The Wind in the Willows: Toad Comes Home

When it grew dark, the Rat gave each friend a belt, a sword, a pistol, and a stick, but the Badger laughed, “I’ll only need my stick.”The Badger led them with a lantern into a hole in the river bank, and Toad, of course, slipped and fell into the water with a loud splash.They pulled him out, and the Badger warned him that the next time he made a fool of himself, he would be left behind.

The passage was cold, dark, and narrow, and soon they heard cheering and stamping above their heads.They pushed open a trap-door and climbed into the butler’s pantry, where only one door stood between them and the noisy weasels.Inside, the Chief Weasel was singing a rude song about Toad, and all the weasels were laughing.

“The hour has come! Follow me!” cried the Badger, and he threw the door wide open.The four friends rushed in, waving their sticks, and the weasels screamed and dived under the tables or jumped out of the windows.In a few minutes the hall was empty, and Toad Hall belonged to Toad again.

The next day, Toad planned a great party, with a long programme of speeches and songs, all by Toad.But the Rat and the Badger took him into a small room, and the Rat said firmly, “No speeches and no songs. It’s for your own good, Toady.”Toad was very sad, but he agreed, and he went up to his bedroom alone.

There he arranged the chairs in a half-circle and sang one last proud song, “The Toad came home!”, to the empty room.Then he brushed his hair flat, went quietly downstairs, and greeted his guests.When the animals praised him, Toad only smiled and said, “The Badger made the plan, and the Mole and the Water Rat did the fighting. I did very little.”

The Badger and the Rat stared at each other with their mouths open: Toad was truly a changed animal.Later, Toad sent a gold chain to the jailer’s daughter and thanked the engine-driver, and he even paid the barge-woman for her horse.And on summer evenings, when the four friends walked through the Wild Wood, the mother weasels pointed at them and told their babies, “Look! There goes the great Mr. Toad!”