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The aged paperback looked unread when I picked it up from the Little Free
Library box: the pages were yellowing and brittle but none was marked or
dog-eared. I thought I'd sail through it in three days. The children's classic
of 305 well-illustrated pages of wide-spaced lines, however, used up a whole
week and I took more notes than Wuthering Heights.
The following summarizes each chapter in one or two sentences. (1)One spring
day, the Mole gives up cleaning his bijo residence, joins the Rat in his boat,
and thereupon enters a new life. (2)They meet the Toad who is presently besotted
with horse-drawn carts, after ditching punting, and the three go glamping. On
the highway the Toad sees a motor car and is smitten. (3)Next, the Mole wanders
into the Wild Wood in search of the reclusive Badger and ends up being rescued
by the brave and loyal Rat. (4)Together, they stumble on the home of Mr. Badger
who turns out to be a hearty host and strikes a fast friendship with the Mole.
(5)On their way back from the Wild Wood, the two friends re-visit the Mole's old
home. (6)Meanwhile Toad's wayward obsession with motor cars lands him in prison.
(7)The Rat and the Mole paddle to the weir and with divine help rescue the baby
otter Portly and return him to his father. (8)By cunning and luck, Toad breaks
jail and trains homebound. (9)A seafarer so magnetizes the Rat with stories of
his adventures and the Mole has to take his friend in hand. (10)Continuing his
journey home, Toad rides a barge, a horse, and then the same motor car that got
him in trouble, until they blow his cover. (11)Fleeing from the police, Toad
tumbles into Rat's riverbank hole to learn that his residence, the grand Toad's
Hall, has been seized by a Wild Wood gang of weasels, stoats, and ferrets.
(12)Just when all seems lost, the Badger reveals a secret tunnel which turns
Toad's home-coming into an Odyssean triumph and the Toad turns a new leaf.
I fell in love with the author's language. For example, the seafarer describes
the Mediterranean as "classic seas whose every wave throbs with a deathless
memory," and Toad rages: "I'll learn them to steal my house," as he finds out
what happened while he was incarcerated. There are "an apricot sky," "a ragged
string of wild geese," "a paroxysm of grief," "lurid and imaginative cheek,"
"heavenly vision that has been vouchsafed me," etc. etc. I learned much about
the life at the Thames through words and expressions such as towpath, stile,
nets of onions, sloe, rowan, rushes, copses, mullion, trifle, herb borders,
horse pond, well-metalled road, The Red Lion, etc. etc.
If I will be blessed with grandchildren, I will read the stories to them.