104 THE FAITHFUL READER For his part, Rat feels no desire to experience anything else: he believes there is no better life to be had. When Mole asks if it is true that he really lives along the river, he sermonizes on its sufficiency: “‘By it and with it and on it and in it,’ said the Rat. ‘It’s brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and (naturally) washing. It’s my world, and I don’t want any other. What it hasn’t got is not worth having, and what it doesn’t know is not worth knowing.’” He cautions Mole against fanciful longing. When his friend wishes to know what lies beyond, Rat tries to dissuade his interest by hinting at the dangers of the Wild Wood. But when Mole persists, he becomes firmer: “‘Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,’ said the Rat. `And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all. Don’t ever refer to it again, please.’” But Mole’s curiosity is not so easily quelled. He desires to see more. He wants to meet Mr. Badger, about whom he has heard so much. But Rat continually puts him off. Finally, impatient with Rat’s cautiousness and stay-at-home contentment, Mole undertakes the journey to the Wild Wood on his own. He gets into a great deal of trouble from which good-hearted Rat endeavors to extract him. Mole also wished to be introduced to the famous Mr. Toad, the character most driven by a longing for the other. They find Toad full of exuberance over his current fitful obsession: a canary-colored caravan cart. “‘There’s real life for you, embodied in that little cart,” he expounds. “‘Here to-day, up and off to somewhere else to-morrow! Travel, change, interest, excitement!” Rat is disgusted by this latest fixture of Toad’s cycle of infatuation and abandonment, but he knows that it will not take long for this fad to change. When the cart is thrown into a ditch by a speeding car, Toad, far from being angry, is immediately entranced by this new, motorized vision. His mania will lead him to theft, imprisonment, disgrace, and the near-loss of his ancestral home.
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