lly asleep. All are
weather-bound, more or less; and all are resting from arduous days and
nights, during which every muscle in them has been severely tested,
and every energy kept at full stretch.

"Very well then!" continued the Badger. "_But_, when once the year has
really turned, and the nights are shorter, and half-way through them
one rouses and feels fidgety and wanting to be up and doing by
sunrise, if not before--_you_ know!--"

Both animals nodded gravely. _They_ knew!

"Well, _then_," went on the Badger, "we--that is, you and me and our
friend the Mole here--we'll take Toad seriously in hand. We'll stand
no nonsense whatever. We'll bring him back to reason, by force if need
be. We'll _make_ him be a sensible Toad. We'll--you're asleep, Rat!"

"Not me!" said the Rat, waking up with a jerk.

"He's been asleep two or three times since supper," said the Mole,
laughing. He himself was feeling quite wakeful and even lively, though
he didn't know why. The reason was, of course, that he being naturally
an underground animal by birth and breeding, the situation of
Badger's house exactly suited him and made him feel at home; while the
Rat, who slept every night in a bedroom the windows of which opened on
a breezy river, naturally felt the atmosphere still and oppressive.

"Well, it's time we were all in bed," said the Badger, getting up and
fetching flat candlesticks. "Come along, you two, and I'll show you
your quarters. And take your time to-morrow morning--breakfast at any
hour you please!"

He conducted the two animals to a long room that seemed half
bedchamber and half loft. The Badger's winter stores, which indeed
were visible everywhere, took up half the room--piles of apples,
turnips, and potatoes, baskets full of nuts, and jars of honey; but
the two little white beds on the remainder of the floor looked soft
and inviting, and the linen on them, though coarse, was clean and
smelt beautifully of lavender; and the Mole and the Water Rat, shaking
off their garments in some thirty seconds, tumbled in between the
sheets in great joy and contentment.

In accordance with the kindly Badger's injunctions, the two tired
animals came down to breakfast very late next morning, and found a
bright fire burning in the kitchen, and two young hedgehogs sitting on
a bench at the table, eating oatmeal porridge out of wooden bowls. The
hedgehogs dropped their spoons, rose to their feet, and ducked their
heads respectfully