nd the train shot into the tunnel, and the
engine rushed and roared and rattled, till at last they shot out at the
other end into fresh air and the peaceful moonlight, and saw the wood
lying dark and helpful upon either side of the line. The driver shut off
steam and put on brakes, the Toad got down on the step, and as the train
slowed down to almost a walking pace he heard the driver call out, 'Now,
jump!'

Toad jumped, rolled down a short embankment, picked himself up unhurt,
scrambled into the wood and hid.

Peeping out, he saw his train get up speed again and disappear at a
great pace. Then out of the tunnel burst the pursuing engine, roaring
and whistling, her motley crew waving their various weapons and
shouting, 'Stop! stop! stop!' When they were past, the Toad had a hearty
laugh--for the first time since he was thrown into prison.

But he soon stopped laughing when he came to consider that it was now
very late and dark and cold, and he was in an unknown wood, with no
money and no chance of supper, and still far from friends and home; and
the dead silence of everything, after the roar and rattle of the train,
was something of a shock. He dared not leave the shelter of the trees,
so he struck into the wood, with the idea of leaving the railway as far
as possible behind him.

After so many weeks within walls, he found the wood strange and
unfriendly and inclined, he thought, to make fun of him. Night-jars,
sounding their mechanical rattle, made him think that the wood was full
of searching warders, closing in on him. An owl, swooping noiselessly
towards him, brushed his shoulder with its wing, making him jump with
the horrid certainty that it was a hand; then flitted off, moth-like,
laughing its low ho! ho! ho; which Toad thought in very poor taste. Once
he met a fox, who stopped, looked him up and down in a sarcastic sort
of way, and said, 'Hullo, washerwoman! Half a pair of socks and a
pillow-case short this week! Mind it doesn't occur again!' and swaggered
off, sniggering. Toad looked about for a stone to throw at him, but
could not succeed in finding one, which vexed him more than anything.
At last, cold, hungry, and tired out, he sought the shelter of a hollow
tree, where with branches and dead leaves he made himself as comfortable
a bed as he could, and slept soundly till the morning.

IX. WAYFARERS ALL

The Water Rat was restless, and he did not exactly know why. To all
appearance the summer's p