, and till your nerves have
recovered their shock.'

'Police-station! Complaint!'murmured Toad dreamily. 'Me COMPLAIN of that
beautiful, that heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me! MEND THE
CART! I've done with carts for ever. I never want to see the cart, or to
hear of it, again. O, Ratty! You can't think how obliged I am to you for
consenting to come on this trip! I wouldn't have gone without you,
and then I might never have seen that--that swan, that sunbeam, that
thunderbolt! I might never have heard that entrancing sound, or smelt
that bewitching smell! I owe it all to you, my best of friends!'

The Rat turned from him in despair. 'You see what it is?' he said to the
Mole, addressing him across Toad's head: 'He's quite hopeless. I give
it up--when we get to the town we'll go to the railway station, and
with luck we may pick up a train there that'll get us back to riverbank
to-night. And if ever you catch me going a-pleasuring with this
provoking animal again!'

He snorted, and during the rest of that weary trudge addressed his
remarks exclusively to Mole.

On reaching the town they went straight to the station and deposited
Toad in the second-class waiting-room, giving a porter twopence to keep
a strict eye on him. They then left the horse at an inn stable, and gave
what directions they could about the cart and its contents. Eventually,
a slow train having landed them at a station not very far from Toad
Hall, they escorted the spell-bound, sleep-walking Toad to his door, put
him inside it, and instructed his housekeeper to feed him, undress him,
and put him to bed. Then they got out their boat from the boat-house,
sculled down the river home, and at a very late hour sat down to
supper in their own cosy riverside parlour, to the Rat's great joy and
contentment.

The following evening the Mole, who had risen late and taken things very
easy all day, was sitting on the bank fishing, when the Rat, who had
been looking up his friends and gossiping, came strolling along to
find him. 'Heard the news?' he said. 'There's nothing else being talked
about, all along the river bank. Toad went up to Town by an early train
this morning. And he has ordered a large and very expensive motor-car.'

III. THE WILD WOOD

The Mole had long wanted to make the acquaintance of the Badger. He
seemed, by all accounts, to be such an important personage and, though
rarely visible, to make his unseen influence felt by everybod