--- title: The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 1: Wayfarers All (change in the air) — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 1: Wayfarers All (change in the air)», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The author says the countryside is like a big hotel at the end of the holiday season: the gue --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, p… # The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 1: Wayfarers All (change in the air) Lesson 56 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 19 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/1/) — The author says the countryside is like a big hotel at the end of the holiday season: the guests pack, pay and leave one by one, and those who stay on feel unsettled and a little cross — why can't everyone just stay and be jolly? - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/2/) — The Rat wanders into a field of tall wheat to visit his small friends there, but the field-mice and harvest-mice are all busy digging, packing trunks and studying plans of new little flats for the winter. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/3/) — They tell him to stop standing about idle and help; he invites them for a row or a picnic, and they say «perhaps some other day»; he trips over a hat-box, falls, and is told off for not looking where he is going. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/4/) — Grumpy and a bit lonely, the Rat goes back to his faithful old river, which never packs up, moves house or goes away for the winter. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/5/) — The chapter's name is «Wayfarers All»: wayfarers are travellers on foot, people on their way somewhere. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/6/) — It is the end of summer: «green had given way to gold» in the fields, and «rowans were reddening» (a rowan is a tree with bright red berries). - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/7/) — But «there was a feeling in the air of change and departure»: «The cuckoo, of course, had long been silent», and the robin was «beginning to assert himself once more» (robins sing again in autumn). - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/10/) — The stay-at-homes ask: «Why this craving for change? - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/11/) — Why not stay on quietly here, like us, and be jolly?» - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/12/) — «The Rat was a self-sufficing sort of animal, rooted to the land, and, whoever went, he stayed»; still he felt «some of its influence in his bones». - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/13/) — He wanders into «the great sea of wheat», a «forest of stiff strong stalks that carried their own golden sky away over his head». - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/15/) — Piles of «wheat, oats, barley, beech-mast and nuts» lie ready to be moved (beech-mast = the little nuts of the beech tree). - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/16/) — They cry: «Here's old Ratty! - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/17/) — Come and bear a hand, Rat, and don't stand about idle!» (bear a hand = help). - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/18/) — The Rat says: «You know it isn't time to be thinking of winter quarters yet, by a long way!» (winter quarters = a home for the winter). - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/19/) — A field-mouse explains they must move «before those horrid machines begin clicking round the fields» (the harvest machines), and because «the best flats get picked up so quickly nowadays». - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/20/) — The Rat suggests a row, a stroll or a picnic; the field-mouse answers: «Well, I think not to-day, thank you ... - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/21/) — Perhaps some other day — when we've more time». - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/56-willows-ch9-part1-change-in-the-air/23/) — Talk in this lesson: «salty» = annoyed; «hun» = dear; «yinz» (Pittsburgh) = you lot; «ginnel» (North England) = a narrow alley; «bostin'» (Black Country) = great. - ← previous: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter VIII, part 4: Toad's Adventures (the chase, the tunnel and the night wood)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/55-willows-ch8-part4-the-chase-and-the-tunnel/) - next →: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 2: Wayfarers All (the swallows and the call of the South)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/57-willows-ch9-part2-the-swallows/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)