The Wind in the Willows

Mole abandons his spring cleaning one morning, wanders down to the river and meets Rat, who introduces him to boats, picnics and life on the riverbank. Their friends are the gruff Badger in the Wild Wood and the rich, boastful Toad of Toad Hall, whose craze for motor cars ends in theft, prison and an escape dressed as a washerwoman. While Toad is away the weasels and stoats seize his house, and the four friends must take it back.

Kenneth Grahame, then Secretary of the Bank of England, grew the book out of bedtime stories for his son and published it in 1908. Eleven LibriVox volunteers share the twelve chapters, about six and a half hours, including the quiet, strange chapter called The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.