LONGING IN THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS 105 The Longing for Home The yearning for the new and undiscovered is balanced in the story by the powerful draw homeward. When the new becomes fatiguing or frightening, the familiar comforts of home begin to beckon. After their adventure in the Wild Wood, both Rat and Mole are more than ready to return to snug security. As they return, Mole meditates on belonging: “Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedge-row… he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough, in their way, to last for a lifetime.” This realization is followed swiftly by a summons home as commanding as that which had originally called him away. He is following Rat across the darkening fields, led by “that small inquiring something which all animals carry inside them, saying unmistakably, ‘Yes, quite right; this leads home!’” when he feels a pull. But this is not now the same voice that speaks to Rat: it is Mole’s old home pleading for his return. Mole experiences all the warmth of familiarity, but his love of home is now tempered by larger perspective. Its sanctuary is more desirable because it exists in the context of a larger world. Neither the one nor the other can fully satisfy on its own. Mole can never now relapse into insular contentment, but neither will he, like Toad, be led astray by the siren calls of novelty. He has found a harmony between the two: he is pulled, but not torn. The Longing for God But Rat and Mole will be struck with a longing that infinitely exceeds anything they have known in their normal lives. They are out searching for the son of their friend Otter, Little Portly, who has been missing for several days. Just as dawn is rising, Rat becomes mesmerized by a sound impinging upon the edge of his consciousness. He attempts to describe it to Mole: “‘O Mole! the beauty of it!....Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us.’” They are led to a small island in the river, which they approach with awe: “‘Here, in this holy place, here
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