f lobster salad; and in
the pantry they came upon a basketful of French rolls and any quantity
of cheese, butter, and celery. They were just about to sit down when
the Mole clambered in through the window, chuckling, with an armful of
rifles.

"It's all over," he reported. "From what I can make out, as soon as
the stoats, who were very nervous and jumpy already, heard the shrieks
and the yells and the uproar inside the hall, some of them threw down
their rifles and fled. The others stood fast for a bit, but when the
weasels came rushing out upon them they thought they were betrayed;
and the stoats grappled with the weasels, and the weasels fought to
get away, and they wrestled and wriggled and punched each other, and
rolled over and over, till most of 'em rolled into the river! They've
all disappeared by now, one way or another; and I've got their rifles.
So _that's_ all right!"

"Excellent and deserving animal!" said the Badger, his mouth full of
chicken and trifle. "Now, there's just one more thing I want you to
do, Mole, before you sit down to your supper along of us; and I
wouldn't trouble you only I know I can trust you to see a thing done,
and I wish I could say the same of every one I know. I'd send Rat, if
he wasn't a poet. I want you to take those fellows on the floor there
upstairs with you, and have some bedrooms cleaned out and tidied up
and made really comfortable. See that they sweep _under_ the beds, and
put clean sheets and pillow-cases on, and turn down one corner of the
bed-clothes, just as you know it ought to be done; and have a can of
hot water, and clean towels, and fresh cakes of soap, put in each
room. And then you can give them a licking a-piece, if it's any
satisfaction to you, and put them out by the back-door, and we shan't
see any more of _them_, I fancy. And then come along and have some of
this cold tongue. It's first rate. I'm very pleased with you, Mole!"

The good-natured Mole picked up a stick, formed his prisoners up in a
line on the floor, gave them the order "Quick march!" and led his
squad off to the upper floor. After a time, he appeared again,
smiling, and said that every room was ready and as clean as a new pin.
"And I didn't have to lick them, either," he added. "I thought, on the
whole, they had had licking enough for one night, and the weasels,
when I put the point to them, quite agreed with me, and said they
wouldn't think of troubling me. They were very penitent, and sai