The Willows at Christmas - William Horwood, ebook
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//-->THE TALES OF THE WILLOWSBy Kenneth GrahameThe Wind in the WillowsBy William HorwoodThe Willows in WinterToad TriumphantThe Willows and BeyondThe Willows at ChristmasALSO BY WILLIAM HORWOODThe Duncton Wood seriesThe Stonor EaglesCallanishSkallagriggThe Wolves of TimeWILLIAM HORWOODThe Willows atChristmasIllustrated by Patrick BensonIMr Mole Takes Action“O my!” murmured Mr Mole of Mole End most unhappily as he stoked uphis coal fire against the bitter December night. “Odear!”There were only three days till Christmas Eve, but the Mole seemed tohave quite lost all sense of seasonal excitement and good cheer. He tracedhis unwonted festive malaise directly back to a tea—timetête à têtehe hadhad with his new friend Mr Toad of Toad Hall at the beginning ofDecember.Mole had been looking forward to this occasion with greatanticipation. He had prepared well in advance, taking with him a greetingscard he had made himself, as well as some of those festive sweetmeats heso expertly concocted in his kitchen. He was naturally a little surprised,therefore, that an unusually subdued Toad barely glanced at the card solovingly made, and hardly picked at the sweetmeats.The kind-hearted Mole put this down to there being something on themind of Toad, whose changeable emotions, sudden enthusiasms andimpulsive likes and dislikes were so well known along the River Bank.However, when a lull in the conversation prompted the Mole to producehis diary so that he might discuss with his host his idea of entertainingtheir mutual friends Badger, Ratty and Otter to a festive celebration atMole End, with Toad as guest of honour, an alarming change overtookToad.He frowned, shook his head, folded his arms across his chest anddeclared, “Absolutely impossible! Ineveraccept engagements over thefestive season!”He said this with such force that poor Mole felt he had committed acrime even to suggest such an idea.“Mole,” continued Toad very seriously, “I could not possibly seeanyone over Christmas. For one thing, I shall have relatives staying andthey, or rather she, would not approve. Added to which, there is the plainfact that for me this is not and can never again be a time to celebrate, as Iwould have thought you might have known. No, no! It is quite impossible!Indeed, I feel most upset that you should spoil our tea by suggesting sucha thing!”With this, Toad took out his red spotted handkerchief and dabbed athis eyes with an apparently genuine show of misery and grief.“But, Toad...” began the bewildered Mole, “I simply — I mean to say— Odear!”
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