Downstream

with a gurgle and leaving
them with a laugh’ – is as
much a character as Mole,
Ratty, Badger and Mr Toad.
It is Ratty’s world and he
wouldn’t want any other,
from the ‘shock of the early
plunge’ in the morning to the
bathing of an afternoon,
radiant by day yet full of
mystery and even terror at
night. It is the place of his
‘song-dream’, striking awe
into everyone who beholds it.