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