Knjigice
Fairy tale · Animal stories
The Wind in the Willows
The story of four river friends and the irrepressible Toad
Also in: Veter v vrbah (Slovenian) · Vietor vo vŕbach (Slovak)
Spring was knocking at the door, and deep underground the Mole was whitewashing and sweeping his little house. All at once he flung his brush into a corner. "Enough cleaning!" he cried. He scratched and dug his way upward until his snout popped out into warm sunshine. Before him glittered the river, lovelier than anything he had ever seen. "Oh my," he sighed, "how much of the world I have missed!"
1
From the river, Ratty waved from his little blue boat. "Hop in, my friend!" For the first time in his life the Mole stepped into a boat, and Ratty rowed off. "Believe me," he said, "there is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." On the bank they spread a picnic: bread, cheese, pickles and lemonade. The Mole was too happy to say a word.
2
All summer long the two friends lived on the river. The Mole learned to row, to swim, and to listen to what the reeds were whispering. "What lies far over there?" he asked one day. "The Wide World," said Ratty. "We don't go there. And you see that dark wood? That is the Wild Wood — never go in alone, for cunning weasels and stoats live there."
3
In winter, curiosity got the better of the Mole. He slipped into the Wild Wood alone — but twigs crackled among the trees and small eyes blinked behind the trunks. Lost, he curled up under a root. Luckily Ratty found him by his tracks in the snow. Trudging through the storm, the Mole's paw knocked against something hard. A door! And on it a sign: Mr Badger.
4
The Badger let them into his warm underground home. In the great kitchen a fire crackled, hams hung from the ceiling, and a pot of soup steamed on the table. "You are safe with me," rumbled the Badger. "Snow, storm, weasels — all of that stays outside." The Mole and Ratty ate their fill, then fell sweetly asleep in the deep armchairs.
5
In spring they visited Toad at his splendid Toad Hall. Toad had just fallen in love with travelling: he had bought a canary-yellow caravan and invited his friends along. But look — down the road roared a gleaming red motor car, poop-poop!, scaring the horse in a cloud of dust. Toad sat in the middle of the road with faraway eyes. "Poop-poop," he whispered. "That is the only life worth living!"
6
Toad bought a motor car. Then another. And another — for sooner or later he drove every one into a ditch. He drove too fast, honked too long and laughed too loudly. His friends locked him in his room as a punishment, but Toad knotted his sheets together, climbed out of the window and was gone. "Nobody stops the famous Toad!" he sang down the road.
7
Outside an inn stood somebody else's red motor car. "I'll just have a look at it," Toad told himself. Then he was just sitting in it. Then he was just driving away — poop-poop! Of course they caught him that very day. The judge frowned sternly: "To prison with this impudent Toad!" And so the most famous Toad of all time sat in a cold stone cell, sighing bitterly.
8
The jailer's daughter took pity on poor Toad and lent him the clothes of her aunt the washerwoman: headscarf, skirt and apron. So disguised, he waddled past every guard and straight out through the great gate! He travelled home by barge — but when the barge-woman found out this washerwoman couldn't wash so much as a sock, she tipped him into the river. Toad swam to the bank, giggling: free!
9
Bad news was waiting at home. "The weasels and stoats from the Wild Wood have taken your Hall!" said Ratty. "They are eating your food, sleeping in your beds, and they let nobody near." Toad turned even greener than usual with rage. But the Badger smiled a mysterious smile: "Don't worry, friends. I know a way that nobody else knows."
10
"A secret tunnel!" whispered the Badger. "It starts by the river and comes up right under the Hall's pantry." That night the four friends went down into the dark passage with sticks and a lantern. The Badger first, then Ratty, then Toad — trembling like a leaf — and the Mole at the back. Overhead they could already hear the weasels stamping and screeching.
11
The Badger flung open the trapdoor and the four friends burst into the hall, right in the middle of the weasels' party. "For Toad Hall!" They swung their sticks, tipped over tables and shouted so terribly that they seemed a hundred strong. The weasels dropped their plates in fright and fled through every window and every door. In five minutes the Hall was Toad's again.
12
The next evening there was a grand banquet at the Hall. Everyone expected Toad to sing his own praises all night — but Toad walked quietly among the guests, telling each one: "Thank you. I could never have done it without my friends." The Badger, Ratty and the Mole blinked in astonishment. Toad did sing one little song about his glory — alone, at night, before his mirror.
13
Then the quiet days came back. The friends spent their evenings on the river: Ratty rowed, the Mole purred with happiness, Toad for once sat still, and the Badger nodded gravely to the fish. The wind combed the willows and hummed its old song. For there is nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats — together with friends.
14The End
