肯尼斯·格雷厄姆（Kenneth Grahame）从英格兰银行的职业生涯中早早退休后，于20世纪初在泰晤士河（Thames River）度过了自己的日子，他一直在为女儿讲述睡前故事，这些故事都是他给女儿讲的一组拟人化的林地生物，这些故事被高度引用，后来被称为“柳树上的风。”

该系列将道德故事与神秘主义和冒险故事结合在一起，以富有想象力的散文优美地描绘了该地区的自然世界，自该系列改编以来，包括戏剧、音乐甚至动画电影，使各个年龄段的观众都很高兴。

中心人物包括蟾蜍先生、鼹鼠、老鼠、獾先生、水獭和波特利、黄鼠狼、潘、狱卒的女儿、路人和兔子，它们被称为“混血儿”。继续读下去，你会发现这个令人愉快的儿童故事中的一些最好的引语，非常适合在任何课堂讨论中使用。

设置泰晤士河的场景

《柳树中的风》以河岸为背景展开，场景中充满了独特的动物角色，其中包括一个名叫鼹鼠的温文尔雅的家庭成员，他在故事开始时离开了家，却发现自己被周围的世界淹没了：

"The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing."

一到外面的世界，鼹鼠就自言自语地说，他把春季大扫除的责任抛在脑后发现了一个伟大的真理，他说：“毕竟，假期最好的部分也许不是让自己休息，而是让其他人都忙着工作。”

有趣的是，这本书的前半部分对格雷厄姆来说有点自传体的感觉，格雷厄姆将退休后的时光描述为“在船上闲逛”。鼹鼠第一次冒险离开家来到河边时遇到的另一个生物也有这种感觉，一只名叫Rat的悠闲的水田鼠对鼹鼠说：“没有什么比在船上闲逛更值得做的了。”

尽管如此，即使在格雷厄姆构建的可爱动物世界中，也存在着等级制度和偏见，正如鼹鼠的角色所示，他暗中不信任某些生物：

"Weasels—and stoats—and foxes—and so on. They're all right in a way—I'm very good friends with them—pass the time of day when we meet, and all that—but they break out sometimes, there's no denying it, and then—well, you can't really trust them, and that's the fact."

最后，鼹鼠决定和老鼠和两艘小船一起沿着河走下去，老鼠教鼹鼠水的方向，尽管他警告鼹鼠要越过森林进入广阔的世界，因为“这对你我都不重要。我从来没有去过那里，我也永远不会去，你也不会去，如果你有点理智的话。”

蟾蜍先生和一个危险的痴迷故事

在下一章中，鼹鼠和老鼠停靠在皇家蟾蜍厅附近，顺便拜访了老鼠的一个朋友蟾蜍先生。蟾蜍先生富有、友好、快乐，但也很自负，很容易被最新的时尚所分心。他目前对他们会面的痴迷：驾驶马车：

"Glorious, stirring sight! The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here today—in next week tomorrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped—always somebody else's horizon! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!"

不知何故，蟾蜍设法说服老鼠和鼹鼠陪他一起乘马车和露营探险，而不是他们两个更好的判断：

"Somehow, it soon seemed taken for granted by all three of them that the trip was a settled thing; and the Rat, though still unconvinced in his mind, allowed his good-nature to over-ride his personal objections."

不幸的是，这并没有很好地结束，因为鲁莽的蟾蜍将车厢拖离道路，以避免与超速的汽车司机发生碰撞，导致车厢无法使用或维修。因此，蟾蜍也失去了对马车的痴迷，取而代之的是对驾驶汽车的永不满足的需求。

鼹鼠和老鼠趁机离开蟾蜍的陪伴，但承认“拜访蟾蜍从来都不是一个错误的时间”，因为“早晚，他总是同一个人；总是脾气好，总是很高兴见到你，你走的时候总是很抱歉！”

难以捉摸的獾

第三章在冬天开始，鼹鼠离开老鼠，开始了他自己的探索，而他的朋友休息了很长时间，也就是说，满足了他长期以来想要见到难以捉摸的獾的愿望：鼹鼠早就想认识獾了。据所有人说，他似乎是一位如此重要的人物，虽然很少被人看到，但却使这个地方的每个人都感受到了他无形的影响。”

不过，在鼹鼠睡着之前，河鼠已经警告鼹鼠，“獾讨厌社交、邀请、晚餐等等诸如此类的事情”，鼹鼠最好等獾来拜访他们，但鼹鼠没有听，而是出发去野林，希望能找到他家。

不幸的是，在野外航行时，鼹鼠迷路了，开始惊慌失措地说：

"The whole wood seemed running now, running hard, hunting, chasing, closing in round something or—somebody? In panic, he began to run too, aimlessly, he knew not whither."

老鼠从午睡中醒来，发现鼹鼠不见了，猜想他的朋友去了野生森林寻找獾，并开始寻找他丢失的同伴，幸运的是在大雪开始之前找到了他。然后，两人跌跌撞撞地穿过冬天的暴风雪，在暴风雪中，他们碰巧碰到了獾的住所。

与Rat的警告相反，Badger对他的两位不速之客非常友好，并为这对夫妇打开了宽敞温暖的家，他们在家里闲聊着世界和野生森林中发生的事情：

"Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished. They didn't bother themselves about the past—they never do; they're too busy...The Wild Wood is pretty well populated by now; with all the usual lot, good, bad, and indifferent—I name no names. It takes all sorts to make a world."

獾提供了格雷厄姆个性的另一面：他对自然福祉的关注，以及人类对自然世界的影响。Rat自己对獾是一个卑鄙的老家伙的误解可以解释为Grahame自己对他作为英格兰银行一个略带愤世嫉俗的雇员所受到的批评的投射，他只是意识到我们所知道的人类文明的暂时性：

"I see you don't understand, and I must explain it to you. Well, very long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before ever it had planted itself and grown up to what it now is, there was a city—a city of people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and talked, and slept, and carried on their business. Here they stabled their horses and feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade. They were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last, for they thought their city would last for ever...People come—they stay for a while, they flourish, they build—and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here, I've been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be."

第7章的其他精选引文

三人还讨论了Toad先生发生的事情，从几个月前的马车事件中，他显然已经总计七辆汽车，并在书中被逮捕，以获取更多信息，并了解更多关于柳林酒店所有生物的情况，继续阅读《柳树中的风》第七章中的这段引文：

"Perhaps he would never have dared to raise his eyes, but that, though the piping was now hushed, the call and the summons seemed still dominant and imperious. He might not refuse, were Death himself waiting to strike him instantly, once he had looked with mortal eye on things rightly kept hidden. Trembling he obeyed, and raised his humble head; and then, in that utter clearness of the imminent dawn, while Nature, flushed with fullness of incredible colour, seemed to hold her breath for the event, he looked in the very eyes of the Friend and Helper; saw the backward sweep of the curved horns, gleaming in the growing daylight; saw the stern, hooked nose between the kindly eyes that were looking down on them humorously, while the bearded mouth broke into a half-smile at the corners; saw the rippling muscles on the arm that lay across the broad chest, the long supple hand still holding the pan-pipes only just fallen away from the parted lips; saw the splendid curves of the shaggy limbs disposed in majestic ease on the sward; saw, last of all, nestling between his very hooves, sleeping soundly in entire peace and contentment, the little, round, podgy, childish form of the baby otter. All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered." "Sudden and magnificent, the sun's broad golden disc showed itself over the horizon facing them; and the first rays, shooting across the level water-meadows, took the animals full in the eyes and dazzled them. When they were able to look once more, the Vision had vanished, and the air was full of the carol of birds that hailed the dawn." "As they stared blankly in dumb misery deepening as they slowly realised all they had seen and all they had lost, a capricious little breeze, dancing up from the surface of the water, tossed the aspens, shook the dewy roses and blew lightly and caressingly in their faces; and with its soft touch came instant oblivion. For this is the last best gift that the kindly demi-god is careful to bestow on those to whom he has revealed himself in their helping: the gift of forgetfulness. Lest the awful remembrance should remain and grow, and overshadow mirth and pleasure, and the great haunting memory should spoil all the after-lives of little animals helped out of difficulties, in order that they should be happy and lighthearted as before." "Mole stood still a moment, held in thought. As one wakened suddenly from a beautiful dream, who struggles to recall it, and can re-capture nothing but a dim sense of the beauty of it, the beauty! Till that, too, fades away in its turn, and the dreamer bitterly accepts the hard, cold waking and all its penalties; so Mole, after struggling with his memory for a brief space, shook his head sadly and followed the Rat."