The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Read Free Book Online Page A

pace or two; then grunted, ‘H’m! Company,’ and turned his back and disappeared from view.
    ‘That’s just the sort of fellow he is!’ observed the disappointed Rat. ‘Simply hates Society! Now we shan’t see any more of him today. Well, tell us who’s out on the .river?’
    ‘Toad’s out, for one,’ replied the Otter. ‘In his brand-new wager-boat; i new togs, new everything!’
    The two animals looked at each other and laughed.
    ‘Once, it was nothing but sailing,’ said the Rat. ‘Then he tired of that and took to punting. j Nothing would please him but to punt all day and every day, and a nice mess he made of it. Last year it was house-boating, and we all had to go and stay with him in his house-boat, and pretend we liked it. He was going to spend the rest of his life in a house-boat. It’s all the same, whatever he takes up; he gets tired of it, and starts on something fresh.’
    ‘Such a good fellow, too,’ remarked the Otter reflectively. ‘But no stability—especially in a boat!’
    From where they sat they could get a glimpse of the main stream across the island that separated them; and just then a wager-boat flashed into view, the rower—a short, stout figure—splashing badly and rolling a good deal, but working his hardest. The Rat stood up and hailed him, but Toad—for it was he—shook his head and settled sternly to his work.
    ‘He’ll be out of the boat in a minute if he rolls like that,’ said the Rat, sitting down again.
    ‘Of course he will,’ chuckled the Otter. ‘Did I ever tell you that good story about Toad and the lock-keeper? It happened this way. Toad...’
    An errant May-fly k swerved unsteadily athwart the current in the intoxicated fashion affected by young bloods of May-flies seeing life. A swirl of water and a ‘cloop!’ and the May-fly was visible no more.
    Neither was the Otter.
    The Mole looked down. The voice was still in his ears, but the turf whereon he had sprawled was clearly vacant. Not an Otter to be seen, as far as the distant horizon.
    But again there was a streak of bubbles on the surface of the river.
    The Rat hummed a tune, and the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette forbade any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one’s friends at any moment, for any reason or no reason whatever.
    ‘Well, well,’ said the Rat. ‘I suppose we ought to be moving. I wonder which of us had better pack the luncheon-basket?’ He did not speak as if he was frightfully eager for the treat.
    ‘O, please let me,’ said the Mole. So, of course, the Rat let him.
    Packing the basket was not quite such pleasant work as unpacking the basket. It never is. But the Mole was bent on enjoying everything, and although just when he had got the basket packed and strapped up tightly he saw a plate staring up at him from the grass, and when the job had been done again the Rat pointed out a fork which anybody ought to have seen, and last of all, behold! the mustard-pot, which he had been sitting on without knowing it—still, somehow, the thing got finished at last, without much loss of temper.
    The afternoon sun was getting low as the Rat sculled gently homewards in a dreamy mood, murmuring poetry-things over to himself, and not paying much attention to Mole. But the Mole was very full of lunch, and self-satisfaction, and pride, and already quite at home in a boat (so he thought) and was getting a bit restless besides : and presently he said, ‘Ratty! Please, I want to row, now!’
    The Rat shook his head with a smile. ‘Not yet, my young friend,’ he said—‘wait till you’ve had a few lessons. It’s not so easy as it looks.’
    The Mole was quiet for a minute or two. But he began to feel more and more jealous of Rat, sculling so strongly and so easily along, and his pride began to whisper that he could do it every bit as well. He jumped up and seized the sculls, so suddenly, that the Rat, who was gazing out over the water and saying more poetry-things to