The Wind in the Willows – Part 12
Watch on KineScope.
His next adventure was with a barge on a canal. He had walked out of the wood and found a road, which after a while began to run along the side of a canal. Toad liked the idea of getting a free ride, so when he saw the barge coming along the canal, he quickly jumped from the canal bank on to the end of the barge. Then the barge-woman turned and saw him. Toad was ready with his story.
‘I’m a poor unhappy washerwoman,’ he began.
But the barge-woman, Toad quickly discovered, was a most unpleasant person. She came up to Toad and looked hard at his face under his bonnet. ‘Washerwoman indeed! You’re a fat lazy little toad, that’s what you are!’ she said rudely. ‘Get off my barge!’ And she actually pushed Toad off the barge into the canal.
Toad swam to the bank and climbed out. He was wildly angry. How could he punish this rude and terrible person? Then he saw the horse which was pulling the barge, and an idea came to him.
Two minutes later he was riding the horse across the fields away from the canal. Behind him, the barge-woman was shouting and screaming angrily. Toad rode on, laughing at his own great cleverness.
Later that morning he met a man with a caravan, who was cooking over a fire in a field. Toad sold him the barge-woman’s horse for a good price and a hot breakfast. He ate and ate until he was almost too full to move. But he still had a long way to go to get home, so he got up and went on. The sun was shining brightly, his clothes were dry again, and the new coins made a pleasant sound in his pocket. He took off the bonnet, which was too hot, and began to think about all his adventures and escapes.
‘Ho ho!’ he said to himself. ‘What a clever Toad I am! How brave! How intelligent! No problem is too difficult for Toad!’ He began to sing a song about himself as he walked along, although there was no one to hear it. It was perhaps the most boastful song that any animal ever sang.
If there’s a need the world to save,
Then send for Mr Toad!
There’s none so clever, none so brave,
As famous Mr Toad!
There was a lot more of it, and it got more and more boastful as it went on.
He came to a road and began to walk along it, hoping for another free ride. After a time he saw a small cloud of dust coming up the road behind him, and he heard the noise, that beautiful noise, of a motor-car. He stood in the middle of the road and when the car saw him, it began to slow down.
And then a terrible thing happened. Toad recognized the car and the people in it. And what is worse, the people recognized Toad.
‘It’s the car thief!’ they shouted. ‘The criminal who has escaped from prison! Stop him! Catch him!’
Toad turned and ran. He picked up his skirts and ran faster than he had ever run in his life. But the people from the car were now running after him, shouting and screaming at him to stop. They chased him through a wood, across fields, up a hill, and down into a valley. Once Toad looked back and saw that two policemen had joined the chase. He tried to run even faster, but he was a fat animal and his legs were short, and the people were catching up with him.
On and on he ran. He was now among tall trees, and again he looked behind him. At that moment the land disappeared beneath his feet, and, splash! He found himself in deep water, cold water, fast-moving water. In his terror, he had run straight into a river!
And away the river took him, pushing him along, first on one side, then on the other. The cotton dress tied itself round his legs, trying to pull him under, and Toad had to fight to keep his head above water.
‘Oh my!’ cried poor Toad. ‘I’ll never look at another motor-car for the rest of my life!’
At last he managed to catch hold of some water plants by the river bank. He held on, too tired to pull himself out of the water. Then he saw something bright in a dark hole in the bank. It moved towards him, and became a face, brown and small, with whiskers.
It was the Water Rat!