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diff --git a/old/wtrbs10h.htm b/old/wtrbs10h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index eaae654..0000000 --- a/old/wtrbs10h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6446 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html - PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html> -<head> -<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> -<title>The Water-Babies</title> -</head> -<body> -<h2> -<a href="#startoftext">The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley</a> -</h2> -<pre> -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Water-Babies, by Charles Kingsley -(#3 in our series by Charles Kingsley) - -Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the -copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing -this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. - -This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project -Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the -header without written permission. - -Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the -eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is -important information about your specific rights and restrictions in -how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a -donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. - - -**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** - -**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** - -*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** - - -Title: The Water-Babies - -Author: Charles Kingsley - -Release Date: August, 1997 [EBook #1018] -[This file was first posted on August 8, 1997] -[Most recently updated: May 23, 2003] - -Edition: 10 - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: US-ASCII -</pre> -<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> -<h1>THE WATER BABIES</h1> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“I heard a thousand blended notes,<br />While in a grove I -sate reclined;<br />In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts<br />Bring -sad thoughts to the mind.</p> -<p>“To her fair works did Nature link<br />The human soul that -through me ran;<br />And much it grieved my heart to think,<br />What -man has made of man.”</p> -<p>WORDSWORTH.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Once upon a time there was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was -Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you -will not have much trouble in remembering it. He lived in a great -town in the North country, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, -and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He -could not read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he never -washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. -He had never been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard -of God, or of Christ, except in words which you never have heard, and -which it would have been well if he had never heard. He cried -half his time, and laughed the other half. He cried when he had -to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw; and -when the soot got into his eyes, which it did every day in the week; -and when his master beat him, which he did every day in the week; and -when he had not enough to eat, which happened every day in the week -likewise. And he laughed the other half of the day, when he was -tossing halfpennies with the other boys, or playing leap-frog over the -posts, or bowling stones at the horses’ legs as they trotted by, -which last was excellent fun, when there was a wall at hand behind which -to hide. As for chimney-sweeping, and being hungry, and being -beaten, he took all that for the way of the world, like the rain and -snow and thunder, and stood manfully with his back to it till it was -over, as his old donkey did to a hail-storm; and then shook his ears -and was as jolly as ever; and thought of the fine times coming, when -he would be a man, and a master sweep, and sit in the public-house with -a quart of beer and a long pipe, and play cards for silver money, and -wear velveteens and ankle-jacks, and keep a white bull-dog with one -gray ear, and carry her puppies in his pocket, just like a man. -And he would have apprentices, one, two, three, if he could. How -he would bully them, and knock them about, just as his master did to -him; and make them carry home the soot sacks, while he rode before them -on his donkey, with a pipe in his mouth and a flower in his button-hole, -like a king at the head of his army. Yes, there were good times -coming; and, when his master let him have a pull at the leavings of -his beer, Tom was the jolliest boy in the whole town.</p> -<p>One day a smart little groom rode into the court where Tom lived. -Tom was just hiding behind a wall, to heave half a brick at his horse’s -legs, as is the custom of that country when they welcome strangers; -but the groom saw him, and halloed to him to know where Mr. Grimes, -the chimney-sweep, lived. Now, Mr. Grimes was Tom’s own -master, and Tom was a good man of business, and always civil to customers, -so he put the half-brick down quietly behind the wall, and proceeded -to take orders.</p> -<p>Mr. Grimes was to come up next morning to Sir John Harthover’s, -at the Place, for his old chimney-sweep was gone to prison, and the -chimneys wanted sweeping. And so he rode away, not giving Tom -time to ask what the sweep had gone to prison for, which was a matter -of interest to Tom, as he had been in prison once or twice himself. -Moreover, the groom looked so very neat and clean, with his drab gaiters, -drab breeches, drab jacket, snow-white tie with a smart pin in it, and -clean round ruddy face, that Tom was offended and disgusted at his appearance, -and considered him a stuck-up fellow, who gave himself airs because -he wore smart clothes, and other people paid for them; and went behind -the wall to fetch the half-brick after all; but did not, remembering -that he had come in the way of business, and was, as it were, under -a flag of truce.</p> -<p>His master was so delighted at his new customer that he knocked Tom -down out of hand, and drank more beer that night than he usually did -in two, in order to be sure of getting up in time next morning; for -the more a man’s head aches when he wakes, the more glad he is -to turn out, and have a breath of fresh air. And, when he did -get up at four the next morning, he knocked Tom down again, in order -to teach him (as young gentlemen used to be taught at public schools) -that he must be an extra good boy that day, as they were going to a -very great house, and might make a very good thing of it, if they could -but give satisfaction.</p> -<p>And Tom thought so likewise, and, indeed, would have done and behaved -his best, even without being knocked down. For, of all places -upon earth, Harthover Place (which he had never seen) was the most wonderful, -and, of all men on earth, Sir John (whom he had seen, having been sent -to gaol by him twice) was the most awful.</p> -<p>Harthover Place was really a grand place, even for the rich North -country; with a house so large that in the frame-breaking riots, which -Tom could just remember, the Duke of Wellington, and ten thousand soldiers -to match, were easily housed therein; at least, so Tom believed; with -a park full of deer, which Tom believed to be monsters who were in the -habit of eating children; with miles of game-preserves, in which Mr. -Grimes and the collier lads poached at times, on which occasions Tom -saw pheasants, and wondered what they tasted like; with a noble salmon-river, -in which Mr. Grimes and his friends would have liked to poach; but then -they must have got into cold water, and that they did not like at all. -In short, Harthover was a grand place, and Sir John a grand old man, -whom even Mr. Grimes respected; for not only could he send Mr. Grimes -to prison when he deserved it, as he did once or twice a week; not only -did he own all the land about for miles; not only was he a jolly, honest, -sensible squire, as ever kept a pack of hounds, who would do what he -thought right by his neighbours, as well as get what he thought right -for himself; but, what was more, he weighed full fifteen stone, was -nobody knew how many inches round the chest, and could have thrashed -Mr. Grimes himself in fair fight, which very few folk round there could -do, and which, my dear little boy, would not have been right for him -to do, as a great many things are not which one both can do, and would -like very much to do. So Mr. Grimes touched his hat to him when -he rode through the town, and called him a “buirdly awd chap,” -and his young ladies “gradely lasses,” which are two high -compliments in the North country; and thought that that made up for -his poaching Sir John’s pheasants; whereby you may perceive that -Mr. Grimes had not been to a properly-inspected Government National -School.</p> -<p>Now, I dare say, you never got up at three o’clock on a midsummer -morning. Some people get up then because they want to catch salmon; -and some because they want to climb Alps; and a great many more because -they must, like Tom. But, I assure you, that three o’clock -on a midsummer morning is the pleasantest time of all the twenty-four -hours, and all the three hundred and sixty-five days; and why every -one does not get up then, I never could tell, save that they are all -determined to spoil their nerves and their complexions by doing all -night what they might just as well do all day. But Tom, instead -of going out to dinner at half-past eight at night, and to a ball at -ten, and finishing off somewhere between twelve and four, went to bed -at seven, when his master went to the public-house, and slept like a -dead pig; for which reason he was as piert as a game-cock (who always -gets up early to wake the maids), and just ready to get up when the -fine gentlemen and ladies were just ready to go to bed.</p> -<p>So he and his master set out; Grimes rode the donkey in front, and -Tom and the brushes walked behind; out of the court, and up the street, -past the closed window-shutters, and the winking weary policemen, and -the roofs all shining gray in the gray dawn.</p> -<p>They passed through the pitmen’s village, all shut up and silent -now, and through the turnpike; and then the were out in the real country, -and plodding along the black dusty road, between black slag walls, with -no sound but the groaning and thumping of the pit-engine in the next -field. But soon the road grew white, and the walls likewise; and -at the wall’s foot grew long grass and gay flowers, all drenched -with dew; and instead of the groaning of the pit-engine, they heard -the skylark saying his matins high up in the air, and the pit-bird warbling -in the sedges, as he had warbled all night long.</p> -<p>All else was silent. For old Mrs. Earth was still fast asleep; -and, like many pretty people, she looked still prettier asleep than -awake. The great elm-trees in the gold-green meadows were fast -asleep above, and the cows fast asleep beneath them; nay, the few clouds -which were about were fast asleep likewise, and so tired that they had -lain down on the earth to rest, in long white flakes and bars, among -the stems of the elm-trees, and along the tops of the alders by the -stream, waiting for the sun to bid them rise and go about their day’s -business in the clear blue overhead.</p> -<p>On they went; and Tom looked, and looked, for he never had been so -far into the country before; and longed to get over a gate, and pick -buttercups, and look for birds’ nests in the hedge; but Mr. Grimes -was a man of business, and would not have heard of that.</p> -<p>Soon they came up with a poor Irishwoman, trudging along with a bundle -at her back. She had a gray shawl over her head, and a crimson -madder petticoat; so you may be sure she came from Galway. She -had neither shoes nor stockings, and limped along as if she were tired -and footsore; but she was a very tall handsome woman, with bright gray -eyes, and heavy black hair hanging about her cheeks. And she took -Mr. Grimes’ fancy so much, that when he came alongside he called -out to her:</p> -<p>“This is a hard road for a gradely foot like that. Will -ye up, lass, and ride behind me?”</p> -<p>But, perhaps, she did not admire Mr. Grimes’ look and voice; -for she answered quietly:</p> -<p>“No, thank you: I’d sooner walk with your little lad -here.”</p> -<p>“You may please yourself,” growled Grimes, and went on -smoking.</p> -<p>So she walked beside Tom, and talked to him, and asked him where -he lived, and what he knew, and all about himself, till Tom thought -he had never met such a pleasant-spoken woman. And she asked him, -at last, whether he said his prayers! and seemed sad when he told her -that he knew no prayers to say.</p> -<p>Then he asked her where she lived, and she said far away by the sea. -And Tom asked her about the sea; and she told him how it rolled and -roared over the rocks in winter nights, and lay still in the bright -summer days, for the children to bathe and play in it; and many a story -more, till Tom longed to go and see the sea, and bathe in it likewise.</p> -<p>At last, at the bottom of a hill, they came to a spring; not such -a spring as you see here, which soaks up out of a white gravel in the -bog, among red fly-catchers, and pink bottle-heath, and sweet white -orchis; nor such a one as you may see, too, here, which bubbles up under -the warm sandbank in the hollow lane by the great tuft of lady ferns, -and makes the sand dance reels at the bottom, day and night, all the -year round; not such a spring as either of those; but a real North country -limestone fountain, like one of those in Sicily or Greece, where the -old heathen fancied the nymphs sat cooling themselves the hot summer’s -day, while the shepherds peeped at them from behind the bushes. -Out of a low cave of rock, at the foot of a limestone crag, the great -fountain rose, quelling, and bubbling, and gurgling, so clear that you -could not tell where the water ended and the air began; and ran away -under the road, a stream large enough to turn a mill; among blue geranium, -and golden globe-flower, and wild raspberry, and the bird-cherry with -its tassels of snow.</p> -<p>And there Grimes stopped, and looked; and Tom looked too. Tom -was wondering whether anything lived in that dark cave, and came out -at night to fly in the meadows. But Grimes was not wondering at -all. Without a word, he got off his donkey, and clambered over -the low road wall, and knelt down, and began dipping his ugly head into -the spring—and very dirty he made it.</p> -<p>Tom was picking the flowers as fast as he could. The Irishwoman -helped him, and showed him how to tie them up; and a very pretty nosegay -they had made between them. But when he saw Grimes actually wash, -he stopped, quite astonished; and when Grimes had finished, and began -shaking his ears to dry them, he said:</p> -<p>“Why, master, I never saw you do that before.”</p> -<p>“Nor will again, most likely. ’Twasn’t for -cleanliness I did it, but for coolness. I’d be ashamed to -want washing every week or so, like any smutty collier lad.”</p> -<p>“I wish I might go and dip my head in,” said poor little -Tom. “It must be as good as putting it under the town-pump; -and there is no beadle here to drive a chap away.”</p> -<p>“Thou come along,” said Grimes; “what dost want -with washing thyself? Thou did not drink half a gallon of beer -last night, like me.”</p> -<p>“I don’t care for you,” said naughty Tom, and ran -down to the stream, and began washing his face.</p> -<p>Grimes was very sulky, because the woman preferred Tom’s company -to his; so he dashed at him with horrid words, and tore him up from -his knees, and began beating him. But Tom was accustomed to that, -and got his head safe between Mr. Grimes’ legs, and kicked his -shins with all his might.</p> -<p>“Are you not ashamed of yourself, Thomas Grimes?” cried -the Irishwoman over the wall.</p> -<p>Grimes looked up, startled at her knowing his name; but all he answered -was, “No, nor never was yet;” and went on beating Tom.</p> -<p>“True for you. If you ever had been ashamed of yourself, -you would have gone over into Vendale long ago.”</p> -<p>“What do you know about Vendale?” shouted Grimes; but -he left off beating Tom.</p> -<p>“I know about Vendale, and about you, too. I know, for -instance, what happened in Aldermire Copse, by night, two years ago -come Martinmas.”</p> -<p>“You do?” shouted Grimes; and leaving Tom, he climbed -up over the wall, and faced the woman. Tom thought he was going -to strike her; but she looked him too full and fierce in the face for -that.</p> -<p>“Yes; I was there,” said the Irishwoman quietly.</p> -<p>“You are no Irishwoman, by your speech,” said Grimes, -after many bad words.</p> -<p>“Never mind who I am. I saw what I saw; and if you strike -that boy again, I can tell what I know.”</p> -<p>Grimes seemed quite cowed, and got on his donkey without another -word.</p> -<p>“Stop!” said the Irishwoman. “I have one -more word for you both; for you will both see me again before all is -over. Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be; and those -that wish to be foul, foul they will be. Remember.”</p> -<p>And she turned away, and through a gate into the meadow. Grimes -stood still a moment, like a man who had been stunned. Then he -rushed after her, shouting, “You come back.” But when -he got into the meadow, the woman was not there.</p> -<p>Had she hidden away? There was no place to hide in. But -Grimes looked about, and Tom also, for he was as puzzled as Grimes himself -at her disappearing so suddenly; but look where they would, she was -not there.</p> -<p>Grimes came back again, as silent as a post, for he was a little -frightened; and, getting on his donkey, filled a fresh pipe, and smoked -away, leaving Tom in peace.</p> -<p>And now they had gone three miles and more, and came to Sir John’s -lodge-gates.</p> -<p>Very grand lodges they were, with very grand iron gates and stone -gate-posts, and on the top of each a most dreadful bogy, all teeth, -horns, and tail, which was the crest which Sir John’s ancestors -wore in the Wars of the Roses; and very prudent men they were to wear -it, for all their enemies must have run for their lives at the very -first sight of them.</p> -<p>Grimes rang at the gate, and out came a keeper on the spot, and opened.</p> -<p>“I was told to expect thee,” he said. “Now -thou’lt be so good as to keep to the main avenue, and not let -me find a hare or a rabbit on thee when thou comest back. I shall -look sharp for one, I tell thee.”</p> -<p>“Not if it’s in the bottom of the soot-bag,” quoth -Grimes, and at that he laughed; and the keeper laughed and said:</p> -<p>“If that’s thy sort, I may as well walk up with thee -to the hall.”</p> -<p>“I think thou best had. It’s thy business to see -after thy game, man, and not mine.”</p> -<p>So the keeper went with them; and, to Tom’s surprise, he and -Grimes chatted together all the way quite pleasantly. He did not -know that a keeper is only a poacher turned outside in, and a poacher -a keeper turned inside out.</p> -<p>They walked up a great lime avenue, a full mile long, and between -their stems Tom peeped trembling at the horns of the sleeping deer, -which stood up among the ferns. Tom had never seen such enormous -trees, and as he looked up he fancied that the blue sky rested on their -heads. But he was puzzled very much by a strange murmuring noise, -which followed them all the way. So much puzzled, that at last -he took courage to ask the keeper what it was.</p> -<p>He spoke very civilly, and called him Sir, for he was horribly afraid -of him, which pleased the keeper, and he told him that they were the -bees about the lime flowers.</p> -<p>“What are bees?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“What make honey.”</p> -<p>“What is honey?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“Thou hold thy noise,” said Grimes.</p> -<p>“Let the boy be,” said the keeper. “He’s -a civil young chap now, and that’s more than he’ll be long -if he bides with thee.”</p> -<p>Grimes laughed, for he took that for a compliment.</p> -<p>“I wish I were a keeper,” said Tom, “to live in -such a beautiful place, and wear green velveteens, and have a real dog-whistle -at my button, like you.”</p> -<p>The keeper laughed; he was a kind-hearted fellow enough.</p> -<p>“Let well alone, lad, and ill too at times. Thy life’s -safer than mine at all events, eh, Mr. Grimes?”</p> -<p>And Grimes laughed again, and then the two men began talking, quite -low. Tom could hear, though, that it was about some poaching fight; -and at last Grimes said surlily, “Hast thou anything against me?”</p> -<p>“Not now.”</p> -<p>“Then don’t ask me any questions till thou hast, for -I am a man of honour.”</p> -<p>And at that they both laughed again, and thought it a very good joke.</p> -<p>And by this time they were come up to the great iron gates in front -of the house; and Tom stared through them at the rhododendrons and azaleas, -which were all in flower; and then at the house itself, and wondered -how many chimneys there were in it, and how long ago it was built, and -what was the man’s name that built it, and whether he got much -money for his job?</p> -<p>These last were very difficult questions to answer. For Harthover -had been built at ninety different times, and in nineteen different -styles, and looked as if somebody had built a whole street of houses -of every imaginable shape, and then stirred them together with a spoon.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>For the attics were Anglo-Saxon.<br />The third door Norman.<br />The -second Cinque-cento.<br />The first-floor Elizabethan.<br />The right -wing Pure Doric.<br />The centre Early English, with a huge portico -copied from the Parthenon.<br />The left wing pure Boeotian, which the -country folk admired most of all, became it was just like the new barracks -in the town, only three times as big.<br />The grand staircase was copied -from the Catacombs at Rome.<br />The back staircase from the Tajmahal -at Agra. This was built by Sir John’s great-great-great-uncle, -who won, in Lord Clive’s Indian Wars, plenty of money, plenty -of wounds, and no more taste than his betters.<br />The cellars were -copied from the caves of Elephanta.<br />The offices from the Pavilion -at Brighton.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>And the rest from nothing in heaven, or earth, or under the earth.</p> -<p>So that Harthover House was a great puzzle to antiquarians, and a -thorough Naboth’s vineyard to critics, and architects, and all -persons who like meddling with other men’s business, and spending -other men’s money. So they were all setting upon poor Sir -John, year after year, and trying to talk him into spending a hundred -thousand pounds or so, in building, to please them and not himself. -But he always put them off, like a canny North-countryman as he was. -One wanted him to build a Gothic house, but he said he was no Goth; -and another to build an Elizabethan, but he said he lived under good -Queen Victoria, and not good Queen Bess; and another was bold enough -to tell him that his house was ugly, but he said he lived inside it, -and not outside; and another, that there was no unity in it, but he -said that that was just why he liked the old place. For he liked -to see how each Sir John, and Sir Hugh, and Sir Ralph, and Sir Randal, -had left his mark upon the place, each after his own taste; and he had -no more notion of disturbing his ancestors’ work than of disturbing -their graves. For now the house looked like a real live house, -that had a history, and had grown and grown as the world grew; and that -it was only an upstart fellow who did not know who his own grandfather -was, who would change it for some spick and span new Gothic or Elizabethan -thing, which looked as if it bad been all spawned in a night, as mushrooms -are. From which you may collect (if you have wit enough) that -Sir John was a very sound-headed, sound-hearted squire, and just the -man to keep the country side in order, and show good sport with his -hounds.</p> -<p>But Tom and his master did not go in through the great iron gates, -as if they had been Dukes or Bishops, but round the back way, and a -very long way round it was; and into a little back-door, where the ash-boy -let them in, yawning horribly; and then in a passage the housekeeper -met them, in such a flowered chintz dressing-gown, that Tom mistook -her for My Lady herself, and she gave Grimes solemn orders about “You -will take care of this, and take care of that,” as if he was going -up the chimneys, and not Tom. And Grimes listened, and said every -now and then, under his voice, “You’ll mind that, you little -beggar?” and Tom did mind, all at least that he could. And -then the housekeeper turned them into a grand room, all covered up in -sheets of brown paper, and bade them begin, in a lofty and tremendous -voice; and so after a whimper or two, and a kick from his master, into -the grate Tom went, and up the chimney, while a housemaid stayed in -the room to watch the furniture; to whom Mr. Grimes paid many playful -and chivalrous compliments, but met with very slight encouragement in -return.</p> -<p>How many chimneys Tom swept I cannot say; but he swept so many that -he got quite tired, and puzzled too, for they were not like the town -flues to which he was accustomed, but such as you would find—if -you would only get up them and look, which perhaps you would not like -to do—in old country-houses, large and crooked chimneys, which -had been altered again and again, till they ran one into another, anastomosing -(as Professor Owen would say) considerably. So Tom fairly lost -his way in them; not that he cared much for that, though he was in pitchy -darkness, for he was as much at home in a chimney as a mole is underground; -but at last, coming down as he thought the right chimney, he came down -the wrong one, and found himself standing on the hearthrug in a room -the like of which he had never seen before.</p> -<p>Tom had never seen the like. He had never been in gentlefolks’ -rooms but when the carpets were all up, and the curtains down, and the -furniture huddled together under a cloth, and the pictures covered with -aprons and dusters; and he had often enough wondered what the rooms -were like when they were all ready for the quality to sit in. -And now he saw, and he thought the sight very pretty.</p> -<p>The room was all dressed in white,—white window-curtains, white -bed-curtains, white furniture, and white walls, with just a few lines -of pink here and there. The carpet was all over gay little flowers; -and the walls were hung with pictures in gilt frames, which amused Tom -very much. There were pictures of ladies and gentlemen, and pictures -of horses and dogs. The horses he liked; but the dogs he did not -care for much, for there were no bull-dogs among them, not even a terrier. -But the two pictures which took his fancy most were, one a man in long -garments, with little children and their mothers round him, who was -laying his hand upon the children’s heads. That was a very -pretty picture, Tom thought, to hang in a lady’s room. For -he could see that it was a lady’s room by the dresses which lay -about.</p> -<p>The other picture was that of a man nailed to a cross, which surprised -Tom much. He fancied that he had seen something like it in a shop-window. -But why was it there? “Poor man,” thought Tom, “and -he looks so kind and quiet. But why should the lady have such -a sad picture as that in her room? Perhaps it was some kinsman -of hers, who had been murdered by the savages in foreign parts, and -she kept it there for a remembrance.” And Tom felt sad, -and awed, and turned to look at something else.</p> -<p>The next thing he saw, and that too puzzled him, was a washing-stand, -with ewers and basins, and soap and brushes, and towels, and a large -bath full of clean water—what a heap of things all for washing! -“She must be a very dirty lady,” thought Tom, “by -my master’s rule, to want as much scrubbing as all that. -But she must be very cunning to put the dirt out of the way so well -afterwards, for I don’t see a speck about the room, not even on -the very towels.”</p> -<p>And then, looking toward the bed, he saw that dirty lady, and held -his breath with astonishment.</p> -<p>Under the snow-white coverlet, upon the snow-white pillow, lay the -most beautiful little girl that Tom had ever seen. Her cheeks -were almost as white as the pillow, and her hair was like threads of -gold spread all about over the bed. She might have been as old -as Tom, or maybe a year or two older; but Tom did not think of that. -He thought only of her delicate skin and golden hair, and wondered whether -she was a real live person, or one of the wax dolls he had seen in the -shops. But when he saw her breathe, he made up his mind that she -was alive, and stood staring at her, as if she had been an angel out -of heaven.</p> -<p>No. She cannot be dirty. She never could have been dirty, -thought Tom to himself. And then he thought, “And are all -people like that when they are washed?” And he looked at -his own wrist, and tried to rub the soot off, and wondered whether it -ever would come off. “Certainly I should look much prettier -then, if I grew at all like her.”</p> -<p>And looking round, he suddenly saw, standing close to him, a little -ugly, black, ragged figure, with bleared eyes and grinning white teeth. -He turned on it angrily. What did such a little black ape want -in that sweet young lady’s room? And behold, it was himself, -reflected in a great mirror, the like of which Tom had never seen before.</p> -<p>And Tom, for the first time in his life, found out that he was dirty; -and burst into tears with shame and anger; and turned to sneak up the -chimney again and hide; and upset the fender and threw the fire-irons -down, with a noise as of ten thousand tin kettles tied to ten thousand -mad dogs’ tails.</p> -<p>Up jumped the little white lady in her bed, and, seeing Tom, screamed -as shrill as any peacock. In rushed a stout old nurse from the -next room, and seeing Tom likewise, made up her mind that he had come -to rob, plunder, destroy, and burn; and dashed at him, as he lay over -the fender, so fast that she caught him by the jacket.</p> -<p>But she did not hold him. Tom had been in a policeman’s -hands many a time, and out of them too, what is more; and he would have -been ashamed to face his friends for ever if he had been stupid enough -to be caught by an old woman; so he doubled under the good lady’s -arm, across the room, and out of the window in a moment.</p> -<p>He did not need to drop out, though he would have done so bravely -enough. Nor even to let himself down a spout, which would have -been an old game to him; for once he got up by a spout to the church -roof, he said to take jackdaws’ eggs, but the policeman said to -steal lead; and, when he was seen on high, sat there till the sun got -too hot, and came down by another spout, leaving the policemen to go -back to the stationhouse and eat their dinners.</p> -<p>But all under the window spread a tree, with great leaves and sweet -white flowers, almost as big as his head. It was magnolia, I suppose; -but Tom knew nothing about that, and cared less; for down the tree he -went, like a cat, and across the garden lawn, and over the iron railings -and up the park towards the wood, leaving the old nurse to scream murder -and fire at the window.</p> -<p>The under gardener, mowing, saw Tom, and threw down his scythe; caught -his leg in it, and cut his shin open, whereby he kept his bed for a -week; but in his hurry he never knew it, and gave chase to poor Tom. -The dairymaid heard the noise, got the churn between her knees, and -tumbled over it, spilling all the cream; and yet she jumped up, and -gave chase to Tom. A groom cleaning Sir John’s hack at the -stables let him go loose, whereby he kicked himself lame in five minutes; -but he ran out and gave chase to Tom. Grimes upset the soot-sack -in the new-gravelled yard, and spoilt it all utterly; but he ran out -and gave chase to Tom. The old steward opened the park-gate in -such a hurry, that he hung up his pony’s chin upon the spikes, -and, for aught I know, it hangs there still; but he jumped off, and -gave chase to Tom. The ploughman left his horses at the headland, -and one jumped over the fence, and pulled the other into the ditch, -plough and all; but he ran on, and gave chase to Tom. The keeper, -who was taking a stoat out of a trap, let the stoat go, and caught his -own finger; but he jumped up, and ran after Tom; and considering what -he said, and how he looked, I should have been sorry for Tom if he had -caught him. Sir John looked out of his study window (for he was -an early old gentleman) and up at the nurse, and a marten dropped mud -in his eye, so that he had at last to send for the doctor; and yet he -ran out, and gave chase to Tom. The Irishwoman, too, was walking -up to the house to beg,—she must have got round by some byway—but -she threw away her bundle, and gave chase to Tom likewise. Only -my Lady did not give chase; for when she had put her head out of the -window, her night-wig fell into the garden, and she had to ring up her -lady’s-maid, and send her down for it privately, which quite put -her out of the running, so that she came in nowhere, and is consequently -not placed.</p> -<p>In a word, never was there heard at Hall Place—not even when -the fox was killed in the conservatory, among acres of broken glass, -and tons of smashed flower-pots—such a noise, row, hubbub, babel, -shindy, hullabaloo, stramash, charivari, and total contempt of dignity, -repose, and order, as that day, when Grimes, gardener, the groom, the -dairymaid, Sir John, the steward, the ploughman, the keeper, and the -Irishwoman, all ran up the park, shouting, “Stop thief,” -in the belief that Tom had at least a thousand pounds’ worth of -jewels in his empty pockets; and the very magpies and jays followed -Tom up, screaking and screaming, as if he were a hunted fox, beginning -to droop his brush.</p> -<p>And all the while poor Tom paddled up the park with his little bare -feet, like a small black gorilla fleeing to the forest. Alas for -him! there was no big father gorilla therein to take his part—to -scratch out the gardener’s inside with one paw, toss the dairymaid -into a tree with another, and wrench off Sir John’s head with -a third, while he cracked the keeper’s skull with his teeth as -easily as if it had been a cocoa-nut or a paving-stone.</p> -<p>However, Tom did not remember ever having had a father; so he did -not look for one, and expected to have to take care of himself; while -as for running, he could keep up for a couple of miles with any stage-coach, -if there was the chance of a copper or a cigar-end, and turn coach-wheels -on his hands and feet ten times following, which is more than you can -do. Wherefore his pursuers found it very difficult to catch him; -and we will hope that they did not catch him at all.</p> -<p>Tom, of course, made for the woods. He had never been in a -wood in his life; but he was sharp enough to know that he might hide -in a bush, or swarm up a tree, and, altogether, had more chance there -than in the open. If he had not known that, he would have been -foolisher than a mouse or a minnow.</p> -<p>But when he got into the wood, he found it a very different sort -of place from what he had fancied. He pushed into a thick cover -of rhododendrons, and found himself at once caught in a trap. -The boughs laid hold of his legs and arms, poked him in his face and -his stomach, made him shut his eyes tight (though that was no great -loss, for he could not see at best a yard before his nose); and when -he got through the rhododendrons, the hassock-grass and sedges tumbled -him over, and cut his poor little fingers afterwards most spitefully; -the birches birched him as soundly as if he had been a nobleman at Eton, -and over the face too (which is not fair swishing as all brave boys -will agree); and the lawyers tripped him up, and tore his shins as if -they had sharks’ teeth—which lawyers are likely enough to -have.</p> -<p>“I must get out of this,” thought Tom, “or I shall -stay here till somebody comes to help me—which is just what I -don’t want.”</p> -<p>But how to get out was the difficult matter. And indeed I don’t -think he would ever have got out at all, but have stayed there till -the cock-robins covered him with leaves, if he had not suddenly run -his head against a wall.</p> -<p>Now running your head against a wall is not pleasant, especially -if it is a loose wall, with the stones all set on edge, and a sharp -cornered one hits you between the eyes and makes you see all manner -of beautiful stars. The stars are very beautiful, certainly; but -unfortunately they go in the twenty-thousandth part of a split second, -and the pain which comes after them does not. And so Tom hurt -his head; but he was a brave boy, and did not mind that a penny. -He guessed that over the wall the cover would end; and up it he went, -and over like a squirrel.</p> -<p>And there he was, out on the great grouse-moors, which the country -folk called Harthover Fell—heather and bog and rock, stretching -away and up, up to the very sky.</p> -<p>Now, Tom was a cunning little fellow—as cunning as an old Exmoor -stag. Why not? Though he was but ten years old, he had lived -longer than most stags, and had more wits to start with into the bargain.</p> -<p>He knew as well as a stag, that if he backed he might throw the hounds -out. So the first thing he did when he was over the wall was to -make the neatest double sharp to his right, and run along under the -wall for nearly half a mile.</p> -<p>Whereby Sir John, and the keeper, and the steward, and the gardener, -and the ploughman, and the dairymaid, and all the hue-and-cry together, -went on ahead half a mile in the very opposite direction, and inside -the wall, leaving him a mile off on the outside; while Tom heard their -shouts die away in the woods and chuckled to himself merrily.</p> -<p>At last he came to a dip in the land, and went to the bottom of it, -and then he turned bravely away from the wall and up the moor; for he -knew that he had put a hill between him and his enemies, and could go -on without their seeing him.</p> -<p>But the Irishwoman, alone of them all, had seen which way Tom went. -She had kept ahead of every one the whole time; and yet she neither -walked nor ran. She went along quite smoothly and gracefully, -while her feet twinkled past each other so fast that you could not see -which was foremost; till every one asked the other who the strange woman -was; and all agreed, for want of anything better to say, that she must -be in league with Tom.</p> -<p>But when she came to the plantation, they lost sight of her; and -they could do no less. For she went quietly over the wall after -Tom, and followed him wherever he went. Sir John and the rest -saw no more of her; and out of sight was out of mind.</p> -<p>And now Tom was right away into the heather, over just such a moor -as those in which you have been bred, except that there were rocks and -stones lying about everywhere, and that, instead of the moor growing -flat as he went upwards, it grew more and more broken and hilly, but -not so rough but that little Tom could jog along well enough, and find -time, too, to stare about at the strange place, which was like a new -world to him.</p> -<p>He saw great spiders there, with crowns and crosses marked on their -backs, who sat in the middle of their webs, and when they saw Tom coming, -shook them so fast that they became invisible. Then he saw lizards, -brown and gray and green, and thought they were snakes, and would sting -him; but they were as much frightened as he, and shot away into the -heath. And then, under a rock, he saw a pretty sight—a great -brown, sharp-nosed creature, with a white tag to her brush, and round -her four or five smutty little cubs, the funniest fellows Tom ever saw. -She lay on her back, rolling about, and stretching out her legs and -head and tail in the bright sunshine; and the cubs jumped over her, -and ran round her, and nibbled her paws, and lugged her about by the -tail; and she seemed to enjoy it mightily. But one selfish little -fellow stole away from the rest to a dead crow close by, and dragged -it off to hide it, though it was nearly as big as he was. Whereat -all his little brothers set off after him in full cry, and saw Tom; -and then all ran back, and up jumped Mrs. Vixen, and caught one up in -her mouth, and the rest toddled after her, and into a dark crack in -the rocks; and there was an end of the show.</p> -<p>And next he had a fright; for, as he scrambled up a sandy brow—whirr-poof-poof-cock-cock-kick—something -went off in his face, with a most horrid noise. He thought the -ground had blown up, and the end of the world come.</p> -<p>And when he opened his eyes (for he shut them very tight) it was -only an old cock-grouse, who had been washing himself in sand, like -an Arab, for want of water; and who, when Tom had all but trodden on -him, jumped up with a noise like the express train, leaving his wife -and children to shift for themselves, like an old coward, and went off, -screaming “Cur-ru-u-uck, cur-ru-u-uck—murder, thieves, fire—cur-u-uck-cock-kick—the -end of the world is come—kick-kick-cock-kick.” He -was always fancying that the end of the world was come, when anything -happened which was farther off than the end of his own nose. But -the end of the world was not come, any more than the twelfth of August -was; though the old grouse-cock was quite certain of it.</p> -<p>So the old grouse came back to his wife and family an hour afterwards, -and said solemnly, “Cock-cock-kick; my dears, the end of the world -is not quite come; but I assure you it is coming the day after to-morrow—cock.” -But his wife had heard that so often that she knew all about it, and -a little more. And, besides, she was the mother of a family, and -had seven little poults to wash and feed every day; and that made her -very practical, and a little sharp-tempered; so all she answered was: -“Kick-kick-kick—go and catch spiders, go and catch spiders—kick.”</p> -<p>So Tom went on and on, he hardly knew why; but he liked the great -wide strange place, and the cool fresh bracing air. But he went -more and more slowly as he got higher up the hill; for now the ground -grew very bad indeed. Instead of soft turf and springy heather, -he met great patches of flat limestone rock, just like ill-made pavements, -with deep cracks between the stones and ledges, filled with ferns; so -he had to hop from stone to stone, and now and then he slipped in between, -and hurt his little bare toes, though they were tolerably tough ones; -but still he would go on and up, he could not tell why.</p> -<p>What would Tom have said if he had seen, walking over the moor behind -him, the very same Irishwoman who had taken his part upon the road? -But whether it was that he looked too little behind him, or whether -it was that she kept out of sight behind the rocks and knolls, he never -saw her, though she saw him.</p> -<p>And now he began to get a little hungry, and very thirsty; for he -had run a long way, and the sun had risen high in heaven, and the rock -was as hot as an oven, and the air danced reels over it, as it does -over a limekiln, till everything round seemed quivering and melting -in the glare.</p> -<p>But he could see nothing to eat anywhere, and still less to drink.</p> -<p>The heath was full of bilberries and whimberries; but they were only -in flower yet, for it was June. And as for water; who can find -that on the top of a limestone rock? Now and then he passed by -a deep dark swallow-hole, going down into the earth, as if it was the -chimney of some dwarfs house underground; and more than once, as he -passed, he could hear water falling, trickling, tinkling, many many -feet below. How he longed to get down to it, and cool his poor -baked lips! But, brave little chimney-sweep as he was, he dared -not climb down such chimneys as those.</p> -<p>So he went on and on, till his head spun round with the heat, and -he thought he heard church-bells ringing a long way off.</p> -<p>“Ah!” he thought, “where there is a church there -will be houses and people; and, perhaps, some one will give me a bit -and a sup.” So he set off again, to look for the church; -for he was sure that he heard the bells quite plain.</p> -<p>And in a minute more, when he looked round, he stopped again, and -said, “Why, what a big place the world is!”</p> -<p>And so it was; for, from the top of the mountain he could see—what -could he not see?</p> -<p>Behind him, far below, was Harthover, and the dark woods, and the -shining salmon river; and on his left, far below, was the town, and -the smoking chimneys of the collieries; and far, far away, the river -widened to the shining sea; and little white specks, which were ships, -lay on its bosom. Before him lay, spread out like a map, great -plains, and farms, and villages, amid dark knots of trees. They -all seemed at his very feet; but he had sense to see that they were -long miles away.</p> -<p>And to his right rose moor after moor, hill after hill, till they -faded away, blue into blue sky. But between him and those moors, -and really at his very feet, lay something, to which, as soon as Tom -saw it, he determined to go, for that was the place for him.</p> -<p>A deep, deep green and rocky valley, very narrow, and filled with -wood; but through the wood, hundreds of feet below him, he could see -a clear stream glance. Oh, if he could but get down to that stream! -Then, by the stream, he saw the roof of a little cottage, and a little -garden set out in squares and beds. And there was a tiny little -red thing moving in the garden, no bigger than a fly. As Tom looked -down, he saw that it was a woman in a red petticoat. Ah! perhaps -she would give him something to eat. And there were the church-bells -ringing again. Surely there must be a village down there. -Well, nobody would know him, or what had happened at the Place. -The news could not have got there yet, even if Sir John had set all -the policemen in the county after him; and he could get down there in -five minutes.</p> -<p>Tom was quite right about the hue-and-cry not having got thither; -for he had come without knowing it, the best part of ten miles from -Harthover; but he was wrong about getting down in five minutes, for -the cottage was more than a mile off, and a good thousand feet below.</p> -<p>However, down he went; like a brave little man as he was, though -he was very footsore, and tired, and hungry, and thirsty; while the -church-bells rang so loud, he began to think that they must be inside -his own head, and the river chimed and tinkled far below; and this was -the song which it sang:-</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Clear and cool, clear and cool,<br />By laughing shallow, and dreaming -pool;<br />Cool and clear, cool and clear,<br />By shining shingle, -and foaming wear;<br />Under the crag where the ouzel sings,<br />And -the ivied wall where the church-bell rings,<br />Undefiled, for the -undefiled;<br />Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child.</p> -<p>Dank and foul, dank and foul,<br />By the smoky town in its murky -cowl;<br />Foul and dank, foul and dank,<br />By wharf and sewer and -slimy bank;<br />Darker and darker the farther I go,<br />Baser and -baser the richer I grow;<br />Who dares sport with the sin-defiled?<br />Shrink -from me, turn from me, mother and child.</p> -<p>Strong and free, strong and free,<br />The floodgates are open, away -to the sea,<br />Free and strong, free and strong,<br />Cleansing my -streams as I hurry along,<br />To the golden sands, and the leaping -bar,<br />And the taintless tide that awaits me afar.<br />As I lose -myself in the infinite main,<br />Like a soul that has sinned and is -pardoned again.<br />Undefiled, for the undefiled;<br />Play by me, -bathe in me, mother and child.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>So Tom went down; and all the while he never saw the Irishwoman going -down behind him.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“And is there care in heaven? and is there love<br />In heavenly -spirits to these creatures base<br />That may compassion of their evils -move?<br />There is:- else much more wretched were the case<br />Of -men than beasts: But oh! the exceeding grace<br />Of Highest God that -loves His creatures so,<br />And all His works with mercy doth embrace,<br />That -blessed Angels He sends to and fro,<br />To serve to wicked man, to -serve His wicked foe!”</p> -<p>SPENSER.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>A mile off, and a thousand feet down.</p> -<p>So Tom found it; though it seemed as if he could have chucked a pebble -on to the back of the woman in the red petticoat who was weeding in -the garden, or even across the dale to the rocks beyond. For the -bottom of the valley was just one field broad, and on the other side -ran the stream; and above it, gray crag, gray down, gray stair, gray -moor walled up to heaven.</p> -<p>A quiet, silent, rich, happy place; a narrow crack cut deep into -the earth; so deep, and so out of the way, that the bad bogies can hardly -find it out. The name of the place is Vendale; and if you want -to see it for yourself, you must go up into the High Craven, and search -from Bolland Forest north by Ingleborough, to the Nine Standards and -Cross Fell; and if you have not found it, you must turn south, and search -the Lake Mountains, down to Scaw Fell and the sea; and then, if you -have not found it, you must go northward again by merry Carlisle, and -search the Cheviots all across, from Annan Water to Berwick Law; and -then, whether you have found Vendale or not, you will have found such -a country, and such a people, as ought to make you proud of being a -British boy.</p> -<p>So Tom went to go down; and first he went down three hundred feet -of steep heather, mixed up with loose brown grindstone, as rough as -a file; which was not pleasant to his poor little heels, as he came -bump, stump, jump, down the steep. And still he thought he could -throw a stone into the garden.</p> -<p>Then he went down three hundred feet of lime-stone terraces, one -below the other, as straight as if a carpenter had ruled them with his -ruler and then cut them out with his chisel. There was no heath -there, but -</p> -<p>First, a little grass slope, covered with the prettiest flowers, -rockrose and saxifrage, and thyme and basil, and all sorts of sweet -herbs.</p> -<p>Then bump down a two-foot step of limestone.</p> -<p>Then another bit of grass and flowers.</p> -<p>Then bump down a one-foot step.</p> -<p>Then another bit of grass and flowers for fifty yards, as steep as -the house-roof, where he had to slide down on his dear little tail.</p> -<p>Then another step of stone, ten feet high; and there he had to stop -himself, and crawl along the edge to find a crack; for if he had rolled -over, he would have rolled right into the old woman’s garden, -and frightened her out of her wits.</p> -<p>Then, when he had found a dark narrow crack, full of green-stalked -fern, such as hangs in the basket in the drawing-room, and had crawled -down through it, with knees and elbows, as he would down a chimney, -there was another grass slope, and another step, and so on, till—oh, -dear me! I wish it was all over; and so did he. And yet -he thought he could throw a stone into the old woman’s garden.</p> -<p>At last he came to a bank of beautiful shrubs; white-beam with its -great silver-backed leaves, and mountain-ash, and oak; and below them -cliff and crag, cliff and crag, with great beds of crown-ferns and wood-sedge; -while through the shrubs he could see the stream sparkling, and hear -it murmur on the white pebbles. He did not know that it was three -hundred feet below.</p> -<p>You would have been giddy, perhaps, at looking down: but Tom was -not. He was a brave little chimney-sweep; and when he found himself -on the top of a high cliff, instead of sitting down and crying for his -baba (though he never had had any baba to cry for), he said, “Ah, -this will just suit me!” though he was very tired; and down he -went, by stock and stone, sedge and ledge, bush and rush, as if he had -been born a jolly little black ape, with four hands instead of two.</p> -<p>And all the while he never saw the Irishwoman coming down behind -him.</p> -<p>But he was getting terribly tired now. The burning sun on the -fells had sucked him up; but the damp heat of the woody crag sucked -him up still more; and the perspiration ran out of the ends of his fingers -and toes, and washed him cleaner than he had been for a whole year. -But, of course, he dirtied everything, terribly as he went. There -has been a great black smudge all down the crag ever since. And -there have been more black beetles in Vendale since than ever were known -before; all, of course, owing to Tom’s having blacked the original -papa of them all, just as he was setting off to be married, with a sky-blue -coat and scarlet leggins, as smart as a gardener’s dog with a -polyanthus in his mouth.</p> -<p>At last he got to the bottom. But, behold, it was not the bottom—as -people usually find when they are coming down a mountain. For -at the foot of the crag were heaps and heaps of fallen limestone of -every size from that of your head to that of a stage-waggon, with holes -between them full of sweet heath-fern; and before Tom got through them, -he was out in the bright sunshine again; and then he felt, once for -all and suddenly, as people generally do, that he was b-e-a-t, beat.</p> -<p>You must expect to be beat a few times in your life, little man, -if you live such a life as a man ought to live, let you be as strong -and healthy as you may: and when you are, you will find it a very ugly -feeling. I hope that that day you may have a stout staunch friend -by you who is not beat; for, if you have not, you had best lie where -you are, and wait for better times, as poor Tom did.</p> -<p>He could not get on. The sun was burning, and yet he felt chill -all over. He was quite empty, and yet he felt quite sick. -There was but two hundred yards of smooth pasture between him and the -cottage, and yet he could not walk down it. He could hear the -stream murmuring only one field beyond it, and yet it seemed to him -as if it was a hundred miles off.</p> -<p>He lay down on the grass till the beetles ran over him, and the flies -settled on his nose. I don’t know when he would have got -up again, if the gnats and the midges had not taken compassion on him. -But the gnats blew their trumpets so loud in his ear, and the midges -nibbled so at his hands and face wherever they could find a place free -from soot, that at last he woke up, and stumbled away, down over a low -wall, and into a narrow road, and up to the cottage-door.</p> -<p>And a neat pretty cottage it was, with clipped yew hedges all round -the garden, and yews inside too, cut into peacocks and trumpets and -teapots and all kinds of queer shapes. And out of the open door -came a noise like that of the frogs on the Great-A, when they know that -it is going to be scorching hot to-morrow—and how they know that -I don’t know, and you don’t know, and nobody knows.</p> -<p>He came slowly up to the open door, which was all hung round with -clematis and roses; and then peeped in, half afraid.</p> -<p>And there sat by the empty fireplace, which was filled with a pot -of sweet herbs, the nicest old woman that ever was seen, in her red -petticoat, and short dimity bedgown, and clean white cap, with a black -silk handkerchief over it, tied under her chin. At her feet sat -the grandfather of all the cats; and opposite her sat, on two benches, -twelve or fourteen neat, rosy, chubby little children, learning their -Chris-cross-row; and gabble enough they made about it.</p> -<p>Such a pleasant cottage it was, with a shiny clean stone floor, and -curious old prints on the walls, and an old black oak sideboard full -of bright pewter and brass dishes, and a cuckoo clock in the corner, -which began shouting as soon as Tom appeared: not that it was frightened -at Tom, but that it was just eleven o’clock.</p> -<p>All the children started at Tom’s dirty black figure,—the -girls began to cry, and the boys began to laugh, and all pointed at -him rudely enough; but Tom was too tired to care for that.</p> -<p>“What art thou, and what dost want?” cried the old dame. -“A chimney-sweep! Away with thee! I’ll have -no sweeps here.”</p> -<p>“Water,” said poor little Tom, quite faint.</p> -<p>“Water? There’s plenty i’ the beck,” -she said, quite sharply.</p> -<p>“But I can’t get there; I’m most clemmed with hunger -and drought.” And Tom sank down upon the door-step, and -laid his head against the post.</p> -<p>And the old dame looked at him through her spectacles one minute, -and two, and three; and then she said, “He’s sick; and a -bairn’s a bairn, sweep or none.”</p> -<p>“Water,” said Tom.</p> -<p>“God forgive me!” and she put by her spectacles, and -rose, and came to Tom. “Water’s bad for thee; I’ll -give thee milk.” And she toddled off into the next room, -and brought a cup of milk and a bit of bread.</p> -<p>Tom drank the milk off at one draught, and then looked up, revived.</p> -<p>“Where didst come from?” said the dame.</p> -<p>“Over Fell, there,” said Tom, and pointed up into the -sky.</p> -<p>“Over Harthover? and down Lewthwaite Crag? Art sure thou -art not lying?”</p> -<p>“Why should I?” said Tom, and leant his head against -the post.</p> -<p>“And how got ye up there?”</p> -<p>“I came over from the Place;” and Tom was so tired and -desperate he had no heart or time to think of a story, so he told all -the truth in a few words.</p> -<p>“Bless thy little heart! And thou hast not been stealing, -then?”</p> -<p>“No.”</p> -<p>“Bless thy little heart! and I’ll warrant not. -Why, God’s guided the bairn, because he was innocent! Away -from the Place, and over Harthover Fell, and down Lewthwaite Crag! -Who ever heard the like, if God hadn’t led him? Why dost -not eat thy bread?”</p> -<p>“I can’t.”</p> -<p>“It’s good enough, for I made it myself.”</p> -<p>“I can’t,” said Tom, and he laid his head on his -knees, and then asked -</p> -<p>“Is it Sunday?”</p> -<p>“No, then; why should it be?”</p> -<p>“Because I hear the church-bells ringing so.”</p> -<p>“Bless thy pretty heart! The bairn’s sick. -Come wi’ me, and I’ll hap thee up somewhere. If thou -wert a bit cleaner I’d put thee in my own bed, for the Lord’s -sake. But come along here.”</p> -<p>But when Tom tried to get up, he was so tired and giddy that she -had to help him and lead him.</p> -<p>She put him in an outhouse upon soft sweet hay and an old rug, and -bade him sleep off his walk, and she would come to him when school was -over, in an hour’s time.</p> -<p>And so she went in again, expecting Tom to fall fast asleep at once.</p> -<p>But Tom did not fall asleep.</p> -<p>Instead of it he turned and tossed and kicked about in the strangest -way, and felt so hot all over that he longed to get into the river and -cool himself; and then he fell half asleep, and dreamt that he heard -the little white lady crying to him, “Oh, you’re so dirty; -go and be washed;” and then that he heard the Irishwoman saying, -“Those that wish to be clean, clean they will be.” -And then he heard the church-bells ring so loud, close to him too, that -he was sure it must be Sunday, in spite of what the old dame had said; -and he would go to church, and see what a church was like inside, for -he had never been in one, poor little fellow, in all his life. -But the people would never let him come in, all over soot and dirt like -that. He must go to the river and wash first. And he said -out loud again and again, though being half asleep he did not know it, -“I must be clean, I must be clean.”</p> -<p>And all of a sudden he found himself, not in the outhouse on the -hay, but in the middle of a meadow, over the road, with the stream just -before him, saying continually, “I must be clean, I must be clean.” -He had got there on his own legs, between sleep and awake, as children -will often get out of bed, and go about the room, when they are not -quite well. But he was not a bit surprised, and went on to the -bank of the brook, and lay down on the grass, and looked into the clear, -clear limestone water, with every pebble at the bottom bright and clean, -while the little silver trout dashed about in fright at the sight of -his black face; and he dipped his hand in and found it so cool, cool, -cool; and he said, “I will be a fish; I will swim in the water; -I must be clean, I must be clean.”</p> -<p>So he pulled off all his clothes in such haste that he tore some -of them, which was easy enough with such ragged old things. And -he put his poor hot sore feet into the water; and then his legs; and -the farther he went in, the more the church-bells rang in his head.</p> -<p>“Ah,” said Tom, “I must be quick and wash myself; -the bells are ringing quite loud now; and they will stop soon, and then -the door will be shut, and I shall never be able to get in at all.”</p> -<p>Tom was mistaken: for in England the church doors are left open all -service time, for everybody who likes to come in, Churchman or Dissenter; -ay, even if he were a Turk or a Heathen; and if any man dared to turn -him out, as long as he behaved quietly, the good old English law would -punish that man, as he deserved, for ordering any peaceable person out -of God’s house, which belongs to all alike. But Tom did -not know that, any more than he knew a great deal more which people -ought to know.</p> -<p>And all the while he never saw the Irishwoman, not behind him this -time, but before.</p> -<p>For just before he came to the river side, she had stept down into -the cool clear water; and her shawl and her petticoat floated off her, -and the green water-weeds floated round her sides, and the white water-lilies -floated round her head, and the fairies of the stream came up from the -bottom and bore her away and down upon their arms; for she was the Queen -of them all; and perhaps of more besides.</p> -<p>“Where have you been?” they asked her.</p> -<p>“I have been smoothing sick folks’ pillows, and whispering -sweet dreams into their ears; opening cottage casements, to let out -the stifling air; coaxing little children away from gutters, and foul -pools where fever breeds; turning women from the gin-shop door, and -staying men’s hands as they were going to strike their wives; -doing all I can to help those who will not help themselves: and little -enough that is, and weary work for me. But I have brought you -a new little brother, and watched him safe all the way here.”</p> -<p>Then all the fairies laughed for joy at the thought that they had -a little brother coming.</p> -<p>“But mind, maidens, he must not see you, or know that you are -here. He is but a savage now, and like the beasts which perish; -and from the beasts which perish he must learn. So you must not -play with him, or speak to him, or let him see you: but only keep him -from being harmed.”</p> -<p>Then the fairies were sad, because they could not play with their -new brother, but they always did what they were told.</p> -<p>And their Queen floated away down the river; and whither she went, -thither she came. But all this Tom, of course, never saw or heard: -and perhaps if he had it would have made little difference in the story; -for was so hot and thirsty, and longed so to be clean for once, that -he tumbled himself as quick as he could into the clear cool stream.</p> -<p>And he had not been in it two minutes before he fell fast asleep, -into the quietest, sunniest, cosiest sleep that ever he had in his life; -and he dreamt about the green meadows by which he had walked that morning, -and the tall elm-trees, and the sleeping cows; and after that he dreamt -of nothing at all.</p> -<p>The reason of his falling into such a delightful sleep is very simple; -and yet hardly any one has found it out. It was merely that the -fairies took him.</p> -<p>Some people think that there are no fairies. Cousin Cramchild -tells little folks so in his Conversations. Well, perhaps there -are none—in Boston, U.S., where he was raised. There are -only a clumsy lot of spirits there, who can’t make people hear -without thumping on the table: but they get their living thereby, and -I suppose that is all they want. And Aunt Agitate, in her Arguments -on political economy, says there are none. Well, perhaps there -are none—in her political economy. But it is a wide world, -my little man—and thank Heaven for it, for else, between crinolines -and theories, some of us would get squashed—and plenty of room -in it for fairies, without people seeing them; unless, of course, they -look in the right place. The most wonderful and the strongest -things in the world, you know, are just the things which no one can -see. There is life in you; and it is the life in you which makes -you grow, and move, and think: and yet you can’t see it. -And there is steam in a steam-engine; and that is what makes it move: -and yet you can’t see it; and so there may be fairies in the world, -and they may be just what makes the world go round to the old tune of</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“C’est l’amour, l’amour, l’amour<br />Qui -fait la monde à la ronde:”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>and yet no one may be able to see them except those whose hearts -are going round to that same tune. At all events, we will make -believe that there are fairies in the world. It will not be the -last time by many a one that we shall have to make believe. And -yet, after all, there is no need for that. There must be fairies; -for this is a fairy tale: and how can one have a fairy tale if there -are no fairies?</p> -<p>You don’t see the logic of that? Perhaps not. Then -please not to see the logic of a great many arguments exactly like it, -which you will hear before your beard is gray.</p> -<p>The kind old dame came back at twelve, when school was over, to look -at Tom: but there was no Tom there. She looked about for his footprints; -but the ground was so hard that there was no slot, as they say in dear -old North Devon. And if you grow up to be a brave healthy man, -you may know some day what no slot means, and know too, I hope, what -a slot does mean—a broad slot, with blunt claws, which makes a -man put out his cigar, and set his teeth, and tighten his girths, when -he sees it; and what his rights mean, if he has them, brow, bay, tray, -and points; and see something worth seeing between Haddon Wood and Countisbury -Cliff, with good Mr. Palk Collyns to show you the way, and mend your -bones as fast as you smash them. Only when that jolly day comes, -please don’t break your neck; stogged in a mire you never will -be, I trust; for you are a heath-cropper bred and born.</p> -<p>So the old dame went in again quite sulky, thinking that little Tom -had tricked her with a false story, and shammed ill, and then run away -again.</p> -<p>But she altered her mind the next day. For, when Sir John and -the rest of them had run themselves out of breath, and lost Tom, they -went back again, looking very foolish.</p> -<p>And they looked more foolish still when Sir John heard more of the -story from the nurse; and more foolish still, again, when they heard -the whole story from Miss Ellie, the little lady in white. All -she had seen was a poor little black chimney-sweep, crying and sobbing, -and going to get up the chimney again. Of course, she was very -much frightened: and no wonder. But that was all. The boy -had taken nothing in the room; by the mark of his little sooty feet, -they could see that he had never been off the hearthrug till the nurse -caught hold of him. It was all a mistake.</p> -<p>So Sir John told Grimes to go home, and promised him five shillings -if he would bring the boy quietly up to him, without beating him, that -he might be sure of the truth. For he took for granted, and Grimes -too, that Tom had made his way home.</p> -<p>But no Tom came back to Mr. Grimes that evening; and he went to the -police-office, to tell them to look out for the boy. But no Tom -was heard of. As for his having gone over those great fells to -Vendale, they no more dreamed of that than of his having gone to the -moon.</p> -<p>So Mr. Grimes came up to Harthover next day with a very sour face; -but when he got there, Sir John was over the hills and far away; and -Mr. Grimes had to sit in the outer servants’ hall all day, and -drink strong ale to wash away his sorrows; and they were washed away -long before Sir John came back.</p> -<p>For good Sir John had slept very badly that night; and he said to -his lady, “My dear, the boy must have got over into the grouse-moors, -and lost himself; and he lies very heavily on my conscience, poor little -lad. But I know what I will do.”</p> -<p>So, at five the next morning up he got, and into his bath, and into -his shooting-jacket and gaiters, and into the stableyard, like a fine -old English gentleman, with a face as red as a rose, and a hand as hard -as a table, and a back as broad as a bullock’s; and bade them -bring his shooting pony, and the keeper to come on his pony, and the -huntsman, and the first whip, and the second whip, and the under-keeper -with the bloodhound in a leash—a great dog as tall as a calf, -of the colour of a gravel-walk, with mahogany ears and nose, and a throat -like a church-bell. They took him up to the place where Tom had -gone into the wood; and there the hound lifted up his mighty voice, -and told them all he knew.</p> -<p>Then he took them to the place where Tom had climbed the wall; and -they shoved it down, and all got through.</p> -<p>And then the wise dog took them over the moor, and over the fells, -step by step, very slowly; for the scent was a day old, you know, and -very light from the heat and drought. But that was why cunning -old Sir John started at five in the morning.</p> -<p>And at last he came to the top of Lewthwaite Crag, and there he bayed, -and looked up in their faces, as much as to say, “I tell you he -is gone down here!”</p> -<p>They could hardly believe that Tom would have gone so far; and when -they looked at that awful cliff, they could never believe that he would -have dared to face it. But if the dog said so, it must be true.</p> -<p>“Heaven forgive us!” said Sir John. “If we -find him at all, we shall find him lying at the bottom.” -And he slapped his great hand upon his great thigh, and said -</p> -<p>“Who will go down over Lewthwaite Crag, and see if that boy -is alive? Oh that I were twenty years younger, and I would go -down myself!” And so he would have done, as well as any -sweep in the county. Then he said -</p> -<p>“Twenty pounds to the man who brings me that boy alive!” -and as was his way, what he said he meant.</p> -<p>Now among the lot was a little groom-boy, a very little groom indeed; -and he was the same who had ridden up the court, and told Tom to come -to the Hall; and he said -</p> -<p>“Twenty pounds or none, I will go down over Lewthwaite Crag, -if it’s only for the poor boy’s sake. For he was as -civil a spoken little chap as ever climbed a flue.”</p> -<p>So down over Lewthwaite Crag he went: a very smart groom he was at -the top, and a very shabby one at the bottom; for he tore his gaiters, -and he tore his breeches, and he tore his jacket, and he burst his braces, -and he burst his boots, and he lost his hat, and what was worst of all, -he lost his shirt pin, which he prized very much, for it was gold, and -he had won it in a raffle at Malton, and there was a figure at the top -of it, of t’ould mare, noble old Beeswing herself, as natural -as life; so it was a really severe loss: but he never saw anything of -Tom.</p> -<p>And all the while Sir John and the rest were riding round, full three -miles to the right, and back again, to get into Vendale, and to the -foot of the crag.</p> -<p>When they came to the old dame’s school, all the children came -out to see. And the old dame came out too; and when she saw Sir -John, she curtsied very low, for she was a tenant of his.</p> -<p>“Well, dame, and how are you?” said Sir John.</p> -<p>“Blessings on you as broad as your back, Harthover,” -says she—she didn’t call him Sir John, but only Harthover, -for that is the fashion in the North country—“and welcome -into Vendale: but you’re no hunting the fox this time of the year?”</p> -<p>“I am hunting, and strange game too,” said he.</p> -<p>“Blessings on your heart, and what makes you look so sad the -morn?”</p> -<p>“I’m looking for a lost child, a chimney-sweep, that -is run away.”</p> -<p>“Oh, Harthover, Harthover,” says she, “ye were -always a just man and a merciful; and ye’ll no harm the poor little -lad if I give you tidings of him?”</p> -<p>“Not I, not I, dame. I’m afraid we hunted him out -of the house all on a miserable mistake, and the hound has brought him -to the top of Lewthwaite Crag, and—”</p> -<p>Whereat the old dame broke out crying, without letting him finish -his story.</p> -<p>“So he told me the truth after all, poor little dear! -Ah, first thoughts are best, and a body’s heart’ll guide -them right, if they will but hearken to it.” And then she -told Sir John all.</p> -<p>“Bring the dog here, and lay him on,” said Sir John, -without another word, and he set his teeth very hard.</p> -<p>And the dog opened at once; and went away at the back of the cottage, -over the road, and over the meadow, and through a bit of alder copse; -and there, upon an alder stump, they saw Tom’s clothes lying. -And then they knew as much about it all as there was any need to know.</p> -<p>And Tom?</p> -<p>Ah, now comes the most wonderful part of this wonderful story. -Tom, when he woke, for of course he woke—children always wake -after they have slept exactly as long as is good for them—found -himself swimming about in the stream, being about four inches, or—that -I may be accurate—3.87902 inches long and having round the parotid -region of his fauces a set of external gills (I hope you understand -all the big words) just like those of a sucking eft, which he mistook -for a lace frill, till he pulled at them, found he hurt himself, and -made up his mind that they were part of himself, and best left alone.</p> -<p>In fact, the fairies had turned him into a water-baby.</p> -<p>A water-baby? You never heard of a water-baby. Perhaps -not. That is the very reason why this story was written. -There are a great many things in the world which you never heard of; -and a great many more which nobody ever heard of; and a great many things, -too, which nobody will ever hear of, at least until the coming of the -Cocqcigrues, when man shall be the measure of all things.</p> -<p>“But there are no such things as water-babies.”</p> -<p>How do you know that? Have you been there to see? And -if you had been there to see, and had seen none, that would not prove -that there were none. If Mr. Garth does not find a fox in Eversley -Wood—as folks sometimes fear he never will—that does not -prove that there are no such things as foxes. And as is Eversley -Wood to all the woods in England, so are the waters we know to all the -waters in the world. And no one has a right to say that no water-babies -exist, till they have seen no water-babies existing; which is quite -a different thing, mind, from not seeing water-babies; and a thing which -nobody ever did, or perhaps ever will do.</p> -<p>“But surely if there were water-babies, somebody would have -caught one at least?”</p> -<p>Well. How do you know that somebody has not?</p> -<p>“But they would have put it into spirits, or into the <i>Illustrated -News</i>, or perhaps cut it into two halves, poor dear little thing, -and sent one to Professor Owen, and one to Professor Huxley, to see -what they would each say about it.”</p> -<p>Ah, my dear little man! that does not follow at all, as you will -see before the end of the story.</p> -<p>“But a water-baby is contrary to nature.”</p> -<p>Well, but, my dear little man, you must learn to talk about such -things, when you grow older, in a very different way from that. -You must not talk about “ain’t” and “can’t” -when you speak of this great wonderful world round you, of which the -wisest man knows only the very smallest corner, and is, as the great -Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child picking up pebbles on the shore -of a boundless ocean.</p> -<p>You must not say that this cannot be, or that that is contrary to -nature. You do not know what Nature is, or what she can do; and -nobody knows; not even Sir Roderick Murchison, or Professor Owen, or -Professor Sedgwick, or Professor Huxley, or Mr. Darwin, or Professor -Faraday, or Mr. Grove, or any other of the great men whom good boys -are taught to respect. They are very wise men; and you must listen -respectfully to all they say: but even if they should say, which I am -sure they never would, “That cannot exist. That is contrary -to nature,” you must wait a little, and see; for perhaps even -they may be wrong. It is only children who read Aunt Agitate’s -Arguments, or Cousin Cramchild’s Conversations; or lads who go -to popular lectures, and see a man pointing at a few big ugly pictures -on the wall, or making nasty smells with bottles and squirts, for an -hour or two, and calling that anatomy or chemistry—who talk about -“cannot exist,” and “contrary to nature.” -Wise men are afraid to say that there is anything contrary to nature, -except what is contrary to mathematical truth; for two and two cannot -make five, and two straight lines cannot join twice, and a part cannot -be as great as the whole, and so on (at least, so it seems at present): -but the wiser men are, the less they talk about “cannot.” -That is a very rash, dangerous word, that “cannot”; and -if people use it too often, the Queen of all the Fairies, who makes -the clouds thunder and the fleas bite, and takes just as much trouble -about one as about the other, is apt to astonish them suddenly by showing -them, that though they say she cannot, yet she can, and what is more, -will, whether they approve or not.</p> -<p>And therefore it is, that there are dozens and hundreds of things -in the world which we should certainly have said were contrary to nature, -if we did not see them going on under our eyes all day long. If -people had never seen little seeds grow into great plants and trees, -of quite different shape from themselves, and these trees again produce -fresh seeds, to grow into fresh trees, they would have said, “The -thing cannot be; it is contrary to nature.” And they would -have been quite as right in saying so, as in saying that most other -things cannot be.</p> -<p>Or suppose again, that you had come, like M. Du Chaillu, a traveller -from unknown parts; and that no human being had ever seen or heard of -an elephant. And suppose that you described him to people, and -said, “This is the shape, and plan, and anatomy of the beast, -and of his feet, and of his trunk, and of his grinders, and of his tusks, -though they are not tusks at all, but two fore teeth run mad; and this -is the section of his skull, more like a mushroom than a reasonable -skull of a reasonable or unreasonable beast; and so forth, and so forth; -and though the beast (which I assure you I have seen and shot) is first -cousin to the little hairy coney of Scripture, second cousin to a pig, -and (I suspect) thirteenth or fourteenth cousin to a rabbit, yet he -is the wisest of all beasts, and can do everything save read, write, -and cast accounts.” People would surely have said, “Nonsense; -your elephant is contrary to nature;” and have thought you were -telling stories—as the French thought of Le Vaillant when he came -back to Paris and said that he had shot a giraffe; and as the king of -the Cannibal Islands thought of the English sailor, when he said that -in his country water turned to marble, and rain fell as feathers. -They would tell you, the more they knew of science, “Your elephant -is an impossible monster, contrary to the laws of comparative anatomy, -as far as yet known.” To which you would answer the less, -the more you thought.</p> -<p>Did not learned men, too, hold, till within the last twenty-five -years, that a flying dragon was an impossible monster? And do -we not now know that there are hundreds of them found fossil up and -down the world? People call them Pterodactyles: but that is only -because they are ashamed to call them flying dragons, after denying -so long that flying dragons could exist.</p> -<p>The truth is, that folks’ fancy that such and such things cannot -be, simply because they have not seen them, is worth no more than a -savage’s fancy that there cannot be such a thing as a locomotive, -because he never saw one running wild in the forest. Wise men -know that their business is to examine what is, and not to settle what -is not. They know that there are elephants; they know that there -have been flying dragons; and the wiser they are, the less inclined -they will be to say positively that there are no water-babies.</p> -<p>No water-babies, indeed? Why, wise men of old said that everything -on earth had its double in the water; and you may see that that is, -if not quite true, still quite as true as most other theories which -you are likely to hear for many a day. There are land-babies—then -why not water-babies? <i>Are there not water-rats, water-flies, -water-crickets, water-crabs, water-tortoises, water-scorpions, water-tigers -and water-hogs, water-cats and water-dogs, sea-lions and sea-bears, -sea-horses and sea-elephants, sea-mice and sea-urchins, sea-razors and -sea-pens, sea-combs and sea-fans; and of plants, are there not water-grass, -and water-crowfoot, water-milfoil, and so on, without end</i>?</p> -<p>“But all these things are only nicknames; the water things -are not really akin to the land things.”</p> -<p>That’s not always true. They are, in millions of cases, -not only of the same family, but actually the same individual creatures. -Do not even you know that a green drake, and an alder-fly, and a dragon-fly, -live under water till they change their skins, just as Tom changed his? -And if a water animal can continually change into a land animal, why -should not a land animal sometimes change into a water animal? -Don’t be put down by any of Cousin Cramchild’s arguments, -but stand up to him like a man, and answer him (quite respectfully, -of course) thus:-</p> -<p>If Cousin Cramchild says, that if there are water-babies, they must -grow into water-men, ask him how he knows that they do not? and then, -how he knows that they must, any more than the Proteus of the Adelsberg -caverns grows into a perfect newt.</p> -<p>If he says that it is too strange a transformation for a land-baby -to turn into a water-baby, ask him if he ever heard of the transformation -of Syllis, or the Distomas, or the common jelly-fish, of which M. Quatrefages -says excellently well—“Who would not exclaim that a miracle -had come to pass, if he saw a reptile come out of the egg dropped by -the hen in his poultry-yard, and the reptile give birth at once to an -indefinite number of fishes and birds? Yet the history of the -jelly-fish is quite as wonderful as that would be.” Ask -him if he knows about all this; and if he does not, tell him to go and -look for himself; and advise him (very respectfully, of course) to settle -no more what strange things cannot happen, till he has seen what strange -things do happen every day.</p> -<p>If he says that things cannot degrade, that is, change downwards -into lower forms, ask him, who told him that water-babies were lower -than land-babies? But even if they were, does he know about the -strange degradation of the common goose-barnacles, which one finds sticking -on ships’ bottoms; or the still stranger degradation of some cousins -of theirs, of which one hardly likes to talk, so shocking and ugly it -is?</p> -<p>And, lastly, if he says (as he most certainly will) that these transformations -only take place in the lower animals, and not in the higher, say that -that seems to little boys, and to some grown people, a very strange -fancy. For if the changes of the lower animals are so wonderful, -and so difficult to discover, why should not there be changes in the -higher animals far more wonderful, and far more difficult to discover? -And may not man, the crown and flower of all things, undergo some change -as much more wonderful than all the rest, as the Great Exhibition is -more wonderful than a rabbit-burrow? Let him answer that. -And if he says (as he will) that not having seen such a change in his -experience, he is not bound to believe it, ask him respectfully, where -his microscope has been? Does not each of us, in coming into this -world, go through a transformation just as wonderful as that of a sea-egg, -or a butterfly? and do not reason and analogy, as well as Scripture, -tell us that that transformation is not the last? and that, though what -we shall be, we know not, yet we are here but as the crawling caterpillar, -and shall be hereafter as the perfect fly. The old Greeks, heathens -as they were, saw as much as that two thousand years ago; and I care -very little for Cousin Cramchild, if he sees even less than they. -And so forth, and so forth, till he is quite cross. And then tell -him that if there are no water-babies, at least there ought to be; and -that, at least, he cannot answer.</p> -<p>And meanwhile, my dear little man, till you know a great deal more -about nature than Professor Owen and Professor Huxley put together, -don’t tell me about what cannot be, or fancy that anything is -too wonderful to be true. “We are fearfully and wonderfully -made,” said old David; and so we are; and so is everything around -us, down to the very deal table. Yes; much more fearfully and -wonderfully made, already, is the table, as it stands now, nothing but -a piece of dead deal wood, than if, as foxes say, and geese believe, -spirits could make it dance, or talk to you by rapping on it.</p> -<p>Am I in earnest? Oh dear no! Don’t you know that -this is a fairy tale, and all fun and pretence; and that you are not -to believe one word of it, even if it is true?</p> -<p>But at all events, so it happened to Tom. And, therefore, the -keeper, and the groom, and Sir John made a great mistake, and were very -unhappy (Sir John at least) without any reason, when they found a black -thing in the water, and said it was Tom’s body, and that he had -been drowned. They were utterly mistaken. Tom was quite -alive; and cleaner, and merrier, than he ever had been. The fairies -had washed him, you see, in the swift river, so thoroughly, that not -only his dirt, but his whole husk and shell had been washed quite off -him, and the pretty little real Tom was washed out of the inside of -it, and swam away, as a caddis does when its case of stones and silk -is bored through, and away it goes on its back, paddling to the shore, -there to split its skin, and fly away as a caperer, on four fawn-coloured -wings, with long legs and horns. They are foolish fellows, the -caperers, and fly into the candle at night, if you leave the door open. -We will hope Tom will be wiser, now he has got safe out of his sooty -old shell.</p> -<p>But good Sir John did not understand all this, not being a fellow -of the Linnaean Society; and he took it into his head that Tom was drowned. -When they looked into the empty pockets of his shell, and found no jewels -there, nor money—nothing but three marbles, and a brass button -with a string to it—then Sir John did something as like crying -as ever he did in his life, and blamed himself more bitterly than he -need have done. So he cried, and the groom-boy cried, and the -huntsman cried, and the dame cried, and the little girl cried, and the -dairymaid cried, and the old nurse cried (for it was somewhat her fault), -and my lady cried, for though people have wigs, that is no reason why -they should not have hearts; but the keeper did not cry, though he had -been so good-natured to Tom the morning before; for he was so dried -up with running after poachers, that you could no more get tears out -of him than milk out of leather: and Grimes did not cry, for Sir John -gave him ten pounds, and he drank it all in a week. Sir John sent, -far and wide, to find Tom’s father and mother: but he might have -looked till Doomsday for them, for one was dead, and the other was in -Botany Bay. And the little girl would not play with her dolls -for a whole week, and never forgot poor little Tom. And soon my -lady put a pretty little tombstone over Tom’s shell in the little -churchyard in Vendale, where the old dalesmen all sleep side by side -between the lime-stone crags. And the dame decked it with garlands -every Sunday, till she grew so old that she could not stir abroad; then -the little children decked it, for her. And always she sang an -old old song, as she sat spinning what she called her wedding-dress. -The children could not understand it, but they liked it none the less -for that; for it was very sweet, and very sad; and that was enough for -them. And these are the words of it:-</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>When all the world is young, lad,<br />And all the trees are green;<br />And -every goose a swan, lad,<br />And every lass a queen;<br />Then hey -for boot and horse, lad,<br />And round the world away;<br />Young blood -must have its course, lad,<br />And every dog his day.</p> -<p>When all the world is old, lad,<br />And all the trees are brown;<br />And -all the sport is stale, lad,<br />And all the wheels run down;<br />Creep -home, and take your place there,<br />The spent and maimed among:<br />God -grant you find one face there,<br />You loved when all was young.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Those are the words: but they are only the body of it: the soul of -the song was the dear old woman’s sweet face, and sweet voice, -and the sweet old air to which she sang; and that, alas! one cannot -put on paper. And at last she grew so stiff and lame, that the -angels were forced to carry her; and they helped her on with her wedding-dress, -and carried her up over Harthover Fells, and a long way beyond that -too; and there was a new schoolmistress in Vendale, and we will hope -that she was not certificated.</p> -<p>And all the while Tom was swimming about in the river, with a pretty -little lace-collar of gills about his neck, as lively as a grig, and -as clean as a fresh-run salmon.</p> -<p>Now if you don’t like my story, then go to the schoolroom and -learn your multiplication-table, and see if you like that better. -Some people, no doubt, would do so. So much the better for us, -if not for them. It takes all sorts, they say, to make a world.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“He prayeth well who loveth well<br />Both men and bird and -beast;<br />He prayeth best who loveth best<br />All things both great -and small:<br />For the dear God who loveth us,<br />He made and loveth -all.”</p> -<p>COLERIDGE.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Tom was now quite amphibious. You do not know what that means? -You had better, then, ask the nearest Government pupil-teacher, who -may possibly answer you smartly enough, thus -</p> -<p>“Amphibious. Adjective, derived from two Greek words, -<i>amphi</i>, a fish, and <i>bios</i>, a beast. An animal supposed -by our ignorant ancestors to be compounded of a fish and a beast; which -therefore, like the hippopotamus, can’t live on the land, and -dies in the water.”</p> -<p>However that may be, Tom was amphibious: and what is better still, -he was clean. For the first time in his life, he felt how comfortable -it was to have nothing on him but himself. But he only enjoyed -it: he did not know it, or think about it; just as you enjoy life and -health, and yet never think about being alive and healthy; and may it -be long before you have to think about it!</p> -<p>He did not remember having ever been dirty. Indeed, he did -not remember any of his old troubles, being tired, or hungry, or beaten, -or sent up dark chimneys. Since that sweet sleep, he had forgotten -all about his master, and Harthover Place, and the little white girl, -and in a word, all that had happened to him when he lived before; and -what was best of all, he had forgotten all the bad words which he had -learned from Grimes, and the rude boys with whom he used to play.</p> -<p>That is not strange: for you know, when you came into this world, -and became a land-baby, you remembered nothing. So why should -he, when he became a water-baby?</p> -<p>Then have you lived before?</p> -<p>My dear child, who can tell? One can only tell that, by remembering -something which happened where we lived before; and as we remember nothing, -we know nothing about it; and no book, and no man, can ever tell us -certainly.</p> -<p>There was a wise man once, a very wise man, and a very good man, -who wrote a poem about the feelings which some children have about having -lived before; and this is what he said -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;<br />The soul that -rises with us, our life’s star,<br />Hath elsewhere had its setting,<br />And -cometh from afar:<br />Not in entire forgetfulness,<br />And not in -utter nakedness,<br />But trailing clouds of glory, do we come<br />From -God, who is our home.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>There, you can know no more than that. But if I was you, I -would believe that. For then the great fairy Science, who is likely -to be queen of all the fairies for many a year to come, can only do -you good, and never do you harm; and instead of fancying with some people, -that your body makes your soul, as if a steam-engine could make its -own coke; or, with some people, that your soul has nothing to do with -your body, but is only stuck into it like a pin into a pincushion, to -fall out with the first shake;—you will believe the one true,</p> -<pre>orthodox, inductive, -rational, deductive, -philosophical, seductive, -logical, productive, -irrefragable, salutary, -nominalistic, comfortable, -realistic, -and on-all-accounts-to-be-received</pre> -<p>doctrine of this wonderful fairy tale; which is, that your soul makes -your body, just as a snail makes his shell. For the rest, it is -enough for us to be sure that whether or not we lived before, we shall -live again; though not, I hope, as poor little heathen Tom did. -For he went downward into the water: but we, I hope, shall go upward -to a very different place.</p> -<p>But Tom was very happy in the water. He had been sadly overworked -in the land-world; and so now, to make up for that, he had nothing but -holidays in the water-world for a long, long time to come. He -had nothing to do now but enjoy himself, and look at all the pretty -things which are to be seen in the cool clear water-world, where the -sun is never too hot, and the frost is never too cold.</p> -<p>And what did he live on? Water-cresses, perhaps; or perhaps -water-gruel, and water-milk; too many land-babies do so likewise. -But we do not know what one-tenth of the water-things eat; so we are -not answerable for the water-babies.</p> -<p>Sometimes he went along the smooth gravel water-ways, looking at -the crickets which ran in and out among the stones, as rabbits do on -land; or he climbed over the ledges of rock, and saw the sand-pipes -hanging in thousands, with every one of them a pretty little head and -legs peeping out; or he went into a still corner, and watched the caddises -eating dead sticks as greedily as you would eat plum-pudding, and building -their houses with silk and glue. Very fanciful ladies they were; -none of them would keep to the same materials for a day. One would -begin with some pebbles; then she would stick on a piece of green wood; -then she found a shell, and stuck it on too; and the poor shell was -alive, and did not like at all being taken to build houses with: but -the caddis did not let him have any voice in the matter, being rude -and selfish, as vain people are apt to be; then she stuck on a piece -of rotten wood, then a very smart pink stone, and so on, till she was -patched all over like an Irishman’s coat. Then she found -a long straw, five times as long as herself, and said, “Hurrah! -my sister has a tail, and I’ll have one too;” and she stuck -it on her back, and marched about with it quite proud, though it was -very inconvenient indeed. And, at that, tails became all the fashion -among the caddis-baits in that pool, as they were at the end of the -Long Pond last May, and they all toddled about with long straws sticking -out behind, getting between each other’s legs, and tumbling over -each other, and looking so ridiculous, that Tom laughed at them till -he cried, as we did. But they were quite right, you know; for -people must always follow the fashion, even if it be spoon-bonnets.</p> -<p>Then sometimes he came to a deep still reach; and there he saw the -water-forests. They would have looked to you only little weeds: -but Tom, you must remember, was so little that everything looked a hundred -times as big to him as it does to you, just as things do to a minnow, -who sees and catches the little water-creatures which you can only see -in a microscope.</p> -<p>And in the water-forest he saw the water-monkeys and water-squirrels -(they had all six legs, though; everything almost has six legs in the -water, except efts and water-babies); and nimbly enough they ran among -the branches. There were water-flowers there too, in thousands; -and Tom tried to pick them: but as soon as he touched them, they drew -themselves in and turned into knots of jelly; and then Tom saw that -they were all alive—bells, and stars, and wheels, and flowers, -of all beautiful shapes and colours; and all alive and busy, just as -Tom was. So now he found that there was a great deal more in the -world than he had fancied at first sight.</p> -<p>There was one wonderful little fellow, too, who peeped out of the -top of a house built of round bricks. He had two big wheels, and -one little one, all over teeth, spinning round and round like the wheels -in a thrashing-machine; and Tom stood and stared at him, to see what -he was going to make with his machinery. And what do you think -he was doing? Brick-making. With his two big wheels he swept -together all the mud which floated in the water: all that was nice in -it he put into his stomach and ate; and all the mud he put into the -little wheel on his breast, which really was a round hole set with teeth; -and there he spun it into a neat hard round brick; and then he took -it and stuck it on the top of his house-wall, and set to work to make -another. Now was not he a clever little fellow?</p> -<p>Tom thought so: but when he wanted to talk to him the brick-maker -was much too busy and proud of his work to take notice of him.</p> -<p>Now you must know that all the things under the water talk; only -not such a language as ours; but such as horses, and dogs, and cows, -and birds talk to each other; and Tom soon learned to understand them -and talk to them; so that he might have had very pleasant company if -he had only been a good boy. But I am sorry to say, he was too -like some other little boys, very fond of hunting and tormenting creatures -for mere sport. Some people say that boys cannot help it; that -it is nature, and only a proof that we are all originally descended -from beasts of prey. But whether it is nature or not, little boys -can help it, and must help it. For if they have naughty, low, -mischievous tricks in their nature, as monkeys have, that is no reason -why they should give way to those tricks like monkeys, who know no better. -And therefore they must not torment dumb creatures; for if they do, -a certain old lady who is coming will surely give them exactly what -they deserve.</p> -<p>But Tom did not know that; and he pecked and howked the poor water-things -about sadly, till they were all afraid of him, and got out of his way, -or crept into their shells; so he had no one to speak to or play with.</p> -<p>The water-fairies, of course, were very sorry to see him so unhappy, -and longed to take him, and tell him how naughty he was, and teach him -to be good, and to play and romp with him too: but they had been forbidden -to do that. Tom had to learn his lesson for himself by sound and -sharp experience, as many another foolish person has to do, though there -may be many a kind heart yearning over them all the while, and longing -to teach them what they can only teach themselves.</p> -<p>At last one day he found a caddis, and wanted it to peep out of its -house: but its house-door was shut. He had never seen a caddis -with a house-door before: so what must he do, the meddlesome little -fellow, but pull it open, to see what the poor lady was doing inside. -What a shame! How should you like to have any one breaking your -bedroom-door in, to see how you looked when you where in bed? -So Tom broke to pieces the door, which was the prettiest little grating -of silk, stuck all over with shining bits of crystal; and when he looked -in, the caddis poked out her head, and it had turned into just the shape -of a bird’s. But when Tom spoke to her she could not answer; -for her mouth and face were tight tied up in a new night-cap of neat -pink skin. However, if she didn’t answer, all the other -caddises did; for they held up their hands and shrieked like the cats -in Struwelpeter: “Oh, you nasty horrid boy; there you are at it -again! And she had just laid herself up for a fortnight’s -sleep, and then she would have come out with such beautiful wings, and -flown about, and laid such lots of eggs: and now you have broken her -door, and she can’t mend it because her mouth is tied up for a -fortnight, and she will die. Who sent you here to worry us out -of our lives?”</p> -<p>So Tom swam away. He was very much ashamed of himself, and -felt all the naughtier; as little boys do when they have done wrong -and won’t say so.</p> -<p>Then he came to a pool full of little trout, and began tormenting -them, and trying to catch them: but they slipped through his fingers, -and jumped clean out of water in their fright. But as Tom chased -them, he came close to a great dark hover under an alder root, and out -floushed a huge old brown trout ten times as big as he was, and ran -right against him, and knocked all the breath out of his body; and I -don’t know which was the more frightened of the two.</p> -<p>Then he went on sulky and lonely, as he deserved to be; and under -a bank he saw a very ugly dirty creature sitting, about half as big -as himself; which had six legs, and a big stomach, and a most ridiculous -head with two great eyes and a face just like a donkey’s.</p> -<p>“Oh,” said Tom, “you are an ugly fellow to be sure!” -and he began making faces at him; and put his nose close to him, and -halloed at him, like a very rude boy.</p> -<p>When, hey presto; all the thing’s donkey-face came off in a -moment, and out popped a long arm with a pair of pincers at the end -of it, and caught Tom by the nose. It did not hurt him much; but -it held him quite tight.</p> -<p>“Yah, ah! Oh, let me go!” cried Tom.</p> -<p>“Then let me go,” said the creature. “I want -to be quiet. I want to split.”</p> -<p>Tom promised to let him alone, and he let go.</p> -<p>“Why do you want to split?” said Tom.</p> -<p>“Because my brothers and sisters have all split, and turned -into beautiful creatures with wings; and I want to split too. -Don’t speak to me. I am sure I shall split. I will -split!”</p> -<p>Tom stood still, and watched him. And he swelled himself, and -puffed, and stretched himself out stiff, and at last—crack, puff, -bang—he opened all down his back, and then up to the top of his -head.</p> -<p>And out of his inside came the most slender, elegant, soft creature, -as soft and smooth as Tom: but very pale and weak, like a little child -who has been ill a long time in a dark room. It moved its legs -very feebly; and looked about it half ashamed, like a girl when she -goes for the first time into a ballroom; and then it began walking slowly -up a grass stem to the top of the water.</p> -<p>Tom was so astonished that he never said a word but he stared with -all his eyes. And he went up to the top of the water too, and -peeped out to see what would happen.</p> -<p>And as the creature sat in the warm bright sun, a wonderful change -came over it. It grew strong and firm; the most lovely colours -began to show on its body, blue and yellow and black, spots and bars -and rings; out of its back rose four great wings of bright brown gauze; -and its eyes grew so large that they filled all its head, and shone -like ten thousand diamonds.</p> -<p>“Oh, you beautiful creature!” said Tom; and he put out -his hand to catch it.</p> -<p>But the thing whirred up into the air, and hung poised on its wings -a moment, and then settled down again by Tom quite fearless.</p> -<p>“No!” it said, “you cannot catch me. I am -a dragon-fly now, the king of all the flies; and I shall dance in the -sunshine, and hawk over the river, and catch gnats, and have a beautiful -wife like myself. I know what I shall do. Hurrah!” -And he flew away into the air, and began catching gnats.</p> -<p>“Oh! come back, come back,” cried Tom, “you beautiful -creature. I have no one to play with, and I am so lonely here. -If you will but come back I will never try to catch you.”</p> -<p>“I don’t care whether you do or not,” said the -dragon-fly; “for you can’t. But when I have had my -dinner, and looked a little about this pretty place, I will come back, -and have a little chat about all I have seen in my travels. Why, -what a huge tree this is! and what huge leaves on it!”</p> -<p>It was only a big dock: but you know the dragon-fly had never seen -any but little water-trees; starwort, and milfoil, and water-crowfoot, -and such like; so it did look very big to him. Besides, he was -very short-sighted, as all dragon-flies are; and never could see a yard -before his nose; any more than a great many other folks, who are not -half as handsome as he.</p> -<p>The dragon-fly did come back, and chatted away with Tom. He -was a little conceited about his fine colours and his large wings; but -you know, he had been a poor dirty ugly creature all his life before; -so there were great excuses for him. He was very fond of talking -about all the wonderful things he saw in the trees and the meadows; -and Tom liked to listen to him, for he had forgotten all about them. -So in a little while they became great friends.</p> -<p>And I am very glad to say, that Tom learned such a lesson that day, -that he did not torment creatures for a long time after. And then -the caddises grew quite tame, and used to tell him strange stories about -the way they built their houses, and changed their skins, and turned -at last into winged flies; till Tom began to long to change his skin, -and have wings like them some day.</p> -<p>And the trout and he made it up (for trout very soon forget if they -have been frightened and hurt). So Tom used to play with them -at hare and hounds, and great fun they had; and he used to try to leap -out of the water, head over heels, as they did before a shower came -on; but somehow he never could manage it. He liked most, though, -to see them rising at the flies, as they sailed round and round under -the shadow of the great oak, where the beetles fell flop into the water, -and the green caterpillars let themselves down from the boughs by silk -ropes for no reason at all; and then changed their foolish minds for -no reason at all either; and hauled themselves up again into the tree, -rolling up the rope in a ball between their paws; which is a very clever -rope-dancer’s trick, and neither Blondin nor Leotard could do -it: but why they should take so much trouble about it no one can tell; -for they cannot get their living, as Blondin and Leotard do, by trying -to break their necks on a string.</p> -<p>And very often Tom caught them just as they touched the water; and -caught the alder-flies, and the caperers, and the cock-tailed duns and -spinners, yellow, and brown, and claret, and gray, and gave them to -his friends the trout. Perhaps he was not quite kind to the flies; -but one must do a good turn to one’s friends when one can.</p> -<p>And at last he gave up catching even the flies; for he made acquaintance -with one by accident and found him a very merry little fellow. -And this was the way it happened; and it is all quite true.</p> -<p>He was basking at the top of the water one hot day in July, catching -duns and feeding the trout, when he saw a new sort, a dark gray little -fellow with a brown head. He was a very little fellow indeed: -but he made the most of himself, as people ought to do. He cocked -up his head, and he cocked up his wings, and he cocked up his tail, -and he cocked up the two whisks at his tail-end, and, in short, he looked -the cockiest little man of all little men. And so he proved to -be; for instead of getting away, he hopped upon Tom’s finger, -and sat there as bold as nine tailors; and he cried out in the tiniest, -shrillest, squeakiest little voice you ever heard,</p> -<p>“Much obliged to you, indeed; but I don’t want it yet.”</p> -<p>“Want what?” said Tom, quite taken aback by his impudence.</p> -<p>“Your leg, which you are kind enough to hold out for me to -sit on. I must just go and see after my wife for a few minutes. -Dear me! what a troublesome business a family is!” (though the -idle little rogue did nothing at all, but left his poor wife to lay -all the eggs by herself). “When I come back, I shall be -glad of it, if you’ll be so good as to keep it sticking out just -so;” and off he flew.</p> -<p>Tom thought him a very cool sort of personage; and still more so, -when, in five minutes he came back, and said—“Ah, you were -tired waiting? Well, your other leg will do as well.”</p> -<p>And he popped himself down on Tom’s knee, and began chatting -away in his squeaking voice.</p> -<p>“So you live under the water? It’s a low place. -I lived there for some time; and was very shabby and dirty. But -I didn’t choose that that should last. So I turned respectable, -and came up to the top, and put on this gray suit. It’s -a very business-like suit, you think, don’t you?”</p> -<p>“Very neat and quiet indeed,” said Tom.</p> -<p>“Yes, one must be quiet and neat and respectable, and all that -sort of thing for a little, when one becomes a family man. But -I’m tired of it, that’s the truth. I’ve done -quite enough business, I consider, in the last week, to last me my life. -So I shall put on a ball dress, and go out and be a smart man, and see -the gay world, and have a dance or two. Why shouldn’t one -be jolly if one can?”</p> -<p>“And what will become of your wife?”</p> -<p>“Oh! she is a very plain stupid creature, and that’s -the truth; and thinks about nothing but eggs. If she chooses to -come, why she may; and if not, why I go without her;—and here -I go.”</p> -<p>And, as he spoke, he turned quite pale, and then quite white.</p> -<p>“Why, you’re ill!” said Tom. But he did not -answer.</p> -<p>“You’re dead,” said Tom, looking at him as he stood -on his knee as white as a ghost.</p> -<p>“No, I ain’t!” answered a little squeaking voice -over his head. “This is me up here, in my ball-dress; and -that’s my skin. Ha, ha! you could not do such a trick as -that!”</p> -<p>And no more Tom could, nor Houdin, nor Robin, nor Frikell, nor all -the conjurors in the world. For the little rogue had jumped clean -out of his own skin, and left it standing on Tom’s knee, eyes, -wings, legs, tail, exactly as if it had been alive.</p> -<p>“Ha, ha!” he said, and he jerked and skipped up and down, -never stopping an instant, just as if he had St. Vitus’s dance. -“Ain’t I a pretty fellow now?”</p> -<p>And so he was; for his body was white, and his tail orange, and his -eyes all the colours of a peacock’s tail. And what was the -oddest of all, the whisks at the end of his tail had grown five times -as long as they were before.</p> -<p>“Ah!” said he, “now I will see the gay world. -My living, won’t cost me much, for I have no mouth, you see, and -no inside; so I can never be hungry nor have the stomach-ache neither.”</p> -<p>No more he had. He had grown as dry and hard and empty as a -quill, as such silly shallow-hearted fellows deserve to grow.</p> -<p>But, instead of being ashamed of his emptiness, he was quite proud -of it, as a good many fine gentlemen are, and began flirting and flipping -up and down, and singing -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“My wife shall dance, and I shall sing,<br />So merrily pass -the day;<br />For I hold it for quite the wisest thing,<br />To drive -dull care away.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>And he danced up and down for three days and three nights, till he -grew so tired, that he tumbled into the water, and floated down. -But what became of him Tom never knew, and he himself never minded; -for Tom heard him singing to the last, as he floated down -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“To drive dull care away-ay-ay!”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>And if he did not care, why nobody else cared either.</p> -<p>But one day Tom had a new adventure. He was sitting on a water-lily -leaf, he and his friend the dragon-fly, watching the gnats dance. -The dragon-fly had eaten as many as he wanted, and was sitting quite -still and sleepy, for it was very hot and bright. The gnats (who -did not care the least for their poor brothers’ death) danced -a foot over his head quite happily, and a large black fly settled within -an inch of his nose, and began washing his own face and combing his -hair with his paws: but the dragon-fly never stirred, and kept on chatting -to Tom about the times when he lived under the water.</p> -<p>Suddenly, Tom heard the strangest noise up the stream; cooing, and -grunting, and whining, and squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two -stock-doves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and a blind puppy, and left -them there to settle themselves and make music.</p> -<p>He looked up the water, and there he saw a sight as strange as the -noise; a great ball rolling over and over down the stream, seeming one -moment of soft brown fur, and the next of shining glass: and yet it -was not a ball; for sometimes it broke up and streamed away in pieces, -and then it joined again; and all the while the noise came out of it -louder and louder.</p> -<p>Tom asked the dragon-fly what it could be: but, of course, with his -short sight, he could not even see it, though it was not ten yards away. -So he took the neatest little header into the water, and started off -to see for himself; and, when he came near, the ball turned out to be -four or five beautiful creatures, many times larger than Tom, who were -swimming about, and rolling, and diving, and twisting, and wrestling, -and cuddling, and kissing and biting, and scratching, in the most charming -fashion that ever was seen. And if you don’t believe me, -you may go to the Zoological Gardens (for I am afraid that you won’t -see it nearer, unless, perhaps, you get up at five in the morning, and -go down to Cordery’s Moor, and watch by the great withy pollard -which hangs over the backwater, where the otters breed sometimes), and -then say, if otters at play in the water are not the merriest, lithest, -gracefullest creatures you ever saw.</p> -<p>But, when the biggest of them saw Tom, she darted out from the rest, -and cried in the water-language sharply enough, “Quick, children, -here is something to eat, indeed!” and came at poor Tom, showing -such a wicked pair of eyes, and such a set of sharp teeth in a grinning -mouth, that Tom, who had thought her very handsome, said to himself, -<i>Handsome is that</i> <i>handsome does</i>, and slipped in between -the water-lily roots as fast as he could, and then turned round and -made faces at her.</p> -<p>“Come out,” said the wicked old otter, “or it will -be worse for you.”</p> -<p>But Tom looked at her from between two thick roots, and shook them -with all his might, making horrible faces all the while, just as he -used to grin through the railings at the old women, when he lived before. -It was not quite well bred, no doubt; but you know, Tom had not finished -his education yet.</p> -<p>“Come, away, children,” said the otter in disgust, “it -is not worth eating, after all. It is only a nasty eft, which -nothing eats, not even those vulgar pike in the pond.”</p> -<p>“I am not an eft!” said Tom; “efts have tails.”</p> -<p>“You are an eft,” said the otter, very positively; “I -see your two hands quite plain, and I know you have a tail.”</p> -<p>“I tell you I have not,” said Tom. “Look -here!” and he turned his pretty little self quite round; and, -sure enough, he had no more tail than you.</p> -<p>The otter might have got out of it by saying that Tom was a frog: -but, like a great many other people, when she had once said a thing, -she stood to it, right or wrong; so she answered:</p> -<p>“I say you are an eft, and therefore you are, and not fit food -for gentlefolk like me and my children. You may stay there till -the salmon eat you (she knew the salmon would not, but she wanted to -frighten poor Tom). Ha! ha! they will eat you, and we will eat -them;” and the otter laughed such a wicked cruel laugh—as -you may hear them do sometimes; and the first time that you hear it -you will probably think it is bogies.</p> -<p>“What are salmon?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“Fish, you eft, great fish, nice fish to eat. They are -the lords of the fish, and we are lords of the salmon;” and she -laughed again. “We hunt them up and down the pools, and -drive them up into a corner, the silly things; they are so proud, and -bully the little trout, and the minnows, till they see us coming, and -then they are so meek all at once, and we catch them, but we disdain -to eat them all; we just bite out their soft throats and suck their -sweet juice—Oh, so good!”—(and she licked her wicked -lips)—“and then throw them away, and go and catch another. -They are coming soon, children, coming soon; I can smell the rain coming -up off the sea, and then hurrah for a fresh, and salmon, and plenty -of eating all day long.”</p> -<p>And the otter grew so proud that she turned head over heels twice, -and then stood upright half out of the water, grinning like a Cheshire -cat.</p> -<p>“And where do they come from?” asked Tom, who kept himself -very close, for he was considerably frightened.</p> -<p>“Out of the sea, eft, the great wide sea, where they might -stay and be safe if they liked. But out of the sea the silly things -come, into the great river down below, and we come up to watch for them; -and when they go down again we go down and follow them. And there -we fish for the bass and the pollock, and have jolly days along the -shore, and toss and roll in the breakers, and sleep snug in the warm -dry crags. Ah, that is a merry life too, children, if it were -not for those horrid men.”</p> -<p>“What are men?” asked Tom; but somehow he seemed to know -before he asked.</p> -<p>“Two-legged things, eft: and, now I come to look at you, they -are actually something like you, if you had not a tail” (she was -determined that Tom should have a tail), “only a great deal bigger, -worse luck for us; and they catch the fish with hooks and lines, which -get into our feet sometimes, and set pots along the rocks to catch lobsters. -They speared my poor dear husband as he went out to find something for -me to eat. I was laid up among the crags then, and we were very -low in the world, for the sea was so rough that no fish would come in -shore. But they speared him, poor fellow, and I saw them carrying -him away upon a pole. All, he lost his life for your sakes, my -children, poor dear obedient creature that he was.”</p> -<p>And the otter grew so sentimental (for otters can be very sentimental -when they choose, like a good many people who are both cruel and greedy, -and no good to anybody at all) that she sailed solemnly away down the -burn, and Tom saw her no more for that time. And lucky it was -for her that she did so; for no sooner was she gone, than down the bank -came seven little rough terrier doors, snuffing and yapping, and grubbing -and splashing, in full cry after the otter. Tom hid among the -water-lilies till they were gone; for he could not guess that they were -the water-fairies come to help him.</p> -<p>But he could not help thinking of what the otter had said about the -great river and the broad sea. And, as he thought, he longed to -go and see them. He could not tell why; but the more he thought, -the more he grew discontented with the narrow little stream in which -he lived, and all his companions there; and wanted to get out into the -wide wide world, and enjoy all the wonderful sights of which he was -sure it was full.</p> -<p>And once he set off to go down the stream. But the stream was -very low; and when he came to the shallows he could not keep under water, -for there was no water left to keep under. So the sun burned his -back and made him sick; and he went back again and lay quiet in the -pool for a whole week more.</p> -<p>And then, on the evening of a very hot day, he saw a sight.</p> -<p>He had been very stupid all day, and so had the trout; for they would -not move an inch to take a fly, though there were thousands on the water, -but lay dozing at the bottom under the shade of the stones; and Tom -lay dozing too, and was glad to cuddle their smooth cool sides, for -the water was quite warm and unpleasant.</p> -<p>But toward evening it grew suddenly dark, and Tom looked up and saw -a blanket of black clouds lying right across the valley above his head, -resting on the crags right and left. He felt not quite frightened, -but very still; for everything was still. There was not a whisper -of wind, nor a chirp of a bird to be heard; and next a few great drops -of rain fell plop into the water, and one hit Tom on the nose, and made -him pop his head down quickly enough.</p> -<p>And then the thunder roared, and the lightning flashed, and leapt -across Vendale and back again, from cloud to cloud, and cliff to cliff, -till the very rocks in the stream seemed to shake: and Tom looked up -at it through the water, and thought it the finest thing he ever saw -in his life.</p> -<p>But out of the water he dared not put his head; for the rain came -down by bucketsful, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream, and -churned it into foam; and soon the stream rose, and rushed down, higher -and higher, and fouler and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks; and -straws, and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood-lice, and leeches, and odds -and ends, and omnium-gatherums, and this, that, and the other, enough -to fill nine museums.</p> -<p>Tom could hardly stand against the stream, and hid behind a rock. -But the trout did not; for out they rushed from among the stones, and -began gobbling the beetles and leeches in the most greedy and quarrelsome -way, and swimming about with great worms hanging out of their mouths, -tugging and kicking to get them away from each other.</p> -<p>And now, by the flashes of the lightning, Tom saw a new sight—all -the bottom of the stream alive with great eels, turning and twisting -along, all down stream and away. They had been hiding for weeks -past in the cracks of the rocks, and in burrows in the mud; and Tom -had hardly ever seen them, except now and then at night: but now they -were all out, and went hurrying past him so fiercely and wildly that -he was quite frightened. And as they hurried past he could hear -them say to each other, “We must run, we must run. What -a jolly thunderstorm! Down to the sea, down to the sea!”</p> -<p>And then the otter came by with all her brood, twining and sweeping -along as fast as the eels themselves; and she spied Tom as she came -by, and said “Now is your time, eft, if you want to see the world. -Come along, children, never mind those nasty eels: we shall breakfast -on salmon to-morrow. Down to the sea, down to the sea!”</p> -<p>Then came a flash brighter than all the rest, and by the light of -it—in the thousandth part of a second they were gone again—but -he had seen them, he was certain of it—Three beautiful little -white girls, with their arms twined round each other’s necks, -floating down the torrent, as they sang, “Down to the sea, down -to the sea!”</p> -<p>“Oh stay! Wait for me!” cried Tom; but they were -gone: yet he could hear their voices clear and sweet through the roar -of thunder and water and wind, singing as they died away, “Down -to the sea!”</p> -<p>“Down to the sea?” said Tom; “everything is going -to the sea, and I will go too. Good-bye, trout.” But -the trout were so busy gobbling worms that they never turned to answer -him; so that Tom was spared the pain of bidding them farewell.</p> -<p>And now, down the rushing stream, guided by the bright flashes of -the storm; past tall birch-fringed rocks, which shone out one moment -as clear as day, and the next were dark as night; past dark hovers under -swirling banks, from which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking him -to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the fairies sent them -home again with a tremendous scolding, for daring to meddle with a water-baby; -on through narrow strids and roaring cataracts, where Tom was deafened -and blinded for a moment by the rushing waters; along deep reaches, -where the white water-lilies tossed and flapped beneath the wind and -hail; past sleeping villages; under dark bridge-arches, and away and -away to the sea. And Tom could not stop, and did not care to stop; -he would see the great world below, and the salmon, and the breakers, -and the wide wide sea.</p> -<p>And when the daylight came, Tom found himself out in the salmon river.</p> -<p>And what sort of a river was it? Was it like an Irish stream, -winding through the brown bogs, where the wild ducks squatter up from -among the white water-lilies, and the curlews flit to and fro, crying -“Tullie-wheep, mind your sheep;” and Dennis tells you strange -stories of the Peishtamore, the great bogy-snake which lies in the black -peat pools, among the old pine-stems, and puts his head out at night -to snap at the cattle as they come down to drink?—But you must -not believe all that Dennis tells you, mind; for if you ask him:</p> -<p>“Is there a salmon here, do you think, Dennis?”</p> -<p>“Is it salmon, thin, your honour manes? Salmon? -Cartloads it is of thim, thin, an’ ridgmens, shouldthering ache -out of water, av’ ye’d but the luck to see thim.”</p> -<p>Then you fish the pool all over, and never get a rise.</p> -<p>“But there can’t be a salmon here, Dennis! and, if you’ll -but think, if one had come up last tide, he’d be gone to the higher -pools by now.”</p> -<p>“Shure thin, and your honour’s the thrue fisherman, and -understands it all like a book. Why, ye spake as if ye’d -known the wather a thousand years! As I said, how could there -be a fish here at all, just now?”</p> -<p>“But you said just now they were shouldering each other out -of water?”</p> -<p>And then Dennis will look up at you with his handsome, sly, soft, -sleepy, good-natured, untrustable, Irish gray eye, and answer with the -prettiest smile:</p> -<p>“Shure, and didn’t I think your honour would like a pleasant -answer?”</p> -<p>So you must not trust Dennis, because he is in the habit of giving -pleasant answers: but, instead of being angry with him, you must remember -that he is a poor Paddy, and knows no better; so you must just burst -out laughing; and then he will burst out laughing too, and slave for -you, and trot about after you, and show you good sport if he can—for -he is an affectionate fellow, and as fond of sport as you are—and -if he can’t, tell you fibs instead, a hundred an hour; and wonder -all the while why poor ould Ireland does not prosper like England and -Scotland, and some other places, where folk have taken up a ridiculous -fancy that honesty is the best policy.</p> -<p>Or was it like a Welsh salmon river, which is remarkable chiefly -(at least, till this last year) for containing no salmon, as they have -been all poached out by the enlightened peasantry, to prevent the <i>Cythrawl -Sassenach</i> (which means you, my little dear, your kith and kin, and -signifies much the same as the Chinese <i>Fan Quei</i>) from coming -bothering into Wales, with good tackle, and ready money, and civilisation, -and common honesty, and other like things of which the Cymry stand in -no need whatsoever?</p> -<p>Or was it such a salmon stream as I trust you will see among the -Hampshire water-meadows before your hairs are gray, under the wise new -fishing-laws?—when Winchester apprentices shall covenant, as they -did three hundred years ago, not to be made to eat salmon more than -three days a week; and fresh-run fish shall be as plentiful under Salisbury -spire as they are in Holly-hole at Christchurch; in the good time coming, -when folks shall see that, of all Heaven’s gifts of food, the -one to be protected most carefully is that worthy gentleman salmon, -who is generous enough to go down to the sea weighing five ounces, and -to come back next year weighing five pounds, without having cost the -soil or the state one farthing?</p> -<p>Or was it like a Scotch stream, such as Arthur Clough drew in his -“Bothie”:-</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“Where over a ledge of granite<br />Into a granite bason the -amber torrent descended. . . . .<br />Beautiful there for the colour -derived from green rocks under;<br />Beautiful most of all, where beads -of foam uprising<br />Mingle their clouds of white with the delicate -hue of the stillness. . . .<br />Cliff over cliff for its sides, with -rowan and pendant birch boughs.” . . .</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Ah, my little man, when you are a big man, and fish such a stream -as that, you will hardly care, I think, whether she be roaring down -in full spate, like coffee covered with scald cream, while the fish -are swirling at your fly as an oar-blade swirls in a boat-race, or flashing -up the cataract like silver arrows, out of the fiercest of the foam; -or whether the fall be dwindled to a single thread, and the shingle -below be as white and dusty as a turnpike road, while the salmon huddle -together in one dark cloud in the clear amber pool, sleeping away their -time till the rain creeps back again off the sea. You will not -care much, if you have eyes and brains; for you will lay down your rod -contentedly, and drink in at your eyes the beauty of that glorious place; -and listen to the water-ouzel piping on the stones, and watch the yellow -roes come down to drink and look up at you with their great soft trustful -eyes, as much as to say, “You could not have the heart to shoot -at us?” And then, if you have sense, you will turn and talk -to the great giant of a gilly who lies basking on the stone beside you. -He will tell you no fibs, my little man; for he is a Scotchman, and -fears God, and not the priest; and, as you talk with him, you will be -surprised more and more at his knowledge, his sense, his humour, his -courtesy; and you will find out—unless you have found it out before—that -a man may learn from his Bible to be a more thorough gentleman than -if he had been brought up in all the drawing-rooms in London.</p> -<p>No. It was none of these, the salmon stream at Harthover. -It was such a stream as you see in dear old Bewick; Bewick, who was -born and bred upon them. A full hundred yards broad it was, sliding -on from broad pool to broad shallow, and broad shallow to broad pool, -over great fields of shingle, under oak and ash coverts, past low cliffs -of sandstone, past green meadows, and fair parks, and a great house -of gray stone, and brown moors above, and here and there against the -sky the smoking chimney of a colliery. You must look at Bewick -to see just what it was like, for he has drawn it a hundred times with -the care and the love of a true north countryman; and, even if you do -not care about the salmon river, you ought, like all good boys, to know -your Bewick.</p> -<p>At least, so old Sir John used to say, and very sensibly he put it -too, as he was wont to do:</p> -<p>“If they want to describe a finished young gentleman in France, -I hear, they say of him, ‘<i>Il sait son</i> <i>Rabelais</i>.’ -But if I want to describe one in England, I say, ‘<i>He knows -his Bewick</i>.’ And I think that is the higher compliment.”</p> -<p>But Tom thought nothing about what the river was like. All -his fancy was, to get down to the wide wide sea.</p> -<p>And after a while he came to a place where the river spread out into -broad still shallow reaches, so wide that little Tom, as he put his -head out of the water, could hardly see across.</p> -<p>And there he stopped. He got a little frightened. “This -must be the sea,” he thought. “What a wide place it -is! If I go on into it I shall surely lose my way, or some strange -thing will bite me. I will stop here and look out for the otter, -or the eels, or some one to tell me where I shall go.”</p> -<p>So he went back a little way, and crept into a crack of the rock, -just where the river opened out into the wide shallows, and watched -for some one to tell him his way: but the otter and the eels were gone -on miles and miles down the stream.</p> -<p>There he waited, and slept too, for he was quite tired with his night’s -journey; and, when he woke, the stream was clearing to a beautiful amber -hue, though it was still very high. And after a while he saw a -sight which made him jump up; for he knew in a moment it was one of -the things which he had come to look for.</p> -<p>Such a fish! ten times as big as the biggest trout, and a hundred -times as big as Tom, sculling up the stream past him, as easily as Tom -had sculled down.</p> -<p>Such a fish! shining silver from head to tail, and here and there -a crimson dot; with a grand hooked nose and grand curling lip, and a -grand bright eye, looking round him as proudly as a king, and surveying -the water right and left as if all belonged to him. Surely he -must be the salmon, the king of all the fish.</p> -<p>Tom was so frightened that he longed to creep into a hole; but he -need not have been; for salmon are all true gentlemen, and, like true -gentlemen, they look noble and proud enough, and yet, like true gentlemen, -they never harm or quarrel with any one, but go about their own business, -and leave rude fellows to themselves.</p> -<p>The salmon looked at him full in the face, and then went on without -minding him, with a swish or two of his tail which made the stream boil -again. And in a few minutes came another, and then four or five, and -so on; and all passed Tom, rushing and plunging up the cataract with -strong strokes of their silver tails, now and then leaping clean out -of water and up over a rock, shining gloriously for a moment in the -bright sun; while Tom was so delighted that he could have watched them -all day long.</p> -<p>And at last one came up bigger than all the rest; but he came slowly, -and stopped, and looked back, and seemed very anxious and busy. -And Tom saw that he was helping another salmon, an especially handsome -one, who had not a single spot upon it, but was clothed in pure silver -from nose to tail.</p> -<p>“My dear,” said the great fish to his companion, “you -really look dreadfully tired, and you must not over-exert yourself at -first. Do rest yourself behind this rock;” and he shoved -her gently with his nose, to the rock where Tom sat.</p> -<p>You must know that this was the salmon’s wife. For salmon, -like other true gentlemen, always choose their lady, and love her, and -are true to her, and take care of her and work for her, and fight for -her, as every true gentleman ought; and are not like vulgar chub and -roach and pike, who have no high feelings, and take no care of their -wives.</p> -<p>Then he saw Tom, and looked at him very fiercely one moment, as if -he was going to bite him.</p> -<p>“What do you want here?” he said, very fiercely.</p> -<p>“Oh, don’t hurt me!” cried Tom. “I -only want to look at you; you are so handsome.”</p> -<p>“Ah?” said the salmon, very stately but very civilly. -“I really beg your pardon; I see what you are, my little dear. -I have met one or two creatures like you before, and found them very -agreeable and well-behaved. Indeed, one of them showed me a great -kindness lately, which I hope to be able to repay. I hope we shall -not be in your way here. As soon as this lady is rested, we shall -proceed on our journey.”</p> -<p>What a well-bred old salmon he was!</p> -<p>“So you have seen things like me before?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“Several times, my dear. Indeed, it was only last night -that one at the river’s mouth came and warned me and my wife of -some new stake-nets which had got into the stream, I cannot tell how, -since last winter, and showed us the way round them, in the most charmingly -obliging way.”</p> -<p>“So there are babies in the sea?” cried Tom, and clapped -his little hands. “Then I shall have some one to play with -there? How delightful!”</p> -<p>“Were there no babies up this stream?” asked the lady -salmon.</p> -<p>“No! and I grew so lonely. I thought I saw three last -night; but they were gone in an instant, down to the sea. So I -went too; for I had nothing to play with but caddises and dragon-flies -and trout.”</p> -<p>“Ugh!” cried the lady, “what low company!”</p> -<p>“My dear, if he has been in low company, he has certainly not -learnt their low manners,” said the salmon.</p> -<p>“No, indeed, poor little dear: but how sad for him to live -among such people as caddises, who have actually six legs, the nasty -things; and dragon-flies, too! why they are not even good to eat; for -I tried them once, and they are all hard and empty; and, as for trout, -every one knows what they are.” Whereon she curled up her -lip, and looked dreadfully scornful, while her husband curled up his -too, till he looked as proud as Alcibiades.</p> -<p>“Why do you dislike the trout so?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“My dear, we do not even mention them, if we can help it; for -I am sorry to say they are relations of ours who do us no credit. -A great many years ago they were just like us: but they were so lazy, -and cowardly, and greedy, that instead of going down to the sea every -year to see the world and grow strong and fat, they chose to stay and -poke about in the little streams and eat worms and grubs; and they are -very properly punished for it; for they have grown ugly and brown and -spotted and small; and are actually so degraded in their tastes, that -they will eat our children.”</p> -<p>“And then they pretend to scrape acquaintance with us again,” -said the lady. “Why, I have actually known one of them propose -to a lady salmon, the little impudent little creature.”</p> -<p>“I should hope,” said the gentleman, “that there -are very few ladies of our race who would degrade themselves by listening -to such a creature for an instant. If I saw such a thing happen, -I should consider it my duty to put them both to death upon the spot.” -So the old salmon said, like an old blue-blooded hidalgo of Spain; and -what is more, he would have done it too. For you must know, no -enemies are so bitter against each other as those who are of the same -race; and a salmon looks on a trout, as some great folks look on some -little folks, as something just too much like himself to be tolerated.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;<br />Our meddling intellect<br />Mis-shapes -the beauteous forms of things<br />We murder to dissect.</p> -<p>Enough of science and of art:<br />Close up these barren leaves;<br />Come -forth, and bring with you a heart<br />That watches and receives.”</p> -<p>WORDSWORTH.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>So the salmon went up, after Tom had warned them of the wicked old -otter; and Tom went down, but slowly and cautiously, coasting along -shore. He was many days about it, for it was many miles down to -the sea; and perhaps he would never have found his way, if the fairies -had not guided him, without his seeing their fair faces, or feeling -their gentle hands.</p> -<p>And, as he went, he had a very strange adventure. It was a -clear still September night, and the moon shone so brightly down through -the water, that he could not sleep, though he shut his eyes as tight -as possible. So at last he came up to the top, and sat upon a -little point of rock, and looked up at the broad yellow moon, and wondered -what she was, and thought that she looked at him. And he watched -the moonlight on the rippling river, and the black heads of the firs, -and the silver-frosted lawns, and listened to the owl’s hoot, -and the snipe’s bleat, and the fox’s bark, and the otter’s -laugh; and smelt the soft perfume of the birches, and the wafts of heather -honey off the grouse moor far above; and felt very happy, though he -could not well tell why. You, of course, would have been very -cold sitting there on a September night, without the least bit of clothes -on your wet back; but Tom was a water-baby, and therefore felt cold -no more than a fish.</p> -<p>Suddenly, he saw a beautiful sight. A bright red light moved -along the river-side, and threw down into the water a long tap-root -of flame. Tom, curious little rogue that he was, must needs go -and see what it was; so he swam to the shore, and met the light as it -stopped over a shallow run at the edge of a low rock.</p> -<p>And there, underneath the light, lay five or six great salmon, looking -up at the flame with their great goggle eyes, and wagging their tails, -as if they were very much pleased at it.</p> -<p>Tom came to the top, to look at this wonderful light nearer, and -made a splash.</p> -<p>And he heard a voice say:</p> -<p>“There was a fish rose.”</p> -<p>He did not know what the words meant: but he seemed to know the sound -of them, and to know the voice which spoke them; and he saw on the bank -three great two-legged creatures, one of whom held the light, flaring -and sputtering, and another a long pole. And he knew that they -were men, and was frightened, and crept into a hole in the rock, from -which he could see what went on.</p> -<p>The man with the torch bent down over the water, and looked earnestly -in; and then he said:</p> -<p>“Tak’ that muckle fellow, lad; he’s ower fifteen -punds; and haud your hand steady.”</p> -<p>Tom felt that there was some danger coming, and longed to warn the -foolish salmon, who kept staring up at the light as if he was bewitched. -But before he could make up his mind, down came the pole through the -water; there was a fearful splash and struggle, and Tom saw that the -poor salmon was speared right through, and was lifted out of the water.</p> -<p>And then, from behind, there sprang on these three men three other -men; and there were shouts, and blows, and words which Tom recollected -to have heard before; and he shuddered and turned sick at them now, -for he felt somehow that they were strange, and ugly, and wrong, and -horrible. And it all began to come back to him. They were -men; and they were fighting; savage, desperate, up-and-down fighting, -such as Tom had seen too many times before.</p> -<p>And he stopped his little ears, and longed to swim away; and was -very glad that he was a water-baby, and had nothing to do any more with -horrid dirty men, with foul clothes on their backs, and foul words on -their lips; but he dared not stir out of his hole: while the rock shook -over his head with the trampling and struggling of the keepers and the -poachers.</p> -<p>All of a sudden there was a tremendous splash, and a frightful flash, -and a hissing, and all was still.</p> -<p>For into the water, close to Tom, fell one of the men; he who held -the light in his hand. Into the swift river he sank, and rolled -over and over in the current. Tom heard the men above run along -seemingly looking for him; but he drifted down into the deep hole below, -and there lay quite still, and they could not find him.</p> -<p>Tom waited a long time, till all was quiet; and then he peeped out, -and saw the man lying. At last he screwed up his courage and swam -down to him. “Perhaps,” he thought, “the water -has made him fall asleep, as it did me.”</p> -<p>Then he went nearer. He grew more and more curious, he could -not tell why. He must go and look at him. He would go very -quietly, of course; so he swam round and round him, closer and closer; -and, as he did not stir, at last he came quite close and looked him -in the face.</p> -<p>The moon shone so bright that Tom could see every feature; and, as -he saw, he recollected, bit by bit, it was his old master, Grimes.</p> -<p>Tom turned tail, and swam away as fast as he could.</p> -<p>“Oh dear me!” he thought, “now he will turn into -a water-baby. What a nasty troublesome one he will be! And -perhaps he will find me out, and beat me again.”</p> -<p>So he went up the river again a little way, and lay there the rest -of the night under an alder root; but, when morning came, he longed -to go down again to the big pool, and see whether Mr. Grimes had turned -into a water-baby yet.</p> -<p>So he went very carefully, peeping round all the rocks, and hiding -under all the roots. Mr. Grimes lay there still; he had not turned -into a water-baby. In the afternoon Tom went back again. -He could not rest till he had found out what had become of Mr. Grimes. -But this time Mr. Grimes was gone; and Tom made up his mind that he -was turned into a water-baby.</p> -<p>He might have made himself easy, poor little man; Mr. Grimes did -not turn into a water-baby, or anything like one at all. But he -did not make himself easy; and a long time he was fearful lest he should -meet Grimes suddenly in some deep pool. He could not know that -the fairies had carried him away, and put him, where they put everything -which falls into the water, exactly where it ought to be. But, -do you know, what had happened to Mr. Grimes had such an effect on him -that he never poached salmon any more. And it is quite certain -that, when a man becomes a confirmed poacher, the only way to cure him -is to put him under water for twenty-four hours, like Grimes. -So when you grow to be a big man, do you behave as all honest fellows -should; and never touch a fish or a head of game which belongs to another -man without his express leave; and then people will call you a gentleman, -and treat you like one; and perhaps give you good sport: instead of -hitting you into the river, or calling you a poaching snob.</p> -<p>Then Tom went on down, for he was afraid of staying near Grimes: -and as he went, all the vale looked sad. The red and yellow leaves -showered down into the river; the flies and beetles were all dead and -gone; the chill autumn fog lay low upon the hills, and sometimes spread -itself so thickly on the river that he could not see his way. -But he felt his way instead, following the flow of the stream, day after -day, past great bridges, past boats and barges, past the great town, -with its wharfs, and mills, and tall smoking chimneys, and ships which -rode at anchor in the stream; and now and then he ran against their -hawsers, and wondered what they were, and peeped out, and saw the sailors -lounging on board smoking their pipes; and ducked under again, for he -was terribly afraid of being caught by man and turned into a chimney-sweep -once more. He did not know that the fairies were close to him -always, shutting the sailors’ eyes lest they should see him, and -turning him aside from millraces, and sewer-mouths, and all foul and -dangerous things. Poor little fellow, it was a dreary journey -for him; and more than once he longed to be back in Vendale, playing -with the trout in the bright summer sun. But it could not be. -What has been once can never come over again. And people can be -little babies, even water-babies, only once in their lives.</p> -<p>Besides, people who make up their minds to go and see the world, -as Tom did, must needs find it a weary journey. Lucky for them -if they do not lose heart and stop half-way, instead of going on bravely -to the end as Tom did. For then they will remain neither boys -nor men, neither fish, flesh, nor good red-herring: having learnt a -great deal too much, and yet not enough; and sown their wild oats, without -having the advantage of reaping them.</p> -<p>But Tom was always a brave, determined, little English bull-dog, -who never knew when he was beaten; and on and on he held, till he saw -a long way off the red buoy through the fog. And then he found -to his surprise, the stream turned round, and running up inland.</p> -<p>It was the tide, of course: but Tom knew nothing of the tide. -He only knew that in a minute more the water, which had been fresh, -turned salt all round him. And then there came a change over him. -He felt as strong, and light, and fresh, as if his veins had run champagne; -and gave, he did not know why, three skips out of the water, a yard -high, and head over heels, just as the salmon do when they first touch -the noble rich salt water, which, as some wise men tell us, is the mother -of all living things.</p> -<p>He did not care now for the tide being against him. The red -buoy was in sight, dancing in the open sea; and to the buoy he would -go, and to it he went. He passed great shoals of bass and mullet, -leaping and rushing in after the shrimps, but he never heeded them, -or they him; and once he passed a great black shining seal, who was -coming in after the mullet. The seal put his head and shoulders -out of water, and stared at him, looking exactly like a fat old greasy -negro with a gray pate. And Tom, instead of being frightened, -said, “How d’ye do, sir; what a beautiful place the sea -is!” And the old seal, instead of trying to bite him, looked -at him with his soft sleepy winking eyes, and said, “Good tide -to you, my little man; are you looking for your brothers and sisters? -I passed them all at play outside.”</p> -<p>“Oh, then,” said Tom, “I shall have playfellows -at last,” and he swam on to the buoy, and got upon it (for he -was quite out of breath) and sat there, and looked round for water-babies: -but there were none to be seen.</p> -<p>The sea-breeze came in freshly with the tide and blew the fog away; -and the little waves danced for joy around the buoy, and the old buoy -danced with them. The shadows of the clouds ran races over the -bright blue bay, and yet never caught each other up; and the breakers -plunged merrily upon the wide white sands, and jumped up over the rocks, -to see what the green fields inside were like, and tumbled down and -broke themselves all to pieces, and never minded it a bit, but mended -themselves and jumped up again. And the terns hovered over Tom -like huge white dragon-flies with black heads, and the gulls laughed -like girls at play, and the sea-pies, with their red bills and legs, -flew to and fro from shore to shore, and whistled sweet and wild. -And Tom looked and looked, and listened; and he would have been very -happy, if he could only have seen the water-babies. Then when -the tide turned, he left the buoy, and swam round and round in search -of them: but in vain. Sometimes he thought he heard them laughing: -but it was only the laughter of the ripples. And sometimes he -thought he saw them at the bottom: but it was only white and pink shells. -And once he was sure he had found one, for he saw two bright eyes peeping -out of the sand. So he dived down, and began scraping the sand -away, and cried, “Don’t hide; I do want some one to play -with so much!” And out jumped a great turbot with his ugly -eyes and mouth all awry, and flopped away along the bottom, knocking -poor Tom over. And he sat down at the bottom of the sea, and cried -salt tears from sheer disappointment.</p> -<p>To have come all this way, and faced so many dangers, and yet to -find no water-babies! How hard! Well, it did seem hard: -but people, even little babies, cannot have all they want without waiting -for it, and working for it too, my little man, as you will find out -some day.</p> -<p>And Tom sat upon the buoy long days, long weeks, looking out to sea, -and wondering when the water-babies would come back; and yet they never -came.</p> -<p>Then he began to ask all the strange things which came in out of -the sea if they had seen any; and some said “Yes,” and some -said nothing at all.</p> -<p>He asked the bass and the pollock; but they were so greedy after -the shrimps that they did not care to answer him a word.</p> -<p>Then there came in a whole fleet of purple sea-snails, floating along, -each on a sponge full of foam, and Tom said, “Where do you come -from, you pretty creatures? and have you seen the water-babies?”</p> -<p>And the sea-snails answered, “Whence we come we know not; and -whither we are going, who can tell? We float out our life in the -mid-ocean, with the warm sunshine above our heads, and the warm gulf-stream -below; and that is enough for us. Yes; perhaps we have seen the -water-babies. We have seen many strange things as we sailed along.” -And they floated away, the happy stupid things, and all went ashore -upon the sands.</p> -<p>Then there came in a great lazy sunfish, as big as a fat pig cut -in half; and he seemed to have been cut in half too, and squeezed in -a clothes-press till he was flat; but to all his big body and big fins -he had only a little rabbit’s mouth, no bigger than Tom’s; -and, when Tom questioned him, he answered in a little squeaky feeble -voice:</p> -<p>“I’m sure I don’t know; I’ve lost my way. -I meant to go to the Chesapeake, and I’m afraid I’ve got -wrong somehow. Dear me! it was all by following that pleasant -warm water. I’m sure I’ve lost my way.”</p> -<p>And, when Tom asked him again, he could only answer, “I’ve -lost my way. Don’t talk to me; I want to think.”</p> -<p>But, like a good many other people, the more he tried to think the -less he could think; and Tom saw him blundering about all day, till -the coast-guardsmen saw his big fin above the water, and rowed out, -and struck a boat-hook into him, and took him away. They took -him up to the town and showed him for a penny a head, and made a good -day’s work of it. But of course Tom did not know that.</p> -<p>Then there came by a shoal of porpoises, rolling as they went—papas, -and mammas, and little children—and all quite smooth and shiny, -because the fairies French-polish them every morning; and they sighed -so softly as they came by, that Tom took courage to speak to them: but -all they answered was, “Hush, hush, hush;” for that was -all they had learnt to say.</p> -<p>And then there came a shoal of basking sharks’ some of them -as long as a boat, and Tom was frightened at them. But they were -very lazy good-natured fellows, not greedy tyrants, like white sharks -and blue sharks and ground sharks and hammer-heads, who eat men, or -saw-fish and threshers and ice-sharks, who hunt the poor old whales. -They came and rubbed their great sides against the buoy, and lay basking -in the sun with their backfins out of water; and winked at Tom: but -he never could get them to speak. They had eaten so many herrings -that they were quite stupid; and Tom was glad when a collier brig came -by and frightened them all away; for they did smell most horribly, certainly, -and he had to hold his nose tight as long as they were there.</p> -<p>And then there came by a beautiful creature, like a ribbon of pure -silver with a sharp head and very long teeth; but it seemed very sick -and sad. Sometimes it rolled helpless on its side; and then it -dashed away glittering like white fire; and then it lay sick again and -motionless.</p> -<p>“Where do you come from?” asked Tom. “And -why are <i>you</i> so sick and sad?”</p> -<p>“I come from the warm Carolinas, and the sandbanks fringed -with pines; where the great owl-rays leap and flap, like giant bats, -upon the tide. But I wandered north and north, upon the treacherous -warm gulf-stream, till I met with the cold icebergs, afloat in the mid -ocean. So I got tangled among the icebergs, and chilled with their -frozen breath. But the water-babies helped me from among them, -and set me free again. And now I am mending every day; but I am -very sick and sad; and perhaps I shall never get home again to play -with the owl-rays any more.”</p> -<p>“Oh!” cried Tom. “And you have seen water-babies? -Have you seen any near here?”</p> -<p>“Yes; they helped me again last night, or I should have been -eaten by a great black porpoise.”</p> -<p>How vexatious! The water-babies close to him, and yet he could -not find one.</p> -<p>And then he left the buoy, and used to go along the sands and round -the rocks, and come out in the night—like the forsaken Merman -in Mr. Arnold’s beautiful, beautiful poem, which you must learn -by heart some day—and sit upon a point of rock, among the shining -sea-weeds, in the low October tides, and cry and call for the water-babies; -but he never heard a voice call in return. And at last, with his -fretting and crying, he grew quite lean and thin.</p> -<p>But one day among the rocks he found a playfellow. It was not -a water-baby, alas! but it was a lobster; and a very distinguished lobster -he was; for he had live barnacles on his claws, which is a great mark -of distinction in lobsterdom, and no more to be bought for money than -a good conscience or the Victoria Cross.</p> -<p>Tom had never seen a lobster before; and he was mightily taken with -this one; for he thought him the most curious, odd, ridiculous creature -he had ever seen; and there he was not far wrong; for all the ingenious -men, and all the scientific men, and all the fanciful men, in the world, -with all the old German bogy-painters into the bargain, could never -invent, if all their wits were boiled into one, anything so curious, -and so ridiculous, as a lobster.</p> -<p>He had one claw knobbed and the other jagged; and Tom delighted in -watching him hold on to the seaweed with his knobbed claw, while he -cut up salads with his jagged one, and then put them into his mouth, -after smelling at them, like a monkey. And always the little barnacles -threw out their casting-nets and swept the water, and came in for their -share of whatever there was for dinner.</p> -<p>But Tom was most astonished to see how he fired himself off—snap! -like the leap-frogs which you make out of a goose’s breast-bone. -Certainly he took the most wonderful shots, and backwards, too. -For, if he wanted to go into a narrow crack ten yards off, what do you -think he did? If he had gone in head foremost, of course he could -not have turned round. So he used to turn his tail to it, and -lay his long horns, which carry his sixth sense in their tips (and nobody -knows what that sixth sense is), straight down his back to guide him, -and twist his eyes back till they almost came out of their sockets, -and then made ready, present, fire, snap!—and away he went, pop -into the hole; and peeped out and twiddled his whiskers, as much as -to say, “You couldn’t do that.”</p> -<p>Tom asked him about water-babies. “Yes,” he said. -He had seen them often. But he did not think much of them. -They were meddlesome little creatures, that went about helping fish -and shells which got into scrapes. Well, for his part, he should -be ashamed to be helped by little soft creatures that had not even a -shell on their backs. He had lived quite long enough in the world -to take care of himself.</p> -<p>He was a conceited fellow, the old lobster, and not very civil to -Tom; and you will hear how he had to alter his mind before he was done, -as conceited people generally have. But he was so funny, and Tom -so lonely, that he could not quarrel with him; and they used to sit -in holes in the rocks, and chat for hours.</p> -<p>And about this time there happened to Tom a very strange and important -adventure—so important, indeed, that he was very near never finding -the water-babies at all; and I am sure you would have been sorry for -that.</p> -<p>I hope that you have not forgotten the little white lady all this -while. At least, here she comes, looking like a clean white good -little darling, as she always was, and always will be. For it -befell in the pleasant short December days, when the wind always blows -from the south-west, till Old Father Christmas comes and spreads the -great white table-cloth, ready for little boys and girls to give the -birds their Christmas dinner of crumbs—it befell (to go on) in -the pleasant December days, that Sir John was so busy hunting that nobody -at home could get a word out of him. Four days a week he hunted, -and very good sport he had; and the other two he went to the bench and -the board of guardians, and very good justice he did; and, when he got -home in time, he dined at five; for he hated this absurd new fashion -of dining at eight in the hunting season, which forces a man to make -interest with the footman for cold beef and beer as soon as he comes -in, and so spoil his appetite, and then sleep in an arm-chair in his -bedroom, all stiff and tired, for two or three hours before he can get -his dinner like a gentleman. And do you be like Sir John, my dear -little man, when you are your own master; and, if you want either to -read hard or ride hard, stick to the good old Cambridge hours of breakfast -at eight and dinner at five; by which you may get two days’ work -out of one. But, of course, if you find a fox at three in the -afternoon and run him till dark, and leave off twenty miles from home, -why you must wait for your dinner till you can get it, as better men -than you have done. Only see that, if you go hungry, your horse -does not; but give him his warm gruel and beer, and take him gently -home, remembering that good horses don’t grow on the hedge like -blackberries.</p> -<p>It befell (to go on a second time) that Sir John, hunting all day, -and dining at five, fell asleep every evening, and snored so terribly -that all the windows in Harthover shook, and the soot fell down the -chimneys. Whereon My Lady, being no more able to get conversation -out of him than a song out of a dead nightingale, determined to go off -and leave him, and the doctor, and Captain Swinger the agent, to snore -in concert every evening to their hearts’ content. So she -started for the seaside with all the children, in order to put herself -and them into condition by mild applications of iodine. She might -as well have stayed at home and used Parry’s liquid horse-blister, -for there was plenty of it in the stables; and then she would have saved -her money, and saved the chance, also, of making all the children ill -instead of well (as hundreds are made), by taking them to some nasty -smelling undrained lodging, and then wondering how they caught scarlatina -and diphtheria: but people won’t be wise enough to understand -that till they are dead of bad smells, and then it will be too late; -besides you see, Sir John did certainly snore very loud.</p> -<p>But where she went to nobody must know, for fear young ladies should -begin to fancy that there are water-babies there! and so hunt and howk -after them (besides raising the price of lodgings), and keep them in -aquariums, as the ladies at Pompeii (as you may see by the paintings) -used to keep Cupids in cages. But nobody ever heard that they -starved the Cupids, or let them die of dirt and neglect, as English -young ladies do by the poor sea-beasts. So nobody must know where -My Lady went. Letting water-babies die is as bad as taking singing -birds’ eggs; for, though there are thousands, ay, millions, of -both of them in the world, yet there is not one too many.</p> -<p>Now it befell that, on the very shore, and over the very rocks, where -Tom was sitting with his friend the lobster, there walked one day the -little white lady, Ellie herself, and with her a very wise man indeed—Professor -Ptthmllnsprts.</p> -<p>His mother was a Dutchwoman, and therefore he was born at Curaçao -(of course you have learnt your geography, and therefore know why); -and his father a Pole, and therefore he was brought up at Petropaulowski -(of course you have learnt your modern politics, and therefore know -why): but for all that he was as thorough an Englishman as ever coveted -his neighbour’s goods. And his name, as I said, was Professor -Ptthmllnsprts, which is a very ancient and noble Polish name.</p> -<p>He was, as I said, a very great naturalist, and chief professor of -Necrobioneopalaeonthydrochthonanthropopithekology in the new university -which the king of the Cannibal Islands had founded; and, being a member -of the Acclimatisation Society, he had come here to collect all the -nasty things which he could find on the coast of England, and turn them -loose round the Cannibal Islands, because they had not nasty things -enough there to eat what they left.</p> -<p>But he was a very worthy kind good-natured little old gentleman; -and very fond of children (for he was not the least a cannibal himself); -and very good to all the world as long as it was good to him. -Only one fault he had, which cock-robins have likewise, as you may see -if you look out of the nursery window—that, when any one else -found a curious worm, he would hop round them, and peck them, and set -up his tail, and bristle up his feathers, just as a cock-robin would; -and declare that he found the worm first; and that it was his worm; -and, if not, that then it was not a worm at all.</p> -<p>He had met Sir John at Scarborough, or Fleetwood, or somewhere or -other (if you don’t care where, nobody else does), and had made -acquaintance with him, and become very fond of his children. Now, -Sir John knew nothing about sea-cockyolybirds, and cared less, provided -the fishmonger sent him good fish for dinner; and My Lady knew as little: -but she thought it proper that the children should know something. -For in the stupid old times, you must understand, children were taught -to know one thing, and to know it well; but in these enlightened new -times they are taught to know a little about everything, and to know -it all ill; which is a great deal pleasanter and easier, and therefore -quite right.</p> -<p>So Ellie and he were walking on the rocks, and he was showing her -about one in ten thousand of all the beautiful and curious things which -are to be seen there. But little Ellie was not satisfied with -them at all. She liked much better to play with live children, -or even with dolls, which she could pretend were alive; and at last -she said honestly, “I don’t care about all these things, -because they can’t play with me, or talk to me. If there -were little children now in the water, as there used to be, and I could -see them, I should like that.”</p> -<p>“Children in the water, you strange little duck?” said -the professor.</p> -<p>“Yes,” said Ellie. “I know there used to -be children in the water, and mermaids too, and mermen. I saw -them all in a picture at home, of a beautiful lady sailing in a car -drawn by dolphins, and babies flying round her, and one sitting in her -lap; and the mermaids swimming and playing, and the mermen trumpeting -on conch-shells; and it is called ‘The Triumph of Galatea;’ -and there is a burning mountain in the picture behind. It hangs -on the great staircase, and I have looked at it ever since I was a baby, -and dreamt about it a hundred times; and it is so beautiful, that it -must be true.”</p> -<p>But the professor had not the least notion of allowing that things -were true, merely because people thought them beautiful. For at -that rate, he said, the Baltas would be quite right in thinking it a -fine thing to eat their grandpapas, because they thought it an ugly -thing to put them underground. The professor, indeed, went further, -and held that no man was forced to believe anything to be true, but -what he could see, hear, taste, or handle.</p> -<p>He held very strange theories about a good many things. He -had even got up once at the British Association, and declared that apes -had hippopotamus majors in their brains just as men have. Which -was a shocking thing to say; for, if it were so, what would become of -the faith, hope, and charity of immortal millions? You may think -that there are other more important differences between you and an ape, -such as being able to speak, and make machines, and know right from -wrong, and say your prayers, and other little matters of that kind; -but that is a child’s fancy, my dear. Nothing is to be depended -on but the great hippopotamus test. If you have a hippopotamus -major in your brain, you are no ape, though you had four hands, no feet, -and were more apish than the apes of all aperies. But if a hippopotamus -major is ever discovered in one single ape’s brain, nothing will -save your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-greater-greatest-grandmother -from having been an ape too. No, my dear little man; always remember -that the one true, certain, final, and all-important difference between -you and an ape is, that you have a hippopotamus major in your brain, -and it has none; and that, therefore, to discover one in its brain will -be a very wrong and dangerous thing, at which every one will be very -much shocked, as we may suppose they were at the professor.—Though -really, after all, it don’t much matter; because—as Lord -Dundreary and others would put it—nobody but men have hippopotamuses -in their brains; so, if a hippopotamus was discovered in an ape’s -brain, why it would not be one, you know, but something else.</p> -<p>But the professor had gone, I am sorry to say, even further than -that; for he had read at the British Association at Melbourne, Australia, -in the year 1999, a paper which assured every one who found himself -the better or wiser for the news, that there were not, never had been, -and could not be, any rational or half-rational beings except men, anywhere, -anywhen, or anyhow; that <i>nymphs, satyrs, fauns, inui, dwarfs, trolls, -elves, gnomes, fairies, brownies, nixes, wills, kobolds, leprechaunes, -cluricaunes, banshees, will-o’-the-wisps, follets, lutins, magots, -goblins, afrits, marids, jinns, ghouls, peris, deevs, angels, archangels, -imps, bogies</i>, or worse, were nothing at all, and pure bosh and wind. -And he had to get up very early in the morning to prove that, and to -eat his breakfast overnight; but he did it, at least to his own satisfaction. -Whereon a certain great divine, and a very clever divine was he, called -him a regular Sadducee; and probably he was quite right. Whereon -the professor, in return, called him a regular Pharisee; and probably -he was quite right too. But they did not quarrel in the least; -for, when men are men of the world, hard words run off them like water -off a duck’s back. So the professor and the divine met at -dinner that evening, and sat together on the sofa afterwards for an -hour, and talked over the state of female labour on the antarctic continent -(for nobody talks shop after his claret), and each vowed that the other -was the best company he ever met in his life. What an advantage -it is to be men of the world!</p> -<p>From all which you may guess that the professor was not the least -of little Ellie’s opinion. So he gave her a succinct compendium -of his famous paper at the British Association, in a form suited for -the youthful mind. But, as we have gone over his arguments against -water-babies once already, which is once too often, we will not repeat -them here.</p> -<p>Now little Ellie was, I suppose, a stupid little girl; for, instead -of being convinced by Professor Ptthmllnsprts’ arguments, she -only asked the same question over again.</p> -<p>“But why are there not water-babies?”</p> -<p>I trust and hope that it was because the professor trod at that moment -on the edge of a very sharp mussel, and hurt one of his corns sadly, -that he answered quite sharply, forgetting that he was a scientific -man, and therefore ought to have known that he couldn’t know; -and that he was a logician, and therefore ought to have known that he -could not prove a universal negative—I say, I trust and hope it -was because the mussel hurt his corn, that the professor answered quite -sharply:</p> -<p>“Because there ain’t.”</p> -<p>Which was not even good English, my dear little boy; for, as you -must know from Aunt Agitate’s Arguments, the professor ought to -have said, if he was so angry as to say anything of the kind—Because -there are not: or are none: or are none of them; or (if he had been -reading Aunt Agitate too) because they do not exist.</p> -<p>And he groped with his net under the weeds so violently, that, as -it befell, he caught poor little Tom.</p> -<p>He felt the net very heavy; and lifted it out quickly, with Tom all -entangled in the meshes.</p> -<p>“Dear me!” he cried. “What a large pink Holothurian; -with hands, too! It must be connected with Synapta.”</p> -<p>And he took him out.</p> -<p>“It has actually eyes!” he cried. “Why, it -must be a Cephalopod! This is most extraordinary!”</p> -<p>“No, I ain’t!” cried Tom, as loud as he could; -for he did not like to be called bad names.</p> -<p>“It is a water-baby!” cried Ellie; and of course it was.</p> -<p>“Water-fiddlesticks, my dear!” said the professor; and -he turned away sharply.</p> -<p>There was no denying it. It was a water-baby: and he had said -a moment ago that there were none. What was he to do?</p> -<p>He would have liked, of course, to have taken Tom home in a bucket. -He would not have put him in spirits. Of course not. He -would have kept him alive, and petted him (for he was a very kind old -gentleman), and written a book about him, and given him two long names, -of which the first would have said a little about Tom, and the second -all about himself; for of course he would have called him Hydrotecnon -Ptthmllnsprtsianum, or some other long name like that; for they are -forced to call everything by long names now, because they have used -up all the short ones, ever since they took to making nine species out -of one. But—what would all the learned men say to him after -his speech at the British Association? And what would Ellie say, -after what he had just told her?</p> -<p>There was a wise old heathen once, who said, “Maxima debetur -pueris reverentia”—The greatest reverence is due to children; -that is, that grown people should never say or do anything wrong before -children, lest they should set them a bad example.—Cousin Cramchild -says it means, “The greatest respectfulness is expected from little -boys.” But he was raised in a country where little boys -are not expected to be respectful, because all of them are as good as -the President:- Well, every one knows his own concerns best; so perhaps -they are. But poor Cousin Cramchild, to do him justice, not being -of that opinion, and having a moral mission, and being no scholar to -speak of, and hard up for an authority—why, it was a very great -temptation for him. But some people, and I am afraid the professor -was one of them, interpret that in a more strange, curious, one-sided, -left-handed, topsy-turvy, inside-out, behind-before fashion than even -Cousin Cramchild; for they make it mean, that you must show your respect -for children, by never confessing yourself in the wrong to them, even -if you know that you are so, lest they should lose confidence in their -elders.</p> -<p>Now, if the professor had said to Ellie, “Yes, my darling, -it is a water-baby, and a very wonderful thing it is; and it shows how -little I know of the wonders of nature, in spite of forty years’ -honest labour. I was just telling you that there could be no such -creatures; and, behold! here is one come to confound my conceit and -show me that Nature can do, and has done, beyond all that man’s -poor fancy can imagine. So, let us thank the Maker, and Inspirer, -and Lord of Nature for all His wonderful and glorious works, and try -and find out something about this one;”—I think that, if -the professor had said that, little Ellie would have believed him more -firmly, and respected him more deeply, and loved him better, than ever -she had done before. But he was of a different opinion. -He hesitated a moment. He longed to keep Tom, and yet he half -wished he never had caught him; and at last he quite longed to get rid -of him. So he turned away and poked Tom with his finger, for want -of anything better to do; and said carelessly, “My dear little -maid, you must have dreamt of water-babies last night, your head is -so full of them.”</p> -<p>Now Tom had been in the most horrible and unspeakable fright all -the while; and had kept as quiet as he could, though he was called a -Holothurian and a Cephalopod; for it was fixed in his little head that -if a man with clothes on caught him, he might put clothes on him too, -and make a dirty black chimney-sweep of him again. But, when the -professor poked him, it was more than he could bear; and, between fright -and rage, he turned to bay as valiantly as a mouse in a corner, and -bit the professor’s finger till it bled.</p> -<p>“Oh! ah! yah!” cried he; and glad of an excuse to be -rid of Tom, dropped him on to the seaweed, and thence he dived into -the water and was gone in a moment.</p> -<p>“But it was a water-baby, and I heard it speak!” cried -Ellie. “Ah, it is gone!” And she jumped down -off the rock, to try and catch Tom before he slipped into the sea.</p> -<p>Too late! and what was worse, as she sprang down, she slipped, and -fell some six feet, with her head on a sharp rock, and lay quite still.</p> -<p>The professor picked her up, and tried to waken her, and called to -her, and cried over her, for he loved her very much: but she would not -waken at all. So he took her up in his arms and carried her to -her governess, and they all went home; and little Ellie was put to bed, -and lay there quite still; only now and then she woke up and called -out about the water-baby: but no one knew what she meant, and the professor -did not tell, for he was ashamed to tell.</p> -<p>And, after a week, one moonlight night, the fairies came flying in -at the window and brought her such a pretty pair of wings that she could -not help putting them on; and she flew with them out of the window, -and over the land, and over the sea, and up through the clouds, and -nobody heard or saw anything of her for a very long while.</p> -<p>And this is why they say that no one has ever yet seen a water-baby. -For my part, I believe that the naturalists get dozens of them when -they are out dredging; but they say nothing about them, and throw them -overboard again, for fear of spoiling their theories. But, you -see the professor was found out, as every one is in due time. -A very terrible old fairy found the professor out; she felt his bumps, -and cast his nativity, and took the lunars of him carefully inside and -out; and so she knew what he would do as well as if she had seen it -in a print book, as they say in the dear old west country; and he did -it; and so he was found out beforehand, as everybody always is; and -the old fairy will find out the naturalists some day, and put them in -the <i>Times</i>, and then on whose side will the laugh be?</p> -<p>So the old fairy took him in hand very severely there and then. -But she says she is always most severe with the best people, because -there is most chance of curing them, and therefore they are the patients -who pay her best; for she has to work on the same salary as the Emperor -of China’s physicians (it is a pity that all do not), no cure, -no pay.</p> -<p>So she took the poor professor in hand: and because he was not content -with things as they are, she filled his head with things as they are -not, to try if he would like them better; and because he did not choose -to believe in a water-baby when he saw it, she made him believe in worse -things than water-babies—in <i>unicorns, fire-drakes, manticoras, -basilisks, amphisbaenas, griffins, phoenixes, rocs, orcs, dog-headed -men, three-headed dogs, three-bodied geryons</i>, and other pleasant -creatures, which folks think never existed yet, and which folks hope -never will exist, though they know nothing about the matter, and never -will; and these creatures so upset, terrified, flustered, aggravated, -confused, astounded, horrified, and totally flabbergasted the poor professor -that the doctors said that he was out of his wits for three months; -and perhaps they were right, as they are now and then.</p> -<p>So all the doctors in the county were called in to make a report -on his case; and of course every one of them flatly contradicted the -other: else what use is there in being men of science? But at -last the majority agreed on a report in the true medical language, one -half bad Latin, the other half worse Greek, and the rest what might -have been English, if they had only learnt to write it. And this -is the beginning thereof -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“The subanhypaposupernal anastomoses of peritomic diacellurite -in the encephalo digital region of the distinguished individual of whose -symptomatic phoenomena we had the melancholy honour (subsequently to -a preliminary diagnostic inspection) of making an inspectorial diagnosis, -presenting the interexclusively quadrilateral and antinomian diathesis -known as Bumpsterhausen’s blue follicles, we proceeded” --</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>But what they proceeded to do My Lady never knew; for she was so -frightened at the long words that she ran for her life, and locked herself -into her bedroom, for fear of being squashed by the words and strangled -by the sentence. A boa constrictor, she said, was bad company -enough: but what was a boa constrictor made of paving stones?</p> -<p>“It was quite shocking! What can they think is the matter -with him?” said she to the old nurse.</p> -<p>“That his wit’s just addled; may be wi’ unbelief -and heathenry,” quoth she.</p> -<p>“Then why can’t they say so?”</p> -<p>And the heaven, and the sea, and the rocks, and the vales re-echoed—“Why -indeed?” But the doctors never heard them.</p> -<p>So she made Sir John write to the <i>Times</i> to command the Chancellor -of the Exchequer for the time being to put a tax on long words; -</p> -<p>A light tax on words over three syllables, which are necessary evils, -like rats: but, like them, must be kept down judiciously.</p> -<p>A heavy tax on words over four syllables, as <i>heterodoxy, spontaneity, -spiritualism, spuriosity, etc.</i></p> -<p>And on words over five syllables (of which I hope no one will wish -to see any examples), a totally prohibitory tax.</p> -<p>And a similar prohibitory tax on words derived from three or more -languages at once; words derived from two languages having become so -common that there was no more hope of rooting out them than of rooting -out peth-winds.</p> -<p>The Chancellor of the Exchequer, being a scholar and a man of sense, -jumped at the notion; for he saw in it the one and only plan for abolishing -Schedule D: but when he brought in his bill, most of the Irish members, -and (I am sorry to say) some of the Scotch likewise, opposed it most -strongly, on the ground that in a free country no man was bound either -to understand himself or to let others understand him. So the -bill fell through on the first reading; and the Chancellor, being a -philosopher, comforted himself with the thought that it was not the -first time that a woman had hit off a grand idea and the men turned -up their stupid noses thereat.</p> -<p>Now the doctors had it all their own way; and to work they went in -earnest, and they gave the poor professor divers and sundry medicines, -as prescribed by the ancients and moderns, from Hippocrates to Feuchtersleben, -as below, viz.-</p> -<p>1. Hellebore, to wit -</p> -<p>Hellebore of AEta.<br />Hellebore of Galatia.<br />Hellebore of Sicily.</p> -<p>And all other Hellebores, after the method of the Helleborising Helleborists -of the Helleboric era. But that would not do. Bumpsterhausen’s -blue follicles would not stir an inch out of his encephalo digital region.</p> -<p>2. Trying to find out what was the matter with him, after the -method of</p> -<p>Hippocrates,<br />Aretaeus,<br />Celsus,<br />Coelius Aurelianus,<br />And -Galen.</p> -<p>But they found that a great deal too much trouble, as most people -have since; and so had recourse to -</p> -<p>3. Borage.<br />Cauteries.</p> -<p>Boring a hole in his head to let out fumes, which (says Gordonius) -“will, without doubt, do much good.” But it didn’t.</p> -<p>Bezoar stone.<br />Diamargaritum.<br />A ram’s brain boiled -in spice.<br />Oil of wormwood.<br />Water of Nile.<br />Capers.<br />Good -wine (but there was none to be got).<br />The water of a smith’s -forge.<br />Ambergris.<br />Mandrake pillows.<br />Dormouse fat.<br />Hares’ -ears.<br />Starvation.<br />Camphor.<br />Salts and senna.<br />Musk.<br />Opium.<br />Strait-waistcoats.<br />Bullyings.<br />Bumpings.<br />Bleedings.<br />Bucketings -with cold water.<br />Knockings down.<br />Kneeling on his chest till -they broke it in, etc. etc.; after the medieval or monkish method: but -that would not do. Bumpsterhausen’s blue follicles stuck -there still.</p> -<p>Then -</p> -<p>4. Coaxing.<br />Kissing.<br />Champagne and turtle.<br />Red -herrings and soda water.<br />Good advice.<br />Gardening.<br />Croquet.<br />Musical -soirees.<br />Aunt Salty.<br />Mild tobacco.<br />The Saturday Review.<br />A -carriage with outriders, etc. etc.</p> -<p>After the modern method. But that would not do.</p> -<p>And if he had but been a convict lunatic, and had shot at the Queen, -killed all his creditors to avoid paying them, or indulged in any other -little amiable eccentricity of that kind, they would have given him -in addition -</p> -<p>The healthiest situation in England, on Easthampstead Plain.</p> -<p>Free run of Windsor Forest.</p> -<p>The <i>Times</i> every morning.</p> -<p>A double-barrelled gun and pointers, and leave to shoot three Wellington -College boys a week (not more) in case black game was scarce.</p> -<p>But as he was neither mad enough nor bad enough to be allowed such -luxuries, they grew desperate, and fell into bad ways, viz. -</p> -<p>5. Suffumigations of sulphur.<br />Herrwiggius his “Incomparable -drink for madmen:”</p> -<p>Only they could not find out what it was.</p> -<p>Suffumigation of the liver of the fish * * *</p> -<p>Only they had forgotten its name, so Dr. Gray could not well procure -them a specimen.</p> -<p>Metallic tractors.<br />Holloway’s Ointment.<br />Electro-biology.<br />Valentine -Greatrakes his Stroking Cure.<br />Spirit-rapping.<br />Holloway’s -Pills.<br />Table-turning.<br />Morison’s Pills.<br />Homoeopathy.<br />Parr’s -Life Pills.<br />Mesmerism.<br />Pure Bosh.<br />Exorcisms, for which -the read Maleus Maleficarum, Nideri Formicarium, Delrio, Wierus, etc.</p> -<p>But could not get one that mentioned water-babies.</p> -<p>Hydropathy.<br />Madame Rachel’s Elixir of Youth.<br />The -Poughkeepsie Seer his Prophecies.<br />The distilled liquor of addle -eggs.<br />Pyropathy.</p> -<p>As successfully employed by the old inquisitors to cure the malady -of thought, and now by the Persian Mollahs to cure that of rheumatism.</p> -<p>Geopathy, or burying him.<br />Atmopathy, or steaming him.<br />Sympathy, -after the method of Basil Valentine his Triumph of Antimony, and Kenelm -Digby his Weapon-salve, which some call a hair of the dog that bit him.<br />Hermopathy, -or pouring mercury down his throat to move the animal spirits.<br />Meteoropathy, -or going up to the moon to look for his lost wits, as Ruggiero did for -Orlando Furioso’s: only, having no hippogriff, they were forced -to use a balloon; and, falling into the North Sea, were picked up by -a Yarmouth herring-boat, and came home much the wiser, and all over -scales.</p> -<p>Antipathy, or using him like “a man and a brother.”</p> -<p>Apathy, or doing nothing at all.</p> -<p>With all other ipathies and opathies which Noodle has invented, and -Foodle tried, since black-fellows chipped flints at Abbéville—which -is a considerable time ago, to judge by the Great Exhibition.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>But nothing would do; for he screamed and cried all day for a water-baby, -to come and drive away the monsters; and of course they did not try -to find one, because they did not believe in them, and were thinking -of nothing but Bumpsterhausen’s blue follicles; having, as usual, -set the cart before the horse, and taken the effect for the cause.</p> -<p>So they were forced at last to let the poor professor ease his mind -by writing a great book, exactly contrary to all his old opinions; in -which he proved that the moon was made of green cheese, and that all -the mites in it (which you may see sometimes quite plain through a telescope, -if you will only keep the lens dirty enough, as Mr. Weekes kept his -voltaic battery) are nothing in the world but little babies, who are -hatching and swarming up there in millions, ready to come down into -this world whenever children want a new little brother or sister.</p> -<p>Which must be a mistake, for this one reason: that, there being no -atmosphere round the moon (though some one or other says there is, at -least on the other side, and that he has been round at the back of it -to see, and found that the moon was just the shape of a Bath bun, and -so wet that the man in the moon went about on Midsummer-day in Macintoshes -and Cording’s boots, spearing eels and sneezing); that, therefore, -I say, there being no atmosphere, there can be no evaporation; and therefore -the dew-point can never fall below 71.5 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit: -and, therefore, it cannot be cold enough there about four o’clock -in the morning to condense the babies’ mesenteric apophthegms -into their left ventricles; and, therefore, they can never catch the -hooping-cough; and if they do not have hooping-cough, they cannot be -babies at all; and, therefore, there are no babies in the moon.—Q.E.D.</p> -<p>Which may seem a roundabout reason; and so, perhaps, it is: but you -will have heard worse ones in your time, and from better men than you -are.</p> -<p>But one thing is certain; that, when the good old doctor got his -book written, he felt considerably relieved from Bumpsterhausen’s -blue follicles, and a few things infinitely worse; to wit, from pride -and vain-glory, and from blindness and hardness of heart; which are -the true causes of Bumpsterhausen’s blue follicles, and of a good -many other ugly things besides. Whereon the foul flood-water in -his brains ran down, and cleared to a fine coffee colour, such as fish -like to rise in, till very fine clean fresh-run fish did begin to rise -in his brains; and he caught two or three of them (which is exceedingly -fine sport, for brain rivers), and anatomised them carefully, and never -mentioned what he found out from them, except to little children; and -became ever after a sadder and a wiser man; which is a very good thing -to become, my dear little boy, even though one has to pay a heavy price -for the blessing.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear<br />The Godhead’s -most benignant grace;<br />Nor know we anything so fair<br />As is the -smile upon thy face:<br />Flowers laugh before thee on their beds<br />And -fragrance in thy footing treads;<br />Thou dost preserve the stars from -wrong;<br />And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and -strong.”</p> -<p>WORDSWORTH, Ode to Duty.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>What became of little Tom?</p> -<p>He slipped away off the rocks into the water, as I said before. -But he could not help thinking of little Ellie. He did not remember -who she was; but he knew that she was a little girl, though she was -a hundred times as big as he. That is not surprising: size has -nothing to do with kindred. A tiny weed may be first cousin to -a great tree; and a little dog like Vick knows that Lioness is a dog -too, though she is twenty times larger than herself. So Tom knew -that Ellie was a little girl, and thought about her all that day, and -longed to have had her to play with; but he had very soon to think of -something else. And here is the account of what happened to him, -as it was published next morning, in the Water-proof Gazette, on the -finest watered paper, for the use of the great fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, -who reads the news very carefully every morning, and especially the -police cases, as you will hear very soon.</p> -<p>He was going along the rocks in three-fathom water, watching the -pollock catch prawns, and the wrasses nibble barnacles off the rocks, -shells and all, when he saw a round cage of green withes; and inside -it, looking very much ashamed of himself, sat his friend the lobster, -twiddling his horns, instead of thumbs.</p> -<p>“What, have you been naughty, and have they put you in the -lock-up?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>The lobster felt a little indignant at such a notion, but he was -too much depressed in spirits to argue; so he only said, “I can’t -get out.”</p> -<p>“Why did you get in?”</p> -<p>“After that nasty piece of dead fish.” He had thought -it looked and smelt very nice when he was outside, and so it did, for -a lobster: but now he turned round and abused it because he was angry -with himself.</p> -<p>“Where did you get in?”</p> -<p>“Through that round hole at the top.”</p> -<p>“Then why don’t you get out through it?”</p> -<p>“Because I can’t:” and the lobster twiddled his -horns more fiercely than ever, but he was forced to confess.</p> -<p>“I have jumped upwards, downwards, backwards, and sideways, -at least four thousand times; and I can’t get out: I always get -up underneath there, and can’t find the hole.”</p> -<p>Tom looked at the trap, and having more wit than the lobster, he -saw plainly enough what was the matter; as you may if you will look -at a lobster-pot.</p> -<p>“Stop a bit,” said Tom. “Turn your tail up -to me, and I’ll pull you through hindforemost, and then you won’t -stick in the spikes.”</p> -<p>But the lobster was so stupid and clumsy that he couldn’t hit -the hole. Like a great many fox-hunters, he was very sharp as -long as he was in his own country; but as soon as they get out of it -they lose their heads; and so the lobster, so to speak, lost his tail.</p> -<p>Tom reached and clawed down the hole after him, till he caught hold -of him; and then, as was to be expected, the clumsy lobster pulled him -in head foremost.</p> -<p>“Hullo! here is a pretty business,” said Tom. “Now -take your great claws, and break the points off those spikes, and then -we shall both get out easily.”</p> -<p>“Dear me, I never thought of that,” said the lobster; -“and after all the experience of life that I have had!”</p> -<p>You see, experience is of very little good unless a man, or a lobster, -has wit enough to make use of it. For a good many people, like -old Polonius, have seen all the world, and yet remain little better -than children after all.</p> -<p>But they had not got half the spikes away when they saw a great dark -cloud over them: and lo, and behold, it was the otter.</p> -<p>How she did grin and grin when she saw Tom. “Yar!” -said she, “you little meddlesome wretch, I have you now! -I will serve you out for telling the salmon where I was!” -And she crawled all over the pot to get in.</p> -<p>Tom was horribly frightened, and still more frightened when she found -the hole in the top, and squeezed herself right down through it, all -eyes and teeth. But no sooner was her head inside than valiant -Mr. Lobster caught her by the nose and held on.</p> -<p>And there they were all three in the pot, rolling over and over, -and very tight packing it was. And the lobster tore at the otter, -and the otter tore at the lobster, and both squeezed and thumped poor -Tom till he had no breath left in his body; and I don’t know what -would have happened to him if he had not at last got on the otter’s -back, and safe out of the hole.</p> -<p>He was right glad when he got out: but he would not desert his friend -who had saved him; and the first time he saw his tail uppermost he caught -hold of it, and pulled with all his might.</p> -<p>But the lobster would not let go.</p> -<p>“Come along,” said Tom; “don’t you see she -is dead?” And so she was, quite drowned and dead.</p> -<p>And that was the end of the wicked otter.</p> -<p>But the lobster would not let go.</p> -<p>“Come along, you stupid old stick-in-the-mud,” cried -Tom, “or the fisherman will catch you!” And that was -true, for Tom felt some one above beginning to haul up the pot.</p> -<p>But the lobster would not let go. Tom saw the fisherman haul -him up to the boat-side, and thought it was all up with him. But -when Mr. Lobster saw the fisherman, he gave such a furious and tremendous -snap, that he snapped out of his hand, and out of the pot, and safe -into the sea. But he left his knobbed claw behind him; for it -never came into his stupid head to let go after all, so he just shook -his claw off as the easier method. It was something of a bull, -that; but you must know the lobster was an Irish lobster, and was hatched -off Island Magee at the mouth of Belfast Lough.</p> -<p>Tom asked the lobster why he never thought of letting go. He -said very determinedly that it was a point of honour among lobsters. -And so it is, as the Mayor of Plymouth found out once to his cost—eight -or nine hundred years ago, of course; for if it had happened lately -it would be personal to mention it.</p> -<p>For one day he was so tired with sitting on a hard chair, in a grand -furred gown, with a gold chain round his neck, hearing one policeman -after another come in and sing, “What shall we do with the drunken -sailor, so early in the morning?” and answering them each exactly -alike:</p> -<p>“Put him in the round house till he gets sober, so early in -the morning” -</p> -<p>That, when it was over, he jumped up, and played leap-frog with the -town-clerk till he burst his buttons, and then had his luncheon, and -burst some more buttons, and then said: “It is a low spring-tide; -I shall go out this afternoon and cut my capers.”</p> -<p>Now he did not mean to cut such capers as you eat with boiled mutton. -It was the commandant of artillery at Valetta who used to amuse himself -with cutting them, and who stuck upon one of the bastions a notice, -“No one allowed to cut capers here but me,” which greatly -edified the midshipmen in port, and the Maltese on the Nix Mangiare -stairs. But all that the mayor meant was that he would go and -have an afternoon’s fun, like any schoolboy, and catch lobsters -with an iron hook.</p> -<p>So to the Mewstone he went, and for lobsters he looked. And -when he came to a certain crack in the rocks he was so excited that, -instead of putting in his hook, he put in his hand; and Mr. Lobster -was at home, and caught him by the finger, and held on.</p> -<p>“Yah!” said the mayor, and pulled as hard as he dared: -but the more he pulled, the more the lobster pinched, till he was forced -to be quiet.</p> -<p>Then he tried to get his hook in with his other hand; but the hole -was too narrow.</p> -<p>Then he pulled again; but he could not stand the pain.</p> -<p>Then he shouted and bawled for help: but there was no one nearer -him than the men-of-war inside the breakwater.</p> -<p>Then he began to turn a little pale; for the tide flowed, and still -the lobster held on.</p> -<p>Then he turned quite white; for the tide was up to his knees, and -still the lobster held on.</p> -<p>Then he thought of cutting off his finger; but he wanted two things -to do it with—courage and a knife; and he had got neither.</p> -<p>Then he turned quite yellow; for the tide was up to his waist, and -still the lobster held on.</p> -<p>Then he thought over all the naughty things he ever had done; all -the sand which he had put in the sugar, and the sloe-leaves in the tea, -and the water in the treacle, and the salt in the tobacco (because his -brother was a brewer, and a man must help his own kin).</p> -<p>Then he turned quite blue; for the tide was up to his breast, and -still the lobster held on.</p> -<p>Then, I have no doubt, he repented fully of all the said naughty -things which he had done, and promised to mend his life, as too many -do when they think they have no life left to mend. Whereby, as -they fancy, they make a very cheap bargain. But the old fairy -with the birch rod soon undeceives them.</p> -<p>And then he grew all colours at once, and turned up his eyes like -a duck in thunder; for the water was up to his chin, and still the lobster -held on.</p> -<p>And then came a man-of-war’s boat round the Mewstone, and saw -his head sticking up out of the water. One said it was a keg of -brandy, and another that it was a cocoa-nut, and another that it was -a buoy loose, and another that it was a black diver, and wanted to fire -at it, which would not have been pleasant for the mayor: but just then -such a yell came out of a great hole in the middle of it that the midshipman -in charge guessed what it was, and bade pull up to it as fast as they -could. So somehow or other the Jack-tars got the lobster out, -and set the mayor free, and put him ashore at the Barbican. He -never went lobster-catching again; and we will hope he put no more salt -in the tobacco, not even to sell his brother’s beer.</p> -<p>And that is the story of the Mayor of Plymouth, which has two advantages—first, -that of being quite true; and second, that of having (as folks say all -good stories ought to have) no moral whatsoever: no more, indeed, has -any part of this book, because it is a fairy tale, you know.</p> -<p>And now happened to Tom a most wonderful thing; for he had not left -the lobster five minutes before he came upon a water-baby.</p> -<p>A real live water-baby, sitting on the white sand, very busy about -a little point of rock. And when it saw Tom it looked up for a -moment, and then cried, “Why, you are not one of us. You -are a new baby! Oh, how delightful!”</p> -<p>And it ran to Tom, and Tom ran to it, and they hugged and kissed -each other for ever so long, they did not know why. But they did -not want any introductions there under the water.</p> -<p>At last Tom said, “Oh, where have you been all this while? -I have been looking for you so long, and I have been so lonely.”</p> -<p>“We have been here for days and days. There are hundreds -of us about the rocks. How was it you did not see us, or hear -us when we sing and romp every evening before we go home?”</p> -<p>Tom looked at the baby again, and then he said:</p> -<p>“Well, this is wonderful! I have seen things just like -you again and again, but I thought you were shells, or sea-creatures. -I never took you for water-babies like myself.”</p> -<p>Now, was not that very odd? So odd, indeed, that you will, -no doubt, want to know how it happened, and why Tom could never find -a water-baby till after he had got the lobster out of the pot. -And, if you will read this story nine times over, and then think for -yourself, you will find out why. It is not good for little boys -to be told everything, and never to be forced to use their own wits. -They would learn, then, no more than they do at Dr. Dulcimer’s -famous suburban establishment for the idler members of the youthful -aristocracy, where the masters learn the lessons and the boys hear them—which -saves a great deal of trouble—for the time being.</p> -<p>“Now,” said the baby, “come and help me, or I shall -not have finished before my brothers and sisters come, and it is time -to go home.”</p> -<p>“What shall I help you at?”</p> -<p>“At this poor dear little rock; a great clumsy boulder came -rolling by in the last storm, and knocked all its head off, and rubbed -off all its flowers. And now I must plant it again with seaweeds, -and coralline, and anemones, and I will make it the prettiest little -rock-garden on all the shore.”</p> -<p>So they worked away at the rock, and planted it, and smoothed the -sand down round, it, and capital fun they had till the tide began to -turn. And then Tom heard all the other babies coming, laughing -and singing and shouting and romping; and the noise they made was just -like the noise of the ripple. So he knew that he had been hearing -and seeing the water-babies all along; only he did not know them, because -his eyes and ears were not opened.</p> -<p>And in they came, dozens and dozens of them, some bigger than Tom -and some smaller, all in the neatest little white bathing dresses; and -when they found that he was a new baby, they hugged him and kissed him, -and then put him in the middle and danced round him on the sand, and -there was no one ever so happy as poor little Tom.</p> -<p>“Now then,” they cried all at once, “we must come -away home, we must come away home, or the tide will leave us dry. -We have mended all the broken sea-weed, and put all the rock-pools in -order, and planted all the shells again in the sand, and nobody will -see where the ugly storm swept in last week.”</p> -<p>And this is the reason why the rock-pools are always so neat and -clean; because the water-babies come inshore after every storm to sweep -them out, and comb them down, and put them all to rights again.</p> -<p>Only where men are wasteful and dirty, and let sewers run into the -sea instead of putting the stuff upon the fields like thrifty reasonable -souls; or throw herrings’ heads and dead dog-fish, or any other -refuse, into the water; or in any way make a mess upon the clean shore—there -the water-babies will not come, sometimes not for hundreds of years -(for they cannot abide anything smelly or foul), but leave the sea-anemones -and the crabs to clear away everything, till the good tidy sea has covered -up all the dirt in soft mud and clean sand, where the water-babies can -plant live cockles and whelks and razor-shells and sea-cucumbers and -golden-combs, and make a pretty live garden again, after man’s -dirt is cleared away. And that, I suppose, is the reason why there -are no water-babies at any watering-place which I have ever seen.</p> -<p>And where is the home of the water-babies? In St. Brandan’s -fairy isle.</p> -<p>Did you never hear of the blessed St. Brandan, how he preached to -the wild Irish on the wild, wild Kerry coast, he and five other hermits, -till they were weary and longed to rest? For the wild Irish would -not listen to them, or come to confession and to mass, but liked better -to brew potheen, and dance the pater o’pee, and knock each other -over the head with shillelaghs, and shoot each other from behind turf-dykes, -and steal each other’s cattle, and burn each other’s homes; -till St. Brandan and his friends were weary of them, for they would -not learn to be peaceable Christians at all.</p> -<p>So St. Brandan went out to the point of Old Dunmore, and looked over -the tide-way roaring round the Blasquets, at the end of all the world, -and away into the ocean, and sighed—“Ah that I had wings -as a dove!” And far away, before the setting sun, he saw -a blue fairy sea, and golden fairy islands, and he said, “Those -are the islands of the blest.” Then he and his friends got -into a hooker, and sailed away and away to the westward, and were never -heard of more. But the people who would not hear him were changed -into gorillas, and gorillas they are until this day.</p> -<p>And when St. Brandan and the hermits came to that fairy isle they -found it overgrown with cedars and full of beautiful birds; and he sat -down under the cedars and preached to all the birds in the air. -And they liked his sermons so well that they told the fishes in the -sea; and they came, and St. Brandan preached to them; and the fishes -told the water-babies, who live in the caves under the isle; and they -came up by hundreds every Sunday, and St. Brandan got quite a neat little -Sunday-school. And there he taught the water-babies for a great -many hundred years, till his eyes grew too dim to see, and his beard -grew so long that he dared not walk for fear of treading on it, and -then he might have tumbled down. And at last he and the five hermits -fell fast asleep under the cedar-shades, and there they sleep unto this -day. But the fairies took to the water-babies, and taught them -their lessons themselves.</p> -<p>And some say that St. Brandan will awake and begin to teach the babies -once more: but some think that he will sleep on, for better for worse, -till the coming of the Cocqcigrues. But, on still clear summer -evenings, when the sun sinks down into the sea, among golden cloud-capes -and cloud-islands, and locks and friths of azure sky, the sailors fancy -that they see, away to westward, St. Brandan’s fairy isle.</p> -<p>But whether men can see it or not, St. Brandan’s Isle once -actually stood there; a great land out in the ocean, which has sunk -and sunk beneath the waves. Old Plato called it Atlantis, and -told strange tales of the wise men who lived therein, and of the wars -they fought in the old times. And from off that island came strange -flowers, which linger still about this land:- the Cornish heath, and -Cornish moneywort, and the delicate Venus’s hair, and the London-pride -which covers the Kerry mountains, and the little pink butterwort of -Devon, and the great blue butterwort of Ireland, and the Connemara heath, -and the bristle-fern of the Turk waterfall, and many a strange plant -more; all fairy tokens left for wise men and good children from off -St. Brandan’s Isle.</p> -<p>Now when Tom got there, he found that the isle stood all on pillars, -and that its roots were full of caves. There were pillars of black -basalt, like Staffa; and pillars of green and crimson serpentine, like -Kynance; and pillars ribboned with red and white and yellow sandstone, -like Livermead; and there were blue grottoes like Capri, and white grottoes -like Adelsberg; all curtained and draped with seaweeds, purple and crimson, -green and brown; and strewn with soft white sand, on which the water-babies -sleep every night. But, to keep the place clean and sweet, the -crabs picked up all the scraps off the floor and ate them like so many -monkeys; while the rocks were covered with ten thousand sea-anemones, -and corals and madrepores, who scavenged the water all day long, and -kept it nice and pure. But, to make up to them for having to do -such nasty work, they were not left black and dirty, as poor chimney-sweeps -and dustmen are. No; the fairies are more considerate and just -than that, and have dressed them all in the most beautiful colours and -patterns, till they look like vast flower-beds of gay blossoms. -If you think I am talking nonsense, I can only say that it is true; -and that an old gentleman named Fourier used to say that we ought to -do the same by chimney-sweeps and dustmen, and honour them instead of -despising them; and he was a very clever old gentleman: but, unfortunately -for him and the world, as mad as a March hare.</p> -<p>And, instead of watchmen and policemen to keep out nasty things at -night, there were thousands and thousands of water-snakes, and most -wonderful creatures they were. They were all named after the Nereids, -the sea-fairies who took care of them, Eunice and Polynoe, Phyllodoce -and Psamathe, and all the rest of the pretty darlings who swim round -their Queen Amphitrite, and her car of cameo shell. They were -dressed in green velvet, and black velvet, and purple velvet; and were -all jointed in rings; and some of them had three hundred brains apiece, -so that they must have been uncommonly shrewd detectives; and some had -eyes in their tails; and some had eyes in every joint, so that they -kept a very sharp look-out; and when they wanted a baby-snake, they -just grew one at the end of their own tails, and when it was able to -take care of itself it dropped off; so that they brought up their families -very cheaply. But if any nasty thing came by, out they rushed -upon it; and then out of each of their hundreds of feet there sprang -a whole cutler’s shop of</p> -<pre>Scythes, Javelins, -Billhooks, Lances, -Pickaxes, Halberts, -Forks, Gisarines, -Penknives, Poleaxes, -Rapiers, Fishhooks, -Sabres, Bradawls, -Yataghans, Gimblets, -Creeses, Corkscrews, -Ghoorka swords, Pins, -Tucks, Needles, -And so forth,</pre> -<p>which stabbed, shot, poked, pricked, scratched, ripped, pinked, and -crimped those naughty beasts so terribly, that they had to run for their -lives, or else be chopped into small pieces and be eaten afterwards. -And, if that is not all, every word, true, then there is no faith in -microscopes, and all is over with the Linnaean Society.</p> -<p>And there were the water-babies in thousands, more than Tom, or you -either, could count.—All the little children whom the good fairies -take to, because their cruel mothers and fathers will not; all who are -untaught and brought up heathens, and all who come to grief by ill-usage -or ignorance or neglect; all the little children who are overlaid, or -given gin when they are young, or are let to drink out of hot kettles, -or to fall into the fire; all the little children in alleys and courts, -and tumble-down cottages, who die by fever, and cholera, and measles, -and scarlatina, and nasty complaints which no one has any business to -have, and which no one will have some day, when folks have common sense; -and all the little children who have been killed by cruel masters and -wicked soldiers; they were all there, except, of course, the babes of -Bethlehem who were killed by wicked King Herod; for they were taken -straight to heaven long ago, as everybody knows, and we call them the -Holy Innocents.</p> -<p>But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty tricks, and left off -tormenting dumb animals now that he had plenty of playfellows to amuse -him. Instead of that, I am sorry to say, he would meddle with -the creatures, all but the water-snakes, for they would stand no nonsense. -So he tickled the madrepores, to make them shut up; and frightened the -crabs, to make them hide in the sand and peep out at him with the tips -of their eyes; and put stones into the anemones’ mouths, to make -them fancy that their dinner was coming.</p> -<p>The other children warned him, and said, “Take care what you -are at. Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid is coming.” But Tom -never heeded them, being quite riotous with high spirits and good luck, -till, one Friday morning early, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid came indeed.</p> -<p>A very tremendous lady she was; and when the children saw her they -all stood in a row, very upright indeed, and smoothed down their bathing -dresses, and put their hands behind them, just as if they were going -to be examined by the inspector.</p> -<p>And she had on a black bonnet, and a black shawl, and no crinoline -at all; and a pair of large green spectacles, and a great hooked nose, -hooked so much that the bridge of it stood quite up above her eyebrows; -and under her arm she carried a great birch-rod. Indeed, she was -so ugly that Tom was tempted to make faces at her: but did not; for -he did not admire the look of the birch-rod under her arm.</p> -<p>And she looked at the children one by one, and seemed very much pleased -with them, though she never asked them one question about how they were -behaving; and then began giving them all sorts of nice sea-things—sea-cakes, -sea-apples, sea-oranges, sea-bullseyes, sea-toffee; and to the very -best of all she gave sea-ices, made out of sea-cows’ cream, which -never melt under water.</p> -<p>And, if you don’t quite believe me, then just think—What -is more cheap and plentiful than sea-rock? Then why should there -not be sea-toffee as well? And every one can find sea-lemons (ready -quartered too) if they will look for them at low tide; and sea-grapes -too sometimes, hanging in bunches; and, if you will go to Nice, you -will find the fish-market full of sea-fruit, which they call “frutta -di mare:” though I suppose they call them “fruits de mer” -now, out of compliment to that most successful, and therefore most immaculate, -potentate who is seemingly desirous of inheriting the blessing pronounced -on those who remove their neighbours’ land-mark. And, perhaps, -that is the very reason why the place is called Nice, because there -are so many nice things in the sea there: at least, if it is not, it -ought to be.</p> -<p>Now little Tom watched all these sweet things given away, till his -mouth watered, and his eyes grew as round as an owl’s. For -he hoped that his turn would come at last; and so it did. For -the lady called him up, and held out her fingers with something in them, -and popped it into his mouth; and, lo and behold, it was a nasty cold -hard pebble.</p> -<p>“You are a very cruel woman,” said he, and began to whimper.</p> -<p>“And you are a very cruel boy; who puts pebbles into the sea-anemones’ -mouths, to take them in, and make them fancy that they had caught a -good dinner! As you did to them, so I must do to you.”</p> -<p>“Who told you that?” said Tom.</p> -<p>“You did yourself, this very minute.”</p> -<p>Tom had never opened his lips; so he was very much taken aback indeed.</p> -<p>“Yes; every one tells me exactly what they have done wrong; -and that without knowing it themselves. So there is no use trying -to hide anything from me. Now go, and be a good boy, and I will -put no more pebbles in your mouth, if you put none in other creatures’.”</p> -<p>“I did not know there was any harm in it,” said Tom.</p> -<p>“Then you know now. People continually say that to me: -but I tell them, if you don’t know that fire burns, that is no -reason that it should not burn you; and if you don’t know that -dirt breeds fever, that is no reason why the fevers should not kill -you. The lobster did not know that there was any harm in getting -into the lobster-pot; but it caught him all the same.”</p> -<p>“Dear me,” thought Tom, “she knows everything!” -And so she did, indeed.</p> -<p>“And so, if you do not know that things are wrong that is no -reason why you should not be punished for them; though not as much, -not as much, my little man” (and the lady looked very kindly, -after all), “as if you did know.”</p> -<p>“Well, you are a little hard on a poor lad,” said Tom.</p> -<p>“Not at all; I am the best friend you ever had in all your -life. But I will tell you; I cannot help punishing people when -they do wrong. I like it no more than they do; I am often very, -very sorry for them, poor things: but I cannot help it. If I tried -not to do it, I should do it all the same. For I work by machinery, -just like an engine; and am full of wheels and springs inside; and am -wound up very carefully, so that I cannot help going.”</p> -<p>“Was it long ago since they wound you up?” asked Tom. -For he thought, the cunning little fellow, “She will run down -some day: or they may forget to wind her up, as old Grimes used to forget -to wind up his watch when he came in from the public-house; and then -I shall be safe.”</p> -<p>“I was wound up once and for all, so long ago, that I forget -all about it.”</p> -<p>“Dear me,” said Tom, “you must have been made a -long time!”</p> -<p>“I never was made, my child; and I shall go for ever and ever; -for I am as old as Eternity, and yet as young as Time.”</p> -<p>And there came over the lady’s face a very curious expression—very -solemn, and very sad; and yet very, very sweet. And she looked -up and away, as if she were gazing through the sea, and through the -sky, at something far, far off; and as she did so, there came such a -quiet, tender, patient, hopeful smile over her face that Tom thought -for the moment that she did not look ugly at all. And no more -she did; for she was like a great many people who have not a pretty -feature in their faces, and yet are lovely to behold, and draw little -children’s hearts to them at once because though the house is -plain enough, yet from the windows a beautiful and good spirit is looking -forth.</p> -<p>And Tom smiled in her face, she looked so pleasant for the moment. -And the strange fairy smiled too, and said:</p> -<p>“Yes. You thought me very ugly just now, did you not?”</p> -<p>Tom hung down his head, and got very red about the ears.</p> -<p>“And I am very ugly. I am the ugliest fairy in the world; -and I shall be, till people behave themselves as they ought to do. -And then I shall grow as handsome as my sister, who is the loveliest -fairy in the world; and her name is Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. -So she begins where I end, and I begin where she ends; and those who -will not listen to her must listen to me, as you will see. Now, -all of you run away, except Tom; and he may stay and see what I am going -to do. It will be a very good warning for him to begin with, before -he goes to school.</p> -<p>“Now, Tom, every Friday I come down here and call up all who -have ill-used little children and serve them as they served the children.”</p> -<p>And at that Tom was frightened, and crept under a stone; which made -the two crabs who lived there very angry, and frightened their friend -the butter-fish into flapping hysterics: but he would not move for them.</p> -<p>And first she called up all the doctors who give little children -so much physic (they were most of them old ones; for the young ones -have learnt better, all but a few army surgeons, who still fancy that -a baby’s inside is much like a Scotch grenadier’s), and -she set them all in a row; and very rueful they looked; for they knew -what was coming.</p> -<p>And first she pulled all their teeth out; and then she bled them -all round: and then she dosed them with calomel, and jalap, and salts -and senna, and brimstone and treacle; and horrible faces they made; -and then she gave them a great emetic of mustard and water, and no basons; -and began all over again; and that was the way she spent the morning.</p> -<p>And then she called up a whole troop of foolish ladies, who pinch -up their children’s waists and toes; and she laced them all up -in tight stays, so that they were choked and sick, and their noses grew -red, and their hands and feet swelled; and then she crammed their poor -feet into the most dreadfully tight boots, and made them all dance, -which they did most clumsily indeed; and then she asked them how they -liked it; and when they said not at all, she let them go: because they -had only done it out of foolish fashion, fancying it was for their children’s -good, as if wasps’ waists and pigs’ toes could be pretty, -or wholesome, or of any use to anybody.</p> -<p>Then she called up all the careless nurserymaids, and stuck pins -into them all over, and wheeled them about in perambulators with tight -straps across their stomachs and their heads and arms hanging over the -side, till they were quite sick and stupid, and would have had sun-strokes: -but, being under the water, they could only have water-strokes; which, -I assure you, are nearly as bad, as you will find if you try to sit -under a mill-wheel. And mind—when you hear a rumbling at -the bottom of the sea, sailors will tell you that it is a ground-swell: -but now you know better. It is the old lady wheeling the maids -about in perambulators.</p> -<p>And by that time she was so tired, she had to go to luncheon.</p> -<p>And after luncheon she set to work again, and called up all the cruel -schoolmasters—whole regiments and brigades of them; and when she -saw them, she frowned most terribly, and set to work in earnest, as -if the best part of the day’s work was to come. More than -half of them were nasty, dirty, frowzy, grubby, smelly old monks, who, -because they dare not hit a man of their own size, amused themselves -with beating little children instead; as you may see in the picture -of old Pope Gregory (good man and true though he was, when he meddled -with things which he did understand), teaching children to sing their -fa-fa-mi-fa with a cat-o’-nine tails under his chair: but, because -they never had any children of their own, they took into their heads -(as some folks do still) that they were the only people in the world -who knew how to manage children: and they first brought into England, -in the old Anglo-Saxon times, the fashion of treating free boys, and -girls too, worse than you would treat a dog or a horse: but Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid -has caught them all long ago; and given them many a taste of their own -rods; and much good may it do them.</p> -<p>And she boxed their ears, and thumped them over the head with rulers, -and pandied their hands with canes, and told them that they told stories, -and were this and that bad sort of people; and the more they were very -indignant, and stood upon their honour, and declared they told the truth, -the more she declared they were not, and that they were only telling -lies; and at last she birched them all round soundly with her great -birch-rod and set them each an imposition of three hundred thousand -lines of Hebrew to learn by heart before she came back next Friday. -And at that they all cried and howled so, that their breaths came all -up through the sea like bubbles out of soda-water; and that is one reason -of the bubbles in the sea. There are others: but that is the one -which principally concerns little boys. And by that time she was -so tired that she was glad to stop; and, indeed, she had done a very -good day’s work.</p> -<p>Tom did not quite dislike the old lady: but he could not help thinking -her a little spiteful—and no wonder if she was, poor old soul; -for if she has to wait to grow handsome till people do as they would -be done by, she will have to wait a very long time.</p> -<p>Poor old Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid! she has a great deal of hard work -before her, and had better have been born a washerwoman, and stood over -a tub all day: but, you see, people cannot always choose their own profession.</p> -<p>But Tom longed to ask her one question; and after all, whenever she -looked at him, she did not look cross at all; and now and then there -was a funny smile in her face, and she chuckled to herself in a way -which gave Tom courage, and at last he said:</p> -<p>“Pray, ma’am, may I ask you a question?”</p> -<p>“Certainly, my little dear.”</p> -<p>“Why don’t you bring all the bad masters here and serve -them out too? The butties that knock about the poor collier-boys; -and the nailers that file off their lads’ noses and hammer their -fingers; and all the master sweeps, like my master Grimes? I saw -him fall into the water long ago; so I surely expected he would have -been here. I’m sure he was bad enough to me.”</p> -<p>Then the old lady looked so very stern that Tom was quite frightened, -and sorry that he had been so bold. But she was not angry with -him. She only answered, “I look after them all the week -round; and they are in a very different place from this, because they -knew that they were doing wrong.”</p> -<p>She spoke very quietly; but there was something in her voice which -made Tom tingle from head to foot, as if he had got into a shoal of -sea-nettles.</p> -<p>“But these people,” she went on, “did not know -that they were doing wrong: they were only stupid and impatient; and -therefore I only punish them till they become patient, and learn to -use their common sense like reasonable beings. But as for chimney-sweeps, -and collier-boys, and nailer lads, my sister has set good people to -stop all that sort of thing; and very much obliged to her I am; for -if she could only stop the cruel masters from ill-using poor children, -I should grow handsome at least a thousand years sooner. And now -do you be a good boy, and do as you would be done by, which they did -not; and then, when my sister, MADAME DOASYOUWOULDBEDONEBY, comes on -Sunday, perhaps she will take notice of you, and teach you how to behave. -She understands that better than I do.” And so she went.</p> -<p>Tom was very glad to hear that there was no chance of meeting Grimes -again, though he was a little sorry for him, considering that he used -sometimes to give him the leavings of the beer: but he determined to -be a very good boy all Saturday; and he was; for he never frightened -one crab, nor tickled any live corals, nor put stones into the sea anemones’ -mouths, to make them fancy they had got a dinner; and when Sunday morning -came, sure enough, MRS. DOASYOUWOULDBEDONEBY came too. Whereat -all the little children began dancing and clapping their hands, and -Tom danced too with all his might.</p> -<p>And as for the pretty lady, I cannot tell you what the colour of -her hair was, or, of her eyes: no more could Tom; for, when any one -looks at her, all they can think of is, that she has the sweetest, kindest, -tenderest, funniest, merriest face they ever saw, or want to see. -But Tom saw that she was a very tall woman, as tall as her sister: but -instead of being gnarly and horny, and scaly, and prickly, like her, -she was the most nice, soft, fat, smooth, pussy, cuddly, delicious creature -who ever nursed a baby; and she understood babies thoroughly, for she -had plenty of her own, whole rows and regiments of them, and has to -this day. And all her delight was, whenever she had a spare moment, -to play with babies, in which she showed herself a woman of sense; for -babies are the best company, and the pleasantest playfellows, in the -world; at least, so all the wise people in the world think. And -therefore when the children saw her, they naturally all caught hold -of her, and pulled her till she sat down on a stone, and climbed into -her lap, and clung round her neck, and caught hold of her hands; and -then they all put their thumbs into their mouths, and began cuddling -and purring like so many kittens, as they ought to have done. -While those who could get nowhere else sat down on the sand, and cuddled -her feet—for no one, you know, wear shoes in the water, except -horrid old bathing-women, who are afraid of the water-babies pinching -their horny toes. And Tom stood staring at them; for he could -not understand what it was all about.</p> -<p>“And who are you, you little darling?” she said.</p> -<p>“Oh, that is the new baby!” they all cried, pulling their -thumbs out of their mouths; “and he never had any mother,” -and they all put their thumbs back again, for they did not wish to lose -any time.</p> -<p>“Then I will be his mother, and he shall have the very best -place; so get out, all of you, this moment.”</p> -<p>And she took up two great armfuls of babies—nine hundred under -one arm, and thirteen hundred under the other—and threw them away, -right and left, into the water. But they minded it no more than -the naughty boys in Struwelpeter minded when St. Nicholas dipped them -in his inkstand; and did not even take their thumbs out of their mouths, -but came paddling and wriggling back to her like so many tadpoles, till -you could see nothing of her from head to foot for the swarm of little -babies.</p> -<p>But she took Tom in her arms, and laid him in the softest place of -all, and kissed him, and patted him, and talked to him, tenderly and -low, such things as he had never heard before in his life; and Tom looked -up into her eyes, and loved her, and loved, till he fell fast asleep -from pure love.</p> -<p>And when he woke she was telling the children a story. And -what story did she tell them? One story she told them, which begins -every Christmas Eve, and yet never ends at all for ever and ever; and, -as she went on, the children took their thumbs out of their mouths and -listened quite seriously; but not sadly at all; for she never told them -anything sad; and Tom listened too, and never grew tired of listening. -And he listened so long that he fell fast asleep again, and, when he -woke, the lady was nursing him still.</p> -<p>“Don’t go away,” said little Tom. “This -is so nice. I never had any one to cuddle me before.”</p> -<p>“Don’t go away,” said all the children; “you -have not sung us one song.”</p> -<p>“Well, I have time for only one. So what shall it be?”</p> -<p>“The doll you lost! The doll you lost!” cried all -the babies at once.</p> -<p>So the strange fairy sang:-</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>I once had a sweet little doll, dears,<br />The prettiest doll in -the world;<br />Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears,<br />And -her hair was so charmingly curled.<br />But I lost my poor little doll, -dears,<br />As I played in the heath one day;<br />And I cried for her -more than a week, dears,<br />But I never could find where she lay.</p> -<p>I found my poor little doll, dears,<br />As I played in the heath -one day:<br />Folks say she is terribly changed, dears,<br />For her -paint is all washed away,<br />And her arm trodden off by the cows, -dears,<br />And her hair not the least bit curled:<br />Yet, for old -sakes’ sake she is still, dears,<br />The prettiest doll in the -world.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>What a silly song for a fairy to sing!</p> -<p>And what silly water-babies to be quite delighted at it!</p> -<p>Well, but you see they have not the advantage of Aunt Agitate’s -Arguments in the sea-land down below.</p> -<p>“Now,” said the fairy to Tom, “will you be a good -boy for my sake, and torment no more sea-beasts till I come back?”</p> -<p>“And you will cuddle me again?” said poor little Tom.</p> -<p>“Of course I will, you little duck. I should like to -take you with me and cuddle you all the way, only I must not;” -and away she went.</p> -<p>So Tom really tried to be a good boy, and tormented no sea-beasts -after that as long as he lived; and he is quite alive, I assure you, -still.</p> -<p>Oh, how good little boys ought to be who have kind pussy mammas to -cuddle them and tell them stories; and how afraid they ought to be of -growing naughty, and bringing tears into their mammas’ pretty -eyes!</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“Thou little child, yet glorious in the night<br />Of heaven-born -freedom on thy Being’s height,<br />Why with such earnest pains -dost thou provoke<br />The Years to bring the inevitable yoke -<br />Thus -blindly with thy blessedness at strife?<br />Full soon thy soul shall -have her earthly freight,<br />And custom lie upon thee with a weight<br />Heavy -as frost, and deep almost as life.”</p> -<p>WORDSWORTH.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>I come to the very saddest part of all my story. I know some -people will only laugh at it, and call it much ado about nothing. -But I know one man who would not; and he was an officer with a pair -of gray moustaches as long as your arm, who said once in company that -two of the most heart-rending sights in the world, which moved him most -to tears, which he would do anything to prevent or remedy, were a child -over a broken toy and a child stealing sweets.</p> -<p>The company did not laugh at him; his moustaches were too long and -too gray for that: but, after he was gone, they called him sentimental -and so forth, all but one dear little old Quaker lady with a soul as -white as her cap, who was not, of course, generally partial to soldiers; -and she said very quietly, like a Quaker:</p> -<p>“Friends, it is borne upon my mind that that is a truly brave -man.”</p> -<p>Now you may fancy that Tom was quite good, when he had everything -that he could want or wish: but you would be very much mistaken. -Being quite comfortable is a very good thing; but it does not make people -good. Indeed, it sometimes makes them naughty, as it has made -the people in America; and as it made the people in the Bible, who waxed -fat and kicked, like horses overfed and underworked. And I am -very sorry to say that this happened to little Tom. For he grew -so fond of the sea-bullseyes and sea-lollipops that his foolish little -head could think of nothing else: and he was always longing for more, -and wondering when the strange lady would come again and give him some, -and what she would give him, and how much, and whether she would give -him more than the others. And he thought of nothing but lollipops -by day, and dreamt of nothing else by night—and what happened -then?</p> -<p>That he began to watch the lady to see where she kept the sweet things: -and began hiding, and sneaking, and following her about, and pretending -to be looking the other way, or going after something else, till he -found out that she kept them in a beautiful mother-of-pearl cabinet -away in a deep crack of the rocks.</p> -<p>And he longed to go to the cabinet, and yet he was afraid; and then -he longed again, and was less afraid; and at last, by continual thinking -about it, he longed so violently that he was not afraid at all. -And one night, when all the other children were asleep, and he could -not sleep for thinking of lollipops, he crept away among the rocks, -and got to the cabinet, and behold! it was open.</p> -<p>But, when he saw all the nice things inside, instead of being delighted, -he was quite frightened, and wished he had never come there. And -then he would only touch them, and he did; and then he would only taste -one, and he did; and then he would only eat one, and he did; and then -he would only eat two, and then three, and so on; and then he was terrified -lest she should come and catch him, and began gobbling them down so -fast that he did not taste them, or have any pleasure in them; and then -he felt sick, and would have only one more; and then only one more again; -and so on till he had eaten them all up.</p> -<p>And all the while, close behind him, stood Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid.</p> -<p>Some people may say, But why did she not keep her cupboard locked? -Well, I know.—It may seem a very strange thing, but she never -does keep her cupboard locked; every one may go and taste for themselves, -and fare accordingly. It is very odd, but so it is; and I am quite -sure that she knows best. Perhaps she wishes people to keep their -fingers out of the fire, by having them burned.</p> -<p>She took off her spectacles, because she did not like to see too -much; and in her pity she arched up her eyebrows into her very hair, -and her eyes grew so wide that they would have taken in all the sorrows -of the world, and filled with great big tears, as they too often do.</p> -<p>But all she said was:</p> -<p>“Ah, you poor little dear! you are just like all the rest.”</p> -<p>But she said it to herself, and Tom neither heard nor saw her. -Now, you must not fancy that she was sentimental at all. If you -do, and think that she is going to let off you, or me, or any human -being when we do wrong, because she is too tender-hearted to punish -us, then you will find yourself very much mistaken, as many a man does -every year and every day.</p> -<p>But what did the strange fairy do when she saw all her lollipops -eaten?</p> -<p>Did she fly at Tom, catch him by the scruff of the neck, hold him, -howk him, hump him, hurry him, hit him, poke him, pull him, pinch him, -pound him, put him in the corner, shake him, slap him, set him on a -cold stone to reconsider himself, and so forth?</p> -<p>Not a bit. You may watch her at work if you know where to find -her. But you will never see her do that. For, if she had, -she knew quite well Tom would have fought, and kicked, and bit, and -said bad words, and turned again that moment into a naughty little heathen -chimney-sweep, with his hand, like Ishmael’s of old, against every -man, and every man’s hand against him.</p> -<p>Did she question him, hurry him, frighten him, threaten him, to make -him confess? Not a bit. You may see her, as I said, at her -work often enough if you know where to look for her: but you will never -see her do that. For, if she had, she would have tempted him to -tell lies in his fright; and that would have been worse for him, if -possible, than even becoming a heathen chimney-sweep again.</p> -<p>No. She leaves that for anxious parents and teachers (lazy -ones, some call them), who, instead of giving children a fair trial, -such as they would expect and demand for themselves, force them by fright -to confess their own faults—which is so cruel and unfair that -no judge on the bench dare do it to the wickedest thief or murderer, -for the good British law forbids it—ay, and even punish them to -make them confess, which is so detestable a crime that it is never committed -now, save by Inquisitors, and Kings of Naples, and a few other wretched -people of whom the world is weary. And then they say, “We -have trained up the child in the way he should go, and when he grew -up he has departed from it. Why then did Solomon say that he would -not depart from it?” But perhaps the way of beating, and -hurrying and frightening, and questioning, was not the way that the -child should go; for it is not even the way in which a colt should go -if you want to break it in and make it a quiet serviceable horse.</p> -<p>Some folks may say, “Ah! but the Fairy does not need to do -that if she knows everything already.” True. But, -if she did not know, she would not surely behave worse than a British -judge and jury; and no more should parents and teachers either.</p> -<p>So she just said nothing at all about the matter, not even when Tom -came next day with the rest for sweet things. He was horribly -afraid of coming: but he was still more afraid of staying away, lest -any one should suspect him. He was dreadfully afraid, too, lest -there should be no sweets—as was to be expected, he having eaten -them all—and lest then the fairy should inquire who had taken -them. But, behold! she pulled out just as many as ever, which -astonished Tom, and frightened him still more.</p> -<p>And, when the fairy looked him full in the face, he shook from head -to foot: however she gave him his share like the rest, and he thought -within himself that she could not have found him out.</p> -<p>But, when he put the sweets into his mouth, he hated the taste of -them; and they made him so sick that he had to get away as fast as he -could; and terribly sick he was, and very cross and unhappy, all the -week after.</p> -<p>Then, when next week came, he had his share again; and again the -fairy looked him full in the face; but more sadly than she had ever -looked. And he could not bear the sweets: but took them again -in spite of himself.</p> -<p>And when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, he wanted to be cuddled -like the rest; but she said very seriously:</p> -<p>“I should like to cuddle you; but I cannot, you are so horny -and prickly.”</p> -<p>And Tom looked at himself: and he was all over prickles, just like -a sea-egg.</p> -<p>Which was quite natural; for you must know and believe that people’s -souls make their bodies just as a snail makes its shell (I am not joking, -my little man; I am in serious, solemn earnest). And therefore, -when Tom’s soul grew all prickly with naughty tempers, his body -could not help growing prickly, too, so that nobody would cuddle him, -or play with him, or even like to look at him.</p> -<p>What could Tom do now but go away and hide in a corner and cry? -For nobody would play with him, and he knew full well why.</p> -<p>And he was so miserable all that week that when the ugly fairy came -and looked at him once more full in the face, more seriously and sadly -than ever, he could stand it no longer, and thrust the sweetmeats away, -saying, “No, I don’t want any: I can’t bear them now,” -and then burst out crying, poor little man, and told Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid -every word as it happened.</p> -<p>He was horribly frightened when he had done so; for he expected her -to punish him very severely. But, instead, she only took him up -and kissed him, which was not quite pleasant, for her chin was very -bristly indeed; but he was so lonely-hearted, he thought that rough -kissing was better than none.</p> -<p>“I will forgive you, little man,” she said. “I -always forgive every one the moment they tell me the truth of their -own accord.”</p> -<p>“Then you will take away all these nasty prickles?”</p> -<p>“That is a very different matter. You put them there -yourself, and only you can take them away.”</p> -<p>“But how can I do that?” asked Tom, crying afresh.</p> -<p>“Well, I think it is time for you to go to school; so I shall -fetch you a schoolmistress, who will teach you how to get rid of your -prickles.” And so she went away.</p> -<p>Tom was frightened at the notion of a school-mistress; for he thought -she would certainly come with a birch-rod or a cane; but he comforted -himself, at last, that she might be something like the old woman in -Vendale—which she was not in the least; for, when the fairy brought -her, she was the most beautiful little girl that ever was seen, with -long curls floating behind her like a golden cloud, and long robes floating -all round her like a silver one.</p> -<p>“There he is,” said the fairy; “and you must teach -him to be good, whether you like or not.”</p> -<p>“I know,” said the little girl; but she did not seem -quite to like, for she put her finger in her mouth, and looked at Tom -under her brows; and Tom put his finger in his mouth, and looked at -her under his brows, for he was horribly ashamed of himself.</p> -<p>The little girl seemed hardly to know how to begin; and perhaps she -would never have begun at all if poor Tom had not burst out crying, -and begged her to teach him to be good and help him to cure his prickles; -and at that she grew so tender-hearted that she began teaching him as -prettily as ever child was taught in the world.</p> -<p>And what did the little girl teach Tom? She taught him, first, -what you have been taught ever since you said your first prayers at -your mother’s knees; but she taught him much more simply. -For the lessons in that world, my child, have no such hard words in -them as the lessons in this, and therefore the water-babies like them -better than you like your lessons, and long to learn them more and more; -and grown men cannot puzzle nor quarrel over their meaning, as they -do here on land; for those lessons all rise clear and pure, like the -Test out of Overton Pool, out of the everlasting ground of all life -and truth.</p> -<p>So she taught Tom every day in the week; only on Sundays she always -went away home, and the kind fairy took her place. And before -she had taught Tom many Sundays, his prickles had vanished quite away, -and his skin was smooth and clean again.</p> -<p>“Dear me!” said the little girl; “why, I know you -now. You are the very same little chimney-sweep who came into -my bedroom.”</p> -<p>“Dear me!” cried Tom. “And I know you, too, -now. You are the very little white lady whom I saw in bed.” -And he jumped at her, and longed to hug and kiss her; but did not, remembering -that she was a lady born; so he only jumped round and round her till -he was quite tired.</p> -<p>And then they began telling each other all their story—how -he had got into the water, and she had fallen over the rock; and how -he had swum down to the sea, and how she had flown out of the window; -and how this, that, and the other, till it was all talked out: and then -they both began over again, and I can’t say which of the two talked -fastest.</p> -<p>And then they set to work at their lessons again, and both liked -them so well that they went on well till seven full years were past -and gone.</p> -<p>You may fancy that Tom was quite content and happy all those seven -years; but the truth is, he was not. He had always one thing on -his mind, and that was—where little Ellie went, when she went -home on Sundays.</p> -<p>To a very beautiful place, she said.</p> -<p>But what was the beautiful place like, and where was it?</p> -<p>Ah! that is just what she could not say. And it is strange, -but true, that no one can say; and that those who have been oftenest -in it, or even nearest to it, can say least about it, and make people -understand least what it is like. There are a good many folks -about the Other-end-of-Nowhere (where Tom went afterwards), who pretend -to know it from north to south as well as if they had been penny postmen -there; but, as they are safe at the Other-end-of-Nowhere, nine hundred -and ninety-nine million miles away, what they say cannot concern us.</p> -<p>But the dear, sweet, loving, wise, good, self-sacrificing people, -who really go there, can never tell you anything about it, save that -it is the most beautiful place in all the world; and, if you ask them -more, they grow modest, and hold their peace, for fear of being laughed -at; and quite right they are.</p> -<p>So all that good little Ellie could say was, that it was worth all -the rest of the world put together. And of course that only made -Tom the more anxious to go likewise.</p> -<p>“Miss Ellie,” he said at last, “I will know why -I cannot go with you when you go home on Sundays, or I shall have no -peace, and give you none either.”</p> -<p>“You must ask the fairies that.”</p> -<p>So when the fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, came next, Tom asked her.</p> -<p>“Little boys who are only fit to play with sea-beasts cannot -go there,” she said. “Those who go there must go first -where they do not like, and do what they do not like, and help somebody -they do not like.”</p> -<p>“Why, did Ellie do that?”</p> -<p>“Ask her.”</p> -<p>And Ellie blushed, and said, “Yes, Tom; I did not like coming -here at first; I was so much happier at home, where it is always Sunday. -And I was afraid of you, Tom, at first, because—because—”</p> -<p>“Because I was all over prickles? But I am not prickly -now, am I, Miss Ellie?”</p> -<p>“No,” said Ellie. “I like you very much now; -and I like coming here, too.”</p> -<p>“And perhaps,” said the fairy, “you will learn -to like going where you don’t like, and helping some one that -you don’t like, as Ellie has.”</p> -<p>But Tom put his finger in his mouth, and hung his head down; for -he did not see that at all.</p> -<p>So when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, Tom asked her; for he thought -in his little head, She is not so strict as her sister, and perhaps -she may let me off more easily.</p> -<p>Ah, Tom, Tom, silly fellow! and yet I don’t know why I should -blame you, while so many grown people have got the very same notion -in their heads.</p> -<p>But, when they try it, they get just the same answer as Tom did. -For, when he asked the second fairy, she told him just what the first -did, and in the very same words.</p> -<p>Tom was very unhappy at that. And, when Ellie went home on -Sunday, he fretted and cried all day, and did not care to listen to -the fairy’s stories about good children, though they were prettier -than ever. Indeed, the more he overheard of them, the less he -liked to listen, because they were all about children who did what they -did not like, and took trouble for other people, and worked to feed -their little brothers and sisters instead of caring only for their play. -And, when she began to tell a story about a holy child in old times, -who was martyred by the heathen because it would not worship idols, -Tom could bear no more, and ran away and hid among the rocks.</p> -<p>And, when Ellie came back, he was shy with her, because he fancied -she looked down on him, and thought him a coward. And then he -grew quite cross with her, because she was superior to him, and did -what he could not do. And poor Ellie was quite surprised and sad; -and at last Tom burst out crying; but he would not tell her what was -really in his mind.</p> -<p>And all the while he was eaten up with curiosity to know where Ellie -went to; so that he began not to care for his playmates, or for the -sea-palace or anything else. But perhaps that made matters all -the easier for him; for he grew so discontented with everything round -him that he did not care to stay, and did not care where he went.</p> -<p>“Well,” he said, at last, “I am so miserable here, -I’ll go; if only you will go with me?”</p> -<p>“Ah!” said Ellie, “I wish I might; but the worst -of it is, that the fairy says that you must go alone if you go at all. -Now don’t poke that poor crab about, Tom” (for he was feeling -very naughty and mischievous), “or the fairy will have to punish -you.”</p> -<p>Tom was very nearly saying, “I don’t care if she does;” -but he stopped himself in time.</p> -<p>“I know what she wants me to do,” he said, whining most -dolefully. “She wants me to go after that horrid old Grimes. -I don’t like him, that’s certain. And if I find him, -he will turn me into a chimney-sweep again, I know. That’s -what I have been afraid of all along.”</p> -<p>“No, he won’t—I know as much as that. Nobody -can turn water-babies into sweeps, or hurt them at all, as long as they -are good.”</p> -<p>“Ah,” said naughty Tom, “I see what you want; you -are persuading me all along to go, because you are tired of me, and -want to get rid of me.”</p> -<p>Little Ellie opened her eyes very wide at that, and they were all -brimming over with tears.</p> -<p>“Oh, Tom, Tom!” she said, very mournfully—and then -she cried, “Oh, Tom! where are you?”</p> -<p>And Tom cried, “Oh, Ellie, where are you?”</p> -<p>For neither of them could see each other—not the least. -Little Ellie vanished quite away, and Tom heard her voice calling him, -and growing smaller and smaller, and fainter and fainter, till all was -silent.</p> -<p>Who was frightened then but Tom? He swam up and down among -the rocks, into all the halls and chambers, faster than ever he swam -before, but could not find her. He shouted after her, but she -did not answer; he asked all the other children, but they had not seen -her; and at last he went up to the top of the water and began crying -and screaming for Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid—which perhaps was the -best thing to do—for she came in a moment.</p> -<p>“Oh!” said Tom. “Oh dear, oh dear! -I have been naughty to Ellie, and I have killed her—I know I have -killed her.”</p> -<p>“Not quite that,” said the fairy; “but I have sent -her away home, and she will not come back again for I do not know how -long.”</p> -<p>And at that Tom cried so bitterly that the salt sea was swelled with -his tears, and the tide was .3,954,620,819 of an inch higher than it -had been the day before: but perhaps that was owing to the waxing of -the moon. It may have been so; but it is considered right in the -new philosophy, you know, to give spiritual causes for physical phenomena—especially -in parlour-tables; and, of course, physical causes for spiritual ones, -like thinking, and praying, and knowing right from wrong. And -so they odds it till it comes even, as folks say down in Berkshire.</p> -<p>“How cruel of you to send Ellie away!” sobbed Tom. -“However, I will find her again, if I go to the world’s -end to look for her.”</p> -<p>The fairy did not slap Tom, and tell him to hold his tongue: but -she took him on her lap very kindly, just as her sister would have done; -and put him in mind how it was not her fault, because she was wound -up inside, like watches, and could not help doing things whether she -liked or not. And then she told him how he had been in the nursery -long enough, and must go out now and see the world, if he intended ever -to be a man; and how he must go all alone by himself, as every one else -that ever was born has to go, and see with his own eyes, and smell with -his own nose, and make his own bed and lie on it, and burn his own fingers -if he put them into the fire. And then she told him how many fine -things there were to be seen in the world, and what an odd, curious, -pleasant, orderly, respectable, well-managed, and, on the whole, successful -(as, indeed, might have been expected) sort of a place it was, if people -would only be tolerably brave and honest and good in it; and then she -told him not to be afraid of anything he met, for nothing would harm -him if he remembered all his lessons, and did what he knew was right. -And at last she comforted poor little Tom so much that he was quite -eager to go, and wanted to set out that minute. “Only,” -he said, “if I might see Ellie once before I went!”</p> -<p>“Why do you want that?”</p> -<p>“Because—because I should be so much happier if I thought -she had forgiven me.”</p> -<p>And in the twinkling of an eye there stood Ellie, smiling, and looking -so happy that Tom longed to kiss her; but was still afraid it would -not be respectful, because she was a lady born.</p> -<p>“I am going, Ellie!” said Tom. “I am going, -if it is to the world’s end. But I don’t like going -at all, and that’s the truth.”</p> -<p>“Pooh! pooh! pooh!” said the fairy. “You -will like it very well indeed, you little rogue, and you know that at -the bottom of your heart. But if you don’t, I will make -you like it. Come here, and see what happens to people who do -only what is pleasant.”</p> -<p>And she took out of one of her cupboards (she had all sorts of mysterious -cupboards in the cracks of the rocks) the most wonderful waterproof -book, full of such photographs as never were seen. For she had -found out photography (and this is a fact) more than 13,598,000 years -before anybody was born; and, what is more, her photographs did not -merely represent light and shade, as ours do, but colour also, and all -colours, as you may see if you look at a black-cock’s tail, or -a butterfly’s wing, or indeed most things that are or can be, -so to speak. And therefore her photographs were very curious and -famous, and the children looked with great delight for the opening of -the book.</p> -<p>And on the title-page was written, “The History of the great -and famous nation of the Doasyoulikes, who came away from the country -of Hardwork, because they wanted to play on the Jews’ harp all -day long.”</p> -<p>In the first picture they saw these Doasyoulikes living in the land -of Readymade, at the foot of the Happy-go-lucky Mountains, where flapdoodle -grows wild; and if you want to know what that is, you must read Peter -Simple.</p> -<p>They lived very much such a life as those jolly old Greeks in Sicily, -whom you may see painted on the ancient vases, and really there seemed -to be great excuses for them, for they had no need to work.</p> -<p>Instead of houses they lived in the beautiful caves of tufa, and -bathed in the warm springs three times a day; and, as for clothes, it -was so warm there that the gentlemen walked about in little beside a -cocked hat and a pair of straps, or some light summer tackle of that -kind; and the ladies all gathered gossamer in autumn (when they were -not too lazy) to make their winter dresses.</p> -<p>They were very fond of music, but it was too much trouble to learn -the piano or the violin; and as for dancing, that would have been too -great an exertion. So they sat on ant-hills all day long, and -played on the Jews’ harp; and, if the ants bit them, why they -just got up and went to the next ant-hill, till they were bitten there -likewise.</p> -<p>And they sat under the flapdoodle-trees, and let the flapdoodle drop -into their mouths; and under the vines, and squeezed the grape-juice -down their throats; and, if any little pigs ran about ready roasted, -crying, “Come and eat me,” as was their fashion in that -country, they waited till the pigs ran against their mouths, and then -took a bite, and were content, just as so many oysters would have been.</p> -<p>They needed no weapons, for no enemies ever came near their land; -and no tools, for everything was readymade to their hand; and the stern -old fairy Necessity never came near them to hunt them up, and make them -use their wits, or die.</p> -<p>And so on, and so on, and so on, till there were never such comfortable, -easy-going, happy-go-lucky people in the world.</p> -<p>“Well, that is a jolly life,” said Tom.</p> -<p>“You think so?” said the fairy. “Do you see -that great peaked mountain there behind,” said the fairy, “with -smoke coming out of its top?”</p> -<p>“Yes.”</p> -<p>“And do you see all those ashes, and slag, and cinders lying -about?”</p> -<p>“Yes.”</p> -<p>“Then turn over the next five hundred years, and you will see -what happens next.”</p> -<p>And behold the mountain had blown up like a barrel of gunpowder, -and then boiled over like a kettle; whereby one-third of the Doasyoulikes -were blown into the air, and another third were smothered in ashes; -so that there was only one-third left.</p> -<p>“You see,” said the fairy, “what comes of living -on a burning mountain.”</p> -<p>“Oh, why did you not warn them?” said little Ellie.</p> -<p>“I did warn them all that I could. I let the smoke come -out of the mountain; and wherever there is smoke there is fire. -And I laid the ashes and cinders all about; and wherever there are cinders, -cinders may be again. But they did not like to face facts, my -dears, as very few people do; and so they invented a cock-and-bull story, -which, I am sure, I never told them, that the smoke was the breath of -a giant, whom some gods or other had buried under the mountain; and -that the cinders were what the dwarfs roasted the little pigs whole -with; and other nonsense of that kind. And, when folks are in -that humour, I cannot teach them, save by the good old birch-rod.”</p> -<p>And then she turned over the next five hundred years: and there were -the remnant of the Doasyoulikes, doing as they liked, as before. -They were too lazy to move away from the mountain; so they said, If -it has blown up once, that is all the more reason that it should not -blow up again. And they were few in number: but they only said, -The more the merrier, but the fewer the better fare. However, -that was not quite true; for all the flapdoodle-trees were killed by -the volcano, and they had eaten all the roast pigs, who, of course, -could not be expected to have little ones. So they had to live -very hard, on nuts and roots which they scratched out of the ground -with sticks. Some of them talked of sowing corn, as their ancestors -used to do, before they came into the land of Readymade; but they had -forgotten how to make ploughs (they had forgotten even how to make Jews’ -harps by this time), and had eaten all the seed-corn which they brought -out of the land of Hardwork years since; and of course it was too much -trouble to go away and find more. So they lived miserably on roots -and nuts, and all the weakly little children had great stomachs, and -then died.</p> -<p>“Why,” said Tom, “they are growing no better than -savages.”</p> -<p>“And look how ugly they are all getting,” said Ellie.</p> -<p>“Yes; when people live on poor vegetables instead of roast -beef and plum-pudding, their jaws grow large, and their lips grow coarse, -like the poor Paddies who eat potatoes.”</p> -<p>And she turned over the next five hundred years. And there -they were all living up in trees, and making nests to keep off the rain. -And underneath the trees lions were prowling about.</p> -<p>“Why,” said Ellie, “the lions seem to have eaten -a good many of them, for there are very few left now.”</p> -<p>“Yes,” said the fairy; “you see it was only the -strongest and most active ones who could climb the trees, and so escape.”</p> -<p>“But what great, hulking, broad-shouldered chaps they are,” -said Tom; “they are a rough lot as ever I saw.”</p> -<p>“Yes, they are getting very strong now; for the ladies will -not marry any but the very strongest and fiercest gentlemen, who can -help them up the trees out of the lions’ way.”</p> -<p>And she turned over the next five hundred years. And in that -they were fewer still, and stronger, and fiercer; but their feet had -changed shape very oddly, for they laid hold of the branches with their -great toes, as if they had been thumbs, just as a Hindoo tailor uses -his toes to thread his needle.</p> -<p>The children were very much surprised, and asked the fairy whether -that was her doing.</p> -<p>“Yes, and no,” she said, smiling. “It was -only those who could use their feet as well as their hands who could -get a good living: or, indeed, get married; so that they got the best -of everything, and starved out all the rest; and those who are left -keep up a regular breed of toe-thumb-men, as a breed of short-horns, -or are skye-terriers, or fancy pigeons is kept up.”</p> -<p>“But there is a hairy one among them,” said Ellie.</p> -<p>“Ah!” said the fairy, “that will be a great man -in his time, and chief of all the tribe.”</p> -<p>And, when she turned over the next five hundred years, it was true.</p> -<p>For this hairy chief had had hairy children, and they hairier children -still; and every one wished to marry hairy husbands, and have hairy -children too; for the climate was growing so damp that none but the -hairy ones could live: all the rest coughed and sneezed, and had sore -throats, and went into consumptions, before they could grow up to be -men and women.</p> -<p>Then the fairy turned over the next five hundred years. And -they were fewer still.</p> -<p>“Why, there is one on the ground picking up roots,” said -Ellie, “and he cannot walk upright.”</p> -<p>No more he could; for in the same way that the shape of their feet -had altered, the shape of their backs had altered also.</p> -<p>“Why,” cried Tom, “I declare they are all apes.”</p> -<p>“Something fearfully like it, poor foolish creatures,” -said the fairy. “They are grown so stupid now, that they -can hardly think: for none of them have used their wits for many hundred -years. They have almost forgotten, too, how to talk. For -each stupid child forgot some of the words it heard from its stupid -parents, and had not wits enough to make fresh words for itself. -Beside, they are grown so fierce and suspicious and brutal that they -keep out of each other’s way, and mope and sulk in the dark forests, -never hearing each other’s voice, till they have forgotten almost -what speech is like. I am afraid they will all be apes very soon, -and all by doing only what they liked.”</p> -<p>And in the next five hundred years they were all dead and gone, by -bad food and wild beasts and hunters; all except one tremendous old -fellow with jaws like a jack, who stood full seven feet high; and M. -Du Chaillu came up to him, and shot him, as he stood roaring and thumping -his breast. And he remembered that his ancestors had once been -men, and tried to say, “Am I not a man and a brother?” but -had forgotten how to use his tongue; and then he had tried to call for -a doctor, but he had forgotten the word for one. So all he said -was “Ubboboo!” and died.</p> -<p>And that was the end of the great and jolly nation of the Doasyoulikes. -And, when Tom and Ellie came to the end of the book, they looked very -sad and solemn; and they had good reason so to do, for they really fancied -that the men were apes, and never thought, in their simplicity, of asking -whether the creatures had hippopotamus majors in their brains or not; -in which case, as you have been told already, they could not possibly -have been apes, though they were more apish than the apes of all aperies.</p> -<p>“But could you not have saved them from becoming apes?” -said little Ellie, at last.</p> -<p>“At first, my dear; if only they would have behaved like men, -and set to work to do what they did not like. But the longer they -waited, and behaved like the dumb beasts, who only do what they like, -the stupider and clumsier they grew; till at last they were past all -cure, for they had thrown their own wits away. It is such things -as this that help to make me so ugly, that I know not when I shall grow -fair.”</p> -<p>“And where are they all now?” asked Ellie.</p> -<p>“Exactly where they ought to be, my dear.”</p> -<p>“Yes!” said the fairy, solemnly, half to herself, as -she closed the wonderful book. “Folks say now that I can -make beasts into men, by circumstance, and selection, and competition, -and so forth. Well, perhaps they are right; and perhaps, again, -they are wrong. That is one of the seven things which I am forbidden -to tell, till the coming of the Cocqcigrues; and, at all events, it -is no concern of theirs. Whatever their ancestors were, men they -are; and I advise them to behave as such, and act accordingly. -But let them recollect this, that there are two sides to every question, -and a downhill as well as an uphill road; and, if I can turn beasts -into men, I can, by the same laws of circumstance, and selection, and -competition, turn men into beasts. You were very near being turned -into a beast once or twice, little Tom. Indeed, if you had not -made up your mind to go on this journey, and see the world, like an -Englishman, I am not sure but that you would have ended as an eft in -a pond.”</p> -<p>“Oh, dear me!” said Tom; “sooner than that, and -be all over slime, I’ll go this minute, if it is to the world’s -end.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“And Nature, the old Nurse, took<br />The child upon her knee,<br />Saying, -‘Here is a story book<br />Thy father hath written for thee.</p> -<p>“‘Come wander with me,’ she said,<br />‘Into -regions yet untrod,<br />And read what is still unread<br />In the Manuscripts -of God.’</p> -<p>“And he wandered away and away<br />With Nature, the dear old -Nurse,<br />Who sang to him night and day<br />The rhymes of the universe.”</p> -<p>LONGFELLOW.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“Now,” said Tom, “I am ready be off, if it’s -to the world’s end.”</p> -<p>“Ah!” said the fairy, “that is a brave, good boy. -But you must go farther than the world’s end, if you want to find -Mr. Grimes; for he is at the Other-end-of-Nowhere. You must go -to Shiny Wall, and through the white gate that never was opened; and -then you will come to Peacepool, and Mother Carey’s Haven, where -the good whales go when they die. And there Mother Carey will -tell you the way to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, and there you will find -Mr. Grimes.”</p> -<p>“Oh, dear!” said Tom. “But I do not know -my way to Shiny Wall, or where it is at all.”</p> -<p>“Little boys must take the trouble to find out things for themselves, -or they will never grow to be men; so that you must ask all the beasts -in the sea and the birds in the air, and if you have been good to them, -some of them will tell you the way to Shiny Wall.”</p> -<p>“Well,” said Tom, “it will be a long journey, so -I had better start at once. Good-bye, Miss Ellie; you know I am -getting a big boy, and I must go out and see the world.”</p> -<p>“I know you must,” said Ellie; “but you will not -forget me, Tom. I shall wait here till you come.”</p> -<p>And she shook hands with him, and bade him good-bye. Tom longed -very much again to kiss her; but he thought it would not be respectful, -considering she was a lady born; so he promised not to forget her: but -his little whirl-about of a head was so full of the notion of going -out to see the world, that it forgot her in five minutes: however, though -his head forgot her, I am glad to say his heart did not.</p> -<p>So he asked all the beasts in the sea, and all the birds in the air, -but none of them knew the way to Shiny Wall. For why? He -was still too far down south.</p> -<p>Then he met a ship, far larger than he had ever seen—a gallant -ocean-steamer, with a long cloud of smoke trailing behind; and he wondered -how she went on without sails, and swam up to her to see. A school -of dolphins were running races round and round her, going three feet -for her one, and Tom asked them the way to Shiny Wall: but they did -not know. Then he tried to find out how she moved, and at last -he saw her screw, and was so delighted with it that he played under -her quarter all day, till he nearly had his nose knocked off by the -fans, and thought it time to move. Then he watched the sailors -upon deck, and the ladies, with their bonnets and parasols: but none -of them could see him, because their eyes were not opened,—as, -indeed, most people’s eyes are not.</p> -<p>At last there came out into the quarter-gallery a very pretty lady, -in deep black widow’s weeds, and in her arms a baby. She -leaned over the quarter-gallery, and looked back and back toward England -far away; and as she looked she sang:</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>I.</p> -<p>“Soft soft wind, from out the sweet south sliding,<br />Waft -thy silver cloud-webs athwart the summer sea;<br />Thin thin threads -of mist on dewy fingers twining<br />Weave a veil of dappled gauze to -shade my babe and me.</p> -<p>II.</p> -<p>“Deep deep Love, within thine own abyss abiding,<br />Pour -Thyself abroad, O Lord, on earth and air and sea;<br />Worn weary hearts -within Thy holy temple hiding,<br />Shield from sorrow, sin, and shame -my helpless babe and me.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Her voice was so soft and low, and the music of the air so sweet, -that Tom could have listened to it all day. But as she held the -baby over the gallery rail, to show it the dolphins leaping and the -water gurgling in the ship’s wake, lo! and behold, the baby saw -Tom.</p> -<p>He was quite sure of that for when their eyes met, the baby smiled -and held out his hands; and Tom smiled and held out his hands too; and -the baby kicked and leaped, as if it wanted to jump overboard to him.</p> -<p>“What do you see, my darling?” said the lady; and her -eyes followed the baby’s till she too caught sight of Tom, swimming -about among the foam-beads below.</p> -<p>She gave a little shriek and start; and then she said, quite quietly, -“Babies in the sea? Well, perhaps it is the happiest place -for them;” and waved her hand to Tom, and cried, “Wait a -little, darling, only a little: and perhaps we shall go with you and -be at rest.”</p> -<p>And at that an old nurse, all in black, came out and talked to her, -and drew her in. And Tom turned away northward, sad and wondering; -and watched the great steamer slide away into the dusk, and the lights -on board peep out one by one, and die out again, and the long bar of -smoke fade away into the evening mist, till all was out of sight.</p> -<p>And he swam northward again, day after day, till at last he met the -King of the Herrings, with a curry-comb growing out of his nose, and -a sprat in his mouth for a cigar, and asked him the way to Shiny Wall; -so he bolted his sprat head foremost, and said:</p> -<p>“If I were you, young Gentleman, I should go to the Allalonestone, -and ask the last of the Gairfowl. She is of a very ancient clan, -very nearly as ancient as my own; and knows a good deal which these -modern upstarts don’t, as ladies of old houses are likely to do.”</p> -<p>Tom asked his way to her, and the King of the Herrings told him very -kindly, for he was a courteous old gentleman of the old school, though -he was horribly ugly, and strangely bedizened too, like the old dandies -who lounge in the club-house windows.</p> -<p>But just as Tom had thanked him and set off, he called after him: -“Hi! I say, can you fly?”</p> -<p>“I never tried,” says Tom. “Why?”</p> -<p>“Because, if you can, I should advise you to say nothing to -the old lady about it. There; take a hint. Good-bye.”</p> -<p>And away Tom went for seven days and seven nights due north-west, -till he came to a great codbank, the like of which he never saw before. -The great cod lay below in tens of thousands, and gobbled shell-fish -all day long; and the blue sharks roved above in hundreds, and gobbled -them when they came up. So they ate, and ate, and ate each other, -as they had done since the making of the world; for no man had come -here yet to catch them, and find out how rich old Mother Carey is.</p> -<p>And there he saw the last of the Gairfowl, standing up on the Allalonestones -all alone. And a very grand old lady she was, full three feet -high, and bolt upright, like some old Highland chieftainess. She -had on a black velvet gown, and a white pinner and apron, and a very -high bridge to her nose (which is a sure mark of high breeding), and -a large pair of white spectacles on it, which made her look rather odd: -but it was the ancient fashion of her house.</p> -<p>And instead of wings, she had two little feathery arms, with which -she fanned herself, and complained of the dreadful heat; and she kept -on crooning an old song to herself, which she learnt when she was a -little baby-bird, long ago -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“Two little birds they sat on a stone,<br />One swam away, -and then there was one,<br />With a fal-lal-la-lady.</p> -<p>“The other swam after, and then there was none,<br />And so -the poor stone was left all alone;<br />With a fal-lal-la-lady.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>It was “flew” away, properly, and not “swam” -away: but, as she could not fly, she had a right to alter it. -However, it was a very fit song for her to sing, because she was a lady -herself.</p> -<p>Tom came up to her very humbly, and made his bow; and the first thing -she said was -</p> -<p>“Have you wings? Can you fly?”</p> -<p>“Oh dear, no, ma’am; I should not think of such thing,” -said cunning little Tom.</p> -<p>“Then I shall have great pleasure in talking to you, my dear. -It is quite refreshing nowadays to see anything without wings. -They must all have wings, forsooth, now, every new upstart sort of bird, -and fly. What can they want with flying, and raising themselves -above their proper station in life? In the days of my ancestors -no birds ever thought of having wings, and did very well without; and -now they all laugh at me because I keep to the good old fashion. -Why, the very marrocks and dovekies have got wings, the vulgar creatures, -and poor little ones enough they are; and my own cousins too, the razor-bills, -who are gentlefolk born, and ought to know better than to ape their -inferiors.”</p> -<p>And so she was running on, while Tom tried to get in a word edgeways; -and at last he did, when the old lady got out of breath, and began fanning -herself again; and then he asked if she knew the way to Shiny Wall.</p> -<p>“Shiny Wall? Who should know better than I? We -all came from Shiny Wall, thousands of years ago, when it was decently -cold, and the climate was fit for gentlefolk; but now, what with the -heat, and what with these vulgar-winged things who fly up and down and -eat everything, so that gentlepeople’s hunting is all spoilt, -and one really cannot get one’s living, or hardly venture off -the rock for fear of being flown against by some creature that would -not have dared to come within a mile of one a thousand years ago—what -was I saying? Why, we have quite gone down in the world, my dear, -and have nothing left but our honour. And I am the last of my -family. A friend of mine and I came and settled on this rock when -we were young, to be out of the way of low people. Once we were -a great nation, and spread over all the Northern Isles. But men -shot us so, and knocked us on the head, and took our eggs—why, -if you will believe it, they say that on the coast of Labrador the sailors -used to lay a plank from the rock on board the thing called their ship, -and drive us along the plank by hundreds, till we tumbled down into -the ship’s waist in heaps; and then, I suppose, they ate us, the -nasty fellows! Well—but—what was I saying? At -last, there were none of us left, except on the old Gairfowlskerry, -just off the Iceland coast, up which no man could climb. Even -there we had no peace; for one day, when I was quite a young girl, the -land rocked, and the sea boiled, and the sky grew dark, and all the -air was filled with smoke and dust, and down tumbled the old Gairfowlskerry -into the sea. The dovekies and marrocks, of course, all flew away; -but we were too proud to do that. Some of us were dashed to pieces, -and some drowned; and those who were left got away to Eldey, and the -dovekies tell me they are all dead now, and that another Gairfowlskerry -has risen out of the sea close to the old one, but that it is such a -poor flat place that it is not safe to live on: and so here I am left -alone.”</p> -<p>This was the Gairfowl’s story, and, strange as it may seem, -it is every word of it true.</p> -<p>“If you only had had wings!” said Tom; “then you -might all have flown away too.”</p> -<p>“Yes, young gentleman: and if people are not gentleman and -ladies, and forget that <i>noblesse oblige</i>, they will find it as -easy to get on in the world as other people who don’t care what -they do. Why, if I had not recollected that <i>noblesse oblige</i>, -I should not have been all alone now.” And the poor old -lady sighed.</p> -<p>“How was that, ma’am?”</p> -<p>“Why, my dear, a gentleman came hither with me, and after we -had been here some time, he wanted to marry—in fact, he actually -proposed to me. Well, I can’t blame him; I was young, and -very handsome then, I don’t deny: but you see, I could not hear -of such a thing, because he was my deceased sister’s husband, -you see?”</p> -<p>“Of course not, ma’am,” said Tom; though, of course, -he knew nothing about it. “She was very much diseased, I -suppose?”</p> -<p>“You do not understand me, my dear. I mean, that being -a lady, and with right and honourable feelings, as our house always -has had, I felt it my duty to snub him, and howk him, and peck him continually, -to keep him at his proper distance; and, to tell the truth, I once pecked -him a little too hard, poor fellow, and he tumbled backwards off the -rock, and—really, it was very unfortunate, but it was not my fault—a -shark coming by saw him flapping, and snapped him up. And since then -I have lived all alone -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>‘With a fal-lal-la-lady.’</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>And soon I shall be gone, my little dear, and nobody will miss me; -and then the poor stone will be left all alone.”</p> -<p>“But, please, which is the way to Shiny Wall?” said Tom.</p> -<p>“Oh, you must go, my little dear—you must go. Let -me see—I am sure—that is—really, my poor old brains -are getting quite puzzled. Do you know, my little dear, I am afraid, -if you want to know, you must ask some of these vulgar birds about, -for I have quite forgotten.”</p> -<p>And the poor old Gairfowl began to cry tears of pure oil; and Tom -was quite sorry for her; and for himself too, for he was at his wit’s -end whom to ask.</p> -<p>But by there came a flock of petrels, who are Mother Carey’s -own chickens; and Tom thought them much prettier than Lady Gairfowl, -and so perhaps they were; for Mother Carey had had a great deal of fresh -experience between the time that she invented the Gairfowl and the time -that she invented them. They flitted along like a flock of black -swallows, and hopped and skipped from wave to wave, lifting up their -little feet behind them so daintily, and whistling to each other so -tenderly, that Tom fell in love with them at once, and called them to -know the way to Shiny Wall.</p> -<p>“Shiny Wall? Do you want Shiny Wall? Then come -with us, and we will show you. We are Mother Carey’s own -chickens, and she sends us out over all the seas, to show the good birds -the way home.”</p> -<p>Tom was delighted, and swam off to them, after he had made his bow -to the Gairfowl. But she would not return his bow: but held herself -bolt upright, and wept tears of oil as she sang:</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“And so the poor stone was left all alone;<br />With a fal-lal-la-lady.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>But she was wrong there; for the stone was not left all alone: and -the next time that Tom goes by it, he will see a sight worth seeing.</p> -<p>The old Gairfowl is gone already: but there are better things come -in her place; and when Tom comes he will see the fishing-smacks anchored -there in hundreds, from Scotland, and from Ireland, and from the Orkneys, -and the Shetlands, and from all the Northern ports, full of the children -of the old Norse Vikings, the masters of the sea. And the men -will be hauling in the great cod by thousands, till their hands are -sore from the lines; and they will be making cod-liver oil and guano, -and salting down the fish; and there will be a man-of-war steamer there -to protect them, and a lighthouse to show them the way; and you and -I, perhaps, shall go some day to the Allalonestone to the great summer -sea-fair, and dredge strange creatures such as man never saw before; -and we shall hear the sailors boast that it is not the worst jewel in -Queen Victoria’s crown, for there are eighty miles of codbank, -and food for all the poor folk in the land. That is what Tom will -see, and perhaps you and I shall see it too. And then we shall -not be sorry because we cannot get a Gairfowl to stuff, much less find -gairfowl enough to drive them into stone pens and slaughter them, as -the old Norsemen did, or drive them on board along a plank till the -ship was victualled with them, as the old English and French rovers -used to do, of whom dear old Hakluyt tells: but we shall remember what -Mr. Tennyson says: how</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“The old order changeth, giving place to the new,<br />And -God fulfils himself in many ways.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>And now Tom was all agog to start for Shiny Wall; but the petrels -said no. They must go first to Allfowlsness, and wait there for -the great gathering of all the sea-birds, before they start for their -summer breeding-places far away in the Northern Isles; and there they -would be sure to find some birds which were going to Shiny Wall: but -where Allfowlsness was, he must promise never to tell, lest men should -go there and shoot the birds, and stuff them, and put them into stupid -museums, instead of leaving them to play and breed and work in Mother -Carey’s water-garden, where they ought to be.</p> -<p>So where Allfowlsness is nobody must know; and all that is to be -said about it is, that Tom waited there many days; and as he waited, -he saw a very curious sight. On the rabbit burrows on the shore -there gathered hundreds and hundreds of hoodie-crows, such as you see -in Cambridgeshire. And they made such a noise, that Tom came on -shore and went up to see what was the matter.</p> -<p>And there he found them holding their great caucus, which they hold -every year in the North; and all their stump-orators were speechifying; -and for a tribune, the speaker stood on an old sheep’s skull.</p> -<p>And they cawed and cawed, and boasted of all the clever things they -had done; how many lambs’ eyes they had picked out, and how many -dead bullocks they had eaten, and how many young grouse they had swallowed -whole, and how many grouse-eggs they had flown away with, stuck on the -point of their bills, which is the hoodie-crow’s particularly -clever feat, of which he is as proud as a gipsy is of doing the hokany-baro; -and what that is, I won’t tell you.</p> -<p>And at last they brought out the prettiest, neatest young lady-crow -that ever was seen, and set her in the middle, and all began abusing -and vilifying, and rating, and bullyragging at her, because she had -stolen no grouse-eggs, and had actually dared to say that she would -not steal any. So she was to be tried publicly by their laws (for -the hoodies always try some offenders in their great yearly parliament). -And there she stood in the middle, in her black gown and gray hood, -looking as meek and as neat as a Quakeress, and they all bawled at her -at once -</p> -<p>And it was in vain that she pleaded -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>That she did not like grouse-eggs;<br />That she could get her living -very well without them;<br />That she was afraid to eat them, for fear -of the gamekeepers;<br />That she had not the heart to eat them, because -the grouse were such pretty, kind, jolly birds;<br />And a dozen reasons -more.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>For all the other scaul-crows set upon her, and pecked her to death -there and then, before Tom could come to help her; and then flew away, -very proud of what they had done.</p> -<p>Now, was not this a scandalous transaction?</p> -<p>But they are true republicans, these hoodies, who do every one just -what he likes, and make other people do so too; so that, for any freedom -of speech, thought, or action, which is allowed among them, they might -as well be American citizens of the new school.</p> -<p>But the fairies took the good crow, and gave her nine new sets of -feathers running, and turned her at last into the most beautiful bird -of paradise with a green velvet suit and a long tail, and sent her to -eat fruit in the Spice Islands, where cloves and nutmegs grow.</p> -<p>And Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid settled her account with the wicked hoodies. -For, as they flew away, what should they find but a nasty dead dog?—on -which they all set to work, peeking and gobbling and cawing and quarrelling -to their hearts’ content. But the moment afterwards, they -all threw up their bills into the air, and gave one screech; and then -turned head over heels backward, and fell down dead, one hundred and -twenty-three of them at once. For why? The fairy had told -the gamekeeper in a dream, to fill the dead dog full of strychnine; -and so he did.</p> -<p>And after a while the birds began to gather at Allfowlsness, in thousands -and tens of thousands, blackening all the air; swans and brant geese, -harlequins and eiders, harolds and garganeys, smews and goosanders, -divers and loons, grebes and dovekies, auks and razor-bills, gannets -and petrels, skuas and terns, with gulls beyond all naming or numbering; -and they paddled and washed and splashed and combed and brushed themselves -on the sand, till the shore was white with feathers; and they quacked -and clucked and gabbled and chattered and screamed and whooped as they -talked over matters with their friends, and settled where they were -to go and breed that summer, till you might have heard them ten miles -off; and lucky it was for them that there was no one to hear them but -the old keeper, who lived all alone upon the Ness, in a turf hut thatched -with heather and fringed round with great stones slung across the roof -by bent-ropes, lest the winter gales should blow the hut right away. -But he never minded the birds nor hurt them, because they were not in -season; indeed, he minded but two things in the whole world, and those -were, his Bible and his grouse; for he was as good an old Scotchman -as ever knit stockings on a winter’s night: only, when all the -birds were going, he toddled out, and took off his cap to them, and -wished them a merry journey and a safe return; and then gathered up -all the feathers which they had left, and cleaned them to sell down -south, and make feather-beds for stuffy people to lie on.</p> -<p>Then the petrels asked this bird and that whether they would take -Tom to Shiny Wall: but one set was going to Sutherland, and one to the -Shetlands, and one to Norway, and one to Spitzbergen, and one to Iceland, -and one to Greenland: but none would go to Shiny Wall. So the -good-natured petrels said that they would show him part of the way themselves, -but they were only going as far as Jan Mayen’s Land; and after -that he must shift for himself.</p> -<p>And then all the birds rose up, and streamed away in long black lines, -north, and north-east, and north-west, across the bright blue summer -sky; and their cry was like ten thousand packs of hounds, and ten thousand -peals of bells. Only the puffins stayed behind, and killed the -young rabbits, and laid their eggs in the rabbit-burrows; which was -rough practice, certainly; but a man must see to his own family.</p> -<p>And, as Tom and the petrels went north-eastward, it began to blow -right hard; for the old gentleman in the gray great-coat, who looks -after the big copper boiler, in the gulf of Mexico, had got behindhand -with his work; so Mother Carey had sent an electric message to him for -more steam; and now the steam was coming, as much in an hour as ought -to have come in a week, puffing and roaring and swishing and swirling, -till you could not see where the sky ended and the sea began. -But Tom and the petrels never cared, for the gale was right abaft, and -away they went over the crests of the billows, as merry as so many flying-fish.</p> -<p>And at last they saw an ugly sight—the black side of a great -ship, waterlogged in the trough of the sea. Her funnel and her -masts were overboard, and swayed and surged under her lee; her decks -were swept as clean as a barn floor, and there was no living soul on -board.</p> -<p>The petrels flew up to her, and wailed round her; for they were very -sorry indeed, and also they expected to find some salt pork; and Tom -scrambled on board of her and looked round, frightened and sad.</p> -<p>And there, in a little cot, lashed tight under the bulwark, lay a -baby fast asleep; the very same baby, Tom saw at once, which he had -seen in the singing lady’s arms.</p> -<p>He went up to it, and wanted to wake it; but behold, from under the -cot out jumped a little black and tan terrier dog, and began barking -and snapping at Tom, and would not let him touch the cot.</p> -<p>Tom knew the dog’s teeth could not hurt him: but at least it -could shove him away, and did; and he and the dog fought and struggled, -for he wanted to help the baby, and did not want to throw the poor dog -overboard: but as they were struggling there came a tall green sea, -and walked in over the weather side of the ship, and swept them all -into the waves.</p> -<p>“Oh, the baby, the baby!” screamed Tom: but the next -moment he did not scream at all; for he saw the cot settling down through -the green water, with the baby, smiling in it, fast asleep; and he saw -the fairies come up from below, and carry baby and cradle gently down -in their soft arms; and then he knew it was all right, and that there -would be a new water-baby in St. Brandan’s Isle.</p> -<p>And the poor little dog?</p> -<p>Why, after he had kicked and coughed a little, he sneezed so hard, -that he sneezed himself clean out of his skin, and turned into a water-dog, -and jumped and danced round Tom, and ran over the crests of the waves, -and snapped at the jelly-fish and the mackerel, and followed Tom the -whole way to the Other-end-of-Nowhere.</p> -<p>Then they went on again, till they began to see the peak of Jan Mayen’s -Land, standing-up like a white sugar-loaf, two miles above the clouds.</p> -<p>And there they fell in with a whole flock of molly-mocks, who were -feeding on a dead whale.</p> -<p>“These are the fellows to show you the way,” said Mother -Carey’s chickens; “we cannot help you farther north. -We don’t like to get among the ice pack, for fear it should nip -our toes: but the mollys dare fly anywhere.”</p> -<p>So the petrels called to the mollys: but they were so busy and greedy, -gobbling and peeking and spluttering and fighting over the blubber, -that they did not take the least notice.</p> -<p>“Come, come,” said the petrels, “you lazy greedy -lubbers, this young gentleman is going to Mother Carey, and if you don’t -attend on him, you won’t earn your discharge from her, you know.”</p> -<p>“Greedy we are,” says a great fat old molly, “but -lazy we ain’t; and, as for lubbers, we’re no more lubbers -than you. Let’s have a look at the lad.”</p> -<p>And he flapped right into Tom’s face, and stared at him in -the most impudent way (for the mollys are audacious fellows, as all -whalers know), and then asked him where he hailed from, and what land -he sighted last.</p> -<p>And, when Tom told him, he seemed pleased, and said he was a good -plucked one to have got so far.</p> -<p>“Come along, lads,” he said to the rest, “and give -this little chap a cast over the pack, for Mother Carey’s sake. -We’ve eaten blubber enough for to-day, and we’ll e’en -work out a bit of our time by helping the lad.”</p> -<p>So the mollys took Tom up on their backs, and flew off with him, -laughing and joking—and oh, how they did smell of train oil!</p> -<p>“Who are you, you jolly birds?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“We are the spirits of the old Greenland skippers (as every -sailor knows), who hunted here, right whales and horse-whales, full -hundreds of years agone. But, because we were saucy and greedy, -we were all turned into mollys, to eat whale’s blubber all our -days. But lubbers we are none, and could sail a ship now against -any man in the North seas, though we don’t hold with this new-fangled -steam. And it’s a shame of those black imps of petrels to -call us so; but because they’re her grace’s pets, they think -they may say anything they like.”</p> -<p>“And who are you?” asked Tom of him, for he saw that -he was the king of all the birds.</p> -<p>“My name is Hendrick Hudson, and a right good skipper was I; -and my name will last to the world’s end, in spite of all the -wrong I did. For I discovered Hudson River, and I named Hudson’s -Bay; and many have come in my wake that dared not have shown me the -way. But I was a hard man in my time, that’s truth, and -stole the poor Indians off the coast of Maine, and sold them for slaves -down in Virginia; and at last I was so cruel to my sailors, here in -these very seas, that they set me adrift in an open boat, and I never -was heard of more. So now I’m the king of all mollys, till -I’ve worked out my time.”</p> -<p>And now they came to the edge of the pack, and beyond it they could -see Shiny Wall looming, through mist, and snow, and storm. But -the pack rolled horribly upon the swell, and the ice giants fought and -roared, and leapt upon each other’s backs, and ground each other -to powder, so that Tom was afraid to venture among them, lest he should -be ground to powder too. And he was the more afraid, when he saw -lying among the ice pack the wrecks of many a gallant ship; some with -masts and yards all standing, some with the seamen frozen fast on board. -Alas, alas, for them! They were all true English hearts; and they -came to their end like good knights-errant, in searching for the white -gate that never was opened yet.</p> -<p>But the good mollys took Tom and his dog up, and flew with them safe -over the pack and the roaring ice giants, and set them down at the foot -of Shiny Wall.</p> -<p>“And where is the gate?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“There is no gate,” said the mollys.</p> -<p>“No gate?” cried Tom, aghast.</p> -<p>“None; never a crack of one, and that’s the whole of -the secret, as better fellows, lad, than you have found to their cost; -and if there had been, they’d have killed by now every right whale -that swims the sea.”</p> -<p>“What am I to do, then?”</p> -<p>“Dive under the floe, to be sure, if you have pluck.”</p> -<p>“I’ve not come so far to turn now,” said Tom; “so -here goes for a header.”</p> -<p>“A lucky voyage to you, lad,” said the mollys; “we -knew you were one of the right sort. So good-bye.”</p> -<p>“Why don’t you come too?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>But the mollys only wailed sadly, “We can’t go yet, we -can’t go yet,” and flew away over the pack.</p> -<p>So Tom dived under the great white gate which never was opened yet, -and went on in black darkness, at the bottom of the sea, for seven days -and seven nights. And yet he was not a bit frightened. Why -should he be? He was a brave English lad, whose business is to -go out and see all the world.</p> -<p>And at last he saw the light, and clear clear water overhead; and -up he came a thousand fathoms, among clouds of sea-moths, which fluttered -round his head. There were moths with pink heads and wings and -opal bodies, that flapped about slowly; moths with brown wings that -flapped about quickly; yellow shrimps that hopped and skipped most quickly -of all; and jellies of all the colours in the world, that neither hopped -nor skipped, but only dawdled and yawned, and would not get out of his -way. The dog snapped at them till his jaws were tired; but Tom -hardly minded them at all, he was so eager to get to the top of the -water, and see the pool where the good whales go.</p> -<p>And a very large pool it was, miles and miles across, though the -air was so clear that the ice cliffs on the opposite side looked as -if they were close at hand. All round it the ice cliffs rose, -in walls and spires and battlements, and caves and bridges, and stories -and galleries, in which the ice-fairies live, and drive away the storms -and clouds, that Mother Carey’s pool may lie calm from year’s -end to year’s end. And the sun acted policeman, and walked -round outside every day, peeping just over the top of the ice wall, -to see that all went right; and now and then he played conjuring tricks, -or had an exhibition of fireworks, to amuse the ice-fairies. For -he would make himself into four or five suns at once, or paint the sky -with rings and crosses and crescents of white fire, and stick himself -in the middle of them, and wink at the fairies; and I daresay they were -very much amused; for anything’s fun in the country.</p> -<p>And there the good whales lay, the happy sleepy beasts, upon the -still oily sea. They were all right whales, you must know, and -finners, and razor-backs, and bottle-noses, and spotted sea-unicorns -with long ivory horns. But the sperm whales are such raging, ramping, -roaring, rumbustious fellows, that, if Mother Carey let them in, there -would be no more peace in Peacepool. So she packs them away in -a great pond by themselves at the South Pole, two hundred and sixty-three -miles south-south-east of Mount Erebus, the great volcano in the ice; -and there they butt each other with their ugly noses, day and night -from year’s end to year’s end.</p> -<p>But here there were only good quiet beasts, lying about like the -black hulls of sloops, and blowing every now and then jets of white -steam, or sculling round with their huge mouths open, for the sea-moths -to swim down their throats. There were no threshers there to thresh -their poor old backs, or sword-fish to stab their stomachs, or saw-fish -to rip them up, or ice-sharks to bite lumps out of their sides, or whalers -to harpoon and lance them. They were quite safe and happy there; -and all they had to do was to wait quietly in Peacepool, till Mother -Carey sent for them to make them out of old beasts into new.</p> -<p>Tom swam up to the nearest whale, and asked the way to Mother Carey.</p> -<p>“There she sits in the middle,” said the whale.</p> -<p>Tom looked; but he could see nothing in the middle of the pool, but -one peaked iceberg: and he said so.</p> -<p>“That’s Mother Carey,” said the whale, “as -you will find when you get to her. There she sits making old beasts -into new all the year round.”</p> -<p>“How does she do that?”</p> -<p>“That’s her concern, not mine,” said the old whale; -and yawned so wide (for he was very large) that there swam into his -mouth 943 sea-moths, 13,846 jelly-fish no bigger than pins’ heads, -a string of salpae nine yards long, and forty-three little ice-crabs, -who gave each other a parting pinch all round, tucked their legs under -their stomachs, and determined to die decently, like Julius Caesar.</p> -<p>“I suppose,” said Tom, “she cuts up a great whale -like you into a whole shoal of porpoises?”</p> -<p>At which the old whale laughed so violently that he coughed up all -the creatures; who swam away again very thankful at having escaped out -of that terrible whalebone net of his, from which bourne no traveller -returns; and Tom went on to the iceberg, wondering.</p> -<p>And, when he came near it, it took the form of the grandest old lady -he had ever seen—a white marble lady, sitting on a white marble -throne. And from the foot of the throne there swum away, out and -out into the sea, millions of new-born creatures, of more shapes and -colours than man ever dreamed. And they were Mother Carey’s -children, whom she makes out of the sea-water all day long.</p> -<p>He expected, of course—like some grown people who ought to -know better—to find her snipping, piecing, fitting, stitching, -cobbling, basting, filing, planing, hammering, turning, polishing, moulding, -measuring, chiselling, clipping, and so forth, as men do when they go -to work to make anything.</p> -<p>But, instead of that, she sat quite still with her chin upon her -hand, looking down into the sea with two great grand blue eyes, as blue -as the sea itself. Her hair was as white as the snow—for -she was very very old—in fact, as old as anything which you are -likely to come across, except the difference between right and wrong.</p> -<p>And, when she saw Tom, she looked at him very kindly.</p> -<p>“What do you want, my little man? It is long since I -have seen a water-baby here.”</p> -<p>Tom told her his errand, and asked the way to the Other-end-of-Nowhere.</p> -<p>“You ought to know yourself, for you have been there already.”</p> -<p>“Have I, ma’am? I’m sure I forget all about -it.”</p> -<p>“Then look at me.”</p> -<p>And, as Tom looked into her great blue eyes, he recollected the way -perfectly.</p> -<p>Now, was not that strange?</p> -<p>“Thank you, ma’am,” said Tom. “Then -I won’t trouble your ladyship any more; I hear you are very busy.”</p> -<p>“I am never more busy than I am now,” she said, without -stirring a finger.</p> -<p>“I heard, ma’am, that you were always making new beasts -out of old.”</p> -<p>“So people fancy. But I am not going to trouble myself -to make things, my little dear. I sit here and make them make -themselves.”</p> -<p>“You are a clever fairy, indeed,” thought Tom. -And he was quite right.</p> -<p>That is a grand trick of good old Mother Carey’s, and a grand -answer, which she has had occasion to make several times to impertinent -people.</p> -<p>There was once, for instance, a fairy who was so clever that she -found out how to make butterflies. I don’t mean sham ones; -no: but real live ones, which would fly, and eat, and lay eggs, and -do everything that they ought; and she was so proud of her skill that -she went flying straight off to the North Pole, to boast to Mother Carey -how she could make butterflies.</p> -<p>But Mother Carey laughed.</p> -<p>“Know, silly child,” she said, “that any one can -make things, if they will take time and trouble enough: but it is not -every one who, like me, can make things make themselves.”</p> -<p>But people do not yet believe that Mother Carey is as clever as all -that comes to; and they will not till they, too, go the journey to the -Other-end-of-Nowhere.</p> -<p>“And now, my pretty little man,” said Mother Carey, “you -are sure you know the way to the Other-end-of-Nowhere?”</p> -<p>Tom thought; and behold, he had forgotten it utterly.</p> -<p>“That is because you took your eyes off me.”</p> -<p>Tom looked at her again, and recollected; and then looked away, and -forgot in an instant.</p> -<p>“But what am I to do, ma’am? For I can’t -keep looking at you when I am somewhere else.”</p> -<p>“You must do without me, as most people have to do, for nine -hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of their lives; and look at the -dog instead; for he knows the way well enough, and will not forget it. -Besides, you may meet some very queer-tempered people there, who will -not let you pass without this passport of mine, which you must hang -round your neck and take care of; and, of course, as the dog will always -go behind you, you must go the whole way backward.”</p> -<p>“Backward!” cried Tom. “Then I shall not -be able to see my way.”</p> -<p>“On the contrary, if you look forward, you will not see a step -before you, and be certain to go wrong; but, if you look behind you, -and watch carefully whatever you have passed, and especially keep your -eye on the dog, who goes by instinct, and therefore can’t go wrong, -then you will know what is coming next, as plainly as if you saw it -in a looking-glass.”</p> -<p>Tom was very much astonished: but he obeyed her, for he had learnt -always to believe what the fairies told him.</p> -<p>“So it is, my dear child,” said Mother Carey; “and -I will tell you a story, which will show you that I am perfectly right, -as it is my custom to be.</p> -<p>“Once on a time, there were two brothers. One was called -Prometheus, because he always looked before him, and boasted that he -was wise beforehand. The other was called Epimetheus, because -he always looked behind him, and did not boast at all; but said humbly, -like the Irishman, that he had sooner prophesy after the event.</p> -<p>“Well, Prometheus was a very clever fellow, of course, and -invented all sorts of wonderful things. But, unfortunately, when -they were set to work, to work was just what they would not do: wherefore -very little has come of them, and very little is left of them; and now -nobody knows what they were, save a few archaeological old gentlemen -who scratch in queer corners, and find little there save Ptinum Furem, -Blaptem Mortisagam, Acarum Horridum, and Tineam Laciniarum.</p> -<p>“But Epimetheus was a very slow fellow, certainly, and went -among men for a clod, and a muff, and a milksop, and a slowcoach, and -a bloke, and a boodle, and so forth. And very little he did, for -many years: but what he did, he never had to do over again.</p> -<p>“And what happened at last? There came to the two brothers -the most beautiful creature that ever was seen, Pandora by name; which -means, All the gifts of the Gods. But because she had a strange -box in her hand, this fanciful, forecasting, suspicious, prudential, -theoretical, deductive, prophesying Prometheus, who was always settling -what was going to happen, would have nothing to do with pretty Pandora -and her box.</p> -<p>“But Epimetheus took her and it, as he took everything that -came; and married her for better for worse, as every man ought, whenever -he has even the chance of a good wife. And they opened the box -between them, of course, to see what was inside: for, else, of what -possible use could it have been to them?</p> -<p>“And out flew all the ills which flesh is heir to; all the -children of the four great bogies, Self-will, Ignorance, Fear, and Dirt—for -instance:</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<pre>Measles, Famines, -Monks, Quacks, -Scarlatina, Unpaid bills, -Idols, Tight stays, -Hooping-coughs, Potatoes, -Popes, Bad Wine, -Wars, Despots, -Peacemongers, Demagogues, -And, worst of all, Naughty Boys and Girls.</pre> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>But one thing remained at the bottom of the box, and that was, Hope.</p> -<p>“So Epimetheus got a great deal of trouble, as most men do -in this world: but he got the three best things in the world into the -bargain—a good wife, and experience, and hope: while Prometheus -had just as much trouble, and a great deal more (as you will hear), -of his own making; with nothing beside, save fancies spun out of his -own brain, as a spider spins her web out of her stomach.</p> -<p>“And Prometheus kept on looking before him so far ahead, that -as he was running about with a box of lucifers (which were the only -useful things he ever invented, and do as much harm as good), he trod -on his own nose, and tumbled down (as most deductive philosophers do), -whereby he set the Thames on fire; and they have hardly put it out again -yet. So he had to be chained to the top of a mountain, with a -vulture by him to give him a peck whenever he stirred, lest he should -turn the whole world upside down with his prophecies and his theories.</p> -<p>“But stupid old Epimetheus went working and grubbing on, with -the help of his wife Pandora, always looking behind him to see what -had happened, till he really learnt to know now and then what would -happen next; and understood so well which side his bread was buttered, -and which way the cat jumped, that he began to make things which would -work, and go on working, too; to till and drain the ground, and to make -looms, and ships, and railroads, and steam ploughs, and electric telegraphs, -and all the things which you see in the Great Exhibition; and to foretell -famine, and bad weather, and the price of stocks and (what is hardest -of all) the next vagary of the great idol Whirligig, which some call -Public Opinion; till at last he grew as rich as a Jew, and as fat as -a farmer, and people thought twice before they meddled with him, but -only once before they asked him to help them; for, because he earned -his money well, he could afford to spend it well likewise.</p> -<p>“And his children are the men of science, who get good lasting -work done in the world; but the children of Prometheus are the fanatics, -and the theorists, and the bigots, and the bores, and the noisy windy -people, who go telling silly folk what will happen, instead of looking -to see what has happened already.”</p> -<p>Now, was not Mother Carey’s a wonderful story? And, I -am happy to say, Tom believed it every word.</p> -<p>For so it happened to Tom likewise. He was very sorely tried; -for though, by keeping the dog to heels (or rather to toes, for he had -to walk backward), he could see pretty well which way the dog was hunting, -yet it was much slower work to go backwards than to go forwards. -But, what was more trying still, no sooner had he got out of Peacepool, -than there came running to him all the conjurors, fortune-tellers, astrologers, -prophesiers, projectors, prestigiators, as many as were in those parts -(and there are too many of them everywhere), Old Mother Shipton on her -broomstick, with Merlin, Thomas the Rhymer, Gerbertus, Rabanus Maurus, -Nostradamus, Zadkiel, Raphael, Moore, Old Nixon, and a good many in -black coats and white ties who might have known better, considering -in what century they were born, all bawling and screaming at him, “Look -a-head, only look a-head; and we will show you what man never saw before, -and right away to the end of the world!”</p> -<p>But I am proud to say that, though Tom had not been to Cambridge—for, -if he had, he would have certainly been senior wrangler—he was -such a little dogged, hard, gnarly, foursquare brick of an English boy, -that he never turned his head round once all the way from Peacepool -to the Other-end-of-Nowhere: but kept his eye on the dog, and let him -pick out the scent, hot or cold, straight or crooked, wet or dry, up -hill or down dale; by which means he never made a single mistake, and -saw all the wonderful and hitherto by-no-mortal-man-imagined things, -which it is my duty to relate to you in the next chapter.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>CHAPTER VIII AND LAST</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>“Come to me, O ye children!<br />For I hear you at your play;<br />And -the questions that perplexed me<br />Have vanished quite away.</p> -<p>“Ye open the Eastern windows,<br />That look towards the sun,<br />Where -thoughts are singing swallows,<br />And the brooks of morning run.</p> -<p>* * * * *</p> -<p>“For what are all our contrivings<br />And the wisdom of our -books,<br />When compared with your caresses,<br />And the gladness -of your looks?</p> -<p>“Ye are better than all the ballads<br />That ever were sung -or said;<br />For ye are living poems,<br />And all the rest are dead.”</p> -<p>LONGFELLOW.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Here begins the never-to-be-too-much-studied account of the nine-hundred-and-ninety-ninth -part of the wonderful things which Tom saw on his journey to the Other-end-of-Nowhere; -which all good little children are requested to read; that, if ever -they get to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, as they may very probably do, -they may not burst out laughing, or try to run away, or do any other -silly vulgar thing which may offend Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid.</p> -<p>Now, as soon as Tom had left Peacepool, he came to the white lap -of the great sea-mother, ten thousand fathoms deep; where she makes -world-pap all day long, for the steam-giants to knead, and the fire-giants -to bake, till it has risen and hardened into mountain-loaves and island-cakes.</p> -<p>And there Tom was very near being kneaded up in the world-pap, and -turned into a fossil water-baby; which would have astonished the Geological -Society of New Zealand some hundreds of thousands of years hence.</p> -<p>For, as he walked along in the silence of the sea-twilight, on the -soft white ocean floor, he was aware of a hissing, and a roaring, and -a thumping, and a pumping, as of all the steam-engines in the world -at once. And, when he came near, the water grew boiling-hot; not -that that hurt him in the least: but it also grew as foul as gruel; -and every moment he stumbled over dead shells, and fish, and sharks, -and seals, and whales, which had been killed by the hot water.</p> -<p>And at last he came to the great sea-serpent himself, lying dead -at the bottom; and as he was too thick to scramble over, Tom had to -walk round him three-quarters of a mile and more, which put him out -of his path sadly; and, when he had got round, he came to the place -called Stop. And there he stopped, and just in time.</p> -<p>For he was on the edge of a vast hole in the bottom of the sea, up -which was rushing and roaring clear steam enough to work all the engines -in the world at once; so clear, indeed, that it was quite light at moments; -and Tom could see almost up to the top of the water above, and down -below into the pit for nobody knows how far.</p> -<p>But, as soon as he bent his head over the edge, he got such a rap -on the nose from pebbles, that he jumped back again; for the steam, -as it rushed up, rasped away the sides of the hole, and hurled it up -into the sea in a shower of mud and gravel and ashes; and then it spread -all around, and sank again, and covered in the dead fish so fast, that -before Tom had stood there five minutes he was buried in silt up to -his ankles, and began to be afraid that he should have been buried alive.</p> -<p>And perhaps he would have been, but that while he was thinking, the -whole piece of ground on which he stood was torn off and blown upwards, -and away flew Tom a mile up through the sea, wondering what was coming -next.</p> -<p>At last he stopped—thump! and found himself tight in the legs -of the most wonderful bogy which he had ever seen.</p> -<p>It had I don’t know how many wings, as big as the sails of -a windmill, and spread out in a ring like them; and with them it hovered -over the steam which rushed up, as a ball hovers over the top of a fountain. -And for every wing above it had a leg below, with a claw like a comb -at the tip, and a nostril at the root; and in the middle it had no stomach -and one eye; and as for its mouth, that was all on one side, as the -madreporiform tubercle in a star-fish is. Well, it was a very -strange beast; but no stranger than some dozens which you may see.</p> -<p>“What do you want here,” it cried quite peevishly, “getting -in my way?” and it tried to drop Tom: but he held on tight to -its claws, thinking himself safer where he was.</p> -<p>So Tom told him who he was, and what his errand was. And the -thing winked its one eye, and sneered:</p> -<p>“I am too old to be taken in in that way. You are come -after gold—I know you are.”</p> -<p>“Gold! What is gold?” And really Tom did -not know; but the suspicious old bogy would not believe him.</p> -<p>But after a while Tom began to understand a little. For, as -the vapours came up out of the hole, the bogy smelt them with his nostrils, -and combed them and sorted them with his combs; and then, when they -steamed up through them against his wings, they were changed into showers -and streams of metal. From one wing fell gold-dust, and from another -silver, and from another copper, and from another tin, and from another -lead, and so on, and sank into the soft mud, into veins and cracks, -and hardened there. Whereby it comes to pass that the rocks are -full of metal.</p> -<p>But, all of a sudden, somebody shut off the steam below, and the -hole was left empty in an instant: and then down rushed the water into -the hole, in such a whirlpool that the bogy spun round and round as -fast as a teetotum. But that was all in his day’s work, -like a fair fall with the hounds; so all he did was to say to Tom -</p> -<p>“Now is your time, youngster, to get down, if you are in earnest, -which I don’t believe.”</p> -<p>“You’ll soon see,” said Tom; and away he went, -as bold as Baron Munchausen, and shot down the rushing cataract like -a salmon at Ballisodare.</p> -<p>And, when he got to the bottom, he swam till he was washed on shore -safe upon the Other-end-of-Nowhere; and he found it, to his surprise, -as most other people do, much more like This-End-of-Somewhere than he -had been in the habit of expecting</p> -<p>And first he went through Waste-paper-land, where all the stupid -books lie in heaps, up hill and down dale, like leaves in a winter wood; -and there he saw people digging and grubbing among them, to make worse -books out of bad ones, and thrashing chaff to save the dust of it; and -a very good trade they drove thereby, especially among children.</p> -<p>Then he went by the sea of slops, to the mountain of messes, and -the territory of tuck, where the ground was very sticky, for it was -all made of bad toffee (not Everton toffee, of course), and full of -deep cracks and holes choked with wind-fallen fruit, and green goose-berries, -and sloes, and crabs, and whinberries, and hips and haws, and all the -nasty things which little children will eat, if they can get them. -But the fairies hide them out of the way in that country as fast as -they can, and very hard work they have, and of very little use it is. -For as fast as they hide away the old trash, foolish and wicked people -make fresh trash full of lime and poisonous paints, and actually go -and steal receipts out of old Madame Science’s big book to invent -poisons for little children, and sell them at wakes and fairs and tuck-shops. -Very well. Let them go on. Dr. Letheby and Dr. Hassall cannot -catch them, though they are setting traps for them all day long. -But the Fairy with the birch-rod will catch them all in time, and make -them begin at one corner of their shops, and eat their way out at the -other: by which time they will have got such stomach-aches as will cure -them of poisoning little children.</p> -<p>Next he saw all the little people in the world, writing all the little -books in the world, about all the other little people in the world; -probably because they had no great people to write about: and if the -names of the books were not Squeeky, nor the Pump-lighter, nor the Narrow -Narrow World, nor the Hills of the Chattermuch, nor the Children’s -Twaddeday, why then they were something else. And, all the rest -of the little people in the world read the books, and thought themselves -each as good as the President; and perhaps they were right, for every -one knows his own business best. But Tom thought he would sooner -have a jolly good fairy tale, about Jack the Giant-killer or Beauty -and the Beast, which taught him something that he didn’t know -already.</p> -<p>And next he came to the centre of Creation (the hub, they call it -there), which lies in latitude 42.21 degrees south, and longitude 108.56 -degrees east.</p> -<p>And there he found all the wise people instructing mankind in the -science of spirit-rapping, while their house was burning over their -heads: and when Tom told them of the fire, they held an indignation -meeting forthwith, and unanimously determined to hang Tom’s dog -for coming into their country with gunpowder in his mouth. Tom -couldn’t help saying that though they did fancy they had carried -all the wit away with them out of Lincolnshire two hundred years ago, -yet if they had had one such Lincolnshire nobleman among them as good -old Lord Yarborough, he would have called for the fire-engines before -he hanged other people’s dogs. But it was of no use, and -the dog was hanged: and Tom couldn’t even have his carcase; for -they had abolished the have-his-carcase act in that country, for fear -lest when rogues fell out, honest men should come by their own. -And so they would have succeeded perfectly, as they always do, only -that (as they also always do) they failed in one little particular, -viz. that the dog would not die, being a water-dog, but bit their fingers -so abominably that they were forced to let him go, and Tom likewise, -as British subjects. Whereon they recommenced rapping for the -spirits of their fathers; and very much astonished the poor old spirits -were when they came, and saw how, according to the laws of Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, -their descendants had weakened their constitution by hard living.</p> -<p>Then came Tom to the Island of Polupragmosyne (which some call Rogues’ -Harbour; but they are wrong; for that is in the middle of Bramshill -Bushes, and the county police have cleared it out long ago). There -every one knows his neighbour’s business better than his own; -and a very noisy place it is, as might be expected, considering that -all the inhabitants are <i>ex officio</i> on the wrong side of the house -in the “Parliament of Man, and the Federation of the World;” -and are always making wry mouths, and crying that the fairies’ -grapes were sour.</p> -<p>There Tom saw ploughs drawing horses, nails driving hammers, birds’ -nests taking boys, books making authors, bulls keeping china-shops, -monkeys shaving cats, dead dogs drilling live lions, blind brigadiers -shelfed as principals of colleges, play-actors not in the least shelfed -as popular preachers; and, in short, every one set to do something which -he had not learnt, because in what he had learnt, or pretended to learn, -he had failed.</p> -<p>There stands the Pantheon of the Great Unsuccessful, from the builders -of the Tower of Babel to those of the Trafalgar Fountains; in which -politicians lecture on the constitutions which ought to have marched, -conspirators on the revolutions which ought to have succeeded, economists -on the schemes which ought to have made every one’s fortune, and -projectors on the discoveries which ought to have set the Thames on -fire. There cobblers lecture on orthopedy (whatsoever that may -be) because they cannot sell their shoes; and poets on AEsthetics (whatsoever -that may be) because they cannot sell their poetry. There philosophers -demonstrate that England would be the freest and richest country in -the world, if she would only turn Papist again; penny-a-liners abuse -the Times, because they have not wit enough to get on its staff; and -young ladies walk about with lockets of Charles the First’s hair -(or of somebody else’s, when the Jews’ genuine stock is -used up), inscribed with the neat and appropriate legend—which -indeed is popular through all that land, and which, I hope, you will -learn to translate in due time and to perpend likewise:-</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“<i>Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa puellis</i>.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>When he got into the middle of the town, they all set on him at once, -to show him his way; or rather, to show him that he did not know his -way; for as for asking him what way he wanted to go, no one ever thought -of that.</p> -<p>But one pulled him hither, and another poked him thither, and a third -cried -</p> -<p>“You mustn’t go west, I tell you; it is destruction to -go west.”</p> -<p>“But I am not going west, as you may see,” said Tom.</p> -<p>And another, “The east lies here, my dear; I assure you this -is the east.”</p> -<p>“But I don’t want to go east,” said Tom.</p> -<p>“Well, then, at all events, whichever way you are going, you -are going wrong,” cried they all with one voice—which was -the only thing which they ever agreed about; and all pointed at once -to all the thirty-and-two points of the compass, till Tom thought all -the sign-posts in England had got together, and fallen fighting.</p> -<p>And whether he would have ever escaped out of the town, it is hard -to say, if the dog had not taken it into his head that they were going -to pull his master in pieces, and tackled them so sharply about the -gastrocnemius muscle, that he gave them some business of their own to -think of at last; and while they were rubbing their bitten calves, Tom -and the dog got safe away.</p> -<p>On the borders of that island he found Gotham, where the wise men -live; the same who dragged the pond because the moon had fallen into -it, and planted a hedge round the cuckoo, to keep spring all the year. -And he found them bricking up the town gate, because it was so wide -that little folks could not get through. And, when he asked why, -they told him they were expanding their liturgy. So he went on; -for it was no business of his: only he could not help saying that in -his country, if the kitten could not get in at the same hole as the -cat, she might stay outside and mew.</p> -<p>But he saw the end of such fellows, when he came to the island of -the Golden Asses, where nothing but thistles grow. For there they -were all turned into mokes with ears a yard long, for meddling with -matters which they do not understand, as Lucius did in the story. -And like him, mokes they must remain, till, by the laws of development, -the thistles develop into roses. Till then, they must comfort -themselves with the thought, that the longer their ears are, the thicker -their hides; and so a good beating don’t hurt them.</p> -<p>Then came Tom to the great land of Hearsay, in which are no less -than thirty and odd kings, beside half a dozen Republics, and perhaps -more by next mail.</p> -<p>And there he fell in with a deep, dark, deadly, and destructive war, -waged by the princes and potentates of those parts, both spiritual and -temporal, against what do you think? One thing I am sure of. -That unless I told you, you would never know; nor how they waged that -war either; for all their strategy and art military consisted in the -safe and easy process of stopping their ears and screaming, “Oh, -don’t tell us!” and then running away.</p> -<p>So when Tom came into that land, he found them all, high and low, -man, woman, and child, running for their lives day and night continually, -and entreating not to be told they didn’t know what: only the -land being an island, and they having a dislike to the water (being -a musty lot for the most part), they ran round and round the shore for -ever, which (as the island was exactly of the same circumference as -the planet on which we have the honour of living) was hard work, especially -to those who had business to look after. But before them, as bandmaster -and fugleman, ran a gentleman shearing a pig; the melodious strains -of which animal led them for ever, if not to conquest, still to flight; -and kept up their spirits mightily with the thought that they would -at least have the pig’s wool for their pains.</p> -<p>And running after them, day and night, came such a poor, lean, seedy, -hard-worked old giant, as ought to have been cockered up, and had a -good dinner given him, and a good wife found him, and been set to play -with little children; and then he would have been a very presentable -old fellow after all; for he had a heart, though it was considerably -overgrown with brains.</p> -<p>He was made up principally of fish bones and parchment, put together -with wire and Canada balsam; and smelt strongly of spirits, though he -never drank anything but water: but spirits he used somehow, there was -no denying. He had a great pair of spectacles on his nose, and -a butterfly-net in one hand, and a geological hammer in the other; and -was hung all over with pockets, full of collecting boxes, bottles, microscopes, -telescopes, barometers, ordnance maps, scalpels, forceps, photographic -apparatus, and all other tackle for finding out everything about everything, -and a little more too. And, most strange of all, he was running -not forwards but backwards, as fast as he could.</p> -<p>Away all the good folks ran from him, except Tom, who stood his ground -and dodged between his legs; and the giant, when he had passed him, -looked down, and cried, as if he was quite pleased and comforted, -</p> -<p>“What? who are you? And you actually don’t run -away, like all the rest?” But he had to take his spectacles -off, Tom remarked, in order to see him plainly.</p> -<p>Tom told him who he was; and the giant pulled out a bottle and a -cork instantly, to collect him with.</p> -<p>But Tom was too sharp for that, and dodged between his legs and in -front of him; and then the giant could not see him at all.</p> -<p>“No, no, no!” said Tom, “I’ve not been round -the world, and through the world, and up to Mother Carey’s haven, -beside being caught in a net and called a Holothurian and a Cephalopod, -to be bottled up by any old giant like you.”</p> -<p>And when the giant understood what a great traveller Tom had been, -he made a truce with him at once, and would have kept him there to this -day to pick his brains, so delighted was he at finding any one to tell -him what he did not know before.</p> -<p>“Ah, you lucky little dog!” said he at last, quite simply—for -he was the simplest, pleasantest, honestest, kindliest old Dominie Sampson -of a giant that ever turned the world upside down without intending -it—“ah, you lucky little dog! If I had only been where -you have been, to see what you have seen!”</p> -<p>“Well,” said Tom, “if you want to do that, you -had best put your head under water for a few hours, as I did, and turn -into a water-baby, or some other baby, and then you might have a chance.”</p> -<p>“Turn into a baby, eh? If I could do that, and know what -was happening to me for but one hour, I should know everything then, -and be at rest. But I can’t; I can’t be a little child -again; and I suppose if I could, it would be no use, because then I -should then know nothing about what was happening to me. Ah, you -lucky little dog!” said the poor old giant.</p> -<p>“But why do you run after all these poor people?” said -Tom, who liked the giant very much.</p> -<p>“My dear, it’s they that have been running after me, -father and son, for hundreds and hundreds of years, throwing stones -at me till they have knocked off my spectacles fifty times, and calling -me a malignant and a turbaned Turk, who beat a Venetian and traduced -the State—goodness only knows what they mean, for I never read -poetry—and hunting me round and round—though catch me they -can’t, for every time I go over the same ground, I go the faster, -and grow the bigger. While all I want is to be friends with them, -and to tell them something to their advantage, like Mr. Joseph Ady: -only somehow they are so strangely afraid of hearing it. But, -I suppose I am not a man of the world, and have no tact.”</p> -<p>“But why don’t you turn round and tell them so?”</p> -<p>“Because I can’t. You see, I am one of the sons -of Epimetheus, and must go backwards, if I am to go at all.”</p> -<p>“But why don’t you stop, and let them come up to you?”</p> -<p>“Why, my dear, only think. If I did, all the butterflies -and cockyolybirds would fly past me, and then I should catch no more -new species, and should grow rusty and mouldy, and die. And I -don’t intend to do that, my dear; for I have a destiny before -me, they say: though what it is I don’t know, and don’t -care.”</p> -<p>“Don’t care?” said Tom.</p> -<p>“No. Do the duty which lies nearest you, and catch the -first beetle you come across, is my motto; and I have thriven by it -for some hundred years. Now I must go on. Dear me, while -I have been talking to you, at least nine new species have escaped me.”</p> -<p>And on went the giant, behind before, like a bull in a china-shop, -till he ran into the steeple of the great idol temple (for they are -all idolaters in those parts, of course, else they would never be afraid -of giants), and knocked the upper half clean off, hurting himself horribly -about the small of the back.</p> -<p>But little he cared; for as soon as the ruins of the steeple were -well between his legs, he poked and peered among the falling stones, -and shifted his spectacles, and pulled out his pocket-magnifier, and -cried -</p> -<p>“An entirely new Oniscus, and three obscure Podurellae! -Besides a moth which M. le Roi des Papillons (though he, like all Frenchmen, -is given to hasty inductions) says is confined to the limits of the -Glacial Drift. This is most important!”</p> -<p>And down he sat on the nave of the temple (not being a man of the -world) to examine his Podurellae. Whereon (as was to be expected) -the roof caved in bodily, smashing the idols, and sending the priests -flying out of doors and windows, like rabbits out of a burrow when a -ferret goes in.</p> -<p>But he never heeded; for out of the dust flew a bat, and the giant -had him in a moment.</p> -<p>“Dear me! This is even more important! Here is -a cognate species to that which Macgilliwaukie Brown insists is confined -to the Buddhist temples of Little Thibet; and now when I look at it, -it may be only a variety produced by difference of climate!”</p> -<p>And having bagged his bat, up he got, and on he went; while all the -people ran, being in none the better humour for having their temple -smashed for the sake of three obscure species of Podurella, and a Buddhist -bat.</p> -<p>“Well,” thought Tom, “this is a very pretty quarrel, -with a good deal to be said on both sides. But it is no business -of mine.”</p> -<p>And no more it was, because he was a water-baby, and had the original -sow by the right ear; which you will never have, unless you be a baby, -whether of the water, the land, or the air, matters not, provided you -can only keep on continually being a baby.</p> -<p>So the giant ran round after the people, and the people ran round -after the giant, and they are running, unto this day for aught I know, -or do not know; and will run till either he, or they, or both, turn -into little children. And then, as Shakespeare says (and therefore -it must be true) -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“Jack shall have Gill<br />Nought shall go ill<br />The man -shall have his mare again, and all go well.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Then Tom came to a very famous island, which was called, in the days -of the great traveller Captain Gulliver, the Isle of Laputa. But -Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid has named it over again the Isle of Tomtoddies, -all heads and no bodies.</p> -<p>And when Tom came near it, he heard such a grumbling and grunting -and growling and wailing and weeping and whining that he thought people -must be ringing little pigs, or cropping puppies’ ears, or drowning -kittens: but when he came nearer still, he began to hear words among -the noise; which was the Tomtoddies’ song which they sing morning -and evening, and all night too, to their great idol Examination -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“I can’t learn my lesson: the examiner’s coming!”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>And that was the only song which they knew.</p> -<p>And when Tom got on shore the first thing he saw was a great pillar, -on one side of which was inscribed, “Playthings not allowed here;” -at which he was so shocked that he would not stay to see what was written -on the other side. Then he looked round for the people of the -island: but instead of men, women, and children, he found nothing but -turnips and radishes, beet and mangold wurzel, without a single green -leaf among them, and half of them burst and decayed, with toad-stools -growing out of them. Those which were left began crying to Tom, -in half a dozen different languages at once, and all of them badly spoken, -“I can’t learn my lesson; do come and help me!” -And one cried, “Can you show me how to extract this square root?”</p> -<p>And another, “Can you tell me the distance between α -Lyrae and β Camelopardis?”</p> -<p>And another, “What is the latitude and longitude of Snooksville, -in Noman’s County, Oregon, U.S.?”</p> -<p>And another, “What was the name of Mutius Scaevola’s -thirteenth cousin’s grandmother’s maid’s cat?”</p> -<p>And another, “How long would it take a school-inspector of -average activity to tumble head over heels from London to York?”</p> -<p>And another, “Can you tell me the name of a place that nobody -ever heard of, where nothing ever happened, in a country which has not -been discovered yet?”</p> -<p>And another, “Can you show me how to correct this hopelessly -corrupt passage of Graidiocolosyrtus Tabenniticus, on the cause why -crocodiles have no tongues?”</p> -<p>And so on, and so on, and so on, till one would have thought they -were all trying for tide-waiters’ places, or cornetcies in the -heavy dragoons.</p> -<p>“And what good on earth will it do you if I did tell you?” -quoth Tom.</p> -<p>Well, they didn’t know that: all they knew was the examiner -was coming.</p> -<p>Then Tom stumbled on the hugest and softest nimblecomequick turnip -you ever saw filling a hole in a crop of swedes, and it cried to him, -“Can you tell me anything at all about anything you like?”</p> -<p>“About what?” says Tom.</p> -<p>“About anything you like; for as fast as I learn things I forget -them again. So my mamma says that my intellect is not adapted -for methodic science, and says that I must go in for general information.”</p> -<p>Tom told him that he did not know general information, nor any officers -in the army; only he had a friend once that went for a drummer: but -he could tell him a great many strange things which he had seen in his -travels.</p> -<p>So he told him prettily enough, while the poor turnip listened very -carefully; and the more he listened, the more he forgot, and the more -water ran out of him.</p> -<p>Tom thought he was crying: but it was only his poor brains running -away, from being worked so hard; and as Tom talked, the unhappy turnip -streamed down all over with juice, and split and shrank till nothing -was left of him but rind and water; whereat Tom ran away in a fright, -for he thought he might be taken up for killing the turnip.</p> -<p>But, on the contrary, the turnip’s parents were highly delighted, -and considered him a saint and a martyr, and put up a long inscription -over his tomb about his wonderful talents, early development, and unparalleled -precocity. Were they not a foolish couple? But there was -a still more foolish couple next to them, who were beating a wretched -little radish, no bigger than my thumb, for sullenness and obstinacy -and wilful stupidity, and never knew that the reason why it couldn’t -learn or hardly even speak was, that there was a great worm inside it -eating out all its brains. But even they are no foolisher than -some hundred score of papas and mammas, who fetch the rod when they -ought to fetch a new toy, and send to the dark cupboard instead of to -the doctor.</p> -<p>Tom was so puzzled and frightened with all he saw, that he was longing -to ask the meaning of it; and at last he stumbled over a respectable -old stick lying half covered with earth. But a very stout and -worthy stick it was, for it belonged to good Roger Ascham in old time, -and had carved on its head King Edward the Sixth, with the Bible in -his hand.</p> -<p>“You see,” said the stick, “there were as pretty -little children once as you could wish to see, and might have been so -still if they had been only left to grow up like human beings, and then -handed over to me; but their foolish fathers and mothers, instead of -letting them pick flowers, and make dirt-pies, and get birds’ -nests, and dance round the gooseberry bush, as little children should, -kept them always at lessons, working, working, working, learning week-day -lessons all week-days, and Sunday lessons all Sunday, and weekly examinations -every Saturday, and monthly examinations every month, and yearly examinations -every year, everything seven times over, as if once was not enough, -and enough as good as a feast—till their brains grew big, and -their bodies grew small, and they were all changed into turnips, with -little but water inside; and still their foolish parents actually pick -the leaves off them as fast as they grow, lest they should have anything -green about them.”</p> -<p>“Ah!” said Tom, “if dear Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby -knew of it she would send them a lot of tops, and balls, and marbles, -and ninepins, and make them all as jolly as sand-boys.”</p> -<p>“It would be no use,” said the stick. “They -can’t play now, if they tried. Don’t you see how their -legs have turned to roots and grown into the ground, by never taking -any exercise, but sapping and moping always in the same place? -But here comes the Examiner-of-all-Examiners. So you had better -get away, I warn you, or he will examine you and your dog into the bargain, -and set him to examine all the other dogs, and you to examine all the -other water-babies. There is no escaping out of his hands, for -his nose is nine thousand miles long, and can go down chimneys, and -through keyholes, upstairs, downstairs, in my lady’s chamber, -examining all little boys, and the little boys’ tutors likewise. -But when he is thrashed—so Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid has promised -me—I shall have the thrashing of him: and if I don’t lay -it on with a will it’s a pity.”</p> -<p>Tom went off: but rather slowly and surlily; for he was somewhat -minded to face this same Examiner-of-all-Examiners, who came striding -among the poor turnips, binding heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, -and laying them on little children’s shoulders, like the Scribes -and Pharisees of old, and not touching the same with one of his fingers; -for he had plenty of money, and a fine house to live in, and so forth; -which was more than the poor little turnips had.</p> -<p>But when he got near, he looked so big and burly and dictatorial, -and shouted so loud to Tom, to come and be examined, that Tom ran for -his life, and the dog too. And really it was time; for the poor -turnips, in their hurry and fright, crammed themselves so fast to be -ready for the Examiner, that they burst and popped by dozens all round -him, till the place sounded like Aldershot on a field-day, and Tom thought -he should be blown into the air, dog and all.</p> -<p>As he went down to the shore he passed the poor turnip’s new -tomb. But Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid had taken away the epitaph about -talents and precocity and development, and put up one of her own instead -which Tom thought much more sensible:-</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“Instruction sore long time I bore,<br />And cramming was in -vain;<br />Till heaven did please my woes to ease<br />With water on -the brain.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>So Tom jumped into the sea, and swam on his way, singing:-</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>“Farewell, Tomtoddies all; I thank my stars<br />That nought -I know save those three royal r’s:<br />Reading and riting sure, -with rithmetick,<br />Will help a lad of sense through thin and thick.”</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Whereby you may see that Tom was no poet: but no more was John Bunyan, -though he was as wise a man as you will meet in a month of Sundays.</p> -<p>And next he came to Oldwivesfabledom, where the folks were all heathens, -and worshipped a howling ape. And there he found a little boy -sitting in the middle of the road, and crying bitterly.</p> -<p>“What are you crying for?” said Tom.</p> -<p>“Because I am not as frightened as I could wish to be.”</p> -<p>“Not frightened? You are a queer little chap: but, if -you want to be frightened, here goes—Boo!”</p> -<p>“Ah,” said the little boy, “that is very kind of -you; but I don’t feel that it has made any impression.”</p> -<p>Tom offered to upset him, punch him, stamp on him, fettle him over -the head with a brick, or anything else whatsoever which would give -him the slightest comfort.</p> -<p>But he only thanked Tom very civilly, in fine long words which he -had heard other folk use, and which therefore, he thought were fit and -proper to use himself; and cried on till his papa and mamma came, and -sent off for the Powwow man immediately. And a very good-natured -gentleman and lady they were, though they were heathens; and talked -quite pleasantly to Tom about his travels, till the Powwow man arrived, -with his thunderbox under his arm.</p> -<p>And a well-fed, ill-favoured gentleman he was, as ever served Her -Majesty at Portland. Tom was a little frightened at first; for -he thought it was Grimes. But he soon saw his mistake: for Grimes -always looked a man in the face; and this fellow never did. And -when he spoke, it was fire and smoke; and when he sneezed, it was squibs -and crackers; and when he cried (which he did whenever it paid him), -it was boiling pitch; and some of it was sure to stick.</p> -<p>“Here we are again!” cried he, like the clown in a pantomime. -“So you can’t feel frightened, my little dear—eh? -I’ll do that for you. I’ll make an impression on you! -Yah! Boo! Whirroo! Hullabaloo!”</p> -<p>And he rattled, thumped, brandished his thunder-box, yelled, shouted, -raved, roared, stamped, and danced corrobory like any black fellow; -and then he touched a spring in the thunderbox, and out popped turnip-ghosts -and magic-lanthorns and pasteboard bogies and spring-heeled Jacks, and -sallaballas, with such a horrid din, clatter, clank, roll, rattle, and -roar, that the little boy turned up the whites of his eyes, and fainted -right away.</p> -<p>And at that his poor heathen papa and mamma were as much delighted -as if they had found a gold mine; and fell down upon their knees before -the Powwow man, and gave him a palanquin with a pole of solid silver -and curtains of cloth of gold; and carried him about in it on their -own backs: but as soon as they had taken him up, the pole stuck to their -shoulders, and they could not set him down any more, but carried him -on willynilly, as Sinbad carried the old man of the sea: which was a -pitiable sight to see; for the father was a very brave officer, and -wore two swords and a blue button; and the mother was as pretty a lady -as ever had pinched feet like a Chinese. But you see, they had -chosen to do a foolish thing just once too often; so, by the laws of -Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, they had to go on doing it whether they chose -or not, till the coming of the Cocqcigrues.</p> -<p>Ah! don’t you wish that some one would go and convert those -poor heathens, and teach them not to frighten their little children -into fits?</p> -<p>“Now, then,” said the Powwow man to Tom, “wouldn’t -you like to be frightened, my little dear? For I can see plainly -that you are a very wicked, naughty, graceless, reprobate boy.”</p> -<p>“You’re another,” quoth Tom, very sturdily. -And when the man ran at him, and cried “Boo!” Tom -ran at him in return, and cried “Boo!” likewise, right in -his face, and set the little dog upon him; and at his legs the dog went.</p> -<p>At which, if you will believe it, the fellow turned tail, thunderbox -and all, with a “Woof!” like an old sow on the common; and -ran for his life, screaming, “Help! thieves! murder! fire! -He is going to kill me! I am a ruined man! He will murder -me; and break, burn, and destroy my precious and invaluable thunderbox; -and then you will have no more thunder-showers in the land. Help! -help! help!”</p> -<p>At which the papa and mamma and all the people of Oldwivesfabledom -flew at Tom, shouting, “Oh, the wicked, impudent, hard-hearted, -graceless boy! Beat him, kick him, shoot him, drown him, hang -him, burn him!” and so forth: but luckily they had nothing to -shoot, hang, or burn him with, for the fairies had hid all the killing-tackle -out of the way a little while before; so they could only pelt him with -stones; and some of the stones went clean through him, and came out -the other side. But he did not mind that a bit; for the holes -closed up again as fast as they were made, because he was a water-baby. -However, he was very glad when he was safe out of the country, for the -noise there made him all but deaf.</p> -<p>Then he came to a very quiet place, called Leaveheavenalone. -And there the sun was drawing water out of the sea to make steam-threads, -and the wind was twisting them up to make cloud-patterns, till they -had worked between them the loveliest wedding veil of Chantilly lace, -and hung it up in their own Crystal Palace for any one to buy who could -afford it; while the good old sea never grudged, for she knew they would -pay her back honestly. So the sun span, and the wind wove, and -all went well with the great steam-loom; as is likely, considering—and -considering—and considering -</p> -<p>And at last, after innumerable adventures, each more wonderful than -the last, he saw before him a huge building, much bigger, and—what -is most surprising—a little uglier than a certain new lunatic -asylum, but not built quite of the same materials. None of it, -at least—or, indeed, for aught that I ever saw, any part of any -other building whatsoever—is cased with nine-inch brick inside -and out, and filled up with rubble between the walls, in order that -any gentleman who has been confined during Her Majesty’s pleasure -may be unconfined during his own pleasure, and take a walk in the neighbouring -park to improve his spirits, after an hour’s light and wholesome -labour with his dinner-fork or one of the legs of his iron bedstead. -No. The walls of this building were built on an entirely different -principle, which need not be described, as it has not yet been discovered.</p> -<p>Tom walked towards this great building, wondering what it was, and -having a strange fancy that he might find Mr. Grimes inside it, till -he saw running toward him, and shouting “Stop!” three or -four people, who, when they came nearer, were nothing else than policemen’s -truncheons, running along without legs or arms.</p> -<p>Tom was not astonished. He was long past that. Besides, -he had seen the naviculae in the water move nobody knows how, a hundred -times, without arms, or legs, or anything to stand in their stead. -Neither was he frightened for he had been doing no harm.</p> -<p>So he stopped; and, when the foremost truncheon came up and asked -his business, he showed Mother Carey’s pass; and the truncheon -looked at it in the oddest fashion; for he had one eye in the middle -of his upper end, so that when he looked at anything, being quite stiff, -he had to slope himself, and poke himself, till it was a wonder why -he did not tumble over; but, being quite full of the spirit of justice -(as all policemen, and their truncheons, ought to be), he was always -in a position of stable equilibrium, whichever way he put himself.</p> -<p>“All right—pass on,” said he at last. And -then he added: “I had better go with you, young man.” -And Tom had no objection, for such company was both respectable and -safe; so the truncheon coiled its thong neatly round its handle, to -prevent tripping itself up—for the thong had got loose in running—and -marched on by Tom’s side.</p> -<p>“Why have you no policeman to carry you?” asked Tom, -after a while.</p> -<p>“Because we are not like those clumsy-made truncheons in the -land-world, which cannot go without having a whole man to carry them -about. We do our own work for ourselves; and do it very well, -though I say it who should not.”</p> -<p>“Then why have you a thong to your handle?” asked Tom.</p> -<p>“To hang ourselves up by, of course, when we are off duty.”</p> -<p>Tom had got his answer, and had no more to say, till they came up -to the great iron door of the prison. And there the truncheon -knocked twice, with its own head.</p> -<p>A wicket in the door opened, and out looked a tremendous old brass -blunderbuss charged up to the muzzle with slugs, who was the porter; -and Tom started back a little at the sight of him.</p> -<p>“What case is this?” he asked in a deep voice, out of -his broad bell mouth.</p> -<p>“If you please, sir, it is no case; only a young gentleman -from her ladyship, who wants to see Grimes, the master-sweep.”</p> -<p>“Grimes?” said the blunderbuss. And he pulled in -his muzzle, perhaps to look over his prison-lists.</p> -<p>“Grimes is up chimney No. 345,” he said from inside. -“So the young gentleman had better go on to the roof.”</p> -<p>Tom looked up at the enormous wall, which seemed at least ninety -miles high, and wondered how he should ever get up: but, when he hinted -that to the truncheon, it settled the matter in a moment. For -it whisked round, and gave him such a shove behind as sent him up to -the roof in no time, with his little dog under his arm.</p> -<p>And there he walked along the leads, till he met another truncheon, -and told him his errand.</p> -<p>“Very good,” it said. “Come along: but it -will be of no use. He is the most unremorseful, hard-hearted, -foul-mouthed fellow I have in charge; and thinks about nothing but beer -and pipes, which are not allowed here, of course.”</p> -<p>So they walked along over the leads, and very sooty they were, and -Tom thought the chimneys must want sweeping very much. But he -was surprised to see that the soot did not stick to his feet, or dirty -them in the least. Neither did the live coals, which were lying -about in plenty, burn him; for, being a water-baby, his radical humours -were of a moist and cold nature, as you may read at large in Lemnius, -Cardan, Van Helmont, and other gentlemen, who knew as much as they could, -and no man can know more.</p> -<p>And at last they came to chimney No. 345. Out of the top of -it, his head and shoulders just showing, stuck poor Mr. Grimes, so sooty, -and bleared, and ugly, that Tom could hardly bear to look at him. -And in his mouth was a pipe; but it was not a-light; though he was pulling -at it with all his might.</p> -<p>“Attention, Mr. Grimes,” said the truncheon; “here -is a gentleman come to see you.”</p> -<p>But Mr. Grimes only said bad words; and kept grumbling, “My -pipe won’t draw. My pipe won’t draw.”</p> -<p>“Keep a civil tongue, and attend!” said the truncheon; -and popped up just like Punch, hitting Grimes such a crack over the -head with itself, that his brains rattled inside like a dried walnut -in its shell. He tried to get his hands out, and rub the place: -but he could not, for they were stuck fast in the chimney. Now -he was forced to attend.</p> -<p>“Hey!” he said, “why, it’s Tom! I suppose -you have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little atomy?”</p> -<p>Tom assured him he had not, but only wanted to help him.</p> -<p>“I don’t want anything except beer, and that I can’t -get; and a light to this bothering pipe, and that I can’t get -either.”</p> -<p>“I’ll get you one,” said Tom; and he took up a -live coal (there were plenty lying about) and put it to Grimes’ -pipe: but it went out instantly.</p> -<p>“It’s no use,” said the truncheon, leaning itself -up against the chimney and looking on. “I tell you, it is -no use. His heart is so cold that it freezes everything that comes -near him. You will see that presently, plain enough.”</p> -<p>“Oh, of course, it’s my fault. Everything’s -always my fault,” said Grimes. “Now don’t go -to hit me again” (for the truncheon started upright, and looked -very wicked); “you know, if my arms were only free, you daren’t -hit me then.”</p> -<p>The truncheon leant back against the chimney, and took no notice -of the personal insult, like a well-trained policeman as it was, though -he was ready enough to avenge any transgression against morality or -order.</p> -<p>“But can’t I help you in any other way? Can’t -I help you to get out of this chimney?” said Tom.</p> -<p>“No,” interposed the truncheon; “he has come to -the place where everybody must help themselves; and he will find it -out, I hope, before he has done with me.”</p> -<p>“Oh, yes,” said Grimes, “of course it’s me. -Did I ask to be brought here into the prison? Did I ask to be -set to sweep your foul chimneys? Did I ask to have lighted straw -put under me to make me go up? Did I ask to stick fast in the -very first chimney of all, because it was so shamefully clogged up with -soot? Did I ask to stay here—I don’t know how long—a -hundred years, I do believe, and never get my pipe, nor my beer, nor -nothing fit for a beast, let alone a man?”</p> -<p>“No,” answered a solemn voice behind. “No -more did Tom, when you behaved to him in the very same way.”</p> -<p>It was Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. And, when the truncheon saw her, -it started bolt upright—Attention!—and made such a low bow, -that if it had not been full of the spirit of justice, it must have -tumbled on its end, and probably hurt its one eye. And Tom made -his bow too.</p> -<p>“Oh, ma’am,” he said, “don’t think -about me; that’s all past and gone, and good times and bad times -and all times pass over. But may not I help poor Mr. Grimes? -Mayn’t I try and get some of these bricks away, that he may move -his arms?”</p> -<p>“You may try, of course,” she said.</p> -<p>So Tom pulled and tugged at the bricks: but he could not move one. -And then he tried to wipe Mr. Grimes’ face: but the soot would -not come off.</p> -<p>“Oh, dear!” he said. “I have come all this -way, through all these terrible places, to help you, and now I am of -no use at all.”</p> -<p>“You had best leave me alone,” said Grimes; “you -are a good-natured forgiving little chap, and that’s truth; but -you’d best be off. The hail’s coming on soon, and -it will beat the eyes out of your little head.”</p> -<p>“What hail?”</p> -<p>“Why, hail that falls every evening here; and, till it comes -close to me, it’s like so much warm rain: but then it turns to -hail over my head, and knocks me about like small shot.”</p> -<p>“That hail will never come any more,” said the strange -lady. “I have told you before what it was. It was -your mother’s tears, those which she shed when she prayed for -you by her bedside; but your cold heart froze it into hail. But -she is gone to heaven now, and will weep no more for her graceless son.”</p> -<p>Then Grimes was silent awhile; and then he looked very sad.</p> -<p>“So my old mother’s gone, and I never there to speak -to her! Ah! a good woman she was, and might have been a happy -one, in her little school there in Vendale, if it hadn’t been -for me and my bad ways.”</p> -<p>“Did she keep the school in Vendale?” asked Tom. -And then he told Grimes all the story of his going to her house, and -how she could not abide the sight of a chimney-sweep, and then how kind -she was, and how he turned into a water-baby.</p> -<p>“Ah!” said Grimes, “good reason she had to hate -the sight of a chimney-sweep. I ran away from her and took up -with the sweeps, and never let her know where I was, nor sent her a -penny to help her, and now it’s too late—too late!” -said Mr. Grimes.</p> -<p>And he began crying and blubbering like a great baby, till his pipe -dropped out of his mouth, and broke all to bits.</p> -<p>“Oh, dear, if I was but a little chap in Vendale again, to -see the clear beck, and the apple-orchard, and the yew-hedge, how different -I would go on! But it’s too late now. So you go along, -you kind little chap, and don’t stand to look at a man crying, -that’s old enough to be your father, and never feared the face -of man, nor of worse neither. But I’m beat now, and beat -I must be. I’ve made my bed, and I must lie on it. -Foul I would be, and foul I am, as an Irishwoman said to me once; and -little I heeded it. It’s all my own fault: but it’s -too late.” And he cried so bitterly that Tom began crying -too.</p> -<p>“Never too late,” said the fairy, in such a strange soft -new voice that Tom looked up at her; and she was so beautiful for the -moment, that Tom half fancied she was her sister.</p> -<p>No more was it too late. For, as poor Grimes cried and blubbered -on, his own tears did what his mother’s could not do, and Tom’s -could not do, and nobody’s on earth could do for him; for they -washed the soot off his face and off his clothes; and then they washed -the mortar away from between the bricks; and the chimney crumbled down; -and Grimes began to get out of it.</p> -<p>Up jumped the truncheon, and was going to hit him on the crown a -tremendous thump, and drive him down again like a cork into a bottle. -But the strange lady put it aside.</p> -<p>“Will you obey me if I give you a chance?”</p> -<p>“As you please, ma’am. You’re stronger than -me—that I know too well, and wiser than me, I know too well also. -And, as for being my own master, I’ve fared ill enough with that -as yet. So whatever your ladyship pleases to order me; for I’m -beat, and that’s the truth.”</p> -<p>“Be it so then—you may come out. But remember, -disobey me again, and into a worse place still you go.”</p> -<p>“I beg pardon ma’am, but I never disobeyed you that I -know of. I never had the honour of setting eyes upon you till -I came to these ugly quarters.”</p> -<p>“Never saw me? Who said to you, Those that will be foul, -foul they will be?”</p> -<p>Grimes looked up; and Tom looked up too; for the voice was that of -the Irishwoman who met them the day that they went out together to Harthover. -“I gave you your warning then: but you gave it yourself a thousand -times before and since. Every bad word that you said—every -cruel and mean thing that you did—every time that you got tipsy—every -day that you went dirty—you were disobeying me, whether you knew -it or not.”</p> -<p>“If I’d only known, ma’am—”</p> -<p>“You knew well enough that you were disobeying something, though -you did not know it was me. But come out and take your chance. -Perhaps it may be your last.”</p> -<p>So Grimes stepped out of the chimney, and really, if it had not been -for the scars on his face, he looked as clean and respectable as a master-sweep -need look.</p> -<p>“Take him away,” said she to the truncheon, “and -give him his ticket-of-leave.”</p> -<p>“And what is he to do, ma’am?”</p> -<p>“Get him to sweep out the crater of Etna; he will find some -very steady men working out their time there, who will teach him his -business: but mind, if that crater gets choked again, and there is an -earthquake in consequence, bring them all to me, and I shall investigate -the case very severely.”</p> -<p>So the truncheon marched off Mr. Grimes, looking as meek as a drowned -worm.</p> -<p>And for aught I know, or do not know, he is sweeping the crater of -Etna to this very day.</p> -<p>“And now,” said the fairy to Tom, “your work here -is done. You may as well go back again.”</p> -<p>“I should be glad enough to go,” said Tom, “but -how am I to get up that great hole again, now the steam has stopped -blowing?”</p> -<p>“I will take you up the backstairs: but I must bandage your -eyes first; for I never allow anybody to see those backstairs of mine.”</p> -<p>“I am sure I shall not tell anybody about them, ma’am, -if you bid me not.”</p> -<p>“Aha! So you think, my little man. But you would -soon forget your promise if you got back into the land-world. -For, if people only once found out that you had been up my backstairs, -you would have all the fine ladies kneeling to you, and the rich men -emptying their purses before you, and statesmen offering you place and -power; and young and old, rich and poor, crying to you, ‘Only -tell us the great backstairs secret, and we will be your slaves; we -will make you lord, king, emperor, bishop, archbishop, pope, if you -like—only tell us the secret of the backstairs. For thousands -of years we have been paying, and petting, and obeying, and worshipping -quacks who told us they had the key of the backstairs, and could smuggle -us up them; and in spite of all our disappointments, we will honour, -and glorify, and adore, and beatify, and translate, and apotheotise -you likewise, on the chance of your knowing something about the backstairs, -that we may all go on pilgrimage to it; and, even if we cannot get up -it, lie at the foot of it, and cry -</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>‘Oh, backstairs,<br />precious backstairs,<br />invaluable -backstairs,<br />requisite backstairs,<br />necessary backstairs,<br />good-natured -backstairs,<br />cosmopolitan backstairs,<br />comprehensive backstairs,<br />accommodating -backstairs,<br />well-bred backstairs,<br />commercial backstairs,<br />economical -backstairs,<br />practical backstairs,<br />logical backstairs,<br />deductive -backstairs,<br />comfortable backstairs,<br />humane backstairs,<br />reasonable -backstairs,<br />long-sought backstairs,<br />coveted backstairs,<br />aristocratic -backstairs,<br />respectable backstairs,<br />gentlenmanlike backstairs,<br />ladylike -backstairs,<br />orthodox backstairs,<br />probable backstairs,<br />credible -backstairs,<br />demonstrable backstairs,<br />irrefragable backstairs,<br />potent -backstairs,<br />all-but-omnipotent backstairs,<br />&c.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> -<p>Save us from the consequences of our own actions, and from the cruel -fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid!’ Do not you think that you -would be a little tempted then to tell what you know, laddie?”</p> -<p>Tom thought so certainly. “But why do they want so to -know about the backstairs?” asked he, being a little frightened -at the long words, and not understanding them the least; as, indeed, -he was not meant to do, or you either.</p> -<p>“That I shall not tell you. I never put things into little -folks’ heads which are but too likely to come there of themselves. -So come—now I must bandage your eyes.” So she tied -the bandage on his eyes with one hand, and with the other she took it -off.</p> -<p>“Now,” she said, “you are safe up the stairs.” -Tom opened his eyes very wide, and his mouth too; for he had not, as -he thought, moved a single step. But, when he looked round him, -there could be no doubt that he was safe up the backstairs, whatsoever -they may be, which no man is going to tell you, for the plain reason -that no man knows.</p> -<p>The first thing which Tom saw was the black cedars, high and sharp -against the rosy dawn; and St. Brandan’s Isle reflected double -in the still broad silver sea. The wind sang softly in the cedars, -and the water sang among the eaves: the sea-birds sang as they streamed -out into the ocean, and the land-birds as they built among the boughs; -and the air was so full of song that it stirred St. Brandan and his -hermits, as they slumbered in the shade; and they moved their good old -lips, and sang their morning hymn amid their dreams. But among -all the songs one came across the water more sweet and clear than all; -for it was the song of a young girl’s voice.</p> -<p>And what was the song which she sang? Ah, my little man, I -am too old to sing that song, and you too young to understand it. -But have patience, and keep your eye single, and your hands clean, and -you will learn some day to sing it yourself, without needing any man -to teach you.</p> -<p>And as Tom neared the island, there sat upon a rock the most graceful -creature that ever was seen, looking down, with her chin upon her hand, -and paddling with her feet in the water. And when they came to -her she looked up, and behold it was Ellie.</p> -<p>“Oh, Miss Ellie,” said he, “how you are grown!”</p> -<p>“Oh, Tom,” said she, “how you are grown too!”</p> -<p>And no wonder; they were both quite grown up—he into a tall -man, and she into a beautiful woman.</p> -<p>“Perhaps I may be grown,” she said. “I have -had time enough; for I have been sitting here waiting for you many a -hundred years, till I thought you were never coming.”</p> -<p>“Many a hundred years?” thought Tom; but he had seen -so much in his travels that he had quite given up being astonished; -and, indeed, he could think of nothing but Ellie. So he stood -and looked at Ellie, and Ellie looked at him; and they liked the employment -so much that they stood and looked for seven years more, and neither -spoke nor stirred.</p> -<p>At last they heard the fairy say: “Attention, children. -Are you never going to look at me again?”</p> -<p>“We have been looking at you all this while,” they said. -And so they thought they had been.</p> -<p>“Then look at me once more,” said she.</p> -<p>They looked—and both of them cried out at once, “Oh, -who are you, after all?”</p> -<p>“You are our dear Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby.”</p> -<p>“No, you are good Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid; but you are grown -quite beautiful now!”</p> -<p>“To you,” said the fairy. “But look again.”</p> -<p>“You are Mother Carey,” said Tom, in a very low, solemn -voice; for he had found out something which made him very happy, and -yet frightened him more than all that he had ever seen.</p> -<p>“But you are grown quite young again.”</p> -<p>“To you,” said the fairy. “Look again.”</p> -<p>“You are the Irishwoman who met me the day I went to Harthover!”</p> -<p>And when they looked she was neither of them, and yet all of them -at once.</p> -<p>“My name is written in my eyes, if you have eyes to see it -there.”</p> -<p>And they looked into her great, deep, soft eyes, and they changed -again and again into every hue, as the light changes in a diamond.</p> -<p>“Now read my name,” said she, at last.</p> -<p>And her eyes flashed, for one moment, clear, white, blazing light: -but the children could not read her name; for they were dazzled, and -hid their faces in their hands.</p> -<p>“Not yet, young things, not yet,” said she, smiling; -and then she turned to Ellie.</p> -<p>“You may take him home with you now on Sundays, Ellie. -He has won his spurs in the great battle, and become fit to go with -you and be a man; because he has done the thing he did not like.”</p> -<p>So Tom went home with Ellie on Sundays, and sometimes on week-days, -too; and he is now a great man of science, and can plan railroads, and -steam-engines, and electric telegraphs, and rifled guns, and so forth; -and knows everything about everything, except why a hen’s egg -don’t turn into a crocodile, and two or three other little things -which no one will know till the coming of the Cocqcigrues. And -all this from what he learnt when he was a water-baby, underneath the -sea.</p> -<p>“And of course Tom married Ellie?”</p> -<p>My dear child, what a silly notion! Don’t you know that -no one ever marries in a fairy tale, under the rank of a prince or a -princess?</p> -<p>“And Tom’s dog?”</p> -<p>Oh, you may see him any clear night in July; for the old dog-star -was so worn out by the last three hot summers that there have been no -dog-days since; so that they had to take him down and put Tom’s -dog up in his place. Therefore, as new brooms sweep clean, we -may hope for some warm weather this year. And that is the end -of my story.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<h2>MORAL.</h2> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> -<p>And now, my dear little man, what should we learn from this parable?</p> -<p>We should learn thirty-seven or thirty-nine things, I am not exactly -sure which: but one thing, at least, we may learn, and that is this—when -we see efts in the pond, never to throw stones at them, or catch them -with crooked pins, or put them into vivariums with sticklebacks, that -the sticklebacks may prick them in their poor little stomachs, and make -them jump out of the glass into somebody’s work-box, and so come -to a bad end. For these efts are nothing else but the water-babies -who are stupid and dirty, and will not learn their lessons and keep -themselves clean; and, therefore (as comparative anatomists will tell -you fifty years hence, though they are not learned enough to tell you -now), their skulls grow flat, their jaws grow out, and their brains -grow small, and their tails grow long, and they lose all their ribs -(which I am sure you would not like to do), and their skins grow dirty -and spotted, and they never get into the clear rivers, much less into -the great wide sea, but hang about in dirty ponds, and live in the mud, -and eat worms, as they deserve to do.</p> -<p>But that is no reason why you should ill-use them: but only why you -should pity them, and be kind to them, and hope that some day they will -wake up, and be ashamed of their nasty, dirty, lazy, stupid life, and -try to amend, and become something better once more. For, perhaps, -if they do so, then after 379,423 years, nine months, thirteen days, -two hours, and twenty-one minutes (for aught that appears to the contrary), -if they work very hard and wash very hard all that time, their brains -may grow bigger, and their jaws grow smaller, and their ribs come back, -and their tails wither off, and they will turn into water-babies again, -and perhaps after that into land-babies; and after that perhaps into -grown men.</p> -<p>You know they won’t? Very well, I daresay you know best. -But you see, some folks have a great liking for those poor little efts. -They never did anybody any harm, or could if they tried; and their only -fault is, that they do no good—any more than some thousands of -their betters. But what with ducks, and what with pike, and what -with sticklebacks, and what with water-beetles, and what with naughty -boys, they are “sae sair hadden doun,” as the Scotsmen say, -that it is a wonder how they live; and some folks can’t help hoping, -with good Bishop Butler, that they may have another chance, to make -things fair and even, somewhere, somewhen, somehow.</p> -<p>Meanwhile, do you learn your lessons, and thank God that you have -plenty of cold water to wash in; and wash in it too, like a true Englishman. -And then, if my story is not true, something better is; and if I am -not quite right, still you will be, as long as you stick to hard work -and cold water.</p> -<p>But remember always, as I told you at first, that this is all a fairy -tale, and only fun and pretence: and, therefore, you are not to believe -a word of it, even if it is true.</p> -<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> -<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE WATER-BABIES ***</p> -<pre> - -******This file should be named wtrbs10h.htm or wtrbs10h.zip****** -Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, wtrbs11h.htm -VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wtrbs10ah.htm - -Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed -editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US -unless a copyright notice is included. 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