Chương Chương 10 · THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD

. 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!