rs, the yearnings, the old cravings that
rose up and beset him and took possession of him entirely.

"It is fate!" he said to himself. "Why strive? why struggle?" and he
turned to the driver at his side.

"Please, Sir," he said, "I wish you would kindly let me try and drive
the car for a little. I've been watching you carefully, and it looks
so easy and so interesting, and I should like to be able to tell my
friends that once I had driven a motor-car!"

The driver laughed at the proposal, so heartily that the gentleman
inquired what the matter was. When he heard, he said, to Toad's
delight, "Bravo, ma'am! I like your spirit. Let her have a try, and
look after her. She won't do any harm."

Toad eagerly scrambled into the seat vacated by the driver, took the
steering-wheel in his hands, listened with affected humility to the
instructions given him, and set the car in motion, but very slowly and
carefully at first, for he was determined to be prudent.

The gentlemen behind clapped their hands and applauded, and Toad heard
them saying, "How well she does it! Fancy a washerwoman driving a car
as well as that, the first time!"

Toad went a little faster; then faster still, and faster.

He heard the gentlemen call out warningly, "Be careful, washerwoman!"
And this annoyed him, and he began to lose his head.

The driver tried to interfere, but he pinned him down in his seat with
one elbow, and put on full speed. The rush of air in his face, the hum
of the engines, and the light jump of the car beneath him intoxicated
his weak brain. "Washerwoman, indeed!" he shouted recklessly. "Ho! ho!
I am the Toad, the motor-car snatcher, the prison-breaker, the Toad
who always escapes! Sit still, and you shall know what driving really
is, for you are in the hands of the famous, the skilful, the entirely
fearless Toad!"

With a cry of horror the whole party rose and flung themselves on him.
"Seize him!" they cried, "seize the Toad, the wicked animal who stole
our motor-car! Bind him, chain him, drag him to the nearest police
station! Down with the desperate and dangerous Toad!"

Alas! they should have thought, they ought to have been more prudent,
they should have remembered to stop the motor-car somehow before
playing any pranks of that sort. With a half-turn of the wheel the
Toad sent the car crashing through the low hedge that ran along the
roadside. One mighty bound, a violent shock, and the wheels of the car
were churning up