--- title: The Wind in the Willows, chapter X, part 1: The Further Adventures of Toad (free, the canal and the barge-woman's washing) — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The Wind in the Willows, chapter X, part 1: The Further Adventures of Toad (free, the canal and the barge-woman's washing)», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Toad wakes in the hollow tree where he hid after --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/) [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 X, pa… # The Wind in the Willows, chapter X, part 1: The Further Adventures of Toad (free, the canal and the barge-woman's washing) Lesson 61 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 23 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/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/0/) — Toad wakes in the hollow tree where he hid after jumping off the train. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/1/) — His toes are freezing, and he dreams that his bedclothes have run downstairs to the kitchen fire to get warm. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/2/) — Then he remembers the best thing of all: he is free! - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/3/) — «The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets.» - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/4/) — It is an early summer morning and he has the whole world to himself, but nothing can tell him the way home. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/5/) — He finds a road, then a canal running beside it, and he thinks: they must both be coming from somewhere and going to somewhere. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/6/) — So he follows the water. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/7/) — A horse comes along the tow-path pulling a barge, steered by a big stout woman in a sun-bonnet. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/8/) — Toad, still dressed as a washerwoman, tells her a sad made-up story: a married daughter in trouble near Toad Hall, his washing business left behind, all his money lost. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/9/) — She kindly offers him a lift, and Toad thinks: «Toad's luck again! - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/10/) — I always come out on top!» - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/11/) — But Toad boasts too much. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/12/) — He says he loves washing and is never so happy as with both arms in the wash-tub — so the barge-woman gives him a heap of her washing to do. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/13/) — He tries coaxing it, slapping it, punching it; his back aches, his proud paws go crinkly, he loses the soap for the fiftieth time. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/14/) — Then he hears loud laughter: she has been watching him all along. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/16/) — He had slept for weeks «on straw over stone flags» in prison, so he had almost forgotten how nice thick blankets are. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/17/) — The word and the thought alone were worth fifty blankets.» (worth fifty blankets = it warmed him more than fifty blankets could) - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/19/) — Toad's reasoning: «They must both be coming from somewhere, and going to somewhere. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/21/) — A barge is a long flat boat on a canal; here a horse walking on the tow-path (the path beside the canal) pulls it with a long rope, and the barge-woman steers with the tiller (the handle of the rudder). - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/25/) — Her husband has gone off with the dog to catch a rabbit for dinner and is supposed to meet her at the next lock (a lock is a section of canal with gates that lifts or lowers boats). - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/26/) — She asks Toad to wash some of her things; Toad, frightened, offers to steer instead, but she says «It takes some practice to steer a barge properly.» - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/28/) — Old words: «I dare say» = I suppose; «post-haste» = in a great hurry; «humbug» = a fake, a pretender; «a dish-clout» = a dishcloth; «I'll lay» = I bet. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/61-willows-ch10-part1-the-barge-woman/29/) — The barge-woman laughs till she cries: «I thought you must be a humbug all along, from the conceited way you talked.» - ← previous: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter IX, part 5: Wayfarers All (the spell, the Mole and the cure)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/60-willows-ch9-part5-the-call-and-the-cure/) - next →: [The Wind in the Willows, chapter X, part 2: The Further Adventures of Toad (into the canal, the stolen horse and «a shilling a leg»)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/62-willows-ch10-part2-a-shilling-a-leg/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)