The Willows in Winter (22 page)

But the Rat reflected also on the happy
celebration when the Mole returned, and how the unsociable Badger, drawn out of
his lair by all the excitements and to-do of the Mole’s disappearance, had by
the end seemed to rather enjoy the company and companionship of a celebration.

Perhaps, after all, it
was
unreasonable
to expect the Badger to organise a tea party all by himself, and that he needed
an animal with rather more experience than the Mole’s young Nephew who was
willing enough, no doubt — and was certainly right to mention scones as a
starting point for the edibles — but who lacked the authority and tact to be
firm with Badger.

Then, too, a promise
was
a promise, and
the Water Rat saw well that unless something was done, or at least some
invitations sent out and a date fixed, the weasels and stoats might get
restless and cause difficulties that might lead to a resumption of the
hostilities that had plagued the Wild Wood, and many along the river as well,
in times not so long past.

It was plain, then, that the Badger would need
some tactful help; and it was plain too, thought the Rat, that the Badger was
worried by something else entirely, which explained his strange irritability
and distraction of recent weeks. Perhaps —It is often at moments such as these
that something is said impulsively which hits the mark and leads on to better
things, almost without anybody realising it, and that is what happened on this
occasion.

“We could,” said the Rat, “borrow some crockery
from Toad Hall! It wouldn’t be for long, and Toad is hardly going to miss it,
and in all the circumstances even if he hears of it when he gets back he can’t
complain.”

“No,” growled the Badger, but so inaudibly that
the Rat barely noticed it and carried on with his suggestion.

“The crockery and cutlery and all such things
can come from Toad Hall, then, and as for food, well, there will be plenty of
willing helpers, I’m sure of that! I mean to say, Badger, if we widened the
scope of the tea somewhat, inviting a whole lot of animals and not just those
two or three weasels and stoats who have pushed themselves forward, then you
might find it all much more palatable.”

“Cups and saucers from Toad Hall?” muttered the
Badger with distaste, shaking his head. “No, I’ll have nothing of Toad’s here.
That place is doomed to rack and ruin as it is, and I’ll not be labelled a
pillager
.”

“Rack and ruin!
Pillager
!”
exclaimed the Rat, rather taken aback by this response. Everyone knew that the
one grand place along the bank
was
Toad Hall, so rack and ruin did not
come into it. As for pillaging, well!

“We’ll return them straight afterwards, Badger.
All
you
have to do is to make yourself scarce for half a day by going
over to Otter’s for the
morning,
or down to Mole End
if the weather gets better, and we’ll do the rest.
Eh,
Nephew?”

“Of course we will.”

“Toad Hall!” muttered the Badger once more,
slumping into his armchair and looking gloomily at the fire. “O Toad!”

For the first time in the Rat’s hearing the
Badger uttered Toad’s name without anger, or rancour, but rather with a kind of
dreadful finality, as one might mention the name of a close relative just
passed away. ‘Which realization rather touched the Rat’s good heart, and made
him see the Badger’s anger and rage about all that Toad had done in a somewhat
different light.

“Badger,” said the Rat carefully, for he
guessed that he might be treading on sensitive ground, “I really am quite sure
that Toad will come
ba
—”

“I don’t want him coming back!”
roared the Badger, rising
impressively to his full height and fixing the Rat with an awful glare. “I
don’t want his name mentioned in my hearing! And I certainly don’t want to rely
upon his crockery and silver, his table linen and his napkin rings, his cake
stands and his cake knives, and any of that wretched paraphernalia with which
he surrounds himself— or used to — being brought here into my Toad-free home!”

With that the Badger sat down again, glowering,
and Nephew signalled to the Rat that it would be better if he left.

“He’s been like this for days and I don’t know
what to do’ whispered Nephew helplessly, as he saw the Rat off at Badger’s
front door. “I think he’s tired.”

“Tired!” said the Rat, grinning. “He’s not
tired, my dear fellow, he’s missing Toad! I should have seen it before. Why, it
was staring us all in the face and we never guessed. Badger’s always liked
having Toad to complain about, always — and Toad has generally given him plenty
to
complain about. You’ve not been here with us for long enough to
remember the days when Toad was truly bad, as bad as bad could be in fact. Why,
in
those
days Badger was much more cheerful than he is
these
days.
But when he leapt out of his armchair just now —”

“I was dreadfully afraid he was going to attack
you, Water Rat!”

“Attack me!” cried the Rat, laughing aloud.
“Far from it!
I haven’t seen him looking better in years!
Badger may look fierce a lot of the time, he may even
sound
fierce some
of the time, but he’s got a warm heart and a gentle disposition. No, I see it
all plainly now —this brown study into which Badger has fallen has been a long
time coming — ever since, in fact, Toad turned over a new leaf after that
business with the motor-car and his near life-imprisonment. Since then we’ve
all made the mistake of thinking that Badger’s been pleased to have an altered
Toad, and so he may have been on the surface. But deep down, in that kind, wise
heart of his, perhaps he knew he had no right to be quite so hard on Toad, and
to sit upon him, and crush him.

“Perhaps, after all, he’s rather missed the
Toad of old. Now, with Toad’s disappearance and possible loss, preceded as it
was by your uncle’s mishap, perhaps Badger may be thinking that he’s realized
these things a little too late. So though he may seem to be angry, very angry
indeed, and
say
he doesn’t want Toad’s name mentioned, I suspect he
thinks of nothing else but Toad.”

“What should I do?” wondered Nephew, much
perplexed.

“Tell him from me,” said the Rat with firm
purpose, “that whatever the weather, Mole and I will be setting off from
Otter’s at
nine o’clock
tomorrow morning. On second
thoughts, make it the day after tomorrow morning, just to give him time to come
to his senses.

“Setting off for where?” faltered Mole’s
Nephew. “Toad Hall, of course!” called the Rat over his shoulder, as he went
cheerfully out into the dusk towards the Otter’s house and the river bank once
more.

The Rat was as good as his word, and two days later, at nine o clock
sharp, he stood with the Mole and the Otter outside the latter’s front door,
all of them rubbing their hands and stamping their feet against the frosty
cold.

Rutted icy snow lay in the northern-facing
nooks and crannies of the river bank, and also amongst the roots of trees along
the edge of the Wood, where the occasional winter sun of recent days had been
unable to reach it. But on more open ground the snow was mostly gone, replaced
now by
a heavy
hoarfrost which marked and darkened the
moment anyone stepped on it.

The Rat had seemed eager to set off exactly on
time, and so the other two were surprised when he said, “You two go off now,
but don’t go fast. I’ve got something to do here for a few minutes more.

“But, Rat,” said the Otter, not understanding
at all, we can wait for you.

The Mole grasped the Otter’s arm and led him
off. “It’s no good asking him what he’s up to, or to try to change his mind,”
he said. “
Ratty’s
up to something and you may rely on
it that the best thing to do is to go along with him. You say we’re not to
hurry?” he called back as they left.

“That’s right, take your time like Otter does
when he’s after a great big fish!”

They heard the Water Rat chuckling cheerfully
to himself as they set off along the bank, but could not quite guess what he
was up to. Meanwhile there was much to see, for they warmed up once they got
moving and a little winter sun obligingly broke through the pale sky and
softened the frosty reeds to their right, and
grey river
beyond. Somewhere to their left, amongst the trees along the edge of the Wild
Wood, a rook
scuttered
irritably about, and a wood
pigeon briefly billed and cooed high in the leafless branches of an oak.

“Not too fast,” the Mole reminded the Otter,
and the two slowed their pace, and dug their paws deep into their coat pockets
to keep warm.

Meanwhile, the Water Rat had slipped back
inside Otter’s house, and was lurking near the window, watching the dark path
that went into the Wild Wood, and led eventually to Badger’s house.

He was humming to himself, and after a few
moments more of watching he patted his jacket pocket, found his tobacco and set
about filling his pipe. But he had only half done so when he stopped, peered
out of the window once more, and then went to the front door which he had left
ajar.

“Ha!” he said to himself with a certain
satisfaction. “I thought so!”

Out of the gloom of the Wild Wood, and moving
with a reluctant slowness as if this was not a journey he wished to make and at
the slightest excuse he would abandon it and return home again, came the Badger
with Mole’s Nephew trotting along at his side.

Catching sight of the Otter’s front door, which
the Rat had by now quietly closed, the Badger said, “There! What did I say!
No one in sight.
It was all talk after all. All talk! Come
on, we’re going back!”

“Maybe they’re inside Otter’s house waiting for
you,” said Mole’s Nephew, not unreasonably.

“Waiting? You mean still a-bed, more like. And
here
I
am right on
time
—”

“Almost on time, Mr Badger, for it
is
some minutes after
nine o’clock
.”

“Near enough on time, then!” said the Badger
with a markedly more cheerful spirit than he had displayed earlier on the
journey. “Here I am and nobody else about —Mole’s Nephew had gone forward and
had seen the footprints on the frosty ground left by the others, and the clear
evidence that they had already gone off along the river bank.

“Why look!” he said excitedly. “They’ve waited
here for us and now they’ve gone, but probably only just. If we hurry —”

“Hurry?” growled Badger, turning back once more
towards the Wild Wood. “Hurry after animals who do not even
have
the good grace to wait a few moments for a colleague who was reasonably delayed
and who made every effort to make up the lost time!”

“But you
dawdled
along,” said Mole’s
Nephew with some spirit, and much to the admiration of the Rat who was
listening to their conversation through the Otter’s letter box, “and I told you
that the Water Rat said he would leave at
nine o’clock
sharp.”

“Well, be that as it may, they’ve gone now and
we have no idea where they are going, or quite why.”

“But — but —” protested Mole’s Nephew, as the
Badger, duty done it seemed, turned back towards the Wild Wood.

“Come along!” said he, with considerable
relish. “There’s nothing for us to do here now
If
they
wanted
me
to come with them they should have had the courtesy to wait!”

“Why, Badger!” cried the Water Rat, emerging
suddenly from Otter’s house and feigning astonishment to see the two of them
there. “This is a pleasant surprise, a delightful surprise.”

“But I thought you had gone’ said the Badger in
a very disgruntled way “There are your
bootmarks
on
the ground and —”

“So I had, so I had,” said the Rat, “but I did
so most reluctantly and against my better judgement for I knew you would not be
long. But ‘Come on Otter said, ‘let’s be off
!.
’ And
even Mole, why what an impatient, untrusting fellow
he
can be! But I
said, ‘Wait! Badger has always been the most patient and wisest animal I have
known, and perhaps we were wrong to leave so promptly. It’s not like him to be
late, or to give no support to such an enterprise and undertaking as we are
embarking upon, not like him at all!’”