Mole wants to get to know Badger, but Rat explains that Badger isn’t very sociable. He never accepts invitations to dinner, and he doesn’t take kindly to unannounced visits by others. Besides, he lives in the somewhat-forbidding Wild Wood. As winter arrives, Mole contents himself with visits from other animals who drop by to chat about the previous summer, with its lovely warm days, beautiful flowers, and happy scampers along the river’s edge.

On a chilly, cloudy day, Mole decides to visit the Wild Wood by himself. The landscape is bare of leaves, and Mole likes seeing farther into the trees: “He had got down to the bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple” (29).

Mole walks to the Wild Wood, which feels vaguely creepy. After dark, Mole begins to see strange, narrow, malicious faces poking out of holes and quickly vanishing. He hears shrill whistling that seems to come from everywhere and then the pattering of small feet. A rabbit dashes past and tells Mole to run for his life. Panicked, Mole rushes about aimlessly, stumbling and bumping into things and finally crawling into a hole in a tree.