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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Wind in the Willows
+
+Author: Kenneth Grahame
+
+Posting Date: July 12, 2008 [EBook #289]
+Release Date: July, 1995
+[Last updated: January 13, 2012]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mike Lough
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
+
+By Kenneth Grahame
+
+Author Of "The Golden Age," "Dream Days," Etc.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    CHAPTER
+    I.    THE RIVER BANK
+    II.   THE OPEN ROAD
+    III.  THE WILD WOOD
+    IV.   MR. BADGER
+    V.    DULCE DOMUM
+    VI.   MR. TOAD
+    VII.  THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN
+    VIII. TOAD'S ADVENTURES
+    IX.   WAYFARERS ALL
+    X.    THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD
+    XI.   "LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS"
+    XII.  THE RETURN OF ULYSSES
+
+
+
+
+
+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 gavelled
+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 spell-bound 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, its 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
+forepaw 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.'
+
+'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 leaned 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;
+'coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssan-
+dwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater----'
+
+'O stop, stop,' cried the Mole in ecstacies: '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 forebore 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, kingfishers, 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 land-locked 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 forepaws 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
+          Uptails 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 life time.
+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,
+bookshelves, 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 what ever 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 nosebags, 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 backwards towards the
+deep ditch at the side of the road. It wavered an instant--then there
+was a heartrending 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--roadhogs!--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!'
+
+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 riverbank
+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 spell-bound, 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 cornfields; 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 fullness, 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!
+
+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 recognized 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 doormat? 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'd had enough
+of this folly. Who ever heard of a door-mat TELLING anyone 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 halfway 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 tomorrow 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 everyone 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 halfway 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
+forepaw 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 blest 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.'
+
+'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 enquiries 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 apiece 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 hedge-row, 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 heartstrings 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 forecourt 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 fieldmice 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 the 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 armchairs 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 lightheartedly, 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 halfway 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 marketplace, 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.
+
+'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 a 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 up stream. 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 midstream, 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
+loose-strife 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 fullness 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 humourously, 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 lighthearted 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 re-capture
+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.
+
+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 boathouse, 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 motorcar 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 softhearted. 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. Today, however, though they were civil enough, the field-mice
+and harvest-mice seemed preoccupied. 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 odor? 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 southward, 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 land-locked 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 shellfish? 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 up
+country. 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!'
+
+'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 midday 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.
+
+Spell-bound 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
+spell-bound 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 midstream, 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 bedclothes 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 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 gentlemen'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 bargewoman!'
+
+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 towrope 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 pea-hens, 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 handcuffed, 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?'
+
+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 river-side, 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 waterside.
+
+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 friend's
+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 at 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 thoroughgoing 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.
+
+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-ooray-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 goodnatured 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 tonight, 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 gentlemen. 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. Hence
+forth 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 mastermind; 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
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