hey 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