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