The riverbank youngsters are not at school, because their teacher is indisposed. Badger decides to organise a temporary makeshift school until she has recovered. Toad, Mole, Ratty and himself will each take some of the children for lessons. Toad's lessons go badly wrong, and students soon start leaving his class and asking to join one of the other animals'. This is because of Toad's lack of academic knowledge - he thinks Columbus; before he discovers the United States of America, won the Battle of Trafalgar! At last, there is only one pupil left, as Toad tries to teach chemistry. The lesson ends with a test-tube exploding, and Toad lying heavily bandaged in Toad Hall. But he soon recovers, and promptly decides to take up pyrotechnics.
