instead of other fellows sitting on banks and watching them
all the time and making remarks and poetry and things about them? What
NONSENSE it all is!" That's what the ducks say.'

'So it is, so it is,' said the Mole, with great heartiness.

'No, it isn't!' cried the Rat indignantly.

'Well then, it isn't, it isn't,' replied the Mole soothingly. 'But what
I wanted to ask you was, won't 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 slipped 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 rest