They piled on more coals, shovelling furiously;the furnace roared, the sparks flew,the engine leapt and swung,but still their pursuers slowly gained.The engine-driver, with a sigh,wiped his brow with a handful of cotton-waste,and said, "I'm afraid it's no good, Toad. You see,they are running light,and they have the better engine.There's just one thing left for us to do,and it's your only chance,so attend very carefully to what I tell you.A short way ahead of us is a long tunnel,and on the other side of that the line passes through a thick wood.Now, I will put on all the speed I can while we are running through the tunnel,but the other fellows will slow down a bit, naturally,for fear of an accident. When we are through,I will shut off steam and put on brakes as hard as I can,and the moment it's safe to do so you must jump and hide in the wood,before they get through the tunnel and see you.Then I will go full speed ahead again,and they can chase me if they like,for as long as they like, and as far as they like.Now mind and be ready to jump when I tell you!"
They piled on more coals,and the train shot into the tunnel,and the engine rushed and roared and rattled,till at last they shot out at the other end into fresh air and the peaceful moonlight, and saw the wood lying dark and helpful upon either side of the line. The driver shut off steam and put on brakes, the Toad got down on the step, and as the train slowed down to almost a walking pace he heard the driver call out, "Now, jump!"
Toad jumped, rolled down a short embankment,picked himself up unhurt,scrambled into the wood and hid.
Peeping out, he saw his train get up speed again and disappear at a great pace.Then out of the tunnel burst the pursuing engine,roaring and whistling,her motley crew waving their various weapons and shouting, "Stop!stop!stop!" When they were past,the Toad had a hearty laugh--for the first time since he was thrown into prison.
But he soon stopped laughing when he came to consider that it was now very late and dark and cold, and he was in an unknown wood, with no money and no chance of supper, and still far from friends and home; and the dead silence of everything, after the roar and rattle of the train, was something of a shock. He dared not leave the shelter of the trees, so he struck into the wood, with the idea of leaving the railway as far as possible behind him.
After so many weeks within walls,he found the wood strange and unfriendly and inclined,he thought, to make fun of him. Night-jars,sounding their mechanical rattle,made him think that the wood was full of searching warders,closing in on him. An owl,swooping noiselessly towards him,brushed his shoulder with its wing,making him jump with the horrid certainty that it was a hand;then flitted off, moth-like, laughing its low ho!ho!ho!which Toad thought in very poor taste.Once he met a fox, who stopped,looked him up and down in a sarcastic sort of way,and said, "Hullo, washerwoman!Half a pair of socks and a pillow-case short this week!Mind it doesn't occur again!" and swaggered off, sniggering.Toad looked about for a stone to throw at him,but could not succeed in finding one,which vexed him more than anything. At last, cold,hungry, and tired out,he sought the shelter of a hollow tree,where with branches and dead leaves he made himself as comfortable a bed as he could, and slept soundly till the morning.
IX
WAYFARERS ALL
The Water Rat was restless,and he did not exactly know why.To all appearance the summer's pomp was still at fullest height,and although in the tilled acres green had given way to gold,though rowans were reddening,and the woods were dashed here and there with a tawny fierceness,yet light and warmth and colour were still present in undiminished measure,clean of any chilly premonitions of the passing year.But the constant chorus of the orchards and hedges had shrunk to a casual evensong from a few yet unwearied performers; the robin was beginning to assert himself once more; and there was a feeling in the air of change and departure. The cuckoo, of course, had long been silent; but many another feathered friend, for months a part of the familiar landscape and its small society, was missing too, and it seemed that the ranks thinned steadily day by day. Rat, ever observant of all winged movement, saw that it was taking daily a southing tendency; and even as he lay in bed at night he thought he could make out, passing in the darkness overhead, the beat and quiver of impatient pinions, obedient to the peremptory call.
Nature's Grand Hotel has its Season, like the others.As the guests one by one pack, pay, and depart,and the seats at the _table-d'hote_ shrink pitifully at each succeeding meal;as suites of rooms are closed, carpets taken up,and waiters sent away;those boarders who are staying on, _en pension_,until the next year's full re-opening,cannot help being somewhat affected by all these flittings and farewells,this eager discussion of plans, routes,and fresh quarters,this daily shrinkage in the stream of comradeship.One gets unsettled, depressed,and inclined to be querulous.Why this craving for change?Why not stay on quietly here, like us, and be jolly?You don't know this hotel out of the season,and what fun we have among ourselves,we fellows who remain and see the whole interesting year out.All very true, no doubt, the others always reply;we quite envy you--and some other year perhaps--but just now we have engagements--and there's the bus at the door--our time is up!So they depart, with a smile and a nod,and we miss them, and feel resentful.The Rat was a self-sufficing sort of animal,rooted to the land, and, whoever went, he stayed;still, he could not help noticing what was in the air,and feeling some of its influence in his bones.