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Grahem The wind in the willows (a whole book), The Wind in the Willows (10)

The Wind in the Willows (10)

" The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to be off and attend to his river, so the Badger, taking up his lantern again, led the way along a damp and airless tunnel that wound and dipped, part vaulted, part hewn through solid rock, for a weary distance that seemed to be miles. At last daylight began to show itself confusedly through tangled growth overhanging the mouth of the passage; and the Badger, bidding them a hasty good-bye, pushed them hurriedly through the opening, made everything look as natural as possible again, with creepers, brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated.

They found themselves standing on the very edge of the Wild Wood. Rocks and brambles and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped and tangled; in front, a great space of quiet fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black on the snow, and, far ahead, a glint of the familiar old river, while the wintry sun hung red and low on the horizon. The Otter, as knowing all the paths, took charge of the party, and they trailed out on a bee-line for a distant stile. Pausing there a moment and looking back, they saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense, menacing, compact, grimly set in vast white surroundings; simultaneously they turned and made swiftly for home, for firelight and the familiar things it played on, for the voice, sounding cheerily outside their window, of the river that they knew and trusted in all its moods, that never made them afraid with any amazement.

As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden-plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their way, to last for a lifetime.

V DULCE DOMUM THE sheep ran huddling together against the hurdles, blowing out thin nostrils and stamping with delicate fore-feet, their heads thrown back and a light steam rising from the crowded sheep-pen into the frosty air, as the two animals hastened by in high spirits, with much chatter and laughter. They were returning across country after a long day's outing with Otter, hunting and exploring on the wide uplands, where certain streams tributary to their own River had their first small beginnings; and the shades of the short winter day were closing in on them, and they had still some distance to go. Plodding at random across the plough, they had heard the sheep and had made for them; and now, leading from the sheep-pen, they found a beaten track that made walking a lighter business, and responded, moreover, to that small inquiring something which all animals carry inside them, saying unmistakably, "Yes, quite right; this leads home!"

"It looks as if we were coming to a village," said the Mole somewhat dubiously, slackening his pace, as the track, that had in time become a path and then had developed into a lane, now handed them over to the charge of a well-metalled road. The animals did not hold with villages, and their own highways, thickly frequented as they were, took an independent course, regardless of church, post-office, or public-house.

"Oh, never mind!" said the Rat. "At this season of the year they're all safe indoors by this time, sitting round the fire; men, women, and children, dogs and cats and all. We shall slip through all right, without any bother or unpleasantness, and we can have a look at them through their windows if you like, and see what they're doing."

The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery snow. Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either side of the street, where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed through the casements into the dark world without. Most of the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea-table, absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall capture—the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of observation. Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end of a smouldering log.

But it was from one little window, with its blind drawn down, a mere blank transparency on the night, that the sense of home and the little curtained world within walls—the larger stressful world of outside Nature shut out and forgotten—most pulsated. Close against the white blind hung a bird-cage, clearly silhouetted, every wire, perch, and appurtenance distinct and recognisable, even to yesterday's dull-edged lump of sugar. On the middle perch the fluffy occupant, head tucked well into feathers, seemed so near to them as to be easily stroked, had they tried; even the delicate tips of his plumped-out plumage pencilled plainly on the illuminated screen. As they looked, the sleepy little fellow stirred uneasily, woke, shook himself, and raised his head. They could see the gape of his tiny beak as he yawned in a bored sort of way, looked round, and then settled his head into his back again, while the ruffled feathers gradually subsided into perfect stillness. Then a gust of bitter wind took them in the back of the neck, a small sting of frozen sleet on the skin woke them as from a dream, and they knew their toes to be cold and their legs tired, and their own home distant a weary way.

Once beyond the village, where the cottages ceased abruptly, on either side of the road they could smell through the darkness the friendly fields again; and they braced themselves for the last long stretch, the home stretch, the stretch that we know is bound to end, some time, in the rattle of the door-latch, the sudden firelight, and the sight of familiar things greeting us as long-absent travellers from far over-sea. They plodded along steadily and silently, each of them thinking his own thoughts. The Mole's ran a good deal on supper, as it was pitch-dark, and it was all a strange country for him as far as he knew, and he was following obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving the guidance entirely to him. As for the Rat, he was walking a little way ahead, as his habit was, his shoulders humped, his eyes fixed on the straight grey road in front of him; so he did not notice poor Mole when suddenly the summons reached him, and took him like an electric shock.

We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses, have not even proper terms to express an animal's inter-communications with his surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word "smell," for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in the nose of the animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling. It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness, making him tingle through and through with its very familiar appeal, even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. He stopped dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that had so strongly moved him. A moment, and he had caught it again; and with it this time came recollection in fullest flood.

Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all one way! Why, it must be quite close by him at that moment, his old home that he had hurriedly forsaken and never sought again, that day when he first found the River! And now it was sending out its scouts and its messengers to capture him and bring him in. Since his escape on that bright morning he had hardly given it a thought, so absorbed had he been in his new life, in all its pleasures, its surprises, its fresh and captivating experiences. Now, with a rush of old memories, how clearly it stood up before him, in the darkness! Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet his, the home he had made for himself, the home he had been so happy to get back to after his day's work. And the home had been happy with him, too, evidently, and was missing him, and wanted him back, and was telling him so, through his nose, sorrowfully, reproachfully, but with no bitterness or anger; only with plaintive reminder that it was there, and wanted him.

The call was clear, the summons was plain. He must obey it instantly, and go. "Ratty!" he called, full of joyful excitement, "hold on! Come back! I want you, quick!"

"Oh, come along, Mole, do!" replied the Rat cheerfully, still plodding along.

"Please stop, Ratty!" pleaded the poor Mole, in anguish of heart. "You don't understand! It's my home, my old home! I've just come across the smell of it, and it's close by here, really quite close. And I must go to it, I must, I must! Oh, come back, Ratty! Please, please come back!"

The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too far to hear clearly what the Mole was calling, too far to catch the sharp note of painful appeal in his voice. And he was much taken up with the weather, for he too, could smell something—something suspiciously like approaching snow.

"Mole, we mustn't stop now, really!" he called back. "We'll come for it to-morrow, whatever it is you've found. But I daren't stop now—it's late, and the snow's coming on again, and I'm not sure of the way! And I want your nose, Mole, so come on quick, there's a good fellow!" And the Rat pressed forward on his way without waiting for an answer.

Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, and a big sob gathering, gathering, somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to the surface presently, he knew, in passionate escape. But even under such a test as this his loyalty to his friend stood firm. Never for a moment did he dream of abandoning him. Meanwhile, the wafts from his old home pleaded, whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him imperiously. He dared not tarry longer within their magic circle. With a wrench that tore his very heart-strings he set his face down the road and followed submissively in the track of the Rat, while faint, thin little smells, still dogging his retreating nose, reproached him for his new friendship and his callous forgetfulness.

With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting Rat, who began chattering cheerfully about what they would do when they got back, and how jolly a fire of logs in the parlour would be, and what a supper he meant to eat; never noticing his companion's silence and distressful state of mind. At last, however, when they had gone some considerable way further, and were passing some tree stumps at the edge of a copse that bordered the road, he stopped and said kindly, "Look here, Mole, old chap, you seem dead tired. No talk left in you, and your feet dragging like lead. We'll sit down here for a minute and rest.

The Wind in the Willows (10) El viento en los sauces (10) Le vent dans les saules (10) 柳に風 (10) O Vento nos Salgueiros (10) 柳林风声 (10)

" The Rat was nevertheless still anxious to be off and attend to his river, so the Badger, taking up his lantern again, led the way along a damp and airless tunnel that wound and dipped, part vaulted, part hewn through solid rock, for a weary distance that seemed to be miles. 「 老鼠仍然急於離開去照顧他的河流,所以獾再次拿起燈籠,沿著一條潮濕、不通風的隧道引路,這條隧道蜿蜒曲折,部分是拱形的,部分是在堅硬的岩石中鑿開的,因為一段令人疲憊的距離,似乎有幾英里。 At last daylight began to show itself confusedly through tangled growth overhanging the mouth of the passage; and the Badger, bidding them a hasty good-bye, pushed them hurriedly through the opening, made everything look as natural as possible again, with creepers, brushwood, and dead leaves, and retreated. 最後,日光開始從通道口懸垂的糾結植物中模糊地顯現出來。獾匆匆向他們道別,匆匆把他們推過洞口,讓爬山虎、灌木叢和枯葉讓一切看起來盡可能自然,然後撤退了。

They found themselves standing on the very edge of the Wild Wood. 他們發現自己正站在荒林的邊緣。 Rocks and brambles and tree-roots behind them, confusedly heaped and tangled; in front, a great space of quiet fields, hemmed by lines of hedges black on the snow, and, far ahead, a glint of the familiar old river, while the wintry sun hung red and low on the horizon. 他們身後的岩石、荊棘和樹根,雜亂地堆積在一起,糾纏在一起;前方是一大片安靜的田野,周圍是雪地上一排排黑色的樹籬,前方遠處,熟悉的古老河流閃閃發光,而冬日的紅色太陽低垂在地平線上。 The Otter, as knowing all the paths, took charge of the party, and they trailed out on a bee-line for a distant stile. 水獺知道所有的路徑,所以指揮了這群人,他們沿著一條直線走向遠處的柵欄。 Pausing there a moment and looking back, they saw the whole mass of the Wild Wood, dense, menacing, compact, grimly set in vast white surroundings; simultaneously they turned and made swiftly for home, for firelight and the familiar things it played on, for the voice, sounding cheerily outside their window, of the river that they knew and trusted in all its moods, that never made them afraid with any amazement. 在那裡停留了一會兒,回頭一看,他們看到了整片野林,濃密、險惡、緊湊,陰森地坐落在廣闊的白色環境中;同時,他們轉身迅速回家,為了火光和它所播放的熟悉的東西,為了窗外歡快地響起的聲音,他們熟悉並信任這條河的所有情緒,這條河從來沒有讓他們感到驚訝和害怕。

As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden-plot. 當他匆匆前行,熱切地期待著再次回到家,置身於他所熟悉和喜歡的事物之中時,鼴鼠清楚地看到,他是一隻耕種過的田野和樹籬的動物,與犁過的犁溝、常光顧的牧場、傍晚留戀的小巷,耕種的花園。 For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their way, to last for a lifetime. 對其他人來說,粗暴、頑強的忍耐力,或是實際衝突的衝突,都是與大自然相伴的。他必須是明智的,必須留在他的路線所佈設的令人愉快的地方,這些地方以他們的方式充滿冒險,足以持續一生。

V DULCE DOMUM V杜爾塞多姆 THE sheep ran huddling together against the hurdles, blowing out thin nostrils and stamping with delicate fore-feet, their heads thrown back and a light steam rising from the crowded sheep-pen into the frosty air, as the two animals hastened by in high spirits, with much chatter and laughter. 羊群擠在欄桿上奔跑,鼻孔張開,前腳嬌嫩,頭向後仰,一股淡淡的蒸汽從擁擠的羊圈裡升到寒冷的空氣中,兩隻動物興高采烈地匆匆走過。 ,充滿了歡聲笑語。 They were returning across country after a long day's outing with Otter, hunting and exploring on the wide uplands, where certain streams tributary to their own River had their first small beginnings; and the shades of the short winter day were closing in on them, and they had still some distance to go. 他們與水獺一起郊遊了一整天,在廣闊的高地上打獵和探險,之後正穿越鄉村返回,那裡有一些屬於他們自己的河流的支流,在那裡有了最初的小起點;短暫的冬日的陰影正在逼近他們,他們還有一段路要走。 Plodding at random across the plough, they had heard the sheep and had made for them; and now, leading from the sheep-pen, they found a beaten track that made walking a lighter business, and responded, moreover, to that small inquiring something which all animals carry inside them, saying unmistakably, "Yes, quite right; this leads home!" 他們緩慢地走過犁田,聽到羊叫聲,便朝羊群走去。現在,從羊圈出來,他們發現了一條人跡罕至的小路,使步行變得更輕鬆,而且,他們對所有動物都攜帶的那種小小的詢問做出了回應,明確地說:「是的,完全正確;這導致了家!”

"It looks as if we were coming to a village," said the Mole somewhat dubiously, slackening his pace, as the track, that had in time become a path and then had developed into a lane, now handed them over to the charge of a well-metalled road. 「看來我們要到一個村莊了,」鼴鼠有點懷疑地說,放慢了腳步,因為那條軌道及時變成了一條小路,然後又發展成了一條小巷,現在把他們交給了一條鋪滿金屬的道路 The animals did not hold with villages, and their own highways, thickly frequented as they were, took an independent course, regardless of church, post-office, or public-house. 這些動物與村莊格格不入,它們自己的高速公路雖然人流頻繁,卻走著獨立的路線,不管教堂、郵局或酒館。

"Oh, never mind!" said the Rat. "At this season of the year they're all safe indoors by this time, sitting round the fire; men, women, and children, dogs and cats and all. 「每年這個季節,男人、女人、孩子、狗、貓等等,他們都安全地待在室內,圍坐在火邊。 We shall slip through all right, without any bother or unpleasantness, and we can have a look at them through their windows if you like, and see what they're doing." 我們會順利地溜過去,沒有任何麻煩或不愉快,如果你願意的話,我們可以透過他們的窗戶看看他們,看看他們在做什麼。”

The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery snow. 十二月中旬的夜色迅速降臨,他們踩著第一場薄薄的粉雪邁著柔軟的腳步接近這個小村莊。 Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either side of the street, where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed through the casements into the dark world without. 除了街道兩旁暗淡的橙紅色方塊外,什麼也看不見,每間小屋的火光或燈光都透過窗戶溢出到外面黑暗的世界。 Most of the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea-table, absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall capture—the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of observation. 大多數低矮的格子窗都沒有百葉窗,對於從外面看進去的人來說,囚犯們聚集在茶几周圍,全神貫注地做手工,或者笑著和手勢交談,每個人都有一種幸福的優雅,這是最後的幸福。熟練的演員應該捕捉到的東西——與完美的無意識觀察相伴的自然優雅。 Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end of a smouldering log. 兩位遠離家鄉的觀眾隨意地從一個劇院搬到另一個劇院,看著一隻貓被撫摸,一個昏昏欲睡的孩子被抱起來蜷縮在床上,或者一個疲憊的男人伸懶腰,他們的眼中流露出渴望的神情。並在悶燒的木頭上敲掉他的煙鬥。

But it was from one little window, with its blind drawn down, a mere blank transparency on the night, that the sense of home and the little curtained world within walls—the larger stressful world of outside Nature shut out and forgotten—most pulsated. 但正是從一扇拉下百葉窗的小窗戶,在夜色中只剩下一片空白的透明感,家的感覺和牆內的小世界——外面大自然的更大壓力世界被拒之門外和被遺忘──才最有脈動。 Close against the white blind hung a bird-cage, clearly silhouetted, every wire, perch, and appurtenance distinct and recognisable, even to yesterday's dull-edged lump of sugar. 靠近白色百葉窗的地方掛著一個鳥籠,鳥籠的輪廓清晰可見,每一根電線、棲息處和附屬物都清晰可辨,甚至連昨天那塊邊緣暗淡的糖塊也清晰可辨。 On the middle perch the fluffy occupant, head tucked well into feathers, seemed so near to them as to be easily stroked, had they tried; even the delicate tips of his plumped-out plumage pencilled plainly on the illuminated screen. 在中間的棲木上,毛茸茸的居住者,頭深深地塞進羽毛裡,似乎離他們很近,只要他們嘗試的話,很容易被撫摸。甚至他那豐滿羽毛的精緻尖端也清晰地顯示在發光的屏幕上。 As they looked, the sleepy little fellow stirred uneasily, woke, shook himself, and raised his head. 當他們看著時,那個昏昏欲睡的小傢伙不安地動了動,醒了,搖了搖頭,抬起了頭。 They could see the gape of his tiny beak as he yawned in a bored sort of way, looked round, and then settled his head into his back again, while the ruffled feathers gradually subsided into perfect stillness. 他們可以看到他的小喙張開,他無聊地打著哈欠,環顧四周,然後又把頭靠在背上,而豎起的羽毛逐漸歸於完全的靜止。 Then a gust of bitter wind took them in the back of the neck, a small sting of frozen sleet on the skin woke them as from a dream, and they knew their toes to be cold and their legs tired, and their own home distant a weary way. 這時,一陣刺骨的寒風吹到了他們的後頸,皮膚上的冰凍雨夾雪的一陣刺痛,把他們從夢中驚醒,他們知道腳趾冷,雙腿疲倦,而自己的家卻遠在天邊。疲倦的方式。

Once beyond the village, where the cottages ceased abruptly, on either side of the road they could smell through the darkness the friendly fields again; and they braced themselves for the last long stretch, the home stretch, the stretch that we know is bound to end, some time, in the rattle of the door-latch, the sudden firelight, and the sight of familiar things greeting us as long-absent travellers from far over-sea. 一旦出了村子,村舍突然消失了,在路的兩邊,他們又可以在黑暗中聞到友善的田野的味道了。他們為最後一段漫長的旅程做好了準備,衝刺,我們知道這段旅程必然會在某個時候結束,在門閂的嘎嘎聲中,在突然的火光中,在熟悉的事物迎接我們的景像中-沒有來自遠方的旅客。 They plodded along steadily and silently, each of them thinking his own thoughts. 他們默默地緩慢前行,每個人都在思考自己的想法。 The Mole's ran a good deal on supper, as it was pitch-dark, and it was all a strange country for him as far as he knew, and he was following obediently in the wake of the Rat, leaving the guidance entirely to him. 鼴鼠一家忙著吃晚飯,因為天色漆黑,據他所知,這對他來說是一個陌生的國家,他順從地跟在老鼠的後面,把引導完全交給他。 As for the Rat, he was walking a little way ahead, as his habit was, his shoulders humped, his eyes fixed on the straight grey road in front of him; so he did not notice poor Mole when suddenly the summons reached him, and took him like an electric shock. 至於河鼠,他一如既往地走在前面不遠的地方,聳著肩膀,眼睛盯著前面筆直的灰色道路;因此,當召喚突然降臨到他身上時,他並沒有註意到可憐的鼴鼠,他就像受到了電擊一樣。

We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical senses, have not even proper terms to express an animal's inter-communications with his surroundings, living or otherwise, and have only the word "smell," for instance, to include the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in the nose of the animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling. 我們其他人早已失去了更微妙的身體感官,甚至沒有合適的術語來表達動物與周圍環境(無論是活的還是其他的)的相互交流,只有“氣味”這個詞,例如,包括各種微妙的刺激日夜在動物的鼻子裡低語,召喚、警告、煽動、排斥。 It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that suddenly reached Mole in the darkness, making him tingle through and through with its very familiar appeal, even while yet he could not clearly remember what it was. 正是來自虛空的神秘仙子呼喚聲,突然傳到了黑暗中的鼴鼠身上,讓他渾身顫抖,那熟悉的呼喚聲讓他渾身顫抖,儘管他已經記不清那是什麼了。 He stopped dead in his tracks, his nose searching hither and thither in its efforts to recapture the fine filament, the telegraphic current, that had so strongly moved him. 他停下腳步,用鼻子東張西望,努力重新捕捉曾經強烈感動過他的細絲,即電報電流。 A moment, and he had caught it again; and with it this time came recollection in fullest flood. 過了一會兒,他又抓住了它;隨之而來的是最充分的回憶。

Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those soft touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and tugging, all one way! 這就是他們的意思,那些愛撫的懇求,那些在空氣中飄蕩的輕柔的觸碰,那些看不見的小手的拉扯,一路! Why, it must be quite close by him at that moment, his old home that he had hurriedly forsaken and never sought again, that day when he first found the River! 哎呀,那一刻,他一定就在很近的地方,就是他第一次發現河流的那一天,匆匆拋棄而不再尋找的故鄉! And now it was sending out its scouts and its messengers to capture him and bring him in. 現在它正在派出偵察兵和信差去抓他並把他帶進來。 Since his escape on that bright morning he had hardly given it a thought, so absorbed had he been in his new life, in all its pleasures, its surprises, its fresh and captivating experiences. 自從在那個陽光明媚的早晨逃走以來,他幾乎沒有想過這件事,他全神貫注於他的新生活,沉浸在它的所有樂趣、驚喜、新鮮而迷人的經歷中。 Now, with a rush of old memories, how clearly it stood up before him, in the darkness! 現在,隨著舊日記憶的湧動,它在黑暗中多麼清晰地矗立在他面前! Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet his, the home he had made for himself, the home he had been so happy to get back to after his day's work. 確實很破舊,又小又簡陋,但他的家,他為自己建造的家,他在一天的工作後很高興回到家。 And the home had been happy with him, too, evidently, and was missing him, and wanted him back, and was telling him so, through his nose, sorrowfully, reproachfully, but with no bitterness or anger; only with plaintive reminder that it was there, and wanted him. 顯然,家裡對他也很滿意,想念他,希望他回來,並透過他的鼻子告訴他這些,悲傷,責備,但沒有痛苦或憤怒;只是哀傷地提醒它就在那裡,並且想要他。

The call was clear, the summons was plain. 呼喚是明確的,召喚是明確的。 He must obey it instantly, and go. "Ratty!" he called, full of joyful excitement, "hold on! Come back! I want you, quick!"

"Oh, come along, Mole, do!" replied the Rat cheerfully, still plodding along.

"Please stop, Ratty!" pleaded the poor Mole, in anguish of heart. "You don't understand! It's my home, my old home! I've just come across the smell of it, and it's close by here, really quite close. And I must go to it, I must, I must! Oh, come back, Ratty! Please, please come back!"

The Rat was by this time very far ahead, too far to hear clearly what the Mole was calling, too far to catch the sharp note of painful appeal in his voice. And he was much taken up with the weather, for he too, could smell something—something suspiciously like approaching snow.

"Mole, we mustn't stop now, really!" he called back. "We'll come for it to-morrow, whatever it is you've found. But I daren't stop now—it's late, and the snow's coming on again, and I'm not sure of the way! And I want your nose, Mole, so come on quick, there's a good fellow!" And the Rat pressed forward on his way without waiting for an answer.

Poor Mole stood alone in the road, his heart torn asunder, and a big sob gathering, gathering, somewhere low down inside him, to leap up to the surface presently, he knew, in passionate escape. But even under such a test as this his loyalty to his friend stood firm. Never for a moment did he dream of abandoning him. Meanwhile, the wafts from his old home pleaded, whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him imperiously. ||飄來的氣息|||||||||||| He dared not tarry longer within their magic circle. |||逗留||||| With a wrench that tore his very heart-strings he set his face down the road and followed submissively in the track of the Rat, while faint, thin little smells, still dogging his retreating nose, reproached him for his new friendship and his callous forgetfulness.

With an effort he caught up to the unsuspecting Rat, who began chattering cheerfully about what they would do when they got back, and how jolly a fire of logs in the parlour would be, and what a supper he meant to eat; never noticing his companion's silence and distressful state of mind. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||痛苦的||| At last, however, when they had gone some considerable way further, and were passing some tree stumps at the edge of a copse that bordered the road, he stopped and said kindly, "Look here, Mole, old chap, you seem dead tired. No talk left in you, and your feet dragging like lead. We'll sit down here for a minute and rest.