The Tale of Mr. Tod | Page 4

the sand from
his ears; he cleaned his face with his paws. Every minute the sun shone
warmer on the top of the hill. In the valley there was a sea of white mist,
with golden tops of trees showing through.
Again from the fields down below in the mist there came the angry cry
of a jay--followed by the sharp yelping bark of a fox!

Then those two rabbits lost their heads completely. They did the most
foolish thing that they could have done. They rushed into their short
new tunnel, and hid themselves at the top end of it, under Mr. Tod's
kitchen floor.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Mr. Tod was coming up Bull Banks, and he was in the very worst of
tempers. First he had been upset by breaking the plate. It was his own
fault; but it was a china plate, the last of the dinner service that had
belonged to his grandmother, old Vixen Tod. Then the midges had
been very bad. And he had failed to catch a hen pheasant on her nest;
and it had contained only five eggs, two of them addled. Mr. Tod had
had an unsatisfactory night.
[Illustration]
As usual, when out of humour, he determined to move house. First he
tried the pollard willow, but it was damp; and the otters had left a dead
fish near it. Mr. Tod likes nobody's leavings but his own.
He made his way up the hill; his temper was not improved by noticing
unmistakable marks of badger. No one else grubs up the moss so
wantonly as Tommy Brock.
[Illustration]
Mr. Tod slapped his stick upon the earth and fumed; he guessed where
Tommy Brock had gone to. He was further annoyed by the jay bird
which followed him persistently. It flew from tree to tree and scolded,
warning every rabbit within hearing that either a cat or a fox was
coming up the plantation. Once when it flew screaming over his
head--Mr. Tod snapped at it, and barked.
He approached his house very carefully, with a large rusty key. He
sniffed and his whiskers bristled. The house was locked up, but Mr.

Tod had his doubts whether it was empty. He turned the rusty key in
the lock; the rabbits below could hear it. Mr. Tod opened the door
cautiously and went in.
[Illustration]
The sight that met Mr. Tod's eyes in Mr. Tod's kitchen made Mr. Tod
furious. There was Mr. Tod's chair, and Mr. Tod's pie dish, and his
knife and fork and mustard and salt cellar and his table-cloth that he
had left folded up in the dresser--all set out for supper (or
breakfast)--without doubt for that odious Tommy Brock.
There was a smell of fresh earth and dirty badger, which fortunately
overpowered all smell of rabbit.
But what absorbed Mr. Tod's attention was a noise--a deep slow regular
snoring grunting noise, coming from his own bed.
He peeped through the hinges of the half-open bedroom door. Then he
turned and came out of the house in a hurry. His whiskers bristled and
his coat-collar stood on end with rage.
[Illustration]
For the next twenty minutes Mr. Tod kept creeping cautiously into the
house, and retreating hurriedly out again. By degrees he ventured
further in--right into the bedroom. When he was outside the house, he
scratched up the earth with fury. But when he was inside--he did not
like the look of Tommy Brock's teeth.
He was lying on his back with his mouth open, grinning from ear to ear.
He snored peacefully and regularly; but one eye was not perfectly shut.
Mr. Tod came in and out of the bedroom. Twice he brought in his
walking-stick, and once he brought in the coal-scuttle. But he thought
better of it, and took them away.
[Illustration]

When he came back after removing the coal-scuttle, Tommy Brock was
lying a little more sideways; but he seemed even sounder asleep. He
was an incurably indolent person; he was not in the least afraid of Mr.
Tod; he was simply too lazy and comfortable to move.
Mr. Tod came back yet again into the bedroom with a clothes line. He
stood a minute watching Tommy Brock and listening attentively to the
snores. They were very loud indeed, but seemed quite natural.
Mr. Tod turned his back towards the bed, and undid the window. It
creaked; he turned round with a jump. Tommy Brock, who had opened
one eye--shut it hastily. The snores continued.
[Illustration]
Mr. Tod's proceedings were peculiar, and rather uneasy, (because the
bed was between the window and the door of the bedroom). He opened
the window a little way, and pushed out the greater part of the clothes
line on to the window sill. The rest of the line, with a hook at