The Wind in the Willows

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Kenneth Grahame. The Wind in the Willows

I. THE RIVER BANK

II. THE OPEN ROAD

III. THE WILD WOOD

IV. MR. BADGER

V. DULCE DOMUM

VI. MR. TOAD

VII. THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN

VIII. TOAD'S ADVENTURES

IX. WAYFARERS ALL

X. THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TOAD

XI "LIKE SUMMER TEMPESTS CAME HIS TEARS"

XII. THE RETURN OF ULYSSES

Отрывок из книги

"RATTY," said the Mole suddenly, one bright summer morning, "if you please, I want to ask you a favour."

The Rat was sitting on the river bank, singing a little song. He had just composed it himself, so he was very taken up with it, and would not pay proper attention to Mole or anything else. Since early morning he had been swimming in the river, in company with his friends, the ducks. And when the ducks stood on their heads suddenly, as ducks will, he would dive down and tickle their necks, just under where their chins would be if ducks had chins, till they were forced to come to the surface again in a hurry, spluttering and angry and shaking their feathers at him, for it is impossible to say quite all you feel when your head is under water. At last they implored him to go away and attend to his own affairs and leave them to mind theirs. So the Rat went away, and sat on the river bank in the sun, and made up a song about them, which he called:

.....

The end was indeed nearer than even the Rat suspected.

They had a pleasant ramble that day over grassy downs and along narrow by-lanes, and camped, as before, on a common, only this time the two guests took care that Toad should do his fair share of work. In consequence, when the time came for starting next morning, Toad was by no means so rapturous about the simplicity of the primitive life, and indeed attempted to resume his place in his bunk, whence he was hauled by force. Their way lay, as before, across country by narrow lanes, and it was not till the afternoon that they came out on the high-road, their first high-road; and there disaster, fleet and unforeseen, sprang out on them – disaster momentous indeed to their expedition, but simply overwhelming in its effect on the after career of Toad.

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