The Farthing Wood Collection 1 Read online

  ‘Are you seeking sanctuary here now?’ he asked. ‘You’d be wise to do so.’

  ‘In a way,’ replied the toad. ‘This is my home. I was born here in the pond. It’s spring and I’ve been travelling towards it since I came out of hibernation. During the summer I wander quite a way and last winter I hibernated outside the Park.’

  Kestrel was struck by the irony of the opposing directions Toad and the stranger had taken to return to their respective birthplaces, meeting in the middle, as it were, by the brook-side. ‘How strange,’ he murmured. The toad gave him a quizzical look which prompted him to explain.

  ‘Yes, that is the way of things,’ said the toad. ‘We didn’t speak. I was already in a jar when the young humans caught your friend. I believe he’d been swimming in the stream.’

  ‘So you are returning to mate?’ Kestrel asked.

  ‘Yes. I’m full of spawn at this time of year,’ replied the toad, revealing that she was a female. ‘When I’m paired the eggs will be released in the water and fertilized by my mate.’

  Kestrel glared at the toad. An idea had struck him. ‘I beg your pardon,’ he said. ‘I’m not an expert amphibia. I hadn’t realized you are a lady toad. What are you called?’

  ‘Paddock,’ she replied.

  ‘I’m delighted to have had this talk,’ said Kestrel. ‘And I think our friend will be interested to hear about it.’

  ‘May I say how grateful I am for my rescue,’ said Paddock. ‘Now my babies will be born in safety.’

  ‘I hope we may meet again,’ the hawk said courteously. ‘But now I’ll leave you to continue your journey.’ He spread his wings again.

  In the air he floated blissfully on warm currents, thinking hard. Unexpectedly, he had perhaps discovered the one thing that might keep Toad in White Deer Park. The pull of Farthing Pond could perhaps be surmounted by Toad’s desire for a mate.

  No sooner had Kestrel come to this conclusion than he went in search of Fox, who told him that Toad had been restored to them. The hawk described his discussion with Paddock and asked Fox’s opinion of his idea.

  ‘Kestrel, I really think you’ve hit upon something,’ he replied. ‘After all, the sole reason for these journeys of toads and frogs to their home ponds is to breed. We’ll introduce a dash of romance into our friend’s life.’

  ‘Where is Toad?’ asked Kestrel. ‘Perhaps we should intercept Paddock’s journey to the pond before any other male shows interest.’

  ‘A good point,’ acknowledged Fox. ‘Come on. He’s with Badger.’

  ‘By the set they found Toad talking to an excited Mole. Badger was doing the rounds of the Farthing Wood animals, now back in their individual homes, to tell them of the meeting in the Hollow.

  ‘Isn’t it grand to have Toad back?’ Mole chattered. ‘It’s just like old times.’

  ‘Did Badger get tired of carrying you?’ Fox asked Toad with a grin.

  ‘He made me get down,’ Toad said ruefully. ‘He said I was tugging at his coat so. It’s my grasping pads, you see.’ He held up his horny front feet, one at a time, to demonstrate. ‘They become very developed at this time of year. That’s so that we males can hang on tight to our mates and not get separated.’

  ‘Well, I think we can find something else for you to grasp on to,’ said Fox, delighted that Toad had unwittingly introduced the subject himself. ‘But first, you must hang on to me.’

  ‘Now it really is like old times,’ chuckled Toad. ‘Remember how you used to carry me on our journey here, Fox?’

  ‘Of course I do,’ said Fox. ‘Now, up you get. Ouch!’ He winced. ‘I see what Badger means. Ow! Well really, Toad, you didn’t grip as hard as this even when I rescued you from the fire.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Toad. ‘I’ll try not to tug too much. Where are we going?’

  ‘Wait and see,’ was the mysterious reply. ‘Now, Kestrel, which way please?’

  The lady toad had not progressed very far into the Park. She had paused to refresh herself with some insects and seemed to have settled down to digest them.

  Toad dismounted of his own accord by leaping from Fox’s back. ‘My, what a beauty!’ he exclaimed as he saw Paddock. He looked at Fox with a wry grin that seemed to express better than words what he thought of his friend. Fox grinned back and only stayed long enough to see Toad grasp the unprotesting Paddock firmly round her middle. He was amused to see how much larger than Toad she was as she waddled off with her affectionate burden on her way to the Pond.

  ‘Well I never,’ Fox laughed to himself. ‘And not a word exchanged! I wonder how Vixen would like me to be so matter of fact?’

  Kestrel also had been watching from the air. ‘I thought so,’ he muttered. ‘Easy as pie.’

  Some days later Adder was seen sunning himself in the Hollow.

  ‘Hallo, stranger!’ cried Weasel. ‘We’ve all been waiting for you to put in an appearance. We’re having a get-together.’

  ‘Very nice, I’m sure,’ remarked Adder. ‘But you are mistaken if you believe I came to this spot out of any gregarious tendency. The fact is I could no longer witness the shameless scenes in that Pond with equanimity.’

  ‘What are you talking about, Adder?’

  ‘The length and breadth of the water is alive with courting couples,’ he replied, ‘whether they be frogs, toads or newts.’

  ‘Well, naturally – it’s Spring,’ said Weasel. ‘Or hadn’t you realized?’

  ‘I’m quite aware of that,’ Adder snapped. ‘But they seem to have no regard at all for others in the area with the way they’re carrying on. Even Toad has been affected by it,’ he added primly.

  ‘This sounds to me like a touch of jealousy,’ Weasel remarked pointedly.

  ‘Rubbish,’ returned Adder. ‘It’s not a touch of anything except perhaps good breeding.’

  ‘More like a lack of breeding, in your case,’ Weasel rejoined wickedly.

  ‘If you’ll excuse me, I don’t care to converse in this manner,’ Adder told him, and began to slither away.

  ‘Don’t go!’ cried Weasel, who now regretted his unkind remark. ‘I didn’t mean what I said. I’m sorry. Please stay. We hardly ever see you.’

  Adder, never very susceptible to overtures of friendship, flickered his tongue in an uncertain manner. He hated to give signs of weakness. In the end he compromised. ‘I’m going on a hunting trip,’ he told Weasel. ‘I haven’t eaten for five months. But when I’ve managed to put a little plumpness behind my scales I’ll be back.’

  Weasel had to be content with this vague promise, and went to convey it to the rest of the community.

  ‘Well, at least he doesn’t intend to shun us completely,’ said Fox.

  ‘Best thing for him to do is to hunt himself up a nice female adder,’ Tawny Owl observed crustily. ‘She would take some of the starchiness out of him.’

  ‘Isn’t he a character, though?’ Vixen laughed. ‘He really is quite unique.’

  ‘Thank goodness for that,’ said Hare. ‘Just imagine two like him around.’

  ‘So it seems as if our celebration is to be delayed once more?’ said Badger. ‘I wonder when Toad will leave the Pond?’

  ‘Not till the mating season’s over,’ answered Fox, glancing a little coyly at Vixen. ‘And we know how long that goes on.’

  Back in White Deer Pond, Toad and Paddock were still united as she dived underwater to lay her eggs. Other toads had already done so, for strings of eggs could be seen wound round weed and plant-stem. But the offspring of Toad and Paddock were destined to start their tadpole life in a different setting. For these eggs, as they descended in the water, attached themselves to some very different objects sticking up from the mud: the rusting remains of two quite harmless shotguns.

  At last the day dawned when all the animals were ready to hold their celebration. Fox and Vixen made their way to the Hollow where many of their friends had already gathered. They could see Badger and Weasel chatting lightheartedly with Kestrel, while Hare and Ra
bbit exchanged views from the midst of their families. Toad, Adder and Tawny Owl had assembled on the lip of the Hollow and looked towards the pair of foxes as if awaiting their arrival.

  ‘Dear, dear friends,’ murmured Fox. ‘How glad I am to see them together again. I think we should count our blessings that so many of us are still here to take pleasure in each other’s company.’

  ‘Yes, indeed,’ said Vixen. ‘It’s due to our ties of friendship more than anything else that we were able to survive our troubles. Alone, it could have been another story.’

  Fox nodded. Now they could see the smaller animals bunching together in a corner of their meeting-place. Mole was there with the mice, the squirrels and the hedgehogs. In the air a familiar whistle heralded the arrival of their friend the heron.

  ‘A fond greeting to you all,’ said Whistler joyfully as he landed amongst the sprouting bracken. ‘This is a wonderful day!’

  ‘Then let’s make it one we shall always remember,’ said Fox. ‘So that, whatever may happen in the future, whatever fate may befall us, we shall remember that this day, together, we rejoiced to say that WE ARE ALIVE.’

  Also by Colin Dann

  The Farthing Wood

  Collection Volume I

  The Farthing Wood

  Collection Volume II

  Journey to Freedom

  Lion Country

  Just Nuffin

  Nobody’s Dog

  King of the Vagabonds

  City Cats

  Copycat

  The Beach Dogs

  FARTHING WOOD COLLECTION I

  AN RHCB DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 446 45322 3

  Published in Great Britain by RHCB Digital,

  an imprint of Random House Children’s Books

  A Random House Group Company

  This ebook edition published 2011

  Copyright © Farthing Wood, The Adventure Begins, Colin Dann, and In the Grip of Winter, Colin Dann 2011

  Illustrations copyright © Farthing Wood, The Adventure Begins, Trevor Newton 2011

  Illustrations copyright © In the Grip of Winter, Terry Riley 2011

  First Published in Great Britain

  Red Fox 978 0 099 41288 5 2011

  The right of Colin Dann to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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