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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/289-0.txt b/289-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6276785 --- /dev/null +++ b/289-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6157 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 289 *** + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Wind in the Willows + +by Kenneth Grahame + +Author Of “The Golden Age,” “Dream Days,” Etc. + + +Contents + + CHAPTER I. THE RIVER BANK + CHAPTER II. THE OPEN ROAD + CHAPTER III. THE WILD WOOD + CHAPTER IV. MR. BADGER + CHAPTER V. DULCE DOMUM + CHAPTER VI. MR. TOAD + CHAPTER VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN + CHAPTER VIII. TOAD’S ADVENTURES + CHAPTER IX. WAYFARERS ALL + CHAPTER X. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD + CHAPTER XI. “LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS” + CHAPTER 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 +gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer +to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and +scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and +scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, +“Up we go! Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the +sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great +meadow. + +“This is fine!” he said to himself. “This is better than whitewashing!” +The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated +brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long +the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a +shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and +the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across +the meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side. + +“Hold up!” said an elderly rabbit at the gap. “Sixpence for the +privilege of passing by the private road!” He was bowled over in an +instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the +side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly +from their holes to see what the row was about. “Onion-sauce! +Onion-sauce!” he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could +think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then they all started +grumbling at each other. “How _stupid_ you are! Why didn’t you tell +him——” “Well, why didn’t _you_ say——” “You might have reminded him——” +and so on, in the usual way; but, of course, it was then much too late, +as is always the case. + +It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the +meadows he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, +finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves +thrusting—everything happy, and progressive, and occupied. And instead +of having an uneasy conscience pricking him and whispering “whitewash!” +he somehow could only feel how jolly it was to be the only idle dog +among all these busy citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday is +perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other +fellows busy working. + +He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly +along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his +life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied +animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and +leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that +shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake +and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter +and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side +of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a +man who holds one 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; “ +coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwiches +pottedme atgingerbeerlemonadesodawater——” + +“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 _pâté de foie gras_, no champagne!” continued the Rat, grinning. +“And that reminds me—what’s that little door at the end of the passage? +Your cellar, of course! Every luxury in this house! Just you wait a +minute.” + +He made for the cellar-door, and presently reappeared, somewhat dusty, +with a bottle of beer in each paw and another under each arm, +“Self-indulgent beggar you seem to be, Mole,” he observed. “Deny +yourself nothing. This is really the jolliest little place I ever was +in. Now, wherever did you pick up those prints? Make the place look so +home-like, they do. No wonder you’re so fond of it, Mole. Tell us all +about it, and how you came to make it what it is.” + +Then, while the Rat busied himself fetching plates, and knives and +forks, and mustard which he mixed in an egg-cup, the Mole, his bosom +still heaving with the stress of his recent emotion, related—somewhat +shyly at first, but with more freedom as he warmed to his subject—how +this was planned, and how that was thought out, and how this was got +through a windfall from an aunt, and that was a wonderful find and a +bargain, and this other thing was bought out of laborious savings and a +certain amount of “going without.” His spirits finally quite restored, +he must needs go and caress his possessions, and take a lamp and show +off their points to his visitor and expatiate on them, quite forgetful +of the supper they both so much needed; Rat, who was desperately hungry +but strove to conceal it, nodding seriously, examining with a puckered +brow, and saying, “wonderful,” and “most remarkable,” at intervals, +when the chance for an observation was given him. + +At last the Rat succeeded in decoying him to the table, and had just +got seriously to work with the sardine-opener when sounds were heard +from the fore-court without—sounds like the scuffling of small feet in +the gravel and a confused murmur of tiny voices, while broken sentences +reached them—“Now, all in a line—hold the lantern up a bit, Tommy—clear +your throats first—no coughing after I say one, two, three.—Where’s +young Bill?—Here, come on, do, we’re all a-waiting——” + +“What’s up?” inquired the Rat, pausing in his labours. + +“I think it must be the field-mice,” replied the Mole, with a touch of +pride in his manner. “They go round carol-singing regularly at this +time of the year. They’re quite an institution in these parts. And they +never pass me over—they come to Mole End last of all; and I used to +give them hot drinks, and supper too sometimes, when I could afford it. +It will be like old times to hear them again.” + +“Let’s have a look at them!” cried the Rat, jumping up and running to +the door. + +It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when +they flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a +horn lantern, some eight or ten little 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’hôte_ +shrink pitifully at each succeeding meal; as suites of rooms are +closed, carpets taken up, and waiters sent away; those boarders who are +staying on, _en pension_, until the next year’s full re-opening, cannot +help being somewhat affected by all these flittings and farewells, this +eager discussion of plans, routes, and fresh quarters, this daily +shrinkage in the stream of comradeship. One gets unsettled, depressed, +and inclined to be querulous. Why this craving for change? Why not stay +on quietly here, like us, and be jolly? You don’t know this hotel out +of the season, and what fun we have among ourselves, we fellows who +remain and see the whole interesting year out. All very true, no doubt +the others always reply; we quite envy you—and some other year +perhaps—but just now we have engagements—and there’s the bus at the +door—our time is up! So they depart, with a smile and a nod, and we +miss them, and feel resentful. The Rat was a self-sufficing sort of +animal, rooted to the land, and, whoever went, he stayed; still, he +could not help noticing what was in the air, and feeling some of its +influence in his bones. + +It was difficult to settle down to anything seriously, with all this +flitting going on. Leaving the water-side, where rushes stood thick and +tall in a stream that was becoming sluggish and low, he wandered +country-wards, crossed a field or two of pasturage already looking +dusty and parched, and thrust into the great sea of wheat, yellow, +wavy, and murmurous, full of quiet motion and small whisperings. Here +he often loved to wander, through the forest of stiff strong stalks +that carried their own golden sky away over his head—a sky that was +always dancing, shimmering, softly talking; or swaying strongly to the +passing wind and recovering itself with a toss and a merry laugh. Here, +too, he had many small friends, a society complete in itself, leading +full and busy lives, but always with a spare moment to gossip, and +exchange news with a visitor. 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 _débris_ on the floor, and see if they +could find materials for a supper. “I want some grub, I do,” he said, +in that rather common way he had of speaking. “Stir your stumps, Toad, +and look lively! We’ve got your house back for you, and you don’t offer +us so much as a sandwich.” Toad felt rather hurt that the Badger didn’t +say pleasant things to him, as he had to the Mole, and tell him what a +fine fellow he was, and how splendidly he had fought; for he was rather +particularly pleased with himself and the way he had gone for the Chief +Weasel and sent him flying across the table with one blow of his stick. +But he bustled about, and so did the Rat, and soon they found some +guava jelly in a glass dish, and a cold chicken, a tongue that had +hardly been touched, some trifle, and quite a lot of lobster salad; and +in the pantry they came upon a basketful of French rolls and any +quantity of cheese, butter, and celery. They were just about to sit +down when the Mole clambered in through the window, chuckling, with an +armful of rifles. + +“It’s all over,” he reported. “From what I can make out, as soon as the +stoats, who were very nervous and jumpy already, heard the shrieks and +the yells and the uproar inside the hall, some of them threw down their +rifles and fled. The others stood fast for a bit, but when the weasels +came rushing out upon them they thought they were betrayed; and the +stoats grappled with the weasels, and the weasels fought to get away, +and they wrestled and wriggled and punched each other, and rolled over +and over, till most of ’em rolled into the river! They’ve all +disappeared by now, one way or another; and I’ve got their rifles. So +_that’s_ all right!” + +“Excellent and deserving animal!” said the Badger, his mouth full of +chicken and trifle. “Now, there’s just one more thing I want you to do, +Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I wouldn’t +trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done, and I wish +I could say the same of every one I know. I’d send Rat, if he wasn’t a +poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there upstairs with +you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up and made really +comfortable. See that they sweep _under_ the beds, and put clean sheets +and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the bed-clothes, just +as you know it ought to be done; and have a can of hot water, and clean +towels, and fresh cakes of soap, put in each room. And then you can +give them a licking a-piece, if it’s any satisfaction to you, and put +them out by the back-door, and we shan’t see any more of _them_, I +fancy. And then come along and have some of this cold tongue. It’s +first rate. I’m very pleased with you, Mole!” + +The 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 THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 289 *** diff --git a/289-0.zip b/289-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b13be9c --- /dev/null +++ b/289-0.zip diff --git a/289-h.zip b/289-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf090bd --- /dev/null +++ b/289-h.zip diff --git a/289-h/289-h.htm b/289-h/289-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffe8937 --- /dev/null +++ b/289-h/289-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7897 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="utf-8"> +<title>The Wind in the Willows | Project Gutenberg</title> +<link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> +<style> + +body { margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 289 ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]"> +</div> + +<h1>The Wind in the Willows</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Kenneth Grahame</h2> + +<h4>Author Of “The Golden Age,” “Dream Days,” Etc.</h4> + +<hr> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. THE RIVER BANK</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. THE OPEN ROAD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. THE WILD WOOD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. MR. BADGER</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. DULCE DOMUM</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. MR. TOAD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. TOAD’S ADVENTURES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. WAYFARERS ALL</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. “LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS”</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. THE RETURN OF ULYSSES</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap01"></a>I.<br> +THE RIVER BANK</h2> + +<p> +The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little +home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and +chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat +and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back +and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and +around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of +divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly +flung down his brush on the floor, said “Bother!” and “O +blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the +house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling +him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his +case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are +nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and +scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, +working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, “Up we go! +Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and +he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow. +</p> + +<p> +“This is fine!” he said to himself. “This is better than +whitewashing!” The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed +his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so +long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. +Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of +spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he +reached the hedge on the further side. +</p> + +<p> +“Hold up!” said an elderly rabbit at the gap. “Sixpence for +the privilege of passing by the private road!” He was bowled over in an +instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the side of +the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly from their holes +to see what the row was about. “Onion-sauce! Onion-sauce!” he +remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could think of a thoroughly +satisfactory reply. Then they all started grumbling at each other. “How +<i>stupid</i> you are! Why didn’t you tell him——” “Well, +why didn’t <i>you</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the meadows he +rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding everywhere +birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting—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. +</p> + +<p> +He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, +suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he +seen a river before—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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +A brown little face, with whiskers. +</p> + +<p> +A grave round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had first attracted +his notice. +</p> + +<p> +Small neat ears and thick silky hair. +</p> + +<p> +It was the Water Rat! +</p> + +<p> +Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo, Mole!” said the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo, Rat!” said the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Would you like to come over?” enquired the Rat presently. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, its all very well to <i>talk</i>,” said the Mole, rather pettishly, +he being new to a river and riverside life and its ways. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened a rope and hauled on it; then +lightly stepped into a little boat which the Mole had not observed. It was +painted blue outside and white within, and was just the size for two animals; +and the Mole’s whole heart went out to it at once, even though he did not +yet fully understand its uses. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat sculled smartly across and made fast. Then he held up his 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. +</p> + +<p> +“This has been a wonderful day!” said he, as the Rat shoved off and +took to the sculls again. “Do you know, I’ve never been in a boat +before in all my life.” +</p> + +<p> +“What?” cried the Rat, open-mouthed: “Never been in +a—you never—well I—what have you been doing, then?” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it so nice as all that?” asked the Mole shyly, though he was +quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the +cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt +the boat sway lightly under him. +</p> + +<p> +“Nice? It’s the <i>only</i> thing,” said the Water Rat solemnly, as +he leant forward for his stroke. “Believe me, my young friend, there is +<i>nothing</i>—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing +about in boats. Simply messing,” he went on dreamily: +“messing—about—in—boats; messing——” +</p> + +<p> +“Look ahead, Rat!” cried the Mole suddenly. +</p> + +<p> +It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous +oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air. +</p> + +<p> +“—about in boats—or <i>with</i> boats,” the Rat went on +composedly, picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. “In or out of +’em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, +that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; +whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or +whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never +do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always +something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much +better not. Look here! If you’ve really nothing else on hand this +morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long day of +it?” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of +full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions. +“<i>What</i> a day I’m having!” he said. “Let us start at +once!” +</p> + +<p> +“Hold hard a minute, then!” said the Rat. He looped the painter +through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above, and after +a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket. +</p> + +<p> +“Shove that under your feet,” he observed to the Mole, as he passed +it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s inside it?” asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s cold chicken inside it,” replied the Rat briefly; +“ +coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedme +atgingerbeerlemonadesodawater——” +</p> + +<p> +“O stop, stop,” cried the Mole in ecstacies: “This is too +much!” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you really think so?” enquired the Rat seriously. +“It’s only what I always take on these little excursions; and the +other animals are always telling me that I’m a mean beast and cut it <i>very</i> +fine!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole never heard a word he was saying. Absorbed in the new life he was +entering upon, intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the scents and the +sounds and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in the water and dreamed long waking +dreams. The Water Rat, like the good little fellow he was, sculled steadily on +and forebore to disturb him. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“I beg your pardon,” said the Mole, pulling himself together with +an effort. “You must think me very rude; but all this is so new to me. +So—this—is—a—River!” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>The</i> River,” corrected the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!” +</p> + +<p> +“By it and with it and on it and in it,” said the Rat. +“It’s brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food +and drink, and (naturally) washing. It’s my world, and I don’t want +any other. What it hasn’t got is not worth having, and what it +doesn’t know is not worth knowing. Lord! the times we’ve had +together! Whether in winter or summer, spring or autumn, it’s always got +its fun and its excitements. When the floods are on in February, and my cellars +and basement are brimming with drink that’s no good to me, and the brown +water runs by my best bedroom window; or again when it all drops away and, +shows patches of mud that smells like plum-cake, and the rushes and weed clog +the channels, and I can potter about dry shod over most of the bed of it and +find fresh food to eat, and things careless people have dropped out of +boats!” +</p> + +<p> +“But isn’t it a bit dull at times?” the Mole ventured to ask. +“Just you and the river, and no one else to pass a word with?” +</p> + +<p> +“No one else to—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 <i>do</i> something—as if a fellow had no business of his own to +attend to!” +</p> + +<p> +“What lies over <i>there?</i>” asked the Mole, waving a paw towards a +background of woodland that darkly framed the water-meadows on one side of the +river. +</p> + +<p> +“That? O, that’s just the Wild Wood,” said the Rat shortly. +“We don’t go there very much, we river-bankers.” +</p> + +<p> +“Aren’t they—aren’t they very <i>nice</i> people in +there?” said the Mole, a trifle nervously. +</p> + +<p> +“W-e-ll,” replied the Rat, “let me see. The squirrels are all +right. <i>And</i> the rabbits—some of ’em, but rabbits are a mixed lot. +And then there’s Badger, of course. He lives right in the heart of it; +wouldn’t live anywhere else, either, if you paid him to do it. Dear old +Badger! Nobody interferes with <i>him</i>. They’d better not,” he added +significantly. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, who <i>should</i> interfere with him?” asked the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, of course—there—are others,” explained the Rat +in a hesitating sort of way. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“And beyond the Wild Wood again?” he asked: “Where it’s +all blue and dim, and one sees what may be hills or perhaps they mayn’t, +and something like the smoke of towns, or is it only cloud-drift?” +</p> + +<p> +“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,” said the Rat. +“And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or +me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if +you’ve got any sense at all. Don’t ever refer to it again, please. +Now then! Here’s our backwater at last, where we’re going to +lunch.” +</p> + +<p> +Leaving the main stream, they now passed into what seemed at first sight like a +little 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat brought the boat alongside the bank, made her fast, helped the still +awkward Mole safely ashore, and swung out the luncheon-basket. The Mole begged +as a favour to be allowed to unpack it all by himself; and the Rat was very +pleased to indulge him, and to sprawl at full length on the grass and rest, +while his excited friend shook out the table-cloth and spread it, took out all +the mysterious packets one by one and arranged their contents in due order, +still gasping, “O my! O my!” at each fresh revelation. When all was +ready, the Rat said, “Now, pitch in, old fellow!” and the Mole was +indeed very glad to obey, for he had started his spring-cleaning at a very +early hour that morning, as people <i>will</i> do, and had not paused for bite or sup; +and he had been through a very great deal since that distant time which now +seemed so many days ago. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you looking at?” said the Rat presently, when the edge of +their hunger was somewhat dulled, and the Mole’s eyes were able to wander +off the table-cloth a little. +</p> + +<p> +“I am looking,” said the Mole, “at a streak of bubbles that I +see travelling along the surface of the water. That is a thing that strikes me +as funny.” +</p> + +<p> +“Bubbles? Oho!” said the Rat, and chirruped cheerily in an inviting +sort of way. +</p> + +<p> +A broad glistening muzzle showed itself above the edge of the bank, and the +Otter hauled himself out and shook the water from his coat. +</p> + +<p> +“Greedy beggars!” he observed, making for the provender. “Why +didn’t you invite me, Ratty?” +</p> + +<p> +“This was an impromptu affair,” explained the Rat. “By the +way—my friend Mr. Mole.” +</p> + +<p> +“Proud, I’m sure,” said the Otter, and the two animals were +friends forthwith. +</p> + +<p> +“Such a rumpus everywhere!” continued the Otter. “All the +world seems out on the river to-day. I came up this backwater to try and get a +moment’s peace, and then stumble upon you fellows!—At least—I +beg pardon—I don’t exactly mean that, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +There was a rustle behind them, proceeding from a hedge wherein last +year’s leaves still clung thick, and a stripy head, with high shoulders +behind it, peered forth on them. +</p> + +<p> +“Come on, old Badger!” shouted the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger trotted forward a pace or two; then grunted, “H’m! +Company,” and turned his back and disappeared from view. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s <i>just</i> the sort of fellow he is!” observed the +disappointed Rat. “Simply hates Society! Now we shan’t see any more +of him to-day. Well, tell us, <i>who’s</i> out on the river?” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad’s out, for one,” replied the Otter. “In his +brand-new wager-boat; new togs, new everything!” +</p> + +<p> +The two animals looked at each other and laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“Once, it was nothing but sailing,” said the Rat, “Then he +tired of that and took to punting. Nothing would please him but to punt all day +and every day, and a nice mess he made of it. Last year it was house-boating, +and we all had to go and stay with him in his house-boat, and pretend we liked +it. He was going to spend the rest of his life in a house-boat. It’s all +the same, whatever he takes up; he gets tired of it, and starts on something +fresh.” +</p> + +<p> +“Such a good fellow, too,” remarked the Otter reflectively: +“But no stability—especially in a boat!” +</p> + +<p> +From where they sat they could get a glimpse of the main stream across the +island that separated them; and just then a wager-boat flashed into view, the +rower—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. +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll be out of the boat in a minute if he rolls like that,” +said the Rat, sitting down again. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course he will,” chuckled the Otter. “Did I ever tell you +that good story about Toad and the lock-keeper? It happened this way. +Toad....” +</p> + +<p> +An errant May-fly swerved unsteadily athwart the current in the intoxicated +fashion affected by young bloods of May-flies seeing life. A swirl of water and +a “cloop!” and the May-fly was visible no more. +</p> + +<p> +Neither was the Otter. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole looked down. The voice was still in his ears, but the turf whereon he +had sprawled was clearly vacant. Not an Otter to be seen, as far as the distant +horizon. +</p> + +<p> +But again there was a streak of bubbles on the surface of the river. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat hummed a tune, and the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette forbade +any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one’s friends at any +moment, for any reason or no reason whatever. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Rat, “I suppose we ought to be moving. +I wonder which of us had better pack the luncheon-basket?” He did not +speak as if he was frightfully eager for the treat. +</p> + +<p> +“O, please let me,” said the Mole. So, of course, the Rat let him. +</p> + +<p> +Packing the basket was not quite such pleasant work as unpacking the +basket. It never 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. +</p> + +<p> +The afternoon sun was getting low as the Rat sculled gently homewards in a +dreamy mood, murmuring poetry-things over to himself, and not paying much +attention to Mole. But the Mole was very full of lunch, and self-satisfaction, +and pride, and already quite at home in a boat (so he thought) and was getting +a bit restless besides: and presently he said, “Ratty! Please, <i>I</i> +want to row, now!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat shook his head with a smile. “Not yet, my young friend,” he +said—“wait till you’ve had a few lessons. It’s not so +easy as it looks.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was quiet for a minute or two. But he began to feel more and more +jealous of Rat, sculling so strongly and so easily along, and his pride began +to whisper that he could do it every bit as well. He jumped up and seized the +sculls, so suddenly, that the Rat, who was gazing out over the water and saying +more poetry-things to himself, was taken by surprise and fell backwards off his +seat with his legs in the air for the second time, while the triumphant Mole +took his place and grabbed the sculls with entire confidence. +</p> + +<p> +“Stop it, you <i>silly</i> ass!” cried the Rat, from the bottom of the +boat. “You can’t do it! You’ll have us over!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole flung his sculls back with a flourish, and made a great dig at the +water. He missed the surface altogether, his legs flew up above his head, and +he found himself lying on the top of the prostrate Rat. Greatly alarmed, he +made a grab at the side of the boat, and the next moment—Sploosh! +</p> + +<p> +Over went the boat, and he found himself struggling in the river. +</p> + +<p> +O my, how cold the water was, and O, how <i>very</i> wet it felt. How it sang in his +ears as he went down, down, down! How bright and welcome the sun looked as he +rose to the surface coughing and spluttering! How black was his despair when he +felt himself sinking again! Then a firm paw gripped him by the back of his +neck. It was the Rat, and he was evidently laughing—the Mole could <i>feel</i> +him laughing, right down his arm and through his paw, and so into his—the +Mole’s—neck. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat got hold of a scull and shoved it under the Mole’s arm; then he +did the same by the other side of him and, swimming behind, propelled the +helpless animal to shore, hauled him out, and set him down on the bank, a +squashy, pulpy lump of misery. +</p> + +<p> +When the Rat had rubbed him down a bit, and wrung some of the wet out of him, +he said, “Now, then, old fellow! Trot up and down the towing-path as hard +as you can, till you’re warm and dry again, while I dive for the +luncheon-basket.” +</p> + +<p> +So the dismal Mole, wet without and ashamed within, trotted about till he was +fairly dry, while the Rat plunged into the water again, recovered the boat, +righted her and made her fast, fetched his floating property to shore by +degrees, and finally dived successfully for the luncheon-basket and struggled +to land with it. +</p> + +<p> +When all was ready for a start once more, the Mole, limp and dejected, took his +seat in the stern of the boat; and as they set off, he said in a low voice, +broken with emotion, “Ratty, my generous friend! I am very sorry indeed +for my foolish and ungrateful conduct. My heart quite fails me when I think how +I might have lost that beautiful luncheon-basket. Indeed, I have been a +complete ass, and I know it. Will you overlook it this once and forgive me, and +let things go on as before?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all right, bless you!” responded the Rat cheerily. +“What’s a little wet to a Water Rat? I’m more in the water +than out of it most days. Don’t you think any more about it; and, look +here! I really think you had better come and stop with me for a little time. +It’s very plain and rough, you know—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.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was so touched by his kind manner of speaking that he could find no +voice to answer him; and he had to brush away a tear or two with the back of +his paw. But the Rat kindly looked in another direction, and presently the +Mole’s spirits revived again, and he was even able to give some straight +back-talk to a couple of moorhens who were sniggering to each other about his +bedraggled appearance. +</p> + +<p> +When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and planted the +Mole in an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a dressing-gown and +slippers for him, and told him river stories till supper-time. Very thrilling +stories they were, too, to an earth-dwelling animal like Mole. Stories about +weirs, and sudden floods, and leaping pike, and steamers that flung hard +bottles—at least bottles were certainly flung, and <i>from</i> steamers, so +presumably <i>by</i> them; and about herons, and how particular they were whom they +spoke to; and about adventures down drains, and night-fishings with Otter, or +excursions far a-field with Badger. Supper was a most cheerful meal; but very +shortly afterwards a terribly sleepy Mole had to be escorted upstairs by his +considerate host, to the best bedroom, where he soon laid his head on his +pillow in great peace and contentment, knowing that his new-found friend the +River was lapping the sill of his window. +</p> + +<p> +This day was only the first of many similar ones for the emancipated Mole, each +of them longer and full of interest as the ripening summer moved onward. He +learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy of running water; and with +his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind +went whispering so constantly among them. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap02"></a>II.<br> +THE OPEN ROAD</h2> + +<p> +“Ratty,” said the Mole suddenly, one bright summer morning, +“if you please, I want to ask you a favour.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing a little song. He had just +composed it himself, so he was very taken up with it, and would not pay proper +attention to Mole or anything else. Since early morning he had been swimming in +the river, in company with his friends the ducks. And when the ducks stood on +their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, +just under where their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced +to come to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking +their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite <i>all</i> you feel when your +head is under water. At last they implored him to go away and attend to his own +affairs and leave them to mind theirs. So the Rat went away, and sat on the +river bank in the sun, and made up a song about them, which he called +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“DUCKS’ DITTY.”<br> +<br> +All along the backwater,<br> +Through the rushes tall,<br> +Ducks are a-dabbling,<br> +Up tails all!<br> +Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,<br> +Yellow feet a-quiver,<br> +Yellow bills all out of sight<br> +Busy in the river!<br> +<br> +Slushy green undergrowth<br> +Where the roach swim—<br> +Here we keep our larder,<br> +Cool and full and dim.<br> +<br> +Everyone for what he likes!<br> +<i>We</i> like to be<br> +Heads down, tails up,<br> +Dabbling free!<br> +<br> +High in the blue above<br> +Swifts whirl and call—<br> +<i>We</i> are down a-dabbling<br> +Uptails all! +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know that I think so <i>very</i> much of that little song, +Rat,” observed the Mole cautiously. He was no poet himself and +didn’t care who knew it; and he had a candid nature. +</p> + +<p> +“Nor don’t the ducks neither,” replied the Rat cheerfully. +“They say, ‘<i>Why</i> can’t fellows be allowed to do what they like +<i>when</i> they like and <i>as</i> they like, instead of other fellows sitting on banks and +watching them all the time and making remarks and poetry and things about them? +What <i>nonsense</i> it all is!’ That’s what the ducks say.” +</p> + +<p> +“So it is, so it is,” said the Mole, with great heartiness. +</p> + +<p> +“No, it isn’t!” cried the Rat indignantly. +</p> + +<p> +“Well then, it isn’t, it isn’t,” replied the Mole +soothingly. “But what I wanted to ask you was, won’t you take me to +call on Mr. Toad? I’ve heard so much about him, and I do so want to make +his acquaintance.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, certainly,” said the good-natured Rat, jumping to his feet +and dismissing poetry from his mind for the day. “Get the boat out, and +we’ll paddle up there at once. It’s never the wrong time to call on +Toad. Early or late he’s always the same fellow. Always good-tempered, +always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!” +</p> + +<p> +“He must be a very nice animal,” observed the Mole, as he got into +the boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably in the +stern. +</p> + +<p> +“He is indeed the best of animals,” replied Rat. “So simple, +so good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he’s not very +clever—we can’t all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both +boastful and conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady.” +</p> + +<p> +Rounding a bend in the river, they came in sight of a handsome, dignified old +house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns reaching down to the +water’s edge. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s Toad Hall,” said the Rat; “and that creek on +the left, where the notice-board says, ‘Private. No landing +allowed,’ leads to his boat-house, where we’ll leave the boat. The +stables are over there to the right. That’s 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.” +</p> + +<p> +They glided up the creek, and the Mole shipped his sculls as they passed into +the shadow of a large boat-house. Here they saw many handsome boats, slung from +the cross beams or hauled up on a slip, but none in the water; and the place +had an unused and a deserted air. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat looked around him. “I understand,” said he. “Boating +is played out. He’s tired of it, and done with it. I wonder what new fad +he has taken up now? Come along and let’s look him up. We shall hear all +about it quite soon enough.” +</p> + +<p> +They disembarked, and strolled across the gay flower-decked lawns in search of +Toad, whom they presently happened upon resting in a wicker garden-chair, with +a pre-occupied expression of face, and a large map spread out on his knees. +</p> + +<p> +“Hooray!” he cried, jumping up on seeing them, “this is +splendid!” He shook the paws of both of them warmly, never waiting for an +introduction to the Mole. “How <i>kind</i> of you!” he went on, dancing +round them. “I was just going to send a boat down the river for you, +Ratty, with strict orders that you were to be fetched up here at once, whatever +you were doing. I want you badly—both of you. Now what will you take? +Come inside and have something! You don’t know how lucky it is, your +turning up just now!” +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s sit quiet a bit, Toady!” said the Rat, throwing +himself into an easy chair, while the Mole took another by the side of him and +made some civil remark about Toad’s “delightful residence.” +</p> + +<p> +“Finest house on the whole river,” cried Toad boisterously. +“Or anywhere else, for that matter,” he could not help adding. +</p> + +<p> +Here the Rat nudged the Mole. Unfortunately the Toad saw him do it, and turned +very red. There was a moment’s painful silence. Then Toad burst out +laughing. “All right, Ratty,” he said. “It’s only my +way, you know. And it’s not such a very bad house, is it? You know you +rather like it yourself. Now, look here. Let’s be sensible. You are the +very animals I wanted. You’ve got to help me. It’s most +important!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s about your rowing, I suppose,” said the Rat, with an +innocent air. “You’re getting on fairly well, though you splash a +good bit still. With a great deal of patience, and any quantity of coaching, +you may——” +</p> + +<p> +“O, pooh! boating!” interrupted the Toad, in great disgust. +“Silly boyish amusement. I’ve given that up <i>long</i> ago. Sheer waste +of time, that’s what it is. It makes me downright sorry to see you +fellows, who ought to know better, spending all your energies in that aimless +manner. No, I’ve discovered the real thing, the only genuine occupation +for a 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!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“There you are!” cried the Toad, straddling and expanding himself. +“There’s real life for you, embodied in that little cart. The open +road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling +downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off to somewhere +else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before +you, and a horizon that’s always changing! And mind! this is the very +finest cart of its sort that was ever built, without any exception. Come inside +and look at the arrangements. Planned ’em all myself, I did!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was tremendously interested and excited, and followed him eagerly up +the steps and into the interior of the caravan. The Rat only snorted and thrust +his hands deep into his pockets, remaining where he was. +</p> + +<p> +It was indeed very compact and comfortable. 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“I beg your pardon,” said the Rat slowly, as he chewed a straw, +“but did I overhear you say something about ‘<i>we</i>,’ and +‘<i>start</i>,’ and ‘<i>this afternoon?</i>’” +</p> + +<p> +“Now, you dear good old Ratty,” said Toad, imploringly, +“don’t begin talking in that stiff and sniffy sort of way, because +you know you’ve <i>got</i> to come. I can’t possibly manage without you, +so please consider it settled, and don’t argue—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 <i>boat?</i> I +want to show you the world! I’m going to make an <i>animal</i> of you, my +boy!” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t care,” said the Rat, doggedly. “I’m not +coming, and that’s flat. And I <i>am</i> going to stick to my old river, <i>and</i> +live in a hole, <i>and</i> boat, as I’ve always done. And what’s more, +Mole’s going to stick to me and do as I do, aren’t you, +Mole?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I am,” said the Mole, loyally. “I’ll always +stick to you, Rat, and what you say is to be—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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat saw what was passing in his mind, and wavered. He hated disappointing +people, and he was fond of the Mole, and would do almost anything to oblige +him. Toad was watching both of them closely. +</p> + +<p> +“Come along in, and have some lunch,” he said, diplomatically, +“and we’ll talk it over. We needn’t decide anything in a +hurry. Of course, <i>I</i> don’t really care. I only want to give +pleasure to you fellows. ‘Live for others!’ That’s my motto +in life.” +</p> + +<p> +During luncheon—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. +</p> + +<p> +When they were quite ready, the now triumphant Toad led his companions to the +paddock and set them to capture the old grey horse, who, without having been +consulted, and to his own extreme annoyance, had been told off by Toad for the +dustiest job in this dusty expedition. He frankly preferred the paddock, and +took a deal of catching. Meantime Toad packed the lockers still tighter with +necessaries, and hung 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Late in the evening, tired and happy and miles from home, they drew up on a +remote common far from habitations, turned the horse loose to graze, and ate +their simple supper sitting on the grass by the side of the cart. Toad talked +big about all he was going to do in the days to come, while stars grew fuller +and larger all around them, and a yellow moon, appearing suddenly and silently +from nowhere in particular, came to keep them company and listen to their talk. +At last they turned in to their little bunks in the cart; and Toad, kicking out +his legs, sleepily said, “Well, good night, you fellows! This is the real +life for a gentleman! Talk about your old river!” +</p> + +<p> +“I <i>don’t</i> talk about my river,” replied the patient Rat. +“You <i>know</i> I don’t, Toad. But I <i>think</i> about it,” he added +pathetically, in a lower tone: “I think about it—all the +time!” +</p> + +<p> +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—<i>very</i> early—and go back to our dear old hole on the +river?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, we’ll see it out,” whispered back the Rat. +“Thanks awfully, but I ought to stick by Toad till this trip is ended. It +wouldn’t be safe for him to be left to himself. It won’t take very +long. His fads never do. Good night!” +</p> + +<p> +The end was indeed nearer than even the Rat suspected. +</p> + +<p> +After so much open air and excitement the Toad slept very soundly, and no +amount of shaking could rouse him out of bed next morning. So the Mole and Rat +turned to, quietly and manfully, and while the Rat saw to the horse, and lit a +fire, and cleaned last night’s cups and platters, and got things ready +for breakfast, the Mole trudged off to the nearest village, a long way off, for +milk and eggs and various necessaries the Toad had, of course, forgotten to +provide. The hard work had all been done, and the two animals were resting, +thoroughly exhausted, by the time Toad appeared on the scene, fresh and gay, +remarking what a pleasant easy life it was they were all leading now, after the +cares and worries and fatigues of housekeeping at home. +</p> + +<p> +They had a pleasant ramble that day over grassy downs and along narrow +by-lanes, and camped as before, on a common, only this time the two guests took +care that Toad should do his fair share of work. In consequence, when the time +came for starting next morning, Toad was by no means so rapturous about the +simplicity of the primitive life, and indeed attempted to resume his place in +his bunk, whence he was hauled by force. Their way lay, as before, across +country by narrow lanes, and it was not till the afternoon that they came out +on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and +unforeseen, sprang out on them—disaster momentous indeed to their +expedition, but simply overwhelming in its effect on the after-career of Toad. +</p> + +<p> +They were strolling along the high-road easily, the Mole by the horse’s +head, talking to him, since the horse had complained that he was 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 <i>you</i> say to <i>him?</i>”—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. +</p> + +<p> +The old grey horse, dreaming, as he plodded along, of his quiet paddock, in a +new raw situation such as this simply abandoned himself to his natural +emotions. Rearing, plunging, backing steadily, in spite of all the Mole’s +efforts at his head, and all the Mole’s lively language directed at his +better feelings, he drove the cart 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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat danced up and down in the road, simply transported with passion. +“You villains!” he shouted, shaking both fists, “You +scoundrels, you highwaymen, you—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. +</p> + +<p> +Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs stretched out +before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the disappearing motor-car. +He breathed short, his face wore a placid satisfied expression, and at +intervals he faintly murmured “Poop-poop!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was busy trying to quiet the horse, which he succeeded in doing after +a time. Then he went to look at the cart, on its side in the ditch. It was +indeed a sorry sight. Panels and windows smashed, axles hopelessly bent, one +wheel off, sardine-tins scattered over the wide world, and the bird in the +bird-cage sobbing pitifully and calling to be let out. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat came to help him, but their united efforts were not sufficient to right +the cart. “Hi! Toad!” they cried. “Come and bear a hand, +can’t you!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad never answered a word, or budged from his seat in the road; so they +went to see what was the matter with him. They found him in a sort of a trance, +a happy smile on his face, his eyes still fixed on the dusty wake of their +destroyer. At intervals he was still heard to murmur “Poop-poop!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat shook him by the shoulder. “Are you coming to help us, +Toad?” he demanded sternly. +</p> + +<p> +“Glorious, stirring sight!” murmured Toad, never offering to move. +“The poetry of motion! The <i>real</i> way to travel! The <i>only</i> way to travel! +Here to-day—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“O <i>stop</i> being an ass, Toad!” cried the Mole despairingly. +</p> + +<p> +“And to think I never <i>knew!</i>” went on the Toad in a dreamy monotone. +“All those wasted years that lie behind me, I never knew, never even +<i>dreamt!</i> But <i>now</i>—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“What are we to do with him?” asked the Mole of the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing at all,” replied the Rat firmly. “Because there is +really nothing to be done. You see, I know him from of old. He is now +possessed. He has got a new craze, and it always takes him that way, in its +first stage. He’ll continue like that for days now, like an animal +walking in a happy dream, quite useless for all practical purposes. Never mind +him. Let’s go and see what there is to be done about the cart.” +</p> + +<p> +A careful inspection showed them that, even if they succeeded in righting it by +themselves, the cart would travel no longer. The axles were in a hopeless +state, and the missing wheel was shattered into pieces. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat knotted the horse’s reins over his back and took him by the head, +carrying the bird cage and its hysterical occupant in the other hand. +“Come on!” he said grimly to the Mole. “It’s five or +six miles to the nearest town, and we shall just have to walk it. The sooner we +make a start the better.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what about Toad?” asked the Mole anxiously, as they set off +together. “We can’t leave him here, sitting in the middle of the +road by himself, in the distracted state he’s in! It’s not safe. +Supposing another Thing were to come along?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, <i>bother</i> Toad,” said the Rat savagely; “I’ve done +with him!” +</p> + +<p> +They had not proceeded very far on their way, however, when there was a +pattering of feet behind them, and Toad caught them up and thrust a paw inside +the elbow of each of them; still breathing short and staring into vacancy. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, look here, Toad!” said the Rat sharply: “as soon as we +get to the town, you’ll have to go straight to the police-station, and +see if they know anything about that motor-car and who it belongs to, and lodge +a complaint against it. And then you’ll have to go to a +blacksmith’s or a wheelwright’s and arrange for the cart to be +fetched and mended and put to rights. It’ll take time, but it’s not +quite a hopeless smash. Meanwhile, the Mole and I will go to an inn and find +comfortable rooms where we can stay till the cart’s ready, and till your +nerves have recovered their shock.” +</p> + +<p> +“Police-station! Complaint!” murmured Toad dreamily. “Me +<i>complain</i> of that beautiful, that heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me! +<i>Mend</i> the <i>cart!</i> I’ve done with carts for ever. I never want to see the +cart, or to hear of it, again. O, Ratty! You can’t think how obliged I am +to you for consenting to come on this trip! I wouldn’t have gone without +you, and then I might never have seen that—that swan, that sunbeam, that +thunderbolt! I might never have heard that entrancing sound, or smelt that +bewitching smell! I owe it all to you, my best of friends!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +On reaching the town they went straight to the station and deposited Toad in +the second-class waiting-room, giving a porter twopence to keep a strict eye on +him. They then left the horse at an inn stable, and gave what directions they +could about the cart and its contents. Eventually, a slow train having landed +them at a station not very far from Toad Hall, they escorted the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The following evening the Mole, who had risen late and taken things very easy +all day, was sitting on the bank fishing, when the Rat, who had been looking up +his friends and gossiping, came strolling along to find him. “Heard the +news?” he said. “There’s nothing else being talked about, all +along the river bank. Toad went up to Town by an early train this morning. And +he has ordered a large and very expensive motor-car.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap03"></a>III.<br> +THE WILD WOOD</h2> + +<p> +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 +<i>as</i> you find him, but <i>when</i> you find him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Couldn’t you ask him here dinner or something?” said the +Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“He wouldn’t come,” replied the Rat simply. “Badger +hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, then, supposing we go and call on <i>him?</i>” suggested the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“O, I’m sure he wouldn’t like that at <i>all</i>,” said the +Rat, quite alarmed. “He’s so very shy, he’d be sure to be +offended. I’ve never even ventured to call on him at his own home myself, +though I know him so well. Besides, we can’t. It’s quite out of the +question, because he lives in the very middle of the Wild Wood.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, supposing he does,” said the Mole. “You told me the +Wild Wood was all right, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, I know, I know, so it is,” replied the Rat evasively. +“But I think we won’t go there just now. Not <i>just</i> yet. It’s a +long way, and he wouldn’t be at home at this time of year anyhow, and +he’ll be coming along some day, if you’ll wait quietly.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole had to be content with this. But the Badger never came along, and +every day brought its amusements, and it was not till summer was long over, and +cold and frost and miry ways kept them much indoors, and the swollen river +raced past outside their windows with a speed that mocked at boating of any +sort or kind, that he found his thoughts dwelling again with much persistence +on the solitary grey Badger, who lived his own life by himself, in his hole in +the middle of the Wild Wood. +</p> + +<p> +In the winter time the Rat slept a great deal, retiring early and rising late. +During his short day he sometimes scribbled poetry or did other small domestic +jobs about the house; and, of course, there were always animals dropping in for +a chat, and consequently there was a good deal of story-telling and comparing +notes on the past summer and all its doings. +</p> + +<p> +Such a rich chapter it had been, when one came to look back on it all! With +illustrations so numerous and so very highly coloured! The pageant of the river +bank had marched steadily along, unfolding itself in scene-pictures that +succeeded each other in stately procession. Purple loosestrife arrived early, +shaking luxuriant tangled locks along the edge of the mirror whence its own +face laughed back at it. Willow-herb, tender and wistful, like a pink sunset +cloud, was not slow to follow. Comfrey, the purple hand-in-hand with the white, +crept forth to take its place in the line; and at last one morning the +diffident and delaying dog-rose stepped delicately on the stage, and one knew, +as if string-music had announced it in stately chords that strayed into a +gavotte, that June at last was here. One member of the company was still +awaited; the shepherd-boy for the nymphs to woo, the knight for whom the ladies +waited at the window, the prince that was to kiss the sleeping summer back to +life and love. But when meadow-sweet, debonair and odorous in amber jerkin, +moved graciously to his place in the group, then the play was ready to begin. +</p> + +<p> +And what a play it had been! Drowsy animals, snug in their holes while wind and +rain were battering at their doors, recalled still keen mornings, an hour +before sunrise, when the white mist, as yet undispersed, clung closely along +the surface of the water; then the shock of the early plunge, the scamper along +the bank, and the radiant transformation of earth, air, and water, when +suddenly the sun was with them 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. +</p> + +<p> +It was a cold still afternoon with a hard steely sky overhead, when he slipped +out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay bare and entirely +leafless around him, 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. +</p> + +<p> +There was nothing to alarm him at first entry. Twigs crackled under his feet, +logs tripped him, funguses on stumps resembled caricatures, and startled him +for the moment by their likeness to something familiar and far away; but that +was all fun, and exciting. It led him on, and he penetrated to where the light +was less, and trees crouched nearer and nearer, and holes made ugly mouths at +him on either side. +</p> + +<p> +Everything was very still now. The dusk advanced on him steadily, rapidly, +gathering in behind and before; and the light seemed to be draining away like +flood-water. +</p> + +<p> +Then the faces began. +</p> + +<p> +It was over his shoulder, and indistinctly, that he first thought he saw a +face; a little evil wedge-shaped face, looking out at him from a hole. When he +turned and confronted it, the thing had vanished. +</p> + +<p> +He quickened his pace, telling himself cheerfully not to begin imagining +things, or there would be simply no end to it. He passed another hole, and +another, and another; and 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. +</p> + +<p> +If he could only get away from the holes in the banks, he thought, there would +be no more faces. He swung off the path and plunged into the untrodden places +of the wood. +</p> + +<p> +Then the whistling began. +</p> + +<p> +Very faint and shrill it was, and far behind him, when first he heard it; but +somehow it made him hurry forward. Then, still very faint and shrill, it +sounded far ahead of him, and made him hesitate and want to go back. As he +halted in indecision it broke out on either side, and seemed to be caught up +and passed on throughout the whole length of the wood to its farthest limit. +They were up and alert and ready, evidently, whoever they were! And he—he +was alone, and unarmed, and far from any help; and the night was closing in. +</p> + +<p> +Then the pattering began. +</p> + +<p> +He thought it was only falling leaves at first, so slight and delicate was the +sound of it. Then as it grew it took a regular rhythm, and he knew it for +nothing else but the pat-pat-pat of little feet still a very long way off. Was +it in front or behind? It seemed to be first one, and then the other, then +both. It grew and it multiplied, till from every quarter as he listened +anxiously, leaning this way and that, it seemed to be closing in on him. As he +stood still to hearken, a rabbit came running hard towards him through the +trees. He waited, expecting it to slacken pace, or to swerve from him into a +different course. Instead, the animal almost brushed him as it dashed past, his +face set and hard, his eyes staring. “Get out of this, you fool, get +out!” the Mole heard him mutter as he swung round a stump and disappeared +down a friendly burrow. +</p> + +<p> +The pattering increased till it sounded like 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! +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But the Mole was not there. +</p> + +<p> +He listened for a time. The house seemed very quiet. +</p> + +<p> +Then he called “Moly!” several times, and, receiving no answer, got +up and went out into the hall. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole’s cap was missing from its accustomed peg. His goloshes, which +always lay by the umbrella-stand, were also gone. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat left the house, and carefully examined the muddy surface of the ground +outside, hoping to find the Mole’s tracks. There they were, sure enough. +The goloshes were new, just bought for the winter, and the pimples on their +soles were fresh and sharp. He could see the imprints of them in the mud, +running along straight and purposeful, leading direct to the Wild Wood. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat looked very grave, and stood in deep thought for a minute or two. Then +he re-entered the house, strapped a belt round his waist, shoved a brace of +pistols into it, took up a stout cudgel that stood in a corner of the hall, and +set off for the Wild Wood at a smart pace. +</p> + +<p> +It was already getting towards dusk when he reached the first fringe of trees +and plunged without hesitation into the wood, looking anxiously on either side +for any sign of his friend. Here and there wicked little faces popped out of +holes, but vanished immediately at sight of the valorous animal, his pistols, +and the great ugly cudgel in his grasp; and the whistling and pattering, which +he had heard quite plainly on his first entry, died away and ceased, and all +was very still. He made his way manfully through the length of the wood, to its +furthest edge; then, forsaking all paths, he set himself 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!” +</p> + +<p> +He had patiently hunted through the wood for an hour or more, when at last to +his joy he heard a little answering cry. Guiding himself by the sound, he made +his way through the gathering darkness to the foot of an old beech tree, with a +hole in it, and from out of the hole came a feeble voice, saying “Ratty! +Is that really you?” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat crept into the hollow, and there he found the Mole, exhausted and still +trembling. “O Rat!” he cried, “I’ve been so frightened, +you can’t think!” +</p> + +<p> +“O, I quite understand,” said the Rat soothingly. “You +shouldn’t really have gone and done it, Mole. I did my best to keep you +from it. We river-bankers, we hardly ever come here by ourselves. If we have to +come, we come in couples, at least; then we’re generally all right. +Besides, there are a hundred things one has to know, which we understand all +about and you don’t, as yet. I mean passwords, and signs, and sayings +which have power and effect, and plants you carry in your pocket, and verses +you repeat, and dodges and tricks you practise; all simple enough when you know +them, but they’ve got to be known if you’re small, or you’ll +find yourself in trouble. Of course if you were Badger or Otter, it would be +quite another matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“Surely the brave Mr. Toad wouldn’t mind coming here by himself, +would he?” inquired the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Old Toad?” said the Rat, laughing heartily. “He +wouldn’t show his face here alone, not for a whole hatful of golden +guineas, Toad wouldn’t.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was greatly cheered by the sound of the Rat’s careless laughter, +as well as by the sight of his stick and his gleaming pistols, and he stopped +shivering and began to feel bolder and more himself again. +</p> + +<p> +“Now then,” said the Rat presently, “we really must pull +ourselves together and make a start for home while there’s still a little +light left. It will never do to spend the night here, you understand. Too cold, +for one thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Dear Ratty,” said the poor Mole, “I’m dreadfully +sorry, but I’m simply dead beat and that’s a solid fact. You <i>must</i> +let me rest here a while longer, and get my strength back, if I’m to get +home at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, all right,” said the good-natured Rat, “rest away. +It’s pretty nearly pitch dark now, anyhow; and there ought to be a bit of +a moon later.” +</p> + +<p> +So the Mole got well into the dry leaves and stretched himself out, and +presently dropped off into sleep, though of a broken and troubled sort; while +the Rat covered himself up, too, as best he might, for warmth, and lay +patiently waiting, with a pistol in his paw. +</p> + +<p> +When at last the Mole woke up, much refreshed and in his usual spirits, the Rat +said, “Now then! I’ll just take a look outside and see if +everything’s quiet, and then we really must be off.” +</p> + +<p> +He went to the entrance of their retreat and put his head out. Then the Mole +heard him saying quietly to himself, “Hullo! hullo! +here—is—a—go!” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s up, Ratty?” asked the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Snow</i> is up,” replied the Rat briefly; “or rather, <i>down</i>. +It’s snowing hard.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole came and crouched beside him, and, looking out, saw the wood that had +been so dreadful to him in quite a changed aspect. Holes, hollows, pools, +pitfalls, and other black menaces to the wayfarer were vanishing fast, and a +gleaming carpet of faery was springing up everywhere, that looked too delicate +to be trodden upon by rough feet. A fine powder filled the air and caressed the +cheek with a tingle in its touch, and the black boles of the trees showed up in +a light that seemed to come from below. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well, it can’t be helped,” said the Rat, after +pondering. “We must make a start, and take our chance, I suppose. The +worst of it is, I don’t exactly know where we are. And now this snow +makes everything look so very different.” +</p> + +<p> +It did indeed. The Mole would not have known that it was the same wood. +However, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“We can’t sit here very long,” said the Rat. “We shall +have to make another push for it, and do something or other. The cold is too +awful for anything, and the snow will soon be too deep for us to wade +through.” He peered about him and considered. “Look here,” he +went on, “this is what occurs to me. There’s a sort of dell down +here in front of us, where the ground seems all hilly and humpy and hummocky. +We’ll make our way down into that, and try and find some sort of shelter, +a cave or hole with a dry floor to it, out of the snow and the wind, and there +we’ll have a good rest before we try again, for we’re both of us +pretty dead beat. Besides, the snow may leave off, or something may turn +up.” +</p> + +<p> +So once more they got on their feet, and struggled down into the dell, where +they hunted about for a cave or some corner that was dry and a protection from +the keen wind and the whirling snow. They were investigating one of the +hummocky bits the Rat had spoken of, when suddenly the Mole tripped up and fell +forward on his face with a squeal. +</p> + +<p> +“O my leg!” he cried. “O my poor shin!” and he sat up +on the snow and nursed his leg in both his front paws. +</p> + +<p> +“Poor old Mole!” said the Rat kindly. +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t seem to be having much luck to-day, do you? Let’s +have a look at the leg. Yes,” he went on, going down on his knees to +look, “you’ve cut your shin, sure enough. Wait till I get at my +handkerchief, and I’ll tie it up for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I must have tripped over a hidden branch or a stump,” said the +Mole miserably. “O, my! O, my!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a very clean cut,” said the Rat, examining it again +attentively. “That was never done by a branch or a stump. Looks as if it +was made by a sharp edge of something in metal. Funny!” He pondered +awhile, and examined the humps and slopes that surrounded them. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, never mind what done it,” said the Mole, forgetting his +grammar in his pain. “It hurts just the same, whatever done it.” +</p> + +<p> +But the Rat, after carefully tying up the leg with his handkerchief, had left +him and was busy scraping in the snow. He scratched and shovelled and explored, +all four legs working busily, while the Mole waited impatiently, remarking at +intervals, “O, <i>come</i> on, Rat!” +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the Rat cried “Hooray!” and then +“Hooray-oo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray!” and fell to executing a feeble jig +in the snow. +</p> + +<p> +“What <i>have</i> you found, Ratty?” asked the Mole, still nursing his +leg. +</p> + +<p> +“Come and see!” said the delighted Rat, as he jigged on. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole hobbled up to the spot and had a good look. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” he said at last, slowly, “I 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?” +</p> + +<p> +“But don’t you see what it <i>means</i>, you—you dull-witted +animal?” cried the Rat impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I see what it means,” replied the Mole. “It simply +means that some VERY careless and forgetful person has left his door-scraper +lying about in the middle of the Wild Wood, <i>just</i> where it’s <i>sure</i> to trip +<i>everybody</i> up. Very thoughtless of him, I call it. When I get home I shall go +and complain about it to—to somebody or other, see if I +don’t!” +</p> + +<p> +“O, dear! O, dear!” cried the Rat, in despair at his obtuseness. +“Here, stop arguing and come and scrape!” And he set to work again +and made the snow fly in all directions around him. +</p> + +<p> +After some further toil his efforts were rewarded, and a very shabby door-mat +lay exposed to view. +</p> + +<p> +“There, what did I tell you?” exclaimed the Rat in great triumph. +</p> + +<p> +“Absolutely nothing whatever,” replied the Mole, with perfect +truthfulness. “Well now,” he went on, “you seem to have found +another piece of domestic litter, done for and thrown away, and I suppose +you’re perfectly happy. Better go ahead and dance your jig round that if +you’ve got to, and get it over, and then perhaps we can go on and not +waste any more time over rubbish-heaps. Can we 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?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do—you—mean—to—say,” cried the excited +Rat, “that this door-mat doesn’t <i>tell</i> you anything?” +</p> + +<p> +“Really, Rat,” said the Mole, quite pettishly, “I think +we’d had enough of this folly. Who ever heard of a door-mat <i>telling</i> +anyone anything? They simply don’t do it. They are not that sort at all. +Door-mats know their place.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now look here, you—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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat attacked a snow-bank beside them with ardour, probing with his cudgel +everywhere and then digging with fury; and the Mole scraped busily too, more to +oblige the Rat than for any other reason, for his opinion was that his friend +was getting light-headed. +</p> + +<p> +Some ten minutes’ hard work, and the point of the Rat’s cudgel +struck something that sounded hollow. He worked till he could get a paw through +and feel; then called the Mole to come and help him. Hard at it went the two +animals, till at last the result of their labours stood full in view of the +astonished and hitherto incredulous Mole. +</p> + +<p> +In the side of what had seemed to be a snow-bank stood a solid-looking little +door, painted a dark green. An iron bell-pull hung by the side, and below it, +on a small brass plate, neatly engraved in square capital letters, they could +read by the aid of moonlight +</p> + +<p class="center"> +MR. BADGER. +</p> + +<p> +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——” +</p> + +<p> +“But as you haven’t,” interrupted the Rat, rather unkindly, +“I suppose you’re going to sit on the snow all night and <i>talk?</i> Get +up at once and hang on to that bell-pull you see there, and ring hard, as hard +as you can, while I hammer!” +</p> + +<p> +While the Rat attacked the door with his stick, the Mole sprang up at the +bell-pull, clutched it and swung there, both feet well off the ground, and from +quite a long way off they could faintly hear a deep-toned bell respond. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap04"></a>IV.<br> +MR. BADGER</h2> + +<p> +THEY waited patiently for what seemed a very long time, stamping in the snow to +keep their feet warm. At last they heard the sound of slow shuffling footsteps +approaching the door from the inside. It seemed, as the Mole remarked to the +Rat, like some one walking in carpet slippers that were too large for him and +down at heel; which was intelligent of Mole, because that was exactly what it +was. +</p> + +<p> +There was the noise of a bolt shot back, and the door opened a few inches, +enough to show a long snout and a pair of sleepy blinking eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, the <i>very</i> next time this happens,” said a gruff and suspicious +voice, “I shall be exceedingly angry. Who is it <i>this</i> time, disturbing +people on such a night? Speak up!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Badger,” cried the Rat, “let us in, please. It’s +me, Rat, and my friend Mole, and we’ve lost our way in the snow.” +</p> + +<p> +“What, Ratty, my dear little man!” exclaimed the Badger, in quite a +different voice. “Come along in, both of you, at once. Why, you must be +perished. Well I never! Lost in the snow! And in the Wild Wood, too, and at +this time of night! But come in with you.” +</p> + +<p> +The two animals tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get inside, and +heard the door shut behind them with great joy and relief. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose slippers were indeed very +down at heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw and had probably been on +his way to bed when their summons sounded. He looked kindly down on them and +patted both their heads. “This is not the sort of night for small animals +to be out,” he said paternally. “I’m afraid you’ve been +up to some of your pranks again, Ratty. But come along; come into the kitchen. +There’s a first-rate fire there, and supper and everything.” +</p> + +<p> +He shuffled on in front of them, carrying 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. +</p> + +<p> +The floor was well-worn red brick, and on the wide hearth burnt a fire of logs, +between two attractive chimney-corners tucked away in the wall, well out of any +suspicion of draught. A couple of high-backed settles, facing each other on +either side of the fire, gave further sitting accommodations for the sociably +disposed. In the middle of the room stood a long table of plain boards placed +on trestles, with benches down each side. At one end of it, where an arm-chair +stood pushed back, were spread the remains of the Badger’s plain but +ample supper. Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser at +the far end of the room, and from the rafters overhead hung hams, bundles of +dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs. It seemed a place where +heroes could fitly feast after victory, where weary harvesters could line up in +scores along the table and keep their Harvest Home with mirth and song, or +where two or three friends of simple tastes could sit about as they pleased and +eat and smoke and talk in comfort and contentment. The ruddy brick floor smiled +up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged +cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the +shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything without +distinction. +</p> + +<p> +The kindly Badger thrust them down on a settle to toast themselves at the fire, +and bade them remove their wet coats and boots. Then he fetched them +dressing-gowns and slippers, and himself bathed the Mole’s shin with warm +water and mended the cut with sticking-plaster till the whole thing was just as +good as new, if not better. In the embracing light and warmth, warm and dry at +last, with weary legs propped up in front of them, and a suggestive clink of +plates being arranged on the table behind, it seemed to the storm-driven +animals, now in safe anchorage, that the cold and trackless Wild Wood just left +outside was miles and miles away, and all that they had suffered in it a +half-forgotten dream. +</p> + +<p> +When at last they were thoroughly toasted, the Badger summoned them to the +table, where he had been busy laying a repast. They had felt pretty hungry +before, but when they actually saw at last the supper that was spread for them, +really it seemed only a question of what they should attack first where all was +so attractive, and whether the other things would obligingly wait for them till +they had time to give them attention. Conversation was impossible for a long +time; and when it was slowly resumed, it was that regrettable sort of +conversation that results from talking with your mouth full. The Badger did not +mind that sort of thing at all, nor did he take any notice of elbows on the +table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into Society himself, he +had got an idea that these things belonged to the things that didn’t +really matter. (We know of course that he was wrong, and took too narrow a +view; because they do matter very much, though it would take too long to +explain why.) He sat in his arm-chair at the head of the table, and nodded +gravely at intervals as the animals told their story; and he did not seem +surprised or shocked at anything, and he never said, “I told you +so,” or, “Just what I always said,” or remarked that they +ought to have done so-and-so, or ought not to have done something else. The +Mole began to feel very friendly towards him. +</p> + +<p> +When supper was really finished at last, and each animal felt that his skin was +now as tight as was decently safe, and that by this time he didn’t care a +hang for anybody or anything, they gathered round the glowing embers of the +great wood fire, and thought how jolly it was to be sitting up <i>so</i> late, and <i>so</i> +independent, and <i>so</i> full; and after they had chatted for a time about things in +general, the Badger said heartily, “Now then! tell us the news from your +part of the world. How’s old Toad going on?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, from bad to worse,” said the Rat gravely, while the Mole, +cocked up on a settle and basking in the firelight, his heels higher than his +head, tried to look properly mournful. “Another smash-up only last week, +and a bad one. You see, he will insist on driving himself, and he’s +hopelessly incapable. If he’d only employ a decent, steady, well-trained +animal, pay him good wages, and leave everything to him, he’d get on all +right. But no; he’s convinced he’s a heaven-born driver, and nobody +can teach him anything; and all the rest follows.” +</p> + +<p> +“How many has he had?” inquired the Badger gloomily. +</p> + +<p> +“Smashes, or machines?” asked the Rat. “Oh, well, after all, +it’s the same thing—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s been in hospital three times,” put in the Mole; +“and as for the fines he’s had to pay, it’s simply awful to +think of.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, and that’s part of the trouble,” continued the Rat. +“Toad’s rich, we all know; but he’s not a millionaire. And +he’s a hopelessly bad driver, and quite regardless of law and order. +Killed or ruined—it’s got to be one of the two things, sooner or +later. Badger! we’re his friends—oughtn’t we to do +something?” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger went through a bit of hard thinking. “Now look here!” he +said at last, rather severely; “of course you know I can’t do +anything <i>now?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +His two friends assented, quite understanding his point. No animal, according +to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or +heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter. All are +sleepy—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. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well then!” continued the Badger. “<i>But</i>, 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—<i>you</i> know!——” +</p> + +<p> +Both animals nodded gravely. <i>They</i> knew! +</p> + +<p> +“Well, <i>then</i>,” 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 <i>make</i> him be a sensible Toad. +We’ll—you’re asleep, Rat!” +</p> + +<p> +“Not me!” said the Rat, waking up with a jerk. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s been asleep two or three times since supper,” said the +Mole, laughing. He himself was feeling quite wakeful and even lively, though he +didn’t know why. The reason was, of course, that he being naturally an +underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger’s house +exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every +night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally +felt the atmosphere still and oppressive. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it’s time we were all in bed,” said the Badger, +getting up and fetching flat candlesticks. “Come along, you two, and +I’ll show you your quarters. And take your time tomorrow +morning—breakfast at any hour you please!” +</p> + +<p> +He conducted the two animals to a long room that seemed half bedchamber and +half loft. The Badger’s winter stores, which indeed were visible +everywhere, took up half the room—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. +</p> + +<p> +In accordance with the kindly Badger’s injunctions, the two tired animals +came down to breakfast very late next morning, and found a bright fire burning +in the kitchen, and two young hedgehogs sitting on a bench at the table, eating +oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls. The hedgehogs dropped their spoons, rose +to their feet, and ducked their heads respectfully as the two entered. +</p> + +<p> +“There, sit down, sit down,” said the Rat pleasantly, “and go +on with your porridge. Where have you youngsters come from? Lost your way in +the snow, I suppose?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, please, sir,” said the elder of the two hedgehogs +respectfully. “Me and little Billy here, we was trying to find our way to +school—mother <i>would</i> 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——” +</p> + +<p> +“I understand,” said the Rat, cutting himself some rashers from a +side of bacon, while the Mole dropped some eggs into a saucepan. “And +what’s the weather like outside? You needn’t ‘sir’ me +quite so much?” he added. +</p> + +<p> +“O, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is,” said the +hedgehog. “No getting out for the likes of you gentlemen to-day.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where’s Mr. Badger?” inquired the Mole, as he warmed the +coffee-pot before the fire. +</p> + +<p> +“The master’s gone into his study, sir,” replied the +hedgehog, “and he said as how he was going to be particular busy this +morning, and on no account was he to be disturbed.” +</p> + +<p> +This explanation, of course, was thoroughly understood by every one present. +The fact is, as already set forth, when you live a life of intense activity for +six months in the year, and of comparative or actual somnolence for the other +six, during the latter period you cannot be continually pleading sleepiness +when there are people about or things to be done. The excuse gets monotonous. +The animals well knew that Badger, having eaten a hearty breakfast, had retired +to his study and settled himself in an arm-chair with his legs up on another +and a red cotton handkerchief over his face, and was being “busy” +in the usual way at this time of the year. +</p> + +<p> +The front-door bell clanged loudly, and the Rat, who was very greasy with +buttered toast, sent Billy, the smaller hedgehog, to see who it might be. There +was a sound of much stamping in the hall, and presently Billy returned in front +of the Otter, who threw himself on the Rat with an embrace and a shout of +affectionate greeting. +</p> + +<p> +“Get off!” spluttered the Rat, with his mouth full. +</p> + +<p> +“Thought I should find you here all right,” said the Otter +cheerfully. “They were all in a great state of alarm along River Bank +when I arrived this morning. Rat never been home all night—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 <i>do</i> 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, <i>us?</i>’ he +merely said: ‘<i>do</i> something? us rabbits?’ So I cuffed him again and +left him. There was nothing else to be done. At any rate, I had learnt +something; and if I had had the luck to meet any of ‘Them’ +I’d have learnt something more—or <i>they</i> would.” +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Nervous?” The Otter showed a gleaming set of strong white teeth as +he laughed. “I’d give ’em nerves if any of them tried +anything on with me. Here, Mole, fry me some slices of ham, like the good +little chap you are. I’m frightfully hungry, and I’ve got any +amount to say to Ratty here. Haven’t seen him for an age.” +</p> + +<p> +So the good-natured Mole, having cut some slices of ham, set the hedgehogs to +fry it, and returned to his own breakfast, while the Otter and the Rat, their +heads together, eagerly talked river-shop, which is long shop and talk that is +endless, running on like the babbling river itself. +</p> + +<p> +A plate of fried ham had just been cleared and sent back for more, when the +Badger entered, yawning and rubbing his eyes, and greeted them all in his +quiet, simple way, with kind 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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rather!” replied the Otter, winking at the Mole. “The sight +of these greedy young hedgehogs stuffing themselves with fried ham makes me +feel positively famished.” +</p> + +<p> +The hedgehogs, who were just beginning to feel hungry again after their +porridge, and after working so hard at their frying, looked timidly up at Mr. +Badger, but were too shy to say anything. +</p> + +<p> +“Here, you two youngsters be off home to your mother,” said the +Badger kindly. “I’ll send some one with you to show you the way. +You won’t want any dinner to-day, I’ll be bound.” +</p> + +<p> +He gave them sixpence apiece and a pat on the head, and they went off with much +respectful swinging of caps and touching of forelocks. +</p> + +<p> +Presently they all sat down to luncheon together. The Mole found himself placed +next to Mr. Badger, and, as the other two were still deep in river-gossip from +which nothing could divert them, he took the opportunity to tell Badger how +comfortable and home-like it all felt to him. “Once well +underground,” he said, “you know exactly where you are. Nothing can +happen to you, and nothing can get at you. You’re entirely your own +master, and you don’t have to consult anybody or mind what they say. +Things go on all the same overhead, and you let ’em, and don’t +bother about ’em. When you want to, up you go, and there the things are, +waiting for you.” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger simply beamed on him. “That’s exactly what I say,” +he replied. “There’s no security, or peace and tranquillity, except +underground. And then, if your ideas get larger and you want to +expand—why, a dig and a scrape, and there you are! If you feel your house +is a bit too big, you stop up a hole or two, and there you are again! No +builders, no tradesmen, no remarks passed on you by fellows looking over your +wall, and, above all, no <i>weather</i>. Look at Rat, now. A couple of feet of flood +water, and he’s got to move into hired lodgings; uncomfortable, +inconveniently situated, and horribly expensive. Take Toad. I say nothing +against Toad Hall; quite the best house in these parts, <i>as</i> 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 <i>hate</i> 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 <i>home!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole assented heartily; and the Badger in consequence got very friendly +with him. “When lunch is over,” he said, “I’ll take you +all round this little place of mine. I can see you’ll appreciate it. You +understand what domestic architecture ought to be, you do.” +</p> + +<p> +After luncheon, accordingly, when the other two had settled themselves into the +chimney-corner and had started a heated argument on the subject of <i>eels</i>, the +Badger lighted a lantern and bade the Mole follow him. Crossing the hall, they +passed down one of the principal tunnels, and the wavering light of the lantern +gave glimpses on either side of rooms both large and small, some mere +cupboards, others nearly as broad and imposing as Toad’s dining-hall. A +narrow passage at right angles led them into another corridor, and here the +same thing was repeated. The Mole was staggered at the size, the extent, the +ramifications of it all; at the length of the dim passages, the solid vaultings +of the crammed store-chambers, the masonry everywhere, the pillars, the arches, +the pavements. “How on earth, Badger,” he said at last, “did +you ever find time and strength to do all this? It’s astonishing!” +</p> + +<p> +“It <i>would</i> be astonishing indeed,” said the Badger simply, “if +I <i>had</i> done it. But as a matter of fact I did none of it—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what has become of them all?” asked the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, and when they went at last, those people?” said the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“When they went,” continued the Badger, “the strong winds and +persistent rains took the matter in hand, patiently, ceaselessly, year after +year. Perhaps we badgers too, in our small way, helped a little—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“I do indeed,” said the Mole, with a slight shiver. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Badger, patting him on the shoulder, +“it was your first experience of them, you see. They’re not so bad +really; and we must all live and let live. But I’ll pass the word around +to-morrow, and I think you’ll have no further trouble. Any friend of <i>mine</i> +walks where he likes in this country, or I’ll know the reason why!” +</p> + +<p> +When they got back to the kitchen again, they found the Rat walking up and +down, very restless. The underground atmosphere was oppressing him and getting +on his nerves, and he seemed really to be afraid that the river would run away +if he wasn’t there to look after it. So he had his overcoat on, and his +pistols thrust into his belt again. “Come along, Mole,” he said +anxiously, as soon as he caught sight of them. “We must get off while +it’s daylight. Don’t want to spend another night in the Wild Wood +again.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’ll be all right, my fine fellow,” said the Otter. +“I’m coming along with you, and I know every path blindfold; and if +there’s a head that needs to be punched, you can confidently rely upon me +to punch it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You really needn’t fret, Ratty,” added the Badger placidly. +“My passages run further than you think, and I’ve bolt-holes to the +edge of the wood in several directions, though I don’t care for everybody +to know about them. When you really have to go, you shall leave by one of my +short cuts. Meantime, make yourself easy, and sit down again.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to be off and attend to his river, so +the Badger, taking up his lantern again, led the way along a damp and airless +tunnel that wound and dipped, part vaulted, part hewn through solid rock, for a +weary distance that seemed to be miles. At last daylight began to show itself +confusedly through tangled growth overhanging the mouth of the passage; and the +Badger, bidding them a hasty good-bye, pushed them hurriedly through the +opening, made everything look as natural as possible again, with creepers, +brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated. +</p> + +<p> +They found themselves standing on the very edge of the Wild Wood. Rocks and +brambles and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped and tangled; in front, a +great space of quiet fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black on the snow, and, +far ahead, a glint of the familiar old river, while the wintry sun hung red and +low on the horizon. The Otter, as knowing all the paths, took charge of the +party, and they trailed out on a bee-line for a distant stile. Pausing there a +moment and looking back, they saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense, +menacing, compact, grimly set in vast white surroundings; simultaneously they +turned and made swiftly for home, for firelight and the familiar things it +played on, for the voice, sounding cheerily outside their window, of the river +that they knew and trusted in all its moods, that never made them afraid with +any amazement. +</p> + +<p> +As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home +again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an +animal of tilled field 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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap05"></a>V.<br> +DULCE DOMUM</h2> + +<p> +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; <i>this</i> leads home!” +</p> + +<p> +“It looks as if we were coming to a village,” said the Mole +somewhat dubiously, slackening his pace, as the track, that had in time become +a path and then had developed into a lane, now handed them over to the charge +of a well-metalled road. The animals did not hold with villages, and their own +highways, thickly frequented as they were, took an independent course, +regardless of church, post office, or public-house. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, never mind!” said the Rat. “At this season of the year +they’re all safe indoors by this time, sitting round the fire; men, +women, and children, dogs and cats and all. We shall slip through all right, +without any bother or unpleasantness, and we can have a look at them through +their windows if you like, and see what they’re doing.” +</p> + +<p> +The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they +approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery 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. +</p> + +<p> +But it was from one little window, with its blind drawn down, a mere blank +transparency on the night, that the sense of home and the little curtained +world within walls—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. +</p> + +<p> +Once beyond the village, where the cottages ceased abruptly, on either side of +the road they could smell through the darkness the friendly fields again; and +they braced themselves for the last long stretch, the home stretch, the stretch +that we know is bound to end, some time, in the rattle of the door-latch, the +sudden firelight, and the sight of familiar things greeting us as long-absent +travellers from far over-sea. They plodded along steadily and silently, each of +them thinking his own thoughts. The Mole’s ran a good deal on supper, as +it was pitch-dark, and it was all a strange country for him as far as he knew, +and he was following obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving the guidance +entirely to him. As for the Rat, he was walking a little way ahead, as his +habit was, his shoulders humped, his eyes fixed on the straight grey road in +front of him; so he did not notice poor Mole when suddenly the summons reached +him, and took him like an electric shock. +</p> + +<p> +We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses, have not +even proper terms to express an animal’s inter-communications with his +surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word “smell,” +for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in +the nose of the animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling. +It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that suddenly +reached Mole in the darkness, making him tingle through and through with its +very familiar appeal, even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. +He stopped dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its +efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that had so +strongly moved him. A moment, and he had caught it again; and with it this time +came recollection in fullest flood. +</p> + +<p> +Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft touches +wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all +one way! Why, it must be quite close by him at that moment, his old home that +he had hurriedly forsaken and never sought again, that day when he first found +the river! And now it was sending out its scouts and its messengers to capture +him and bring him in. Since his escape on that bright morning he had hardly +given it a thought, so absorbed had he been in his new life, in all its +pleasures, its surprises, its fresh and captivating experiences. Now, with a +rush of old memories, how clearly it stood up before him, in the darkness! +Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet his, the home he had +made for himself, the home he had been so happy to get back to after his +day’s work. And the home had been happy with him, too, evidently, and was +missing him, and wanted him back, and was telling him so, through his nose, +sorrowfully, reproachfully, but with no bitterness or anger; only with +plaintive reminder that it was there, and wanted him. +</p> + +<p> +The call was clear, the summons was plain. He must obey it instantly, and go. +“Ratty!” he called, full of joyful excitement, “hold on! Come +back! I want you, quick!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, <i>come</i> along, Mole, do!” replied the Rat cheerfully, still +plodding along. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Please</i> stop, Ratty!” pleaded the poor Mole, in anguish of heart. +“You don’t understand! It’s my home, my old home! I’ve +just come across the smell of it, and it’s close by here, really quite +close. And I <i>must</i> go to it, I must, I must! Oh, come back, Ratty! Please, +please come back!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too far to hear clearly what the Mole +was calling, too far to catch the sharp note of painful appeal in his voice. +And he was much taken up with the weather, for he too could smell +something—something suspiciously like approaching snow. +</p> + +<p> +“Mole, we mustn’t stop now, really!” he called back. +“We’ll come for it to-morrow, whatever it is you’ve found. +But I daren’t stop now—it’s late, and the snow’s coming +on again, and I’m not sure of the way! And I want your nose, Mole, so +come on quick, there’s a good fellow!” And the Rat pressed forward +on his way without waiting for an answer. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, and a big sob +gathering, gathering, somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to the surface +presently, he knew, in passionate escape. But even under such a test as this +his loyalty to his friend stood firm. Never for a 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. +</p> + +<p> +With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting Rat, who began chattering +cheerfully about what they would do when they got back, and how jolly a fire of +logs in the parlour would be, and what a supper he meant to eat; never noticing +his companion’s silence and distressful state of mind. At last, however, +when they had gone some considerable way further, and were passing some +tree-stumps at the edge of a copse that bordered the road, he stopped and said +kindly, “Look here, Mole old chap, you seem dead tired. No talk left in +you, and your feet dragging like lead. We’ll sit down here for a minute +and rest. The snow has held off so far, and the best part of our journey is +over.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole subsided forlornly on a tree-stump and tried to control himself, for +he felt it surely coming. The sob he had fought with so long refused to be +beaten. Up and up, it forced its way to the air, and then another, and another, +and others thick and fast; till poor Mole at last gave up the struggle, and +cried freely and helplessly and openly, now that he knew it was all over and he +had lost what he could hardly be said to have found. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, astonished and dismayed at the violence of Mole’s paroxysm of +grief, did not dare to speak for a while. At last he said, very quietly and +sympathetically, “What is it, old fellow? Whatever can be the matter? +Tell us your trouble, and let me see what I can do.” +</p> + +<p> +Poor Mole found it difficult to get any words out between the upheavals of his +chest that followed one upon another so quickly and held back speech and choked +it as it came. “I know it’s a—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 <i>wanted</i> +it!—O dear, O dear!—and when you <i>wouldn’t</i> 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Recollection brought fresh waves of sorrow, and sobs again took full charge of +him, preventing further speech. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat stared straight in front of him, saying nothing, only patting Mole +gently on the shoulder. After a time he muttered gloomily, “I see it all +now! What a <i>pig</i> I have been! A pig—that’s me! Just a pig—a +plain pig!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Wherever are you (hic) going to (hic), Ratty?” cried the tearful +Mole, looking up in alarm. +</p> + +<p> +“We’re going to find that home of yours, old fellow,” replied +the Rat pleasantly; “so you had better come along, for it will take some +finding, and we shall want your nose.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, come back, Ratty, do!” cried the Mole, getting up and hurrying +after him. “It’s no good, I tell you! It’s too late, and too +dark, and the place is too far off, and the snow’s coming! And—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Hang River Bank, and supper too!” said the Rat heartily. “I +tell you, I’m going to find this place now, if I stay out all night. So +cheer up, old chap, and take my arm, and we’ll very soon be back there +again.” +</p> + +<p> +Still snuffling, pleading, and reluctant, Mole suffered himself to be dragged +back along the road by his imperious companion, who by a flow of cheerful talk +and anecdote endeavoured to beguile his spirits back and make the weary way +seem shorter. When at last it seemed to the Rat that they must be nearing that +part of the road where the Mole had been “held up,” he said, +“Now, no more talking. Business! Use your nose, and give your mind to +it.” +</p> + +<p> +They moved on in silence for some little way, when suddenly the Rat was +conscious, through his arm that was linked in Mole’s, of a faint sort of +electric thrill that was passing down that animal’s body. Instantly he +disengaged himself, fell back a pace, and waited, all attention. +</p> + +<p> +The signals were coming through! +</p> + +<p> +Mole stood a moment rigid, while his uplifted nose, quivering slightly, felt +the air. +</p> + +<p> +Then a short, quick run forward—a fault—a check—a try back; +and then a slow, steady, confident advance. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, much excited, kept close to his heels as the Mole, with something of +the air of a sleep-walker, crossed a dry ditch, scrambled through a hedge, and +nosed his way over a field open and trackless and bare in the faint starlight. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly, without giving warning, he dived; but the Rat was on the alert, and +promptly followed him down the tunnel to which his unerring nose had faithfully +led him. +</p> + +<p> +It was close and airless, and the earthy smell was strong, and it seemed a long +time to Rat ere the passage ended and he could stand erect and stretch and +shake himself. The Mole struck a match, and by its light the Rat saw that they +were standing in an open space, neatly swept and sanded underfoot, and directly +facing them was Mole’s little front door, with “Mole End” +painted, in Gothic lettering, over the bell-pull at the side. +</p> + +<p> +Mole reached down a lantern from a nail on the wall and lit it... and the Rat, +looking round him, saw that they were in a sort of fore-court. A garden-seat +stood on one side of the door, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Mole’s face-beamed at the sight of all these objects so dear to him, and +he hurried Rat through the door, lit a lamp in the hall, and took one glance +round his old home. He saw the dust lying thick on everything, saw the +cheerless, deserted look of the long-neglected house, 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat paid no heed to his doleful self-reproaches. He was running here and +there, opening doors, inspecting rooms and cupboards, and lighting lamps and +candles and sticking them, up everywhere. “What a capital little house +this is!” he called out cheerily. “So compact! So well planned! +Everything here and everything in its place! We’ll make a jolly night of +it. The first thing we want is a good fire; I’ll see to that—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!” +</p> + +<p> +Encouraged by his inspiriting companion, the Mole roused himself and dusted and +polished with energy and heartiness, while the Rat, running to and fro with +armfuls of fuel, soon had a cheerful blaze roaring up the chimney. He hailed +the Mole to come and warm himself; but Mole promptly had another fit of the +blues, dropping down on a couch in dark despair and burying his face in his +duster. “Rat,” he moaned, “how about your supper, you poor, +cold, hungry, weary animal? I’ve nothing to give +you—nothing—not a crumb!” +</p> + +<p> +“What a fellow you are for giving in!” said the Rat reproachfully. +“Why, only just now I saw a sardine-opener on the kitchen dresser, quite +distinctly; and everybody knows that means there are sardines about somewhere +in the neighbourhood. Rouse yourself! pull yourself together, and come with me +and forage.” +</p> + +<p> +They went and foraged accordingly, hunting through every cupboard and turning +out every drawer. The result was not so very depressing 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. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s a banquet for you!” observed the Rat, as he arranged +the table. “I know some animals who would give their ears to be sitting +down to supper with us to-night!” +</p> + +<p> +“No bread!” groaned the Mole dolorously; “no butter, +no——” +</p> + +<p> +“No <i>pâté de foie gras</i>, 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.” +</p> + +<p> +He made for the cellar-door, and presently reappeared, somewhat dusty, with a +bottle of beer in each paw and another under each arm, “Self-indulgent +beggar you seem to be, Mole,” he observed. “Deny yourself nothing. +This is really the jolliest little place I ever was in. Now, wherever did you +pick up those prints? Make the place look so home-like, they do. No wonder +you’re so fond of it, Mole. Tell us all about it, and how you came to +make it what it is.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, while the Rat busied himself fetching plates, and knives and forks, and +mustard which he mixed in an egg-cup, the Mole, his bosom still heaving with +the stress of his recent emotion, related—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. +</p> + +<p> +At last the Rat succeeded in decoying him to the table, and had just got +seriously to work with the sardine-opener when sounds were heard from the +fore-court without—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——” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s up?” inquired the Rat, pausing in his labours. +</p> + +<p> +“I think it must be the field-mice,” replied the Mole, with a touch +of pride in his manner. “They go round carol-singing regularly at this +time of the year. They’re quite an institution in these parts. And they +never pass me over—they come to Mole End last of all; and I used to give +them hot drinks, and supper too sometimes, when I could afford it. It will be +like old times to hear them again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s have a look at them!” cried the Rat, jumping up and +running to the door. +</p> + +<p> +It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when they +flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a horn lantern, +some eight or ten little 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. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +CAROL<br> +<br> +Villagers all, this frosty tide,<br> +Let your doors swing open wide,<br> +Though wind may follow, and snow beside,<br> +Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;<br> + Joy shall be yours in the morning!<br> +<br> +Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,<br> +Blowing fingers and stamping feet,<br> +Come from far away you to greet—<br> +You by the fire and we in the street—<br> + Bidding you joy in the morning!<br> +<br> +For ere one half of the night was gone,<br> +Sudden a star has led us on,<br> +Raining bliss and benison—<br> +Bliss to-morrow and more anon,<br> + Joy for every morning!<br> +<br> +Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow—<br> +Saw the star o’er a stable low;<br> +Mary she might not further go—<br> +Welcome thatch, and litter below!<br> + Joy was hers in the morning!<br> +<br> +And then they heard the angels tell<br> +“Who were the first to cry <i>Nowell?</i><br> +Animals all, as it befell,<br> +In the stable where they did dwell!<br> + Joy shall be theirs in the morning!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well sung, boys!” cried the Rat heartily. “And now come +along in, all of you, and warm yourselves by the fire, and have something +hot!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, come along, field-mice,” cried the Mole eagerly. “This +is quite like old times! Shut the door after you. Pull up that settle to the +fire. Now, you just wait a minute, while we—O, Ratty!” he cried in +despair, plumping down on a seat, with tears impending. “Whatever are we +doing? We’ve nothing to give them!” +</p> + +<p> +“You leave all that to me,” said the masterful Rat. “Here, +you with the lantern! Come over this way. I want to talk to you. Now, tell me, +are there any shops open at this hour of the night?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, certainly, sir,” replied the field-mouse respectfully. +“At this time of the year our shops keep open to all sorts of +hours.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then look here!” said the Rat. “You go off at once, you and +your lantern, and you get me——” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The rest of the field-mice, perched in a row on the settle, their small legs +swinging, gave themselves up to enjoyment of the fire, and toasted their +chilblains till they tingled; while the Mole, failing to draw them into easy +conversation, plunged into family history and made each of them recite the +names of his numerous brothers, who were too young, it appeared, to be allowed +to go out a-carolling this year, but looked forward very shortly to winning the +parental consent. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, meanwhile, was busy examining the label on one of the beer-bottles. +“I perceive this to be Old Burton,” he remarked approvingly. +“<i>Sensible</i> Mole! The very thing! Now we shall be able to mull some ale! +Get the things ready, Mole, while I draw the corks.” +</p> + +<p> +It did not take long to prepare the brew and thrust the tin heater well into +the red heart of the fire; and soon every field-mouse was sipping and coughing +and choking (for a little mulled ale goes a long way) and wiping his eyes and +laughing and forgetting he had ever been cold in all his life. +</p> + +<p> +“They act plays too, these fellows,” the Mole explained to the Rat. +“Make them up all by themselves, and act them afterwards. And very well +they do it, too! They gave us a capital one last year, about a field-mouse who +was captured at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to row in a galley; and when +he escaped and got home again, his lady-love had gone into a convent. Here, +<i>you!</i> You were in it, I remember. Get up and recite a bit.” +</p> + +<p> +The field-mouse addressed got up on his legs, giggled shyly, looked round the +room, and remained absolutely tongue-tied. His comrades cheered him on, Mole +coaxed and encouraged him, and the Rat went so far as to take him by the +shoulders and shake him; but nothing could overcome his stage-fright. They were +all busily engaged on him like watermen applying the Royal Humane +Society’s regulations to a case of long submersion, when the latch +clicked, the door opened, and the field-mouse with the lantern reappeared, +staggering under the weight of his basket. +</p> + +<p> +There was no more talk of play-acting once the very real and solid contents of +the basket had been tumbled out on the table. Under the generalship of Rat, +everybody was set to do something or to fetch something. In a very few minutes +supper was ready, and Mole, as he took the head of the table in a sort of a +dream, saw a lately barren board set thick with savoury comforts; saw his +little friends’ faces brighten and beam as they fell to without delay; +and then let himself loose—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. +</p> + +<p> +They clattered off at last, very grateful and showering wishes of the season, +with their jacket pockets stuffed with remembrances for the small brothers and +sisters at home. When the door had closed on the last of them and the chink of +the lanterns had died away, Mole and Rat kicked the fire up, drew their chairs +in, brewed themselves a last nightcap of mulled ale, and discussed the events +of the long day. At last the Rat, with a tremendous yawn, said, “Mole, +old chap, I’m ready to drop. Sleepy is simply not the word. That your own +bunk over on that side? Very well, then, I’ll take this. What a ripping +little house this is! Everything so handy!” +</p> + +<p> +He clambered into his bunk and rolled himself well up in the blankets, and +slumber gathered him forthwith, as a swathe of barley is folded into the arms +of the reaping machine. +</p> + +<p> +The weary Mole also was glad to turn in without delay, and soon had his head on +his pillow, in great joy and contentment. But ere he closed his eyes he let +them wander round his old room, mellow in the glow of the firelight that played +or rested on familiar and friendly things which had long been unconsciously a +part of him, and now smilingly received him back, without rancour. He was now +in just the frame of mind that the tactful Rat had quietly worked to bring +about in him. He saw clearly how plain and simple—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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap06"></a>VI.<br> +MR. TOAD</h2> + +<p> +It was a bright morning in the early part of summer; the river had resumed its +wonted banks and its accustomed pace, and a hot sun seemed to be pulling +everything green and bushy and spiky up out of the earth towards him, as if by +strings. The Mole and the Water Rat had been up since dawn, very busy on +matters connected with boats and the opening of the boating season; painting +and varnishing, mending paddles, repairing cushions, hunting for missing +boat-hooks, and so on; and were finishing breakfast in their little parlour and +eagerly discussing their plans for the day, when a heavy knock sounded at the +door. +</p> + +<p> +“Bother!” said the Rat, all over egg. “See who it is, Mole, +like a good chap, since you’ve finished.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole went to attend the summons, and the Rat heard him utter a cry of +surprise. Then he flung the parlour door open, and announced with much +importance, “Mr. Badger!” +</p> + +<p> +This was a wonderful thing, indeed, that the Badger should pay a formal call on +them, or indeed on anybody. He generally had to be caught, if you wanted him +badly, as he slipped quietly along a hedgerow of an early morning or a late +evening, or else hunted up in his own house in the middle of the Wood, which +was a serious undertaking. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger strode heavily into the room, and stood looking at the two animals +with an expression full of seriousness. The Rat let his egg-spoon fall on the +table-cloth, and sat open-mouthed. +</p> + +<p> +“The hour has come!” said the Badger at last with great solemnity. +</p> + +<p> +“What hour?” asked the Rat uneasily, glancing at the clock on the +mantelpiece. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Whose</i> hour, you should rather say,” replied the Badger. +“Why, Toad’s hour! The hour of Toad! I said I would take him in +hand as soon as the winter was well over, and I’m going to take him in +hand to-day!” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad’s hour, of course!” cried the Mole delightedly. +“Hooray! I remember now! <i>We’ll</i> teach him to be a sensible +Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +“This very morning,” continued the Badger, taking an arm-chair, +“as I learnt last night from a trustworthy source, another new and +exceptionally powerful motor-car will arrive at Toad Hall on approval or +return. At this very moment, perhaps, Toad is busy arraying himself in those +singularly hideous habiliments so dear to him, which transform him from a +(comparatively) good-looking Toad into an Object which throws any decent-minded +animal that comes across it into a violent fit. We must be up and doing, ere it +is too late. You two animals will accompany me instantly to Toad Hall, and the +work of rescue shall be accomplished.” +</p> + +<p> +“Right you are!” cried the Rat, starting up. “We’ll +rescue the poor unhappy animal! We’ll convert him! He’ll be the +most converted Toad that ever was before we’ve done with him!” +</p> + +<p> +They set off up the road on their mission of mercy, Badger leading the way. +Animals when in company walk in a proper and sensible manner, in single file, +instead of sprawling all across the road and being of no use or support to each +other in case of sudden trouble or danger. +</p> + +<p> +They reached the carriage-drive of Toad Hall to find, as 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo! come on, you fellows!” he cried cheerfully on catching +sight of them. “You’re just in time to come with me for a +jolly—to come for a jolly—for +a—er—jolly——” +</p> + +<p> +His hearty accents faltered and fell away as he noticed the stern unbending +look on the countenances of his silent friends, and his invitation remained +unfinished. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger strode up the steps. “Take him inside,” he said sternly +to his companions. Then, as Toad was hustled through the door, struggling and +protesting, he turned to the <i>chauffeur</i> in charge of the new motor-car. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid you won’t be wanted to-day,” he said. +“Mr. Toad has changed his mind. He will not require the car. Please +understand that this is final. You needn’t wait.” Then he followed +the others inside and shut the door. +</p> + +<p> +“Now then!” he said to the Toad, when the four of them stood +together in the Hall, “first of all, take those ridiculous things +off!” +</p> + +<p> +“Shan’t!” replied Toad, with great spirit. “What is the +meaning of this gross outrage? I demand an instant explanation.” +</p> + +<p> +“Take them off him, then, you two,” ordered the Badger briefly. +</p> + +<p> +They had to lay Toad out on the floor, kicking and calling all sorts of names, +before they could get to work properly. Then the Rat sat on him, and the Mole +got his motor-clothes off him bit by bit, and they stood him up on his legs +again. A good deal of his blustering spirit seemed to have evaporated with the +removal of his fine panoply. Now that he was merely Toad, and no longer the +Terror of the Highway, he giggled feebly and looked from one to the other +appealingly, seeming quite to understand the situation. +</p> + +<p> +“You knew it must come to this, sooner or later, Toad,” the Badger +explained severely. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +He took Toad firmly by the arm, led him into the smoking-room, and closed the +door behind them. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>That’s</i> no good!” said the Rat contemptuously. “<i>Talking</i> +to Toad’ll never cure him. He’ll <i>say</i> anything.” +</p> + +<p> +They made themselves comfortable in 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. +</p> + +<p> +After some three-quarters of an hour the door opened, and the Badger +reappeared, solemnly leading by the paw a very limp and dejected Toad. His skin +hung baggily about him, his legs wobbled, and his cheeks were furrowed by the +tears so plentifully called forth by the Badger’s moving discourse. +</p> + +<p> +“Sit down there, Toad,” said the Badger kindly, pointing to a +chair. “My friends,” he went on, “I am pleased to inform you +that Toad has at last seen the error of his ways. He is truly sorry for his +misguided conduct in the past, and he has undertaken to give up motor-cars +entirely and for ever. I have his solemn promise to that effect.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is very good news,” said the Mole gravely. +</p> + +<p> +“Very good news indeed,” observed the Rat dubiously, “if +only—<i>if</i> only——” +</p> + +<p> +He was looking very hard at Toad as he said this, and could not help thinking +he perceived something vaguely resembling a twinkle in that animal’s +still sorrowful eye. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s only one thing more to be done,” continued the +gratified Badger. “Toad, I want you solemnly to repeat, before your +friends here, what you fully admitted to me in the smoking-room just now. +First, you are sorry for what you’ve done, and you see the folly of it +all?” +</p> + +<p> +There was a long, long pause. Toad looked desperately this way and that, while +the other animals waited in grave silence. At last he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“No!” he said, a little sullenly, but stoutly; “I’m <i>not</i> +sorry. And it wasn’t folly at all! It was simply glorious!” +</p> + +<p> +“What?” cried the Badger, greatly scandalised. “You +backsliding animal, didn’t you tell me just now, in +there——” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, yes, in <i>there</i>,” said Toad impatiently. “I’d +have said anything in <i>there</i>. You’re so eloquent, dear Badger, and so +moving, and so convincing, and put all your points so frightfully +well—you can do what you like with me in <i>there</i>, and you know it. But +I’ve been searching my mind since, and going over things in it, and I +find that I’m not a bit sorry or repentant really, so it’s no +earthly good saying I am; now, is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you don’t promise,” said the Badger, “never to +touch a motor-car again?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly not!” replied Toad emphatically. “On the contrary, +I faithfully promise that the very first motor-car I see, poop-poop! off I go +in it!” +</p> + +<p> +“Told you so, didn’t I?” observed the Rat to the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, then,” said the Badger firmly, rising to his feet. +“Since you won’t yield to persuasion, we’ll try what force +can do. I feared it would come to this all along. You’ve often asked us +three to come and stay with you, Toad, in this handsome house of yours; well, +now we’re going to. When we’ve converted you to a proper point of +view we may quit, but not before. Take him upstairs, you two, and lock him up +in his bedroom, while we arrange matters between ourselves.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s for your own good, Toady, you know,” said the Rat +kindly, as Toad, kicking and struggling, was hauled up the stairs by his two +faithful friends. “Think what fun we shall all have together, just as we +used to, when you’ve quite got over this—this painful attack of +yours!” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll take great care of everything for you till you’re +well, Toad,” said the Mole; “and we’ll see your money +isn’t wasted, as it has been.” +</p> + +<p> +“No more of those regrettable incidents with the police, Toad,” +said the Rat, as they thrust him into his bedroom. +</p> + +<p> +“And no more weeks in hospital, being ordered about by female nurses, +Toad,” added the Mole, turning the key on him. +</p> + +<p> +They descended the stair, Toad shouting abuse at them through the keyhole; and +the three friends then met in conference on the situation. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s going to be a tedious business,” said the Badger, +sighing. “I’ve never seen Toad so determined. However, we will see +it out. He must never be left an instant unguarded. We shall have to take it in +turns to be with him, till the poison has worked itself out of his +system.” +</p> + +<p> +They arranged watches accordingly. Each animal took it in turns to sleep in +Toad’s room at night, and they divided the day up between them. At first +Toad was undoubtedly very trying to his careful guardians. When his violent +paroxysms possessed him he would arrange bedroom chairs in rude resemblance of +a motor-car and would crouch on the foremost of them, bent forward and staring +fixedly ahead, making uncouth and ghastly noises, till the climax was reached, +when, turning a complete somersault, he would lie prostrate amidst the ruins of +the chairs, apparently completely satisfied for the moment. As time passed, +however, these painful seizures grew gradually less frequent, and his friends +strove to divert his mind into fresh channels. But his interest in other +matters did not seem to revive, and he grew apparently languid and depressed. +</p> + +<p> +One fine morning the Rat, whose turn it was to go on duty, went upstairs to +relieve Badger, whom he found fidgeting to be off and stretch his legs in a +long ramble round his wood and down his earths and burrows. “Toad’s +still in bed,” he told the Rat, outside the door. “Can’t get +much out of him, except, ‘O leave him alone, he wants nothing, perhaps +he’ll be better presently, it may pass off in time, don’t be unduly +anxious,’ and so on. Now, you look out, Rat! When Toad’s quiet and +submissive and playing at being the hero of a Sunday-school prize, then +he’s at his artfullest. There’s sure to be something up. I know +him. Well, now, I must be off.” +</p> + +<p> +“How are you to-day, old chap?” inquired the Rat cheerfully, as he +approached Toad’s bedside. +</p> + +<p> +He had to wait some minutes for an answer. At last a feeble voice replied, +“Thank you so much, dear Ratty! So good of you to inquire! But first tell +me how you are yourself, and the excellent Mole?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, <i>we’re</i> all right,” replied the Rat. “Mole,” he +added incautiously, “is going out for a run round with Badger. +They’ll be out till luncheon time, so you and I will spend a pleasant +morning together, and I’ll do my best to amuse you. Now jump up, +there’s a good fellow, and don’t lie moping there on a fine morning +like this!” +</p> + +<p> +“Dear, kind Rat,” murmured Toad, “how little you realise my +condition, and how very far I am from ‘jumping up’ now—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I hope not, too,” said the Rat heartily. “You’ve +been a fine bother to us all this time, and I’m glad to hear it’s +going to stop. And in weather like this, and the boating season just beginning! +It’s too bad of you, Toad! It isn’t the trouble we mind, but +you’re making us miss such an awful lot.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid it <i>is</i> the trouble you mind, though,” replied the +Toad languidly. “I can quite understand it. It’s natural enough. +You’re tired of bothering about me. I mustn’t ask you to do +anything further. I’m a nuisance, I know.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are, indeed,” said the Rat. “But I tell you, I’d +take any trouble on earth for you, if only you’d be a sensible +animal.” +</p> + +<p> +“If I thought that, Ratty,” murmured Toad, more feebly than ever, +“then I would beg you—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look here, old man,” said the Rat, beginning to get rather +alarmed, “of course I’ll fetch a doctor to you, if you really think +you want him. But you can hardly be bad enough for that yet. Let’s talk +about something else.” +</p> + +<p> +“I fear, dear friend,” said Toad, with a sad smile, “that +‘talk’ can do little in a case like this—or doctors either, +for that matter; still, one must grasp at the slightest straw. And, by the +way—while you are about it—I <i>hate</i> 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 <i>a</i> moment—when +one must face disagreeable tasks, at whatever cost to exhausted nature!” +</p> + +<p> +“A lawyer! O, he must be really bad!” the affrighted Rat said to +himself, as he hurried from the room, not forgetting, however, to lock the door +carefully behind him. +</p> + +<p> +Outside, he stopped to consider. The other two were far away, and he had no one +to consult. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s best to be on the safe side,” he said, on reflection. +“I’ve known Toad fancy himself frightfully bad before, without the +slightest reason; but I’ve never heard him ask for a lawyer! If +there’s nothing really the matter, the doctor will tell him he’s an +old ass, and cheer him up; and that will be something gained. I’d better +humour him and go; it won’t take very long.” So he ran off to the +village on his errand of mercy. +</p> + +<p> +The Toad, who had hopped lightly out of bed as soon as he heard the key turned +in the lock, watched him eagerly from the window till he disappeared down the +carriage-drive. Then, laughing heartily, he dressed as quickly as possible in +the smartest suit he could lay hands on 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. +</p> + +<p> +It was a gloomy luncheon for Rat when the Badger and the Mole at length +returned, and he had to face them at table with his pitiful and unconvincing +story. The Badger’s caustic, not to say brutal, remarks may be imagined, +and therefore passed over; but it was painful to the Rat that even the Mole, +though he took his friend’s side as far as possible, could not help +saying, “You’ve been a bit of a duffer this time, Ratty! Toad, too, +of all animals!” +</p> + +<p> +“He did it awfully well,” said the crestfallen Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“He did <i>you</i> awfully well!” rejoined the 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.” +</p> + +<p> +So spoke the Badger, not knowing what the future held in store, or how much +water, and of how turbid a character, was to run under bridges before Toad +should sit at ease again in his ancestral Hall. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +Filled full of conceited thoughts such as these he strode along, his head in +the air, till he reached a little town, where the sign of “The Red +Lion,” swinging across the road 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>looking</i> at it!” +</p> + +<p> +The car stood in the middle of the yard, quite unattended, the stable-helps and +other hangers-on being all at their dinner. Toad walked slowly round it, +inspecting, criticising, musing deeply. +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder,” he said to himself presently, “I wonder if this +sort of car <i>starts</i> easily?” +</p> + +<p> +Next moment, hardly knowing how it came about, he found he had hold of the +handle and was turning it. As the familiar sound broke forth, the old passion +seized on Toad and completely mastered him, body and soul. As if in a dream he +found himself, somehow, seated in the driver’s seat; as if in a dream, he +pulled the lever and swung the car round the yard and out through the archway; +and, as if in a dream, all sense of right and wrong, all fear of obvious +consequences, seemed temporarily suspended. He increased his pace, and as the +car devoured the street and leapt forth on the high road through the open +country, he was only conscious that he was Toad once more, Toad at his best and +highest, Toad the terror, the traffic-queller, the Lord of the lone trail, +before whom all must give way or be smitten into nothingness and everlasting +night. He chanted as he flew, and the car responded with sonorous drone; the +miles were eaten up under him as he sped he knew not whither, fulfilling his +instincts, living his hour, reckless of what might come to him. +</p> + +<hr> + +<p> +“To my mind,” observed the Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates +cheerfully, “the <i>only</i> difficulty that presents itself in this otherwise +very clear case is, how we can possibly make it sufficiently hot for the +incorrigible rogue and hardened ruffian whom we see cowering in the dock before +us. Let me see: he has been found guilty, on the clearest evidence, first, of +stealing a valuable motor-car; secondly, of driving to the public danger; and, +thirdly, of gross impertinence to the rural police. Mr. Clerk, will you tell +us, please, what is the very stiffest penalty we can impose for each of these +offences? Without, of course, giving the prisoner the benefit of any doubt, +because there isn’t any.” +</p> + +<p> +The Clerk scratched his nose with his pen. “Some people would +consider,” he observed, “that stealing the motor-car was the worst +offence; and so it is. But cheeking the police undoubtedly carries the severest +penalty; and so it ought. Supposing you were to say twelve months for the +theft, which is mild; and three years for the furious driving, which is +lenient; and fifteen years for the cheek, which was pretty 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——” +</p> + +<p> +“First-rate!” said the Chairman. +</p> + +<p> +“—So you had better make it a round twenty years and be on the safe +side,” concluded the Clerk. +</p> + +<p> +“An excellent suggestion!” said the Chairman approvingly. +“Prisoner! Pull yourself together and try and stand up straight. +It’s going to be twenty years for you this time. And mind, if you appear +before us again, upon any charge whatever, we shall have to deal with you very +seriously!” +</p> + +<p> +Then the brutal minions of the law fell upon the hapless Toad; loaded him with +chains, and dragged him from the Court House, shrieking, praying, protesting; +across the 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Oddsbodikins!” said the sergeant of police, taking off his helmet +and wiping his forehead. “Rouse thee, old loon, and take over from us +this vile Toad, a criminal of deepest guilt and matchless artfulness and +resource. Watch and ward him with all thy skill; and mark thee well, greybeard, +should aught untoward befall, thy old head shall answer for his—and a +murrain on both of them!” +</p> + +<p> +The gaoler nodded grimly, laying his withered hand on the shoulder of the +miserable Toad. The rusty key creaked in the lock, the great door clanged +behind them; and Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon of the +best-guarded keep of the stoutest castle in all the length and breadth of Merry +England. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap07"></a>VII.<br> +THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat’s light footfall was presently heard approaching over the parched +grass. “O, the blessed coolness!” he said, and sat down, gazing +thoughtfully into the river, silent and pre-occupied. +</p> + +<p> +“You stayed to supper, of course?” said the Mole presently. +</p> + +<p> +“Simply had to,” said the Rat. “They wouldn’t hear of +my going before. You know how kind they always are. And they made things as +jolly for me as ever they could, right up to the moment I left. But I felt a +brute all the time, as it was clear to me they were very unhappy, though they +tried to hide it. Mole, I’m afraid they’re in trouble. Little +Portly is missing again; and you know what a lot his father thinks of him, +though he never says much about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“What, that child?” said the Mole lightly. “Well, suppose he +is; why worry about it? He’s always straying off and getting lost, and +turning up again; he’s so adventurous. But no harm ever happens to him. +Everybody hereabouts knows him and likes him, just as they do old Otter, and +you may be sure some animal or other will come across him and bring him back +again all right. Why, we’ve found him ourselves, miles from home, and +quite self-possessed and cheerful!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; but this time it’s more serious,” said the Rat gravely. +“He’s been missing for some days now, and the Otters have hunted +everywhere, high and low, without finding the slightest trace. And +they’ve asked every animal, too, for miles around, and no one knows +anything about him. Otter’s evidently more anxious than he’ll +admit. I got out of him that young Portly hasn’t learnt to swim very well +yet, and I can see he’s thinking of the weir. There’s a lot of +water coming down still, considering the time of the year, and the place always +had a fascination for the child. And then there are—well, traps and +things—<i>you</i> know. Otter’s not the fellow to be nervous about any son +of his before it’s time. And now he <i>is</i> nervous. When I left, he came out +with me—said he wanted some air, and talked about stretching his legs. +But I could see it wasn’t that, so I drew him out and pumped him, and got +it all from him at last. He was going to spend the night watching by the ford. +You know the place where the old ford used to be, in by-gone days before they +built the bridge?” +</p> + +<p> +“I know it well,” said the Mole. “But why should Otter choose +to watch there?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it seems that it was there he gave Portly his first +swimming-lesson,” continued the Rat. “From that shallow, gravelly +spit near the bank. And it was there he used to teach him fishing, and there +young Portly caught his first fish, of which he was so very proud. The child +loved the spot, and Otter thinks that if he came wandering back from wherever +he is—if he <i>is</i> 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!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Rat presently, “I suppose we ought to +be thinking about turning in.” But he never offered to move. +</p> + +<p> +“Rat,” said the Mole, “I simply can’t go and turn in, +and go to sleep, and <i>do</i> nothing, even though there doesn’t seem to be +anything to be done. We’ll get the boat out, and paddle 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 <i>nothing</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +“Just what I was thinking myself,” said the Rat. “It’s +not the sort of night for bed anyhow; and daybreak is not so very far off, and +then we may pick up some news of him from early risers as we go along.” +</p> + +<p> +They got the boat out, and the Rat took the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one +particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence +that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted +with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of +moorings; and 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. +</p> + +<p> +Fastening their boat to a willow, the friends landed in this silent, silver +kingdom, and patiently explored the hedges, the hollow trees, the runnels and +their little culverts, the ditches and dry water-ways. Embarking again and +crossing over, they worked their way up the stream in this manner, while the +moon, serene and detached in a cloudless sky, did what she could, though so far +off, to help them in their quest; till her hour came and she sank earthwards +reluctantly, and left them, and mystery once more held field and river. +</p> + +<p> +Then a change began slowly to declare itself. The horizon became clearer, field +and tree came more into sight, and somehow with a different look; the mystery +began to drop away from them. A bird piped suddenly, and was still; and a light +breeze sprang up and set the reeds and bulrushes rustling. Rat, who was in the +stern of the boat, while Mole sculled, sat up suddenly and listened with a +passionate intentness. Mole, who with gentle strokes was just keeping the boat +moving while he scanned the banks with care, looked at him with curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s gone!” sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. +“So beautiful and strange and new. Since it was to end so soon, I almost +wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and +nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once more and go on +listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!” he cried, alert once +more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound. +</p> + +<p> +“Now it passes on and I begin to lose it,” he said presently. +“O Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, +happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call +in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the +music and the call must be for us.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. “I hear nothing myself,” he +said, “but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard. Rapt, transported, trembling, he +was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his +helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a +strong sustaining grasp. +</p> + +<p> +In silence Mole rowed steadily, and soon they came to a point where the river +divided, a long backwater branching off to one side. With a slight movement of +his head Rat, who had long dropped the rudder-lines, directed the rower to take +the backwater. The creeping tide of light gained and gained, and now they could +see the colour of the flowers that gemmed the water’s edge. +</p> + +<p> +“Clearer and nearer still,” cried the Rat joyously. “Now you +must surely hear it! Ah—at last—I see you do!” +</p> + +<p> +Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that +glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly. +He saw the tears on his comrade’s cheeks, and bowed his head and +understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by the purple 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. +</p> + +<p> +On either side of them, as they glided onwards, the rich meadow-grass seemed +that morning of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable. Never had they +noticed the roses so vivid, the willow-herb so riotous, the meadow-sweet so +odorous and pervading. Then the murmur of the approaching weir began to hold +the air, and they felt a consciousness that they were nearing the end, whatever +it might be, that surely awaited their expedition. +</p> + +<p> +A wide half-circle of foam and glinting lights and shining shoulders of green +water, the great weir closed the backwater from bank to bank, troubled all the +quiet surface with twirling eddies and floating foam-streaks, and deadened all +other sounds with its solemn and soothing rumble. In midmost of the stream, +embraced in the weir’s shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay +anchored, fringed close with willow and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, +but full of significance, it hid whatever it might hold behind a veil, keeping +it till the hour should come, and, with the hour, those who were called and +chosen. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly, but with no doubt or hesitation whatever, and in something of a solemn +expectancy, the two animals passed through the broken tumultuous water and +moored their boat at the flowery margin of the island. In silence they landed, +and pushed through the blossom and scented herbage and undergrowth that led up +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. +</p> + +<p> +“This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to +me,” whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. “Here, in this holy +place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!” +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his +muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no +panic terror—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. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the +piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Rat!” he found breath to whisper, shaking. “Are you +afraid?” +</p> + +<p> +“Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. +“Afraid! Of <i>Him?</i> O, never, never! And yet—and yet—O, Mole, I +am afraid!” +</p> + +<p> +Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did +worship. +</p> + +<p> +Sudden and magnificent, the sun’s broad golden disc showed itself over +the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level +water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them. When they +were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and the air was full of +the carol of birds that hailed the dawn. +</p> + +<p> +As they stared blankly in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realised all +they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze, dancing up +from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the dewy roses and blew +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. +</p> + +<p> +Mole rubbed his eyes and stared at Rat, who was looking about him in a puzzled +sort of way. “I beg your pardon; what did you say, Rat?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“I think I was only remarking,” said Rat slowly, “that this +was the right sort of place, and that here, if anywhere, we should find him. +And look! Why, there he is, the little fellow!” And with a cry of delight +he ran towards the slumbering Portly. +</p> + +<p> +But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a +beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and 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. +</p> + +<p> +Portly woke up with a joyous squeak, and wriggled with pleasure at the sight of +his father’s friends, who had played with him so often in past days. In a +moment, however, his face grew blank, and he fell to hunting round in a circle +with pleading whine. As a child that has fallen happily asleep in its +nurse’s arms, and wakes to find itself alone and laid in a strange place, +and searches corners and cupboards, and runs from room to room, despair growing +silently in its heart, even so Portly searched the island and searched, dogged +and unwearying, till at last the black moment came for giving it up, and +sitting down and crying bitterly. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole ran quickly to comfort the little animal; but Rat, lingering, looked +long and doubtfully at certain hoof-marks deep in the sward. +</p> + +<p> +“Some—great—animal—has been here,” he murmured +slowly and thoughtfully; and stood musing, musing; his mind strangely stirred. +</p> + +<p> +“Come along, Rat!” called the Mole. “Think of poor Otter, +waiting up there by the ford!” +</p> + +<p> +Portly had soon been comforted by the promise of a treat—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. +</p> + +<p> +The main river reached again, they turned the boat’s head upstream, +towards the point where they knew their friend was keeping his lonely vigil. As +they drew near the familiar ford, the Mole took the boat in to the bank, and +they lifted Portly out and set him on his legs on the tow-path, gave him his +marching orders and a friendly farewell pat on the back, and shoved out into +mid-stream. They watched the little animal as he waddled along the path +contentedly and with importance; watched him till they saw his muzzle suddenly +lift and his waddle break into a clumsy amble as he quickened his pace with +shrill whines and wriggles of recognition. Looking up the river, they could see +Otter start up, tense and rigid, from out of the shallows where he crouched in +dumb patience, and could hear his amazed and joyous bark as he bounded up +through the osiers on to the path. Then the Mole, with a strong pull on one +oar, swung the boat round and let the full stream bear them down again whither +it would, their quest now happily ended. +</p> + +<p> +“I feel strangely tired, Rat,” said the Mole, leaning wearily over +his oars as the boat drifted. “It’s being up all night, +you’ll say, perhaps; but that’s nothing. We do as much half the +nights of the week, at this time of the year. No; I feel as if I had been +through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; and +yet nothing particular has happened.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful,” murmured +the Rat, leaning back and closing his eyes. “I feel just as you do, Mole; +simply dead tired, though not body tired. It’s lucky we’ve got the +stream with us, to take us home. Isn’t it jolly to feel the sun again, +soaking into one’s bones! And hark to the wind playing in the +reeds!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s like music—far away music,” said the Mole nodding +drowsily. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“You hear better than I,” said the Mole sadly. “I cannot +catch the words.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me try and give you them,” said the Rat softly, his eyes still +closed. “Now it is turning into words again—faint but +clear—<i>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!</i> Now the reeds take it up—<i>forget, forget</i>, they sigh, and it +dies away in a rustle and a whisper. Then the voice returns— +</p> + +<p> +“<i>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!</i> Row nearer, Mole, nearer to the reeds! It is hard to catch, and +grows each minute fainter. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Helper and healer, I cheer—Small waifs in the woodland +wet—Strays I find in it, wounds I bind in it—Bidding them all +forget!</i> Nearer, Mole, nearer! No, it is no good; the song has died away into +reed-talk.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what do the words mean?” asked the wondering Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“That I do not know,” said the Rat simply. “I passed them on +to you as they reached me. Ah! now they return again, and this time full and +clear! This time, at last, it is the real, the unmistakable thing, +simple—passionate—perfect——” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, let’s have it, then,” said the Mole, after he had +waited patiently for a few minutes, half-dozing in the hot sun. +</p> + +<p> +But no answer came. He looked, and understood the silence. With a smile of much +happiness on his face, and something of a listening look still lingering there, +the weary Rat was fast asleep. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap08"></a>VIII.<br> +TOAD’S ADVENTURES</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Now the gaoler had a daughter, a pleasant wench and good-hearted, who assisted +her father in the lighter duties of his post. She was particularly fond of +animals, and, besides her canary, whose cage hung on a nail in the massive wall +of the keep by day, to the great annoyance of prisoners who relished an +after-dinner nap, and was shrouded in an antimacassar on the parlour table at +night, she kept several piebald mice and a restless revolving squirrel. This +kind-hearted girl, pitying the misery of Toad, said to her father one day, +“Father! I can’t bear to see that poor beast so unhappy, and +getting so thin! You let me have the managing of him. You know how fond of +animals I am. I’ll make him eat from my hand, and sit up, and do all +sorts of things.” +</p> + +<p> +Her father replied that she could do what she liked with him. He was tired of +Toad, and his sulks and his airs and his meanness. So that day she went on her +errand of mercy, and knocked at the door of Toad’s cell. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, cheer up, Toad,” she said, coaxingly, on entering, “and +sit up and dry your eyes and be a sensible animal. And do try and eat a bit of +dinner. See, I’ve brought you some of mine, hot from the oven!” +</p> + +<p> +It was bubble-and-squeak, between two plates, and its fragrance filled the +narrow cell. The penetrating smell of cabbage reached the nose 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. +</p> + +<p> +When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of +fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, +cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes +in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that +buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of +warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour +firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered +feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the +twitter of sleepy canaries. Toad sat up on end once more, dried his eyes, +sipped his tea and munched his toast, and soon began talking freely about +himself, and the house he lived in, and his doings there, and how important he +was, and what a lot his friends thought of him. +</p> + +<p> +The gaoler’s daughter saw that the topic was doing him as much good as +the tea, as indeed it was, and encouraged him to go on. +</p> + +<p> +“Tell me about Toad Hall,” said she. “It sounds +beautiful.” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad Hall,” said the Toad proudly, “is an eligible +self-contained gentleman’s residence very unique; dating in part from the +fourteenth century, but replete with every modern convenience. Up-to-date +sanitation. Five minutes from church, post-office, and golf-links, Suitable +for——” +</p> + +<p> +“Bless the animal,” said the girl, laughing, “I don’t +want to <i>take</i> it. Tell me something <i>real</i> about it. But first wait till I fetch +you some more tea and toast.” +</p> + +<p> +She tripped away, and presently returned with a fresh trayful; and Toad, +pitching into the toast with avidity, his spirits quite restored to their usual +level, told her about the 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 <i>pets</i>, because she had the sense to see that +Toad would be extremely offended. When she said good night, having filled his +water-jug and shaken up his straw for him, Toad was very much the same +sanguine, self-satisfied animal that he had been of old. He sang a little song +or two, of the sort he used to sing at his dinner-parties, curled himself up in +the straw, and had an excellent night’s rest and the pleasantest of +dreams. +</p> + +<p> +They had many interesting talks together, after that, as the dreary days went +on; and the gaoler’s daughter grew very sorry for Toad, and thought it a +great shame that a poor little animal should be locked up in prison for what +seemed to her a very trivial offence. Toad, of course, in his vanity, thought +that her interest in him proceeded from a growing tenderness; and he could not +help half-regretting that the social gulf between them was so very wide, for +she was a comely lass, and evidently admired him very much. +</p> + +<p> +One morning the girl was very thoughtful, and answered at random, and did not +seem to Toad to be paying proper attention to his witty sayings and sparkling +comments. +</p> + +<p> +“Toad,” she said presently, “just listen, please. I have an +aunt who is a washerwoman.” +</p> + +<p> +“There, there,” said Toad, graciously and affably, “never +mind; think no more about it. <i>I</i> have several aunts who <i>ought</i> to be +washerwomen.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do be quiet a minute, Toad,” said the girl. “You talk too +much, that’s your chief fault, and I’m trying to think, and you +hurt my head. As I said, I have an aunt who is a washerwoman; she does the +washing for all the prisoners in this castle—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’re <i>not</i>,” said the Toad in a huff. “I have a very +elegant figure—for what I am.” +</p> + +<p> +“So has my aunt,” replied the girl, “for what <i>she</i> is. But +have it your own way. You horrid, proud, ungrateful animal, when I’m +sorry for you, and trying to help you!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes, that’s all right; thank you very much indeed,” +said the Toad hurriedly. “But look here! you wouldn’t surely have +Mr. Toad of Toad Hall, going about the country disguised as a +washerwoman!” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you can stop here as a Toad,” replied the girl with much +spirit. “I suppose you want to go off in a coach-and-four!” +</p> + +<p> +Honest Toad was always ready to admit himself in the wrong. “You are a +good, kind, clever girl,” he said, “and I am indeed a proud and a +stupid toad. Introduce me to your worthy aunt, if you will be so kind, and I +have no doubt that the excellent lady and I will be able to arrange terms +satisfactory to both parties.” +</p> + +<p> +Next evening the girl ushered her aunt into Toad’s cell, bearing his +week’s washing pinned up in a towel. The old lady had been prepared +beforehand for the interview, and the sight of certain gold sovereigns that +Toad had thoughtfully placed on the table in full view practically completed +the matter and left little further to discuss. In return for his cash, Toad +received a cotton print gown, an apron, a shawl, and a rusty black bonnet; the +only stipulation the old lady made being that she should be gagged and bound +and dumped down in a corner. By this not very convincing artifice, she +explained, aided by picturesque fiction which she could supply herself, she +hoped to retain her situation, in spite of the suspicious appearance of things. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was delighted with the suggestion. It would enable him to leave the prison +in some style, and with his reputation for being a desperate and dangerous +fellow untarnished; and he readily helped the gaoler’s daughter to make +her aunt appear as much as possible the victim of circumstances over which she +had no control. +</p> + +<p> +“Now it’s your turn, Toad,” said the girl. “Take off +that coat and waistcoat of yours; you’re fat enough as it is.” +</p> + +<p> +Shaking with laughter, she proceeded to “hook-and-eye” him into the +cotton print gown, arranged the shawl with a professional fold, and tied the +strings of the rusty bonnet under his chin. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re the very image of her,” she giggled, “only +I’m sure you never looked half so respectable in all your life before. +Now, good-bye, Toad, and good luck. Go straight down the way you came up; and +if any one says anything to you, as they probably will, being but men, you can +chaff back a bit, of course, but remember you’re a widow woman, quite +alone in the world, with a character to lose.” +</p> + +<p> +With a quaking heart, but as firm a footstep as he could command, Toad set +forth cautiously on what seemed to be a most hare-brained and hazardous +undertaking; but he was soon agreeably surprised to find how easy everything +was made for him, and a little humbled at the thought that both his popularity, +and the sex that seemed to inspire it, were really another’s. The +washerwoman’s squat figure in its familiar cotton print seemed a passport +for every barred door and grim gateway; even when he hesitated, uncertain as to +the right turning to take, he found himself helped out of his difficulty by the +warder at the next gate, anxious to be off to his tea, summoning him to come +along sharp and not keep him waiting there all night. The chaff and the +humourous sallies to which he was subjected, and to which, of course, he had to +provide prompt and effective reply, formed, indeed, his chief danger; for Toad +was an animal with a strong sense of his own dignity, and the chaff was mostly +(he thought) poor and clumsy, and the humour of the sallies entirely lacking. +However, he kept his temper, though with great difficulty, suited his retorts +to his company and his supposed character, and did his best not to overstep the +limits of good taste. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed hours before he crossed the last courtyard, rejected the pressing +invitations from the last guardroom, and dodged the outspread arms of the last +warder, pleading with simulated passion for just one farewell embrace. But at +last he heard the wicket-gate in the great outer door click behind him, felt +the fresh air of the outer world upon his anxious brow, and knew that he was +free! +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy with the easy success of his daring exploit, he walked quickly towards +the lights of the town, not knowing in the least what he should do next, only +quite certain of one thing, that he must remove himself as quickly as possible +from the neighbourhood where the lady he was forced to represent was so +well-known and so popular a character. +</p> + +<p> +As he walked along, considering, his attention was caught by some red and green +lights a little way off, to one side of the town, and the sound of the puffing +and snorting of engines and the banging of shunted trucks fell on his ear. +“Aha!” he thought, “this is a piece of luck! A railway +station is the thing I want most in the whole world at this moment; and +what’s more, I needn’t go through the town to get it, and +shan’t have to support this humiliating character by repartees which, +though thoroughly effective, do not assist one’s sense of +self-respect.” +</p> + +<p> +He made his way to the station accordingly, consulted a time-table, and found +that a train, bound more or less in the direction of his home, was due to start +in half-an-hour. “More luck!” said Toad, his spirits rising +rapidly, and went off to the booking-office to buy his ticket. +</p> + +<p> +He gave the name of the station that he knew to be nearest to the village of +which Toad Hall was the principal feature, and mechanically 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! +</p> + +<p> +To his horror he recollected that he had left both coat and waistcoat behind +him in his cell, and with them his pocket-book, money, keys, watch, matches, +pencil-case—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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +The clerk stared at him and the rusty black bonnet a moment, and then laughed. +“I should think you were pretty well known in these parts,” he +said, “if you’ve tried this game on often. Here, stand away from +the window, please, madam; you’re obstructing the other +passengers!” +</p> + +<p> +An old gentleman who had been prodding him in the back for some moments here +thrust him away, and, what was worse, addressed him as his good woman, which +angered Toad more than anything that had occurred that evening. +</p> + +<p> +Baffled and full of despair, he wandered blindly down the platform where the +train was standing, and tears trickled down each side of his nose. It was hard, +he thought, to be within sight of safety and almost of home, and to be baulked +by the want of a few wretched shillings and by the pettifogging mistrustfulness +of paid officials. Very soon his escape would be discovered, the hunt would be +up, he would be caught, reviled, loaded with chains, dragged back again to +prison and bread-and-water and straw; his guards and penalties would be +doubled; and O, what sarcastic remarks the girl would make! What was to be +done? He was not swift of foot; his figure was unfortunately recognisable. +Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method +adopted by schoolboys, when the journey-money provided by thoughtful parents +had been diverted to other and better ends. As he pondered, he found himself +opposite the engine, which was being oiled, wiped, and generally caressed by +its affectionate driver, a burly man with an oil-can in one hand and a lump of +cotton-waste in the other. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo, mother!” said the engine-driver, “what’s the +trouble? You don’t look particularly cheerful.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, sir!” said Toad, crying afresh, “I am a poor unhappy +washerwoman, and I’ve lost all my money, and can’t pay for a +ticket, and I <i>must</i> get home to-night somehow, and whatever I am to do I +don’t know. O dear, O dear!” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a bad business, indeed,” said the engine-driver +reflectively. “Lost your money—and can’t get home—and +got some kids, too, waiting for you, I dare say?” +</p> + +<p> +“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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said the good +engine-driver. “You’re a washerwoman to your trade, says you. Very +well, that’s that. And I’m an engine-driver, as you well may see, +and there’s no denying it’s terribly dirty work. Uses up a power of +shirts, it does, till my missus is fair tired of washing of ’em. If +you’ll wash a few shirts for me when you get home, and send ’em +along, I’ll give you a ride on my engine. It’s against the +Company’s regulations, but we’re not so very particular in these +out-of-the-way parts.” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad’s misery turned into rapture as he eagerly scrambled up into the +cab of the engine. Of course, he had never washed a shirt in his life, and +couldn’t if he tried and, anyhow, he wasn’t going to begin; but he +thought: “When I get safely home to Toad Hall, and have money again, and +pockets to put it in, I will send the engine-driver enough to pay for quite a +quantity of washing, and that will be the same thing, or better.” +</p> + +<p> +The guard waved his welcome flag, the engine-driver whistled in cheerful +response, and the train moved out of the station. As the speed increased, and +the Toad could see on either side of him real fields, and trees, and hedges, +and cows, and horses, all flying past him, and as he thought how every minute +was bringing him nearer to Toad Hall, and sympathetic friends, and money to +chink in his pocket, and a soft bed to sleep in, and good things to eat, and +praise and admiration at the recital of his adventures and his surpassing +cleverness, he began to skip up and down and shout and sing snatches of song, +to the great astonishment of the engine-driver, who had come across washerwomen +before, at long intervals, but never one at all like this. +</p> + +<p> +They had covered many and many a mile, and Toad was already considering what he +would have for supper as soon as he got home, when he noticed that the +engine-driver, with a puzzled expression on his face, was leaning over the side +of the engine and listening hard. Then he saw him climb on to the coals and +gaze out over the top of the train; then he returned and said to Toad: +“It’s very strange; we’re the last train running in this +direction to-night, yet I could be sworn that I heard another following +us!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once. He became grave and depressed, and a +dull pain in the lower part of his spine, communicating itself to his legs, +made him want to sit down and try desperately not to think of all the +possibilities. +</p> + +<p> +By this time the moon was shining brightly, and the engine-driver, steadying +himself on the coal, could command a view of the line behind them for a long +distance. +</p> + +<p> +Presently he called out, “I can see it clearly now! It is an engine, on +our rails, coming along at a great pace! It looks as if we were being +pursued!” +</p> + +<p> +The miserable Toad, crouching in the coal-dust, tried hard to think of +something to do, with dismal want of success. +</p> + +<p> +“They are gaining on us fast!” cried the engine-driver. And the +engine is crowded with the queerest lot of people! Men like ancient warders, +waving halberds; policemen in their helmets, waving truncheons; and shabbily +dressed men in pot-hats, obvious and unmistakable plain-clothes detectives even +at this distance, waving revolvers and walking-sticks; all waving, and all +shouting the same thing—‘Stop, stop, stop!’” +</p> + +<p> +Then Toad fell on his knees among the coals and, raising his clasped paws in +supplication, cried, “Save me, only save me, dear kind Mr. 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The engine-driver looked down upon him very sternly, and said, “Now tell +the truth; what were you put in prison for?” +</p> + +<p> +“It was nothing very much,” said poor Toad, colouring deeply. +“I only borrowed a 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.” +</p> + +<p> +The engine-driver looked very grave and said, “I fear that you have been +indeed a wicked toad, and by rights I ought to give you up to 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!” +</p> + +<p> +They piled on more coals, shovelling furiously; the furnace roared, the sparks +flew, the engine leapt and swung but still their pursuers slowly gained. The +engine-driver, with a sigh, wiped his brow with a handful of cotton-waste, and +said, “I’m afraid it’s no good, Toad. You see, they are +running light, and they have the better engine. There’s just one thing +left for us to do, and it’s your only chance, so attend very carefully to +what I tell you. A short way ahead of us is a long tunnel, and on the other +side of that the line passes through a thick wood. Now, I will put on all the +speed I can while we are running through the tunnel, but the other fellows will +slow down a bit, naturally, for fear of an accident. When we are through, I +will shut off steam and put on brakes as hard as I can, and the moment +it’s safe to do so you must jump and hide in the wood, before they get +through the tunnel and see you. Then I will go full speed ahead again, and they +can chase me if they like, for as long as they like, and as far as they like. +Now mind and be ready to jump when I tell you!” +</p> + +<p> +They piled on more coals, and the train shot into the tunnel, and the engine +rushed and roared and rattled, till at last they shot out at the other end into +fresh air and the peaceful moonlight, and saw the wood lying dark and helpful +upon either side of the line. The driver shut off steam and put on brakes, the +Toad got down on the step, and as the train slowed down to almost a walking +pace he heard the driver call out, “Now, jump!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad jumped, rolled down a short embankment, picked himself up unhurt, +scrambled into the wood and hid. +</p> + +<p> +Peeping out, he saw his train get up speed again and disappear at a great pace. +Then 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. +</p> + +<p> +But he soon stopped laughing when he came to consider that it was now very late +and dark and cold, and he was in an unknown wood, with no money and no chance +of supper, and still far from friends and home; and the dead silence of +everything, after the roar and rattle of the train, was something of a shock. +He dared not leave the shelter of the trees, so he struck into the wood, with +the idea of leaving the railway as far as possible behind him. +</p> + +<p> +After so many weeks within walls, he found the wood strange and unfriendly and +inclined, he thought, to make fun of him. Night-jars, sounding their mechanical +rattle, made him think that the wood was full of searching warders, closing in +on him. An owl, swooping noiselessly towards him, brushed his shoulder with its +wing, making him jump with the 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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap09"></a>IX.<br> +WAYFARERS ALL</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Nature’s Grand Hotel has its Season, like the others. As the guests one +by one pack, pay, and depart, and the seats at the <i>table-d’hôte</i> shrink +pitifully at each succeeding meal; as suites of rooms are closed, carpets taken +up, and waiters sent away; those boarders who are staying on, <i>en pension</i>, until +the next year’s full re-opening, cannot help being somewhat affected by +all these flittings and farewells, this eager discussion of plans, routes, and +fresh quarters, this daily shrinkage in the stream of comradeship. One gets +unsettled, depressed, and inclined to be querulous. Why this craving for +change? Why not stay on quietly here, like us, and be jolly? You don’t +know this hotel out 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. +</p> + +<p> +It was difficult to settle down to anything seriously, with all this flitting +going on. Leaving the water-side, where rushes stood thick and tall in a stream +that was becoming sluggish and low, he wandered country-wards, crossed a field +or two of pasturage already looking dusty and parched, and thrust into the +great sea of wheat, yellow, wavy, and murmurous, full of quiet motion and small +whisperings. Here he often loved to wander, through the forest of stiff strong +stalks that carried their own golden sky away over his head—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. +</p> + +<p> +“Here’s old Ratty!” they cried as soon as they saw him. +“Come and bear a hand, Rat, and don’t stand about idle!” +</p> + +<p> +“What sort of games are you up to?” said the Water Rat severely. +“You know it isn’t time to be thinking of winter quarters yet, by a +long way!” +</p> + +<p> +“O yes, we know that,” explained a field-mouse rather shamefacedly; +“but it’s always as well to be in good time, isn’t it? We +really <i>must</i> get all the furniture and baggage and stores moved out of this +before those horrid machines begin clicking round the fields; and then, you +know, the best flats get picked up so quickly nowadays, and if you’re +late you have to put up with <i>anything</i>; and they want such a lot of doing up, +too, before they’re fit to move into. Of course, we’re early, we +know that; but we’re only just making a start.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, bother <i>starts</i>,” said the Rat. “It’s a splendid day. +Come for a row, or a stroll along the hedges, or a picnic in the woods, or +something.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I <i>think</i> not <i>to-day</i>, thank you,” replied the field-mouse +hurriedly. “Perhaps some <i>other</i> day—when we’ve more +<i>time</i>——” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, with a snort of contempt, swung round to go, tripped over a hat-box, +and fell, with undignified remarks. +</p> + +<p> +“If people would be more careful,” said a field-mouse rather +stiffly, “and look where they’re going, people wouldn’t hurt +themselves—and forget themselves. Mind that hold-all, Rat! You’d +better sit down somewhere. In an hour or two we may be more free to attend to +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You won’t be ‘free’ as you call it much this side of +Christmas, I can see that,” retorted the Rat grumpily, as he picked his +way out of the field. +</p> + +<p> +He returned somewhat despondently to his river again—his faithful, +steady-going old river, which never packed up, flitted, or went into winter +quarters. +</p> + +<p> +In the osiers which fringed the bank he spied a swallow sitting. Presently it +was joined by another, and then by a third; and the birds, fidgeting restlessly +on their bough, talked together earnestly and low. +</p> + +<p> +“What, <i>already</i>,” said the Rat, strolling up to them. +“What’s the hurry? I call it simply ridiculous.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, we’re not off yet, if that’s what you 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Fun?” said the Rat; “now that’s just what I +don’t understand. If you’ve <i>got</i> to leave this pleasant place, and +your friends who will miss you, and your snug homes that you’ve just +settled into, why, when the hour strikes I’ve no doubt you’ll go +bravely, and face all the trouble and discomfort and change and newness, and +make believe that you’re not very unhappy. But to want to talk about it, +or even think about it, till you really need——” +</p> + +<p> +“No, you don’t understand, naturally,” said the second +swallow. “First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back +come the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter through +our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and circlings by day. We +hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes and assure ourselves that it +was all really true, as one by one the scents and sounds and names of +long-forgotten places come gradually back and beckon to us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Couldn’t you stop on for just this year?” suggested the +Water Rat, wistfully. “We’ll all do our best to make you feel at +home. You’ve no idea what good times we have here, while you are far +away.” +</p> + +<p> +“I tried ‘stopping on’ one year,” said the third +swallow. “I had grown so fond of the place that when the time came I hung +back and let the others go on without me. For a few weeks it was all well +enough, but afterwards, O the weary length of the nights! The shivering, +sunless days! The air so clammy and chill, and not an insect in an acre of it! +No, it was no good; my courage broke down, and one cold, stormy night I took +wing, flying well inland on account of the strong easterly gales. It was +snowing hard as I beat through the passes of the great mountains, and I had a +stiff fight to win through; but never shall I forget the blissful feeling of +the hot sun again on my back as I sped down to the lakes that lay so blue and +placid below me, and the taste of my first fat insect! The past was like a bad +dream; the future was all happy holiday as I moved southwards week by week, +easily, lazily, lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call! No, +I had had my warning; never again did I think of disobedience.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, yes, the call of the South, of the South!” twittered the other +two dreamily. “Its songs its hues, its radiant air! O, do you +remember——” 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you ever come back, then, at all?” he demanded of the +swallows jealously. “What do you find to attract you in this poor drab +little country?” +</p> + +<p> +“And do you think,” said the first swallow, “that the other +call is not for us too, in its due season? The call of lush meadow-grass, wet +orchards, warm, insect-haunted ponds, of browsing cattle, of haymaking, and all +the farm-buildings clustering round the House of the perfect Eaves?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you suppose,” asked the second one, that you are the only +living thing that craves with a hungry longing to hear the cuckoo’s note +again?” +</p> + +<p> +“In due time,” said the third, “we shall be home-sick once +more for quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream. But +to-day all that seems pale and thin and very far away. Just now our blood +dances to other music.” +</p> + +<p> +They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their +intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls. +</p> + +<p> +Restlessly the Rat wandered off once more, climbed the slope that rose gently +from the north bank of the river, and lay looking out towards the great ring of +Downs that barred his vision further southwards—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! +</p> + +<p> +He rose and descended river-wards once more; then changed his mind and sought +the side of the dusty lane. There, lying half-buried in the thick, cool +under-hedge tangle that bordered it, he could muse on the metalled road and all +the wondrous world that it led to; on all the wayfarers, too, that might have +trodden it, and the fortunes and adventures they had gone to seek or found +unseeking—out there, beyond—beyond! +</p> + +<p> +Footsteps fell on his ear, and the figure of one that walked somewhat wearily +came into view; and he saw that it was a Rat, and a very dusty one. The +wayfarer, as he reached him, saluted with a gesture of courtesy that had +something foreign about it—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. +</p> + +<p> +The wayfarer was lean and keen-featured, and somewhat bowed at the shoulders; +his paws were thin and long, his eyes much wrinkled at the corners, and he wore +small gold ear rings in his neatly-set well-shaped ears. His knitted jersey was +of a faded blue, his breeches, patched and stained, were based on a blue +foundation, and his small belongings that he carried were tied up in a blue +cotton handkerchief. +</p> + +<p> +When he had rested awhile the stranger sighed, snuffed the air, and looked +about him. +</p> + +<p> +“That was clover, that warm whiff on the breeze,” he remarked; +“and those are cows we hear cropping the grass behind us and blowing +softly between mouthfuls. There is a sound of distant reapers, and yonder rises +a blue line of cottage smoke against the woodland. The river runs somewhere +close by, for I hear the call of a moorhen, and I see by your build that +you’re a freshwater mariner. Everything seems asleep, and yet going on +all the time. It is a goodly life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in +the world, if only you are strong enough to lead it!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it’s <i>the</i> life, the only life, to live,” responded the +Water Rat dreamily, and without his usual whole-hearted conviction. +</p> + +<p> +“I did not say exactly that,” replied the stranger cautiously; +“but no doubt it’s the best. I’ve tried it, and I know. And +because I’ve just tried it—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, <i>the</i> life +which is mine and which will not let me go.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is this, then, yet another of them?” mused the Rat. “And +where have you just come from?” he asked. He hardly dared to ask where he +was bound for; he seemed to know the answer only too well. +</p> + +<p> +“Nice little farm,” replied the wayfarer, briefly. “Upalong +in that direction”—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!” +</p> + +<p> +His shining eyes held fast to the horizon, and he seemed to be listening for +some sound that was wanting from that inland acreage, vocal as it was with the +cheerful music of pasturage and farmyard. +</p> + +<p> +“You are not one of <i>us</i>,” said the Water Rat, “nor yet a +farmer; nor even, I should judge, of this country.” +</p> + +<p> +“Right,” replied the stranger. “I’m a seafaring rat, I +am, and the port I originally hail from is Constantinople, though I’m a +sort of a foreigner there too, in a manner of speaking. You will have heard of +Constantinople, friend? A fair city, and an ancient and glorious one. And you +may have heard, too, of Sigurd, King of Norway, and how he sailed thither with +sixty ships, and how he and his men rode up through streets all canopied in +their honour with purple and gold; and how the Emperor and Empress came down +and banqueted with him on board his ship. When Sigurd returned home, many of +his Northmen remained behind and entered the Emperor’s body-guard, and my +ancestor, a Norwegian born, stayed behind too, with the ships that Sigurd gave +the Emperor. Seafarers we have ever been, and no wonder; as for me, the city of +my birth is no more my home than any pleasant port between there and the London +River. I know them all, and they know me. Set me down on any of their quays or +foreshores, and I am home again.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you go great voyages,” said the Water Rat with growing +interest. “Months and months out of sight of land, and provisions running +short, and allowanced as to water, and your mind communing with the mighty +ocean, and all that sort of thing?” +</p> + +<p> +“By no means,” said the Sea Rat frankly. “Such a life as you +describe would not suit me at all. I’m in the coasting trade, and rarely +out of sight of land. It’s the jolly times on shore that appeal to me, as +much as any seafaring. O, those southern seaports! The smell of them, the +riding-lights at night, the glamour!” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, perhaps you have chosen the better way,” said the Water Rat, +but rather doubtfully. “Tell me something of your coasting, then, if you +have a mind to, and what sort of harvest an animal of spirit might hope to +bring home from it to warm his latter days with gallant memories by the +fireside; for my life, I confess to you, feels to me to-day somewhat narrow and +circumscribed.” +</p> + +<p> +“My last voyage,” began the Sea Rat, “that landed me +eventually in this country, bound with high hopes for my inland farm, will +serve as a good example of any of them, and, indeed, as an epitome of my +highly-coloured life. Family troubles, as usual, began it. The domestic +storm-cone was hoisted, and I shipped myself on board a small trading vessel +bound from Constantinople, by classic seas whose every wave throbs with a +deathless memory, to the Grecian Islands and the Levant. Those were golden days +and balmy nights! In and out of harbour all the time—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.” +</p> + +<p> +He was silent for a time; and the Water Rat, silent too and enthralled, floated +on dream-canals and heard a phantom song pealing high between vaporous grey +wave-lapped walls. +</p> + +<p> +“Southwards we sailed again at last,” continued the Sea Rat, +“coasting down the Italian 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.” +</p> + +<p> +“But isn’t it very hot and stuffy, down in the—hold, I think +you call it?” asked the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +The seafarer looked at him with the suspicion of a wink. “I’m an +old hand,” he remarked with much simplicity. “The captain’s +cabin’s good enough for me.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a hard life, by all accounts,” murmured the Rat, sunk +in deep thought. +</p> + +<p> +“For the crew it is,” replied the seafarer gravely, again with the +ghost of a wink. +</p> + +<p> +“From Corsica,” he went on, “I made use of 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“That reminds me,” said the polite Water Rat; “you happened +to mention that you were hungry, and I ought to have spoken earlier. Of course, +you will stop and take your midday meal with me? My hole is close by; it is +some time past noon, and you are very welcome to whatever there is.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now I call that kind and brotherly of you,” said the Sea Rat. +“I was indeed hungry when I sat down, and ever since I inadvertently +happened to mention shell-fish, my pangs have been extreme. But couldn’t +you fetch it along out here? I am none too fond of going under hatches, unless +I’m obliged to; and then, while we eat, I could tell you more concerning +my voyages and the pleasant life I lead—at least, it is very pleasant to +me, and by your attention I judge it commends itself to you; whereas if we go +indoors it is a hundred to one that I shall presently fall asleep.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is indeed an excellent suggestion,” said the Water Rat, and +hurried off home. There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple +meal, in which, remembering the stranger’s origin and preferences, he +took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the +garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked +straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far +Southern slopes. Thus laden, he returned with all speed, and blushed for +pleasure at the old seaman’s commendations of his taste and judgment, as +together they unpacked the basket and laid out the contents on the grass by the +roadside. +</p> + +<p> +The Sea Rat, as soon as his hunger was somewhat assuaged, continued the history +of his latest voyage, conducting his simple hearer from port to port of Spain, +landing him at Lisbon, Oporto, and Bordeaux, introducing him to the pleasant +harbours of Cornwall and Devon, and so up the Channel to that final quayside, +where, landing after winds long contrary, storm-driven and weather-beaten, he +had caught the first magical hints and heraldings of another Spring, and, fired +by these, had sped on a long tramp inland, hungry for the experiment of life on +some quiet farmstead, very far from the weary beating of any sea. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +By this time their meal was over, and the Seafarer, refreshed and strengthened, +his voice more vibrant, his eye lit with a brightness that seemed caught from +some far-away sea-beacon, filled his glass with the red and glowing vintage of +the South, and, leaning towards the Water Rat, compelled his gaze and held him, +body and soul, while he talked. Those eyes were of the changing foam-streaked +grey-green of leaping Northern seas; in the glass shone a hot ruby that seemed +the very heart of the South, beating for him who had courage to respond to its +pulsation. The twin lights, the shifting grey 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly, in his waking dream it seemed to him that the Adventurer had risen to +his feet, but was still speaking, still holding him fast with his sea-grey +eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“And now,” he was softly saying, “I take to the road again, +holding on southwestwards for many a long and dusty day; till at last I reach +the little grey sea town I know so well, that clings along one steep side of +the harbour. There through dark doorways you look down flights of stone steps, +overhung by great pink tufts of valerian and ending in a patch of 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! +</p> + +<p> +“And you, you will come too, young brother; for the days pass, and never +return, and the South still waits for you. Take the Adventure, heed the call, +now ere the irrevocable moment passes! ’Tis but a banging of the door +behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of the old life and into +the new! Then some day, some day long hence, jog home here if you will, when +the cup has been drained and the play has been played, and sit down by your +quiet river with a store of goodly memories for company. You can easily +overtake me on the road, for you are young, and I am ageing and go softly. I +will linger, and look back; and at last I will surely see you coming, eager and +light-hearted, with all the South in your face!” +</p> + +<p> +The voice died away and ceased as an insect’s tiny trumpet dwindles +swiftly into silence; and the Water Rat, paralysed and staring, saw at last but +a distant speck on the white surface of the road. +</p> + +<p> +Mechanically he rose and proceeded to repack the luncheon-basket, carefully and +without haste. Mechanically he returned home, gathered together a few small +necessaries and special treasures he was fond of, and put them in a satchel; +acting with slow deliberation, moving about the room like a sleep-walker; +listening ever with parted lips. He swung the satchel over his shoulder, +carefully selected a stout stick for his wayfaring, and with no haste, but with +no hesitation at all, he stepped across the threshold just as the Mole appeared +at the door. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, where are you off to, Ratty?” asked the Mole in great +surprise, grasping him by the arm. +</p> + +<p> +“Going South, with the rest of them,” murmured the Rat in a dreamy +monotone, never looking at him. “Seawards first and then on shipboard, +and so to the shores that are calling me!” +</p> + +<p> +He pressed resolutely forward, still without haste, but with dogged fixity of +purpose; but the Mole, now thoroughly alarmed, placed himself in front of him, +and looking into his eyes 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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat struggled desperately for a few moments, and then his strength seemed +suddenly to leave him, and he lay still and exhausted, with closed eyes, +trembling. Presently the Mole assisted him to rise and placed him in a chair, +where he sat collapsed and shrunken into himself, his body shaken by a violent +shivering, passing in time into an hysterical fit of dry sobbing. Mole made the +door fast, threw the satchel into a drawer and locked it, and sat down quietly +on the table by his friend, waiting for the strange seizure to pass. Gradually +the Rat sank into a troubled doze, broken by starts and confused murmurings of +things strange and wild and foreign to the unenlightened Mole; and from that he +passed into a deep slumber. +</p> + +<p> +Very anxious in mind, the Mole left him for a time and busied himself with +household matters; and it was getting dark when he returned to the parlour and +found the Rat where he had left him, wide awake indeed, but listless, silent, +and dejected. He took one hasty glance at his eyes; found them, to his great +gratification, clear and dark and brown again as before; and then sat down and +tried to cheer him up and help him to relate what had happened to him. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Ratty did his best, by degrees, to explain things; but how could he put +into cold words what had mostly been suggestion? How recall, for +another’s benefit, the haunting sea voices that had sung to him, how +reproduce at second-hand the magic of the Seafarer’s hundred +reminiscences? Even to himself, now the spell was broken and the glamour gone, +he found it difficult to account for what had seemed, some hours ago, the +inevitable and only thing. It is not surprising, then, that he failed to convey +to the Mole any clear idea of what he had been through that day. +</p> + +<p> +To the Mole this much was plain: the fit, or attack, had passed away, and had +left him sane again, though shaken and cast down by the reaction. But he seemed +to have lost all interest for the time in the things that went to make up his +daily life, as well as in all pleasant forecastings of the altered days and +doings that the changing season was surely bringing. +</p> + +<p> +Casually, then, and with seeming indifference, the Mole turned his talk to the +harvest that was being gathered in, the towering wagons and their straining +teams, the growing ricks, and the large moon rising over bare acres dotted with +sheaves. He talked of the reddening apples around, of the browning nuts, of +jams and preserves and the distilling of cordials; till by easy stages such as +these he reached midwinter, its hearty joys and its snug home life, and then he +became simply lyrical. +</p> + +<p> +By degrees the Rat began to sit up and to join in. His dull eye brightened, and +he lost some of his listening air. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the tactful Mole slipped away and returned with a pencil and a few +half-sheets of paper, which he placed on the table at his friend’s elbow. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s quite a long time since you did any poetry,” he +remarked. “You might have a try 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.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat pushed the paper away from him wearily, but the discreet Mole took +occasion to leave the room, and when he peeped in again some time later, the +Rat was absorbed and deaf to the world; alternately scribbling and sucking the +top of his pencil. It is true that he sucked a good deal more than he +scribbled; but it was joy to the Mole to know that the cure had at least begun. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap10"></a>X.<br> +THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes first and his complaining toes next, wondered +for a moment where he was, looking round for familiar stone wall and little +barred window; then, with a leap of the heart, remembered everything—his +escape, his flight, his pursuit; remembered, first and best thing of all, that +he was free! +</p> + +<p> +Free! The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets. He was warm +from end to end as he thought of the jolly world outside, waiting eagerly for +him to make his triumphal entrance, ready to serve him and play up to him, +anxious to help him and to keep him company, as it always had been in days of +old before misfortune fell upon him. He shook himself and combed the dry leaves +out of his hair with his fingers; and, his toilet complete, marched forth into +the comfortable morning sun, cold but confident, hungry but hopeful, all +nervous terrors of yesterday dispelled by rest and sleep and frank and +heartening sunshine. +</p> + +<p> +He had the world all to himself, that early summer morning. The dewy woodland, +as he threaded it, was solitary and still: the green fields that succeeded the +trees were his own to do as he liked with; the road itself, when he reached it, +in that loneliness that was everywhere, seemed, like a stray dog, to be looking +anxiously for company. Toad, however, was looking for something that could +talk, and tell him clearly which way he ought to go. It is all very well, when +you have a light heart, and a clear conscience, and money in your pocket, and +nobody scouring the country for you to drag you off to prison again, to follow +where the road beckons and points, not caring whither. The practical Toad cared +very much indeed, and he could have kicked the road for its helpless silence +when every minute was of importance to him. +</p> + +<p> +The reserved rustic road was presently joined by a shy little brother in the +shape of a canal, which took its hand and ambled along by its side in perfect +confidence, but with the same tongue-tied, uncommunicative attitude towards +strangers. “Bother them!” said Toad to himself. “But, anyhow, +one thing’s clear. They must both be coming <i>from</i> somewhere, and going <i>to</i> +somewhere. You can’t get over that. Toad, my boy!” So he marched on +patiently by the water’s edge. +</p> + +<p> +Round a bend in the canal came plodding a solitary horse, stooping forward as +if in anxious thought. From rope traces attached to his collar stretched a long +line, taut, but dipping with his stride, the further part of it dripping pearly +drops. Toad let the horse pass, and stood waiting for what the fates were +sending him. +</p> + +<p> +With a pleasant swirl of quiet water at its blunt bow the barge slid up +alongside of him, its gaily painted gunwale level with the towing-path, its +sole occupant a big stout woman wearing a linen sun-bonnet, one brawny arm laid +along the tiller. +</p> + +<p> +“A nice morning, ma’am!” she remarked to Toad, as she drew up +level with him. +</p> + +<p> +“I dare say it is, ma’am!” responded Toad politely, as he +walked along the tow-path abreast of her. “I dare it <i>is</i> 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Where might your married daughter be living, ma’am?” asked +the barge-woman. +</p> + +<p> +“She lives near to the river, ma’am,” replied Toad. +“Close to a fine house called Toad Hall, that’s somewheres +hereabouts in these parts. Perhaps you may have heard of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad Hall? Why, I’m going that way myself,” replied the +barge-woman. “This canal joins the river some miles further on, a little +above Toad Hall; and then it’s an easy walk. You come along in the barge +with me, and I’ll give you a lift.” +</p> + +<p> +She steered the barge close to the bank, and Toad, with many humble and +grateful acknowledgments, stepped lightly on board and sat down with great +satisfaction. “Toad’s luck again!” thought he. “I +always come out on top!” +</p> + +<p> +“So you’re in the washing business, ma’am?” said the +barge-woman politely, as they glided along. “And a very good business +you’ve got too, I dare say, if I’m not making too free in saying +so.” +</p> + +<p> +“Finest business in the whole country,” said Toad airily. +“All the gentry come to me—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“But surely you don’t <i>do</i> all that work yourself, +ma’am?” asked the barge-woman respectfully. +</p> + +<p> +“O, I have girls,” said Toad lightly: “twenty girls or +thereabouts, always at work. But you know what <i>girls</i> are, ma’am! Nasty +little hussies, that’s what <i>I</i> call ’em!” +</p> + +<p> +“So do I, too,” said the barge-woman with great heartiness. +“But I dare say you set yours to rights, the idle trollops! And are you +<i>very</i> fond of washing?” +</p> + +<p> +“I love it,” said Toad. “I simply dote on it. Never so happy +as when I’ve got both arms in the wash-tub. But, then, it comes so easy +to me! No trouble at all! A real pleasure, I assure you, ma’am!” +</p> + +<p> +“What a bit of luck, meeting you!” observed the barge-woman, +thoughtfully. “A regular piece of good fortune for both of us!” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, what do you mean?” asked Toad, nervously. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, look at me, now,” replied the barge-woman. “<i>I</i> +like washing, too, just the same as you do; and for that matter, whether I like +it or not I have got to do all my own, naturally, moving about as I do. Now my +husband, he’s such a fellow for shirking his work and leaving 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?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, never mind about the washing,” said Toad, not liking the +subject. “Try and fix your mind on that rabbit. A nice fat young rabbit, +I’ll be bound. Got any onions?” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t fix my mind on anything but my washing,” said the +barge-woman, “and I wonder you can be talking of rabbits, with such a +joyful prospect before you. There’s a heap of things of mine that +you’ll find in a corner of the cabin. If you’ll just take one or +two of the most necessary sort—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Here, you let me steer!” said Toad, now thoroughly frightened, +“and then you can get on with your washing your own way. I might spoil +your things, or not do ’em as you like. I’m more used to +gentlemen’s things myself. It’s my special line.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let you steer?” replied the barge-woman, laughing. “It takes +some practice to steer a barge properly. Besides, it’s dull work, and I +want you to be happy. No, you shall do the washing you are so fond of, and +I’ll stick to the steering that I understand. Don’t try and deprive +me of the pleasure of giving you a treat!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad was fairly cornered. He looked for escape this way and that, saw that he +was too far from the bank for a flying leap, and sullenly resigned himself to +his fate. “If it comes to that,” he thought in desperation, +“I suppose any fool can <i>wash!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +He fetched tub, soap, and other necessaries from the cabin, selected a few +garments at random, tried to recollect what he had seen in casual glances +through laundry windows, and set to. +</p> + +<p> +A long half-hour passed, and every minute of it saw Toad getting crosser and +crosser. Nothing that he could do to the things seemed to please them or do +them good. He tried coaxing, he tried slapping, he tried punching; they smiled +back at him out of the tub unconverted, happy in their original sin. Once or +twice he looked nervously over his shoulder at the barge-woman, but she +appeared to be gazing out in front of her, absorbed in her steering. His back +ached badly, and he noticed with dismay that his paws were beginning to get all +crinkly. Now Toad was very proud of his paws. He muttered under his breath +words that should never pass the lips of either washerwomen or Toads; and lost +the soap, for the fiftieth time. +</p> + +<p> +A burst of laughter made him straighten himself and look round. The barge-woman +was leaning back and laughing unrestrainedly, till the tears ran down her +cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been watching you all the time,” she gasped. “I +thought you must be a humbug all along, from the conceited way you talked. +Pretty washerwoman you are! Never washed so much as a dish-clout in your life, +I’ll lay!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad’s temper which had been simmering viciously for some time, now +fairly boiled over, and he lost all control of himself. +</p> + +<p> +“You common, low, <i>fat</i> barge-woman!” he shouted; “don’t +you dare to talk to your betters like that! Washerwoman indeed! I would have +you to know that I am a Toad, a very well-known, respected, distinguished Toad! +I may be under a bit of a cloud at present, but I will <i>not</i> be laughed at by a +bargewoman!” +</p> + +<p> +The woman moved nearer to him and peered under his bonnet keenly and closely. +“Why, so you are!” she cried. “Well, I never! A horrid, +nasty, crawly Toad! And in my nice clean barge, too! Now that is a thing that I +will <i>not</i> have.” +</p> + +<p> +She relinquished the tiller for a moment. One big mottled arm shot out and +caught Toad by a fore-leg, while the other-gripped him fast by a hind-leg. Then +the world turned suddenly upside down, the barge seemed to flit lightly across +the sky, the wind whistled in his ears, and Toad found himself flying through +the air, revolving rapidly as he went. +</p> + +<p> +The water, when he eventually reached it with a loud splash, proved quite cold +enough for his taste, though its chill was not sufficient to quell his proud +spirit, or slake the heat of his furious temper. He rose to the surface +spluttering, and when he had wiped the duck-weed out of his eyes the first +thing he saw was the fat barge-woman looking back at him over the stern of the +retreating barge and laughing; and he vowed, as he coughed and choked, to be +even with her. +</p> + +<p> +He struck out for the shore, but the cotton gown greatly impeded his efforts, +and when at length he touched land he found it hard to climb up the steep bank +unassisted. He had to take a minute or two’s rest to recover his breath; +then, gathering his wet skirts well over his arms, he started to run after the +barge as fast as his legs would carry him, wild with indignation, thirsting for +revenge. +</p> + +<p> +The barge-woman was still laughing when he drew up level with her. “Put +yourself through your mangle, washerwoman,” she called out, “and +iron your face and crimp it, and you’ll pass for quite a decent-looking +Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad never paused to reply. Solid revenge was what he wanted, not cheap, windy, +verbal triumphs, though he had a thing or two in his mind that he would have +liked to say. He saw what he wanted ahead of him. Running swiftly on he +overtook the horse, unfastened the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The barge-horse was not capable of any very sustained effort, and its gallop +soon subsided into a trot, and its trot into an easy walk; but Toad was quite +contented with this, knowing that he, at any rate, was moving, and the barge +was not. He had quite recovered his temper, now that he had done something he +thought really clever; and he was satisfied to jog along quietly in the sun, +steering his horse along by-ways and bridle-paths, and trying to forget how +very long it was since he had had a square meal, till the canal had been left +very far behind him. +</p> + +<p> +He had travelled some miles, his horse and he, and he was feeling drowsy in the +hot sunshine, when the horse stopped, lowered his head, and began to nibble the +grass; and Toad, waking up, just saved himself from falling off by an effort. +He looked about him and found he was 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. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the gipsy took his pipe out of his mouth and remarked in a careless +way, “Want to sell that there horse of yours?” +</p> + +<p> +Toad was completely taken aback. He did not know that gipsies were very fond of +horse-dealing, and never missed an opportunity, and he had not reflected that +caravans were always on the move and took a deal of drawing. It had not +occurred to him to turn the horse into cash, but the gipsy’s suggestion +seemed to smooth the way towards the two things he wanted so badly—ready +money, and a solid breakfast. +</p> + +<p> +“What?” he said, “me sell this beautiful young horse of mine? +O, no; it’s out of the question. Who’s going to take the washing +home to my customers every week? Besides, I’m too fond of him, and he +simply dotes on me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Try and love a donkey,” suggested the gipsy. “Some people +do.” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t seem to see,” continued Toad, “that this +fine horse of mine is a cut above you altogether. He’s a blood horse, he +is, partly; not the part you see, of course—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?” +</p> + +<p> +The gipsy looked the horse over, and then he looked Toad over with equal care, +and looked at the horse again. “Shillin’ a leg,” he said +briefly, and turned away, continuing to smoke and try to stare the wide world +out of countenance. +</p> + +<p> +“A shilling a leg?” cried Toad. “If you please, I must take a +little time to work that out, and see just what it comes to.” +</p> + +<p> +He climbed down off his horse, and left it to graze, and sat down by the gipsy, +and did sums on his fingers, and at last he said, “A shilling a leg? Why, +that comes to exactly four shillings, and no more. O, no; I could not think of +accepting four shillings for this beautiful young horse of mine.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said the gipsy, “I’ll tell you what I will do. +I’ll make it five shillings, and that’s three-and-sixpence more +than the animal’s worth. And that’s my last word.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Toad sat and pondered long and deeply. For he was hungry and quite +penniless, and still some way—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 <i>my</i> +last word. You shall hand me over six shillings and sixpence, cash down; and +further, in addition thereto, you shall give me as much breakfast as I can +possibly eat, at one sitting of course, out of that iron pot of yours that +keeps sending forth such delicious and exciting smells. In return, I will make +over to you my spirited young horse, with all the beautiful harness and +trappings that are on him, freely thrown in. If that’s not good enough +for you, say so, and I’ll be getting on. I know a man near here +who’s wanted this horse of mine for years.” +</p> + +<p> +The gipsy grumbled frightfully, and declared if he did a few more deals of that +sort he’d be ruined. But in the end he lugged a dirty canvas bag out of +the depths of his trouser pocket, and counted out six shillings and sixpence +into Toad’s paw. Then he disappeared into the caravan for an instant, and +returned with a large iron plate and a knife, fork, and spoon. He tilted up the +pot, and a glorious stream of hot rich stew gurgled into the plate. It was, +indeed, the most beautiful stew in the world, being made of partridges, and +pheasants, and chickens, and hares, and rabbits, and 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. +</p> + +<p> +When Toad had taken as much stew on board as he thought he could possibly hold, +he got up and said good-bye to the gipsy, and took an affectionate farewell of +the horse; and the gipsy, who knew the riverside well, gave him directions +which way to go, and he set forth on his travels again in the best possible +spirits. He was, indeed, a very different Toad from the animal of an hour ago. +The sun was shining brightly, his wet clothes were quite dry again, he had +money in his pocket once more, he was nearing home and friends and safety, and, +most and best of all, he had had a substantial meal, hot and nourishing, and +felt big, and strong, and careless, and self-confident. +</p> + +<p> +As he tramped along gaily, he thought of his adventures and escapes, and how +when things seemed at their worst he had always managed to find a way out; and +his pride and conceit began to swell within him. “Ho, ho!” he said +to himself as he marched along with his chin in the air, “what a clever +Toad I am! There is surely no animal equal to me for cleverness in the whole +world! My enemies shut me up in prison, encircled by sentries, watched night +and day by warders; I walk out through them all, by sheer ability coupled with +courage. They pursue me with engines, and policemen, and revolvers; I snap my +fingers at them, and vanish, laughing, into space. I am, unfortunately, thrown +into a canal by a woman fat of body and very evil-minded. What of it? I swim +ashore, I seize her horse, I ride off in triumph, and I sell the horse for a +whole pocketful of money and an excellent breakfast! Ho, ho! I am The Toad, the +handsome, the popular, the successful Toad!” He got so puffed up with +conceit that he made up a song as he walked in praise of himself, and sang it +at the top of his voice, though there was no one to hear it but him. It was +perhaps the most conceited song that any animal ever composed. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“The world has held great Heroes,<br> + As history-books have showed;<br> +But never a name to go down to fame<br> + Compared with that of Toad!<br> +<br> +“The clever men at Oxford<br> + Know all that there is to be knowed.<br> +But they none of them know one half as much<br> + As intelligent Mr. Toad!<br> +<br> +“The animals sat in the Ark and cried,<br> + Their tears in torrents flowed.<br> +Who was it said, ‘There’s land ahead?’<br> + Encouraging Mr. Toad!<br> +<br> +“The army all saluted<br> + As they marched along the road.<br> +Was it the King? Or Kitchener?<br> + No. It was Mr. Toad.<br> +<br> +“The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting<br> + Sat at the window and sewed.<br> +She cried, ‘Look! who’s that <i>handsome</i> man?’<br> + They answered, ‘Mr. Toad.’” +</p> + +<p> +There was a great deal more of the same sort, but too dreadfully conceited to +be written down. These are some of the milder verses. +</p> + +<p> +He sang as he walked, and he walked as he sang, and got more inflated every +minute. But his pride was shortly to have a severe fall. +</p> + +<p> +After some miles of country lanes he reached the high road, and as he turned +into it and glanced along its white length, he saw approaching him a speck that +turned into a dot and then into a blob, and then into something very familiar; +and a double note of warning, only too well known, fell on his delighted ear. +</p> + +<p> +“This is something like!” said the excited Toad. “This is +real life again, this is once more the great world from which I have been +missed so long! I will hail them, my brothers of the wheel, and pitch them a +yarn, of the sort that has been so successful hitherto; and they will give me a +lift, of course, and then I will talk to them some more; and, perhaps, with +luck, it may even end in my driving up to Toad Hall in a motor-car! That will +be one in the eye for Badger!” +</p> + +<p> +He stepped confidently out into the road to hail the motor-car, which came +along at an easy pace, slowing down as it neared the lane; when suddenly he +became very pale, his heart turned to water, his knees shook and yielded under +him, and he doubled up and collapsed with a sickening pain in his interior. And +well he might, the unhappy animal; for the approaching car was the very one he +had stolen out of the yard of the Red Lion Hotel on that fatal day when all his +troubles began! And the people in it were the very same people he had sat and +watched at luncheon in the coffee-room! +</p> + +<p> +He sank down in a shabby, miserable heap in the road, murmuring to himself in +his despair, “It’s all up! It’s all over now! Chains and +policemen again! Prison again! Dry bread and water again! O, what a fool I have +been! What did I want to go strutting about the country for, singing conceited +songs, and hailing people in broad day on the high road, instead of hiding till +nightfall and slipping home quietly by back ways! O hapless Toad! O ill-fated +animal!” +</p> + +<p> +The terrible motor-car drew slowly nearer and nearer, till at last he heard it +stop just short of him. Two gentlemen got out and walked round the trembling +heap of crumpled misery lying in the road, and one of them said, “O dear! +this is very sad! Here is a poor old thing—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.” +</p> + +<p> +They tenderly lifted Toad into the motor-car and propped him up with soft +cushions, and proceeded on their way. +</p> + +<p> +When Toad heard them talk in so kind and sympathetic a way, and knew that he +was not recognised, his courage began to revive, and he cautiously opened first +one eye and then the other. +</p> + +<p> +“Look!” said one of the gentlemen, “she is better already. +The fresh air is doing her good. How do you feel now, ma’am?” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you kindly, Sir,” said Toad in a feeble voice, +“I’m feeling a great deal better!” “That’s +right,” said the gentleman. “Now keep quite still, and, above all, +don’t try to talk.” +</p> + +<p> +“I won’t,” said Toad. “I was only thinking, if I might +sit on the front seat there, beside the driver, where I could get the fresh air +full in my face, I should soon be all right again.” +</p> + +<p> +“What a very sensible woman!” said the gentleman. “Of course +you shall.” So they carefully helped Toad into the front seat beside the +driver, and on they went again. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was almost himself again by now. He sat up, looked about him, and tried to +beat down the tremors, the yearnings, the old cravings that rose up and beset +him and took possession of him entirely. +</p> + +<p> +“It is fate!” he said to himself. “Why strive? why +struggle?” and he turned to the driver at his side. +</p> + +<p> +“Please, Sir,” he said, “I wish you would kindly let me try +and drive the car for a little. I’ve been watching you carefully, and it +looks so easy and so interesting, and I should like to be able to tell my +friends that once I had driven a motor-car!” +</p> + +<p> +The driver laughed at the proposal, so heartily that the gentleman inquired +what the matter was. When he heard, he said, to Toad’s delight, +“Bravo, ma’am! I like your spirit. Let her have a try, and look +after her. She won’t do any harm.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad eagerly scrambled into the seat vacated by the driver, took the +steering-wheel in his hands, listened with affected humility to the +instructions given him, and set the car in motion, but very slowly and +carefully at first, for he was determined to be prudent. +</p> + +<p> +The gentlemen behind clapped their hands and applauded, and Toad heard them +saying, “How well she does it! Fancy a washerwoman driving a car as well +as that, the first time!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad went a little faster; then faster still, and faster. +</p> + +<p> +He heard the gentlemen call out warningly, “Be careful, +washerwoman!” And this annoyed him, and he began to lose his head. +</p> + +<p> +The driver tried to interfere, but he pinned him down in his seat with one +elbow, and put on full speed. The rush of air in his face, the hum of the +engines, and the light jump of the car beneath him intoxicated his weak brain. +“Washerwoman, indeed!” he shouted recklessly. “Ho! ho! I am +the Toad, the motor-car snatcher, the prison-breaker, the Toad who always +escapes! Sit still, and you shall know what driving really is, for you are in +the hands of the famous, the skilful, the entirely fearless Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +With a cry of horror the whole party rose and flung themselves on him. +“Seize him!” they cried, “seize the Toad, the wicked animal +who stole our motor-car! Bind him, chain him, drag him to the nearest +police-station! Down with the desperate and dangerous Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +Alas! they should have thought, they ought to have been more prudent, they +should have remembered to stop the motor-car somehow before playing any pranks +of that sort. With a half-turn of the wheel the Toad sent the car crashing +through the low hedge that ran along the roadside. One mighty bound, a violent +shock, and the wheels of the car were churning up the thick mud of a +horse-pond. +</p> + +<p> +Toad found himself flying through the air with the strong upward rush and +delicate curve of a swallow. He liked the motion, and was just beginning to +wonder whether it would go on until he developed wings and turned into a +Toad-bird, when he landed on his back with a thump, in the soft rich grass of a +meadow. Sitting up, he could just see the motor-car in the pond, nearly +submerged; the gentlemen and the driver, encumbered by their long coats, were +floundering helplessly in the water. +</p> + +<p> +He picked himself up rapidly, and set off running across country as hard as he +could, scrambling through hedges, jumping ditches, pounding across fields, till +he was breathless and weary, and had to settle down into an easy walk. When he +had recovered his breath somewhat, and was able to think calmly, he began to +giggle, and from giggling he took to laughing, and he laughed till he had to +sit down under a hedge. “Ho, ho!” he cried, in ecstasies of +self-admiration, “Toad again! Toad, as usual, comes out on the top! Who +was it got them to give him a lift? Who managed to get on the front seat for +the sake of fresh air? Who persuaded them into letting him see if he could +drive? Who landed them all in a horse-pond? Who escaped, flying gaily and +unscathed through the air, leaving the narrow-minded, grudging, timid +excursionists in the mud where they should rightly be? Why, Toad, of course; +clever Toad, great Toad, <i>good</i> Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +Then he burst into song again, and chanted with uplifted voice— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“The motor-car went Poop-poop-poop,<br> + As it raced along the road.<br> +Who was it steered it into a pond?<br> + Ingenious Mr. Toad! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O, how clever I am! How clever, how clever, how very clev——” +</p> + +<p> +A slight noise at a distance behind him made him turn his head and look. O +horror! O misery! O despair! +</p> + +<p> +About two fields off, a chauffeur in his leather gaiters and two large rural +policemen were visible, running towards him as hard as they could go! +</p> + +<p> +Poor Toad sprang to his feet and pelted away again, his heart in his mouth. O, +my!” he gasped, as he panted along, “what an <i>ass</i> I am! What a +<i>conceited</i> and heedless ass! Swaggering again! Shouting and singing songs again! +Sitting still and gassing again! O my! O my! O my!” +</p> + +<p> +He glanced back, and saw to his dismay that they were gaining on him. On he ran +desperately, but kept looking back, and saw that they still gained steadily. He +did his best, but he was a fat animal, and his legs were short, and still they +gained. He could hear them close behind him now. Ceasing to heed where he was +going, he struggled on blindly and wildly, looking back over his shoulder at +the now triumphant enemy, when suddenly the earth failed under his feet, he +grasped at the air, and, splash! he found himself head over ears in deep water, +rapid water, water that bore him along with a force he could not contend with; +and he knew that in his blind panic he had run straight into the river! +</p> + +<p> +He rose to the surface and tried to grasp the reeds and the rushes that grew +along the water’s edge close under the bank, but the stream was so strong +that it tore them out of his hands. “O my!” gasped poor Toad, +“if ever I steal a motor-car again! If ever I sing another conceited +song”—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. +</p> + +<p> +As he sighed and blew and stared before him into the dark hole, some bright +small thing shone and twinkled in its depths, moving towards him. As it +approached, a face grew up gradually around it, and it was a familiar face! +</p> + +<p> +Brown and small, with whiskers. +</p> + +<p> +Grave and round, with neat ears and silky hair. +</p> + +<p> +It was the Water Rat! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap11"></a>XI.<br> +“LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS”</h2> + +<p> +The Rat put out a neat little brown paw, gripped Toad firmly by the scruff of +the neck, and gave a great hoist and a pull; and the water-logged Toad came up +slowly but surely over the edge of the hole, till at last he stood safe and +sound in the hall, streaked with mud and weed to be sure, and with the water +streaming off him, but happy and high-spirited as of old, now that he found +himself once more in the house of a friend, and dodgings and evasions were +over, and he could lay aside a disguise that was unworthy of his position and +wanted such a lot of living up to. +</p> + +<p> +“O, Ratty!” he cried. “I’ve been through such times +since I saw you last, you can’t think! Such trials, such sufferings, and +all so nobly 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 <i>am</i> a smart Toad, and no mistake! What do you think +my last exploit was? Just hold on till I tell you——” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad,” said the Water Rat, gravely and firmly, “you go off +upstairs at once, and take off that old cotton rag that looks as if it might +formerly have belonged to some washerwoman, and clean yourself thoroughly, and +put on some of my clothes, and try and come down looking like a gentleman if +you <i>can;</i> for a more shabby, bedraggled, disreputable-looking object than you +are I never set eyes on in my whole life! Now, stop swaggering and arguing, and +be off! I’ll have something to say to you later!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad was at first inclined to stop and do some talking back at him. He had had +enough of being ordered about when he was in prison, and here was the thing +being begun all over again, apparently; and by a Rat, too! However, he caught +sight of himself in the looking-glass over the hat-stand, with the rusty black +bonnet perched rakishly over one eye, and he changed his mind and went very +quickly and humbly upstairs to the Rat’s dressing-room. There he had a +thorough wash and brush-up, changed his clothes, and stood for a long time +before the glass, contemplating himself with pride and pleasure, and thinking +what utter idiots all the people must have been to have ever mistaken him for +one moment for a washerwoman. +</p> + +<p> +By the time he came down again luncheon was on the table, and very glad Toad +was to see it, for he had been through some trying experiences and had taken +much hard exercise since the excellent breakfast provided for him by the gipsy. +While they ate Toad told the Rat all his adventures, dwelling chiefly on his +own cleverness, and presence of mind in emergencies, and cunning in tight +places; and rather making out that he had been having a gay and highly-coloured +experience. But the more he talked and boasted, the more grave and silent the +Rat became. +</p> + +<p> +When at last Toad had talked himself to a standstill, there was silence for a +while; and then the Rat said, “Now, Toady, I don’t want to give you +pain, after all you’ve been through already; but, seriously, don’t +you see what an awful ass you’ve been making of yourself? On your own +admission you have been 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 <i>will</i> be mixed up with +them—as you generally are, five minutes after you’ve +started—why <i>steal</i> them? Be a cripple, if you think it’s exciting; +be a bankrupt, for a change, if you’ve set your mind on it: but why +choose to be a convict? When are you going to be sensible, and think of your +friends, and try and be a credit to them? Do you suppose it’s any +pleasure to me, for instance, to hear animals saying, as I go about, that +I’m the chap that keeps company with gaol-birds?” +</p> + +<p> +Now, it was a very comforting point in Toad’s character that he was a +thoroughly good-hearted animal and never minded being jawed by those who were +his real friends. And even when most set upon a thing, he was always able to +see the other side of the question. So although, while the Rat was talking so +seriously, he kept saying to himself mutinously, “But it <i>was</i> fun, though! +Awful fun!” and making strange suppressed noises inside him, +k-i-ck-ck-ck, and poop-p-p, and other sounds resembling stifled snorts, or the +opening of soda-water bottles, yet when the Rat had quite finished, he heaved a +deep sigh and said, very nicely and humbly, “Quite right, Ratty! How +<i>sound</i> you always are! Yes, I’ve been a conceited old ass, I can quite see +that; but now I’m going to be a good Toad, and not do it 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, <i>and</i> a +smoke, and a quiet chat, and then I’m going to stroll quietly down to +Toad Hall, and get into clothes of my own, and set things going again on the +old lines. I’ve had enough of adventures. I shall lead a quiet, steady, +respectable life, pottering about my property, and improving it, and doing a +little landscape gardening at times. There will always be a bit of dinner for +my friends when they come to see me; and I shall keep a pony-chaise to jog +about the country in, just as I used to in the good old days, before I got +restless, and wanted to <i>do</i> things.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stroll quietly down to Toad Hall?” cried the Rat, greatly excited. +“What are you talking about? Do you mean to say you haven’t +<i>heard?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +“Heard what?” said Toad, turning rather pale. “Go on, Ratty! +Quick! Don’t spare me! What haven’t I heard?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean to tell me,” shouted the Rat, thumping with his little +fist upon the table, “that you’ve heard nothing about the Stoats +and Weasels?” +</p> + +<p> +What, the Wild Wooders?” cried Toad, trembling in every limb. “No, +not a word! What have they been doing?” +</p> + +<p> +“—And how they’ve been and taken Toad Hall?” continued +the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +Toad leaned his elbows on the table, and his chin on his paws; and a large tear +welled up in each of his eyes, overflowed and splashed on the table, plop! +plop! +</p> + +<p> +“Go on, Ratty,” he murmured presently; “tell me all. The +worst is over. I am an animal again. I can bear it.” +</p> + +<p> +“When you—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—” +</p> + +<p> +Toad merely nodded. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it was a good deal talked about down here, naturally,” +continued the Rat, “not only along the 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad nodded once more, keeping silence. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s the sort of little beasts they are,” the Rat went on. +“But Mole and Badger, they stuck out, through thick and thin, that you +would come back again soon, somehow. They didn’t know exactly how, but +somehow!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad began to sit up in his chair again, and to smirk a little. +</p> + +<p> +“They argued from history,” continued the Rat. “They said +that no criminal laws had ever been known to prevail against cheek and +plausibility such as yours, combined with the power of a long purse. So they +arranged to move their things in to Toad Hall, and sleep there, and keep it +aired, and have it all ready for you when you turned up. They didn’t +guess what was going to happen, of course; still, they had their suspicions of +the Wild Wood animals. Now I come to the most painful and tragic part of my +story. One dark night—it was a <i>very</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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!” +</p> + +<p> +Here the unfeeling Toad broke into a snigger, and then pulled himself together +and tried to look particularly solemn. +</p> + +<p> +“And the Wild Wooders have been living in Toad Hall ever since,” +continued the Rat; “and going on simply anyhow! Lying in bed half the +day, and breakfast at all hours, and the place in such a mess (I’m told) +it’s not fit to be seen! Eating your grub, and drinking your drink, and +making bad jokes about you, and singing vulgar songs, about—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, have they!” said Toad getting up and seizing a stick. +“I’ll jolly soon see about that!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s no good, Toad!” called the Rat after him. +“You’d better come back and sit down; you’ll only get into +trouble.” +</p> + +<p> +But the Toad was off, and there was no holding him. He marched rapidly down the +road, his stick over his shoulder, fuming and muttering to himself in his +anger, till he got near his front gate, when suddenly there popped up from +behind the palings a long yellow ferret with a gun. +</p> + +<p> +“Who comes there?” said the ferret sharply. +</p> + +<p> +“Stuff and nonsense!” said Toad, very angrily. “What do you +mean by talking like that to me? Come out of that at once, or +I’ll——” +</p> + +<p> +The ferret said never a word, but he brought his gun up to his shoulder. Toad +prudently dropped flat in the road, and <i>Bang!</i> a bullet whistled over his head. +</p> + +<p> +The startled Toad scrambled to his feet and scampered off down the road as hard +as he could; and as he ran he heard the ferret laughing and other horrid thin +little laughs taking it up and carrying on the sound. +</p> + +<p> +He went back, very crestfallen, and told the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“What did I tell you?” said the Rat. “It’s no good. +They’ve got sentries posted, and they are all armed. You must just +wait.” +</p> + +<p> +Still, Toad was not inclined to give in all at once. So he got out the boat, +and set off rowing up the river to where the garden front of Toad Hall came +down to the waterside. +</p> + +<p> +Arriving within sight of his old home, he rested on his oars and surveyed the +land cautiously. All seemed very peaceful and deserted and quiet. He could see +the whole front of Toad Hall, glowing in the evening sunshine, the pigeons +settling by twos and threes along the straight line of the roof; the garden, a +blaze of flowers; the creek that led up to the boat-house, the little wooden +bridge that crossed it; all tranquil, uninhabited, apparently waiting for his +return. He would try the boat-house first, he thought. Very warily he paddled +up to the mouth of the creek, and was just passing under the bridge, when ... +<i>Crash!</i> +</p> + +<p> +A great stone, dropped from above, smashed through the bottom of the boat. It +filled and sank, and Toad found himself struggling in deep water. Looking up, +he saw two stoats leaning over the parapet of the bridge and watching him with +great glee. “It will be your head next time, Toady!” they called +out to him. The indignant Toad swam to shore, while the stoats laughed and +laughed, supporting each other, and laughed again, till they nearly had two +fits—that is, one fit each, of course. +</p> + +<p> +The Toad retraced his weary way on foot, and related his disappointing +experiences to the Water Rat once more. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, <i>what</i> did I tell you?” said the Rat very crossly. “And, +now, look here! See what you’ve been and done! Lost me my boat that I was +so fond of, that’s what you’ve done! And simply ruined that nice +suit of clothes that I lent you! Really, Toad, of all the trying +animals—I wonder you manage to keep any friends at all!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad saw at once how wrongly and foolishly he had acted. He admitted his +errors and wrong-headedness and made a full apology to Rat for losing his boat +and spoiling his clothes. And he wound up by saying, with that frank +self-surrender which always disarmed his 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“If that is really so,” said the good-natured Rat, already +appeased, “then my advice to you is, considering the lateness of the +hour, to sit down and have your supper, which will be on the table in a minute, +and be very patient. For I am convinced that we can do nothing until we have +seen the Mole and the Badger, and heard their latest news, and held conference +and taken their advice in this difficult matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, ah, yes, of course, the Mole and the Badger,” said Toad, +lightly. “What’s become of them, the dear fellows? I had forgotten +all about them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well may you ask!” said the Rat reproachfully. “While you +were riding about the country in expensive motor-cars, and galloping proudly on +blood-horses, and breakfasting on the fat of the land, those two poor devoted +animals have been camping out in the open, in every sort of weather, living +very rough by day and lying very hard by night; watching over your house, +patrolling your boundaries, keeping a constant eye on the stoats and the +weasels, scheming and planning and contriving how to get your property back for +you. You don’t deserve to have such true and loyal friends, Toad, you +don’t, really. Some day, when it’s too late, you’ll be sorry +you didn’t value them more while you had them!” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m an ungrateful beast, I know,” sobbed Toad, shedding +bitter tears. “Let me go out and find them, out into the cold, dark +night, and share their hardships, and try and prove by——Hold on a +bit! Surely I heard the chink of dishes on a tray! Supper’s here at last, +hooray! Come on, Ratty!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat remembered that poor Toad had been on prison fare for a considerable +time, and that large allowances had therefore to be made. He followed him to +the table accordingly, and hospitably encouraged him in his gallant efforts to +make up for past privations. +</p> + +<p> +They had just finished their meal and resumed their arm-chairs, when there came +a heavy knock at the door. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was nervous, but the Rat, nodding mysteriously at him, went straight up to +the door and opened it, and in walked Mr. Badger. +</p> + +<p> +He had all the appearance of one who for some nights had been kept away from +home and all its little comforts and conveniences. His shoes were covered with +mud, and he was looking very rough and touzled; but then he had never been a +very smart man, the Badger, at the best of times. He came solemnly up to Toad, +shook him by the paw, and said, “Welcome home, Toad! Alas! what am I +saying? Home, indeed! This is a poor home-coming. Unhappy Toad!” Then he +turned his back on him, sat down to the table, drew his chair up, and helped +himself to a large slice of cold pie. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was quite alarmed at this very serious and portentous style of greeting; +but the Rat whispered to him, “Never mind; don’t take any notice; +and don’t say anything to him just yet. He’s always rather low and +despondent when he’s wanting his victuals. In half an hour’s time +he’ll be quite a different animal.” +</p> + +<p> +So they waited in silence, and presently there came another and a lighter +knock. The Rat, with a nod to Toad, went to the door and ushered in the Mole, +very shabby and unwashed, with bits of hay and straw sticking in his fur. +</p> + +<p> +“Hooray! Here’s old Toad!” cried the Mole, his face beaming. +“Fancy having you back again!” And he began to dance round him. +“We never dreamt you would turn up so soon! Why, you must have managed to +escape, you clever, ingenious, intelligent Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, alarmed, pulled him by the elbow; but it was too late. Toad was +puffing and swelling already. +</p> + +<p> +“Clever? O, no!” he said. “I’m not really clever, +according to my friends. I’ve only broken out of the strongest prison in +England, that’s all! And captured a railway train and escaped on it, +that’s all! And disguised myself and gone about the country humbugging +everybody, that’s all! O, no! I’m a stupid ass, I am! I’ll +tell you one or two of my little adventures, Mole, and you shall judge for +yourself!” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Mole, moving towards the supper-table; +“supposing you talk while I eat. Not a bite since breakfast! O my! O +my!” And he sat down and helped himself liberally to cold beef and +pickles. +</p> + +<p> +Toad straddled on the hearth-rug, thrust his paw into his trouser-pocket and +pulled out a handful of silver. “Look at that!” he cried, +displaying it. “That’s not so bad, is it, for a few minutes’ +work? And how do you think I done it, Mole? Horse-dealing! That’s how I +done it!” +</p> + +<p> +“Go on, Toad,” said the Mole, immensely interested. +</p> + +<p> +“Toad, do be quiet, please!” said the Rat. “And don’t +you egg him on, Mole, when you know what he is; but please tell us as soon as +possible what the position is, and what’s best to be done, now that Toad +is back at last.” +</p> + +<p> +“The position’s about as bad as it can be,” replied the Mole +grumpily; “and as for what’s to be done, why, blest if I know! The +Badger and I have been round and round the place, by night and by day; always +the same thing. Sentries posted everywhere, guns poked out at us, stones thrown +at us; always an animal on the look-out, and when they see us, my! how they do +laugh! That’s what annoys me most!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a very difficult situation,” said the Rat, reflecting +deeply. “But I think I see now, in the depths of my mind, what Toad +really ought to do. I will tell you. He ought to——” +</p> + +<p> +“No, he oughtn’t!” shouted the Mole, with his mouth full. +“Nothing of the sort! You don’t understand. What he ought to do is, +he ought to——” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I shan’t do it, anyway!” cried Toad, getting excited. +“I’m not going to be ordered about by you fellows! It’s my +house we’re talking about, and I know exactly what to do, and I’ll +tell you. I’m going to——” +</p> + +<p> +By this time they were all three talking at once, at the top of their voices, +and the noise was simply deafening, when a thin, dry voice made itself heard, +saying, “Be quiet at once, all of you!” and instantly every one was +silent. +</p> + +<p> +It was the Badger, who, having finished his pie, had turned round in his chair +and was looking at them severely. When he saw that he had secured their +attention, and that they were evidently waiting for him to address them, he +turned back to the table again and reached out for the cheese. And so great was +the respect commanded by the solid qualities of that admirable animal, that not +another word was uttered until he had quite finished his repast and brushed the +crumbs from his knees. The Toad fidgeted a good deal, but the Rat held him +firmly down. +</p> + +<p> +When the Badger had quite done, he got up from his seat and stood before the +fireplace, reflecting deeply. At last he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“Toad!” he said severely. “You bad, troublesome little +animal! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? What do you think your father, my +old friend, would have said if he had been here to-night, and had known of all +your goings on?” +</p> + +<p> +Toad, who was on the sofa by this time, with his legs up, rolled over on his +face, shaken by sobs of contrition. +</p> + +<p> +“There, there!” went on the Badger, more kindly. “Never mind. +Stop crying. We’re going to let bygones be bygones, and try and turn over +a new leaf. But what the Mole says is quite true. The stoats are on guard, at +every point, and they make the best sentinels in the world. It’s quite +useless to think of attacking the place. They’re too strong for +us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it’s all over,” sobbed the Toad, crying into the sofa +cushions. “I shall go and enlist for a soldier, and never see my dear +Toad Hall any more!” +</p> + +<p> +“Come, cheer up, Toady!” said the Badger. “There are more +ways of getting back a place than taking it by storm. I haven’t said my +last word yet. Now I’m going to tell you a great secret.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad sat up slowly and dried his eyes. Secrets had an immense attraction for +him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the sort of unhallowed +thrill he experienced when he went and told another animal, after having +faithfully promised not to. +</p> + +<p> +“There—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, nonsense! Badger,” said Toad, rather airily. +“You’ve been listening to some of the yarns they spin in the +public-houses about here. I know every inch of Toad Hall, inside and out. +Nothing of the sort, I do assure you!” +</p> + +<p> +“My young friend,” said the Badger, with great severity, +“your father, who was a worthy animal—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.’” +</p> + +<p> +The other animals looked hard at Toad to see how he would take it. Toad was +inclined to be sulky at first; but he brightened up immediately, like the good +fellow he was. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” he said; “perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A +popular fellow such as I am—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 <i>salon</i>, +whatever that may be. Never mind. Go on, Badger. How’s this passage of +yours going to help us?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve found out a thing or two lately,” continued the Badger. +“I got Otter to disguise himself as a sweep and call at the back-door +with brushes over his shoulder, asking for a job. There’s going to be a +big banquet to-morrow night. It’s somebody’s birthday—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“But the sentinels will be posted as usual,” remarked the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“Exactly,” said the Badger; “that is my point. The weasels +will trust entirely to their excellent sentinels. And that is where the passage +comes in. That very useful tunnel leads right up under the butler’s +pantry, next to the dining-hall!” +</p> + +<p> +“Aha! that squeaky board in the butler’s pantry!” said Toad. +“Now I understand it!” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall creep out quietly into the butler’s pantry—” +cried the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“—with our pistols and swords and sticks—” shouted the +Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“—and rush in upon them,” said the Badger. +</p> + +<p> +“—and whack ’em, and whack ’em, and whack +’em!” cried the Toad in ecstasy, running round and round the room, +and jumping over the chairs. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, then,” said the Badger, resuming his usual dry manner, +“our plan is settled, and there’s nothing more for you to argue and +squabble about. So, as it’s getting very late, all of you go right off to +bed at once. We will make all the necessary arrangements in the course of the +morning to-morrow.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad, of course, went off to bed dutifully with the rest—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. +</p> + +<p> +He slept till a late hour next morning, and by the time he got down he found +that the other animals had finished their breakfast some time before. The Mole +had slipped off somewhere by himself, without telling any one where he was +going to. The Badger sat in the arm-chair, reading the paper, and not +concerning himself in the slightest about what was going to happen that very +evening. The Rat, on the other hand, was running round the room busily, with +his arms full of weapons of every kind, distributing them in four little heaps +on the floor, and saying excitedly under his breath, as he ran, +“Here’s-a-sword-for-the-Rat, here’s-a-sword-for-the Mole, +here’s-a-sword-for-the-Toad, here’s-a-sword-for-the-Badger! +Here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Rat, here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Mole, +here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Toad, +here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Badger!” And so on, in a regular, +rhythmical way, while the four little heaps gradually grew and grew. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all very well, Rat,” said the Badger presently, +looking at the busy little animal over the edge of his newspaper; +“I’m not blaming you. But just let us once get past the stoats, +with those detestable guns of theirs, and I assure you we shan’t want any +swords or pistols. We four, with our sticks, once we’re inside the +dining-hall, why, we shall clear the floor of all the lot of them in five +minutes. I’d have done the whole thing by myself, only I didn’t +want to deprive you fellows of the fun!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s as well to be on the safe side,” said the Rat +reflectively, polishing a pistol-barrel on his sleeve and looking along it. +</p> + +<p> +The Toad, having finished his breakfast, picked up a stout stick and swung it +vigorously, belabouring imaginary animals. “I’ll learn ’em to +steal my house!” he cried. “I’ll learn ’em, I’ll +learn ’em!” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t say ‘learn ’em,’ Toad,” said the +Rat, greatly shocked. “It’s not good English.” +</p> + +<p> +“What are you always nagging at Toad for?” inquired the Badger, +rather peevishly. “What’s the matter with his English? It’s +the same what I use myself, and if it’s good enough for me, it ought to +be good enough for you!” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m very sorry,” said the Rat humbly. “Only I <i>think</i> it +ought to be ‘teach ’em,’ not ‘learn +’em.’” +</p> + +<p> +“But we don’t <i>want</i> to teach ’em,” replied the Badger. +“We want to <i>learn</i> ’em—learn ’em, learn ’em! And +what’s more, we’re going to <i>do</i> it, too!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, very well, have it your own way,” said the Rat. He was getting +rather muddled about it himself, and presently he retired into a corner, where +he could be heard muttering, “Learn ’em, teach ’em, teach +’em, learn ’em!” till the Badger told him rather sharply to +leave off. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the Mole came tumbling into the room, evidently very pleased with +himself. “I’ve been having such fun!” he began at once; +“I’ve been getting a rise out of the stoats!” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope you’ve been very careful, Mole?” said the Rat +anxiously. +</p> + +<p> +“I should hope so, too,” said the Mole confidently. “I got +the idea when I went into the kitchen, to see about Toad’s breakfast +being kept hot for him. I found that old washerwoman-dress that he came home in +yesterday, hanging on a towel-horse before the fire. So I put it on, and the +bonnet as well, and the shawl, and off I went to Toad Hall, as bold as you +please. The sentries were on the look-out, of course, with their guns and their +‘Who comes there?’ and all the rest of their nonsense. ‘Good +morning, gentlemen!’ says I, very respectful. ‘Want any washing +done to-day?’ +</p> + +<p> +“They looked at me very proud and stiff and haughty, and said, ‘Go +away, washerwoman! We don’t do any washing on duty.’ ‘Or any +other time?’ says I. Ho, ho, ho! Wasn’t I <i>funny</i>, Toad?” +</p> + +<p> +“Poor, frivolous animal!” said Toad, very loftily. The fact is, he +felt exceedingly jealous of Mole for what he had just done. It was exactly what +he would have liked to have done himself, if only he had thought of it first, +and hadn’t gone and overslept himself. +</p> + +<p> +“Some of the stoats turned quite pink,” continued the Mole, +“and the Sergeant in charge, he said to me, very short, he said, +‘Now run away, my good woman, run away! Don’t keep my men idling +and talking on their posts.’ ‘Run away?’ says I; ‘it +won’t be me that’ll be running away, in a very short time from +now!’” +</p> + +<p> +“O <i>Moly</i>, how could you?” said the Rat, dismayed. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger laid down his paper. +</p> + +<p> +“I could see them pricking up their ears and looking at each +other,” went on the Mole; “and the Sergeant said to them, +‘Never mind <i>her;</i> she doesn’t know what she’s talking +about.’” +</p> + +<p> +“‘O! don’t I?’” said I. “‘Well, let +me tell you this. My daughter, she washes for Mr. Badger, and that’ll +show you whether I know what I’m talking about; and <i>you’ll</i> know +pretty 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!”’ +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you silly ass, Mole!” cried Toad, “You’ve been and +spoilt everything!” +</p> + +<p> +“Mole,” said the Badger, in his dry, quiet way, “I perceive +you have more sense in your little finger than some other animals have in the +whole of their fat bodies. You have managed excellently, and I begin to have +great hopes of you. Good Mole! Clever Mole!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad was simply wild with jealousy, more especially as he couldn’t +make out for the life of him what the Mole had done that was so particularly +clever; but, fortunately for him, before he could show temper or expose himself +to the Badger’s sarcasm, the bell rang for luncheon. +</p> + +<p> +It was a simple but sustaining meal—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. +</p> + +<p> +The anxious and laborious Rat at once resumed his preparations, and started +running between his four little heaps, muttering, +“Here’s-a-belt-for-the-Rat, here’s-a-belt-for-the-Mole, +here’s-a-belt-for-the-Toad, here’s-a-belt-for-the-Badger!” +and so on, with every fresh accoutrement he produced, to which there seemed +really no end; so the Mole drew his arm through Toad’s, led him out into +the open air, shoved him into a wicker chair, and made him tell him all his +adventures from beginning to end, which Toad was only too willing to do. The +Mole was a good listener, and Toad, with no one to check his statements or to +criticise in an unfriendly spirit, rather let himself go. Indeed, much that he +related belonged more properly to the category of +what-might-have-happened-had-I-only-thought-of-it-in-time-instead-of +ten-minutes-afterwards. Those are always the best and the raciest adventures; +and why should they not be truly ours, as much as the somewhat inadequate +things that really come off? +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a id="chap12"></a>XII.<br> +THE RETURN OF ULYSSES</h2> + +<p> +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, “<i>please</i>, Badger. You know I +shouldn’t like you to blame me afterwards and say I had forgotten +<i>anything!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +When all was quite ready, the Badger took a dark lantern in one paw, grasped +his great stick with the other, and said, “Now then, follow me! Mole +first, “cos I’m very pleased with him; Rat next; Toad last. And +look here, Toady! Don’t you chatter so much as usual, or you’ll be +sent back, as sure as fate!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad was so anxious not to be left out that he took up the inferior +position assigned to him without a murmur, and the animals set off. The Badger +led them along by the river for a little way, and then suddenly swung himself +over the edge into a hole in the river-bank, a little above the water. The Mole +and the Rat followed silently, swinging themselves successfully into the hole +as they had seen the Badger do; but when it came to Toad’s turn, of +course he managed to slip and fall into the water with a loud splash and a +squeal of alarm. He was hauled out by his friends, rubbed down and wrung out +hastily, comforted, and set on his legs; but the Badger was seriously angry, +and told him that the very next time he made a fool of himself he would most +certainly be left behind. +</p> + +<p> +So at last they were in the secret passage, and the cutting-out expedition had +really begun! +</p> + +<p> +It was cold, and dark, and damp, and low, and narrow, and poor Toad began to +shiver, partly from dread of what might be before him, partly because he was +wet through. The lantern was far ahead, and he could not help lagging behind a +little in the darkness. Then he heard the Rat call out warningly, “<i>Come</i> +on, Toad!” and a terror seized him of being left behind, alone in the +darkness, and he “came on” with such a rush that he upset the Rat +into the Mole and the Mole into the Badger, and for a moment all was confusion. +The Badger thought they were being attacked from behind, and, as there was no +room to use a stick or a cutlass, drew a pistol, and was on the point of +putting a bullet into Toad. When he found out what had really happened he was +very angry indeed, and said, “Now this time that tiresome Toad <i>shall</i> be +left behind!” +</p> + +<p> +But Toad whimpered, and the other two promised that they would be answerable +for his good conduct, and at last the Badger was pacified, and the procession +moved on; only this time the Rat brought up the rear, with a firm grip on the +shoulder of Toad. +</p> + +<p> +So they groped and shuffled along, with their ears pricked up and their paws on +their pistols, till at last the Badger said, “We ought by now to be +pretty nearly under the Hall.” +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly they heard, far away as it might be, and yet apparently nearly +over their heads, a confused murmur of sound, as if people were shouting and +cheering and stamping on the floor and hammering on tables. The Toad’s +nervous terrors all returned, but the Badger only remarked placidly, +“They <i>are</i> going it, the Weasels!” +</p> + +<p> +The passage now began to slope upwards; they groped onward a little further, +and then the noise broke out again, quite distinct this time, and very close +above them. “Ooo-ray-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. “<i>What</i> a time they’re having!” +said the Badger. “Come on!” They hurried along the passage till it +came to a full stop, and they found themselves standing under the trap-door +that led up into the butler’s pantry. +</p> + +<p> +Such a tremendous noise was going on in the banqueting-hall that there was +little danger of their being overheard. The Badger said, “Now, boys, all +together!” and the four of them put their shoulders to the trap-door and +heaved it back. Hoisting each other up, they found themselves standing in the +pantry, with only a door between them and the banqueting-hall, where their +unconscious enemies were carousing. +</p> + +<p> +The noise, as they emerged from the passage, was simply deafening. At last, as +the cheering and hammering slowly subsided, a voice could be made out saying, +“Well, I do not propose to detain you much longer”—(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)—“<i>Good</i> Toad, +<i>modest</i> Toad, <i>honest</i> Toad!” (shrieks of merriment). +</p> + +<p> +“Only just let me get at him!” muttered Toad, grinding his teeth. +</p> + +<p> +“Hold hard a minute!” said the Badger, restraining him with +difficulty. “Get ready, all of you!” +</p> + +<p> +“—Let me sing you a little song,” went on the voice, +“which I have composed on the subject of Toad”—(prolonged +applause). +</p> + +<p> +Then the Chief Weasel—for it was he—began in a high, squeaky +voice— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Toad he went a-pleasuring<br> +Gaily down the street—” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger drew himself up, took a firm grip of his stick with both paws, +glanced round at his comrades, and cried— +</p> + +<p> +“The hour is come! Follow me!” +</p> + +<p> +And flung the door open wide. +</p> + +<p> +My! +</p> + +<p> +What a squealing and a squeaking and a screeching filled the air! +</p> + +<p> +Well might the terrified weasels dive under the tables and spring madly up at +the windows! Well might the ferrets rush wildly for the fireplace and get +hopelessly jammed in the chimney! Well might tables and chairs be upset, and +glass and china be sent crashing on the floor, in the panic of that terrible +moment when the four Heroes strode wrathfully into the room! The mighty Badger, +his whiskers bristling, his great cudgel whistling through the air; Mole, black +and grim, brandishing his stick and shouting his awful war-cry, “A Mole! +A Mole!” Rat; desperate and determined, his belt bulging with weapons of +every age and every variety; Toad, frenzied with excitement and injured pride, +swollen to twice his ordinary size, leaping into the air and emitting +Toad-whoops that chilled them to the marrow! “Toad he went +a-pleasuring!” he yelled. “<i>I’ll</i> pleasure ’em!” +and he went straight for the Chief Weasel. They were but four in all, but to +the panic-stricken weasels the hall seemed full of monstrous animals, grey, +black, brown and yellow, whooping and flourishing enormous cudgels; and they +broke and fled with squeals of terror and dismay, this way and that, through +the windows, up the chimney, anywhere to get out of reach of those terrible +sticks. +</p> + +<p> +The affair was soon over. Up and down, the whole length of the hall, strode the +four Friends, whacking with their sticks at every head that showed itself; and +in five minutes the room was cleared. Through the broken windows the shrieks of +terrified weasels escaping across the lawn were borne faintly to their ears; on +the floor lay prostrate some dozen or so of the enemy, on whom the Mole was +busily engaged in fitting handcuffs. The Badger, resting from his labours, +leant on his stick and wiped his honest brow. +</p> + +<p> +“Mole,” he said,” “you’re the best of fellows! +Just cut along outside and look after those stoat-sentries of yours, and see +what they’re doing. I’ve an idea that, thanks to you, we +shan’t have much trouble from <i>them</i> to-night!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole vanished promptly through a window; and the Badger bade the other two +set a table on its legs again, pick up knives and forks and plates and glasses +from the <i>débris</i> on the 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 <i>that’s</i> all +right!” +</p> + +<p> +“Excellent and deserving animal!” said the Badger, his mouth full +of chicken and trifle. “Now, there’s just one more thing I want you +to do, Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I +wouldn’t trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done, and +I wish I could say the same of every one I know. I’d send Rat, if he +wasn’t a poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there +upstairs with you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up and made +really comfortable. See that they sweep <i>under</i> the beds, and put clean sheets +and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the bed-clothes, just as you +know it ought to be done; and have a can of hot water, and clean towels, and +fresh cakes of soap, put in each room. And then you can give them a licking +a-piece, if it’s any satisfaction to you, and put them out by the +back-door, and we shan’t see any more of <i>them</i>, I fancy. And then come +along and have some of this cold tongue. It’s first rate. I’m very +pleased with you, Mole!” +</p> + +<p> +The 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Then the Mole pulled his chair up to the table, and pitched into the cold +tongue; and Toad, like the gentleman he was, put all his jealousy from him, and +said heartily, “Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all your pains and +trouble 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. +</p> + +<p> +The following morning, Toad, who had overslept himself as usual, came down to +breakfast disgracefully late, and found on the table a certain 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.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, all right!” said the Toad, readily. “Anything to oblige. +Though why on earth you should want to have a Banquet in the morning I cannot +understand. But you know I do not live to please myself, but merely to find out +what my friends want, and then try and arrange it for ’em, you dear old +Badger!” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t pretend to be stupider than you really are,” replied +the Badger, crossly; “and don’t chuckle and splutter in your coffee +while you’re talking; it’s not manners. What I mean is, the Banquet +will be at night, of course, but the invitations will have to be written and +got off at once, and you’ve got to write ’em. Now, sit down at that +table—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>I’ll</i> bear a hand, too; and take my share of the burden. <i>I’ll</i> order +the Banquet.” +</p> + +<p> +“What!” cried Toad, dismayed. “Me stop indoors and write a +lot of rotten letters on a jolly morning like this, when I want to go around my +property, and set everything and 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger looked at him very suspiciously, but Toad’s frank, open +countenance made it difficult to suggest any unworthy motive in this change of +attitude. He quitted the room, accordingly, in the direction of the kitchen, +and as soon as the door had closed behind him, Toad hurried to the +writing-table. A fine idea had occurred to him while he was talking. He <i>would</i> +write the invitations; and he would take care to mention the leading part he +had taken in the fight, and how he had laid the Chief Weasel flat; and he would +hint at his adventures, and what a career of triumph he had to 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:— +</p> + +<p class="center"> +S<small>PEECH</small>. . . . B<small>Y</small> T<small>OAD</small>.<br> +(There will be other speeches by T<small>OAD</small> during the evening.) +</p> + +<p class="center"> +A<small>DDRESS</small>. . . B<small>Y</small> T<small>OAD</small><br> +S<small>YNOPSIS</small>—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. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +S<small>ONG</small>. . . . B<small>Y</small> T<small>OAD</small>.<br> +(Composed by himself.) +</p> + +<p class="center"> +O<small>THER</small> C<small>OMPOSITIONS</small>. B<small>Y</small> +T<small>OAD</small><br> +will be sung in the course of the evening by the. . . C<small>OMPOSER</small>. +</p> + +<p> +The idea pleased him mightily, and he worked very hard and got all the letters +finished by noon, at which hour it was reported to him that there was a small +and rather bedraggled weasel at the door, inquiring timidly whether he could be +of any service to the 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. +</p> + +<p> +When the other animals came back to luncheon, very boisterous and breezy after +a morning on the river, the Mole, whose conscience had been pricking him, +looked doubtfully at Toad, expecting to find him sulky or depressed. Instead, +he was so uppish and inflated that the Mole began to suspect something; while +the Rat and the Badger exchanged significant glances. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the meal was over, Toad thrust his paws deep into his +trouser-pockets, remarked casually, “Well, look after yourselves, you +fellows! Ask for anything you want!” and was swaggering off in the +direction of the garden, where he wanted to think out an idea or two for his +coming speeches, when the Rat caught him by the arm. +</p> + +<p> +Toad rather suspected what he was after, and did his best to get away; but when +the Badger took him firmly by the other arm he began to see that the game was +up. The two animals conducted him between them into the small smoking-room that +opened out of the entrance-hall, shut the door, and put him into a chair. Then +they both stood in front of him, while Toad sat silent and regarded them with +much suspicion and ill-humour. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, look here, Toad,” said the Rat. “It’s about this +Banquet, and very sorry I am to have to speak to you like this. But we want you +to understand clearly, once and for all, that there are going to be no speeches +and no songs. Try and grasp the fact that on this occasion we’re not +arguing with you; we’re just telling you.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad saw that he was trapped. They understood him, they saw through him, they +had got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered. +</p> + +<p> +“Mayn’t I sing them just one <i>little</i> song?” he pleaded +piteously. +</p> + +<p> +“No, not <i>one</i> little song,” replied the Rat firmly, though his heart +bled as he noticed the trembling lip of the poor disappointed Toad. +“It’s no good, Toady; you know well that your songs are all conceit +and boasting and vanity; and your speeches are all self-praise +and—and—well, and gross exaggeration +and—and——” +</p> + +<p> +“And gas,” put in the Badger, in his common way. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s for your own good, Toady,” went on the Rat. “You +know you <i>must</i> turn over a new leaf sooner or later, and now seems a splendid +time to begin; a sort of turning-point in your career. Please don’t think +that saying all this doesn’t hurt me more than it hurts you.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad remained a long while plunged in thought. At last he raised his head, and +the traces of strong emotion were visible on his features. “You have +conquered, my friends,” he said in broken accents. “It was, to be +sure, but a small thing that I asked—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!” +</p> + +<p> +And, pressing his handkerchief to his face, he left the room, with faltering +footsteps. +</p> + +<p> +“Badger,” said the Rat, “<i>I</i> feel like a brute; I wonder +what <i>you</i> feel like?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, I know, I know,” said the Badger gloomily. “But the thing +had to be done. This good fellow has got to live here, and hold his own, and be +respected. Would you have him a common laughing-stock, mocked and jeered at by +stoats and weasels?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course not,” said the Rat. “And, talking of weasels, +it’s lucky we came upon that little weasel, just as he was setting out +with Toad’s invitations. I suspected something from what you told me, and +had a look at one or two; they were simply disgraceful. I confiscated the lot, +and the good Mole is now sitting in the blue boudoir, filling up plain, simple +invitation cards.” +</p> + +<hr> + +<p> +At last the hour for the banquet began to draw near, and Toad, who on leaving +the others had retired to his bedroom, was still sitting there, melancholy and +thoughtful. His brow resting on his paw, he pondered long and deeply. Gradually +his countenance cleared, and he began to smile long, slow smiles. Then he took +to giggling in a shy, self-conscious manner. At last he got up, locked the +door, drew the curtains across the windows, collected all the chairs in the +room and arranged them in a semicircle, and took up his position in front of +them, swelling visibly. Then he bowed, coughed twice, and, letting himself go, +with uplifted voice he sang, to the enraptured audience that his imagination so +clearly saw. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +TOAD’S LAST LITTLE SONG!<br> +<br> +The Toad—came—home!<br> +There was panic in the parlours and howling in the halls,<br> +There was crying in the cow-sheds and shrieking in the stalls,<br> +When the Toad—came—home!<br> +<br> +When the Toad—came—home!<br> +There was smashing in of window and crashing in of door,<br> +There was chivvying of weasels that fainted on the floor,<br> +When the Toad—came—home!<br> +<br> +Bang! go the drums!<br> +The trumpeters are tooting and the soldiers are saluting,<br> +And the cannon they are shooting and the motor-cars are hooting,<br> +As the—Hero—comes!<br> +<br> +Shout—Hoo-ray!<br> +And let each one of the crowd try and shout it very loud,<br> +In honour of an animal of whom you’re justly proud,<br> +For it’s Toad’s—great—day! +</p> + +<p> +He sang this very loud, with great unction and expression; and when he had +done, he sang it all over again. +</p> + +<p> +Then he heaved a deep sigh; a long, long, long sigh. +</p> + +<p> +Then he dipped his hairbrush in the water-jug, parted his hair in the middle, +and plastered it down very straight and sleek on each side of his face; and, +unlocking the door, went quietly down the stairs to greet his guests, who he +knew must be assembling in the drawing-room. +</p> + +<p> +All the animals cheered when he entered, and crowded round to congratulate him +and say nice things about his courage, and his cleverness, and his fighting +qualities; but Toad only smiled faintly, and murmured, “Not at +all!” Or, sometimes, for a change, “On the contrary!” Otter, +who was standing on the hearthrug, describing to an admiring circle of friends +exactly how he would have managed things had he been there, came forward with a +shout, threw his arm round Toad’s neck, and tried to take him round the +room in triumphal progress; but Toad, in a mild way, was rather snubby to him, +remarking gently, as he disengaged himself, “Badger’s was the +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. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger had ordered everything of the best, and the banquet was a great +success. There was much talking and laughter and chaff among the animals, but +through it all Toad, who of course was in the chair, looked down his nose and +murmured pleasant nothings to the animals on either side of him. At intervals +he stole a glance at the Badger and the Rat, and always when he looked they +were staring at each other with their mouths open; and this gave him the +greatest satisfaction. Some of the younger and livelier animals, as the evening +wore on, got whispering to each other that things were not so amusing as they +used to be in the good old days; and there were some knockings on the table and +cries of “Toad! Speech! Speech from Toad! Song! Mr. Toad’s +song!” But Toad only shook his head gently, raised one paw in mild +protest, and, by pressing delicacies on his guests, by topical small-talk, and +by earnest inquiries after members of their families not yet old enough to +appear at social functions, managed to convey to them that this dinner was +being run on strictly conventional lines. +</p> + +<p> +He was indeed an altered Toad! +</p> + +<hr> + +<p> +After this climax, the four animals continued to lead their lives, so rudely +broken in upon by civil war, in great joy and contentment, undisturbed by +further risings or invasions. Toad, after due consultation with his friends, +selected a handsome gold chain and locket set with pearls, which he dispatched +to the gaoler’s daughter with a letter that even the Badger admitted to +be modest, grateful, and appreciative; and the engine-driver, in his turn, was +properly thanked and compensated for all his pains and trouble. Under severe +compulsion from the Badger, even the barge-woman was, with some trouble, sought +out and the value of her horse discreetly made good to her; though Toad kicked +terribly at this, holding himself to be an instrument of Fate, sent to punish +fat women with mottled arms who couldn’t tell a real gentleman when they +saw one. The amount involved, it was true, was not very burdensome, the +gipsy’s valuation being admitted by local assessors to be approximately +correct. +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes, in the course of long summer evenings, the friends would take a +stroll together in the Wild Wood, now successfully tamed so far as they were +concerned; and it was pleasing to see how respectfully they were greeted by the +inhabitants, and how the mother-weasels would bring their young ones to the +mouths of their holes, and say, pointing, “Look, baby! There goes the +great Mr. Toad! And that’s the gallant Water Rat, a terrible fighter, +walking along o’ him! And yonder comes the famous Mr. Mole, of whom you +so often have heard your father tell!” But when their infants were +fractious and quite beyond control, they would quiet them by telling how, if +they didn’t hush them and not fret them, the terrible grey 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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 289 ***</div> +</body> + +</html> + diff --git a/289-h/images/cover.jpg b/289-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd55c02 --- /dev/null +++ b/289-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..95c3d96 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #289 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/289) diff --git a/old/289.txt b/old/289.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92f04ff --- /dev/null +++ b/old/289.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6468 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS *** + +***** This file should be named 289.txt or 289.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/289/ + +Produced by Mike Lough + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/289.zip b/old/289.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a94d4e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/289.zip diff --git a/old/old-2024-11-30/289-0.txt b/old/old-2024-11-30/289-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b82559e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old-2024-11-30/289-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6533 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Wind in the Willows + +Author: Kenneth Grahame + +Release Date: July, 1995 [eBook #289] +[Most recently updated: May 15, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Mike Lough and David Widger + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS *** + +[Illustration] + + + + +The Wind in the Willows + +by Kenneth Grahame + +Author Of “The Golden Age,” “Dream Days,” Etc. + + +Contents + + CHAPTER I. THE RIVER BANK + CHAPTER II. THE OPEN ROAD + CHAPTER III. THE WILD WOOD + CHAPTER IV. MR. BADGER + CHAPTER V. DULCE DOMUM + CHAPTER VI. MR. TOAD + CHAPTER VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN + CHAPTER VIII. TOAD’S ADVENTURES + CHAPTER IX. WAYFARERS ALL + CHAPTER X. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD + CHAPTER XI. “LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS” + CHAPTER 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 +gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer +to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and +scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and +scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, +“Up we go! Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the +sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great +meadow. + +“This is fine!” he said to himself. “This is better than whitewashing!” +The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated +brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long +the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a +shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and +the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across +the meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side. + +“Hold up!” said an elderly rabbit at the gap. “Sixpence for the +privilege of passing by the private road!” He was bowled over in an +instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the +side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly +from their holes to see what the row was about. “Onion-sauce! +Onion-sauce!” he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could +think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then they all started +grumbling at each other. “How _stupid_ you are! Why didn’t you tell +him——” “Well, why didn’t _you_ say——” “You might have reminded him——” +and so on, in the usual way; but, of course, it was then much too late, +as is always the case. + +It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the +meadows he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, +finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves +thrusting—everything happy, and progressive, and occupied. And instead +of having an uneasy conscience pricking him and whispering “whitewash!” +he somehow could only feel how jolly it was to be the only idle dog +among all these busy citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday is +perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other +fellows busy working. + +He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly +along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his +life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied +animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and +leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that +shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was a-shake +and a-shiver—glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter +and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side +of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a +man who holds one 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; “ +coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwiches +pottedme atgingerbeerlemonadesodawater——” + +“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 _pâté de foie gras_, no champagne!” continued the Rat, grinning. +“And that reminds me—what’s that little door at the end of the passage? +Your cellar, of course! Every luxury in this house! Just you wait a +minute.” + +He made for the cellar-door, and presently reappeared, somewhat dusty, +with a bottle of beer in each paw and another under each arm, +“Self-indulgent beggar you seem to be, Mole,” he observed. “Deny +yourself nothing. This is really the jolliest little place I ever was +in. Now, wherever did you pick up those prints? Make the place look so +home-like, they do. No wonder you’re so fond of it, Mole. Tell us all +about it, and how you came to make it what it is.” + +Then, while the Rat busied himself fetching plates, and knives and +forks, and mustard which he mixed in an egg-cup, the Mole, his bosom +still heaving with the stress of his recent emotion, related—somewhat +shyly at first, but with more freedom as he warmed to his subject—how +this was planned, and how that was thought out, and how this was got +through a windfall from an aunt, and that was a wonderful find and a +bargain, and this other thing was bought out of laborious savings and a +certain amount of “going without.” His spirits finally quite restored, +he must needs go and caress his possessions, and take a lamp and show +off their points to his visitor and expatiate on them, quite forgetful +of the supper they both so much needed; Rat, who was desperately hungry +but strove to conceal it, nodding seriously, examining with a puckered +brow, and saying, “wonderful,” and “most remarkable,” at intervals, +when the chance for an observation was given him. + +At last the Rat succeeded in decoying him to the table, and had just +got seriously to work with the sardine-opener when sounds were heard +from the fore-court without—sounds like the scuffling of small feet in +the gravel and a confused murmur of tiny voices, while broken sentences +reached them—“Now, all in a line—hold the lantern up a bit, Tommy—clear +your throats first—no coughing after I say one, two, three.—Where’s +young Bill?—Here, come on, do, we’re all a-waiting——” + +“What’s up?” inquired the Rat, pausing in his labours. + +“I think it must be the field-mice,” replied the Mole, with a touch of +pride in his manner. “They go round carol-singing regularly at this +time of the year. They’re quite an institution in these parts. And they +never pass me over—they come to Mole End last of all; and I used to +give them hot drinks, and supper too sometimes, when I could afford it. +It will be like old times to hear them again.” + +“Let’s have a look at them!” cried the Rat, jumping up and running to +the door. + +It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when +they flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a +horn lantern, some eight or ten little 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’hôte_ +shrink pitifully at each succeeding meal; as suites of rooms are +closed, carpets taken up, and waiters sent away; those boarders who are +staying on, _en pension_, until the next year’s full re-opening, cannot +help being somewhat affected by all these flittings and farewells, this +eager discussion of plans, routes, and fresh quarters, this daily +shrinkage in the stream of comradeship. One gets unsettled, depressed, +and inclined to be querulous. Why this craving for change? Why not stay +on quietly here, like us, and be jolly? You don’t know this hotel out +of the season, and what fun we have among ourselves, we fellows who +remain and see the whole interesting year out. All very true, no doubt +the others always reply; we quite envy you—and some other year +perhaps—but just now we have engagements—and there’s the bus at the +door—our time is up! So they depart, with a smile and a nod, and we +miss them, and feel resentful. The Rat was a self-sufficing sort of +animal, rooted to the land, and, whoever went, he stayed; still, he +could not help noticing what was in the air, and feeling some of its +influence in his bones. + +It was difficult to settle down to anything seriously, with all this +flitting going on. Leaving the water-side, where rushes stood thick and +tall in a stream that was becoming sluggish and low, he wandered +country-wards, crossed a field or two of pasturage already looking +dusty and parched, and thrust into the great sea of wheat, yellow, +wavy, and murmurous, full of quiet motion and small whisperings. Here +he often loved to wander, through the forest of stiff strong stalks +that carried their own golden sky away over his head—a sky that was +always dancing, shimmering, softly talking; or swaying strongly to the +passing wind and recovering itself with a toss and a merry laugh. Here, +too, he had many small friends, a society complete in itself, leading +full and busy lives, but always with a spare moment to gossip, and +exchange news with a visitor. 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 _débris_ on the floor, and see if they +could find materials for a supper. “I want some grub, I do,” he said, +in that rather common way he had of speaking. “Stir your stumps, Toad, +and look lively! We’ve got your house back for you, and you don’t offer +us so much as a sandwich.” Toad felt rather hurt that the Badger didn’t +say pleasant things to him, as he had to the Mole, and tell him what a +fine fellow he was, and how splendidly he had fought; for he was rather +particularly pleased with himself and the way he had gone for the Chief +Weasel and sent him flying across the table with one blow of his stick. +But he bustled about, and so did the Rat, and soon they found some +guava jelly in a glass dish, and a cold chicken, a tongue that had +hardly been touched, some trifle, and quite a lot of lobster salad; and +in the pantry they came upon a basketful of French rolls and any +quantity of cheese, butter, and celery. They were just about to sit +down when the Mole clambered in through the window, chuckling, with an +armful of rifles. + +“It’s all over,” he reported. “From what I can make out, as soon as the +stoats, who were very nervous and jumpy already, heard the shrieks and +the yells and the uproar inside the hall, some of them threw down their +rifles and fled. The others stood fast for a bit, but when the weasels +came rushing out upon them they thought they were betrayed; and the +stoats grappled with the weasels, and the weasels fought to get away, +and they wrestled and wriggled and punched each other, and rolled over +and over, till most of ’em rolled into the river! They’ve all +disappeared by now, one way or another; and I’ve got their rifles. So +_that’s_ all right!” + +“Excellent and deserving animal!” said the Badger, his mouth full of +chicken and trifle. “Now, there’s just one more thing I want you to do, +Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I wouldn’t +trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done, and I wish +I could say the same of every one I know. I’d send Rat, if he wasn’t a +poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there upstairs with +you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up and made really +comfortable. See that they sweep _under_ the beds, and put clean sheets +and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the bed-clothes, just +as you know it ought to be done; and have a can of hot water, and clean +towels, and fresh cakes of soap, put in each room. And then you can +give them a licking a-piece, if it’s any satisfaction to you, and put +them out by the back-door, and we shan’t see any more of _them_, I +fancy. And then come along and have some of this cold tongue. It’s +first rate. I’m very pleased with you, Mole!” + +The 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 THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS *** + +***** This file should be named 289-0.txt or 289-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/289/ + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Wind in the Willows</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Kenneth Grahame</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July, 1995 [eBook #289]<br /> +[Most recently updated: May 15, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Mike Lough and David Widger</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em;margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ***</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:55%;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" style="width:100%;" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h1>The Wind in the Willows</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Kenneth Grahame</h2> + +<h4>Author Of “The Golden Age,” “Dream Days,” Etc.</h4> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. THE RIVER BANK</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. THE OPEN ROAD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. THE WILD WOOD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. MR. BADGER</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. DULCE DOMUM</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. MR. TOAD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. TOAD’S ADVENTURES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. WAYFARERS ALL</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. “LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS”</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. THE RETURN OF ULYSSES</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a>I.<br/> +THE RIVER BANK</h2> + +<p> +The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little +home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and +chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat +and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back +and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and +around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of +divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly +flung down his brush on the floor, said “Bother!” and “O +blow!” and also “Hang spring-cleaning!” and bolted out of the +house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling +him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his +case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are +nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and +scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, +working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, “Up we go! +Up we go!” till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and +he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow. +</p> + +<p> +“This is fine!” he said to himself. “This is better than +whitewashing!” The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed +his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so +long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. +Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of +spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he +reached the hedge on the further side. +</p> + +<p> +“Hold up!” said an elderly rabbit at the gap. “Sixpence for +the privilege of passing by the private road!” He was bowled over in an +instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the side of +the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly from their holes +to see what the row was about. “Onion-sauce! Onion-sauce!” he +remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could think of a thoroughly +satisfactory reply. Then they all started grumbling at each other. “How +<i>stupid</i> you are! Why didn’t you tell him——” “Well, +why didn’t <i>you</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the meadows he +rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding everywhere +birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting—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. +</p> + +<p> +He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly along, +suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in his life had he +seen a river before—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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +A brown little face, with whiskers. +</p> + +<p> +A grave round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had first attracted +his notice. +</p> + +<p> +Small neat ears and thick silky hair. +</p> + +<p> +It was the Water Rat! +</p> + +<p> +Then the two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo, Mole!” said the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo, Rat!” said the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Would you like to come over?” enquired the Rat presently. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, its all very well to <i>talk</i>,” said the Mole, rather pettishly, +he being new to a river and riverside life and its ways. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened a rope and hauled on it; then +lightly stepped into a little boat which the Mole had not observed. It was +painted blue outside and white within, and was just the size for two animals; +and the Mole’s whole heart went out to it at once, even though he did not +yet fully understand its uses. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat sculled smartly across and made fast. Then he held up his 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. +</p> + +<p> +“This has been a wonderful day!” said he, as the Rat shoved off and +took to the sculls again. “Do you know, I’ve never been in a boat +before in all my life.” +</p> + +<p> +“What?” cried the Rat, open-mouthed: “Never been in +a—you never—well I—what have you been doing, then?” +</p> + +<p> +“Is it so nice as all that?” asked the Mole shyly, though he was +quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the +cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt +the boat sway lightly under him. +</p> + +<p> +“Nice? It’s the <i>only</i> thing,” said the Water Rat solemnly, as +he leant forward for his stroke. “Believe me, my young friend, there is +<i>nothing</i>—absolute nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing +about in boats. Simply messing,” he went on dreamily: +“messing—about—in—boats; messing——” +</p> + +<p> +“Look ahead, Rat!” cried the Mole suddenly. +</p> + +<p> +It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous +oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air. +</p> + +<p> +“—about in boats—or <i>with</i> boats,” the Rat went on +composedly, picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. “In or out of +’em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, +that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; +whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or +whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never +do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always +something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much +better not. Look here! If you’ve really nothing else on hand this +morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long day of +it?” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of +full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions. +“<i>What</i> a day I’m having!” he said. “Let us start at +once!” +</p> + +<p> +“Hold hard a minute, then!” said the Rat. He looped the painter +through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above, and after +a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket. +</p> + +<p> +“Shove that under your feet,” he observed to the Mole, as he passed +it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s inside it?” asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s cold chicken inside it,” replied the Rat briefly; +“ +coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedme +atgingerbeerlemonadesodawater——” +</p> + +<p> +“O stop, stop,” cried the Mole in ecstacies: “This is too +much!” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you really think so?” enquired the Rat seriously. +“It’s only what I always take on these little excursions; and the +other animals are always telling me that I’m a mean beast and cut it <i>very</i> +fine!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole never heard a word he was saying. Absorbed in the new life he was +entering upon, intoxicated with the sparkle, the ripple, the scents and the +sounds and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in the water and dreamed long waking +dreams. The Water Rat, like the good little fellow he was, sculled steadily on +and forebore to disturb him. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“I beg your pardon,” said the Mole, pulling himself together with +an effort. “You must think me very rude; but all this is so new to me. +So—this—is—a—River!” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>The</i> River,” corrected the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!” +</p> + +<p> +“By it and with it and on it and in it,” said the Rat. +“It’s brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food +and drink, and (naturally) washing. It’s my world, and I don’t want +any other. What it hasn’t got is not worth having, and what it +doesn’t know is not worth knowing. Lord! the times we’ve had +together! Whether in winter or summer, spring or autumn, it’s always got +its fun and its excitements. When the floods are on in February, and my cellars +and basement are brimming with drink that’s no good to me, and the brown +water runs by my best bedroom window; or again when it all drops away and, +shows patches of mud that smells like plum-cake, and the rushes and weed clog +the channels, and I can potter about dry shod over most of the bed of it and +find fresh food to eat, and things careless people have dropped out of +boats!” +</p> + +<p> +“But isn’t it a bit dull at times?” the Mole ventured to ask. +“Just you and the river, and no one else to pass a word with?” +</p> + +<p> +“No one else to—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 <i>do</i> something—as if a fellow had no business of his own to +attend to!” +</p> + +<p> +“What lies over <i>there?</i>” asked the Mole, waving a paw towards a +background of woodland that darkly framed the water-meadows on one side of the +river. +</p> + +<p> +“That? O, that’s just the Wild Wood,” said the Rat shortly. +“We don’t go there very much, we river-bankers.” +</p> + +<p> +“Aren’t they—aren’t they very <i>nice</i> people in +there?” said the Mole, a trifle nervously. +</p> + +<p> +“W-e-ll,” replied the Rat, “let me see. The squirrels are all +right. <i>And</i> the rabbits—some of ’em, but rabbits are a mixed lot. +And then there’s Badger, of course. He lives right in the heart of it; +wouldn’t live anywhere else, either, if you paid him to do it. Dear old +Badger! Nobody interferes with <i>him</i>. They’d better not,” he added +significantly. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, who <i>should</i> interfere with him?” asked the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, of course—there—are others,” explained the Rat +in a hesitating sort of way. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“And beyond the Wild Wood again?” he asked: “Where it’s +all blue and dim, and one sees what may be hills or perhaps they mayn’t, +and something like the smoke of towns, or is it only cloud-drift?” +</p> + +<p> +“Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,” said the Rat. +“And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or +me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if +you’ve got any sense at all. Don’t ever refer to it again, please. +Now then! Here’s our backwater at last, where we’re going to +lunch.” +</p> + +<p> +Leaving the main stream, they now passed into what seemed at first sight like a +little 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat brought the boat alongside the bank, made her fast, helped the still +awkward Mole safely ashore, and swung out the luncheon-basket. The Mole begged +as a favour to be allowed to unpack it all by himself; and the Rat was very +pleased to indulge him, and to sprawl at full length on the grass and rest, +while his excited friend shook out the table-cloth and spread it, took out all +the mysterious packets one by one and arranged their contents in due order, +still gasping, “O my! O my!” at each fresh revelation. When all was +ready, the Rat said, “Now, pitch in, old fellow!” and the Mole was +indeed very glad to obey, for he had started his spring-cleaning at a very +early hour that morning, as people <i>will</i> do, and had not paused for bite or sup; +and he had been through a very great deal since that distant time which now +seemed so many days ago. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you looking at?” said the Rat presently, when the edge of +their hunger was somewhat dulled, and the Mole’s eyes were able to wander +off the table-cloth a little. +</p> + +<p> +“I am looking,” said the Mole, “at a streak of bubbles that I +see travelling along the surface of the water. That is a thing that strikes me +as funny.” +</p> + +<p> +“Bubbles? Oho!” said the Rat, and chirruped cheerily in an inviting +sort of way. +</p> + +<p> +A broad glistening muzzle showed itself above the edge of the bank, and the +Otter hauled himself out and shook the water from his coat. +</p> + +<p> +“Greedy beggars!” he observed, making for the provender. “Why +didn’t you invite me, Ratty?” +</p> + +<p> +“This was an impromptu affair,” explained the Rat. “By the +way—my friend Mr. Mole.” +</p> + +<p> +“Proud, I’m sure,” said the Otter, and the two animals were +friends forthwith. +</p> + +<p> +“Such a rumpus everywhere!” continued the Otter. “All the +world seems out on the river to-day. I came up this backwater to try and get a +moment’s peace, and then stumble upon you fellows!—At least—I +beg pardon—I don’t exactly mean that, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +There was a rustle behind them, proceeding from a hedge wherein last +year’s leaves still clung thick, and a stripy head, with high shoulders +behind it, peered forth on them. +</p> + +<p> +“Come on, old Badger!” shouted the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger trotted forward a pace or two; then grunted, “H’m! +Company,” and turned his back and disappeared from view. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s <i>just</i> the sort of fellow he is!” observed the +disappointed Rat. “Simply hates Society! Now we shan’t see any more +of him to-day. Well, tell us, <i>who’s</i> out on the river?” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad’s out, for one,” replied the Otter. “In his +brand-new wager-boat; new togs, new everything!” +</p> + +<p> +The two animals looked at each other and laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“Once, it was nothing but sailing,” said the Rat, “Then he +tired of that and took to punting. Nothing would please him but to punt all day +and every day, and a nice mess he made of it. Last year it was house-boating, +and we all had to go and stay with him in his house-boat, and pretend we liked +it. He was going to spend the rest of his life in a house-boat. It’s all +the same, whatever he takes up; he gets tired of it, and starts on something +fresh.” +</p> + +<p> +“Such a good fellow, too,” remarked the Otter reflectively: +“But no stability—especially in a boat!” +</p> + +<p> +From where they sat they could get a glimpse of the main stream across the +island that separated them; and just then a wager-boat flashed into view, the +rower—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. +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll be out of the boat in a minute if he rolls like that,” +said the Rat, sitting down again. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course he will,” chuckled the Otter. “Did I ever tell you +that good story about Toad and the lock-keeper? It happened this way. +Toad....” +</p> + +<p> +An errant May-fly swerved unsteadily athwart the current in the intoxicated +fashion affected by young bloods of May-flies seeing life. A swirl of water and +a “cloop!” and the May-fly was visible no more. +</p> + +<p> +Neither was the Otter. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole looked down. The voice was still in his ears, but the turf whereon he +had sprawled was clearly vacant. Not an Otter to be seen, as far as the distant +horizon. +</p> + +<p> +But again there was a streak of bubbles on the surface of the river. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat hummed a tune, and the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette forbade +any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one’s friends at any +moment, for any reason or no reason whatever. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Rat, “I suppose we ought to be moving. +I wonder which of us had better pack the luncheon-basket?” He did not +speak as if he was frightfully eager for the treat. +</p> + +<p> +“O, please let me,” said the Mole. So, of course, the Rat let him. +</p> + +<p> +Packing the basket was not quite such pleasant work as unpacking the +basket. It never 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. +</p> + +<p> +The afternoon sun was getting low as the Rat sculled gently homewards in a +dreamy mood, murmuring poetry-things over to himself, and not paying much +attention to Mole. But the Mole was very full of lunch, and self-satisfaction, +and pride, and already quite at home in a boat (so he thought) and was getting +a bit restless besides: and presently he said, “Ratty! Please, <i>I</i> +want to row, now!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat shook his head with a smile. “Not yet, my young friend,” he +said—“wait till you’ve had a few lessons. It’s not so +easy as it looks.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was quiet for a minute or two. But he began to feel more and more +jealous of Rat, sculling so strongly and so easily along, and his pride began +to whisper that he could do it every bit as well. He jumped up and seized the +sculls, so suddenly, that the Rat, who was gazing out over the water and saying +more poetry-things to himself, was taken by surprise and fell backwards off his +seat with his legs in the air for the second time, while the triumphant Mole +took his place and grabbed the sculls with entire confidence. +</p> + +<p> +“Stop it, you <i>silly</i> ass!” cried the Rat, from the bottom of the +boat. “You can’t do it! You’ll have us over!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole flung his sculls back with a flourish, and made a great dig at the +water. He missed the surface altogether, his legs flew up above his head, and +he found himself lying on the top of the prostrate Rat. Greatly alarmed, he +made a grab at the side of the boat, and the next moment—Sploosh! +</p> + +<p> +Over went the boat, and he found himself struggling in the river. +</p> + +<p> +O my, how cold the water was, and O, how <i>very</i> wet it felt. How it sang in his +ears as he went down, down, down! How bright and welcome the sun looked as he +rose to the surface coughing and spluttering! How black was his despair when he +felt himself sinking again! Then a firm paw gripped him by the back of his +neck. It was the Rat, and he was evidently laughing—the Mole could <i>feel</i> +him laughing, right down his arm and through his paw, and so into his—the +Mole’s—neck. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat got hold of a scull and shoved it under the Mole’s arm; then he +did the same by the other side of him and, swimming behind, propelled the +helpless animal to shore, hauled him out, and set him down on the bank, a +squashy, pulpy lump of misery. +</p> + +<p> +When the Rat had rubbed him down a bit, and wrung some of the wet out of him, +he said, “Now, then, old fellow! Trot up and down the towing-path as hard +as you can, till you’re warm and dry again, while I dive for the +luncheon-basket.” +</p> + +<p> +So the dismal Mole, wet without and ashamed within, trotted about till he was +fairly dry, while the Rat plunged into the water again, recovered the boat, +righted her and made her fast, fetched his floating property to shore by +degrees, and finally dived successfully for the luncheon-basket and struggled +to land with it. +</p> + +<p> +When all was ready for a start once more, the Mole, limp and dejected, took his +seat in the stern of the boat; and as they set off, he said in a low voice, +broken with emotion, “Ratty, my generous friend! I am very sorry indeed +for my foolish and ungrateful conduct. My heart quite fails me when I think how +I might have lost that beautiful luncheon-basket. Indeed, I have been a +complete ass, and I know it. Will you overlook it this once and forgive me, and +let things go on as before?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all right, bless you!” responded the Rat cheerily. +“What’s a little wet to a Water Rat? I’m more in the water +than out of it most days. Don’t you think any more about it; and, look +here! I really think you had better come and stop with me for a little time. +It’s very plain and rough, you know—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.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was so touched by his kind manner of speaking that he could find no +voice to answer him; and he had to brush away a tear or two with the back of +his paw. But the Rat kindly looked in another direction, and presently the +Mole’s spirits revived again, and he was even able to give some straight +back-talk to a couple of moorhens who were sniggering to each other about his +bedraggled appearance. +</p> + +<p> +When they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and planted the +Mole in an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a dressing-gown and +slippers for him, and told him river stories till supper-time. Very thrilling +stories they were, too, to an earth-dwelling animal like Mole. Stories about +weirs, and sudden floods, and leaping pike, and steamers that flung hard +bottles—at least bottles were certainly flung, and <i>from</i> steamers, so +presumably <i>by</i> them; and about herons, and how particular they were whom they +spoke to; and about adventures down drains, and night-fishings with Otter, or +excursions far a-field with Badger. Supper was a most cheerful meal; but very +shortly afterwards a terribly sleepy Mole had to be escorted upstairs by his +considerate host, to the best bedroom, where he soon laid his head on his +pillow in great peace and contentment, knowing that his new-found friend the +River was lapping the sill of his window. +</p> + +<p> +This day was only the first of many similar ones for the emancipated Mole, each +of them longer and full of interest as the ripening summer moved onward. He +learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy of running water; and with +his ear to the reed-stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind +went whispering so constantly among them. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a>II.<br/> +THE OPEN ROAD</h2> + +<p> +“Ratty,” said the Mole suddenly, one bright summer morning, +“if you please, I want to ask you a favour.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing a little song. He had just +composed it himself, so he was very taken up with it, and would not pay proper +attention to Mole or anything else. Since early morning he had been swimming in +the river, in company with his friends the ducks. And when the ducks stood on +their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, +just under where their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced +to come to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking +their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite <i>all</i> you feel when your +head is under water. At last they implored him to go away and attend to his own +affairs and leave them to mind theirs. So the Rat went away, and sat on the +river bank in the sun, and made up a song about them, which he called +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“DUCKS’ DITTY.”<br/> +<br/> +All along the backwater,<br/> +Through the rushes tall,<br/> +Ducks are a-dabbling,<br/> +Up tails all!<br/> +Ducks’ tails, drakes’ tails,<br/> +Yellow feet a-quiver,<br/> +Yellow bills all out of sight<br/> +Busy in the river!<br/> +<br/> +Slushy green undergrowth<br/> +Where the roach swim—<br/> +Here we keep our larder,<br/> +Cool and full and dim.<br/> +<br/> +Everyone for what he likes!<br/> +<i>We</i> like to be<br/> +Heads down, tails up,<br/> +Dabbling free!<br/> +<br/> +High in the blue above<br/> +Swifts whirl and call—<br/> +<i>We</i> are down a-dabbling<br/> +Uptails all! +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know that I think so <i>very</i> much of that little song, +Rat,” observed the Mole cautiously. He was no poet himself and +didn’t care who knew it; and he had a candid nature. +</p> + +<p> +“Nor don’t the ducks neither,” replied the Rat cheerfully. +“They say, ‘<i>Why</i> can’t fellows be allowed to do what they like +<i>when</i> they like and <i>as</i> they like, instead of other fellows sitting on banks and +watching them all the time and making remarks and poetry and things about them? +What <i>nonsense</i> it all is!’ That’s what the ducks say.” +</p> + +<p> +“So it is, so it is,” said the Mole, with great heartiness. +</p> + +<p> +“No, it isn’t!” cried the Rat indignantly. +</p> + +<p> +“Well then, it isn’t, it isn’t,” replied the Mole +soothingly. “But what I wanted to ask you was, won’t you take me to +call on Mr. Toad? I’ve heard so much about him, and I do so want to make +his acquaintance.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, certainly,” said the good-natured Rat, jumping to his feet +and dismissing poetry from his mind for the day. “Get the boat out, and +we’ll paddle up there at once. It’s never the wrong time to call on +Toad. Early or late he’s always the same fellow. Always good-tempered, +always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!” +</p> + +<p> +“He must be a very nice animal,” observed the Mole, as he got into +the boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably in the +stern. +</p> + +<p> +“He is indeed the best of animals,” replied Rat. “So simple, +so good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he’s not very +clever—we can’t all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both +boastful and conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady.” +</p> + +<p> +Rounding a bend in the river, they came in sight of a handsome, dignified old +house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns reaching down to the +water’s edge. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s Toad Hall,” said the Rat; “and that creek on +the left, where the notice-board says, ‘Private. No landing +allowed,’ leads to his boat-house, where we’ll leave the boat. The +stables are over there to the right. That’s 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.” +</p> + +<p> +They glided up the creek, and the Mole shipped his sculls as they passed into +the shadow of a large boat-house. Here they saw many handsome boats, slung from +the cross beams or hauled up on a slip, but none in the water; and the place +had an unused and a deserted air. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat looked around him. “I understand,” said he. “Boating +is played out. He’s tired of it, and done with it. I wonder what new fad +he has taken up now? Come along and let’s look him up. We shall hear all +about it quite soon enough.” +</p> + +<p> +They disembarked, and strolled across the gay flower-decked lawns in search of +Toad, whom they presently happened upon resting in a wicker garden-chair, with +a pre-occupied expression of face, and a large map spread out on his knees. +</p> + +<p> +“Hooray!” he cried, jumping up on seeing them, “this is +splendid!” He shook the paws of both of them warmly, never waiting for an +introduction to the Mole. “How <i>kind</i> of you!” he went on, dancing +round them. “I was just going to send a boat down the river for you, +Ratty, with strict orders that you were to be fetched up here at once, whatever +you were doing. I want you badly—both of you. Now what will you take? +Come inside and have something! You don’t know how lucky it is, your +turning up just now!” +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s sit quiet a bit, Toady!” said the Rat, throwing +himself into an easy chair, while the Mole took another by the side of him and +made some civil remark about Toad’s “delightful residence.” +</p> + +<p> +“Finest house on the whole river,” cried Toad boisterously. +“Or anywhere else, for that matter,” he could not help adding. +</p> + +<p> +Here the Rat nudged the Mole. Unfortunately the Toad saw him do it, and turned +very red. There was a moment’s painful silence. Then Toad burst out +laughing. “All right, Ratty,” he said. “It’s only my +way, you know. And it’s not such a very bad house, is it? You know you +rather like it yourself. Now, look here. Let’s be sensible. You are the +very animals I wanted. You’ve got to help me. It’s most +important!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s about your rowing, I suppose,” said the Rat, with an +innocent air. “You’re getting on fairly well, though you splash a +good bit still. With a great deal of patience, and any quantity of coaching, +you may——” +</p> + +<p> +“O, pooh! boating!” interrupted the Toad, in great disgust. +“Silly boyish amusement. I’ve given that up <i>long</i> ago. Sheer waste +of time, that’s what it is. It makes me downright sorry to see you +fellows, who ought to know better, spending all your energies in that aimless +manner. No, I’ve discovered the real thing, the only genuine occupation +for a 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!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“There you are!” cried the Toad, straddling and expanding himself. +“There’s real life for you, embodied in that little cart. The open +road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling +downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off to somewhere +else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The whole world before +you, and a horizon that’s always changing! And mind! this is the very +finest cart of its sort that was ever built, without any exception. Come inside +and look at the arrangements. Planned ’em all myself, I did!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was tremendously interested and excited, and followed him eagerly up +the steps and into the interior of the caravan. The Rat only snorted and thrust +his hands deep into his pockets, remaining where he was. +</p> + +<p> +It was indeed very compact and comfortable. 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“I beg your pardon,” said the Rat slowly, as he chewed a straw, +“but did I overhear you say something about ‘<i>we</i>,’ and +‘<i>start</i>,’ and ‘<i>this afternoon?</i>’” +</p> + +<p> +“Now, you dear good old Ratty,” said Toad, imploringly, +“don’t begin talking in that stiff and sniffy sort of way, because +you know you’ve <i>got</i> to come. I can’t possibly manage without you, +so please consider it settled, and don’t argue—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 <i>boat?</i> I +want to show you the world! I’m going to make an <i>animal</i> of you, my +boy!” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t care,” said the Rat, doggedly. “I’m not +coming, and that’s flat. And I <i>am</i> going to stick to my old river, <i>and</i> +live in a hole, <i>and</i> boat, as I’ve always done. And what’s more, +Mole’s going to stick to me and do as I do, aren’t you, +Mole?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I am,” said the Mole, loyally. “I’ll always +stick to you, Rat, and what you say is to be—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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat saw what was passing in his mind, and wavered. He hated disappointing +people, and he was fond of the Mole, and would do almost anything to oblige +him. Toad was watching both of them closely. +</p> + +<p> +“Come along in, and have some lunch,” he said, diplomatically, +“and we’ll talk it over. We needn’t decide anything in a +hurry. Of course, <i>I</i> don’t really care. I only want to give +pleasure to you fellows. ‘Live for others!’ That’s my motto +in life.” +</p> + +<p> +During luncheon—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. +</p> + +<p> +When they were quite ready, the now triumphant Toad led his companions to the +paddock and set them to capture the old grey horse, who, without having been +consulted, and to his own extreme annoyance, had been told off by Toad for the +dustiest job in this dusty expedition. He frankly preferred the paddock, and +took a deal of catching. Meantime Toad packed the lockers still tighter with +necessaries, and hung 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Late in the evening, tired and happy and miles from home, they drew up on a +remote common far from habitations, turned the horse loose to graze, and ate +their simple supper sitting on the grass by the side of the cart. Toad talked +big about all he was going to do in the days to come, while stars grew fuller +and larger all around them, and a yellow moon, appearing suddenly and silently +from nowhere in particular, came to keep them company and listen to their talk. +At last they turned in to their little bunks in the cart; and Toad, kicking out +his legs, sleepily said, “Well, good night, you fellows! This is the real +life for a gentleman! Talk about your old river!” +</p> + +<p> +“I <i>don’t</i> talk about my river,” replied the patient Rat. +“You <i>know</i> I don’t, Toad. But I <i>think</i> about it,” he added +pathetically, in a lower tone: “I think about it—all the +time!” +</p> + +<p> +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—<i>very</i> early—and go back to our dear old hole on the +river?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, we’ll see it out,” whispered back the Rat. +“Thanks awfully, but I ought to stick by Toad till this trip is ended. It +wouldn’t be safe for him to be left to himself. It won’t take very +long. His fads never do. Good night!” +</p> + +<p> +The end was indeed nearer than even the Rat suspected. +</p> + +<p> +After so much open air and excitement the Toad slept very soundly, and no +amount of shaking could rouse him out of bed next morning. So the Mole and Rat +turned to, quietly and manfully, and while the Rat saw to the horse, and lit a +fire, and cleaned last night’s cups and platters, and got things ready +for breakfast, the Mole trudged off to the nearest village, a long way off, for +milk and eggs and various necessaries the Toad had, of course, forgotten to +provide. The hard work had all been done, and the two animals were resting, +thoroughly exhausted, by the time Toad appeared on the scene, fresh and gay, +remarking what a pleasant easy life it was they were all leading now, after the +cares and worries and fatigues of housekeeping at home. +</p> + +<p> +They had a pleasant ramble that day over grassy downs and along narrow +by-lanes, and camped as before, on a common, only this time the two guests took +care that Toad should do his fair share of work. In consequence, when the time +came for starting next morning, Toad was by no means so rapturous about the +simplicity of the primitive life, and indeed attempted to resume his place in +his bunk, whence he was hauled by force. Their way lay, as before, across +country by narrow lanes, and it was not till the afternoon that they came out +on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and +unforeseen, sprang out on them—disaster momentous indeed to their +expedition, but simply overwhelming in its effect on the after-career of Toad. +</p> + +<p> +They were strolling along the high-road easily, the Mole by the horse’s +head, talking to him, since the horse had complained that he was 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 <i>you</i> say to <i>him?</i>”—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. +</p> + +<p> +The old grey horse, dreaming, as he plodded along, of his quiet paddock, in a +new raw situation such as this simply abandoned himself to his natural +emotions. Rearing, plunging, backing steadily, in spite of all the Mole’s +efforts at his head, and all the Mole’s lively language directed at his +better feelings, he drove the cart 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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat danced up and down in the road, simply transported with passion. +“You villains!” he shouted, shaking both fists, “You +scoundrels, you highwaymen, you—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. +</p> + +<p> +Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs stretched out +before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the disappearing motor-car. +He breathed short, his face wore a placid satisfied expression, and at +intervals he faintly murmured “Poop-poop!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was busy trying to quiet the horse, which he succeeded in doing after +a time. Then he went to look at the cart, on its side in the ditch. It was +indeed a sorry sight. Panels and windows smashed, axles hopelessly bent, one +wheel off, sardine-tins scattered over the wide world, and the bird in the +bird-cage sobbing pitifully and calling to be let out. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat came to help him, but their united efforts were not sufficient to right +the cart. “Hi! Toad!” they cried. “Come and bear a hand, +can’t you!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad never answered a word, or budged from his seat in the road; so they +went to see what was the matter with him. They found him in a sort of a trance, +a happy smile on his face, his eyes still fixed on the dusty wake of their +destroyer. At intervals he was still heard to murmur “Poop-poop!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat shook him by the shoulder. “Are you coming to help us, +Toad?” he demanded sternly. +</p> + +<p> +“Glorious, stirring sight!” murmured Toad, never offering to move. +“The poetry of motion! The <i>real</i> way to travel! The <i>only</i> way to travel! +Here to-day—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“O <i>stop</i> being an ass, Toad!” cried the Mole despairingly. +</p> + +<p> +“And to think I never <i>knew!</i>” went on the Toad in a dreamy monotone. +“All those wasted years that lie behind me, I never knew, never even +<i>dreamt!</i> But <i>now</i>—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“What are we to do with him?” asked the Mole of the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing at all,” replied the Rat firmly. “Because there is +really nothing to be done. You see, I know him from of old. He is now +possessed. He has got a new craze, and it always takes him that way, in its +first stage. He’ll continue like that for days now, like an animal +walking in a happy dream, quite useless for all practical purposes. Never mind +him. Let’s go and see what there is to be done about the cart.” +</p> + +<p> +A careful inspection showed them that, even if they succeeded in righting it by +themselves, the cart would travel no longer. The axles were in a hopeless +state, and the missing wheel was shattered into pieces. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat knotted the horse’s reins over his back and took him by the head, +carrying the bird cage and its hysterical occupant in the other hand. +“Come on!” he said grimly to the Mole. “It’s five or +six miles to the nearest town, and we shall just have to walk it. The sooner we +make a start the better.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what about Toad?” asked the Mole anxiously, as they set off +together. “We can’t leave him here, sitting in the middle of the +road by himself, in the distracted state he’s in! It’s not safe. +Supposing another Thing were to come along?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, <i>bother</i> Toad,” said the Rat savagely; “I’ve done +with him!” +</p> + +<p> +They had not proceeded very far on their way, however, when there was a +pattering of feet behind them, and Toad caught them up and thrust a paw inside +the elbow of each of them; still breathing short and staring into vacancy. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, look here, Toad!” said the Rat sharply: “as soon as we +get to the town, you’ll have to go straight to the police-station, and +see if they know anything about that motor-car and who it belongs to, and lodge +a complaint against it. And then you’ll have to go to a +blacksmith’s or a wheelwright’s and arrange for the cart to be +fetched and mended and put to rights. It’ll take time, but it’s not +quite a hopeless smash. Meanwhile, the Mole and I will go to an inn and find +comfortable rooms where we can stay till the cart’s ready, and till your +nerves have recovered their shock.” +</p> + +<p> +“Police-station! Complaint!” murmured Toad dreamily. “Me +<i>complain</i> of that beautiful, that heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me! +<i>Mend</i> the <i>cart!</i> I’ve done with carts for ever. I never want to see the +cart, or to hear of it, again. O, Ratty! You can’t think how obliged I am +to you for consenting to come on this trip! I wouldn’t have gone without +you, and then I might never have seen that—that swan, that sunbeam, that +thunderbolt! I might never have heard that entrancing sound, or smelt that +bewitching smell! I owe it all to you, my best of friends!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +On reaching the town they went straight to the station and deposited Toad in +the second-class waiting-room, giving a porter twopence to keep a strict eye on +him. They then left the horse at an inn stable, and gave what directions they +could about the cart and its contents. Eventually, a slow train having landed +them at a station not very far from Toad Hall, they escorted the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The following evening the Mole, who had risen late and taken things very easy +all day, was sitting on the bank fishing, when the Rat, who had been looking up +his friends and gossiping, came strolling along to find him. “Heard the +news?” he said. “There’s nothing else being talked about, all +along the river bank. Toad went up to Town by an early train this morning. And +he has ordered a large and very expensive motor-car.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a>III.<br/> +THE WILD WOOD</h2> + +<p> +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 +<i>as</i> you find him, but <i>when</i> you find him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Couldn’t you ask him here dinner or something?” said the +Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“He wouldn’t come,” replied the Rat simply. “Badger +hates Society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, then, supposing we go and call on <i>him?</i>” suggested the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“O, I’m sure he wouldn’t like that at <i>all</i>,” said the +Rat, quite alarmed. “He’s so very shy, he’d be sure to be +offended. I’ve never even ventured to call on him at his own home myself, +though I know him so well. Besides, we can’t. It’s quite out of the +question, because he lives in the very middle of the Wild Wood.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, supposing he does,” said the Mole. “You told me the +Wild Wood was all right, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, I know, I know, so it is,” replied the Rat evasively. +“But I think we won’t go there just now. Not <i>just</i> yet. It’s a +long way, and he wouldn’t be at home at this time of year anyhow, and +he’ll be coming along some day, if you’ll wait quietly.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole had to be content with this. But the Badger never came along, and +every day brought its amusements, and it was not till summer was long over, and +cold and frost and miry ways kept them much indoors, and the swollen river +raced past outside their windows with a speed that mocked at boating of any +sort or kind, that he found his thoughts dwelling again with much persistence +on the solitary grey Badger, who lived his own life by himself, in his hole in +the middle of the Wild Wood. +</p> + +<p> +In the winter time the Rat slept a great deal, retiring early and rising late. +During his short day he sometimes scribbled poetry or did other small domestic +jobs about the house; and, of course, there were always animals dropping in for +a chat, and consequently there was a good deal of story-telling and comparing +notes on the past summer and all its doings. +</p> + +<p> +Such a rich chapter it had been, when one came to look back on it all! With +illustrations so numerous and so very highly coloured! The pageant of the river +bank had marched steadily along, unfolding itself in scene-pictures that +succeeded each other in stately procession. Purple loosestrife arrived early, +shaking luxuriant tangled locks along the edge of the mirror whence its own +face laughed back at it. Willow-herb, tender and wistful, like a pink sunset +cloud, was not slow to follow. Comfrey, the purple hand-in-hand with the white, +crept forth to take its place in the line; and at last one morning the +diffident and delaying dog-rose stepped delicately on the stage, and one knew, +as if string-music had announced it in stately chords that strayed into a +gavotte, that June at last was here. One member of the company was still +awaited; the shepherd-boy for the nymphs to woo, the knight for whom the ladies +waited at the window, the prince that was to kiss the sleeping summer back to +life and love. But when meadow-sweet, debonair and odorous in amber jerkin, +moved graciously to his place in the group, then the play was ready to begin. +</p> + +<p> +And what a play it had been! Drowsy animals, snug in their holes while wind and +rain were battering at their doors, recalled still keen mornings, an hour +before sunrise, when the white mist, as yet undispersed, clung closely along +the surface of the water; then the shock of the early plunge, the scamper along +the bank, and the radiant transformation of earth, air, and water, when +suddenly the sun was with them 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. +</p> + +<p> +It was a cold still afternoon with a hard steely sky overhead, when he slipped +out of the warm parlour into the open air. The country lay bare and entirely +leafless around him, 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. +</p> + +<p> +There was nothing to alarm him at first entry. Twigs crackled under his feet, +logs tripped him, funguses on stumps resembled caricatures, and startled him +for the moment by their likeness to something familiar and far away; but that +was all fun, and exciting. It led him on, and he penetrated to where the light +was less, and trees crouched nearer and nearer, and holes made ugly mouths at +him on either side. +</p> + +<p> +Everything was very still now. The dusk advanced on him steadily, rapidly, +gathering in behind and before; and the light seemed to be draining away like +flood-water. +</p> + +<p> +Then the faces began. +</p> + +<p> +It was over his shoulder, and indistinctly, that he first thought he saw a +face; a little evil wedge-shaped face, looking out at him from a hole. When he +turned and confronted it, the thing had vanished. +</p> + +<p> +He quickened his pace, telling himself cheerfully not to begin imagining +things, or there would be simply no end to it. He passed another hole, and +another, and another; and 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. +</p> + +<p> +If he could only get away from the holes in the banks, he thought, there would +be no more faces. He swung off the path and plunged into the untrodden places +of the wood. +</p> + +<p> +Then the whistling began. +</p> + +<p> +Very faint and shrill it was, and far behind him, when first he heard it; but +somehow it made him hurry forward. Then, still very faint and shrill, it +sounded far ahead of him, and made him hesitate and want to go back. As he +halted in indecision it broke out on either side, and seemed to be caught up +and passed on throughout the whole length of the wood to its farthest limit. +They were up and alert and ready, evidently, whoever they were! And he—he +was alone, and unarmed, and far from any help; and the night was closing in. +</p> + +<p> +Then the pattering began. +</p> + +<p> +He thought it was only falling leaves at first, so slight and delicate was the +sound of it. Then as it grew it took a regular rhythm, and he knew it for +nothing else but the pat-pat-pat of little feet still a very long way off. Was +it in front or behind? It seemed to be first one, and then the other, then +both. It grew and it multiplied, till from every quarter as he listened +anxiously, leaning this way and that, it seemed to be closing in on him. As he +stood still to hearken, a rabbit came running hard towards him through the +trees. He waited, expecting it to slacken pace, or to swerve from him into a +different course. Instead, the animal almost brushed him as it dashed past, his +face set and hard, his eyes staring. “Get out of this, you fool, get +out!” the Mole heard him mutter as he swung round a stump and disappeared +down a friendly burrow. +</p> + +<p> +The pattering increased till it sounded like 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! +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +But the Mole was not there. +</p> + +<p> +He listened for a time. The house seemed very quiet. +</p> + +<p> +Then he called “Moly!” several times, and, receiving no answer, got +up and went out into the hall. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole’s cap was missing from its accustomed peg. His goloshes, which +always lay by the umbrella-stand, were also gone. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat left the house, and carefully examined the muddy surface of the ground +outside, hoping to find the Mole’s tracks. There they were, sure enough. +The goloshes were new, just bought for the winter, and the pimples on their +soles were fresh and sharp. He could see the imprints of them in the mud, +running along straight and purposeful, leading direct to the Wild Wood. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat looked very grave, and stood in deep thought for a minute or two. Then +he re-entered the house, strapped a belt round his waist, shoved a brace of +pistols into it, took up a stout cudgel that stood in a corner of the hall, and +set off for the Wild Wood at a smart pace. +</p> + +<p> +It was already getting towards dusk when he reached the first fringe of trees +and plunged without hesitation into the wood, looking anxiously on either side +for any sign of his friend. Here and there wicked little faces popped out of +holes, but vanished immediately at sight of the valorous animal, his pistols, +and the great ugly cudgel in his grasp; and the whistling and pattering, which +he had heard quite plainly on his first entry, died away and ceased, and all +was very still. He made his way manfully through the length of the wood, to its +furthest edge; then, forsaking all paths, he set himself 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!” +</p> + +<p> +He had patiently hunted through the wood for an hour or more, when at last to +his joy he heard a little answering cry. Guiding himself by the sound, he made +his way through the gathering darkness to the foot of an old beech tree, with a +hole in it, and from out of the hole came a feeble voice, saying “Ratty! +Is that really you?” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat crept into the hollow, and there he found the Mole, exhausted and still +trembling. “O Rat!” he cried, “I’ve been so frightened, +you can’t think!” +</p> + +<p> +“O, I quite understand,” said the Rat soothingly. “You +shouldn’t really have gone and done it, Mole. I did my best to keep you +from it. We river-bankers, we hardly ever come here by ourselves. If we have to +come, we come in couples, at least; then we’re generally all right. +Besides, there are a hundred things one has to know, which we understand all +about and you don’t, as yet. I mean passwords, and signs, and sayings +which have power and effect, and plants you carry in your pocket, and verses +you repeat, and dodges and tricks you practise; all simple enough when you know +them, but they’ve got to be known if you’re small, or you’ll +find yourself in trouble. Of course if you were Badger or Otter, it would be +quite another matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“Surely the brave Mr. Toad wouldn’t mind coming here by himself, +would he?” inquired the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Old Toad?” said the Rat, laughing heartily. “He +wouldn’t show his face here alone, not for a whole hatful of golden +guineas, Toad wouldn’t.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole was greatly cheered by the sound of the Rat’s careless laughter, +as well as by the sight of his stick and his gleaming pistols, and he stopped +shivering and began to feel bolder and more himself again. +</p> + +<p> +“Now then,” said the Rat presently, “we really must pull +ourselves together and make a start for home while there’s still a little +light left. It will never do to spend the night here, you understand. Too cold, +for one thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Dear Ratty,” said the poor Mole, “I’m dreadfully +sorry, but I’m simply dead beat and that’s a solid fact. You <i>must</i> +let me rest here a while longer, and get my strength back, if I’m to get +home at all.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, all right,” said the good-natured Rat, “rest away. +It’s pretty nearly pitch dark now, anyhow; and there ought to be a bit of +a moon later.” +</p> + +<p> +So the Mole got well into the dry leaves and stretched himself out, and +presently dropped off into sleep, though of a broken and troubled sort; while +the Rat covered himself up, too, as best he might, for warmth, and lay +patiently waiting, with a pistol in his paw. +</p> + +<p> +When at last the Mole woke up, much refreshed and in his usual spirits, the Rat +said, “Now then! I’ll just take a look outside and see if +everything’s quiet, and then we really must be off.” +</p> + +<p> +He went to the entrance of their retreat and put his head out. Then the Mole +heard him saying quietly to himself, “Hullo! hullo! +here—is—a—go!” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s up, Ratty?” asked the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Snow</i> is up,” replied the Rat briefly; “or rather, <i>down</i>. +It’s snowing hard.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole came and crouched beside him, and, looking out, saw the wood that had +been so dreadful to him in quite a changed aspect. Holes, hollows, pools, +pitfalls, and other black menaces to the wayfarer were vanishing fast, and a +gleaming carpet of faery was springing up everywhere, that looked too delicate +to be trodden upon by rough feet. A fine powder filled the air and caressed the +cheek with a tingle in its touch, and the black boles of the trees showed up in +a light that seemed to come from below. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well, it can’t be helped,” said the Rat, after +pondering. “We must make a start, and take our chance, I suppose. The +worst of it is, I don’t exactly know where we are. And now this snow +makes everything look so very different.” +</p> + +<p> +It did indeed. The Mole would not have known that it was the same wood. +However, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“We can’t sit here very long,” said the Rat. “We shall +have to make another push for it, and do something or other. The cold is too +awful for anything, and the snow will soon be too deep for us to wade +through.” He peered about him and considered. “Look here,” he +went on, “this is what occurs to me. There’s a sort of dell down +here in front of us, where the ground seems all hilly and humpy and hummocky. +We’ll make our way down into that, and try and find some sort of shelter, +a cave or hole with a dry floor to it, out of the snow and the wind, and there +we’ll have a good rest before we try again, for we’re both of us +pretty dead beat. Besides, the snow may leave off, or something may turn +up.” +</p> + +<p> +So once more they got on their feet, and struggled down into the dell, where +they hunted about for a cave or some corner that was dry and a protection from +the keen wind and the whirling snow. They were investigating one of the +hummocky bits the Rat had spoken of, when suddenly the Mole tripped up and fell +forward on his face with a squeal. +</p> + +<p> +“O my leg!” he cried. “O my poor shin!” and he sat up +on the snow and nursed his leg in both his front paws. +</p> + +<p> +“Poor old Mole!” said the Rat kindly. +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t seem to be having much luck to-day, do you? Let’s +have a look at the leg. Yes,” he went on, going down on his knees to +look, “you’ve cut your shin, sure enough. Wait till I get at my +handkerchief, and I’ll tie it up for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I must have tripped over a hidden branch or a stump,” said the +Mole miserably. “O, my! O, my!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a very clean cut,” said the Rat, examining it again +attentively. “That was never done by a branch or a stump. Looks as if it +was made by a sharp edge of something in metal. Funny!” He pondered +awhile, and examined the humps and slopes that surrounded them. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, never mind what done it,” said the Mole, forgetting his +grammar in his pain. “It hurts just the same, whatever done it.” +</p> + +<p> +But the Rat, after carefully tying up the leg with his handkerchief, had left +him and was busy scraping in the snow. He scratched and shovelled and explored, +all four legs working busily, while the Mole waited impatiently, remarking at +intervals, “O, <i>come</i> on, Rat!” +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the Rat cried “Hooray!” and then +“Hooray-oo-ray-oo-ray-oo-ray!” and fell to executing a feeble jig +in the snow. +</p> + +<p> +“What <i>have</i> you found, Ratty?” asked the Mole, still nursing his +leg. +</p> + +<p> +“Come and see!” said the delighted Rat, as he jigged on. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole hobbled up to the spot and had a good look. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” he said at last, slowly, “I 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?” +</p> + +<p> +“But don’t you see what it <i>means</i>, you—you dull-witted +animal?” cried the Rat impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course I see what it means,” replied the Mole. “It simply +means that some VERY careless and forgetful person has left his door-scraper +lying about in the middle of the Wild Wood, <i>just</i> where it’s <i>sure</i> to trip +<i>everybody</i> up. Very thoughtless of him, I call it. When I get home I shall go +and complain about it to—to somebody or other, see if I +don’t!” +</p> + +<p> +“O, dear! O, dear!” cried the Rat, in despair at his obtuseness. +“Here, stop arguing and come and scrape!” And he set to work again +and made the snow fly in all directions around him. +</p> + +<p> +After some further toil his efforts were rewarded, and a very shabby door-mat +lay exposed to view. +</p> + +<p> +“There, what did I tell you?” exclaimed the Rat in great triumph. +</p> + +<p> +“Absolutely nothing whatever,” replied the Mole, with perfect +truthfulness. “Well now,” he went on, “you seem to have found +another piece of domestic litter, done for and thrown away, and I suppose +you’re perfectly happy. Better go ahead and dance your jig round that if +you’ve got to, and get it over, and then perhaps we can go on and not +waste any more time over rubbish-heaps. Can we 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?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do—you—mean—to—say,” cried the excited +Rat, “that this door-mat doesn’t <i>tell</i> you anything?” +</p> + +<p> +“Really, Rat,” said the Mole, quite pettishly, “I think +we’d had enough of this folly. Who ever heard of a door-mat <i>telling</i> +anyone anything? They simply don’t do it. They are not that sort at all. +Door-mats know their place.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now look here, you—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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat attacked a snow-bank beside them with ardour, probing with his cudgel +everywhere and then digging with fury; and the Mole scraped busily too, more to +oblige the Rat than for any other reason, for his opinion was that his friend +was getting light-headed. +</p> + +<p> +Some ten minutes’ hard work, and the point of the Rat’s cudgel +struck something that sounded hollow. He worked till he could get a paw through +and feel; then called the Mole to come and help him. Hard at it went the two +animals, till at last the result of their labours stood full in view of the +astonished and hitherto incredulous Mole. +</p> + +<p> +In the side of what had seemed to be a snow-bank stood a solid-looking little +door, painted a dark green. An iron bell-pull hung by the side, and below it, +on a small brass plate, neatly engraved in square capital letters, they could +read by the aid of moonlight +</p> + +<p class="center"> +MR. BADGER. +</p> + +<p> +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——” +</p> + +<p> +“But as you haven’t,” interrupted the Rat, rather unkindly, +“I suppose you’re going to sit on the snow all night and <i>talk?</i> Get +up at once and hang on to that bell-pull you see there, and ring hard, as hard +as you can, while I hammer!” +</p> + +<p> +While the Rat attacked the door with his stick, the Mole sprang up at the +bell-pull, clutched it and swung there, both feet well off the ground, and from +quite a long way off they could faintly hear a deep-toned bell respond. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a>IV.<br/> +MR. BADGER</h2> + +<p> +THEY waited patiently for what seemed a very long time, stamping in the snow to +keep their feet warm. At last they heard the sound of slow shuffling footsteps +approaching the door from the inside. It seemed, as the Mole remarked to the +Rat, like some one walking in carpet slippers that were too large for him and +down at heel; which was intelligent of Mole, because that was exactly what it +was. +</p> + +<p> +There was the noise of a bolt shot back, and the door opened a few inches, +enough to show a long snout and a pair of sleepy blinking eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, the <i>very</i> next time this happens,” said a gruff and suspicious +voice, “I shall be exceedingly angry. Who is it <i>this</i> time, disturbing +people on such a night? Speak up!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Badger,” cried the Rat, “let us in, please. It’s +me, Rat, and my friend Mole, and we’ve lost our way in the snow.” +</p> + +<p> +“What, Ratty, my dear little man!” exclaimed the Badger, in quite a +different voice. “Come along in, both of you, at once. Why, you must be +perished. Well I never! Lost in the snow! And in the Wild Wood, too, and at +this time of night! But come in with you.” +</p> + +<p> +The two animals tumbled over each other in their eagerness to get inside, and +heard the door shut behind them with great joy and relief. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger, who wore a long dressing-gown, and whose slippers were indeed very +down at heel, carried a flat candlestick in his paw and had probably been on +his way to bed when their summons sounded. He looked kindly down on them and +patted both their heads. “This is not the sort of night for small animals +to be out,” he said paternally. “I’m afraid you’ve been +up to some of your pranks again, Ratty. But come along; come into the kitchen. +There’s a first-rate fire there, and supper and everything.” +</p> + +<p> +He shuffled on in front of them, carrying 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. +</p> + +<p> +The floor was well-worn red brick, and on the wide hearth burnt a fire of logs, +between two attractive chimney-corners tucked away in the wall, well out of any +suspicion of draught. A couple of high-backed settles, facing each other on +either side of the fire, gave further sitting accommodations for the sociably +disposed. In the middle of the room stood a long table of plain boards placed +on trestles, with benches down each side. At one end of it, where an arm-chair +stood pushed back, were spread the remains of the Badger’s plain but +ample supper. Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser at +the far end of the room, and from the rafters overhead hung hams, bundles of +dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs. It seemed a place where +heroes could fitly feast after victory, where weary harvesters could line up in +scores along the table and keep their Harvest Home with mirth and song, or +where two or three friends of simple tastes could sit about as they pleased and +eat and smoke and talk in comfort and contentment. The ruddy brick floor smiled +up at the smoky ceiling; the oaken settles, shiny with long wear, exchanged +cheerful glances with each other; plates on the dresser grinned at pots on the +shelf, and the merry firelight flickered and played over everything without +distinction. +</p> + +<p> +The kindly Badger thrust them down on a settle to toast themselves at the fire, +and bade them remove their wet coats and boots. Then he fetched them +dressing-gowns and slippers, and himself bathed the Mole’s shin with warm +water and mended the cut with sticking-plaster till the whole thing was just as +good as new, if not better. In the embracing light and warmth, warm and dry at +last, with weary legs propped up in front of them, and a suggestive clink of +plates being arranged on the table behind, it seemed to the storm-driven +animals, now in safe anchorage, that the cold and trackless Wild Wood just left +outside was miles and miles away, and all that they had suffered in it a +half-forgotten dream. +</p> + +<p> +When at last they were thoroughly toasted, the Badger summoned them to the +table, where he had been busy laying a repast. They had felt pretty hungry +before, but when they actually saw at last the supper that was spread for them, +really it seemed only a question of what they should attack first where all was +so attractive, and whether the other things would obligingly wait for them till +they had time to give them attention. Conversation was impossible for a long +time; and when it was slowly resumed, it was that regrettable sort of +conversation that results from talking with your mouth full. The Badger did not +mind that sort of thing at all, nor did he take any notice of elbows on the +table, or everybody speaking at once. As he did not go into Society himself, he +had got an idea that these things belonged to the things that didn’t +really matter. (We know of course that he was wrong, and took too narrow a +view; because they do matter very much, though it would take too long to +explain why.) He sat in his arm-chair at the head of the table, and nodded +gravely at intervals as the animals told their story; and he did not seem +surprised or shocked at anything, and he never said, “I told you +so,” or, “Just what I always said,” or remarked that they +ought to have done so-and-so, or ought not to have done something else. The +Mole began to feel very friendly towards him. +</p> + +<p> +When supper was really finished at last, and each animal felt that his skin was +now as tight as was decently safe, and that by this time he didn’t care a +hang for anybody or anything, they gathered round the glowing embers of the +great wood fire, and thought how jolly it was to be sitting up <i>so</i> late, and <i>so</i> +independent, and <i>so</i> full; and after they had chatted for a time about things in +general, the Badger said heartily, “Now then! tell us the news from your +part of the world. How’s old Toad going on?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, from bad to worse,” said the Rat gravely, while the Mole, +cocked up on a settle and basking in the firelight, his heels higher than his +head, tried to look properly mournful. “Another smash-up only last week, +and a bad one. You see, he will insist on driving himself, and he’s +hopelessly incapable. If he’d only employ a decent, steady, well-trained +animal, pay him good wages, and leave everything to him, he’d get on all +right. But no; he’s convinced he’s a heaven-born driver, and nobody +can teach him anything; and all the rest follows.” +</p> + +<p> +“How many has he had?” inquired the Badger gloomily. +</p> + +<p> +“Smashes, or machines?” asked the Rat. “Oh, well, after all, +it’s the same thing—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s been in hospital three times,” put in the Mole; +“and as for the fines he’s had to pay, it’s simply awful to +think of.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, and that’s part of the trouble,” continued the Rat. +“Toad’s rich, we all know; but he’s not a millionaire. And +he’s a hopelessly bad driver, and quite regardless of law and order. +Killed or ruined—it’s got to be one of the two things, sooner or +later. Badger! we’re his friends—oughtn’t we to do +something?” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger went through a bit of hard thinking. “Now look here!” he +said at last, rather severely; “of course you know I can’t do +anything <i>now?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +His two friends assented, quite understanding his point. No animal, according +to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or +heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter. All are +sleepy—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. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well then!” continued the Badger. “<i>But</i>, 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—<i>you</i> know!——” +</p> + +<p> +Both animals nodded gravely. <i>They</i> knew! +</p> + +<p> +“Well, <i>then</i>,” 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 <i>make</i> him be a sensible Toad. +We’ll—you’re asleep, Rat!” +</p> + +<p> +“Not me!” said the Rat, waking up with a jerk. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s been asleep two or three times since supper,” said the +Mole, laughing. He himself was feeling quite wakeful and even lively, though he +didn’t know why. The reason was, of course, that he being naturally an +underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger’s house +exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who slept every +night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy river, naturally +felt the atmosphere still and oppressive. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it’s time we were all in bed,” said the Badger, +getting up and fetching flat candlesticks. “Come along, you two, and +I’ll show you your quarters. And take your time tomorrow +morning—breakfast at any hour you please!” +</p> + +<p> +He conducted the two animals to a long room that seemed half bedchamber and +half loft. The Badger’s winter stores, which indeed were visible +everywhere, took up half the room—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. +</p> + +<p> +In accordance with the kindly Badger’s injunctions, the two tired animals +came down to breakfast very late next morning, and found a bright fire burning +in the kitchen, and two young hedgehogs sitting on a bench at the table, eating +oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls. The hedgehogs dropped their spoons, rose +to their feet, and ducked their heads respectfully as the two entered. +</p> + +<p> +“There, sit down, sit down,” said the Rat pleasantly, “and go +on with your porridge. Where have you youngsters come from? Lost your way in +the snow, I suppose?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, please, sir,” said the elder of the two hedgehogs +respectfully. “Me and little Billy here, we was trying to find our way to +school—mother <i>would</i> 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——” +</p> + +<p> +“I understand,” said the Rat, cutting himself some rashers from a +side of bacon, while the Mole dropped some eggs into a saucepan. “And +what’s the weather like outside? You needn’t ‘sir’ me +quite so much?” he added. +</p> + +<p> +“O, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is,” said the +hedgehog. “No getting out for the likes of you gentlemen to-day.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where’s Mr. Badger?” inquired the Mole, as he warmed the +coffee-pot before the fire. +</p> + +<p> +“The master’s gone into his study, sir,” replied the +hedgehog, “and he said as how he was going to be particular busy this +morning, and on no account was he to be disturbed.” +</p> + +<p> +This explanation, of course, was thoroughly understood by every one present. +The fact is, as already set forth, when you live a life of intense activity for +six months in the year, and of comparative or actual somnolence for the other +six, during the latter period you cannot be continually pleading sleepiness +when there are people about or things to be done. The excuse gets monotonous. +The animals well knew that Badger, having eaten a hearty breakfast, had retired +to his study and settled himself in an arm-chair with his legs up on another +and a red cotton handkerchief over his face, and was being “busy” +in the usual way at this time of the year. +</p> + +<p> +The front-door bell clanged loudly, and the Rat, who was very greasy with +buttered toast, sent Billy, the smaller hedgehog, to see who it might be. There +was a sound of much stamping in the hall, and presently Billy returned in front +of the Otter, who threw himself on the Rat with an embrace and a shout of +affectionate greeting. +</p> + +<p> +“Get off!” spluttered the Rat, with his mouth full. +</p> + +<p> +“Thought I should find you here all right,” said the Otter +cheerfully. “They were all in a great state of alarm along River Bank +when I arrived this morning. Rat never been home all night—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 <i>do</i> 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, <i>us?</i>’ he +merely said: ‘<i>do</i> something? us rabbits?’ So I cuffed him again and +left him. There was nothing else to be done. At any rate, I had learnt +something; and if I had had the luck to meet any of ‘Them’ +I’d have learnt something more—or <i>they</i> would.” +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“Nervous?” The Otter showed a gleaming set of strong white teeth as +he laughed. “I’d give ’em nerves if any of them tried +anything on with me. Here, Mole, fry me some slices of ham, like the good +little chap you are. I’m frightfully hungry, and I’ve got any +amount to say to Ratty here. Haven’t seen him for an age.” +</p> + +<p> +So the good-natured Mole, having cut some slices of ham, set the hedgehogs to +fry it, and returned to his own breakfast, while the Otter and the Rat, their +heads together, eagerly talked river-shop, which is long shop and talk that is +endless, running on like the babbling river itself. +</p> + +<p> +A plate of fried ham had just been cleared and sent back for more, when the +Badger entered, yawning and rubbing his eyes, and greeted them all in his +quiet, simple way, with kind 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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rather!” replied the Otter, winking at the Mole. “The sight +of these greedy young hedgehogs stuffing themselves with fried ham makes me +feel positively famished.” +</p> + +<p> +The hedgehogs, who were just beginning to feel hungry again after their +porridge, and after working so hard at their frying, looked timidly up at Mr. +Badger, but were too shy to say anything. +</p> + +<p> +“Here, you two youngsters be off home to your mother,” said the +Badger kindly. “I’ll send some one with you to show you the way. +You won’t want any dinner to-day, I’ll be bound.” +</p> + +<p> +He gave them sixpence apiece and a pat on the head, and they went off with much +respectful swinging of caps and touching of forelocks. +</p> + +<p> +Presently they all sat down to luncheon together. The Mole found himself placed +next to Mr. Badger, and, as the other two were still deep in river-gossip from +which nothing could divert them, he took the opportunity to tell Badger how +comfortable and home-like it all felt to him. “Once well +underground,” he said, “you know exactly where you are. Nothing can +happen to you, and nothing can get at you. You’re entirely your own +master, and you don’t have to consult anybody or mind what they say. +Things go on all the same overhead, and you let ’em, and don’t +bother about ’em. When you want to, up you go, and there the things are, +waiting for you.” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger simply beamed on him. “That’s exactly what I say,” +he replied. “There’s no security, or peace and tranquillity, except +underground. And then, if your ideas get larger and you want to +expand—why, a dig and a scrape, and there you are! If you feel your house +is a bit too big, you stop up a hole or two, and there you are again! No +builders, no tradesmen, no remarks passed on you by fellows looking over your +wall, and, above all, no <i>weather</i>. Look at Rat, now. A couple of feet of flood +water, and he’s got to move into hired lodgings; uncomfortable, +inconveniently situated, and horribly expensive. Take Toad. I say nothing +against Toad Hall; quite the best house in these parts, <i>as</i> 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 <i>hate</i> 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 <i>home!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole assented heartily; and the Badger in consequence got very friendly +with him. “When lunch is over,” he said, “I’ll take you +all round this little place of mine. I can see you’ll appreciate it. You +understand what domestic architecture ought to be, you do.” +</p> + +<p> +After luncheon, accordingly, when the other two had settled themselves into the +chimney-corner and had started a heated argument on the subject of <i>eels</i>, the +Badger lighted a lantern and bade the Mole follow him. Crossing the hall, they +passed down one of the principal tunnels, and the wavering light of the lantern +gave glimpses on either side of rooms both large and small, some mere +cupboards, others nearly as broad and imposing as Toad’s dining-hall. A +narrow passage at right angles led them into another corridor, and here the +same thing was repeated. The Mole was staggered at the size, the extent, the +ramifications of it all; at the length of the dim passages, the solid vaultings +of the crammed store-chambers, the masonry everywhere, the pillars, the arches, +the pavements. “How on earth, Badger,” he said at last, “did +you ever find time and strength to do all this? It’s astonishing!” +</p> + +<p> +“It <i>would</i> be astonishing indeed,” said the Badger simply, “if +I <i>had</i> done it. But as a matter of fact I did none of it—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what has become of them all?” asked the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, and when they went at last, those people?” said the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“When they went,” continued the Badger, “the strong winds and +persistent rains took the matter in hand, patiently, ceaselessly, year after +year. Perhaps we badgers too, in our small way, helped a little—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“I do indeed,” said the Mole, with a slight shiver. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Badger, patting him on the shoulder, +“it was your first experience of them, you see. They’re not so bad +really; and we must all live and let live. But I’ll pass the word around +to-morrow, and I think you’ll have no further trouble. Any friend of <i>mine</i> +walks where he likes in this country, or I’ll know the reason why!” +</p> + +<p> +When they got back to the kitchen again, they found the Rat walking up and +down, very restless. The underground atmosphere was oppressing him and getting +on his nerves, and he seemed really to be afraid that the river would run away +if he wasn’t there to look after it. So he had his overcoat on, and his +pistols thrust into his belt again. “Come along, Mole,” he said +anxiously, as soon as he caught sight of them. “We must get off while +it’s daylight. Don’t want to spend another night in the Wild Wood +again.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’ll be all right, my fine fellow,” said the Otter. +“I’m coming along with you, and I know every path blindfold; and if +there’s a head that needs to be punched, you can confidently rely upon me +to punch it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You really needn’t fret, Ratty,” added the Badger placidly. +“My passages run further than you think, and I’ve bolt-holes to the +edge of the wood in several directions, though I don’t care for everybody +to know about them. When you really have to go, you shall leave by one of my +short cuts. Meantime, make yourself easy, and sit down again.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to be off and attend to his river, so +the Badger, taking up his lantern again, led the way along a damp and airless +tunnel that wound and dipped, part vaulted, part hewn through solid rock, for a +weary distance that seemed to be miles. At last daylight began to show itself +confusedly through tangled growth overhanging the mouth of the passage; and the +Badger, bidding them a hasty good-bye, pushed them hurriedly through the +opening, made everything look as natural as possible again, with creepers, +brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated. +</p> + +<p> +They found themselves standing on the very edge of the Wild Wood. Rocks and +brambles and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped and tangled; in front, a +great space of quiet fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black on the snow, and, +far ahead, a glint of the familiar old river, while the wintry sun hung red and +low on the horizon. The Otter, as knowing all the paths, took charge of the +party, and they trailed out on a bee-line for a distant stile. Pausing there a +moment and looking back, they saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense, +menacing, compact, grimly set in vast white surroundings; simultaneously they +turned and made swiftly for home, for firelight and the familiar things it +played on, for the voice, sounding cheerily outside their window, of the river +that they knew and trusted in all its moods, that never made them afraid with +any amazement. +</p> + +<p> +As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home +again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an +animal of tilled field 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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a>V.<br/> +DULCE DOMUM</h2> + +<p> +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; <i>this</i> leads home!” +</p> + +<p> +“It looks as if we were coming to a village,” said the Mole +somewhat dubiously, slackening his pace, as the track, that had in time become +a path and then had developed into a lane, now handed them over to the charge +of a well-metalled road. The animals did not hold with villages, and their own +highways, thickly frequented as they were, took an independent course, +regardless of church, post office, or public-house. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, never mind!” said the Rat. “At this season of the year +they’re all safe indoors by this time, sitting round the fire; men, +women, and children, dogs and cats and all. We shall slip through all right, +without any bother or unpleasantness, and we can have a look at them through +their windows if you like, and see what they’re doing.” +</p> + +<p> +The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they +approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery 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. +</p> + +<p> +But it was from one little window, with its blind drawn down, a mere blank +transparency on the night, that the sense of home and the little curtained +world within walls—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. +</p> + +<p> +Once beyond the village, where the cottages ceased abruptly, on either side of +the road they could smell through the darkness the friendly fields again; and +they braced themselves for the last long stretch, the home stretch, the stretch +that we know is bound to end, some time, in the rattle of the door-latch, the +sudden firelight, and the sight of familiar things greeting us as long-absent +travellers from far over-sea. They plodded along steadily and silently, each of +them thinking his own thoughts. The Mole’s ran a good deal on supper, as +it was pitch-dark, and it was all a strange country for him as far as he knew, +and he was following obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving the guidance +entirely to him. As for the Rat, he was walking a little way ahead, as his +habit was, his shoulders humped, his eyes fixed on the straight grey road in +front of him; so he did not notice poor Mole when suddenly the summons reached +him, and took him like an electric shock. +</p> + +<p> +We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses, have not +even proper terms to express an animal’s inter-communications with his +surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word “smell,” +for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in +the nose of the animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling. +It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that suddenly +reached Mole in the darkness, making him tingle through and through with its +very familiar appeal, even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. +He stopped dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its +efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that had so +strongly moved him. A moment, and he had caught it again; and with it this time +came recollection in fullest flood. +</p> + +<p> +Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft touches +wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all +one way! Why, it must be quite close by him at that moment, his old home that +he had hurriedly forsaken and never sought again, that day when he first found +the river! And now it was sending out its scouts and its messengers to capture +him and bring him in. Since his escape on that bright morning he had hardly +given it a thought, so absorbed had he been in his new life, in all its +pleasures, its surprises, its fresh and captivating experiences. Now, with a +rush of old memories, how clearly it stood up before him, in the darkness! +Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet his, the home he had +made for himself, the home he had been so happy to get back to after his +day’s work. And the home had been happy with him, too, evidently, and was +missing him, and wanted him back, and was telling him so, through his nose, +sorrowfully, reproachfully, but with no bitterness or anger; only with +plaintive reminder that it was there, and wanted him. +</p> + +<p> +The call was clear, the summons was plain. He must obey it instantly, and go. +“Ratty!” he called, full of joyful excitement, “hold on! Come +back! I want you, quick!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, <i>come</i> along, Mole, do!” replied the Rat cheerfully, still +plodding along. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Please</i> stop, Ratty!” pleaded the poor Mole, in anguish of heart. +“You don’t understand! It’s my home, my old home! I’ve +just come across the smell of it, and it’s close by here, really quite +close. And I <i>must</i> go to it, I must, I must! Oh, come back, Ratty! Please, +please come back!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too far to hear clearly what the Mole +was calling, too far to catch the sharp note of painful appeal in his voice. +And he was much taken up with the weather, for he too could smell +something—something suspiciously like approaching snow. +</p> + +<p> +“Mole, we mustn’t stop now, really!” he called back. +“We’ll come for it to-morrow, whatever it is you’ve found. +But I daren’t stop now—it’s late, and the snow’s coming +on again, and I’m not sure of the way! And I want your nose, Mole, so +come on quick, there’s a good fellow!” And the Rat pressed forward +on his way without waiting for an answer. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, and a big sob +gathering, gathering, somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to the surface +presently, he knew, in passionate escape. But even under such a test as this +his loyalty to his friend stood firm. Never for a 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. +</p> + +<p> +With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting Rat, who began chattering +cheerfully about what they would do when they got back, and how jolly a fire of +logs in the parlour would be, and what a supper he meant to eat; never noticing +his companion’s silence and distressful state of mind. At last, however, +when they had gone some considerable way further, and were passing some +tree-stumps at the edge of a copse that bordered the road, he stopped and said +kindly, “Look here, Mole old chap, you seem dead tired. No talk left in +you, and your feet dragging like lead. We’ll sit down here for a minute +and rest. The snow has held off so far, and the best part of our journey is +over.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole subsided forlornly on a tree-stump and tried to control himself, for +he felt it surely coming. The sob he had fought with so long refused to be +beaten. Up and up, it forced its way to the air, and then another, and another, +and others thick and fast; till poor Mole at last gave up the struggle, and +cried freely and helplessly and openly, now that he knew it was all over and he +had lost what he could hardly be said to have found. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, astonished and dismayed at the violence of Mole’s paroxysm of +grief, did not dare to speak for a while. At last he said, very quietly and +sympathetically, “What is it, old fellow? Whatever can be the matter? +Tell us your trouble, and let me see what I can do.” +</p> + +<p> +Poor Mole found it difficult to get any words out between the upheavals of his +chest that followed one upon another so quickly and held back speech and choked +it as it came. “I know it’s a—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 <i>wanted</i> +it!—O dear, O dear!—and when you <i>wouldn’t</i> 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Recollection brought fresh waves of sorrow, and sobs again took full charge of +him, preventing further speech. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat stared straight in front of him, saying nothing, only patting Mole +gently on the shoulder. After a time he muttered gloomily, “I see it all +now! What a <i>pig</i> I have been! A pig—that’s me! Just a pig—a +plain pig!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Wherever are you (hic) going to (hic), Ratty?” cried the tearful +Mole, looking up in alarm. +</p> + +<p> +“We’re going to find that home of yours, old fellow,” replied +the Rat pleasantly; “so you had better come along, for it will take some +finding, and we shall want your nose.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, come back, Ratty, do!” cried the Mole, getting up and hurrying +after him. “It’s no good, I tell you! It’s too late, and too +dark, and the place is too far off, and the snow’s coming! And—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Hang River Bank, and supper too!” said the Rat heartily. “I +tell you, I’m going to find this place now, if I stay out all night. So +cheer up, old chap, and take my arm, and we’ll very soon be back there +again.” +</p> + +<p> +Still snuffling, pleading, and reluctant, Mole suffered himself to be dragged +back along the road by his imperious companion, who by a flow of cheerful talk +and anecdote endeavoured to beguile his spirits back and make the weary way +seem shorter. When at last it seemed to the Rat that they must be nearing that +part of the road where the Mole had been “held up,” he said, +“Now, no more talking. Business! Use your nose, and give your mind to +it.” +</p> + +<p> +They moved on in silence for some little way, when suddenly the Rat was +conscious, through his arm that was linked in Mole’s, of a faint sort of +electric thrill that was passing down that animal’s body. Instantly he +disengaged himself, fell back a pace, and waited, all attention. +</p> + +<p> +The signals were coming through! +</p> + +<p> +Mole stood a moment rigid, while his uplifted nose, quivering slightly, felt +the air. +</p> + +<p> +Then a short, quick run forward—a fault—a check—a try back; +and then a slow, steady, confident advance. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, much excited, kept close to his heels as the Mole, with something of +the air of a sleep-walker, crossed a dry ditch, scrambled through a hedge, and +nosed his way over a field open and trackless and bare in the faint starlight. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly, without giving warning, he dived; but the Rat was on the alert, and +promptly followed him down the tunnel to which his unerring nose had faithfully +led him. +</p> + +<p> +It was close and airless, and the earthy smell was strong, and it seemed a long +time to Rat ere the passage ended and he could stand erect and stretch and +shake himself. The Mole struck a match, and by its light the Rat saw that they +were standing in an open space, neatly swept and sanded underfoot, and directly +facing them was Mole’s little front door, with “Mole End” +painted, in Gothic lettering, over the bell-pull at the side. +</p> + +<p> +Mole reached down a lantern from a nail on the wall and lit it... and the Rat, +looking round him, saw that they were in a sort of fore-court. A garden-seat +stood on one side of the door, 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. +</p> + +<p> +Mole’s face-beamed at the sight of all these objects so dear to him, and +he hurried Rat through the door, lit a lamp in the hall, and took one glance +round his old home. He saw the dust lying thick on everything, saw the +cheerless, deserted look of the long-neglected house, 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat paid no heed to his doleful self-reproaches. He was running here and +there, opening doors, inspecting rooms and cupboards, and lighting lamps and +candles and sticking them, up everywhere. “What a capital little house +this is!” he called out cheerily. “So compact! So well planned! +Everything here and everything in its place! We’ll make a jolly night of +it. The first thing we want is a good fire; I’ll see to that—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!” +</p> + +<p> +Encouraged by his inspiriting companion, the Mole roused himself and dusted and +polished with energy and heartiness, while the Rat, running to and fro with +armfuls of fuel, soon had a cheerful blaze roaring up the chimney. He hailed +the Mole to come and warm himself; but Mole promptly had another fit of the +blues, dropping down on a couch in dark despair and burying his face in his +duster. “Rat,” he moaned, “how about your supper, you poor, +cold, hungry, weary animal? I’ve nothing to give +you—nothing—not a crumb!” +</p> + +<p> +“What a fellow you are for giving in!” said the Rat reproachfully. +“Why, only just now I saw a sardine-opener on the kitchen dresser, quite +distinctly; and everybody knows that means there are sardines about somewhere +in the neighbourhood. Rouse yourself! pull yourself together, and come with me +and forage.” +</p> + +<p> +They went and foraged accordingly, hunting through every cupboard and turning +out every drawer. The result was not so very depressing 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. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s a banquet for you!” observed the Rat, as he arranged +the table. “I know some animals who would give their ears to be sitting +down to supper with us to-night!” +</p> + +<p> +“No bread!” groaned the Mole dolorously; “no butter, +no——” +</p> + +<p> +“No <i>pâté de foie gras</i>, 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.” +</p> + +<p> +He made for the cellar-door, and presently reappeared, somewhat dusty, with a +bottle of beer in each paw and another under each arm, “Self-indulgent +beggar you seem to be, Mole,” he observed. “Deny yourself nothing. +This is really the jolliest little place I ever was in. Now, wherever did you +pick up those prints? Make the place look so home-like, they do. No wonder +you’re so fond of it, Mole. Tell us all about it, and how you came to +make it what it is.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, while the Rat busied himself fetching plates, and knives and forks, and +mustard which he mixed in an egg-cup, the Mole, his bosom still heaving with +the stress of his recent emotion, related—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. +</p> + +<p> +At last the Rat succeeded in decoying him to the table, and had just got +seriously to work with the sardine-opener when sounds were heard from the +fore-court without—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——” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s up?” inquired the Rat, pausing in his labours. +</p> + +<p> +“I think it must be the field-mice,” replied the Mole, with a touch +of pride in his manner. “They go round carol-singing regularly at this +time of the year. They’re quite an institution in these parts. And they +never pass me over—they come to Mole End last of all; and I used to give +them hot drinks, and supper too sometimes, when I could afford it. It will be +like old times to hear them again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let’s have a look at them!” cried the Rat, jumping up and +running to the door. +</p> + +<p> +It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when they +flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a horn lantern, +some eight or ten little 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. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +CAROL<br/> +<br/> +Villagers all, this frosty tide,<br/> +Let your doors swing open wide,<br/> +Though wind may follow, and snow beside,<br/> +Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;<br/> + Joy shall be yours in the morning!<br/> +<br/> +Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,<br/> +Blowing fingers and stamping feet,<br/> +Come from far away you to greet—<br/> +You by the fire and we in the street—<br/> + Bidding you joy in the morning!<br/> +<br/> +For ere one half of the night was gone,<br/> +Sudden a star has led us on,<br/> +Raining bliss and benison—<br/> +Bliss to-morrow and more anon,<br/> + Joy for every morning!<br/> +<br/> +Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow—<br/> +Saw the star o’er a stable low;<br/> +Mary she might not further go—<br/> +Welcome thatch, and litter below!<br/> + Joy was hers in the morning!<br/> +<br/> +And then they heard the angels tell<br/> +“Who were the first to cry <i>Nowell?</i><br/> +Animals all, as it befell,<br/> +In the stable where they did dwell!<br/> + Joy shall be theirs in the morning!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well sung, boys!” cried the Rat heartily. “And now come +along in, all of you, and warm yourselves by the fire, and have something +hot!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, come along, field-mice,” cried the Mole eagerly. “This +is quite like old times! Shut the door after you. Pull up that settle to the +fire. Now, you just wait a minute, while we—O, Ratty!” he cried in +despair, plumping down on a seat, with tears impending. “Whatever are we +doing? We’ve nothing to give them!” +</p> + +<p> +“You leave all that to me,” said the masterful Rat. “Here, +you with the lantern! Come over this way. I want to talk to you. Now, tell me, +are there any shops open at this hour of the night?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, certainly, sir,” replied the field-mouse respectfully. +“At this time of the year our shops keep open to all sorts of +hours.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then look here!” said the Rat. “You go off at once, you and +your lantern, and you get me——” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The rest of the field-mice, perched in a row on the settle, their small legs +swinging, gave themselves up to enjoyment of the fire, and toasted their +chilblains till they tingled; while the Mole, failing to draw them into easy +conversation, plunged into family history and made each of them recite the +names of his numerous brothers, who were too young, it appeared, to be allowed +to go out a-carolling this year, but looked forward very shortly to winning the +parental consent. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, meanwhile, was busy examining the label on one of the beer-bottles. +“I perceive this to be Old Burton,” he remarked approvingly. +“<i>Sensible</i> Mole! The very thing! Now we shall be able to mull some ale! +Get the things ready, Mole, while I draw the corks.” +</p> + +<p> +It did not take long to prepare the brew and thrust the tin heater well into +the red heart of the fire; and soon every field-mouse was sipping and coughing +and choking (for a little mulled ale goes a long way) and wiping his eyes and +laughing and forgetting he had ever been cold in all his life. +</p> + +<p> +“They act plays too, these fellows,” the Mole explained to the Rat. +“Make them up all by themselves, and act them afterwards. And very well +they do it, too! They gave us a capital one last year, about a field-mouse who +was captured at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to row in a galley; and when +he escaped and got home again, his lady-love had gone into a convent. Here, +<i>you!</i> You were in it, I remember. Get up and recite a bit.” +</p> + +<p> +The field-mouse addressed got up on his legs, giggled shyly, looked round the +room, and remained absolutely tongue-tied. His comrades cheered him on, Mole +coaxed and encouraged him, and the Rat went so far as to take him by the +shoulders and shake him; but nothing could overcome his stage-fright. They were +all busily engaged on him like watermen applying the Royal Humane +Society’s regulations to a case of long submersion, when the latch +clicked, the door opened, and the field-mouse with the lantern reappeared, +staggering under the weight of his basket. +</p> + +<p> +There was no more talk of play-acting once the very real and solid contents of +the basket had been tumbled out on the table. Under the generalship of Rat, +everybody was set to do something or to fetch something. In a very few minutes +supper was ready, and Mole, as he took the head of the table in a sort of a +dream, saw a lately barren board set thick with savoury comforts; saw his +little friends’ faces brighten and beam as they fell to without delay; +and then let himself loose—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. +</p> + +<p> +They clattered off at last, very grateful and showering wishes of the season, +with their jacket pockets stuffed with remembrances for the small brothers and +sisters at home. When the door had closed on the last of them and the chink of +the lanterns had died away, Mole and Rat kicked the fire up, drew their chairs +in, brewed themselves a last nightcap of mulled ale, and discussed the events +of the long day. At last the Rat, with a tremendous yawn, said, “Mole, +old chap, I’m ready to drop. Sleepy is simply not the word. That your own +bunk over on that side? Very well, then, I’ll take this. What a ripping +little house this is! Everything so handy!” +</p> + +<p> +He clambered into his bunk and rolled himself well up in the blankets, and +slumber gathered him forthwith, as a swathe of barley is folded into the arms +of the reaping machine. +</p> + +<p> +The weary Mole also was glad to turn in without delay, and soon had his head on +his pillow, in great joy and contentment. But ere he closed his eyes he let +them wander round his old room, mellow in the glow of the firelight that played +or rested on familiar and friendly things which had long been unconsciously a +part of him, and now smilingly received him back, without rancour. He was now +in just the frame of mind that the tactful Rat had quietly worked to bring +about in him. He saw clearly how plain and simple—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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a>VI.<br/> +MR. TOAD</h2> + +<p> +It was a bright morning in the early part of summer; the river had resumed its +wonted banks and its accustomed pace, and a hot sun seemed to be pulling +everything green and bushy and spiky up out of the earth towards him, as if by +strings. The Mole and the Water Rat had been up since dawn, very busy on +matters connected with boats and the opening of the boating season; painting +and varnishing, mending paddles, repairing cushions, hunting for missing +boat-hooks, and so on; and were finishing breakfast in their little parlour and +eagerly discussing their plans for the day, when a heavy knock sounded at the +door. +</p> + +<p> +“Bother!” said the Rat, all over egg. “See who it is, Mole, +like a good chap, since you’ve finished.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole went to attend the summons, and the Rat heard him utter a cry of +surprise. Then he flung the parlour door open, and announced with much +importance, “Mr. Badger!” +</p> + +<p> +This was a wonderful thing, indeed, that the Badger should pay a formal call on +them, or indeed on anybody. He generally had to be caught, if you wanted him +badly, as he slipped quietly along a hedgerow of an early morning or a late +evening, or else hunted up in his own house in the middle of the Wood, which +was a serious undertaking. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger strode heavily into the room, and stood looking at the two animals +with an expression full of seriousness. The Rat let his egg-spoon fall on the +table-cloth, and sat open-mouthed. +</p> + +<p> +“The hour has come!” said the Badger at last with great solemnity. +</p> + +<p> +“What hour?” asked the Rat uneasily, glancing at the clock on the +mantelpiece. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Whose</i> hour, you should rather say,” replied the Badger. +“Why, Toad’s hour! The hour of Toad! I said I would take him in +hand as soon as the winter was well over, and I’m going to take him in +hand to-day!” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad’s hour, of course!” cried the Mole delightedly. +“Hooray! I remember now! <i>We’ll</i> teach him to be a sensible +Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +“This very morning,” continued the Badger, taking an arm-chair, +“as I learnt last night from a trustworthy source, another new and +exceptionally powerful motor-car will arrive at Toad Hall on approval or +return. At this very moment, perhaps, Toad is busy arraying himself in those +singularly hideous habiliments so dear to him, which transform him from a +(comparatively) good-looking Toad into an Object which throws any decent-minded +animal that comes across it into a violent fit. We must be up and doing, ere it +is too late. You two animals will accompany me instantly to Toad Hall, and the +work of rescue shall be accomplished.” +</p> + +<p> +“Right you are!” cried the Rat, starting up. “We’ll +rescue the poor unhappy animal! We’ll convert him! He’ll be the +most converted Toad that ever was before we’ve done with him!” +</p> + +<p> +They set off up the road on their mission of mercy, Badger leading the way. +Animals when in company walk in a proper and sensible manner, in single file, +instead of sprawling all across the road and being of no use or support to each +other in case of sudden trouble or danger. +</p> + +<p> +They reached the carriage-drive of Toad Hall to find, as 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo! come on, you fellows!” he cried cheerfully on catching +sight of them. “You’re just in time to come with me for a +jolly—to come for a jolly—for +a—er—jolly——” +</p> + +<p> +His hearty accents faltered and fell away as he noticed the stern unbending +look on the countenances of his silent friends, and his invitation remained +unfinished. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger strode up the steps. “Take him inside,” he said sternly +to his companions. Then, as Toad was hustled through the door, struggling and +protesting, he turned to the <i>chauffeur</i> in charge of the new motor-car. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid you won’t be wanted to-day,” he said. +“Mr. Toad has changed his mind. He will not require the car. Please +understand that this is final. You needn’t wait.” Then he followed +the others inside and shut the door. +</p> + +<p> +“Now then!” he said to the Toad, when the four of them stood +together in the Hall, “first of all, take those ridiculous things +off!” +</p> + +<p> +“Shan’t!” replied Toad, with great spirit. “What is the +meaning of this gross outrage? I demand an instant explanation.” +</p> + +<p> +“Take them off him, then, you two,” ordered the Badger briefly. +</p> + +<p> +They had to lay Toad out on the floor, kicking and calling all sorts of names, +before they could get to work properly. Then the Rat sat on him, and the Mole +got his motor-clothes off him bit by bit, and they stood him up on his legs +again. A good deal of his blustering spirit seemed to have evaporated with the +removal of his fine panoply. Now that he was merely Toad, and no longer the +Terror of the Highway, he giggled feebly and looked from one to the other +appealingly, seeming quite to understand the situation. +</p> + +<p> +“You knew it must come to this, sooner or later, Toad,” the Badger +explained severely. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +He took Toad firmly by the arm, led him into the smoking-room, and closed the +door behind them. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>That’s</i> no good!” said the Rat contemptuously. “<i>Talking</i> +to Toad’ll never cure him. He’ll <i>say</i> anything.” +</p> + +<p> +They made themselves comfortable in 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. +</p> + +<p> +After some three-quarters of an hour the door opened, and the Badger +reappeared, solemnly leading by the paw a very limp and dejected Toad. His skin +hung baggily about him, his legs wobbled, and his cheeks were furrowed by the +tears so plentifully called forth by the Badger’s moving discourse. +</p> + +<p> +“Sit down there, Toad,” said the Badger kindly, pointing to a +chair. “My friends,” he went on, “I am pleased to inform you +that Toad has at last seen the error of his ways. He is truly sorry for his +misguided conduct in the past, and he has undertaken to give up motor-cars +entirely and for ever. I have his solemn promise to that effect.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is very good news,” said the Mole gravely. +</p> + +<p> +“Very good news indeed,” observed the Rat dubiously, “if +only—<i>if</i> only——” +</p> + +<p> +He was looking very hard at Toad as he said this, and could not help thinking +he perceived something vaguely resembling a twinkle in that animal’s +still sorrowful eye. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s only one thing more to be done,” continued the +gratified Badger. “Toad, I want you solemnly to repeat, before your +friends here, what you fully admitted to me in the smoking-room just now. +First, you are sorry for what you’ve done, and you see the folly of it +all?” +</p> + +<p> +There was a long, long pause. Toad looked desperately this way and that, while +the other animals waited in grave silence. At last he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“No!” he said, a little sullenly, but stoutly; “I’m <i>not</i> +sorry. And it wasn’t folly at all! It was simply glorious!” +</p> + +<p> +“What?” cried the Badger, greatly scandalised. “You +backsliding animal, didn’t you tell me just now, in +there——” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, yes, in <i>there</i>,” said Toad impatiently. “I’d +have said anything in <i>there</i>. You’re so eloquent, dear Badger, and so +moving, and so convincing, and put all your points so frightfully +well—you can do what you like with me in <i>there</i>, and you know it. But +I’ve been searching my mind since, and going over things in it, and I +find that I’m not a bit sorry or repentant really, so it’s no +earthly good saying I am; now, is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you don’t promise,” said the Badger, “never to +touch a motor-car again?” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly not!” replied Toad emphatically. “On the contrary, +I faithfully promise that the very first motor-car I see, poop-poop! off I go +in it!” +</p> + +<p> +“Told you so, didn’t I?” observed the Rat to the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, then,” said the Badger firmly, rising to his feet. +“Since you won’t yield to persuasion, we’ll try what force +can do. I feared it would come to this all along. You’ve often asked us +three to come and stay with you, Toad, in this handsome house of yours; well, +now we’re going to. When we’ve converted you to a proper point of +view we may quit, but not before. Take him upstairs, you two, and lock him up +in his bedroom, while we arrange matters between ourselves.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s for your own good, Toady, you know,” said the Rat +kindly, as Toad, kicking and struggling, was hauled up the stairs by his two +faithful friends. “Think what fun we shall all have together, just as we +used to, when you’ve quite got over this—this painful attack of +yours!” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll take great care of everything for you till you’re +well, Toad,” said the Mole; “and we’ll see your money +isn’t wasted, as it has been.” +</p> + +<p> +“No more of those regrettable incidents with the police, Toad,” +said the Rat, as they thrust him into his bedroom. +</p> + +<p> +“And no more weeks in hospital, being ordered about by female nurses, +Toad,” added the Mole, turning the key on him. +</p> + +<p> +They descended the stair, Toad shouting abuse at them through the keyhole; and +the three friends then met in conference on the situation. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s going to be a tedious business,” said the Badger, +sighing. “I’ve never seen Toad so determined. However, we will see +it out. He must never be left an instant unguarded. We shall have to take it in +turns to be with him, till the poison has worked itself out of his +system.” +</p> + +<p> +They arranged watches accordingly. Each animal took it in turns to sleep in +Toad’s room at night, and they divided the day up between them. At first +Toad was undoubtedly very trying to his careful guardians. When his violent +paroxysms possessed him he would arrange bedroom chairs in rude resemblance of +a motor-car and would crouch on the foremost of them, bent forward and staring +fixedly ahead, making uncouth and ghastly noises, till the climax was reached, +when, turning a complete somersault, he would lie prostrate amidst the ruins of +the chairs, apparently completely satisfied for the moment. As time passed, +however, these painful seizures grew gradually less frequent, and his friends +strove to divert his mind into fresh channels. But his interest in other +matters did not seem to revive, and he grew apparently languid and depressed. +</p> + +<p> +One fine morning the Rat, whose turn it was to go on duty, went upstairs to +relieve Badger, whom he found fidgeting to be off and stretch his legs in a +long ramble round his wood and down his earths and burrows. “Toad’s +still in bed,” he told the Rat, outside the door. “Can’t get +much out of him, except, ‘O leave him alone, he wants nothing, perhaps +he’ll be better presently, it may pass off in time, don’t be unduly +anxious,’ and so on. Now, you look out, Rat! When Toad’s quiet and +submissive and playing at being the hero of a Sunday-school prize, then +he’s at his artfullest. There’s sure to be something up. I know +him. Well, now, I must be off.” +</p> + +<p> +“How are you to-day, old chap?” inquired the Rat cheerfully, as he +approached Toad’s bedside. +</p> + +<p> +He had to wait some minutes for an answer. At last a feeble voice replied, +“Thank you so much, dear Ratty! So good of you to inquire! But first tell +me how you are yourself, and the excellent Mole?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, <i>we’re</i> all right,” replied the Rat. “Mole,” he +added incautiously, “is going out for a run round with Badger. +They’ll be out till luncheon time, so you and I will spend a pleasant +morning together, and I’ll do my best to amuse you. Now jump up, +there’s a good fellow, and don’t lie moping there on a fine morning +like this!” +</p> + +<p> +“Dear, kind Rat,” murmured Toad, “how little you realise my +condition, and how very far I am from ‘jumping up’ now—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I hope not, too,” said the Rat heartily. “You’ve +been a fine bother to us all this time, and I’m glad to hear it’s +going to stop. And in weather like this, and the boating season just beginning! +It’s too bad of you, Toad! It isn’t the trouble we mind, but +you’re making us miss such an awful lot.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid it <i>is</i> the trouble you mind, though,” replied the +Toad languidly. “I can quite understand it. It’s natural enough. +You’re tired of bothering about me. I mustn’t ask you to do +anything further. I’m a nuisance, I know.” +</p> + +<p> +“You are, indeed,” said the Rat. “But I tell you, I’d +take any trouble on earth for you, if only you’d be a sensible +animal.” +</p> + +<p> +“If I thought that, Ratty,” murmured Toad, more feebly than ever, +“then I would beg you—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look here, old man,” said the Rat, beginning to get rather +alarmed, “of course I’ll fetch a doctor to you, if you really think +you want him. But you can hardly be bad enough for that yet. Let’s talk +about something else.” +</p> + +<p> +“I fear, dear friend,” said Toad, with a sad smile, “that +‘talk’ can do little in a case like this—or doctors either, +for that matter; still, one must grasp at the slightest straw. And, by the +way—while you are about it—I <i>hate</i> 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 <i>a</i> moment—when +one must face disagreeable tasks, at whatever cost to exhausted nature!” +</p> + +<p> +“A lawyer! O, he must be really bad!” the affrighted Rat said to +himself, as he hurried from the room, not forgetting, however, to lock the door +carefully behind him. +</p> + +<p> +Outside, he stopped to consider. The other two were far away, and he had no one +to consult. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s best to be on the safe side,” he said, on reflection. +“I’ve known Toad fancy himself frightfully bad before, without the +slightest reason; but I’ve never heard him ask for a lawyer! If +there’s nothing really the matter, the doctor will tell him he’s an +old ass, and cheer him up; and that will be something gained. I’d better +humour him and go; it won’t take very long.” So he ran off to the +village on his errand of mercy. +</p> + +<p> +The Toad, who had hopped lightly out of bed as soon as he heard the key turned +in the lock, watched him eagerly from the window till he disappeared down the +carriage-drive. Then, laughing heartily, he dressed as quickly as possible in +the smartest suit he could lay hands on 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. +</p> + +<p> +It was a gloomy luncheon for Rat when the Badger and the Mole at length +returned, and he had to face them at table with his pitiful and unconvincing +story. The Badger’s caustic, not to say brutal, remarks may be imagined, +and therefore passed over; but it was painful to the Rat that even the Mole, +though he took his friend’s side as far as possible, could not help +saying, “You’ve been a bit of a duffer this time, Ratty! Toad, too, +of all animals!” +</p> + +<p> +“He did it awfully well,” said the crestfallen Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“He did <i>you</i> awfully well!” rejoined the 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.” +</p> + +<p> +So spoke the Badger, not knowing what the future held in store, or how much +water, and of how turbid a character, was to run under bridges before Toad +should sit at ease again in his ancestral Hall. +</p> + +<p class="p2"> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +Filled full of conceited thoughts such as these he strode along, his head in +the air, till he reached a little town, where the sign of “The Red +Lion,” swinging across the road 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <i>looking</i> at it!” +</p> + +<p> +The car stood in the middle of the yard, quite unattended, the stable-helps and +other hangers-on being all at their dinner. Toad walked slowly round it, +inspecting, criticising, musing deeply. +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder,” he said to himself presently, “I wonder if this +sort of car <i>starts</i> easily?” +</p> + +<p> +Next moment, hardly knowing how it came about, he found he had hold of the +handle and was turning it. As the familiar sound broke forth, the old passion +seized on Toad and completely mastered him, body and soul. As if in a dream he +found himself, somehow, seated in the driver’s seat; as if in a dream, he +pulled the lever and swung the car round the yard and out through the archway; +and, as if in a dream, all sense of right and wrong, all fear of obvious +consequences, seemed temporarily suspended. He increased his pace, and as the +car devoured the street and leapt forth on the high road through the open +country, he was only conscious that he was Toad once more, Toad at his best and +highest, Toad the terror, the traffic-queller, the Lord of the lone trail, +before whom all must give way or be smitten into nothingness and everlasting +night. He chanted as he flew, and the car responded with sonorous drone; the +miles were eaten up under him as he sped he knew not whither, fulfilling his +instincts, living his hour, reckless of what might come to him. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +“To my mind,” observed the Chairman of the Bench of Magistrates +cheerfully, “the <i>only</i> difficulty that presents itself in this otherwise +very clear case is, how we can possibly make it sufficiently hot for the +incorrigible rogue and hardened ruffian whom we see cowering in the dock before +us. Let me see: he has been found guilty, on the clearest evidence, first, of +stealing a valuable motor-car; secondly, of driving to the public danger; and, +thirdly, of gross impertinence to the rural police. Mr. Clerk, will you tell +us, please, what is the very stiffest penalty we can impose for each of these +offences? Without, of course, giving the prisoner the benefit of any doubt, +because there isn’t any.” +</p> + +<p> +The Clerk scratched his nose with his pen. “Some people would +consider,” he observed, “that stealing the motor-car was the worst +offence; and so it is. But cheeking the police undoubtedly carries the severest +penalty; and so it ought. Supposing you were to say twelve months for the +theft, which is mild; and three years for the furious driving, which is +lenient; and fifteen years for the cheek, which was pretty 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——” +</p> + +<p> +“First-rate!” said the Chairman. +</p> + +<p> +“—So you had better make it a round twenty years and be on the safe +side,” concluded the Clerk. +</p> + +<p> +“An excellent suggestion!” said the Chairman approvingly. +“Prisoner! Pull yourself together and try and stand up straight. +It’s going to be twenty years for you this time. And mind, if you appear +before us again, upon any charge whatever, we shall have to deal with you very +seriously!” +</p> + +<p> +Then the brutal minions of the law fell upon the hapless Toad; loaded him with +chains, and dragged him from the Court House, shrieking, praying, protesting; +across the 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Oddsbodikins!” said the sergeant of police, taking off his helmet +and wiping his forehead. “Rouse thee, old loon, and take over from us +this vile Toad, a criminal of deepest guilt and matchless artfulness and +resource. Watch and ward him with all thy skill; and mark thee well, greybeard, +should aught untoward befall, thy old head shall answer for his—and a +murrain on both of them!” +</p> + +<p> +The gaoler nodded grimly, laying his withered hand on the shoulder of the +miserable Toad. The rusty key creaked in the lock, the great door clanged +behind them; and Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon of the +best-guarded keep of the stoutest castle in all the length and breadth of Merry +England. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a>VII.<br/> +THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat’s light footfall was presently heard approaching over the parched +grass. “O, the blessed coolness!” he said, and sat down, gazing +thoughtfully into the river, silent and pre-occupied. +</p> + +<p> +“You stayed to supper, of course?” said the Mole presently. +</p> + +<p> +“Simply had to,” said the Rat. “They wouldn’t hear of +my going before. You know how kind they always are. And they made things as +jolly for me as ever they could, right up to the moment I left. But I felt a +brute all the time, as it was clear to me they were very unhappy, though they +tried to hide it. Mole, I’m afraid they’re in trouble. Little +Portly is missing again; and you know what a lot his father thinks of him, +though he never says much about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“What, that child?” said the Mole lightly. “Well, suppose he +is; why worry about it? He’s always straying off and getting lost, and +turning up again; he’s so adventurous. But no harm ever happens to him. +Everybody hereabouts knows him and likes him, just as they do old Otter, and +you may be sure some animal or other will come across him and bring him back +again all right. Why, we’ve found him ourselves, miles from home, and +quite self-possessed and cheerful!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; but this time it’s more serious,” said the Rat gravely. +“He’s been missing for some days now, and the Otters have hunted +everywhere, high and low, without finding the slightest trace. And +they’ve asked every animal, too, for miles around, and no one knows +anything about him. Otter’s evidently more anxious than he’ll +admit. I got out of him that young Portly hasn’t learnt to swim very well +yet, and I can see he’s thinking of the weir. There’s a lot of +water coming down still, considering the time of the year, and the place always +had a fascination for the child. And then there are—well, traps and +things—<i>you</i> know. Otter’s not the fellow to be nervous about any son +of his before it’s time. And now he <i>is</i> nervous. When I left, he came out +with me—said he wanted some air, and talked about stretching his legs. +But I could see it wasn’t that, so I drew him out and pumped him, and got +it all from him at last. He was going to spend the night watching by the ford. +You know the place where the old ford used to be, in by-gone days before they +built the bridge?” +</p> + +<p> +“I know it well,” said the Mole. “But why should Otter choose +to watch there?” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it seems that it was there he gave Portly his first +swimming-lesson,” continued the Rat. “From that shallow, gravelly +spit near the bank. And it was there he used to teach him fishing, and there +young Portly caught his first fish, of which he was so very proud. The child +loved the spot, and Otter thinks that if he came wandering back from wherever +he is—if he <i>is</i> 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!” +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Rat presently, “I suppose we ought to +be thinking about turning in.” But he never offered to move. +</p> + +<p> +“Rat,” said the Mole, “I simply can’t go and turn in, +and go to sleep, and <i>do</i> nothing, even though there doesn’t seem to be +anything to be done. We’ll get the boat out, and paddle 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 <i>nothing</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +“Just what I was thinking myself,” said the Rat. “It’s +not the sort of night for bed anyhow; and daybreak is not so very far off, and +then we may pick up some news of him from early risers as we go along.” +</p> + +<p> +They got the boat out, and the Rat took the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The line of the horizon was clear and hard against the sky, and in one +particular quarter it showed black against a silvery climbing phosphorescence +that grew and grew. At last, over the rim of the waiting earth the moon lifted +with slow majesty till it swung clear of the horizon and rode off, free of +moorings; and 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. +</p> + +<p> +Fastening their boat to a willow, the friends landed in this silent, silver +kingdom, and patiently explored the hedges, the hollow trees, the runnels and +their little culverts, the ditches and dry water-ways. Embarking again and +crossing over, they worked their way up the stream in this manner, while the +moon, serene and detached in a cloudless sky, did what she could, though so far +off, to help them in their quest; till her hour came and she sank earthwards +reluctantly, and left them, and mystery once more held field and river. +</p> + +<p> +Then a change began slowly to declare itself. The horizon became clearer, field +and tree came more into sight, and somehow with a different look; the mystery +began to drop away from them. A bird piped suddenly, and was still; and a light +breeze sprang up and set the reeds and bulrushes rustling. Rat, who was in the +stern of the boat, while Mole sculled, sat up suddenly and listened with a +passionate intentness. Mole, who with gentle strokes was just keeping the boat +moving while he scanned the banks with care, looked at him with curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s gone!” sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. +“So beautiful and strange and new. Since it was to end so soon, I almost +wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and +nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once more and go on +listening to it for ever. No! There it is again!” he cried, alert once +more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound. +</p> + +<p> +“Now it passes on and I begin to lose it,” he said presently. +“O Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear, +happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call +in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the +music and the call must be for us.” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. “I hear nothing myself,” he +said, “but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard. Rapt, transported, trembling, he +was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his +helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a +strong sustaining grasp. +</p> + +<p> +In silence Mole rowed steadily, and soon they came to a point where the river +divided, a long backwater branching off to one side. With a slight movement of +his head Rat, who had long dropped the rudder-lines, directed the rower to take +the backwater. The creeping tide of light gained and gained, and now they could +see the colour of the flowers that gemmed the water’s edge. +</p> + +<p> +“Clearer and nearer still,” cried the Rat joyously. “Now you +must surely hear it! Ah—at last—I see you do!” +</p> + +<p> +Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that +glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly. +He saw the tears on his comrade’s cheeks, and bowed his head and +understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by the purple 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. +</p> + +<p> +On either side of them, as they glided onwards, the rich meadow-grass seemed +that morning of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable. Never had they +noticed the roses so vivid, the willow-herb so riotous, the meadow-sweet so +odorous and pervading. Then the murmur of the approaching weir began to hold +the air, and they felt a consciousness that they were nearing the end, whatever +it might be, that surely awaited their expedition. +</p> + +<p> +A wide half-circle of foam and glinting lights and shining shoulders of green +water, the great weir closed the backwater from bank to bank, troubled all the +quiet surface with twirling eddies and floating foam-streaks, and deadened all +other sounds with its solemn and soothing rumble. In midmost of the stream, +embraced in the weir’s shimmering arm-spread, a small island lay +anchored, fringed close with willow and silver birch and alder. Reserved, shy, +but full of significance, it hid whatever it might hold behind a veil, keeping +it till the hour should come, and, with the hour, those who were called and +chosen. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly, but with no doubt or hesitation whatever, and in something of a solemn +expectancy, the two animals passed through the broken tumultuous water and +moored their boat at the flowery margin of the island. In silence they landed, +and pushed through the blossom and scented herbage and undergrowth that led up +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. +</p> + +<p> +“This is the place of my song-dream, the place the music played to +me,” whispered the Rat, as if in a trance. “Here, in this holy +place, here if anywhere, surely we shall find Him!” +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his +muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground. It was no +panic terror—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. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the +piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Rat!” he found breath to whisper, shaking. “Are you +afraid?” +</p> + +<p> +“Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. +“Afraid! Of <i>Him?</i> O, never, never! And yet—and yet—O, Mole, I +am afraid!” +</p> + +<p> +Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did +worship. +</p> + +<p> +Sudden and magnificent, the sun’s broad golden disc showed itself over +the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level +water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them. When they +were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and the air was full of +the carol of birds that hailed the dawn. +</p> + +<p> +As they stared blankly in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realised all +they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze, dancing up +from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the dewy roses and blew +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. +</p> + +<p> +Mole rubbed his eyes and stared at Rat, who was looking about him in a puzzled +sort of way. “I beg your pardon; what did you say, Rat?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“I think I was only remarking,” said Rat slowly, “that this +was the right sort of place, and that here, if anywhere, we should find him. +And look! Why, there he is, the little fellow!” And with a cry of delight +he ran towards the slumbering Portly. +</p> + +<p> +But Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a +beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and 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. +</p> + +<p> +Portly woke up with a joyous squeak, and wriggled with pleasure at the sight of +his father’s friends, who had played with him so often in past days. In a +moment, however, his face grew blank, and he fell to hunting round in a circle +with pleading whine. As a child that has fallen happily asleep in its +nurse’s arms, and wakes to find itself alone and laid in a strange place, +and searches corners and cupboards, and runs from room to room, despair growing +silently in its heart, even so Portly searched the island and searched, dogged +and unwearying, till at last the black moment came for giving it up, and +sitting down and crying bitterly. +</p> + +<p> +The Mole ran quickly to comfort the little animal; but Rat, lingering, looked +long and doubtfully at certain hoof-marks deep in the sward. +</p> + +<p> +“Some—great—animal—has been here,” he murmured +slowly and thoughtfully; and stood musing, musing; his mind strangely stirred. +</p> + +<p> +“Come along, Rat!” called the Mole. “Think of poor Otter, +waiting up there by the ford!” +</p> + +<p> +Portly had soon been comforted by the promise of a treat—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. +</p> + +<p> +The main river reached again, they turned the boat’s head upstream, +towards the point where they knew their friend was keeping his lonely vigil. As +they drew near the familiar ford, the Mole took the boat in to the bank, and +they lifted Portly out and set him on his legs on the tow-path, gave him his +marching orders and a friendly farewell pat on the back, and shoved out into +mid-stream. They watched the little animal as he waddled along the path +contentedly and with importance; watched him till they saw his muzzle suddenly +lift and his waddle break into a clumsy amble as he quickened his pace with +shrill whines and wriggles of recognition. Looking up the river, they could see +Otter start up, tense and rigid, from out of the shallows where he crouched in +dumb patience, and could hear his amazed and joyous bark as he bounded up +through the osiers on to the path. Then the Mole, with a strong pull on one +oar, swung the boat round and let the full stream bear them down again whither +it would, their quest now happily ended. +</p> + +<p> +“I feel strangely tired, Rat,” said the Mole, leaning wearily over +his oars as the boat drifted. “It’s being up all night, +you’ll say, perhaps; but that’s nothing. We do as much half the +nights of the week, at this time of the year. No; I feel as if I had been +through something very exciting and rather terrible, and it was just over; and +yet nothing particular has happened.” +</p> + +<p> +“Or something very surprising and splendid and beautiful,” murmured +the Rat, leaning back and closing his eyes. “I feel just as you do, Mole; +simply dead tired, though not body tired. It’s lucky we’ve got the +stream with us, to take us home. Isn’t it jolly to feel the sun again, +soaking into one’s bones! And hark to the wind playing in the +reeds!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s like music—far away music,” said the Mole nodding +drowsily. +</p> + +<p> +“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.” +</p> + +<p> +“You hear better than I,” said the Mole sadly. “I cannot +catch the words.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me try and give you them,” said the Rat softly, his eyes still +closed. “Now it is turning into words again—faint but +clear—<i>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!</i> Now the reeds take it up—<i>forget, forget</i>, they sigh, and it +dies away in a rustle and a whisper. Then the voice returns— +</p> + +<p> +“<i>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!</i> Row nearer, Mole, nearer to the reeds! It is hard to catch, and +grows each minute fainter. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Helper and healer, I cheer—Small waifs in the woodland +wet—Strays I find in it, wounds I bind in it—Bidding them all +forget!</i> Nearer, Mole, nearer! No, it is no good; the song has died away into +reed-talk.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what do the words mean?” asked the wondering Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“That I do not know,” said the Rat simply. “I passed them on +to you as they reached me. Ah! now they return again, and this time full and +clear! This time, at last, it is the real, the unmistakable thing, +simple—passionate—perfect——” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, let’s have it, then,” said the Mole, after he had +waited patiently for a few minutes, half-dozing in the hot sun. +</p> + +<p> +But no answer came. He looked, and understood the silence. With a smile of much +happiness on his face, and something of a listening look still lingering there, +the weary Rat was fast asleep. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a>VIII.<br/> +TOAD’S ADVENTURES</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Now the gaoler had a daughter, a pleasant wench and good-hearted, who assisted +her father in the lighter duties of his post. She was particularly fond of +animals, and, besides her canary, whose cage hung on a nail in the massive wall +of the keep by day, to the great annoyance of prisoners who relished an +after-dinner nap, and was shrouded in an antimacassar on the parlour table at +night, she kept several piebald mice and a restless revolving squirrel. This +kind-hearted girl, pitying the misery of Toad, said to her father one day, +“Father! I can’t bear to see that poor beast so unhappy, and +getting so thin! You let me have the managing of him. You know how fond of +animals I am. I’ll make him eat from my hand, and sit up, and do all +sorts of things.” +</p> + +<p> +Her father replied that she could do what she liked with him. He was tired of +Toad, and his sulks and his airs and his meanness. So that day she went on her +errand of mercy, and knocked at the door of Toad’s cell. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, cheer up, Toad,” she said, coaxingly, on entering, “and +sit up and dry your eyes and be a sensible animal. And do try and eat a bit of +dinner. See, I’ve brought you some of mine, hot from the oven!” +</p> + +<p> +It was bubble-and-squeak, between two plates, and its fragrance filled the +narrow cell. The penetrating smell of cabbage reached the nose 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. +</p> + +<p> +When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of +fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, +cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes +in it in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that +buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of +warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour +firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered +feet were propped on the fender; of the purring of contented cats, and the +twitter of sleepy canaries. Toad sat up on end once more, dried his eyes, +sipped his tea and munched his toast, and soon began talking freely about +himself, and the house he lived in, and his doings there, and how important he +was, and what a lot his friends thought of him. +</p> + +<p> +The gaoler’s daughter saw that the topic was doing him as much good as +the tea, as indeed it was, and encouraged him to go on. +</p> + +<p> +“Tell me about Toad Hall,” said she. “It sounds +beautiful.” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad Hall,” said the Toad proudly, “is an eligible +self-contained gentleman’s residence very unique; dating in part from the +fourteenth century, but replete with every modern convenience. Up-to-date +sanitation. Five minutes from church, post-office, and golf-links, Suitable +for——” +</p> + +<p> +“Bless the animal,” said the girl, laughing, “I don’t +want to <i>take</i> it. Tell me something <i>real</i> about it. But first wait till I fetch +you some more tea and toast.” +</p> + +<p> +She tripped away, and presently returned with a fresh trayful; and Toad, +pitching into the toast with avidity, his spirits quite restored to their usual +level, told her about the 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 <i>pets</i>, because she had the sense to see that +Toad would be extremely offended. When she said good night, having filled his +water-jug and shaken up his straw for him, Toad was very much the same +sanguine, self-satisfied animal that he had been of old. He sang a little song +or two, of the sort he used to sing at his dinner-parties, curled himself up in +the straw, and had an excellent night’s rest and the pleasantest of +dreams. +</p> + +<p> +They had many interesting talks together, after that, as the dreary days went +on; and the gaoler’s daughter grew very sorry for Toad, and thought it a +great shame that a poor little animal should be locked up in prison for what +seemed to her a very trivial offence. Toad, of course, in his vanity, thought +that her interest in him proceeded from a growing tenderness; and he could not +help half-regretting that the social gulf between them was so very wide, for +she was a comely lass, and evidently admired him very much. +</p> + +<p> +One morning the girl was very thoughtful, and answered at random, and did not +seem to Toad to be paying proper attention to his witty sayings and sparkling +comments. +</p> + +<p> +“Toad,” she said presently, “just listen, please. I have an +aunt who is a washerwoman.” +</p> + +<p> +“There, there,” said Toad, graciously and affably, “never +mind; think no more about it. <i>I</i> have several aunts who <i>ought</i> to be +washerwomen.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do be quiet a minute, Toad,” said the girl. “You talk too +much, that’s your chief fault, and I’m trying to think, and you +hurt my head. As I said, I have an aunt who is a washerwoman; she does the +washing for all the prisoners in this castle—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’re <i>not</i>,” said the Toad in a huff. “I have a very +elegant figure—for what I am.” +</p> + +<p> +“So has my aunt,” replied the girl, “for what <i>she</i> is. But +have it your own way. You horrid, proud, ungrateful animal, when I’m +sorry for you, and trying to help you!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes, that’s all right; thank you very much indeed,” +said the Toad hurriedly. “But look here! you wouldn’t surely have +Mr. Toad of Toad Hall, going about the country disguised as a +washerwoman!” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you can stop here as a Toad,” replied the girl with much +spirit. “I suppose you want to go off in a coach-and-four!” +</p> + +<p> +Honest Toad was always ready to admit himself in the wrong. “You are a +good, kind, clever girl,” he said, “and I am indeed a proud and a +stupid toad. Introduce me to your worthy aunt, if you will be so kind, and I +have no doubt that the excellent lady and I will be able to arrange terms +satisfactory to both parties.” +</p> + +<p> +Next evening the girl ushered her aunt into Toad’s cell, bearing his +week’s washing pinned up in a towel. The old lady had been prepared +beforehand for the interview, and the sight of certain gold sovereigns that +Toad had thoughtfully placed on the table in full view practically completed +the matter and left little further to discuss. In return for his cash, Toad +received a cotton print gown, an apron, a shawl, and a rusty black bonnet; the +only stipulation the old lady made being that she should be gagged and bound +and dumped down in a corner. By this not very convincing artifice, she +explained, aided by picturesque fiction which she could supply herself, she +hoped to retain her situation, in spite of the suspicious appearance of things. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was delighted with the suggestion. It would enable him to leave the prison +in some style, and with his reputation for being a desperate and dangerous +fellow untarnished; and he readily helped the gaoler’s daughter to make +her aunt appear as much as possible the victim of circumstances over which she +had no control. +</p> + +<p> +“Now it’s your turn, Toad,” said the girl. “Take off +that coat and waistcoat of yours; you’re fat enough as it is.” +</p> + +<p> +Shaking with laughter, she proceeded to “hook-and-eye” him into the +cotton print gown, arranged the shawl with a professional fold, and tied the +strings of the rusty bonnet under his chin. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re the very image of her,” she giggled, “only +I’m sure you never looked half so respectable in all your life before. +Now, good-bye, Toad, and good luck. Go straight down the way you came up; and +if any one says anything to you, as they probably will, being but men, you can +chaff back a bit, of course, but remember you’re a widow woman, quite +alone in the world, with a character to lose.” +</p> + +<p> +With a quaking heart, but as firm a footstep as he could command, Toad set +forth cautiously on what seemed to be a most hare-brained and hazardous +undertaking; but he was soon agreeably surprised to find how easy everything +was made for him, and a little humbled at the thought that both his popularity, +and the sex that seemed to inspire it, were really another’s. The +washerwoman’s squat figure in its familiar cotton print seemed a passport +for every barred door and grim gateway; even when he hesitated, uncertain as to +the right turning to take, he found himself helped out of his difficulty by the +warder at the next gate, anxious to be off to his tea, summoning him to come +along sharp and not keep him waiting there all night. The chaff and the +humourous sallies to which he was subjected, and to which, of course, he had to +provide prompt and effective reply, formed, indeed, his chief danger; for Toad +was an animal with a strong sense of his own dignity, and the chaff was mostly +(he thought) poor and clumsy, and the humour of the sallies entirely lacking. +However, he kept his temper, though with great difficulty, suited his retorts +to his company and his supposed character, and did his best not to overstep the +limits of good taste. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed hours before he crossed the last courtyard, rejected the pressing +invitations from the last guardroom, and dodged the outspread arms of the last +warder, pleading with simulated passion for just one farewell embrace. But at +last he heard the wicket-gate in the great outer door click behind him, felt +the fresh air of the outer world upon his anxious brow, and knew that he was +free! +</p> + +<p> +Dizzy with the easy success of his daring exploit, he walked quickly towards +the lights of the town, not knowing in the least what he should do next, only +quite certain of one thing, that he must remove himself as quickly as possible +from the neighbourhood where the lady he was forced to represent was so +well-known and so popular a character. +</p> + +<p> +As he walked along, considering, his attention was caught by some red and green +lights a little way off, to one side of the town, and the sound of the puffing +and snorting of engines and the banging of shunted trucks fell on his ear. +“Aha!” he thought, “this is a piece of luck! A railway +station is the thing I want most in the whole world at this moment; and +what’s more, I needn’t go through the town to get it, and +shan’t have to support this humiliating character by repartees which, +though thoroughly effective, do not assist one’s sense of +self-respect.” +</p> + +<p> +He made his way to the station accordingly, consulted a time-table, and found +that a train, bound more or less in the direction of his home, was due to start +in half-an-hour. “More luck!” said Toad, his spirits rising +rapidly, and went off to the booking-office to buy his ticket. +</p> + +<p> +He gave the name of the station that he knew to be nearest to the village of +which Toad Hall was the principal feature, and mechanically 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! +</p> + +<p> +To his horror he recollected that he had left both coat and waistcoat behind +him in his cell, and with them his pocket-book, money, keys, watch, matches, +pencil-case—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. +</p> + +<p> +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.” +</p> + +<p> +The clerk stared at him and the rusty black bonnet a moment, and then laughed. +“I should think you were pretty well known in these parts,” he +said, “if you’ve tried this game on often. Here, stand away from +the window, please, madam; you’re obstructing the other +passengers!” +</p> + +<p> +An old gentleman who had been prodding him in the back for some moments here +thrust him away, and, what was worse, addressed him as his good woman, which +angered Toad more than anything that had occurred that evening. +</p> + +<p> +Baffled and full of despair, he wandered blindly down the platform where the +train was standing, and tears trickled down each side of his nose. It was hard, +he thought, to be within sight of safety and almost of home, and to be baulked +by the want of a few wretched shillings and by the pettifogging mistrustfulness +of paid officials. Very soon his escape would be discovered, the hunt would be +up, he would be caught, reviled, loaded with chains, dragged back again to +prison and bread-and-water and straw; his guards and penalties would be +doubled; and O, what sarcastic remarks the girl would make! What was to be +done? He was not swift of foot; his figure was unfortunately recognisable. +Could he not squeeze under the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method +adopted by schoolboys, when the journey-money provided by thoughtful parents +had been diverted to other and better ends. As he pondered, he found himself +opposite the engine, which was being oiled, wiped, and generally caressed by +its affectionate driver, a burly man with an oil-can in one hand and a lump of +cotton-waste in the other. +</p> + +<p> +“Hullo, mother!” said the engine-driver, “what’s the +trouble? You don’t look particularly cheerful.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, sir!” said Toad, crying afresh, “I am a poor unhappy +washerwoman, and I’ve lost all my money, and can’t pay for a +ticket, and I <i>must</i> get home to-night somehow, and whatever I am to do I +don’t know. O dear, O dear!” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a bad business, indeed,” said the engine-driver +reflectively. “Lost your money—and can’t get home—and +got some kids, too, waiting for you, I dare say?” +</p> + +<p> +“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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said the good +engine-driver. “You’re a washerwoman to your trade, says you. Very +well, that’s that. And I’m an engine-driver, as you well may see, +and there’s no denying it’s terribly dirty work. Uses up a power of +shirts, it does, till my missus is fair tired of washing of ’em. If +you’ll wash a few shirts for me when you get home, and send ’em +along, I’ll give you a ride on my engine. It’s against the +Company’s regulations, but we’re not so very particular in these +out-of-the-way parts.” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad’s misery turned into rapture as he eagerly scrambled up into the +cab of the engine. Of course, he had never washed a shirt in his life, and +couldn’t if he tried and, anyhow, he wasn’t going to begin; but he +thought: “When I get safely home to Toad Hall, and have money again, and +pockets to put it in, I will send the engine-driver enough to pay for quite a +quantity of washing, and that will be the same thing, or better.” +</p> + +<p> +The guard waved his welcome flag, the engine-driver whistled in cheerful +response, and the train moved out of the station. As the speed increased, and +the Toad could see on either side of him real fields, and trees, and hedges, +and cows, and horses, all flying past him, and as he thought how every minute +was bringing him nearer to Toad Hall, and sympathetic friends, and money to +chink in his pocket, and a soft bed to sleep in, and good things to eat, and +praise and admiration at the recital of his adventures and his surpassing +cleverness, he began to skip up and down and shout and sing snatches of song, +to the great astonishment of the engine-driver, who had come across washerwomen +before, at long intervals, but never one at all like this. +</p> + +<p> +They had covered many and many a mile, and Toad was already considering what he +would have for supper as soon as he got home, when he noticed that the +engine-driver, with a puzzled expression on his face, was leaning over the side +of the engine and listening hard. Then he saw him climb on to the coals and +gaze out over the top of the train; then he returned and said to Toad: +“It’s very strange; we’re the last train running in this +direction to-night, yet I could be sworn that I heard another following +us!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad ceased his frivolous antics at once. He became grave and depressed, and a +dull pain in the lower part of his spine, communicating itself to his legs, +made him want to sit down and try desperately not to think of all the +possibilities. +</p> + +<p> +By this time the moon was shining brightly, and the engine-driver, steadying +himself on the coal, could command a view of the line behind them for a long +distance. +</p> + +<p> +Presently he called out, “I can see it clearly now! It is an engine, on +our rails, coming along at a great pace! It looks as if we were being +pursued!” +</p> + +<p> +The miserable Toad, crouching in the coal-dust, tried hard to think of +something to do, with dismal want of success. +</p> + +<p> +“They are gaining on us fast!” cried the engine-driver. And the +engine is crowded with the queerest lot of people! Men like ancient warders, +waving halberds; policemen in their helmets, waving truncheons; and shabbily +dressed men in pot-hats, obvious and unmistakable plain-clothes detectives even +at this distance, waving revolvers and walking-sticks; all waving, and all +shouting the same thing—‘Stop, stop, stop!’” +</p> + +<p> +Then Toad fell on his knees among the coals and, raising his clasped paws in +supplication, cried, “Save me, only save me, dear kind Mr. 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The engine-driver looked down upon him very sternly, and said, “Now tell +the truth; what were you put in prison for?” +</p> + +<p> +“It was nothing very much,” said poor Toad, colouring deeply. +“I only borrowed a 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.” +</p> + +<p> +The engine-driver looked very grave and said, “I fear that you have been +indeed a wicked toad, and by rights I ought to give you up to 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!” +</p> + +<p> +They piled on more coals, shovelling furiously; the furnace roared, the sparks +flew, the engine leapt and swung but still their pursuers slowly gained. The +engine-driver, with a sigh, wiped his brow with a handful of cotton-waste, and +said, “I’m afraid it’s no good, Toad. You see, they are +running light, and they have the better engine. There’s just one thing +left for us to do, and it’s your only chance, so attend very carefully to +what I tell you. A short way ahead of us is a long tunnel, and on the other +side of that the line passes through a thick wood. Now, I will put on all the +speed I can while we are running through the tunnel, but the other fellows will +slow down a bit, naturally, for fear of an accident. When we are through, I +will shut off steam and put on brakes as hard as I can, and the moment +it’s safe to do so you must jump and hide in the wood, before they get +through the tunnel and see you. Then I will go full speed ahead again, and they +can chase me if they like, for as long as they like, and as far as they like. +Now mind and be ready to jump when I tell you!” +</p> + +<p> +They piled on more coals, and the train shot into the tunnel, and the engine +rushed and roared and rattled, till at last they shot out at the other end into +fresh air and the peaceful moonlight, and saw the wood lying dark and helpful +upon either side of the line. The driver shut off steam and put on brakes, the +Toad got down on the step, and as the train slowed down to almost a walking +pace he heard the driver call out, “Now, jump!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad jumped, rolled down a short embankment, picked himself up unhurt, +scrambled into the wood and hid. +</p> + +<p> +Peeping out, he saw his train get up speed again and disappear at a great pace. +Then 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. +</p> + +<p> +But he soon stopped laughing when he came to consider that it was now very late +and dark and cold, and he was in an unknown wood, with no money and no chance +of supper, and still far from friends and home; and the dead silence of +everything, after the roar and rattle of the train, was something of a shock. +He dared not leave the shelter of the trees, so he struck into the wood, with +the idea of leaving the railway as far as possible behind him. +</p> + +<p> +After so many weeks within walls, he found the wood strange and unfriendly and +inclined, he thought, to make fun of him. Night-jars, sounding their mechanical +rattle, made him think that the wood was full of searching warders, closing in +on him. An owl, swooping noiselessly towards him, brushed his shoulder with its +wing, making him jump with the 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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a>IX.<br/> +WAYFARERS ALL</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Nature’s Grand Hotel has its Season, like the others. As the guests one +by one pack, pay, and depart, and the seats at the <i>table-d’hôte</i> shrink +pitifully at each succeeding meal; as suites of rooms are closed, carpets taken +up, and waiters sent away; those boarders who are staying on, <i>en pension</i>, until +the next year’s full re-opening, cannot help being somewhat affected by +all these flittings and farewells, this eager discussion of plans, routes, and +fresh quarters, this daily shrinkage in the stream of comradeship. One gets +unsettled, depressed, and inclined to be querulous. Why this craving for +change? Why not stay on quietly here, like us, and be jolly? You don’t +know this hotel out 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. +</p> + +<p> +It was difficult to settle down to anything seriously, with all this flitting +going on. Leaving the water-side, where rushes stood thick and tall in a stream +that was becoming sluggish and low, he wandered country-wards, crossed a field +or two of pasturage already looking dusty and parched, and thrust into the +great sea of wheat, yellow, wavy, and murmurous, full of quiet motion and small +whisperings. Here he often loved to wander, through the forest of stiff strong +stalks that carried their own golden sky away over his head—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. +</p> + +<p> +“Here’s old Ratty!” they cried as soon as they saw him. +“Come and bear a hand, Rat, and don’t stand about idle!” +</p> + +<p> +“What sort of games are you up to?” said the Water Rat severely. +“You know it isn’t time to be thinking of winter quarters yet, by a +long way!” +</p> + +<p> +“O yes, we know that,” explained a field-mouse rather shamefacedly; +“but it’s always as well to be in good time, isn’t it? We +really <i>must</i> get all the furniture and baggage and stores moved out of this +before those horrid machines begin clicking round the fields; and then, you +know, the best flats get picked up so quickly nowadays, and if you’re +late you have to put up with <i>anything</i>; and they want such a lot of doing up, +too, before they’re fit to move into. Of course, we’re early, we +know that; but we’re only just making a start.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, bother <i>starts</i>,” said the Rat. “It’s a splendid day. +Come for a row, or a stroll along the hedges, or a picnic in the woods, or +something.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I <i>think</i> not <i>to-day</i>, thank you,” replied the field-mouse +hurriedly. “Perhaps some <i>other</i> day—when we’ve more +<i>time</i>——” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, with a snort of contempt, swung round to go, tripped over a hat-box, +and fell, with undignified remarks. +</p> + +<p> +“If people would be more careful,” said a field-mouse rather +stiffly, “and look where they’re going, people wouldn’t hurt +themselves—and forget themselves. Mind that hold-all, Rat! You’d +better sit down somewhere. In an hour or two we may be more free to attend to +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You won’t be ‘free’ as you call it much this side of +Christmas, I can see that,” retorted the Rat grumpily, as he picked his +way out of the field. +</p> + +<p> +He returned somewhat despondently to his river again—his faithful, +steady-going old river, which never packed up, flitted, or went into winter +quarters. +</p> + +<p> +In the osiers which fringed the bank he spied a swallow sitting. Presently it +was joined by another, and then by a third; and the birds, fidgeting restlessly +on their bough, talked together earnestly and low. +</p> + +<p> +“What, <i>already</i>,” said the Rat, strolling up to them. +“What’s the hurry? I call it simply ridiculous.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, we’re not off yet, if that’s what you 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Fun?” said the Rat; “now that’s just what I +don’t understand. If you’ve <i>got</i> to leave this pleasant place, and +your friends who will miss you, and your snug homes that you’ve just +settled into, why, when the hour strikes I’ve no doubt you’ll go +bravely, and face all the trouble and discomfort and change and newness, and +make believe that you’re not very unhappy. But to want to talk about it, +or even think about it, till you really need——” +</p> + +<p> +“No, you don’t understand, naturally,” said the second +swallow. “First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back +come the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter through +our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and circlings by day. We +hunger to inquire of each other, to compare notes and assure ourselves that it +was all really true, as one by one the scents and sounds and names of +long-forgotten places come gradually back and beckon to us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Couldn’t you stop on for just this year?” suggested the +Water Rat, wistfully. “We’ll all do our best to make you feel at +home. You’ve no idea what good times we have here, while you are far +away.” +</p> + +<p> +“I tried ‘stopping on’ one year,” said the third +swallow. “I had grown so fond of the place that when the time came I hung +back and let the others go on without me. For a few weeks it was all well +enough, but afterwards, O the weary length of the nights! The shivering, +sunless days! The air so clammy and chill, and not an insect in an acre of it! +No, it was no good; my courage broke down, and one cold, stormy night I took +wing, flying well inland on account of the strong easterly gales. It was +snowing hard as I beat through the passes of the great mountains, and I had a +stiff fight to win through; but never shall I forget the blissful feeling of +the hot sun again on my back as I sped down to the lakes that lay so blue and +placid below me, and the taste of my first fat insect! The past was like a bad +dream; the future was all happy holiday as I moved southwards week by week, +easily, lazily, lingering as long as I dared, but always heeding the call! No, +I had had my warning; never again did I think of disobedience.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, yes, the call of the South, of the South!” twittered the other +two dreamily. “Its songs its hues, its radiant air! O, do you +remember——” 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. +</p> + +<p> +“Why do you ever come back, then, at all?” he demanded of the +swallows jealously. “What do you find to attract you in this poor drab +little country?” +</p> + +<p> +“And do you think,” said the first swallow, “that the other +call is not for us too, in its due season? The call of lush meadow-grass, wet +orchards, warm, insect-haunted ponds, of browsing cattle, of haymaking, and all +the farm-buildings clustering round the House of the perfect Eaves?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you suppose,” asked the second one, that you are the only +living thing that craves with a hungry longing to hear the cuckoo’s note +again?” +</p> + +<p> +“In due time,” said the third, “we shall be home-sick once +more for quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English stream. But +to-day all that seems pale and thin and very far away. Just now our blood +dances to other music.” +</p> + +<p> +They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their +intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls. +</p> + +<p> +Restlessly the Rat wandered off once more, climbed the slope that rose gently +from the north bank of the river, and lay looking out towards the great ring of +Downs that barred his vision further southwards—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! +</p> + +<p> +He rose and descended river-wards once more; then changed his mind and sought +the side of the dusty lane. There, lying half-buried in the thick, cool +under-hedge tangle that bordered it, he could muse on the metalled road and all +the wondrous world that it led to; on all the wayfarers, too, that might have +trodden it, and the fortunes and adventures they had gone to seek or found +unseeking—out there, beyond—beyond! +</p> + +<p> +Footsteps fell on his ear, and the figure of one that walked somewhat wearily +came into view; and he saw that it was a Rat, and a very dusty one. The +wayfarer, as he reached him, saluted with a gesture of courtesy that had +something foreign about it—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. +</p> + +<p> +The wayfarer was lean and keen-featured, and somewhat bowed at the shoulders; +his paws were thin and long, his eyes much wrinkled at the corners, and he wore +small gold ear rings in his neatly-set well-shaped ears. His knitted jersey was +of a faded blue, his breeches, patched and stained, were based on a blue +foundation, and his small belongings that he carried were tied up in a blue +cotton handkerchief. +</p> + +<p> +When he had rested awhile the stranger sighed, snuffed the air, and looked +about him. +</p> + +<p> +“That was clover, that warm whiff on the breeze,” he remarked; +“and those are cows we hear cropping the grass behind us and blowing +softly between mouthfuls. There is a sound of distant reapers, and yonder rises +a blue line of cottage smoke against the woodland. The river runs somewhere +close by, for I hear the call of a moorhen, and I see by your build that +you’re a freshwater mariner. Everything seems asleep, and yet going on +all the time. It is a goodly life that you lead, friend; no doubt the best in +the world, if only you are strong enough to lead it!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it’s <i>the</i> life, the only life, to live,” responded the +Water Rat dreamily, and without his usual whole-hearted conviction. +</p> + +<p> +“I did not say exactly that,” replied the stranger cautiously; +“but no doubt it’s the best. I’ve tried it, and I know. And +because I’ve just tried it—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, <i>the</i> life +which is mine and which will not let me go.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is this, then, yet another of them?” mused the Rat. “And +where have you just come from?” he asked. He hardly dared to ask where he +was bound for; he seemed to know the answer only too well. +</p> + +<p> +“Nice little farm,” replied the wayfarer, briefly. “Upalong +in that direction”—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!” +</p> + +<p> +His shining eyes held fast to the horizon, and he seemed to be listening for +some sound that was wanting from that inland acreage, vocal as it was with the +cheerful music of pasturage and farmyard. +</p> + +<p> +“You are not one of <i>us</i>,” said the Water Rat, “nor yet a +farmer; nor even, I should judge, of this country.” +</p> + +<p> +“Right,” replied the stranger. “I’m a seafaring rat, I +am, and the port I originally hail from is Constantinople, though I’m a +sort of a foreigner there too, in a manner of speaking. You will have heard of +Constantinople, friend? A fair city, and an ancient and glorious one. And you +may have heard, too, of Sigurd, King of Norway, and how he sailed thither with +sixty ships, and how he and his men rode up through streets all canopied in +their honour with purple and gold; and how the Emperor and Empress came down +and banqueted with him on board his ship. When Sigurd returned home, many of +his Northmen remained behind and entered the Emperor’s body-guard, and my +ancestor, a Norwegian born, stayed behind too, with the ships that Sigurd gave +the Emperor. Seafarers we have ever been, and no wonder; as for me, the city of +my birth is no more my home than any pleasant port between there and the London +River. I know them all, and they know me. Set me down on any of their quays or +foreshores, and I am home again.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you go great voyages,” said the Water Rat with growing +interest. “Months and months out of sight of land, and provisions running +short, and allowanced as to water, and your mind communing with the mighty +ocean, and all that sort of thing?” +</p> + +<p> +“By no means,” said the Sea Rat frankly. “Such a life as you +describe would not suit me at all. I’m in the coasting trade, and rarely +out of sight of land. It’s the jolly times on shore that appeal to me, as +much as any seafaring. O, those southern seaports! The smell of them, the +riding-lights at night, the glamour!” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, perhaps you have chosen the better way,” said the Water Rat, +but rather doubtfully. “Tell me something of your coasting, then, if you +have a mind to, and what sort of harvest an animal of spirit might hope to +bring home from it to warm his latter days with gallant memories by the +fireside; for my life, I confess to you, feels to me to-day somewhat narrow and +circumscribed.” +</p> + +<p> +“My last voyage,” began the Sea Rat, “that landed me +eventually in this country, bound with high hopes for my inland farm, will +serve as a good example of any of them, and, indeed, as an epitome of my +highly-coloured life. Family troubles, as usual, began it. The domestic +storm-cone was hoisted, and I shipped myself on board a small trading vessel +bound from Constantinople, by classic seas whose every wave throbs with a +deathless memory, to the Grecian Islands and the Levant. Those were golden days +and balmy nights! In and out of harbour all the time—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.” +</p> + +<p> +He was silent for a time; and the Water Rat, silent too and enthralled, floated +on dream-canals and heard a phantom song pealing high between vaporous grey +wave-lapped walls. +</p> + +<p> +“Southwards we sailed again at last,” continued the Sea Rat, +“coasting down the Italian 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.” +</p> + +<p> +“But isn’t it very hot and stuffy, down in the—hold, I think +you call it?” asked the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +The seafarer looked at him with the suspicion of a wink. “I’m an +old hand,” he remarked with much simplicity. “The captain’s +cabin’s good enough for me.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a hard life, by all accounts,” murmured the Rat, sunk +in deep thought. +</p> + +<p> +“For the crew it is,” replied the seafarer gravely, again with the +ghost of a wink. +</p> + +<p> +“From Corsica,” he went on, “I made use of 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“That reminds me,” said the polite Water Rat; “you happened +to mention that you were hungry, and I ought to have spoken earlier. Of course, +you will stop and take your midday meal with me? My hole is close by; it is +some time past noon, and you are very welcome to whatever there is.” +</p> + +<p> +“Now I call that kind and brotherly of you,” said the Sea Rat. +“I was indeed hungry when I sat down, and ever since I inadvertently +happened to mention shell-fish, my pangs have been extreme. But couldn’t +you fetch it along out here? I am none too fond of going under hatches, unless +I’m obliged to; and then, while we eat, I could tell you more concerning +my voyages and the pleasant life I lead—at least, it is very pleasant to +me, and by your attention I judge it commends itself to you; whereas if we go +indoors it is a hundred to one that I shall presently fall asleep.” +</p> + +<p> +“That is indeed an excellent suggestion,” said the Water Rat, and +hurried off home. There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple +meal, in which, remembering the stranger’s origin and preferences, he +took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the +garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked +straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far +Southern slopes. Thus laden, he returned with all speed, and blushed for +pleasure at the old seaman’s commendations of his taste and judgment, as +together they unpacked the basket and laid out the contents on the grass by the +roadside. +</p> + +<p> +The Sea Rat, as soon as his hunger was somewhat assuaged, continued the history +of his latest voyage, conducting his simple hearer from port to port of Spain, +landing him at Lisbon, Oporto, and Bordeaux, introducing him to the pleasant +harbours of Cornwall and Devon, and so up the Channel to that final quayside, +where, landing after winds long contrary, storm-driven and weather-beaten, he +had caught the first magical hints and heraldings of another Spring, and, fired +by these, had sped on a long tramp inland, hungry for the experiment of life on +some quiet farmstead, very far from the weary beating of any sea. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +By this time their meal was over, and the Seafarer, refreshed and strengthened, +his voice more vibrant, his eye lit with a brightness that seemed caught from +some far-away sea-beacon, filled his glass with the red and glowing vintage of +the South, and, leaning towards the Water Rat, compelled his gaze and held him, +body and soul, while he talked. Those eyes were of the changing foam-streaked +grey-green of leaping Northern seas; in the glass shone a hot ruby that seemed +the very heart of the South, beating for him who had courage to respond to its +pulsation. The twin lights, the shifting grey 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. +</p> + +<p> +Lastly, in his waking dream it seemed to him that the Adventurer had risen to +his feet, but was still speaking, still holding him fast with his sea-grey +eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“And now,” he was softly saying, “I take to the road again, +holding on southwestwards for many a long and dusty day; till at last I reach +the little grey sea town I know so well, that clings along one steep side of +the harbour. There through dark doorways you look down flights of stone steps, +overhung by great pink tufts of valerian and ending in a patch of 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! +</p> + +<p> +“And you, you will come too, young brother; for the days pass, and never +return, and the South still waits for you. Take the Adventure, heed the call, +now ere the irrevocable moment passes! ’Tis but a banging of the door +behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of the old life and into +the new! Then some day, some day long hence, jog home here if you will, when +the cup has been drained and the play has been played, and sit down by your +quiet river with a store of goodly memories for company. You can easily +overtake me on the road, for you are young, and I am ageing and go softly. I +will linger, and look back; and at last I will surely see you coming, eager and +light-hearted, with all the South in your face!” +</p> + +<p> +The voice died away and ceased as an insect’s tiny trumpet dwindles +swiftly into silence; and the Water Rat, paralysed and staring, saw at last but +a distant speck on the white surface of the road. +</p> + +<p> +Mechanically he rose and proceeded to repack the luncheon-basket, carefully and +without haste. Mechanically he returned home, gathered together a few small +necessaries and special treasures he was fond of, and put them in a satchel; +acting with slow deliberation, moving about the room like a sleep-walker; +listening ever with parted lips. He swung the satchel over his shoulder, +carefully selected a stout stick for his wayfaring, and with no haste, but with +no hesitation at all, he stepped across the threshold just as the Mole appeared +at the door. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, where are you off to, Ratty?” asked the Mole in great +surprise, grasping him by the arm. +</p> + +<p> +“Going South, with the rest of them,” murmured the Rat in a dreamy +monotone, never looking at him. “Seawards first and then on shipboard, +and so to the shores that are calling me!” +</p> + +<p> +He pressed resolutely forward, still without haste, but with dogged fixity of +purpose; but the Mole, now thoroughly alarmed, placed himself in front of him, +and looking into his eyes 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. +</p> + +<p> +The Rat struggled desperately for a few moments, and then his strength seemed +suddenly to leave him, and he lay still and exhausted, with closed eyes, +trembling. Presently the Mole assisted him to rise and placed him in a chair, +where he sat collapsed and shrunken into himself, his body shaken by a violent +shivering, passing in time into an hysterical fit of dry sobbing. Mole made the +door fast, threw the satchel into a drawer and locked it, and sat down quietly +on the table by his friend, waiting for the strange seizure to pass. Gradually +the Rat sank into a troubled doze, broken by starts and confused murmurings of +things strange and wild and foreign to the unenlightened Mole; and from that he +passed into a deep slumber. +</p> + +<p> +Very anxious in mind, the Mole left him for a time and busied himself with +household matters; and it was getting dark when he returned to the parlour and +found the Rat where he had left him, wide awake indeed, but listless, silent, +and dejected. He took one hasty glance at his eyes; found them, to his great +gratification, clear and dark and brown again as before; and then sat down and +tried to cheer him up and help him to relate what had happened to him. +</p> + +<p> +Poor Ratty did his best, by degrees, to explain things; but how could he put +into cold words what had mostly been suggestion? How recall, for +another’s benefit, the haunting sea voices that had sung to him, how +reproduce at second-hand the magic of the Seafarer’s hundred +reminiscences? Even to himself, now the spell was broken and the glamour gone, +he found it difficult to account for what had seemed, some hours ago, the +inevitable and only thing. It is not surprising, then, that he failed to convey +to the Mole any clear idea of what he had been through that day. +</p> + +<p> +To the Mole this much was plain: the fit, or attack, had passed away, and had +left him sane again, though shaken and cast down by the reaction. But he seemed +to have lost all interest for the time in the things that went to make up his +daily life, as well as in all pleasant forecastings of the altered days and +doings that the changing season was surely bringing. +</p> + +<p> +Casually, then, and with seeming indifference, the Mole turned his talk to the +harvest that was being gathered in, the towering wagons and their straining +teams, the growing ricks, and the large moon rising over bare acres dotted with +sheaves. He talked of the reddening apples around, of the browning nuts, of +jams and preserves and the distilling of cordials; till by easy stages such as +these he reached midwinter, its hearty joys and its snug home life, and then he +became simply lyrical. +</p> + +<p> +By degrees the Rat began to sit up and to join in. His dull eye brightened, and +he lost some of his listening air. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the tactful Mole slipped away and returned with a pencil and a few +half-sheets of paper, which he placed on the table at his friend’s elbow. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s quite a long time since you did any poetry,” he +remarked. “You might have a try 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.” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat pushed the paper away from him wearily, but the discreet Mole took +occasion to leave the room, and when he peeped in again some time later, the +Rat was absorbed and deaf to the world; alternately scribbling and sucking the +top of his pencil. It is true that he sucked a good deal more than he +scribbled; but it was joy to the Mole to know that the cure had at least begun. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a>X.<br/> +THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD</h2> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes first and his complaining toes next, wondered +for a moment where he was, looking round for familiar stone wall and little +barred window; then, with a leap of the heart, remembered everything—his +escape, his flight, his pursuit; remembered, first and best thing of all, that +he was free! +</p> + +<p> +Free! The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets. He was warm +from end to end as he thought of the jolly world outside, waiting eagerly for +him to make his triumphal entrance, ready to serve him and play up to him, +anxious to help him and to keep him company, as it always had been in days of +old before misfortune fell upon him. He shook himself and combed the dry leaves +out of his hair with his fingers; and, his toilet complete, marched forth into +the comfortable morning sun, cold but confident, hungry but hopeful, all +nervous terrors of yesterday dispelled by rest and sleep and frank and +heartening sunshine. +</p> + +<p> +He had the world all to himself, that early summer morning. The dewy woodland, +as he threaded it, was solitary and still: the green fields that succeeded the +trees were his own to do as he liked with; the road itself, when he reached it, +in that loneliness that was everywhere, seemed, like a stray dog, to be looking +anxiously for company. Toad, however, was looking for something that could +talk, and tell him clearly which way he ought to go. It is all very well, when +you have a light heart, and a clear conscience, and money in your pocket, and +nobody scouring the country for you to drag you off to prison again, to follow +where the road beckons and points, not caring whither. The practical Toad cared +very much indeed, and he could have kicked the road for its helpless silence +when every minute was of importance to him. +</p> + +<p> +The reserved rustic road was presently joined by a shy little brother in the +shape of a canal, which took its hand and ambled along by its side in perfect +confidence, but with the same tongue-tied, uncommunicative attitude towards +strangers. “Bother them!” said Toad to himself. “But, anyhow, +one thing’s clear. They must both be coming <i>from</i> somewhere, and going <i>to</i> +somewhere. You can’t get over that. Toad, my boy!” So he marched on +patiently by the water’s edge. +</p> + +<p> +Round a bend in the canal came plodding a solitary horse, stooping forward as +if in anxious thought. From rope traces attached to his collar stretched a long +line, taut, but dipping with his stride, the further part of it dripping pearly +drops. Toad let the horse pass, and stood waiting for what the fates were +sending him. +</p> + +<p> +With a pleasant swirl of quiet water at its blunt bow the barge slid up +alongside of him, its gaily painted gunwale level with the towing-path, its +sole occupant a big stout woman wearing a linen sun-bonnet, one brawny arm laid +along the tiller. +</p> + +<p> +“A nice morning, ma’am!” she remarked to Toad, as she drew up +level with him. +</p> + +<p> +“I dare say it is, ma’am!” responded Toad politely, as he +walked along the tow-path abreast of her. “I dare it <i>is</i> 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“Where might your married daughter be living, ma’am?” asked +the barge-woman. +</p> + +<p> +“She lives near to the river, ma’am,” replied Toad. +“Close to a fine house called Toad Hall, that’s somewheres +hereabouts in these parts. Perhaps you may have heard of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad Hall? Why, I’m going that way myself,” replied the +barge-woman. “This canal joins the river some miles further on, a little +above Toad Hall; and then it’s an easy walk. You come along in the barge +with me, and I’ll give you a lift.” +</p> + +<p> +She steered the barge close to the bank, and Toad, with many humble and +grateful acknowledgments, stepped lightly on board and sat down with great +satisfaction. “Toad’s luck again!” thought he. “I +always come out on top!” +</p> + +<p> +“So you’re in the washing business, ma’am?” said the +barge-woman politely, as they glided along. “And a very good business +you’ve got too, I dare say, if I’m not making too free in saying +so.” +</p> + +<p> +“Finest business in the whole country,” said Toad airily. +“All the gentry come to me—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“But surely you don’t <i>do</i> all that work yourself, +ma’am?” asked the barge-woman respectfully. +</p> + +<p> +“O, I have girls,” said Toad lightly: “twenty girls or +thereabouts, always at work. But you know what <i>girls</i> are, ma’am! Nasty +little hussies, that’s what <i>I</i> call ’em!” +</p> + +<p> +“So do I, too,” said the barge-woman with great heartiness. +“But I dare say you set yours to rights, the idle trollops! And are you +<i>very</i> fond of washing?” +</p> + +<p> +“I love it,” said Toad. “I simply dote on it. Never so happy +as when I’ve got both arms in the wash-tub. But, then, it comes so easy +to me! No trouble at all! A real pleasure, I assure you, ma’am!” +</p> + +<p> +“What a bit of luck, meeting you!” observed the barge-woman, +thoughtfully. “A regular piece of good fortune for both of us!” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, what do you mean?” asked Toad, nervously. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, look at me, now,” replied the barge-woman. “<i>I</i> +like washing, too, just the same as you do; and for that matter, whether I like +it or not I have got to do all my own, naturally, moving about as I do. Now my +husband, he’s such a fellow for shirking his work and leaving 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?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, never mind about the washing,” said Toad, not liking the +subject. “Try and fix your mind on that rabbit. A nice fat young rabbit, +I’ll be bound. Got any onions?” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t fix my mind on anything but my washing,” said the +barge-woman, “and I wonder you can be talking of rabbits, with such a +joyful prospect before you. There’s a heap of things of mine that +you’ll find in a corner of the cabin. If you’ll just take one or +two of the most necessary sort—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“Here, you let me steer!” said Toad, now thoroughly frightened, +“and then you can get on with your washing your own way. I might spoil +your things, or not do ’em as you like. I’m more used to +gentlemen’s things myself. It’s my special line.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let you steer?” replied the barge-woman, laughing. “It takes +some practice to steer a barge properly. Besides, it’s dull work, and I +want you to be happy. No, you shall do the washing you are so fond of, and +I’ll stick to the steering that I understand. Don’t try and deprive +me of the pleasure of giving you a treat!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad was fairly cornered. He looked for escape this way and that, saw that he +was too far from the bank for a flying leap, and sullenly resigned himself to +his fate. “If it comes to that,” he thought in desperation, +“I suppose any fool can <i>wash!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +He fetched tub, soap, and other necessaries from the cabin, selected a few +garments at random, tried to recollect what he had seen in casual glances +through laundry windows, and set to. +</p> + +<p> +A long half-hour passed, and every minute of it saw Toad getting crosser and +crosser. Nothing that he could do to the things seemed to please them or do +them good. He tried coaxing, he tried slapping, he tried punching; they smiled +back at him out of the tub unconverted, happy in their original sin. Once or +twice he looked nervously over his shoulder at the barge-woman, but she +appeared to be gazing out in front of her, absorbed in her steering. His back +ached badly, and he noticed with dismay that his paws were beginning to get all +crinkly. Now Toad was very proud of his paws. He muttered under his breath +words that should never pass the lips of either washerwomen or Toads; and lost +the soap, for the fiftieth time. +</p> + +<p> +A burst of laughter made him straighten himself and look round. The barge-woman +was leaning back and laughing unrestrainedly, till the tears ran down her +cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been watching you all the time,” she gasped. “I +thought you must be a humbug all along, from the conceited way you talked. +Pretty washerwoman you are! Never washed so much as a dish-clout in your life, +I’ll lay!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad’s temper which had been simmering viciously for some time, now +fairly boiled over, and he lost all control of himself. +</p> + +<p> +“You common, low, <i>fat</i> barge-woman!” he shouted; “don’t +you dare to talk to your betters like that! Washerwoman indeed! I would have +you to know that I am a Toad, a very well-known, respected, distinguished Toad! +I may be under a bit of a cloud at present, but I will <i>not</i> be laughed at by a +bargewoman!” +</p> + +<p> +The woman moved nearer to him and peered under his bonnet keenly and closely. +“Why, so you are!” she cried. “Well, I never! A horrid, +nasty, crawly Toad! And in my nice clean barge, too! Now that is a thing that I +will <i>not</i> have.” +</p> + +<p> +She relinquished the tiller for a moment. One big mottled arm shot out and +caught Toad by a fore-leg, while the other-gripped him fast by a hind-leg. Then +the world turned suddenly upside down, the barge seemed to flit lightly across +the sky, the wind whistled in his ears, and Toad found himself flying through +the air, revolving rapidly as he went. +</p> + +<p> +The water, when he eventually reached it with a loud splash, proved quite cold +enough for his taste, though its chill was not sufficient to quell his proud +spirit, or slake the heat of his furious temper. He rose to the surface +spluttering, and when he had wiped the duck-weed out of his eyes the first +thing he saw was the fat barge-woman looking back at him over the stern of the +retreating barge and laughing; and he vowed, as he coughed and choked, to be +even with her. +</p> + +<p> +He struck out for the shore, but the cotton gown greatly impeded his efforts, +and when at length he touched land he found it hard to climb up the steep bank +unassisted. He had to take a minute or two’s rest to recover his breath; +then, gathering his wet skirts well over his arms, he started to run after the +barge as fast as his legs would carry him, wild with indignation, thirsting for +revenge. +</p> + +<p> +The barge-woman was still laughing when he drew up level with her. “Put +yourself through your mangle, washerwoman,” she called out, “and +iron your face and crimp it, and you’ll pass for quite a decent-looking +Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad never paused to reply. Solid revenge was what he wanted, not cheap, windy, +verbal triumphs, though he had a thing or two in his mind that he would have +liked to say. He saw what he wanted ahead of him. Running swiftly on he +overtook the horse, unfastened the 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. +</p> + +<p> +The barge-horse was not capable of any very sustained effort, and its gallop +soon subsided into a trot, and its trot into an easy walk; but Toad was quite +contented with this, knowing that he, at any rate, was moving, and the barge +was not. He had quite recovered his temper, now that he had done something he +thought really clever; and he was satisfied to jog along quietly in the sun, +steering his horse along by-ways and bridle-paths, and trying to forget how +very long it was since he had had a square meal, till the canal had been left +very far behind him. +</p> + +<p> +He had travelled some miles, his horse and he, and he was feeling drowsy in the +hot sunshine, when the horse stopped, lowered his head, and began to nibble the +grass; and Toad, waking up, just saved himself from falling off by an effort. +He looked about him and found he was 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. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the gipsy took his pipe out of his mouth and remarked in a careless +way, “Want to sell that there horse of yours?” +</p> + +<p> +Toad was completely taken aback. He did not know that gipsies were very fond of +horse-dealing, and never missed an opportunity, and he had not reflected that +caravans were always on the move and took a deal of drawing. It had not +occurred to him to turn the horse into cash, but the gipsy’s suggestion +seemed to smooth the way towards the two things he wanted so badly—ready +money, and a solid breakfast. +</p> + +<p> +“What?” he said, “me sell this beautiful young horse of mine? +O, no; it’s out of the question. Who’s going to take the washing +home to my customers every week? Besides, I’m too fond of him, and he +simply dotes on me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Try and love a donkey,” suggested the gipsy. “Some people +do.” +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t seem to see,” continued Toad, “that this +fine horse of mine is a cut above you altogether. He’s a blood horse, he +is, partly; not the part you see, of course—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?” +</p> + +<p> +The gipsy looked the horse over, and then he looked Toad over with equal care, +and looked at the horse again. “Shillin’ a leg,” he said +briefly, and turned away, continuing to smoke and try to stare the wide world +out of countenance. +</p> + +<p> +“A shilling a leg?” cried Toad. “If you please, I must take a +little time to work that out, and see just what it comes to.” +</p> + +<p> +He climbed down off his horse, and left it to graze, and sat down by the gipsy, +and did sums on his fingers, and at last he said, “A shilling a leg? Why, +that comes to exactly four shillings, and no more. O, no; I could not think of +accepting four shillings for this beautiful young horse of mine.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said the gipsy, “I’ll tell you what I will do. +I’ll make it five shillings, and that’s three-and-sixpence more +than the animal’s worth. And that’s my last word.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Toad sat and pondered long and deeply. For he was hungry and quite +penniless, and still some way—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 <i>my</i> +last word. You shall hand me over six shillings and sixpence, cash down; and +further, in addition thereto, you shall give me as much breakfast as I can +possibly eat, at one sitting of course, out of that iron pot of yours that +keeps sending forth such delicious and exciting smells. In return, I will make +over to you my spirited young horse, with all the beautiful harness and +trappings that are on him, freely thrown in. If that’s not good enough +for you, say so, and I’ll be getting on. I know a man near here +who’s wanted this horse of mine for years.” +</p> + +<p> +The gipsy grumbled frightfully, and declared if he did a few more deals of that +sort he’d be ruined. But in the end he lugged a dirty canvas bag out of +the depths of his trouser pocket, and counted out six shillings and sixpence +into Toad’s paw. Then he disappeared into the caravan for an instant, and +returned with a large iron plate and a knife, fork, and spoon. He tilted up the +pot, and a glorious stream of hot rich stew gurgled into the plate. It was, +indeed, the most beautiful stew in the world, being made of partridges, and +pheasants, and chickens, and hares, and rabbits, and 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. +</p> + +<p> +When Toad had taken as much stew on board as he thought he could possibly hold, +he got up and said good-bye to the gipsy, and took an affectionate farewell of +the horse; and the gipsy, who knew the riverside well, gave him directions +which way to go, and he set forth on his travels again in the best possible +spirits. He was, indeed, a very different Toad from the animal of an hour ago. +The sun was shining brightly, his wet clothes were quite dry again, he had +money in his pocket once more, he was nearing home and friends and safety, and, +most and best of all, he had had a substantial meal, hot and nourishing, and +felt big, and strong, and careless, and self-confident. +</p> + +<p> +As he tramped along gaily, he thought of his adventures and escapes, and how +when things seemed at their worst he had always managed to find a way out; and +his pride and conceit began to swell within him. “Ho, ho!” he said +to himself as he marched along with his chin in the air, “what a clever +Toad I am! There is surely no animal equal to me for cleverness in the whole +world! My enemies shut me up in prison, encircled by sentries, watched night +and day by warders; I walk out through them all, by sheer ability coupled with +courage. They pursue me with engines, and policemen, and revolvers; I snap my +fingers at them, and vanish, laughing, into space. I am, unfortunately, thrown +into a canal by a woman fat of body and very evil-minded. What of it? I swim +ashore, I seize her horse, I ride off in triumph, and I sell the horse for a +whole pocketful of money and an excellent breakfast! Ho, ho! I am The Toad, the +handsome, the popular, the successful Toad!” He got so puffed up with +conceit that he made up a song as he walked in praise of himself, and sang it +at the top of his voice, though there was no one to hear it but him. It was +perhaps the most conceited song that any animal ever composed. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“The world has held great Heroes,<br/> + As history-books have showed;<br/> +But never a name to go down to fame<br/> + Compared with that of Toad!<br/> +<br/> +“The clever men at Oxford<br/> + Know all that there is to be knowed.<br/> +But they none of them know one half as much<br/> + As intelligent Mr. Toad!<br/> +<br/> +“The animals sat in the Ark and cried,<br/> + Their tears in torrents flowed.<br/> +Who was it said, ‘There’s land ahead?’<br/> + Encouraging Mr. Toad!<br/> +<br/> +“The army all saluted<br/> + As they marched along the road.<br/> +Was it the King? Or Kitchener?<br/> + No. It was Mr. Toad.<br/> +<br/> +“The Queen and her Ladies-in-waiting<br/> + Sat at the window and sewed.<br/> +She cried, ‘Look! who’s that <i>handsome</i> man?’<br/> + They answered, ‘Mr. Toad.’” +</p> + +<p> +There was a great deal more of the same sort, but too dreadfully conceited to +be written down. These are some of the milder verses. +</p> + +<p> +He sang as he walked, and he walked as he sang, and got more inflated every +minute. But his pride was shortly to have a severe fall. +</p> + +<p> +After some miles of country lanes he reached the high road, and as he turned +into it and glanced along its white length, he saw approaching him a speck that +turned into a dot and then into a blob, and then into something very familiar; +and a double note of warning, only too well known, fell on his delighted ear. +</p> + +<p> +“This is something like!” said the excited Toad. “This is +real life again, this is once more the great world from which I have been +missed so long! I will hail them, my brothers of the wheel, and pitch them a +yarn, of the sort that has been so successful hitherto; and they will give me a +lift, of course, and then I will talk to them some more; and, perhaps, with +luck, it may even end in my driving up to Toad Hall in a motor-car! That will +be one in the eye for Badger!” +</p> + +<p> +He stepped confidently out into the road to hail the motor-car, which came +along at an easy pace, slowing down as it neared the lane; when suddenly he +became very pale, his heart turned to water, his knees shook and yielded under +him, and he doubled up and collapsed with a sickening pain in his interior. And +well he might, the unhappy animal; for the approaching car was the very one he +had stolen out of the yard of the Red Lion Hotel on that fatal day when all his +troubles began! And the people in it were the very same people he had sat and +watched at luncheon in the coffee-room! +</p> + +<p> +He sank down in a shabby, miserable heap in the road, murmuring to himself in +his despair, “It’s all up! It’s all over now! Chains and +policemen again! Prison again! Dry bread and water again! O, what a fool I have +been! What did I want to go strutting about the country for, singing conceited +songs, and hailing people in broad day on the high road, instead of hiding till +nightfall and slipping home quietly by back ways! O hapless Toad! O ill-fated +animal!” +</p> + +<p> +The terrible motor-car drew slowly nearer and nearer, till at last he heard it +stop just short of him. Two gentlemen got out and walked round the trembling +heap of crumpled misery lying in the road, and one of them said, “O dear! +this is very sad! Here is a poor old thing—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.” +</p> + +<p> +They tenderly lifted Toad into the motor-car and propped him up with soft +cushions, and proceeded on their way. +</p> + +<p> +When Toad heard them talk in so kind and sympathetic a way, and knew that he +was not recognised, his courage began to revive, and he cautiously opened first +one eye and then the other. +</p> + +<p> +“Look!” said one of the gentlemen, “she is better already. +The fresh air is doing her good. How do you feel now, ma’am?” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you kindly, Sir,” said Toad in a feeble voice, +“I’m feeling a great deal better!” “That’s +right,” said the gentleman. “Now keep quite still, and, above all, +don’t try to talk.” +</p> + +<p> +“I won’t,” said Toad. “I was only thinking, if I might +sit on the front seat there, beside the driver, where I could get the fresh air +full in my face, I should soon be all right again.” +</p> + +<p> +“What a very sensible woman!” said the gentleman. “Of course +you shall.” So they carefully helped Toad into the front seat beside the +driver, and on they went again. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was almost himself again by now. He sat up, looked about him, and tried to +beat down the tremors, the yearnings, the old cravings that rose up and beset +him and took possession of him entirely. +</p> + +<p> +“It is fate!” he said to himself. “Why strive? why +struggle?” and he turned to the driver at his side. +</p> + +<p> +“Please, Sir,” he said, “I wish you would kindly let me try +and drive the car for a little. I’ve been watching you carefully, and it +looks so easy and so interesting, and I should like to be able to tell my +friends that once I had driven a motor-car!” +</p> + +<p> +The driver laughed at the proposal, so heartily that the gentleman inquired +what the matter was. When he heard, he said, to Toad’s delight, +“Bravo, ma’am! I like your spirit. Let her have a try, and look +after her. She won’t do any harm.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad eagerly scrambled into the seat vacated by the driver, took the +steering-wheel in his hands, listened with affected humility to the +instructions given him, and set the car in motion, but very slowly and +carefully at first, for he was determined to be prudent. +</p> + +<p> +The gentlemen behind clapped their hands and applauded, and Toad heard them +saying, “How well she does it! Fancy a washerwoman driving a car as well +as that, the first time!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad went a little faster; then faster still, and faster. +</p> + +<p> +He heard the gentlemen call out warningly, “Be careful, +washerwoman!” And this annoyed him, and he began to lose his head. +</p> + +<p> +The driver tried to interfere, but he pinned him down in his seat with one +elbow, and put on full speed. The rush of air in his face, the hum of the +engines, and the light jump of the car beneath him intoxicated his weak brain. +“Washerwoman, indeed!” he shouted recklessly. “Ho! ho! I am +the Toad, the motor-car snatcher, the prison-breaker, the Toad who always +escapes! Sit still, and you shall know what driving really is, for you are in +the hands of the famous, the skilful, the entirely fearless Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +With a cry of horror the whole party rose and flung themselves on him. +“Seize him!” they cried, “seize the Toad, the wicked animal +who stole our motor-car! Bind him, chain him, drag him to the nearest +police-station! Down with the desperate and dangerous Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +Alas! they should have thought, they ought to have been more prudent, they +should have remembered to stop the motor-car somehow before playing any pranks +of that sort. With a half-turn of the wheel the Toad sent the car crashing +through the low hedge that ran along the roadside. One mighty bound, a violent +shock, and the wheels of the car were churning up the thick mud of a +horse-pond. +</p> + +<p> +Toad found himself flying through the air with the strong upward rush and +delicate curve of a swallow. He liked the motion, and was just beginning to +wonder whether it would go on until he developed wings and turned into a +Toad-bird, when he landed on his back with a thump, in the soft rich grass of a +meadow. Sitting up, he could just see the motor-car in the pond, nearly +submerged; the gentlemen and the driver, encumbered by their long coats, were +floundering helplessly in the water. +</p> + +<p> +He picked himself up rapidly, and set off running across country as hard as he +could, scrambling through hedges, jumping ditches, pounding across fields, till +he was breathless and weary, and had to settle down into an easy walk. When he +had recovered his breath somewhat, and was able to think calmly, he began to +giggle, and from giggling he took to laughing, and he laughed till he had to +sit down under a hedge. “Ho, ho!” he cried, in ecstasies of +self-admiration, “Toad again! Toad, as usual, comes out on the top! Who +was it got them to give him a lift? Who managed to get on the front seat for +the sake of fresh air? Who persuaded them into letting him see if he could +drive? Who landed them all in a horse-pond? Who escaped, flying gaily and +unscathed through the air, leaving the narrow-minded, grudging, timid +excursionists in the mud where they should rightly be? Why, Toad, of course; +clever Toad, great Toad, <i>good</i> Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +Then he burst into song again, and chanted with uplifted voice— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“The motor-car went Poop-poop-poop,<br/> + As it raced along the road.<br/> +Who was it steered it into a pond?<br/> + Ingenious Mr. Toad! +</p> + +<p class="noindent"> +O, how clever I am! How clever, how clever, how very clev——” +</p> + +<p> +A slight noise at a distance behind him made him turn his head and look. O +horror! O misery! O despair! +</p> + +<p> +About two fields off, a chauffeur in his leather gaiters and two large rural +policemen were visible, running towards him as hard as they could go! +</p> + +<p> +Poor Toad sprang to his feet and pelted away again, his heart in his mouth. O, +my!” he gasped, as he panted along, “what an <i>ass</i> I am! What a +<i>conceited</i> and heedless ass! Swaggering again! Shouting and singing songs again! +Sitting still and gassing again! O my! O my! O my!” +</p> + +<p> +He glanced back, and saw to his dismay that they were gaining on him. On he ran +desperately, but kept looking back, and saw that they still gained steadily. He +did his best, but he was a fat animal, and his legs were short, and still they +gained. He could hear them close behind him now. Ceasing to heed where he was +going, he struggled on blindly and wildly, looking back over his shoulder at +the now triumphant enemy, when suddenly the earth failed under his feet, he +grasped at the air, and, splash! he found himself head over ears in deep water, +rapid water, water that bore him along with a force he could not contend with; +and he knew that in his blind panic he had run straight into the river! +</p> + +<p> +He rose to the surface and tried to grasp the reeds and the rushes that grew +along the water’s edge close under the bank, but the stream was so strong +that it tore them out of his hands. “O my!” gasped poor Toad, +“if ever I steal a motor-car again! If ever I sing another conceited +song”—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. +</p> + +<p> +As he sighed and blew and stared before him into the dark hole, some bright +small thing shone and twinkled in its depths, moving towards him. As it +approached, a face grew up gradually around it, and it was a familiar face! +</p> + +<p> +Brown and small, with whiskers. +</p> + +<p> +Grave and round, with neat ears and silky hair. +</p> + +<p> +It was the Water Rat! +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a>XI.<br/> +“LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS”</h2> + +<p> +The Rat put out a neat little brown paw, gripped Toad firmly by the scruff of +the neck, and gave a great hoist and a pull; and the water-logged Toad came up +slowly but surely over the edge of the hole, till at last he stood safe and +sound in the hall, streaked with mud and weed to be sure, and with the water +streaming off him, but happy and high-spirited as of old, now that he found +himself once more in the house of a friend, and dodgings and evasions were +over, and he could lay aside a disguise that was unworthy of his position and +wanted such a lot of living up to. +</p> + +<p> +“O, Ratty!” he cried. “I’ve been through such times +since I saw you last, you can’t think! Such trials, such sufferings, and +all so nobly 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 <i>am</i> a smart Toad, and no mistake! What do you think +my last exploit was? Just hold on till I tell you——” +</p> + +<p> +“Toad,” said the Water Rat, gravely and firmly, “you go off +upstairs at once, and take off that old cotton rag that looks as if it might +formerly have belonged to some washerwoman, and clean yourself thoroughly, and +put on some of my clothes, and try and come down looking like a gentleman if +you <i>can;</i> for a more shabby, bedraggled, disreputable-looking object than you +are I never set eyes on in my whole life! Now, stop swaggering and arguing, and +be off! I’ll have something to say to you later!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad was at first inclined to stop and do some talking back at him. He had had +enough of being ordered about when he was in prison, and here was the thing +being begun all over again, apparently; and by a Rat, too! However, he caught +sight of himself in the looking-glass over the hat-stand, with the rusty black +bonnet perched rakishly over one eye, and he changed his mind and went very +quickly and humbly upstairs to the Rat’s dressing-room. There he had a +thorough wash and brush-up, changed his clothes, and stood for a long time +before the glass, contemplating himself with pride and pleasure, and thinking +what utter idiots all the people must have been to have ever mistaken him for +one moment for a washerwoman. +</p> + +<p> +By the time he came down again luncheon was on the table, and very glad Toad +was to see it, for he had been through some trying experiences and had taken +much hard exercise since the excellent breakfast provided for him by the gipsy. +While they ate Toad told the Rat all his adventures, dwelling chiefly on his +own cleverness, and presence of mind in emergencies, and cunning in tight +places; and rather making out that he had been having a gay and highly-coloured +experience. But the more he talked and boasted, the more grave and silent the +Rat became. +</p> + +<p> +When at last Toad had talked himself to a standstill, there was silence for a +while; and then the Rat said, “Now, Toady, I don’t want to give you +pain, after all you’ve been through already; but, seriously, don’t +you see what an awful ass you’ve been making of yourself? On your own +admission you have been 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 <i>will</i> be mixed up with +them—as you generally are, five minutes after you’ve +started—why <i>steal</i> them? Be a cripple, if you think it’s exciting; +be a bankrupt, for a change, if you’ve set your mind on it: but why +choose to be a convict? When are you going to be sensible, and think of your +friends, and try and be a credit to them? Do you suppose it’s any +pleasure to me, for instance, to hear animals saying, as I go about, that +I’m the chap that keeps company with gaol-birds?” +</p> + +<p> +Now, it was a very comforting point in Toad’s character that he was a +thoroughly good-hearted animal and never minded being jawed by those who were +his real friends. And even when most set upon a thing, he was always able to +see the other side of the question. So although, while the Rat was talking so +seriously, he kept saying to himself mutinously, “But it <i>was</i> fun, though! +Awful fun!” and making strange suppressed noises inside him, +k-i-ck-ck-ck, and poop-p-p, and other sounds resembling stifled snorts, or the +opening of soda-water bottles, yet when the Rat had quite finished, he heaved a +deep sigh and said, very nicely and humbly, “Quite right, Ratty! How +<i>sound</i> you always are! Yes, I’ve been a conceited old ass, I can quite see +that; but now I’m going to be a good Toad, and not do it 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, <i>and</i> a +smoke, and a quiet chat, and then I’m going to stroll quietly down to +Toad Hall, and get into clothes of my own, and set things going again on the +old lines. I’ve had enough of adventures. I shall lead a quiet, steady, +respectable life, pottering about my property, and improving it, and doing a +little landscape gardening at times. There will always be a bit of dinner for +my friends when they come to see me; and I shall keep a pony-chaise to jog +about the country in, just as I used to in the good old days, before I got +restless, and wanted to <i>do</i> things.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stroll quietly down to Toad Hall?” cried the Rat, greatly excited. +“What are you talking about? Do you mean to say you haven’t +<i>heard?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +“Heard what?” said Toad, turning rather pale. “Go on, Ratty! +Quick! Don’t spare me! What haven’t I heard?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean to tell me,” shouted the Rat, thumping with his little +fist upon the table, “that you’ve heard nothing about the Stoats +and Weasels?” +</p> + +<p> +What, the Wild Wooders?” cried Toad, trembling in every limb. “No, +not a word! What have they been doing?” +</p> + +<p> +“—And how they’ve been and taken Toad Hall?” continued +the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +Toad leaned his elbows on the table, and his chin on his paws; and a large tear +welled up in each of his eyes, overflowed and splashed on the table, plop! +plop! +</p> + +<p> +“Go on, Ratty,” he murmured presently; “tell me all. The +worst is over. I am an animal again. I can bear it.” +</p> + +<p> +“When you—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—” +</p> + +<p> +Toad merely nodded. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it was a good deal talked about down here, naturally,” +continued the Rat, “not only along the 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad nodded once more, keeping silence. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s the sort of little beasts they are,” the Rat went on. +“But Mole and Badger, they stuck out, through thick and thin, that you +would come back again soon, somehow. They didn’t know exactly how, but +somehow!” +</p> + +<p> +Toad began to sit up in his chair again, and to smirk a little. +</p> + +<p> +“They argued from history,” continued the Rat. “They said +that no criminal laws had ever been known to prevail against cheek and +plausibility such as yours, combined with the power of a long purse. So they +arranged to move their things in to Toad Hall, and sleep there, and keep it +aired, and have it all ready for you when you turned up. They didn’t +guess what was going to happen, of course; still, they had their suspicions of +the Wild Wood animals. Now I come to the most painful and tragic part of my +story. One dark night—it was a <i>very</i> 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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!” +</p> + +<p> +Here the unfeeling Toad broke into a snigger, and then pulled himself together +and tried to look particularly solemn. +</p> + +<p> +“And the Wild Wooders have been living in Toad Hall ever since,” +continued the Rat; “and going on simply anyhow! Lying in bed half the +day, and breakfast at all hours, and the place in such a mess (I’m told) +it’s not fit to be seen! Eating your grub, and drinking your drink, and +making bad jokes about you, and singing vulgar songs, about—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, have they!” said Toad getting up and seizing a stick. +“I’ll jolly soon see about that!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s no good, Toad!” called the Rat after him. +“You’d better come back and sit down; you’ll only get into +trouble.” +</p> + +<p> +But the Toad was off, and there was no holding him. He marched rapidly down the +road, his stick over his shoulder, fuming and muttering to himself in his +anger, till he got near his front gate, when suddenly there popped up from +behind the palings a long yellow ferret with a gun. +</p> + +<p> +“Who comes there?” said the ferret sharply. +</p> + +<p> +“Stuff and nonsense!” said Toad, very angrily. “What do you +mean by talking like that to me? Come out of that at once, or +I’ll——” +</p> + +<p> +The ferret said never a word, but he brought his gun up to his shoulder. Toad +prudently dropped flat in the road, and <i>Bang!</i> a bullet whistled over his head. +</p> + +<p> +The startled Toad scrambled to his feet and scampered off down the road as hard +as he could; and as he ran he heard the ferret laughing and other horrid thin +little laughs taking it up and carrying on the sound. +</p> + +<p> +He went back, very crestfallen, and told the Water Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“What did I tell you?” said the Rat. “It’s no good. +They’ve got sentries posted, and they are all armed. You must just +wait.” +</p> + +<p> +Still, Toad was not inclined to give in all at once. So he got out the boat, +and set off rowing up the river to where the garden front of Toad Hall came +down to the waterside. +</p> + +<p> +Arriving within sight of his old home, he rested on his oars and surveyed the +land cautiously. All seemed very peaceful and deserted and quiet. He could see +the whole front of Toad Hall, glowing in the evening sunshine, the pigeons +settling by twos and threes along the straight line of the roof; the garden, a +blaze of flowers; the creek that led up to the boat-house, the little wooden +bridge that crossed it; all tranquil, uninhabited, apparently waiting for his +return. He would try the boat-house first, he thought. Very warily he paddled +up to the mouth of the creek, and was just passing under the bridge, when ... +<i>Crash!</i> +</p> + +<p> +A great stone, dropped from above, smashed through the bottom of the boat. It +filled and sank, and Toad found himself struggling in deep water. Looking up, +he saw two stoats leaning over the parapet of the bridge and watching him with +great glee. “It will be your head next time, Toady!” they called +out to him. The indignant Toad swam to shore, while the stoats laughed and +laughed, supporting each other, and laughed again, till they nearly had two +fits—that is, one fit each, of course. +</p> + +<p> +The Toad retraced his weary way on foot, and related his disappointing +experiences to the Water Rat once more. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, <i>what</i> did I tell you?” said the Rat very crossly. “And, +now, look here! See what you’ve been and done! Lost me my boat that I was +so fond of, that’s what you’ve done! And simply ruined that nice +suit of clothes that I lent you! Really, Toad, of all the trying +animals—I wonder you manage to keep any friends at all!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad saw at once how wrongly and foolishly he had acted. He admitted his +errors and wrong-headedness and made a full apology to Rat for losing his boat +and spoiling his clothes. And he wound up by saying, with that frank +self-surrender which always disarmed his 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!” +</p> + +<p> +“If that is really so,” said the good-natured Rat, already +appeased, “then my advice to you is, considering the lateness of the +hour, to sit down and have your supper, which will be on the table in a minute, +and be very patient. For I am convinced that we can do nothing until we have +seen the Mole and the Badger, and heard their latest news, and held conference +and taken their advice in this difficult matter.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, ah, yes, of course, the Mole and the Badger,” said Toad, +lightly. “What’s become of them, the dear fellows? I had forgotten +all about them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well may you ask!” said the Rat reproachfully. “While you +were riding about the country in expensive motor-cars, and galloping proudly on +blood-horses, and breakfasting on the fat of the land, those two poor devoted +animals have been camping out in the open, in every sort of weather, living +very rough by day and lying very hard by night; watching over your house, +patrolling your boundaries, keeping a constant eye on the stoats and the +weasels, scheming and planning and contriving how to get your property back for +you. You don’t deserve to have such true and loyal friends, Toad, you +don’t, really. Some day, when it’s too late, you’ll be sorry +you didn’t value them more while you had them!” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m an ungrateful beast, I know,” sobbed Toad, shedding +bitter tears. “Let me go out and find them, out into the cold, dark +night, and share their hardships, and try and prove by——Hold on a +bit! Surely I heard the chink of dishes on a tray! Supper’s here at last, +hooray! Come on, Ratty!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat remembered that poor Toad had been on prison fare for a considerable +time, and that large allowances had therefore to be made. He followed him to +the table accordingly, and hospitably encouraged him in his gallant efforts to +make up for past privations. +</p> + +<p> +They had just finished their meal and resumed their arm-chairs, when there came +a heavy knock at the door. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was nervous, but the Rat, nodding mysteriously at him, went straight up to +the door and opened it, and in walked Mr. Badger. +</p> + +<p> +He had all the appearance of one who for some nights had been kept away from +home and all its little comforts and conveniences. His shoes were covered with +mud, and he was looking very rough and touzled; but then he had never been a +very smart man, the Badger, at the best of times. He came solemnly up to Toad, +shook him by the paw, and said, “Welcome home, Toad! Alas! what am I +saying? Home, indeed! This is a poor home-coming. Unhappy Toad!” Then he +turned his back on him, sat down to the table, drew his chair up, and helped +himself to a large slice of cold pie. +</p> + +<p> +Toad was quite alarmed at this very serious and portentous style of greeting; +but the Rat whispered to him, “Never mind; don’t take any notice; +and don’t say anything to him just yet. He’s always rather low and +despondent when he’s wanting his victuals. In half an hour’s time +he’ll be quite a different animal.” +</p> + +<p> +So they waited in silence, and presently there came another and a lighter +knock. The Rat, with a nod to Toad, went to the door and ushered in the Mole, +very shabby and unwashed, with bits of hay and straw sticking in his fur. +</p> + +<p> +“Hooray! Here’s old Toad!” cried the Mole, his face beaming. +“Fancy having you back again!” And he began to dance round him. +“We never dreamt you would turn up so soon! Why, you must have managed to +escape, you clever, ingenious, intelligent Toad!” +</p> + +<p> +The Rat, alarmed, pulled him by the elbow; but it was too late. Toad was +puffing and swelling already. +</p> + +<p> +“Clever? O, no!” he said. “I’m not really clever, +according to my friends. I’ve only broken out of the strongest prison in +England, that’s all! And captured a railway train and escaped on it, +that’s all! And disguised myself and gone about the country humbugging +everybody, that’s all! O, no! I’m a stupid ass, I am! I’ll +tell you one or two of my little adventures, Mole, and you shall judge for +yourself!” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” said the Mole, moving towards the supper-table; +“supposing you talk while I eat. Not a bite since breakfast! O my! O +my!” And he sat down and helped himself liberally to cold beef and +pickles. +</p> + +<p> +Toad straddled on the hearth-rug, thrust his paw into his trouser-pocket and +pulled out a handful of silver. “Look at that!” he cried, +displaying it. “That’s not so bad, is it, for a few minutes’ +work? And how do you think I done it, Mole? Horse-dealing! That’s how I +done it!” +</p> + +<p> +“Go on, Toad,” said the Mole, immensely interested. +</p> + +<p> +“Toad, do be quiet, please!” said the Rat. “And don’t +you egg him on, Mole, when you know what he is; but please tell us as soon as +possible what the position is, and what’s best to be done, now that Toad +is back at last.” +</p> + +<p> +“The position’s about as bad as it can be,” replied the Mole +grumpily; “and as for what’s to be done, why, blest if I know! The +Badger and I have been round and round the place, by night and by day; always +the same thing. Sentries posted everywhere, guns poked out at us, stones thrown +at us; always an animal on the look-out, and when they see us, my! how they do +laugh! That’s what annoys me most!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a very difficult situation,” said the Rat, reflecting +deeply. “But I think I see now, in the depths of my mind, what Toad +really ought to do. I will tell you. He ought to——” +</p> + +<p> +“No, he oughtn’t!” shouted the Mole, with his mouth full. +“Nothing of the sort! You don’t understand. What he ought to do is, +he ought to——” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I shan’t do it, anyway!” cried Toad, getting excited. +“I’m not going to be ordered about by you fellows! It’s my +house we’re talking about, and I know exactly what to do, and I’ll +tell you. I’m going to——” +</p> + +<p> +By this time they were all three talking at once, at the top of their voices, +and the noise was simply deafening, when a thin, dry voice made itself heard, +saying, “Be quiet at once, all of you!” and instantly every one was +silent. +</p> + +<p> +It was the Badger, who, having finished his pie, had turned round in his chair +and was looking at them severely. When he saw that he had secured their +attention, and that they were evidently waiting for him to address them, he +turned back to the table again and reached out for the cheese. And so great was +the respect commanded by the solid qualities of that admirable animal, that not +another word was uttered until he had quite finished his repast and brushed the +crumbs from his knees. The Toad fidgeted a good deal, but the Rat held him +firmly down. +</p> + +<p> +When the Badger had quite done, he got up from his seat and stood before the +fireplace, reflecting deeply. At last he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“Toad!” he said severely. “You bad, troublesome little +animal! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? What do you think your father, my +old friend, would have said if he had been here to-night, and had known of all +your goings on?” +</p> + +<p> +Toad, who was on the sofa by this time, with his legs up, rolled over on his +face, shaken by sobs of contrition. +</p> + +<p> +“There, there!” went on the Badger, more kindly. “Never mind. +Stop crying. We’re going to let bygones be bygones, and try and turn over +a new leaf. But what the Mole says is quite true. The stoats are on guard, at +every point, and they make the best sentinels in the world. It’s quite +useless to think of attacking the place. They’re too strong for +us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then it’s all over,” sobbed the Toad, crying into the sofa +cushions. “I shall go and enlist for a soldier, and never see my dear +Toad Hall any more!” +</p> + +<p> +“Come, cheer up, Toady!” said the Badger. “There are more +ways of getting back a place than taking it by storm. I haven’t said my +last word yet. Now I’m going to tell you a great secret.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad sat up slowly and dried his eyes. Secrets had an immense attraction for +him, because he never could keep one, and he enjoyed the sort of unhallowed +thrill he experienced when he went and told another animal, after having +faithfully promised not to. +</p> + +<p> +“There—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.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, nonsense! Badger,” said Toad, rather airily. +“You’ve been listening to some of the yarns they spin in the +public-houses about here. I know every inch of Toad Hall, inside and out. +Nothing of the sort, I do assure you!” +</p> + +<p> +“My young friend,” said the Badger, with great severity, +“your father, who was a worthy animal—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.’” +</p> + +<p> +The other animals looked hard at Toad to see how he would take it. Toad was +inclined to be sulky at first; but he brightened up immediately, like the good +fellow he was. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, well,” he said; “perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A +popular fellow such as I am—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 <i>salon</i>, +whatever that may be. Never mind. Go on, Badger. How’s this passage of +yours going to help us?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve found out a thing or two lately,” continued the Badger. +“I got Otter to disguise himself as a sweep and call at the back-door +with brushes over his shoulder, asking for a job. There’s going to be a +big banquet to-morrow night. It’s somebody’s birthday—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!” +</p> + +<p> +“But the sentinels will be posted as usual,” remarked the Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“Exactly,” said the Badger; “that is my point. The weasels +will trust entirely to their excellent sentinels. And that is where the passage +comes in. That very useful tunnel leads right up under the butler’s +pantry, next to the dining-hall!” +</p> + +<p> +“Aha! that squeaky board in the butler’s pantry!” said Toad. +“Now I understand it!” +</p> + +<p> +“We shall creep out quietly into the butler’s pantry—” +cried the Mole. +</p> + +<p> +“—with our pistols and swords and sticks—” shouted the +Rat. +</p> + +<p> +“—and rush in upon them,” said the Badger. +</p> + +<p> +“—and whack ’em, and whack ’em, and whack +’em!” cried the Toad in ecstasy, running round and round the room, +and jumping over the chairs. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, then,” said the Badger, resuming his usual dry manner, +“our plan is settled, and there’s nothing more for you to argue and +squabble about. So, as it’s getting very late, all of you go right off to +bed at once. We will make all the necessary arrangements in the course of the +morning to-morrow.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad, of course, went off to bed dutifully with the rest—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. +</p> + +<p> +He slept till a late hour next morning, and by the time he got down he found +that the other animals had finished their breakfast some time before. The Mole +had slipped off somewhere by himself, without telling any one where he was +going to. The Badger sat in the arm-chair, reading the paper, and not +concerning himself in the slightest about what was going to happen that very +evening. The Rat, on the other hand, was running round the room busily, with +his arms full of weapons of every kind, distributing them in four little heaps +on the floor, and saying excitedly under his breath, as he ran, +“Here’s-a-sword-for-the-Rat, here’s-a-sword-for-the Mole, +here’s-a-sword-for-the-Toad, here’s-a-sword-for-the-Badger! +Here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Rat, here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Mole, +here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Toad, +here’s-a-pistol-for-the-Badger!” And so on, in a regular, +rhythmical way, while the four little heaps gradually grew and grew. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all very well, Rat,” said the Badger presently, +looking at the busy little animal over the edge of his newspaper; +“I’m not blaming you. But just let us once get past the stoats, +with those detestable guns of theirs, and I assure you we shan’t want any +swords or pistols. We four, with our sticks, once we’re inside the +dining-hall, why, we shall clear the floor of all the lot of them in five +minutes. I’d have done the whole thing by myself, only I didn’t +want to deprive you fellows of the fun!” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s as well to be on the safe side,” said the Rat +reflectively, polishing a pistol-barrel on his sleeve and looking along it. +</p> + +<p> +The Toad, having finished his breakfast, picked up a stout stick and swung it +vigorously, belabouring imaginary animals. “I’ll learn ’em to +steal my house!” he cried. “I’ll learn ’em, I’ll +learn ’em!” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t say ‘learn ’em,’ Toad,” said the +Rat, greatly shocked. “It’s not good English.” +</p> + +<p> +“What are you always nagging at Toad for?” inquired the Badger, +rather peevishly. “What’s the matter with his English? It’s +the same what I use myself, and if it’s good enough for me, it ought to +be good enough for you!” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m very sorry,” said the Rat humbly. “Only I <i>think</i> it +ought to be ‘teach ’em,’ not ‘learn +’em.’” +</p> + +<p> +“But we don’t <i>want</i> to teach ’em,” replied the Badger. +“We want to <i>learn</i> ’em—learn ’em, learn ’em! And +what’s more, we’re going to <i>do</i> it, too!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, very well, have it your own way,” said the Rat. He was getting +rather muddled about it himself, and presently he retired into a corner, where +he could be heard muttering, “Learn ’em, teach ’em, teach +’em, learn ’em!” till the Badger told him rather sharply to +leave off. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the Mole came tumbling into the room, evidently very pleased with +himself. “I’ve been having such fun!” he began at once; +“I’ve been getting a rise out of the stoats!” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope you’ve been very careful, Mole?” said the Rat +anxiously. +</p> + +<p> +“I should hope so, too,” said the Mole confidently. “I got +the idea when I went into the kitchen, to see about Toad’s breakfast +being kept hot for him. I found that old washerwoman-dress that he came home in +yesterday, hanging on a towel-horse before the fire. So I put it on, and the +bonnet as well, and the shawl, and off I went to Toad Hall, as bold as you +please. The sentries were on the look-out, of course, with their guns and their +‘Who comes there?’ and all the rest of their nonsense. ‘Good +morning, gentlemen!’ says I, very respectful. ‘Want any washing +done to-day?’ +</p> + +<p> +“They looked at me very proud and stiff and haughty, and said, ‘Go +away, washerwoman! We don’t do any washing on duty.’ ‘Or any +other time?’ says I. Ho, ho, ho! Wasn’t I <i>funny</i>, Toad?” +</p> + +<p> +“Poor, frivolous animal!” said Toad, very loftily. The fact is, he +felt exceedingly jealous of Mole for what he had just done. It was exactly what +he would have liked to have done himself, if only he had thought of it first, +and hadn’t gone and overslept himself. +</p> + +<p> +“Some of the stoats turned quite pink,” continued the Mole, +“and the Sergeant in charge, he said to me, very short, he said, +‘Now run away, my good woman, run away! Don’t keep my men idling +and talking on their posts.’ ‘Run away?’ says I; ‘it +won’t be me that’ll be running away, in a very short time from +now!’” +</p> + +<p> +“O <i>Moly</i>, how could you?” said the Rat, dismayed. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger laid down his paper. +</p> + +<p> +“I could see them pricking up their ears and looking at each +other,” went on the Mole; “and the Sergeant said to them, +‘Never mind <i>her;</i> she doesn’t know what she’s talking +about.’” +</p> + +<p> +“‘O! don’t I?’” said I. “‘Well, let +me tell you this. My daughter, she washes for Mr. Badger, and that’ll +show you whether I know what I’m talking about; and <i>you>’ll</i> know +pretty 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!”’ +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you silly ass, Mole!” cried Toad, “You’ve been and +spoilt everything!” +</p> + +<p> +“Mole,” said the Badger, in his dry, quiet way, “I perceive +you have more sense in your little finger than some other animals have in the +whole of their fat bodies. You have managed excellently, and I begin to have +great hopes of you. Good Mole! Clever Mole!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad was simply wild with jealousy, more especially as he couldn’t +make out for the life of him what the Mole had done that was so particularly +clever; but, fortunately for him, before he could show temper or expose himself +to the Badger’s sarcasm, the bell rang for luncheon. +</p> + +<p> +It was a simple but sustaining meal—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. +</p> + +<p> +The anxious and laborious Rat at once resumed his preparations, and started +running between his four little heaps, muttering, +“Here’s-a-belt-for-the-Rat, here’s-a-belt-for-the-Mole, +here’s-a-belt-for-the-Toad, here’s-a-belt-for-the-Badger!” +and so on, with every fresh accoutrement he produced, to which there seemed +really no end; so the Mole drew his arm through Toad’s, led him out into +the open air, shoved him into a wicker chair, and made him tell him all his +adventures from beginning to end, which Toad was only too willing to do. The +Mole was a good listener, and Toad, with no one to check his statements or to +criticise in an unfriendly spirit, rather let himself go. Indeed, much that he +related belonged more properly to the category of +what-might-have-happened-had-I-only-thought-of-it-in-time-instead-of +ten-minutes-afterwards. Those are always the best and the raciest adventures; +and why should they not be truly ours, as much as the somewhat inadequate +things that really come off? +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a>XII.<br/> +THE RETURN OF ULYSSES</h2> + +<p> +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, “<i>please</i>, Badger. You know I +shouldn’t like you to blame me afterwards and say I had forgotten +<i>anything!</i>” +</p> + +<p> +When all was quite ready, the Badger took a dark lantern in one paw, grasped +his great stick with the other, and said, “Now then, follow me! Mole +first, “cos I’m very pleased with him; Rat next; Toad last. And +look here, Toady! Don’t you chatter so much as usual, or you’ll be +sent back, as sure as fate!” +</p> + +<p> +The Toad was so anxious not to be left out that he took up the inferior +position assigned to him without a murmur, and the animals set off. The Badger +led them along by the river for a little way, and then suddenly swung himself +over the edge into a hole in the river-bank, a little above the water. The Mole +and the Rat followed silently, swinging themselves successfully into the hole +as they had seen the Badger do; but when it came to Toad’s turn, of +course he managed to slip and fall into the water with a loud splash and a +squeal of alarm. He was hauled out by his friends, rubbed down and wrung out +hastily, comforted, and set on his legs; but the Badger was seriously angry, +and told him that the very next time he made a fool of himself he would most +certainly be left behind. +</p> + +<p> +So at last they were in the secret passage, and the cutting-out expedition had +really begun! +</p> + +<p> +It was cold, and dark, and damp, and low, and narrow, and poor Toad began to +shiver, partly from dread of what might be before him, partly because he was +wet through. The lantern was far ahead, and he could not help lagging behind a +little in the darkness. Then he heard the Rat call out warningly, “<i>Come</i> +on, Toad!” and a terror seized him of being left behind, alone in the +darkness, and he “came on” with such a rush that he upset the Rat +into the Mole and the Mole into the Badger, and for a moment all was confusion. +The Badger thought they were being attacked from behind, and, as there was no +room to use a stick or a cutlass, drew a pistol, and was on the point of +putting a bullet into Toad. When he found out what had really happened he was +very angry indeed, and said, “Now this time that tiresome Toad <i>shall</i> be +left behind!” +</p> + +<p> +But Toad whimpered, and the other two promised that they would be answerable +for his good conduct, and at last the Badger was pacified, and the procession +moved on; only this time the Rat brought up the rear, with a firm grip on the +shoulder of Toad. +</p> + +<p> +So they groped and shuffled along, with their ears pricked up and their paws on +their pistols, till at last the Badger said, “We ought by now to be +pretty nearly under the Hall.” +</p> + +<p> +Then suddenly they heard, far away as it might be, and yet apparently nearly +over their heads, a confused murmur of sound, as if people were shouting and +cheering and stamping on the floor and hammering on tables. The Toad’s +nervous terrors all returned, but the Badger only remarked placidly, +“They <i>are</i> going it, the Weasels!” +</p> + +<p> +The passage now began to slope upwards; they groped onward a little further, +and then the noise broke out again, quite distinct this time, and very close +above them. “Ooo-ray-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. “<i>What</i> a time they’re having!” +said the Badger. “Come on!” They hurried along the passage till it +came to a full stop, and they found themselves standing under the trap-door +that led up into the butler’s pantry. +</p> + +<p> +Such a tremendous noise was going on in the banqueting-hall that there was +little danger of their being overheard. The Badger said, “Now, boys, all +together!” and the four of them put their shoulders to the trap-door and +heaved it back. Hoisting each other up, they found themselves standing in the +pantry, with only a door between them and the banqueting-hall, where their +unconscious enemies were carousing. +</p> + +<p> +The noise, as they emerged from the passage, was simply deafening. At last, as +the cheering and hammering slowly subsided, a voice could be made out saying, +“Well, I do not propose to detain you much longer”—(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)—“<i>Good</i> Toad, +<i>modest</i> Toad, <i>honest</i> Toad!” (shrieks of merriment). +</p> + +<p> +“Only just let me get at him!” muttered Toad, grinding his teeth. +</p> + +<p> +“Hold hard a minute!” said the Badger, restraining him with +difficulty. “Get ready, all of you!” +</p> + +<p> +“—Let me sing you a little song,” went on the voice, +“which I have composed on the subject of Toad”—(prolonged +applause). +</p> + +<p> +Then the Chief Weasel—for it was he—began in a high, squeaky +voice— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Toad he went a-pleasuring<br/> +Gaily down the street—” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger drew himself up, took a firm grip of his stick with both paws, +glanced round at his comrades, and cried— +</p> + +<p> +“The hour is come! Follow me!” +</p> + +<p> +And flung the door open wide. +</p> + +<p> +My! +</p> + +<p> +What a squealing and a squeaking and a screeching filled the air! +</p> + +<p> +Well might the terrified weasels dive under the tables and spring madly up at +the windows! Well might the ferrets rush wildly for the fireplace and get +hopelessly jammed in the chimney! Well might tables and chairs be upset, and +glass and china be sent crashing on the floor, in the panic of that terrible +moment when the four Heroes strode wrathfully into the room! The mighty Badger, +his whiskers bristling, his great cudgel whistling through the air; Mole, black +and grim, brandishing his stick and shouting his awful war-cry, “A Mole! +A Mole!” Rat; desperate and determined, his belt bulging with weapons of +every age and every variety; Toad, frenzied with excitement and injured pride, +swollen to twice his ordinary size, leaping into the air and emitting +Toad-whoops that chilled them to the marrow! “Toad he went +a-pleasuring!” he yelled. “<i>I’ll</i> pleasure ’em!” +and he went straight for the Chief Weasel. They were but four in all, but to +the panic-stricken weasels the hall seemed full of monstrous animals, grey, +black, brown and yellow, whooping and flourishing enormous cudgels; and they +broke and fled with squeals of terror and dismay, this way and that, through +the windows, up the chimney, anywhere to get out of reach of those terrible +sticks. +</p> + +<p> +The affair was soon over. Up and down, the whole length of the hall, strode the +four Friends, whacking with their sticks at every head that showed itself; and +in five minutes the room was cleared. Through the broken windows the shrieks of +terrified weasels escaping across the lawn were borne faintly to their ears; on +the floor lay prostrate some dozen or so of the enemy, on whom the Mole was +busily engaged in fitting handcuffs. The Badger, resting from his labours, +leant on his stick and wiped his honest brow. +</p> + +<p> +“Mole,” he said,” “you’re the best of fellows! +Just cut along outside and look after those stoat-sentries of yours, and see +what they’re doing. I’ve an idea that, thanks to you, we +shan’t have much trouble from <i>them</i> to-night!” +</p> + +<p> +The Mole vanished promptly through a window; and the Badger bade the other two +set a table on its legs again, pick up knives and forks and plates and glasses +from the <i>débris</i> on the 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. +</p> + +<p> +“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 <i>that’s</i> all +right!” +</p> + +<p> +“Excellent and deserving animal!” said the Badger, his mouth full +of chicken and trifle. “Now, there’s just one more thing I want you +to do, Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I +wouldn’t trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done, and +I wish I could say the same of every one I know. I’d send Rat, if he +wasn’t a poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there +upstairs with you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up and made +really comfortable. See that they sweep <i>under</i> the beds, and put clean sheets +and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the bed-clothes, just as you +know it ought to be done; and have a can of hot water, and clean towels, and +fresh cakes of soap, put in each room. And then you can give them a licking +a-piece, if it’s any satisfaction to you, and put them out by the +back-door, and we shan’t see any more of <i>them</i>, I fancy. And then come +along and have some of this cold tongue. It’s first rate. I’m very +pleased with you, Mole!” +</p> + +<p> +The 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!” +</p> + +<p> +Then the Mole pulled his chair up to the table, and pitched into the cold +tongue; and Toad, like the gentleman he was, put all his jealousy from him, and +said heartily, “Thank you kindly, dear Mole, for all your pains and +trouble 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. +</p> + +<p> +The following morning, Toad, who had overslept himself as usual, came down to +breakfast disgracefully late, and found on the table a certain 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.” +</p> + +<p> +“O, all right!” said the Toad, readily. “Anything to oblige. +Though why on earth you should want to have a Banquet in the morning I cannot +understand. But you know I do not live to please myself, but merely to find out +what my friends want, and then try and arrange it for ’em, you dear old +Badger!” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t pretend to be stupider than you really are,” replied +the Badger, crossly; “and don’t chuckle and splutter in your coffee +while you’re talking; it’s not manners. What I mean is, the Banquet +will be at night, of course, but the invitations will have to be written and +got off at once, and you’ve got to write ’em. Now, sit down at that +table—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>I’ll</i> bear a hand, too; and take my share of the burden. <i>I’ll</i> order +the Banquet.” +</p> + +<p> +“What!” cried Toad, dismayed. “Me stop indoors and write a +lot of rotten letters on a jolly morning like this, when I want to go around my +property, and set everything and 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!” +</p> + +<p> +The Badger looked at him very suspiciously, but Toad’s frank, open +countenance made it difficult to suggest any unworthy motive in this change of +attitude. He quitted the room, accordingly, in the direction of the kitchen, +and as soon as the door had closed behind him, Toad hurried to the +writing-table. A fine idea had occurred to him while he was talking. He <i>would</i> +write the invitations; and he would take care to mention the leading part he +had taken in the fight, and how he had laid the Chief Weasel flat; and he would +hint at his adventures, and what a career of triumph he had to 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:— +</p> + +<p class="center"> +S<small>PEECH</small>. . . . B<small>Y</small> T<small>OAD</small>.<br/> +(There will be other speeches by T<small>OAD</small> during the evening.) +</p> + +<p class="center"> +A<small>DDRESS</small>. . . B<small>Y</small> T<small>OAD</small><br/> +S<small>YNOPSIS</small>—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. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +S<small>ONG</small>. . . . B<small>Y</small> T<small>OAD</small>.<br/> +(Composed by himself.) +</p> + +<p class="center"> +O<small>THER</small> C<small>OMPOSITIONS</small>. B<small>Y</small> +T<small>OAD</small><br/> +will be sung in the course of the evening by the. . . C<small>OMPOSER</small>. +</p> + +<p> +The idea pleased him mightily, and he worked very hard and got all the letters +finished by noon, at which hour it was reported to him that there was a small +and rather bedraggled weasel at the door, inquiring timidly whether he could be +of any service to the 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. +</p> + +<p> +When the other animals came back to luncheon, very boisterous and breezy after +a morning on the river, the Mole, whose conscience had been pricking him, +looked doubtfully at Toad, expecting to find him sulky or depressed. Instead, +he was so uppish and inflated that the Mole began to suspect something; while +the Rat and the Badger exchanged significant glances. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the meal was over, Toad thrust his paws deep into his +trouser-pockets, remarked casually, “Well, look after yourselves, you +fellows! Ask for anything you want!” and was swaggering off in the +direction of the garden, where he wanted to think out an idea or two for his +coming speeches, when the Rat caught him by the arm. +</p> + +<p> +Toad rather suspected what he was after, and did his best to get away; but when +the Badger took him firmly by the other arm he began to see that the game was +up. The two animals conducted him between them into the small smoking-room that +opened out of the entrance-hall, shut the door, and put him into a chair. Then +they both stood in front of him, while Toad sat silent and regarded them with +much suspicion and ill-humour. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, look here, Toad,” said the Rat. “It’s about this +Banquet, and very sorry I am to have to speak to you like this. But we want you +to understand clearly, once and for all, that there are going to be no speeches +and no songs. Try and grasp the fact that on this occasion we’re not +arguing with you; we’re just telling you.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad saw that he was trapped. They understood him, they saw through him, they +had got ahead of him. His pleasant dream was shattered. +</p> + +<p> +“Mayn’t I sing them just one <i>little</i> song?” he pleaded +piteously. +</p> + +<p> +“No, not <i>one</i> little song,” replied the Rat firmly, though his heart +bled as he noticed the trembling lip of the poor disappointed Toad. +“It’s no good, Toady; you know well that your songs are all conceit +and boasting and vanity; and your speeches are all self-praise +and—and—well, and gross exaggeration +and—and——” +</p> + +<p> +“And gas,” put in the Badger, in his common way. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s for your own good, Toady,” went on the Rat. “You +know you <i>must</i> turn over a new leaf sooner or later, and now seems a splendid +time to begin; a sort of turning-point in your career. Please don’t think +that saying all this doesn’t hurt me more than it hurts you.” +</p> + +<p> +Toad remained a long while plunged in thought. At last he raised his head, and +the traces of strong emotion were visible on his features. “You have +conquered, my friends,” he said in broken accents. “It was, to be +sure, but a small thing that I asked—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!” +</p> + +<p> +And, pressing his handkerchief to his face, he left the room, with faltering +footsteps. +</p> + +<p> +“Badger,” said the Rat, “<i>I</i> feel like a brute; I wonder +what <i>you</i> feel like?” +</p> + +<p> +“O, I know, I know,” said the Badger gloomily. “But the thing +had to be done. This good fellow has got to live here, and hold his own, and be +respected. Would you have him a common laughing-stock, mocked and jeered at by +stoats and weasels?” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course not,” said the Rat. “And, talking of weasels, +it’s lucky we came upon that little weasel, just as he was setting out +with Toad’s invitations. I suspected something from what you told me, and +had a look at one or two; they were simply disgraceful. I confiscated the lot, +and the good Mole is now sitting in the blue boudoir, filling up plain, simple +invitation cards.” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +At last the hour for the banquet began to draw near, and Toad, who on leaving +the others had retired to his bedroom, was still sitting there, melancholy and +thoughtful. His brow resting on his paw, he pondered long and deeply. Gradually +his countenance cleared, and he began to smile long, slow smiles. Then he took +to giggling in a shy, self-conscious manner. At last he got up, locked the +door, drew the curtains across the windows, collected all the chairs in the +room and arranged them in a semicircle, and took up his position in front of +them, swelling visibly. Then he bowed, coughed twice, and, letting himself go, +with uplifted voice he sang, to the enraptured audience that his imagination so +clearly saw. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +TOAD’S LAST LITTLE SONG!<br/> +<br/> +The Toad—came—home!<br/> +There was panic in the parlours and howling in the halls,<br/> +There was crying in the cow-sheds and shrieking in the stalls,<br/> +When the Toad—came—home!<br/> +<br/> +When the Toad—came—home!<br/> +There was smashing in of window and crashing in of door,<br/> +There was chivvying of weasels that fainted on the floor,<br/> +When the Toad—came—home!<br/> +<br/> +Bang! go the drums!<br/> +The trumpeters are tooting and the soldiers are saluting,<br/> +And the cannon they are shooting and the motor-cars are hooting,<br/> +As the—Hero—comes!<br/> +<br/> +Shout—Hoo-ray!<br/> +And let each one of the crowd try and shout it very loud,<br/> +In honour of an animal of whom you’re justly proud,<br/> +For it’s Toad’s—great—day! +</p> + +<p> +He sang this very loud, with great unction and expression; and when he had +done, he sang it all over again. +</p> + +<p> +Then he heaved a deep sigh; a long, long, long sigh. +</p> + +<p> +Then he dipped his hairbrush in the water-jug, parted his hair in the middle, +and plastered it down very straight and sleek on each side of his face; and, +unlocking the door, went quietly down the stairs to greet his guests, who he +knew must be assembling in the drawing-room. +</p> + +<p> +All the animals cheered when he entered, and crowded round to congratulate him +and say nice things about his courage, and his cleverness, and his fighting +qualities; but Toad only smiled faintly, and murmured, “Not at +all!” Or, sometimes, for a change, “On the contrary!” Otter, +who was standing on the hearthrug, describing to an admiring circle of friends +exactly how he would have managed things had he been there, came forward with a +shout, threw his arm round Toad’s neck, and tried to take him round the +room in triumphal progress; but Toad, in a mild way, was rather snubby to him, +remarking gently, as he disengaged himself, “Badger’s was the +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. +</p> + +<p> +The Badger had ordered everything of the best, and the banquet was a great +success. There was much talking and laughter and chaff among the animals, but +through it all Toad, who of course was in the chair, looked down his nose and +murmured pleasant nothings to the animals on either side of him. At intervals +he stole a glance at the Badger and the Rat, and always when he looked they +were staring at each other with their mouths open; and this gave him the +greatest satisfaction. Some of the younger and livelier animals, as the evening +wore on, got whispering to each other that things were not so amusing as they +used to be in the good old days; and there were some knockings on the table and +cries of “Toad! Speech! Speech from Toad! Song! Mr. Toad’s +song!” But Toad only shook his head gently, raised one paw in mild +protest, and, by pressing delicacies on his guests, by topical small-talk, and +by earnest inquiries after members of their families not yet old enough to +appear at social functions, managed to convey to them that this dinner was +being run on strictly conventional lines. +</p> + +<p> +He was indeed an altered Toad! +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +After this climax, the four animals continued to lead their lives, so rudely +broken in upon by civil war, in great joy and contentment, undisturbed by +further risings or invasions. Toad, after due consultation with his friends, +selected a handsome gold chain and locket set with pearls, which he dispatched +to the gaoler’s daughter with a letter that even the Badger admitted to +be modest, grateful, and appreciative; and the engine-driver, in his turn, was +properly thanked and compensated for all his pains and trouble. Under severe +compulsion from the Badger, even the barge-woman was, with some trouble, sought +out and the value of her horse discreetly made good to her; though Toad kicked +terribly at this, holding himself to be an instrument of Fate, sent to punish +fat women with mottled arms who couldn’t tell a real gentleman when they +saw one. The amount involved, it was true, was not very burdensome, the +gipsy’s valuation being admitted by local assessors to be approximately +correct. +</p> + +<p> +Sometimes, in the course of long summer evenings, the friends would take a +stroll together in the Wild Wood, now successfully tamed so far as they were +concerned; and it was pleasing to see how respectfully they were greeted by the +inhabitants, and how the mother-weasels would bring their young ones to the +mouths of their holes, and say, pointing, “Look, baby! There goes the +great Mr. Toad! And that’s the gallant Water Rat, a terrible fighter, +walking along o’ him! And yonder comes the famous Mr. Mole, of whom you +so often have heard your father tell!” But when their infants were +fractious and quite beyond control, they would quiet them by telling how, if +they didn’t hush them and not fret them, the terrible grey 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. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block;margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS ***</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This file should be named 289-h.htm or 289-h.zip</div> +<div style='display:block;margin:1em 0;'>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in https://www.gutenberg.org/2/8/289/</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + + +Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + +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 + + + + + +THE RIVER BANK + +The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring- +cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; +then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of +whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes +of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary +arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below +and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house +with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small +wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, +said `Bother!' and `O blow!' and also `Hang spring-cleaning!' +and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his +coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he +made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to +the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences +are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and +scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled +and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws +and muttering to himself, `Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, +pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself +rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow. + +`This is fine!' he said to himself. `This is better than +whitewashing!' The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes +caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the +cellarage he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell +on his dulled hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his +four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring +without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till +he reached the hedge on the further side. + +`Hold up!' said an elderly rabbit at the gap. `Sixpence for the +privilege of passing by the private road!' He was bowled over in +an instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted +along the side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they +peeped hurriedly from their holes to see what the row was about. +`Onion-sauce! Onion-sauce!' he remarked jeeringly, and was gone +before they could think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then +they all started grumbling at each other. `How STUPID you +are! Why didn't you tell him----' `Well, why didn't YOU +say----' `You might have reminded him----' and so on, in the +usual way; but, of course, it was then much too late, as is +always the case. + +It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through +the meadows he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the +copses, finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, +leaves thrusting--everything happy, and progressive, and +occupied. And instead of having an uneasy conscience pricking +him and whispering `whitewash!' he somehow could only feel how +jolly it was to be the only idle dog among all these busy +citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday is perhaps +not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other +fellows busy working. + +He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered +aimlessly along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed +river. Never in his life had he seen a river before--this sleek, +sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping +things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling +itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were +caught and held again. All was a-shake and a-shiver--glints and +gleams and sparkles, rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. The +Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the +river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a +man who holds one 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 bijo 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 +Up tails all! + + +`I don't know that I think so VERY much of that little song, +Rat,' observed the Mole cautiously. He was no poet himself +and didn't care who knew it; and he had a candid nature. + +`Nor don't the ducks neither,' replied the Rat cheerfully. `They +say, "WHY can't fellows be allowed to do what they like +WHEN they like and AS they like, instead of other fellows +sitting on banks and watching them all the time and making +remarks and poetry and things about them? What NONSENSE it +all is!" That's what the ducks say.' + +`So it is, so it is,' said the Mole, with great heartiness. + +`No, it isn't!' cried the Rat indignantly. + +`Well then, it isn't, it isn't,' replied the Mole soothingly. +`But what I wanted to ask you was, won't you take me to call on +Mr. Toad? I've heard so much about him, and I do so want to make +his acquaintance.' + +`Why, certainly,' said the good-natured Rat, jumping to his feet +and dismissing poetry from his mind for the day. `Get the boat +out, and we'll paddle up there at once. It's never the wrong +time to call on Toad. Early or late he's always the same fellow. +Always good-tempered, always glad to see you, always sorry when +you go!' + +`He must be a very nice animal,' observed the Mole, as he got +into the boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself +comfortably in the stern. + +`He is indeed the best of animals,' replied Rat. `So simple, so +good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's not very +clever--we can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both +boastful and conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has +Toady.' + +Rounding a bend in the river, they came in sight of a handsome, +dignified old house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns +reaching down to the water's edge. + +`There's Toad Hall,' said the Rat; `and that creek on the left, +where the notice-board says, "Private. No landing allowed," +leads to his boat-house, where we'll leave the boat. The stables +are over there to the right. That's the banqueting-hall you're +looking at now--very old, that is. Toad is rather rich, you +know, and this is really one of the nicest houses in these parts, +though we never admit as much to Toad.' + +They glided up the creek, and the Mole slipped 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 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 I 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 impa-tiently. + +`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 shuflling 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 wail 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 fulness of +incredible colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event, he +looked in the very eyes of the Friend and Helper; saw the +backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the growing +daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes that +were looking down on them 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 afterdinner +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 waiscoat 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 penalities 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 go 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. + + + +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 youself? 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 mightly, 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 bowling 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 The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Wind in the Willows + + diff --git a/old/wwill10.zip b/old/wwill10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ceac537 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wwill10.zip diff --git a/old/wwill11.txt b/old/wwill11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b80418e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wwill11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6459 @@ +****The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Wind in the Willows***** + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + + +Scanned with OmniPage Professional OCR software +donated by Caere Corporation, 1-800-535-7226. +Contact Mike Lough <Mikel@caere.com> + + +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 + + + + + +THE RIVER BANK + +The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning +his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on +ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; +till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all +over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was +moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, +penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of +divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he +suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'O +blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house +without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was +calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which +answered in his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals +whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and +scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and +scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little +paws and muttering to himself, 'Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, +pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself +rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow. + +'This is fine!' he said to himself. 'This is better than +whitewashing!' The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes +caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he +had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled +hearing almost like a shout. Jumping off all his four legs at once, +in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, +he pursued his way across the meadow till he reached the hedge on the +further side. + +'Hold up!' said an elderly rabbit at the gap. 'Sixpence for the +privilege of passing by the private road!' He was bowled over in an +instant by the impatient and contemptuous Mole, who trotted along the +side of the hedge chaffing the other rabbits as they peeped hurriedly +from their holes to see what the row was about. 'Onion-sauce! +Onion-sauce!' he remarked jeeringly, and was gone before they could +think of a thoroughly satisfactory reply. Then they all started +grumbling at each other. 'How STUPID you are! Why didn't you tell +him----' 'Well, why didn't YOU say----' 'You might have reminded him +----' and so on, in the usual way; but, of course, it was then much too +late, as is always the case. + +It all seemed too good to be true. Hither and thither through the +meadows he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, +finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting-- +everything happy, and progressive, and occupied. And instead of +having an uneasy conscience pricking him and whispering 'whitewash!' +he somehow could only feel how jolly it was to be the only idle dog +among all these busy citizens. After all, the best part of a holiday +is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other +fellows busy working. + +He thought his happiness was complete when, as he meandered aimlessly +along, suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river. Never in +his life had he seen a river before--this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied +animal, chasing and chuckling, gripping things with a gurgle and +leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that +shook themselves free, and were caught and held again. All was +a-shake and a-shiver--glints and gleams and sparkles, rustle and +swirl, chatter and bubble. The Mole was bewitched, entranced, +fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when +very small, by the side of a man who holds one 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 +Up tails all! + + +'I don't know that I think so VERY much of that little song, Rat,' +observed the Mole cautiously. He was no poet himself and didn't care +who knew it; and he had a candid nature. + +'Nor don't the ducks neither,' replied the Rat cheerfully. 'They say, +"WHY can't fellows be allowed to do what they like WHEN they like and +AS they like, instead of other fellows sitting on banks and watching +them all the time and making remarks and poetry and things about them? +What NONSENSE it all is!" That's what the ducks say.' + +'So it is, so it is,' said the Mole, with great heartiness. + +'No, it isn't!' cried the Rat indignantly. + +'Well then, it isn't, it isn't,' replied the Mole soothingly. 'But +what I wanted to ask you was, won't you take me to call on Mr. Toad? +I've heard so much about him, and I do so want to make his +acquaintance.' + +'Why, certainly,' said the good-natured Rat, jumping to his feet and +dismissing poetry from his mind for the day. 'Get the boat out, and +we'll paddle up there at once. It's never the wrong time to call on +Toad. Early or late he's always the same fellow. Always +good-tempered, always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!' + +'He must be a very nice animal,' observed the Mole, as he got into the +boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably in +the stern. + +'He is indeed the best of animals,' replied Rat. 'So simple, so +good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's not very clever--we +can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both boastful and +conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady.' + +Rounding a bend in the river, they came in sight of a handsome, +dignified old house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns +reaching down to the water's edge. + +'There's Toad Hall,' said the Rat; 'and that creek on the left, where +the notice-board says, "Private. No landing allowed," leads to his +boat-house, where we'll leave the boat. The stables are over there to +the right. That's the banqueting-hall you're looking at now--very +old, that is. Toad is rather rich, you know, and this is really one +of the nicest houses in these parts, though we never admit as much to +Toad.' + +They glided up the creek, and the Mole slipped 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 +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 wail 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 go 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. + + + +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 bowling 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 The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Wind in the Willows + + diff --git a/old/wwill11.zip b/old/wwill11.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a055c7c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/wwill11.zip |
