the Water Rat 8

"Come on!" he said. "We shall just have to walk it" 50

In panic, he began to run 64

Through the Wild Wood and the snow 94

Toad was a helpless prisoner in the remotest dungeon 164

He lay prostrate in his misery on the floor 196

"It's a hard life, by all accounts," murmured the Rat 240

Dwelling chiefly on his own cleverness, and presence
of mind in emergencies 292

The Badger said, "Now then, follow me!" 326

I

THE RIVER BANK

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning
his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders
and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he
had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over
his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in
the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even
his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent
and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down
his brush on the floor, said, "Bother!" and "O blow!" and also "Hang
spring-cleaning!" and bolted out of the house without even waiting to
put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and
he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the
gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer
to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and
scrooged, and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and
scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself,
"Up we go! Up we go!" till at last, pop! his snout came out into the
sunlight and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great
meadow.

"This is fine!" he said to himself. "This is better than whitewashing!"
The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated
brow, and after the seclusion of the cellarage he had lived in so long
the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.
Jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the
delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the
meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side.

"Hold up!" said an elder