Autumn approaches the riverbank, and with it the usual hustle bustle of animals preparing for hibernation and birds for migration. Ratty can't understand them wanting to leave, and wanders off feeling rather dejected into the country, where he meets a seafaring rat from Constantinople, who mesmerises Water Rat with his tales of travels to distant shores. The call of the South! Ratty understands now, and rushes off, still in a dream, to collect his bags and immediately depart with the stranger to foreign lands. But Mole steps in, and holds back the confused Water Rat bodily, until he suddenly breaks down under the excitement and realisation that both he and his beloved river are inseparable.
