The Wind in the Willows

Rat spends the morning with some ducks, friends whom he loves to tease. When floating in the water, they sometimes upend themselves and point their bills down into the river. Rat swims past and tickles them just under their beaks until they right themselves. The ducks tell Rat to stop it, so he sits on the bank and makes up a song about the ducks that begins: “All along the backwater, Through the rushes tall, Ducks are a-dabbling, Up tails all!” (17)

Mole interrupts to ask if Rat will take him to visit Mr. Toad. Rat agrees, and they take the boat upriver to Toad Hall. Rat says Toad is “[s]o simple, so good-natured, and so affectionate,” while at the same time he’s not too smart and can be “boastful” and “conceited” (18).

They arrive at the estate; it’s the nicest one in the area and has an old brick mansion, stables, and a banquet hall. They tie up in the boathouse, which has many fine boats but looks unused. Rat says Toad has lost interest in boats.

They find Toad in a garden, gazing at a map. He’s overjoyed to see them and says he was about to call for them. Mole sits and compliments Toad on his lovely estate; Toad says it’s the best one anywhere. He leads them to the coach house, where a “gipsy caravan,” or house on wheels, waits, painted canary-yellow with red and green wheels. Inside are bunks, bookshelves, a kitchen, games and everything else for travel.

Toad invites Rat and Mole to accompany him on a journey and says they’ll leave at once. Rat at first refuses, preferring his home on the river, but Mole, who’s eager for adventure, looks so disappointed that Rat hesitates. They have lunch, and Toad regales Mole with the exciting possibilities of travel. Soon the two are planning each day’s activities, and Rat can’t let them down, so he agrees to go along.

They catch the old gray horse, who doesn’t want to pull the wagon, and hitch him up. On the first day, they travel for miles and then stop at a public pasture and release the horse to graze. They enjoy dinner outside and then retire to the wagon’s bunks for the night. Toad says traveling is vastly better than living on a river. Rat disagrees.

Mole whispers to Rat that he’ll go along if Rat wants to escape. Rat thanks him but says they should stay, if only to protect the risk-loving Toad. He adds that Toad will soon tire of the trip anyway, much as he tires of everything else.

The next morning, Toad sleeps in late, so Rat cleans the previous day’s dishes while Mole visits a nearby village to buy eggs, milk, and other things Toad forgot to bring. As they sit, tired from the work, Toad rises and exclaims at how nice it is to travel and not have to worry about domestic duties.

The journey continues pleasantly, except that in the evening Rat and Mole see to it that Toad does some of the work. In the morning, Toad isn’t nearly as happy about travel as he was the day before and tries to sleep late again, but the others force him to get up.

While traveling slowly, they’re overtaken by a “motor-car” that roars past in a cloud of dust. Toad’s horse, startled, rears up and backs the wagon into a ditch, where it turns over. Rat shakes his fist at the receding automobile, shouting, “You scoundrels, you highwaymen, you—you—roadhogs!—I’ll have the law of you!” (23).

The wagon is severely damaged; its contents have spilled, and a wheel is broken. Rat and Mole try to right it, but it won’t budge. They find Toad sitting in the road, staring after the car, making engine noises and smiling, as if in a trance. Rat realizes Toad has found a new passion, “motor-cars,” and won’t be of any use for days. He and Mole start to walk to the nearest town, but Toad catches up to them.

Rat tells Toad to file a complaint with the police, but Toad can’t imagine protesting as wonderful a machine as a car. He wants to never again see the wagon, but he thanks Rat for joining him on the journey that introduced him to automobiles. Rat refuses to speak to Toad. At the town, they stable the horse and explain the broken wagon to the stable hands. Then, they take a train back to Toad Hall and deposit Toad—still “spell-bound, sleep-walking” (26)—and instruct his housekeeper to feed him and put him to bed. Rat and Mole scull their boat back to Rat’s home, where they enjoy a peaceful dinner.

The next evening, Rat brings news that Toad has purchased “a large and very expensive motor-car” (26).