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Chapter Eleven Toad1 Learns a Lesson
After all the Weasels had run away, Badger2 said, “All right, Toad, we’ve gotten your house back for you. Now we are hungry. Why don’t you go and find something to eat?”
Toad was a little annoyed3 at this. Why didn’t Badger tell him how brave and strong he was? He had attacked the leader of the Weasels. However, Toad was hungry too. So he went into the kitchen and tried to find something for them to eat. Fortunately the Weasels had left a lot of food. There was a cold chicken and some bread and cheese.
Badger, Toad and Rat were just about to sit down to eat when the kitchen door opened. Mole4 ran into the room.
“I found some little Weasels hiding in the house. They were very, very afraid of us. I didn’t want to hurt them, but I made them go upstairs and clean the bedrooms. Now, we’ve all got nice clean beds to sleep in tonight.”
“That’s excellent, Mole!” cried Badger. “I knew I could trust you to do the intelligent thing.”
Toad envied5 Mole a little. Badger wasn’t saying such nice things to him, but then Toad realized that Mole and all his other friends were working hard for him. They cared about him and they wanted him to have his house back. Toad did not feel envious6 any more.
He said, “Thank you, dear Mole and Badger and Rat. Thank you for all your trouble and hard work tonight.”
The Badger was very pleased.
He said, “There spoke7 my brave Toad.”
After eating all the animals went to bed because they were very tired.
The next morning Toad woke up very late. When he went down to the kitchen, he saw that everyone else had already eaten. Mole and Rat were sitting outside in the warm sunshine. They were laughing and telling stories. Badger was sitting in the kitchen reading.
“Toad!” he said, “There is a lot of work for you to do today. Since we have won the fight against the Weasels, we must have a celebration8. You must send invitations to all our friends. It is the custom, you know.”
Toad didn’t want to do any work.
He said, “Badger, how can you expect me to work on a day like this? I’m going to walk around my property9 and make sure all my servants are all right. I’m not going to stay inside and write a lot of letters.”
But then Toad saw how Badger was looking at him.
He said quickly, “Well, all right, Badger. I’ll stay inside and write letters. I’ll do anything for my friends. That’s what I always say.”
So Toad stayed inside all morning. He wrote letters to all the animals in the neighborhood. While he was writing he had an idea for the party. He would give speeches and sing songs. Toad always enjoyed himself at his parties. Everyone paid attention to him. So Toad wrote a plan for the party. There would be speeches and songs all by him.
When Rat and Mole returned to Toad Hall that afternoon, Toad was in a very good mood. His friends were surprised. They thought Toad would be in a bad mood because he had had to work all day.
Badger said, “Well, Toad, have you written the letters? I just ordered all the food for the party.”
“Yes, I’ll send the invitations today. Now, here is the plan for the party.” said Toad.
He gave them the piece of paper with the program on it. The other three animals read it.
Then Rat looked at Toad sadly, “Toad, you must understand something. At this party you will not give any speeches and you will not sing songs. You know that your songs are only about how great you are. When you give a speech, it is to praise yourself. Please understand that we don’t want that! Everyone will laugh at you. We are not asking you! We are just telling you!”
The Rat felt terrible about saying these things to his friend, but he needed to tell Toad the truth.
Toad said sadly, “Oh, Rat, couldn’t I sing just one little song? I love to sing and give speeches.”
“No, not even one!” said Rat, “This hurts me to say more than it hurts you to hear, Toad.”
Toad sat there for a long time. His head was down. His friends looked at him quietly. When he looked at them he looked like a different Toad.
“My friends,” he said very sadly, “you are right and I am wrong. I wanted everyone to pay attention to me one last time. But I know that my talking and singing would embarrass10 you. So from now on I will be a very different Toad. Oh, this is a very hard world!”
Then Toad slowly walked out of the room.
Rat said, “Badger, I feel terrible. How do you feel?”
“I feel terrible too.” said Badger. “But you did the right thing, Rat. Toad must change his ways. We are his friends. I will want him to lead a good life. We want the other animals to respect him.”
The next day was the party. Toad sat in his room. He was thinking about everything that had happened. At first, he was sad. But soon he began to smile and feel better. Then he had another idea. He jumped up and loudly sang a song about himself. He pretended11 there were other animals in the room watching him. After he finished singing, he felt a lot better.
When the party began, Toad walked quietly down the stairs. All his friends were waiting for him. There were many guests at the party. Everyone went to greet Toad. They were surprised to see that he was so quiet. Some of the animals said things like “there’s our brave Toad!” “Toad, you must tell us the whole story”.
When Otter12 saw Toad he shouted happily, “There is the fighter!”
But Toad only said, “No, no, I didn’t do anything. It was Badger, Rat and Mole who did all of the fighting. Let them tell the whole story.”
Toad’s friends were amazed13. Badger and Rat couldn’t stop staring at Toad. It seemed that he had really changed. For the rest of the night, Toad was very quiet and calm. He asked all the guests about their families.
Soon it was time to eat dinner. There was a lot of food and it was very delicious. After the dinner, some of the animals said, “Toad, we want to hear a song or a speech.”
But Toad just shook his head.
“No, my friends. I don’t want to sing or make a speech. I’m just happy to have you all here.”
Toad saw how astonished14 Badger, Mole and Rat were. This made him happy.
After all these adventures the four animals lived very happily. They did many things together.
After talking with his friends Toad sent a gift to the girl who had helped him escape from the jail15. He gave her a beautiful golden16 necklace. Toad also sent some money to the woman whose horse he had stolen. He wrote both of these women very nice letters.
Often the four friends would walk through the Wild Forest together. Now the Wild Forest was very safe.
When the Weasels saw them pass by, they would say to their children, “Look, there go four brave fighters.”
Sometimes when the Weasel children were bad, their mothers would say, “If you are not good, the terrible great Badger and his friends will come and get you!”
When Mole, Rat, Toad and Badger heard about this, they thought it was very funny. They all like children. However the little Weasels believed their mothers. It was some time before they discovered that Badger and his friends were very nice animals after all.
The End
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1
toad
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| n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆 | |
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badger
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| v.一再烦扰，一再要求，纠缠 | |
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3
annoyed
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| adj.烦恼的，恼怒的，生气的，恼火的 | |
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mole
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| n.胎块；痣；克分子 | |
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envied
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| adj.被人妒忌的，被人羡慕的v.妒忌，羡慕( envy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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envious
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| adj.嫉妒的，羡慕的 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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celebration
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| n.庆祝，庆祝会；典礼 | |
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property
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| n.财产，所有物，所有权，性质，特性，（小）道具 | |
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embarrass
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| vt.使困窘，使局促不安，阻碍 | |
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pretended
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| adj.假装的；徒有外表的；传说的；号称的v.假装( pretend的过去式和过去分词 )；伪装；（尤指儿童）（在游戏中）装扮；自诩 | |
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otter
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| n.水獭 | |
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amazed
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| adj.吃惊的，惊奇的v.使大为吃惊，使惊奇( amaze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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astonished
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| adj.惊讶的 | |
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jail
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| n.监狱，看守所；vt.监禁，拘留 | |
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16
golden
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| adj.金的，含金的，可贵的，金色的，贵重的，繁盛的 | |
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