reviled,
loaded with chains, dragged back again to prison and bread-and-water and
straw; his guards and penalties would be doubled; and O, what sarcastic
remarks the girl would make! What was to be done? He was not swift of
foot; his figure was unfortunately recognisable. Could he not squeeze
under the seat of a carriage? He had seen this method adopted by
schoolboys, when the journey-money provided by thoughtful parents had
been diverted to other and better ends. As he pondered, he found
himself opposite the engine, which was being oiled, wiped, and generally
caressed by its affectionate driver, a burly man with an oil-can in one
hand and a lump of cotton-waste in the other.

'Hullo, mother!' said the engine-driver, 'what's the trouble? You don't
look particularly cheerful.'

'O, sir!' said Toad, crying afresh, 'I am a poor unhappy washerwoman,
and I've lost all my money, and can't pay for a ticket, and I must get
home to-night somehow, and whatever I am to do I don't know. O dear, O
dear!'

'That's a bad business, indeed,' said the engine-driver reflectively.
'Lost your money--and can't get home--and got some kids, too, waiting
for you, I dare say?'

'Any amount of 'em,' sobbed Toad. 'And they'll be hungry--and
playing with matches--and upsetting lamps, the little innocents!--and
quarrelling, and going on generally. O dear, O dear!'

'Well, I'll tell you what I'll do,' said the good engine-driver. 'You're
a washerwoman to your trade, says you. Very well, that's that. And
I'm an engine-driver, as you well may see, and there's no denying it's
terribly dirty work. Uses up a power of shirts, it does, till my missus
is fair tired of washing of 'em. If you'll wash a few shirts for me when
you get home, and send 'em along, I'll give you a ride on my engine.
It's against the Company's regulations, but we're not so very particular
in these out-of-the-way parts.'

The Toad's misery turned into rapture as he eagerly scrambled up into
the cab of the engine. Of course, he had never washed a shirt in his
life, and couldn't if he tried and, anyhow, he wasn't going to begin;
but he thought: 'When I get safely home to Toad Hall, and have money
again, and pockets to put it in, I will send the engine-driver enough to
pay for quite a quantity of washing, and that will be the same thing, or
better.'

The guard waved his welcome flag, the engine-driver whistled in
cheerful response, and the train moved out of the station. As the