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diff --git a/27805.txt b/27805.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..216f312 --- /dev/null +++ b/27805.txt @@ -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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS *** + +***** This file should be named 27805.txt or 27805.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/8/0/27805/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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