Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. Part 2
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Day 2
When at last they could eat no more, the Mole lay back and watched the river lazily. After a while he sat up.
‘I can see a long line of bubbles in the water,’ he said. ‘I wonder what it is.’
‘Bubbles? Oho!’ said the Rat, and he called out across the river in a friendly kind of way.
The bubbles stopped and turned. Soon a wet whiskery nose appeared above the edge of the bank, and the Otter pulled himself out and shook the water from his coat.
‘A lunch party!’ he said, going straight towards the food. ‘Why didn’t you invite me, Ratty?’
‘We didn’t plan it,’ explained the Rat. ‘We only decided to come this morning. Oh, and this is my friend, Mr Mole.’
‘Happy to meet you,’ said the Otter, and the two animals were friends at once.
‘All the world seems to be out on the river today,’ said the Otter while he ate. ‘I came up this side river to try and get a moment’s peace, and then I find you fellows having a lunch party!’
Suddenly there was a noise in the thick bushes behind them, and a big black and white head looked out at them.
‘Come on, old Badger!’ shouted the Rat.
The Badger came forward a few steps, then stopped. ‘Hmm! A crowd!’ he said crossly, and turned his back and disappeared again into the bushes.
‘What a pity!’ said the Rat. ‘Dear old Badger! He’s a good fellow, but he does hate a crowd. We won’t see him again today. But tell us, who’s out on the river?’
‘Toad’s out, for one,’ replied the Otter. ‘In his shiny new boat. He’s got new boating clothes, and everything!’
The Rat and the Otter looked at each other and laughed.
‘Toad’s always trying something new,’ the Rat explained to the Mole. ‘But he always gets bored so quickly. Last year it was a house-boat, and he wanted to spend the rest of his life living on the river. This year it’s rowing-boats.’
‘He’s a nice fellow, of course,’ said the Otter. ‘But he never learns from his mistakes!’
From where they sat they could see a bit of the big river. And just then they saw a rowing-boat going past, and in it a short fat animal, rowing very hard and very badly.
‘There’s Toad going past now,’ said the Rat. ‘Look at him! He’ll turn that boat over in a minute.’
‘Of course he will,’ laughed the Otter. Toad had now disappeared up river, and the Otter went on, ‘Did I ever tell you that story about Toad and the …’
There was a sudden movement in the water near the bank. Something silvery shone for a second, then it was gone. And so was the Otter. The Mole looked down. The Otter’s voice was still in his ears, but the Otter had disappeared.
There was just a long line of bubbles in the river.
The Rat sang a little song to himself, and the Mole remembered that it was not at all polite, in the animal world, to say anything if your friends disappeared at any moment, for any reason.
‘Well, well,’ said the Rat. ‘I suppose we should think about getting home.’
The Mole packed the things away in the lunch basket, and soon the Rat began to row gently homewards while the afternoon sun went down behind the trees. The Rat was dreaming quietly to himself, but the Mole was very full of lunch and the excitements of the day. He began to think that he knew everything about boats now.
And after a while he said, ‘Ratty! Please, I want to row!’
The Rat shook his head with a smile. ‘Not yet, my young friend,’ he said. ‘Wait until you’ve had a few lessons. It’s not as easy as it looks.’
The Mole was quiet for a minute or two. But he wanted to row very much indeed. He was sure that he could row as well as Rat. Then, before the Rat could stop him, he jumped up, and pulled the oars out of the surprised Rat’s hands. The Rat fell backwards off his seat, calling out, ‘Stop it, you silly fellow! You’ll have us in the river!’
The Mole made a great dig at the water with the oars, but the oars never touched the water at all. The Mole’s legs flew up above his head, and he found himself lying on top of the Rat in the bottom of the boat. Frightened, he tried to get up, got hold of the side of the boat, and the next moment – splash!
Over went the boat, and the Mole and the Rat and the lunch basket were all in the water.
It was the Rat, of course, who pulled the Mole out of the water, who turned the boat the right way up, who found the oars, who got the lunch basket from the bottom of the river. And he laughed and laughed.
When all was ready again, the unhappy Mole sat in the boat, very wet and very miserable. As they left, he said in a quiet voice, ‘Ratty, my dear friend! I have been so silly and so ungrateful. I really am very sorry indeed.’
‘That’s all right!’ replied the Rat kindly. ‘I’m always in and out of the water myself, so don’t worry about it. But I really think you should come and stay with me for a while. You’ll be very comfortable, and I’ll teach you to row and to swim. Soon you’ll be as good a boatman as any of us.’
The Mole was almost too happy to speak and could find no words to thank his friend.
When they got home, they had a good hot supper in front of a bright fire while the Rat told exciting stories of life on the river. Then he took the Mole upstairs to the best bedroom, and soon the Mole was lying warm and comfortable, listening to the sound of his new friend the River running past his bedroom window.
That was the first of many wonderful days for the Mole, as the spring turned slowly into a golden summer. He learnt to swim and to row, and he learnt to love the sound of the wind when it went whispering its secrets through the trees and the plants by the river.