The Wind in the WillowsThe Rat danced up and down in the road, simply transported with passion. You scroundrels, you highwaymen, you -- you -- road hogs! .... Toad sat straight down in the middle of the dusty road, his legs stretched oat before him, and stared fixedly in the direction of the disappearing motor-cat .... His face wore a placid, satisfied expression, and at intervals he faintly murmured, Poop poop! |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
adventures animal asked the Mole Badger bank barge barge-woman began boat breakfast cheerful clever cloop cold comfortable course cried the Mole cried the Rat dark dear door dream engine-driver errand of mercy eyes face feel fellow field-mouse fire friends gipsy hard head heard hedgehogs hole horse hour hungry knew laughing legs long con looked ma'am mind Mole's morning motor-car murmured never night once Otter passed poor prison quiet Ratty replied the Rat river road round running sculls secret passage seemed shoulder shouted side silent simply snow song soon sort sound stick stoats stood stop suddenly supper talk tell There's thing thought Toad Hall Toad's Toady took trouble turned voice waiting walked washerwoman washing Water Rat water-meadows weasels Wild Wood window
Popular passages
Page 9 - Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
Page 238 - The clever men at Oxford Know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them know one half as much As intelligent Mr. Toad! 'The animals sat in the Ark and cried, Their tears in torrents flowed. Who was it said, "There's land ahead?
Page 4 - Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said "Bother!
Page 27 - Ducks' tails, drakes' tails, Yellow feet a-quiver, Yellow bills all out of sight Busy in the river! Slushy green undergrowth Where the roach swim — Here we keep our larder, Cool and full and dim.
Page 3 - THE Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash...
Page 155 - ... imposed its will on Mole, and mechanically he bent to his oars again. And the light grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they were wont to do at the approach of dawn; and but for the heavenly music all was marvellously still. On either side of them, as they glided onwards, the rich meadow-grass seemed that morning of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable. Never had they noticed the roses so vivid, the willow-herb so riotous, the meadow-sweet so odorous and pervading. Then the murmur...
Page 160 - As a child that has fallen happily asleep in its nurse's arms, and wakes to find itself alone and laid in a strange place, and searches corners and cupboards, and runs from room to room, despair growing silently in its heart, even so Portly searched the island and searched, dogged and unwearying, till at last the black moment came for giving it up, and sitting down and crying bitterly.
Page 10 - Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not. Look here! If you've really nothing else on hand this morning, supposing we drop down the river together,...
Page 15 - And that's something that doesn't matter, either to you or me. I've never been there, and I'm never going, nor you either, if you've got any sense at all. Don't ever refer to it again, please. Now then! Here's our backwater at last, where we're going to lunch." Leaving the main stream, they now passed into what seemed at first sight like a little land-locked lake. Green turf sloped down to either edge, brown snaky tree-roots gleamed below the surface of the quiet water, while ahead of them the silvery...
Page 89 - 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 is now is, there was a city — a city of people, you know.