you take me to call on Mr. Toad? I've
heard so much about him, and I do so want to make his acquaintance."

"Why, certainly," said the good-natured Rat, jumping to his feet and
dismissing poetry from his mind for the day. "Get the boat out, and
we'll paddle up there at once. It's never the wrong time to call on
Toad. Early or late, he's always the same fellow. Always good-tempered,
always glad to see you, always sorry when you go!"

"He must be a very nice animal," observed the Mole, as he got into the
boat and took the sculls, while the Rat settled himself comfortably in
the stern.

"He is indeed the best of animals," replied Rat. "So simple, so
good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's not very clever--we
can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both boastful and
conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady."

Rounding a bend in the river, they came in sight of a handsome,
dignified old house of mellowed red brick, with well-kept lawns
reaching down to the water's edge.

"There's Toad Hall," said the Rat; "and that creek on the left, where
the notice-board says, 'Private. No landing allowed,' leads to his
boat-house, where we'll leave the boat. The stables are over there to
the right. That's the banqueting-hall you're looking at now--very
old, that is. Toad is rather rich, you know, and this is really one of
the nicest houses in these parts, though we never admit as much to
Toad."

They glided up the creek, and the Mole shipped his sculls as they
passed into the shadow of a large boat-house. Here they saw many
handsome boats, slung from the cross-beams or hauled up on a slip, but
none in the water; and the place had an unused and a deserted air.

The Rat looked around him. "I understand," said he. "Boating is played
out. He's tired of it, and done with it. I wonder what new fad he has
taken up now? Come along and let's look him up. We shall hear all
about it quite soon enough."

They disembarked, and strolled across the gay flower-decked lawns in
search of Toad, whom they presently happened upon resting in a wicker
garden-chair, with a pre-occupied expression of face, and a large map
spread out on his knees.

"Hooray!" he cried, jumping up on seeing them, "this is splendid!" He
shook the paws of both of them warmly, never waiting for an introduction
to the Mole. "How _kind_ of you!" he went on, dancing round them. "I was
just going to send a boat down the river for you, Ratty, wit