering
+what he had been engaged upon, he reached
+down to the floor for his verses, pored over
+them for a minute, and then looked round for
+the Mole to ask him if he knew a good rhyme
+for something or other.</p>
+
+<p>But the Mole was not there.</p>
+
+<p>He listened for a time. The house seemed
+very quiet.</p>
+
+<p>Then he called "Moly!" several times, and,
+receiving no answer, got up and went out into
+the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The Mole's cap was missing from its accustomed
+peg. His goloshes, which always lay by
+the umbrella-stand, were also gone.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat left the house, and carefully examined
+the muddy surface of the ground outside,
+hoping to find the Mole's tracks. There they
+were, sure enough. The goloshes were new,
+just bought for the winter, and the pimples on
+<!-- Page 66 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+their soles were fresh and sharp. He could
+see the imprints of them in the mud, running
+along straight and purposeful, leading direct to
+the Wild Wood.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat looked very grave, and stood in
+deep thought for a minute or two. Then he
+re-entered the house, strapped a belt round his
+waist, shoved a brace of pistols into it, took up
+a stout cudgel that stood in a corner of the
+hall, and set off for the Wild Wood at a smart
+pace.</p>
+
+<p>It was already getting towards dusk when he
+reached the first fringe of trees and plunged
+without hesitation into the wood, looking anxiously
+on either side for any sign of his friend.
+Here and there wicked little faces popped out
+of holes, but vanished immediately at sight of
+the valorous animal, his pistols, and the great
+ugly cudgel in his grasp; and the whistling and
+pattering, which he had heard quite plainly on
+his first entry, died away and ceased, and all
+was very still. He made his way manfully
+through the length of the wood, to its furthest
+edge; then, forsaking all paths, he set himself
+<!-- Page 67 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+to traverse it, laboriously working over the
+whole ground, and all the time calling out cheerfully,
+"Moly, Moly, Moly! Where are you?
+It's me&mdash;it's old Rat!"</p>
+
+<p>He had patiently hunted through the wood
+for an hour or more, when at last to his joy he
+heard a little answering cry. Guiding himself
+by the sound, he made his way through the
+gathering darkness to the foot of an old beech
+tree, with a hole in it, and from out of the hole
+came a feeble voice, saying "Ratty! Is that
+really you?"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat crept into the hollow, and there he
+found the Mole, exhausted and still trembling.
+"O Rat!" he cried, "I've been so frightened,
+you can't think!"</p>
+
+<p>"O, I quite understand," said the Rat soothingly.
+"You shouldn't really have gone and
+done it, Mole. I did my best to keep you from
+it. We river-bankers, we hardly ever come here
+by ourselves. If we have to come, we come
+in couples at least; then we're generally all
+right. Besides, there are a hundred things one
+has to know, which we understand all about
+<!-- Page 68 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+and you don't, as yet. I mean passwords, and
+signs, and sayings which have power and effect,
+and plants you carry in your pocket, and verses
+you repeat, and dodges and tricks you practise;
+all simple enough when you know them, but
+they've got to be known if you're small, or
+you'll find yourself in trouble. Of course if
+you were Badger or Otter, it would be quite
+another matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Surely the brave Mr. Toad wouldn't mind
+coming here by himself, would he?" inquired
+the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"Old Toad?" said the Rat, laughing heartily.
+"He wouldn't show his face here alone, not
+for a whole hatful of golden guineas, Toad
+wouldn't."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole was greatly cheered by the sound
+of the Rat's careless laughter, as well as by the
+sight of his stick and his gleaming pistols, and
+he stopped shivering and began to feel bolder
+and more himself again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then," said the Rat presently, "we
+really must pull ourselves together and make a
+start for home while there's still a little light
+<!-- Page 69 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+left. It will never do to spend the night here,
+you understand. Too cold, for one thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Ratty," said the poor Mole, "I'm
+dreadfully sorry, but I'm simply dead beat and
+that's a solid fact. You <i>must</i> let me rest here
+a while longer, and get my strength back, if
+I'm to get home at all."</p>
+
+<p>"O, all right," said the good-natured Rat,
+"rest away. It's pretty nearly pitch dark now,
+anyhow; and there ought to be a bit of a moon
+later."</p>
+
+<p>So the Mole got well into the dry leaves and
+stretched himself out, and presently dropped off
+into sleep, though of a broken and troubled
+sort; while the Rat covered himself up, too, as
+best he might, for warmth, and lay patiently
+waiting, with a pistol in his paw.</p>
+
+<p>When at last the Mole woke up, much refreshed
+and in his usual spirits, the Rat said,
+"Now then! I'll just take a look outside and
+see if everything's quiet, and then we really
+must be off."</p>
+
+<p>He went to the entrance of their retreat and
+put his head out. Then the Mole heard him
+<!-- Page 70 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+saying quietly to himself,
+"Hullo! hullo! here&mdash;<i>is</i>&mdash;a&mdash;go!"</p>
+
+<p>"What's up, Ratty?" asked the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Snow</i> is up," replied the Rat briefly; "or
+rather, <i>down</i>. It's snowing hard."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole came and crouched beside him,
+and, looking out, saw the wood that had been
+so dreadful to him in quite a changed aspect.
+Holes, hollows, pools, pitfalls, and other black
+menaces to the wayfarer were vanishing fast,
+and a gleaming carpet of faery was springing
+up everywhere, that looked too delicate to be
+trodden upon by rough feet. A fine powder
+filled the air and caressed the cheek with a
+tingle in its touch, and the black boles of the
+trees showed up in a light that seemed to come
+from below.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well, it can't be helped," said the Rat,
+after pondering. "We must make a start, and
+take our chance, I suppose. The worst of it is, I
+don't exactly know where we are. And now this
+snow makes everything look so very different."</p>
+
+<p>It did indeed. The Mole would not have
+known that it was the same wood. However,
+<!-- Page 71 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+they set out bravely, and took the line that
+seemed most promising, holding on to each
+other and pretending with invincible cheerfulness
+that they recognised an old friend in every
+fresh tree that grimly and silently greeted them,
+or saw openings, gaps, or paths with a familiar
+turn in them, in the monotony of white space
+and black tree-trunks that refused to vary.</p>
+
+<p>An hour or two later&mdash;they had lost all
+count of time&mdash;they pulled up, dispirited,
+weary, and hopelessly at sea, and sat down on a
+fallen tree-trunk to recover their breath and
+consider what was to be done. They were aching
+with fatigue and bruised with tumbles; they
+had fallen into several holes and got wet through;
+the snow was getting so deep that they could
+hardly drag their little legs through it, and the
+trees were thicker and more like each other
+than ever. There seemed to be no end to this
+wood, and no beginning, and no difference in it,
+and, worst of all, no way out.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't sit here very long," said the Rat.
+"We shall have to make another push for it, and
+do something or other. The cold is too awful
+<!-- Page 72 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+for anything, and the snow will soon be too
+deep for us to wade through." He peered about
+him and considered. "Look here," he went on,
+"this is what occurs to me. There's a sort of
+dell down here in front of us, where the ground
+seems all hilly and humpy and hummocky.
+We'll make our way down into that, and try
+and find some sort of shelter, a cave or hole with
+a dry floor to it, out of the snow and the wind,
+and there we'll have a good rest before we try
+again, for we're both of us pretty dead beat.
+Besides, the snow may leave off, or something
+may turn up."</p>
+
+<p>So once more they got on their feet, and
+struggled down into the dell, where they hunted
+about for a cave or some corner that was dry
+and a protection from the keen wind and the
+whirling snow. They were investigating one of
+the hummocky bits the Rat had spoken of,
+when suddenly the Mole tripped up and fell
+forward on his face with a squeal.</p>
+
+<p>"O my leg!" he cried. "O my poor shin!"
+and he sat up on the snow and nursed his leg
+in both his front paws.
+<!-- Page 73 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Poor old Mole!" said the Rat kindly. "You
+don't seem to be having much luck to-day, do
+you? Let's have a look at the leg. Yes," he
+went on, going down on his knees to look,
+"you've cut your shin, sure enough. Wait till
+I get at my handkerchief, and I'll tie it up for
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"I must have tripped over a hidden branch
+or a stump," said the Mole miserably. "O, my!
+O, my!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a very clean cut," said the Rat, examining
+it again attentively. "That was never
+done by a branch or a stump. Looks as if
+it was made by a sharp edge of something in
+metal. Funny!" He pondered awhile, and examined
+the humps and slopes that surrounded
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, never mind what done it," said the
+Mole, forgetting his grammar in his pain. "It
+hurts just the same, whatever done it."</p>
+
+<p>But the Rat, after carefully tying up the leg
+with his handkerchief, had left him and was
+busy scraping in the snow. He scratched and
+shovelled and explored, all four legs working
+<!-- Page 74 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+busily, while the Mole waited impatiently, remarking
+at intervals, "O, <i>come</i> on, Rat!"</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the Rat cried "Hooray!" and then
+"Hooray-oo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray!" and fell to executing
+a feeble jig in the snow.</p>
+
+<p>"What <i>have</i> you found, Ratty?" asked the
+Mole, still nursing his leg.</p>
+
+<p>"Come and see!" said the delighted Rat, as
+he jigged on.</p>
+
+<p>The Mole hobbled up to the spot and had a
+good look.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said at last, slowly, "I <i>see</i> it right
+enough. Seen the same sort of thing before,
+lots of times. Familiar object, I call it. A
+door-scraper! Well, what of it? Why dance
+jigs around a door-scraper?"</p>
+
+<p>"But don't you see what it <i>means</i>, you&mdash;you
+dull-witted animal?" cried the Rat impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I see what it means," replied the
+Mole. "It simply means that some <i>very</i> careless
+and forgetful person has left his door-scraper
+lying about in the middle of the Wild
+Wood, <i>just</i> where it's <i>sure</i> to trip <i>everybody</i> up.
+Very thoughtless of him, I call it. When I get
+<!-- Page 75 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+home I shall go and complain about it to&mdash;to
+somebody or other, see if I don't!"</p>
+
+<p>"O, dear! O, dear!" cried the Rat, in despair
+at his obtuseness. "Here, stop arguing and come
+and scrape!" And he set to work again and
+made the snow fly in all directions around him.</p>
+
+<p>After some further toil his efforts were rewarded,
+and a very shabby door-mat lay exposed
+to view.</p>
+
+<p>"There, what did I tell you?" exclaimed the
+Rat in great triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"Absolutely nothing whatever," replied the
+Mole, with perfect truthfulness. "Well, now,"
+he went on, "you seem to have found another
+piece of domestic litter, done for and thrown
+away, and I suppose you're perfectly happy.
+Better go ahead and dance your jig round that
+if you've got to, and get it over, and then perhaps
+we can go on and not waste any more
+time over rubbish-heaps. Can we <i>eat</i> a door-mat?
+Or sleep under a door-mat? Or sit on a
+door-mat and sledge home over the snow on it,
+you exasperating rodent?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do&mdash;you&mdash;mean&mdash;to&mdash;say," cried the
+<!-- Page 76 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+excited Rat, "that this door-mat doesn't <i>tell</i>
+you anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Rat," said the Mole, quite pettishly,
+"I think we've had enough of this folly. Who
+ever heard of a door-mat <i>telling</i> any one anything?
+They simply don't do it. They are not
+that sort at all. Door-mats know their place."</p>
+
+<p>"Now look here, you&mdash;you thick-headed
+beast," replied the Rat, really angry, "this must
+stop. Not another word, but scrape&mdash;scrape
+and scratch and dig and hunt round, especially
+on the sides of the hummocks, if you want to
+sleep dry and warm to-night, for it's our last
+chance!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat attacked a snow-bank beside them
+with ardour, probing with his cudgel everywhere
+and then digging with fury; and the
+Mole scraped busily too, more to oblige the
+Rat than for any other reason, for his opinion
+was that his friend was getting light-headed.</p>
+
+<p>Some ten minutes' hard work, and the point
+of the Rat's cudgel struck something that
+sounded hollow. He worked till he could get
+a paw through and feel; then called the Mole
+<!-- Page 77 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+to come and help him. Hard at it went the
+two animals, till at last the result of their
+labours stood full in view of the astonished and
+hitherto incredulous Mole.</p>
+
+<p>In the side of what had seemed to be a snow-bank
+stood a solid-looking little door, painted
+a dark green. An iron bell-pull hung by the
+side, and below it, on a small brass plate, neatly
+engraved in square capital letters, they could
+read by the aid of moonlight<br /></p>
+
+<div class="bbox3">MR. BADGER.</div>
+
+<p><br />The Mole fell backwards on the snow from
+sheer surprise and delight. "Rat!" he cried in
+penitence, "you're a wonder! A real wonder,
+that's what you are. I see it all now! You
+argued it out, step by step, in that wise head of
+yours, from the very moment that I fell and
+cut my shin, and you looked at the cut, and at
+once your majestic mind said to itself, 'Door-scraper!'
+And then you turned to and found
+the very door-scraper that done it! Did you
+stop there? No. Some people would have been
+quite satisfied; but not you. Your intellect
+<!-- Page 78 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+went on working. 'Let me only just find a
+door-mat,' says you to yourself, 'and my
+theory is proved!' And of course you found
+your door-mat. You're so clever, I believe you
+could find anything you liked. 'Now,' says
+you, 'that door exists, as plain as if I saw it.
+There's nothing else remains to be done but to
+find it!' Well, I've read about that sort of
+thing in books, but I've never come across it
+before in real life. You ought to go where
+you'll be properly appreciated. You're simply
+wasted here, among us fellows. If I only had
+your head, Ratty&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But as you haven't," interrupted the Rat,
+rather unkindly, "I suppose you're going to
+sit on the snow all night and <i>talk</i>? Get up
+at once and hang on to that bell-pull you see
+there, and ring hard, as hard as you can, while
+I hammer!"</p>
+
+<p>While the Rat attacked the door with his
+stick, the Mole sprang up at the bell-pull,
+clutched it and swung there, both feet well off
+the ground, and from quite a long way off they
+could faintly hear a deep-toned bell respond.
+<!-- Page 79 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="IV" id="IV"></a><h2>IV</h2>
+<h2>MR. BADGER</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 80 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 81 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THEY waited patiently for what seemed a
+very long time, stamping in the snow to
+keep their feet warm. At last they heard the
+sound of slow shuffling footsteps approaching
+the door from the inside. It seemed, as the
+Mole remarked to the Rat, like some one walking
+in carpet slippers that were too large for
+him and down at heel; which was intelligent
+of Mole, because that was exactly what it was.</p>
+
+<p>There was the noise of a bolt shot back, and
+the door opened a few inches, enough to show
+a long snout and a pair of sleepy blinking eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, the <i>very</i> next time this happens," said
+a gruff and suspicious voice, "I shall be exceedingly
+angry. Who is it <i>this</i> time, disturbing
+people on such a night? Speak up!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Badger," cried the Rat, "let us in,
+<!-- Page 82 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+please. It's me, Rat, and my friend Mole, and
+we've lost our way in the snow."</p>
+
+<p>"What, Ratty, my dear little man!" exclaimed
+the Badger, in quite a different voice.
+"Come along in, both of you, at once. Why,
+you must be perished. Well, I never! Lost in
+the snow! And in the Wild Wood, too, and at
+this time of night! But come in with you."</p>
+
+<p>The two animals tumbled over each other in
+their eagerness to get inside, and heard the door
+shut behind them with great joy and relief.</p>
+
+<p>The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown,
+and whose slippers were indeed very down at
+heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw and
+had probably been on his way to bed when
+their summons sounded. He looked kindly
+down on them and patted both their heads.
+"This is not the sort of night for small animals
+to be out," he said paternally. "I'm afraid
+you've been up to some of your pranks again,
+Ratty. But come along; come into the kitchen.
+There's a first-rate fire there, and supper and
+everything."</p>
+
+<p>He shuffled on in front of them, carrying
+<!-- Page 83 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+the light, and they followed him, nudging each
+other in an anticipating sort of way, down a
+long, gloomy, and, to tell the truth, decidedly
+shabby passage, into a sort of a central hall,
+out of which they could dimly see other long
+tunnel-like passages branching, passages mysterious
+and without apparent end. But there
+were doors in the hall as well&mdash;stout oaken,
+comfortable-looking doors. One of these the
+Badger flung open, and at once they found
+themselves in all the glow and warmth of a
+large fire-lit kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>The floor was well-worn red brick, and on
+the wide hearth burnt a fire of logs, between
+two attractive chimney-corners tucked away in
+the wall, well out of any suspicion of draught.
+A couple of high-backed settles, facing each
+other on either side of the fire, gave further
+sitting accommodations for the sociably disposed.
+In the middle of the room stood a long
+table of plain boards placed on trestles, with
+benches down each side. At one end of it, where
+an arm-chair stood pushed back, were spread
+the remains of the Badger's plain but ample
+<!-- Page 84 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+supper. Rows of spotless plates winked from
+the shelves of the dresser at the far end of the
+room, and from the rafters overhead hung
+hams, bundles of dried herbs, nets of onions,
+and baskets of eggs. It seemed a place where
+heroes could fitly feast after victory, where
+weary harvesters could line up in scores along
+the table and keep their Harvest Home with
+mirth and song, or where two or three friends
+of simple tastes could sit about as they pleased
+and eat and smoke and talk in comfort and
+contentment. The ruddy brick floor smiled up
+at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny
+with long wear, exchanged cheerful glances with
+each other; plates on the dresser grinned at
+pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered
+and played over everything without distinction.</p>
+
+<p>The kindly Badger thrust them down on a
+settle to toast themselves at the fire, and bade
+them remove their wet coats and boots. Then
+he fetched them dressing-gowns and slippers,
+and himself bathed the Mole's shin with warm
+water and mended the cut with sticking-plaster,
+<!-- Page 85 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+till the whole thing was just as good as new, if
+not better. In the embracing light and warmth,
+warm and dry at last, with weary legs propped
+up in front of them, and a suggestive clink of
+plates being arranged on the table behind, it
+seemed to the storm-driven animals, now in
+safe anchorage, that the cold and trackless Wild
+Wood just left outside was miles and miles
+away, and all that they had suffered in it a
+half-forgotten dream.</p>
+
+<p>When at last they were thoroughly toasted,
+the Badger summoned them to the table, where
+he had been busy laying a repast. They had
+felt pretty hungry before, but when they actually
+saw at last the supper that was spread for
+them, really it seemed only a question of what
+they should attack first where all was so attractive,
+and whether the other things would obligingly
+wait for them till they had time to give
+them attention. Conversation was impossible
+for a long time; and when it was slowly resumed,
+it was that regrettable sort of conversation that
+results from talking with your mouth full. The
+Badger did not mind that sort of thing at all,
+<!-- Page 86 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+nor did he take any notice of elbows on the table,
+or everybody speaking at once. As he did not
+go into Society himself, he had got an idea that
+these things belonged to the things that didn't
+really matter. (We know of course that he was
+wrong, and took too narrow a view; because they
+do matter very much, though it would take too
+long to explain why.) He sat in his arm-chair
+at the head of the table, and nodded gravely at
+intervals as the animals told their story; and he
+did not seem surprised or shocked at anything,
+and he never said, "I told you so," or, "Just
+what I always said," or remarked that they
+ought to have done so-and-so, or ought not to
+have done something else. The Mole began to
+feel very friendly towards him.</p>
+
+<p>When supper was really finished at last, and
+each animal felt that his skin was now as tight
+as was decently safe, and that by this time he
+didn't care a hang for anybody or anything,
+they gathered round the glowing embers of the
+great wood fire, and thought how jolly it was
+to be sitting up <i>so</i> late, and <i>so</i> independent, and
+<i>so</i> full; and after they had chatted for a time
+<!-- Page 87 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+about things in general, the Badger said heartily,
+"Now then! tell us the news from your
+part of the world. How's old Toad going on?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, from bad to worse," said the Rat
+gravely, while the Mole, cocked up on a settle
+and basking in the firelight, his heels higher than
+his head, tried to look properly mournful. "Another
+smash-up only last week, and a bad one.
+You see, he will insist on driving himself, and
+he's hopelessly incapable. If he'd only employ
+a decent, steady, well-trained animal, pay him
+good wages, and leave everything to him, he'd
+get on all right. But no; he's convinced he's a
+heaven-born driver, and nobody can teach him
+anything; and all the rest follows."</p>
+
+<p>"How many has he had?" inquired the
+Badger gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>"Smashes, or machines?" asked the Rat.
+"Oh, well, after all, it's the same thing&mdash;with
+Toad. This is the seventh. As for the others&mdash;you
+know that coach-house of his? Well,
+it's piled up&mdash;literally piled up to the roof&mdash;with
+fragments of motor-cars, none of them
+bigger than your hat! That accounts for the
+<!-- Page 88 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
+other six&mdash;so far as they can be accounted
+for."</p>
+
+<p>"He's been in hospital three times," put in
+the Mole; "and as for the fines he's had to
+pay, it's simply awful to think of."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and that's part of the trouble," continued
+the Rat. "Toad's rich, we all know;
+but he's not a millionaire. And he's a hopelessly
+bad driver, and quite regardless of law and
+order. Killed or ruined&mdash;it's got to be one of
+the two things, sooner or later. Badger! we're
+his friends&mdash;oughtn't we to do something?"</p>
+
+<p>The Badger went through a bit of hard
+thinking. "Now look here!" he said at last,
+rather severely; "of course you know I can't
+do anything <i>now</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>His two friends assented, quite understanding
+his point. No animal, according to the rules of
+animal etiquette, is ever expected to do anything
+strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately
+active during the off-season of winter. All are
+sleepy&mdash;some actually asleep. All are weather-bound,
+more or less; and all are resting from
+arduous days and nights, during which every
+<!-- Page 89 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+muscle in them has been severely tested, and
+every energy kept at full stretch.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well then!" continued the Badger.
+"<i>But</i>, when once the year has really turned,
+and the nights are shorter, and half-way through
+them one rouses and feels fidgety and wanting
+to be up and doing by sunrise, if not before&mdash;<i>you</i>
+know!&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Both animals nodded gravely. <i>They</i> knew!</p>
+
+<p>"Well, <i>then</i>," went on the Badger, "we&mdash;that
+is, you and me and our friend the Mole
+here&mdash;we'll take Toad seriously in hand. We'll
+stand no nonsense whatever. We'll bring him
+back to reason, by force if need be. We'll <i>make</i>
+him be a sensible Toad. We'll&mdash;you're asleep,
+Rat!"</p>
+
+<p>"Not me!" said the Rat, waking up with a
+jerk.</p>
+
+<p>"He's been asleep two or three times since
+supper," said the Mole, laughing. He himself
+was feeling quite wakeful and even lively,
+though he didn't know why. The reason was,
+of course, that he being naturally an underground
+animal by birth and breeding, the situation
+<!-- Page 90 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+of Badger's house exactly suited him and
+made him feel at home; while the Rat, who
+slept every night in a bedroom the windows of
+which opened on a breezy river, naturally felt
+the atmosphere still and oppressive.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's time we were all in bed," said the
+Badger, getting up and fetching flat candlesticks.
+"Come along, you two, and I'll show
+you your quarters. And take your time to-morrow
+morning&mdash;breakfast at any hour you
+please!"</p>
+
+<p>He conducted the two animals to a long room
+that seemed half bedchamber and half loft.
+The Badger's winter stores, which indeed were
+visible everywhere, took up half the room&mdash;piles
+of apples, turnips, and potatoes, baskets
+full of nuts, and jars of honey; but the two
+little white beds on the remainder of the floor
+looked soft and inviting, and the linen on them,
+though coarse, was clean and smelt beautifully
+of lavender; and the Mole and the Water Rat,
+shaking off their garments in some thirty seconds,
+tumbled in between the sheets in great joy
+and contentment.
+<!-- Page 91 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In accordance with the kindly Badger's injunctions,
+the two tired animals came down to
+breakfast very late next morning, and found a
+bright fire burning in the kitchen, and two
+young hedgehogs sitting on a bench at the
+table, eating oatmeal porridge out of wooden
+bowls. The hedgehogs dropped their spoons,
+rose to their feet, and ducked their heads respectfully
+as the two entered.</p>
+
+<p>"There, sit down, sit down," said the Rat
+pleasantly, "and go on with your porridge.
+Where have you youngsters come from? Lost
+your way in the snow, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, please, sir," said the elder of the two
+hedgehogs respectfully. "Me and little Billy
+here, we was trying to find our way to school&mdash;mother
+<i>would</i> have us go, was the weather ever
+so&mdash;and of course we lost ourselves, sir, and
+Billy he got frightened and took and cried,
+being young and faint-hearted. And at last we
+happened up against Mr. Badger's back door,
+and made so bold as to knock, sir, for Mr.
+Badger he's a kind-hearted gentleman, as every
+one knows&mdash;"
+<!-- Page 92 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I understand," said the Rat, cutting himself
+some rashers from a side of bacon, while the
+Mole dropped some eggs into a saucepan. "And
+what's the weather like outside? You needn't
+'sir' me quite so much," he added.</p>
+
+<p>"O, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow
+is," said the hedgehog. "No getting out for the
+likes of you gentlemen to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Mr. Badger?" inquired the Mole
+as he warmed the coffee-pot before the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"The master's gone into his study, sir," replied
+the hedgehog, "and he said as how he was
+going to be particular busy this morning, and
+on no account was he to be disturbed."</p>
+
+<p>This explanation, of course, was thoroughly
+understood by every one present. The fact is,
+as already set forth, when you live a life of
+intense activity for six months in the year, and
+of comparative or actual somnolence for the
+other six, during the latter period you cannot
+be continually pleading sleepiness when there
+are people about or things to be done. The excuse
+gets monotonous. The animals well knew
+that Badger, having eaten a hearty breakfast,
+<!-- Page 93 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+had retired to his study and settled himself in
+an arm-chair with his legs up on another and a
+red cotton handkerchief over his face, and was
+being "busy" in the usual way at this time of
+the year.</p>
+
+<p>The front-door bell clanged loudly, and the
+Rat, who was very greasy with buttered toast,
+sent Billy, the smaller hedgehog, to see who it
+might be. There was a sound of much stamping
+in the hall, and presently Billy returned in
+front of the Otter, who threw himself on the
+Rat with an embrace and a shout of affectionate
+greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"Get off!" spluttered the Rat, with his mouth
+full.</p>
+
+<p>"Thought I should find you here all right,"
+said the Otter cheerfully. "They were all in a
+great state of alarm along River Bank when I arrived
+this morning. Rat never been home all
+night&mdash;nor Mole either&mdash;something dreadful
+must have happened, they said; and the snow
+had covered up all your tracks, of course. But
+I knew that when people were in any fix they
+mostly went to Badger, or else Badger got to
+<!-- Page 94 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+know of it somehow, so I came straight off here,
+through the Wild Wood and the snow! My!
+it was fine, coming through the snow as the red
+sun was rising and showing against the black
+tree-trunks! As you went along in the stillness,
+every now and then masses of snow slid off the
+branches suddenly with a flop! making you
+jump and run for cover. Snow-castles and
+snow-caverns had sprung up out of nowhere in
+the night&mdash;and snow bridges, terraces, ramparts&mdash;I
+could have stayed and played with
+them for hours. Here and there great branches
+had been torn away by the sheer weight of the
+snow, and robins perched and hopped on them
+in their perky conceited way, just as if they had
+done it themselves. A ragged string of wild
+geese passed overhead, high on the grey sky,
+and a few rooks whirled over the trees, inspected,
+and flapped off homewards with a disgusted expression;
+but I met no sensible being to ask the
+news of. About half-way across I came on a rabbit
+sitting on a stump, cleaning his silly face
+with his paws. He was a pretty scared animal
+when I crept up behind him and placed a heavy
+<!-- Page 95 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+fore-paw on his shoulder. I had to cuff his head
+once or twice to get any sense out of it at all.
+At last I managed to extract from him that
+Mole had been seen in the Wild Wood last
+night by one of them. It was the talk of the
+burrows, he said, how Mole, Mr. Rat's particular
+friend, was in a bad fix; how he had lost
+his way, and 'They' were up and out hunting,
+and were chivvying him round and round.
+'Then why didn't any of you <i>do</i> something?' I
+asked. 'You mayn't be blessed with brains,
+but there are hundreds and hundreds of you,
+big, stout fellows, as fat as butter, and your
+burrows running in all directions, and you could
+have taken him in and made him safe and
+comfortable, or tried to, at all events.' 'What,
+<i>us</i>?' he merely said: '<i>do</i> something? us rabbits?'
+So I cuffed him again and left him.
+There was nothing else to be done. At any
+rate, I had learnt something; and if I had
+had the luck to meet any of 'Them' I'd have
+learnt something more&mdash;or <i>they</i> would."</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page94pic" id="Page94pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus04.jpg" width="420" height="570"
+alt="Through the Wild Wood and the snow"
+title="Through the Wild Wood and the snow" />
+<span class="caption">Through the Wild Wood and the snow</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Weren't you at all&mdash;er&mdash;nervous?" asked
+the Mole, some of yesterday's terror coming
+<!-- Page 96 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>
+back to him at the mention of the Wild
+Wood.</p>
+
+<p>"Nervous?" The Otter showed a gleaming set
+of strong white teeth as he laughed. "I'd give
+'em nerves if any of them tried anything on with
+me. Here, Mole, fry me some slices of ham, like
+the good little chap you are. I'm frightfully
+hungry, and I've got any amount to say to
+Ratty here. Haven't seen him for an age."</p>
+
+<p>So the good-natured Mole, having cut some
+slices of ham, set the hedgehogs to fry it, and
+returned to his own breakfast, while the Otter
+and the Rat, their heads together, eagerly
+talked river-shop, which is long shop and talk
+that is endless, running on like the babbling
+river itself.</p>
+
+<p>A plate of fried ham had just been cleared
+and sent back for more, when the Badger entered,
+yawning and rubbing his eyes, and greeted
+them all in his quiet, simple way, with kind
+inquiries for every one. "It must be getting on
+for luncheon time," he remarked to the Otter.
+"Better stop and have it with us. You must
+be hungry, this cold morning."
+<!-- Page 97 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Rather!" replied the Otter, winking at the
+Mole. "The sight of these greedy young hedgehogs
+stuffing themselves with fried ham makes
+me feel positively famished."</p>
+
+<p>The hedgehogs, who were just beginning to
+feel hungry again after their porridge, and after
+working so hard at their frying, looked timidly
+up at Mr. Badger, but were too shy to say
+anything.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you two youngsters, be off home to
+your mother," said the Badger kindly. "I'll
+send some one with you to show you the way.
+You won't want any dinner to-day, I'll be
+bound."</p>
+
+<p>He gave them sixpence a-piece and a pat on
+the head, and they went off with much respectful
+swinging of caps and touching of forelocks.</p>
+
+<p>Presently they all sat down to luncheon together.
+The Mole found himself placed next
+to Mr. Badger, and, as the other two were still
+deep in river-gossip from which nothing could
+divert them, he took the opportunity to tell
+Badger how comfortable and home-like it all
+<!-- Page 98 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+felt to him. "Once well underground," he said,
+"you know exactly where you are. Nothing
+can happen to you, and nothing can get at you.
+You're entirely your own master, and you don't
+have to consult anybody or mind what they
+say. Things go on all the same overhead, and
+you let 'em, and don't bother about 'em. When
+you want to, up you go, and there the things
+are, waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>The Badger simply beamed on him. "That's
+exactly what I say," he replied. "There's no
+security, or peace and tranquillity, except underground.
+And then, if your ideas get larger and
+you want to expand&mdash;why, a dig and a scrape,
+and there you are! If you feel your house is a
+bit too big, you stop up a hole or two, and
+there you are again! No builders, no tradesmen,
+no remarks passed on you by fellows looking
+over your wall, and, above all, no <i>weather</i>.
+Look at Rat, now. A couple of feet of flood
+water, and he's got to move into hired lodgings;
+uncomfortable, inconveniently situated,
+and horribly expensive. Take Toad. I say
+nothing against Toad Hall; quite the best house
+<!-- Page 99 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+in these parts, <i>as</i> a house. But supposing a fire
+breaks out&mdash;where's Toad? Supposing tiles
+are blown off, or walls sink or crack, or windows
+get broken&mdash;where's Toad? Supposing
+the rooms are draughty&mdash;I <i>hate</i> a draught myself&mdash;where's
+Toad? No, up and out of doors is
+good enough to roam about and get one's living
+in; but underground to come back to at last&mdash;that's
+my idea of <i>home</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole assented heartily; and the Badger
+in consequence got very friendly with him.
+"When lunch is over," he said, "I'll take you
+all round this little place of mine. I can see
+you'll appreciate it. You understand what
+domestic architecture ought to be, you do."</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon, accordingly, when the other
+two had settled themselves into the chimney-corner
+and had started a heated argument on
+the subject of <i>eels</i>, the Badger lighted a lantern
+and bade the Mole follow him. Crossing the
+hall, they passed down one of the principal
+tunnels, and the wavering light of the lantern
+gave glimpses on either side of rooms both
+large and small, some mere cupboards, others
+<!-- Page 100 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+nearly as broad and imposing as Toad's dining-hall.
+A narrow passage at right angles led them
+into another corridor, and here the same thing
+was repeated. The Mole was staggered at the
+size, the extent, the ramifications of it all; at
+the length of the dim passages, the solid vaultings
+of the crammed store-chambers, the masonry
+everywhere, the pillars, the arches, the pavements.
+"How on earth, Badger," he said at
+last, "did you ever find time and strength to do
+all this? It's astonishing!"</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>would</i> be astonishing indeed," said the
+Badger simply, "if I <i>had</i> done it. But as a
+matter of fact I did none of it&mdash;only cleaned
+out the passages and chambers, as far as I had
+need of them. There's lots more of it, all round
+about. I see you don't understand, and I must
+explain it to you. Well, very long ago, on the
+spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before
+ever it had planted itself and grown up to what
+it now is, there was a city&mdash;a city of people,
+you know. Here, where we are standing, they
+lived, and walked, and talked, and slept, and
+carried on their business. Here they stabled
+<!-- Page 101 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+their horses and feasted, from here they rode
+out to fight or drove out to trade. They were a
+powerful people, and rich, and great builders.
+They built to last, for they thought their city
+would last for ever."</p>
+
+<p>"But what has become of them all?" asked
+the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"Who can tell?" said the Badger. "People
+come&mdash;they stay for a while, they flourish, they
+build&mdash;and they go. It is their way. But we
+remain. There were badgers here, I've been
+told, long before that same city ever came to
+be. And now there are badgers here again.
+We are an enduring lot, and we may move out
+for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and
+back we come. And so it will ever be."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, and when they went at last, those
+people?" said the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"When they went," continued the Badger,
+"the strong winds and persistent rains took the
+matter in hand, patiently, ceaselessly, year after
+year. Perhaps we badgers too, in our small
+way, helped a little&mdash;who knows? It was all
+<!-- Page 102 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+down, down, down, gradually&mdash;ruin and levelling
+and disappearance. Then it was all up, up,
+up, gradually, as seeds grew to saplings, and
+saplings to forest trees, and bramble and fern
+came creeping in to help. Leaf-mould rose and
+obliterated, streams in their winter freshets
+brought sand and soil to clog and to cover, and
+in course of time our home was ready for us
+again, and we moved in. Up above us, on the
+surface, the same thing happened. Animals
+arrived, liked the look of the place, took up
+their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished.
+They didn't bother themselves about
+the past&mdash;they never do; they're too busy.
+The place was a bit humpy and hillocky, naturally,
+and full of holes; but that was rather an
+advantage. And they don't bother about the
+future, either&mdash;the future when perhaps the
+people will move in again&mdash;for a time&mdash;as
+may very well be. The Wild Wood is pretty
+well populated by now; with all the usual lot,
+good, bad, and indifferent&mdash;I name no names.
+It takes all sorts to make a world. But I fancy
+you know something about them yourself by
+this time."
+<!-- Page 103 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I do indeed," said the Mole, with a slight
+shiver.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said the Badger, patting him on
+the shoulder, "it was your first experience of
+them, you see. They're not so bad really; and
+we must all live and let live. But I'll pass the
+word around to-morrow, and I think you'll have
+no further trouble. Any friend of <i>mine</i> walks
+where he likes in this country, or I'll know the
+reason why!"</p>
+
+<p>When they got back to the kitchen again,
+they found the Rat walking up and down, very
+restless. The underground atmosphere was oppressing
+him and getting on his nerves, and he
+seemed really to be afraid that the river would
+run away if he wasn't there to look after it.
+So he had his overcoat on, and his pistols thrust
+into his belt again. "Come along, Mole," he
+said anxiously, as soon as he caught sight of
+them. "We must get off while it's daylight.
+Don't want to spend another night in the Wild
+Wood again."</p>
+
+<p>"It'll be all right, my fine fellow," said the
+Otter. "I'm coming along with you, and I
+<!-- Page 104 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+know every path blindfold; and if there's a
+head that needs to be punched, you can confidently
+rely upon me to punch it."</p>
+
+<p>"You really needn't fret, Ratty," added the
+Badger placidly. "My passages run further
+than you think, and I've bolt-holes to the edge
+of the wood in several directions, though I don't
+care for everybody to know about them. When
+you really have to go, you shall leave by one of
+my short cuts. Meantime, make yourself easy,
+and sit down again."</p>
+
+<p>The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to
+be off and attend to his river, so the Badger,
+taking up his lantern again, led the way along
+a damp and airless tunnel that wound and
+dipped, part vaulted, part hewn through solid
+rock, for a weary distance that seemed to be
+miles. At last daylight began to show itself
+confusedly through tangled growth overhanging
+the mouth of the passage; and the Badger,
+bidding them a hasty good-bye, pushed them
+hurriedly through the opening, made everything
+look as natural as possible again, with creepers,
+brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated.
+<!-- Page 105 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They found themselves standing on the very
+edge of the Wild Wood. Rocks and brambles
+and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped
+and tangled; in front, a great space of quiet
+fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black on the
+snow, and, far ahead, a glint of the familiar
+old river, while the wintry sun hung red and
+low on the horizon. The Otter, as knowing all
+the paths, took charge of the party, and they
+trailed out on a bee-line for a distant stile.
+Pausing there a moment and looking back, they
+saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense,
+menacing, compact, grimly set in vast white
+surroundings; simultaneously they turned and
+made swiftly for home, for firelight and the
+familiar things it played on, for the voice,
+sounding cheerily outside their window, of the
+river that they knew and trusted in all its moods,
+that never made them afraid with any amazement.</p>
+
+<p>As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the
+moment when he would be at home again
+among the things he knew and liked, the Mole
+saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field
+<!-- Page 106 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow,
+the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings,
+the cultivated garden-plot. For others
+the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the
+clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature
+in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to
+the pleasant places in which his lines were laid
+and which held adventure enough, in their way,
+to last for a lifetime.
+<!-- Page 107 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="V" id="V"></a><h2>V</h2>
+<h2>DULCE DOMUM</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 108 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 109 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE sheep ran huddling together against the
+hurdles, blowing out thin nostrils and
+stamping with delicate fore-feet, their heads
+thrown back and a light steam rising from the
+crowded sheep-pen into the frosty air, as the
+two animals hastened by in high spirits, with
+much chatter and laughter. They were returning
+across country after a long day's outing
+with Otter, hunting and exploring on the wide
+uplands, where certain streams tributary to
+their own River had their first small beginnings;
+and the shades of the short winter day
+were closing in on them, and they had still
+some distance to go. Plodding at random across
+the plough, they had heard the sheep and had
+made for them; and now, leading from the
+sheep-pen, they found a beaten track that made
+<!-- Page 110 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+walking a lighter business, and responded, moreover,
+to that small inquiring something which
+all animals carry inside them, saying unmistakably,
+"Yes, quite right; <i>this</i> leads home!"</p>
+
+<p>"It looks as if we were coming to a village,"
+said the Mole somewhat dubiously, slackening
+his pace, as the track, that had in time become
+a path and then had developed into a lane, now
+handed them over to the charge of a well-metalled
+road. The animals did not hold with villages,
+and their own highways, thickly frequented
+as they were, took an independent
+course, regardless of church, post-office, or
+public-house.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, never mind!" said the Rat. "At this
+season of the year they're all safe indoors by
+this time, sitting round the fire; men, women,
+and children, dogs and cats and all. We shall
+slip through all right, without any bother or
+unpleasantness, and we can have a look at
+them through their windows if you like, and see
+what they're doing."</p>
+
+<p>The rapid nightfall of mid-December had
+quite beset the little village as they approached
+it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery
+<!-- Page 111 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+snow. Little was visible but squares of a dusky
+orange-red on either side of the street, where
+the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed
+through the casements into the dark
+world without. Most of the low latticed windows
+were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in
+from outside, the inmates, gathered round
+the tea-table, absorbed in handiwork, or talking
+with laughter and gesture, had each that happy
+grace which is the last thing the skilled actor
+shall capture&mdash;the natural grace which goes
+with perfect unconsciousness of observation.
+Moving at will from one theatre to another,
+the two spectators, so far from home themselves,
+had something of wistfulness in their eyes as
+they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child
+picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired
+man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end
+of a smouldering log.</p>
+
+<p>But it was from one little window, with its
+blind drawn down, a mere blank transparency
+on the night, that the sense of home and the
+little curtained world within walls&mdash;the larger
+stressful world of outside Nature shut out and
+<!-- Page 112 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+forgotten&mdash;most pulsated. Close against the
+white blind hung a bird-cage, clearly silhouetted,
+every wire, perch, and appurtenance distinct
+and recognisable, even to yesterday's dull-edged
+lump of sugar. On the middle perch the fluffy
+occupant, head tucked well into feathers, seemed
+so near to them as to be easily stroked, had they
+tried; even the delicate tips of his plumped-out
+plumage pencilled plainly on the illuminated
+screen. As they looked, the sleepy little fellow
+stirred uneasily, woke, shook himself, and raised
+his head. They could see the gape of his tiny
+beak as he yawned in a bored sort of way,
+looked round, and then settled his head into
+his back again, while the ruffled feathers gradually
+subsided into perfect stillness. Then a gust
+of bitter wind took them in the back of the
+neck, a small sting of frozen sleet on the skin
+woke them as from a dream, and they knew
+their toes to be cold and their legs tired, and
+their own home distant a weary way.</p>
+
+<p>Once beyond the village, where the cottages
+ceased abruptly, on either side of the road they
+could smell through the darkness the friendly
+<!-- Page 113 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+fields again; and they braced themselves for
+the last long stretch, the home stretch, the
+stretch that we know is bound to end, some
+time, in the rattle of the door-latch, the sudden
+firelight, and the sight of familiar things greeting
+us as long-absent travellers from far over-sea.
+They plodded along steadily and silently,
+each of them thinking his own thoughts. The
+Mole's ran a good deal on supper, as it was
+pitch-dark, and it was all a strange country for
+him as far as he knew, and he was following
+obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving the
+guidance entirely to him. As for the Rat, he
+was walking a little way ahead, as his habit
+was, his shoulders humped, his eyes fixed on
+the straight grey road in front of him; so he
+did not notice poor Mole when suddenly the
+summons reached him, and took him like an
+electric shock.</p>
+
+<p>We others, who have long lost the more subtle
+of the physical senses, have not even proper
+terms to express an animal's inter-communications
+with his surroundings, living or otherwise,
+and have only the word "smell," for instance, to
+<!-- Page 114 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+include the whole range of delicate thrills which
+murmur in the nose of the animal night and
+day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling. It
+was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out
+the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness,
+making him tingle through and through
+with its very familiar appeal, even while yet
+he could not clearly remember what it was.
+He stopped dead in his tracks, his nose searching
+hither and thither in its efforts to recapture
+the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that
+had so strongly moved him. A moment, and
+he had caught it again; and with it this time
+came recollection in fullest flood.</p>
+
+<p>Home! That was what they meant, those
+caressing appeals, those soft touches wafted
+through the air, those invisible little hands pulling
+and tugging, all one way! Why, it must
+be quite close by him at that moment, his old
+home that he had hurriedly forsaken and never
+sought again, that day when he first found the
+River! And now it was sending out its scouts
+and its messengers to capture him and bring
+<!-- Page 115 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+him in. Since his escape on that bright morning
+he had hardly given it a thought, so absorbed
+had he been in his new life, in all its
+pleasures, its surprises, its fresh and captivating
+experiences. Now, with a rush of old memories,
+how clearly it stood up before him, in the
+darkness! Shabby indeed, and small and poorly
+furnished, and yet his, the home he had made
+for himself, the home he had been so happy to
+get back to after his day's work. And the
+home had been happy with him, too, evidently,
+and was missing him, and wanted him back, and
+was telling him so, through his nose, sorrowfully,
+reproachfully, but with no bitterness or
+anger; only with plaintive reminder that it was
+there, and wanted him.</p>
+
+<p>The call was clear, the summons was plain.
+He must obey it instantly, and go. "Ratty!"
+he called, full of joyful excitement, "hold on!
+Come back! I want you, quick!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, <i>come</i> along, Mole, do!" replied the Rat
+cheerfully, still plodding along.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Please</i> stop, Ratty!" pleaded the poor Mole,
+in anguish of heart. "You don't understand!
+It's my home, my old home! I've just come
+<!-- Page 116 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+across the smell of it, and it's close by here,
+really quite close. And I <i>must</i> go to it, I must,
+I must! Oh, come back, Ratty! Please, please
+come back!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too
+far to hear clearly what the Mole was calling,
+too far to catch the sharp note of painful appeal
+in his voice. And he was much taken up with
+the weather, for he too, could smell something&mdash;something
+suspiciously like approaching snow.</p>
+
+<p>"Mole, we mustn't stop now, really!" he
+called back. "We'll come for it to-morrow,
+whatever it is you've found. But I daren't
+stop now&mdash;it's late, and the snow's coming on
+again, and I'm not sure of the way! And I
+want your nose, Mole, so come on quick, there's
+a good fellow!" And the Rat pressed forward
+on his way without waiting for an answer.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart
+torn asunder, and a big sob gathering, gathering,
+somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to
+the surface presently, he knew, in passionate
+escape. But even under such a test as this his
+loyalty to his friend stood firm. Never for a
+<!-- Page 117 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+moment did he dream of abandoning him.
+Meanwhile, the wafts from his old home pleaded,
+whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him
+imperiously. He dared not tarry longer within
+their magic circle. With a wrench that tore
+his very heart-strings he set his face down the
+road and followed submissively in the track of
+the Rat, while faint, thin little smells, still dogging
+his retreating nose, reproached him for his
+new friendship and his callous forgetfulness.</p>
+
+<p>With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting
+Rat, who began chattering cheerfully about
+what they would do when they got back, and
+how jolly a fire of logs in the parlour would be,
+and what a supper he meant to eat; never
+noticing his companion's silence and distressful
+state of mind. At last, however, when they had
+gone some considerable way further, and were
+passing some tree stumps at the edge of a
+copse that bordered the road, he stopped and
+said kindly, "Look here, Mole, old chap, you
+seem dead tired. No talk left in you, and your
+feet dragging like lead. We'll sit down here
+for a minute and rest. The snow has held off
+<!-- Page 118 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+so far, and the best part of our journey is
+over."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole subsided forlornly on a tree stump
+and tried to control himself, for he felt it surely
+coming. The sob he had fought with so long
+refused to be beaten. Up and up, it forced its
+way to the air, and then another, and another,
+and others thick and fast; till poor Mole at last
+gave up the struggle, and cried freely and helplessly
+and openly, now that he knew it was all
+over and he had lost what he could hardly be
+said to have found.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat, astonished and dismayed at the
+violence of Mole's paroxysm of grief, did not
+dare to speak for a while. At last he said, very
+quietly and sympathetically, "What is it, old
+fellow? Whatever can be the matter? Tell us
+your trouble, and let me see what I can do."</p>
+
+<p>Poor Mole found it difficult to get any words
+out between the upheavals of his chest that
+followed one upon another so quickly and held
+back speech and choked it as it came. "I know
+it's a&mdash;shabby, dingy little place," he sobbed
+forth at last brokenly: "not like&mdash;your cosy
+<!-- Page 119 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+quarters&mdash;or Toad's beautiful hall&mdash;or Badger's
+great house&mdash;but it was my own little
+home&mdash;and I was fond of it&mdash;and I went away
+and forgot all about it&mdash;and then I smelt it
+suddenly&mdash;on the road, when I called and you
+wouldn't listen, Rat&mdash;and everything came
+back to me with a rush&mdash;and I <i>wanted</i> it!&mdash;O
+dear, O dear!&mdash;and when you <i>wouldn't</i> turn
+back, Ratty&mdash;and I had to leave it, though I
+was smelling it all the time&mdash;I thought my
+heart would break.&mdash;We might have just gone
+and had one look at it, Ratty&mdash;only one look&mdash;it
+was close by&mdash;but you wouldn't turn
+back, Ratty, you wouldn't turn back! O dear,
+O dear!"</p>
+
+<p>Recollection brought fresh waves of sorrow,
+and sobs again took full charge of him, preventing
+further speech.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat stared straight in front of him,
+saying nothing, only patting Mole gently on
+the shoulder. After a time he muttered gloomily,
+"I see it all now! What a <i>pig</i> I have been!
+A pig&mdash;that's me! Just a pig&mdash;a plain pig!"</p>
+
+<p>He waited till Mole's sobs became gradually
+<!-- Page 120 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+less stormy and more rhythmical; he waited
+till at last sniffs were frequent and sobs only
+intermittent. Then he rose from his seat, and,
+remarking carelessly, "Well, now we'd really
+better be getting on, old chap!" set off up the
+road again over the toilsome way they had come.</p>
+
+<p>"Wherever are you (hic) going to (hic),
+Ratty?" cried the tearful Mole, looking up in
+alarm.</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to find that home of yours,
+old fellow," replied the Rat pleasantly; "so
+you had better come along, for it will take some
+finding, and we shall want your nose."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come back, Ratty, do!" cried the Mole,
+getting up and hurrying after him. "It's no
+good, I tell you! It's too late, and too dark,
+and the place is too far off, and the snow's
+coming! And&mdash;and I never meant to let you
+know I was feeling that way about it&mdash;it was
+all an accident and a mistake! And think of
+River Bank, and your supper!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hang River Bank, and supper, too!" said
+the Rat heartily. "I tell you, I'm going to
+find this place now, if I stay out all night. So
+<!-- Page 121 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+cheer up, old chap, and take my arm, and we'll
+very soon be back there again."</p>
+
+<p>Still snuffling, pleading, and reluctant, Mole
+suffered himself to be dragged back along the
+road by his imperious companion, who by a
+flow of cheerful talk and anecdote endeavoured
+to beguile his spirits back and make the weary
+way seem shorter. When at last it seemed to
+the Rat that they must be nearing that part
+of the road where the Mole had been "held up,"
+he said, "Now, no more talking. Business! Use
+your nose, and give your mind to it."</p>
+
+<p>They moved on in silence for some little way,
+when suddenly the Rat was conscious, through
+his arm that was linked in Mole's, of a faint
+sort of electric thrill that was passing down that
+animal's body. Instantly he disengaged himself,
+fell back a pace, and waited, all attention.</p>
+
+<p>The signals were coming through!</p>
+
+<p>Mole stood a moment rigid, while his uplifted
+nose, quivering slightly, felt the air.</p>
+
+<p>Then a short, quick run forward&mdash;a fault&mdash;a
+check&mdash;a try back; and then a slow, steady,
+confident advance.
+<!-- Page 122 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Rat, much excited, kept close to his heels
+as the Mole, with something of the air of a
+sleep-walker, crossed a dry ditch, scrambled
+through a hedge, and nosed his way over a
+field open and trackless and bare in the faint
+starlight.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, without giving warning, he dived;
+but the Rat was on the alert, and promptly
+followed him down the tunnel to which his unerring
+nose had faithfully led him.</p>
+
+<p>It was close and airless, and the earthy smell
+was strong, and it seemed a long time to Rat
+ere the passage ended and he could stand erect
+and stretch and shake himself. The Mole
+struck a match, and by its light the Rat saw
+that they were standing in an open space,
+neatly swept and sanded underfoot, and directly
+facing them was Mole's little front door, with
+"Mole End" painted, in Gothic lettering, over
+the bell-pull at the side.</p>
+
+<p>Mole reached down a lantern from a nail on
+the wall and lit it, and the Rat, looking round
+him, saw that they were in a sort of fore-court.
+A garden-seat stood on one side of the door,
+<!-- Page 123 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+and on the other a roller; for the Mole, who
+was a tidy animal when at home, could not
+stand having his ground kicked up by other
+animals into little runs that ended in earth-heaps.
+On the walls hung wire baskets with
+ferns in them, alternating with brackets carrying
+plaster statuary&mdash;Garibaldi, and the infant
+Samuel, and Queen Victoria, and other heroes
+of modern Italy. Down on one side of the fore-court
+ran a skittle-alley, with benches along it
+and little wooden tables marked with rings that
+hinted at beer-mugs. In the middle was a
+small round pond containing gold-fish and surrounded
+by a cockle-shell border. Out of the
+centre of the pond rose a fanciful erection
+clothed in more cockle-shells and topped by a
+large silvered glass ball that reflected everything
+all wrong and had a very pleasing effect.</p>
+
+<p>Mole's face beamed at the sight of all these
+objects so dear to him, and he hurried Rat
+through the door, lit a lamp in the hall, and took
+one glance round his old home. He saw the
+dust lying thick on everything, saw the cheerless,
+deserted look of the long-neglected house,
+<!-- Page 124 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+and its narrow, meagre dimensions, its worn
+and shabby contents&mdash;and collapsed again on
+a hall-chair, his nose to his paws. "O Ratty!"
+he cried dismally, "why ever did I do it? Why
+did I bring you to this poor, cold little place, on
+a night like this, when you might have been at
+River Bank by this time, toasting your toes
+before a blazing fire, with all your own nice
+things about you!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat paid no heed to his doleful self-reproaches.
+He was running here and there,
+opening doors, inspecting rooms and cupboards,
+and lighting lamps and candles and sticking
+them up everywhere. "What a capital little
+house this is!" he called out cheerily. "So
+compact! So well planned! Everything here
+and everything in its place! We'll make a jolly
+night of it. The first thing we want is a good
+fire; I'll see to that&mdash;I always know where to
+find things. So this is the parlour? Splendid!
+Your own idea, those little sleeping-bunks in
+the wall? Capital! Now, I'll fetch the wood
+and the coals, and you get a duster, Mole&mdash;you'll
+find one in the drawer of the kitchen
+<!-- Page 125 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+table&mdash;and try and smarten things up a bit.
+Bustle about, old chap!"</p>
+
+<p>Encouraged by his inspiriting companion, the
+Mole roused himself and dusted and polished
+with energy and heartiness, while the Rat,
+running to and fro with armfuls of fuel, soon
+had a cheerful blaze roaring up the chimney.
+He hailed the Mole to come and warm himself;
+but Mole promptly had another fit of the
+blues, dropping down on a couch in dark despair
+and burying his face in his duster. "Rat," he
+moaned, "how about your supper, you poor,
+cold, hungry, weary animal? I've nothing to
+give you&mdash;nothing&mdash;not a crumb!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a fellow you are for giving in!" said
+the Rat reproachfully. "Why, only just now I
+saw a sardine-opener on the kitchen dresser,
+quite distinctly; and everybody knows that
+means there are sardines about somewhere in
+the neighbourhood. Rouse yourself! pull yourself
+together, and come with me and forage."</p>
+
+<p>They went and foraged accordingly, hunting
+through every cupboard and turning out every
+drawer. The result was not so very depressing
+<!-- Page 126 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+after all, though of course it might have been
+better; a tin of sardines&mdash;a box of captain's
+biscuits, nearly full&mdash;and a German sausage
+encased in silver paper.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a banquet for you!" observed the
+Rat, as he arranged the table. "I know some
+animals who would give their ears to be sitting
+down to supper with us to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>"No bread!" groaned the Mole dolorously;
+"no butter, no&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No <i>pâté de foie gras</i>, no champagne!" continued
+the Rat, grinning. "And that reminds
+me&mdash;what's that little door at the end of the
+passage? Your cellar, of course! Every luxury
+in this house! Just you wait a minute."</p>
+
+<p>He made for the cellar-door, and presently
+reappeared, somewhat dusty, with a bottle of
+beer in each paw and another under each arm,
+"Self-indulgent beggar you seem to be, Mole,"
+he observed. "Deny yourself nothing. This
+is really the jolliest little place I ever was in.
+Now, wherever did you pick up those prints?
+Make the place look so home-like, they do. No
+wonder you're so fond of it, Mole. Tell us
+<!-- Page 127 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+all about it, and how you came to make it
+what it is."</p>
+
+<p>Then, while the Rat busied himself fetching
+plates, and knives and forks, and mustard which
+he mixed in an egg-cup, the Mole, his bosom
+still heaving with the stress of his recent emotion,
+related&mdash;somewhat shyly at first, but
+with more freedom as he warmed to his subject&mdash;how
+this was planned, and how that was
+thought out, and how this was got through a
+windfall from an aunt, and that was a wonderful
+find and a bargain, and this other thing
+was bought out of laborious savings and a certain
+amount of "going without." His spirits
+finally quite restored, he must needs go and
+caress his possessions, and take a lamp and
+show off their points to his visitor and expatiate
+on them, quite forgetful of the supper they
+both so much needed; Rat, who was desperately
+hungry but strove to conceal it, nodding seriously,
+examining with a puckered brow, and
+saying, "wonderful," and "most remarkable,"
+at intervals, when the chance for an observation
+was given him.
+<!-- Page 128 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At last the Rat succeeded in decoying him
+to the table, and had just got seriously to work
+with the sardine-opener when sounds were heard
+from the fore-court without&mdash;sounds like the
+scuffling of small feet in the gravel and a confused
+murmur of tiny voices, while broken sentences
+reached them&mdash;"Now, all in a line&mdash;hold
+the lantern up a bit, Tommy&mdash;clear your
+throats first&mdash;no coughing after I say one, two,
+three.&mdash;Where's young Bill?&mdash;Here, come on,
+do, we're all a-waiting&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What's up?" inquired the Rat, pausing in
+his labours.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it must be the field-mice," replied
+the Mole, with a touch of pride in his manner.
+"They go round carol-singing regularly at this
+time of the year. They're quite an institution
+in these parts. And they never pass me over&mdash;they
+come to Mole End last of all; and I used
+to give them hot drinks, and supper too sometimes,
+when I could afford it. It will be like old
+times to hear them again."</p>
+
+<p>"Let's have a look at them!" cried the Rat,
+jumping up and running to the door.
+<!-- Page 129 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one,
+that met their eyes when they flung the door
+open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of
+a horn lantern, some eight or ten little field-mice
+stood in a semicircle, red worsted comforters
+round their throats, their fore-paws
+thrust deep into their pockets, their feet jigging
+for warmth. With bright beady eyes they
+glanced shyly at each other, sniggering a little,
+sniffing and applying coat-sleeves a good deal.
+As the door opened, one of the elder ones that
+carried the lantern was just saying, "Now then,
+one, two, three!" and forthwith their shrill little
+voices uprose on the air, singing one of the
+old-time carols that their forefathers composed
+in fields that were fallow and held by frost,
+or when snow-bound in chimney corners, and
+handed down to be sung in the miry street to
+lamp-lit windows at Yule-time.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4"><i>CAROL</i></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Villagers all, this frosty tide,</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Let your doors swing open wide,</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Though wind may follow, and snow beside,</i></span>
+<!-- Page 130 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;</i></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Joy shall be yours in the morning!</i></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Blowing fingers and stamping feet,</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Come from far away you to greet&mdash;</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>You by the fire and we in the street&mdash;</i></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Bidding you joy in the morning!</i></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>For ere one half of the night was gone,</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Sudden a star has led us on,</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Raining bliss and benison&mdash;</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Bliss to-morrow and more anon,</i></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Joy for every morning!</i></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow&mdash;</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Saw the star o'er a stable low;</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Mary she might not further go&mdash;</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Welcome thatch, and litter below!</i></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Joy was hers in the morning!</i></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>And then they heard the angels tell</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>"Who were the first to cry </i>Nowell<i>?</i><br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>Animals all, as it befell,</i></span>
+<span class="i0"><i>In the stable where they did dwell!</i></span>
+<span class="i2"><i>Joy shall be theirs in the morning!"</i></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The voices ceased, the singers, bashful but
+smiling, exchanged sidelong glances, and silence
+succeeded&mdash;but for a moment only. Then,
+<!-- Page 131 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+from up above and far away, down the tunnel
+they had so lately travelled was borne to their
+ears in a faint musical hum the sound of distant
+bells ringing a joyful and clangorous peal.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well sung, boys!" cried the Rat heartily.
+"And now come along in, all of you, and
+warm yourselves by the fire, and have something
+hot!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, come along, field-mice," cried the Mole
+eagerly. "This is quite like old times! Shut
+the door after you. Pull up that settle to the
+fire. Now, you just wait a minute, while we&mdash;O,
+Ratty!" he cried in despair, plumping down
+on a seat, with tears impending. "Whatever
+are we doing? We've nothing to give them!"</p>
+
+<p>"You leave all that to me," said the masterful
+Rat. "Here, you with the lantern! Come
+over this way. I want to talk to you. Now,
+tell me, are there any shops open at this hour
+of the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, sir," replied the field-mouse
+respectfully. "At this time of the year our
+shops keep open to all sorts of hours."</p>
+
+<p>"Then look here!" said the Rat. "You go
+<!-- Page 132 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+off at once, you and your lantern, and you get
+me&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here much muttered conversation ensued,
+and the Mole only heard bits of it, such as&mdash;"Fresh,
+mind!&mdash;no, a pound of that will do&mdash;see
+you get Buggins's, for I won't have any
+other&mdash;no, only the best&mdash;if you can't get it
+there, try somewhere else&mdash;yes, of course, home-made,
+no tinned stuff&mdash;well then, do the best
+you can!" Finally, there was a chink of coin
+passing from paw to paw, the field-mouse was
+provided with an ample basket for his purchases,
+and off he hurried, he and his lantern.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the field-mice, perched in a row
+on the settle, their small legs swinging, gave
+themselves up to enjoyment of the fire, and
+toasted their chilblains till they tingled; while
+the Mole, failing to draw them into easy conversation,
+plunged into family history and made
+each of them recite the names of his numerous
+brothers, who were too young, it appeared, to
+be allowed to go out a-carolling this year, but
+looked forward very shortly to winning the
+parental consent.
+<!-- Page 133 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Rat, meanwhile, was busy examining the
+label on one of the beer-bottles. "I perceive
+this to be Old Burton," he remarked approvingly.
+"<i>Sensible</i> Mole! The very thing! Now
+we shall be able to mull some ale! Get the
+things ready, Mole, while I draw the corks."</p>
+
+<p>It did not take long to prepare the brew and
+thrust the tin heater well into the red heart
+of the fire; and soon every field-mouse was
+sipping and coughing and choking (for a little
+mulled ale goes a long way) and wiping his eyes
+and laughing and forgetting he had ever been
+cold in all his life.</p>
+
+<p>"They act plays, too, these fellows," the Mole
+explained to the Rat. "Make them up all by
+themselves, and act them afterwards. And very
+well they do it, too! They gave us a capital
+one last year, about a field-mouse who was captured
+at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to
+row in a galley; and when he escaped and got
+home again, his lady-love had gone into a convent.
+Here, <i>you</i>! You were in it, I remember.
+Get up and recite a bit."</p>
+
+<p>The field-mouse addressed got up on his legs,
+<!-- Page 134 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+giggled shyly, looked round the room, and remained
+absolutely tongue-tied. His comrades
+cheered him on, Mole coaxed and encouraged
+him, and the Rat went so far as to take him by
+the shoulders and shake him; but nothing could
+overcome his stage-fright. They were all busily
+engaged on him like watermen applying the
+Royal Humane Society's regulations to a case
+of long submersion, when the latch clicked, the
+door opened, and the field-mouse with the lantern
+reappeared, staggering under the weight of
+his basket.</p>
+
+<p>There was no more talk of play-acting once
+the very real and solid contents of the basket
+had been tumbled out on the table. Under the
+generalship of Rat, everybody was set to do
+something or to fetch something. In a very few
+minutes supper was ready, and Mole, as he took
+the head of the table in a sort of a dream, saw
+a lately barren board set thick with savoury
+comforts; saw his little friends' faces brighten
+and beam as they fell to without delay; and
+then let himself loose&mdash;for he was famished
+<!-- Page 135 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+indeed&mdash;on the provender so magically provided,
+thinking what a happy home-coming this
+had turned out, after all. As they ate, they
+talked of old times, and the field-mice gave him
+the local gossip up to date, and answered as well
+as they could the hundred questions he had to
+ask them. The Rat said little or nothing, only
+taking care that each guest had what he wanted,
+and plenty of it, and that Mole had no trouble
+or anxiety about anything.</p>
+
+<p>They clattered off at last, very grateful and
+showering wishes of the season, with their jacket
+pockets stuffed with remembrances for the small
+brothers and sisters at home. When the door
+had closed on the last of them and the chink
+of the lanterns had died away, Mole and Rat
+kicked the fire up, drew their chairs in, brewed
+themselves a last nightcap of mulled ale, and
+discussed the events of the long day. At last
+the Rat, with a tremendous yawn, said, "Mole,
+old chap, I'm ready to drop. Sleepy is simply
+not the word. That your own bunk over on
+that side? Very well, then, I'll take this.
+What a ripping little house this is! Everything
+so handy!"
+<!-- Page 136 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He clambered into his bunk and rolled himself
+well up in the blankets, and slumber gathered
+him forthwith, as a swathe of barley is
+folded into the arms of the reaping machine.</p>
+
+<p>The weary Mole also was glad to turn in
+without delay, and soon had his head on his
+pillow, in great joy and contentment. But ere
+he closed his eyes he let them wander round his
+old room, mellow in the glow of the firelight
+that played or rested on familiar and friendly
+things which had long been unconsciously a
+part of him, and now smilingly received him
+back, without rancour. He was now in just
+the frame of mind that the tactful Rat had
+quietly worked to bring about in him. He saw
+clearly how plain and simple&mdash;how narrow,
+even&mdash;it all was; but clearly, too, how much
+it all meant to him, and the special value of
+some such anchorage in one's existence. He did
+not at all want to abandon the new life and its
+splendid spaces, to turn his back on sun and air
+and all they offered him and creep home and
+stay there; the upper world was all too strong,
+it called to him still, even down there, and he
+<!-- Page 137 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+knew he must return to the larger stage. But
+it was good to think he had this to come back
+to, this place which was all his own, these things
+which were so glad to see him again and could
+always be counted upon for the same simple
+welcome.
+<!-- Page 138 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 139 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="VI" id="VI"></a><h2>VI</h2>
+<h2>MR. TOAD</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 140 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 141 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">IT was a bright morning in the early part of
+summer; the river had resumed its wonted
+banks and its accustomed pace, and a hot sun
+seemed to be pulling everything green and
+bushy and spiky up out of the earth towards
+him, as if by strings. The Mole and the Water
+Rat had been up since dawn, very busy on
+matters connected with boats and the opening
+of the boating season; painting and varnishing,
+mending paddles, repairing cushions, hunting
+for missing boat-hooks, and so on; and were
+finishing breakfast in their little parlour and
+eagerly discussing their plans for the day, when
+a heavy knock sounded at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Bother!" said the Rat, all over egg. "See
+who it is, Mole, like a good chap, since you've
+finished."
+<!-- Page 142 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Mole went to attend the summons, and
+the Rat heard him utter a cry of surprise.
+Then he flung the parlour door open, and announced
+with much importance, "Mr. Badger!"</p>
+
+<p>This was a wonderful thing, indeed, that the
+Badger should pay a formal call on them, or
+indeed on anybody. He generally had to be
+caught, if you wanted him badly, as he slipped
+quietly along a hedgerow of an early morning
+or a late evening, or else hunted up in his own
+house in the middle of the Wood, which was a
+serious undertaking.</p>
+
+<p>The Badger strode heavily into the room,
+and stood looking at the two animals with an
+expression full of seriousness. The Rat let his
+egg-spoon fall on the table-cloth, and sat open-mouthed.</p>
+
+<p>"The hour has come!" said the Badger at
+last with great solemnity.</p>
+
+<p>"What hour?" asked the Rat uneasily, glancing
+at the clock on the mantelpiece.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Whose</i> hour, you should rather say," replied
+the Badger. "Why, Toad's hour! The hour
+of Toad! I said I would take him in hand as
+<!-- Page 143 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+soon as the winter was well over, and I'm going
+to take him in hand to-day!"</p>
+
+<p>"Toad's hour, of course!" cried the Mole delightedly.
+"Hooray! I remember now! <i>We'll</i>
+teach him to be a sensible Toad!"</p>
+
+<p>"This very morning," continued the Badger,
+taking an arm-chair, "as I learnt last night
+from a trustworthy source, another new and
+exceptionally powerful motor-car will arrive at
+Toad Hall on approval or return. At this very
+moment, perhaps, Toad is busy arraying himself
+in those singularly hideous habiliments so
+dear to him, which transform him from a (comparatively)
+good-looking Toad into an Object
+which throws any decent-minded animal that
+comes across it into a violent fit. We must be
+up and doing, ere it is too late. You two animals
+will accompany me instantly to Toad Hall,
+and the work of rescue shall be accomplished."</p>
+
+<p>"Right you are!" cried the Rat, starting up.
+"We'll rescue the poor unhappy animal! We'll
+convert him! He'll be the most converted
+Toad that ever was before we've done with
+him!"
+<!-- Page 144 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They set off up the road on their mission of
+mercy, Badger leading the way. Animals when
+in company walk in a proper and sensible
+manner, in single file, instead of sprawling all
+across the road and being of no use or support
+to each other in case of sudden trouble or
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>They reached the carriage-drive of Toad Hall
+to find, as Badger had anticipated, a shiny new
+motor-car, of great size, painted a bright red
+(Toad's favourite colour), standing in front of
+the house. As they neared the door it was
+flung open, and Mr. Toad, arrayed in goggles,
+cap, gaiters, and enormous overcoat, came swaggering
+down the steps, drawing on his gauntleted
+gloves.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo! come on, you fellows!" he cried
+cheerfully on catching sight of them. "You're
+just in time to come with me for a jolly&mdash;to
+come for a jolly&mdash;for a&mdash;er&mdash;jolly&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His hearty accents faltered and fell away as
+he noticed the stern unbending look on the
+countenances of his silent friends, and his invitation
+remained unfinished.
+<!-- Page 145 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Badger strode up the steps. "Take him
+inside," he said sternly to his companions.
+Then, as Toad was hustled through the door,
+struggling and protesting, he turned to the
+<i>chauffeur</i> in charge of the new motor-car.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid you won't be wanted to-day," he
+said. "Mr. Toad has changed his mind. He
+will not require the car. Please understand
+that this is final. You needn't wait." Then he
+followed the others inside and shut the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then!" he said to the Toad, when the
+four of them stood together in the Hall, "first
+of all, take those ridiculous things off!"</p>
+
+<p>"Shan't!" replied Toad, with great spirit.
+"What is the meaning of this gross outrage?
+I demand an instant explanation."</p>
+
+<p>"Take them off him, then, you two," ordered
+the Badger briefly.</p>
+
+<p>They had to lay Toad out on the floor, kicking
+and calling all sorts of names, before they
+could get to work properly. Then the Rat sat
+on him, and the Mole got his motor-clothes off
+him bit by bit, and they stood him up on his
+legs again. A good deal of his blustering spirit
+<!-- Page 146 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>
+seemed to have evaporated with the removal of
+his fine panoply. Now that he was merely
+Toad, and no longer the Terror of the Highway,
+he giggled feebly and looked from one to the
+other appealingly, seeming quite to understand
+the situation.</p>
+
+<p>"You knew it must come to this, sooner or
+later, Toad," the Badger explained severely.
+"You've disregarded all the warnings we've
+given you, you've gone on squandering the
+money your father left you, and you're getting
+us animals a bad name in the district by your
+furious driving and your smashes and your rows
+with the police. Independence is all very well,
+but we animals never allow our friends to make
+fools of themselves beyond a certain limit; and
+that limit you've reached. Now, you're a good
+fellow in many respects, and I don't want to be
+too hard on you. I'll make one more effort to
+bring you to reason. You will come with me
+into the smoking-room, and there you will hear
+some facts about yourself; and we'll see whether
+you come out of that room the same Toad that
+you went in."
+<!-- Page 147 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He took Toad firmly by the arm, led him
+into the smoking-room, and closed the door behind
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>That's</i> no good!" said the Rat contemptuously.
+"<i>Talking</i> to Toad'll never cure him.
+He'll <i>say</i> anything."</p>
+
+<p>They made themselves comfortable in arm-chairs
+and waited patiently. Through the closed
+door they could just hear the long continuous
+drone of the Badger's voice, rising and falling
+in waves of oratory; and presently they noticed
+that the sermon began to be punctuated at
+intervals by long-drawn sobs, evidently proceeding
+from the bosom of Toad, who was a
+soft-hearted and affectionate fellow, very easily
+converted&mdash;for the time being&mdash;to any point
+of view.</p>
+
+<p>After some three-quarters of an hour the
+door opened, and the Badger reappeared, solemnly
+leading by the paw a very limp and dejected
+Toad. His skin hung baggily about him,
+his legs wobbled, and his cheeks were furrowed
+by the tears so plentifully called forth by the
+Badger's moving discourse.
+<!-- Page 148 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Sit down there, Toad," said the Badger
+kindly, pointing to a chair. "My friends," he
+went on, "I am pleased to inform you that
+Toad has at last seen the error of his ways. He
+is truly sorry for his misguided conduct in the
+past, and he has undertaken to give up motor-cars
+entirely and for ever. I have his solemn
+promise to that effect."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very good news," said the Mole
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Very good news indeed," observed the Rat
+dubiously, "if only&mdash;<i>if</i> only&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He was looking very hard at Toad as he said
+this, and could not help thinking he perceived
+something vaguely resembling a twinkle in that
+animal's still sorrowful eye.</p>
+
+<p>"There's only one thing more to be done,"
+continued the gratified Badger. "Toad, I want
+you solemnly to repeat, before your friends here,
+what you fully admitted to me in the smoking-room
+just now. First, you are sorry for what
+you've done, and you see the folly of it all?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a long, long pause. Toad looked
+desperately this way and that, while the other
+<!-- Page 149 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+animals waited in grave silence. At last he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"No!" he said, a little sullenly, but stoutly;
+"I'm <i>not</i> sorry. And it wasn't folly at all! It
+was simply glorious!"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" cried the Badger, greatly scandalised.
+"You backsliding animal, didn't you tell
+me just now, in there&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, yes, in <i>there</i>," said Toad impatiently.
+"I'd have said anything in <i>there</i>.
+You're so eloquent, dear Badger, and so moving,
+and so convincing, and put all your points
+so frightfully well&mdash;you can do what you like
+with me in <i>there</i>, and you know it. But I've
+been searching my mind since, and going over
+things in it, and I find that I'm not a bit sorry
+or repentant really, so it's no earthly good
+saying I am; now, is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't promise," said the Badger,
+"never to touch a motor-car again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not!" replied Toad emphatically.
+"On the contrary, I faithfully promise that the
+very first motor-car I see, poop-poop! off I go
+in it!"
+<!-- Page 150 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Told you so, didn't I?" observed the Rat to
+the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," said the Badger firmly,
+rising to his feet. "Since you won't yield to
+persuasion, we'll try what force can do. I
+feared it would come to this all along. You've
+often asked us three to come and stay with you,
+Toad, in this handsome house of yours; well,
+now we're going to. When we've converted
+you to a proper point of view we may quit, but
+not before. Take him upstairs, you two, and
+lock him up in his bedroom, while we arrange
+matters between ourselves."</p>
+
+<p>"It's for your own good, Toady, you know,"
+said the Rat kindly, as Toad, kicking and
+struggling, was hauled up the stairs by his two
+faithful friends. "Think what fun we shall all
+have together, just as we used to, when you've
+quite got over this&mdash;this painful attack of
+yours!"</p>
+
+<p>"We'll take great care of everything for you
+till you're well, Toad," said the Mole; "and
+we'll see your money isn't wasted, as it has
+been."
+<!-- Page 151 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No more of those regrettable incidents with
+the police, Toad," said the Rat, as they thrust
+him into his bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>"And no more weeks in hospital, being ordered
+about by female nurses, Toad," added the
+Mole, turning the key on him.</p>
+
+<p>They descended the stair, Toad shouting
+abuse at them through the keyhole; and the
+three friends then met in conference on the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>"It's going to be a tedious business," said the
+Badger, sighing. "I've never seen Toad so
+determined. However, we will see it out. He
+must never be left an instant unguarded. We
+shall have to take it in turns to be with him,
+till the poison has worked itself out of his
+system."</p>
+
+<p>They arranged watches accordingly. Each
+animal took it in turns to sleep in Toad's room
+at night, and they divided the day up between
+them. At first Toad was undoubtedly very
+trying to his careful guardians. When his violent
+paroxysms possessed him he would arrange
+<!-- Page 152 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+bedroom chairs in rude resemblance of a motor-car
+and would crouch on the foremost of them,
+bent forward and staring fixedly ahead, making
+uncouth and ghastly noises, till the climax was
+reached, when, turning a complete somersault,
+he would lie prostrate amidst the ruins of the
+chairs, apparently completely satisfied for the
+moment. As time passed, however, these painful
+seizures grew gradually less frequent, and
+his friends strove to divert his mind into fresh
+channels. But his interest in other matters did
+not seem to revive, and he grew apparently
+languid and depressed.</p>
+
+<p>One fine morning the Rat, whose turn it was
+to go on duty, went upstairs to relieve Badger,
+whom he found fidgeting to be off and stretch
+his legs in a long ramble round his wood and
+down his earths and burrows. "Toad's still in
+bed," he told the Rat, outside the door. "Can't
+get much out of him, except, 'O leave him
+alone, he wants nothing, perhaps he'll be better
+presently, it may pass off in time, don't be
+unduly anxious,' and so on. Now, you look
+out, Rat! When Toad's quiet and submissive,
+<!-- Page 153 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+and playing at being the hero of a Sunday-school
+prize, then he's at his artfullest. There's
+sure to be something up. I know him. Well,
+now, I must be off."</p>
+
+<p>"How are you to-day, old chap?" inquired
+the Rat cheerfully, as he approached Toad's
+bedside.</p>
+
+<p>He had to wait some minutes for an answer.
+At last a feeble voice replied, "Thank you so
+much, dear Ratty! So good of you to inquire!
+But first tell me how you are yourself, and the
+excellent Mole?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, <i>we're</i> all right," replied the Rat. "Mole,"
+he added incautiously, "is going out for a run
+round with Badger. They'll be out till luncheon
+time, so you and I will spend a pleasant morning
+together, and I'll do my best to amuse you.
+Now jump up, there's a good fellow, and don't
+lie moping there on a fine morning like this!"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear, kind Rat," murmured Toad, "how
+little you realise my condition, and how very
+far I am from 'jumping up' now&mdash;if ever!
+But do not trouble about me. I hate being a
+burden to my friends, and I do not expect to be
+one much longer. Indeed, I almost hope not."
+<!-- Page 154 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I hope not, too," said the Rat heartily.
+"You've been a fine bother to us all this time,
+and I'm glad to hear it's going to stop. And
+in weather like this, and the boating season
+just beginning! It's too bad of you, Toad!
+It isn't the trouble we mind, but you're making
+us miss such an awful lot."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid it <i>is</i> the trouble you mind,
+though," replied the Toad languidly. "I can
+quite understand it. It's natural enough.
+You're tired of bothering about me. I mustn't
+ask you to do anything further. I'm a nuisance,
+I know."</p>
+
+<p>"You are, indeed," said the Rat. "But I
+tell you, I'd take any trouble on earth for you,
+if only you'd be a sensible animal."</p>
+
+<p>"If I thought that, Ratty," murmured Toad,
+more feebly than ever, "then I would beg you&mdash;for
+the last time, probably&mdash;to step round
+to the village as quickly as possible&mdash;even now
+it may be too late&mdash;and fetch the doctor. But
+don't you bother. It's only a trouble, and perhaps
+we may as well let things take their course."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what do you want a doctor for?"
+<!-- Page 155 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
+inquired the Rat, coming closer and examining
+him. He certainly lay very still and flat, and his
+voice was weaker and his manner much changed.</p>
+
+<p>"Surely you have noticed of late&mdash;" murmured
+Toad. "But, no&mdash;why should you?
+Noticing things is only a trouble. To-morrow,
+indeed, you may be saying to yourself, 'O, if
+only I had noticed sooner! If only I had done
+something!' But no; it's a trouble. Never
+mind&mdash;forget that I asked."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, old man," said the Rat, beginning
+to get rather alarmed, "of course I'll fetch
+a doctor to you, if you really think you want
+him. But you can hardly be bad enough for
+that yet. Let's talk about something else."</p>
+
+<p>"I fear, dear friend," said Toad, with a
+sad smile, "that 'talk' can do little in a case
+like this&mdash;or doctors either, for that matter;
+still, one must grasp at the slightest straw. And,
+by the way&mdash;while you are about it&mdash;I <i>hate</i>
+to give you additional trouble, but I happen to
+remember that you will pass the door&mdash;would
+you mind at the same time asking the lawyer
+to step up? It would be a convenience to me,
+<!-- Page 156 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+and there are moments&mdash;perhaps I should say
+there is <i>a</i> moment&mdash;when one must face disagreeable
+tasks, at whatever cost to exhausted
+nature!"</p>
+
+<p>"A lawyer! O, he must be really bad!" the
+affrighted Rat said to himself, as he hurried
+from the room, not forgetting, however, to lock
+the door carefully behind him.</p>
+
+<p>Outside, he stopped to consider. The other
+two were far away, and he had no one to consult.</p>
+
+<p>"It's best to be on the safe side," he said, on
+reflection. "I've known Toad fancy himself
+frightfully bad before, without the slightest reason;
+but I've never heard him ask for a lawyer!
+If there's nothing really the matter, the doctor
+will tell him he's an old ass, and cheer him up;
+and that will be something gained. I'd better
+humour him and go; it won't take very long." So
+he ran off to the village on his errand of mercy.</p>
+
+<p>The Toad, who had hopped lightly out of
+bed as soon as he heard the key turned in the
+lock, watched him eagerly from the window till
+he disappeared down the carriage-drive. Then,
+laughing heartily, he dressed as quickly as possible
+in the smartest suit he could lay hands on
+<!-- Page 157 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>
+at the moment, filled his pockets with cash
+which he took from a small drawer in the
+dressing-table, and next, knotting the sheets
+from his bed together and tying one end of the
+improvised rope round the central mullion of
+the handsome Tudor window which formed such
+a feature of his bedroom, he scrambled out, slid
+lightly to the ground, and, taking the opposite
+direction to the Rat, marched off light-heartedly,
+whistling a merry tune.</p>
+
+<p>It was a gloomy luncheon for Rat when the
+Badger and the Mole at length returned, and
+he had to face them at table with his pitiful and
+unconvincing story. The Badger's caustic, not
+to say brutal, remarks may be imagined, and
+therefore passed over; but it was painful to
+the Rat that even the Mole, though he took his
+friend's side as far as possible, could not help
+saying, "You've been a bit of a duffer this
+time, Ratty! Toad, too, of all animals!"</p>
+
+<p>"He did it awfully well," said the crestfallen
+Rat.</p>
+
+<p>"He did <i>you</i> awfully well!" rejoined the
+<!-- Page 158 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+Badger hotly. "However, talking won't mend
+matters. He's got clear away for the time,
+that's certain; and the worst of it is, he'll be
+so conceited with what he'll think is his cleverness
+that he may commit any folly. One comfort
+is, we're free now, and needn't waste any
+more of our precious time doing sentry-go. But
+we'd better continue to sleep at Toad Hall for
+a while longer. Toad may be brought back at
+any moment&mdash;on a stretcher, or between two
+policemen."</p>
+
+<p>So spoke the Badger, not knowing what the
+future held in store, or how much water, and
+of how turbid a character, was to run under
+bridges before Toad should sit at ease again in
+his ancestral Hall.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Toad, gay and irresponsible, was
+walking briskly along the high road, some miles
+from home. At first he had taken by-paths,
+and crossed many fields, and changed his course
+several times, in case of pursuit; but now, feeling
+by this time safe from recapture, and the
+sun smiling brightly on him, and all Nature
+<!-- Page 159 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
+joining in a chorus of approval to the song of
+self-praise that his own heart was singing to
+him, he almost danced along the road in his
+satisfaction and conceit.</p>
+
+<p>"Smart piece of work that!" he remarked to
+himself chuckling. "Brain against brute force&mdash;and
+brain came out on the top&mdash;as it's
+bound to do. Poor old Ratty! My! won't he
+catch it when the Badger gets back! A worthy
+fellow, Ratty, with many good qualities, but
+very little intelligence and absolutely no education.
+I must take him in hand some day, and
+see if I can make something of him."</p>
+
+<p>Filled full of conceited thoughts such as these
+he strode along, his head in the air, till he
+reached a little town, where the sign of "The
+Red Lion," swinging across the road half-way
+down the main street, reminded him that he
+had not breakfasted that day, and that he was
+exceedingly hungry after his long walk. He
+marched into the Inn, ordered the best luncheon
+that could be provided at so short a notice,
+and sat down to eat it in the coffee-room.</p>
+
+<p>He was about half-way through his meal when
+<!-- Page 160 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+an only too familiar sound, approaching down
+the street, made him start and fall a-trembling
+all over. The poop-poop! drew nearer and
+nearer, the car could be heard to turn into the
+inn-yard and come to a stop, and Toad had to
+hold on to the leg of the table to conceal his
+over-mastering emotion. Presently the party
+entered the coffee-room, hungry, talkative, and
+gay, voluble on their experiences of the morning
+and the merits of the chariot that had brought
+them along so well. Toad listened eagerly, all
+ears, for a time; at last he could stand it no
+longer. He slipped out of the room quietly,
+paid his bill at the bar, and as soon as he got
+outside sauntered round quietly to the inn-yard.
+"There cannot be any harm," he said to himself,
+"in my only just <i>looking</i> at it!"</p>
+
+<p>The car stood in the middle of the yard,
+quite unattended, the stable-helps and other
+hangers-on being all at their dinner. Toad
+walked slowly round it, inspecting, criticising,
+musing deeply.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," he said to himself presently, "I
+wonder if this sort of car <i>starts</i> easily?"
+<!-- Page 161 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Next moment, hardly knowing how it came
+about, he found he had hold of the handle and
+was turning it. As the familiar sound broke
+forth, the old passion seized on Toad and completely
+mastered him, body and soul. As if in
+a dream he found himself, somehow, seated in
+the driver's seat; as if in a dream, he pulled the
+lever and swung the car round the yard and
+out through the archway; and, as if in a dream,
+all sense of right and wrong, all fear of obvious
+consequences, seemed temporarily suspended.
+He increased his pace, and as the car devoured
+the street and leapt forth on the high road
+through the open country, he was only conscious
+that he was Toad once more, Toad at
+his best and highest, Toad the terror, the traffic-queller,
+the Lord of the lone trail, before whom
+all must give way or be smitten into nothingness
+and everlasting night. He chanted as he flew,
+and the car responded with sonorous drone; the
+miles were eaten up under him as he sped he
+knew not whither, fulfilling his instincts, living
+his hour, reckless of what might come to him.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 162 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+<hr />
+
+<p>"To my mind," observed the Chairman of
+the Bench of Magistrates cheerfully, "the <i>only</i>
+difficulty that presents itself in this otherwise
+very clear case is, how we can possibly make
+it sufficiently hot for the incorrigible rogue and
+hardened ruffian whom we see cowering in the
+dock before us. Let me see: he has been found
+guilty, on the clearest evidence, first, of stealing
+a valuable motor-car; secondly, of driving to
+the public danger; and, thirdly, of gross impertinence
+to the rural police. Mr. Clerk, will you
+tell us, please, what is the very stiffest penalty
+we can impose for each of these offences? Without,
+of course, giving the prisoner the benefit of
+any doubt, because there isn't any."</p>
+
+<p>The Clerk scratched his nose with his pen.
+"Some people would consider," he observed,
+"that stealing the motor-car was the worst
+offence; and so it is. But cheeking the police
+undoubtedly carries the severest penalty; and
+so it ought. Supposing you were to say twelve
+months for the theft, which is mild; and three
+years for the furious driving, which is lenient;
+and fifteen years for the cheek, which was pretty
+<!-- Page 163 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+bad sort of cheek, judging by what we've
+heard from the witness-box, even if you only
+believe one-tenth part of what you heard, and
+I never believe more myself&mdash;those figures,
+if added together correctly, tot up to nineteen
+years&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"First-rate!" said the Chairman.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;So you had better make it a round
+twenty years and be on the safe side," concluded
+the Clerk.</p>
+
+<p>"An excellent suggestion!" said the Chairman
+approvingly. "Prisoner! Pull yourself together
+and try and stand up straight. It's
+going to be twenty years for you this time.
+And mind, if you appear before us again, upon
+any charge whatever, we shall have to deal
+with you very seriously!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the brutal minions of the law fell upon
+the hapless Toad; loaded him with chains, and
+dragged him from the Court House, shrieking,
+praying, protesting; across the market-place,
+where the playful populace, always as severe
+upon detected crime as they are sympathetic
+and helpful when one is merely "wanted,"
+<!-- Page 164 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
+assailed him with jeers, carrots, and popular
+catch-words; past hooting school children, their
+innocent faces lit up with the pleasure they ever
+derive from the sight of a gentleman in difficulties;
+across the hollow-sounding drawbridge,
+below the spiky portcullis, under the frowning
+archway of the grim old castle, whose ancient
+towers soared high overhead; past guardrooms
+full of grinning soldiery off duty, past sentries
+who coughed in a horrid, sarcastic way, because
+that is as much as a sentry on his post dare do
+to show his contempt and abhorrence of crime;
+up time-worn winding stairs, past men-at-arms
+in casquet and corselet of steel, darting threatening
+looks through their vizards; across courtyards,
+where mastiffs strained at their leash
+and pawed the air to get at him; past ancient
+warders, their halberds leant against the wall,
+dozing over a pasty and a flagon of brown ale;
+on and on, past the rack-chamber and the
+thumbscrew-room, past the turning that led to
+the private scaffold, till they reached the door of
+the grimmest dungeon that lay in the heart of
+the innermost keep. There at last they paused,
+<!-- Page 165 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+where an ancient gaoler sat fingering a bunch
+of mighty keys.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page164pic" id="Page164pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus05.jpg" width="420" height="571"
+alt="Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon"
+title="Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon" />
+<span class="caption">Toad was a helpless
+    prisoner in the remotest dungeon</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Oddsbodikins!" said the sergeant of police,
+taking off his helmet and wiping his forehead.
+"Rouse thee, old loon, and take over from us
+this vile Toad, a criminal of deepest guilt and
+matchless artfulness and resource. Watch and
+ward him with all thy skill; and mark thee
+well, greybeard, should aught untoward befall,
+thy old head shall answer for his&mdash;and a murrain
+on both of them!"</p>
+
+<p>The gaoler nodded grimly, laying his withered
+hand on the shoulder of the miserable Toad.
+The rusty key creaked in the lock, the great
+door clanged behind them; and Toad was a
+helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon of the
+best-guarded keep of the stoutest castle in all
+the length and breadth of Merry England.</p>
+<p><!-- Page 166 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+<p><!-- Page 167 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="VII" id="VII"></a><h2>VII</h2>
+<h2>THE PIPER AT THE GATES
+OF DAWN</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 168 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 169 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE Willow-Wren was twittering his thin
+little song, hidden himself in the dark
+selvedge of the river bank. Though it was past
+ten o'clock at night, the sky still clung to and
+retained some lingering skirts of light from the
+departed day; and the sullen heats of the torrid
+afternoon broke up and rolled away at the dispersing
+touch of the cool fingers of the short
+midsummer night. Mole lay stretched on the
+bank, still panting from the stress of the fierce
+day that had been cloudless from dawn to late
+sunset, and waited for his friend to return.
+He had been on the river with some companions,
+leaving the Water Rat free to keep an engagement
+of long standing with Otter; and he had
+come back to find the house dark and deserted,
+and no sign of Rat, who was doubtless keeping
+<!-- Page 170 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+it up late with his old comrade. It was still
+too hot to think of staying indoors, so he lay
+on some cool dock-leaves, and thought over the
+past day and its doings, and how very good
+they all had been.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat's light footfall was presently heard
+approaching over the parched grass. "O, the
+blessed coolness!" he said, and sat down, gazing
+thoughtfully into the river, silent and pre-occupied.</p>
+
+<p>"You stayed to supper, of course?" said the
+Mole presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Simply had to," said the Rat. "They
+wouldn't hear of my going before. You know
+how kind they always are. And they made
+things as jolly for me as ever they could, right
+up to the moment I left. But I felt a brute all
+the time, as it was clear to me they were very
+unhappy, though they tried to hide it. Mole,
+I'm afraid they're in trouble. Little Portly is
+missing again; and you know what a lot his
+father thinks of him, though he never says
+much about it."</p>
+
+<p>"What, that child?" said the Mole lightly.
+<!-- Page 171 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+"Well, suppose he is; why worry about it?
+He's always straying off and getting lost, and
+turning up again; he's so adventurous. But
+no harm ever happens to him. Everybody hereabouts
+knows him and likes him, just as they
+do old Otter, and you may be sure some animal
+or other will come across him and bring him
+back again all right. Why, we've found him
+ourselves, miles from home, and quite self-possessed
+and cheerful!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but this time it's more serious," said
+the Rat gravely. "He's been missing for some
+days now, and the Otters have hunted everywhere,
+high and low, without finding the slightest
+trace. And they've asked every animal,
+too, for miles around, and no one knows anything
+about him. Otter's evidently more anxious
+than he'll admit. I got out of him that
+young Portly hasn't learnt to swim very well
+yet, and I can see he's thinking of the weir.
+There's a lot of water coming down still, considering
+the time of the year, and the place
+always had a fascination for the child. And
+then there are&mdash;well, traps and things&mdash;<i>you</i>
+<!-- Page 172 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+know. Otter's not the fellow to be nervous
+about any son of his before it's time. And now
+he <i>is</i> nervous. When I left, he came out with
+me&mdash;said he wanted some air, and talked about
+stretching his legs. But I could see it wasn't
+that, so I drew him out and pumped him, and
+got it all from him at last. He was going to
+spend the night watching by the ford. You
+know the place where the old ford used to be,
+in by-gone days before they built the bridge?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know it well," said the Mole. "But why
+should Otter choose to watch there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it seems that it was there he gave
+Portly his first swimming-lesson," continued the
+Rat. "From that shallow, gravelly spit near the
+bank. And it was there he used to teach him
+fishing, and there young Portly caught his first
+fish, of which he was so very proud. The child
+loved the spot, and Otter thinks that if he came
+wandering back from wherever he is&mdash;if he <i>is</i>
+anywhere by this time, poor little chap&mdash;he
+might make for the ford he was so fond of; or
+if he came across it he'd remember it well, and
+stop there and play, perhaps. So Otter goes
+<!-- Page 173 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+there every night and watches&mdash;on the chance,
+you know, just on the chance!"</p>
+
+<p>They were silent for a time, both thinking
+of the same thing&mdash;the lonely, heart-sore animal,
+crouched by the ford, watching and waiting, the
+long night through&mdash;on the chance.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said the Rat presently, "I suppose
+we ought to be thinking about turning in."
+But he never offered to move.</p>
+
+<p>"Rat," said the Mole, "I simply can't go and
+turn in, and go to sleep, and <i>do</i> nothing, even
+though there doesn't seem to be anything to be
+done. We'll get the boat out, and paddle upstream.
+The moon will be up in an hour or so,
+and then we will search as well as we can&mdash;anyhow,
+it will be better than going to bed and
+doing <i>nothing</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Just what I was thinking myself," said the
+Rat. "It's not the sort of night for bed anyhow;
+and daybreak is not so very far off, and
+then we may pick up some news of him from
+early risers as we go along."</p>
+
+<p>They got the boat out, and the Rat took the
+<!-- Page 174 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
+sculls, paddling with caution. Out in mid-stream,
+there was a clear, narrow track that
+faintly reflected the sky; but wherever shadows
+fell on the water from bank, bush, or tree, they
+were as solid to all appearance as the banks
+themselves, and the Mole had to steer with
+judgment accordingly. Dark and deserted as
+it was, the night was full of small noises, song
+and chatter and rustling, telling of the busy
+little population who were up and about, plying
+their trades and vocations through the night till
+sunshine should fall on them at last and send
+them off to their well-earned repose. The
+water's own noises, too, were more apparent
+than by day, its gurglings and "cloops" more
+unexpected and near at hand; and constantly
+they started at what seemed a sudden clear call
+from an actual articulate voice.</p>
+
+<p>The line of the horizon was clear and hard
+against the sky, and in one particular quarter it
+showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence
+that grew and grew. At last, over
+the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted
+with slow majesty till it swung clear of the
+horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and
+<!-- Page 175 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+once more they began to see surfaces&mdash;meadows
+wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the
+river itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed,
+all washed clean of mystery and terror, all radiant
+again as by day, but with a difference
+that was tremendous. Their old haunts greeted
+them again in other raiment, as if they had
+slipped away and put on this pure new apparel
+and come quietly back, smiling as they shyly
+waited to see if they would be recognised again
+under it.</p>
+
+<p>Fastening their boat to a willow, the friends
+landed in this silent, silver kingdom, and patiently
+explored the hedges, the hollow trees,
+the runnels and their little culverts, the ditches
+and dry water-ways. Embarking again and
+crossing over, they worked their way up the
+stream in this manner, while the moon, serene
+and detached in a cloudless sky, did what she
+could, though so far off, to help them in their
+quest; till her hour came and she sank earthwards
+reluctantly, and left them, and mystery
+once more held field and river.</p>
+
+<p>Then a change began slowly to declare itself.
+<!-- Page 176 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+The horizon became clearer, field and tree came
+more into sight, and somehow with a different
+look; the mystery began to drop away from
+them. A bird piped suddenly, and was still;
+and a light breeze sprang up and set the reeds
+and bulrushes rustling. Rat, who was in the
+stern of the boat, while Mole sculled, sat up
+suddenly and listened with a passionate intentness.
+Mole, who with gentle strokes was just
+keeping the boat moving while he scanned
+the banks with care, looked at him with curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"It's gone!" sighed the Rat, sinking back in
+his seat again. "So beautiful and strange and
+new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost
+wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a
+longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems
+worth while but just to hear that sound once
+more and go on listening to it for ever. No!
+There it is again!" he cried, alert once more.
+Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it passes on and I begin to lose it," he
+said presently. "O Mole! the beauty of it!
+<!-- Page 177 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy
+call of the distant piping! Such music I never
+dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even
+than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row!
+For the music and the call must be for us."</p>
+
+<p>The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. "I
+hear nothing myself," he said, "but the wind
+playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers."</p>
+
+<p>The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard.
+Rapt, transported, trembling, he was possessed
+in all his senses by this new divine thing that
+caught up his helpless soul and swung and
+dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a
+strong sustaining grasp.</p>
+
+<p>In silence Mole rowed steadily, and soon they
+came to a point where the river divided, a long
+backwater branching off to one side. With a
+slight movement of his head Rat, who had long
+dropped the rudder-lines, directed the rower to
+take the backwater. The creeping tide of light
+gained and gained, and now they could see the
+colour of the flowers that gemmed the water's
+edge.</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 178 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+<p>"Clearer and nearer still," cried the Rat joyously.
+"Now you must surely hear it! Ah&mdash;at
+last&mdash;I see you do!"</p>
+
+<p>Breathless and transfixed, the Mole stopped
+rowing as the liquid run of that glad piping
+broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and
+possessed him utterly. He saw the tears on his
+comrade's cheeks, and bowed his head and
+understood. For a space they hung there,
+brushed by the purple loosestrife that fringed
+the bank; then the clear imperious summons
+that marched hand-in-hand with the intoxicating
+melody imposed its will on Mole, and mechanically
+he bent to his oars again. And the light
+grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they
+were wont to do at the approach of dawn; and
+but for the heavenly music all was marvellously
+still.</p>
+
+<p>On either side of them, as they glided onwards,
+the rich meadow-grass seemed that morning
+of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable.
+Never had they noticed the roses so vivid, the
+willow-herb so riotous, the meadow-sweet so
+odorous and pervading. Then the murmur of
+the approaching weir began to hold the air, and
+<!-- Page 179 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+they felt a consciousness that they were nearing
+the end, whatever it might be, that surely
+awaited their expedition.</p>
+
+<p>A wide half-circle of foam and glinting lights
+and shining shoulders of green water, the great
+weir closed the backwater from bank to bank,
+troubled all the quiet surface with twirling
+eddies and floating foam-streaks, and deadened
+all other sounds with its solemn and soothing
+rumble. In midmost of the stream, embraced
+in the weir's shimmering arm-spread, a small
+island lay anchored, fringed close with willow
+and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, but
+full of significance, it hid whatever it might
+hold behind a veil, keeping it till the hour
+should come, and, with the hour, those who
+were called and chosen.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly, but with no doubt or hesitation whatever,
+and in something of a solemn expectancy,
+the two animals passed through the broken,
+tumultuous water and moored their boat at the
+flowery margin of the island. In silence they
+landed, and pushed through the blossom and
+scented herbage and undergrowth that led up
+<!-- Page 180 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>
+to the level ground, till they stood on a little
+lawn of a marvellous green, set round with
+Nature's own orchard-trees&mdash;crab-apple, wild
+cherry, and sloe.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the place of my song-dream, the
+place the music played to me," whispered the
+Rat, as if in a trance. "Here, in this holy place,
+here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!"</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall
+upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to
+water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to
+the ground. It was no panic terror&mdash;indeed he
+felt wonderfully at peace and happy&mdash;but it
+was an awe that smote and held him and, without
+seeing, he knew it could only mean that
+some august Presence was very, very near.
+With difficulty he turned to look for his friend,
+and saw him at his side, cowed, stricken, and
+trembling violently. And still there was utter
+silence in the populous bird-haunted branches
+around them; and still the light grew and grew.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps he would never have dared to raise
+his eyes, but that, though the piping was now
+hushed, the call and the summons seemed still
+<!-- Page 181 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>
+dominant and imperious. He might not refuse,
+were Death himself waiting to strike him instantly,
+once he had looked with mortal eye
+on things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he
+obeyed, and raised his humble head; and then,
+in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn,
+while Nature, flushed with fulness of incredible
+colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event,
+he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and
+Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved
+horns, gleaming in the growing daylight; saw
+the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes
+that were looking down on them humorously,
+while the bearded mouth broke into a half-smile
+at the corners; saw the rippling muscles
+on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the
+long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes
+only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw
+the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed
+in majestic ease on the sward; saw, last
+of all, nestling between his very hooves, sleeping
+soundly in entire peace and contentment,
+the little, round, podgy, childish form of the
+baby otter. All this he saw, for one moment
+<!-- Page 182 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+breathless and intense, vivid on the morning
+sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still,
+as he lived, he wondered.</p>
+
+<p>"Rat!" he found breath to whisper, shaking.
+"Are you afraid?"</p>
+
+<p>"Afraid?" murmured the Rat, his eyes shining
+with unutterable love. "Afraid! Of <i>Him</i>? O,
+never, never! And yet&mdash;and yet&mdash;O, Mole,
+I am afraid!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the two animals, crouching to the earth,
+bowed their heads and did worship.</p>
+
+<p>Sudden and magnificent, the sun's broad
+golden disc showed itself over the horizon facing
+them; and the first rays, shooting across the
+level water-meadows, took the animals full in
+the eyes and dazzled them. When they were
+able to look once more, the Vision had vanished,
+and the air was full of the carol of birds that
+hailed the dawn.</p>
+
+<p>As they stared blankly, in dumb misery deepening
+as they slowly realised all they had seen
+and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze,
+dancing up from the surface of the water, tossed
+the aspens, shook the dewy roses, and blew
+<!-- Page 183 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+lightly and caressingly in their faces; and with
+its soft touch came instant oblivion. For this
+is the last best gift that the kindly demi-god
+is careful to bestow on those to whom he has
+revealed himself in their helping: the gift of
+forgetfulness. Lest the awful remembrance
+should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth
+and pleasure, and the great haunting memory
+should spoil all the after-lives of little animals
+helped out of difficulties, in order that they
+should be happy and light-hearted as before.</p>
+
+<p>Mole rubbed his eyes and stared at Rat, who
+was looking about him in a puzzled sort of
+way. "I beg your pardon; what did you say,
+Rat?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I was only remarking," said Rat
+slowly, "that this was the right sort of place,
+and that here, if anywhere, we should find him.
+And look! Why, there he is, the little fellow!"
+And with a cry of delight he ran towards the
+slumbering Portly.</p>
+
+<p>But Mole stood still a moment, held in
+thought. As one wakened suddenly from a
+beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and
+<!-- Page 184 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+can recapture nothing but a dim sense of the
+beauty of it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades
+away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly
+accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties;
+so Mole, after struggling with his memory
+for a brief space, shook his head sadly and
+followed the Rat.</p>
+
+<p>Portly woke up with a joyous squeak, and
+wriggled with pleasure at the sight of his father's
+friends, who had played with him so often in
+past days. In a moment, however, his face
+grew blank, and he fell to hunting round in a
+circle with pleading whine. As a child that has
+fallen happily asleep in its nurse's arms, and
+wakes to find itself alone and laid in a strange
+place, and searches corners and cupboards, and
+runs from room to room, despair growing
+silently in its heart, even so Portly searched the
+island and searched, dogged and unwearying,
+till at last the black moment came for giving it
+up, and sitting down and crying bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>The Mole ran quickly to comfort the little animal;
+but Rat, lingering, looked long and doubtfully
+at certain hoof-marks deep in the sward.
+<!-- Page 185 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Some&mdash;great&mdash;animal&mdash;has been here,"
+he murmured slowly and thoughtfully; and
+stood musing, musing; his mind strangely
+stirred.</p>
+
+<p>"Come along, Rat!" called the Mole. "Think
+of poor Otter, waiting up there by the ford!"</p>
+
+<p>Portly had soon been comforted by the promise
+of a treat&mdash;a jaunt on the river in Mr.
+Rat's real boat; and the two animals conducted
+him to the water's side, placed him securely
+between them in the bottom of the boat, and
+paddled off down the backwater. The sun was
+fully up by now, and hot on them, birds sang
+lustily and without restraint, and flowers smiled
+and nodded from either bank, but somehow&mdash;so
+thought the animals&mdash;with less of richness
+and blaze of colour than they seemed to remember
+seeing quite recently somewhere&mdash;they wondered
+where.</p>
+
+<p>The main river reached again, they turned
+the boat's head upstream, towards the point
+where they knew their friend was keeping his
+lonely vigil. As they drew near the familiar
+ford, the Mole took the boat in to the bank, and
+<!-- Page 186 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+they lifted Portly out and set him on his legs
+on the tow-path, gave him his marching orders
+and a friendly farewell pat on the back, and
+shoved out into mid-stream. They watched the
+little animal as he waddled along the path contentedly
+and with importance; watched him
+till they saw his muzzle suddenly lift and his
+waddle break into a clumsy amble as he quickened
+his pace with shrill whines and wriggles of
+recognition. Looking up the river, they could
+see Otter start up, tense and rigid, from out of
+the shallows where he crouched in dumb patience,
+and could hear his amazed and joyous
+bark as he bounded up through the osiers on to
+the path. Then the Mole, with a strong pull
+on one oar, swung the boat round and let the
+full stream bear them down again whither it
+would, their quest now happily ended.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel strangely tired, Rat," said the Mole,
+leaning wearily over his oars, as the boat drifted.
+"It's being up all night, you'll say, perhaps;
+but that's nothing. We do as much half the
+nights of the week, at this time of the year.
+No; I feel as if I had been through something
+<!-- Page 187 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
+very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just
+over; and yet nothing particular has happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Or something very surprising and splendid
+and beautiful," murmured the Rat, leaning back
+and closing his eyes. "I feel just as you do,
+Mole; simply dead tired, though not body-tired.
+It's lucky we've got the stream with us,
+to take us home. Isn't it jolly to feel the sun
+again, soaking into one's bones! And hark to
+the wind playing in the reeds!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's like music&mdash;far-away music," said the
+Mole, nodding drowsily.</p>
+
+<p>"So I was thinking," murmured the Rat,
+dreamful and languid. "Dance-music&mdash;the
+lilting sort that runs on without a stop&mdash;but
+with words in it, too&mdash;it passes into words and
+out of them again&mdash;I catch them at intervals&mdash;then
+it is dance-music once more, and then
+nothing but the reeds' soft thin whispering."</p>
+
+<p>"You hear better than I," said the Mole
+sadly. "I cannot catch the words."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me try and give you them," said the
+Rat softly, his eyes still closed. "Now it is
+<!-- Page 188 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
+turning into words again&mdash;faint but clear&mdash;<i>Lest
+the awe should dwell&mdash;And turn your frolic
+to fret&mdash;You shall look on my power at the helping
+hour&mdash;But then you shall forget!</i> Now the
+reeds take it up&mdash;<i>forget, forget</i>, they sigh, and it
+dies away in a rustle and a whisper. Then the
+voice returns&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Lest limbs be reddened and rent&mdash;I spring
+the trap that is set&mdash;As I loose the snare you may
+glimpse me there&mdash;For surely you shall forget!</i>
+Row nearer, Mole, nearer to the reeds! It is
+hard to catch, and grows each minute fainter.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Helper and healer, I cheer&mdash;Small waifs in
+the woodland wet&mdash;Strays I find in it, wounds I
+bind in it&mdash;Bidding them all forget!</i> Nearer,
+Mole, nearer! No, it is no good; the song has
+died away into reed-talk."</p>
+
+<p>"But what do the words mean?" asked the
+wondering Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"That I do not know," said the Rat simply.
+"I passed them on to you as they reached me.
+Ah! now they return again, and this time full
+and clear! This time, at last, it is the real, the
+unmistakable thing, simple&mdash;passionate&mdash;perfect&mdash;"
+<!-- Page 189 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, let's have it, then," said the Mole,
+after he had waited patiently for a few minutes,
+half-dozing in the hot sun.</p>
+
+<p>But no answer came. He looked, and understood
+the silence. With a smile of much happiness
+on his face, and something of a listening
+look still lingering there, the weary Rat was
+fast asleep.
+<!-- Page 190 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 191 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a><h2>VIII</h2>
+<h2>TOAD'S ADVENTURES</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 192 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 193 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">WHEN Toad found himself immured in a
+dank and noisome dungeon, and knew
+that all the grim darkness of a medieval fortress
+lay between him and the outer world of
+sunshine and well-metalled high roads where he
+had lately been so happy, disporting himself as
+if he had bought up every road in England, he
+flung himself at full length on the floor, and shed
+bitter tears, and abandoned himself to dark
+despair. "This is the end of everything" (he
+said), "at least it is the end of the career of
+Toad, which is the same thing; the popular
+and handsome Toad, the rich and hospitable
+Toad, the Toad so free and careless and debonair!
+How can I hope to be ever set at large
+again" (he said), "who have been imprisoned so
+justly for stealing so handsome a motor-car in
+such an audacious manner, and for such lurid
+<!-- Page 194 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>
+and imaginative cheek, bestowed upon such a
+number of fat, red-faced policemen!" (Here his
+sobs choked him.) "Stupid animal that I was"
+(he said), "now I must languish in this dungeon,
+till people who were proud to say they knew me,
+have forgotten the very name of Toad! O wise
+old Badger!" (he said), "O clever, intelligent
+Rat and sensible Mole! What sound judgments,
+what a knowledge of men and matters you possess!
+O unhappy and forsaken Toad!" With
+lamentations such as these he passed his days
+and nights for several weeks, refusing his meals
+or intermediate light refreshments, though the
+grim and ancient gaoler, knowing that Toad's
+pockets were well lined, frequently pointed out
+that many comforts, and indeed luxuries, could
+by arrangement be sent in&mdash;at a price&mdash;from
+outside.</p>
+
+<p>Now the gaoler had a daughter, a pleasant
+wench and good-hearted, who assisted her father
+in the lighter duties of his post. She was particularly
+fond of animals, and, besides her canary,
+whose cage hung on a nail in the massive
+wall of the keep by day, to the great annoyance
+<!-- Page 195 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>
+of prisoners who relished an after-dinner nap,
+and was shrouded in an antimacassar on the
+parlour table at night, she kept several piebald
+mice and a restless revolving squirrel. This
+kind-hearted girl, pitying the misery of Toad,
+said to her father one day, "Father! I can't bear
+to see that poor beast so unhappy, and getting so
+thin! You let me have the managing of him.
+You know how fond of animals I am. I'll make
+him eat from my hand, and sit up, and do all
+sorts of things."</p>
+
+<p>Her father replied that she could do what she
+liked with him. He was tired of Toad, and his
+sulks and his airs and his meanness. So that
+day she went on her errand of mercy, and
+knocked at the door of Toad's cell.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, cheer up, Toad," she said, coaxingly,
+on entering, "and sit up and dry your eyes and
+be a sensible animal. And do try and eat a bit
+of dinner. See, I've brought you some of mine,
+hot from the oven!"</p>
+
+<p>It was bubble-and-squeak, between two plates,
+and its fragrance filled the narrow cell. The
+penetrating smell of cabbage reached the nose
+<!-- Page 196 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+of Toad as he lay prostrate in his misery on the
+floor, and gave him the idea for a moment that
+perhaps life was not such a blank and desperate
+thing as he had imagined. But still he wailed,
+and kicked with his legs, and refused to be
+comforted. So the wise girl retired for the
+time, but, of course, a good deal of the smell
+of hot cabbage remained behind, as it will do,
+and Toad, between his sobs, sniffed and reflected,
+and gradually began to think new and
+inspiring thoughts: of chivalry, and poetry,
+and deeds still to be done; of broad meadows,
+and cattle browsing in them, raked by sun and
+wind; of kitchen-gardens, and straight herb-borders,
+and warm snap-dragon beset by bees;
+and of the comforting clink of dishes set down
+on the table at Toad Hall, and the scrape of
+chair-legs on the floor as every one pulled himself
+close up to his work. The air of the narrow
+cell took a rosy tinge; he began to think of his
+friends, and how they would surely be able to
+do something; of lawyers, and how they would
+have enjoyed his case, and what an ass he had
+been not to get in a few; and lastly, he thought
+<!-- Page 197 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+of his own great cleverness and resource, and
+all that he was capable of if he only gave his
+great mind to it; and the cure was almost complete.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page196pic" id="Page196pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus06.jpg" width="420" height="571"
+alt="He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor"
+title="He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor" />
+<span class="caption">He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the girl returned, some hours later, she
+carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming
+on it; and a plate piled up with very hot
+buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both
+sides, with the butter running through the holes
+in it in great golden drops, like honey from the
+honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast
+simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain
+voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts
+on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides
+on winter evenings, when one's ramble
+was over, and slippered feet were propped on the
+fender; of the purring of contented cats, and
+the twitter of sleepy canaries. Toad sat up on
+end once more, dried his eyes, sipped his tea
+and munched his toast, and soon began talking
+freely about himself, and the house he lived in,
+and his doings there, and how important he
+was, and what a lot his friends thought of him.</p>
+
+<p>The gaoler's daughter saw that the topic was
+<!-- Page 198 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>
+doing him as much good as the tea, as indeed
+it was, and encouraged him to go on.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me about Toad Hall," said she. "It
+sounds beautiful."</p>
+
+<p>"Toad Hall," said the Toad proudly, "is an
+eligible, self-contained gentleman's residence,
+very unique; dating in part from the fourteenth
+century, but replete with every modern convenience.
+Up-to-date sanitation. Five minutes
+from church, post-office, and golf-links.
+Suitable for&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Bless the animal," said the girl, laughing,
+"I don't want to <i>take</i> it. Tell me something
+<i>real</i> about it. But first wait till I fetch you some
+more tea and toast."</p>
+
+<p>She tripped away, and presently returned with
+a fresh trayful; and Toad, pitching into the
+toast with avidity, his spirits quite restored to
+their usual level, told her about the boat-house,
+and the fish-pond, and the old walled kitchen-garden;
+and about the pig-styes and the
+stables, and the pigeon-house and the hen-house;
+and about the dairy, and the wash-house,
+<!-- Page 199 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+and the china-cupboards, and the linen-presses
+(she liked that bit especially); and about
+the banqueting-hall, and the fun they had there
+when the other animals were gathered round
+the table and Toad was at his best, singing
+songs, telling stories, carrying on generally.
+Then she wanted to know about his animal-friends,
+and was very interested in all he had to
+tell her about them and how they lived, and
+what they did to pass their time. Of course, she
+did not say she was fond of animals as <i>pets</i>,
+because she had the sense to see that Toad
+would be extremely offended. When she said
+good-night, having filled his water-jug and
+shaken up his straw for him, Toad was very
+much the same sanguine, self-satisfied animal
+that he had been of old. He sang a little song
+or two, of the sort he used to sing at his dinner-parties,
+curled himself up in the straw, and had
+an excellent night's rest and the pleasantest of
+dreams.</p>
+
+<p>They had many interesting talks together,
+after that, as the dreary days went on; and the
+gaoler's daughter grew very sorry for Toad, and
+thought it a great shame that a poor little
+<!-- Page 200 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+animal should be locked up in prison for what
+seemed to her a very trivial offence. Toad, of
+course, in his vanity, thought that her interest
+in him proceeded from a growing tenderness;
+and he could not help half-regretting that the
+social gulf between them was so very wide, for
+she was a comely lass, and evidently admired
+him very much.</p>
+
+<p>One morning the girl was very thoughtful,
+and answered at random, and did not seem to
+Toad to be paying proper attention to his witty
+sayings and sparkling comments.</p>
+
+<p>"Toad," she said presently, "just listen,
+please. I have an aunt who is a washerwoman."</p>
+
+<p>"There, there," said Toad, graciously and affably,
+"never mind; think no more about it.
+<i>I</i> have several aunts who <i>ought</i> to be washerwomen."</p>
+
+<p>"Do be quiet a minute, Toad," said the girl.
+"You talk too much, that's your chief fault,
+and I'm trying to think, and you hurt my head.
+As I said, I have an aunt who is a washerwoman;
+she does the washing for all the prisoners in this
+castle&mdash;we try to keep any paying business of
+<!-- Page 201 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>
+that sort in the family, you understand. She
+takes out the washing on Monday morning, and
+brings it in on Friday evening. This is a Thursday.
+Now, this is what occurs to me: you're
+very rich&mdash;at least you're always telling
+me so&mdash;and she's very poor. A few pounds
+wouldn't make any difference to you, and it
+would mean a lot to her. Now, I think if she
+were properly approached&mdash;squared, I believe
+is the word you animals use&mdash;you could come
+to some arrangement by which she would let you
+have her dress and bonnet and so on, and you
+could escape from the castle as the official washerwoman.
+You're very alike in many respects&mdash;particularly
+about the figure."</p>
+
+<p>"We're <i>not</i>," said the Toad in a huff. "I
+have a very elegant figure&mdash;for what I am."</p>
+
+<p>"So has my aunt," replied the girl, "for what
+<i>she</i> is. But have it your own way. You horrid,
+proud, ungrateful animal, when I'm sorry for
+you, and trying to help you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, that's all right; thank you very
+much indeed," said the Toad hurriedly. "But
+look here! you wouldn't surely have Mr. Toad,
+<!-- Page 202 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
+of Toad Hall, going about the country disguised
+as a washerwoman!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can stop here as a Toad," replied
+the girl with much spirit. "I suppose you want
+to go off in a coach-and-four!"</p>
+
+<p>Honest Toad was always ready to admit
+himself in the wrong. "You are a good, kind,
+clever girl," he said, "and I am indeed a proud
+and a stupid toad. Introduce me to your worthy
+aunt, if you will be so kind, and I have no doubt
+that the excellent lady and I will be able to
+arrange terms satisfactory to both parties."</p>
+
+<p>Next evening the girl ushered her aunt into
+Toad's cell, bearing his week's washing pinned
+up in a towel. The old lady had been prepared
+beforehand for the interview, and the sight of
+certain gold sovereigns that Toad had thoughtfully
+placed on the table in full view practically
+completed the matter and left little further to
+discuss. In return for his cash, Toad received a
+cotton print gown, an apron, a shawl, and a
+rusty black bonnet; the only stipulation the
+old lady made being that she should be gagged
+and bound and dumped down in a corner. By
+<!-- Page 203 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>
+this not very convincing artifice, she explained,
+aided by picturesque fiction which she could
+supply herself, she hoped to retain her situation,
+in spite of the suspicious appearance of
+things.</p>
+
+<p>Toad was delighted with the suggestion. It
+would enable him to leave the prison in some
+style, and with his reputation for being a desperate
+and dangerous fellow untarnished; and
+he readily helped the gaoler's daughter to make
+her aunt appear as much as possible the victim
+of circumstances over which she had no control.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it's your turn, Toad," said the girl.
+"Take off that coat and waistcoat of yours;
+you're fat enough as it is."</p>
+
+<p>Shaking with laughter, she proceeded to
+"hook-and-eye" him into the cotton print gown,
+arranged the shawl with a professional fold, and
+tied the strings of the rusty bonnet under his
+chin.</p>
+
+<p>"You're the very image of her," she giggled,
+"only I'm sure you never looked half so respectable
+in all your life before. Now, good-bye,
+<!-- Page 204 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+Toad, and good luck. Go straight down the
+way you came up; and if any one says anything
+to you, as they probably will, being but
+men, you can chaff back a bit, of course, but
+remember you're a widow woman, quite alone
+in the world, with a character to lose."</p>
+
+<p>With a quaking heart, but as firm a footstep
+as he could command, Toad set forth cautiously
+on what seemed to be a most hare-brained and
+hazardous undertaking; but he was soon agreeably
+surprised to find how easy everything was
+made for him, and a little humbled at the
+thought that both his popularity, and the sex
+that seemed to inspire it, were really another's.
+The washerwoman's squat figure in its familiar
+cotton print seemed a passport for every barred
+door and grim gateway; even when he hesitated,
+uncertain as to the right turning to take,
+he found himself helped out of his difficulty by
+the warder at the next gate, anxious to be off
+to his tea, summoning him to come along sharp
+and not keep him waiting there all night. The
+chaff and the humourous sallies to which he was
+subjected, and to which, of course, he had to
+<!-- Page 205 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+provide prompt and effective reply, formed, indeed,
+his chief danger; for Toad was an animal
+with a strong sense of his own dignity, and the
+chaff was mostly (he thought) poor and clumsy,
+and the humour of the sallies entirely lacking.
+However, he kept his temper, though with great
+difficulty, suited his retorts to his company and
+his supposed character, and did his best not to
+overstep the limits of good taste.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed hours before he crossed the last
+courtyard, rejected the pressing invitations from
+the last guardroom, and dodged the outspread
+arms of the last warder, pleading with simulated
+passion for just one farewell embrace. But at
+last he heard the wicket-gate in the great outer
+door click behind him, felt the fresh air of the
+outer world upon his anxious brow, and knew
+that he was free!</p>
+
+<p>Dizzy with the easy success of his daring
+exploit, he walked quickly towards the lights of
+the town, not knowing in the least what he
+should do next, only quite certain of one thing,
+that he must remove himself as quickly as
+possible from the neighbourhood where the lady
+<!-- Page 206 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+he was forced to represent was so well-known
+and so popular a character.</p>
+
+<p>As he walked along, considering, his attention
+was caught by some red and green lights a little
+way off, to one side of the town, and the sound
+of the puffing and snorting of engines and the
+banging of shunted trucks fell on his ear.
+"Aha!" he thought, "this is a piece of luck!
+A railway station is the thing I want most in
+the whole world at this moment; and what's
+more, I needn't go through the town to get it,
+and shan't have to support this humiliating
+character by repartees which, though thoroughly
+effective, do not assist one's sense of self-respect."</p>
+
+<p>He made his way to the station accordingly,
+consulted a time-table, and found that a train,
+bound more or less in the direction of his home,
+was due to start in half-an-hour. "More luck!"
+said Toad, his spirits rising rapidly, and went
+off to the booking-office to buy his ticket.</p>
+
+<p>He gave the name of the station that he
+knew to be nearest to the village of which Toad
+Hall was the principal feature, and mechanically
+<!-- Page 207 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+put his fingers, in search of the necessary money,
+where his waistcoat pocket should have been.
+But here the cotton gown, which had nobly
+stood by him so far, and which he had basely
+forgotten, intervened, and frustrated his efforts.
+In a sort of nightmare he struggled with the
+strange uncanny thing that seemed to hold his
+hands, turn all muscular strivings to water,
+and laugh at him all the time; while other travellers,
+forming up in a line behind, waited with
+impatience, making suggestions of more or less
+value and comments of more or less stringency
+and point. At last&mdash;somehow&mdash;he never
+rightly understood how&mdash;he burst the barriers,
+attained the goal, arrived at where all waistcoat
+pockets are eternally situated, and found&mdash;not
+only no money, but no pocket to hold it, and no
+waistcoat to hold the pocket!</p>
+
+<p>To his horror he recollected that he had left
+both coat and waistcoat behind him in his cell,
+and with them his pocket-book, money, keys,
+watch, matches, pencil-case&mdash;all that makes life
+worth living, all that distinguishes the many-pocketed
+animal, the lord of creation, from the
+<!-- Page 208 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>
+inferior one-pocketed or no-pocketed productions
+that hop or trip about permissively, unequipped
+for the real contest.</p>
+
+<p>In his misery he made one desperate effort to
+carry the thing off, and, with a return to his fine
+old manner&mdash;a blend of the Squire and the
+College Don&mdash;he said, "Look here! I find I've
+left my purse behind. Just give me that ticket,
+will you, and I'll send the money on to-morrow?
+I'm well-known in these parts."</p>
+
+<p>The clerk stared at him and the rusty black
+bonnet a moment, and then laughed. "I should
+think you were pretty well known in these
+parts," he said, "if you've tried this game on
+often. Here, stand away from the window,
+please, madam; you're obstructing the other
+passengers!"</p>
+
+<p>An old gentleman who had been prodding
+him in the back for some moments here thrust
+him away, and, what was worse, addressed him
+as his good woman, which angered Toad more
+than anything that had occurred that evening.</p>
+
+<p>Baffled and full of despair, he wandered
+blindly down the platform where the train was
+<!-- Page 209 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>
+standing, and tears trickled down each side of
+his nose. It was hard, he thought, to be within
+sight of safety and almost of home, and to be
+baulked by the want of a few wretched shillings
+and by the pettifogging mistrustfulness of paid
+officials. Very soon his escape would be discovered,
+the hunt would be up, he would be
+caught, reviled, loaded with chains, dragged
+back again to prison and bread-and-water and
+straw; his guards and penalties would be
+doubled; and O, what sarcastic remarks the
+girl would make! What was to be done? He
+was not swift of foot; his figure was unfortunately
+recognisable. Could he not squeeze under
+the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method
+adopted by schoolboys, when the journey-money
+provided by thoughtful parents had been diverted
+to other and better ends. As he pondered,
+he found himself opposite the engine, which was
+being oiled, wiped, and generally caressed by its
+affectionate driver, a burly man with an oil-can
+in one hand and a lump of cotton-waste in the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"Hullo, mother!" said the engine-driver,
+<!-- Page 210 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
+"what's the trouble? You don't look particularly
+cheerful."</p>
+
+<p>"O, sir!" said Toad, crying afresh, "I am a
+poor unhappy washerwoman, and I've lost all
+my money, and can't pay for a ticket, and I
+<i>must</i> get home to-night somehow, and whatever
+I am to do I don't know. O dear, O dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a bad business, indeed," said the
+engine-driver reflectively. "Lost your money&mdash;and
+can't get home&mdash;and got some kids, too,
+waiting for you, I dare say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any amount of 'em," sobbed Toad. "And
+they'll be hungry&mdash;and playing with matches&mdash;and
+upsetting lamps, the little innocents!&mdash;and
+quarrelling, and going on generally. O dear,
+O dear!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do," said the
+good engine-driver. "You're a washerwoman
+to your trade, says you. Very well, that's that.
+And I'm an engine-driver, as you well may see,
+and there's no denying it's terribly dirty work.
+Uses up a power of shirts, it does, till my
+missus is fair tired of washing of 'em. If you'll
+wash a few shirts for me when you get home,
+<!-- Page 211 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
+and send 'em along, I'll give you a ride on
+my engine. It's against the Company's regulations,
+but we're not so very particular in these
+out-of-the-way parts."</p>
+
+<p>The Toad's misery turned into rapture as
+he eagerly scrambled up into the cab of the
+engine. Of course, he had never washed a shirt
+in his life, and couldn't if he tried and, anyhow,
+he wasn't going to begin; but he thought:
+"When I get safely home to Toad Hall, and have
+money again, and pockets to put it in, I will
+send the engine-driver enough to pay for quite a
+quantity of washing, and that will be the same
+thing, or better."</p>
+
+<p>The guard waved his welcome flag, the engine-driver
+whistled in cheerful response, and the
+train moved out of the station. As the speed
+increased, and the Toad could see on either side
+of him real fields, and trees, and hedges, and
+cows, and horses, all flying past him, and as he
+thought how every minute was bringing him
+nearer to Toad Hall, and sympathetic friends,
+and money to chink in his pocket, and a soft
+bed to sleep in, and good things to eat, and
+<!-- Page 212 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+praise and admiration at the recital of his
+adventures and his surpassing cleverness, he began
+to skip up and down and shout and sing
+snatches of song, to the great astonishment of
+the engine-driver, who had come across washerwomen
+before, at long intervals, but never one
+at all like this.</p>
+
+<p>They had covered many and many a mile,
+and Toad was already considering what he
+would have for supper as soon as he got home,
+when he noticed that the engine-driver, with
+a puzzled expression on his face, was leaning
+over the side of the engine and listening hard.
+Then he saw him climb on to the coals and gaze
+out over the top of the train; then he returned
+and said to Toad: "It's very strange; we're the
+last train running in this direction to-night, yet
+I could be sworn that I heard another following
+us!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once. He
+became grave and depressed, and a dull pain in
+the lower part of his spine, communicating itself
+to his legs, made him want to sit down and try
+desperately not to think of all the possibilities.
+<!-- Page 213 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>By this time the moon was shining brightly,
+and the engine-driver, steadying himself on the
+coal, could command a view of the line behind
+them for a long distance.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he called out, "I can see it clearly
+now! It is an engine, on our rails, coming
+along at a great pace! It looks as if we were
+being pursued!"</p>
+
+<p>The miserable Toad, crouching in the coal-dust,
+tried hard to think of something to do,
+with dismal want of success.</p>
+
+<p>"They are gaining on us fast!" cried the
+engine-driver. "And the engine is crowded
+with the queerest lot of people! Men like
+ancient warders, waving halberds; policemen
+in their helmets, waving truncheons; and shabbily
+dressed men in pot-hats, obvious and unmistakable
+plain-clothes detectives even at this
+distance, waving revolvers and walking-sticks;
+all waving, and all shouting the same thing&mdash;'Stop,
+stop, stop!'"</p>
+
+<p>Then Toad fell on his knees among the coals,
+and, raising his clasped paws in supplication,
+cried, "Save me, only save me, dear kind Mr.
+<!-- Page 214 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>
+Engine-driver, and I will confess everything! I
+am not the simple washerwoman I seem to be!
+I have no children waiting for me, innocent or
+otherwise! I am a toad&mdash;the well-known and
+popular Mr. Toad, a landed proprietor; I have
+just escaped, by my great daring and cleverness,
+from a loathsome dungeon into which my
+enemies had flung me; and if those fellows on
+that engine recapture me, it will be chains and
+bread-and-water and straw and misery once
+more for poor, unhappy, innocent Toad!"</p>
+
+<p>The engine-driver looked down upon him very
+sternly, and said, "Now tell the truth; what
+were you put in prison for?"</p>
+
+<p>"It was nothing very much," said poor Toad,
+colouring deeply. "I only borrowed a motor-car
+while the owners were at lunch; they had
+no need of it at the time. I didn't mean to
+steal it, really; but people&mdash;especially magistrates&mdash;take
+such harsh views of thoughtless
+and high-spirited actions."</p>
+
+<p>The engine-driver looked very grave and said,
+"I fear that you have been indeed a wicked
+toad, and by rights I ought to give you up to
+<!-- Page 215 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
+offended justice. But you are evidently in sore
+trouble and distress, so I will not desert you. I
+don't hold with motor-cars, for one thing; and
+I don't hold with being ordered about by policemen
+when I'm on my own engine, for another.
+And the sight of an animal in tears always
+makes me feel queer and soft-hearted. So cheer
+up, Toad! I'll do my best, and we may beat
+them yet!"</p>
+
+<p>They piled on more coals, shovelling furiously;
+the furnace roared, the sparks flew, the engine
+leapt and swung, but still their pursuers slowly
+gained. The engine-driver, with a sigh, wiped
+his brow with a handful of cotton-waste, and
+said, "I'm afraid it's no good, Toad. You see,
+they are running light, and they have the better
+engine. There's just one thing left for us to
+do, and it's your only chance, so attend very
+carefully to what I tell you. A short way ahead
+of us is a long tunnel, and on the other side of
+that the line passes through a thick wood.
+Now, I will put on all the speed I can while
+we are running through the tunnel, but the
+other fellows will slow down a bit, naturally,
+<!-- Page 216 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>
+for fear of an accident. When we are through,
+I will shut off steam and put on brakes as hard
+as I can, and the moment it's safe to do so you
+must jump and hide in the wood, before they
+get through the tunnel and see you. Then I will
+go full speed ahead again, and they can chase me
+if they like, for as long as they like, and as far
+as they like. Now mind and be ready to jump
+when I tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>They piled on more coals, and the train shot
+into the tunnel, and the engine rushed and
+roared and rattled, till at last they shot out at
+the other end into fresh air and the peaceful
+moonlight, and saw the wood lying dark and
+helpful upon either side of the line. The driver
+shut off steam and put on brakes, the Toad got
+down on the step, and as the train slowed down
+to almost a walking pace he heard the driver
+call out, "Now, jump!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad jumped, rolled down a short embankment,
+picked himself up unhurt, scrambled into
+the wood and hid.</p>
+
+<p>Peeping out, he saw his train get up speed
+again and disappear at a great pace. Then
+<!-- Page 217 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
+out of the tunnel burst the pursuing engine,
+roaring and whistling, her motley crew waving
+their various weapons and shouting, "Stop!
+stop! stop!" When they were past, the Toad
+had a hearty laugh&mdash;for the first time since he
+was thrown into prison.</p>
+
+<p>But he soon stopped laughing when he came
+to consider that it was now very late and dark
+and cold, and he was in an unknown wood,
+with no money and no chance of supper, and
+still far from friends and home; and the dead
+silence of everything, after the roar and rattle
+of the train, was something of a shock. He
+dared not leave the shelter of the trees, so he
+struck into the wood, with the idea of leaving
+the railway as far as possible behind him.</p>
+
+<p>After so many weeks within walls, he found
+the wood strange and unfriendly and inclined,
+he thought, to make fun of him. Night-jars,
+sounding their mechanical rattle, made him
+think that the wood was full of searching
+warders, closing in on him. An owl, swooping
+noiselessly towards him, brushed his shoulder
+with its wing, making him jump with the
+<!-- Page 218 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
+horrid certainty that it was a hand; then flitted
+off, moth-like, laughing its low ho! ho! ho!
+which Toad thought in very poor taste. Once
+he met a fox, who stopped, looked him up and
+down in a sarcastic sort of way, and said,
+"Hullo, washerwoman! Half a pair of socks
+and a pillow-case short this week! Mind it
+doesn't occur again!" and swaggered off, sniggering.
+Toad looked about for a stone to throw
+at him, but could not succeed in finding one,
+which vexed him more than anything. At last,
+cold, hungry, and tired out, he sought the
+shelter of a hollow tree, where with branches
+and dead leaves he made himself as comfortable
+a bed as he could, and slept soundly till the
+morning.
+<!-- Page 219 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="IX" id="IX"></a><h2>IX</h2>
+<h2>WAYFARERS ALL</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 220 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 221 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE Water Rat was restless, and he did
+not exactly know why. To all appearance
+the summer's pomp was still at fullest
+height, and although in the tilled acres green
+had given way to gold, though rowans were reddening,
+and the woods were dashed here and
+there with a tawny fierceness, yet light and
+warmth and colour were still present in undiminished
+measure, clean of any chilly premonitions
+of the passing year. But the constant
+chorus of the orchards and hedges had shrunk
+to a casual evensong from a few yet unwearied
+performers; the robin was beginning to assert
+himself once more; and there was a feeling in
+the air of change and departure. The cuckoo,
+of course, had long been silent; but many another
+feathered friend, for months a part of the
+familiar landscape and its small society, was
+<!-- Page 222 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
+missing too, and it seemed that the ranks thinned
+steadily day by day. Rat, ever observant of all
+winged movement, saw that it was taking daily
+a southing tendency; and even as he lay in bed
+at night he thought he could make out, passing
+in the darkness overhead, the beat and quiver
+of impatient pinions, obedient to the peremptory
+call.</p>
+
+<p>Nature's Grand Hotel has its Season, like the
+others. As the guests one by one pack, pay,
+and depart, and the seats at the <i>table-d'hôte</i>
+shrink pitifully at each succeeding meal; as
+suites of rooms are closed, carpets taken up,
+and waiters sent away; those boarders who are
+staying on, <i>en pension</i>, until the next year's full
+re-opening, cannot help being somewhat affected
+by all these flittings and farewells, this
+eager discussion of plans, routes, and fresh quarters,
+this daily shrinkage in the stream of comradeship.
+One gets unsettled, depressed, and
+inclined to be querulous. Why this craving for
+change? Why not stay on quietly here, like us,
+and be jolly? You don't know this hotel out
+<!-- Page 223 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>
+of the season, and what fun we have among ourselves,
+we fellows who remain and see the whole
+interesting year out. All very true, no doubt,
+the others always reply; we quite envy you&mdash;and
+some other year perhaps&mdash;but just now we
+have engagements&mdash;and there's the bus at the
+door&mdash;our time is up! So they depart, with a
+smile and a nod, and we miss them, and feel
+resentful. The Rat was a self-sufficing sort of
+animal, rooted to the land, and, whoever went,
+he stayed; still, he could not help noticing what
+was in the air, and feeling some of its influence
+in his bones.</p>
+
+<p>It was difficult to settle down to anything
+seriously, with all this flitting going on. Leaving
+the water-side, where rushes stood thick and
+tall in a stream that was becoming sluggish and
+low, he wandered country-wards, crossed a field
+or two of pasturage already looking dusty and
+parched, and thrust into the great sea of wheat,
+yellow, wavy, and murmurous, full of quiet
+motion and small whisperings. Here he often
+loved to wander, through the forest of stiff
+strong stalks that carried their own golden sky
+away over his head&mdash;a sky that was always
+<!-- Page 224 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>
+dancing, shimmering, softly talking; or swaying
+strongly to the passing wind and recovering itself
+with a toss and a merry laugh. Here, too,
+he had many small friends, a society complete
+in itself, leading full and busy lives, but always
+with a spare moment to gossip, and exchange
+news with a visitor. To-day, however, though
+they were civil enough, the field-mice and harvest
+mice seemed pre-occupied. Many were
+digging and tunnelling busily; others, gathered
+together in small groups, examined plans and
+drawings of small flats, stated to be desirable
+and compact, and situated conveniently near
+the Stores. Some were hauling out dusty trunks
+and dress-baskets, others were already elbow-deep
+packing their belongings; while everywhere
+piles and bundles of wheat, oats, barley,
+beech-mast and nuts, lay about ready for transport.</p>
+
+<p>"Here's old Ratty!" they cried as soon as
+they saw him. "Come and bear a hand, Rat,
+and don't stand about idle!"</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of games are you up to?" said
+the Water Rat severely. "You know it isn't
+<!-- Page 225 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>
+time to be thinking of winter quarters yet, by a
+long way!"</p>
+
+<p>"O yes, we know that," explained a field-mouse
+rather shamefacedly; "but it's always
+as well to be in good time, isn't it? We really
+<i>must</i> get all the furniture and baggage and
+stores moved out of this before those horrid
+machines begin clicking round the fields; and
+then, you know, the best flats get picked up so
+quickly nowadays, and if you're late you have
+to put up with <i>anything</i>; and they want such
+a lot of doing up, too, before they're fit to
+move into. Of course, we're early, we know
+that; but we're only just making a start."</p>
+
+<p>"O, bother <i>starts</i>," said the Rat. "It's a
+splendid day. Come for a row, or a stroll
+along the hedges, or a picnic in the woods, or
+something."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I <i>think</i> not <i>to-day</i>, thank you," replied
+the field-mouse hurriedly. "Perhaps some <i>other</i>
+day&mdash;when we've more <i>time</i>&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat, with a snort of contempt, swung
+round to go, tripped over a hat-box, and fell,
+with undignified remarks.
+<!-- Page 226 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If people would be more careful," said a
+field-mouse rather stiffly, "and look where
+they're going, people wouldn't hurt themselves&mdash;and
+forget themselves. Mind that hold-all,
+Rat! You'd better sit down somewhere. In
+an hour or two we may be more free to attend
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>"You won't be 'free' as you call it, much
+this side of Christmas, I can see that," retorted
+the Rat grumpily, as he picked his way out of
+the field.</p>
+
+<p>He returned somewhat despondently to his
+river again&mdash;his faithful, steady-going old river,
+which never packed up, flitted, or went into
+winter quarters.</p>
+
+<p>In the osiers which fringed the bank he spied
+a swallow sitting. Presently it was joined by
+another, and then by a third; and the birds,
+fidgeting restlessly on their bough, talked together
+earnestly and low.</p>
+
+<p>"What, <i>already</i>," said the Rat, strolling up
+to them. "What's the hurry? I call it simply
+ridiculous."</p>
+
+<p>"O, we're not off yet, if that's what you
+<!-- Page 227 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+mean," replied the first swallow. "We're only
+making plans and arranging things. Talking it
+over, you know&mdash;what route we're taking this
+year, and where we'll stop, and so on. That's
+half the fun!"</p>
+
+<p>"Fun?" said the Rat; "now that's just what
+I don't understand. If you've <i>got</i> to leave this
+pleasant place, and your friends who will miss
+you, and your snug homes that you've just
+settled into, why, when the hour strikes I've no
+doubt you'll go bravely, and face all the trouble
+and discomfort and change and newness, and
+make believe that you're not very unhappy.
+But to want to talk about it, or even think
+about it, till you really need&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, you don't understand, naturally," said
+the second swallow. "First, we feel it stirring
+within us, a sweet unrest; then back come the
+recollections one by one, like homing pigeons.
+They flutter through our dreams at night, they
+fly with us in our wheelings and circlings by
+day. We hunger to inquire of each other, to
+compare notes and assure ourselves that it was
+all really true, as one by one the scents and
+<!-- Page 228 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
+sounds and names of long-forgotten places come
+gradually back and beckon to us."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't you stop on for just this year?"
+suggested the Water Rat, wistfully. "We'll all
+do our best to make you feel at home. You've
+no idea what good times we have here, while
+you are far away."</p>
+
+<p>"I tried 'stopping on' one year," said the
+third swallow. "I had grown so fond of the
+place that when the time came I hung back and
+let the others go on without me. For a few
+weeks it was all well enough, but afterwards, O
+the weary length of the nights! The shivering,
+sunless days! The air so clammy and chill,
+and not an insect in an acre of it! No, it was
+no good; my courage broke down, and one cold,
+stormy night I took wing, flying well inland
+on account of the strong easterly gales. It was
+snowing hard as I beat through the passes of
+the great mountains, and I had a stiff fight to
+win through; but never shall I forget the blissful
+feeling of the hot sun again on my back as
+I sped down to the lakes that lay so blue and
+placid below me, and the taste of my first fat
+<!-- Page 229 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+insect! The past was like a bad dream; the
+future was all happy holiday as I moved southwards
+week by week, easily, lazily, lingering as
+long as I dared, but always heeding the call!
+No, I had had my warning; never again did I
+think of disobedience."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, yes, the call of the South, of the South!"
+twittered the other two dreamily. "Its songs,
+its hues, its radiant air! O, do you remember&mdash;"
+and, forgetting the Rat, they slid into passionate
+reminiscence, while he listened fascinated,
+and his heart burned within him. In
+himself, too, he knew that it was vibrating at
+last, that chord hitherto dormant and unsuspected.
+The mere chatter of these southern-bound
+birds, their pale and second-hand reports,
+had yet power to awaken this wild new sensation
+and thrill him through and through with
+it; what would one moment of the real thing
+work in him&mdash;one passionate touch of the real
+southern sun, one waft of the authentic odour?
+With closed eyes he dared to dream a moment
+in full abandonment, and when he looked again
+the river seemed steely and chill, the green
+<!-- Page 230 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>
+fields grey and lightless. Then his loyal heart
+seemed to cry out on his weaker self for its
+treachery.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you ever come back, then, at all?"
+he demanded of the swallows jealously. "What
+do you find to attract you in this poor drab
+little country?"</p>
+
+<p>"And do you think," said the first swallow,
+"that the other call is not for us too, in its due
+season? The call of lush meadow-grass, wet
+orchards, warm, insect-haunted ponds, of browsing
+cattle, of haymaking, and all the farm-buildings
+clustering round the House of the
+perfect Eaves?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose," asked the second one,
+"that you are the only living thing that craves
+with a hungry longing to hear the cuckoo's note
+again?"</p>
+
+<p>"In due time," said the third, "we shall be
+home-sick once more for quiet water-lilies swaying
+on the surface of an English stream. But
+to-day all that seems pale and thin and very
+far away. Just now our blood dances to other
+music."
+<!-- Page 231 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They fell a-twittering among themselves once
+more, and this time their intoxicating babble
+was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted
+walls.</p>
+
+<p>Restlessly the Rat wandered off once more,
+climbed the slope that rose gently from the
+north bank of the river, and lay looking out
+towards the great ring of Downs that barred
+his vision further southwards&mdash;his simple horizon
+hitherto, his Mountains of the Moon, his
+limit behind which lay nothing he had cared to
+see or to know. To-day, to him gazing South
+with a new-born need stirring in his heart, the
+clear sky over their long low outline seemed to
+pulsate with promise; to-day, the unseen was
+everything, the unknown the only real fact of
+life. On this side of the hills was now the real
+blank, on the other lay the crowded and coloured
+panorama that his inner eye was seeing so
+clearly. What seas lay beyond, green, leaping,
+and crested! What sun-bathed coasts, along
+which the white villas glittered against the olive
+woods! What quiet harbours, thronged with
+gallant shipping bound for purple islands of
+<!-- Page 232 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>
+wine and spice, islands set low in languorous
+waters!</p>
+
+<p>He rose and descended river-wards once more;
+then changed his mind and sought the side of
+the dusty lane. There, lying half-buried in the
+thick, cool under-hedge tangle that bordered it,
+he could muse on the metalled road and all the
+wondrous world that it led to; on all the wayfarers,
+too, that might have trodden it, and the
+fortunes and adventures they had gone to seek
+or found unseeking&mdash;out there, beyond&mdash;beyond!</p>
+
+<p>Footsteps fell on his ear, and the figure of
+one that walked somewhat wearily came into
+view; and he saw that it was a Rat, and a very
+dusty one. The wayfarer, as he reached him,
+saluted with a gesture of courtesy that had
+something foreign about it&mdash;hesitated a moment&mdash;then
+with a pleasant smile turned from
+the track and sat down by his side in the cool
+herbage. He seemed tired, and the Rat let
+him rest unquestioned, understanding something
+of what was in his thoughts; knowing, too, the
+value all animals attach at times to mere silent
+<!-- Page 233 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
+companionship, when the weary muscles slacken
+and the mind marks time.</p>
+
+<p>The wayfarer was lean and keen-featured,
+and somewhat bowed at the shoulders; his
+paws were thin and long, his eyes much wrinkled
+at the corners, and he wore small gold ear rings
+in his neatly-set well-shaped ears. His knitted
+jersey was of a faded blue, his breeches, patched
+and stained, were based on a blue foundation,
+and his small belongings that he carried were
+tied up in a blue cotton handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>When he had rested awhile the stranger
+sighed, snuffed the air, and looked about him.</p>
+
+<p>"That was clover, that warm whiff on the
+breeze," he remarked; "and those are cows we
+hear cropping the grass behind us and blowing
+softly between mouthfuls. There is a sound of
+distant reapers, and yonder rises a blue line of
+cottage smoke against the woodland. The river
+runs somewhere close by, for I hear the call
+of a moorhen, and I see by your build that
+you're a freshwater mariner. Everything seems
+asleep, and yet going on all the time. It is a
+goodly life that you lead, friend; no doubt the
+<!-- Page 234 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+best in the world, if only you are strong enough
+to lead it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it's <i>the</i> life, the only life, to live," responded
+the Water Rat dreamily, and without
+his usual whole-hearted conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say exactly that," replied the
+stranger cautiously; "but no doubt it's the
+best. I've tried it, and I know. And because
+I've just tried it&mdash;six months of it&mdash;and
+know it's the best, here am I, footsore and
+hungry, tramping away from it, tramping southwards,
+following the old call, back to the old life,
+<i>the</i> life which is mine and which will not let
+me go."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this, then, yet another of them?" mused
+the Rat. "And where have you just come
+from?" he asked. He hardly dared to ask where
+he was bound for; he seemed to know the
+answer only too well.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice little farm," replied the wayfarer,
+briefly. "Upalong in that direction&mdash;" he nodded
+northwards. "Never mind about it. I
+had everything I could want&mdash;everything I
+had any right to expect of life, and more; and
+<!-- Page 235 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+here I am! Glad to be here all the same,
+though, glad to be here! So many miles further
+on the road, so many hours nearer to my heart's
+desire!"</p>
+
+<p>His shining eyes held fast to the horizon,
+and he seemed to be listening for some sound
+that was wanting from that inland acreage,
+vocal as it was with the cheerful music of
+pasturage and farmyard.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not one of <i>us</i>," said the Water Rat,
+"nor yet a farmer; nor even, I should judge, of
+this country."</p>
+
+<p>"Right," replied the stranger. "I'm a seafaring
+rat, I am, and the port I originally hail
+from is Constantinople, though I'm a sort of
+a foreigner there too, in a manner of speaking.
+You will have heard of Constantinople, friend?
+A fair city and an ancient and glorious one.
+And you may have heard too, of Sigurd, King
+of Norway, and how he sailed thither with sixty
+ships, and how he and his men rode up through
+streets all canopied in their honour with purple
+and gold; and how the Emperor and Empress
+came down and banqueted with him on board
+<!-- Page 236 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>
+his ship. When Sigurd returned home, many of
+his Northmen remained behind and entered the
+Emperor's body-guard, and my ancestor, a Norwegian
+born, stayed behind too, with the ships
+that Sigurd gave the Emperor. Seafarers we
+have ever been, and no wonder; as for me, the
+city of my birth is no more my home than any
+pleasant port between there and the London
+River. I know them all, and they know me.
+Set me down on any of their quays or foreshores,
+and I am home again."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you go great voyages," said the
+Water Rat with growing interest. "Months
+and months out of sight of land, and provisions
+running short, and allowanced as to water, and
+your mind communing with the mighty ocean,
+and all that sort of thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"By no means," said the Sea Rat frankly.
+"Such a life as you describe would not suit
+me at all. I'm in the coasting trade, and rarely
+out of sight of land. It's the jolly times on
+shore that appeal to me, as much as any seafaring.
+O, those southern seaports! The smell
+of them, the riding-lights at night, the glamour!"
+<!-- Page 237 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps you have chosen the better
+way," said the Water Rat, but rather doubtfully.
+"Tell me something of your coasting, then, if
+you have a mind to, and what sort of harvest
+an animal of spirit might hope to bring home
+from it to warm his latter days with gallant
+memories by the fireside; for my life, I confess
+to you, feels to me to-day somewhat narrow
+and circumscribed."</p>
+
+<p>"My last voyage," began the Sea Rat, "that
+landed me eventually in this country, bound
+with high hopes for my inland farm, will serve
+as a good example of any of them, and, indeed,
+as an epitome of my highly-coloured life. Family
+troubles, as usual, began it. The domestic
+storm-cone was hoisted, and I shipped myself
+on board a small trading vessel bound from Constantinople,
+by classic seas whose every wave
+throbs with a deathless memory, to the Grecian
+Islands and the Levant. Those were golden
+days and balmy nights! In and out of harbour
+all the time&mdash;old friends everywhere&mdash;sleeping
+in some cool temple or ruined cistern during
+the heat of the day&mdash;feasting and song after
+<!-- Page 238 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+sundown, under great stars set in a velvet sky!
+Thence we turned and coasted up the Adriatic,
+its shores swimming in an atmosphere of amber,
+rose, and aquamarine; we lay in wide landlocked
+harbours, we roamed through ancient and
+noble cities, until at last one morning, as the sun
+rose royally behind us, we rode into Venice down
+a path of gold. O, Venice is a fine city, wherein
+a rat can wander at his ease and take his pleasure!
+Or, when weary of wandering, can sit at
+the edge of the Grand Canal at night, feasting
+with his friends, when the air is full of music
+and the sky full of stars, and the lights flash
+and shimmer on the polished steel prows of the
+swaying gondolas, packed so that you could
+walk across the canal on them from side to side!
+And then the food&mdash;do you like shell-fish?
+Well, well, we won't linger over that now."</p>
+
+<p>He was silent for a time; and the Water Rat,
+silent too and enthralled, floated on dream-canals
+and heard a phantom song pealing high
+between vaporous grey wave-lapped walls.</p>
+
+<p>"Southwards we sailed again at last," continued
+the Sea Rat, "coasting down the Italian
+<!-- Page 239 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
+shore, till finally we made Palermo, and there I
+quitted for a long, happy spell on shore. I
+never stick too long to one ship; one gets
+narrow-minded and prejudiced. Besides, Sicily
+is one of my happy hunting-grounds. I know
+everybody there, and their ways just suit me.
+I spent many jolly weeks in the island, staying
+with friends upcountry. When I grew restless
+again I took advantage of a ship that was trading
+to Sardinia and Corsica; and very glad I was
+to feel the fresh breeze and the sea-spray in my
+face once more."</p>
+
+<p>"But isn't it very hot and stuffy, down in the&mdash;hold,
+I think you call it?" asked the Water
+Rat.</p>
+
+<p>The seafarer looked at him with the suspicion
+of a wink. "I'm an old hand," he remarked
+with much simplicity. "The captain's cabin's
+good enough for me."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured
+the Rat, sunk in deep thought.</p>
+
+<p>"For the crew it is," replied the seafarer
+gravely, again with the ghost of a wink.</p>
+
+<p>"From Corsica," he went on, "I made use of
+<!-- Page 240 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
+a ship that was taking wine to the mainland.
+We made Alassio in the evening, lay to, hauled
+up our wine-casks, and hove them overboard,
+tied one to the other by a long line. Then the
+crew took to the boats and rowed shorewards,
+singing as they went, and drawing after them
+the long bobbing procession of casks, like a
+mile of porpoises. On the sands they had
+horses waiting, which dragged the casks up the
+steep street of the little town with a fine rush
+and clatter and scramble. When the last cask
+was in, we went and refreshed and rested, and
+sat late into the night, drinking with our
+friends, and next morning I took to the great
+olive-woods for a spell and a rest. For now I
+had done with islands for the time, and ports
+and shipping were plentiful; so I led a lazy life
+among the peasants, lying and watching them
+work, or stretched high on the hillside with the
+blue Mediterranean far below me. And so at
+length, by easy stages, and partly on foot,
+partly by sea, to Marseilles, and the meeting of
+old shipmates, and the visiting of great ocean-bound
+vessels, and feasting once more. Talk
+<!-- Page 241 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+of shell-fish! Why, sometimes I dream of the
+shell-fish of Marseilles, and wake up crying!"</p>
+
+<p><a name="Pge240pic" id="Pge240pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus07.jpg" width="420" height="570"
+alt="&quot;It&#39;s a hard life, by all accounts,&quot; murmured the Rat"
+title="&quot;It&#39;s a hard life, by all accounts,&quot; murmured the Rat" />
+<span class="caption">&quot;It&#39;s a hard life,
+      by all accounts,&quot; murmured the Rat</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"That reminds me," said the polite Water
+Rat; "you happened to mention that you were
+hungry, and I ought to have spoken earlier.
+Of course, you will stop and take your mid-day
+meal with me? My hole is close by; it is some
+time past noon, and you are very welcome to
+whatever there is."</p>
+
+<p>"Now I call that kind and brotherly of you,"
+said the Sea Rat. "I was indeed hungry when
+I sat down, and ever since I inadvertently
+happened to mention shell-fish, my pangs have
+been extreme. But couldn't you fetch it along
+out here? I am none too fond of going under
+hatches, unless I'm obliged to; and then, while
+we eat, I could tell you more concerning my
+voyages and the pleasant life I lead&mdash;at least,
+it is very pleasant to me, and by your attention
+I judge it commends itself to you; whereas if
+we go indoors it is a hundred to one that I shall
+presently fall asleep."</p>
+
+<p>"That is indeed an excellent suggestion," said
+the Water Rat, and hurried off home. There
+<!-- Page 242 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
+he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a
+simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger's
+origin and preferences, he took care to
+include a yard of long French bread, a sausage
+out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which
+lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered
+flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed
+and garnered on far Southern slopes. Thus
+laden, he returned with all speed, and blushed
+for pleasure at the old seaman's commendations
+of his taste and judgment, as together they
+unpacked the basket and laid out the contents
+on the grass by the roadside.</p>
+
+<p>The Sea Rat, as soon as his hunger was somewhat
+assuaged, continued the history of his
+latest voyage, conducting his simple hearer from
+port to port of Spain, landing him at Lisbon,
+Oporto, and Bordeaux, introducing him to the
+pleasant harbours of Cornwall and Devon, and
+so up the Channel to that final quayside, where,
+landing after winds long contrary, storm-driven
+and weather-beaten, he had caught the first
+magical hints and heraldings of another Spring,
+and, fired by these, had sped on a long tramp
+<!-- Page 243 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+inland, hungry for the experiment of life on
+some quiet farmstead, very far from the weary
+beating of any sea.</p>
+
+<p>Spellbound and quivering with excitement,
+the Water Rat followed the Adventurer league
+by league, over stormy bays, through crowded
+roadsteads, across harbour bars on a racing tide,
+up winding rivers that hid their busy little towns
+round a sudden turn; and left him with a
+regretful sigh planted at his dull inland farm,
+about which he desired to hear nothing.</p>
+
+<p>By this time their meal was over, and the Seafarer,
+refreshed and strengthened, his voice more
+vibrant, his eye lit with a brightness that
+seemed caught from some far-away sea-beacon,
+filled his glass with the red and glowing vintage
+of the South, and, leaning towards the Water
+Rat, compelled his gaze and held him, body and
+soul, while he talked. Those eyes were of the
+changing foam-streaked grey-green of leaping
+Northern seas; in the glass shone a hot ruby
+that seemed the very heart of the South, beating
+for him who had courage to respond to its
+pulsation. The twin lights, the shifting grey
+<!-- Page 244 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>
+and the steadfast red, mastered the Water Rat
+and held him bound, fascinated, powerless. The
+quiet world outside their rays receded far away
+and ceased to be. And the talk, the wonderful
+talk flowed on&mdash;or was it speech entirely, or
+did it pass at times into song&mdash;chanty of the
+sailors weighing the dripping anchor, sonorous
+hum of the shrouds in a tearing North-Easter,
+ballad of the fisherman hauling his nets at sundown
+against an apricot sky, chords of guitar
+and mandoline from gondola or caique? Did
+it change into the cry of the wind, plaintive at
+first, angrily shrill as it freshened, rising to a
+tearing whistle, sinking to a musical trickle of
+air from the leech of the bellying sail? All
+these sounds the spellbound listener seemed to
+hear, and with them the hungry complaint of
+the gulls and the sea-mews, the soft thunder of
+the breaking wave, the cry of the protesting
+shingle. Back into speech again it passed, and
+with beating heart he was following the adventures
+of a dozen seaports, the fights, the escapes,
+the rallies, the comradeships, the gallant
+<!-- Page 245 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
+undertakings; or he searched islands for treasure,
+fished in still lagoons and dozed day-long
+on warm white sand. Of deep-sea fishings he
+heard tell, and mighty silver gatherings of the
+mile-long net; of sudden perils, noise of breakers
+on a moonless night, or the tall bows of the
+great liner taking shape overhead through the
+fog; of the merry home-coming, the headland
+rounded, the harbour lights opened out; the
+groups seen dimly on the quay, the cheery hail,
+the splash of the hawser; the trudge up the
+steep little street towards the comforting glow
+of red-curtained windows.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, in his waking dream it seemed to him
+that the Adventurer had risen to his feet, but
+was still speaking, still holding him fast with
+his sea-grey eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," he was softly saying, "I take to
+the road again, holding on southwestwards for
+many a long and dusty day; till at last I reach
+the little grey sea town I know so well, that
+clings along one steep side of the harbour.
+There through dark doorways you look down
+flights of stone steps, overhung by great pink
+tufts of valerian and ending in a patch of
+<!-- Page 246 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>
+sparkling blue water. The little boats that lie
+tethered to the rings and stanchions of the old
+sea-wall are gaily painted as those I clambered
+in and out of in my own childhood; the salmon
+leap on the flood tide, schools of mackerel flash
+and play past quay-sides and foreshores, and
+by the windows the great vessels glide, night
+and day, up to their moorings or forth to the
+open sea. There, sooner or later, the ships of
+all seafaring nations arrive; and there, at its
+destined hour, the ship of my choice will let
+go its anchor. I shall take my time, I shall
+tarry and bide, till at last the right one lies
+waiting for me, warped out into mid-stream,
+loaded low, her bowsprit pointing down harbour.
+I shall slip on board, by boat or along hawser;
+and then one morning I shall wake to the song
+and tramp of the sailors, the clink of the capstan,
+and the rattle of the anchor-chain coming
+merrily in. We shall break out the jib and the
+foresail, the white houses on the harbour side
+will glide slowly past us as she gathers steering-way,
+and the voyage will have begun! As she
+<!-- Page 247 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>
+forges towards the headland she will clothe herself
+with canvas; and then, once outside, the
+sounding slap of great green seas as she heels to
+the wind, pointing South!</p>
+
+<p>"And you, you will come too, young brother;
+for the days pass, and never return, and the
+South still waits for you. Take the adventure,
+heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment
+passes! 'Tis but a banging of the door behind
+you, a blithesome step forward, and you are
+out of the old life and into the new! Then
+some day, some day long hence, jog home here
+if you will, when the cup has been drained and
+the play has been played, and sit down by your
+quiet river with a store of goodly memories for
+company. You can easily overtake me on the
+road, for you are young, and I am ageing and
+go softly. I will linger, and look back; and at
+last I will surely see you coming, eager and
+light-hearted, with all the South in your face!"</p>
+
+<p>The voice died away and ceased as an insect's
+tiny trumpet dwindles swiftly into silence;
+and the Water Rat, paralysed and staring, saw
+at last but a distant speck on the white surface
+of the road.
+<!-- Page 248 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mechanically he rose and proceeded to repack
+the luncheon-basket, carefully and without
+haste. Mechanically he returned home, gathered
+together a few small necessaries and special
+treasures he was fond of, and put them in a
+satchel; acting with slow deliberation, moving
+about the room like a sleep-walker; listening
+ever with parted lips. He swung the satchel
+over his shoulder, carefully selected a stout stick
+for his wayfaring, and with no haste, but with
+no hesitation at all, he stepped across the
+threshold just as the Mole appeared at the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, where are you off to, Ratty?" asked
+the Mole in great surprise, grasping him by
+the arm.</p>
+
+<p>"Going South, with the rest of them," murmured
+the Rat in a dreamy monotone, never
+looking at him. "Seawards first and then on
+shipboard, and so to the shores that are calling
+me!"</p>
+
+<p>He pressed resolutely forward, still without
+haste, but with dogged fixity of purpose; but
+the Mole, now thoroughly alarmed, placed himself
+in front of him, and looking into his eyes
+<!-- Page 249 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+saw that they were glazed and set and turned a
+streaked and shifting grey&mdash;not his friend's
+eyes, but the eyes of some other animal! Grappling
+with him strongly he dragged him inside,
+threw him down, and held him.</p>
+
+<p>The Rat struggled desperately for a few moments,
+and then his strength seemed suddenly
+to leave him, and he lay still and exhausted,
+with closed eyes, trembling. Presently the Mole
+assisted him to rise and placed him in a chair,
+where he sat collapsed and shrunken into himself,
+his body shaken by a violent shivering,
+passing in time into an hysterical fit of dry
+sobbing. Mole made the door fast, threw the
+satchel into a drawer and locked it, and sat
+down quietly on the table by his friend, waiting
+for the strange seizure to pass. Gradually the
+Rat sank into a troubled doze, broken by starts
+and confused murmurings of things strange and
+wild and foreign to the unenlightened Mole; and
+from that he passed into a deep slumber.</p>
+
+<p>Very anxious in mind, the Mole left him for
+a time and busied himself with household matters;
+and it was getting dark when he returned
+<!-- Page 250 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>
+to the parlour and found the Rat where he had
+left him, wide awake indeed, but listless, silent,
+and dejected. He took one hasty glance at his
+eyes; found them, to his great gratification,
+clear and dark and brown again as before; and
+then sat down and tried to cheer him up and
+help him to relate what had happened to him.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Ratty did his best, by degrees, to explain
+things; but how could he put into cold words
+what had mostly been suggestion? How recall,
+for another's benefit, the haunting sea voices
+that had sung to him, how reproduce at second-hand
+the magic of the Seafarer's hundred reminiscences?
+Even to himself, now the spell was
+broken and the glamour gone, he found it difficult
+to account for what had seemed, some hours
+ago, the inevitable and only thing. It is not
+surprising, then, that he failed to convey to the
+Mole any clear idea of what he had been through
+that day.</p>
+
+<p>To the Mole this much was plain: the fit, or
+attack, had passed away, and had left him sane
+again, though shaken and cast down by the
+<!-- Page 251 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>
+reaction. But he seemed to have lost all interest
+for the time in the things that went to make
+up his daily life, as well as in all pleasant forecastings
+of the altered days and doings that the
+changing season was surely bringing.</p>
+
+<p>Casually, then, and with seeming indifference,
+the Mole turned his talk to the harvest that
+was being gathered in, the towering wagons and
+their straining teams, the growing ricks, and
+the large moon rising over bare acres dotted
+with sheaves. He talked of the reddening apples
+around, of the browning nuts, of jams and preserves
+and the distilling of cordials; till by easy
+stages such as these he reached midwinter, its
+hearty joys and its snug home life, and then
+he became simply lyrical.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees the Rat began to sit up and to
+join in. His dull eye brightened, and he lost
+some of his listening air.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the tactful Mole slipped away and
+returned with a pencil and a few half-sheets of
+paper, which he placed on the table at his
+friend's elbow.</p>
+
+<p>"It's quite a long time since you did any
+poetry," he remarked. "You might have a try
+<!-- Page 252 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+at it this evening, instead of&mdash;well, brooding
+over things so much. I've an idea that you'll
+feel a lot better when you've got something
+jotted down&mdash;if it's only just the rhymes."</p>
+
+<p>The Rat pushed the paper away from him
+wearily, but the discreet Mole took occasion to
+leave the room, and when he peeped in again
+some time later, the Rat was absorbed and deaf
+to the world; alternately scribbling and sucking
+the top of his pencil. It is true that he sucked
+a good deal more than he scribbled; but it was
+joy to the Mole to know that the cure had at
+least begun.
+<!-- Page 253 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="X" id="X"></a><h2>X</h2>
+<h2>THE FURTHER ADVENTURES
+OF TOAD</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 254 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 255 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE front door of the hollow tree faced
+eastwards, so Toad was called at an early
+hour; partly by the bright sunlight streaming
+in on him, partly by the exceeding coldness of
+his toes, which made him dream that he was
+at home in bed in his own handsome room with
+the Tudor window, on a cold winter's night,
+and his bed-clothes had got up, grumbling and
+protesting they couldn't stand the cold any
+longer, and had run downstairs to the kitchen
+fire to warm themselves; and he had followed,
+on bare feet, along miles and miles of icy stone-paved
+passages, arguing and beseeching them
+to be reasonable. He would probably have
+been aroused much earlier, had he not slept
+for some weeks on straw over stone flags, and
+<!-- Page 256 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+almost forgotten the friendly feeling of thick
+blankets pulled well up round the chin.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes first and his
+complaining toes next, wondered for a moment
+where he was, looking round for familiar stone
+wall and little barred window; then, with a
+leap of the heart, remembered everything&mdash;his
+escape, his flight, his pursuit; remembered,
+first and best thing of all, that he was free!</p>
+
+<p>Free! The word and the thought alone were
+worth fifty blankets. He was warm from end
+to end as he thought of the jolly world outside,
+waiting eagerly for him to make his triumphal
+entrance, ready to serve him and play up to
+him, anxious to help him and to keep him company,
+as it always had been in days of old before
+misfortune fell upon him. He shook himself
+and combed the dry leaves out of his hair
+with his fingers; and, his toilet complete,
+marched forth into the comfortable morning sun,
+cold but confident, hungry but hopeful, all nervous
+terrors of yesterday dispelled by rest and
+sleep and frank and heartening sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>He had the world all to himself, that early
+<!-- Page 257 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>
+summer morning. The dewy woodland, as he
+threaded it, was solitary and still: the green
+fields that succeeded the trees were his own to
+do as he liked with; the road itself, when he
+reached it, in that loneliness that was everywhere,
+seemed, like a stray dog, to be looking
+anxiously for company. Toad, however, was
+looking for something that could talk, and tell
+him clearly which way he ought to go. It is all
+very well, when you have a light heart, and a
+clear conscience, and money in your pocket, and
+nobody scouring the country for you to drag
+you off to prison again, to follow where the road
+beckons and points, not caring whither. The
+practical Toad cared very much indeed, and he
+could have kicked the road for its helpless
+silence when every minute was of importance
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>The reserved rustic road was presently joined
+by a shy little brother in the shape of a canal,
+which took its hand and ambled along by its
+side in perfect confidence, but with the same
+tongue-tied, uncommunicative attitude towards
+<!-- Page 258 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>
+strangers. "Bother them!" said Toad to himself.
+"But, anyhow, one thing's clear. They
+must both be coming <i>from</i> somewhere, and
+going <i>to</i> somewhere. You can't get over that,
+Toad, my boy!" So he marched on patiently by
+the water's edge.</p>
+
+<p>Round a bend in the canal came plodding a
+solitary horse, stooping forward as if in anxious
+thought. From rope traces attached to his
+collar stretched a long line, taut, but dipping
+with his stride, the further part of it dripping
+pearly drops. Toad let the horse pass, and stood
+waiting for what the fates were sending him.</p>
+
+<p>With a pleasant swirl of quiet water at its
+blunt bow the barge slid up alongside of him,
+its gaily painted gunwale level with the towing-path,
+its sole occupant a big stout woman
+wearing a linen sun-bonnet, one brawny arm
+laid along the tiller.</p>
+
+<p>"A nice morning, ma'am!" she remarked to
+Toad, as she drew up level with him.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say it is, ma'am!" responded Toad
+politely, as he walked along the tow-path
+abreast of her. "I dare say it is a nice morning
+to them that's not in sore trouble, like what I
+<!-- Page 259 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
+am. Here's my married daughter, she sends off
+to me post-haste to come to her at once; so off
+I comes, not knowing what may be happening or
+going to happen, but fearing the worst, as you
+will understand, ma'am, if you're a mother,
+too. And I've left my business to look after
+itself&mdash;I'm in the washing and laundering line,
+you must know, ma'am&mdash;and I've left my
+young children to look after themselves, and a
+more mischievous and troublesome set of young
+imps doesn't exist, ma'am; and I've lost all
+my money, and lost my way, and as for what
+may be happening to my married daughter,
+why, I don't like to think of it, ma'am!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where might your married daughter be living,
+ma'am?" asked the barge-woman.</p>
+
+<p>"She lives near to the river, ma'am," replied
+Toad. "Close to a fine house called Toad Hall,
+that's somewheres hereabouts in these parts.
+Perhaps you may have heard of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Toad Hall? Why, I'm going that way myself,"
+replied the barge-woman. "This canal
+joins the river some miles further on, a little
+above Toad Hall; and then it's an easy walk.
+<!-- Page 260 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+You come along in the barge with me, and I'll
+give you a lift."</p>
+
+<p>She steered the barge close to the bank, and
+Toad, with many humble and grateful acknowledgments,
+stepped lightly on board and sat
+down with great satisfaction. "Toad's luck
+again!" thought he. "I always come out on
+top!"</p>
+
+<p>"So you're in the washing business, ma'am?"
+said the barge-woman politely, as they glided
+along. "And a very good business you've got
+too, I dare say, if I'm not making too free in
+saying so."</p>
+
+<p>"Finest business in the whole country," said
+Toad airily. "All the gentry come to me&mdash;wouldn't
+go to any one else if they were paid,
+they know me so well. You see, I understand
+my work thoroughly, and attend to it all myself.
+Washing, ironing, clear-starching, making up
+gents' fine shirts for evening wear&mdash;everything's
+done under my own eye!"</p>
+
+<p>"But surely you don't <i>do</i> all that work yourself,
+ma'am?" asked the barge-woman respectfully.
+<!-- Page 261 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"O, I have girls," said Toad lightly: "twenty
+girls or thereabouts, always at work. But you
+know what <i>girls</i> are, ma'am! Nasty little
+hussies, that's what <i>I</i> call 'em!"</p>
+
+<p>"So do I, too," said the barge-woman with
+great heartiness. "But I dare say you set yours
+to rights, the idle trollops! And are you <i>very</i>
+fond of washing?"</p>
+
+<p>"I love it," said Toad. "I simply dote on it.
+Never so happy as when I've got both arms in
+the wash-tub. But, then, it comes so easy to
+me! No trouble at all! A real pleasure, I
+assure you, ma'am!"</p>
+
+<p>"What a bit of luck, meeting you!" observed
+the barge-woman, thoughtfully. "A regular
+piece of good fortune for both of us!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what do you mean?" asked Toad,
+nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, look at me, now," replied the barge-woman.
+"<i>I</i> like washing, too, just the same as
+you do; and for that matter, whether I like it
+or not I have got to do all my own, naturally,
+moving about as I do. Now my husband, he's
+such a fellow for shirking his work and leaving
+<!-- Page 262 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+the barge to me, that never a moment do I get
+for seeing to my own affairs. By rights he
+ought to be here now, either steering or attending
+to the horse, though luckily the horse has
+sense enough to attend to himself. Instead of
+which, he's gone off with the dog, to see if they
+can't pick up a rabbit for dinner somewhere.
+Says he'll catch me up at the next lock. Well,
+that's as may be&mdash;I don't trust him, once he
+gets off with that dog, who's worse than he is.
+But meantime, how am I to get on with my
+washing?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, never mind about the washing," said
+Toad, not liking the subject. "Try and fix your
+mind on that rabbit. A nice fat young rabbit,
+I'll be bound. Got any onions?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't fix my mind on anything but my
+washing," said the barge-woman, "and I wonder
+you can be talking of rabbits, with such a joyful
+prospect before you. There's a heap of things
+of mine that you'll find in a corner of the cabin.
+If you'll just take one or two of the most
+necessary sort&mdash;I won't venture to describe
+them to a lady like you, but you'll recognise
+<!-- Page 263 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
+them at a glance&mdash;and put them through the
+wash-tub as we go along, why, it'll be a pleasure
+to you, as you rightly say, and a real help
+to me. You'll find a tub handy, and soap, and
+a kettle on the stove, and a bucket to haul up
+water from the canal with. Then I shall know
+you're enjoying yourself, instead of sitting here
+idle, looking at the scenery and yawning your
+head off."</p>
+
+<p>"Here, you let me steer!" said Toad, now
+thoroughly frightened, "and then you can get
+on with your washing your own way. I might
+spoil your things, or not do 'em as you like.
+I'm more used to gentleman's things myself.
+It's my special line."</p>
+
+<p>"Let you steer?" replied the barge-woman,
+laughing. "It takes some practice to steer a
+barge properly. Besides, it's dull work, and I
+want you to be happy. No, you shall do the
+washing you are so fond of, and I'll stick to
+the steering that I understand. Don't try and
+deprive me of the pleasure of giving you a
+treat!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad was fairly cornered. He looked for
+<!-- Page 264 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>
+escape this way and that, saw that he was too
+far from the bank for a flying leap, and sullenly
+resigned himself to his fate. "If it comes to
+that," he thought in desperation, "I suppose
+any fool can <i>wash</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>He fetched tub, soap, and other necessaries
+from the cabin, selected a few garments at random,
+tried to recollect what he had seen in
+casual glances through laundry windows, and
+set to.</p>
+
+<p>A long half-hour passed, and every minute of
+it saw Toad getting crosser and crosser. Nothing
+that he could do to the things seemed to
+please them or do them good. He tried coaxing,
+he tried slapping, he tried punching; they
+smiled back at him out of the tub unconverted,
+happy in their original sin. Once or twice he
+looked nervously over his shoulder at the barge-woman,
+but she appeared to be gazing out in
+front of her, absorbed in her steering. His back
+ached badly, and he noticed with dismay that
+his paws were beginning to get all crinkly. Now
+Toad was very proud of his paws. He muttered
+under his breath words that should never pass
+<!-- Page 265 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+the lips of either washerwomen or Toads; and
+lost the soap, for the fiftieth time.</p>
+
+<p>A burst of laughter made him straighten himself
+and look round. The barge-woman was
+leaning back and laughing unrestrainedly, till
+the tears ran down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"I've been watching you all the time," she
+gasped. "I thought you must be a humbug
+all along, from the conceited way you talked.
+Pretty washerwoman you are! Never washed
+so much as a dish-clout in your life, I'll lay!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad's temper, which had been simmering
+viciously for some time, now fairly boiled over,
+and he lost all control of himself.</p>
+
+<p>"You common, low, <i>fat</i> barge-woman!" he
+shouted; "don't you dare to talk to your betters
+like that! Washerwoman indeed! I would
+have you to know that I am a Toad, a very
+well-known, respected, distinguished Toad! I
+may be under a bit of a cloud at present, but
+I will <i>not</i> be laughed at by a barge-woman!"</p>
+
+<p>The woman moved nearer to him and peered
+under his bonnet keenly and closely. "Why,
+so you are!" she cried. "Well, I never! A
+<!-- Page 266 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
+horrid, nasty, crawly Toad! And in my nice
+clean barge, too! Now that is a thing that I
+will <i>not</i> have."</p>
+
+<p>She relinquished the tiller for a moment. One
+big, mottled arm shot out and caught Toad by
+a fore-leg, while the other gripped him fast by
+a hind-leg. Then the world turned suddenly
+upside down, the barge seemed to flit lightly
+across the sky, the wind whistled in his ears,
+and Toad found himself flying through the air,
+revolving rapidly as he went.</p>
+
+<p>The water, when he eventually reached it
+with a loud splash, proved quite cold enough
+for his taste, though its chill was not sufficient
+to quell his proud spirit, or slake the heat of
+his furious temper. He rose to the surface
+spluttering, and when he had wiped the duck-weed
+out of his eyes the first thing he saw was
+the fat barge-woman looking back at him over
+the stern of the retreating barge and laughing;
+and he vowed, as he coughed and choked, to be
+even with her.</p>
+
+<p>He struck out for the shore, but the cotton
+gown greatly impeded his efforts, and when at
+<!-- Page 267 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>
+length he touched land he found it hard to climb
+up the steep bank unassisted. He had to take
+a minute or two's rest to recover his breath;
+then, gathering his wet skirts well over his
+arms, he started to run after the barge as fast as
+his legs would carry him, wild with indignation,
+thirsting for revenge.</p>
+
+<p>The barge-woman was still laughing when he
+drew up level with her. "Put yourself through
+your mangle, washerwoman," she called out,
+"and iron your face and crimp it, and you'll
+pass for quite a decent-looking Toad!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad never paused to reply. Solid revenge
+was what he wanted, not cheap, windy, verbal
+triumphs, though he had a thing or two in his
+mind that he would have liked to say. He saw
+what he wanted ahead of him. Running swiftly
+on he overtook the horse, unfastened the tow-rope
+and cast off, jumped lightly on the horse's
+back, and urged it to a gallop by kicking it
+vigorously in the sides. He steered for the
+open country, abandoning the tow-path, and
+swinging his steed down a rutty lane. Once he
+looked back, and saw that the barge had run
+<!-- Page 268 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
+aground on the other side of the canal, and
+the barge-woman was gesticulating wildly and
+shouting, "Stop, stop, stop!" "I've heard that
+song before," said Toad, laughing, as he continued
+to spur his steed onward in its wild career.</p>
+
+<p>The barge-horse was not capable of any very
+sustained effort, and its gallop soon subsided
+into a trot, and its trot into an easy walk; but
+Toad was quite contented with this, knowing
+that he, at any rate, was moving, and the barge
+was not. He had quite recovered his temper,
+now that he had done something he thought
+really clever; and he was satisfied to jog along
+quietly in the sun, steering his horse along
+by-ways and bridle-paths, and trying to forget
+how very long it was since he had had a square
+meal, till the canal had been left very far behind
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He had travelled some miles, his horse and
+he, and he was feeling drowsy in the hot sunshine,
+when the horse stopped, lowered his head,
+and began to nibble the grass; and Toad, waking
+up, just saved himself from falling off by an
+effort. He looked about him and found he was
+<!-- Page 269 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>
+on a wide common, dotted with patches of
+gorse and bramble as far as he could see. Near
+him stood a dingy gipsy caravan, and beside it
+a man was sitting on a bucket turned upside
+down, very busy smoking and staring into the
+wide world. A fire of sticks was burning near
+by, and over the fire hung an iron pot, and out
+of that pot came forth bubblings and gurglings,
+and a vague suggestive steaminess. Also smells&mdash;warm,
+rich, and varied smells&mdash;that twined
+and twisted and wreathed themselves at last
+into one complete, voluptuous, perfect smell
+that seemed like the very soul of Nature taking
+form and appearing to her children, a true Goddess,
+a mother of solace and comfort. Toad
+now knew well that he had not been really
+hungry before. What he had felt earlier in the
+day had been a mere trifling qualm. This was
+the real thing at last, and no mistake; and it
+would have to be dealt with speedily, too, or
+there would be trouble for somebody or something.
+He looked the gipsy over carefully, wondering
+vaguely whether it would be easier to
+fight him or cajole him. So there he sat, and
+<!-- Page 270 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
+sniffed and sniffed, and looked at the gipsy;
+and the gipsy sat and smoked, and looked at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the gipsy took his pipe out of his
+mouth and remarked in a careless way, "Want
+to sell that there horse of yours?"</p>
+
+<p>Toad was completely taken aback. He did
+not know that gipsies were very fond of horse-dealing,
+and never missed an opportunity, and
+he had not reflected that caravans were always
+on the move and took a deal of drawing. It
+had not occurred to him to turn the horse into
+cash, but the gipsy's suggestion seemed to
+smooth the way towards the two things he
+wanted so badly&mdash;ready money, and a solid
+breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he said, "me sell this beautiful
+young horse of mine? O, no; it's out of the
+question. Who's going to take the washing
+home to my customers every week? Besides,
+I'm too fond of him, and he simply dotes on
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"Try and love a donkey," suggested the
+gipsy. "Some people do."
+<!-- Page 271 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You don't seem to see," continued Toad,
+"that this fine horse of mine is a cut above you
+altogether. He's a blood horse, he is, partly;
+not the part you see, of course&mdash;another part.
+And he's been a Prize Hackney, too, in his time&mdash;that
+was the time before you knew him, but
+you can still tell it on him at a glance, if you
+understand anything about horses. No, it's
+not to be thought of for a moment. All the
+same, how much might you be disposed to offer
+me for this beautiful young horse of mine?"</p>
+
+<p>The gipsy looked the horse over, and then he
+looked Toad over with equal care, and looked
+at the horse again. "Shillin' a leg," he said
+briefly, and turned away, continuing to smoke
+and try to stare the wide world out of countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"A shilling a leg?" cried Toad. "If you
+please, I must take a little time to work that
+out, and see just what it comes to."</p>
+
+<p>He climbed down off his horse, and left it to
+graze, and sat down by the gipsy, and did sums
+on his fingers, and at last he said, "A shilling a
+leg? Why, that comes to exactly four shillings,
+<!-- Page 272 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
+and no more. O, no; I could not think of
+accepting four shillings for this beautiful young
+horse of mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the gipsy, "I'll tell you what
+I will do. I'll make it five shillings, and
+that's three-and-sixpence more than the animal's
+worth. And that's my last word."</p>
+
+<p>Then Toad sat and pondered long and
+deeply. For he was hungry and quite penniless,
+and still some way&mdash;he knew not how far&mdash;from
+home, and enemies might still be looking
+for him. To one in such a situation, five shillings
+may very well appear a large sum of
+money. On the other hand, it did not seem
+very much to get for a horse. But then, again,
+the horse hadn't cost him anything; so whatever
+he got was all clear profit. At last he said
+firmly, "Look here, gipsy! I tell you what we
+will do; and this is <i>my</i> last word. You shall
+hand me over six shillings and sixpence, cash
+down; and further, in addition thereto, you
+shall give me as much breakfast as I can possibly
+eat, at one sitting of course, out of that
+iron pot of yours that keeps sending forth such
+<!-- Page 273 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>
+delicious and exciting smells. In return, I will
+make over to you my spirited young horse, with
+all the beautiful harness and trappings that are
+on him, freely thrown in. If that's not good
+enough for you, say so, and I'll be getting on.
+I know a man near here who's wanted this
+horse of mine for years."</p>
+
+<p>The gipsy grumbled frightfully, and declared
+if he did a few more deals of that sort he'd be
+ruined. But in the end he lugged a dirty canvas
+bag out of the depths of his trouser pocket,
+and counted out six shillings and sixpence into
+Toad's paw. Then he disappeared into the
+caravan for an instant, and returned with a
+large iron plate and a knife, fork, and spoon.
+He tilted up the pot, and a glorious stream of
+hot, rich stew gurgled into the plate. It was,
+indeed, the most beautiful stew in the world,
+being made of partridges, and pheasants, and
+chickens, and hares, and rabbits, and peahens,
+and guinea-fowls, and one or two other things.
+Toad took the plate on his lap, almost crying,
+and stuffed, and stuffed, and stuffed, and kept
+asking for more, and the gipsy never grudged
+<!-- Page 274 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
+it him. He thought that he had never eaten
+so good a breakfast in all his life.</p>
+
+<p>When Toad had taken as much stew on board
+as he thought he could possibly hold, he got up
+and said good-bye to the gipsy, and took an
+affectionate farewell of the horse; and the gipsy,
+who knew the riverside well, gave him directions
+which way to go, and he set forth on his
+travels again in the best possible spirits. He
+was, indeed, a very different Toad from the
+animal of an hour ago. The sun was shining
+brightly, his wet clothes were quite dry again,
+he had money in his pocket once more, he was
+nearing home and friends and safety, and, most
+and best of all, he had had a substantial meal,
+hot and nourishing, and felt big, and strong, and
+careless, and self-confident.</p>
+
+<p>As he tramped along gaily, he thought of his
+adventures and escapes, and how when things
+seemed at their worst he had always managed
+to find a way out; and his pride and conceit
+began to swell within him. "Ho, ho!" he said
+to himself, as he marched along with his chin
+in the air, "what a clever Toad I am! There
+<!-- Page 275 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>
+is surely no animal equal to me for cleverness
+in the whole world! My enemies shut me up
+in prison, encircled by sentries, watched night
+and day by warders; I walk out through them
+all, by sheer ability coupled with courage.
+They pursue me with engines, and policemen,
+and revolvers; I snap my fingers at them, and
+vanish, laughing, into space. I am, unfortunately,
+thrown into a canal by a woman fat of
+body and very evil-minded. What of it? I
+swim ashore, I seize her horse, I ride off in
+triumph, and I sell the horse for a whole pocketful
+of money and an excellent breakfast! Ho,
+ho! I am The Toad, the handsome, the popular,
+the successful Toad!" He got so puffed up
+with conceit that he made up a song as he
+walked in praise of himself, and sang it at the
+top of his voice, though there was no one to
+hear it but him. It was, perhaps, the most
+conceited song that any animal ever composed.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"The world has held great Heroes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As history-books have showed;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But never a name to go down to fame<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Compared with that of Toad!<br /></span>
+<!-- Page 276 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"The clever men at Oxford<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Know all that there is to be knowed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But they none of them know one half as much<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As intelligent Mr. Toad!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"The animals sat in the Ark and cried,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Their tears in torrents flowed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who was it said, 'There's land ahead?'<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Encouraging Mr. Toad!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"The army all saluted<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As they marched along the road.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Was it the King? Or Kitchener?<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">No. It was Mr. Toad.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Sat at the window and sewed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">She cried, 'Look! who's that <i>handsome</i> man?'<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">They answered, 'Mr. Toad.'"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+</div></div>
+
+<p>There was a great deal more of the same
+sort, but too dreadfully conceited to be written
+down. These are some of the milder verses.</p>
+
+<p>He sang as he walked, and he walked as he
+sang, and got more inflated every minute. But
+his pride was shortly to have a severe fall.</p>
+
+<p>After some miles of country lanes he reached
+the high road, and as he turned into it and
+<!-- Page 277 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>
+glanced along its white length, he saw approaching
+him a speck that turned into a dot and then
+into a blob, and then into something very
+familiar; and a double note of warning, only
+too well known, fell on his delighted ear.</p>
+
+<p>"This is something like!" said the excited
+Toad. "This is real life again, this is once
+more the great world from which I have been
+missed so long! I will hail them, my brothers
+of the wheel, and pitch them a yarn, of the
+sort that has been so successful hitherto; and
+they will give me a lift, of course, and then I
+will talk to them some more; and, perhaps,
+with luck, it may even end in my driving up
+to Toad Hall in a motor-car! That will be
+one in the eye for Badger!"</p>
+
+<p>He stepped confidently out into the road to
+hail the motor-car, which came along at an easy
+pace, slowing down as it neared the lane; when
+suddenly he became very pale, his heart turned
+to water, his knees shook and yielded under him,
+and he doubled up and collapsed with a sickening
+pain in his interior. And well he might, the
+unhappy animal; for the approaching car was
+the very one he had stolen out of the yard of
+<!-- Page 278 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>
+the Red Lion Hotel on that fatal day when all
+his troubles began! And the people in it were
+the very same people he had sat and watched
+at luncheon in the coffee-room!</p>
+
+<p>He sank down in a shabby, miserable heap
+in the road, murmuring to himself in his despair,
+"It's all up! It's all over now! Chains and
+policemen again! Prison again! Dry bread and
+water again! O, what a fool I have been!
+What did I want to go strutting about the
+country for, singing conceited songs, and hailing
+people in broad day on the high road, instead
+of hiding till nightfall and slipping home
+quietly by back ways! O hapless Toad! O
+ill-fated animal!"</p>
+
+<p>The terrible motor-car drew slowly nearer and
+nearer, till at last he heard it stop just short of
+him. Two gentlemen got out and walked round
+the trembling heap of crumpled misery lying in
+the road, and one of them said, "O dear! this
+is very sad! Here is a poor old thing&mdash;a washerwoman
+apparently&mdash;who has fainted in the
+road! Perhaps she is overcome by the heat,
+poor creature; or possibly she has not had any
+<!-- Page 279 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>
+food to-day. Let us lift her into the car and
+take her to the nearest village, where doubtless
+she has friends."</p>
+
+<p>They tenderly lifted Toad into the motor-car
+and propped him up with soft cushions, and
+proceeded on their way.</p>
+
+<p>When Toad heard them talk in so kind and
+sympathetic a way, and knew that he was not
+recognised, his courage began to revive, and he
+cautiously opened first one eye and then the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>"Look!" said one of the gentlemen, "she is
+better already. The fresh air is doing her good.
+How do you feel now, ma'am?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you kindly, sir," said Toad in a
+feeble voice, "I'm feeling a great deal better!"
+"That's right," said the gentleman. "Now
+keep quite still, and, above all, don't try to
+talk."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't," said Toad. "I was only thinking,
+if I might sit on the front seat there, beside
+the driver, where I could get the fresh air full
+in my face, I should soon be all right again."</p>
+
+<p>"What a very sensible woman!" said the
+<!-- Page 280 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>
+gentleman. "Of course you shall." So they
+carefully helped Toad into the front seat beside
+the driver, and on they went again.</p>
+
+<p>Toad was almost himself again by now. He
+sat up, looked about him, and tried to beat
+down the tremors, the yearnings, the old cravings
+that rose up and beset him and took possession
+of him entirely.</p>
+
+<p>"It is fate!" he said to himself. "Why strive?
+why struggle?" and he turned to the driver at
+his side.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Sir," he said, "I wish you would
+kindly let me try and drive the car for a little.
+I've been watching you carefully, and it looks
+so easy and so interesting, and I should like
+to be able to tell my friends that once I had
+driven a motor-car!"</p>
+
+<p>The driver laughed at the proposal, so heartily
+that the gentleman inquired what the matter
+was. When he heard, he said, to Toad's delight,
+"Bravo, ma'am! I like your spirit. Let her
+have a try, and look after her. She won't do
+any harm."</p>
+
+<p>Toad eagerly scrambled into the seat vacated
+<!-- Page 281 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>
+by the driver, took the steering-wheel in his
+hands, listened with affected humility to the
+instructions given him, and set the car in motion,
+but very slowly and carefully at first, for
+he was determined to be prudent.</p>
+
+<p>The gentlemen behind clapped their hands
+and applauded, and Toad heard them saying,
+"How well she does it! Fancy a washerwoman
+driving a car as well as that, the first time!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad went a little faster; then faster still,
+and faster.</p>
+
+<p>He heard the gentlemen call out warningly,
+"Be careful, washerwoman!" And this annoyed
+him, and he began to lose his head.</p>
+
+<p>The driver tried to interfere, but he pinned
+him down in his seat with one elbow, and put
+on full speed. The rush of air in his face,
+the hum of the engines, and the light jump of
+the car beneath him intoxicated his weak brain.
+"Washerwoman, indeed!" he shouted recklessly.
+"Ho! ho! I am the Toad, the motor-car
+snatcher, the prison-breaker, the Toad who
+always escapes! Sit still, and you shall know
+what driving really is, for you are in the hands
+<!-- Page 282 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>
+of the famous, the skilful, the entirely fearless
+Toad!"</p>
+
+<p>With a cry of horror the whole party rose
+and flung themselves on him. "Seize him!"
+they cried, "seize the Toad, the wicked animal
+who stole our motor-car! Bind him, chain
+him, drag him to the nearest police station!
+Down with the desperate and dangerous
+Toad!"</p>
+
+<p>Alas! they should have thought, they ought
+to have been more prudent, they should have
+remembered to stop the motor-car somehow
+before playing any pranks of that sort. With
+a half-turn of the wheel the Toad sent the car
+crashing through the low hedge that ran along
+the roadside. One mighty bound, a violent
+shock, and the wheels of the car were churning
+up the thick mud of a horse-pond.</p>
+
+<p>Toad found himself flying through the air
+with the strong upward rush and delicate curve
+of a swallow. He liked the motion, and was
+just beginning to wonder whether it would go
+on until he developed wings and turned into a
+Toad-bird, when he landed on his back with a
+<!-- Page 283 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>
+thump, in the soft, rich grass of a meadow.
+Sitting up, he could just see the motor-car in
+the pond, nearly submerged; the gentlemen
+and the driver, encumbered by their long coats,
+were floundering helplessly in the water.</p>
+
+<p>He picked himself up rapidly, and set off
+running across country as hard as he could,
+scrambling through hedges, jumping ditches,
+pounding across fields, till he was breathless and
+weary, and had to settle down into an easy
+walk. When he had recovered his breath somewhat,
+and was able to think calmly, he began to
+giggle, and from giggling he took to laughing,
+and he laughed till he had to sit down under a
+hedge. "Ho! ho!" he cried, in ecstasies of self-admiration.
+"Toad again! Toad, as usual,
+comes out on the top! Who was it got them
+to give him a lift? Who managed to get on
+the front seat for the sake of fresh air? Who
+persuaded them into letting him see if he could
+drive? Who landed them all in a horse-pond?
+Who escaped, flying gaily and unscathed through
+the air, leaving the narrow-minded, grudging,
+timid excursionists in the mud where they
+<!-- Page 284 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span>
+should rightly be? Why, Toad, of course;
+clever Toad, great Toad, <i>good</i> Toad!"</p>
+
+<p>Then he burst into song again, and chanted
+with uplifted voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"The motor-car went Poop-poop-poop,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">As it raced along the road.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Who was it steered it into a pond?<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Ingenious Mr. Toad!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+</div></div>
+
+<p>O, how clever I am! How clever, how clever,
+how very clev&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>A slight noise at a distance behind him made
+him turn his head and look. O horror! O
+misery! O despair!</p>
+
+<p>About two fields off, a chauffeur in his leather
+gaiters and two large rural policemen were
+visible, running towards him as hard as they
+could go!</p>
+
+<p>Poor Toad sprang to his feet and pelted away
+again, his heart in his mouth. "O, my!" he
+gasped, as he panted along, "what an <i>ass</i> I am!
+What a <i>conceited</i> and heedless ass! Swaggering
+again! Shouting and singing songs again! Sitting
+still and gassing again! O my! O my!
+O my!"
+<!-- Page 285 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He glanced back, and saw to his dismay that
+they were gaining on him. On he ran desperately,
+but kept looking back, and saw that they
+still gained steadily. He did his best, but he
+was a fat animal, and his legs were short, and
+still they gained. He could hear them close
+behind him now. Ceasing to heed where he
+was going, he struggled on blindly and wildly,
+looking back over his shoulder at the now triumphant
+enemy, when suddenly the earth failed
+under his feet, he grasped at the air, and,
+splash! he found himself head over ears in deep
+water, rapid water, water that bore him along
+with a force he could not contend with; and he
+knew that in his blind panic he had run straight
+into the river!</p>
+
+<p>He rose to the surface and tried to grasp
+the reeds and the rushes that grew along the
+water's edge close under the bank, but the
+stream was so strong that it tore them out of
+his hands. "O my!" gasped poor Toad, "if
+ever I steal a motor-car again! If ever I sing
+another conceited song"&mdash;then down he went,
+<!-- Page 286 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>
+and came up breathless and spluttering. Presently
+he saw that he was approaching a big
+dark hole in the bank, just above his head, and
+as the stream bore him past he reached up with
+a paw and caught hold of the edge and held
+on. Then slowly and with difficulty he drew
+himself up out of the water, till at last he was
+able to rest his elbows on the edge of the hole.
+There he remained for some minutes, puffing
+and panting, for he was quite exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>As he sighed and blew and stared before him
+into the dark hole, some bright small thing
+shone and twinkled in its depths, moving towards
+him. As it approached, a face grew up
+gradually around it, and it was a familiar face!</p>
+
+<p>Brown and small, with whiskers.</p>
+
+<p>Grave and round, with neat ears and silky
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Water Rat!
+<!-- Page 287 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="XI" id="XI"></a><h2>XI</h2>
+<h2>"LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS
+CAME HIS TEARS"</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 288 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 289 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">THE Rat put out a neat little brown paw,
+gripped Toad firmly by the scruff of the
+neck, and gave a great hoist and a pull; and
+the water-logged Toad came up slowly but
+surely over the edge of the hole, till at last he
+stood safe and sound in the hall, streaked with
+mud and weed, to be sure, and with the water
+streaming off him, but happy and high-spirited
+as of old, now that he found himself once more
+in the house of a friend, and dodgings and
+evasions were over, and he could lay aside a
+disguise that was unworthy of his position and
+wanted such a lot of living up to.</p>
+
+<p>"O, Ratty!" he cried. "I've been through
+such times since I saw you last, you can't think!
+Such trials, such sufferings, and all so nobly
+<!-- Page 290 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
+borne! Then such escapes, such disguises, such
+subterfuges, and all so cleverly planned and
+carried out! Been in prison&mdash;got out of it,
+of course! Been thrown into a canal&mdash;swam
+ashore! Stole a horse&mdash;sold him for a large
+sum of money! Humbugged everybody&mdash;made
+'em all do exactly what I wanted! Oh, I <i>am</i> a
+smart Toad, and no mistake! What do you
+think my last exploit was? Just hold on till I
+tell you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Toad," said the Water Rat, gravely and
+firmly, "you go off upstairs at once, and take
+off that old cotton rag that looks as if it might
+formerly have belonged to some washerwoman,
+and clean yourself thoroughly, and put on some
+of my clothes, and try and come down looking
+like a gentleman if you <i>can</i>; for a more shabby,
+bedraggled, disreputable-looking object than you
+are I never set eyes on in my whole life! Now,
+stop swaggering and arguing, and be off! I'll
+have something to say to you later!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad was at first inclined to stop and do
+some talking back at him. He had had enough
+of being ordered about when he was in prison,
+<!-- Page 291 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>
+and here was the thing being begun all over
+again, apparently; and by a Rat, too! However,
+he caught sight of himself in the looking-glass
+over the hat-stand, with the rusty black
+bonnet perched rakishly over one eye, and he
+changed his mind and went very quickly and
+humbly upstairs to the Rat's dressing-room.
+There he had a thorough wash and brush-up,
+changed his clothes, and stood for a long time
+before the glass, contemplating himself with
+pride and pleasure, and thinking what utter
+idiots all the people must have been to have
+ever mistaken him for one moment for a washerwoman.</p>
+
+<p>By the time he came down again luncheon
+was on the table, and very glad Toad was to
+see it, for he had been through some trying experiences
+and had taken much hard exercise
+since the excellent breakfast provided for him
+by the gipsy. While they ate Toad told the Rat
+all his adventures, dwelling chiefly on his own
+cleverness, and presence of mind in emergencies,
+and cunning in tight places; and rather making
+<!-- Page 292 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>
+out that he had been having a gay and highly-coloured
+experience. But the more he talked
+and boasted, the more grave and silent the Rat
+became.</p>
+
+<p>When at last Toad had talked himself to a
+standstill, there was silence for a while; and
+then the Rat said, "Now, Toady, I don't want
+to give you pain, after all you've been through
+already; but, seriously, don't you see what an
+awful ass you've been making of yourself? On
+your own admission you have been hand-cuffed,
+imprisoned, starved, chased, terrified out of
+your life, insulted, jeered at, and ignominiously
+flung into the water&mdash;by a woman, too!
+Where's the amusement in that? Where does
+the fun come in? And all because you must
+needs go and steal a motor-car. You know that
+you've never had anything but trouble from
+motor-cars from the moment you first set eyes
+on one. But if you <i>will</i> be mixed up with
+them&mdash;as you generally are, five minutes after
+you've started&mdash;why <i>steal</i> them? Be a cripple,
+if you think it's exciting; be a bankrupt,
+for a change, if you've set your mind on it:
+but why choose to be a convict? When are you
+<!-- Page 293 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>
+going to be sensible and think of your friends,
+and try and be a credit to them? Do you
+suppose it's any pleasure to me, for instance,
+to hear animals saying, as I go about, that
+I'm the chap that keeps company with gaol-birds?"</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page292pic" id="Page292pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus08.jpg" width="420" height="570"
+alt="Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and presence of mind in emergencies"
+title="Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and presence of mind in emergencies" />
+<span class="caption">Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness,
+      and presence of mind in emergencies</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Now, it was a very comforting point in
+Toad's character that he was a thoroughly
+good-hearted animal, and never minded being
+jawed by those who were his real friends. And
+even when most set upon a thing, he was
+always able to see the other side of the question.
+So although, while the Rat was talking
+so seriously, he kept saying to himself mutinously,
+"But it <i>was</i> fun, though! Awful fun!"
+and making strange suppressed noises inside
+him, k-i-ck-ck-ck, and poop-p-p, and other
+sounds resembling stifled snorts, or the opening
+of soda-water bottles, yet when the Rat had
+quite finished, he heaved a deep sigh and said,
+very nicely and humbly, "Quite right, Ratty!
+How <i>sound</i> you always are! Yes, I've been a
+conceited old ass, I can quite see that; but now
+I'm going to be a good Toad, and not do it
+<!-- Page 294 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>
+any more. As for motor-cars, I've not been at
+all so keen about them since my last ducking
+in that river of yours. The fact is, while I
+was hanging on to the edge of your hole and
+getting my breath, I had a sudden idea&mdash;a
+really brilliant idea&mdash;connected with motor-boats&mdash;there,
+there! don't take on so, old
+chap, and stamp, and upset things; it was only
+an idea, and we won't talk any more about it
+now. We'll have our coffee, <i>and</i> a smoke, and
+a quiet chat, and then I'm going to stroll
+quietly down to Toad Hall, and get into clothes
+of my own, and set things going again on the
+old lines. I've had enough of adventures. I
+shall lead a quiet, steady, respectable life, pottering
+about my property, and improving it,
+and doing a little landscape gardening at times.
+There will always be a bit of dinner for my
+friends when they come to see me; and I shall
+keep a pony-chaise to jog about the country in,
+just as I used to in the good old days, before
+I got restless, and wanted to <i>do</i> things."</p>
+
+<p>"Stroll quietly down to Toad Hall?" cried the
+Rat, greatly excited. "What are you talking
+<!-- Page 295 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>
+about? Do you mean to say you haven't
+<i>heard</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heard what?" said Toad, turning rather
+pale. "Go on, Ratty! Quick! Don't spare
+me! What haven't I heard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to tell me," shouted the Rat,
+thumping with his little fist upon the table,
+"that you've heard nothing about the Stoats
+and Weasels?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, the Wild Wooders?" cried Toad,
+trembling in every limb. "No, not a word!
+What have they been doing?"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;And how they've been and taken Toad
+Hall?" continued the Rat.</p>
+
+<p>Toad leaned his elbows on the table, and his
+chin on his paws; and a large tear welled up in
+each of his eyes, overflowed and splashed on
+the table, plop! plop!</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Ratty," he murmured presently;
+"tell me all. The worst is over. I am an animal
+again. I can bear it."</p>
+
+<p>"When you&mdash;got&mdash;into that&mdash;that&mdash;trouble
+of yours," said the Rat, slowly and impressively;
+"I mean, when you&mdash;disappeared from
+<!-- Page 296 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>
+society for a time, over that misunderstanding
+about a&mdash;a machine, you know&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Toad merely nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was a good deal talked about down
+here, naturally," continued the Rat, "not only
+along the riverside, but even in the Wild Wood.
+Animals took sides, as always happens. The
+River-bankers stuck up for you, and said you
+had been infamously treated, and there was no
+justice to be had in the land nowadays. But
+the Wild Wood animals said hard things, and
+served you right, and it was time this sort of
+thing was stopped. And they got very cocky,
+and went about saying you were done for this
+time! You would never come back again, never,
+never!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad nodded once more, keeping silence.</p>
+
+<p>"That's the sort of little beasts they are,"
+the Rat went on. "But Mole and Badger, they
+stuck out, through thick and thin, that you
+would come back again soon, somehow. They
+didn't know exactly how, but somehow!"</p>
+
+<p>Toad began to sit up in his chair again, and
+to smirk a little.
+<!-- Page 297 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"They argued from history," continued the
+Rat. "They said that no criminal laws had
+ever been known to prevail against cheek and
+plausibility such as yours, combined with the
+power of a long purse. So they arranged to
+move their things in to Toad Hall, and sleep
+there, and keep it aired, and have it all ready
+for you when you turned up. They didn't guess
+what was going to happen, of course; still, they
+had their suspicions of the Wild Wood animals.
+Now I come to the most painful and tragic part
+of my story. One dark night&mdash;it was a <i>very</i>
+dark night, and blowing hard, too, and raining
+simply cats and dogs&mdash;a band of weasels,
+armed to the teeth, crept silently up the carriage-drive
+to the front entrance. Simultaneously, a
+body of desperate ferrets, advancing through
+the kitchen-garden, possessed themselves of the
+backyard and offices; while a company of skirmishing
+stoats who stuck at nothing occupied
+the conservatory and the billiard-room, and held
+the French windows opening on to the lawn.</p>
+
+<p>"The Mole and the Badger were sitting by
+the fire in the smoking-room, telling stories and
+<!-- Page 298 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>
+suspecting nothing, for it wasn't a night for
+any animals to be out in, when those bloodthirsty
+villains broke down the doors and
+rushed in upon them from every side. They
+made the best fight they could, but what was
+the good? They were unarmed, and taken by
+surprise, and what can two animals do against
+hundreds? They took and beat them severely
+with sticks, those two poor faithful creatures,
+and turned them out into the cold and the wet,
+with many insulting and uncalled-for remarks!"</p>
+
+<p>Here the unfeeling Toad broke into a snigger,
+and then pulled himself together and tried to
+look particularly solemn.</p>
+
+<p>"And the Wild Wooders have been living in
+Toad Hall ever since," continued the Rat; "and
+going on simply anyhow! Lying in bed half
+the day, and breakfast at all hours, and the
+place in such a mess (I'm told) it's not fit to be
+seen! Eating your grub, and drinking your
+drink, and making bad jokes about you, and
+singing vulgar songs, about&mdash;well, about prisons
+and magistrates, and policemen; horrid personal
+songs, with no humour in them. And
+<!-- Page 299 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
+they're telling the tradespeople and everybody
+that they've come to stay for good."</p>
+
+<p>"O, have they!" said Toad, getting up and
+seizing a stick. "I'll jolly soon see about
+that!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's no good, Toad!" called the Rat after
+him. "You'd better come back and sit down;
+you'll only get into trouble."</p>
+
+<p>But the Toad was off, and there was no
+holding him. He marched rapidly down the
+road, his stick over his shoulder, fuming and
+muttering to himself in his anger, till he got
+near his front gate, when suddenly there popped
+up from behind the palings a long yellow ferret
+with a gun.</p>
+
+<p>"Who comes there?" said the ferret sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"Stuff and nonsense!" said Toad, very angrily.
+"What do you mean by talking like that to me?
+Come out of that at once or I'll&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The ferret said never a word, but he brought
+his gun up to his shoulder. Toad prudently
+dropped flat in the road, and <i>Bang!</i> a bullet
+whistled over his head.</p>
+
+<p>The startled Toad scrambled to his feet and
+<!-- Page 300 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>
+scampered off down the road as hard as he
+could; and as he ran he heard the ferret laughing
+and other horrid thin little laughs taking it
+up and carrying on the sound.</p>
+
+<p>He went back, very crestfallen, and told the
+Water Rat.</p>
+
+<p>"What did I tell you?" said the Rat. "It's
+no good. They've got sentries posted, and
+they are all armed. You must just wait."</p>
+
+<p>Still, Toad was not inclined to give in all at
+once. So he got out the boat, and set off
+rowing up the river to where the garden front
+of Toad Hall came down to the water-side.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving within sight of his old home, he
+rested on his oars and surveyed the land cautiously.
+All seemed very peaceful and deserted
+and quiet. He could see the whole front of
+Toad Hall, glowing in the evening sunshine,
+the pigeons settling by twos and threes along
+the straight line of the roof; the garden, a
+blaze of flowers; the creek that led up to the
+boat-house, the little wooden bridge that crossed
+it; all tranquil, uninhabited, apparently waiting
+for his return. He would try the boat-house
+<!-- Page 301 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>
+first, he thought. Very warily he paddled up
+to the mouth of the creek, and was just passing
+under the bridge, when ... <i>Crash!</i></p>
+
+<p>A great stone, dropped from above, smashed
+through the bottom of the boat. It filled and
+sank, and Toad found himself struggling in
+deep water. Looking up, he saw two stoats
+leaning over the parapet of the bridge and
+watching him with great glee. "It will be
+your head next time, Toady!" they called out
+to him. The indignant Toad swam to shore,
+while the stoats laughed and laughed, supporting
+each other, and laughed again, till they
+nearly had two fits&mdash;that is, one fit each, of
+course.</p>
+
+<p>The Toad retraced his weary way on foot,
+and related his disappointing experiences to the
+Water Rat once more.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, <i>what</i> did I tell you?" said the Rat
+very crossly. "And, now, look here! See what
+you've been and done! Lost me my boat that
+I was so fond of, that's what you've done!
+And simply ruined that nice suit of clothes that
+<!-- Page 302 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>
+I lent you! Really, Toad, of all the trying animals&mdash;I
+wonder you manage to keep any
+friends at all!"</p>
+
+<p>The Toad saw at once how wrongly and
+foolishly he had acted. He admitted his errors
+and wrong-headedness and made a full apology
+to Rat for losing his boat and spoiling his
+clothes. And he wound up by saying, with
+that frank self-surrender which always disarmed
+his friends' criticism and won them back
+to his side, "Ratty! I see that I have been a
+headstrong and a wilful Toad! Henceforth, believe
+me, I will be humble and submissive, and
+will take no action without your kind advice
+and full approval!"</p>
+
+<p>"If that is really so," said the good-natured
+Rat, already appeased, "then my advice to you
+is, considering the lateness of the hour, to sit
+down and have your supper, which will be on
+the table in a minute, and be very patient. For
+I am convinced that we can do nothing until
+we have seen the Mole and the Badger, and
+heard their latest news, and held conference and
+taken their advice in this difficult matter."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, ah, yes, of course, the Mole and the
+<!-- Page 303 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>
+Badger," said Toad, lightly. "What's become
+of them, the dear fellows? I had forgotten all
+about them."</p>
+
+<p>"Well may you ask!" said the Rat reproachfully.
+"While you were riding about the country
+in expensive motor-cars, and galloping
+proudly on blood-horses, and breakfasting on
+the fat of the land, those two poor devoted
+animals have been camping out in the open, in
+every sort of weather, living very rough by day
+and lying very hard by night; watching over
+your house, patrolling your boundaries, keeping
+a constant eye on the stoats and the weasels,
+scheming and planning and contriving how to
+get your property back for you. You don't
+deserve to have such true and loyal friends,
+Toad, you don't, really. Some day, when it's
+too late, you'll be sorry you didn't value them
+more while you had them!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm an ungrateful beast, I know," sobbed
+Toad, shedding bitter tears. "Let me go out
+and find them, out into the cold, dark night,
+and share their hardships, and try and prove
+by&mdash;Hold on a bit! Surely I heard the chink
+<!-- Page 304 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>
+of dishes on a tray! Supper's here at last,
+hooray! Come on, Ratty!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat remembered that poor Toad had
+been on prison fare for a considerable time, and
+that large allowances had therefore to be made.
+He followed him to the table accordingly, and
+hospitably encouraged him in his gallant efforts
+to make up for past privations.</p>
+
+<p>They had just finished their meal and resumed
+their arm-chairs, when there came a
+heavy knock at the door.</p>
+
+<p>Toad was nervous, but the Rat, nodding
+mysteriously at him, went straight up to the
+door and opened it, and in walked Mr. Badger.</p>
+
+<p>He had all the appearance of one who for
+some nights had been kept away from home
+and all its little comforts and conveniences.
+His shoes were covered with mud, and he was
+looking very rough and touzled; but then he
+had never been a very smart man, the Badger,
+at the best of times. He came solemnly up to
+Toad, shook him by the paw, and said, "Welcome
+home, Toad! Alas! what am I saying?
+Home, indeed! This is a poor home-coming.
+<!-- Page 305 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>
+Unhappy Toad!" Then he turned his back on
+him, sat down to the table, drew his chair
+up, and helped himself to a large slice of cold
+pie.</p>
+
+<p>Toad was quite alarmed at this very serious
+and portentous style of greeting; but the Rat
+whispered to him, "Never mind; don't take any
+notice; and don't say anything to him just yet.
+He's always rather low and despondent when
+he's wanting his victuals. In half an hour's
+time he'll be quite a different animal."</p>
+
+<p>So they waited in silence, and presently there
+came another and a lighter knock. The Rat,
+with a nod to Toad, went to the door and
+ushered in the Mole, very shabby and unwashed,
+with bits of hay and straw sticking in
+his fur.</p>
+
+<p>"Hooray! Here's old Toad!" cried the Mole,
+his face beaming. "Fancy having you back
+again!" And he began to dance round him.
+"We never dreamt you would turn up so soon!
+Why, you must have managed to escape, you
+clever, ingenious, intelligent Toad!"</p>
+
+<p>The Rat, alarmed, pulled him by the elbow;
+<!-- Page 306 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>
+but it was too late. Toad was puffing and
+swelling already.</p>
+
+<p>"Clever? O, no!" he said. "I'm not really
+clever, according to my friends. I've only
+broken out of the strongest prison in England,
+that's all! And captured a railway train and
+escaped on it, that's all! And disguised myself
+and gone about the country humbugging everybody,
+that's all! O, no! I'm a stupid ass, I
+am! I'll tell you one or two of my little adventures,
+Mole, and you shall judge for yourself!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," said the Mole, moving towards
+the supper-table; "supposing you talk while I
+eat. Not a bite since breakfast! O my! O
+my!" And he sat down and helped himself
+liberally to cold beef and pickles.</p>
+
+<p>Toad straddled on the hearth-rug, thrust his
+paw into his trouser-pocket and pulled out a
+handful of silver. "Look at that!" he cried,
+displaying it. "That's not so bad, is it, for
+a few minutes' work? And how do you think
+I done it, Mole? Horse-dealing! That's how I
+done it!"
+<!-- Page 307 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Toad," said the Mole, immensely
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>"Toad, do be quiet, please!" said the Rat.
+"And don't you egg him on, Mole, when you
+know what he is; but please tell us as soon as
+possible what the position is, and what's best
+to be done, now that Toad is back at last."</p>
+
+<p>"The position's about as bad as it can be,"
+replied the Mole grumpily; "and as for what's
+to be done, why, blest if I know! The Badger
+and I have been round and round the place, by
+night and by day; always the same thing.
+Sentries posted everywhere, guns poked out at
+us, stones thrown at us; always an animal on
+the look-out, and when they see us, my! how
+they do laugh! That's what annoys me most!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a very difficult situation," said the Rat,
+reflecting deeply. "But I think I see now, in
+the depths of my mind, what Toad really ought
+to do. I will tell you. He ought to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, he oughtn't!" shouted the Mole, with
+his mouth full. "Nothing of the sort! You
+don't understand. What he ought to do is, he
+ought to&mdash;"
+<!-- Page 308 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, I shan't do it, anyway!" cried Toad,
+getting excited. "I'm not going to be ordered
+about by you fellows! It's my house we're
+talking about, and I know exactly what to do,
+and I'll tell you. I'm going to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>By this time they were all three talking at
+once, at the top of their voices, and the noise
+was simply deafening, when a thin, dry voice
+made itself heard, saying, "Be quiet at once, all
+of you!" and instantly every one was silent.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Badger, who, having finished his
+pie, had turned round in his chair and was
+looking at them severely. When he saw that
+he had secured their attention, and that they
+were evidently waiting for him to address them,
+he turned back to the table again and reached
+out for the cheese. And so great was the
+respect commanded by the solid qualities of
+that admirable animal, that not another word
+was uttered, until he had quite finished his
+repast and brushed the crumbs from his knees.
+The Toad fidgeted a good deal, but the Rat
+held him firmly down.</p>
+
+<p>When the Badger had quite done, he got up
+<!-- Page 309 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>
+from his seat and stood before the fireplace,
+reflecting deeply. At last he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Toad," he said severely. "You bad, troublesome
+little animal! Aren't you ashamed of
+yourself? What do you think your father, my
+old friend, would have said if he had been here
+to-night, and had known of all your goings on?"</p>
+
+<p>Toad, who was on the sofa by this time, with
+his legs up, rolled over on his face, shaken by
+sobs of contrition.</p>
+
+<p>"There, there!" went on the Badger, more
+kindly. "Never mind. Stop crying. We're
+going to let bygones be bygones, and try and
+turn over a new leaf. But what the Mole says
+is quite true. The stoats are on guard, at every
+point, and they make the best sentinels in the
+world. It's quite useless to think of attacking
+the place. They're too strong for us."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it's all over," sobbed the Toad, crying
+into the sofa cushions. "I shall go and enlist
+for a soldier, and never see my dear Toad Hall
+any more!"</p>
+
+<p>"Come, cheer up, Toady!" said the Badger.
+"There are more ways of getting back a place
+<!-- Page 310 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>
+than taking it by storm. I haven't said my last
+word yet. Now I'm going to tell you a great
+secret."</p>
+
+<p>Toad sat up slowly and dried his eyes. Secrets
+had an immense attraction for him, because
+he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the
+sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when
+he went and told another animal, after having
+faithfully promised not to.</p>
+
+<p>"There&mdash;is&mdash;an&mdash;underground&mdash;passage,"
+said the Badger, impressively, "that leads from
+the river-bank, quite near here, right up into
+the middle of Toad Hall."</p>
+
+<p>"O, nonsense! Badger," said Toad, rather
+airily. "You've been listening to some of the
+yarns they spin in the public-houses about here.
+I know every inch of Toad Hall, inside and
+out. Nothing of the sort, I do assure you!"</p>
+
+<p>"My young friend," said the Badger, with
+great severity, "your father, who was a worthy
+animal&mdash;a lot worthier than some others I
+know&mdash;was a particular friend of mine, and
+told me a great deal he wouldn't have dreamt
+<!-- Page 311 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>
+of telling you. He discovered that passage&mdash;he
+didn't make it, of course; that was done
+hundreds of years before he ever came to live
+there&mdash;and he repaired it and cleaned it out,
+because he thought it might come in useful
+some day, in case of trouble or danger; and
+he showed it to me. 'Don't let my son know
+about it,' he said. 'He's a good boy, but very
+light and volatile in character, and simply cannot
+hold his tongue. If he's ever in a real fix,
+and it would be of use to him, you may tell him
+about the secret passage; but not before.'"</p>
+
+<p>The other animals looked hard at Toad to
+see how he would take it. Toad was inclined
+to be sulky at first; but he brightened up immediately,
+like the good fellow he was.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, well," he said; "perhaps I am a bit of
+a talker. A popular fellow such as I am&mdash;my
+friends get round me&mdash;we chaff, we sparkle,
+we tell witty stories&mdash;and somehow my tongue
+gets wagging. I have the gift of conversation.
+I've been told I ought to have a <i>salon</i>, whatever
+that may be. Never mind. Go on, Badger.
+How's this passage of yours going to help us?"</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 312 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p>
+<p>"I've found out a thing or two lately," continued
+the Badger. "I got Otter to disguise
+himself as a sweep and call at the back-door
+with brushes over his shoulder, asking for a job.
+There's going to be a big banquet to-morrow
+night. It's somebody's birthday&mdash;the Chief
+Weasel's, I believe&mdash;and all the weasels will be
+gathered together in the dining-hall, eating and
+drinking and laughing and carrying on, suspecting
+nothing. No guns, no swords, no sticks, no
+arms of any sort whatever!"</p>
+
+<p>"But the sentinels will be posted as usual,"
+remarked the Rat.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," said the Badger; "that is my
+point. The weasels will trust entirely to their
+excellent sentinels. And that is where the passage
+comes in. That very useful tunnel leads
+right up under the butler's pantry, next to the
+dining-hall!"</p>
+
+<p>"Aha! that squeaky board in the butler's
+pantry!" said Toad. "Now I understand it!"</p>
+
+<p>"We shall creep out quietly into the butler's
+pantry&mdash;" cried the Mole.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;with our pistols and swords and sticks&mdash;"
+shouted the Rat.
+<!-- Page 313 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;and rush in upon them," said the Badger.</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;and whack 'em, and whack 'em, and
+whack 'em!" cried the Toad in ecstasy, running
+round and round the room, and jumping over
+the chairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then," said the Badger, resuming
+his usual dry manner, "our plan is settled, and
+there's nothing more for you to argue and
+squabble about. So, as it's getting very late,
+all of you go right off to bed at once. We will
+make all the necessary arrangements in the
+course of the morning to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Toad, of course, went off to bed dutifully
+with the rest&mdash;he knew better than to refuse&mdash;though
+he was feeling much too excited to
+sleep. But he had had a long day, with many
+events crowded into it; and sheets and blankets
+were very friendly and comforting things, after
+plain straw, and not too much of it, spread on
+the stone floor of a draughty cell; and his head
+had not been many seconds on his pillow before
+he was snoring happily. Naturally, he dreamt
+a good deal; about roads that ran away from
+him just when he wanted them, and canals that
+<!-- Page 314 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>
+chased him and caught him, and a barge that
+sailed into the banqueting-hall with his week's
+washing, just as he was giving a dinner-party;
+and he was alone in the secret passage, pushing
+onwards, but it twisted and turned round and
+shook itself, and sat up on its end; yet somehow,
+at the last, he found himself back in Toad Hall,
+safe and triumphant, with all his friends gathered
+round about him, earnestly assuring him
+that he really was a clever Toad.</p>
+
+<p>He slept till a late hour next morning, and by
+the time he got down he found that the other
+animals had finished their breakfast some time
+before. The Mole had slipped off somewhere
+by himself, without telling any one where he
+was going to. The Badger sat in the arm-chair,
+reading the paper, and not concerning himself
+in the slightest about what was going to happen
+that very evening. The Rat, on the other hand,
+was running round the room busily, with his
+arms full of weapons of every kind, distributing
+them in four little heaps on the floor, and saying
+excitedly under his breath, as he ran, "Here's-a-sword-for-the-Rat,
+here's-a-sword-for-the-Mole,
+<!-- Page 315 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>
+here's-a-sword-for-the-Toad, here's-a-sword-for-the-Badger!
+Here's-a-pistol-for-the-Rat,
+here's-a-pistol-for-the-Mole, here's-a-pistol-for-the-Toad,
+here's-a-pistol-for-the-Badger!" And so on, in a regular, rhythmical
+way, while the four little heaps gradually
+grew and grew.</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very well, Rat," said the Badger
+presently, looking at the busy little animal over
+the edge of his newspaper; "I'm not blaming
+you. But just let us once get past the stoats,
+with those detestable guns of theirs, and I assure
+you we shan't want any swords or pistols. We
+four, with our sticks, once we're inside the
+dining-hall, why, we shall clear the floor of all
+the lot of them in five minutes. I'd have done
+the whole thing by myself, only I didn't want
+to deprive you fellows of the fun!"</p>
+
+<p>"It's as well to be on the safe side," said the
+Rat reflectively, polishing a pistol-barrel on his
+sleeve and looking along it.</p>
+
+<p>The Toad, having finished his breakfast,
+picked up a stout stick and swung it vigorously,
+belabouring imaginary animals. "I'll learn 'em
+<!-- Page 316 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>
+to steal my house!" he cried. "I'll learn 'em,
+I'll learn 'em!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say 'learn 'em,' Toad," said the Rat,
+greatly shocked. "It's not good English."</p>
+
+<p>"What are you always nagging at Toad for?"
+inquired the Badger, rather peevishly. "What's
+the matter with his English? It's the same what
+I use myself, and if it's good enough for me, it
+ought to be good enough for you!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very sorry," said the Rat humbly.
+"Only I <i>think</i> it ought to be 'teach 'em,' not
+'learn 'em.'"</p>
+
+<p>"But we don't <i>want</i> to teach 'em," replied the
+Badger. "We want to <i>learn</i> 'em&mdash;learn 'em,
+learn 'em! And what's more, we're going to
+<i>do</i> it, too!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well, have it your own way," said
+the Rat. He was getting rather muddled about
+it himself, and presently he retired into a corner,
+where he could be heard muttering, "Learn 'em,
+teach 'em, teach 'em, learn 'em!" till the Badger
+told him rather sharply to leave off.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the Mole came tumbling into the
+room, evidently very pleased with himself.
+<!-- Page 317 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>
+"I've been having such fun!" he began at once;
+"I've been getting a rise out of the stoats!"</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you've been very careful, Mole?"
+said the Rat anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>"I should hope so, too," said the Mole confidently.
+"I got the idea when I went into the
+kitchen, to see about Toad's breakfast being
+kept hot for him. I found that old washerwoman-dress
+that he came home in yesterday,
+hanging on a towel-horse before the fire. So I
+put it on, and the bonnet as well, and the shawl,
+and off I went to Toad Hall, as bold as you
+please. The sentries were on the look-out, of
+course, with their guns and their 'Who comes
+there?' and all the rest of their nonsense.
+'Good morning, gentlemen!' says I, very respectful.
+'Want any washing done to-day?'
+They looked at me very proud and stiff and
+haughty, and said, 'Go away, washerwoman!
+We don't do any washing on duty.' 'Or any
+other time?' says I. Ho, ho, ho! Wasn't I
+<i>funny</i>, Toad?"</p>
+
+<p>"Poor, frivolous animal!" said Toad, very
+loftily. The fact is, he felt exceedingly jealous
+<!-- Page 318 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>
+of Mole for what he had just done. It was
+exactly what he would have liked to have done
+himself, if only he had thought of it first, and
+hadn't gone and overslept himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the stoats turned quite pink," continued
+the Mole, "and the Sergeant in charge,
+he said to me, very short, he said, 'Now run
+away, my good woman, run away! Don't keep
+my men idling and talking on their posts.'
+'Run away?' says I; 'it won't be me that'll
+be running away, in a very short time from
+now!'"</p>
+
+<p>"O <i>Moly</i>, how could you?" said the Rat, dismayed.</p>
+
+<p>The Badger laid down his paper.</p>
+
+<p>"I could see them pricking up their ears and
+looking at each other," went on the Mole;
+"and the Sergeant said to them, 'Never mind
+<i>her</i>; she doesn't know what she's talking
+about.'"</p>
+
+<p>"'O! don't I?' said I. 'Well, let me tell you
+this. My daughter, she washes for Mr. Badger,
+and that'll show you whether I know what
+I'm talking about; and <i>you'll</i> know pretty
+<!-- Page 319 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span>
+soon, too! A hundred bloodthirsty badgers,
+armed with rifles, are going to attack Toad Hall
+this very night, by way of the paddock. Six
+boatloads of Rats, with pistols and cutlasses,
+will come up the river and effect a landing in
+the garden; while a picked body of Toads,
+known as the Die-hards, or the Death-or-Glory
+Toads, will storm the orchard and carry everything
+before them, yelling for vengeance. There
+won't be much left of you to wash, by the time
+they've done with you, unless you clear out
+while you have the chance!' Then I ran away,
+and when I was out of sight I hid; and presently
+I came creeping back along the ditch
+and took a peep at them through the hedge.
+They were all as nervous and flustered as could
+be, running all ways at once, and falling over
+each other, and every one giving orders to everybody
+else and not listening; and the Sergeant
+kept sending off parties of stoats to distant
+parts of the grounds, and then sending other
+fellows to fetch 'em back again; and I heard
+them saying to each other, 'That's just like
+the weasels; they're to stop comfortably in the
+<!-- Page 320 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>
+banqueting-hall, and have feasting and toasts
+and songs and all sorts of fun, while we must
+stay on guard in the cold and the dark, and
+in the end be cut to pieces by bloodthirsty
+Badgers!'"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you silly ass, Mole!" cried Toad,
+"You've been and spoilt everything!"</p>
+
+<p>"Mole," said the Badger, in his dry, quiet way,
+"I perceive you have more sense in your little
+finger than some other animals have in the
+whole of their fat bodies. You have managed
+excellently, and I begin to have great hopes of
+you. Good Mole! Clever Mole!"</p>
+
+<p>The Toad was simply wild with jealousy,
+more especially as he couldn't make out for
+the life of him what the Mole had done that
+was so particularly clever; but, fortunately for
+him, before he could show temper or expose
+himself to the Badger's sarcasm, the bell rang
+for luncheon.</p>
+
+<p>It was a simple but sustaining meal&mdash;bacon
+and broad beans, and a macaroni pudding; and
+when they had quite done, the Badger settled
+himself into an arm-chair, and said, "Well,
+<!-- Page 321 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span>
+we've got our work cut out for us to-night, and
+it will probably be pretty late before we're
+quite through with it; so I'm just going to
+take forty winks, while I can." And he drew a
+handkerchief over his face and was soon snoring.</p>
+
+<p>The anxious and laborious Rat at once resumed
+his preparations, and started running
+between his four little heaps, muttering,
+"Here's-a-belt-for-the-Rat, here's-a-belt-for-the-Mole,
+here's-a-belt-for-the-Toad, here's-a-belt-for-the-Badger!"
+and so on, with every
+fresh accoutrement he produced, to which there
+seemed really no end; so the Mole drew his
+arm through Toad's, led him out into the open
+air, shoved him into a wicker chair, and made
+him tell him all his adventures from beginning
+to end, which Toad was only too willing to do.
+The Mole was a good listener, and Toad, with
+no one to check his statements or to criticise
+in an unfriendly spirit, rather let himself go.
+Indeed, much that he related belonged more
+properly to the category of
+what-might-have-happened-had-I-only-thought-of-it-in-time-instead-of-ten-minutes-afterwards.
+Those are always the best and the raciest adventures; and
+why should they not be truly ours, as much as
+the somewhat inadequate things that really
+come off?
+<!-- Page 322 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 323 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<a name="XII" id="XII"></a><h2>XII</h2>
+<h2>THE RETURN OF ULYSSES</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Page 324 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 325 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">WHEN it began to grow dark, the Rat,
+with an air of excitement and mystery,
+summoned them back into the parlour, stood
+each of them up alongside of his little heap,
+and proceeded to dress them up for the coming
+expedition. He was very earnest and thorough-going
+about it, and the affair took quite a long
+time. First, there was a belt to go round each
+animal, and then a sword to be stuck into each
+belt, and then a cutlass on the other side to
+balance it. Then a pair of pistols, a policeman's
+truncheon, several sets of handcuffs, some bandages
+and sticking-plaster, and a flask and a
+sandwich-case. The Badger laughed good-humouredly
+and said, "All right, Ratty! It amuses
+you and it doesn't hurt me. I'm going to do
+all I've got to do with this here stick." But
+the Rat only said, "<i>Please</i>, Badger. You know
+<!-- Page 326 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>
+I shouldn't like you to blame me afterwards
+and say I had forgotten <i>anything</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>When all was quite ready, the Badger took
+a dark lantern in one paw, grasped his great
+stick with the other, and said, "Now then, follow
+me! Mole first, 'cos I'm very pleased with
+him; Rat next; Toad last. And look here,
+Toady! Don't you chatter so much as usual,
+or you'll be sent back, as sure as fate!"</p>
+
+<p>The Toad was so anxious not to be left out
+that he took up the inferior position assigned
+to him without a murmur, and the animals set
+off. The Badger led them along by the river
+for a little way, and then suddenly swung himself
+over the edge into a hole in the river bank,
+a little above the water. The Mole and the
+Rat followed silently, swinging themselves successfully
+into the hole as they had seen the
+Badger do; but when it came to Toad's turn,
+of course he managed to slip and fall into the
+water with a loud splash and a squeal of alarm.
+He was hauled out by his friends, rubbed down
+and wrung out hastily, comforted, and set on
+his legs; but the Badger was seriously angry,
+<!-- Page 327 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>
+and told him that the very next time he made a
+fool of himself he would most certainly be left
+behind.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page326pic" id="Page326pic"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/illus09.jpg" width="420" height="569"
+alt="The Badger said, &quot;Now then, follow me!&quot;"
+title="The Badger said, &quot;Now then, follow me!&quot;" />
+<span class="caption">The Badger said, &quot;Now then, follow me!&quot;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>So at last they were in the secret passage,
+and the cutting-out expedition had really begun!</p>
+
+<p>It was cold, and dark, and damp, and low,
+and narrow, and poor Toad began to shiver,
+partly from dread of what might be before
+him, partly because he was wet through. The
+lantern was far ahead, and he could not help
+lagging behind a little in the darkness. Then
+he heard the Rat call out warningly, "<i>Come</i> on,
+Toad!" and a terror seized him of being left
+behind, alone in the darkness, and he "came
+on" with such a rush that he upset the Rat into
+the Mole, and the Mole into the Badger, and
+for a moment all was confusion. The Badger
+thought they were being attacked from behind,
+and, as there was no room to use a stick or a
+cutlass, drew a pistol, and was on the point of
+putting a bullet into Toad. When he found
+out what had really happened he was very
+angry indeed, and said, "Now this time that
+tiresome Toad <i>shall</i> be left behind!"
+<!-- Page 328 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Toad whimpered, and the other two
+promised that they would be answerable for
+his good conduct, and at last the Badger was
+pacified, and the procession moved on; only
+this time the Rat brought up the rear, with a
+firm grip on the shoulder of Toad.</p>
+
+<p>So they groped and shuffled along, with their
+ears pricked up and their paws on their pistols,
+till at last the Badger said, "We ought by now
+to be pretty nearly under the Hall."</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly they heard, far away as it
+might be, and yet apparently nearly over their
+heads, a confused murmur of sound, as if people
+were shouting and cheering and stamping on
+the floor and hammering on tables. The Toad's
+nervous terrors all returned, but the Badger
+only remarked placidly, "They <i>are</i> going it,
+the weasels!"</p>
+
+<p>The passage now began to slope upwards;
+they groped onward a little further, and then
+the noise broke out again, quite distinct this
+time, and very close above them. "Ooo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray-ooray!"
+they heard, and the stamping
+of little feet on the floor, and the clinking
+<!-- Page 329 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>
+of glasses as little fists pounded on the table.
+"<i>What</i> a time they're having!" said the
+Badger. "Come on!" They hurried along the
+passage till it came to a full stop, and they
+found themselves standing under the trap-door
+that led up into the butler's pantry.</p>
+
+<p>Such a tremendous noise was going on in
+the banqueting-hall that there was little danger
+of their being overheard. The Badger said,
+"Now, boys, all together!" and the four of
+them put their shoulders to the trap-door and
+heaved it back. Hoisting each other up, they
+found themselves standing in the pantry, with
+only a door between them and the banqueting-hall,
+where their unconscious enemies were carousing.</p>
+
+<p>The noise, as they emerged from the passage,
+was simply deafening. At last, as the cheering
+and hammering slowly subsided, a voice could
+be made out saying, "Well, I do not propose
+to detain you much longer"&mdash;(great applause)&mdash;"but
+before I resume my seat"&mdash;(renewed
+cheering)&mdash;"I should like to say one word
+about our kind host, Mr. Toad. We all know
+<!-- Page 330 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>
+Toad!"&mdash;(great laughter)&mdash;"<i>Good</i> Toad, <i>modest</i>
+Toad, <i>honest</i> Toad!" (shrieks of merriment).</p>
+
+<p>"Only just let me get at him!" muttered
+Toad, grinding his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Hold hard a minute!" said the Badger,
+restraining him with difficulty. "Get ready, all
+of you!"</p>
+
+<p>"&mdash;Let me sing you a little song," went on
+the voice, "which I have composed on the subject
+of Toad"&mdash;(prolonged applause).</p>
+
+<p>Then the Chief Weasel&mdash;for it was he&mdash;began
+in a high, squeaky voice&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i1">"Toad he went a-pleasuring<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Gaily down the street&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Badger drew himself up, took a firm
+grip of his stick with both paws, glanced round
+at his comrades, and cried&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The hour is come! Follow me!"</p>
+
+<p>And flung the door open wide.</p>
+
+<p>My!</p>
+
+<p>What a squealing and a squeaking and a
+screeching filled the air!</p>
+
+<p>Well might the terrified weasels dive under
+<!-- Page 331 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>
+the tables and spring madly up at the windows!
+Well might the ferrets rush wildly for the fireplace
+and get hopelessly jammed in the chimney!
+Well might tables and chairs be upset,
+and glass and china be sent crashing on the floor,
+in the panic of that terrible moment when the
+four Heroes strode wrathfully into the room!
+The mighty Badger, his whiskers bristling, his
+great cudgel whistling through the air; Mole,
+black and grim, brandishing his stick and
+shouting his awful war-cry, "A Mole! A
+Mole!" Rat, desperate and determined, his
+belt bulging with weapons of every age and
+every variety; Toad, frenzied with excitement
+and injured pride, swollen to twice his ordinary
+size, leaping into the air and emitting Toad-whoops
+that chilled them to the marrow!
+"Toad he went a-pleasuring!" he yelled. "<i>I'll</i>
+pleasure 'em!" and he went straight for the
+Chief Weasel. They were but four in all, but
+to the panic-stricken weasels the hall seemed full
+of monstrous animals, grey, black, brown and
+yellow, whooping and flourishing enormous cudgels;
+and they broke and fled with squeals of
+<!-- Page 332 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>
+terror and dismay, this way and that, through
+the windows, up the chimney, anywhere to get
+out of reach of those terrible sticks.</p>
+
+<p>The affair was soon over. Up and down,
+the whole length of the hall, strode the four
+Friends, whacking with their sticks at every
+head that showed itself; and in five minutes
+the room was cleared. Through the broken
+windows the shrieks of terrified weasels escaping
+across the lawn were borne faintly to their ears;
+on the floor lay prostrate some dozen or so of
+the enemy, on whom the Mole was busily
+engaged in fitting handcuffs. The Badger, resting
+from his labours, leant on his stick and
+wiped his honest brow.</p>
+
+<p>"Mole," he said, "you're the best of fellows!
+Just cut along outside and look after those
+stoat-sentries of yours, and see what they're
+doing. I've an idea that, thanks to you, we
+shan't have much trouble from <i>them</i> to-night!"</p>
+
+<p>The Mole vanished promptly through a window;
+and the Badger bade the other two set a
+table on its legs again, pick up knives and forks
+and plates and glasses from the <i>débris</i> on the
+<!-- Page 333 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>
+floor, and see if they could find materials for a
+supper. "I want some grub, I do," he said, in
+that rather common way he had of speaking.
+"Stir your stumps, Toad, and look lively!
+We've got your house back for you, and you
+don't offer us so much as a sandwich."</p>
+
+<p>Toad felt rather hurt that the Badger didn't
+say pleasant things to him, as he had to the
+Mole, and tell him what a fine fellow he was,
+and how splendidly he had fought; for he was
+rather particularly pleased with himself and the
+way he had gone for the Chief Weasel and sent
+him flying across the table with one blow of his
+stick. But he bustled about, and so did the
+Rat, and soon they found some guava jelly in a
+glass dish, and a cold chicken, a tongue that
+had hardly been touched, some trifle, and quite
+a lot of lobster salad; and in the pantry they
+came upon a basketful of French rolls and any
+quantity of cheese, butter, and celery. They
+were just about to sit down when the Mole
+clambered in through the window, chuckling,
+with an armful of rifles.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all over," he reported. "From what I
+<!-- Page 334 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>
+can make out, as soon as the stoats, who were
+very nervous and jumpy already, heard the
+shrieks and the yells and the uproar inside the
+hall, some of them threw down their rifles and
+fled. The others stood fast for a bit, but when
+the weasels came rushing out upon them they
+thought they were betrayed; and the stoats
+grappled with the weasels, and the weasels
+fought to get away, and they wrestled and
+wriggled and punched each other, and rolled
+over and over, till most of 'em rolled into the
+river! They've all disappeared by now, one
+way or another; and I've got their rifles. So
+<i>that's</i> all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Excellent and deserving animal!" said the
+Badger, his mouth full of chicken and trifle.
+"Now, there's just one more thing I want you
+to do, Mole, before you sit down to your supper
+along of us; and I wouldn't trouble you only I
+know I can trust you to see a thing done, and
+I wish I could say the same of every one I know.
+I'd send Rat, if he wasn't a poet. I want you
+to take those fellows on the floor there upstairs
+with you, and have some bedrooms cleaned
+<!-- Page 335 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>
+out and tidied up and made really comfortable.
+See that they sweep <i>under</i> the beds, and put
+clean sheets and pillow-cases on, and turn down
+one corner of the bed-clothes, just as you know
+it ought to be done; and have a can of hot
+water, and clean towels, and fresh cakes of soap,
+put in each room. And then you can give them
+a licking a-piece, if it's any satisfaction to you,
+and put them out by the back-door, and we
+shan't see any more of <i>them</i>, I fancy. And
+then come along and have some of this cold
+tongue. It's first rate. I'm very pleased with
+you, Mole!"</p>
+
+<p>The good-natured Mole picked up a stick,
+formed his prisoners up in a line on the floor,
+gave them the order "Quick march!" and led
+his squad off to the upper floor. After a time,
+he appeared again, smiling, and said that every
+room was ready and as clean as a new pin.
+"And I didn't have to lick them, either," he
+added. "I thought, on the whole, they had had
+licking enough for one night, and the weasels,
+when I put the point to them, quite agreed with
+me, and said they wouldn't think of troubling
+<!-- Page 336 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>
+me. They were very penitent, and said they
+were extremely sorry for what they had done,
+but it was all the fault of the Chief Weasel and
+the stoats, and if ever they could do anything
+for us at any time to make up, we had only got
+to mention it. So I gave them a roll a-piece,
+and let them out at the back, and off they ran,
+as hard as they could!"</p>
+
+<p>Then the Mole pulled his chair up to the table,
+and pitched into the cold tongue; and Toad,
+like the gentleman he was, put all his jealousy
+from him, and said heartily, "Thank you kindly,
+dear Mole, for all your pains and trouble to-night,
+and especially for your cleverness this
+morning!" The Badger was pleased at that,
+and said, "There spoke my brave Toad!" So
+they finished their supper in great joy and contentment,
+and presently retired to rest between
+clean sheets, safe in Toad's ancestral home, won
+back by matchless valour, consummate strategy,
+and a proper handling of sticks.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, Toad, who had overslept
+himself as usual, came down to breakfast
+disgracefully late, and found on the table a certain
+<!-- Page 337 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>
+quantity of egg-shells, some fragments
+of cold and leathery toast, a coffee-pot three-fourths
+empty, and really very little else; which
+did not tend to improve his temper, considering
+that, after all, it was his own house. Through
+the French windows of the breakfast-room he
+could see the Mole and the Water Rat sitting
+in wicker chairs out on the lawn, evidently
+telling each other stories; roaring with laughter
+and kicking their short legs up in the air. The
+Badger, who was in an arm-chair and deep in
+the morning paper, merely looked up and
+nodded when Toad entered the room. But
+Toad knew his man, so he sat down and made
+the best breakfast he could, merely observing
+to himself that he would get square with the
+others sooner or later. When he had nearly
+finished, the Badger looked up and remarked
+rather shortly: "I'm sorry, Toad, but I'm
+afraid there's a heavy morning's work in front
+of you. You see, we really ought to have a
+Banquet at once, to celebrate this affair. It's
+expected of you&mdash;in fact, it's the rule."</p>
+
+<p><!-- Page 338 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p>
+<p>"O, all right!" said the Toad, readily. "Anything
+to oblige. Though why on earth you
+should want to have a Banquet in the morning
+I cannot understand. But you know I do not
+live to please myself, but merely to find out
+what my friends want, and then try and arrange
+it for 'em, you dear old Badger!"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't pretend to be stupider than you really
+are," replied the Badger, crossly; "and don't
+chuckle and splutter in your coffee while you're
+talking; it's not manners. What I mean is,
+the Banquet will be at night, of course, but the
+invitations will have to be written and got off
+at once, and you've got to write 'em. Now sit
+down at that table&mdash;there's stacks of letter-paper
+on it, with 'Toad Hall' at the top in
+blue and gold&mdash;and write invitations to all our
+friends, and if you stick to it we shall get them
+out before luncheon. And <i>I'll</i> bear a hand, too,
+and take my share of the burden. <i>I'll</i> order
+the Banquet."</p>
+
+<p>"What!" cried Toad, dismayed. "Me stop
+indoors and write a lot of rotten letters on a
+jolly morning like this, when I want to go
+around my property and set everything and
+<!-- Page 339 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>
+everybody to rights, and swagger about and
+enjoy myself! Certainly not! I'll be&mdash;I'll
+see you&mdash;Stop a minute, though! Why, of
+course, dear Badger! What is my pleasure or
+convenience compared with that of others! You
+wish it done, and it shall be done. Go, Badger,
+order the Banquet, order what you like; then
+join our young friends outside in their innocent
+mirth, oblivious of me and my cares and toils.
+I sacrifice this fair morning on the altar of duty
+and friendship!"</p>
+
+<p>The Badger looked at him very suspiciously,
+but Toad's frank, open countenance made it
+difficult to suggest any unworthy motive in this
+change of attitude. He quitted the room,
+accordingly, in the direction of the kitchen, and
+as soon as the door had closed behind him,
+Toad hurried to the writing-table. A fine idea
+had occurred to him while he was talking. He
+<i>would</i> write the invitations; and he would take
+care to mention the leading part he had taken
+in the fight, and how he had laid the Chief
+Weasel flat; and he would hint at his adventures,
+and what a career of triumph he had to
+<!-- Page 340 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>
+tell about; and on the fly-leaf he would set out
+a sort of a programme of entertainment for the
+evening&mdash;something like this, as he sketched
+it out in his head:&mdash;</p>
+
+<pre class="bbox2">
+
+      <span class="smcap">Speech</span>                   <span class="smcap">By Toad</span>.
+        (There will be other speeches by <span class="smcap">Toad</span> during
+                     the evening.)
+
+      <span class="smcap">Address</span>                  <span class="smcap">By Toad</span>
+      <span class="smcap">Synopsis</span>&mdash;Our Prison System&mdash;the Waterways of Old
+         England&mdash;Horse-dealing, and how to deal&mdash;Property,
+         its rights and its duties&mdash;Back to the Land&mdash;A
+         Typical English Squire.
+
+      <span class="smcap">Song</span>                    <span class="smcap">By Toad</span>.
+                   (<i>Composed by himself.</i>)
+
+      <span class="smcap">Other Compositions</span>        <span class="smcap">By Toad</span>
+         will be sung in the course of the
+         evening by the      <span class="smcap">Composer</span>.
+
+</pre>
+
+<p>The idea pleased him mightily, and he
+worked very hard and got all the letters finished
+by noon, at which hour it was reported to him
+that there was a small and rather bedraggled
+weasel at the door, inquiring timidly whether
+he could be of any service to the gentleman.
+Toad swaggered out and found it was one of the
+<!-- Page 341 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>
+prisoners of the previous evening, very respectful
+and anxious to please. He patted him on
+the head, shoved the bundle of invitations into
+his paw, and told him to cut along quick and
+deliver them as fast as he could, and if he liked
+to come back again in the evening, perhaps
+there might be a shilling for him, or, again,
+perhaps there mightn't; and the poor weasel
+seemed really quite grateful, and hurried off
+eagerly to do his mission.</p>
+
+<p>When the other animals came back to luncheon,
+very boisterous and breezy after a morning
+on the river, the Mole, whose conscience
+had been pricking him, looked doubtfully at
+Toad, expecting to find him sulky or depressed.
+Instead, he was so uppish and inflated that
+the Mole began to suspect something; while
+the Rat and the Badger exchanged significant
+glances.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the meal was over, Toad thrust
+his paws deep into his trouser-pockets, remarked
+casually, "Well, look after yourselves,
+you fellows! Ask for anything you want!" and
+was swaggering off in the direction of the garden,
+where he wanted to think out an idea or
+<!-- Page 342 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>
+two for his coming speeches, when the Rat
+caught him by the arm.</p>
+
+<p>Toad rather suspected what he was after,
+and did his best to get away; but when the
+Badger took him firmly by the other arm he
+began to see that the game was up. The two
+animals conducted him between them into the
+small smoking-room that opened out of the
+entrance-hall, shut the door, and put him into a
+chair. Then they both stood in front of him,
+while Toad sat silent and regarded them with
+much suspicion and ill-humour.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look here, Toad," said the Rat. "It's
+about this Banquet, and very sorry I am to
+have to speak to you like this. But we want
+you to understand clearly, once and for all, that
+there are going to be no speeches and no songs.
+Try and grasp the fact that on this occasion
+we're not arguing with you; we're just telling
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Toad saw that he was trapped. They understood
+him, they saw through him, they had got
+ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered.
+<!-- Page 343 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mayn't I sing them just one <i>little</i> song?"
+he pleaded piteously.</p>
+
+<p>"No, not <i>one</i> little song," replied the Rat
+firmly, though his heart bled as he noticed the
+trembling lip of the poor disappointed Toad.
+"It's no good, Toady; you know well that your
+songs are all conceit and boasting and vanity;
+and your speeches are all self-praise and&mdash;and&mdash;well,
+and gross exaggeration and&mdash;and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And gas," put in the Badger, in his common
+way.</p>
+
+<p>"It's for your own good, Toady," went on
+the Rat. "You know you <i>must</i> turn over a new
+leaf sooner or later, and now seems a splendid
+time to begin; a sort of turning-point in your
+career. Please don't think that saying all this
+doesn't hurt me more than it hurts you."</p>
+
+<p>Toad remained a long while plunged in
+thought. At last he raised his head, and the
+traces of strong emotion were visible on his
+features. "You have conquered, my friends,"
+he said in broken accents. "It was, to be sure,
+but a small thing that I asked&mdash;merely leave
+<!-- Page 344 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>
+to blossom and expand for yet one more evening,
+to let myself go and hear the tumultuous
+applause that always seems to me&mdash;somehow&mdash;to
+bring out my best qualities. However,
+you are right, I know, and I am wrong. Henceforth
+I will be a very different Toad. My
+friends, you shall never have occasion to blush
+for me again. But, O dear, O dear, this is a
+hard world!"</p>
+
+<p>And, pressing his handkerchief to his face, he
+left the room, with faltering footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>"Badger," said the Rat, "I feel like a brute; I
+wonder what <i>you</i> feel like?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, I know, I know," said the Badger gloomily.
+"But the thing had to be done. This
+good fellow has got to live here, and hold his
+own, and be respected. Would you have him a
+common laughing-stock, mocked and jeered at
+by stoats and weasels?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," said the Rat. "And, talking
+of weasels, it's lucky we came upon that little
+weasel, just as he was setting out with Toad's
+invitations. I suspected something from what
+you told me, and had a look at one or two;
+they were simply disgraceful. I confiscated the
+<!-- Page 345 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span>
+lot, and the good Mole is now sitting in the
+blue <i>boudoir</i>, filling up plain, simple invitation
+cards."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>At last the hour for the banquet began to
+draw near, and Toad, who on leaving the others
+had retired to his bedroom, was still sitting
+there, melancholy and thoughtful. His brow
+resting on his paw, he pondered long and
+deeply. Gradually his countenance cleared, and
+he began to smile long, slow smiles. Then
+he took to giggling in a shy, self-conscious
+manner. At last he got up, locked the door,
+drew the curtains across the windows, collected
+all the chairs in the room and arranged them in
+a semicircle, and took up his position in front
+of them, swelling visibly. Then he bowed,
+coughed twice, and, letting himself go, with
+uplifted voice he sang, to the enraptured audience
+that his imagination so clearly saw:
+<!-- Page 346 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">TOAD'S LAST LITTLE SONG<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+
+<span class="i2">The Toad&mdash;came&mdash;home!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There was panic in the parlours and howling in the halls,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There was crying in the cow-sheds and shrieking in the stalls,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When the Toad&mdash;came&mdash;home!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">When the Toad&mdash;came&mdash;home!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There was smashing in of window and crashing in of door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There was chivvying of weasels that fainted on the floor,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When the Toad&mdash;came&mdash;home!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Bang! go the drums!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The trumpeters are tooting and the soldiers are saluting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And the cannon they are shooting and the motor-cars are hooting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As the&mdash;Hero&mdash;comes!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i2">Shout&mdash;Hoo-ray!<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And let each one of the crowd try and shout it very loud,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In honour of an animal of whom you're justly proud,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For it's Toad's&mdash;great&mdash;day!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He sang this very loud, with great unction
+and expression; and when he had done, he
+sang it all over again.</p>
+
+<p>Then he heaved a deep sigh; a long, long,
+long sigh.
+<!-- Page 347 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then he dipped his hairbrush in the water-jug,
+parted his hair in the middle, and plastered
+it down very straight and sleek on each side
+of his face; and, unlocking the door, went quietly
+down the stairs to greet his guests, who
+he knew must be assembling in the drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>All the animals cheered when he entered, and
+crowded round to congratulate him and say
+nice things about his courage, and his cleverness,
+and his fighting qualities; but Toad only
+smiled faintly, and murmured, "Not at all!"
+Or, sometimes, for a change, "On the contrary!"
+Otter, who was standing on the hearthrug, describing
+to an admiring circle of friends exactly
+how he would have managed things had he
+been there, came forward with a shout, threw
+his arm round Toad's neck, and tried to take
+him round the room in triumphal progress; but
+Toad, in a mild way, was rather snubby to him,
+remarking gently, as he disengaged himself,
+"Badger's was the master mind; the Mole and
+the Water Rat bore the brunt of the fighting;
+I merely served in the ranks and did little or
+<!-- Page 348 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>
+nothing." The animals were evidently puzzled
+and taken aback by this unexpected attitude
+of his; and Toad felt, as he moved from one
+guest to the other, making his modest responses,
+that he was an object of absorbing interest to
+every one.</p>
+
+<p>The Badger had ordered everything of the
+best, and the banquet was a great success.
+There was much talking and laughter and chaff
+among the animals, but through it all Toad,
+who of course was in the chair, looked down his
+nose and murmured pleasant nothings to the
+animals on either side of him. At intervals he
+stole a glance at the Badger and the Rat, and
+always when he looked they were staring at
+each other with their mouths open; and this
+gave him the greatest satisfaction. Some of
+the younger and livelier animals, as the evening
+wore on, got whispering to each other that
+things were not so amusing as they used to be
+in the good old days; and there were some
+knockings on the table and cries of "Toad!
+Speech! Speech from Toad! Song! Mr. Toad's
+song!" But Toad only shook his head gently,
+<!-- Page 349 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>
+raised one paw in mild protest, and, by pressing
+delicacies on his guests, by topical small-talk,
+and by earnest inquiries after members of their
+families not yet old enough to appear at social
+functions, managed to convey to them that this
+dinner was being run on strictly conventional
+lines.</p>
+
+<p>He was indeed an altered Toad!</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>After this climax, the four animals continued
+to lead their lives, so rudely broken in upon by
+civil war, in great joy and contentment, undisturbed
+by further risings or invasions. Toad,
+after due consultation with his friends, selected
+a handsome gold chain and locket set with
+pearls, which he dispatched to the gaoler's
+daughter, with a letter that even the Badger
+admitted to be modest, grateful, and appreciative;
+and the engine-driver, in his turn, was
+properly thanked and compensated for all his
+pains and trouble. Under severe compulsion
+from the Badger, even the barge-woman was,
+with some trouble, sought out and the value of
+<!-- Page 350 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>
+her horse discreetly made good to her; though
+Toad kicked terribly at this, holding himself to
+be an instrument of Fate, sent to punish fat
+women with mottled arms who couldn't tell a
+real gentleman when they saw one. The amount
+involved, it was true, was not very burdensome,
+the gipsy's valuation being admitted by local
+assessors to be approximately correct.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, in the course of long summer
+evenings, the friends would take a stroll together
+in the Wild Wood, now successfully tamed so
+far as they were concerned; and it was pleasing
+to see how respectfully they were greeted by
+the inhabitants, and how the mother-weasels
+would bring their young ones to the mouths of
+their holes, and say, pointing, "Look, baby!
+There goes the great Mr. Toad! And that's
+the gallant Water Rat, a terrible fighter, walking
+along o' him! And yonder comes the
+famous Mr. Mole, of whom you so often have
+heard your father tell!" But when their infants
+were fractious and quite beyond control, they
+would quiet them by telling how, if they didn't
+hush them and not fret them, the terrible grey
+<!-- Page 351 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>
+Badger would up and get them. This was a
+base libel on Badger, who, though he cared
+little about Society, was rather fond of children;
+but it never failed to have its full effect.
+<!-- Page 352 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>
+<!-- Page 353 --><span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<p><i>The Wind in the Willows</i></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/backlogo.jpg" width="150" height="168"
+alt="Back Page Logo" title="Back Page Logo" />
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<!-- Don't change the spacing of next block or pics wont line up correctly -->
+<br /><br /></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 800px;">
+<img src="images/fly1.jpg" width="400" height="536"
+alt="Back Fly Cover" title="Back Fly Leaf" /><img src="images/fly2.jpg" width="400" height="536"
+alt="Back Fly Cover" title="Back Fly Leaf" />
+<span class="caption">Back Fly Leaf</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
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@@ -0,0 +1,6725 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Wind in the Willows
+
+Author: Kenneth Grahame
+
+Illustrator: Paul Bransom
+
+Release Date: January 14, 2009 [EBook #27805]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Edwards, Jen Haines and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+     [Illustration: Front Cover]
+
+
+     THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
+
+     [Illustration: _The Piper at the Gates of Dawn_]
+
+
+
+
+     THE WIND
+     IN THE WILLOWS
+
+     BY
+     KENNETH GRAHAME
+
+     ILLUSTRATED BY
+     PAUL BRANSOM
+
+     [Illustration: Front Fly Leaf
+      showing the main characters enjoying a picnic]
+
+     [Illustration]
+
+     NEW YORK
+     CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+     MCMXIII
+
+    _Copyright, 1908, 1913, by_
+     CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+    _Published October, 1913_
+
+
+
+
+     CONTENTS
+
+
+     CHAPTER                                                   PAGE
+
+          I. THE RIVER BANK                                       1
+
+         II. THE OPEN ROAD                                       27
+
+        III. THE WILD WOOD                                       53
+
+         IV. MR. BADGER                                          79
+
+          V. DULCE DOMUM                                        107
+
+         VI. MR. TOAD                                           139
+
+        VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN                     167
+
+       VIII. TOAD'S ADVENTURES                                  191
+
+         IX. WAYFARERS ALL                                      219
+
+          X. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD                     253
+
+         XI. "LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS"              287
+
+        XII. THE RETURN OF ULYSSES                              323
+
+
+
+
+       ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+       The Piper at the Gates of Dawn                  _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                          Facing Page
+
+       It was the Water Rat                                       8
+
+       "Come on!" he said. "We shall just have to walk it"       50
+
+       In panic, he began to run                                 64
+
+       Through the Wild Wood and the snow                        94
+
+       Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon     164
+
+       He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor              196
+
+       "It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the Rat    240
+
+       Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and presence
+       of mind in emergencies                                   292
+
+       The Badger said, "Now then, follow me!"                  326
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE RIVER BANK
+
+
+The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning
+his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders
+and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he
+had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over
+his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in
+the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even
+his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent
+and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down
+his brush on the floor, said, "Bother!" and "O blow!" and also "Hang
+spring-cleaning!" and bolted out of the house without even waiting to
+put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and
+he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the
+gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer
+to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and
+scrooged, and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and
+scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself,
+"Up we go! Up we go!" till at last, pop! his snout came out into the
+sunlight and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great
+meadow.
+
+"This is fine!" he said to himself. "This is better than whitewashing!"
+The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated
+brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long
+the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.
+Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the
+delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the
+meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side.
+
+"Hold up!" said an elderly rabbit at the gap. "Sixpence for the
+privilege of passing by the private road!" He was bowled over in an
+instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the
+side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly
+from their holes to see what the row was about. "Onion-sauce!
+Onion-sauce!" he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could
+think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then they all started
+grumbling at each other. "How _stupid_ you are! Why didn't you tell
+him--" "Well, why didn't _you_ say--" "You might have reminded him--"
+and so on, in the usual way; but, of course, it was then much too
+late, as is always the case.
+
+It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the meadows
+he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding
+everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting--everything
+happy, and progressive, and occupied. And instead of having an uneasy
+conscience pricking him and whispering "whitewash!" he somehow could only
+feel how jolly it was to be the only idle dog among all these busy
+citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much
+to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.
+
+He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly
+along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his
+life had he seen a river before--this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied
+animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and
+leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that
+shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake
+and a-shiver--glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl,
+chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By
+the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the
+side of a man who holds one spellbound by exciting stories; and when
+tired at last, he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on
+to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent
+from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.
+
+As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the
+bank opposite, just above the water's edge, caught his eye, and
+dreamily he fell to considering what a nice, snug dwelling-place it
+would make for an animal with few wants and fond of a bijou riverside
+residence, above flood level and remote from noise and dust. As he
+gazed, something bright and small seemed to twinkle down in the heart
+of it, vanished, then twinkled once more like a tiny star. But it
+could hardly be a star in such an unlikely situation; and it was too
+glittering and small for a glow-worm. Then, as he looked, it winked at
+him, and so declared itself to be an eye; and a small face began
+gradually to grow up round it, like a frame round a picture.
+
+A brown little face, with whiskers.
+
+A grave round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had first
+attracted his notice.
+
+Small neat ears and thick silky hair.
+
+It was the Water Rat!
+
+Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously.
+
+"Hullo, Mole!" said the Water Rat.
+
+"Hullo, Rat!" said the Mole.
+
+"Would you like to come over?" enquired the Rat presently.
+
+"Oh, it's all very well to _talk_," said the Mole rather pettishly, he
+being new to a river and riverside life and its ways.
+
+The Rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened a rope and hauled on
+it; then lightly stepped into a little boat which the Mole had not
+observed. It was painted blue outside and white within, and was just
+the size for two animals; and the Mole's whole heart went out to it at
+once, even though he did not yet fully understand its uses.
+
+The Rat sculled smartly across and made fast. Then he held up his
+fore-paw as the Mole stepped gingerly down. "Lean on that!" he said.
+"Now then, step lively!" and the Mole to his surprise and rapture
+found himself actually seated in the stern of a real boat.
+
+"This has been a wonderful day!" said he, as the Rat shoved off and
+took to the sculls again. "Do you know, I've never been in a boat
+before in all my life."
+
+[Illustration: _It was the Water Rat_]
+
+"What?" cried the Rat, open-mouthed: "Never been in a--you never--well
+I--what have you been doing, then?"
+
+"Is it so nice as all that?" asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite
+prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the
+cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings,
+and felt the boat sway lightly under him.
+
+"Nice? It's the _only_ thing," said the Water Rat solemnly as he leant
+forward for his stroke. "Believe me, my young friend, there is
+_nothing_--absolute nothing--half so much worth doing as simply
+messing about in boats. Simply messing," he went on dreamily:
+"messing--about--in--boats; messing--"
+
+"Look ahead, Rat!" cried the Mole suddenly.
+
+It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the
+joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels
+in the air.
+
+"--about in boats--or _with_ boats," the Rat went on composedly,
+picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. "In or out of 'em, it
+doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of
+it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at
+your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you
+never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do
+anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always
+something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much
+better not. Look here! If you've really nothing else on hand this
+morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long
+day of it?"
+
+The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with
+a sigh of full contentment, and leant back blissfully into the soft
+cushions. "_What_ a day I'm having!" he said. "Let us start at once!"
+
+"Hold hard a minute, then!" said the Rat. He looped the painter
+through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above,
+and after a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat wicker
+luncheon-basket.
+
+"Shove that under your feet," he observed to the Mole, as he passed it
+down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls
+again.
+
+"What's inside it?" asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity.
+
+"There's cold chicken inside it," replied the Rat briefly:
+"coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwiches
+pottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater--"
+
+"O stop, stop!" cried the Mole in ecstasies. "This is too much!"
+
+"Do you really think so?" enquired the Rat seriously. "It's only what
+I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are
+always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it _very_ fine!"
+
+The Mole never heard a word he was saying. Absorbed in the new life he
+was entering upon, intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the
+scents and the sounds and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in the water
+and dreamed long waking dreams. The Water Rat, like the good little
+fellow he was, sculled steadily on and forbore to disturb him.
+
+"I like your clothes awfully, old chap," he remarked after some half
+an hour or so had passed. "I'm going to get a black velvet smoking-suit
+myself some day, as soon as I can afford it."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the Mole, pulling himself together with an
+effort. "You must think me very rude; but all this is so new to me.
+So--this--is--a--River!"
+
+"_The_ River," corrected the Rat.
+
+"And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!"
+
+"By it and with it and on it and in it," said the Rat. "It's brother
+and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and
+(naturally) washing. It's my world, and I don't want any other. What
+it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not
+worth knowing. Lord! the times we've had together! Whether in winter
+or summer, spring or autumn, it's always got its fun and its
+excitements. When the floods are on in February, and my cellars and
+basement are brimming with drink that's no good to me, and the brown
+water runs by my best bedroom window; or again when it all drops away
+and shows patches of mud that smells like plum-cake, and the rushes
+and weed clog the channels, and I can potter about dry shod over most
+of the bed of it and find fresh food to eat, and things careless
+people have dropped out of boats!"
+
+"But isn't it a bit dull at times?" the Mole ventured to ask. "Just
+you and the river, and no one else to pass a word with?"
+
+"No one else to--well, I mustn't be hard on you," said the Rat with
+forbearance. "You're new to it, and of course you don't know. The bank
+is so crowded nowadays that many people are moving away altogether. O
+no, it isn't what it used to be, at all. Otters, king-fishers,
+dabchicks, moorhens, all of them about all day long and always wanting
+you to _do_ something--as if a fellow had no business of his own to
+attend to!"
+
+"What lies over _there_?" asked the Mole, waving a paw towards a
+background of woodland that darkly framed the water-meadows on one
+side of the river.
+
+"That? O, that's just the Wild Wood," said the Rat shortly. "We don't
+go there very much, we river-bankers."
+
+"Aren't they--aren't they very _nice_ people in there?" said the Mole
+a trifle nervously.
+
+"W-e-ll," replied the Rat, "let me see. The squirrels are all right.
+_And_ the rabbits--some of 'em, but rabbits are a mixed lot. And then
+there's Badger, of course. He lives right in the heart of it; wouldn't
+live anywhere else, either, if you paid him to do it. Dear old Badger!
+Nobody interferes with _him_. They'd better not," he added
+significantly.
+
+"Why, who _should_ interfere with him?" asked the Mole.
+
+"Well, of course--there--are others," explained the Rat in a hesitating
+sort of way. "Weasels--and stoats--and foxes--and so on. They're all right
+in a way--I'm very good friends with them--pass the time of day when we
+meet, and all that--but they break out sometimes, there's no denying it,
+and then--well, you can't really trust them, and that's the fact."
+
+The Mole knew well that it is quite against animal-etiquette to dwell
+on possible trouble ahead, or even to allude to it; so he dropped the
+subject.
+
+"And beyond the Wild Wood again?" he asked; "where it's all blue and
+dim, and one sees what may be hills or perhaps they mayn't, and
+something like the smoke of towns, or is it only cloud-drift?"
+
+"Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World," said the Rat. "And that's
+something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been
+there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at
+all. Don't ever refer to it again, please. Now then! Here's our
+backwater at last, where we're going to lunch."
+
+Leaving the main stream, they now passed into what seemed at first
+sight like a little landlocked lake. Green turf sloped down to either
+edge, brown snaky tree-roots gleamed below the surface of the quiet
+water, while ahead of them the silvery shoulder and foamy tumble of a
+weir, arm-in-arm with a restless dripping mill-wheel, that held up in
+its turn a grey-gabled mill-house, filled the air with a soothing
+murmur of sound, dull and smothery, yet with little clear voices
+speaking up cheerfully out of it at intervals. It was so very
+beautiful that the Mole could only hold up both fore-paws and gasp: "O
+my! O my! O my!"
+
+The Rat brought the boat alongside the bank, made her fast, helped the
+still awkward Mole safely ashore, and swung out the luncheon-basket.
+The Mole begged as a favour to be allowed to unpack it all by himself;
+and the Rat was very pleased to indulge him, and to sprawl at full
+length on the grass and rest, while his excited friend shook out the
+table-cloth and spread it, took out all the mysterious packets one by
+one and arranged their contents in due order, still gasping: "O my! O
+my!" at each fresh revelation. When all was ready, the Rat said, "Now,
+pitch in, old fellow!" and the Mole was indeed very glad to obey, for
+he had started his spring-cleaning at a very early hour that morning,
+as people _will_ do, and had not paused for bite or sup; and he had
+been through a very great deal since that distant time which now
+seemed so many days ago.
+
+"What are you looking at?" said the Rat presently, when the edge of
+their hunger was somewhat dulled, and the Mole's eyes were able to
+wander off the table-cloth a little.
+
+"I am looking," said the Mole, "at a streak of bubbles that I see
+travelling along the surface of the water. That is a thing that
+strikes me as funny."
+
+"Bubbles? Oho!" said the Rat, and chirruped cheerily in an inviting
+sort of way.
+
+A broad glistening muzzle showed itself above the edge of the bank,
+and the Otter hauled himself out and shook the water from his coat.
+
+"Greedy beggars!" he observed, making for the provender. "Why didn't
+you invite me, Ratty?"
+
+"This was an impromptu affair," explained the Rat. "By the way--my
+friend Mr. Mole."
+
+"Proud, I'm sure," said the Otter, and the two animals were friends
+forthwith.
+
+"Such a rumpus everywhere!" continued the Otter. "All the world seems
+out on the river to-day. I came up this backwater to try and get a
+moment's peace, and then stumble upon you fellows!--At least--I beg
+pardon--I don't exactly mean that, you know."
+
+There was a rustle behind them, proceeding from a hedge wherein last
+year's leaves still clung thick, and a stripy head, with high
+shoulders behind it, peered forth on them.
+
+"Come on, old Badger!" shouted the Rat.
+
+The Badger trotted forward a pace or two, then grunted, "H'm!
+Company," and turned his back and disappeared from view.
+
+"That's _just_ the sort of fellow he is!" observed the disappointed
+Rat. "Simply hates Society! Now we shan't see any more of him to-day.
+Well, tell us, _who's_ out on the river?"
+
+"Toad's out, for one," replied the Otter. "In his brand-new wager-boat;
+new togs, new everything!"
+
+The two animals looked at each other and laughed.
+
+"Once, it was nothing but sailing," said the Rat. "Then he tired of
+that and took to punting. Nothing would please him but to punt all day
+and every day, and a nice mess he made of it. Last year it was
+house-boating, and we all had to go and stay with him in his
+house-boat, and pretend we liked it. He was going to spend the rest of
+his life in a house-boat. It's all the same, whatever he takes up; he
+gets tired of it, and starts on something fresh."
+
+"Such a good fellow, too," remarked the Otter reflectively; "but no
+stability--especially in a boat!"
+
+From where they sat they could get a glimpse of the main stream across
+the island that separated them; and just then a wager-boat flashed
+into view, the rower--a short, stout figure--splashing badly and
+rolling a good deal, but working his hardest. The Rat stood up and
+hailed him, but Toad--for it was he--shook his head and settled
+sternly to his work.
+
+"He'll be out of the boat in a minute if he rolls like that," said the
+Rat, sitting down again.
+
+"Of course he will," chuckled the Otter. "Did I ever tell you that
+good story about Toad and the lock-keeper? It happened this way.
+Toad...."
+
+An errant May-fly swerved unsteadily athwart the current in the
+intoxicated fashion affected by young bloods of May-flies seeing
+life. A swirl of water and a "cloop!" and the May-fly was visible no
+more.
+
+Neither was the Otter.
+
+The Mole looked down. The voice was still in his ears, but the turf
+whereon he had sprawled was clearly vacant. Not an Otter to be seen,
+as far as the distant horizon.
+
+But again there was a streak of bubbles on the surface of the river.
+
+The Rat hummed a tune, and the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette
+forbade any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one's
+friends at any moment, for any reason or no reason whatever.
+
+"Well, well," said the Rat, "I suppose we ought to be moving. I wonder
+which of us had better pack the luncheon-basket?" He did not speak as
+if he was frightfully eager for the treat.
+
+"O, please let me," said the Mole. So, of course, the Rat let him.
+
+Packing the basket was not quite such pleasant work as unpacking the
+basket. It never is. But the Mole was bent on enjoying everything,
+and although just when he had got the basket packed and strapped up
+tightly he saw a plate staring up at him from the grass, and when the
+job had been done again the Rat pointed out a fork which anybody ought
+to have seen, and last of all, behold! the mustard pot, which he had
+been sitting on without knowing it--still, somehow, the thing got
+finished at last, without much loss of temper.
+
+The afternoon sun was getting low as the Rat sculled gently homewards
+in a dreamy mood, murmuring poetry-things over to himself, and not
+paying much attention to Mole. But the Mole was very full of lunch,
+and self-satisfaction, and pride, and already quite at home in a boat
+(so he thought), and was getting a bit restless besides: and presently
+he said, "Ratty! Please, _I_ want to row, now!"
+
+The Rat shook his head with a smile. "Not yet, my young friend," he
+said; "wait till you've had a few lessons. It's not so easy as it
+looks."
+
+The Mole was quiet for a minute or two. But he began to feel more and
+more jealous of Rat, sculling so strongly and so easily along, and his
+pride began to whisper that he could do it every bit as well. He
+jumped up and seized the sculls so suddenly that the Rat, who was
+gazing out over the water and saying more poetry-things to himself,
+was taken by surprise and fell backwards off his seat with his legs in
+the air for the second time, while the triumphant Mole took his place
+and grabbed the sculls with entire confidence.
+
+"Stop it, you _silly_ ass!" cried the Rat, from the bottom of the
+boat. "You can't do it! You'll have us over!"
+
+The Mole flung his sculls back with a flourish, and made a great dig
+at the water. He missed the surface altogether, his legs flew up above
+his head, and he found himself lying on the top of the prostrate Rat.
+Greatly alarmed, he made a grab at the side of the boat, and the next
+moment--Sploosh!
+
+Over went the boat, and he found himself struggling in the river.
+
+O my, how cold the water was, and O, how _very_ wet it felt! How it
+sang in his ears as he went down, down, down! How bright and welcome
+the sun looked as he rose to the surface coughing and spluttering! How
+black was his despair when he felt himself sinking again! Then a firm
+paw gripped him by the back of his neck. It was the Rat, and he was
+evidently laughing--the Mole could _feel_ him laughing, right down his
+arm and through his paw, and so into his--the Mole's--neck.
+
+The Rat got hold of a scull and shoved it under the Mole's arm; then
+he did the same by the other side of him and, swimming behind,
+propelled the helpless animal to shore, hauled him out, and set him
+down on the bank, a squashy, pulpy lump of misery.
+
+When the Rat had rubbed him down a bit, and wrung some of the wet out
+of him, he said, "Now then, old fellow! Trot up and down the
+towing-path as hard as you can, till you're warm and dry again, while
+I dive for the luncheon-basket."
+
+So the dismal Mole, wet without and ashamed within, trotted about till
+he was fairly dry, while the Rat plunged into the water again,
+recovered the boat, righted her and made her fast, fetched his
+floating property to shore by degrees, and finally dived successfully
+for the luncheon-basket and struggled to land with it.
+
+When all was ready for a start once more, the Mole, limp and dejected,
+took his seat in the stern of the boat; and as they set off, he said
+in a low voice, broken with emotion, "Ratty, my generous friend! I am
+very sorry indeed for my foolish and ungrateful conduct. My heart
+quite fails me when I think how I might have lost that beautiful
+luncheon-basket. Indeed, I have been a complete ass, and I know it.
+Will you overlook it this once and forgive me, and let things go on as
+before?"
+
+"That's all right, bless you!" responded the Rat cheerily. "What's a
+little wet to a Water Rat? I'm more in the water than out of it most
+days. Don't you think any more about it; and look here! I really think
+you had better come and stop with me for a little time. It's very
+plain and rough, you know--not like Toad's house at all--but you
+haven't seen that yet; still, I can make you comfortable. And I'll
+teach you to row and to swim, and you'll soon be as handy on the water
+as any of us."
+
+The Mole was so touched by his kind manner of speaking that he could
+find no voice to answer him; and he had to brush away a tear or two
+with the back of his paw. But the Rat kindly looked in another
+direction, and presently the Mole's spirits revived again, and he was
+even able to give some straight back-talk to a couple of moorhens who
+were sniggering to each other about his bedraggled appearance.
+
+When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and
+planted the Mole in an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a
+dressing-gown and slippers for him, and told him river stories till
+supper-time. Very thrilling stories they were, too, to an earth-dwelling
+animal like Mole. Stories about weirs, and sudden floods, and leaping
+pike, and steamers that flung hard bottles--at least bottles were
+certainly flung, and _from_ steamers, so presumably _by_ them; and
+about herons, and how particular they were whom they spoke to; and about
+adventures down drains, and night-fishings with Otter, or excursions far
+a-field with Badger. Supper was a most cheerful meal; but very shortly
+afterwards a terribly sleepy Mole had to be escorted upstairs by his
+considerate host, to the best bedroom, where he soon laid his head on
+his pillow in great peace and contentment, knowing that his new-found
+friend, the River, was lapping the sill of his window.
+
+This day was only the first of many similar ones for the emancipated
+Mole, each of them longer and full of interest as the ripening summer
+moved onward. He learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy
+of running water; and with his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at
+intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so constantly
+among them.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE OPEN ROAD
+
+
+"Ratty," said the Mole suddenly, one bright summer morning, "if you
+please, I want to ask you a favour."
+
+The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing a little song. He had
+just composed it himself, so he was very taken up with it, and would
+not pay proper attention to Mole or anything else. Since early morning
+he had been swimming in the river, in company with his friends, the
+ducks. And when the ducks stood on their heads suddenly, as ducks
+will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, just under where
+their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced to come
+to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking
+their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite _all_ you
+feel when your head is under water. At last they implored him to go
+away and attend to his own affairs and leave them to mind theirs. So
+the Rat went away, and sat on the river bank in the sun, and made up a
+song about them, which he called:
+
+            "DUCKS' DITTY."
+
+        All along the backwater,
+        Through the rushes tall,
+        Ducks are a-dabbling,
+        Up tails all!
+
+        Ducks' tails, drakes' tails,
+        Yellow feet a-quiver,
+        Yellow bills all out of sight
+        Busy in the river!
+
+        Slushy green undergrowth
+        Where the roach swim--
+        Here we keep our larder,
+        Cool and full and dim.
+
+        Everyone for what he likes!
+        _We_ like to be
+        Heads down, tails up,
+        Dabbling free!
+
+        High in the blue above
+        Swifts whirl and call--
+        _We_ are down a-dabbling
+        Up tails all!
+
+"I don't know that I think so _very_ much of that little song, Rat,"
+observed the Mole cautiously. He was no poet himself and didn't care
+who knew it; and he had a candid nature.
+
+"Nor don't the ducks neither," replied the Rat cheerfully. "They say,
+'_Why_ can't fellows be allowed to do what they like _when_ they like
+and _as_ they like, instead of other fellows sitting on banks and
+watching them all the time and making remarks and poetry and things
+about them? What _nonsense_ it all is!' That's what the ducks say."
+
+"So it is, so it is," said the Mole, with great heartiness.
+
+"No, it isn't!" cried the Rat indignantly.
+
+"Well then, it isn't, it isn't," replied the Mole soothingly. "But what
+I wanted to ask you was, won't you take me to call on Mr. Toad? I've
+heard so much about him, and I do so want to make his acquaintance."
+
+"Why, certainly," said the good-natured Rat, jumping to his feet and
+dismissing poetry from his mind for the day. "Get the boat out, and
+we'll paddle up there at once. It's never the wrong time to call on
+Toad. Early or late, he's always the same fellow. Always good-tempered,
+always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!"
+
+"He must be a very nice animal," observed the Mole, as he got into the
+boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably in
+the stern.
+
+"He is indeed the best of animals," replied Rat. "So simple, so
+good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's not very clever--we
+can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both boastful and
+conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady."
+
+Rounding a bend in the river, they came in sight of a handsome,
+dignified old house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns
+reaching down to the water's edge.
+
+"There's Toad Hall," said the Rat; "and that creek on the left, where
+the notice-board says, 'Private. No landing allowed,' leads to his
+boat-house, where we'll leave the boat. The stables are over there to
+the right. That's the banqueting-hall you're looking at now--very
+old, that is. Toad is rather rich, you know, and this is really one of
+the nicest houses in these parts, though we never admit as much to
+Toad."
+
+They glided up the creek, and the Mole shipped his sculls as they
+passed into the shadow of a large boat-house. Here they saw many
+handsome boats, slung from the cross-beams or hauled up on a slip, but
+none in the water; and the place had an unused and a deserted air.
+
+The Rat looked around him. "I understand," said he. "Boating is played
+out. He's tired of it, and done with it. I wonder what new fad he has
+taken up now? Come along and let's look him up. We shall hear all
+about it quite soon enough."
+
+They disembarked, and strolled across the gay flower-decked lawns in
+search of Toad, whom they presently happened upon resting in a wicker
+garden-chair, with a pre-occupied expression of face, and a large map
+spread out on his knees.
+
+"Hooray!" he cried, jumping up on seeing them, "this is splendid!" He
+shook the paws of both of them warmly, never waiting for an introduction
+to the Mole. "How _kind_ of you!" he went on, dancing round them. "I was
+just going to send a boat down the river for you, Ratty, with strict
+orders that you were to be fetched up here at once, whatever you were
+doing. I want you badly--both of you. Now what will you take? Come
+inside and have something! You don't know how lucky it is, your
+turning up just now!"
+
+"Let's sit quiet a bit, Toady!" said the Rat, throwing himself into an
+easy chair, while the Mole took another by the side of him and made
+some civil remark about Toad's "delightful residence."
+
+"Finest house on the whole river," cried Toad boisterously. "Or
+anywhere else, for that matter," he could not help adding.
+
+Here the Rat nudged the Mole. Unfortunately the Toad saw him do it, and
+turned very red. There was a moment's painful silence. Then Toad burst
+out laughing. "All right, Ratty," he said. "It's only my way, you know.
+And it's not such a very bad house, is it? You know, you rather like it
+yourself. Now, look here. Let's be sensible. You are the very animals I
+wanted. You've got to help me. It's most important!"
+
+"It's about your rowing, I suppose," said the Rat, with an innocent
+air. "You're getting on fairly well, though you splash a good bit
+still. With a great deal of patience and any quantity of coaching, you
+may--"
+
+"O, pooh! boating!" interrupted the Toad, in great disgust. "Silly
+boyish amusement. I've given that up _long_ ago. Sheer waste of time,
+that's what it is. It makes me downright sorry to see you fellows, who
+ought to know better, spending all your energies in that aimless manner.
+No, I've discovered the real thing, the only genuine occupation for a
+lifetime. I propose to devote the remainder of mine to it, and can only
+regret the wasted years that lie behind me, squandered in trivialities.
+Come with me, dear Ratty, and your amiable friend also, if he will be so
+very good, just as far as the stable-yard, and you shall see what you
+shall see!"
+
+He led the way to the stable-yard accordingly, the Rat following with
+a most mistrustful expression; and there, drawn out of the coach-house
+into the open, they saw a gipsy caravan, shining with newness, painted
+a canary-yellow picked out with green, and red wheels.
+
+"There you are!" cried the Toad, straddling and expanding himself.
+"There's real life for you, embodied in that little cart. The open
+road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the
+rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off
+to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The
+whole world before you, and a horizon that's always changing! And
+mind! this is the very finest cart of its sort that was ever built,
+without any exception. Come inside and look at the arrangements.
+Planned 'em all myself, I did!"
+
+The Mole was tremendously interested and excited, and followed him
+eagerly up the steps and into the interior of the caravan. The Rat
+only snorted and thrust his hands deep into his pockets, remaining
+where he was.
+
+It was indeed very compact and comfortable. Little sleeping bunks--a
+little table that folded up against the wall--a cooking-stove,
+lockers, book-shelves, a bird-cage with a bird in it; and pots, pans,
+jugs, and kettles of every size and variety.
+
+"All complete!" said the Toad triumphantly, pulling open a locker.
+"You see--biscuits, potted lobster, sardines--everything you can
+possibly want. Soda-water here--baccy there--letter-paper, bacon, jam,
+cards, and dominoes--you'll find," he continued, as they descended the
+steps again, "you'll find that nothing whatever has been forgotten,
+when we make our start this afternoon."
+
+"I beg your pardon," said the Rat slowly, as he chewed a straw, "but
+did I overhear you say something about '_we_,' and '_start_,' and
+'_this afternoon_'?"
+
+"Now, you dear good old Ratty," said Toad imploringly, "don't begin
+talking in that stiff and sniffy sort of way, because you know you've
+_got_ to come. I can't possibly manage without you, so please consider
+it settled, and don't argue--it's the one thing I can't stand. You
+surely don't mean to stick to your dull fusty old river all your life,
+and just live in a hole in a bank, and _boat_? I want to show you the
+world! I'm going to make an _animal_ of you, my boy!"
+
+"I don't care," said the Rat doggedly. "I'm not coming, and that's
+flat. And I _am_ going to stick to my old river, _and_ live in a hole,
+_and_ boat, as I've always done. And what's more, Mole's going to
+stick to me and do as I do, aren't you, Mole?"
+
+"Of course I am," said the Mole, loyally. "I'll always stick to you,
+Rat, and what you say is to be--has got to be. All the same, it sounds
+as if it might have been--well, rather fun, you know!" he added
+wistfully. Poor Mole! The Life Adventurous was so new a thing to him,
+and so thrilling; and this fresh aspect of it was so tempting; and he
+had fallen in love at first sight with the canary-coloured cart and
+all its little fitments.
+
+The Rat saw what was passing in his mind, and wavered. He hated
+disappointing people, and he was fond of the Mole, and would do
+almost anything to oblige him. Toad was watching both of them closely.
+
+"Come along in, and have some lunch," he said, diplomatically, "and
+we'll talk it over. We needn't decide anything in a hurry. Of course,
+_I_ don't really care. I only want to give pleasure to you fellows.
+'Live for others!' That's my motto in life."
+
+During luncheon--which was excellent, of course, as everything at Toad
+Hall always was--the Toad simply let himself go. Disregarding the Rat,
+he proceeded to play upon the inexperienced Mole as on a harp.
+Naturally a voluble animal, and always mastered by his imagination, he
+painted the prospects of the trip and the joys of the open life and
+the roadside in such glowing colours that the Mole could hardly sit in
+his chair for excitement. Somehow, it soon seemed taken for granted by
+all three of them that the trip was a settled thing; and the Rat,
+though still unconvinced in his mind, allowed his good-nature to
+over-ride his personal objections. He could not bear to disappoint his
+two friends, who were already deep in schemes and anticipations,
+planning out each day's separate occupation for several weeks ahead.
+
+When they were quite ready, the now triumphant Toad led his companions
+to the paddock and set them to capture the old grey horse, who,
+without having been consulted, and to his own extreme annoyance, had
+been told off by Toad for the dustiest job in this dusty expedition.
+He frankly preferred the paddock, and took a deal of catching.
+Meantime Toad packed the lockers still tighter with necessaries, and
+hung nose-bags, nets of onions, bundles of hay, and baskets from the
+bottom of the cart. At last the horse was caught and harnessed, and
+they set off, all talking at once, each animal either trudging by the
+side of the cart or sitting on the shaft, as the humour took him. It
+was a golden afternoon. The smell of the dust they kicked up was rich
+and satisfying; out of thick orchards on either side the road, birds
+called and whistled to them cheerily; good-natured wayfarers, passing
+them, gave them "Good day," or stopped to say nice things about their
+beautiful cart; and rabbits, sitting at their front doors in the
+hedgerows, held up their fore-paws, and said, "O my! O my! O my!"
+
+Late in the evening, tired and happy and miles from home, they drew up
+on a remote common far from habitations, turned the horse loose to
+graze, and ate their simple supper sitting on the grass by the side of
+the cart. Toad talked big about all he was going to do in the days to
+come, while stars grew fuller and larger all around them, and a yellow
+moon, appearing suddenly and silently from nowhere in particular, came
+to keep them company and listen to their talk. At last they turned in
+to their little bunks in the cart; and Toad, kicking out his legs,
+sleepily said, "Well, good night, you fellows! This is the real life
+for a gentleman! Talk about your old river!"
+
+"I _don't_ talk about my river," replied the patient Rat. "You _know_
+I don't, Toad. But I _think_ about it," he added pathetically, in a
+lower tone: "I think about it--all the time!"
+
+The Mole reached out from under his blanket, felt for the Rat's paw in
+the darkness, and gave it a squeeze. "I'll do whatever you like,
+Ratty," he whispered. "Shall we run away to-morrow morning, quite
+early--_very_ early--and go back to our dear old hole on the river?"
+
+"No, no, we'll see it out," whispered back the Rat. "Thanks awfully,
+but I ought to stick by Toad till this trip is ended. It wouldn't be
+safe for him to be left to himself. It won't take very long. His fads
+never do. Good night!"
+
+The end was indeed nearer than even the Rat suspected.
+
+After so much open air and excitement the Toad slept very soundly, and
+no amount of shaking could rouse him out of bed next morning. So the
+Mole and Rat turned to, quietly and manfully, and while the Rat saw to
+the horse, and lit a fire, and cleaned last night's cups and platters,
+and got things ready for breakfast, the Mole trudged off to the
+nearest village, a long way off, for milk and eggs and various
+necessaries the Toad had, of course, forgotten to provide. The hard
+work had all been done, and the two animals were resting, thoroughly
+exhausted, by the time Toad appeared on the scene, fresh and gay,
+remarking what a pleasant, easy life it was they were all leading now,
+after the cares and worries and fatigues of housekeeping at home.
+
+They had a pleasant ramble that day over grassy downs and along narrow
+by-lanes, and camped, as before, on a common, only this time the two
+guests took care that Toad should do his fair share of work. In
+consequence, when the time came for starting next morning, Toad was by
+no means so rapturous about the simplicity of the primitive life, and
+indeed attempted to resume his place in his bunk, whence he was hauled
+by force. Their way lay, as before, across country by narrow lanes,
+and it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road,
+their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen,
+sprang out on them--disaster momentous indeed to their expedition, but
+simply overwhelming in its effect on the after career of Toad.
+
+They were strolling along the high-road easily, the Mole by the
+horse's head, talking to him, since the horse had complained that he
+was being frightfully left out of it, and nobody considered him in
+the least; the Toad and the Water Rat walking behind the cart talking
+together--at least Toad was talking, and Rat was saying at intervals,
+"Yes, precisely; and what did _you_ say to _him_?"--and thinking all
+the time of something very different, when far behind them they heard
+a faint warning hum, like the drone of a distant bee. Glancing back,
+they saw a small cloud of dust, with a dark centre of energy,
+advancing on them at incredible speed, while from out the dust a faint
+"Poop-poop!" wailed like an uneasy animal in pain. Hardly regarding
+it, they turned to resume their conversation, when in an instant (as
+it seemed) the peaceful scene was changed, and with a blast of wind
+and a whirl of sound that made them jump for the nearest ditch. It was
+on them! The "Poop-poop" rang with a brazen shout in their ears, they
+had a moment's glimpse of an interior of glittering plate-glass and
+rich morocco, and the magnificent motor-car, immense, breath-snatching,
+passionate, with its pilot tense and hugging his wheel, possessed all
+earth and air for the fraction of a second, flung an enveloping cloud
+of dust that blinded and enwrapped them utterly, and then dwindled to
+a speck in the far distance, changed back into a droning bee once more.
+
+The old grey horse, dreaming, as he plodded along, of his quiet
+paddock, in a new raw situation such as this, simply abandoned himself
+to his natural emotions. Rearing, plunging, backing steadily, in spite
+of all the Mole's efforts at his head, and all the Mole's lively
+language directed at his better feelings, he drove the cart backward
+towards the deep ditch at the side of the road. It wavered an
+instant--then there was a heart-rending crash--and the canary-coloured
+cart, their pride and their joy, lay on its side in the ditch, an
+irredeemable wreck.
+
+The Rat danced up and down in the road, simply transported with passion.
+"You villains!" he shouted, shaking both fists. "You scoundrels, you
+highwaymen, you--you--road-hogs!--I'll have the law of you! I'll report
+you! I'll take you through all the Courts!" His home-sickness had quite
+slipped away from him, and for the moment he was the skipper of the
+canary-coloured vessel driven on a shoal by the reckless jockeying of
+rival mariners, and he was trying to recollect all the fine and biting
+things he used to say to masters of steam-launches when their wash, as
+they drove too near the bank, used to flood his parlour-carpet at home.
+
+Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs
+stretched out before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the
+disappearing motor-car. He breathed short, his face wore a placid,
+satisfied expression, and at intervals he faintly murmured "Poop-poop!"
+
+The Mole was busy trying to quiet the horse, which he succeeded in
+doing after a time. Then he went to look at the cart, on its side in
+the ditch. It was indeed a sorry sight. Panels and windows smashed,
+axles hopelessly bent, one wheel off, sardine-tins scattered over the
+wide world, and the bird in the bird-cage sobbing pitifully and
+calling to be let out.
+
+The Rat came to help him, but their united efforts were not sufficient
+to right the cart. "Hi! Toad!" they cried. "Come and bear a hand,
+can't you!"
+
+The Toad never answered a word, or budged from his seat in the road;
+so they went to see what was the matter with him. They found him in a
+sort of a trance, a happy smile on his face, his eyes still fixed on
+the dusty wake of their destroyer. At intervals he was still heard to
+murmur "Poop-poop!"
+
+The Rat shook him by the shoulder. "Are you coming to help us, Toad?"
+he demanded sternly.
+
+"Glorious, stirring sight!" murmured Toad, never offering to move.
+"The poetry of motion! The _real_ way to travel! The _only_ way to
+travel! Here to-day--in next week to-morrow! Villages skipped, towns
+and cities jumped--always somebody else's horizon! O bliss! O
+poop-poop! O my! O my!"
+
+"O _stop_ being an ass, Toad!" cried the Mole despairingly.
+
+"And to think I never _knew_!" went on the Toad in a dreamy monotone.
+"All those wasted years that lie behind me, I never knew, never even
+_dreamt_! But _now_--but now that I know, now that I fully realise! O
+what a flowery track lies spread before me, henceforth! What
+dust-clouds shall spring up behind me as I speed on my reckless way!
+What carts I shall fling carelessly into the ditch in the wake of my
+magnificent onset! Horrid little carts--common carts--canary-coloured
+carts!"
+
+"What are we to do with him?" asked the Mole of the Water Rat.
+
+"Nothing at all," replied the Rat firmly. "Because there is really
+nothing to be done. You see, I know him from of old. He is now
+possessed. He has got a new craze, and it always takes him that way,
+in its first stage. He'll continue like that for days now, like an
+animal walking in a happy dream, quite useless for all practical
+purposes. Never mind him. Let's go and see what there is to be done
+about the cart."
+
+A careful inspection showed them that, even if they succeeded in
+righting it by themselves, the cart would travel no longer. The axles
+were in a hopeless state, and the missing wheel was shattered into
+pieces.
+
+The Rat knotted the horse's reins over his back and took him by the
+head, carrying the bird-cage and its hysterical occupant in the other
+hand. "Come on!" he said grimly to the Mole. "It's five or six miles
+to the nearest town, and we shall just have to walk it. The sooner we
+make a start the better."
+
+"But what about Toad?" asked the Mole anxiously, as they set off
+together. "We can't leave him here, sitting in the middle of the road
+by himself, in the distracted state he's in! It's not safe. Supposing
+another Thing were to come along?"
+
+"O, _bother_ Toad," said the Rat savagely; "I've done with him."
+
+They had not proceeded very far on their way, however, when there was
+a pattering of feet behind them, and Toad caught them up and thrust a
+paw inside the elbow of each of them; still breathing short and
+staring into vacancy.
+
+"Now, look here, Toad!" said the Rat sharply: "as soon as we get to
+the town, you'll have to go straight to the police-station and see if
+they know anything about that motor-car and who it belongs to, and
+lodge a complaint against it. And then you'll have to go to a
+blacksmith's or a wheelwright's and arrange for the cart to be fetched
+and mended and put to rights. It'll take time, but it's not quite a
+hopeless smash. Meanwhile, the Mole and I will go to an inn and find
+comfortable rooms where we can stay till the cart's ready, and till
+your nerves have recovered their shock."
+
+"Police-station! Complaint!" murmured Toad dreamily. "Me _complain_ of
+that beautiful, that heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me!
+_Mend_ the _cart_! I've done with carts for ever. I never want to see
+the cart, or to hear of it, again. O Ratty! You can't think how
+obliged I am to you for consenting to come on this trip! I wouldn't
+have gone without you, and then I might never have seen that--that
+swan, that sunbeam, that thunderbolt! I might never have heard that
+entrancing sound, or smelt that bewitching smell! I owe it all to you,
+my best of friends!"
+
+[Illustration: _"Come on!" he said. "We shall just have to walk it"_]
+
+The Rat turned from him in despair. "You see what it is?" he said
+to the Mole, addressing him across Toad's head: "He's quite hopeless.
+I give it up--when we get to the town we'll go to the railway station,
+and with luck we may pick up a train there that'll get us back to
+river bank to-night. And if ever you catch me going a-pleasuring with
+this provoking animal again!"--He snorted, and during the rest of that
+weary trudge addressed his remarks exclusively to Mole.
+
+On reaching the town they went straight to the station and deposited
+Toad in the second-class waiting-room, giving a porter twopence to
+keep a strict eye on him. They then left the horse at an inn stable,
+and gave what directions they could about the cart and its contents.
+Eventually, a slow train having landed them at a station not very far
+from Toad Hall, they escorted the spellbound, sleep-walking Toad to
+his door, put him inside it, and instructed his housekeeper to feed
+him, undress him, and put him to bed. Then they got out their boat
+from the boat-house, sculled down the river home, and at a very late
+hour sat down to supper in their own cosy riverside parlour, to the
+Rat's great joy and contentment.
+
+The following evening the Mole, who had risen late and taken things
+very easy all day, was sitting on the bank fishing, when the Rat, who
+had been looking up his friends and gossiping, came strolling along to
+find him. "Heard the news?" he said. "There's nothing else being
+talked about, all along the river bank. Toad went up to Town by an
+early train this morning. And he has ordered a large and very
+expensive motor-car."
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE WILD WOOD
+
+
+The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. He
+seemed, by all accounts, to be such an important personage and, though
+rarely visible, to make his unseen influence felt by everybody about
+the place. But whenever the Mole mentioned his wish to the Water Rat,
+he always found himself put off. "It's all right," the Rat would say.
+"Badger'll turn up some day or other--he's always turning up--and then
+I'll introduce you. The best of fellows! But you must not only take
+him _as_ you find him, but _when_ you find him."
+
+"Couldn't you ask him here--dinner or something?" said the Mole.
+
+"He wouldn't come," replied the Rat simply. "Badger hates Society, and
+invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing."
+
+"Well, then, supposing we go and call on _him_?" suggested the Mole.
+
+"O, I'm sure he wouldn't like that at _all_," said the Rat, quite
+alarmed. "He's so very shy, he'd be sure to be offended. I've never
+even ventured to call on him at his own home myself, though I know him
+so well. Besides, we can't. It's quite out of the question, because he
+lives in the very middle of the Wild Wood."
+
+"Well, supposing he does," said the Mole. "You told me the Wild Wood
+was all right, you know."
+
+"O, I know, I know, so it is," replied the Rat evasively. "But I think
+we won't go there just now. Not _just_ yet. It's a long way, and he
+wouldn't be at home at this time of year anyhow, and he'll be coming
+along some day, if you'll wait quietly."
+
+The Mole had to be content with this. But the Badger never came along,
+and every day brought its amusements, and it was not till summer was
+long over, and cold and frost and miry ways kept them much indoors,
+and the swollen river raced past outside their windows with a speed
+that mocked at boating of any sort or kind, that he found his thoughts
+dwelling again with much persistence on the solitary grey Badger, who
+lived his own life by himself, in his hole in the middle of the Wild
+Wood.
+
+In the winter time the Rat slept a great deal, retiring early and
+rising late. During his short day he sometimes scribbled poetry or did
+other small domestic jobs about the house; and, of course, there were
+always animals dropping in for a chat, and consequently there was a
+good deal of story-telling and comparing notes on the past summer and
+all its doings.
+
+Such a rich chapter it had been, when one came to look back on it all!
+With illustrations so numerous and so very highly-coloured! The pageant
+of the river bank had marched steadily along, unfolding itself in
+scene-pictures that succeeded each other in stately procession. Purple
+loosestrife arrived early, shaking luxuriant tangled locks along the
+edge of the mirror whence its own face laughed back at it. Willow-herb,
+tender and wistful, like a pink sunset cloud, was not slow to follow.
+Comfrey, the purple hand-in-hand with the white, crept forth to take its
+place in the line; and at last one morning the diffident and delaying
+dog-rose stepped delicately on the stage, and one knew, as if
+string-music had announced it in stately chords that strayed into a
+gavotte, that June at last was here. One member of the company was still
+awaited; the shepherd-boy for the nymphs to woo, the knight for whom the
+ladies waited at the window, the prince that was to kiss the sleeping
+summer back to life and love. But when meadow-sweet, debonair and
+odorous in amber jerkin, moved graciously to his place in the group,
+then the play was ready to begin.
+
+And what a play it had been! Drowsy animals, snug in their holes while
+wind and rain were battering at their doors, recalled still keen
+mornings, an hour before sunrise, when the white mist, as yet
+undispersed, clung closely along the surface of the water; then the
+shock of the early plunge, the scamper along the bank, and the radiant
+transformation of earth, air, and water, when suddenly the sun was
+with them again, and grey was gold and colour was born and sprang out
+of the earth once more. They recalled the languorous siesta of hot
+mid-day, deep in green undergrowth, the sun striking through in tiny
+golden shafts and spots; the boating and bathing of the afternoon, the
+rambles along dusty lanes and through yellow corn-fields; and the
+long, cool evening at last, when so many threads were gathered up, so
+many friendships rounded, and so many adventures planned for the
+morrow. There was plenty to talk about on those short winter days when
+the animals found themselves round the fire; still, the Mole had a
+good deal of spare time on his hands, and so one afternoon, when the
+Rat in his arm-chair before the blaze was alternately dozing and
+trying over rhymes that wouldn't fit, he formed the resolution to go
+out by himself and explore the Wild Wood, and perhaps strike up an
+acquaintance with Mr. Badger.
+
+It was a cold, still afternoon with a hard, steely sky overhead, when
+he slipped out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay
+bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had
+never seen so far and so intimately into the insides of things as on
+that winter day when Nature was deep in her annual slumber and seemed
+to have kicked the clothes off. Copses, dells, quarries, and all
+hidden places, which had been mysterious mines for exploration in
+leafy summer, now exposed themselves and their secrets pathetically,
+and seemed to ask him to overlook their shabby poverty for a while,
+till they could riot in rich masquerade as before, and trick and
+entice him with the old deceptions. It was pitiful in a way, and yet
+cheering--even exhilarating. He was glad that he liked the country
+undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got down to the
+bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple. He did not
+want the warm clover and the play of seeding grasses; the screens of
+quickset, the billowy drapery of beech and elm seemed best away; and
+with great cheerfulness of spirit he pushed on towards the Wild Wood,
+which lay before him low and threatening, like a black reef in some
+still southern sea.
+
+There was nothing to alarm him at first entry. Twigs crackled under
+his feet, logs tripped him, funguses on stumps resembled caricatures,
+and startled him for the moment by their likeness to something
+familiar and far away; but that was all fun, and exciting. It led him
+on, and he penetrated to where the light was less, and trees crouched
+nearer and nearer, and holes made ugly mouths at him on either side.
+
+Everything was very still now. The dusk advanced on him steadily,
+rapidly, gathering in behind and before; and the light seemed to be
+draining away like flood-water.
+
+Then the faces began.
+
+It was over his shoulder, and indistinctly, that he first thought he
+saw a face, a little, evil, wedge-shaped face, looking out at him from
+a hole. When he turned and confronted it, the thing had vanished.
+
+He quickened his pace, telling himself cheerfully not to begin
+imagining things or there would be simply no end to it. He passed
+another hole, and another, and another; and then--yes!--no!--yes!
+certainly a little, narrow face, with hard eyes, had flashed up for an
+instant from a hole, and was gone. He hesitated--braced himself up for
+an effort and strode on. Then suddenly, and as if it had been so all
+the time, every hole, far and near, and there were hundreds of them,
+seemed to possess its face, coming and going rapidly, all fixing on
+him glances of malice and hatred: all hard-eyed and evil and sharp.
+
+If he could only get away from the holes in the banks, he thought,
+there would be no more faces. He swung off the path and plunged into
+the untrodden places of the wood.
+
+Then the whistling began.
+
+Very faint and shrill it was, and far behind him, when first he heard
+it; but somehow it made him hurry forward. Then, still very faint and
+shrill, it sounded far ahead of him, and made him hesitate and want to
+go back. As he halted in indecision it broke out on either side, and
+seemed to be caught up and passed on throughout the whole length of
+the wood to its farthest limit. They were up and alert and ready,
+evidently, whoever they were! And he--he was alone, and unarmed, and
+far from any help; and the night was closing in.
+
+Then the pattering began.
+
+He thought it was only falling leaves at first, so slight and delicate
+was the sound of it. Then as it grew it took a regular rhythm, and he
+knew it for nothing else but the pat-pat-pat of little feet still a
+very long way off. Was it in front or behind? It seemed to be first
+one, and then the other, then both. It grew and it multiplied, till
+from every quarter as he listened anxiously, leaning this way and
+that, it seemed to be closing in on him. As he stood still to hearken,
+a rabbit came running hard towards him through the trees. He waited,
+expecting it to slacken pace or to swerve from him into a different
+course. Instead, the animal almost brushed him as it dashed past, his
+face set and hard, his eyes staring. "Get out of this, you fool, get
+out!" the Mole heard him mutter as he swung round a stump and
+disappeared down a friendly burrow.
+
+The pattering increased till it sounded like sudden hail on the dry
+leaf-carpet spread around him. The whole wood seemed running now,
+running hard, hunting, chasing, closing in round something or--somebody?
+In panic, he began to run too, aimlessly, he knew not whither. He ran up
+against things, he fell over things and into things, he darted under
+things and dodged round things. At last he took refuge in the deep, dark
+hollow of an old beech tree, which offered shelter, concealment--perhaps
+even safety, but who could tell? Anyhow, he was too tired to run any
+further, and could only snuggle down into the dry leaves which had
+drifted into the hollow and hope he was safe for a time. And as he lay
+there panting and trembling, and listened to the whistlings and the
+patterings outside, he knew it at last, in all its fulness, that dread
+thing which other little dwellers in field and hedgerow had encountered
+here, and known as their darkest moment--that thing which the Rat had
+vainly tried to shield him from--the Terror of the Wild Wood!
+
+[Illustration: _In panic, he began to run_]
+
+Meantime the Rat, warm and comfortable, dozed by his fireside. His
+paper of half-finished verses slipped from his knee, his head fell
+back, his mouth opened, and he wandered by the verdant banks of
+dream-rivers. Then a coal slipped, the fire crackled and sent up a
+spurt of flame, and he woke with a start. Remembering what he had been
+engaged upon, he reached down to the floor for his verses, pored over
+them for a minute, and then looked round for the Mole to ask him if he
+knew a good rhyme for something or other.
+
+But the Mole was not there.
+
+He listened for a time. The house seemed very quiet.
+
+Then he called "Moly!" several times, and, receiving no answer, got up
+and went out into the hall.
+
+The Mole's cap was missing from its accustomed peg. His goloshes,
+which always lay by the umbrella-stand, were also gone.
+
+The Rat left the house, and carefully examined the muddy surface of
+the ground outside, hoping to find the Mole's tracks. There they were,
+sure enough. The goloshes were new, just bought for the winter, and
+the pimples on their soles were fresh and sharp. He could see the
+imprints of them in the mud, running along straight and purposeful,
+leading direct to the Wild Wood.
+
+The Rat looked very grave, and stood in deep thought for a minute or
+two. Then he re-entered the house, strapped a belt round his waist,
+shoved a brace of pistols into it, took up a stout cudgel that stood
+in a corner of the hall, and set off for the Wild Wood at a smart
+pace.
+
+It was already getting towards dusk when he reached the first fringe
+of trees and plunged without hesitation into the wood, looking
+anxiously on either side for any sign of his friend. Here and there
+wicked little faces popped out of holes, but vanished immediately at
+sight of the valorous animal, his pistols, and the great ugly cudgel
+in his grasp; and the whistling and pattering, which he had heard
+quite plainly on his first entry, died away and ceased, and all was
+very still. He made his way manfully through the length of the wood,
+to its furthest edge; then, forsaking all paths, he set himself to
+traverse it, laboriously working over the whole ground, and all the
+time calling out cheerfully, "Moly, Moly, Moly! Where are you? It's
+me--it's old Rat!"
+
+He had patiently hunted through the wood for an hour or more, when at
+last to his joy he heard a little answering cry. Guiding himself by
+the sound, he made his way through the gathering darkness to the foot
+of an old beech tree, with a hole in it, and from out of the hole came
+a feeble voice, saying "Ratty! Is that really you?"
+
+The Rat crept into the hollow, and there he found the Mole, exhausted
+and still trembling. "O Rat!" he cried, "I've been so frightened, you
+can't think!"
+
+"O, I quite understand," said the Rat soothingly. "You shouldn't
+really have gone and done it, Mole. I did my best to keep you from it.
+We river-bankers, we hardly ever come here by ourselves. If we have to
+come, we come in couples at least; then we're generally all right.
+Besides, there are a hundred things one has to know, which we
+understand all about and you don't, as yet. I mean passwords, and
+signs, and sayings which have power and effect, and plants you carry
+in your pocket, and verses you repeat, and dodges and tricks you
+practise; all simple enough when you know them, but they've got to be
+known if you're small, or you'll find yourself in trouble. Of course
+if you were Badger or Otter, it would be quite another matter."
+
+"Surely the brave Mr. Toad wouldn't mind coming here by himself, would
+he?" inquired the Mole.
+
+"Old Toad?" said the Rat, laughing heartily. "He wouldn't show his
+face here alone, not for a whole hatful of golden guineas, Toad
+wouldn't."
+
+The Mole was greatly cheered by the sound of the Rat's careless
+laughter, as well as by the sight of his stick and his gleaming
+pistols, and he stopped shivering and began to feel bolder and more
+himself again.
+
+"Now then," said the Rat presently, "we really must pull ourselves
+together and make a start for home while there's still a little light
+left. It will never do to spend the night here, you understand. Too
+cold, for one thing."
+
+"Dear Ratty," said the poor Mole, "I'm dreadfully sorry, but I'm
+simply dead beat and that's a solid fact. You _must_ let me rest here
+a while longer, and get my strength back, if I'm to get home at all."
+
+"O, all right," said the good-natured Rat, "rest away. It's pretty
+nearly pitch dark now, anyhow; and there ought to be a bit of a moon
+later."
+
+So the Mole got well into the dry leaves and stretched himself out,
+and presently dropped off into sleep, though of a broken and troubled
+sort; while the Rat covered himself up, too, as best he might, for
+warmth, and lay patiently waiting, with a pistol in his paw.
+
+When at last the Mole woke up, much refreshed and in his usual
+spirits, the Rat said, "Now then! I'll just take a look outside and
+see if everything's quiet, and then we really must be off."
+
+He went to the entrance of their retreat and put his head out. Then
+the Mole heard him saying quietly to himself, "Hullo! hullo!
+here--_is_--a--go!"
+
+"What's up, Ratty?" asked the Mole.
+
+"_Snow_ is up," replied the Rat briefly; "or rather, _down_. It's
+snowing hard."
+
+The Mole came and crouched beside him, and, looking out, saw the wood
+that had been so dreadful to him in quite a changed aspect. Holes,
+hollows, pools, pitfalls, and other black menaces to the wayfarer were
+vanishing fast, and a gleaming carpet of faery was springing up
+everywhere, that looked too delicate to be trodden upon by rough feet.
+A fine powder filled the air and caressed the cheek with a tingle in
+its touch, and the black boles of the trees showed up in a light that
+seemed to come from below.
+
+"Well, well, it can't be helped," said the Rat, after pondering. "We
+must make a start, and take our chance, I suppose. The worst of it is,
+I don't exactly know where we are. And now this snow makes everything
+look so very different."
+
+It did indeed. The Mole would not have known that it was the same
+wood. However, they set out bravely, and took the line that seemed
+most promising, holding on to each other and pretending with
+invincible cheerfulness that they recognised an old friend in every
+fresh tree that grimly and silently greeted them, or saw openings,
+gaps, or paths with a familiar turn in them, in the monotony of white
+space and black tree-trunks that refused to vary.
+
+An hour or two later--they had lost all count of time--they pulled up,
+dispirited, weary, and hopelessly at sea, and sat down on a fallen
+tree-trunk to recover their breath and consider what was to be done.
+They were aching with fatigue and bruised with tumbles; they had
+fallen into several holes and got wet through; the snow was getting so
+deep that they could hardly drag their little legs through it, and the
+trees were thicker and more like each other than ever. There seemed to
+be no end to this wood, and no beginning, and no difference in it,
+and, worst of all, no way out.
+
+"We can't sit here very long," said the Rat. "We shall have to make
+another push for it, and do something or other. The cold is too awful
+for anything, and the snow will soon be too deep for us to wade
+through." He peered about him and considered. "Look here," he went on,
+"this is what occurs to me. There's a sort of dell down here in front
+of us, where the ground seems all hilly and humpy and hummocky. We'll
+make our way down into that, and try and find some sort of shelter, a
+cave or hole with a dry floor to it, out of the snow and the wind, and
+there we'll have a good rest before we try again, for we're both of us
+pretty dead beat. Besides, the snow may leave off, or something may
+turn up."
+
+So once more they got on their feet, and struggled down into the dell,
+where they hunted about for a cave or some corner that was dry and a
+protection from the keen wind and the whirling snow. They were
+investigating one of the hummocky bits the Rat had spoken of, when
+suddenly the Mole tripped up and fell forward on his face with a
+squeal.
+
+"O my leg!" he cried. "O my poor shin!" and he sat up on the snow and
+nursed his leg in both his front paws.
+
+"Poor old Mole!" said the Rat kindly. "You don't seem to be having
+much luck to-day, do you? Let's have a look at the leg. Yes," he went
+on, going down on his knees to look, "you've cut your shin, sure
+enough. Wait till I get at my handkerchief, and I'll tie it up for
+you."
+
+"I must have tripped over a hidden branch or a stump," said the Mole
+miserably. "O, my! O, my!"
+
+"It's a very clean cut," said the Rat, examining it again attentively.
+"That was never done by a branch or a stump. Looks as if it was made
+by a sharp edge of something in metal. Funny!" He pondered awhile, and
+examined the humps and slopes that surrounded them.
+
+"Well, never mind what done it," said the Mole, forgetting his grammar
+in his pain. "It hurts just the same, whatever done it."
+
+But the Rat, after carefully tying up the leg with his handkerchief,
+had left him and was busy scraping in the snow. He scratched and
+shovelled and explored, all four legs working busily, while the Mole
+waited impatiently, remarking at intervals, "O, _come_ on, Rat!"
+
+Suddenly the Rat cried "Hooray!" and then
+"Hooray-oo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray!" and fell to executing a feeble jig in
+the snow.
+
+"What _have_ you found, Ratty?" asked the Mole, still nursing his leg.
+
+"Come and see!" said the delighted Rat, as he jigged on.
+
+The Mole hobbled up to the spot and had a good look.
+
+"Well," he said at last, slowly, "I _see_ it right enough. Seen the same
+sort of thing before, lots of times. Familiar object, I call it. A
+door-scraper! Well, what of it? Why dance jigs around a door-scraper?"
+
+"But don't you see what it _means_, you--you dull-witted animal?"
+cried the Rat impatiently.
+
+"Of course I see what it means," replied the Mole. "It simply means
+that some _very_ careless and forgetful person has left his
+door-scraper lying about in the middle of the Wild Wood, _just_ where
+it's _sure_ to trip _everybody_ up. Very thoughtless of him, I call
+it. When I get home I shall go and complain about it to--to somebody
+or other, see if I don't!"
+
+"O, dear! O, dear!" cried the Rat, in despair at his obtuseness.
+"Here, stop arguing and come and scrape!" And he set to work again and
+made the snow fly in all directions around him.
+
+After some further toil his efforts were rewarded, and a very shabby
+door-mat lay exposed to view.
+
+"There, what did I tell you?" exclaimed the Rat in great triumph.
+
+"Absolutely nothing whatever," replied the Mole, with perfect truthfulness.
+"Well, now," he went on, "you seem to have found another piece of
+domestic litter, done for and thrown away, and I suppose you're
+perfectly happy. Better go ahead and dance your jig round that if you've
+got to, and get it over, and then perhaps we can go on and not waste any
+more time over rubbish-heaps. Can we _eat_ a door-mat? Or sleep under a
+door-mat? Or sit on a door-mat and sledge home over the snow on it, you
+exasperating rodent?"
+
+"Do--you--mean--to--say," cried the excited Rat, "that this door-mat
+doesn't _tell_ you anything?"
+
+"Really, Rat," said the Mole, quite pettishly, "I think we've had
+enough of this folly. Who ever heard of a door-mat _telling_ any one
+anything? They simply don't do it. They are not that sort at all.
+Door-mats know their place."
+
+"Now look here, you--you thick-headed beast," replied the Rat, really
+angry, "this must stop. Not another word, but scrape--scrape and
+scratch and dig and hunt round, especially on the sides of the
+hummocks, if you want to sleep dry and warm to-night, for it's our
+last chance!"
+
+The Rat attacked a snow-bank beside them with ardour, probing with his
+cudgel everywhere and then digging with fury; and the Mole scraped
+busily too, more to oblige the Rat than for any other reason, for his
+opinion was that his friend was getting light-headed.
+
+Some ten minutes' hard work, and the point of the Rat's cudgel struck
+something that sounded hollow. He worked till he could get a paw
+through and feel; then called the Mole to come and help him. Hard at
+it went the two animals, till at last the result of their labours
+stood full in view of the astonished and hitherto incredulous Mole.
+
+In the side of what had seemed to be a snow-bank stood a solid-looking
+little door, painted a dark green. An iron bell-pull hung by the side,
+and below it, on a small brass plate, neatly engraved in square capital
+letters, they could read by the aid of moonlight
+
+        MR. BADGER.
+
+The Mole fell backwards on the snow from sheer surprise and delight.
+"Rat!" he cried in penitence, "you're a wonder! A real wonder, that's
+what you are. I see it all now! You argued it out, step by step, in
+that wise head of yours, from the very moment that I fell and cut my
+shin, and you looked at the cut, and at once your majestic mind said
+to itself, 'Door-scraper!' And then you turned to and found the very
+door-scraper that done it! Did you stop there? No. Some people would
+have been quite satisfied; but not you. Your intellect went on
+working. 'Let me only just find a door-mat,' says you to yourself,
+'and my theory is proved!' And of course you found your door-mat.
+You're so clever, I believe you could find anything you liked. 'Now,'
+says you, 'that door exists, as plain as if I saw it. There's nothing
+else remains to be done but to find it!' Well, I've read about that
+sort of thing in books, but I've never come across it before in real
+life. You ought to go where you'll be properly appreciated. You're
+simply wasted here, among us fellows. If I only had your head,
+Ratty--"
+
+"But as you haven't," interrupted the Rat, rather unkindly, "I suppose
+you're going to sit on the snow all night and _talk_? Get up at once
+and hang on to that bell-pull you see there, and ring hard, as hard as
+you can, while I hammer!"
+
+While the Rat attacked the door with his stick, the Mole sprang up at
+the bell-pull, clutched it and swung there, both feet well off the
+ground, and from quite a long way off they could faintly hear a
+deep-toned bell respond.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+MR. BADGER
+
+
+They waited patiently for what seemed a very long time, stamping in
+the snow to keep their feet warm. At last they heard the sound of slow
+shuffling footsteps approaching the door from the inside. It seemed,
+as the Mole remarked to the Rat, like some one walking in carpet
+slippers that were too large for him and down at heel; which was
+intelligent of Mole, because that was exactly what it was.
+
+There was the noise of a bolt shot back, and the door opened a few
+inches, enough to show a long snout and a pair of sleepy blinking
+eyes.
+
+"Now, the _very_ next time this happens," said a gruff and suspicious
+voice, "I shall be exceedingly angry. Who is it _this_ time,
+disturbing people on such a night? Speak up!"
+
+"Oh, Badger," cried the Rat, "let us in, please. It's me, Rat, and my
+friend Mole, and we've lost our way in the snow."
+
+"What, Ratty, my dear little man!" exclaimed the Badger, in quite a
+different voice. "Come along in, both of you, at once. Why, you must
+be perished. Well, I never! Lost in the snow! And in the Wild Wood,
+too, and at this time of night! But come in with you."
+
+The two animals tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get
+inside, and heard the door shut behind them with great joy and relief.
+
+The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose slippers were
+indeed very down at heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw and
+had probably been on his way to bed when their summons sounded. He
+looked kindly down on them and patted both their heads. "This is not
+the sort of night for small animals to be out," he said paternally.
+"I'm afraid you've been up to some of your pranks again, Ratty. But
+come along; come into the kitchen. There's a first-rate fire there,
+and supper and everything."
+
+He shuffled on in front of them, carrying the light, and they
+followed him, nudging each other in an anticipating sort of way, down
+a long, gloomy, and, to tell the truth, decidedly shabby passage, into
+a sort of a central hall, out of which they could dimly see other long
+tunnel-like passages branching, passages mysterious and without
+apparent end. But there were doors in the hall as well--stout oaken,
+comfortable-looking doors. One of these the Badger flung open, and at
+once they found themselves in all the glow and warmth of a large
+fire-lit kitchen.
+
+The floor was well-worn red brick, and on the wide hearth burnt a fire
+of logs, between two attractive chimney-corners tucked away in the
+wall, well out of any suspicion of draught. A couple of high-backed
+settles, facing each other on either side of the fire, gave further
+sitting accommodations for the sociably disposed. In the middle of the
+room stood a long table of plain boards placed on trestles, with
+benches down each side. At one end of it, where an arm-chair stood
+pushed back, were spread the remains of the Badger's plain but ample
+supper. Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser
+at the far end of the room, and from the rafters overhead hung hams,
+bundles of dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs. It seemed
+a place where heroes could fitly feast after victory, where weary
+harvesters could line up in scores along the table and keep their
+Harvest Home with mirth and song, or where two or three friends of
+simple tastes could sit about as they pleased and eat and smoke and
+talk in comfort and contentment. The ruddy brick floor smiled up at
+the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged
+cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at
+pots on the shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over
+everything without distinction.
+
+The kindly Badger thrust them down on a settle to toast themselves at
+the fire, and bade them remove their wet coats and boots. Then he
+fetched them dressing-gowns and slippers, and himself bathed the
+Mole's shin with warm water and mended the cut with sticking-plaster,
+till the whole thing was just as good as new, if not better. In the
+embracing light and warmth, warm and dry at last, with weary legs
+propped up in front of them, and a suggestive clink of plates being
+arranged on the table behind, it seemed to the storm-driven animals,
+now in safe anchorage, that the cold and trackless Wild Wood just left
+outside was miles and miles away, and all that they had suffered in it
+a half-forgotten dream.
+
+When at last they were thoroughly toasted, the Badger summoned them to
+the table, where he had been busy laying a repast. They had felt
+pretty hungry before, but when they actually saw at last the supper
+that was spread for them, really it seemed only a question of what
+they should attack first where all was so attractive, and whether the
+other things would obligingly wait for them till they had time to give
+them attention. Conversation was impossible for a long time; and when
+it was slowly resumed, it was that regrettable sort of conversation
+that results from talking with your mouth full. The Badger did not
+mind that sort of thing at all, nor did he take any notice of elbows
+on the table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into
+Society himself, he had got an idea that these things belonged to the
+things that didn't really matter. (We know of course that he was
+wrong, and took too narrow a view; because they do matter very much,
+though it would take too long to explain why.) He sat in his arm-chair
+at the head of the table, and nodded gravely at intervals as the
+animals told their story; and he did not seem surprised or shocked at
+anything, and he never said, "I told you so," or, "Just what I always
+said," or remarked that they ought to have done so-and-so, or ought
+not to have done something else. The Mole began to feel very friendly
+towards him.
+
+When supper was really finished at last, and each animal felt that his
+skin was now as tight as was decently safe, and that by this time he
+didn't care a hang for anybody or anything, they gathered round the
+glowing embers of the great wood fire, and thought how jolly it was to
+be sitting up _so_ late, and _so_ independent, and _so_ full; and
+after they had chatted for a time about things in general, the Badger
+said heartily, "Now then! tell us the news from your part of the
+world. How's old Toad going on?"
+
+"Oh, from bad to worse," said the Rat gravely, while the Mole, cocked
+up on a settle and basking in the firelight, his heels higher than his
+head, tried to look properly mournful. "Another smash-up only last
+week, and a bad one. You see, he will insist on driving himself, and
+he's hopelessly incapable. If he'd only employ a decent, steady,
+well-trained animal, pay him good wages, and leave everything to him,
+he'd get on all right. But no; he's convinced he's a heaven-born
+driver, and nobody can teach him anything; and all the rest follows."
+
+"How many has he had?" inquired the Badger gloomily.
+
+"Smashes, or machines?" asked the Rat. "Oh, well, after all, it's the
+same thing--with Toad. This is the seventh. As for the others--you
+know that coach-house of his? Well, it's piled up--literally piled up
+to the roof--with fragments of motor-cars, none of them bigger than
+your hat! That accounts for the other six--so far as they can be
+accounted for."
+
+"He's been in hospital three times," put in the Mole; "and as for the
+fines he's had to pay, it's simply awful to think of."
+
+"Yes, and that's part of the trouble," continued the Rat. "Toad's
+rich, we all know; but he's not a millionaire. And he's a hopelessly
+bad driver, and quite regardless of law and order. Killed or
+ruined--it's got to be one of the two things, sooner or later. Badger!
+we're his friends--oughtn't we to do something?"
+
+The Badger went through a bit of hard thinking. "Now look here!" he
+said at last, rather severely; "of course you know I can't do anything
+_now_?"
+
+His two friends assented, quite understanding his point. No animal,
+according to the rules of animal etiquette, is ever expected to do
+anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the
+off-season of winter. All are sleepy--some actually asleep. All are
+weather-bound, more or less; and all are resting from arduous days and
+nights, during which every muscle in them has been severely tested,
+and every energy kept at full stretch.
+
+"Very well then!" continued the Badger. "_But_, when once the year has
+really turned, and the nights are shorter, and half-way through them
+one rouses and feels fidgety and wanting to be up and doing by
+sunrise, if not before--_you_ know!--"
+
+Both animals nodded gravely. _They_ knew!
+
+"Well, _then_," went on the Badger, "we--that is, you and me and our
+friend the Mole here--we'll take Toad seriously in hand. We'll stand
+no nonsense whatever. We'll bring him back to reason, by force if need
+be. We'll _make_ him be a sensible Toad. We'll--you're asleep, Rat!"
+
+"Not me!" said the Rat, waking up with a jerk.
+
+"He's been asleep two or three times since supper," said the Mole,
+laughing. He himself was feeling quite wakeful and even lively, though
+he didn't know why. The reason was, of course, that he being naturally
+an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of
+Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the
+Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on
+a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.
+
+"Well, it's time we were all in bed," said the Badger, getting up and
+fetching flat candlesticks. "Come along, you two, and I'll show you
+your quarters. And take your time to-morrow morning--breakfast at any
+hour you please!"
+
+He conducted the two animals to a long room that seemed half
+bedchamber and half loft. The Badger's winter stores, which indeed
+were visible everywhere, took up half the room--piles of apples,
+turnips, and potatoes, baskets full of nuts, and jars of honey; but
+the two little white beds on the remainder of the floor looked soft
+and inviting, and the linen on them, though coarse, was clean and
+smelt beautifully of lavender; and the Mole and the Water Rat, shaking
+off their garments in some thirty seconds, tumbled in between the
+sheets in great joy and contentment.
+
+In accordance with the kindly Badger's injunctions, the two tired
+animals came down to breakfast very late next morning, and found a
+bright fire burning in the kitchen, and two young hedgehogs sitting on
+a bench at the table, eating oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls. The
+hedgehogs dropped their spoons, rose to their feet, and ducked their
+heads respectfully as the two entered.
+
+"There, sit down, sit down," said the Rat pleasantly, "and go on with
+your porridge. Where have you youngsters come from? Lost your way in
+the snow, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes, please, sir," said the elder of the two hedgehogs respectfully.
+"Me and little Billy here, we was trying to find our way to
+school--mother _would_ have us go, was the weather ever so--and of
+course we lost ourselves, sir, and Billy he got frightened and took
+and cried, being young and faint-hearted. And at last we happened up
+against Mr. Badger's back door, and made so bold as to knock, sir, for
+Mr. Badger he's a kind-hearted gentleman, as every one knows--"
+
+"I understand," said the Rat, cutting himself some rashers from a side
+of bacon, while the Mole dropped some eggs into a saucepan. "And
+what's the weather like outside? You needn't 'sir' me quite so much,"
+he added.
+
+"O, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is," said the hedgehog.
+"No getting out for the likes of you gentlemen to-day."
+
+"Where's Mr. Badger?" inquired the Mole as he warmed the coffee-pot
+before the fire.
+
+"The master's gone into his study, sir," replied the hedgehog, "and he
+said as how he was going to be particular busy this morning, and on no
+account was he to be disturbed."
+
+This explanation, of course, was thoroughly understood by every one
+present. The fact is, as already set forth, when you live a life of
+intense activity for six months in the year, and of comparative or
+actual somnolence for the other six, during the latter period you
+cannot be continually pleading sleepiness when there are people about
+or things to be done. The excuse gets monotonous. The animals well
+knew that Badger, having eaten a hearty breakfast, had retired to his
+study and settled himself in an arm-chair with his legs up on another
+and a red cotton handkerchief over his face, and was being "busy" in
+the usual way at this time of the year.
+
+The front-door bell clanged loudly, and the Rat, who was very greasy
+with buttered toast, sent Billy, the smaller hedgehog, to see who it
+might be. There was a sound of much stamping in the hall, and
+presently Billy returned in front of the Otter, who threw himself on
+the Rat with an embrace and a shout of affectionate greeting.
+
+"Get off!" spluttered the Rat, with his mouth full.
+
+"Thought I should find you here all right," said the Otter cheerfully.
+"They were all in a great state of alarm along River Bank when I
+arrived this morning. Rat never been home all night--nor Mole
+either--something dreadful must have happened, they said; and the snow
+had covered up all your tracks, of course. But I knew that when people
+were in any fix they mostly went to Badger, or else Badger got to
+know of it somehow, so I came straight off here, through the Wild Wood
+and the snow! My! it was fine, coming through the snow as the red sun
+was rising and showing against the black tree-trunks! As you went
+along in the stillness, every now and then masses of snow slid off the
+branches suddenly with a flop! making you jump and run for cover.
+Snow-castles and snow-caverns had sprung up out of nowhere in the
+night--and snow bridges, terraces, ramparts--I could have stayed and
+played with them for hours. Here and there great branches had been
+torn away by the sheer weight of the snow, and robins perched and
+hopped on them in their perky conceited way, just as if they had done
+it themselves. A ragged string of wild geese passed overhead, high on
+the grey sky, and a few rooks whirled over the trees, inspected, and
+flapped off homewards with a disgusted expression; but I met no
+sensible being to ask the news of. About half-way across I came on a
+rabbit sitting on a stump, cleaning his silly face with his paws. He
+was a pretty scared animal when I crept up behind him and placed a
+heavy fore-paw on his shoulder. I had to cuff his head once or
+twice to get any sense out of it at all. At last I managed to extract
+from him that Mole had been seen in the Wild Wood last night by one of
+them. It was the talk of the burrows, he said, how Mole, Mr. Rat's
+particular friend, was in a bad fix; how he had lost his way, and
+'They' were up and out hunting, and were chivvying him round and
+round. 'Then why didn't any of you _do_ something?' I asked. 'You
+mayn't be blessed with brains, but there are hundreds and hundreds of
+you, big, stout fellows, as fat as butter, and your burrows running in
+all directions, and you could have taken him in and made him safe and
+comfortable, or tried to, at all events.' 'What, _us_?' he merely
+said: '_do_ something? us rabbits?' So I cuffed him again and left
+him. There was nothing else to be done. At any rate, I had learnt
+something; and if I had had the luck to meet any of 'Them' I'd have
+learnt something more--or _they_ would."
+
+[Illustration: _Through the Wild Wood and the snow_]
+
+"Weren't you at all--er--nervous?" asked the Mole, some of yesterday's
+terror coming back to him at the mention of the Wild Wood.
+
+"Nervous?" The Otter showed a gleaming set of strong white teeth as he
+laughed. "I'd give 'em nerves if any of them tried anything on with
+me. Here, Mole, fry me some slices of ham, like the good little chap
+you are. I'm frightfully hungry, and I've got any amount to say to
+Ratty here. Haven't seen him for an age."
+
+So the good-natured Mole, having cut some slices of ham, set the
+hedgehogs to fry it, and returned to his own breakfast, while the
+Otter and the Rat, their heads together, eagerly talked river-shop,
+which is long shop and talk that is endless, running on like the
+babbling river itself.
+
+A plate of fried ham had just been cleared and sent back for more,
+when the Badger entered, yawning and rubbing his eyes, and greeted
+them all in his quiet, simple way, with kind inquiries for every one.
+"It must be getting on for luncheon time," he remarked to the Otter.
+"Better stop and have it with us. You must be hungry, this cold
+morning."
+
+"Rather!" replied the Otter, winking at the Mole. "The sight of these
+greedy young hedgehogs stuffing themselves with fried ham makes me
+feel positively famished."
+
+The hedgehogs, who were just beginning to feel hungry again after
+their porridge, and after working so hard at their frying, looked
+timidly up at Mr. Badger, but were too shy to say anything.
+
+"Here, you two youngsters, be off home to your mother," said the
+Badger kindly. "I'll send some one with you to show you the way. You
+won't want any dinner to-day, I'll be bound."
+
+He gave them sixpence a-piece and a pat on the head, and they went off
+with much respectful swinging of caps and touching of forelocks.
+
+Presently they all sat down to luncheon together. The Mole found
+himself placed next to Mr. Badger, and, as the other two were still
+deep in river-gossip from which nothing could divert them, he took the
+opportunity to tell Badger how comfortable and home-like it all felt
+to him. "Once well underground," he said, "you know exactly where you
+are. Nothing can happen to you, and nothing can get at you. You're
+entirely your own master, and you don't have to consult anybody or
+mind what they say. Things go on all the same overhead, and you let
+'em, and don't bother about 'em. When you want to, up you go, and
+there the things are, waiting for you."
+
+The Badger simply beamed on him. "That's exactly what I say," he
+replied. "There's no security, or peace and tranquillity, except
+underground. And then, if your ideas get larger and you want to
+expand--why, a dig and a scrape, and there you are! If you feel your
+house is a bit too big, you stop up a hole or two, and there you are
+again! No builders, no tradesmen, no remarks passed on you by fellows
+looking over your wall, and, above all, no _weather_. Look at Rat,
+now. A couple of feet of flood water, and he's got to move into hired
+lodgings; uncomfortable, inconveniently situated, and horribly
+expensive. Take Toad. I say nothing against Toad Hall; quite the best
+house in these parts, _as_ a house. But supposing a fire breaks
+out--where's Toad? Supposing tiles are blown off, or walls sink or
+crack, or windows get broken--where's Toad? Supposing the rooms are
+draughty--I _hate_ a draught myself--where's Toad? No, up and out of
+doors is good enough to roam about and get one's living in; but
+underground to come back to at last--that's my idea of _home_!"
+
+The Mole assented heartily; and the Badger in consequence got very
+friendly with him. "When lunch is over," he said, "I'll take you all
+round this little place of mine. I can see you'll appreciate it. You
+understand what domestic architecture ought to be, you do."
+
+After luncheon, accordingly, when the other two had settled themselves
+into the chimney-corner and had started a heated argument on the
+subject of _eels_, the Badger lighted a lantern and bade the Mole
+follow him. Crossing the hall, they passed down one of the principal
+tunnels, and the wavering light of the lantern gave glimpses on either
+side of rooms both large and small, some mere cupboards, others
+nearly as broad and imposing as Toad's dining-hall. A narrow passage
+at right angles led them into another corridor, and here the same
+thing was repeated. The Mole was staggered at the size, the extent,
+the ramifications of it all; at the length of the dim passages, the
+solid vaultings of the crammed store-chambers, the masonry everywhere,
+the pillars, the arches, the pavements. "How on earth, Badger," he
+said at last, "did you ever find time and strength to do all this?
+It's astonishing!"
+
+"It _would_ be astonishing indeed," said the Badger simply, "if I
+_had_ done it. But as a matter of fact I did none of it--only cleaned
+out the passages and chambers, as far as I had need of them. There's
+lots more of it, all round about. I see you don't understand, and I
+must explain it to you. Well, very long ago, on the spot where the
+Wild Wood waves now, before ever it had planted itself and grown up to
+what it now is, there was a city--a city of people, you know. Here,
+where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and talked, and slept,
+and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and
+feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They
+were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to
+last, for they thought their city would last for ever."
+
+"But what has become of them all?" asked the Mole.
+
+"Who can tell?" said the Badger. "People come--they stay for a while,
+they flourish, they build--and they go. It is their way. But we
+remain. There were badgers here, I've been told, long before that same
+city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an
+enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are
+patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be."
+
+"Well, and when they went at last, those people?" said the Mole.
+
+"When they went," continued the Badger, "the strong winds and
+persistent rains took the matter in hand, patiently, ceaselessly, year
+after year. Perhaps we badgers too, in our small way, helped a
+little--who knows? It was all down, down, down, gradually--ruin and
+levelling and disappearance. Then it was all up, up, up, gradually, as
+seeds grew to saplings, and saplings to forest trees, and bramble and
+fern came creeping in to help. Leaf-mould rose and obliterated,
+streams in their winter freshets brought sand and soil to clog and to
+cover, and in course of time our home was ready for us again, and we
+moved in. Up above us, on the surface, the same thing happened.
+Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters,
+settled down, spread, and flourished. They didn't bother themselves
+about the past--they never do; they're too busy. The place was a bit
+humpy and hillocky, naturally, and full of holes; but that was rather
+an advantage. And they don't bother about the future, either--the
+future when perhaps the people will move in again--for a time--as may
+very well be. The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all
+the usual lot, good, bad, and indifferent--I name no names. It takes
+all sorts to make a world. But I fancy you know something about them
+yourself by this time."
+
+"I do indeed," said the Mole, with a slight shiver.
+
+"Well, well," said the Badger, patting him on the shoulder, "it was
+your first experience of them, you see. They're not so bad really; and
+we must all live and let live. But I'll pass the word around
+to-morrow, and I think you'll have no further trouble. Any friend of
+_mine_ walks where he likes in this country, or I'll know the reason
+why!"
+
+When they got back to the kitchen again, they found the Rat walking up
+and down, very restless. The underground atmosphere was oppressing him
+and getting on his nerves, and he seemed really to be afraid that the
+river would run away if he wasn't there to look after it. So he had
+his overcoat on, and his pistols thrust into his belt again. "Come
+along, Mole," he said anxiously, as soon as he caught sight of them.
+"We must get off while it's daylight. Don't want to spend another
+night in the Wild Wood again."
+
+"It'll be all right, my fine fellow," said the Otter. "I'm coming
+along with you, and I know every path blindfold; and if there's a
+head that needs to be punched, you can confidently rely upon me to
+punch it."
+
+"You really needn't fret, Ratty," added the Badger placidly. "My
+passages run further than you think, and I've bolt-holes to the edge
+of the wood in several directions, though I don't care for everybody
+to know about them. When you really have to go, you shall leave by one
+of my short cuts. Meantime, make yourself easy, and sit down again."
+
+The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to be off and attend to his
+river, so the Badger, taking up his lantern again, led the way along a
+damp and airless tunnel that wound and dipped, part vaulted, part hewn
+through solid rock, for a weary distance that seemed to be miles. At
+last daylight began to show itself confusedly through tangled growth
+overhanging the mouth of the passage; and the Badger, bidding them a
+hasty good-bye, pushed them hurriedly through the opening, made
+everything look as natural as possible again, with creepers,
+brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated.
+
+They found themselves standing on the very edge of the Wild Wood. Rocks
+and brambles and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped and tangled;
+in front, a great space of quiet fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black
+on the snow, and, far ahead, a glint of the familiar old river, while
+the wintry sun hung red and low on the horizon. The Otter, as knowing
+all the paths, took charge of the party, and they trailed out on a
+bee-line for a distant stile. Pausing there a moment and looking back,
+they saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense, menacing, compact,
+grimly set in vast white surroundings; simultaneously they turned and
+made swiftly for home, for firelight and the familiar things it played
+on, for the voice, sounding cheerily outside their window, of the river
+that they knew and trusted in all its moods, that never made them afraid
+with any amazement.
+
+As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be
+at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly
+that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the
+ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening
+lingerings, the cultivated garden-plot. For others the asperities, the
+stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with
+Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places
+in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their
+way, to last for a lifetime.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+DULCE DOMUM
+
+
+The sheep ran huddling together against the hurdles, blowing out thin
+nostrils and stamping with delicate fore-feet, their heads thrown back
+and a light steam rising from the crowded sheep-pen into the frosty
+air, as the two animals hastened by in high spirits, with much chatter
+and laughter. They were returning across country after a long day's
+outing with Otter, hunting and exploring on the wide uplands, where
+certain streams tributary to their own River had their first small
+beginnings; and the shades of the short winter day were closing in on
+them, and they had still some distance to go. Plodding at random
+across the plough, they had heard the sheep and had made for them; and
+now, leading from the sheep-pen, they found a beaten track that made
+walking a lighter business, and responded, moreover, to that small
+inquiring something which all animals carry inside them, saying
+unmistakably, "Yes, quite right; _this_ leads home!"
+
+"It looks as if we were coming to a village," said the Mole somewhat
+dubiously, slackening his pace, as the track, that had in time become
+a path and then had developed into a lane, now handed them over to the
+charge of a well-metalled road. The animals did not hold with
+villages, and their own highways, thickly frequented as they were,
+took an independent course, regardless of church, post-office, or
+public-house.
+
+"Oh, never mind!" said the Rat. "At this season of the year they're
+all safe indoors by this time, sitting round the fire; men, women, and
+children, dogs and cats and all. We shall slip through all right,
+without any bother or unpleasantness, and we can have a look at them
+through their windows if you like, and see what they're doing."
+
+The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village
+as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery
+snow. Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either
+side of the street, where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage
+overflowed through the casements into the dark world without. Most of
+the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the
+lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea-table,
+absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each
+that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall
+capture--the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of
+observation. Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two
+spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness
+in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child
+picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out
+his pipe on the end of a smouldering log.
+
+But it was from one little window, with its blind drawn down, a mere
+blank transparency on the night, that the sense of home and the little
+curtained world within walls--the larger stressful world of outside
+Nature shut out and forgotten--most pulsated. Close against the white
+blind hung a bird-cage, clearly silhouetted, every wire, perch, and
+appurtenance distinct and recognisable, even to yesterday's dull-edged
+lump of sugar. On the middle perch the fluffy occupant, head tucked
+well into feathers, seemed so near to them as to be easily stroked,
+had they tried; even the delicate tips of his plumped-out plumage
+pencilled plainly on the illuminated screen. As they looked, the
+sleepy little fellow stirred uneasily, woke, shook himself, and raised
+his head. They could see the gape of his tiny beak as he yawned in a
+bored sort of way, looked round, and then settled his head into his
+back again, while the ruffled feathers gradually subsided into perfect
+stillness. Then a gust of bitter wind took them in the back of the
+neck, a small sting of frozen sleet on the skin woke them as from a
+dream, and they knew their toes to be cold and their legs tired, and
+their own home distant a weary way.
+
+Once beyond the village, where the cottages ceased abruptly, on either
+side of the road they could smell through the darkness the friendly
+fields again; and they braced themselves for the last long stretch,
+the home stretch, the stretch that we know is bound to end, some time,
+in the rattle of the door-latch, the sudden firelight, and the sight
+of familiar things greeting us as long-absent travellers from far
+over-sea. They plodded along steadily and silently, each of them
+thinking his own thoughts. The Mole's ran a good deal on supper, as it
+was pitch-dark, and it was all a strange country for him as far as he
+knew, and he was following obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving
+the guidance entirely to him. As for the Rat, he was walking a little
+way ahead, as his habit was, his shoulders humped, his eyes fixed on
+the straight grey road in front of him; so he did not notice poor Mole
+when suddenly the summons reached him, and took him like an electric
+shock.
+
+We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses,
+have not even proper terms to express an animal's inter-communications
+with his surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word
+"smell," for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills
+which murmur in the nose of the animal night and day, summoning,
+warning, inciting, repelling. It was one of these mysterious fairy
+calls from out the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness,
+making him tingle through and through with its very familiar appeal,
+even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. He stopped
+dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its
+efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that
+had so strongly moved him. A moment, and he had caught it again; and
+with it this time came recollection in fullest flood.
+
+Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft
+touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling
+and tugging, all one way! Why, it must be quite close by him at that
+moment, his old home that he had hurriedly forsaken and never sought
+again, that day when he first found the River! And now it was sending
+out its scouts and its messengers to capture him and bring him in.
+Since his escape on that bright morning he had hardly given it a
+thought, so absorbed had he been in his new life, in all its
+pleasures, its surprises, its fresh and captivating experiences. Now,
+with a rush of old memories, how clearly it stood up before him, in
+the darkness! Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet
+his, the home he had made for himself, the home he had been so happy
+to get back to after his day's work. And the home had been happy with
+him, too, evidently, and was missing him, and wanted him back, and was
+telling him so, through his nose, sorrowfully, reproachfully, but with
+no bitterness or anger; only with plaintive reminder that it was
+there, and wanted him.
+
+The call was clear, the summons was plain. He must obey it instantly,
+and go. "Ratty!" he called, full of joyful excitement, "hold on! Come
+back! I want you, quick!"
+
+"Oh, _come_ along, Mole, do!" replied the Rat cheerfully, still
+plodding along.
+
+"_Please_ stop, Ratty!" pleaded the poor Mole, in anguish of heart.
+"You don't understand! It's my home, my old home! I've just come
+across the smell of it, and it's close by here, really quite close.
+And I _must_ go to it, I must, I must! Oh, come back, Ratty! Please,
+please come back!"
+
+The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too far to hear clearly what
+the Mole was calling, too far to catch the sharp note of painful
+appeal in his voice. And he was much taken up with the weather, for he
+too, could smell something--something suspiciously like approaching
+snow.
+
+"Mole, we mustn't stop now, really!" he called back. "We'll come for
+it to-morrow, whatever it is you've found. But I daren't stop
+now--it's late, and the snow's coming on again, and I'm not sure of
+the way! And I want your nose, Mole, so come on quick, there's a good
+fellow!" And the Rat pressed forward on his way without waiting for an
+answer.
+
+Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, and a big
+sob gathering, gathering, somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to
+the surface presently, he knew, in passionate escape. But even under
+such a test as this his loyalty to his friend stood firm. Never for a
+moment did he dream of abandoning him. Meanwhile, the wafts from his
+old home pleaded, whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him
+imperiously. He dared not tarry longer within their magic circle. With
+a wrench that tore his very heart-strings he set his face down the
+road and followed submissively in the track of the Rat, while faint,
+thin little smells, still dogging his retreating nose, reproached him
+for his new friendship and his callous forgetfulness.
+
+With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting Rat, who began
+chattering cheerfully about what they would do when they got back, and
+how jolly a fire of logs in the parlour would be, and what a supper he
+meant to eat; never noticing his companion's silence and distressful
+state of mind. At last, however, when they had gone some considerable
+way further, and were passing some tree stumps at the edge of a copse
+that bordered the road, he stopped and said kindly, "Look here, Mole,
+old chap, you seem dead tired. No talk left in you, and your feet
+dragging like lead. We'll sit down here for a minute and rest. The
+snow has held off so far, and the best part of our journey is over."
+
+The Mole subsided forlornly on a tree stump and tried to control
+himself, for he felt it surely coming. The sob he had fought with so
+long refused to be beaten. Up and up, it forced its way to the air,
+and then another, and another, and others thick and fast; till poor
+Mole at last gave up the struggle, and cried freely and helplessly and
+openly, now that he knew it was all over and he had lost what he could
+hardly be said to have found.
+
+The Rat, astonished and dismayed at the violence of Mole's paroxysm of
+grief, did not dare to speak for a while. At last he said, very
+quietly and sympathetically, "What is it, old fellow? Whatever can be
+the matter? Tell us your trouble, and let me see what I can do."
+
+Poor Mole found it difficult to get any words out between the
+upheavals of his chest that followed one upon another so quickly and
+held back speech and choked it as it came. "I know it's a--shabby,
+dingy little place," he sobbed forth at last brokenly: "not like--your
+cosy quarters--or Toad's beautiful hall--or Badger's great house--but
+it was my own little home--and I was fond of it--and I went away and
+forgot all about it--and then I smelt it suddenly--on the road, when I
+called and you wouldn't listen, Rat--and everything came back to me
+with a rush--and I _wanted_ it!--O dear, O dear!--and when you
+_wouldn't_ turn back, Ratty--and I had to leave it, though I was
+smelling it all the time--I thought my heart would break.--We might
+have just gone and had one look at it, Ratty--only one look--it was
+close by--but you wouldn't turn back, Ratty, you wouldn't turn back! O
+dear, O dear!"
+
+Recollection brought fresh waves of sorrow, and sobs again took full
+charge of him, preventing further speech.
+
+The Rat stared straight in front of him, saying nothing, only patting
+Mole gently on the shoulder. After a time he muttered gloomily, "I see
+it all now! What a _pig_ I have been! A pig--that's me! Just a pig--a
+plain pig!"
+
+He waited till Mole's sobs became gradually less stormy and more
+rhythmical; he waited till at last sniffs were frequent and sobs only
+intermittent. Then he rose from his seat, and, remarking carelessly,
+"Well, now we'd really better be getting on, old chap!" set off up the
+road again over the toilsome way they had come.
+
+"Wherever are you (hic) going to (hic), Ratty?" cried the tearful
+Mole, looking up in alarm.
+
+"We're going to find that home of yours, old fellow," replied the Rat
+pleasantly; "so you had better come along, for it will take some
+finding, and we shall want your nose."
+
+"Oh, come back, Ratty, do!" cried the Mole, getting up and hurrying
+after him. "It's no good, I tell you! It's too late, and too dark, and
+the place is too far off, and the snow's coming! And--and I never
+meant to let you know I was feeling that way about it--it was all an
+accident and a mistake! And think of River Bank, and your supper!"
+
+"Hang River Bank, and supper, too!" said the Rat heartily. "I tell
+you, I'm going to find this place now, if I stay out all night. So
+cheer up, old chap, and take my arm, and we'll very soon be back there
+again."
+
+Still snuffling, pleading, and reluctant, Mole suffered himself to be
+dragged back along the road by his imperious companion, who by a flow
+of cheerful talk and anecdote endeavoured to beguile his spirits back
+and make the weary way seem shorter. When at last it seemed to the Rat
+that they must be nearing that part of the road where the Mole had
+been "held up," he said, "Now, no more talking. Business! Use your
+nose, and give your mind to it."
+
+They moved on in silence for some little way, when suddenly the Rat
+was conscious, through his arm that was linked in Mole's, of a faint
+sort of electric thrill that was passing down that animal's body.
+Instantly he disengaged himself, fell back a pace, and waited, all
+attention.
+
+The signals were coming through!
+
+Mole stood a moment rigid, while his uplifted nose, quivering
+slightly, felt the air.
+
+Then a short, quick run forward--a fault--a check--a try back; and
+then a slow, steady, confident advance.
+
+The Rat, much excited, kept close to his heels as the Mole, with
+something of the air of a sleep-walker, crossed a dry ditch, scrambled
+through a hedge, and nosed his way over a field open and trackless and
+bare in the faint starlight.
+
+Suddenly, without giving warning, he dived; but the Rat was on the
+alert, and promptly followed him down the tunnel to which his unerring
+nose had faithfully led him.
+
+It was close and airless, and the earthy smell was strong, and it
+seemed a long time to Rat ere the passage ended and he could stand
+erect and stretch and shake himself. The Mole struck a match, and by
+its light the Rat saw that they were standing in an open space, neatly
+swept and sanded underfoot, and directly facing them was Mole's little
+front door, with "Mole End" painted, in Gothic lettering, over the
+bell-pull at the side.
+
+Mole reached down a lantern from a nail on the wall and lit it, and the
+Rat, looking round him, saw that they were in a sort of fore-court. A
+garden-seat stood on one side of the door, and on the other a roller;
+for the Mole, who was a tidy animal when at home, could not stand having
+his ground kicked up by other animals into little runs that ended in
+earth-heaps. On the walls hung wire baskets with ferns in them,
+alternating with brackets carrying plaster statuary--Garibaldi, and the
+infant Samuel, and Queen Victoria, and other heroes of modern Italy.
+Down on one side of the fore-court ran a skittle-alley, with benches
+along it and little wooden tables marked with rings that hinted at
+beer-mugs. In the middle was a small round pond containing gold-fish and
+surrounded by a cockle-shell border. Out of the centre of the pond rose
+a fanciful erection clothed in more cockle-shells and topped by a large
+silvered glass ball that reflected everything all wrong and had a very
+pleasing effect.
+
+Mole's face beamed at the sight of all these objects so dear to him,
+and he hurried Rat through the door, lit a lamp in the hall, and took
+one glance round his old home. He saw the dust lying thick on
+everything, saw the cheerless, deserted look of the long-neglected
+house, and its narrow, meagre dimensions, its worn and shabby
+contents--and collapsed again on a hall-chair, his nose to his paws.
+"O Ratty!" he cried dismally, "why ever did I do it? Why did I bring
+you to this poor, cold little place, on a night like this, when you
+might have been at River Bank by this time, toasting your toes before
+a blazing fire, with all your own nice things about you!"
+
+The Rat paid no heed to his doleful self-reproaches. He was running
+here and there, opening doors, inspecting rooms and cupboards, and
+lighting lamps and candles and sticking them up everywhere. "What a
+capital little house this is!" he called out cheerily. "So compact! So
+well planned! Everything here and everything in its place! We'll make
+a jolly night of it. The first thing we want is a good fire; I'll see
+to that--I always know where to find things. So this is the parlour?
+Splendid! Your own idea, those little sleeping-bunks in the wall?
+Capital! Now, I'll fetch the wood and the coals, and you get a duster,
+Mole--you'll find one in the drawer of the kitchen table--and try and
+smarten things up a bit. Bustle about, old chap!"
+
+Encouraged by his inspiriting companion, the Mole roused himself and
+dusted and polished with energy and heartiness, while the Rat, running
+to and fro with armfuls of fuel, soon had a cheerful blaze roaring up
+the chimney. He hailed the Mole to come and warm himself; but Mole
+promptly had another fit of the blues, dropping down on a couch in
+dark despair and burying his face in his duster. "Rat," he moaned,
+"how about your supper, you poor, cold, hungry, weary animal? I've
+nothing to give you--nothing--not a crumb!"
+
+"What a fellow you are for giving in!" said the Rat reproachfully.
+"Why, only just now I saw a sardine-opener on the kitchen dresser,
+quite distinctly; and everybody knows that means there are sardines
+about somewhere in the neighbourhood. Rouse yourself! pull yourself
+together, and come with me and forage."
+
+They went and foraged accordingly, hunting through every cupboard and
+turning out every drawer. The result was not so very depressing after
+all, though of course it might have been better; a tin of sardines--a
+box of captain's biscuits, nearly full--and a German sausage encased
+in silver paper.
+
+"There's a banquet for you!" observed the Rat, as he arranged the
+table. "I know some animals who would give their ears to be sitting
+down to supper with us to-night!"
+
+"No bread!" groaned the Mole dolorously; "no butter, no--"
+
+"No _pate de foie gras_, no champagne!" continued the Rat, grinning.
+"And that reminds me--what's that little door at the end of the
+passage? Your cellar, of course! Every luxury in this house! Just you
+wait a minute."
+
+He made for the cellar-door, and presently reappeared, somewhat dusty,
+with a bottle of beer in each paw and another under each arm,
+"Self-indulgent beggar you seem to be, Mole," he observed. "Deny
+yourself nothing. This is really the jolliest little place I ever was
+in. Now, wherever did you pick up those prints? Make the place look so
+home-like, they do. No wonder you're so fond of it, Mole. Tell us all
+about it, and how you came to make it what it is."
+
+Then, while the Rat busied himself fetching plates, and knives and
+forks, and mustard which he mixed in an egg-cup, the Mole, his bosom
+still heaving with the stress of his recent emotion, related--somewhat
+shyly at first, but with more freedom as he warmed to his subject--how
+this was planned, and how that was thought out, and how this was got
+through a windfall from an aunt, and that was a wonderful find and a
+bargain, and this other thing was bought out of laborious savings and
+a certain amount of "going without." His spirits finally quite
+restored, he must needs go and caress his possessions, and take a lamp
+and show off their points to his visitor and expatiate on them, quite
+forgetful of the supper they both so much needed; Rat, who was
+desperately hungry but strove to conceal it, nodding seriously,
+examining with a puckered brow, and saying, "wonderful," and "most
+remarkable," at intervals, when the chance for an observation was
+given him.
+
+At last the Rat succeeded in decoying him to the table, and had just
+got seriously to work with the sardine-opener when sounds were heard
+from the fore-court without--sounds like the scuffling of small feet
+in the gravel and a confused murmur of tiny voices, while broken
+sentences reached them--"Now, all in a line--hold the lantern up a
+bit, Tommy--clear your throats first--no coughing after I say one,
+two, three.--Where's young Bill?--Here, come on, do, we're all
+a-waiting--"
+
+"What's up?" inquired the Rat, pausing in his labours.
+
+"I think it must be the field-mice," replied the Mole, with a touch of
+pride in his manner. "They go round carol-singing regularly at this
+time of the year. They're quite an institution in these parts. And
+they never pass me over--they come to Mole End last of all; and I used
+to give them hot drinks, and supper too sometimes, when I could afford
+it. It will be like old times to hear them again."
+
+"Let's have a look at them!" cried the Rat, jumping up and running to
+the door.
+
+It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when
+they flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a
+horn lantern, some eight or ten little field-mice stood in a
+semicircle, red worsted comforters round their throats, their
+fore-paws thrust deep into their pockets, their feet jigging for
+warmth. With bright beady eyes they glanced shyly at each other,
+sniggering a little, sniffing and applying coat-sleeves a good deal.
+As the door opened, one of the elder ones that carried the lantern was
+just saying, "Now then, one, two, three!" and forthwith their shrill
+little voices uprose on the air, singing one of the old-time carols
+that their forefathers composed in fields that were fallow and held by
+frost, or when snow-bound in chimney corners, and handed down to be
+sung in the miry street to lamp-lit windows at Yule-time.
+
+                   _CAROL_
+
+        _Villagers all, this frosty tide,
+        Let your doors swing open wide,
+        Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
+         Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
+            Joy shall be yours in the morning!_
+
+        _Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,
+        Blowing fingers and stamping feet,
+        Come from far away you to greet--
+        You by the fire and we in the street--
+            Bidding you joy in the morning!_
+
+        _For ere one half of the night was gone,
+        Sudden a star has led us on,
+        Raining bliss and benison--
+        Bliss to-morrow and more anon,
+            Joy for every morning!_
+
+        _Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow--
+        Saw the star o'er a stable low;
+        Mary she might not further go--
+        Welcome thatch, and litter below!
+            Joy was hers in the morning!_
+
+        _And then they heard the angels tell
+       "Who were the first to cry _Nowell_?
+        Animals all, as it befell,
+        In the stable where they did dwell!
+            Joy shall be theirs in the morning!"_
+
+The voices ceased, the singers, bashful but smiling, exchanged
+sidelong glances, and silence succeeded--but for a moment only. Then,
+from up above and far away, down the tunnel they had so lately
+travelled was borne to their ears in a faint musical hum the sound of
+distant bells ringing a joyful and clangorous peal.
+
+"Very well sung, boys!" cried the Rat heartily. "And now come along
+in, all of you, and warm yourselves by the fire, and have something
+hot!"
+
+"Yes, come along, field-mice," cried the Mole eagerly. "This is quite
+like old times! Shut the door after you. Pull up that settle to the
+fire. Now, you just wait a minute, while we--O, Ratty!" he cried in
+despair, plumping down on a seat, with tears impending. "Whatever are
+we doing? We've nothing to give them!"
+
+"You leave all that to me," said the masterful Rat. "Here, you with
+the lantern! Come over this way. I want to talk to you. Now, tell me,
+are there any shops open at this hour of the night?"
+
+"Why, certainly, sir," replied the field-mouse respectfully. "At this
+time of the year our shops keep open to all sorts of hours."
+
+"Then look here!" said the Rat. "You go off at once, you and your
+lantern, and you get me--"
+
+Here much muttered conversation ensued, and the Mole only heard bits
+of it, such as--"Fresh, mind!--no, a pound of that will do--see you
+get Buggins's, for I won't have any other--no, only the best--if you
+can't get it there, try somewhere else--yes, of course, home-made, no
+tinned stuff--well then, do the best you can!" Finally, there was a
+chink of coin passing from paw to paw, the field-mouse was provided
+with an ample basket for his purchases, and off he hurried, he and his
+lantern.
+
+The rest of the field-mice, perched in a row on the settle, their
+small legs swinging, gave themselves up to enjoyment of the fire, and
+toasted their chilblains till they tingled; while the Mole, failing to
+draw them into easy conversation, plunged into family history and made
+each of them recite the names of his numerous brothers, who were too
+young, it appeared, to be allowed to go out a-carolling this year, but
+looked forward very shortly to winning the parental consent.
+
+The Rat, meanwhile, was busy examining the label on one of the
+beer-bottles. "I perceive this to be Old Burton," he remarked
+approvingly. "_Sensible_ Mole! The very thing! Now we shall be able to
+mull some ale! Get the things ready, Mole, while I draw the corks."
+
+It did not take long to prepare the brew and thrust the tin heater
+well into the red heart of the fire; and soon every field-mouse was
+sipping and coughing and choking (for a little mulled ale goes a long
+way) and wiping his eyes and laughing and forgetting he had ever been
+cold in all his life.
+
+"They act plays, too, these fellows," the Mole explained to the Rat.
+"Make them up all by themselves, and act them afterwards. And very
+well they do it, too! They gave us a capital one last year, about a
+field-mouse who was captured at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to
+row in a galley; and when he escaped and got home again, his lady-love
+had gone into a convent. Here, _you_! You were in it, I remember. Get
+up and recite a bit."
+
+The field-mouse addressed got up on his legs, giggled shyly, looked
+round the room, and remained absolutely tongue-tied. His comrades
+cheered him on, Mole coaxed and encouraged him, and the Rat went so
+far as to take him by the shoulders and shake him; but nothing could
+overcome his stage-fright. They were all busily engaged on him like
+watermen applying the Royal Humane Society's regulations to a case of
+long submersion, when the latch clicked, the door opened, and the
+field-mouse with the lantern reappeared, staggering under the weight
+of his basket.
+
+There was no more talk of play-acting once the very real and solid
+contents of the basket had been tumbled out on the table. Under the
+generalship of Rat, everybody was set to do something or to fetch
+something. In a very few minutes supper was ready, and Mole, as he
+took the head of the table in a sort of a dream, saw a lately barren
+board set thick with savoury comforts; saw his little friends' faces
+brighten and beam as they fell to without delay; and then let himself
+loose--for he was famished indeed--on the provender so magically
+provided, thinking what a happy home-coming this had turned out, after
+all. As they ate, they talked of old times, and the field-mice gave
+him the local gossip up to date, and answered as well as they could
+the hundred questions he had to ask them. The Rat said little or
+nothing, only taking care that each guest had what he wanted, and
+plenty of it, and that Mole had no trouble or anxiety about anything.
+
+They clattered off at last, very grateful and showering wishes of the
+season, with their jacket pockets stuffed with remembrances for the
+small brothers and sisters at home. When the door had closed on the
+last of them and the chink of the lanterns had died away, Mole and Rat
+kicked the fire up, drew their chairs in, brewed themselves a last
+nightcap of mulled ale, and discussed the events of the long day. At
+last the Rat, with a tremendous yawn, said, "Mole, old chap, I'm ready
+to drop. Sleepy is simply not the word. That your own bunk over on
+that side? Very well, then, I'll take this. What a ripping little
+house this is! Everything so handy!"
+
+He clambered into his bunk and rolled himself well up in the blankets,
+and slumber gathered him forthwith, as a swathe of barley is folded
+into the arms of the reaping machine.
+
+The weary Mole also was glad to turn in without delay, and soon had
+his head on his pillow, in great joy and contentment. But ere he
+closed his eyes he let them wander round his old room, mellow in the
+glow of the firelight that played or rested on familiar and friendly
+things which had long been unconsciously a part of him, and now
+smilingly received him back, without rancour. He was now in just the
+frame of mind that the tactful Rat had quietly worked to bring about
+in him. He saw clearly how plain and simple--how narrow, even--it all
+was; but clearly, too, how much it all meant to him, and the special
+value of some such anchorage in one's existence. He did not at all
+want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back
+on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there;
+the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down
+there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was
+good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all
+his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could
+always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+MR. TOAD
+
+
+It was a bright morning in the early part of summer; the river had
+resumed its wonted banks and its accustomed pace, and a hot sun seemed
+to be pulling everything green and bushy and spiky up out of the earth
+towards him, as if by strings. The Mole and the Water Rat had been up
+since dawn, very busy on matters connected with boats and the opening
+of the boating season; painting and varnishing, mending paddles,
+repairing cushions, hunting for missing boat-hooks, and so on; and
+were finishing breakfast in their little parlour and eagerly
+discussing their plans for the day, when a heavy knock sounded at the
+door.
+
+"Bother!" said the Rat, all over egg. "See who it is, Mole, like a
+good chap, since you've finished."
+
+The Mole went to attend the summons, and the Rat heard him utter a cry
+of surprise. Then he flung the parlour door open, and announced with
+much importance, "Mr. Badger!"
+
+This was a wonderful thing, indeed, that the Badger should pay a
+formal call on them, or indeed on anybody. He generally had to be
+caught, if you wanted him badly, as he slipped quietly along a
+hedgerow of an early morning or a late evening, or else hunted up in
+his own house in the middle of the Wood, which was a serious
+undertaking.
+
+The Badger strode heavily into the room, and stood looking at the two
+animals with an expression full of seriousness. The Rat let his
+egg-spoon fall on the table-cloth, and sat open-mouthed.
+
+"The hour has come!" said the Badger at last with great solemnity.
+
+"What hour?" asked the Rat uneasily, glancing at the clock on the
+mantelpiece.
+
+"_Whose_ hour, you should rather say," replied the Badger. "Why,
+Toad's hour! The hour of Toad! I said I would take him in hand as
+soon as the winter was well over, and I'm going to take him in hand
+to-day!"
+
+"Toad's hour, of course!" cried the Mole delightedly. "Hooray! I
+remember now! _We'll_ teach him to be a sensible Toad!"
+
+"This very morning," continued the Badger, taking an arm-chair, "as I
+learnt last night from a trustworthy source, another new and
+exceptionally powerful motor-car will arrive at Toad Hall on approval
+or return. At this very moment, perhaps, Toad is busy arraying himself
+in those singularly hideous habiliments so dear to him, which
+transform him from a (comparatively) good-looking Toad into an Object
+which throws any decent-minded animal that comes across it into a
+violent fit. We must be up and doing, ere it is too late. You two
+animals will accompany me instantly to Toad Hall, and the work of
+rescue shall be accomplished."
+
+"Right you are!" cried the Rat, starting up. "We'll rescue the poor
+unhappy animal! We'll convert him! He'll be the most converted Toad
+that ever was before we've done with him!"
+
+They set off up the road on their mission of mercy, Badger leading the
+way. Animals when in company walk in a proper and sensible manner, in
+single file, instead of sprawling all across the road and being of no
+use or support to each other in case of sudden trouble or danger.
+
+They reached the carriage-drive of Toad Hall to find, as Badger had
+anticipated, a shiny new motor-car, of great size, painted a bright
+red (Toad's favourite colour), standing in front of the house. As they
+neared the door it was flung open, and Mr. Toad, arrayed in goggles,
+cap, gaiters, and enormous overcoat, came swaggering down the steps,
+drawing on his gauntleted gloves.
+
+"Hullo! come on, you fellows!" he cried cheerfully on catching sight
+of them. "You're just in time to come with me for a jolly--to come for
+a jolly--for a--er--jolly--"
+
+His hearty accents faltered and fell away as he noticed the stern
+unbending look on the countenances of his silent friends, and his
+invitation remained unfinished.
+
+The Badger strode up the steps. "Take him inside," he said sternly to
+his companions. Then, as Toad was hustled through the door, struggling
+and protesting, he turned to the _chauffeur_ in charge of the new
+motor-car.
+
+"I'm afraid you won't be wanted to-day," he said. "Mr. Toad has
+changed his mind. He will not require the car. Please understand that
+this is final. You needn't wait." Then he followed the others inside
+and shut the door.
+
+"Now then!" he said to the Toad, when the four of them stood together
+in the Hall, "first of all, take those ridiculous things off!"
+
+"Shan't!" replied Toad, with great spirit. "What is the meaning of
+this gross outrage? I demand an instant explanation."
+
+"Take them off him, then, you two," ordered the Badger briefly.
+
+They had to lay Toad out on the floor, kicking and calling all sorts
+of names, before they could get to work properly. Then the Rat sat on
+him, and the Mole got his motor-clothes off him bit by bit, and they
+stood him up on his legs again. A good deal of his blustering spirit
+seemed to have evaporated with the removal of his fine panoply. Now
+that he was merely Toad, and no longer the Terror of the Highway, he
+giggled feebly and looked from one to the other appealingly, seeming
+quite to understand the situation.
+
+"You knew it must come to this, sooner or later, Toad," the Badger
+explained severely. "You've disregarded all the warnings we've given
+you, you've gone on squandering the money your father left you, and
+you're getting us animals a bad name in the district by your furious
+driving and your smashes and your rows with the police. Independence
+is all very well, but we animals never allow our friends to make fools
+of themselves beyond a certain limit; and that limit you've reached.
+Now, you're a good fellow in many respects, and I don't want to be too
+hard on you. I'll make one more effort to bring you to reason. You
+will come with me into the smoking-room, and there you will hear some
+facts about yourself; and we'll see whether you come out of that room
+the same Toad that you went in."
+
+He took Toad firmly by the arm, led him into the smoking-room, and
+closed the door behind them.
+
+"_That's_ no good!" said the Rat contemptuously. "_Talking_ to Toad'll
+never cure him. He'll _say_ anything."
+
+They made themselves comfortable in arm-chairs and waited patiently.
+Through the closed door they could just hear the long continuous drone
+of the Badger's voice, rising and falling in waves of oratory; and
+presently they noticed that the sermon began to be punctuated at
+intervals by long-drawn sobs, evidently proceeding from the bosom of
+Toad, who was a soft-hearted and affectionate fellow, very easily
+converted--for the time being--to any point of view.
+
+After some three-quarters of an hour the door opened, and the Badger
+reappeared, solemnly leading by the paw a very limp and dejected Toad.
+His skin hung baggily about him, his legs wobbled, and his cheeks were
+furrowed by the tears so plentifully called forth by the Badger's
+moving discourse.
+
+"Sit down there, Toad," said the Badger kindly, pointing to a chair.
+"My friends," he went on, "I am pleased to inform you that Toad has at
+last seen the error of his ways. He is truly sorry for his misguided
+conduct in the past, and he has undertaken to give up motor-cars
+entirely and for ever. I have his solemn promise to that effect."
+
+"That is very good news," said the Mole gravely.
+
+"Very good news indeed," observed the Rat dubiously, "if only--_if_
+only--"
+
+He was looking very hard at Toad as he said this, and could not help
+thinking he perceived something vaguely resembling a twinkle in that
+animal's still sorrowful eye.
+
+"There's only one thing more to be done," continued the gratified
+Badger. "Toad, I want you solemnly to repeat, before your friends
+here, what you fully admitted to me in the smoking-room just now.
+First, you are sorry for what you've done, and you see the folly of it
+all?"
+
+There was a long, long pause. Toad looked desperately this way and
+that, while the other animals waited in grave silence. At last he
+spoke.
+
+"No!" he said, a little sullenly, but stoutly; "I'm _not_ sorry. And
+it wasn't folly at all! It was simply glorious!"
+
+"What?" cried the Badger, greatly scandalised. "You backsliding
+animal, didn't you tell me just now, in there--"
+
+"Oh, yes, yes, in _there_," said Toad impatiently. "I'd have said
+anything in _there_. You're so eloquent, dear Badger, and so moving,
+and so convincing, and put all your points so frightfully well--you
+can do what you like with me in _there_, and you know it. But I've
+been searching my mind since, and going over things in it, and I find
+that I'm not a bit sorry or repentant really, so it's no earthly good
+saying I am; now, is it?"
+
+"Then you don't promise," said the Badger, "never to touch a motor-car
+again?"
+
+"Certainly not!" replied Toad emphatically. "On the contrary, I
+faithfully promise that the very first motor-car I see, poop-poop! off
+I go in it!"
+
+"Told you so, didn't I?" observed the Rat to the Mole.
+
+"Very well, then," said the Badger firmly, rising to his feet. "Since
+you won't yield to persuasion, we'll try what force can do. I feared
+it would come to this all along. You've often asked us three to come
+and stay with you, Toad, in this handsome house of yours; well, now
+we're going to. When we've converted you to a proper point of view we
+may quit, but not before. Take him upstairs, you two, and lock him up
+in his bedroom, while we arrange matters between ourselves."
+
+"It's for your own good, Toady, you know," said the Rat kindly, as
+Toad, kicking and struggling, was hauled up the stairs by his two
+faithful friends. "Think what fun we shall all have together, just as
+we used to, when you've quite got over this--this painful attack of
+yours!"
+
+"We'll take great care of everything for you till you're well, Toad,"
+said the Mole; "and we'll see your money isn't wasted, as it has
+been."
+
+"No more of those regrettable incidents with the police, Toad," said
+the Rat, as they thrust him into his bedroom.
+
+"And no more weeks in hospital, being ordered about by female nurses,
+Toad," added the Mole, turning the key on him.
+
+They descended the stair, Toad shouting abuse at them through the
+keyhole; and the three friends then met in conference on the
+situation.
+
+"It's going to be a tedious business," said the Badger, sighing. "I've
+never seen Toad so determined. However, we will see it out. He must
+never be left an instant unguarded. We shall have to take it in turns
+to be with him, till the poison has worked itself out of his system."
+
+They arranged watches accordingly. Each animal took it in turns to
+sleep in Toad's room at night, and they divided the day up between
+them. At first Toad was undoubtedly very trying to his careful
+guardians. When his violent paroxysms possessed him he would arrange
+bedroom chairs in rude resemblance of a motor-car and would crouch on
+the foremost of them, bent forward and staring fixedly ahead, making
+uncouth and ghastly noises, till the climax was reached, when, turning
+a complete somersault, he would lie prostrate amidst the ruins of the
+chairs, apparently completely satisfied for the moment. As time
+passed, however, these painful seizures grew gradually less frequent,
+and his friends strove to divert his mind into fresh channels. But his
+interest in other matters did not seem to revive, and he grew
+apparently languid and depressed.
+
+One fine morning the Rat, whose turn it was to go on duty, went
+upstairs to relieve Badger, whom he found fidgeting to be off and
+stretch his legs in a long ramble round his wood and down his earths
+and burrows. "Toad's still in bed," he told the Rat, outside the door.
+"Can't get much out of him, except, 'O leave him alone, he wants
+nothing, perhaps he'll be better presently, it may pass off in time,
+don't be unduly anxious,' and so on. Now, you look out, Rat! When
+Toad's quiet and submissive, and playing at being the hero of a
+Sunday-school prize, then he's at his artfullest. There's sure to be
+something up. I know him. Well, now, I must be off."
+
+"How are you to-day, old chap?" inquired the Rat cheerfully, as he
+approached Toad's bedside.
+
+He had to wait some minutes for an answer. At last a feeble voice
+replied, "Thank you so much, dear Ratty! So good of you to inquire!
+But first tell me how you are yourself, and the excellent Mole?"
+
+"O, _we're_ all right," replied the Rat. "Mole," he added
+incautiously, "is going out for a run round with Badger. They'll be
+out till luncheon time, so you and I will spend a pleasant morning
+together, and I'll do my best to amuse you. Now jump up, there's a
+good fellow, and don't lie moping there on a fine morning like this!"
+
+"Dear, kind Rat," murmured Toad, "how little you realise my condition,
+and how very far I am from 'jumping up' now--if ever! But do not
+trouble about me. I hate being a burden to my friends, and I do not
+expect to be one much longer. Indeed, I almost hope not."
+
+"Well, I hope not, too," said the Rat heartily. "You've been a fine
+bother to us all this time, and I'm glad to hear it's going to stop.
+And in weather like this, and the boating season just beginning! It's
+too bad of you, Toad! It isn't the trouble we mind, but you're making
+us miss such an awful lot."
+
+"I'm afraid it _is_ the trouble you mind, though," replied the Toad
+languidly. "I can quite understand it. It's natural enough. You're
+tired of bothering about me. I mustn't ask you to do anything further.
+I'm a nuisance, I know."
+
+"You are, indeed," said the Rat. "But I tell you, I'd take any trouble
+on earth for you, if only you'd be a sensible animal."
+
+"If I thought that, Ratty," murmured Toad, more feebly than ever,
+"then I would beg you--for the last time, probably--to step round to
+the village as quickly as possible--even now it may be too late--and
+fetch the doctor. But don't you bother. It's only a trouble, and
+perhaps we may as well let things take their course."
+
+"Why, what do you want a doctor for?" inquired the Rat, coming closer
+and examining him. He certainly lay very still and flat, and his voice
+was weaker and his manner much changed.
+
+"Surely you have noticed of late--" murmured Toad. "But, no--why
+should you? Noticing things is only a trouble. To-morrow, indeed, you
+may be saying to yourself, 'O, if only I had noticed sooner! If only I
+had done something!' But no; it's a trouble. Never mind--forget that I
+asked."
+
+"Look here, old man," said the Rat, beginning to get rather alarmed,
+"of course I'll fetch a doctor to you, if you really think you want
+him. But you can hardly be bad enough for that yet. Let's talk about
+something else."
+
+"I fear, dear friend," said Toad, with a sad smile, "that 'talk' can
+do little in a case like this--or doctors either, for that matter;
+still, one must grasp at the slightest straw. And, by the way--while
+you are about it--I _hate_ to give you additional trouble, but I
+happen to remember that you will pass the door--would you mind at the
+same time asking the lawyer to step up? It would be a convenience to
+me, and there are moments--perhaps I should say there is _a_
+moment--when one must face disagreeable tasks, at whatever cost to
+exhausted nature!"
+
+"A lawyer! O, he must be really bad!" the affrighted Rat said to
+himself, as he hurried from the room, not forgetting, however, to lock
+the door carefully behind him.
+
+Outside, he stopped to consider. The other two were far away, and he
+had no one to consult.
+
+"It's best to be on the safe side," he said, on reflection. "I've
+known Toad fancy himself frightfully bad before, without the slightest
+reason; but I've never heard him ask for a lawyer! If there's nothing
+really the matter, the doctor will tell him he's an old ass, and cheer
+him up; and that will be something gained. I'd better humour him and
+go; it won't take very long." So he ran off to the village on his
+errand of mercy.
+
+The Toad, who had hopped lightly out of bed as soon as he heard the
+key turned in the lock, watched him eagerly from the window till he
+disappeared down the carriage-drive. Then, laughing heartily, he
+dressed as quickly as possible in the smartest suit he could lay
+hands on at the moment, filled his pockets with cash which he took
+from a small drawer in the dressing-table, and next, knotting the
+sheets from his bed together and tying one end of the improvised rope
+round the central mullion of the handsome Tudor window which formed
+such a feature of his bedroom, he scrambled out, slid lightly to the
+ground, and, taking the opposite direction to the Rat, marched off
+light-heartedly, whistling a merry tune.
+
+It was a gloomy luncheon for Rat when the Badger and the Mole at
+length returned, and he had to face them at table with his pitiful and
+unconvincing story. The Badger's caustic, not to say brutal, remarks
+may be imagined, and therefore passed over; but it was painful to the
+Rat that even the Mole, though he took his friend's side as far as
+possible, could not help saying, "You've been a bit of a duffer this
+time, Ratty! Toad, too, of all animals!"
+
+"He did it awfully well," said the crestfallen Rat.
+
+"He did _you_ awfully well!" rejoined the Badger hotly. "However,
+talking won't mend matters. He's got clear away for the time, that's
+certain; and the worst of it is, he'll be so conceited with what he'll
+think is his cleverness that he may commit any folly. One comfort is,
+we're free now, and needn't waste any more of our precious time doing
+sentry-go. But we'd better continue to sleep at Toad Hall for a while
+longer. Toad may be brought back at any moment--on a stretcher, or
+between two policemen."
+
+So spoke the Badger, not knowing what the future held in store, or how
+much water, and of how turbid a character, was to run under bridges
+before Toad should sit at ease again in his ancestral Hall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile, Toad, gay and irresponsible, was walking briskly along the
+high road, some miles from home. At first he had taken by-paths, and
+crossed many fields, and changed his course several times, in case of
+pursuit; but now, feeling by this time safe from recapture, and the
+sun smiling brightly on him, and all Nature joining in a chorus of
+approval to the song of self-praise that his own heart was singing to
+him, he almost danced along the road in his satisfaction and conceit.
+
+"Smart piece of work that!" he remarked to himself chuckling. "Brain
+against brute force--and brain came out on the top--as it's bound to
+do. Poor old Ratty! My! won't he catch it when the Badger gets back! A
+worthy fellow, Ratty, with many good qualities, but very little
+intelligence and absolutely no education. I must take him in hand some
+day, and see if I can make something of him."
+
+Filled full of conceited thoughts such as these he strode along, his
+head in the air, till he reached a little town, where the sign of "The
+Red Lion," swinging across the road half-way down the main street,
+reminded him that he had not breakfasted that day, and that he was
+exceedingly hungry after his long walk. He marched into the Inn,
+ordered the best luncheon that could be provided at so short a notice,
+and sat down to eat it in the coffee-room.
+
+He was about half-way through his meal when an only too familiar sound,
+approaching down the street, made him start and fall a-trembling all
+over. The poop-poop! drew nearer and nearer, the car could be heard to
+turn into the inn-yard and come to a stop, and Toad had to hold on to
+the leg of the table to conceal his over-mastering emotion. Presently
+the party entered the coffee-room, hungry, talkative, and gay, voluble
+on their experiences of the morning and the merits of the chariot that
+had brought them along so well. Toad listened eagerly, all ears, for a
+time; at last he could stand it no longer. He slipped out of the room
+quietly, paid his bill at the bar, and as soon as he got outside
+sauntered round quietly to the inn-yard. "There cannot be any harm," he
+said to himself, "in my only just _looking_ at it!"
+
+The car stood in the middle of the yard, quite unattended, the
+stable-helps and other hangers-on being all at their dinner. Toad
+walked slowly round it, inspecting, criticising, musing deeply.
+
+"I wonder," he said to himself presently, "I wonder if this sort of
+car _starts_ easily?"
+
+Next moment, hardly knowing how it came about, he found he had hold of
+the handle and was turning it. As the familiar sound broke forth, the
+old passion seized on Toad and completely mastered him, body and soul.
+As if in a dream he found himself, somehow, seated in the driver's
+seat; as if in a dream, he pulled the lever and swung the car round
+the yard and out through the archway; and, as if in a dream, all sense
+of right and wrong, all fear of obvious consequences, seemed
+temporarily suspended. He increased his pace, and as the car devoured
+the street and leapt forth on the high road through the open country,
+he was only conscious that he was Toad once more, Toad at his best and
+highest, Toad the terror, the traffic-queller, the Lord of the lone
+trail, before whom all must give way or be smitten into nothingness
+and everlasting night. He chanted as he flew, and the car responded
+with sonorous drone; the miles were eaten up under him as he sped he
+knew not whither, fulfilling his instincts, living his hour, reckless
+of what might come to him.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"To my mind," observed the Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates
+cheerfully, "the _only_ difficulty that presents itself in this
+otherwise very clear case is, how we can possibly make it sufficiently
+hot for the incorrigible rogue and hardened ruffian whom we see
+cowering in the dock before us. Let me see: he has been found guilty,
+on the clearest evidence, first, of stealing a valuable motor-car;
+secondly, of driving to the public danger; and, thirdly, of gross
+impertinence to the rural police. Mr. Clerk, will you tell us, please,
+what is the very stiffest penalty we can impose for each of these
+offences? Without, of course, giving the prisoner the benefit of any
+doubt, because there isn't any."
+
+The Clerk scratched his nose with his pen. "Some people would
+consider," he observed, "that stealing the motor-car was the worst
+offence; and so it is. But cheeking the police undoubtedly carries the
+severest penalty; and so it ought. Supposing you were to say twelve
+months for the theft, which is mild; and three years for the furious
+driving, which is lenient; and fifteen years for the cheek, which was
+pretty bad sort of cheek, judging by what we've heard from the
+witness-box, even if you only believe one-tenth part of what you
+heard, and I never believe more myself--those figures, if added
+together correctly, tot up to nineteen years--"
+
+"First-rate!" said the Chairman.
+
+"--So you had better make it a round twenty years and be on the safe
+side," concluded the Clerk.
+
+"An excellent suggestion!" said the Chairman approvingly. "Prisoner!
+Pull yourself together and try and stand up straight. It's going to be
+twenty years for you this time. And mind, if you appear before us
+again, upon any charge whatever, we shall have to deal with you very
+seriously!"
+
+Then the brutal minions of the law fell upon the hapless Toad; loaded
+him with chains, and dragged him from the Court House, shrieking,
+praying, protesting; across the market-place, where the playful
+populace, always as severe upon detected crime as they are sympathetic
+and helpful when one is merely "wanted," assailed him with jeers,
+carrots, and popular catch-words; past hooting school children, their
+innocent faces lit up with the pleasure they ever derive from the
+sight of a gentleman in difficulties; across the hollow-sounding
+drawbridge, below the spiky portcullis, under the frowning archway of
+the grim old castle, whose ancient towers soared high overhead; past
+guardrooms full of grinning soldiery off duty, past sentries who
+coughed in a horrid, sarcastic way, because that is as much as a
+sentry on his post dare do to show his contempt and abhorrence of
+crime; up time-worn winding stairs, past men-at-arms in casquet and
+corselet of steel, darting threatening looks through their vizards;
+across courtyards, where mastiffs strained at their leash and pawed
+the air to get at him; past ancient warders, their halberds leant
+against the wall, dozing over a pasty and a flagon of brown ale; on
+and on, past the rack-chamber and the thumbscrew-room, past the
+turning that led to the private scaffold, till they reached the door
+of the grimmest dungeon that lay in the heart of the innermost keep.
+There at last they paused, where an ancient gaoler sat fingering a
+bunch of mighty keys.
+
+[Illustration: _Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon_]
+
+"Oddsbodikins!" said the sergeant of police, taking off his helmet and
+wiping his forehead. "Rouse thee, old loon, and take over from us this
+vile Toad, a criminal of deepest guilt and matchless artfulness and
+resource. Watch and ward him with all thy skill; and mark thee well,
+greybeard, should aught untoward befall, thy old head shall answer for
+his--and a murrain on both of them!"
+
+The gaoler nodded grimly, laying his withered hand on the shoulder of
+the miserable Toad. The rusty key creaked in the lock, the great door
+clanged behind them; and Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest
+dungeon of the best-guarded keep of the stoutest castle in all the
+length and breadth of Merry England.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN
+
+
+The Willow-Wren was twittering his thin little song, hidden himself in
+the dark selvedge of the river bank. Though it was past ten o'clock at
+night, the sky still clung to and retained some lingering skirts of
+light from the departed day; and the sullen heats of the torrid
+afternoon broke up and rolled away at the dispersing touch of the cool
+fingers of the short midsummer night. Mole lay stretched on the bank,
+still panting from the stress of the fierce day that had been
+cloudless from dawn to late sunset, and waited for his friend to
+return. He had been on the river with some companions, leaving the
+Water Rat free to keep an engagement of long standing with Otter; and
+he had come back to find the house dark and deserted, and no sign of
+Rat, who was doubtless keeping it up late with his old comrade. It
+was still too hot to think of staying indoors, so he lay on some cool
+dock-leaves, and thought over the past day and its doings, and how
+very good they all had been.
+
+The Rat's light footfall was presently heard approaching over the
+parched grass. "O, the blessed coolness!" he said, and sat down,
+gazing thoughtfully into the river, silent and pre-occupied.
+
+"You stayed to supper, of course?" said the Mole presently.
+
+"Simply had to," said the Rat. "They wouldn't hear of my going before.
+You know how kind they always are. And they made things as jolly for
+me as ever they could, right up to the moment I left. But I felt a
+brute all the time, as it was clear to me they were very unhappy,
+though they tried to hide it. Mole, I'm afraid they're in trouble.
+Little Portly is missing again; and you know what a lot his father
+thinks of him, though he never says much about it."
+
+"What, that child?" said the Mole lightly. "Well, suppose he is; why
+worry about it? He's always straying off and getting lost, and turning
+up again; he's so adventurous. But no harm ever happens to him.
+Everybody hereabouts knows him and likes him, just as they do old
+Otter, and you may be sure some animal or other will come across him
+and bring him back again all right. Why, we've found him ourselves,
+miles from home, and quite self-possessed and cheerful!"
+
+"Yes; but this time it's more serious," said the Rat gravely. "He's
+been missing for some days now, and the Otters have hunted everywhere,
+high and low, without finding the slightest trace. And they've asked
+every animal, too, for miles around, and no one knows anything about
+him. Otter's evidently more anxious than he'll admit. I got out of him
+that young Portly hasn't learnt to swim very well yet, and I can see
+he's thinking of the weir. There's a lot of water coming down still,
+considering the time of the year, and the place always had a
+fascination for the child. And then there are--well, traps and
+things--_you_ know. Otter's not the fellow to be nervous about any
+son of his before it's time. And now he _is_ nervous. When I left, he
+came out with me--said he wanted some air, and talked about stretching
+his legs. But I could see it wasn't that, so I drew him out and pumped
+him, and got it all from him at last. He was going to spend the night
+watching by the ford. You know the place where the old ford used to
+be, in by-gone days before they built the bridge?"
+
+"I know it well," said the Mole. "But why should Otter choose to watch
+there?"
+
+"Well, it seems that it was there he gave Portly his first
+swimming-lesson," continued the Rat. "From that shallow, gravelly spit
+near the bank. And it was there he used to teach him fishing, and
+there young Portly caught his first fish, of which he was so very
+proud. The child loved the spot, and Otter thinks that if he came
+wandering back from wherever he is--if he _is_ anywhere by this time,
+poor little chap--he might make for the ford he was so fond of; or if
+he came across it he'd remember it well, and stop there and play,
+perhaps. So Otter goes there every night and watches--on the chance,
+you know, just on the chance!"
+
+They were silent for a time, both thinking of the same thing--the
+lonely, heart-sore animal, crouched by the ford, watching and waiting,
+the long night through--on the chance.
+
+"Well, well," said the Rat presently, "I suppose we ought to be
+thinking about turning in." But he never offered to move.
+
+"Rat," said the Mole, "I simply can't go and turn in, and go to sleep,
+and _do_ nothing, even though there doesn't seem to be anything to be
+done. We'll get the boat out, and paddle upstream. The moon will be up
+in an hour or so, and then we will search as well as we can--anyhow,
+it will be better than going to bed and doing _nothing_."
+
+"Just what I was thinking myself," said the Rat. "It's not the sort of
+night for bed anyhow; and daybreak is not so very far off, and then we
+may pick up some news of him from early risers as we go along."
+
+They got the boat out, and the Rat took the sculls, paddling with
+caution. Out in mid-stream, there was a clear, narrow track that
+faintly reflected the sky; but wherever shadows fell on the water from
+bank, bush, or tree, they were as solid to all appearance as the banks
+themselves, and the Mole had to steer with judgment accordingly. Dark
+and deserted as it was, the night was full of small noises, song and
+chatter and rustling, telling of the busy little population who were
+up and about, plying their trades and vocations through the night till
+sunshine should fall on them at last and send them off to their
+well-earned repose. The water's own noises, too, were more apparent
+than by day, its gurglings and "cloops" more unexpected and near at
+hand; and constantly they started at what seemed a sudden clear call
+from an actual articulate voice.
+
+The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one
+particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing
+phosphorescence that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the
+waiting earth the moon lifted with slow majesty till it swung clear of
+the horizon and rode off, free of moorings; and once more they began
+to see surfaces--meadows wide-spread, and quiet gardens, and the river
+itself from bank to bank, all softly disclosed, all washed clean of
+mystery and terror, all radiant again as by day, but with a difference
+that was tremendous. Their old haunts greeted them again in other
+raiment, as if they had slipped away and put on this pure new apparel
+and come quietly back, smiling as they shyly waited to see if they
+would be recognised again under it.
+
+Fastening their boat to a willow, the friends landed in this silent,
+silver kingdom, and patiently explored the hedges, the hollow trees,
+the runnels and their little culverts, the ditches and dry water-ways.
+Embarking again and crossing over, they worked their way up the stream
+in this manner, while the moon, serene and detached in a cloudless
+sky, did what she could, though so far off, to help them in their
+quest; till her hour came and she sank earthwards reluctantly, and
+left them, and mystery once more held field and river.
+
+Then a change began slowly to declare itself. The horizon became
+clearer, field and tree came more into sight, and somehow with a
+different look; the mystery began to drop away from them. A bird piped
+suddenly, and was still; and a light breeze sprang up and set the
+reeds and bulrushes rustling. Rat, who was in the stern of the boat,
+while Mole sculled, sat up suddenly and listened with a passionate
+intentness. Mole, who with gentle strokes was just keeping the boat
+moving while he scanned the banks with care, looked at him with
+curiosity.
+
+"It's gone!" sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. "So
+beautiful and strange and new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost
+wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is
+pain, and nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once
+more and go on listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!" he
+cried, alert once more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space,
+spellbound.
+
+"Now it passes on and I begin to lose it," he said presently. "O Mole!
+the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, happy
+call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the
+call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole,
+row! For the music and the call must be for us."
+
+The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. "I hear nothing myself," he said,
+"but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers."
+
+The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard. Rapt, transported,
+trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing
+that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless
+but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp.
+
+In silence Mole rowed steadily, and soon they came to a point where the
+river divided, a long backwater branching off to one side. With a slight
+movement of his head Rat, who had long dropped the rudder-lines,
+directed the rower to take the backwater. The creeping tide of light
+gained and gained, and now they could see the colour of the flowers that
+gemmed the water's edge.
+
+"Clearer and nearer still," cried the Rat joyously. "Now you must
+surely hear it! Ah--at last--I see you do!"
+
+Breathless and transfixed, the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run
+of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and
+possessed him utterly. He saw the tears on his comrade's cheeks, and
+bowed his head and understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by
+the purple loosestrife that fringed the bank; then the clear imperious
+summons that marched hand-in-hand with the intoxicating melody imposed
+its will on Mole, and mechanically he bent to his oars again. And the
+light grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they were wont to
+do at the approach of dawn; and but for the heavenly music all was
+marvellously still.
+
+On either side of them, as they glided onwards, the rich meadow-grass
+seemed that morning of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable.
+Never had they noticed the roses so vivid, the willow-herb so riotous,
+the meadow-sweet so odorous and pervading. Then the murmur of the
+approaching weir began to hold the air, and they felt a consciousness
+that they were nearing the end, whatever it might be, that surely
+awaited their expedition.
+
+A wide half-circle of foam and glinting lights and shining shoulders
+of green water, the great weir closed the backwater from bank to bank,
+troubled all the quiet surface with twirling eddies and floating
+foam-streaks, and deadened all other sounds with its solemn and
+soothing rumble. In midmost of the stream, embraced in the weir's
+shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay anchored, fringed close with
+willow and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, but full of
+significance, it hid whatever it might hold behind a veil, keeping it
+till the hour should come, and, with the hour, those who were called
+and chosen.
+
+Slowly, but with no doubt or hesitation whatever, and in something of
+a solemn expectancy, the two animals passed through the broken,
+tumultuous water and moored their boat at the flowery margin of the
+island. In silence they landed, and pushed through the blossom and
+scented herbage and undergrowth that led up to the level ground, till
+they stood on a little lawn of a marvellous green, set round with
+Nature's own orchard-trees--crab-apple, wild cherry, and sloe.
+
+"This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to
+me," whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. "Here, in this holy place,
+here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!"
+
+Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that
+turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to
+the ground. It was no panic terror--indeed he felt wonderfully at
+peace and happy--but it was an awe that smote and held him and,
+without seeing, he knew it could only mean that some august Presence
+was very, very near. With difficulty he turned to look for his friend,
+and saw him at his side, cowed, stricken, and trembling violently. And
+still there was utter silence in the populous bird-haunted branches
+around them; and still the light grew and grew.
+
+Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though
+the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still
+dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself
+waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on
+things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble
+head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while
+Nature, flushed with fulness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her
+breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and
+Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the
+growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes
+that were looking down on them humorously, while the bearded mouth
+broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on
+the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still
+holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw
+the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on
+the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves,
+sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round,
+podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one
+moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still,
+as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.
+
+"Rat!" he found breath to whisper, shaking. "Are you afraid?"
+
+"Afraid?" murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.
+"Afraid! Of _Him_? O, never, never! And yet--and yet--O, Mole, I am
+afraid!"
+
+Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and
+did worship.
+
+Sudden and magnificent, the sun's broad golden disc showed itself over
+the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level
+water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them.
+When they were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and
+the air was full of the carol of birds that hailed the dawn.
+
+As they stared blankly, in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realised
+all they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze,
+dancing up from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the
+dewy roses, and blew lightly and caressingly in their faces; and with
+its soft touch came instant oblivion. For this is the last best gift
+that the kindly demi-god is careful to bestow on those to whom he has
+revealed himself in their helping: the gift of forgetfulness. Lest the
+awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and
+pleasure, and the great haunting memory should spoil all the after-lives
+of little animals helped out of difficulties, in order that they should
+be happy and light-hearted as before.
+
+Mole rubbed his eyes and stared at Rat, who was looking about him in a
+puzzled sort of way. "I beg your pardon; what did you say, Rat?" he
+asked.
+
+"I think I was only remarking," said Rat slowly, "that this was the
+right sort of place, and that here, if anywhere, we should find him.
+And look! Why, there he is, the little fellow!" And with a cry of
+delight he ran towards the slumbering Portly.
+
+But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened
+suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can
+recapture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty of it, the beauty!
+Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly
+accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties; so Mole, after
+struggling with his memory for a brief space, shook his head sadly and
+followed the Rat.
+
+Portly woke up with a joyous squeak, and wriggled with pleasure at the
+sight of his father's friends, who had played with him so often in past
+days. In a moment, however, his face grew blank, and he fell to hunting
+round in a circle with pleading whine. As a child that has fallen
+happily asleep in its nurse's arms, and wakes to find itself alone and
+laid in a strange place, and searches corners and cupboards, and runs
+from room to room, despair growing silently in its heart, even so Portly
+searched the island and searched, dogged and unwearying, till at last
+the black moment came for giving it up, and sitting down and crying
+bitterly.
+
+The Mole ran quickly to comfort the little animal; but Rat, lingering,
+looked long and doubtfully at certain hoof-marks deep in the sward.
+
+"Some--great--animal--has been here," he murmured slowly and
+thoughtfully; and stood musing, musing; his mind strangely stirred.
+
+"Come along, Rat!" called the Mole. "Think of poor Otter, waiting up
+there by the ford!"
+
+Portly had soon been comforted by the promise of a treat--a jaunt on
+the river in Mr. Rat's real boat; and the two animals conducted him to
+the water's side, placed him securely between them in the bottom of
+the boat, and paddled off down the backwater. The sun was fully up by
+now, and hot on them, birds sang lustily and without restraint, and
+flowers smiled and nodded from either bank, but somehow--so thought
+the animals--with less of richness and blaze of colour than they
+seemed to remember seeing quite recently somewhere--they wondered
+where.
+
+The main river reached again, they turned the boat's head upstream,
+towards the point where they knew their friend was keeping his lonely
+vigil. As they drew near the familiar ford, the Mole took the boat in
+to the bank, and they lifted Portly out and set him on his legs on
+the tow-path, gave him his marching orders and a friendly farewell pat
+on the back, and shoved out into mid-stream. They watched the little
+animal as he waddled along the path contentedly and with importance;
+watched him till they saw his muzzle suddenly lift and his waddle
+break into a clumsy amble as he quickened his pace with shrill whines
+and wriggles of recognition. Looking up the river, they could see
+Otter start up, tense and rigid, from out of the shallows where he
+crouched in dumb patience, and could hear his amazed and joyous bark
+as he bounded up through the osiers on to the path. Then the Mole,
+with a strong pull on one oar, swung the boat round and let the full
+stream bear them down again whither it would, their quest now happily
+ended.
+
+"I feel strangely tired, Rat," said the Mole, leaning wearily over his
+oars, as the boat drifted. "It's being up all night, you'll say,
+perhaps; but that's nothing. We do as much half the nights of the
+week, at this time of the year. No; I feel as if I had been through
+something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over;
+and yet nothing particular has happened."
+
+"Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful," murmured
+the Rat, leaning back and closing his eyes. "I feel just as you do,
+Mole; simply dead tired, though not body-tired. It's lucky we've got
+the stream with us, to take us home. Isn't it jolly to feel the sun
+again, soaking into one's bones! And hark to the wind playing in the
+reeds!"
+
+"It's like music--far-away music," said the Mole, nodding drowsily.
+
+"So I was thinking," murmured the Rat, dreamful and languid.
+"Dance-music--the lilting sort that runs on without a stop--but with
+words in it, too--it passes into words and out of them again--I catch
+them at intervals--then it is dance-music once more, and then nothing
+but the reeds' soft thin whispering."
+
+"You hear better than I," said the Mole sadly. "I cannot catch the
+words."
+
+"Let me try and give you them," said the Rat softly, his eyes still
+closed. "Now it is turning into words again--faint but clear--_Lest
+the awe should dwell--And turn your frolic to fret--You shall look on
+my power at the helping hour--But then you shall forget!_ Now the
+reeds take it up--_forget, forget_, they sigh, and it dies away in a
+rustle and a whisper. Then the voice returns--
+
+"_Lest limbs be reddened and rent--I spring the trap that is set--As I
+loose the snare you may glimpse me there--For surely you shall
+forget!_ Row nearer, Mole, nearer to the reeds! It is hard to catch,
+and grows each minute fainter.
+
+"_Helper and healer, I cheer--Small waifs in the woodland wet--Strays
+I find in it, wounds I bind in it--Bidding them all forget!_ Nearer,
+Mole, nearer! No, it is no good; the song has died away into
+reed-talk."
+
+"But what do the words mean?" asked the wondering Mole.
+
+"That I do not know," said the Rat simply. "I passed them on to you as
+they reached me. Ah! now they return again, and this time full and
+clear! This time, at last, it is the real, the unmistakable thing,
+simple--passionate--perfect--"
+
+"Well, let's have it, then," said the Mole, after he had waited
+patiently for a few minutes, half-dozing in the hot sun.
+
+But no answer came. He looked, and understood the silence. With a
+smile of much happiness on his face, and something of a listening look
+still lingering there, the weary Rat was fast asleep.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+TOAD'S ADVENTURES
+
+
+When Toad found himself immured in a dank and noisome dungeon, and
+knew that all the grim darkness of a medieval fortress lay between him
+and the outer world of sunshine and well-metalled high roads where he
+had lately been so happy, disporting himself as if he had bought up
+every road in England, he flung himself at full length on the floor,
+and shed bitter tears, and abandoned himself to dark despair. "This is
+the end of everything" (he said), "at least it is the end of the
+career of Toad, which is the same thing; the popular and handsome
+Toad, the rich and hospitable Toad, the Toad so free and careless and
+debonair! How can I hope to be ever set at large again" (he said),
+"who have been imprisoned so justly for stealing so handsome a
+motor-car in such an audacious manner, and for such lurid and
+imaginative cheek, bestowed upon such a number of fat, red-faced
+policemen!" (Here his sobs choked him.) "Stupid animal that I was" (he
+said), "now I must languish in this dungeon, till people who were
+proud to say they knew me, have forgotten the very name of Toad! O
+wise old Badger!" (he said), "O clever, intelligent Rat and sensible
+Mole! What sound judgments, what a knowledge of men and matters you
+possess! O unhappy and forsaken Toad!" With lamentations such as these
+he passed his days and nights for several weeks, refusing his meals or
+intermediate light refreshments, though the grim and ancient gaoler,
+knowing that Toad's pockets were well lined, frequently pointed out
+that many comforts, and indeed luxuries, could by arrangement be sent
+in--at a price--from outside.
+
+Now the gaoler had a daughter, a pleasant wench and good-hearted, who
+assisted her father in the lighter duties of his post. She was
+particularly fond of animals, and, besides her canary, whose cage hung
+on a nail in the massive wall of the keep by day, to the great
+annoyance of prisoners who relished an after-dinner nap, and was
+shrouded in an antimacassar on the parlour table at night, she kept
+several piebald mice and a restless revolving squirrel. This
+kind-hearted girl, pitying the misery of Toad, said to her father one
+day, "Father! I can't bear to see that poor beast so unhappy, and
+getting so thin! You let me have the managing of him. You know how
+fond of animals I am. I'll make him eat from my hand, and sit up, and
+do all sorts of things."
+
+Her father replied that she could do what she liked with him. He was
+tired of Toad, and his sulks and his airs and his meanness. So that
+day she went on her errand of mercy, and knocked at the door of Toad's
+cell.
+
+"Now, cheer up, Toad," she said, coaxingly, on entering, "and sit up
+and dry your eyes and be a sensible animal. And do try and eat a bit
+of dinner. See, I've brought you some of mine, hot from the oven!"
+
+It was bubble-and-squeak, between two plates, and its fragrance filled
+the narrow cell. The penetrating smell of cabbage reached the nose of
+Toad as he lay prostrate in his misery on the floor, and gave him the
+idea for a moment that perhaps life was not such a blank and desperate
+thing as he had imagined. But still he wailed, and kicked with his legs,
+and refused to be comforted. So the wise girl retired for the time, but,
+of course, a good deal of the smell of hot cabbage remained behind, as it
+will do, and Toad, between his sobs, sniffed and reflected, and gradually
+began to think new and inspiring thoughts: of chivalry, and poetry, and
+deeds still to be done; of broad meadows, and cattle browsing in them,
+raked by sun and wind; of kitchen-gardens, and straight herb-borders, and
+warm snap-dragon beset by bees; and of the comforting clink of dishes set
+down on the table at Toad Hall, and the scrape of chair-legs on the floor
+as every one pulled himself close up to his work. The air of the narrow
+cell took a rosy tinge; he began to think of his friends, and how they
+would surely be able to do something; of lawyers, and how they would have
+enjoyed his case, and what an ass he had been not to get in a few; and
+lastly, he thought of his own great cleverness and resource, and all
+that he was capable of if he only gave his great mind to it; and the
+cure was almost complete.
+
+[Illustration: _He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor_]
+
+When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a
+cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot
+buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter
+running through the holes in it in great golden drops, like honey from
+the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad,
+and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on
+bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings,
+when one's ramble was over, and slippered feet were propped on the
+fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy
+canaries. Toad sat up on end once more, dried his eyes, sipped his tea
+and munched his toast, and soon began talking freely about himself,
+and the house he lived in, and his doings there, and how important he
+was, and what a lot his friends thought of him.
+
+The gaoler's daughter saw that the topic was doing him as much good
+as the tea, as indeed it was, and encouraged him to go on.
+
+"Tell me about Toad Hall," said she. "It sounds beautiful."
+
+"Toad Hall," said the Toad proudly, "is an eligible, self-contained
+gentleman's residence, very unique; dating in part from the fourteenth
+century, but replete with every modern convenience. Up-to-date
+sanitation. Five minutes from church, post-office, and golf-links.
+Suitable for--"
+
+"Bless the animal," said the girl, laughing, "I don't want to _take_
+it. Tell me something _real_ about it. But first wait till I fetch you
+some more tea and toast."
+
+She tripped away, and presently returned with a fresh trayful; and Toad,
+pitching into the toast with avidity, his spirits quite restored to
+their usual level, told her about the boat-house, and the fish-pond, and
+the old walled kitchen-garden; and about the pig-styes and the stables,
+and the pigeon-house and the hen-house; and about the dairy, and the
+wash-house, and the china-cupboards, and the linen-presses (she liked
+that bit especially); and about the banqueting-hall, and the fun they
+had there when the other animals were gathered round the table and Toad
+was at his best, singing songs, telling stories, carrying on generally.
+Then she wanted to know about his animal-friends, and was very
+interested in all he had to tell her about them and how they lived, and
+what they did to pass their time. Of course, she did not say she was
+fond of animals as _pets_, because she had the sense to see that Toad
+would be extremely offended. When she said good-night, having filled his
+water-jug and shaken up his straw for him, Toad was very much the same
+sanguine, self-satisfied animal that he had been of old. He sang a
+little song or two, of the sort he used to sing at his dinner-parties,
+curled himself up in the straw, and had an excellent night's rest and
+the pleasantest of dreams.
+
+They had many interesting talks together, after that, as the dreary
+days went on; and the gaoler's daughter grew very sorry for Toad, and
+thought it a great shame that a poor little animal should be locked
+up in prison for what seemed to her a very trivial offence. Toad, of
+course, in his vanity, thought that her interest in him proceeded from
+a growing tenderness; and he could not help half-regretting that the
+social gulf between them was so very wide, for she was a comely lass,
+and evidently admired him very much.
+
+One morning the girl was very thoughtful, and answered at random, and
+did not seem to Toad to be paying proper attention to his witty
+sayings and sparkling comments.
+
+"Toad," she said presently, "just listen, please. I have an aunt who
+is a washerwoman."
+
+"There, there," said Toad, graciously and affably, "never mind; think
+no more about it. _I_ have several aunts who _ought_ to be
+washerwomen."
+
+"Do be quiet a minute, Toad," said the girl. "You talk too much,
+that's your chief fault, and I'm trying to think, and you hurt my
+head. As I said, I have an aunt who is a washerwoman; she does the
+washing for all the prisoners in this castle--we try to keep any
+paying business of that sort in the family, you understand. She takes
+out the washing on Monday morning, and brings it in on Friday evening.
+This is a Thursday. Now, this is what occurs to me: you're very
+rich--at least you're always telling me so--and she's very poor. A few
+pounds wouldn't make any difference to you, and it would mean a lot to
+her. Now, I think if she were properly approached--squared, I believe
+is the word you animals use--you could come to some arrangement by
+which she would let you have her dress and bonnet and so on, and you
+could escape from the castle as the official washerwoman. You're very
+alike in many respects--particularly about the figure."
+
+"We're _not_," said the Toad in a huff. "I have a very elegant
+figure--for what I am."
+
+"So has my aunt," replied the girl, "for what _she_ is. But have it
+your own way. You horrid, proud, ungrateful animal, when I'm sorry for
+you, and trying to help you!"
+
+"Yes, yes, that's all right; thank you very much indeed," said the
+Toad hurriedly. "But look here! you wouldn't surely have Mr. Toad, of
+Toad Hall, going about the country disguised as a washerwoman!"
+
+"Then you can stop here as a Toad," replied the girl with much spirit.
+"I suppose you want to go off in a coach-and-four!"
+
+Honest Toad was always ready to admit himself in the wrong. "You are a
+good, kind, clever girl," he said, "and I am indeed a proud and a
+stupid toad. Introduce me to your worthy aunt, if you will be so kind,
+and I have no doubt that the excellent lady and I will be able to
+arrange terms satisfactory to both parties."
+
+Next evening the girl ushered her aunt into Toad's cell, bearing his
+week's washing pinned up in a towel. The old lady had been prepared
+beforehand for the interview, and the sight of certain gold sovereigns
+that Toad had thoughtfully placed on the table in full view practically
+completed the matter and left little further to discuss. In return for
+his cash, Toad received a cotton print gown, an apron, a shawl, and a
+rusty black bonnet; the only stipulation the old lady made being that
+she should be gagged and bound and dumped down in a corner. By this not
+very convincing artifice, she explained, aided by picturesque fiction
+which she could supply herself, she hoped to retain her situation, in
+spite of the suspicious appearance of things.
+
+Toad was delighted with the suggestion. It would enable him to leave the
+prison in some style, and with his reputation for being a desperate and
+dangerous fellow untarnished; and he readily helped the gaoler's
+daughter to make her aunt appear as much as possible the victim of
+circumstances over which she had no control.
+
+"Now it's your turn, Toad," said the girl. "Take off that coat and
+waistcoat of yours; you're fat enough as it is."
+
+Shaking with laughter, she proceeded to "hook-and-eye" him into the
+cotton print gown, arranged the shawl with a professional fold, and
+tied the strings of the rusty bonnet under his chin.
+
+"You're the very image of her," she giggled, "only I'm sure you never
+looked half so respectable in all your life before. Now, good-bye,
+Toad, and good luck. Go straight down the way you came up; and if any
+one says anything to you, as they probably will, being but men, you
+can chaff back a bit, of course, but remember you're a widow woman,
+quite alone in the world, with a character to lose."
+
+With a quaking heart, but as firm a footstep as he could command, Toad
+set forth cautiously on what seemed to be a most hare-brained and
+hazardous undertaking; but he was soon agreeably surprised to find how
+easy everything was made for him, and a little humbled at the thought
+that both his popularity, and the sex that seemed to inspire it, were
+really another's. The washerwoman's squat figure in its familiar
+cotton print seemed a passport for every barred door and grim gateway;
+even when he hesitated, uncertain as to the right turning to take, he
+found himself helped out of his difficulty by the warder at the next
+gate, anxious to be off to his tea, summoning him to come along sharp
+and not keep him waiting there all night. The chaff and the humourous
+sallies to which he was subjected, and to which, of course, he had to
+provide prompt and effective reply, formed, indeed, his chief danger;
+for Toad was an animal with a strong sense of his own dignity, and the
+chaff was mostly (he thought) poor and clumsy, and the humour of the
+sallies entirely lacking. However, he kept his temper, though with
+great difficulty, suited his retorts to his company and his supposed
+character, and did his best not to overstep the limits of good taste.
+
+It seemed hours before he crossed the last courtyard, rejected the
+pressing invitations from the last guardroom, and dodged the outspread
+arms of the last warder, pleading with simulated passion for just one
+farewell embrace. But at last he heard the wicket-gate in the great
+outer door click behind him, felt the fresh air of the outer world
+upon his anxious brow, and knew that he was free!
+
+Dizzy with the easy success of his daring exploit, he walked quickly
+towards the lights of the town, not knowing in the least what he
+should do next, only quite certain of one thing, that he must remove
+himself as quickly as possible from the neighbourhood where the lady
+he was forced to represent was so well-known and so popular a
+character.
+
+As he walked along, considering, his attention was caught by some red
+and green lights a little way off, to one side of the town, and the
+sound of the puffing and snorting of engines and the banging of
+shunted trucks fell on his ear. "Aha!" he thought, "this is a piece of
+luck! A railway station is the thing I want most in the whole world at
+this moment; and what's more, I needn't go through the town to get it,
+and shan't have to support this humiliating character by repartees
+which, though thoroughly effective, do not assist one's sense of
+self-respect."
+
+He made his way to the station accordingly, consulted a time-table,
+and found that a train, bound more or less in the direction of his
+home, was due to start in half-an-hour. "More luck!" said Toad, his
+spirits rising rapidly, and went off to the booking-office to buy his
+ticket.
+
+He gave the name of the station that he knew to be nearest to the
+village of which Toad Hall was the principal feature, and mechanically
+put his fingers, in search of the necessary money, where his waistcoat
+pocket should have been. But here the cotton gown, which had nobly stood
+by him so far, and which he had basely forgotten, intervened, and
+frustrated his efforts. In a sort of nightmare he struggled with the
+strange uncanny thing that seemed to hold his hands, turn all muscular
+strivings to water, and laugh at him all the time; while other
+travellers, forming up in a line behind, waited with impatience, making
+suggestions of more or less value and comments of more or less
+stringency and point. At last--somehow--he never rightly understood
+how--he burst the barriers, attained the goal, arrived at where all
+waistcoat pockets are eternally situated, and found--not only no money,
+but no pocket to hold it, and no waistcoat to hold the pocket!
+
+To his horror he recollected that he had left both coat and waistcoat
+behind him in his cell, and with them his pocket-book, money, keys,
+watch, matches, pencil-case--all that makes life worth living, all
+that distinguishes the many-pocketed animal, the lord of creation,
+from the inferior one-pocketed or no-pocketed productions that hop or
+trip about permissively, unequipped for the real contest.
+
+In his misery he made one desperate effort to carry the thing off,
+and, with a return to his fine old manner--a blend of the Squire and
+the College Don--he said, "Look here! I find I've left my purse
+behind. Just give me that ticket, will you, and I'll send the money on
+to-morrow? I'm well-known in these parts."
+
+The clerk stared at him and the rusty black bonnet a moment, and then
+laughed. "I should think you were pretty well known in these parts,"
+he said, "if you've tried this game on often. Here, stand away from
+the window, please, madam; you're obstructing the other passengers!"
+
+An old gentleman who had been prodding him in the back for some
+moments here thrust him away, and, what was worse, addressed him as
+his good woman, which angered Toad more than anything that had
+occurred that evening.
+
+Baffled and full of despair, he wandered blindly down the platform
+where the train was standing, and tears trickled down each side of
+his nose. It was hard, he thought, to be within sight of safety and
+almost of home, and to be baulked by the want of a few wretched
+shillings and by the pettifogging mistrustfulness of paid officials.
+Very soon his escape would be discovered, the hunt would be up, he
+would be caught, reviled, loaded with chains, dragged back again to
+prison and bread-and-water and straw; his guards and penalties would
+be doubled; and O, what sarcastic remarks the girl would make! What
+was to be done? He was not swift of foot; his figure was unfortunately
+recognisable. Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He
+had seen this method adopted by schoolboys, when the journey-money
+provided by thoughtful parents had been diverted to other and better
+ends. As he pondered, he found himself opposite the engine, which was
+being oiled, wiped, and generally caressed by its affectionate driver,
+a burly man with an oil-can in one hand and a lump of cotton-waste in
+the other.
+
+"Hullo, mother!" said the engine-driver, "what's the trouble? You
+don't look particularly cheerful."
+
+"O, sir!" said Toad, crying afresh, "I am a poor unhappy washerwoman,
+and I've lost all my money, and can't pay for a ticket, and I _must_
+get home to-night somehow, and whatever I am to do I don't know. O
+dear, O dear!"
+
+"That's a bad business, indeed," said the engine-driver reflectively.
+"Lost your money--and can't get home--and got some kids, too, waiting
+for you, I dare say?"
+
+"Any amount of 'em," sobbed Toad. "And they'll be hungry--and playing
+with matches--and upsetting lamps, the little innocents!--and
+quarrelling, and going on generally. O dear, O dear!"
+
+"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do," said the good engine-driver.
+"You're a washerwoman to your trade, says you. Very well, that's that.
+And I'm an engine-driver, as you well may see, and there's no denying
+it's terribly dirty work. Uses up a power of shirts, it does, till my
+missus is fair tired of washing of 'em. If you'll wash a few shirts
+for me when you get home, and send 'em along, I'll give you a ride on
+my engine. It's against the Company's regulations, but we're not so
+very particular in these out-of-the-way parts."
+
+The Toad's misery turned into rapture as he eagerly scrambled up into
+the cab of the engine. Of course, he had never washed a shirt in his
+life, and couldn't if he tried and, anyhow, he wasn't going to begin;
+but he thought: "When I get safely home to Toad Hall, and have money
+again, and pockets to put it in, I will send the engine-driver enough
+to pay for quite a quantity of washing, and that will be the same
+thing, or better."
+
+The guard waved his welcome flag, the engine-driver whistled in
+cheerful response, and the train moved out of the station. As the
+speed increased, and the Toad could see on either side of him real
+fields, and trees, and hedges, and cows, and horses, all flying past
+him, and as he thought how every minute was bringing him nearer to
+Toad Hall, and sympathetic friends, and money to chink in his pocket,
+and a soft bed to sleep in, and good things to eat, and praise and
+admiration at the recital of his adventures and his surpassing
+cleverness, he began to skip up and down and shout and sing snatches
+of song, to the great astonishment of the engine-driver, who had come
+across washerwomen before, at long intervals, but never one at all
+like this.
+
+They had covered many and many a mile, and Toad was already considering
+what he would have for supper as soon as he got home, when he noticed
+that the engine-driver, with a puzzled expression on his face, was
+leaning over the side of the engine and listening hard. Then he saw him
+climb on to the coals and gaze out over the top of the train; then he
+returned and said to Toad: "It's very strange; we're the last train
+running in this direction to-night, yet I could be sworn that I heard
+another following us!"
+
+Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once. He became grave and depressed,
+and a dull pain in the lower part of his spine, communicating itself to
+his legs, made him want to sit down and try desperately not to think of
+all the possibilities.
+
+By this time the moon was shining brightly, and the engine-driver,
+steadying himself on the coal, could command a view of the line behind
+them for a long distance.
+
+Presently he called out, "I can see it clearly now! It is an engine,
+on our rails, coming along at a great pace! It looks as if we were
+being pursued!"
+
+The miserable Toad, crouching in the coal-dust, tried hard to think of
+something to do, with dismal want of success.
+
+"They are gaining on us fast!" cried the engine-driver. "And the
+engine is crowded with the queerest lot of people! Men like ancient
+warders, waving halberds; policemen in their helmets, waving
+truncheons; and shabbily dressed men in pot-hats, obvious and
+unmistakable plain-clothes detectives even at this distance, waving
+revolvers and walking-sticks; all waving, and all shouting the same
+thing--'Stop, stop, stop!'"
+
+Then Toad fell on his knees among the coals, and, raising his clasped
+paws in supplication, cried, "Save me, only save me, dear kind Mr.
+Engine-driver, and I will confess everything! I am not the simple
+washerwoman I seem to be! I have no children waiting for me, innocent
+or otherwise! I am a toad--the well-known and popular Mr. Toad, a
+landed proprietor; I have just escaped, by my great daring and
+cleverness, from a loathsome dungeon into which my enemies had flung
+me; and if those fellows on that engine recapture me, it will be
+chains and bread-and-water and straw and misery once more for poor,
+unhappy, innocent Toad!"
+
+The engine-driver looked down upon him very sternly, and said, "Now
+tell the truth; what were you put in prison for?"
+
+"It was nothing very much," said poor Toad, colouring deeply. "I only
+borrowed a motor-car while the owners were at lunch; they had no need of
+it at the time. I didn't mean to steal it, really; but people--especially
+magistrates--take such harsh views of thoughtless and high-spirited
+actions."
+
+The engine-driver looked very grave and said, "I fear that you have
+been indeed a wicked toad, and by rights I ought to give you up to
+offended justice. But you are evidently in sore trouble and distress,
+so I will not desert you. I don't hold with motor-cars, for one thing;
+and I don't hold with being ordered about by policemen when I'm on my
+own engine, for another. And the sight of an animal in tears always
+makes me feel queer and soft-hearted. So cheer up, Toad! I'll do my
+best, and we may beat them yet!"
+
+They piled on more coals, shovelling furiously; the furnace roared,
+the sparks flew, the engine leapt and swung, but still their pursuers
+slowly gained. The engine-driver, with a sigh, wiped his brow with a
+handful of cotton-waste, and said, "I'm afraid it's no good, Toad. You
+see, they are running light, and they have the better engine. There's
+just one thing left for us to do, and it's your only chance, so attend
+very carefully to what I tell you. A short way ahead of us is a long
+tunnel, and on the other side of that the line passes through a thick
+wood. Now, I will put on all the speed I can while we are running
+through the tunnel, but the other fellows will slow down a bit,
+naturally, for fear of an accident. When we are through, I will shut
+off steam and put on brakes as hard as I can, and the moment it's safe
+to do so you must jump and hide in the wood, before they get through
+the tunnel and see you. Then I will go full speed ahead again, and
+they can chase me if they like, for as long as they like, and as far
+as they like. Now mind and be ready to jump when I tell you!"
+
+They piled on more coals, and the train shot into the tunnel, and the
+engine rushed and roared and rattled, till at last they shot out at
+the other end into fresh air and the peaceful moonlight, and saw the
+wood lying dark and helpful upon either side of the line. The driver
+shut off steam and put on brakes, the Toad got down on the step, and
+as the train slowed down to almost a walking pace he heard the driver
+call out, "Now, jump!"
+
+Toad jumped, rolled down a short embankment, picked himself up unhurt,
+scrambled into the wood and hid.
+
+Peeping out, he saw his train get up speed again and disappear at a
+great pace. Then out of the tunnel burst the pursuing engine, roaring
+and whistling, her motley crew waving their various weapons and
+shouting, "Stop! stop! stop!" When they were past, the Toad had a
+hearty laugh--for the first time since he was thrown into prison.
+
+But he soon stopped laughing when he came to consider that it was now
+very late and dark and cold, and he was in an unknown wood, with no
+money and no chance of supper, and still far from friends and home;
+and the dead silence of everything, after the roar and rattle of the
+train, was something of a shock. He dared not leave the shelter of the
+trees, so he struck into the wood, with the idea of leaving the
+railway as far as possible behind him.
+
+After so many weeks within walls, he found the wood strange and
+unfriendly and inclined, he thought, to make fun of him. Night-jars,
+sounding their mechanical rattle, made him think that the wood was
+full of searching warders, closing in on him. An owl, swooping
+noiselessly towards him, brushed his shoulder with its wing, making
+him jump with the horrid certainty that it was a hand; then flitted
+off, moth-like, laughing its low ho! ho! ho! which Toad thought in
+very poor taste. Once he met a fox, who stopped, looked him up and
+down in a sarcastic sort of way, and said, "Hullo, washerwoman! Half a
+pair of socks and a pillow-case short this week! Mind it doesn't occur
+again!" and swaggered off, sniggering. Toad looked about for a stone
+to throw at him, but could not succeed in finding one, which vexed him
+more than anything. At last, cold, hungry, and tired out, he sought
+the shelter of a hollow tree, where with branches and dead leaves he
+made himself as comfortable a bed as he could, and slept soundly till
+the morning.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+WAYFARERS ALL
+
+
+The Water Rat was restless, and he did not exactly know why. To all
+appearance the summer's pomp was still at fullest height, and although
+in the tilled acres green had given way to gold, though rowans were
+reddening, and the woods were dashed here and there with a tawny
+fierceness, yet light and warmth and colour were still present in
+undiminished measure, clean of any chilly premonitions of the passing
+year. But the constant chorus of the orchards and hedges had shrunk to
+a casual evensong from a few yet unwearied performers; the robin was
+beginning to assert himself once more; and there was a feeling in the
+air of change and departure. The cuckoo, of course, had long been
+silent; but many another feathered friend, for months a part of the
+familiar landscape and its small society, was missing too, and it
+seemed that the ranks thinned steadily day by day. Rat, ever observant
+of all winged movement, saw that it was taking daily a southing
+tendency; and even as he lay in bed at night he thought he could make
+out, passing in the darkness overhead, the beat and quiver of
+impatient pinions, obedient to the peremptory call.
+
+Nature's Grand Hotel has its Season, like the others. As the guests one
+by one pack, pay, and depart, and the seats at the _table-d'hote_ shrink
+pitifully at each succeeding meal; as suites of rooms are closed, carpets
+taken up, and waiters sent away; those boarders who are staying on, _en
+pension_, until the next year's full re-opening, cannot help being
+somewhat affected by all these flittings and farewells, this eager
+discussion of plans, routes, and fresh quarters, this daily shrinkage in
+the stream of comradeship. One gets unsettled, depressed, and inclined to
+be querulous. Why this craving for change? Why not stay on quietly here,
+like us, and be jolly? You don't know this hotel out of the season, and
+what fun we have among ourselves, we fellows who remain and see the whole
+interesting year out. All very true, no doubt, the others always reply;
+we quite envy you--and some other year perhaps--but just now we have
+engagements--and there's the bus at the door--our time is up! So they
+depart, with a smile and a nod, and we miss them, and feel resentful. The
+Rat was a self-sufficing sort of animal, rooted to the land, and, whoever
+went, he stayed; still, he could not help noticing what was in the air,
+and feeling some of its influence in his bones.
+
+It was difficult to settle down to anything seriously, with all this
+flitting going on. Leaving the water-side, where rushes stood thick
+and tall in a stream that was becoming sluggish and low, he wandered
+country-wards, crossed a field or two of pasturage already looking
+dusty and parched, and thrust into the great sea of wheat, yellow,
+wavy, and murmurous, full of quiet motion and small whisperings. Here
+he often loved to wander, through the forest of stiff strong stalks
+that carried their own golden sky away over his head--a sky that was
+always dancing, shimmering, softly talking; or swaying strongly to
+the passing wind and recovering itself with a toss and a merry laugh.
+Here, too, he had many small friends, a society complete in itself,
+leading full and busy lives, but always with a spare moment to gossip,
+and exchange news with a visitor. To-day, however, though they were
+civil enough, the field-mice and harvest mice seemed pre-occupied.
+Many were digging and tunnelling busily; others, gathered together in
+small groups, examined plans and drawings of small flats, stated to be
+desirable and compact, and situated conveniently near the Stores. Some
+were hauling out dusty trunks and dress-baskets, others were already
+elbow-deep packing their belongings; while everywhere piles and
+bundles of wheat, oats, barley, beech-mast and nuts, lay about ready
+for transport.
+
+"Here's old Ratty!" they cried as soon as they saw him. "Come and bear
+a hand, Rat, and don't stand about idle!"
+
+"What sort of games are you up to?" said the Water Rat severely. "You
+know it isn't time to be thinking of winter quarters yet, by a long
+way!"
+
+"O yes, we know that," explained a field-mouse rather shamefacedly;
+"but it's always as well to be in good time, isn't it? We really
+_must_ get all the furniture and baggage and stores moved out of this
+before those horrid machines begin clicking round the fields; and
+then, you know, the best flats get picked up so quickly nowadays, and
+if you're late you have to put up with _anything_; and they want such
+a lot of doing up, too, before they're fit to move into. Of course,
+we're early, we know that; but we're only just making a start."
+
+"O, bother _starts_," said the Rat. "It's a splendid day. Come for a
+row, or a stroll along the hedges, or a picnic in the woods, or
+something."
+
+"Well, I _think_ not _to-day_, thank you," replied the field-mouse
+hurriedly. "Perhaps some _other_ day--when we've more _time_--"
+
+The Rat, with a snort of contempt, swung round to go, tripped over a
+hat-box, and fell, with undignified remarks.
+
+"If people would be more careful," said a field-mouse rather stiffly,
+"and look where they're going, people wouldn't hurt themselves--and
+forget themselves. Mind that hold-all, Rat! You'd better sit down
+somewhere. In an hour or two we may be more free to attend to you."
+
+"You won't be 'free' as you call it, much this side of Christmas, I
+can see that," retorted the Rat grumpily, as he picked his way out of
+the field.
+
+He returned somewhat despondently to his river again--his faithful,
+steady-going old river, which never packed up, flitted, or went into
+winter quarters.
+
+In the osiers which fringed the bank he spied a swallow sitting.
+Presently it was joined by another, and then by a third; and the
+birds, fidgeting restlessly on their bough, talked together earnestly
+and low.
+
+"What, _already_," said the Rat, strolling up to them. "What's the
+hurry? I call it simply ridiculous."
+
+"O, we're not off yet, if that's what you mean," replied the first
+swallow. "We're only making plans and arranging things. Talking it
+over, you know--what route we're taking this year, and where we'll
+stop, and so on. That's half the fun!"
+
+"Fun?" said the Rat; "now that's just what I don't understand. If
+you've _got_ to leave this pleasant place, and your friends who will
+miss you, and your snug homes that you've just settled into, why, when
+the hour strikes I've no doubt you'll go bravely, and face all the
+trouble and discomfort and change and newness, and make believe that
+you're not very unhappy. But to want to talk about it, or even think
+about it, till you really need--"
+
+"No, you don't understand, naturally," said the second swallow.
+"First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back come
+the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter
+through our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and
+circlings by day. We hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes
+and assure ourselves that it was all really true, as one by one the
+scents and sounds and names of long-forgotten places come gradually
+back and beckon to us."
+
+"Couldn't you stop on for just this year?" suggested the Water Rat,
+wistfully. "We'll all do our best to make you feel at home. You've no
+idea what good times we have here, while you are far away."
+
+"I tried 'stopping on' one year," said the third swallow. "I had grown
+so fond of the place that when the time came I hung back and let the
+others go on without me. For a few weeks it was all well enough, but
+afterwards, O the weary length of the nights! The shivering, sunless
+days! The air so clammy and chill, and not an insect in an acre of it!
+No, it was no good; my courage broke down, and one cold, stormy night
+I took wing, flying well inland on account of the strong easterly
+gales. It was snowing hard as I beat through the passes of the great
+mountains, and I had a stiff fight to win through; but never shall I
+forget the blissful feeling of the hot sun again on my back as I sped
+down to the lakes that lay so blue and placid below me, and the taste
+of my first fat insect! The past was like a bad dream; the future was
+all happy holiday as I moved southwards week by week, easily, lazily,
+lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call! No, I had
+had my warning; never again did I think of disobedience."
+
+"Ah, yes, the call of the South, of the South!" twittered the other
+two dreamily. "Its songs, its hues, its radiant air! O, do you
+remember--" and, forgetting the Rat, they slid into passionate
+reminiscence, while he listened fascinated, and his heart burned
+within him. In himself, too, he knew that it was vibrating at last,
+that chord hitherto dormant and unsuspected. The mere chatter of these
+southern-bound birds, their pale and second-hand reports, had yet
+power to awaken this wild new sensation and thrill him through and
+through with it; what would one moment of the real thing work in
+him--one passionate touch of the real southern sun, one waft of the
+authentic odour? With closed eyes he dared to dream a moment in full
+abandonment, and when he looked again the river seemed steely and
+chill, the green fields grey and lightless. Then his loyal heart
+seemed to cry out on his weaker self for its treachery.
+
+"Why do you ever come back, then, at all?" he demanded of the swallows
+jealously. "What do you find to attract you in this poor drab little
+country?"
+
+"And do you think," said the first swallow, "that the other call is
+not for us too, in its due season? The call of lush meadow-grass, wet
+orchards, warm, insect-haunted ponds, of browsing cattle, of
+haymaking, and all the farm-buildings clustering round the House of
+the perfect Eaves?"
+
+"Do you suppose," asked the second one, "that you are the only living
+thing that craves with a hungry longing to hear the cuckoo's note
+again?"
+
+"In due time," said the third, "we shall be home-sick once more for
+quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream. But
+to-day all that seems pale and thin and very far away. Just now our
+blood dances to other music."
+
+They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time
+their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and
+lizard-haunted walls.
+
+Restlessly the Rat wandered off once more, climbed the slope that rose
+gently from the north bank of the river, and lay looking out towards
+the great ring of Downs that barred his vision further southwards--his
+simple horizon hitherto, his Mountains of the Moon, his limit behind
+which lay nothing he had cared to see or to know. To-day, to him
+gazing South with a new-born need stirring in his heart, the clear sky
+over their long low outline seemed to pulsate with promise; to-day,
+the unseen was everything, the unknown the only real fact of life. On
+this side of the hills was now the real blank, on the other lay the
+crowded and coloured panorama that his inner eye was seeing so
+clearly. What seas lay beyond, green, leaping, and crested! What
+sun-bathed coasts, along which the white villas glittered against the
+olive woods! What quiet harbours, thronged with gallant shipping bound
+for purple islands of wine and spice, islands set low in languorous
+waters!
+
+He rose and descended river-wards once more; then changed his mind and
+sought the side of the dusty lane. There, lying half-buried in the
+thick, cool under-hedge tangle that bordered it, he could muse on the
+metalled road and all the wondrous world that it led to; on all the
+wayfarers, too, that might have trodden it, and the fortunes and
+adventures they had gone to seek or found unseeking--out there,
+beyond--beyond!
+
+Footsteps fell on his ear, and the figure of one that walked somewhat
+wearily came into view; and he saw that it was a Rat, and a very dusty
+one. The wayfarer, as he reached him, saluted with a gesture of
+courtesy that had something foreign about it--hesitated a moment--then
+with a pleasant smile turned from the track and sat down by his side
+in the cool herbage. He seemed tired, and the Rat let him rest
+unquestioned, understanding something of what was in his thoughts;
+knowing, too, the value all animals attach at times to mere silent
+companionship, when the weary muscles slacken and the mind marks time.
+
+The wayfarer was lean and keen-featured, and somewhat bowed at the
+shoulders; his paws were thin and long, his eyes much wrinkled at the
+corners, and he wore small gold ear rings in his neatly-set well-shaped
+ears. His knitted jersey was of a faded blue, his breeches, patched and
+stained, were based on a blue foundation, and his small belongings that
+he carried were tied up in a blue cotton handkerchief.
+
+When he had rested awhile the stranger sighed, snuffed the air, and
+looked about him.
+
+"That was clover, that warm whiff on the breeze," he remarked; "and
+those are cows we hear cropping the grass behind us and blowing softly
+between mouthfuls. There is a sound of distant reapers, and yonder
+rises a blue line of cottage smoke against the woodland. The river
+runs somewhere close by, for I hear the call of a moorhen, and I see
+by your build that you're a freshwater mariner. Everything seems
+asleep, and yet going on all the time. It is a goodly life that you
+lead, friend; no doubt the best in the world, if only you are strong
+enough to lead it!"
+
+"Yes, it's _the_ life, the only life, to live," responded the Water
+Rat dreamily, and without his usual whole-hearted conviction.
+
+"I did not say exactly that," replied the stranger cautiously; "but no
+doubt it's the best. I've tried it, and I know. And because I've just
+tried it--six months of it--and know it's the best, here am I,
+footsore and hungry, tramping away from it, tramping southwards,
+following the old call, back to the old life, _the_ life which is mine
+and which will not let me go."
+
+"Is this, then, yet another of them?" mused the Rat. "And where have
+you just come from?" he asked. He hardly dared to ask where he was
+bound for; he seemed to know the answer only too well.
+
+"Nice little farm," replied the wayfarer, briefly. "Upalong in that
+direction--" he nodded northwards. "Never mind about it. I had
+everything I could want--everything I had any right to expect of life,
+and more; and here I am! Glad to be here all the same, though, glad
+to be here! So many miles further on the road, so many hours nearer to
+my heart's desire!"
+
+His shining eyes held fast to the horizon, and he seemed to be
+listening for some sound that was wanting from that inland acreage,
+vocal as it was with the cheerful music of pasturage and farmyard.
+
+"You are not one of _us_," said the Water Rat, "nor yet a farmer; nor
+even, I should judge, of this country."
+
+"Right," replied the stranger. "I'm a seafaring rat, I am, and the
+port I originally hail from is Constantinople, though I'm a sort of a
+foreigner there too, in a manner of speaking. You will have heard of
+Constantinople, friend? A fair city and an ancient and glorious one.
+And you may have heard too, of Sigurd, King of Norway, and how he
+sailed thither with sixty ships, and how he and his men rode up
+through streets all canopied in their honour with purple and gold; and
+how the Emperor and Empress came down and banqueted with him on
+board his ship. When Sigurd returned home, many of his Northmen
+remained behind and entered the Emperor's body-guard, and my ancestor,
+a Norwegian born, stayed behind too, with the ships that Sigurd gave
+the Emperor. Seafarers we have ever been, and no wonder; as for me,
+the city of my birth is no more my home than any pleasant port between
+there and the London River. I know them all, and they know me. Set me
+down on any of their quays or foreshores, and I am home again."
+
+"I suppose you go great voyages," said the Water Rat with growing
+interest. "Months and months out of sight of land, and provisions
+running short, and allowanced as to water, and your mind communing
+with the mighty ocean, and all that sort of thing?"
+
+"By no means," said the Sea Rat frankly. "Such a life as you describe
+would not suit me at all. I'm in the coasting trade, and rarely out of
+sight of land. It's the jolly times on shore that appeal to me, as
+much as any seafaring. O, those southern seaports! The smell of them,
+the riding-lights at night, the glamour!"
+
+"Well, perhaps you have chosen the better way," said the Water Rat,
+but rather doubtfully. "Tell me something of your coasting, then, if
+you have a mind to, and what sort of harvest an animal of spirit might
+hope to bring home from it to warm his latter days with gallant
+memories by the fireside; for my life, I confess to you, feels to me
+to-day somewhat narrow and circumscribed."
+
+"My last voyage," began the Sea Rat, "that landed me eventually in
+this country, bound with high hopes for my inland farm, will serve as
+a good example of any of them, and, indeed, as an epitome of my
+highly-coloured life. Family troubles, as usual, began it. The
+domestic storm-cone was hoisted, and I shipped myself on board a small
+trading vessel bound from Constantinople, by classic seas whose every
+wave throbs with a deathless memory, to the Grecian Islands and the
+Levant. Those were golden days and balmy nights! In and out of harbour
+all the time--old friends everywhere--sleeping in some cool temple or
+ruined cistern during the heat of the day--feasting and song after
+sundown, under great stars set in a velvet sky! Thence we turned and
+coasted up the Adriatic, its shores swimming in an atmosphere of
+amber, rose, and aquamarine; we lay in wide landlocked harbours, we
+roamed through ancient and noble cities, until at last one morning, as
+the sun rose royally behind us, we rode into Venice down a path of
+gold. O, Venice is a fine city, wherein a rat can wander at his ease
+and take his pleasure! Or, when weary of wandering, can sit at the
+edge of the Grand Canal at night, feasting with his friends, when the
+air is full of music and the sky full of stars, and the lights flash
+and shimmer on the polished steel prows of the swaying gondolas,
+packed so that you could walk across the canal on them from side to
+side! And then the food--do you like shell-fish? Well, well, we won't
+linger over that now."
+
+He was silent for a time; and the Water Rat, silent too and enthralled,
+floated on dream-canals and heard a phantom song pealing high between
+vaporous grey wave-lapped walls.
+
+"Southwards we sailed again at last," continued the Sea Rat, "coasting
+down the Italian shore, till finally we made Palermo, and there I
+quitted for a long, happy spell on shore. I never stick too long to
+one ship; one gets narrow-minded and prejudiced. Besides, Sicily is
+one of my happy hunting-grounds. I know everybody there, and their
+ways just suit me. I spent many jolly weeks in the island, staying
+with friends upcountry. When I grew restless again I took advantage of
+a ship that was trading to Sardinia and Corsica; and very glad I was
+to feel the fresh breeze and the sea-spray in my face once more."
+
+"But isn't it very hot and stuffy, down in the--hold, I think you call
+it?" asked the Water Rat.
+
+The seafarer looked at him with the suspicion of a wink. "I'm an old
+hand," he remarked with much simplicity. "The captain's cabin's good
+enough for me."
+
+"It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the Rat, sunk in deep
+thought.
+
+"For the crew it is," replied the seafarer gravely, again with the
+ghost of a wink.
+
+"From Corsica," he went on, "I made use of a ship that was taking
+wine to the mainland. We made Alassio in the evening, lay to, hauled
+up our wine-casks, and hove them overboard, tied one to the other by a
+long line. Then the crew took to the boats and rowed shorewards,
+singing as they went, and drawing after them the long bobbing
+procession of casks, like a mile of porpoises. On the sands they had
+horses waiting, which dragged the casks up the steep street of the
+little town with a fine rush and clatter and scramble. When the last
+cask was in, we went and refreshed and rested, and sat late into the
+night, drinking with our friends, and next morning I took to the great
+olive-woods for a spell and a rest. For now I had done with islands
+for the time, and ports and shipping were plentiful; so I led a lazy
+life among the peasants, lying and watching them work, or stretched
+high on the hillside with the blue Mediterranean far below me. And so
+at length, by easy stages, and partly on foot, partly by sea, to
+Marseilles, and the meeting of old shipmates, and the visiting of
+great ocean-bound vessels, and feasting once more. Talk of
+shell-fish! Why, sometimes I dream of the shell-fish of Marseilles,
+and wake up crying!"
+
+[Illustration: _"It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the
+Rat_]
+
+"That reminds me," said the polite Water Rat; "you happened to mention
+that you were hungry, and I ought to have spoken earlier. Of course,
+you will stop and take your mid-day meal with me? My hole is close by;
+it is some time past noon, and you are very welcome to whatever there
+is."
+
+"Now I call that kind and brotherly of you," said the Sea Rat. "I was
+indeed hungry when I sat down, and ever since I inadvertently happened
+to mention shell-fish, my pangs have been extreme. But couldn't you
+fetch it along out here? I am none too fond of going under hatches,
+unless I'm obliged to; and then, while we eat, I could tell you more
+concerning my voyages and the pleasant life I lead--at least, it is
+very pleasant to me, and by your attention I judge it commends itself
+to you; whereas if we go indoors it is a hundred to one that I shall
+presently fall asleep."
+
+"That is indeed an excellent suggestion," said the Water Rat, and
+hurried off home. There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a
+simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger's origin and
+preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a
+sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and
+cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled
+sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes. Thus laden, he
+returned with all speed, and blushed for pleasure at the old seaman's
+commendations of his taste and judgment, as together they unpacked the
+basket and laid out the contents on the grass by the roadside.
+
+The Sea Rat, as soon as his hunger was somewhat assuaged, continued
+the history of his latest voyage, conducting his simple hearer from
+port to port of Spain, landing him at Lisbon, Oporto, and Bordeaux,
+introducing him to the pleasant harbours of Cornwall and Devon, and so
+up the Channel to that final quayside, where, landing after winds long
+contrary, storm-driven and weather-beaten, he had caught the first
+magical hints and heraldings of another Spring, and, fired by these,
+had sped on a long tramp inland, hungry for the experiment of life on
+some quiet farmstead, very far from the weary beating of any sea.
+
+Spellbound and quivering with excitement, the Water Rat followed the
+Adventurer league by league, over stormy bays, through crowded
+roadsteads, across harbour bars on a racing tide, up winding rivers
+that hid their busy little towns round a sudden turn; and left him
+with a regretful sigh planted at his dull inland farm, about which he
+desired to hear nothing.
+
+By this time their meal was over, and the Seafarer, refreshed and
+strengthened, his voice more vibrant, his eye lit with a brightness that
+seemed caught from some far-away sea-beacon, filled his glass with the
+red and glowing vintage of the South, and, leaning towards the Water Rat,
+compelled his gaze and held him, body and soul, while he talked. Those
+eyes were of the changing foam-streaked grey-green of leaping Northern
+seas; in the glass shone a hot ruby that seemed the very heart of the
+South, beating for him who had courage to respond to its pulsation. The
+twin lights, the shifting grey and the steadfast red, mastered the Water
+Rat and held him bound, fascinated, powerless. The quiet world outside
+their rays receded far away and ceased to be. And the talk, the wonderful
+talk flowed on--or was it speech entirely, or did it pass at times into
+song--chanty of the sailors weighing the dripping anchor, sonorous hum of
+the shrouds in a tearing North-Easter, ballad of the fisherman hauling
+his nets at sundown against an apricot sky, chords of guitar and
+mandoline from gondola or caique? Did it change into the cry of the wind,
+plaintive at first, angrily shrill as it freshened, rising to a tearing
+whistle, sinking to a musical trickle of air from the leech of the
+bellying sail? All these sounds the spellbound listener seemed to hear,
+and with them the hungry complaint of the gulls and the sea-mews, the
+soft thunder of the breaking wave, the cry of the protesting shingle.
+Back into speech again it passed, and with beating heart he was following
+the adventures of a dozen seaports, the fights, the escapes, the rallies,
+the comradeships, the gallant undertakings; or he searched islands for
+treasure, fished in still lagoons and dozed day-long on warm white sand.
+Of deep-sea fishings he heard tell, and mighty silver gatherings of the
+mile-long net; of sudden perils, noise of breakers on a moonless night,
+or the tall bows of the great liner taking shape overhead through the
+fog; of the merry home-coming, the headland rounded, the harbour lights
+opened out; the groups seen dimly on the quay, the cheery hail, the
+splash of the hawser; the trudge up the steep little street towards the
+comforting glow of red-curtained windows.
+
+Lastly, in his waking dream it seemed to him that the Adventurer had
+risen to his feet, but was still speaking, still holding him fast with
+his sea-grey eyes.
+
+"And now," he was softly saying, "I take to the road again, holding on
+southwestwards for many a long and dusty day; till at last I reach the
+little grey sea town I know so well, that clings along one steep side
+of the harbour. There through dark doorways you look down flights of
+stone steps, overhung by great pink tufts of valerian and ending in a
+patch of sparkling blue water. The little boats that lie tethered to
+the rings and stanchions of the old sea-wall are gaily painted as
+those I clambered in and out of in my own childhood; the salmon leap
+on the flood tide, schools of mackerel flash and play past quay-sides
+and foreshores, and by the windows the great vessels glide, night and
+day, up to their moorings or forth to the open sea. There, sooner or
+later, the ships of all seafaring nations arrive; and there, at its
+destined hour, the ship of my choice will let go its anchor. I shall
+take my time, I shall tarry and bide, till at last the right one lies
+waiting for me, warped out into mid-stream, loaded low, her bowsprit
+pointing down harbour. I shall slip on board, by boat or along hawser;
+and then one morning I shall wake to the song and tramp of the
+sailors, the clink of the capstan, and the rattle of the anchor-chain
+coming merrily in. We shall break out the jib and the foresail, the
+white houses on the harbour side will glide slowly past us as she
+gathers steering-way, and the voyage will have begun! As she forges
+towards the headland she will clothe herself with canvas; and then,
+once outside, the sounding slap of great green seas as she heels to
+the wind, pointing South!
+
+"And you, you will come too, young brother; for the days pass, and
+never return, and the South still waits for you. Take the adventure,
+heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes! 'Tis but a
+banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are
+out of the old life and into the new! Then some day, some day long
+hence, jog home here if you will, when the cup has been drained and
+the play has been played, and sit down by your quiet river with a
+store of goodly memories for company. You can easily overtake me on
+the road, for you are young, and I am ageing and go softly. I will
+linger, and look back; and at last I will surely see you coming, eager
+and light-hearted, with all the South in your face!"
+
+The voice died away and ceased as an insect's tiny trumpet dwindles
+swiftly into silence; and the Water Rat, paralysed and staring, saw at
+last but a distant speck on the white surface of the road.
+
+Mechanically he rose and proceeded to repack the luncheon-basket,
+carefully and without haste. Mechanically he returned home, gathered
+together a few small necessaries and special treasures he was fond of,
+and put them in a satchel; acting with slow deliberation, moving about
+the room like a sleep-walker; listening ever with parted lips. He
+swung the satchel over his shoulder, carefully selected a stout stick
+for his wayfaring, and with no haste, but with no hesitation at all,
+he stepped across the threshold just as the Mole appeared at the door.
+
+"Why, where are you off to, Ratty?" asked the Mole in great surprise,
+grasping him by the arm.
+
+"Going South, with the rest of them," murmured the Rat in a dreamy
+monotone, never looking at him. "Seawards first and then on shipboard,
+and so to the shores that are calling me!"
+
+He pressed resolutely forward, still without haste, but with dogged
+fixity of purpose; but the Mole, now thoroughly alarmed, placed
+himself in front of him, and looking into his eyes saw that they
+were glazed and set and turned a streaked and shifting grey--not his
+friend's eyes, but the eyes of some other animal! Grappling with him
+strongly he dragged him inside, threw him down, and held him.
+
+The Rat struggled desperately for a few moments, and then his strength
+seemed suddenly to leave him, and he lay still and exhausted, with
+closed eyes, trembling. Presently the Mole assisted him to rise and
+placed him in a chair, where he sat collapsed and shrunken into
+himself, his body shaken by a violent shivering, passing in time into
+an hysterical fit of dry sobbing. Mole made the door fast, threw the
+satchel into a drawer and locked it, and sat down quietly on the table
+by his friend, waiting for the strange seizure to pass. Gradually the
+Rat sank into a troubled doze, broken by starts and confused
+murmurings of things strange and wild and foreign to the unenlightened
+Mole; and from that he passed into a deep slumber.
+
+Very anxious in mind, the Mole left him for a time and busied himself
+with household matters; and it was getting dark when he returned to
+the parlour and found the Rat where he had left him, wide awake
+indeed, but listless, silent, and dejected. He took one hasty glance
+at his eyes; found them, to his great gratification, clear and dark
+and brown again as before; and then sat down and tried to cheer him up
+and help him to relate what had happened to him.
+
+Poor Ratty did his best, by degrees, to explain things; but how could
+he put into cold words what had mostly been suggestion? How recall,
+for another's benefit, the haunting sea voices that had sung to him,
+how reproduce at second-hand the magic of the Seafarer's hundred
+reminiscences? Even to himself, now the spell was broken and the
+glamour gone, he found it difficult to account for what had seemed,
+some hours ago, the inevitable and only thing. It is not surprising,
+then, that he failed to convey to the Mole any clear idea of what he
+had been through that day.
+
+To the Mole this much was plain: the fit, or attack, had passed away,
+and had left him sane again, though shaken and cast down by the
+reaction. But he seemed to have lost all interest for the time in the
+things that went to make up his daily life, as well as in all pleasant
+forecastings of the altered days and doings that the changing season
+was surely bringing.
+
+Casually, then, and with seeming indifference, the Mole turned his
+talk to the harvest that was being gathered in, the towering wagons
+and their straining teams, the growing ricks, and the large moon
+rising over bare acres dotted with sheaves. He talked of the reddening
+apples around, of the browning nuts, of jams and preserves and the
+distilling of cordials; till by easy stages such as these he reached
+midwinter, its hearty joys and its snug home life, and then he became
+simply lyrical.
+
+By degrees the Rat began to sit up and to join in. His dull eye
+brightened, and he lost some of his listening air.
+
+Presently the tactful Mole slipped away and returned with a pencil and
+a few half-sheets of paper, which he placed on the table at his
+friend's elbow.
+
+"It's quite a long time since you did any poetry," he remarked. "You
+might have a try at it this evening, instead of--well, brooding over
+things so much. I've an idea that you'll feel a lot better when you've
+got something jotted down--if it's only just the rhymes."
+
+The Rat pushed the paper away from him wearily, but the discreet Mole
+took occasion to leave the room, and when he peeped in again some time
+later, the Rat was absorbed and deaf to the world; alternately
+scribbling and sucking the top of his pencil. It is true that he
+sucked a good deal more than he scribbled; but it was joy to the Mole
+to know that the cure had at least begun.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD
+
+
+The front door of the hollow tree faced eastwards, so Toad was called
+at an early hour; partly by the bright sunlight streaming in on him,
+partly by the exceeding coldness of his toes, which made him dream
+that he was at home in bed in his own handsome room with the Tudor
+window, on a cold winter's night, and his bed-clothes had got up,
+grumbling and protesting they couldn't stand the cold any longer, and
+had run downstairs to the kitchen fire to warm themselves; and he had
+followed, on bare feet, along miles and miles of icy stone-paved
+passages, arguing and beseeching them to be reasonable. He would
+probably have been aroused much earlier, had he not slept for some
+weeks on straw over stone flags, and almost forgotten the friendly
+feeling of thick blankets pulled well up round the chin.
+
+Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes first and his complaining toes next,
+wondered for a moment where he was, looking round for familiar stone wall
+and little barred window; then, with a leap of the heart, remembered
+everything--his escape, his flight, his pursuit; remembered, first and
+best thing of all, that he was free!
+
+Free! The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets. He was
+warm from end to end as he thought of the jolly world outside, waiting
+eagerly for him to make his triumphal entrance, ready to serve him and
+play up to him, anxious to help him and to keep him company, as it
+always had been in days of old before misfortune fell upon him. He
+shook himself and combed the dry leaves out of his hair with his
+fingers; and, his toilet complete, marched forth into the comfortable
+morning sun, cold but confident, hungry but hopeful, all nervous
+terrors of yesterday dispelled by rest and sleep and frank and
+heartening sunshine.
+
+He had the world all to himself, that early summer morning. The dewy
+woodland, as he threaded it, was solitary and still: the green fields
+that succeeded the trees were his own to do as he liked with; the road
+itself, when he reached it, in that loneliness that was everywhere,
+seemed, like a stray dog, to be looking anxiously for company. Toad,
+however, was looking for something that could talk, and tell him
+clearly which way he ought to go. It is all very well, when you have a
+light heart, and a clear conscience, and money in your pocket, and
+nobody scouring the country for you to drag you off to prison again,
+to follow where the road beckons and points, not caring whither. The
+practical Toad cared very much indeed, and he could have kicked the
+road for its helpless silence when every minute was of importance to
+him.
+
+The reserved rustic road was presently joined by a shy little brother in
+the shape of a canal, which took its hand and ambled along by its side in
+perfect confidence, but with the same tongue-tied, uncommunicative
+attitude towards strangers. "Bother them!" said Toad to himself. "But,
+anyhow, one thing's clear. They must both be coming _from_ somewhere,
+and going _to_ somewhere. You can't get over that, Toad, my boy!" So
+he marched on patiently by the water's edge.
+
+Round a bend in the canal came plodding a solitary horse, stooping
+forward as if in anxious thought. From rope traces attached to his
+collar stretched a long line, taut, but dipping with his stride, the
+further part of it dripping pearly drops. Toad let the horse pass, and
+stood waiting for what the fates were sending him.
+
+With a pleasant swirl of quiet water at its blunt bow the barge slid
+up alongside of him, its gaily painted gunwale level with the
+towing-path, its sole occupant a big stout woman wearing a linen
+sun-bonnet, one brawny arm laid along the tiller.
+
+"A nice morning, ma'am!" she remarked to Toad, as she drew up level
+with him.
+
+"I dare say it is, ma'am!" responded Toad politely, as he walked along
+the tow-path abreast of her. "I dare say it is a nice morning to them
+that's not in sore trouble, like what I am. Here's my married
+daughter, she sends off to me post-haste to come to her at once; so
+off I comes, not knowing what may be happening or going to happen, but
+fearing the worst, as you will understand, ma'am, if you're a mother,
+too. And I've left my business to look after itself--I'm in the
+washing and laundering line, you must know, ma'am--and I've left my
+young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and
+troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist, ma'am; and I've lost all
+my money, and lost my way, and as for what may be happening to my
+married daughter, why, I don't like to think of it, ma'am!"
+
+"Where might your married daughter be living, ma'am?" asked the
+barge-woman.
+
+"She lives near to the river, ma'am," replied Toad. "Close to a fine
+house called Toad Hall, that's somewheres hereabouts in these parts.
+Perhaps you may have heard of it."
+
+"Toad Hall? Why, I'm going that way myself," replied the barge-woman.
+"This canal joins the river some miles further on, a little above Toad
+Hall; and then it's an easy walk. You come along in the barge with
+me, and I'll give you a lift."
+
+She steered the barge close to the bank, and Toad, with many humble
+and grateful acknowledgments, stepped lightly on board and sat down
+with great satisfaction. "Toad's luck again!" thought he. "I always
+come out on top!"
+
+"So you're in the washing business, ma'am?" said the barge-woman
+politely, as they glided along. "And a very good business you've got
+too, I dare say, if I'm not making too free in saying so."
+
+"Finest business in the whole country," said Toad airily. "All the
+gentry come to me--wouldn't go to any one else if they were paid, they
+know me so well. You see, I understand my work thoroughly, and attend
+to it all myself. Washing, ironing, clear-starching, making up gents'
+fine shirts for evening wear--everything's done under my own eye!"
+
+"But surely you don't _do_ all that work yourself, ma'am?" asked the
+barge-woman respectfully.
+
+"O, I have girls," said Toad lightly: "twenty girls or thereabouts,
+always at work. But you know what _girls_ are, ma'am! Nasty little
+hussies, that's what _I_ call 'em!"
+
+"So do I, too," said the barge-woman with great heartiness. "But I
+dare say you set yours to rights, the idle trollops! And are you
+_very_ fond of washing?"
+
+"I love it," said Toad. "I simply dote on it. Never so happy as when
+I've got both arms in the wash-tub. But, then, it comes so easy to me!
+No trouble at all! A real pleasure, I assure you, ma'am!"
+
+"What a bit of luck, meeting you!" observed the barge-woman,
+thoughtfully. "A regular piece of good fortune for both of us!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean?" asked Toad, nervously.
+
+"Well, look at me, now," replied the barge-woman. "_I_ like washing,
+too, just the same as you do; and for that matter, whether I like it
+or not I have got to do all my own, naturally, moving about as I do.
+Now my husband, he's such a fellow for shirking his work and leaving
+the barge to me, that never a moment do I get for seeing to my own
+affairs. By rights he ought to be here now, either steering or
+attending to the horse, though luckily the horse has sense enough to
+attend to himself. Instead of which, he's gone off with the dog, to
+see if they can't pick up a rabbit for dinner somewhere. Says he'll
+catch me up at the next lock. Well, that's as may be--I don't trust
+him, once he gets off with that dog, who's worse than he is. But
+meantime, how am I to get on with my washing?"
+
+"O, never mind about the washing," said Toad, not liking the subject.
+"Try and fix your mind on that rabbit. A nice fat young rabbit, I'll
+be bound. Got any onions?"
+
+"I can't fix my mind on anything but my washing," said the barge-woman,
+"and I wonder you can be talking of rabbits, with such a joyful prospect
+before you. There's a heap of things of mine that you'll find in a corner
+of the cabin. If you'll just take one or two of the most necessary
+sort--I won't venture to describe them to a lady like you, but you'll
+recognise them at a glance--and put them through the wash-tub as we go
+along, why, it'll be a pleasure to you, as you rightly say, and a real
+help to me. You'll find a tub handy, and soap, and a kettle on the stove,
+and a bucket to haul up water from the canal with. Then I shall know
+you're enjoying yourself, instead of sitting here idle, looking at the
+scenery and yawning your head off."
+
+"Here, you let me steer!" said Toad, now thoroughly frightened, "and
+then you can get on with your washing your own way. I might spoil your
+things, or not do 'em as you like. I'm more used to gentleman's things
+myself. It's my special line."
+
+"Let you steer?" replied the barge-woman, laughing. "It takes some
+practice to steer a barge properly. Besides, it's dull work, and I
+want you to be happy. No, you shall do the washing you are so fond of,
+and I'll stick to the steering that I understand. Don't try and
+deprive me of the pleasure of giving you a treat!"
+
+Toad was fairly cornered. He looked for escape this way and that, saw
+that he was too far from the bank for a flying leap, and sullenly
+resigned himself to his fate. "If it comes to that," he thought in
+desperation, "I suppose any fool can _wash_!"
+
+He fetched tub, soap, and other necessaries from the cabin, selected a
+few garments at random, tried to recollect what he had seen in casual
+glances through laundry windows, and set to.
+
+A long half-hour passed, and every minute of it saw Toad getting
+crosser and crosser. Nothing that he could do to the things seemed to
+please them or do them good. He tried coaxing, he tried slapping, he
+tried punching; they smiled back at him out of the tub unconverted,
+happy in their original sin. Once or twice he looked nervously over
+his shoulder at the barge-woman, but she appeared to be gazing out in
+front of her, absorbed in her steering. His back ached badly, and he
+noticed with dismay that his paws were beginning to get all crinkly.
+Now Toad was very proud of his paws. He muttered under his breath
+words that should never pass the lips of either washerwomen or Toads;
+and lost the soap, for the fiftieth time.
+
+A burst of laughter made him straighten himself and look round. The
+barge-woman was leaning back and laughing unrestrainedly, till the
+tears ran down her cheeks.
+
+"I've been watching you all the time," she gasped. "I thought you must
+be a humbug all along, from the conceited way you talked. Pretty
+washerwoman you are! Never washed so much as a dish-clout in your
+life, I'll lay!"
+
+Toad's temper, which had been simmering viciously for some time, now
+fairly boiled over, and he lost all control of himself.
+
+"You common, low, _fat_ barge-woman!" he shouted; "don't you dare to
+talk to your betters like that! Washerwoman indeed! I would have you
+to know that I am a Toad, a very well-known, respected, distinguished
+Toad! I may be under a bit of a cloud at present, but I will _not_ be
+laughed at by a barge-woman!"
+
+The woman moved nearer to him and peered under his bonnet keenly and
+closely. "Why, so you are!" she cried. "Well, I never! A horrid,
+nasty, crawly Toad! And in my nice clean barge, too! Now that is a
+thing that I will _not_ have."
+
+She relinquished the tiller for a moment. One big, mottled arm shot
+out and caught Toad by a fore-leg, while the other gripped him fast by
+a hind-leg. Then the world turned suddenly upside down, the barge
+seemed to flit lightly across the sky, the wind whistled in his ears,
+and Toad found himself flying through the air, revolving rapidly as he
+went.
+
+The water, when he eventually reached it with a loud splash, proved
+quite cold enough for his taste, though its chill was not sufficient
+to quell his proud spirit, or slake the heat of his furious temper. He
+rose to the surface spluttering, and when he had wiped the duck-weed
+out of his eyes the first thing he saw was the fat barge-woman looking
+back at him over the stern of the retreating barge and laughing; and
+he vowed, as he coughed and choked, to be even with her.
+
+He struck out for the shore, but the cotton gown greatly impeded his
+efforts, and when at length he touched land he found it hard to climb
+up the steep bank unassisted. He had to take a minute or two's rest to
+recover his breath; then, gathering his wet skirts well over his arms,
+he started to run after the barge as fast as his legs would carry him,
+wild with indignation, thirsting for revenge.
+
+The barge-woman was still laughing when he drew up level with her.
+"Put yourself through your mangle, washerwoman," she called out,
+"and iron your face and crimp it, and you'll pass for quite a
+decent-looking Toad!"
+
+Toad never paused to reply. Solid revenge was what he wanted, not
+cheap, windy, verbal triumphs, though he had a thing or two in his
+mind that he would have liked to say. He saw what he wanted ahead of
+him. Running swiftly on he overtook the horse, unfastened the tow-rope
+and cast off, jumped lightly on the horse's back, and urged it to a
+gallop by kicking it vigorously in the sides. He steered for the open
+country, abandoning the tow-path, and swinging his steed down a rutty
+lane. Once he looked back, and saw that the barge had run aground on
+the other side of the canal, and the barge-woman was gesticulating
+wildly and shouting, "Stop, stop, stop!" "I've heard that song
+before," said Toad, laughing, as he continued to spur his steed onward
+in its wild career.
+
+The barge-horse was not capable of any very sustained effort, and its
+gallop soon subsided into a trot, and its trot into an easy walk; but
+Toad was quite contented with this, knowing that he, at any rate, was
+moving, and the barge was not. He had quite recovered his temper, now
+that he had done something he thought really clever; and he was
+satisfied to jog along quietly in the sun, steering his horse along
+by-ways and bridle-paths, and trying to forget how very long it was
+since he had had a square meal, till the canal had been left very far
+behind him.
+
+He had travelled some miles, his horse and he, and he was feeling
+drowsy in the hot sunshine, when the horse stopped, lowered his head,
+and began to nibble the grass; and Toad, waking up, just saved himself
+from falling off by an effort. He looked about him and found he was
+on a wide common, dotted with patches of gorse and bramble as far as
+he could see. Near him stood a dingy gipsy caravan, and beside it a
+man was sitting on a bucket turned upside down, very busy smoking and
+staring into the wide world. A fire of sticks was burning near by, and
+over the fire hung an iron pot, and out of that pot came forth
+bubblings and gurglings, and a vague suggestive steaminess. Also
+smells--warm, rich, and varied smells--that twined and twisted and
+wreathed themselves at last into one complete, voluptuous, perfect
+smell that seemed like the very soul of Nature taking form and
+appearing to her children, a true Goddess, a mother of solace and
+comfort. Toad now knew well that he had not been really hungry before.
+What he had felt earlier in the day had been a mere trifling qualm.
+This was the real thing at last, and no mistake; and it would have to
+be dealt with speedily, too, or there would be trouble for somebody or
+something. He looked the gipsy over carefully, wondering vaguely
+whether it would be easier to fight him or cajole him. So there he
+sat, and sniffed and sniffed, and looked at the gipsy; and the gipsy
+sat and smoked, and looked at him.
+
+Presently the gipsy took his pipe out of his mouth and remarked in a
+careless way, "Want to sell that there horse of yours?"
+
+Toad was completely taken aback. He did not know that gipsies were
+very fond of horse-dealing, and never missed an opportunity, and he
+had not reflected that caravans were always on the move and took a
+deal of drawing. It had not occurred to him to turn the horse into
+cash, but the gipsy's suggestion seemed to smooth the way towards the
+two things he wanted so badly--ready money, and a solid breakfast.
+
+"What?" he said, "me sell this beautiful young horse of mine? O, no;
+it's out of the question. Who's going to take the washing home to my
+customers every week? Besides, I'm too fond of him, and he simply
+dotes on me."
+
+"Try and love a donkey," suggested the gipsy. "Some people do."
+
+"You don't seem to see," continued Toad, "that this fine horse of mine
+is a cut above you altogether. He's a blood horse, he is, partly; not
+the part you see, of course--another part. And he's been a Prize
+Hackney, too, in his time--that was the time before you knew him, but
+you can still tell it on him at a glance, if you understand anything
+about horses. No, it's not to be thought of for a moment. All the
+same, how much might you be disposed to offer me for this beautiful
+young horse of mine?"
+
+The gipsy looked the horse over, and then he looked Toad over with
+equal care, and looked at the horse again. "Shillin' a leg," he said
+briefly, and turned away, continuing to smoke and try to stare the
+wide world out of countenance.
+
+"A shilling a leg?" cried Toad. "If you please, I must take a little
+time to work that out, and see just what it comes to."
+
+He climbed down off his horse, and left it to graze, and sat down by
+the gipsy, and did sums on his fingers, and at last he said, "A
+shilling a leg? Why, that comes to exactly four shillings, and no
+more. O, no; I could not think of accepting four shillings for this
+beautiful young horse of mine."
+
+"Well," said the gipsy, "I'll tell you what I will do. I'll make it
+five shillings, and that's three-and-sixpence more than the animal's
+worth. And that's my last word."
+
+Then Toad sat and pondered long and deeply. For he was hungry and
+quite penniless, and still some way--he knew not how far--from home,
+and enemies might still be looking for him. To one in such a
+situation, five shillings may very well appear a large sum of money.
+On the other hand, it did not seem very much to get for a horse. But
+then, again, the horse hadn't cost him anything; so whatever he got
+was all clear profit. At last he said firmly, "Look here, gipsy! I
+tell you what we will do; and this is _my_ last word. You shall hand
+me over six shillings and sixpence, cash down; and further, in
+addition thereto, you shall give me as much breakfast as I can
+possibly eat, at one sitting of course, out of that iron pot of yours
+that keeps sending forth such delicious and exciting smells. In
+return, I will make over to you my spirited young horse, with all the
+beautiful harness and trappings that are on him, freely thrown in. If
+that's not good enough for you, say so, and I'll be getting on. I know
+a man near here who's wanted this horse of mine for years."
+
+The gipsy grumbled frightfully, and declared if he did a few more
+deals of that sort he'd be ruined. But in the end he lugged a dirty
+canvas bag out of the depths of his trouser pocket, and counted out
+six shillings and sixpence into Toad's paw. Then he disappeared into
+the caravan for an instant, and returned with a large iron plate and a
+knife, fork, and spoon. He tilted up the pot, and a glorious stream of
+hot, rich stew gurgled into the plate. It was, indeed, the most
+beautiful stew in the world, being made of partridges, and pheasants,
+and chickens, and hares, and rabbits, and peahens, and guinea-fowls,
+and one or two other things. Toad took the plate on his lap, almost
+crying, and stuffed, and stuffed, and stuffed, and kept asking for
+more, and the gipsy never grudged it him. He thought that he had
+never eaten so good a breakfast in all his life.
+
+When Toad had taken as much stew on board as he thought he could possibly
+hold, he got up and said good-bye to the gipsy, and took an affectionate
+farewell of the horse; and the gipsy, who knew the riverside well, gave
+him directions which way to go, and he set forth on his travels again in
+the best possible spirits. He was, indeed, a very different Toad from the
+animal of an hour ago. The sun was shining brightly, his wet clothes were
+quite dry again, he had money in his pocket once more, he was nearing
+home and friends and safety, and, most and best of all, he had had a
+substantial meal, hot and nourishing, and felt big, and strong, and
+careless, and self-confident.
+
+As he tramped along gaily, he thought of his adventures and escapes,
+and how when things seemed at their worst he had always managed to
+find a way out; and his pride and conceit began to swell within him.
+"Ho, ho!" he said to himself, as he marched along with his chin in the
+air, "what a clever Toad I am! There is surely no animal equal to me
+for cleverness in the whole world! My enemies shut me up in prison,
+encircled by sentries, watched night and day by warders; I walk out
+through them all, by sheer ability coupled with courage. They pursue
+me with engines, and policemen, and revolvers; I snap my fingers at
+them, and vanish, laughing, into space. I am, unfortunately, thrown
+into a canal by a woman fat of body and very evil-minded. What of it?
+I swim ashore, I seize her horse, I ride off in triumph, and I sell
+the horse for a whole pocketful of money and an excellent breakfast!
+Ho, ho! I am The Toad, the handsome, the popular, the successful
+Toad!" He got so puffed up with conceit that he made up a song as he
+walked in praise of himself, and sang it at the top of his voice,
+though there was no one to hear it but him. It was, perhaps, the most
+conceited song that any animal ever composed.
+
+        "The world has held great Heroes,
+           As history-books have showed;
+         But never a name to go down to fame
+           Compared with that of Toad!
+
+        "The clever men at Oxford
+           Know all that there is to be knowed.
+         But they none of them know one half as much
+           As intelligent Mr. Toad!
+
+        "The animals sat in the Ark and cried,
+           Their tears in torrents flowed.
+         Who was it said, 'There's land ahead?'
+           Encouraging Mr. Toad!
+
+        "The army all saluted
+           As they marched along the road.
+         Was it the King? Or Kitchener?
+           No. It was Mr. Toad.
+
+        "The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting
+           Sat at the window and sewed.
+         She cried, 'Look! who's that _handsome_ man?'
+           They answered, 'Mr. Toad.'"
+
+There was a great deal more of the same sort, but too dreadfully
+conceited to be written down. These are some of the milder verses.
+
+He sang as he walked, and he walked as he sang, and got more inflated
+every minute. But his pride was shortly to have a severe fall.
+
+After some miles of country lanes he reached the high road, and as he
+turned into it and glanced along its white length, he saw approaching
+him a speck that turned into a dot and then into a blob, and then into
+something very familiar; and a double note of warning, only too well
+known, fell on his delighted ear.
+
+"This is something like!" said the excited Toad. "This is real life
+again, this is once more the great world from which I have been missed
+so long! I will hail them, my brothers of the wheel, and pitch them a
+yarn, of the sort that has been so successful hitherto; and they will
+give me a lift, of course, and then I will talk to them some more;
+and, perhaps, with luck, it may even end in my driving up to Toad Hall
+in a motor-car! That will be one in the eye for Badger!"
+
+He stepped confidently out into the road to hail the motor-car, which
+came along at an easy pace, slowing down as it neared the lane; when
+suddenly he became very pale, his heart turned to water, his knees
+shook and yielded under him, and he doubled up and collapsed with a
+sickening pain in his interior. And well he might, the unhappy animal;
+for the approaching car was the very one he had stolen out of the yard
+of the Red Lion Hotel on that fatal day when all his troubles began!
+And the people in it were the very same people he had sat and watched
+at luncheon in the coffee-room!
+
+He sank down in a shabby, miserable heap in the road, murmuring to
+himself in his despair, "It's all up! It's all over now! Chains and
+policemen again! Prison again! Dry bread and water again! O, what a
+fool I have been! What did I want to go strutting about the country
+for, singing conceited songs, and hailing people in broad day on the
+high road, instead of hiding till nightfall and slipping home quietly
+by back ways! O hapless Toad! O ill-fated animal!"
+
+The terrible motor-car drew slowly nearer and nearer, till at last he
+heard it stop just short of him. Two gentlemen got out and walked
+round the trembling heap of crumpled misery lying in the road, and one
+of them said, "O dear! this is very sad! Here is a poor old thing--a
+washerwoman apparently--who has fainted in the road! Perhaps she is
+overcome by the heat, poor creature; or possibly she has not had any
+food to-day. Let us lift her into the car and take her to the nearest
+village, where doubtless she has friends."
+
+They tenderly lifted Toad into the motor-car and propped him up with
+soft cushions, and proceeded on their way.
+
+When Toad heard them talk in so kind and sympathetic a way, and knew
+that he was not recognised, his courage began to revive, and he
+cautiously opened first one eye and then the other.
+
+"Look!" said one of the gentlemen, "she is better already. The fresh
+air is doing her good. How do you feel now, ma'am?"
+
+"Thank you kindly, sir," said Toad in a feeble voice, "I'm feeling a
+great deal better!" "That's right," said the gentleman. "Now keep
+quite still, and, above all, don't try to talk."
+
+"I won't," said Toad. "I was only thinking, if I might sit on the
+front seat there, beside the driver, where I could get the fresh air
+full in my face, I should soon be all right again."
+
+"What a very sensible woman!" said the gentleman. "Of course you
+shall." So they carefully helped Toad into the front seat beside the
+driver, and on they went again.
+
+Toad was almost himself again by now. He sat up, looked about him, and
+tried to beat down the tremors, the yearnings, the old cravings that
+rose up and beset him and took possession of him entirely.
+
+"It is fate!" he said to himself. "Why strive? why struggle?" and he
+turned to the driver at his side.
+
+"Please, Sir," he said, "I wish you would kindly let me try and drive
+the car for a little. I've been watching you carefully, and it looks
+so easy and so interesting, and I should like to be able to tell my
+friends that once I had driven a motor-car!"
+
+The driver laughed at the proposal, so heartily that the gentleman
+inquired what the matter was. When he heard, he said, to Toad's
+delight, "Bravo, ma'am! I like your spirit. Let her have a try, and
+look after her. She won't do any harm."
+
+Toad eagerly scrambled into the seat vacated by the driver, took the
+steering-wheel in his hands, listened with affected humility to the
+instructions given him, and set the car in motion, but very slowly and
+carefully at first, for he was determined to be prudent.
+
+The gentlemen behind clapped their hands and applauded, and Toad heard
+them saying, "How well she does it! Fancy a washerwoman driving a car
+as well as that, the first time!"
+
+Toad went a little faster; then faster still, and faster.
+
+He heard the gentlemen call out warningly, "Be careful, washerwoman!"
+And this annoyed him, and he began to lose his head.
+
+The driver tried to interfere, but he pinned him down in his seat with
+one elbow, and put on full speed. The rush of air in his face, the hum
+of the engines, and the light jump of the car beneath him intoxicated
+his weak brain. "Washerwoman, indeed!" he shouted recklessly. "Ho! ho!
+I am the Toad, the motor-car snatcher, the prison-breaker, the Toad
+who always escapes! Sit still, and you shall know what driving really
+is, for you are in the hands of the famous, the skilful, the entirely
+fearless Toad!"
+
+With a cry of horror the whole party rose and flung themselves on him.
+"Seize him!" they cried, "seize the Toad, the wicked animal who stole
+our motor-car! Bind him, chain him, drag him to the nearest police
+station! Down with the desperate and dangerous Toad!"
+
+Alas! they should have thought, they ought to have been more prudent,
+they should have remembered to stop the motor-car somehow before
+playing any pranks of that sort. With a half-turn of the wheel the
+Toad sent the car crashing through the low hedge that ran along the
+roadside. One mighty bound, a violent shock, and the wheels of the car
+were churning up the thick mud of a horse-pond.
+
+Toad found himself flying through the air with the strong upward rush
+and delicate curve of a swallow. He liked the motion, and was just
+beginning to wonder whether it would go on until he developed wings
+and turned into a Toad-bird, when he landed on his back with a thump,
+in the soft, rich grass of a meadow. Sitting up, he could just see the
+motor-car in the pond, nearly submerged; the gentlemen and the driver,
+encumbered by their long coats, were floundering helplessly in the
+water.
+
+He picked himself up rapidly, and set off running across country as
+hard as he could, scrambling through hedges, jumping ditches, pounding
+across fields, till he was breathless and weary, and had to settle
+down into an easy walk. When he had recovered his breath somewhat, and
+was able to think calmly, he began to giggle, and from giggling he
+took to laughing, and he laughed till he had to sit down under a
+hedge. "Ho! ho!" he cried, in ecstasies of self-admiration. "Toad
+again! Toad, as usual, comes out on the top! Who was it got them to
+give him a lift? Who managed to get on the front seat for the sake of
+fresh air? Who persuaded them into letting him see if he could drive?
+Who landed them all in a horse-pond? Who escaped, flying gaily and
+unscathed through the air, leaving the narrow-minded, grudging, timid
+excursionists in the mud where they should rightly be? Why, Toad, of
+course; clever Toad, great Toad, _good_ Toad!"
+
+Then he burst into song again, and chanted with uplifted voice--
+
+        "The motor-car went Poop-poop-poop,
+           As it raced along the road.
+         Who was it steered it into a pond?
+           Ingenious Mr. Toad!
+
+O, how clever I am! How clever, how clever, how very clev--"
+
+A slight noise at a distance behind him made him turn his head and
+look. O horror! O misery! O despair!
+
+About two fields off, a chauffeur in his leather gaiters and two large
+rural policemen were visible, running towards him as hard as they
+could go!
+
+Poor Toad sprang to his feet and pelted away again, his heart in his
+mouth. "O, my!" he gasped, as he panted along, "what an _ass_ I am!
+What a _conceited_ and heedless ass! Swaggering again! Shouting and
+singing songs again! Sitting still and gassing again! O my! O my! O
+my!"
+
+He glanced back, and saw to his dismay that they were gaining on him.
+On he ran desperately, but kept looking back, and saw that they still
+gained steadily. He did his best, but he was a fat animal, and his
+legs were short, and still they gained. He could hear them close
+behind him now. Ceasing to heed where he was going, he struggled on
+blindly and wildly, looking back over his shoulder at the now
+triumphant enemy, when suddenly the earth failed under his feet, he
+grasped at the air, and, splash! he found himself head over ears in
+deep water, rapid water, water that bore him along with a force he
+could not contend with; and he knew that in his blind panic he had run
+straight into the river!
+
+He rose to the surface and tried to grasp the reeds and the rushes
+that grew along the water's edge close under the bank, but the stream
+was so strong that it tore them out of his hands. "O my!" gasped poor
+Toad, "if ever I steal a motor-car again! If ever I sing another
+conceited song"--then down he went, and came up breathless and
+spluttering. Presently he saw that he was approaching a big dark hole
+in the bank, just above his head, and as the stream bore him past he
+reached up with a paw and caught hold of the edge and held on. Then
+slowly and with difficulty he drew himself up out of the water, till
+at last he was able to rest his elbows on the edge of the hole. There
+he remained for some minutes, puffing and panting, for he was quite
+exhausted.
+
+As he sighed and blew and stared before him into the dark hole, some
+bright small thing shone and twinkled in its depths, moving towards
+him. As it approached, a face grew up gradually around it, and it was
+a familiar face!
+
+Brown and small, with whiskers.
+
+Grave and round, with neat ears and silky hair.
+
+It was the Water Rat!
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+"LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS"
+
+
+The Rat put out a neat little brown paw, gripped Toad firmly by the
+scruff of the neck, and gave a great hoist and a pull; and the
+water-logged Toad came up slowly but surely over the edge of the hole,
+till at last he stood safe and sound in the hall, streaked with mud
+and weed, to be sure, and with the water streaming off him, but happy
+and high-spirited as of old, now that he found himself once more in
+the house of a friend, and dodgings and evasions were over, and he
+could lay aside a disguise that was unworthy of his position and
+wanted such a lot of living up to.
+
+"O, Ratty!" he cried. "I've been through such times since I saw you
+last, you can't think! Such trials, such sufferings, and all so nobly
+borne! Then such escapes, such disguises, such subterfuges, and all so
+cleverly planned and carried out! Been in prison--got out of it, of
+course! Been thrown into a canal--swam ashore! Stole a horse--sold him
+for a large sum of money! Humbugged everybody--made 'em all do exactly
+what I wanted! Oh, I _am_ a smart Toad, and no mistake! What do you
+think my last exploit was? Just hold on till I tell you--"
+
+"Toad," said the Water Rat, gravely and firmly, "you go off upstairs
+at once, and take off that old cotton rag that looks as if it might
+formerly have belonged to some washerwoman, and clean yourself
+thoroughly, and put on some of my clothes, and try and come down
+looking like a gentleman if you _can_; for a more shabby, bedraggled,
+disreputable-looking object than you are I never set eyes on in my
+whole life! Now, stop swaggering and arguing, and be off! I'll have
+something to say to you later!"
+
+Toad was at first inclined to stop and do some talking back at him. He
+had had enough of being ordered about when he was in prison, and here
+was the thing being begun all over again, apparently; and by a Rat,
+too! However, he caught sight of himself in the looking-glass over the
+hat-stand, with the rusty black bonnet perched rakishly over one eye,
+and he changed his mind and went very quickly and humbly upstairs to
+the Rat's dressing-room. There he had a thorough wash and brush-up,
+changed his clothes, and stood for a long time before the glass,
+contemplating himself with pride and pleasure, and thinking what utter
+idiots all the people must have been to have ever mistaken him for one
+moment for a washerwoman.
+
+By the time he came down again luncheon was on the table, and very
+glad Toad was to see it, for he had been through some trying
+experiences and had taken much hard exercise since the excellent
+breakfast provided for him by the gipsy. While they ate Toad told the
+Rat all his adventures, dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and
+presence of mind in emergencies, and cunning in tight places; and
+rather making out that he had been having a gay and highly-coloured
+experience. But the more he talked and boasted, the more grave and
+silent the Rat became.
+
+When at last Toad had talked himself to a standstill, there was
+silence for a while; and then the Rat said, "Now, Toady, I don't want
+to give you pain, after all you've been through already; but,
+seriously, don't you see what an awful ass you've been making of
+yourself? On your own admission you have been hand-cuffed, imprisoned,
+starved, chased, terrified out of your life, insulted, jeered at, and
+ignominiously flung into the water--by a woman, too! Where's the
+amusement in that? Where does the fun come in? And all because you
+must needs go and steal a motor-car. You know that you've never had
+anything but trouble from motor-cars from the moment you first set
+eyes on one. But if you _will_ be mixed up with them--as you generally
+are, five minutes after you've started--why _steal_ them? Be a
+cripple, if you think it's exciting; be a bankrupt, for a change, if
+you've set your mind on it: but why choose to be a convict? When are
+you going to be sensible and think of your friends, and try and be
+a credit to them? Do you suppose it's any pleasure to me, for
+instance, to hear animals saying, as I go about, that I'm the chap
+that keeps company with gaol-birds?"
+
+[Illustration: _Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and presence
+of mind in emergencies_]
+
+Now, it was a very comforting point in Toad's character that he was a
+thoroughly good-hearted animal, and never minded being jawed by those
+who were his real friends. And even when most set upon a thing, he was
+always able to see the other side of the question. So although, while
+the Rat was talking so seriously, he kept saying to himself
+mutinously, "But it _was_ fun, though! Awful fun!" and making strange
+suppressed noises inside him, k-i-ck-ck-ck, and poop-p-p, and other
+sounds resembling stifled snorts, or the opening of soda-water
+bottles, yet when the Rat had quite finished, he heaved a deep sigh
+and said, very nicely and humbly, "Quite right, Ratty! How _sound_ you
+always are! Yes, I've been a conceited old ass, I can quite see that;
+but now I'm going to be a good Toad, and not do it any more. As for
+motor-cars, I've not been at all so keen about them since my last
+ducking in that river of yours. The fact is, while I was hanging on to
+the edge of your hole and getting my breath, I had a sudden idea--a
+really brilliant idea--connected with motor-boats--there, there! don't
+take on so, old chap, and stamp, and upset things; it was only an
+idea, and we won't talk any more about it now. We'll have our coffee,
+_and_ a smoke, and a quiet chat, and then I'm going to stroll quietly
+down to Toad Hall, and get into clothes of my own, and set things
+going again on the old lines. I've had enough of adventures. I shall
+lead a quiet, steady, respectable life, pottering about my property,
+and improving it, and doing a little landscape gardening at times.
+There will always be a bit of dinner for my friends when they come to
+see me; and I shall keep a pony-chaise to jog about the country in,
+just as I used to in the good old days, before I got restless, and
+wanted to _do_ things."
+
+"Stroll quietly down to Toad Hall?" cried the Rat, greatly excited.
+"What are you talking about? Do you mean to say you haven't _heard_?"
+
+"Heard what?" said Toad, turning rather pale. "Go on, Ratty! Quick!
+Don't spare me! What haven't I heard?"
+
+"Do you mean to tell me," shouted the Rat, thumping with his little
+fist upon the table, "that you've heard nothing about the Stoats and
+Weasels?"
+
+"What, the Wild Wooders?" cried Toad, trembling in every limb. "No,
+not a word! What have they been doing?"
+
+"--And how they've been and taken Toad Hall?" continued the Rat.
+
+Toad leaned his elbows on the table, and his chin on his paws; and a
+large tear welled up in each of his eyes, overflowed and splashed on
+the table, plop! plop!
+
+"Go on, Ratty," he murmured presently; "tell me all. The worst is
+over. I am an animal again. I can bear it."
+
+"When you--got--into that--that--trouble of yours," said the Rat,
+slowly and impressively; "I mean, when you--disappeared from society
+for a time, over that misunderstanding about a--a machine, you know--"
+
+Toad merely nodded.
+
+"Well, it was a good deal talked about down here, naturally,"
+continued the Rat, "not only along the riverside, but even in the Wild
+Wood. Animals took sides, as always happens. The River-bankers stuck
+up for you, and said you had been infamously treated, and there was no
+justice to be had in the land nowadays. But the Wild Wood animals said
+hard things, and served you right, and it was time this sort of thing
+was stopped. And they got very cocky, and went about saying you were
+done for this time! You would never come back again, never, never!"
+
+Toad nodded once more, keeping silence.
+
+"That's the sort of little beasts they are," the Rat went on. "But
+Mole and Badger, they stuck out, through thick and thin, that you
+would come back again soon, somehow. They didn't know exactly how, but
+somehow!"
+
+Toad began to sit up in his chair again, and to smirk a little.
+
+"They argued from history," continued the Rat. "They said that no
+criminal laws had ever been known to prevail against cheek and
+plausibility such as yours, combined with the power of a long purse.
+So they arranged to move their things in to Toad Hall, and sleep
+there, and keep it aired, and have it all ready for you when you
+turned up. They didn't guess what was going to happen, of course;
+still, they had their suspicions of the Wild Wood animals. Now I come
+to the most painful and tragic part of my story. One dark night--it
+was a _very_ dark night, and blowing hard, too, and raining simply
+cats and dogs--a band of weasels, armed to the teeth, crept silently
+up the carriage-drive to the front entrance. Simultaneously, a body of
+desperate ferrets, advancing through the kitchen-garden, possessed
+themselves of the backyard and offices; while a company of skirmishing
+stoats who stuck at nothing occupied the conservatory and the
+billiard-room, and held the French windows opening on to the lawn.
+
+"The Mole and the Badger were sitting by the fire in the smoking-room,
+telling stories and suspecting nothing, for it wasn't a night for any
+animals to be out in, when those bloodthirsty villains broke down the
+doors and rushed in upon them from every side. They made the best
+fight they could, but what was the good? They were unarmed, and taken
+by surprise, and what can two animals do against hundreds? They took
+and beat them severely with sticks, those two poor faithful creatures,
+and turned them out into the cold and the wet, with many insulting and
+uncalled-for remarks!"
+
+Here the unfeeling Toad broke into a snigger, and then pulled himself
+together and tried to look particularly solemn.
+
+"And the Wild Wooders have been living in Toad Hall ever since,"
+continued the Rat; "and going on simply anyhow! Lying in bed half the
+day, and breakfast at all hours, and the place in such a mess (I'm
+told) it's not fit to be seen! Eating your grub, and drinking your
+drink, and making bad jokes about you, and singing vulgar songs,
+about--well, about prisons and magistrates, and policemen; horrid
+personal songs, with no humour in them. And they're telling the
+tradespeople and everybody that they've come to stay for good."
+
+"O, have they!" said Toad, getting up and seizing a stick. "I'll jolly
+soon see about that!"
+
+"It's no good, Toad!" called the Rat after him. "You'd better come
+back and sit down; you'll only get into trouble."
+
+But the Toad was off, and there was no holding him. He marched rapidly
+down the road, his stick over his shoulder, fuming and muttering to
+himself in his anger, till he got near his front gate, when suddenly
+there popped up from behind the palings a long yellow ferret with a
+gun.
+
+"Who comes there?" said the ferret sharply.
+
+"Stuff and nonsense!" said Toad, very angrily. "What do you mean by
+talking like that to me? Come out of that at once or I'll--"
+
+The ferret said never a word, but he brought his gun up to his
+shoulder. Toad prudently dropped flat in the road, and _Bang_! a
+bullet whistled over his head.
+
+The startled Toad scrambled to his feet and scampered off down the
+road as hard as he could; and as he ran he heard the ferret laughing
+and other horrid thin little laughs taking it up and carrying on the
+sound.
+
+He went back, very crestfallen, and told the Water Rat.
+
+"What did I tell you?" said the Rat. "It's no good. They've got
+sentries posted, and they are all armed. You must just wait."
+
+Still, Toad was not inclined to give in all at once. So he got out the
+boat, and set off rowing up the river to where the garden front of
+Toad Hall came down to the water-side.
+
+Arriving within sight of his old home, he rested on his oars and
+surveyed the land cautiously. All seemed very peaceful and deserted
+and quiet. He could see the whole front of Toad Hall, glowing in the
+evening sunshine, the pigeons settling by twos and threes along the
+straight line of the roof; the garden, a blaze of flowers; the creek
+that led up to the boat-house, the little wooden bridge that crossed
+it; all tranquil, uninhabited, apparently waiting for his return. He
+would try the boat-house first, he thought. Very warily he paddled up
+to the mouth of the creek, and was just passing under the bridge,
+when ... _Crash_!
+
+A great stone, dropped from above, smashed through the bottom of the
+boat. It filled and sank, and Toad found himself struggling in deep
+water. Looking up, he saw two stoats leaning over the parapet of the
+bridge and watching him with great glee. "It will be your head next
+time, Toady!" they called out to him. The indignant Toad swam to
+shore, while the stoats laughed and laughed, supporting each other,
+and laughed again, till they nearly had two fits--that is, one fit
+each, of course.
+
+The Toad retraced his weary way on foot, and related his disappointing
+experiences to the Water Rat once more.
+
+"Well, _what_ did I tell you?" said the Rat very crossly. "And, now, look
+here! See what you've been and done! Lost me my boat that I was so fond
+of, that's what you've done! And simply ruined that nice suit of clothes
+that I lent you! Really, Toad, of all the trying animals--I wonder you
+manage to keep any friends at all!"
+
+The Toad saw at once how wrongly and foolishly he had acted. He
+admitted his errors and wrong-headedness and made a full apology to
+Rat for losing his boat and spoiling his clothes. And he wound up by
+saying, with that frank self-surrender which always disarmed his
+friends' criticism and won them back to his side, "Ratty! I see that I
+have been a headstrong and a wilful Toad! Henceforth, believe me, I
+will be humble and submissive, and will take no action without your
+kind advice and full approval!"
+
+"If that is really so," said the good-natured Rat, already appeased,
+"then my advice to you is, considering the lateness of the hour, to
+sit down and have your supper, which will be on the table in a minute,
+and be very patient. For I am convinced that we can do nothing until
+we have seen the Mole and the Badger, and heard their latest news, and
+held conference and taken their advice in this difficult matter."
+
+"Oh, ah, yes, of course, the Mole and the Badger," said Toad,
+lightly. "What's become of them, the dear fellows? I had forgotten all
+about them."
+
+"Well may you ask!" said the Rat reproachfully. "While you were riding
+about the country in expensive motor-cars, and galloping proudly on
+blood-horses, and breakfasting on the fat of the land, those two poor
+devoted animals have been camping out in the open, in every sort of
+weather, living very rough by day and lying very hard by night;
+watching over your house, patrolling your boundaries, keeping a
+constant eye on the stoats and the weasels, scheming and planning and
+contriving how to get your property back for you. You don't deserve to
+have such true and loyal friends, Toad, you don't, really. Some day,
+when it's too late, you'll be sorry you didn't value them more while
+you had them!"
+
+"I'm an ungrateful beast, I know," sobbed Toad, shedding bitter tears.
+"Let me go out and find them, out into the cold, dark night, and share
+their hardships, and try and prove by--Hold on a bit! Surely I heard
+the chink of dishes on a tray! Supper's here at last, hooray! Come
+on, Ratty!"
+
+The Rat remembered that poor Toad had been on prison fare for a
+considerable time, and that large allowances had therefore to be made.
+He followed him to the table accordingly, and hospitably encouraged
+him in his gallant efforts to make up for past privations.
+
+They had just finished their meal and resumed their arm-chairs, when
+there came a heavy knock at the door.
+
+Toad was nervous, but the Rat, nodding mysteriously at him, went
+straight up to the door and opened it, and in walked Mr. Badger.
+
+He had all the appearance of one who for some nights had been kept
+away from home and all its little comforts and conveniences. His shoes
+were covered with mud, and he was looking very rough and touzled; but
+then he had never been a very smart man, the Badger, at the best of
+times. He came solemnly up to Toad, shook him by the paw, and said,
+"Welcome home, Toad! Alas! what am I saying? Home, indeed! This is a
+poor home-coming. Unhappy Toad!" Then he turned his back on him, sat
+down to the table, drew his chair up, and helped himself to a large
+slice of cold pie.
+
+Toad was quite alarmed at this very serious and portentous style of
+greeting; but the Rat whispered to him, "Never mind; don't take any
+notice; and don't say anything to him just yet. He's always rather low
+and despondent when he's wanting his victuals. In half an hour's time
+he'll be quite a different animal."
+
+So they waited in silence, and presently there came another and a
+lighter knock. The Rat, with a nod to Toad, went to the door and
+ushered in the Mole, very shabby and unwashed, with bits of hay and
+straw sticking in his fur.
+
+"Hooray! Here's old Toad!" cried the Mole, his face beaming. "Fancy
+having you back again!" And he began to dance round him. "We never
+dreamt you would turn up so soon! Why, you must have managed to
+escape, you clever, ingenious, intelligent Toad!"
+
+The Rat, alarmed, pulled him by the elbow; but it was too late. Toad
+was puffing and swelling already.
+
+"Clever? O, no!" he said. "I'm not really clever, according to my
+friends. I've only broken out of the strongest prison in England,
+that's all! And captured a railway train and escaped on it, that's
+all! And disguised myself and gone about the country humbugging
+everybody, that's all! O, no! I'm a stupid ass, I am! I'll tell you
+one or two of my little adventures, Mole, and you shall judge for
+yourself!"
+
+"Well, well," said the Mole, moving towards the supper-table;
+"supposing you talk while I eat. Not a bite since breakfast! O my! O
+my!" And he sat down and helped himself liberally to cold beef and
+pickles.
+
+Toad straddled on the hearth-rug, thrust his paw into his
+trouser-pocket and pulled out a handful of silver. "Look at that!" he
+cried, displaying it. "That's not so bad, is it, for a few minutes'
+work? And how do you think I done it, Mole? Horse-dealing! That's how
+I done it!"
+
+"Go on, Toad," said the Mole, immensely interested.
+
+"Toad, do be quiet, please!" said the Rat. "And don't you egg him on,
+Mole, when you know what he is; but please tell us as soon as possible
+what the position is, and what's best to be done, now that Toad is
+back at last."
+
+"The position's about as bad as it can be," replied the Mole grumpily;
+"and as for what's to be done, why, blest if I know! The Badger and I
+have been round and round the place, by night and by day; always the
+same thing. Sentries posted everywhere, guns poked out at us, stones
+thrown at us; always an animal on the look-out, and when they see us,
+my! how they do laugh! That's what annoys me most!"
+
+"It's a very difficult situation," said the Rat, reflecting deeply.
+"But I think I see now, in the depths of my mind, what Toad really
+ought to do. I will tell you. He ought to--"
+
+"No, he oughtn't!" shouted the Mole, with his mouth full. "Nothing of
+the sort! You don't understand. What he ought to do is, he ought
+to--"
+
+"Well, I shan't do it, anyway!" cried Toad, getting excited. "I'm not
+going to be ordered about by you fellows! It's my house we're talking
+about, and I know exactly what to do, and I'll tell you. I'm going
+to--"
+
+By this time they were all three talking at once, at the top of their
+voices, and the noise was simply deafening, when a thin, dry voice
+made itself heard, saying, "Be quiet at once, all of you!" and
+instantly every one was silent.
+
+It was the Badger, who, having finished his pie, had turned round in
+his chair and was looking at them severely. When he saw that he had
+secured their attention, and that they were evidently waiting for him
+to address them, he turned back to the table again and reached out for
+the cheese. And so great was the respect commanded by the solid
+qualities of that admirable animal, that not another word was uttered,
+until he had quite finished his repast and brushed the crumbs from his
+knees. The Toad fidgeted a good deal, but the Rat held him firmly
+down.
+
+When the Badger had quite done, he got up from his seat and stood
+before the fireplace, reflecting deeply. At last he spoke.
+
+"Toad," he said severely. "You bad, troublesome little animal! Aren't
+you ashamed of yourself? What do you think your father, my old friend,
+would have said if he had been here to-night, and had known of all
+your goings on?"
+
+Toad, who was on the sofa by this time, with his legs up, rolled over
+on his face, shaken by sobs of contrition.
+
+"There, there!" went on the Badger, more kindly. "Never mind. Stop
+crying. We're going to let bygones be bygones, and try and turn over a
+new leaf. But what the Mole says is quite true. The stoats are on
+guard, at every point, and they make the best sentinels in the world.
+It's quite useless to think of attacking the place. They're too strong
+for us."
+
+"Then it's all over," sobbed the Toad, crying into the sofa cushions.
+"I shall go and enlist for a soldier, and never see my dear Toad Hall
+any more!"
+
+"Come, cheer up, Toady!" said the Badger. "There are more ways of
+getting back a place than taking it by storm. I haven't said my last
+word yet. Now I'm going to tell you a great secret."
+
+Toad sat up slowly and dried his eyes. Secrets had an immense
+attraction for him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed
+the sort of unhallowed thrill he experienced when he went and told
+another animal, after having faithfully promised not to.
+
+"There--is--an--underground--passage," said the Badger, impressively,
+"that leads from the river-bank, quite near here, right up into the
+middle of Toad Hall."
+
+"O, nonsense! Badger," said Toad, rather airily. "You've been
+listening to some of the yarns they spin in the public-houses about
+here. I know every inch of Toad Hall, inside and out. Nothing of the
+sort, I do assure you!"
+
+"My young friend," said the Badger, with great severity, "your father,
+who was a worthy animal--a lot worthier than some others I know--was a
+particular friend of mine, and told me a great deal he wouldn't have
+dreamt of telling you. He discovered that passage--he didn't make it,
+of course; that was done hundreds of years before he ever came to live
+there--and he repaired it and cleaned it out, because he thought it
+might come in useful some day, in case of trouble or danger; and he
+showed it to me. 'Don't let my son know about it,' he said. 'He's a
+good boy, but very light and volatile in character, and simply cannot
+hold his tongue. If he's ever in a real fix, and it would be of use to
+him, you may tell him about the secret passage; but not before.'"
+
+The other animals looked hard at Toad to see how he would take it.
+Toad was inclined to be sulky at first; but he brightened up
+immediately, like the good fellow he was.
+
+"Well, well," he said; "perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular
+fellow such as I am--my friends get round me--we chaff, we sparkle, we
+tell witty stories--and somehow my tongue gets wagging. I have the
+gift of conversation. I've been told I ought to have a _salon_,
+whatever that may be. Never mind. Go on, Badger. How's this passage of
+yours going to help us?"
+
+"I've found out a thing or two lately," continued the Badger. "I got
+Otter to disguise himself as a sweep and call at the back-door with
+brushes over his shoulder, asking for a job. There's going to be a big
+banquet to-morrow night. It's somebody's birthday--the Chief Weasel's,
+I believe--and all the weasels will be gathered together in the
+dining-hall, eating and drinking and laughing and carrying on,
+suspecting nothing. No guns, no swords, no sticks, no arms of any sort
+whatever!"
+
+"But the sentinels will be posted as usual," remarked the Rat.
+
+"Exactly," said the Badger; "that is my point. The weasels will trust
+entirely to their excellent sentinels. And that is where the passage
+comes in. That very useful tunnel leads right up under the butler's
+pantry, next to the dining-hall!"
+
+"Aha! that squeaky board in the butler's pantry!" said Toad. "Now I
+understand it!"
+
+"We shall creep out quietly into the butler's pantry--" cried the
+Mole.
+
+"--with our pistols and swords and sticks--" shouted the Rat.
+
+"--and rush in upon them," said the Badger.
+
+"--and whack 'em, and whack 'em, and whack 'em!" cried the Toad in
+ecstasy, running round and round the room, and jumping over the
+chairs.
+
+"Very well, then," said the Badger, resuming his usual dry manner,
+"our plan is settled, and there's nothing more for you to argue and
+squabble about. So, as it's getting very late, all of you go right off
+to bed at once. We will make all the necessary arrangements in the
+course of the morning to-morrow."
+
+Toad, of course, went off to bed dutifully with the rest--he knew
+better than to refuse--though he was feeling much too excited to
+sleep. But he had had a long day, with many events crowded into it;
+and sheets and blankets were very friendly and comforting things,
+after plain straw, and not too much of it, spread on the stone floor
+of a draughty cell; and his head had not been many seconds on his
+pillow before he was snoring happily. Naturally, he dreamt a good
+deal; about roads that ran away from him just when he wanted them, and
+canals that chased him and caught him, and a barge that sailed into
+the banqueting-hall with his week's washing, just as he was giving a
+dinner-party; and he was alone in the secret passage, pushing onwards,
+but it twisted and turned round and shook itself, and sat up on its
+end; yet somehow, at the last, he found himself back in Toad Hall,
+safe and triumphant, with all his friends gathered round about him,
+earnestly assuring him that he really was a clever Toad.
+
+He slept till a late hour next morning, and by the time he got down he
+found that the other animals had finished their breakfast some time before.
+The Mole had slipped off somewhere by himself, without telling any one
+where he was going to. The Badger sat in the arm-chair, reading the paper,
+and not concerning himself in the slightest about what was going to happen
+that very evening. The Rat, on the other hand, was running round the room
+busily, with his arms full of weapons of every kind, distributing them in
+four little heaps on the floor, and saying excitedly under his breath, as
+he ran, "Here's-a-sword-for-the-Rat, here's-a-sword-for-the-Mole,
+here's-a-sword-for-the-Toad, here's-a-sword-for-the-Badger!
+Here's-a-pistol-for-the-Rat, here's-a-pistol-for-the-Mole,
+here's-a-pistol-for-the-Toad, here's-a-pistol-for-the-Badger!" And so on,
+in a regular, rhythmical way, while the four little heaps gradually grew
+and grew.
+
+"That's all very well, Rat," said the Badger presently, looking at the
+busy little animal over the edge of his newspaper; "I'm not blaming
+you. But just let us once get past the stoats, with those detestable
+guns of theirs, and I assure you we shan't want any swords or pistols.
+We four, with our sticks, once we're inside the dining-hall, why, we
+shall clear the floor of all the lot of them in five minutes. I'd have
+done the whole thing by myself, only I didn't want to deprive you
+fellows of the fun!"
+
+"It's as well to be on the safe side," said the Rat reflectively,
+polishing a pistol-barrel on his sleeve and looking along it.
+
+The Toad, having finished his breakfast, picked up a stout stick and
+swung it vigorously, belabouring imaginary animals. "I'll learn 'em
+to steal my house!" he cried. "I'll learn 'em, I'll learn 'em!"
+
+"Don't say 'learn 'em,' Toad," said the Rat, greatly shocked. "It's
+not good English."
+
+"What are you always nagging at Toad for?" inquired the Badger, rather
+peevishly. "What's the matter with his English? It's the same what I
+use myself, and if it's good enough for me, it ought to be good enough
+for you!"
+
+"I'm very sorry," said the Rat humbly. "Only I _think_ it ought to be
+'teach 'em,' not 'learn 'em.'"
+
+"But we don't _want_ to teach 'em," replied the Badger. "We want to
+_learn_ 'em--learn 'em, learn 'em! And what's more, we're going to
+_do_ it, too!"
+
+"Oh, very well, have it your own way," said the Rat. He was getting
+rather muddled about it himself, and presently he retired into a
+corner, where he could be heard muttering, "Learn 'em, teach 'em,
+teach 'em, learn 'em!" till the Badger told him rather sharply to
+leave off.
+
+Presently the Mole came tumbling into the room, evidently very pleased
+with himself. "I've been having such fun!" he began at once; "I've
+been getting a rise out of the stoats!"
+
+"I hope you've been very careful, Mole?" said the Rat anxiously.
+
+"I should hope so, too," said the Mole confidently. "I got the idea
+when I went into the kitchen, to see about Toad's breakfast being kept
+hot for him. I found that old washerwoman-dress that he came home in
+yesterday, hanging on a towel-horse before the fire. So I put it on,
+and the bonnet as well, and the shawl, and off I went to Toad Hall, as
+bold as you please. The sentries were on the look-out, of course, with
+their guns and their 'Who comes there?' and all the rest of their
+nonsense. 'Good morning, gentlemen!' says I, very respectful. 'Want
+any washing done to-day?' They looked at me very proud and stiff and
+haughty, and said, 'Go away, washerwoman! We don't do any washing on
+duty.' 'Or any other time?' says I. Ho, ho, ho! Wasn't I _funny_,
+Toad?"
+
+"Poor, frivolous animal!" said Toad, very loftily. The fact is, he
+felt exceedingly jealous of Mole for what he had just done. It was
+exactly what he would have liked to have done himself, if only he had
+thought of it first, and hadn't gone and overslept himself.
+
+"Some of the stoats turned quite pink," continued the Mole, "and the
+Sergeant in charge, he said to me, very short, he said, 'Now run away,
+my good woman, run away! Don't keep my men idling and talking on their
+posts.' 'Run away?' says I; 'it won't be me that'll be running away,
+in a very short time from now!'"
+
+"O _Moly_, how could you?" said the Rat, dismayed.
+
+The Badger laid down his paper.
+
+"I could see them pricking up their ears and looking at each other,"
+went on the Mole; "and the Sergeant said to them, 'Never mind _her_;
+she doesn't know what she's talking about.'"
+
+"'O! don't I?' said I. 'Well, let me tell you this. My daughter, she
+washes for Mr. Badger, and that'll show you whether I know what I'm
+talking about; and _you'll_ know pretty soon, too! A hundred
+bloodthirsty badgers, armed with rifles, are going to attack Toad Hall
+this very night, by way of the paddock. Six boatloads of Rats, with
+pistols and cutlasses, will come up the river and effect a landing in
+the garden; while a picked body of Toads, known as the Die-hards, or
+the Death-or-Glory Toads, will storm the orchard and carry everything
+before them, yelling for vengeance. There won't be much left of you to
+wash, by the time they've done with you, unless you clear out while
+you have the chance!' Then I ran away, and when I was out of sight I
+hid; and presently I came creeping back along the ditch and took a
+peep at them through the hedge. They were all as nervous and flustered
+as could be, running all ways at once, and falling over each other,
+and every one giving orders to everybody else and not listening; and
+the Sergeant kept sending off parties of stoats to distant parts of
+the grounds, and then sending other fellows to fetch 'em back again;
+and I heard them saying to each other, 'That's just like the weasels;
+they're to stop comfortably in the banqueting-hall, and have feasting
+and toasts and songs and all sorts of fun, while we must stay on guard
+in the cold and the dark, and in the end be cut to pieces by
+bloodthirsty Badgers!'"
+
+"Oh, you silly ass, Mole!" cried Toad, "You've been and spoilt
+everything!"
+
+"Mole," said the Badger, in his dry, quiet way, "I perceive you have
+more sense in your little finger than some other animals have in the
+whole of their fat bodies. You have managed excellently, and I begin
+to have great hopes of you. Good Mole! Clever Mole!"
+
+The Toad was simply wild with jealousy, more especially as he couldn't
+make out for the life of him what the Mole had done that was so
+particularly clever; but, fortunately for him, before he could show
+temper or expose himself to the Badger's sarcasm, the bell rang for
+luncheon.
+
+It was a simple but sustaining meal--bacon and broad beans, and a
+macaroni pudding; and when they had quite done, the Badger settled
+himself into an arm-chair, and said, "Well, we've got our work cut
+out for us to-night, and it will probably be pretty late before we're
+quite through with it; so I'm just going to take forty winks, while I
+can." And he drew a handkerchief over his face and was soon snoring.
+
+The anxious and laborious Rat at once resumed his preparations,
+and started running between his four little heaps, muttering,
+"Here's-a-belt-for-the-Rat, here's-a-belt-for-the-Mole,
+here's-a-belt-for-the-Toad, here's-a-belt-for-the-Badger!" and so on,
+with every fresh accoutrement he produced, to which there seemed
+really no end; so the Mole drew his arm through Toad's, led him out
+into the open air, shoved him into a wicker chair, and made him tell
+him all his adventures from beginning to end, which Toad was only too
+willing to do. The Mole was a good listener, and Toad, with no one to
+check his statements or to criticise in an unfriendly spirit, rather
+let himself go. Indeed, much that he related belonged more properly to
+the category of what-might-have-happened-had-I-only-thought-of-it-in-
+time-instead-of-ten-minutes-afterwards. Those are always the best and
+the raciest adventures; and why should they not be truly ours, as much
+as the somewhat inadequate things that really come off?
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE RETURN OF ULYSSES
+
+
+When it began to grow dark, the Rat, with an air of excitement and
+mystery, summoned them back into the parlour, stood each of them up
+alongside of his little heap, and proceeded to dress them up for the
+coming expedition. He was very earnest and thorough-going about it,
+and the affair took quite a long time. First, there was a belt to go
+round each animal, and then a sword to be stuck into each belt, and
+then a cutlass on the other side to balance it. Then a pair of
+pistols, a policeman's truncheon, several sets of handcuffs, some
+bandages and sticking-plaster, and a flask and a sandwich-case. The
+Badger laughed good-humouredly and said, "All right, Ratty! It amuses
+you and it doesn't hurt me. I'm going to do all I've got to do with
+this here stick." But the Rat only said, "_Please_, Badger. You know
+I shouldn't like you to blame me afterwards and say I had forgotten
+_anything_!"
+
+When all was quite ready, the Badger took a dark lantern in one paw,
+grasped his great stick with the other, and said, "Now then, follow
+me! Mole first, 'cos I'm very pleased with him; Rat next; Toad last.
+And look here, Toady! Don't you chatter so much as usual, or you'll be
+sent back, as sure as fate!"
+
+The Toad was so anxious not to be left out that he took up the
+inferior position assigned to him without a murmur, and the animals
+set off. The Badger led them along by the river for a little way, and
+then suddenly swung himself over the edge into a hole in the river
+bank, a little above the water. The Mole and the Rat followed
+silently, swinging themselves successfully into the hole as they had
+seen the Badger do; but when it came to Toad's turn, of course he
+managed to slip and fall into the water with a loud splash and a
+squeal of alarm. He was hauled out by his friends, rubbed down and
+wrung out hastily, comforted, and set on his legs; but the Badger was
+seriously angry, and told him that the very next time he made a
+fool of himself he would most certainly be left behind.
+
+[Illustration: _The Badger said, "Now then, follow me!"_]
+
+So at last they were in the secret passage, and the cutting-out
+expedition had really begun!
+
+It was cold, and dark, and damp, and low, and narrow, and poor Toad
+began to shiver, partly from dread of what might be before him, partly
+because he was wet through. The lantern was far ahead, and he could
+not help lagging behind a little in the darkness. Then he heard the
+Rat call out warningly, "_Come_ on, Toad!" and a terror seized him of
+being left behind, alone in the darkness, and he "came on" with such a
+rush that he upset the Rat into the Mole, and the Mole into the
+Badger, and for a moment all was confusion. The Badger thought they
+were being attacked from behind, and, as there was no room to use a
+stick or a cutlass, drew a pistol, and was on the point of putting a
+bullet into Toad. When he found out what had really happened he was
+very angry indeed, and said, "Now this time that tiresome Toad _shall_
+be left behind!"
+
+But Toad whimpered, and the other two promised that they would be
+answerable for his good conduct, and at last the Badger was pacified,
+and the procession moved on; only this time the Rat brought up the
+rear, with a firm grip on the shoulder of Toad.
+
+So they groped and shuffled along, with their ears pricked up and
+their paws on their pistols, till at last the Badger said, "We ought
+by now to be pretty nearly under the Hall."
+
+Then suddenly they heard, far away as it might be, and yet apparently
+nearly over their heads, a confused murmur of sound, as if people were
+shouting and cheering and stamping on the floor and hammering on
+tables. The Toad's nervous terrors all returned, but the Badger only
+remarked placidly, "They _are_ going it, the weasels!"
+
+The passage now began to slope upwards; they groped onward a little
+further, and then the noise broke out again, quite distinct this time,
+and very close above them. "Ooo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray-ooray!" they heard,
+and the stamping of little feet on the floor, and the clinking of
+glasses as little fists pounded on the table. "_What_ a time they're
+having!" said the Badger. "Come on!" They hurried along the passage
+till it came to a full stop, and they found themselves standing under
+the trap-door that led up into the butler's pantry.
+
+Such a tremendous noise was going on in the banqueting-hall that there
+was little danger of their being overheard. The Badger said, "Now,
+boys, all together!" and the four of them put their shoulders to the
+trap-door and heaved it back. Hoisting each other up, they found
+themselves standing in the pantry, with only a door between them and
+the banqueting-hall, where their unconscious enemies were carousing.
+
+The noise, as they emerged from the passage, was simply deafening. At
+last, as the cheering and hammering slowly subsided, a voice could be
+made out saying, "Well, I do not propose to detain you much
+longer"--(great applause)--"but before I resume my seat"--(renewed
+cheering)--"I should like to say one word about our kind host, Mr.
+Toad. We all know Toad!"--(great laughter)--"_Good_ Toad, _modest_
+Toad, _honest_ Toad!" (shrieks of merriment).
+
+"Only just let me get at him!" muttered Toad, grinding his teeth.
+
+"Hold hard a minute!" said the Badger, restraining him with
+difficulty. "Get ready, all of you!"
+
+"--Let me sing you a little song," went on the voice, "which I have
+composed on the subject of Toad"--(prolonged applause).
+
+Then the Chief Weasel--for it was he--began in a high, squeaky voice--
+
+        "Toad he went a-pleasuring
+         Gaily down the street--"
+
+The Badger drew himself up, took a firm grip of his stick with both
+paws, glanced round at his comrades, and cried--
+
+"The hour is come! Follow me!"
+
+And flung the door open wide.
+
+My!
+
+What a squealing and a squeaking and a screeching filled the air!
+
+Well might the terrified weasels dive under the tables and spring
+madly up at the windows! Well might the ferrets rush wildly for the
+fireplace and get hopelessly jammed in the chimney! Well might tables
+and chairs be upset, and glass and china be sent crashing on the
+floor, in the panic of that terrible moment when the four Heroes
+strode wrathfully into the room! The mighty Badger, his whiskers
+bristling, his great cudgel whistling through the air; Mole, black and
+grim, brandishing his stick and shouting his awful war-cry, "A Mole! A
+Mole!" Rat, desperate and determined, his belt bulging with weapons of
+every age and every variety; Toad, frenzied with excitement and
+injured pride, swollen to twice his ordinary size, leaping into the
+air and emitting Toad-whoops that chilled them to the marrow! "Toad he
+went a-pleasuring!" he yelled. "_I'll_ pleasure 'em!" and he went
+straight for the Chief Weasel. They were but four in all, but to the
+panic-stricken weasels the hall seemed full of monstrous animals,
+grey, black, brown and yellow, whooping and flourishing enormous
+cudgels; and they broke and fled with squeals of terror and dismay,
+this way and that, through the windows, up the chimney, anywhere to
+get out of reach of those terrible sticks.
+
+The affair was soon over. Up and down, the whole length of the hall,
+strode the four Friends, whacking with their sticks at every head that
+showed itself; and in five minutes the room was cleared. Through the
+broken windows the shrieks of terrified weasels escaping across the
+lawn were borne faintly to their ears; on the floor lay prostrate some
+dozen or so of the enemy, on whom the Mole was busily engaged in
+fitting handcuffs. The Badger, resting from his labours, leant on his
+stick and wiped his honest brow.
+
+"Mole," he said, "you're the best of fellows! Just cut along outside
+and look after those stoat-sentries of yours, and see what they're
+doing. I've an idea that, thanks to you, we shan't have much trouble
+from _them_ to-night!"
+
+The Mole vanished promptly through a window; and the Badger bade the
+other two set a table on its legs again, pick up knives and forks and
+plates and glasses from the _debris_ on the floor, and see if they
+could find materials for a supper. "I want some grub, I do," he said,
+in that rather common way he had of speaking. "Stir your stumps, Toad,
+and look lively! We've got your house back for you, and you don't
+offer us so much as a sandwich."
+
+Toad felt rather hurt that the Badger didn't say pleasant things to
+him, as he had to the Mole, and tell him what a fine fellow he was,
+and how splendidly he had fought; for he was rather particularly
+pleased with himself and the way he had gone for the Chief Weasel and
+sent him flying across the table with one blow of his stick. But he
+bustled about, and so did the Rat, and soon they found some guava
+jelly in a glass dish, and a cold chicken, a tongue that had hardly
+been touched, some trifle, and quite a lot of lobster salad; and in
+the pantry they came upon a basketful of French rolls and any quantity
+of cheese, butter, and celery. They were just about to sit down when
+the Mole clambered in through the window, chuckling, with an armful of
+rifles.
+
+"It's all over," he reported. "From what I can make out, as soon as
+the stoats, who were very nervous and jumpy already, heard the shrieks
+and the yells and the uproar inside the hall, some of them threw down
+their rifles and fled. The others stood fast for a bit, but when the
+weasels came rushing out upon them they thought they were betrayed;
+and the stoats grappled with the weasels, and the weasels fought to
+get away, and they wrestled and wriggled and punched each other, and
+rolled over and over, till most of 'em rolled into the river! They've
+all disappeared by now, one way or another; and I've got their rifles.
+So _that's_ all right!"
+
+"Excellent and deserving animal!" said the Badger, his mouth full of
+chicken and trifle. "Now, there's just one more thing I want you to
+do, Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I
+wouldn't trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done,
+and I wish I could say the same of every one I know. I'd send Rat, if
+he wasn't a poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there
+upstairs with you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up
+and made really comfortable. See that they sweep _under_ the beds, and
+put clean sheets and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the
+bed-clothes, just as you know it ought to be done; and have a can of
+hot water, and clean towels, and fresh cakes of soap, put in each
+room. And then you can give them a licking a-piece, if it's any
+satisfaction to you, and put them out by the back-door, and we shan't
+see any more of _them_, I fancy. And then come along and have some of
+this cold tongue. It's first rate. I'm very pleased with you, Mole!"
+
+The good-natured Mole picked up a stick, formed his prisoners up in a
+line on the floor, gave them the order "Quick march!" and led his
+squad off to the upper floor. After a time, he appeared again,
+smiling, and said that every room was ready and as clean as a new pin.
+"And I didn't have to lick them, either," he added. "I thought, on the
+whole, they had had licking enough for one night, and the weasels,
+when I put the point to them, quite agreed with me, and said they
+wouldn't think of troubling me. They were very penitent, and said
+they were extremely sorry for what they had done, but it was all the
+fault of the Chief Weasel and the stoats, and if ever they could do
+anything for us at any time to make up, we had only got to mention it.
+So I gave them a roll a-piece, and let them out at the back, and off
+they ran, as hard as they could!"
+
+Then the Mole pulled his chair up to the table, and pitched into the
+cold tongue; and Toad, like the gentleman he was, put all his jealousy
+from him, and said heartily, "Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all
+your pains and trouble to-night, and especially for your cleverness
+this morning!" The Badger was pleased at that, and said, "There spoke
+my brave Toad!" So they finished their supper in great joy and
+contentment, and presently retired to rest between clean sheets, safe
+in Toad's ancestral home, won back by matchless valour, consummate
+strategy, and a proper handling of sticks.
+
+The following morning, Toad, who had overslept himself as usual, came
+down to breakfast disgracefully late, and found on the table a
+certain quantity of egg-shells, some fragments of cold and leathery
+toast, a coffee-pot three-fourths empty, and really very little else;
+which did not tend to improve his temper, considering that, after all,
+it was his own house. Through the French windows of the breakfast-room
+he could see the Mole and the Water Rat sitting in wicker chairs out
+on the lawn, evidently telling each other stories; roaring with
+laughter and kicking their short legs up in the air. The Badger, who
+was in an arm-chair and deep in the morning paper, merely looked up
+and nodded when Toad entered the room. But Toad knew his man, so he
+sat down and made the best breakfast he could, merely observing to
+himself that he would get square with the others sooner or later. When
+he had nearly finished, the Badger looked up and remarked rather
+shortly: "I'm sorry, Toad, but I'm afraid there's a heavy morning's
+work in front of you. You see, we really ought to have a Banquet at
+once, to celebrate this affair. It's expected of you--in fact, it's
+the rule."
+
+"O, all right!" said the Toad, readily. "Anything to oblige. Though
+why on earth you should want to have a Banquet in the morning I cannot
+understand. But you know I do not live to please myself, but merely to
+find out what my friends want, and then try and arrange it for 'em,
+you dear old Badger!"
+
+"Don't pretend to be stupider than you really are," replied the
+Badger, crossly; "and don't chuckle and splutter in your coffee while
+you're talking; it's not manners. What I mean is, the Banquet will be
+at night, of course, but the invitations will have to be written and
+got off at once, and you've got to write 'em. Now sit down at that
+table--there's stacks of letter-paper on it, with 'Toad Hall' at the
+top in blue and gold--and write invitations to all our friends, and if
+you stick to it we shall get them out before luncheon. And _I'll_ bear
+a hand, too, and take my share of the burden. _I'll_ order the
+Banquet."
+
+"What!" cried Toad, dismayed. "Me stop indoors and write a lot of
+rotten letters on a jolly morning like this, when I want to go around
+my property and set everything and everybody to rights, and swagger
+about and enjoy myself! Certainly not! I'll be--I'll see you--Stop a
+minute, though! Why, of course, dear Badger! What is my pleasure or
+convenience compared with that of others! You wish it done, and it
+shall be done. Go, Badger, order the Banquet, order what you like;
+then join our young friends outside in their innocent mirth, oblivious
+of me and my cares and toils. I sacrifice this fair morning on the
+altar of duty and friendship!"
+
+The Badger looked at him very suspiciously, but Toad's frank, open
+countenance made it difficult to suggest any unworthy motive in this
+change of attitude. He quitted the room, accordingly, in the direction
+of the kitchen, and as soon as the door had closed behind him, Toad
+hurried to the writing-table. A fine idea had occurred to him while he
+was talking. He _would_ write the invitations; and he would take care
+to mention the leading part he had taken in the fight, and how he had
+laid the Chief Weasel flat; and he would hint at his adventures, and
+what a career of triumph he had to tell about; and on the fly-leaf he
+would set out a sort of a programme of entertainment for the
+evening--something like this, as he sketched it out in his head:--
+
+        SPEECH                                      BY TOAD.
+            (There will be other speeches by TOAD during
+                         the evening.)
+
+        ADDRESS                                     BY TOAD.
+        SYNOPSIS--Our Prison System--the Waterways of Old
+        England--Horse-dealing, and how to deal--Property,
+        its rights and its duties--Back to the Land--A
+        Typical English Squire.
+
+        SONG                                        BY TOAD.
+                   (_Composed by himself._)
+
+        OTHER COMPOSITIONS                          BY TOAD
+                 will be sung in the course of the
+                 evening by the           COMPOSER.
+
+The idea pleased him mightily, and he worked very hard and got all the
+letters finished by noon, at which hour it was reported to him that
+there was a small and rather bedraggled weasel at the door, inquiring
+timidly whether he could be of any service to the gentleman. Toad
+swaggered out and found it was one of the prisoners of the previous
+evening, very respectful and anxious to please. He patted him on the
+head, shoved the bundle of invitations into his paw, and told him to
+cut along quick and deliver them as fast as he could, and if he liked
+to come back again in the evening, perhaps there might be a shilling
+for him, or, again, perhaps there mightn't; and the poor weasel seemed
+really quite grateful, and hurried off eagerly to do his mission.
+
+When the other animals came back to luncheon, very boisterous and
+breezy after a morning on the river, the Mole, whose conscience had
+been pricking him, looked doubtfully at Toad, expecting to find him
+sulky or depressed. Instead, he was so uppish and inflated that the
+Mole began to suspect something; while the Rat and the Badger
+exchanged significant glances.
+
+As soon as the meal was over, Toad thrust his paws deep into his
+trouser-pockets, remarked casually, "Well, look after yourselves, you
+fellows! Ask for anything you want!" and was swaggering off in the
+direction of the garden, where he wanted to think out an idea or two
+for his coming speeches, when the Rat caught him by the arm.
+
+Toad rather suspected what he was after, and did his best to get away;
+but when the Badger took him firmly by the other arm he began to see
+that the game was up. The two animals conducted him between them into
+the small smoking-room that opened out of the entrance-hall, shut the
+door, and put him into a chair. Then they both stood in front of him,
+while Toad sat silent and regarded them with much suspicion and
+ill-humour.
+
+"Now, look here, Toad," said the Rat. "It's about this Banquet, and
+very sorry I am to have to speak to you like this. But we want you to
+understand clearly, once and for all, that there are going to be no
+speeches and no songs. Try and grasp the fact that on this occasion
+we're not arguing with you; we're just telling you."
+
+Toad saw that he was trapped. They understood him, they saw through
+him, they had got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered.
+
+"Mayn't I sing them just one _little_ song?" he pleaded piteously.
+
+"No, not _one_ little song," replied the Rat firmly, though his heart
+bled as he noticed the trembling lip of the poor disappointed Toad.
+"It's no good, Toady; you know well that your songs are all conceit
+and boasting and vanity; and your speeches are all self-praise
+and--and--well, and gross exaggeration and--and--"
+
+"And gas," put in the Badger, in his common way.
+
+"It's for your own good, Toady," went on the Rat. "You know you _must_
+turn over a new leaf sooner or later, and now seems a splendid time to
+begin; a sort of turning-point in your career. Please don't think that
+saying all this doesn't hurt me more than it hurts you."
+
+Toad remained a long while plunged in thought. At last he raised his
+head, and the traces of strong emotion were visible on his features.
+"You have conquered, my friends," he said in broken accents. "It was,
+to be sure, but a small thing that I asked--merely leave to blossom
+and expand for yet one more evening, to let myself go and hear the
+tumultuous applause that always seems to me--somehow--to bring out my
+best qualities. However, you are right, I know, and I am wrong.
+Henceforth I will be a very different Toad. My friends, you shall
+never have occasion to blush for me again. But, O dear, O dear, this
+is a hard world!"
+
+And, pressing his handkerchief to his face, he left the room, with
+faltering footsteps.
+
+"Badger," said the Rat, "I feel like a brute; I wonder what _you_ feel
+like?"
+
+"O, I know, I know," said the Badger gloomily. "But the thing had to
+be done. This good fellow has got to live here, and hold his own, and
+be respected. Would you have him a common laughing-stock, mocked and
+jeered at by stoats and weasels?"
+
+"Of course not," said the Rat. "And, talking of weasels, it's lucky we
+came upon that little weasel, just as he was setting out with Toad's
+invitations. I suspected something from what you told me, and had a
+look at one or two; they were simply disgraceful. I confiscated the
+lot, and the good Mole is now sitting in the blue _boudoir_, filling
+up plain, simple invitation cards."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At last the hour for the banquet began to draw near, and Toad, who on
+leaving the others had retired to his bedroom, was still sitting
+there, melancholy and thoughtful. His brow resting on his paw, he
+pondered long and deeply. Gradually his countenance cleared, and he
+began to smile long, slow smiles. Then he took to giggling in a shy,
+self-conscious manner. At last he got up, locked the door, drew the
+curtains across the windows, collected all the chairs in the room and
+arranged them in a semicircle, and took up his position in front of
+them, swelling visibly. Then he bowed, coughed twice, and, letting
+himself go, with uplifted voice he sang, to the enraptured audience
+that his imagination so clearly saw:
+
+                TOAD'S LAST LITTLE SONG
+
+        The Toad--came--home!
+        There was panic in the parlours and howling in the halls,
+        There was crying in the cow-sheds and shrieking in the stalls,
+        When the Toad--came--home!
+
+        When the Toad--came--home!
+        There was smashing in of window and crashing in of door,
+        There was chivvying of weasels that fainted on the floor,
+        When the Toad--came--home!
+
+        Bang! go the drums!
+        The trumpeters are tooting and the soldiers are saluting,
+        And the cannon they are shooting and the motor-cars are hooting,
+        As the--Hero--comes!
+
+        Shout--Hoo-ray!
+        And let each one of the crowd try and shout it very loud,
+        In honour of an animal of whom you're justly proud,
+        For it's Toad's--great--day!
+
+He sang this very loud, with great unction and expression; and when he
+had done, he sang it all over again.
+
+Then he heaved a deep sigh; a long, long, long sigh.
+
+Then he dipped his hairbrush in the water-jug, parted his hair in the
+middle, and plastered it down very straight and sleek on each side of
+his face; and, unlocking the door, went quietly down the stairs to
+greet his guests, who he knew must be assembling in the drawing-room.
+
+All the animals cheered when he entered, and crowded round to
+congratulate him and say nice things about his courage, and his
+cleverness, and his fighting qualities; but Toad only smiled faintly,
+and murmured, "Not at all!" Or, sometimes, for a change, "On the
+contrary!" Otter, who was standing on the hearthrug, describing to an
+admiring circle of friends exactly how he would have managed things
+had he been there, came forward with a shout, threw his arm round
+Toad's neck, and tried to take him round the room in triumphal
+progress; but Toad, in a mild way, was rather snubby to him, remarking
+gently, as he disengaged himself, "Badger's was the master mind; the
+Mole and the Water Rat bore the brunt of the fighting; I merely served
+in the ranks and did little or nothing." The animals were evidently
+puzzled and taken aback by this unexpected attitude of his; and Toad
+felt, as he moved from one guest to the other, making his modest
+responses, that he was an object of absorbing interest to every one.
+
+The Badger had ordered everything of the best, and the banquet was a
+great success. There was much talking and laughter and chaff among the
+animals, but through it all Toad, who of course was in the chair,
+looked down his nose and murmured pleasant nothings to the animals on
+either side of him. At intervals he stole a glance at the Badger and
+the Rat, and always when he looked they were staring at each other
+with their mouths open; and this gave him the greatest satisfaction.
+Some of the younger and livelier animals, as the evening wore on, got
+whispering to each other that things were not so amusing as they used
+to be in the good old days; and there were some knockings on the table
+and cries of "Toad! Speech! Speech from Toad! Song! Mr. Toad's song!"
+But Toad only shook his head gently, raised one paw in mild protest,
+and, by pressing delicacies on his guests, by topical small-talk, and
+by earnest inquiries after members of their families not yet old
+enough to appear at social functions, managed to convey to them that
+this dinner was being run on strictly conventional lines.
+
+He was indeed an altered Toad!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After this climax, the four animals continued to lead their lives, so
+rudely broken in upon by civil war, in great joy and contentment,
+undisturbed by further risings or invasions. Toad, after due
+consultation with his friends, selected a handsome gold chain and
+locket set with pearls, which he dispatched to the gaoler's daughter,
+with a letter that even the Badger admitted to be modest, grateful,
+and appreciative; and the engine-driver, in his turn, was properly
+thanked and compensated for all his pains and trouble. Under severe
+compulsion from the Badger, even the barge-woman was, with some
+trouble, sought out and the value of her horse discreetly made good
+to her; though Toad kicked terribly at this, holding himself to be an
+instrument of Fate, sent to punish fat women with mottled arms who
+couldn't tell a real gentleman when they saw one. The amount involved,
+it was true, was not very burdensome, the gipsy's valuation being
+admitted by local assessors to be approximately correct.
+
+Sometimes, in the course of long summer evenings, the friends would
+take a stroll together in the Wild Wood, now successfully tamed so far
+as they were concerned; and it was pleasing to see how respectfully
+they were greeted by the inhabitants, and how the mother-weasels would
+bring their young ones to the mouths of their holes, and say,
+pointing, "Look, baby! There goes the great Mr. Toad! And that's the
+gallant Water Rat, a terrible fighter, walking along o' him! And
+yonder comes the famous Mr. Mole, of whom you so often have heard your
+father tell!" But when their infants were fractious and quite beyond
+control, they would quiet them by telling how, if they didn't hush
+them and not fret them, the terrible grey Badger would up and get
+them. This was a base libel on Badger, who, though he cared little
+about Society, was rather fond of children; but it never failed to
+have its full effect.
+
+_The Wind in the Willows_
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
+
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