Summer Time Memories of The Wind in the Willows

If you are lucky, you might, sometime in your life be moved to tears because of a mole, a toad, a rat, and a badger. And if you are especially lucky your two year old year old will love the story so much that he will laugh aloud and quote dialogue - "No pate de foie gras! no champagne!" - only to be answered by his five year old brother - "Self indulgent beggar you seem to be, Mole. Deny yourself nothing." And if you are not only lucky, but blessed besides, little things in your life - a leaf falling from a tree, a bird singing, a kettle whistling on the stove, a can of sardines - will cause memories of this story to come back to you, and you will be filled with warmth and lonnging for a country you have never seen. And if you are wise this book will teach you how to be a friend.













I have written about The Wind in the Willows before. It seems that every couple of weeks a change in the weather reminds me of something I've read in that book. Lately the weather has been summery and it reminded me of a summer day when Rat and Mole met...

‘Rat!’ he found breath to whisper, shaking. ‘Are you afraid?’
‘Afraid?’ murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. ‘Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet—and yet—O, Mole, I am afraid!’
Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.

If you haven't read this book, I want you to buy it now. (Yes. In hardcover because you are going to read it and re-read it many times.) This is a very important book. You don't believe me? Here is What A.A. Milne said about it...

"One can argue over the merits of most books, and in arguing understand the point of view of one's opponent ... One does not argue about The Wind in the Willows. The young man gives it to the girl with whom he is in love, and if she does not like it, asks her to return his letters. The older man tries it on his nephew, and alters his will accordingly. It is ... a book that is read aloud to every new guest, and regarded as a touchstone of his worth

And he is right.