"Go closer!" said Ratty. They moored their boat and made their way through the reeds to the grassy bank. Now Mole could hear the music, too.
It was piping, very high and clear. It seemed to draw the two animals towards a little clearing under the trees. They felt as if they were in some holy place.
Then they saw the Protector of all animals, sitting under a tree, with the Pan pipes in his hand. They saw his horns and his strong, kind face, brown chest and shaggy goat limbs. Nestled between his hooves slept the podgy childish form of the baby otter.
Mole and Ratty took Portly back with them to the ford where the Otter waited so patiently. From a little way off, they watched the happy meeting. Then they went home, wondering, and feeling that something very special had happened to them that day. But they could not remember it.