"Thought I should find you here all right," said the Otter cheerfully."They were all in a great state of alarm along River Bank when I arrived this morning.Rat never been home all night--nor Mole either--something dreadful must have happened, they said;and the snow had covered up all your tracks, of course.But I knew that when people were in any fix they mostly went to Badger,or else Badger got to know of it somehow, so I came straight off here, through the Wild Wood and the snow!My!it was fine, coming through the snow as the red sun was rising and showing against the black tree-trunks!As you went along in the stillness, every now and then masses of snow slid off the branches suddenly with a flop!making you jump and run for cover. Snow-castles and snow-caverns had sprung up out of nowhere in the night--and snow bridges,terraces, ramparts--I could have stayed and played with them for hours.Here and there great branches had been torn away by the sheer weight of the snow,and robins perched and hopped on them in their perky conceited way,just as if they had done it themselves. A ragged string of wild geese passed overhead,high on the grey sky, and a few rooks whirled over the trees, inspected,and flapped off homewards with a disgusted expression;but I met no sensible being to ask the news of.About half-way across I came on a rabbit sitting on a stump, cleaning his silly face with his paws.He was a pretty scared animal when I crept up behind him and placed a heavy fore-paw on his shoulder.I had to cuff his head once or twice to get any sense out of it at all.At last I managed to extract from him that Mole had been seen in the Wild Wood last night by one of them.It was the talk of the burrows, he said, how Mole, Mr. Rat's particular friend, was in a bad fix;how he had lost his way, and'They' were up and out hunting, and were chivvying him round and round.'Then why didn't any of you _do_ something?' I asked. 'You mayn't be blessed with brains, but there are hundreds and hundreds of you, big,stout fellows, as fat as butter, and your burrows running in all directions,and you could have taken him in and made him safe and comfortable, or tried to, at all events. ' 'What, _us_?' he merely said: '_do_ something?us rabbits?' So I cuffed him again and left him. There was nothing else to be done. At any rate,I had learnt something; and if I had had the luck to meet any of 'Them' I'd have learnt something more--or _they_ would. "
[Illustration: _Through the Wild Wood and the snow_]
"Weren't you at all--er--nervous?" asked the Mole, some of yesterday's terror coming back to him at the mention of the Wild Wood.
"Nervous?" The Otter showed a gleaming set of strong white teeth as he laughed."I'd give 'em nerves if any of them tried anything on with me. Here, Mole,fry me some slices of ham, like the good little chap you are. I'm frightfully hungry,and I've got any amount to say to Ratty here. Haven't seen him for an age."
So the good-natured Mole, having cut some slices of ham, set the hedgehogs to fry it,and returned to his own breakfast, while the Otter and the Rat, their heads together,eagerly talked river-shop, which is long shop and talk that is endless,running on like the babbling river itself.
A plate of fried ham had just been cleared and sent back for more, when the Badger entered,yawning and rubbing his eyes, and greeted them all in his quiet, simple way,with kind inquiries for every one."It must be getting on for luncheon time," he remarked to the Otter."Better stop and have it with us. You must be hungry, this cold morning."
"Rather!" replied the Otter, winking at the Mole."The sight of these greedy young hedgehogs stuffing themselves with fried ham makes me feel positively famished. "
The hedgehogs, who were just beginning to feel hungry again after their porridge,and after working so hard at their frying, looked timidly up at Mr. Badger, but were too shy to say anything.
"Here, you two youngsters, be off home to your mother," said the Badger kindly."I'll send some one with you to show you the way. You won't want any dinner to-day, I'll be bound."
He gave them sixpence a-piece and a pat on the head,and they went off with much respectful swinging of caps and touching of forelocks.
Presently they all sat down to luncheon together. The Mole found himself placed next to Mr. Badger,and, as the other two were still deep in river-gossip from which nothing could divert them,he took the opportunity to tell Badger how comfortable and home-like it all felt to him."Once well underground," he said, "you know exactly where you are. Nothing can happen to you,and nothing can get at you. You're entirely your own master,and you don't have to consult anybody or mind what they say. Things go on all the same overhead,and you let'em, and don't bother about 'em. When you want to, up you go, and there the things are, waiting for you."
The Badger simply beamed on him. "That's exactly what I say," he replied. "There's no security,or peace and tranquillity, except underground. And then,if your ideas get larger and you want to expand--why, a dig and a scrape, and there you are!If you feel your house is a bit too big, you stop up a hole or two, and there you are again!No builders, no tradesmen, no remarks passed on you by fellows looking over your wall, and,above all, no _weather_. Look at Rat, now. A couple of feet of flood water,and he's got to move into hired lodgings; uncomfortable, inconveniently situated,and horribly expensive. Take Toad. I say nothing against Toad Hall;quite the best house in these parts, _as_ a house. But supposing a fire breaks out--where's Toad?Supposing tiles are blown off, or walls sink or crack, or windows get broken--where's Toad?Supposing the rooms are draughty--I _hate_ a draught myself--where's Toad?No, up and out of doors is good enough to roam about and get one's living in;but underground to come back to at last--that's my idea of _home_!"
The Mole assented heartily; and the Badger in consequence got very friendly with him."When lunch is over," he said, "I'll take you all round this little place of mine.I can see you'll appreciate it. You understand what domestic architecture ought to be, you do."
After luncheon, accordingly, when the other two had settled themselves into the chimney-corner and had started a heated argument on the subject of _eels_,the Badger lighted a lantern and bade the Mole follow him. Crossing the hall,they passed down one of the principal tunnels,and the wavering light of the lantern gave glimpses on either side of rooms both large and small,some mere cupboards, others nearly as broad and imposing as Toad's dining-hall.A narrow passage at right angles led them into another corridor,and here the same thing was repeated. The Mole was staggered at the size, the extent,the ramifications of it all; at the length of the dim passages,the solid vaultings of the crammed store-chambers, the masonry everywhere, the pillars, the arches,the pavements. "How on earth, Badger," he said at last,"did you ever find time and strength to do all this?It's astonishing!"
"It _would_ be astonishing indeed," said the Badger simply, "if I _had_ done it.But as a matter of fact I did none of it--only cleaned out the passages and chambers,as far as I had need of them. There's lots more of it, all round about. I see you don't understand,and I must explain it to you. Well, very long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now,before ever it had planted itself and grown up to what it now is,there was a city--a city of people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and walked,and talked, and slept, and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and feasted,from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They were a powerful people, and rich,and great builders. They built to last, for they thought their city would last for ever."
"But what has become of them all?" asked the Mole.
"Who can tell?" said the Badger. "People come--they stay for a while, they flourish, they build--and they go.It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I've been told,long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again.We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient,and back we come. And so it will ever be."
"Well, and when they went at last, those people?" said the Mole.
"When they went," continued the Badger, "the strong winds and persistent rains took the matter in hand,patiently, ceaselessly, year after year. Perhaps we badgers too, in our small way, helped a little--who knows?It was all down, down, down, gradually--ruin and levelling and disappearance. Then it was all up,up, up, gradually, as seeds grew to saplings, and saplings to forest trees,and bramble and fern came creeping in to help. Leaf-mould rose and obliterated,streams in their winter freshets brought sand and soil to clog and to cover,and in course of time our home was ready for us again, and we moved in. Up above us,on the surface, the same thing happened. Animals arrived, liked the look of the place,took up their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished.They didn't bother themselves about the past--they never do; they're too busy.The place was a bit humpy and hillocky, naturally, and full of holes;but that was rather an advantage. And they don't bother about the future,either--the future when perhaps the people will move in again--for a time--as may very well be.The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all the usual lot, good, bad,and indifferent--I name no names. It takes all sorts to make a world.But I fancy you know something about them yourself by this time."
"I do indeed," said the Mole, with a slight shiver.
"Well, well," said the Badger, patting him on the shoulder, "it was your first experience of them,you see. They're not so bad really; and we must all live and let live.But I'll pass the word around to-morrow, and I think you'll have no further trouble.Any friend of _mine_ walks where he likes in this country, or I'll know the reason why!"
When they got back to the kitchen again, they found the Rat walking up and down, very restless.The underground atmosphere was oppressing him and getting on his nerves,and he seemed really to be afraid that the river would run away if he wasn't there to look after it.So he had his overcoat on, and his pistols thrust into his belt again. "Come along, Mole," he said anxiously, as soon as he caught sight of them."We must get off while it's daylight.Don't want to spend another night in the Wild Wood again."
"It'll be all right, my fine fellow," said the Otter. "I'm coming along with you,and I know every path blindfold; and if there's a head that needs to be punched,you can confidently rely upon me to punch it."
"You really needn't fret, Ratty," added the Badger placidly."My passages run further than you think,and I've bolt-holes to the edge of the wood in several directions,though I don't care for everybody to know about them. When you really have to go,you shall leave by one of my short cuts. Meantime, make yourself easy, and sit down again."
The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to be off and attend to his river, so the Badger,taking up his lantern again, led the way along a damp and airless tunnel that wound and dipped,part vaulted, part hewn through solid rock, for a weary distance that seemed to be miles.At last daylight began to show itself confusedly through tangled growth overhanging the mouth of the passage;and the Badger, bidding them a hasty good-bye, pushed them hurriedly through the opening,made everything look as natural as possible again, with creepers, brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated.
They found themselves standing on the very edge of the Wild Wood.Rocks and brambles and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped and tangled; in front,a great space of quiet fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black on the snow, and, far ahead,a glint of the familiar old river, while the wintry sun hung red and low on the horizon. The Otter,as knowing all the paths, took charge of the party,and they trailed out on a bee-line for a distant stile. Pausing there a moment and looking back,they saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense, menacing, compact,grimly set in vast white surroundings; simultaneously they turned and made swiftly for home,for firelight and the familiar things it played on, for the voice,sounding cheerily outside their window, of the river that they knew and trusted in all its moods,that never made them afraid with any amazement.
As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked,the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow,linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings,the cultivated garden-plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance,or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise,must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their way, to last for a lifetime.
V
DULCE DOMUM
The sheep ran huddling together against the hurdles,blowing out thin nostrils and stamping with delicate fore-feet,their heads thrown back and a light steam rising from the crowded sheep-pen into the frosty air,as the two animals hastened by in high spirits, with much chatter and laughter.They were returning across country after a long day's outing with Otter,hunting and exploring on the wide uplands,where certain streams tributary to their own River had their first small beginnings;and the shades of the short winter day were closing in on them,and they had still some distance to go. Plodding at random across the plough,they had heard the sheep and had made for them; and now, leading from the sheep-pen,they found a beaten track that made walking a lighter business, and responded, moreover,to that small inquiring something which all animals carry inside them, saying unmistakably, "Yes, quite right; _this_ leads home!"
"It looks as if we were coming to a village," said the Mole somewhat dubiously, slackening his pace,as the track, that had in time become a path and then had developed into a lane,now handed them over to the charge of a well-metalled road. The animals did not hold with villages,and their own highways, thickly frequented as they were, took an independent course,regardless of church, post-office, or public-house.
"Oh, never mind!" said the Rat. "At this season of the year they're all safe indoors by this time,sitting round the fire; men, women, and children, dogs and cats and all.We shall slip through all right, without any bother or unpleasantness,and we can have a look at them through their windows if you like, and see what they're doing."
The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery snow.Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either side of the street,where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed through the casements into the dark world without.Most of the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in from outside,the inmates, gathered round the tea-table, absorbed in handiwork,or talking with laughter and gesture, had each that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall capture--the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of observation. Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end of a smouldering log.
But it was from one little window, with its blind drawn down,a mere blank transparency on the night,that the sense of home and the little curtained world within walls--the larger stressful world of outside Nature shut out and forgotten--most pulsated.Close against the white blind hung a bird-cage, clearly silhouetted, every wire, perch,and appurtenance distinct and recognisable, even to yesterday's dull-edged lump of sugar.On the middle perch the fluffy occupant, head tucked well into feathers,seemed so near to them as to be easily stroked, had they tried;even the delicate tips of his plumped-out plumage pencilled plainly on the illuminated screen.As they looked, the sleepy little fellow stirred uneasily, woke, shook himself,and raised his head. They could see the gape of his tiny beak as he yawned in a bored sort of way,looked round, and then settled his head into his back again,while the ruffled feathers gradually subsided into perfect stillness.Then a gust of bitter wind took them in the back of the neck,a small sting of frozen sleet on the skin woke them as from a dream,and they knew their toes to be cold and their legs tired, and their own home distant a weary way.
Once beyond the village, where the cottages ceased abruptly,on either side of the road they could smell through the darkness the friendly fields again;and they braced themselves for the last long stretch, the home stretch,the stretch that we know is bound to end, some time, in the rattle of the door-latch,the sudden firelight, and the sight of familiar things greeting us as long-absent travellers from far over-sea.They plodded along steadily and silently, each of them thinking his own thoughts.The Mole's ran a good deal on supper, as it was pitch-dark,and it was all a strange country for him as far as he knew,and he was following obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving the guidance entirely to him.As for the Rat, he was walking a little way ahead, as his habit was, his shoulders humped,his eyes fixed on the straight grey road in front of him;so he did not notice poor Mole when suddenly the summons reached him, and took him like an electric shock.
We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses,have not even proper terms to express an animal's inter-communications with his surroundings,living or otherwise, and have only the word"smell," for instance,to include the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in the nose of the animal night and day,summoning, warning, inciting, repelling.It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness,making him tingle through and through with its very familiar appeal,even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. He stopped dead in his tracks,his nose searching hither and thither in its efforts to recapture the fine filament,the telegraphic current, that had so strongly moved him. A moment, and he had caught it again;and with it this time came recollection in fullest flood.
Home!That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft touches wafted through the air,those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all one way!Why, it must be quite close by him at that moment,his old home that he had hurriedly forsaken and never sought again, that day when he first found the River!And now it was sending out its scouts and its messengers to capture him and bring him in.Since his escape on that bright morning he had hardly given it a thought,so absorbed had he been in his new life, in all its pleasures, its surprises,its fresh and captivating experiences. Now, with a rush of old memories,how clearly it stood up before him, in the darkness!Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet his, the home he had made for himself,the home he had been so happy to get back to after his day's work.And the home had been happy with him, too, evidently, and was missing him, and wanted him back,and was telling him so, through his nose, sorrowfully, reproachfully,but with no bitterness or anger; only with plaintive reminder that it was there, and wanted him.
The call was clear, the summons was plain. He must obey it instantly, and go. "Ratty!" he called, full of joyful excitement, "hold on!Come back!I want you, quick!"
"Oh, _come_ along, Mole, do!" replied the Rat cheerfully, still plodding along.
"_Please_ stop, Ratty!" pleaded the poor Mole, in anguish of heart."You don't understand!It's my home, my old home!I've just come across the smell of it, and it's close by here, really quite close. And I _must_ go to it, I must, I must!Oh, come back, Ratty!Please, please come back!"
The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too far to hear clearly what the Mole was calling,too far to catch the sharp note of painful appeal in his voice.And he was much taken up with the weather, for he too,could smell something--something suspiciously like approaching snow.
"Mole, we mustn't stop now, really!" he called back. "We'll come for it to-morrow, whatever it is you've found.But I daren't stop now--it's late, and the snow's coming on again, and I'm not sure of the way!And I want your nose, Mole, so come on quick, there's a good fellow!" And the Rat pressed forward on his way without waiting for an answer.
Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, and a big sob gathering, gathering,somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to the surface presently, he knew, in passionate escape.But even under such a test as this his loyalty to his friend stood firm.Never for a moment did he dream of abandoning him. Meanwhile, the wafts from his old home pleaded,whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him imperiously.He dared not tarry longer within their magic circle.With a wrench that tore his very heart-strings he set his face down the road and followed submissively in the track of the Rat,while faint, thin little smells, still dogging his retreating nose,reproached him for his new friendship and his callous forgetfulness.
With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting Rat,who began chattering cheerfully about what they would do when they got back,and how jolly a fire of logs in the parlour would be, and what a supper he meant to eat;never noticing his companion's silence and distressful state of mind. At last, however,when they had gone some considerable way further,and were passing some tree stumps at the edge of a copse that bordered the road,he stopped and said kindly, "Look here, Mole, old chap, you seem dead tired. No talk left in you,and your feet dragging like lead. We'll sit down here for a minute and rest.The snow has held off so far, and the best part of our journey is over."
The Mole subsided forlornly on a tree stump and tried to control himself,for he felt it surely coming. The sob he had fought with so long refused to be beaten. Up and up,it forced its way to the air, and then another, and another, and others thick and fast;till poor Mole at last gave up the struggle, and cried freely and helplessly and openly,now that he knew it was all over and he had lost what he could hardly be said to have found.
The Rat, astonished and dismayed at the violence of Mole's paroxysm of grief,did not dare to speak for a while. At last he said, very quietly and sympathetically, "What is it, old fellow?Whatever can be the matter?Tell us your trouble, and let me see what I can do."
Poor Mole found it difficult to get any words out between the upheavals of his chest that followed one upon another so quickly and held back speech and choked it as it came. "I know it's a--shabby, dingy little place," he sobbed forth at last brokenly: "not like--your cosy quarters--or Toad's beautiful hall--or Badger's great house--but it was my own little home--and I was fond of it--and I went away and forgot all about it--and then I smelt it suddenly--on the road, when I called and you wouldn't listen, Rat--and everything came back to me with a rush--and I _wanted_ it!--O dear, O dear!--and when you _wouldn't_ turn back, Ratty--and I had to leave it,though I was smelling it all the time--I thought my heart would break.--We might have just gone and had one look at it,Ratty--only one look--it was close by--but you wouldn't turn back, Ratty, you wouldn't turn back!O dear, O dear!"
Recollection brought fresh waves of sorrow, and sobs again took full charge of him, preventing further speech.
The Rat stared straight in front of him, saying nothing, only patting Mole gently on the shoulder.After a time he muttered gloomily, "I see it all now!What a _pig_ I have been!A pig--that's me!Just a pig--a plain pig!"
He waited till Mole's sobs became gradually less stormy and more rhythmical;he waited till at last sniffs were frequent and sobs only intermittent. Then he rose from his seat,and, remarking carelessly,"Well, now we'd really better be getting on, old chap!" set off up the road again over the toilsome way they had come.
"Wherever are you (hic) going to (hic), Ratty?" cried the tearful Mole, looking up in alarm.
"We're going to find that home of yours, old fellow," replied the Rat pleasantly;"so you had better come along, for it will take some finding, and we shall want your nose."
"Oh, come back, Ratty, do!" cried the Mole, getting up and hurrying after him. "It's no good, I tell you!It's too late, and too dark, and the place is too far off, and the snow's coming!And--and I never meant to let you know I was feeling that way about it--it was all an accident and a mistake!And think of River Bank, and your supper!"
"Hang River Bank, and supper, too!" said the Rat heartily. "I tell you, I'm going to find this place now, if I stay out all night.So cheer up, old chap, and take my arm, and we'll very soon be back there again."
Still snuffling, pleading, and reluctant,Mole suffered himself to be dragged back along the road by his imperious companion,who by a flow of cheerful talk and anecdote endeavoured to beguile his spirits back and make the weary way seem shorter.When at last it seemed to the Rat that they must be nearing that part of the road where the Mole had been "held up," he said, "Now, no more talking. Business!Use your nose, and give your mind to it."
They moved on in silence for some little way, when suddenly the Rat was conscious,through his arm that was linked in Mole's,of a faint sort of electric thrill that was passing down that animal's body.Instantly he disengaged himself, fell back a pace, and waited, all attention.
The signals were coming through!
Mole stood a moment rigid, while his uplifted nose, quivering slightly, felt the air.
Then a short, quick run forward--a fault--a check--a try back; and then a slow, steady, confident advance.
The Rat, much excited, kept close to his heels as the Mole,with something of the air of a sleep-walker, crossed a dry ditch, scrambled through a hedge,and nosed his way over a field open and trackless and bare in the faint starlight.
Suddenly, without giving warning, he dived; but the Rat was on the alert,and promptly followed him down the tunnel to which his unerring nose had faithfully led him.
It was close and airless, and the earthy smell was strong,and it seemed a long time to Rat ere the passage ended and he could stand erect and stretch and shake himself.The Mole struck a match, and by its light the Rat saw that they were standing in an open space,neatly swept and sanded underfoot, and directly facing them was Mole's little front door,with "Mole End" painted, in Gothic lettering, over the bell-pull at the side.
Mole reached down a lantern from a nail on the wall and lit it, and the Rat, looking round him,saw that they were in a sort of fore-court. A garden-seat stood on one side of the door,and on the other a roller; for the Mole, who was a tidy animal when at home,could not stand having his ground kicked up by other animals into little runs that ended in earth-heaps.On the walls hung wire baskets with ferns in them,alternating with brackets carrying plaster statuary--Garibaldi, and the infant Samuel,and Queen Victoria, and other heroes of modern Italy.Down on one side of the fore-court ran a skittle-alley,with benches along it and little wooden tables marked with rings that hinted at beer-mugs.In the middle was a small round pond containing gold-fish and surrounded by a cockle-shell border.Out of the centre of the pond rose a fanciful erection clothed in more cockle-shells and topped by a large silvered glass ball that reflected everything all wrong and had a very pleasing effect.
Mole's face beamed at the sight of all these objects so dear to him,and he hurried Rat through the door, lit a lamp in the hall,and took one glance round his old home. He saw the dust lying thick on everything,saw the cheerless, deserted look of the long-neglected house, and its narrow, meagre dimensions,its worn and shabby contents--and collapsed again on a hall-chair, his nose to his paws."O Ratty!" he cried dismally, "why ever did I do it?Why did I bring you to this poor, cold little place, on a night like this,when you might have been at River Bank by this time, toasting your toes before a blazing fire,with all your own nice things about you!"