h strict
orders that you were to be fetched up here at once, whatever you were
doing. I want you badly--both of you. Now what will you take? Come
inside and have something! You don't know how lucky it is, your
turning up just now!"

"Let's sit quiet a bit, Toady!" said the Rat, throwing himself into an
easy chair, while the Mole took another by the side of him and made
some civil remark about Toad's "delightful residence."

"Finest house on the whole river," cried Toad boisterously. "Or
anywhere else, for that matter," he could not help adding.

Here the Rat nudged the Mole. Unfortunately the Toad saw him do it, and
turned very red. There was a moment's painful silence. Then Toad burst
out laughing. "All right, Ratty," he said. "It's only my way, you know.
And it's not such a very bad house, is it? You know, you rather like it
yourself. Now, look here. Let's be sensible. You are the very animals I
wanted. You've got to help me. It's most important!"

"It's about your rowing, I suppose," said the Rat, with an innocent
air. "You're getting on fairly well, though you splash a good bit
still. With a great deal of patience and any quantity of coaching, you
may--"

"O, pooh! boating!" interrupted the Toad, in great disgust. "Silly
boyish amusement. I've given that up _long_ ago. Sheer waste of time,
that's what it is. It makes me downright sorry to see you fellows, who
ought to know better, spending all your energies in that aimless manner.
No, I've discovered the real thing, the only genuine occupation for a
lifetime. I propose to devote the remainder of mine to it, and can only
regret the wasted years that lie behind me, squandered in trivialities.
Come with me, dear Ratty, and your amiable friend also, if he will be so
very good, just as far as the stable-yard, and you shall see what you
shall see!"

He led the way to the stable-yard accordingly, the Rat following with
a most mistrustful expression; and there, drawn out of the coach-house
into the open, they saw a gipsy caravan, shining with newness, painted
a canary-yellow picked out with green, and red wheels.

"There you are!" cried the Toad, straddling and expanding himself.
"There's real life for you, embodied in that little cart. The open
road, the dusty highway, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the
rolling downs! Camps, villages, towns, cities! Here to-day, up and off
to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement! The
whole world be