The Wind in the Willows: The Wild Wood

Mole had long wanted to meet Mr. Badger, who lived in the middle of the Wild Wood, but the Rat always said, “Wait — Badger will turn up some day.”Badger did not like visitors or parties, and he never came to call.Winter came, and the Rat slept a great deal; one cold afternoon, while he dozed by the fire, Mole slipped out alone.

At first the Wild Wood did not seem frightening at all; there were only fallen branches and strange shapes in the grey light.Then he began to see little faces looking at him out of holes — evil, narrow faces that vanished the moment he turned.Soon he heard whistling all around him, and then a pattering sound, like a thousand tiny feet running through the wood.

Mole began to run too, without knowing where he was going, until at last he crept into a deep, dark hole in an old tree.There he lay, tired and shaking, and at last he understood the Terror of the Wild Wood that the Rat had tried to keep from him.Meanwhile the Rat woke up, saw Mole’s footprints leading toward the Wild Wood, and looked very serious.

He took a thick stick and two pistols and marched straight into the wood, calling, “Moly, Moly, where are you? It’s me — it’s old Rat!”At last he heard a weak little voice from inside a hollow tree, and there he found his friend, tired and trembling.“Oh, Ratty!” cried Mole. “I’ve been so frightened, you can’t think!”

When they came out, thick snow was falling, and every tree and path looked the same, so they were soon completely lost.As they hurried along, Mole tripped over something hidden in the snow and cut his leg.“It’s a door-scraper!” cried the Rat, and he began digging in the snow with great excitement.

Next he found a door-mat, and then, in the side of a snowy bank, a small dark-green door.On a brass plate beside the bell they read, in neat square letters: MR. BADGER.Tired but happy, the two friends rang the bell and knocked on the door as hard as they could.