The Wind in the Willows

Toad wakes to the morning sun. His feet are cold, and he rubs them to warm them up a bit. He walks down a road until it joins up with a canal. Shortly, a canal barge appears, pulled by a horse. A stout woman steers the boat. Toad walks alongside it in his washerwoman uniform, explaining that he’s in a hurry to visit his “married daughter”—who lives near Toad Hall—and must leave the rest of his children behind. The boat captain says she can give Toad a lift to a juncture near where he’s headed.

Toad climbs aboard. She asks about his work; still pretending to be a washerwoman, he explains how successful he is, with 20 girls doing most of the labor, but that he always loves washing clothes. The woman is glad to hear this, as she’s filling in for her husband on the boat and has a load of dirty clothes stored below that need cleaning. Toad can help her by washing that pile while she gets him to his destination.

Cornered, Toad offers instead to steer, but the woman insists that steering canal boats takes a lot of skill. Besides, she wants Toad to do the work he so loves.