ything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the
off-season of winter. All are sleepy--some actually asleep. All are
weather-bound, more or less; and all are resting from arduous days and
nights, during which every muscle in them has been severely tested, and
every energy kept at full stretch.

'Very well then!' continued the Badger. 'BUT, when once the year has
really turned, and the nights are shorter, and halfway through them one
rouses and feels fidgety and wanting to be up and doing by sunrise, if
not before--YOU know!----'

Both animals nodded gravely. THEY knew!

'Well, THEN,' went on the Badger, 'we--that is, you and me and our
friend the Mole here--we'll take Toad seriously in hand. We'll stand no
nonsense whatever. We'll bring him back to reason, by force if need be.
We'll MAKE him be a sensible Toad. We'll--you're asleep, Rat!'

'Not me!' said the Rat, waking up with a jerk.

'He's been asleep two or three times since supper,' said the Mole,
laughing. He himself was feeling quite wakeful and even lively, though
he didn't know why. The reason was, of course, that he being naturally
an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of Badger's
house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the Rat, who
slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on a breezy
river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

'Well, it's time we were all in bed,' said the Badger, getting up and
fetching flat candlesticks. 'Come along, you two, and I'll show you your
quarters. And take your time tomorrow morning--breakfast at any hour you
please!'

He conducted the two animals to a long room that seemed half bedchamber
and half loft. The Badger's winter stores, which indeed were visible
everywhere, took up half the room--piles of apples, turnips, and
potatoes, baskets full of nuts, and jars of honey; but the two little
white beds on the remainder of the floor looked soft and inviting, and
the linen on them, though coarse, was clean and smelt beautifully of
lavender; and the Mole and the Water Rat, shaking off their garments
in some thirty seconds, tumbled in between the sheets in great joy and
contentment.

In accordance with the kindly Badger's injunctions, the two tired
animals came down to breakfast very late next morning, and found a
bright fire burning in the kitchen, and two young hedgehogs sitting on
a bench at the table, eating oatmeal porridge out of wo