d the Otter cheerfully.
'They were all in a great state of alarm along River Bank when I arrived
this morning. Rat never been home all night--nor Mole either--something
dreadful must have happened, they said; and the snow had covered up all
your tracks, of course. But I knew that when people were in any fix they
mostly went to Badger, or else Badger got to know of it somehow, so I
came straight off here, through the Wild Wood and the snow! My! it was
fine, coming through the snow as the red sun was rising and showing
against the black tree-trunks! As you went along in the stillness, every
now and then masses of snow slid off the branches suddenly with a flop!
making you jump and run for cover. Snow-castles and snow-caverns had
sprung up out of nowhere in the night--and snow bridges, terraces,
ramparts--I could have stayed and played with them for hours. Here and
there great branches had been torn away by the sheer weight of the snow,
and robins perched and hopped on them in their perky conceited way, just
as if they had done it themselves. A ragged string of wild geese passed
overhead, high on the grey sky, and a few rooks whirled over the trees,
inspected, and flapped off homewards with a disgusted expression; but I
met no sensible being to ask the news of. About halfway across I came on
a rabbit sitting on a stump, cleaning his silly face with his paws. He
was a pretty scared animal when I crept up behind him and placed a heavy
forepaw on his shoulder. I had to cuff his head once or twice to get any
sense out of it at all. At last I managed to extract from him that Mole
had been seen in the Wild Wood last night by one of them. It was the
talk of the burrows, he said, how Mole, Mr. Rat's particular friend,
was in a bad fix; how he had lost his way, and "They" were up and out
hunting, and were chivvying him round and round. "Then why didn't any of
you DO something?" I asked. "You mayn't be blest with brains, but there
are hundreds and hundreds of you, big, stout fellows, as fat as butter,
and your burrows running in all directions, and you could have taken
him in and made him safe and comfortable, or tried to, at all events."
"What, US?" he merely said: "DO something? us rabbits?" So I cuffed him
again and left him. There was nothing else to be done. At any rate, I
had learnt something; and if I had had the luck to meet any of "Them"
I'd have learnt something more--or THEY would.'

'Weren't you at all--er--nervous?' aske