itself out of his system.'

They arranged watches accordingly. Each animal took it in turns
to sleep in Toad's room at night, and they divided the day up

between them. At first Toad was undoubtedly very trying to his
careful guardians. When his violent paroxysms possessed him he

would arrange bedroom chairs in rude resemblance of a motor-car
and would crouch on the foremost of them, bent forward and

staring fixedly ahead, making uncouth and ghastly noises, till
the climax was reached, when, turning a complete somersault, he

would lie prostrateamidst the ruins of the chairs, apparently
completely satisfied for the moment. As time passed, however,

these painful seizures grew gradually less frequent, and his
friends strove to divert his mind into fresh channels. But his

interest in other matters did not seem to revive, and he grew
apparently languid and depressed.

One fine morning the Rat, whose turn it was to go on duty, went
upstairs to relieve Badger, whom he found fidgeting to be off and

stretch his legs in a long ramble round his wood and down his
earths and burrows. `Toad's still in bed,' he told the Rat,

outside the door. `Can't get much out of him, except, "O leave
him alone, he wants nothing, perhaps he'll be better

presently, it may pass off in time, don't be unduly anxious," and
so on. Now, you look out, Rat! When Toad's quiet and submissive

and playing at being the hero of a Sunday-school prize, then he's
at his artfullest. There's sure to be something up. I know him.

Well, now, I must be off.'
`How are you to-day, old chap?' inquired the Rat cheerfully, as

he approached Toad's bedside.
He had to wait some minutes for an answer. At last a feeble

voice replied, `Thank you so much, dear Ratty! So good of you to
inquire! But first tell me how you are yourself, and the

excellent Mole?'
`O, WE'RE all right,' replied the Rat. `Mole,' he added

incautiously, `is going out for a run round with Badger. They'll
be out till luncheon time, so you and I will spend a pleasant

morning together, and I'll do my best to amuse you. Now jump up,
there's a good fellow, and don't lie moping there on a fine

morning like this!'
`Dear, kind Rat,' murmured Toad, `how little you realise my

condition, and how very far I am from "jumping up" now--if ever!
But do not trouble about me. I hate being a burden to my

friends, and I do not expect to be one much longer. Indeed, I
almost hope not.'

`Well, I hope not, too,' said the Rat heartily. `You've been a
fine bother to us all this time, and I'm glad to hear it's going

to stop. And in weather like this, and the boating season just
beginning! It's too bad of you, Toad! It isn't the trouble we

mind, but you're making us miss such an awful lot.'
`I'm afraid it IS the trouble you mind, though,' replied the

Toad languidly. `I can quite understand it. It's natural
enough. You're tired of bothering about me. I mustn't ask you

to do anything further. I'm a nuisance, I know.'
`You are, indeed,' said the Rat. `But I tell you, I'd take any

trouble on earth for you, if only you'd be a sensible animal.'
`If I thought that, Ratty,' murmured Toad, more feebly than ever,

`then I would beg you--for the last time, probably--to step round
to the village as quickly as possible--even now it may be too

late--and fetch the doctor. But don't you bother. It's only a
trouble, and perhaps we may as well let things take their

course.'
`Why, what do you want a doctor for?' inquired the Rat, coming

closer and examining him. He certainly lay very still and flat,
and his voice was weaker and his manner much changed.

`Surely you have noticed of late----' murmured Toad. `But, no--
why should you? Noticing things is only a trouble. To-morrow,

indeed, you may be saying to yourself, "O, if only I had noticed
sooner! If only I had done something!" But no; it's a trouble.

Never mind--forget that I asked.'
`Look here, old man,' said the Rat, beginning to get rather

alarmed, `of course I'll fetch a doctor to you, if you really
think you want him. But you can hardly be bad enough for that

yet. Let's talk about something else.'
`I fear, dear friend,' said Toad, with a sad smile, `that "talk"

can do little in a case like this--or doctors either, for that
matter; still, one must grasp at the slightest straw. And, by

the way--while you are about it--I HATE to give you additional
trouble, but I happen to remember that you will pass the door--

would you mind at the same time asking the lawyer to step up? It
would be a convenience to me, and there are moments--perhaps

I should say there is A moment--when one must face
disagreeable tasks, at whatever cost to exhausted nature!'

`A lawyer! O, he must be really bad!' the affrighted Rat said to
himself, as he hurried from the room, not forgetting, however, to

lock the door carefully behind him.
Outside, he stopped to consider. The other two were far away,

and he had no one to consult.
`It's best to be on the safe side,' he said, on reflection.

`I've known Toad fancy himself frightfully bad before, without
the slightest reason; but I've never heard him ask for a lawyer!

If there's nothing really the matter, the doctor will tell him
he's an old ass, and cheer him up; and that will be something

gained. I'd better humour him and go; it won't take very long.'
So he ran off to the village on his errand of mercy.

The Toad, who had hopped lightly out of bed as soon as he heard
the key turned in the lock, watched him eagerly from the window

till he disappeared down the carriage-drive. Then, laughing
heartily, he dressed as quickly as possible in the smartest

suit he could lay hands on at the moment, filled his pockets with
cash which he took from a small drawer in the dressing-table, and

next, knotting the sheets from his bed together and tying one end
of the improvised rope round the central mullion of the handsome

Tudor window which formed such a feature of his bedroom, he
scrambled out, slid lightly to the ground, and, taking the

opposite direction to the Rat, marched off lightheartedly,
whistling a merry tune.

It was a gloomyluncheon for Rat when the Badger and the Mole at
length returned, and he had to face them at table with his

pitiful and unconvincing story. The Badger's caustic, not to say
brutal, remarks may be imagined, and therefore passed over; but

it was painful to the Rat that even the Mole, though he took his
friend's side as far as possible, could not help saying, `You've

been a bit of a duffer this time, Ratty! Toad, too, of all
animals!'

`He did it awfully well,' said the crestfallen Rat.
`He did YOU awfully well!' rejoined the Badger hotly.

`However, talking won't mend matters. He's got clear away for
the time, that's certain; and the worst of it is, he'll be

so conceited with what he'll think is his cleverness that he may
commit any folly. One comfort is, we're free now, and needn't

waste any more of our precious time doing sentry-go. But we'd
better continue to sleep at Toad Hall for a while longer. Toad

may be brought back at any moment--on a stretcher, or between two
policemen.'

So spoke the Badger, not knowing what the future held in store,
or how much water, and of how turbid a character, was to run

under bridges before Toad should sit at ease again in his
ancestral Hall.