The Wind in the Willows

by Kenneth Grahame

Never in his life had he seen a river before—this sleek, sinuous, full-bodied animal, chasing and chuckling,

gripping things with a gurgle and leaving them with a laugh, to fling itself on fresh playmates that shook themselves free, and were caught and held again.

he sat on the bank, while the river still chattered on to him, a babbling procession of the best stories in the world, sent from the heart of the earth to be told at last to the insatiable sea.

'By it and with it and on it and in it,' said the Rat. 'It's brother and sister to me, and aunts, and company, and food and drink, and (naturally) washing. It's my world, and I don't want any other.

What it hasn't got is not worth having, and what it doesn't know is not worth knowing.