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