hat really you?"

The Rat crept into the hollow, and there he found the Mole, exhausted
and still trembling. "O Rat!" he cried, "I've been so frightened, you
can't think!"

"O, I quite understand," said the Rat soothingly. "You shouldn't
really have gone and done it, Mole. I did my best to keep you from it.
We river-bankers, we hardly ever come here by ourselves. If we have to
come, we come in couples at least; then we're generally all right.
Besides, there are a hundred things one has to know, which we
understand all about and you don't, as yet. I mean passwords, and
signs, and sayings which have power and effect, and plants you carry
in your pocket, and verses you repeat, and dodges and tricks you
practise; all simple enough when you know them, but they've got to be
known if you're small, or you'll find yourself in trouble. Of course
if you were Badger or Otter, it would be quite another matter."

"Surely the brave Mr. Toad wouldn't mind coming here by himself, would
he?" inquired the Mole.

"Old Toad?" said the Rat, laughing heartily. "He wouldn't show his
face here alone, not for a whole hatful of golden guineas, Toad
wouldn't."

The Mole was greatly cheered by the sound of the Rat's careless
laughter, as well as by the sight of his stick and his gleaming
pistols, and he stopped shivering and began to feel bolder and more
himself again.

"Now then," said the Rat presently, "we really must pull ourselves
together and make a start for home while there's still a little light
left. It will never do to spend the night here, you understand. Too
cold, for one thing."

"Dear Ratty," said the poor Mole, "I'm dreadfully sorry, but I'm
simply dead beat and that's a solid fact. You _must_ let me rest here
a while longer, and get my strength back, if I'm to get home at all."

"O, all right," said the good-natured Rat, "rest away. It's pretty
nearly pitch dark now, anyhow; and there ought to be a bit of a moon
later."

So the Mole got well into the dry leaves and stretched himself out,
and presently dropped off into sleep, though of a broken and troubled
sort; while the Rat covered himself up, too, as best he might, for
warmth, and lay patiently waiting, with a pistol in his paw.

When at last the Mole woke up, much refreshed and in his usual
spirits, the Rat said, "Now then! I'll just take a look outside and
see if everything's quiet, and then we really must be off."

He went to the entrance of their retreat and p