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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31708-8.txt b/31708-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dccf3ab --- /dev/null +++ b/31708-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3025 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pond, by Carl Ewald + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pond + +Author: Carl Ewald + +Illustrator: Warwick Reynolds + +Translator: Alexander Texeira De Mattos + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31708] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POND *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE POND + + _By Carl Ewald_ + + TRANSLATED FROM + THE DANISH BY + ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS + AND + ILLUSTRATED BY + _Warwick Reynolds_ + + [Illustration] + + THORNTON BUTTERWORTH LTD + 15 BEDFORD ST LONDON WC2 + + _Published 1922_ + + [Illustration] + + + + + THE ROYAL ROAD + LIBRARY + + THE CARL EWALD BOOKS + + Translated by + ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS + + * * * * * + + 1. TWO-LEGS + + 2. THE OLD WILLOW TREE + and other stories + + 6. THE POND + + THE NETTA SYRETT BOOKS + + 3. TOBY & THE ODD BEASTS + + 4. RACHEL & THE SEVEN WONDERS + + 8. MAGIC LONDON + + THE W. H. KOEBEL BOOKS + + 5. THE BUTTERFLIES' DAY + + 7. THE PAGEANT OF THE FLOWERS + + * * * * * + +THE ROYAL ROAD LIBRARY + + + + +THE POND + +[Illustration: THE CRAYFISH DROPPED OFF p. 105] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + _Page_ + + CHAPTER I. + THE BEGINNING 13 + + CHAPTER II. + A MAN OF THE WORLD 19 + + CHAPTER III. + A MOTHER 27 + + CHAPTER IV. + THE WATER-SPIDER 37 + + CHAPTER V. + THE BLADDER-WORT 49 + + CHAPTER VI. + SUMMER 59 + + CHAPTER VII. + THE CARP 67 + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE MUSSEL 77 + + CHAPTER IX. + THE WATER-LILY 91 + + CHAPTER X. + THE CRAY-FISH'S JOURNEY 99 + + CHAPTER XI. + THE WORST DAY OF ALL 109 + + CHAPTER XII. + THE END 123 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The cray-fish dropped off (_Colour_) _Frontispiece_ + + The pike appeared among the reeds with wide-open + mouth and rows of sharp teeth and angry + eyes (_Colour_) 40 + + 'He was in my way,' said the spider 44 + + 'Oh! really,' said the perch (_Colour_) 64 + + He slammed his shell down 80 + + The Water Lily (_Colour_) 96 + + He lay in the water, hit by a stray shot 116 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Beginning + +[Illustration] + + +One day in early spring, a young reed-warbler sat in a bush in Italy and +hung his beak. + +This was not because he really had anything to complain of. The sun was +shining; there were flies in plenty; and no one was doing him harm. A +little while before, a pretty girl, with jet-black eyes, had sat under +the bush and listened to his song and kissed her hand to him. + +And yet he wanted something. + +He was tired of the Italian flies. He had a feeling in his wings as if +he could do hundreds of miles at a stretch. There were notes in his +throat which he was unable to get out and his little heart was filled +with a longing which he could not understand and which would have made +him cry, if a reed-warbler knew how to cry. But he can only sing and he +sings just alike on all days, whether he be glad or sorry. + +So he sang. And, when he stopped, he heard a voice, from a bush close +by, which resembled his own to a nicety, only it was not so strong. + +He was off in a moment and alighting on a twig gazed at the sweetest +little lady reed-warbler that one could wish to set eyes on. + +There was no one to introduce them to each other and so they introduced +themselves. For there is not the same stiff etiquette among birds as at +a court ball. Also things move more quickly; and, when they had chatted +for five minutes or so, the reed-warbler said: + +"Now that I have seen you, I know what's the matter with me. I am +longing to go back to the land where I was born. I have a distinct +recollection of a quiet pond, with reeds and rushes and green beeches +round it." + +"I am longing to go there, too," said the little reed-warbler. "I +remember it also." + +"Then the best thing that we can do is to get engaged," said he. "As +soon as we come to the pond, we will celebrate our marriage and build a +nest." + +"Will you love me till I die?" she asked. + +"I can't answer for more than the summer," he replied. "But I promise +you that." + +Then she said yes. They had no one to announce the engagement to, for +they had seen none of their relations since the autumn. So they had a +little banquet to themselves. He treated her to some fat flies; and they +sang a little duet and started on their journey. + +They flew for many days. + +Sometimes they rested a little, when they came to a green valley, and +they also made travelling-acquaintances. For there were many birds going +the same way and they often flew in flocks and flights. But the two +reed-warblers always kept close together, as good sweethearts should. +And, when they were tired, they cheered each other with tales of the +quiet pond. + +At last they arrived. + +It was a beautiful morning towards the end of May. The sun was shining; +and white clouds floated slowly through the sky. The beeches were quite +out and the oaks nearly. The reeds and rushes were green, the little +waves danced merrily in the sun and all things wore a look of sheer +enjoyment. + +"Isn't it lovely?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"Yes," she said. "We will live here." + +Close to the shore they found a place which they liked. They bound three +reeds together with fine fibres, a yard above the water, and then wove +the dearest little basket, which they lined with nice down. When the +reeds swayed in the wind, the nest swayed too, but that did not matter, +for it was bound fast and reed-warblers are never seasick. + +[Illustration] + +It took them eight days to build it; and they were awfully happy +together all the time. They sang, so that they could be heard right +across the pond; and, in the evening, when they were tired, they hopped +about in the reeds and smiled upon each other or peeped at their +neighbours on either side and opposite. + +"There's the water-lily shooting up through the water," said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "I remember her well; she is so stately and so +beautiful." + +"There is the green frog sitting on the edge," said he. "He catches +flies and grubs, just as I do, but there are enough here for both of us, +so we shan't fall out." + +"Look at the cray-fish crawling down below!" cried she. "And there's the +roach ... and the perch ... and oh, look, there's quite a green wood at +the bottom of the pond and fish swimming between the branches and +caddis-grubs rocking in their cases!..." + +"Yes, it's charming here," he said, in a tone as though it all belonged +to him. + +"And they all look so nice," she said, "and so happy. I feel sure they +are all newly married like ourselves." + +"Of course," said the reed-warbler. "Every one gets married in the +spring. But I don't believe there's anybody in the wide world as happy +as we are." + +And then he stretched out his neck and sang, for all to hear: + + There's not in the wide world a sweetheart like mine, + So fair, so fine, + And no singer on earth sings better! + Let others go worship whomever they will, + I'm true to my beautiful sweetheart still + And shall never, forget her. + +"And so you're only going to love me for the summer?" she said. + +"That's just a way of talking," said he. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A Man of The World + +[Illustration] + + +Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler heaved five deep sighs and, at each sigh, she +laid an egg. Then she sat down on the eggs and sighed again. + +And the reeds swayed in the balmy wind and the nest swayed and the eggs +swayed that lay in the nest and the dear little brown bird that sat on +the eggs. Even the husband swayed. For, when one rush sways, the other +sways too; and he was sitting on one just beside the nest. + +"You're no worse off than others, darling," he said. "Look down into the +water and see for yourself." + +"I can see nothing," she said sadly. + +"Fiddlesticks!" said the reed-warbler. "You can peep over for a minute, +if you sit down again at once." + +And so she peeped over. + +It was certainly very busy down below. + +[Illustration] + +The pond-snail was swimming with her pointed shell on her back. She +stood right on her head in the water and made a boat of her broad foot, +which lay level with the surface of the pond and supported the whole +fabric. Then she stretched out her foot and the boat was gone and she +went down to the bottom and stuck a whole heap of slimy eggs to the +stalk of a water-lily. + +The pike came and laid an egg in a water-milfoil bush. The carp did the +same; and the perch hung a nice nest of eggs in between the reeds where +the warblers had built their nest. The frog brought her eggs, the +stickleback had almost finished his nest and hundreds of animals that +were so small that one could hardly see them ran about and made ready +for their young ones. + +Just then, the eel put his head up out of the mud: + +"If you will permit me, madam ... I have seen a bit of the world +myself...." + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler gave a faint scream. + +"I can't stand that person," she said to her husband. "He's so like the +adder, who ate my little sister last year, when she fell to the ground +as she was learning to fly. He has the same offensive manners and is +just as slippery." + +"Oh," said the eel, "it's a great misfortune for me if I meet with your +disapproval, madam, on that account. And it's quite unjust. I am only a +fish and not the slightest relation to the adder, who took that little +liberty with your sister, madam. We may have just a superficial +resemblance, in figure and movement: one has to wriggle and twist. But I +am really much more slippery. My name, for that matter, is Eel ... at +your service." + +"My wife is hatching her eggs," said the reed-warbler. "She can't stand +much excitement." + +"Thank you for telling me, Mr. Reed-Warbler," said the eel. "I did not +mean to intrude.... But as I have travelled considerably myself, like +you and your good lady, I thought I might venture to address you, in the +hope that we may hold the same liberal opinions concerning the petty +affairs of the pond." + +"So you are a traveller. Can you fly?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"Not exactly," said the eel. "I can't fly. But I can wriggle and twist. +I can get over a good stretch of country, which is more than most fish +are able to say. I feel grand in the damp grass; and give me the most +ordinary ditch and you'll never hear me complain. I come straight from +the sea, you know. And, when I've eaten myself fat here, I shall go back +to the sea again." + +"That's saying a good deal," said the reed-warbler. + +"Yes," said the eel, modestly. "And just because I have seen something +of the world, all this fuss about children in the pond here strikes me +as a bit absurd." + +"You're talking rather thoughtlessly, my good Eel," said the +reed-warbler. "I can see you have neither wife nor children." + +"Oh," said the eel, making a fine flourish with his tail, "that depends +on how you look at it! Last year, I brought about a million eels into +the world." + +"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Aren't you exaggerating?" asked her husband, who was equally impressed, +but did not wish to show it. + +"Possibly," replied the eel. "That's easily done, with such large +figures. But it's of no consequence. You can divide it by two, if that +eases your conscience." + +"And what about your own conscience, as the father of such an enormous +progeny?" + +"I never really consulted it," said the eel. + +"And how's your wife?" asked little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Can't say. I never saw her." + +"You never saw your wife?" + +"No, madam. Nor my children either." + +"Indeed, you do your friends an injustice," said the reed-warbler. "For, +only a moment ago, with my own eyes I saw how the stickleback built a +nest down there for his children." + +"The stickleback!" said the eel, with a sneer. "I can't stand +sticklebacks: they prick me so horribly in the neck. But that has +nothing to do with the case. What is a stickleback, I ask you? I +remember once when I was caught and about to be skinned. I was very +small at the time and the cook, who was going to put a knife into me, +said 'No bigger than a stickleback'!" + +"Were you caught? Were you about to be skinned?" asked the reed-warbler. +"How on earth did you escape?" + +"I slipped away from the cook," replied the eel. "Thanks to my +slipperiness, which your good lady disliked. Then I got into the sink +... out through the gutter, the gutter-pipe, the ditch and so on. One +has to wriggle and twist." + +"You may well say that!" said the reed-warbler. + +"One goes through a bit of everything, you see," said the eel. "But to +return to what we were saying, take us eels, for instance. We fling our +young into the sea and, for the rest, leave them to their own resources. +Like men of the world that we are, we know what life is worth and +therefore we fling them out wholesale, by the million, as I said just +now: I beg pardon, by the half-million; I don't want to offend your love +of accuracy. In this way, the children learn to shift for themselves at +once. I was brought up in this way myself and learnt to wriggle and +twist." + +"I can't understand it," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Very sorry," said the eel. "Perhaps my conversation is rather too much +for a lady who is sitting on her eggs." + +"I think children are the sweetest things in the world," she said. "One +can't help being fond of them, whether they're one's own or another's." + +"The ladies are always right," said the eel, eating a couple of +caddis-grubs and a little worm. "But am I mistaken, or did I see you eat +a grub just now, madam, which your husband brought you?" + +"A grub...?" + +"Yes ... isn't that a child too?" + +"I shall faint in a minute," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler; and she did. + +"Wriggle and twist!" said the eel; and off he went. + +The reed-warbler brought his wife back to life with three fat flies, +seven sweet songs and a jog on her neck. + +[Illustration] + +"You ought to appreciate me, at any rate!" he said, when she was +sufficiently recovered for him to speak to her. "The way I feed you and +sing to you! Think what other husbands are like." + +"So I do," she replied. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A Mother + +[Illustration] + + +Time passed and all respectable bird-wives were sitting on their eggs +and wearing a serious look in their eyes, while their husbands went +hunting for flies or sang to them. + +It was the same at the Reed-Warblers'. But there was no denying that the +husband was sometimes a little tired and cross. Then he would reflect +upon the easy time which the Eel husband had and the Frog husband and +the Perch husband and all the others. + +One evening he sat in the nest and sang: + + Now spring is here, to God all praise! + Though in hard work I'm up to the eyes. + For billing and cooing I'd just seven days; + Now I've to flutter about after flies + For my little wife, who our eggs is hatching; + And don't those flies just take some catching! + And each chick will want food for the good of its voice. + Aha, I have every right to rejoice! + +"If you're tired of it, why did you do it?" said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "You took pains enough to curry favour with me at first. +How smart you used to look. I believe you're already beginning to lose +your colouring." + +"It's weary work," he said. "When a fellow has to go after flies like +this, in all weathers, his wedding-finery soon wears out." + +"I don't think you're singing as nicely as you did," said she. + +"Really? Well, I can just as easily stop. It's for your sake that I pipe +my tune. Besides, you can see for yourself that I'm only joking. I'm +tremendously glad of the children. It will be an honour and a pleasure +to me to stuff them till they burst. Perhaps we might have been +satisfied with three." + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" she said. + +"So I am, dear, because of the other two. But, as I don't know which two +those are, it makes no difference." + +She put on a very serious face. But he caught a fat fly that was +passing, popped it into her mouth and struck up so pretty a trill that +she fell quite in love with him again. + +[Illustration] + +At that moment a deep sigh rose from the water under the bank. + +"That came from a mother," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I could hear that +plainly." + +"That's what it did," said a hoarse voice. + +The Reed-Warblers peeped down and beheld a cray-fish, who sat in the mud +staring with her stalked eyes. + +"Dear me, is that you, Goody Cray-Fish?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"It is indeed, dear madam," said the cray-fish. "It's myself and no +other. I was just sitting down here in my dirt listening to what the +quality were saying. Heavens, what a good time a fine lady like you +enjoys, compared with another!" + +"Every one has his burden," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Believe me, it's no +joke sitting here and perspiring." + +The cray-fish crossed her eyes and folded her antennæ. + +"Yes, you may well talk," said she. "How long does it last with you? +Four or five weeks, I should say. But I have to go for six months with +mine." + +"Goodness gracious! But then you can move about." + +"Oh," said Goody, "moving is always a rather slow matter for a +cray-fish. And then you have only five eggs, ma'am, but I have two +hundred." + +"Dear me!" said the reed-warbler. "Then your poor husband has to slave +to provide food for that enormous family." + +"He? The monster!" replied the cray-fish. "He knows too much for that. I +haven't so much as seen him since the wedding." + +"Then you must have a huge, big nest for all those eggs," said the wife. + +"It's easy to see that you don't know poor folks' circumstance, dear +madam," said the cray-fish. "People of our class can't afford nests. No, +I just have to drag the eggs about with me as best I may." + +"Where are they, then, Goody Cray-Fish?" + +"I carry them on my hind legs, lady. I have ten little hind legs, you +see, besides my eight proper legs and my claws, which are very necessary +to bite one's way through this wicked world with. And on each of my hind +legs there is a heap of twenty eggs. That makes two hundred in all. I'll +show them to you, if you like. The eggs are worth looking at." + +[Illustration] + +So saying, the cray-fish turned over on her back and stuck out her tail +as far as she could. And there the eggs were, just as she had said, on +ten little back legs. + +"That comes of having too many hind-legs," said the reed-warbler. + +"For shame! To poke fun at the poor woman!" said his wife. + +But the cray-fish slowly turned round again and said, quietly: + +"Gentlemen are always so witty. We women understand one another better. +And I shouldn't so much mind about the eggs, if it wasn't that one can't +change one's clothes." + +"Change your clothes?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes, ma'am ... you change yours too, from time to time, I know. I have +seen the feathers with my own eyes, floating on the water. And it goes +so easily and quickly: a feather here, a feather there and it's done. +But other people, who wear a stiff shirt, have to take it all off at +once. And I can't do that, you see, as long as I am carrying the eggs +about. Therefore, since I have been married, I change only once a year. +Now one always grows a bit stouter, even though one is but a common +woman; and so I feel pretty uncomfortable sometimes, I assure you." + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler was greatly touched; and her husband began to sing, +for he was afraid lest all this sadness should make the eggs melancholy +and spoil the children's voices. + +But, at that moment, the cray-fish screamed and struck out with her +claws and carried on like a mad woman. + +"Look!... Ma'am ... do look!... There comes the monster!" + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler leant so far over the edge of the nest that she would +have plumped into the pond if her husband had not given her a good +shove. But he had no time to scold her, for he was curious himself. They +both stared down into the water. + +And there, as she had said, came Goody Cray-Fish's husband slowly +creeping up to her backwards. + +"Good-day, mother," he said. "I'm going to change." + +"Oh, are you?" she screamed. "Yes, that's just like you. You can run and +change at any moment while your poor lawfully-wedded wife has to go +about in her old clothes. You would do better to think of me and the +children." + +[Illustration] + +"Why should I, mother?" he replied, calmly. "What good would it do if I +thought of you? And what need have I to meddle with women's work? What +must be must be. Hold your tongue now, while it lasts, for this is no +joke!" + +Then the reed-warblers saw how he raised himself on his tail and split +across the middle of his back. Then he bent and twisted and pulled off +his coat over his head. + +"That's that," he said, puffing and blowing. "Now for the trousers!" + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler drew back her head, but immediately peeped down again. +And the cray-fish stretched and wriggled until, with a one, two, three, +the shell of his tail was shed as well. + +Now he was quite naked and funny to look at and talked with a very faint +voice: + +"Good-bye, mother," he said. "Give the young ones my love, for they will +be gone, I daresay, before I come back again. I am retiring for ten days +or so and shall be at home to nobody." + +"You monster!" yelled Goody. "Just look at him ... now he'll creep into +his hole and lie there idle. In ten days' time he'll come out again, in +brand-new clothes, looking most awfully arrogant." She wrung her claws +and glared terribly with her stalked eyes. "I should really like to +crawl into the hole after him and bite him to death," she continued. +"His life isn't worth twopence in his present condition. But I loved +him once. And one is and remains just a silly woman." + +"Yes, Goody Cray-Fish, and then you have the children," said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. + +"That's true," she replied. "And, indeed, they are my only comfort. The +dear little things, I feel as if I would love to eat them. You should +just see, ma'am, how they hang on to my skirts during the first week. +They are so fond of me that they simply can't leave me." + +"How nice that is!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes. And afterwards I have no trouble with them at all. You may believe +me or not, as you please, dear lady, but, as soon as they are a week +old, they go into the world and look after themselves. It's in their +blood. It has never been known in the pond for a twelve-day-old +cray-fish to be a burden on his family. And then you're done with them; +and that may be rather sad, but, of course, it's a relief as well: two +hundred children like that, in a small household! But you shall see +them, ma'am, when they come ... I really have to control myself in order +not to eat them, they're such dears!" + +"Well, I'll tell you something, Goody Cray-Fish," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "When my young ones are out, you shall have the shells." + +"Oh, how good of you, ma'am!" said the cray-fish. "You could not +possibly do me a greater kindness. For I promise you I shall eat them. I +eat as much chalk as I can get hold of against the time when I change my +things, for that puts starch into the new shirt. But then, also, you +must really promise me, ma'am, to look at my young ones. They are so +sweet that, goodness knows, I should like to eat them...." + +At that moment, a large carp appeared in the water, with a sad, weary +face: + +"You do eat them," he said. + +"Oh!" yelled Goody, and went backwards into her hole and showed herself +no more. + +But Mrs. Reed-Warbler fainted on her five eggs and the carp swam on with +his sad, weary face. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Water-Spider + +[Illustration] + + +Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler was not feeling very well. + +She was nervous and tired from sitting on the eggs and she had just a +touch of fever. She could not sleep at night, or else she dreamt of the +cray-fish and the carp and the eel and screamed so loud that her husband +nearly fell into the pond with fright. + +"I wish we had gone somewhere else," she said. "Obviously, there's none +but common people in this pond. Just think how upset I was about Goody +Cray-Fish. Do you really believe she eats her children?" + +Before he could reply, the eel stuck his head out of the mud and made +his bow: + +"Absolutely, madam," he said, "ab-so-lutely. That is to say, if she can +get hold of them. They decamp as soon as they can, for they have an +inkling, you know, of what's awaiting them. Children are cleverer than +people think." + +"But that's terrible," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Oh, well," said the eel, "one eats so many things from year's end to +year's end! I don't condemn her for that. But, I admit, it doesn't look +well amid all that show of affection.... Hullo, there's the pike!... +Forgive me for retiring in the middle of this interesting conversation." + +He was off. + +And the pike appeared among the reeds with wide-open mouth and rows of +sharp teeth and angry eyes. + +"Oof!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Come down here and I'll eat you," said the pike, grinning with all his +teeth. + +"Please keep to your own element," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, indignantly. + +"I eat everything," said the pike, "ev-e-ry-thing. I smell eel, I smell +cray-fish, I smell carp. Where are they? Tell me at once, or I'll break +your reed with one blow of my tail!" + +[Illustration: THE PIKE APPEARED AMONG THE REEDS [p. 38 ] + +The reed-warblers were silent for sheer terror. And the pike struck out +with his tail and swam away. The blow was so powerful that the reeds +sighed and swayed and the birds flew up with startled screams. But the +reeds held and the nest remained where it was. Mrs. Reed-Warbler settled +down again and her husband began to sing, so that no one should see how +frightened he had been. Then she said: + +"A nice place this!" + +[Illustration] + +"You take things too much to heart," said he. "Life is the same +everywhere; and we must be satisfied as long as we can get on well +together. I am very much afraid that all this excitement will hurt the +children's voices and then they will disgrace us at the autumn concert. +Pull yourself together and control yourself!" + +"It's easy for you to talk," she said. "And I know well enough what life +is worth. My innocent little sister was eaten by an adder and my mother +was caught by a hawk, just after she had taught us to fly. I myself had +to travel in hot haste to Italy, last autumn, if I didn't want to die of +hunger. Then you came; and I have already learnt that marriage is not an +unmixed blessing. After all, one would be glad of peace just after the +children are born. And then, of course, I think of what the children +will grow up like in this murderers' den. Children take after others. +And such examples as they see before them here! Really, it might end in +their eating their parents!" + +"Yes, why not, if they taste good?" asked a ladylike voice on the +surface of the water. + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler shrank back and hardly dared look down. + +A little water-spider sat on the leaf of a water-lily and smoothed her +fine velvet dress. + +"You're looking very hard at me, Mrs. Reed-Warbler, but you won't eat +me," she said. "I lie too heavy on the stomach. I am a bit poisonous ... +just poisonous enough, of course, and no more. Apart from that, I am +really the most inoffensive woman in the water." + +"And you say that one ought to eat one's parents?" asked Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. + +"Maybe that was a rather free way of talking to a bird," said the +spider. "What suits one doesn't necessarily suit another. I only know +that I ate my mother last year and a fine, fat, old lady she was." + +"Sing to me, or I'll die!" screamed Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +Her husband sang. And, meanwhile, they looked down at the water-spider. + +She plunged head foremost into the water. For a moment, she let her +abdomen float on the surface of the pond and distended her spinnerets +till they were full of air. Then the creature sank and shone like silver +as she glided down to the bottom. + +"That's very, very pretty," said the reed-warbler. + +"Be quiet," said his wife and stared till she nearly strained her neck. + +Deep down in a bush, the spider had spun a bell, which she filled with +air. The bell was built of the finest yarn that she was able to supply +and fastened on every side with strong, fine threads, so that it could +not float away. And round about it was a big web for catching +insects.... Just now a water-mite was hanging in it and the spider took +her into the bell and sucked her out. + +"It's really remarkable," said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "She has a nest +just as we have, hung up between the reeds. For all we know, she may sit +on her eggs." + +[Illustration] + +"Ask her," said the reed-warbler. + +"I want first to get to the bottom of that story about her mother," said +she, sternly. + +Soon after, the spider came up again and sat on the leaf of the +water-lily and smoothed herself out. + +"You were looking down at me, weren't you?" she said. "Yes ... I have +quite a nice place, haven't I? A regular smart little parlour. You must +know I am an animal that loves fresh air, like Mr. Reed-Warbler and +yourself. And, as my business happens to lie in the water, it was +easiest for me to arrange it this way. It's thoroughly cosy down there, +I assure you. And, in the winter, I lock the door and sleep and snore +the whole day long." + +"Have you any eggs?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Rather!" said the spider. "I have everything that belongs to a +well-regulated household. I have any number of eggs. As I lay them, by +degrees, I hang them up in bundles from the ceiling of my parlour." + +"Don't you hatch them?" + +"No, dear lady. My heart is not so warm as that. And it's not necessary +either. They come out nicely by themselves." + +"Did your husband help you build the parlour?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"He had enough to do building for himself, the booby!" she said. "You +needn't think I would have him in my parlour, He made himself a little +room beside it; and then there was the tunnel between us and that was +really more than enough." + +"_Was?_" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Is he no longer with you, then?... +Oh, you mustn't take my question amiss, if it pains you. I find it so +difficult to understand the domestic conditions of the lower classes.... +Perhaps you don't even know where he is?" + +"Why, I should just think I did know!" replied the spider. "More or +less. For I ate him last Wednesday." + +"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"He was in my way," said the spider. "I tumbled over him wherever I +went. And what was I to do with him? So I ate him up; and a tough little +brute he was!" + +"She ate her husband on Wednesday and she ate her mother last year," +said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Sing to me, or that terrible woman will be the +death of me!" + +But the reed-warbler himself was so frightened that he could not get out +a note. And the spider did not care in the least. + +"Yes ... mother," she said. "That was only out of hunger. I didn't eat +her alone, either. My brothers and sisters shared in the feast. We were +famishing and there was nothing else to eat, for it was well in the +autumn. Then mother came along, just in the nick of time, and so we ate +her." + +She jumped into the water again. + +But Mrs. Reed-Warbler did not sleep a wink that night. She kept on +whispering to herself: + +"She ate her mother ... she ate her husband on Wednesday...." + +"Come, don't think about it," said the reed-warbler. "Why, your own +mother was eaten by the hawk; and, if you eat me, it will be for love!" + +[Illustration: 'HE WAS IN MY WAY,' SAID THE SPIDER] + +"You ought to be ashamed to jest in such times as these," said she. + +"I think all times are alike," he said. "Those we live in always seem +the worst." + +Then morning came and the sun shone and he sang to his little brown wife +until she recovered her spirits. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The Bladder-Wort + +[Illustration] + + +Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler's babies were now expected any day. + +There was no end to her nervousness and unreasonableness. Her husband +simply could not satisfy her. If he brought her a fly, she shook her +head and asked how could he think her capable of eating immediately +before the most important event in her life. If he brought her none, she +said it was evidently his intention to starve her. If he sang, it was +unbearable to listen to him. If he was silent, she could plainly see +that he no longer cared for her. + +"You don't appreciate me as I deserve," he said. "You ought to be +married to the eel for a bit, or to the cray-fish's husband; then you +would know what's what." + +"And you ought to have taken the spider," said she. "Then you would have +been eaten." + +"Dear lady! Dear lady!" cried the cray-fish from down in the mud. + +"Well?" said the reed-warbler. + +"I can't stand this!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I only wanted to ask you, dear lady, not to forget me and those +shells," said the cray-fish. + +"I won't have anything to do with an odious woman like you, who eats her +own children," replied Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Oh, dear!... Surely, ma'am, you don't believe that mean carp who was +here the other day? A horrid, malicious fellow like that! He doesn't +even belong to the pond, you know. He's a regular man's fish. They only +put him here to fatten him up and eat him afterwards ... I saw it myself +last year; he was a mere spawn then; now he has grown big and stout on +men's food; and he has plenty of time, too, since he doesn't have to +work like another; and so he runs round and slanders poor people and +robs them of the sympathy of kind ladies like yourself." + +"Stop your chattering, Goody Cray-Fish," said the reed-warbler. "You'll +drive my wife quite silly with your silly talk." + +"Oh, dear!... Well, I beg a thousand pardons," said the cray-fish. "I +only want to remind the lady about the egg-shells." + +Then she went backwards into her hole. + +"Why will you think so much about all that rabble?" said the +reed-warbler to his wife. "There are other things in the world besides +cray-fish and eels and spiders. Find something pretty to look at. That +would do you good just now." + +"Show me something," she said, languidly. + +"Look at the beautiful white flower down below there," said he. "See how +charmingly he rises above the water. He surely can be neither a robber +nor a cut-throat." + +It was really a beautiful white flower that grew up from the bottom of +the pond on a long, thin stalk and looked exceedingly sweet and +innocent. Mrs. Reed-Warbler glanced at him kindly: + +"What's your name, you pretty flower?" she asked. "May I look at you a +little?" + +"Look as much as you please," replied the flower. "My name's +Bladder-Wort, and I have no time to waste in talking to you. I have +things to attend to and must hurry." + +[Illustration] + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler stretched her neck and peeped down into the water. + +"That horrid spider has her nest between his leaves," she said. + +"Well, the bladder-wort can't help that," replied her husband. "It's a +flower's fate to stand where he stands and take things as they come. He +sucks his food calmly out of the ground, has no stains on his flowers, +and no blood on his leaves. That's what makes him so poetic and so +refined." + +"Hush!" she said. "They are talking together." + +And talk together they did, with a vengeance. + +"Have you caught anything?" asked the bladder-wort. + +"Indeed I have," replied the water-spider. "I don't go to bed fasting. +This is a good time of year for water-mites, and so I don't complain. +And how have you done?" + +"Nicely, thank you," said the bladder-wort. "I have caught a hundred and +fifty midge-grubs and forty carp-spawn this afternoon. But I'm not +satisfied. I don't believe I could ever be satisfied." + +"What's that he's saying!" whispered little Mrs. Reed-Warbler, and +looked at her husband in dismay. + +"Be quiet," he said. "Let us hear more." + +The spider went into her parlour, hung seven eggs from the ceiling, +swallowed a mouthful of air and came out again. + +"You're really a terrible robber," she said. "If it wasn't that I had +come to lodge with you, I should be furious with you. Why, you take the +bread out of my mouth!" + +"Nonsense!" said the bladder-wort. "Surely there's plenty for the two +of us! I am quite pleased to have a lodger who drives the same trade as +myself. It gives one something to talk about." + +"It's really odd that a flower like yourself should have turned robber," +said the spider. "It's not in your nature, generally speaking." + +"What am I to say?" replied the flower. "These are hard times. There are +a great many of us, and the earth is quite exhausted. So I hit upon this +and it goes swimmingly. But then I have got my apparatus just right. +Would you like to see it?" + +[Illustration] + +"Very much," said the spider. "But you won't hurt me, will you?" + +"Be easy," said the bladder-wort, with a laugh. "You're too big for me. +Run along one of my stalks and I'll explain the whole thing to you." + +The spider crept cautiously for some way down the branch and then +stopped and looked at a little bladder there. + +"That's tight," said the bladder-wort. "That is one of my traps. I +catch my prey in them. I have a couple of hundred of them." + +"So you can eat two hundred water-mites at a time?" said the spider, +enviously. + +"I can. If they come. But I'm never so jolly lucky as all that. Now just +look: beside the bladder you will see a little flap, which is quite +loose. When some fool or other knocks up against it, it goes in +and--slap, dash!--the fool tumbles into the bladder. He can't get out; +and then I eat him at my leisure." + +"Do you hear?" whispered Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes," said the reed-warbler, with a very serious face. + +The spider could not resist fumbling at the flap with one of her legs: + +"Ow!" she yelled suddenly. + +She darted back with a jerk and the leg remained caught in the bladder. +It was drawn inside in a twinkling and the flap closed and the leg was +gone. + +"Give me back my leg, please," said the spider, angrily. + +"Have I your leg?" asked the bladder-wort. "Well then, you must have +touched the flap. What did you do that for, dear friend? I made a point +of warning you!" + +"You said I was too big." + +"So you are, worse luck! But, of course, I can easily eat you in bits, +like this." + +"It's not nice of you, seeing that you're my landlord," said the spider. +"But as I have seven legs left, I suppose I must forgive you." + +"Do, dear friend," said the bladder-wort. "I must tell you, I am not +really master of myself when those flaps are meddled with. Then I have +to eat what is inside of them. So be careful next time!" + +"You may be sure of that," said the spider. "One has to be cautious with +a fellow like you. Would you think it indiscreet if I asked you what my +leg tastes like?" + +"Oh, well," said the bladder-wort, "there wasn't much on it. For that +matter, I've finished, in case you care to see what's left of it." + +Just then the flap was opened, and a tiny little hard stump was flung +out into the water. + +"Is that my leg?" asked the spider. + +"Don't you recognise it?" + +The bladder-wort laughed contentedly. The spider stood and looked at the +stump for a little while. Then she said good-night and limped sadly into +her parlour. + +"Good-night," said the bladder-wort, pleasantly. "And good luck to your +hunting in the morning." + +"I shall never survive this," said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +But, at that moment, she felt something alive under her: + +"The children!" she screamed. + +She was up on the edge of the nest in a second. On the opposite side sat +her husband, watching just as eagerly as she. + +[Illustration] + +One egg was quite in two and one of the others was burst. A wee, blind, +naked youngster lay in the nest; and from the other egg protruded the +dearest little leg of a chick. + +"Did you ever see anything like it?" cried she. "Isn't it charming?" + +"Delightful!" said he. + +Then they began carefully to peck at the other eggs. And, inside, the +young chicks pecked with their little beaks and five minutes later, +they were all five out. + +"Help me to clear up," she said. + +Out flew the shells, on every side, down into the water. + +"God bless you, kind lady!" cried Goody Cray-Fish from down below. + +She was out for an evening stroll. But no one heard her. The +reed-warblers were mad with delight over their children and had no +thought for anything else in the world. + +"What are you thinking of?" said the husband. "They'll perish with cold. +Sit on them at once!" + +And she sat on them and covered them up and peeped at them every moment. + +But he stayed up half the night, singing, on the top of the reed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Summer + +[Illustration] + + +The whole pond was alive. + +There were not only great, horrid pikes and great mannerly carp and +roach and perch and sticklebacks and eels. There were cray-fish and +frogs and newts, pond-snails and fresh-water mussels, water-beetles and +daddy-long-legs, whirligigs and ever so many others. + +There was the duck, who quacked at her ducklings, and the swan, who +glided over the water with bent neck and rustling wings, stately and +elegant. There was the dragon-fly, who buzzed through the air, and there +were the dragon-fly's young, who crawled upon the water-plants and ate +till they burst. But that did not matter; they just had to burst, if +they were to come to anything. + +There was the bladder-wort, who had his innocent white flowers above the +water and his death-traps down at the bottom; the spider, who was still +his lodger and now had the whole ceiling full of eggs, and hundreds of +thousands of midge-grubs, who lay on the surface of the water and stuck +up their air-vessels and hurried down to the bottom the moment a shadow +fell over the pond. There were hundreds of thousands of midges, who +danced in the air, and there was the water-lily, who knew how beautiful +she was, and who was unapproachable for self-conceit. + +There were many more, whom you could not count without getting dizzy. +And then there were the tadpoles, who were ever so many and ever so +merry. And you only had to take a drop of water and examine it through a +magnifying-glass to see how it swarmed with tiny little animals, who all +danced about and ate one another without the least compunction. + +But just under the reed-warblers' nest there was a little May-fly grub, +who was in a terrible state of fright. + +She had entered into conversation with little Mrs. Reed-Warbler one day, +when the latter had gone all the way down the reed to find food for her +five youngsters, who were simply insatiable and kept on crying for more. +Just at that moment, the May-fly grub had come up to the surface; and +now the bird's beak was exactly over her. + +"Let me live," said she. + +"That's what they all say," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "My children have to +live, too!" + +[Illustration] + +So saying she tried to snatch her. But the grub wriggled so and looked +so queer that she could not. + +"Listen to me for a moment," said the grub; "then I'm sure that you +won't hurt me. I am so small and so thin and fill so little space in a +stomach." + +"Well, what is it?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I have lived here a long time," said the grub. "I have heard you talk +to your husband and to the cray-fish and the eel and the spider. It was +all so beautiful, what you said. I am certain that you have a good +heart." + +"I don't know about my heart," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But I know I +have five hungry children." + +"I am a child myself," said the grub. "And I should so awfully like to +live till I grow up." + +"Do you think that life is so pleasant?" + +"I don't know. I am only a child, you see. I crawl about down here and +wait. When I am grown up, I shall have wings and be able to fly like +you." + +"You don't surely imagine that you're a bird?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Oh, no! I certainly don't aim so high as that. I shall just become a +May-fly." + +"I know them," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I have eaten lots of them. They +taste very good." + +"Oh, well, in that case, do wait for me to grow up, before you eat me. I +shall only live for a few hours, you know, when I get my wings. I shall +just have time to fly once round the pond and lay my eggs in the water. +Then I must die. And then you may eat me and welcome. But let me go now. +And tell your husband also. He has been after me twice." + +"Very well," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "though it's foolish of me. You'll +probably cheat me and let someone else eat you first." + +"I shall do my best to escape," said the grub. "And, now, thank you ever +so much." + +Before the grub had done speaking, little Mrs. Reed-Warbler was up in +the nest again, with six midge-grubs, which she had caught in one bite. +Her husband was there too with a dragon-fly, which the children tore to +pieces and ate up amid cries of delight. + +"There's nothing the matter with their appetites or with their voices +either," he said. "If only they could shift for themselves! I am as lean +as a skeleton." + +"And what about me?" said she. "But the children are thriving and that +is the great thing." + +He sighed and flew away and came home and flew away again; and so it +went on till evening. Then they both sat wearily on the edge of the nest +and looked out across the smooth pond: + +"It is curious how the life exhausts one," she said. "Sometimes, when I +feel thoroughly tired, I can almost understand those animals who let +their children look after themselves. Did you notice the eel the other +day? How fat and gay he is." + +"Are you talking of me, madam?" asked the eel, sticking his head out of +the mud. + +"Oh, you're always there!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"More or less. One has to wriggle and twist." + +"Have you any news of your children?" + +"No, thank goodness!" + +"Oh, really?" said the perch. "I have an idea that I ate a couple of +them at breakfast.... Excuse me for being so frank!" + +"Not at all, not at all!" said the eel. "The family is large enough even +so." + +"How on earth did they come up here from the sea?" asked the roach. + +[Illustration] + +"Just as I did, I imagine," said the eel. "They've got scent of +something to be made here; and two or three miles are nothing to them." + +"Heigho!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Are you sighing because of all this fuss with the children? Well, +madam, what did I tell you?" + +"Not at all," replied Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I could never behave like +you." + +[Illustration: 'OH! REALLY,' SAID THE PERCH [p. 64 ] + +"One has one's duties," said the reed-warbler. "And the loftier one's +station in life, the heavier the duties." + +"Thank goodness, then, that I am of lowly station," said the eel. "I +have a capital time in the mud." + +"Then, again, one is interested in preserving a certain amount of poetry +in the world. There is plenty of rabble, plenty of ugliness, I admit. +All the more reason why we higher animals should do something to promote +the ideal. And I can't imagine anything more ideal than a father's +labours on behalf of his family, even though they do become rather +fatiguing at times." + +"You're tremendously up in the clouds to-day, Mr. Reed-Warbler," said +the eel. "Every one to his taste. But, as for poetry, I must confess +that I have not seen much of it in my life. And yet I have wriggled and +twisted about the world a good deal. The great question, everywhere, is +eating and eating and eating. And those who have children to care for +are the worst robbers of the lot. Good-bye." + +"That's a disgusting fellow," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "It was very nice +of you to give him a piece of your mind. I quite agree with you. +Besides, I myself performed a really fine action to-day." + +She ran to the reed and looked into the water: + +"Are you there, my little grub?" she asked. + +"Yes, thank you," said the May-fly grub. + +"And how are you?" + +"Fairly. The eel almost caught sight of me; and I was nearly getting +into the bladder-wort's prison; and the water-spider was after me before +that. Otherwise, I'm all right." + +"What's this now?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"Oh," answered his wife, "it's a protegée of mine! A little May-fly +grub. I promised that I wouldn't eat her. She is so happy at the thought +of being grown-up ... and that only for a couple of hours, poor little +thing!" + +She said nothing about her intention of eating the grub when she was +grown up; and the reed-warbler was seriously angry. + +"What sentimental gammon!" he said. "It's unseemly for a woman with five +children to commit such follies." + +"I thought it so poetic to give her leave to live," said she. + +"Fiddlesticks!" said her husband. "Poetry doesn't apply to one's food. +If it did, we should all die of hunger. Besides you can't take a +creature like that into consideration." + +Thereupon he ran down the reed and hunted eagerly for the grub, to eat +her. + +But she heard what he said and had gone down to the bottom with terror +in her little heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The Carp + +[Illustration] + + +The summer wore on and things grew worse and worse. + +No end of young had come out of the eggs and they filled the whole pond. +Out in the middle it was quite green with millions of little +water-weeds, which died and rotted and reeked till seven big perch died +of it and floated on their backs. + +"The pond's blossoming!" sneered the rushes. + +"There's a horrid smell here," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I think, considering all things, that it's delightful here," said the +carp. + +The carp swam a little way in among the reeds. He had made a friend +there, in the shape of the fresh-water mussel, who waded ever so slowly +through the mud, or else settled on the bottom and yawned. + +They suited each other, these two, for they were quiet and sedate +people, who led the same sort of life. + +"I don't care to go hunting wildly for food," said the carp. "I open my +mouth where the water is moderately thick and let whatever there is run +in. Something always sticks. Then one needn't kill people and one +doesn't see all that misery." + +"It's just so with us," said the fresh-water mussel. "I employ exactly +the same methods. It's more gentlemanly and I have grown stout on it." + +Then the two sat and talked and yawned all the time and amused +themselves capitally notwithstanding. + +"Mind you don't go too near them," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler to the May-fly +grub. + +"Yes, I will; thanks very much," said the grub. + +"The carp and the mussel are nicer than the others, I think," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler to her husband. + +"Really? And why, pray, madam?" asked the eel, who was always where he +was least expected. "Surely they do just the same as all of us ... only +the animals which they eat are smaller." + +"There is a difference, my good fellow," said the reed-warbler. "It's +only your lack of refinement that prevents your seeing it." + +"Yes, wriggle and twist!" said the eel. + +The reed-warbler did not condescend to answer him, but turned to the +carp and the mussel, struck up a little trill and said politely: + +"My wife and I have the honour to bid you good-morning, gentlemen. We +are delighted to observe that you lead your lives in a more mannerly way +than most of the other inhabitants of the pond. We have suffered greatly +at the sight of the extraordinary cruelty ..." he paused, caught a +blue-bottle, and tossed it to his children in the nest ... "of the +extraordinary cruelty that prevails in society here. It cannot but be +extremely unpleasant for well-bred people to witness the cynical and +unveiled brutality with which every one satisfies his app-- ..." Here he +seized a caddis-fly, ate it, wiped his mouth, and continued, "satisfies +his appetite. You, gentlemen, are different. If you had wings, I should +be inclined to believe that originally you did not belong to this +company at all." + +"Your presumption is absolutely correct," replied the carp, waving his +fins complacently. + +"You are quite right," said the mussel, yawning politely. + +[Illustration] + +"I was born in another pond," said the carp, "but I must confess that I +have no distinct recollection of it. I only know that they did not lead +such a wild, brigand's life there as here. For instance, I don't think +there were any fish but carp in the pond, which, of course, improved the +tone, you know. No doubt it was a nobleman's carp-pond. We were fed five +times a day and everything was removed that could inconvenience us in +any way. Until I came here, I had never set eyes on such things as +pikes, water-spiders or that horrible bladder-wort." + +"It must have been idyllic there," said the reed-warbler. "May I ask, +were there no reed-warblers?" + +"Oh, yes!" said the carp, "I think they had permission to build in the +reeds. And then there were a good many frogs, probably to cheer us up +with their croaking." + +"Then how did you come here?" + +"A-ah," said the carp, "that's not an easy question for me to answer. +You see, we came in a basket, I and a large number of my friends. And +then we were tilted out into the pond. I can't think of any other reason +than that they wished to improve the tone here. We had nothing to +complain of where we were before. Did you hear anything about well-bred +people in this place expressing such a wish?" + +"No," said the reed-warbler. "It didn't happen in my time. But I have +only been here since the spring." + +"Oh, I see," said the carp. "Yes, I've been here four years. I wish I +were anywhere else. One lives in everlasting terror of the pike. A +number of my friends have disappeared in an utterly incomprehensible +manner and, I believe, saving your presence, that the pike has eaten +them. And then, as you very properly observed, the prevailing tone here +is rather ill-bred. But it doesn't matter much to you. I presume you go +away in the autumn?" + +"A little trip to Italy," said the reed-warbler, "with my family." + +The carp waited and thought for a while. He yawned once or twice, then +said: + +"You might be able to do me a service ... it occurred to me when I saw +that nice, pointed beak of yours." + +"Delighted, I'm sure," said the reed-warbler. + +"You see, every one has his cross to bear and mine is in my gills. Would +you care to see?..." + +He opened one of his gill-lids and the reed-warbler ran down the reed +and peeped in: + +"Yes, upon my word," he said, "there's a cross there." + +"That's the double-animal," said the carp with a deep sigh. + +"The what?..." + +"The double-animal. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I brought him +with me from the otherwise first-rate, high-class carp-pond which I was +telling you about. The pain he caused me even then was great, but lately +it has become almost unendurable. You must know, the animal consists +originally of two worms ... of the kind, you know, that don't care to +work for themselves, but take up their quarters with respectable people +and suck at them. I have a couple of dozen of those in my stomach, but +they don't inconvenience me anything like so much as the double-animal. +You see, to increase the meanness of the proceeding, these scoundrels +have a trick of fastening together in pairs, cross-wise. They suck +themselves firmly on to each other, until they grow into one, and then +they suck at me with united strength." + +"I never heard anything like it!" said the reed-warbler. + +"I have one like it on the other side of my head, in my other gill," +said the carp. "We can talk about him later. Meanwhile, may I ask you if +you would kindly try to remove the brute with your beak? I should be +exceedingly grateful to you. I am in such pain that I would rather die +than go on living like this." + +At that moment, it was as though the world were coming to an end. + +The reed-bank heaved and swayed, the reeds snapped. The reed-warblers +screamed, all the seven of them; the water spurted up; the mussel rolled +over; the spider's parlour was smashed. + +"At last!... At last!..." + +It was the pike's voice. + +"Spare my life! Spare my life!" yelled the carp. + +What happened next no one was ever able properly to describe. + +The carp cracked and crunched between the pike's teeth, and all who were +near thought their last day had come. But, a little after, it grew still +and, when the reed-warblers had recovered themselves, the pike was gone, +and the carp's tail-fin lay and floated on the water. + +[Illustration: ] + +The reed-warblers' nest had dropped down on one side and they had to +work for some time before they got it right. However, all the children +were safe and sound and gradually they recovered from their alarm. The +water grew clear again and the mussel sat down below and yawned. + +"That was a noble character, that friend of yours who has been taken +from us," said the reed-warbler. + +"Yes," said the mussel. "For that matter, I have had experiences of my +own...." + +"We shall look forward to hearing your story to-morrow," said the +reed-warbler. "We are too much upset to talk any more to-day." + +Just then, the carp's tail sank to the bottom. + +Goody Cray-Fish caught it and dragged it to her hole. + +"Poor people must be content with crumbs from the rich man's table," +said she. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Mussel + +[Illustration] + + +The next evening, the reed-warbler peeped down into the water. + +The fresh-water mussel was sitting there and yawning as usual. There was +nothing out of the way about him. + +"Good-evening," said the reed-warbler. "How are you, after your friend's +unhappy end?" + +"Thank you," replied the mussel. "It has not disturbed my composure in +the least. Generally speaking, nothing disturbs my composure. Only, if +any one sticks something between my shells, I become furious and I +pinch." + +"I should do the same in your place," said the reed-warbler. "And your +equanimity is really quite enviable. But still I think that the +misfortune of one's neighbour ... of your intimate friend." + +"I have no neighbour," said the mussel. "And the carp was not my +intimate friend. We were not rivals, that is all. In a case like that, +it's easy to be friends. I was often amused at the carp's way of +talking. But I never contradict, except when any one sticks something +between my shells. The carp had had to do with human beings; that's what +it was. It always makes animals so ridiculous. You're the same, for that +matter." + +"I look upon that as a compliment," said the reed-warbler, who was a +little offended but did not wish to show it. "However, I have nothing to +do with human beings, except that they protect me and have not the heart +to do me harm, because of my pretty voice. They stop and listen to me as +they pass. Many a poet has written beautiful lines about me." + +"Oh, really?" said the mussel. "Upon my word, they did something of the +sort about me too. But what they said was lies." + +"What did they say?" + +"There was a lot of rubbish about pearls." + +"Oh, have you pearls? Wife! Wife! The mussel has pearls!" + +"Not a bit of it," said the fresh-water mussel. "Do stop shouting like +that. You can be heard all over the pond. If any one overheard you, I +should be in danger of being fished up. Thank goodness, there are no +pearls formed on me!" + +[Illustration] + +"O-oh!" said the reed-warbler, in a disappointed tone. + +"It's just the pearls the poets talk their nonsense about. They sing of +how happy the mussel is with the precious pearl he guards, and all that +sort of thing.... Do you know what a pearl is?" + +"No," said the reed-warbler. + +"It's a nasty, pushing parasite ... something like the double-animal +that hurt the carp. When it comes into us, it hurts us, of course. Then +we cover the brute with mother of pearl till it dies. And then it sits +on our shell and plays at being a pearl." + +"Oh!" said the reed-warbler. "Do you hear that, wife? All our illusions +are vanishing one by one. Soon there will be nothing but vacancy around +us." + +"Oh, it won't be vacant so long as we have those five greedy children!" +said she. "They are crying for more." + +"They shall have no more to-day," he answered, crossly. "You and I have +been running and flying about for them all day long. Now, upon my word, +I intend to be left in peace to have a chat with the neighbours. Let's +give them a flogging." + +And a flogging they got. And then they cried still more and then they +went to sleep. + +"You hinted last night that you were not born here, in the pond," said +the reed-warbler. "Tell us where you come from." + +"With pleasure," replied the mussel. "I am fond of a gossip in the +evening myself. And no one will believe that I have had any experience, +because I move about so little.... But wait a bit. There's a saucy +person there I want a word with...." + +It was no other than Goody Cray-Fish. + +She had crawled nearer and was fumbling at the mussel with her legs. Now +he slammed his shell down upon one of them and cut it off in the middle. +Goody screamed like one possessed and hammered away at the mussel with +her claws, but he only laughed. + +[Illustration: 'HE SLAMMED HIS SHELL DOWN'] + +"What a common fellow!" cried Goody. "Can't he leave a respectable woman +alone?" + +"Aye," said the mussel, "when she doesn't go for me!" + +"A wretched mussel like that!" she screamed. "A mollusc! He is much +lower in rank than I and he dares to be impertinent. I have twenty-one +pairs of legs and he knows it: how many has he?" + +"Come along, with all the one-and-twenty!" said the mussel. + +Goody went on scolding and then the reed-warbler interfered: + +"Drop that strong language now," he said. "It doesn't matter about those +legs. I have only two myself." + +"I should be sorry to be found lacking in respect for you, Mr. +Reed-Warbler," said the cray-fish. "I know who are my betters, right +enough. But I can't understand how a fine gentleman like you can care to +talk to one of those molluscs." + +Scolding and grumbling, she withdrew to her hole, but left her head and +claws hanging outside. The mussel opened his shell, but kept four or +five of his eyes constantly fixed on Goody. These eyes were on the edge +of the mantle which lay in the slit between the shells. As soon as the +cray-fish made the slightest movement, he closed his shells at once: + +"One's soft inside all right," he said. "But one shows the hard shell to +the world." + +"Go on with your story," said the reed-warbler. + +"I was born in another pond, far from here," said the mussel. "I can't +give you a detailed description of it, because, as you will understand, +one in my position does not have many opportunities of looking about +him. It was not as grand as in the high-class carp-pond, that's sure +enough. To be honest with you, I think it was much the same as here--an +awful heap of rabble of every kind, but lots of mussels in particular. +They sat in the mud as close as paving-stones and took the bread out of +one another's mouths. If you had a mouthful of water, it was generally +mere swipes. Some one else had sucked all the goodness out of it, you +see." + +"What did you do then?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"I did nothing," replied the mussel. "I never do anything, except when +any one sticks something between my shells. Then I become furious and I +pinch.... Hullo, are you there again, Goody Cray-Fish? Do you want one +of your little legs amputated, eh?" + +"The wind-bag!" said the cray-fish. + +"But you might have died of hunger," said the reed-warbler. + +"One doesn't die so easily as that," replied the mussel. "Unless an +accident befalls one, as in the case of our poor carp. In fact, I once +lay for a whole year on a table in a room." + +"Goodness gracious!" said the reed-warbler. "How did you get there?" + +"I was fished up by a student or somebody. He wrapped me in a piece of +paper and put me on the table. He wanted to see how long I could live. +Every Saturday, he unpacked me and poured a little water over me; and +that was enough to keep me alive." + +"But how did you escape from him?" + +"Well," said the mussel, "it was when he got engaged. People used to +come and see him sometimes, you know, and, of course, they all had to +look at the wonderful mussel that refused to die. There was a young girl +among them who was very cross with him for teasing me so. But he only +laughed at her. Well, when I had been there a year, he got engaged to +her.... They were sitting on the sofa just by me, when it happened, and +I was not so dead but that I could lift my shells a little and see the +whole thing: they're funny creatures, those human beings! Well, then he +asked her if there was anything she would like on that joyful day. Yes, +she would like me to be put back in the water again. He laughed at her. +But off they went with me to the very pond where I was fished up and +threw me in. Then I settled down among the other fellows and began all +over again." + +"Yes ... love!" said the reed-warbler, looking round at his wife. + +"Ah ... love!" said she, returning his glance. + +"I have nothing to say against it," said the mussel. "But, as a matter +of fact, I have no personal experience of it." + +"Surely you have a wife," said the reed-warbler. "Or, perhaps ... +perhaps you are a lady ...?" + +"I am neither one or the other. I am just a mussel. And I lay my eggs +and then that's done!" + +"Do you look after your children nicely?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"What next!" exclaimed the mussel. "My children are very remarkable +individuals. They are sailors." + +"Sailors?" + +"Yes, they are indeed. As soon as they come out of the egg, they hoist a +great sail and put out. It's only when they grow older, if they haven't +been eaten by that time, that they settle down as decent mussels with +shells upon them and philosophy in their constitutions." + +"Don't let us talk about children," said the reed-warbler. "It always +upsets my wife so. Tell us now how you found your way to this pond." + +"Ah," said the mussel, "that comes of a peculiarity I possess of +becoming furious when any one sticks something between my shells. I +don't know if I told you that I possess that peculiarity?" + +"You've told me several times," answered the reed-warbler. "I shall +never forget it; I shall take care, be sure of that." + +"Mind you do," said the mussel. "You know, it was one of your sort that +managed my removal." + +"A reed-warbler?" + +"I don't exactly know if it was a reed-warbler. I can't see very well +outside the water.... Good-day to you, good-day to you, Goody Cray-Fish! +I can always see you!... And to me one bird is much like another. +However, it must have been a gull. Well, I was sitting at the bottom and +yawning, as I usually do. Just above me was a little roach. Then, +suddenly, splash came the gull and seized the roach. He swooped down at +such a pace that he plumped right to the bottom. One of his little toes +stuck between my shells and I pinched. The gull tugged and pulled, but I +am strong when I become furious and I held tight. He was the stronger, +in a way, nevertheless. For he pulled me off the bottom and then I went +up through the water and into the air." + +"Why, it's quite a fairy-tale!" said the reed-warbler. + +"We flew a good distance," the mussel continued, "high above the fields +and woods. I could just peep out, for my shells were ajar because of the +bird's toe. We lost the fish on the way, but I held on, however much the +gull might struggle and kick. Of course, I did not mean to hang on for +ever, you know, but I wanted to have my say as to where we should +alight. Suppose I had been dropped into a tall tree and had to hang +there and wait until a student came and got engaged...." + +[Illustration] + +"He would have come all right," said the reed-warbler. "I've travelled a +great deal, but I have never been anywhere that there wasn't a student +who got engaged." + +"Well, in my case, it would have been rather uncertain," said the +mussel. "And so, when I looked down and saw that there was blue +underneath me, I let go and fell here, into the pond." + +"And are you satisfied?" + +"Yes, for the present. I have seen no other mussels, so it is a good +deal pleasanter than in the other place." + +"That's a curious story," said the reed-warbler. + +Then he sat and fell a-thinking and night came. + +But Mrs. Reed-Warbler ran down the reed and peered into the dark water: + +"Are you there, my little grub?" she asked. + +"Yes, thank you," said the May-fly grub. + +"Have you had a good time to-day?" + +"Yes, thank you. I was only nearly eaten up by the perch; and then there +was a duckling after me and a horrid dragon-fly grub and a water-beetle. +Otherwise everything was very nice indeed." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Water-Lily + +[Illustration] + + +"Don't you think we shall be able to let the children out soon?" asked +the reed-warbler. + +"Certainly not!" said his wife. "There can be no question of the little +dears standing on their legs for quite a month yet." + +"They can stand on their legs as it is," said he, "for they nearly +trample one another to death when I come along with a silly fly. I tell +you, it's getting a bit difficult to provide food for everybody. There +are such an awful lot of us after it now. There are children all over +the neighbourhood and they are all crying out for food." + +"Are you beginning to see the truth of what I said, madam?" asked the +eel, sticking his head out of the mud. + +"Hold your tongue and mind your own business, you ugly fish," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. + +"Your husband has come round to my views long ago," said the eel. "I can +see that plainly. He would give anything to be able to roam about as a +free bird, instead of wearing himself out with a big family." + +"You're quite mistaken, my good fellow," said the reed-warbler. "I +certainly admit ..." + +"You'd better mind what you're admitting!" screamed his wife and pecked +at him. + +"Wriggle and twist!" said the eel; and off he went. + +That afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Reed-Warbler sat discussing the question +again: + +"If only we can hold out," said he. "Just now, I was fighting like mad +with my old friend, the flycatcher, for a ridiculous little grub. I got +it, but he will never forgive me. When poverty comes in at the door, +love flies out at the window, as the human beings say. It will end in +screaming and quarrelling all over the pond." + +"It cannot be worse than it is," said she. "Do as I do and think of all +the beautiful things the poets have sung about us. It always helps to +keep one's spirits up." + +[Illustration] + +"I wish I had a couple of nice little poets here to feed the children +with," said he, grumpily. + +They sat again for a while, plunged in gloomy thoughts. The young ones +were having their mid-day nap. Then he said: + +"Things are queerly divided in this world. The number of sorrows and +cares that we have, we free birds, to whom the whole world is open! Look +at the water-lily. She's bound to her place. She has to struggle up +through the dark water for ever so many days before she reaches the +surface. Then she's there and unfolds her white flower and is happy. She +hasn't a care ... look at her, lying and rocking and dreaming. I wish +we were water-lilies!" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "And her seeds ripen in her lap and then +glide down in the water and take root and grow up and, next year, they +blossom around her. Oh, how delightful it must be!" + +"Yes, but think of the bladder-wort and how he took us in!" said he. + +"Pooh!" she replied. "Of course, it was that horrid spider who lived +with him that led him into evil courses. No one will make me believe +that there is anything but peace and contentment in the water-lily's +beautiful calyx." + +"Hush!" he said. "She's talking to that pretty little spear-wort beside +her." + +The two anxious birds bent their heads and listened. + +"You spiteful minx!" said the water-lily. "You enticed two bumble-bees +away from me to-day, though you haven't a farthing's-worth of honey in +your withered calices." + +"Scold away!" said the spear-wort. "All your fine clothes won't help you +in the least. Things go by merit, you see. No respectable bumble-bee +will look at a frivolous person like you. And you may be sure that I +have more honey in one of my flowers than you in your whole body." + +"Here I stand with all my pollen ripe," said the water-lily, "and can't +get rid of it. How can any one care to look at a beggar like you? But I +shall find a way of revenging myself. You annoyed me long ago, when we +were growing up through the water. Your nasty thin stalks swarmed over +me and would have choked me, if they could. You, with your pretence! In +the autumn, there won't be a particle of you left. It's too funny, that +you should be allowed to stand in the way of respectable people." + +"In the autumn, my seeds will be ripe and sown, Water-Lily dear," +replied the spear-wort. "And, next spring, I shall grow up and tease +you, just as I'm doing now. Trust me for that." + +"Unless they come and clean out the pond first," said the water-lily. +"For then they'll take you and leave me here because of my beauty." + +The spear-wort could say nothing to this, for it was true. + +"Did you hear?" whispered Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Hush," answered the reed-warbler. "Here comes a bumble-bee." + +And a big, buzzing bumble-bee came and whirred upon her wings and hung +for a while in the air, above the two flowers. + +"This way, please, dear Bumble-Bee!" cried the water-lily and displayed +her white petals to the best advantage. "I keep the freshest honey in +the whole district. Pray come nearer. I have combs and combs full. And +here is pollen in fancy wrappers. And I have laid out my broad green +leaves on the water for you to rest on, if you are tired. See for +yourself ... it is quite dry here ... pray ..." + +"Don't mind that humbug," said the spear-wort. "This is the real old +shop for honey. I scorn to advertise in that silly way, with big white +petals and all that pretence. I put all I know into my honey and my +pollen. I only have a little white flower for you to know me by." + +"You must on no account be seen going into that common shop," screamed +the water-lily. "Your honoured children will simply be poisoned by the +stuff she keeps. If indeed she has any, for there were two big +bumble-bees with her this morning and they looked very dissatisfied when +they flew away." + +"Don't you believe her," cried the spear-wort. "It's sheer jealousy +makes her talk like that. The bumble-bees were exceedingly pleased and +they have produced a quantity of honey. Mother Water-Lily's is +yesterday's. No one will have anything to say to it; I swear it's all +spoilt." + +[Illustration: THE WATER LILY] + +"Buzz ... buzz ...!" said the bee and flew away. + +"You humbug!" said the water-lily. + +"You idiot!" said the spear-wort. + +"That's the worst of keeping bad company," said the water-lily. + +"It comes of your mountebank ways, of course," said the spear-wort. +"They're enough to drive respectable people from the pond." + +They could think of nothing more to say and lay on the water and looked +angrily at each other. + +"Oh dear!" said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Where on earth is one to go +to find poetry?" + +"Where can one find a fly?" said her husband. + +"We must take life as it is," said the mussel, "and meddle with it as +little as possible. That's what I do; and there's nothing to prevent my +remaining here and growing to be a hundred." + +A boy stood on the edge of the pond. He had a big stone in his hand. +Suddenly, he flung it into the water with all his might. Then he went on +and thought no more about it. + +But the stone had hit the mussel and smashed him to pieces. + +"There!" he said. "That's the end of me. Both shells smashed ... there's +nothing to be done. Good-bye and thank you for your pleasant company." + +[Illustration] + +One by one all the eyes on his mantle grew dim; and then he was dead. + +"Goodness knows who will be the next!" said the reed-warbler. + +But Goody Cray-Fish came slowly crawling and took the dead mussel in her +claws: + +"Now I shall get my leg back with interest," said she. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +[Illustration] + +The Cray-Fish's Journey + + +"How is my dear grub?" asked little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Pretty well, thanks," replied the May-fly grub. "There was a roach, who +wanted to eat me; and two caddis-grubs, who tugged at me; and a +whirligig, who bit me in one of my legs. Otherwise, I've had a capital +time." + +Aren't you almost ready?" + +"To-day or to-morrow, I think." + +"Take care you don't meet with an accident first," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler, kindly. + +Goody Cray-Fish crept round restlessly: + +"Food's scarce," she said. "Oh, if I were only a smart bird and could +fly away! But, it's true, you're angry with me, ma'am, and I hardly dare +speak to you." + +"I was very angry with you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But, since then, I +have experienced such horrors that I've almost forgotten it. I have made +the acquaintance of a spider who ate her own mother." + +"Oh dear, oh dear!" said the cray-fish. "That's enough to upset any +mother." + +"So it is. She also ate her husband." + +"I don't say that's right," said the cray-fish. "But at any rate it's +more excusable, for men are neither more nor less than monsters. Oh, of +course, I make an exception of your own husband, ma'am." + +"Is it true, Goody Cray-Fish?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler--"tell me, did you +really eat your children?" + +"I had the misfortune to eat seven of them," replied the cray-fish, with +a woebegone face. "But it was out of sheer love. They were so nice. And, +as I was patting them with my claws, I happened to touch them too hard. +So I had to eat them myself, rather than let them go to strangers." + +"It's terrible to listen to," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes, it's sad," said the cray-fish. "But their troubles are over now, +poor little dears, while their hundred and ninety-three brothers and +sisters have to go on struggling through this wicked world! Goodness +alone knows how many of them are still alive and how they are doing!" + +"Yes, it's a wicked world," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Would you mind telling me, ma'am?" asked the cray-fish, "don't you +think a body might get away from the pond?" + +"We shall leave in the autumn," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "for Italy. But +you have no wings, Goody Cray-Fish, so I don't see how you can go." + +"That's just it. If one had wings, one would soon be off. But they might +be in one's way in the water. However, there are other people who +travel, though they have no wings. What about the eel, ma'am, for +instance?" + +"Yes ... the eel," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "He can wriggle and twist. +You can't, you see." + +"No," replied the cray-fish looking very sadly out of her stalked eyes. +"I can't do that at all. Because of my stiff shirt, you know. Though I +may be thankful for it, too, or I should have been done for long ago." + +"What do you propose, then?" + +The cray-fish crawled right under the reeds, where the nest hung, and +asked, in a low whisper: + +"What do you think of the mussel, ma'am?" + +"The mussel?" + +"Yes, the mussel. You see, I sit here in the mud and hear such a lot of +things and turn them over in my mind. And I heard the story with which +the mussel was diverting you and Mr. Reed-Warbler the other day. Do you +think it's to be depended on?" + +"Of course I do." + +"Well, I don't take much account of the mussel," said the cray-fish. "A +mollusc like that! And then he insulted me, besides. But I've eaten him +now and I don't like to speak harm of what I've eaten myself. And, if +the story is genuine, another person might possibly save herself in the +same manner." + +"Why, you have no shells to pinch with, Goody Cray-Fish!" + +"No, but I have my claws," replied the cray-fish. "And, believe me, +ma'am, they can pinch too." + +The reed-warbler came home from hunting and his wife told him about the +cray-fish's plan. They both laughed at it, but Goody Cray-Fish stuck to +her guns. + +She did not go to her hole all the morning, but crawled around and swam +on the surface of the water, to see if no opportunity offered. + +About the middle of the day, a little roach came skimming along. + +"Look out, grub!" cried Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I've hidden under a leaf and I'm all right," replied the May-fly grub. + +"Here's the roach," said the cray-fish. "Now we only want the gull." + +She kept just under the roach and looked out eagerly, in every +direction, with her long eyes. + +"What do you want, you ugly cray-fish?" said the roach, and struck out +with his tail. + +"I sha'n't hurt you, Mr. Fish," said she. "The pond is meant for +everybody, I should think. Surely a person's entitled to go and take the +air outside her own door." + +The eel put his head out of the mud: + +"That's right, Goody Cray-Fish, stick to it!" he said. "Wriggle and +twist!" + +And the reed-warblers laughed and peeped down to see what on earth was +going to come of it; and the youngsters were told as much of it as their +little brains could take in, and they peeped too. The spider ran up and +looked on, the May-fly grub was nearly jumping out of her cocoon with +curiosity. The bladder-wort forgot to catch insects, the water-lily and +the spear-wort stopped quarrelling; they all stared at the cray-fish and +the roach. For they had all heard something of what was at hand, one +from the other. But none of them said a word, lest they should frighten +away the roach; he was the only one who had not the least suspicion. +Only the reeds whispered softly to one another. But this they always do, +so nobody minds them. + +Just then a gull swooped down upon the roach. + +It made such a splash in the water that no one could quite see what +happened. But the roach was gone, and presently the reed-warblers +exclaimed: + +"Look!... Look!... There's the gull flying with the roach ... and the +cray-fish is hanging on to his hind-toe!" + +The water-lily and the spear-wort shouted the news and the rushes +whispered it on and soon there was not a midge-grub in the pond but knew +all about the extraordinary thing that had happened. + +"So she had her way," said the reed-warblers. + +And they discussed for quite an hour where she would be likely to +arrive, but no one could work that out and none of those in the pond +ever got to know. + +Only the woman who lived by the pond knew. For, when the gull came above +the chimney of her little cottage, he gave such a kick with his leg that +the cray-fish dropped off. She went right down the woman's chimney; and +there stood a pot of boiling water, which she fell into. + +"Oh dear!" said the cray-fish. "That was a silly business." + +It was so silly that she turned as red as fire all over her body and +died then and there. But, when the woman took her pot and was going to +make herself a drop of coffee, she stared in amazement at that fine big +cray-fish: + +"Well, I never!" she said. "Best thanks to whoever sent you." + +Then she ate her. + +That same evening, the May-fly broke through her cocoon. + +She flew up, on tiny little thin, transparent wings and with three long +threads hanging from her abdomen to help her keep her balance. + +[Illustration] + +"I say, isn't this lovely?" she cried. "How delicious life is! It's +worth while living for ever so many days as a poor grub, if only one is +permitted to gaze upon this splendour for an hour." + +"Oh, so you're there, are you?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You look very +nice." + +"Thank you," said the May-fly. "Now I must just go round the pond and +lay my eggs. Then I'll come back and sit down in the reeds and die; and +then you can eat me. And a thousand thanks to you for sparing my life +that time and for warning me when I was in danger. If you hadn't done +that, I should never have beheld this glorious sight." + +"If only you don't over-eat yourself on the way and forget your +promise!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"There's no danger of that," replied the May-fly. "I have eaten all I +need. I haven't even a mouth! I shall just enjoy an hour or two of this +delightful life and then lay my eggs. That's my lot; and I don't +complain." + +"Life is not so delightful as you think," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "If I +were a true friend to you, I would save you from seeing all your +illusions shattered." + +"How can you say that life is not delightful?" said the May-fly. "Look +... and look ... and look...." + +"I will be a true friend to you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You shall be +spared disappointment. I will eat you straight away." + +Then she caught her and ate her. + +"Good-evening, madam," said the eel. "Are you sitting and contemplating +the poetry of Nature? I just saw you destroying a bit of it ... for the +May-fly.... That's poetry, if you like! Well, did she taste nice?" + +"You're a horrid, vulgar fellow," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"You talk like one who is chock-full of poetry," retorted the eel. "I +rejoice to see you making such smart progress as a murderess. You were +shockingly squeamish at first!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Worst Day of All + +[Illustration] + + +The summer was drawing to an end. + +The beeches were quite yellow with the heat; and the pond was overgrown +with plants almost right up to the middle. All the tadpoles had turned +into frogs; all the young animals were growing and wanted more food. The +water-lily and the spear-wort had stopped quarrelling, for they had +nothing more to quarrel about. Both of them had lost their white +blossoms and their heads were full of seeds. + +The reed-warblers' children were now so big that they had begun to leave +the nest and flutter about in the weeds. But they were not quite sure of +themselves and still dangled after their parents. They never went so far +away but that they could easily return to the nest; and they lay in it +every evening and fought for room and bit and kicked one another, while +their half-starved parents sat beside them and hushed them. + +"Oh, mummy ... do get me that fly!" said one. + +"I can't catch these horrid midges," said the second. + +"Boo-hoo!... Boo-hoo!... The dragon-fly flew away from me!" said the +third. + +"I daren't take hold of the daddy-long-legs," said the fourth. + +But the fifth said nothing, for he was a poor little beggar, who always +hung his beak. + +"We'll never make a proper reed-warbler of him," said the father. + +And, when they were being drilled in flying and hopping and scrambling +in the reeds, or examined in singing, the fifth was always behind the +rest. + +"We shall never be able to drag him with us to Italy," said the +reed-warbler. + +And little Mrs. Reed-Warbler sighed. + +In the water below, the duck splashed about with her grown-up +ducklings. + +"The end is near," she said. "I am sure of it. I have a horrid +presentiment all over my body." + +"What harm can happen to you?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You don't +travel, so you're not exposed to as many dangers as the rest of us." + +"One can never tell," said the duck. "I feel it in my back." + +[Illustration] + +Then she paddled on and quacked to her children with her anxious old +voice and wore a distressful look in her eyes. + +One day something happened that set the whole pond in commotion. + +The pike was suddenly hauled up out of the water. + +The reed-warbler saw it himself. The pike hung and sprawled terribly at +the end of a thin line, flew through the air in a great curve and fell +down on the grass. At the other end of the line was a rod, and at the +other end of the rod a boy, who was crimson in the face with delight at +the big fish he had caught. + +"It serves him right, the highwayman!" said the perch. + +"Thank goodness, he's gone!" croaked the frogs. + +And all the little roach and carp danced round the water with delight. + +"He had not many friends," said the reed-warbler. + +"He had not one," said the perch. "He was the worst robber in the pond." + +"He never did anything to me," said the water-lily. "He was a brave and +distinguished gentleman, who hadn't his equal among the lot of you. It +was always a real pleasure to me when he came sweeping past my stalks." + +"Well, I have seen many go sweeping down his throat," said the eel. "And +they did not think that so amusing. But he did just what I should have +done in his place! Now that he's gone, I suppose I'm the biggest in the +pond." + +He stretched himself to his full length. + +"You have grown big and stout," said the reed-warbler. + +"I have had a good year," said the eel. "But I shall soon be going to +sea now and working off my fat." + +On the evening of the same day a man stood at the edge of the pond, just +where the reed-warblers lived. He wore high boots with wooden soles and +whetted a scythe till the sound of it whizzed through the air. + +"What's going to happen now?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Quack! Quack!" cried the duck in terror. + +But the man spat on his hands and took hold of the scythe. Then he +walked out into the water and began to cut down the reeds, close in, at +the edge, and right out, as far as they grew. They fell into the water, +with a soft sigh; and then, when he had finished, he stood on the bank +and contemplated his work. + +"That was a fine clearing," he said. "Duck-hunting begins to-morrow." + +[Illustration] + +Then he went a bit farther with his scythe and made another clearing. + +But he had caused terrible misfortunes. He had torn the water-spider's +nest and crushed the spider herself. He had broken the bladder-wort at +the root with his heavy wooden boots. And the reed-warblers' nest lay +overturned among the cut reeds. + +The reed-warblers flew round the nest with loud screams: + +"The children! The children!" they cried. + +The children had saved themselves. Four had fluttered on land and sat +there and looked thoroughly bewildered. The fifth was half-buried under +the reeds and could not get out. + +The two old ones with difficulty brought it in to the others: + +"Oh dear! oh dear!" said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler, in despair. "What are +we to do now?" + +"It might have been worse," replied her husband. "Suppose it had +happened a month ago! Now the youngsters are able to look after +themselves, all except that one there." + +"Oh, it was a terrible place to come to!" said she. "It was a great +shame of you to drag me here. I would much rather have remained in +Italy, even if I had never got married." + +"Don't talk nonsense, wife," said he. "You wanted to come here just as +much as I did. This is where we were born and where our home is and +where we had to build our nest. We can't help it; it's in our blood. +Besides, we have had a very good time, and have shared each other's +joys and sorrows. Don't let us squabble now in our old age, but rather +see that we get the children's travelling-suits ready and then be off." + +Then she became sensible and they sat late into the night and talked +about it. The youngsters ran round in the grass and ate ants and thought +the whole thing great fun, for children know no better. Only the fifth +one hung about disconsolately. + +"What are we to do with the poor little wretch?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, +pushing a mouthful to him. + +"We shall never get him to Italy alive," said her husband. + +Quite early next morning there was a tremendous uproar round the pond. + +Men shouted and dogs barked. They put out the boat and rowed her with +difficulty through the thick weeds. The woman of the pond stood outside +her cottage, curtseying and pouring out tea. + +"Whatever is this?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"It's the world coming to an end," said the duck. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" + +"To the bottom! To the bottom!" said the eel. "Wriggle and twist!" + +The terrified reed-warbler family pressed close together in the grass. +But then the two old ones grew inquisitive and could not keep still. +They warned the youngsters to stay quiet, whatever happened, and sat +down, a little way from each other, on the tops of the reeds beside the +clearing. + +"Bang! Bang!" went the guns over the pond. "Bang! Bang! Bang!" + +And there were lots of ducks quacking and lots of small birds who flew +out of their hiding-places in terror. Great ugly dogs, with their +tongues hanging out of their mouths, swam round and barked. The leaves +of the water-lily dived right under the water and the spear-wort +disappeared entirely and never came back again. + +"Bang! Bang! Bang!" + +"There lies our duck," said the reed-warbler. + +And there she lay on her back, dead, only waiting for the dogs to come +and fetch her. + +"Bang! Bang!" + +"I must get away, I can stand it no longer," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. +"Let us fly back to the children." + +She received no answer and, when she looked round, her husband was gone. + +She stared at the reed on which he had been sitting and up in the air +and down at the water. Then she gave a frightful scream: + +"Oh, poor forlorn widow that I am! What shall I do? What shall I do?" + +He lay in the water, hit by a stray shot, dead, stiff. + +[Illustration: 'HE LAY IN THE WATER, HIT BY A STRAY SHOT'] + +"Children! Children! Your father is dead!" + +The four looked at her in dismay, when she brought the news; the fifth +stared vacantly and stupidly, as usual. The uproar continued, out in the +pond. The six reed-warblers sat in a row on the edge and were at their +wits' end what to do. + +Then, gradually, it became quiet again. + +The smoke of the powder lifted and the water calmed down. The men with +the guns sat up above in the wood and ate their lunch; and the woman of +the pond counted the money she had made. + +"That was a terrible business," said the water-lily. + +"My husband is dead," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler and sang a dirge that would +have moved a stone. + +"My respectful condolences, madam," said the eel and came up out of the +mud. "But will you admit that I was right? Think how much care and +sorrow one escapes by keeping out of all this domesticity. I don't know +my wife, as I once had the honour of telling you; I have never seen her. +It wouldn't occur to me to shed a tear if anyone told me that she was +dead." + +"You horrid, heartless person!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "To talk like +that to a widow with five children, all unprovided for, and one of them +a cripple too!" + +"Oh, those women!" said the eel and disappeared. + +That evening, little Mrs. Reed-Warbler sat and thought things over. + +"We must go," she said, "this very night. There's nothing else for us to +do. If we fly and hop as well as we can and work hard and behave +sensibly, we shall be all right." + +"I can't keep up with you," said the crippled child. + +"I was forgetting you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +She looked at the poor child for a while. Then she shook her wings and +took a quick resolve: + +"No, you can't keep up with us," she said. "And we can't stay here and +be ruined for your sake. If I leave you behind, you'll be eaten by a fox +or a cat or those greedy ants. It would be a pity for you to be +tortured, you poor little fellow. It's better that I should kill you +myself and have done with it." + +Then and there, she rushed at the youngster and pecked away at his head +until he was dead: + +"Now let's be off!" she said. + +"Madam," said the eel, "you must not go without allowing me to say +good-bye to you. You are a charming woman and you know how to adapt +yourself to circumstances. You were incensed at the horrid robbers in +the pond; and you yourself ate innocent flies from morning till night. +You loved poetry; but you ate the poor May-fly, though you promised her +that she should be allowed to live her poetic life for an hour. You +were furious with the spider who ate her mother, and with the cray-fish, +who ate her children; and now, of your own accord you have pecked your +sick child to death, so that you may go to Italy." + +"Thank goodness, I sha'n't see you any more, you detestable, spiteful +fellow!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But I may as well tell you that I +killed my child for pity." + +"And the spider ate her mother from hunger and the cray-fish her +children from love," said the eel. "And I let mine shift for themselves +from common sense!" + +"My dears," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "that eel was positively created to +live in this horrible pond!" + +Then they flew away. + +"I don't think I shall stay here, for all that," said the eel. "I am +longing for the sea." + +He looked round warily, then crept up into the grass and wriggled and +twisted quickly to the nearest ditch. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The End + +[Illustration] + + +November came and was no different from what it usually is. + +The trees stood with bare branches. The leaves rustled over the earth or +floated on the pond. The reeds were all cut down; the water-lily's +leaves withered away, with stalks and all, while she, deep down at the +bottom, slept her winter sleep and dreamt of her next white spring +costume. + +And down at the bottom lay all the frogs, buried deep in the mud, so +that only their noses stuck out. It looked as though the pond were paved +with frogs' noses. The plants in the water were as leafless as the +plants on land. Hidden among the stalks and withered leaves, under the +stones and in the mud lay animals sleeping, or eggs waiting for the +spring to come and hatch them. + +[Illustration] + +All the birds had flown, except the chaffinch and a few others, who +hopped about and managed as best they could. The flies were all gone and +the dragon-flies and spiders and midges and butterflies and all the +rest. There were only a few grumpy fish left in the pond. + +And the storm raged among the trees, till they cracked and creaked, and +whipped the pond up into tall waves with foam on their crests. + +[Illustration] + +"It is really horrid here in winter," said the woman of the pond, as she +stuffed her windows with moss. "Such a howling in the chimney and a +creaking and cracking in the wood and a roaring and rushing in the pond! +I wish we had the glorious summer again. That is a happy time and +peaceful time. Then it's pleasant living by the pond." + +A poet, accompanied by seven ladies, walked on the path around the pond. + +He wore a fur-lined coat and turned the collar over his ears; and the +ladies were wrapped up so that nothing showed but the tips of their +noses. For it was very cold. + +"Ladies," said the poet, "when you look at that wild unsightly pond now, +you have simply no idea how charming it can be in summer. Now, all these +elements have been let loose. Waves rage against waves, the storm rushes +round and the trees stand naked and disconsolate. It is a real picture +of strife and sorrow and cruelty. But, ladies, come out here on a +summer's day and you shall see a different sight. Then the reeds grow +along the banks in all their elegance; water-lily and spear-wort float +side by side upon the surface of the water and nod smilingly to each +other with their white flowers. The midges hover in the air and the +frogs croak and glad birds sing. Deep in the water swim beautiful fish +disporting themselves gaily. The mussels in the mud dream of beautiful +pearls, the cray-fish crawl slowly round and round and enjoy life and +happiness. Ladies, you simply cannot imagine what a picture of peace and +happiness the pond offers. It is, as it were, an abstract of all the +wonderful harmonies of Nature, the sight of which consoles us poor +mortals, who strive and wrangle from morn till dewy eve and envy and +slander and persecute one another. Remember, ladies, to come out to the +pond when summer is here. It braces a mortal for his bitter fight to see +the peace and gladness in which God's lower creatures live ... those of +His creatures which have not received our great intellectual gifts, but +a purer and deeper happiness instead." + +Thus spake the poet. And seven ladies listened respectfully to his words +... and nobody laid violent hands upon him. + +THE END + +BRISTOL: BURLEIGH LTD., AT THE BURLEIGH PRESS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pond, by Carl Ewald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POND *** + +***** This file should be named 31708-8.txt or 31708-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/0/31708/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pond + +Author: Carl Ewald + +Illustrator: Warwick Reynolds + +Translator: Alexander Texeira De Mattos + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31708] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POND *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;"> +<img src="images/icover-plus.jpg" width="417" height="550" alt="" title="cover" /> +</div> + + + <h1>THE POND</h1> + + <h2><i>By Carl Ewald</i></h2> + + <p class="center">TRANSLATED FROM<br /> + THE DANISH BY</p> + <h3>ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS</h3> + <p class="center">AND<br /> + ILLUSTRATED BY</p> + <h3><i>Warwick Reynolds</i></h3> + + <div class="figcenter" style="width: 417px;"> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="417" height="600" alt="" title="title page" /> +</div> + + <p class="center">THORNTON BUTTERWORTH L<sup>td</sup><br /> + 15 BEDFORD ST LONDON WC2<br /><br /><i>Published 1922</i></p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 398px;"> +<img src="images/i003.jpg" width="398" height="550" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="centerbox bbox"> + <p class="center">THE ROYAL ROAD<br /> + LIBRARY</p> + + <h2>THE CARL EWALD BOOKS</h2> + + <h4>Translated by</h4> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Alexander Teixeira de Mattos</span></h3> + + <p>1. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">TWO-LEGS</span></p> + +<p>2. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE OLD WILLOW TREE</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 3em;">and other stories</span></p> + <p>6. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE POND</span></p> + + <h3>THE NETTA SYRETT BOOKS</h3> + + <p>3. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">TOBY & THE ODD BEASTS</span></p> + + <p>4. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">RACHEL & THE SEVEN WONDERS</span></p> + + <p>8. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">MAGIC LONDON</span></p> + + <h3>THE W. H. KOEBEL BOOKS</h3> + + <p>5. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE BUTTERFLIES' DAY</span></p> + + <p>7. <span style="margin-left: 2em;">THE PAGEANT OF THE FLOWERS</span></p> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="author"><br />THE<br />ROYAL ROAD<br />LIBRARY</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_POND" id="THE_POND"></a>THE POND<br /></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 402px;"> +<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<img src="images/i006.jpg" width="402" height="550" alt="THE CRAYFISH DROPPED OFF" title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE CRAYFISH DROPPED OFF<br />p.105</span> +</div> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="50%" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS"> + +<tr><th align="center"> </th><td align="right"><i>Page</i></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE BEGINNING</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_13'>13</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">A MAN OF THE WORLD</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">A MOTHER</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_27'>27</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE WATER-SPIDER</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_37'>37</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE BLADDER-WORT</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">SUMMER</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE CARP</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE MUSSEL</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE WATER-LILY</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE CRAY-FISH'S JOURNEY</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_99'>99</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE WORST DAY OF ALL</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td></tr> +<tr><th align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</th></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE END</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="60%" cellspacing="0" summary="ILLUSTRATIONS"> +<tr><td align="left">The cray-fish dropped off (<i>Colour</i>)</td><td align="right"><a href='#frontis'><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The pike appeared among the reeds with wide-open mouth<br />and rows of sharp teeth and angry eyes (<i>Colour</i>)</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_40'>40</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">'He was in my way,' said the spider</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">'Oh! really,' said the perch (<i>Colour</i>)</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_64'>64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">He slammed his shell down</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">The Water Lily (<i>Colour</i>)</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_96'>96</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">He lay in the water, hit by a stray shot</td><td align="right"><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i011.jpg" width="600" height="426" alt="" title="chap heading" /> +</div> + + +<h3>The Beginning</h3> +<p>One day in early spring, a young reed-warbler sat in a bush in Italy and +hung his beak.</p> + +<p>This was not because he really had anything to complain of. The sun was +shining; there were flies in plenty; and no one was doing him harm. A +little while before, a pretty girl, with jet-black eyes, had sat under +the bush and listened to his song and kissed her hand to him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>And yet he wanted something.</p> + +<p>He was tired of the Italian flies. He had a feeling in his wings as if +he could do hundreds of miles at a stretch. There were notes in his +throat which he was unable to get out and his little heart was filled +with a longing which he could not understand and which would have made +him cry, if a reed-warbler knew how to cry. But he can only sing and he +sings just alike on all days, whether he be glad or sorry.</p> + +<p>So he sang. And, when he stopped, he heard a voice, from a bush close +by, which resembled his own to a nicety, only it was not so strong.</p> + +<p>He was off in a moment and alighting on a twig gazed at the sweetest +little lady reed-warbler that one could wish to set eyes on.</p> + +<p>There was no one to introduce them to each other and so they introduced +themselves. For there is not the same stiff etiquette among birds as at +a court ball. Also things move more quickly; and, when they had chatted +for five minutes or so, the reed-warbler said:</p> + +<p>"Now that I have seen you, I know what's the matter with me. I am +longing to go back to the land where I was born. I have a distinct +recollection of a quiet pond, with reeds and rushes and green beeches +round it."</p> + +<p>"I am longing to go there, too," said the little reed-warbler. "I +remember it also."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then the best thing that we can do is to get engaged," said he. "As +soon as we come to the pond, we will celebrate our marriage and build a +nest."</p> + +<p>"Will you love me till I die?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I can't answer for more than the summer," he replied. "But I promise +you that."</p> + +<p>Then she said yes. They had no one to announce the engagement to, for +they had seen none of their relations since the autumn. So they had a +little banquet to themselves. He treated her to some fat flies; and they +sang a little duet and started on their journey.</p> + +<p>They flew for many days.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they rested a little, when they came to a green valley, and +they also made travelling-acquaintances. For there were many birds going +the same way and they often flew in flocks and flights. But the two +reed-warblers always kept close together, as good sweethearts should. +And, when they were tired, they cheered each other with tales of the +quiet pond.</p> + +<p>At last they arrived.</p> + +<p>It was a beautiful morning towards the end of May. The sun was shining; +and white clouds floated slowly through the sky. The beeches were quite +out and the oaks nearly. The reeds and rushes were green, the little +waves danced merrily in the sun and all things wore a look of sheer +enjoyment.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Isn't it lovely?" asked the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said. "We will live here."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 322px;"> +<img src="images/i014.jpg" width="322" height="350" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Close to the shore they found a place which they liked. They bound three +reeds together with fine fibres, a yard above the water, and then wove +the dearest little basket, which they lined with nice down. When the +reeds swayed in the wind, the nest swayed too, but that did not matter, +for it was bound fast and reed-warblers are never seasick.</p> + + +<p>It took them eight days to build it; and they were awfully happy +together all the time. They sang, so that they could be heard right +across the pond; and, in the evening, when they were tired, they hopped +about in the reeds and smiled upon each other or peeped at their +neighbours on either side and opposite.</p> + +<p>"There's the water-lily shooting up through the water," said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "I remember her well; she is so stately and so +beautiful."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There is the green frog sitting on the edge," said he. "He catches +flies and grubs, just as I do, but there are enough here for both of us, +so we shan't fall out."</p> + +<p>"Look at the cray-fish crawling down below!" cried she. "And there's the +roach ... and the perch ... and oh, look, there's quite a green wood at +the bottom of the pond and fish swimming between the branches and +caddis-grubs rocking in their cases!..."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's charming here," he said, in a tone as though it all belonged +to him.</p> + +<p>"And they all look so nice," she said, "and so happy. I feel sure they +are all newly married like ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Of course," said the reed-warbler. "Every one gets married in the +spring. But I don't believe there's anybody in the wide world as happy +as we are."</p> + +<p>And then he stretched out his neck and sang, for all to hear:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There's not in the wide world a sweetheart like mine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So fair, so fine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And no singer on earth sings better!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Let others go worship whomever they will,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I'm true to my beautiful sweetheart still</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">And shall never, forget her.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"And so you're only going to love me for the summer?" she said.</p> + +<p>"That's just a way of talking," said he.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i017.jpg" width="600" height="491" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>A Man of The World</h3> + + + + +<p>Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler heaved five deep sighs and, at each sigh, she +laid an egg. Then she sat down on the eggs and sighed again.</p> + +<p>And the reeds swayed in the balmy wind and the nest swayed and the eggs +swayed that lay in the nest and the dear little brown bird that sat on +the eggs. Even the husband swayed. For, when one rush sways, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> other +sways too; and he was sitting on one just beside the nest.</p> + +<p>"You're no worse off than others, darling," he said. "Look down into the +water and see for yourself."</p> + +<p>"I can see nothing," she said sadly.</p> + +<p>"Fiddlesticks!" said the reed-warbler. "You can peep over for a minute, +if you sit down again at once."</p> + +<p>And so she peeped over.</p> + +<p>It was certainly very busy down below.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 197px;"> +<img src="images/i018.jpg" width="197" height="311" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>The pond-snail was swimming with her pointed shell on her back. She +stood right on her head in the water and made a boat of her broad foot, +which lay level with the surface of the pond and supported the whole +fabric. Then she stretched out her foot and the boat was gone and she +went down to the bottom and stuck a whole heap of slimy eggs to the +stalk of a water-lily.</p> + +<p>The pike came and laid an egg in a water-milfoil bush. The carp did the +same; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> the perch hung a nice nest of eggs in between the reeds where +the warblers had built their nest. The frog brought her eggs, the +stickleback had almost finished his nest and hundreds of animals that +were so small that one could hardly see them ran about and made ready +for their young ones.</p> + +<p>Just then, the eel put his head up out of the mud:</p> + +<p>"If you will permit me, madam ... I have seen a bit of the world +myself...."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reed-Warbler gave a faint scream.</p> + +<p>"I can't stand that person," she said to her husband. "He's so like the +adder, who ate my little sister last year, when she fell to the ground +as she was learning to fly. He has the same offensive manners and is +just as slippery."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the eel, "it's a great misfortune for me if I meet with your +disapproval, madam, on that account. And it's quite unjust. I am only a +fish and not the slightest relation to the adder, who took that little +liberty with your sister, madam. We may have just a superficial +resemblance, in figure and movement: one has to wriggle and twist. But I +am really much more slippery. My name, for that matter, is Eel ... at +your service."</p> + +<p>"My wife is hatching her eggs," said the reed-warbler. "She can't stand +much excitement."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Thank you for telling me, Mr. Reed-Warbler," said the eel. "I did not +mean to intrude.... But as I have travelled considerably myself, like +you and your good lady, I thought I might venture to address you, in the +hope that we may hold the same liberal opinions concerning the petty +affairs of the pond."</p> + +<p>"So you are a traveller. Can you fly?" asked the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"Not exactly," said the eel. "I can't fly. But I can wriggle and twist. +I can get over a good stretch of country, which is more than most fish +are able to say. I feel grand in the damp grass; and give me the most +ordinary ditch and you'll never hear me complain. I come straight from +the sea, you know. And, when I've eaten myself fat here, I shall go back +to the sea again."</p> + +<p>"That's saying a good deal," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the eel, modestly. "And just because I have seen something +of the world, all this fuss about children in the pond here strikes me +as a bit absurd."</p> + +<p>"You're talking rather thoughtlessly, my good Eel," said the +reed-warbler. "I can see you have neither wife nor children."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said the eel, making a fine flourish with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> tail, "that depends +on how you look at it! Last year, I brought about a million eels into +the world."</p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Aren't you exaggerating?" asked her husband, who was equally impressed, +but did not wish to show it.</p> + +<p>"Possibly," replied the eel. "That's easily done, with such large +figures. But it's of no consequence. You can divide it by two, if that +eases your conscience."</p> + +<p>"And what about your own conscience, as the father of such an enormous +progeny?"</p> + +<p>"I never really consulted it," said the eel.</p> + +<p>"And how's your wife?" asked little Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Can't say. I never saw her."</p> + +<p>"You never saw your wife?"</p> + +<p>"No, madam. Nor my children either."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, you do your friends an injustice," said the reed-warbler. "For, +only a moment ago, with my own eyes I saw how the stickleback built a +nest down there for his children."</p> + +<p>"The stickleback!" said the eel, with a sneer. "I can't stand +sticklebacks: they prick me so horribly in the neck. But that has +nothing to do with the case. What is a stickleback, I ask you? I +remember once when I was caught and about to be skinned. I was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> very +small at the time and the cook, who was going to put a knife into me, +said 'No bigger than a stickleback'!"</p> + +<p>"Were you caught? Were you about to be skinned?" asked the reed-warbler. +"How on earth did you escape?"</p> + +<p>"I slipped away from the cook," replied the eel. "Thanks to my +slipperiness, which your good lady disliked. Then I got into the sink +... out through the gutter, the gutter-pipe, the ditch and so on. One +has to wriggle and twist."</p> + +<p>"You may well say that!" said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 380px;"> +<img src="images/i023.jpg" width="380" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p>"One goes through a bit of everything, you see," said the eel. "But to +return to what we were saying, take us eels, for instance. We fling our +young into the sea and, for the rest, leave them to their own resources. +Like men of the world that we are, we know what life is worth and +therefore we fling them out wholesale, by the million, as I said just +now: I beg pardon, by the half-million; I don't want to offend your love +of accuracy. In this way, the children learn to shift for themselves at +once. I was brought up in this way myself and learnt to wriggle and +twist."</p> + +<p>"I can't understand it," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + + + +<p>"Very sorry," said the eel. "Perhaps my conversation is rather too much +for a lady who is sitting on her eggs."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I think children are the sweetest things in the world," she said. "One +can't help being fond of them, whether they're one's own or another's."</p> + +<p>"The ladies are always right," said the eel, eating a couple of +caddis-grubs and a little worm. "But am I mistaken, or did I see you eat +a grub just now, madam, which your husband brought you?"</p> + +<p>"A grub...?"</p> + +<p>"Yes ... isn't that a child too?"</p> + +<p>"I shall faint in a minute," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler; and she did.</p> + +<p>"Wriggle and twist!" said the eel; and off he went.</p> + +<p>The reed-warbler brought his wife back to life with three fat flies, +seven sweet songs and a jog on her neck.</p> + + + +<p>"You ought to appreciate me, at any rate!" he said, when she was +sufficiently recovered for him to speak to her. "The way I feed you and +sing to you! Think what other husbands are like."</p> + +<p>"So I do," she replied.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i025.jpg" width="600" height="370" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>A Mother</h3> + +<p>Time passed and all respectable bird-wives were sitting on their eggs +and wearing a serious look in their eyes, while their husbands went +hunting for flies or sang to them.</p> + +<p>It was the same at the Reed-Warblers'. But there was no denying that the +husband was sometimes a little tired and cross. Then he would reflect +upon the easy time which the Eel husband had and the Frog husband and +the Perch husband and all the others.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>One evening he sat in the nest and sang:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now spring is here, to God all praise!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Though in hard work I'm up to the eyes.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For billing and cooing I'd just seven days;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Now I've to flutter about after flies</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For my little wife, who our eggs is hatching;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And don't those flies just take some catching!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And each chick will want food for the good of its voice.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Aha, I have every right to rejoice!</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"If you're tired of it, why did you do it?" said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "You took pains enough to curry favour with me at first. +How smart you used to look. I believe you're already beginning to lose +your colouring."</p> + +<p>"It's weary work," he said. "When a fellow has to go after flies like +this, in all weathers, his wedding-finery soon wears out."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you're singing as nicely as you did," said she.</p> + +<p>"Really? Well, I can just as easily stop. It's for your sake that I pipe +my tune. Besides, you can see for yourself that I'm only joking. I'm +tremendously glad of the children. It will be an honour and a pleasure +to me to stuff them till they burst. Perhaps we might have been +satisfied with three."</p> + +<p>"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" she said.</p> + +<p>"So I am, dear, because of the other two. But, as I don't know which two +those are, it makes no difference."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>She put on a very serious face. But he caught a fat fly that was +passing, popped it into her mouth and struck up so pretty a trill that +she fell quite in love with him again.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 248px;"> +<img src="images/i027.jpg" width="248" height="375" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>At that moment a deep sigh rose from the water under the bank.</p> + +<p>"That came from a mother," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I could hear that +plainly."</p> + +<p>"That's what it did," said a hoarse voice.</p> + +<p>The Reed-Warblers peeped down and beheld a cray-fish, who sat in the mud +staring with her stalked eyes.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, is that you, Goody Cray-Fish?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"It is indeed, dear madam," said the cray-fish. "It's myself and no +other. I was just sitting down here in my dirt listening to what the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +quality were saying. Heavens, what a good time a fine lady like you +enjoys, compared with another!"</p> + +<p>"Every one has his burden," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Believe me, it's no +joke sitting here and perspiring."</p> + +<p>The cray-fish crossed her eyes and folded her antennæ.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you may well talk," said she. "How long does it last with you? +Four or five weeks, I should say. But I have to go for six months with +mine."</p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious! But then you can move about."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Goody, "moving is always a rather slow matter for a +cray-fish. And then you have only five eggs, ma'am, but I have two +hundred."</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said the reed-warbler. "Then your poor husband has to slave +to provide food for that enormous family."</p> + +<p>"He? The monster!" replied the cray-fish. "He knows too much for that. I +haven't so much as seen him since the wedding."</p> + +<p>"Then you must have a huge, big nest for all those eggs," said the wife.</p> + +<p>"It's easy to see that you don't know poor folks' circumstance, dear +madam," said the cray-fish. "People of our class can't afford nests. No, +I just have to drag the eggs about with me as best I may."</p> + +<p>"Where are they, then, Goody Cray-Fish?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I carry them on my hind legs, lady. I have ten little hind legs, you +see, besides my eight proper legs and my claws, which are very necessary +to bite one's way through this wicked world with. And on each of my hind +legs there is a heap of twenty eggs. That makes two hundred in all. I'll +show them to you, if you like. The eggs are worth looking at."</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/i029.jpg" width="350" height="334" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>So saying, the cray-fish turned over on her back and stuck out her tail +as far as she could. And there the eggs were, just as she had said, on +ten little back legs.</p> + +<p>"That comes of having too many hind-legs," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"For shame! To poke fun at the poor woman!" said his wife.</p> + +<p>But the cray-fish slowly turned round again and said, quietly:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen are always so witty. We women understand one another better. +And I shouldn't so much mind about the eggs, if it wasn't that one can't +change one's clothes."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Change your clothes?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am ... you change yours too, from time to time, I know. I have +seen the feathers with my own eyes, floating on the water. And it goes +so easily and quickly: a feather here, a feather there and it's done. +But other people, who wear a stiff shirt, have to take it all off at +once. And I can't do that, you see, as long as I am carrying the eggs +about. Therefore, since I have been married, I change only once a year. +Now one always grows a bit stouter, even though one is but a common +woman; and so I feel pretty uncomfortable sometimes, I assure you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reed-Warbler was greatly touched; and her husband began to sing, +for he was afraid lest all this sadness should make the eggs melancholy +and spoil the children's voices.</p> + +<p>But, at that moment, the cray-fish screamed and struck out with her +claws and carried on like a mad woman.</p> + +<p>"Look!... Ma'am ... do look!... There comes the monster!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reed-Warbler leant so far over the edge of the nest that she would +have plumped into the pond if her husband had not given her a good +shove. But he had no time to scold her, for he was curious himself. They +both stared down into the water.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>And there, as she had said, came Goody Cray-Fish's husband slowly +creeping up to her backwards.</p> + +<p>"Good-day, mother," he said. "I'm going to change."</p> + +<p>"Oh, are you?" she screamed. "Yes, that's just like you. You can run and +change at any moment while your poor lawfully-wedded wife has to go +about in her old clothes. You would do better to think of me and the +children."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i031.jpg" width="450" height="395" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Why should I, mother?" he replied, calmly. "What good would it do if I +thought of you? And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> what need have I to meddle with women's work? What +must be must be. Hold your tongue now, while it lasts, for this is no +joke!"</p> + +<p>Then the reed-warblers saw how he raised himself on his tail and split +across the middle of his back. Then he bent and twisted and pulled off +his coat over his head.</p> + +<p>"That's that," he said, puffing and blowing. "Now for the trousers!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reed-Warbler drew back her head, but immediately peeped down again. +And the cray-fish stretched and wriggled until, with a one, two, three, +the shell of his tail was shed as well.</p> + +<p>Now he was quite naked and funny to look at and talked with a very faint +voice:</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, mother," he said. "Give the young ones my love, for they will +be gone, I daresay, before I come back again. I am retiring for ten days +or so and shall be at home to nobody."</p> + +<p>"You monster!" yelled Goody. "Just look at him ... now he'll creep into +his hole and lie there idle. In ten days' time he'll come out again, in +brand-new clothes, looking most awfully arrogant." She wrung her claws +and glared terribly with her stalked eyes. "I should really like to +crawl into the hole after him and bite him to death," she continued. +"His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> life isn't worth twopence in his present condition. But I loved +him once. And one is and remains just a silly woman."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Goody Cray-Fish, and then you have the children," said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"That's true," she replied. "And, indeed, they are my only comfort. The +dear little things, I feel as if I would love to eat them. You should +just see, ma'am, how they hang on to my skirts during the first week. +They are so fond of me that they simply can't leave me."</p> + +<p>"How nice that is!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Yes. And afterwards I have no trouble with them at all. You may believe +me or not, as you please, dear lady, but, as soon as they are a week +old, they go into the world and look after themselves. It's in their +blood. It has never been known in the pond for a twelve-day-old +cray-fish to be a burden on his family. And then you're done with them; +and that may be rather sad, but, of course, it's a relief as well: two +hundred children like that, in a small household! But you shall see +them, ma'am, when they come ... I really have to control myself in order +not to eat them, they're such dears!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you something, Goody Cray-Fish," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "When my young ones are out, you shall have the shells."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, how good of you, ma'am!" said the cray-fish. "You could not +possibly do me a greater kindness. For I promise you I shall eat them. I +eat as much chalk as I can get hold of against the time when I change my +things, for that puts starch into the new shirt. But then, also, you +must really promise me, ma'am, to look at my young ones. They are so +sweet that, goodness knows, I should like to eat them...."</p> + +<p>At that moment, a large carp appeared in the water, with a sad, weary +face:</p> + +<p>"You do eat them," he said.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" yelled Goody, and went backwards into her hole and showed herself +no more.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Reed-Warbler fainted on her five eggs and the carp swam on with +his sad, weary face.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i035.jpg" width="600" height="363" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>The Water-Spider</h3> + +<p>Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler was not feeling very well.</p> + +<p>She was nervous and tired from sitting on the eggs and she had just a +touch of fever. She could not sleep at night, or else she dreamt of the +cray-fish and the carp and the eel and screamed so loud that her husband +nearly fell into the pond with fright.</p> + +<p>"I wish we had gone somewhere else," she said. "Obviously, there's none +but common people in this pond. Just think how upset I was about Goody +Cray-Fish. Do you really believe she eats her children?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + +<p>Before he could reply, the eel stuck his head out of the mud and made +his bow:</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 292px;"> +<img src="images/i039.jpg" width="292" height="450" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p>"Absolutely, madam," he said, "ab-so-lutely. That is to say, if she can +get hold of them. They decamp as soon as they can, for they have an +inkling, you know, of what's awaiting them. Children are cleverer than +people think."</p> + +<p>"But that's terrible," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said the eel, "one eats so many things from year's end to +year's end! I don't condemn her for that. But, I admit, it doesn't look +well amid all that show of affection.... Hullo, there's the pike!... +Forgive me for retiring in the middle of this interesting conversation."</p> + +<p>He was off.</p> + +<p>And the pike appeared among the reeds with wide-open mouth and rows of +sharp teeth and angry eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oof!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Come down here and I'll eat you," said the pike, grinning with all his +teeth.</p> + +<p>"Please keep to your own element," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, indignantly.</p> + +<p>"I eat everything," said the pike, "ev-e-ry-thing. I smell eel, I smell +cray-fish, I smell carp. Where are they? Tell me at once, or I'll break +your reed with one blow of my tail!"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>The reed-warblers were silent for sheer terror. And the pike struck out +with his tail and swam away. The blow was so powerful that the reeds +sighed and swayed and the birds flew up with startled screams. But the +reeds held and the nest remained where it was. Mrs. Reed-Warbler settled +down again and her husband began to sing, so that no one should see how +frightened he had been. Then she said:</p> + +<p>"A nice place this!"</p> + + + +<p>"You take things too much to heart," said he. "Life is the same +everywhere; and we must be satisfied as long as we can get on well +together. I am very much afraid that all this excitement will hurt the +children's voices<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> and then they will disgrace us at the autumn concert. +Pull yourself together and control yourself!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 440px;"> +<img src="images/i037.jpg" width="440" height="600" alt="THE PIKE APPEARED AMONG THE REEDS [p. 38 " title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE PIKE APPEARED AMONG THE REEDS [p. 38 </span> +</div> + +<p>"It's easy for you to talk," she said. "And I know well enough what life +is worth. My innocent little sister was eaten by an adder and my mother +was caught by a hawk, just after she had taught us to fly. I myself had +to travel in hot haste to Italy, last autumn, if I didn't want to die of +hunger. Then you came; and I have already learnt that marriage is not an +unmixed blessing. After all, one would be glad of peace just after the +children are born. And then, of course, I think of what the children +will grow up like in this murderers' den. Children take after others. +And such examples as they see before them here! Really, it might end in +their eating their parents!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, why not, if they taste good?" asked a ladylike voice on the +surface of the water.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Reed-Warbler shrank back and hardly dared look down.</p> + +<p>A little water-spider sat on the leaf of a water-lily and smoothed her +fine velvet dress.</p> + +<p>"You're looking very hard at me, Mrs. Reed-Warbler, but you won't eat +me," she said. "I lie too heavy on the stomach. I am a bit poisonous ... +just poisonous enough, of course, and no more. Apart from that, I am +really the most inoffensive woman in the water."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And you say that one ought to eat one's parents?" asked Mrs. +Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Maybe that was a rather free way of talking to a bird," said the +spider. "What suits one doesn't necessarily suit another. I only know +that I ate my mother last year and a fine, fat, old lady she was."</p> + +<p>"Sing to me, or I'll die!" screamed Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>Her husband sang. And, meanwhile, they looked down at the water-spider.</p> + +<p>She plunged head foremost into the water. For a moment, she let her +abdomen float on the surface of the pond and distended her spinnerets +till they were full of air. Then the creature sank and shone like silver +as she glided down to the bottom.</p> + +<p>"That's very, very pretty," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet," said his wife and stared till she nearly strained her neck.</p> + +<p>Deep down in a bush, the spider had spun a bell, which she filled with +air. The bell was built of the finest yarn that she was able to supply +and fastened on every side with strong, fine threads, so that it could +not float away. And round about it was a big web for catching +insects.... Just now a water-mite was hanging in it and the spider took +her into the bell and sucked her out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It's really remarkable," said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "She has a nest +just as we have, hung up between the reeds. For all we know, she may sit +on her eggs."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 224px;"> +<img src="images/i042.jpg" width="224" height="350" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Ask her," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"I want first to get to the bottom of that story about her mother," said +she, sternly.</p> + +<p>Soon after, the spider came up again and sat on the leaf of the +water-lily and smoothed herself out.</p> + +<p>"You were looking down at me, weren't you?" she said. "Yes ... I have +quite a nice place, haven't I? A regular smart little parlour. You must +know I am an animal that loves fresh air, like Mr. Reed-Warbler and +yourself. And, as my business happens to lie in the water, it was +easiest for me to arrange it this way. It's thoroughly cosy down there, +I assure you. And, in the winter, I lock the door and sleep and snore +the whole day long."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Have you any eggs?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Rather!" said the spider. "I have everything that belongs to a +well-regulated household. I have any number of eggs. As I lay them, by +degrees, I hang them up in bundles from the ceiling of my parlour."</p> + +<p>"Don't you hatch them?"</p> + +<p>"No, dear lady. My heart is not so warm as that. And it's not necessary +either. They come out nicely by themselves."</p> + +<p>"Did your husband help you build the parlour?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"He had enough to do building for himself, the booby!" she said. "You +needn't think I would have him in my parlour, He made himself a little +room beside it; and then there was the tunnel between us and that was +really more than enough."</p> + +<p>"<i>Was?</i>" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Is he no longer with you, then?... +Oh, you mustn't take my question amiss, if it pains you. I find it so +difficult to understand the domestic conditions of the lower classes.... +Perhaps you don't even know where he is?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I should just think I did know!" replied the spider. "More or +less. For I ate him last Wednesday."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 419px;"> +<img src="images/i045.jpg" width="419" height="550" alt="'HE WAS IN MY WAY,' SAID THE SPIDER" title="" /> +<span class="caption">'HE WAS IN MY WAY,' SAID THE SPIDER</span> +</div> + +<p>"He was in my way," said the spider. "I tumbled over him wherever I +went. And what was I to do with him? So I ate him up; and a tough little +brute he was!"</p> + +<p>"She ate her husband on Wednesday and she ate her mother last year," +said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Sing to me, or that terrible woman will be the +death of me!"</p> + +<p>But the reed-warbler himself was so frightened that he could not get out +a note. And the spider did not care in the least.</p> + +<p>"Yes ... mother," she said. "That was only out of hunger. I didn't eat +her alone, either. My brothers and sisters shared in the feast. We were +famishing and there was nothing else to eat, for it was well in the +autumn. Then mother came along, just in the nick of time, and so we ate +her."</p> + +<p>She jumped into the water again.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Reed-Warbler did not sleep a wink that night. She kept on +whispering to herself:</p> + +<p>"She ate her mother ... she ate her husband on Wednesday...."</p> + +<p>"Come, don't think about it," said the reed-warbler. "Why, your own +mother was eaten by the hawk; and, if you eat me, it will be for love!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span><br /></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You ought to be ashamed to jest in such times as these," said she.</p> + +<p>"I think all times are alike," he said. "Those we live in always seem +the worst."</p> + +<p>Then morning came and the sun shone and he sang to his little brown wife +until she recovered her spirits.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i049.jpg" width="600" height="513" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>The Bladder-Wort</h3> +<p>Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler's babies were now expected any day.</p> + +<p>There was no end to her nervousness and unreasonableness. Her husband +simply could not satisfy her. If he brought her a fly, she shook her +head and asked how could he think her capable of eating immediately<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +before the most important event in her life. If he brought her none, she +said it was evidently his intention to starve her. If he sang, it was +unbearable to listen to him. If he was silent, she could plainly see +that he no longer cared for her.</p> + +<p>"You don't appreciate me as I deserve," he said. "You ought to be +married to the eel for a bit, or to the cray-fish's husband; then you +would know what's what."</p> + +<p>"And you ought to have taken the spider," said she. "Then you would have +been eaten."</p> + +<p>"Dear lady! Dear lady!" cried the cray-fish from down in the mud.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"I can't stand this!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"I only wanted to ask you, dear lady, not to forget me and those +shells," said the cray-fish.</p> + +<p>"I won't have anything to do with an odious woman like you, who eats her +own children," replied Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!... Surely, ma'am, you don't believe that mean carp who was +here the other day? A horrid, malicious fellow like that! He doesn't +even belong to the pond, you know. He's a regular man's fish. They only +put him here to fatten him up and eat him afterwards ... I saw it myself +last year; he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> a mere spawn then; now he has grown big and stout on +men's food; and he has plenty of time, too, since he doesn't have to +work like another; and so he runs round and slanders poor people and +robs them of the sympathy of kind ladies like yourself."</p> + +<p>"Stop your chattering, Goody Cray-Fish," said the reed-warbler. "You'll +drive my wife quite silly with your silly talk."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!... Well, I beg a thousand pardons," said the cray-fish. "I +only want to remind the lady about the egg-shells."</p> + +<p>Then she went backwards into her hole.</p> + +<p>"Why will you think so much about all that rabble?" said the +reed-warbler to his wife. "There are other things in the world besides +cray-fish and eels and spiders. Find something pretty to look at. That +would do you good just now."</p> + +<p>"Show me something," she said, languidly.</p> + +<p>"Look at the beautiful white flower down below there," said he. "See how +charmingly he rises above the water. He surely can be neither a robber +nor a cut-throat."</p> + +<p>It was really a beautiful white flower that grew up from the bottom of +the pond on a long, thin stalk and looked exceedingly sweet and +innocent. Mrs. Reed-Warbler glanced at him kindly:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's your name, you pretty flower?" she asked. "May I look at you a +little?"</p> + +<p>"Look as much as you please," replied the flower. "My name's +Bladder-Wort, and I have no time to waste in talking to you. I have +things to attend to and must hurry."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;"> +<img src="images/i052.jpg" width="550" height="442" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Mrs. Reed-Warbler stretched her neck and peeped down into the water.</p> + +<p>"That horrid spider has her nest between his leaves," she said.</p> + +<p>"Well, the bladder-wort can't help that," replied her husband. "It's a +flower's fate to stand where he stands and take things as they come. He +sucks his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> food calmly out of the ground, has no stains on his flowers, +and no blood on his leaves. That's what makes him so poetic and so +refined."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" she said. "They are talking together."</p> + +<p>And talk together they did, with a vengeance.</p> + +<p>"Have you caught anything?" asked the bladder-wort.</p> + +<p>"Indeed I have," replied the water-spider. "I don't go to bed fasting. +This is a good time of year for water-mites, and so I don't complain. +And how have you done?"</p> + +<p>"Nicely, thank you," said the bladder-wort. "I have caught a hundred and +fifty midge-grubs and forty carp-spawn this afternoon. But I'm not +satisfied. I don't believe I could ever be satisfied."</p> + +<p>"What's that he's saying!" whispered little Mrs. Reed-Warbler, and +looked at her husband in dismay.</p> + +<p>"Be quiet," he said. "Let us hear more."</p> + +<p>The spider went into her parlour, hung seven eggs from the ceiling, +swallowed a mouthful of air and came out again.</p> + +<p>"You're really a terrible robber," she said. "If it wasn't that I had +come to lodge with you, I should be furious with you. Why, you take the +bread out of my mouth!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" said the bladder-wort. "Surely there's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> plenty for the two +of us! I am quite pleased to have a lodger who drives the same trade as +myself. It gives one something to talk about."</p> + +<p>"It's really odd that a flower like yourself should have turned robber," +said the spider. "It's not in your nature, generally speaking."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 219px;"> +<img src="images/i054.jpg" width="219" height="300" alt="Bladder Traps I" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Bladder Traps I.</span> +</div> + +<p>"What am I to say?" replied the flower. "These are hard times. There are +a great many of us, and the earth is quite exhausted. So I hit upon this +and it goes swimmingly. But then I have got my apparatus just right. +Would you like to see it?"</p> + + + +<p>"Very much," said the spider. "But you won't hurt me, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Be easy," said the bladder-wort, with a laugh. "You're too big for me. +Run along one of my stalks and I'll explain the whole thing to you."</p> + +<p>The spider crept cautiously for some way down the branch and then +stopped and looked at a little bladder there.</p> + +<p>"That's tight," said the bladder-wort. "That is one of my traps. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +catch my prey in them. I have a couple of hundred of them."</p> + +<p>"So you can eat two hundred water-mites at a time?" said the spider, +enviously.</p> + +<p>"I can. If they come. But I'm never so jolly lucky as all that. Now just +look: beside the bladder you will see a little flap, which is quite +loose. When some fool or other knocks up against it, it goes in +and—slap, dash!—the fool tumbles into the bladder. He can't get out; +and then I eat him at my leisure."</p> + +<p>"Do you hear?" whispered Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the reed-warbler, with a very serious face.</p> + +<p>The spider could not resist fumbling at the flap with one of her legs:</p> + +<p>"Ow!" she yelled suddenly.</p> + +<p>She darted back with a jerk and the leg remained caught in the bladder. +It was drawn inside in a twinkling and the flap closed and the leg was +gone.</p> + +<p>"Give me back my leg, please," said the spider, angrily.</p> + +<p>"Have I your leg?" asked the bladder-wort. "Well then, you must have +touched the flap. What did you do that for, dear friend? I made a point +of warning you!"</p> + +<p>"You said I was too big."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>"So you are, worse luck! But, of course, I can easily eat you in bits, +like this."</p> + +<p>"It's not nice of you, seeing that you're my landlord," said the spider. +"But as I have seven legs left, I suppose I must forgive you."</p> + +<p>"Do, dear friend," said the bladder-wort. "I must tell you, I am not +really master of myself when those flaps are meddled with. Then I have +to eat what is inside of them. So be careful next time!"</p> + +<p>"You may be sure of that," said the spider. "One has to be cautious with +a fellow like you. Would you think it indiscreet if I asked you what my +leg tastes like?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said the bladder-wort, "there wasn't much on it. For that +matter, I've finished, in case you care to see what's left of it."</p> + +<p>Just then the flap was opened, and a tiny little hard stump was flung +out into the water.</p> + +<p>"Is that my leg?" asked the spider.</p> + +<p>"Don't you recognise it?"</p> + +<p>The bladder-wort laughed contentedly. The spider stood and looked at the +stump for a little while. Then she said good-night and limped sadly into +her parlour.</p> + +<p>"Good-night," said the bladder-wort, pleasantly. "And good luck to your +hunting in the morning."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 265px;"> +<img src="images/i057.jpg" width="265" height="350" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p>"I shall never survive this," said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>But, at that moment, she felt something alive under her:</p> + +<p>"The children!" she screamed.</p> + +<p>She was up on the edge of the nest in a second. On the opposite side sat +her husband, watching just as eagerly as she.</p> + +<p>One egg was quite in two and one of the others was burst. A wee, blind, +naked youngster lay in the nest; and from the other egg protruded the +dearest little leg of a chick.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see anything like it?" cried she. "Isn't it charming?"</p> + +<p>"Delightful!" said he.</p> + +<p>Then they began carefully to peck at the other eggs. And, inside, the +young chicks pecked with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> their little beaks and five minutes later, +they were all five out.</p> + +<p>"Help me to clear up," she said.</p> + +<p>Out flew the shells, on every side, down into the water.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, kind lady!" cried Goody Cray-Fish from down below.</p> + +<p>She was out for an evening stroll. But no one heard her. The +reed-warblers were mad with delight over their children and had no +thought for anything else in the world.</p> + +<p>"What are you thinking of?" said the husband. "They'll perish with cold. +Sit on them at once!"</p> + +<p>And she sat on them and covered them up and peeped at them every moment.</p> + +<p>But he stayed up half the night, singing, on the top of the reed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i059.jpg" width="600" height="409" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>Summer</h3> + +<p>The whole pond was alive.</p> + +<p>There were not only great, horrid pikes and great mannerly carp and +roach and perch and sticklebacks and eels. There were cray-fish and +frogs and newts, pond-snails and fresh-water mussels, water-beetles and +daddy-long-legs, whirligigs and ever so many others.</p> + +<p>There was the duck, who quacked at her ducklings, and the swan, who +glided over the water with bent neck<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> and rustling wings, stately and +elegant. There was the dragon-fly, who buzzed through the air, and there +were the dragon-fly's young, who crawled upon the water-plants and ate +till they burst. But that did not matter; they just had to burst, if +they were to come to anything.</p> + +<p>There was the bladder-wort, who had his innocent white flowers above the +water and his death-traps down at the bottom; the spider, who was still +his lodger and now had the whole ceiling full of eggs, and hundreds of +thousands of midge-grubs, who lay on the surface of the water and stuck +up their air-vessels and hurried down to the bottom the moment a shadow +fell over the pond. There were hundreds of thousands of midges, who +danced in the air, and there was the water-lily, who knew how beautiful +she was, and who was unapproachable for self-conceit.</p> + +<p>There were many more, whom you could not count without getting dizzy. +And then there were the tadpoles, who were ever so many and ever so +merry. And you only had to take a drop of water and examine it through a +magnifying-glass to see how it swarmed with tiny little animals, who all +danced about and ate one another without the least compunction.</p> + +<p>But just under the reed-warblers' nest there was a little May-fly grub, +who was in a terrible state of fright.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>She had entered into conversation with little Mrs. Reed-Warbler one day, +when the latter had gone all the way down the reed to find food for her +five youngsters, who were simply insatiable and kept on crying for more. +Just at that moment, the May-fly grub had come up to the surface; and +now the bird's beak was exactly over her.</p> + +<p>"Let me live," said she.</p> + +<p>"That's what they all say," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "My children have to +live, too!"</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/i061.jpg" width="350" height="339" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>So saying she tried to snatch her. But the grub wriggled so and looked +so queer that she could not.</p> + +<p>"Listen to me for a moment," said the grub; "then I'm sure that you +won't hurt me. I am so small and so thin and fill so little space in a +stomach."</p> + +<p>"Well, what is it?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"I have lived here a long time," said the grub. "I have heard you talk +to your husband and to the cray-fish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> and the eel and the spider. It was +all so beautiful, what you said. I am certain that you have a good +heart."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about my heart," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But I know I +have five hungry children."</p> + +<p>"I am a child myself," said the grub. "And I should so awfully like to +live till I grow up."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that life is so pleasant?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I am only a child, you see. I crawl about down here and +wait. When I am grown up, I shall have wings and be able to fly like +you."</p> + +<p>"You don't surely imagine that you're a bird?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! I certainly don't aim so high as that. I shall just become a +May-fly."</p> + +<p>"I know them," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I have eaten lots of them. They +taste very good."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, in that case, do wait for me to grow up, before you eat me. I +shall only live for a few hours, you know, when I get my wings. I shall +just have time to fly once round the pond and lay my eggs in the water. +Then I must die. And then you may eat me and welcome. But let me go now. +And tell your husband also. He has been after me twice."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "though it's foolish of me. You'll +probably cheat me and let someone else eat you first."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I shall do my best to escape," said the grub. "And, now, thank you ever +so much."</p> + +<p>Before the grub had done speaking, little Mrs. Reed-Warbler was up in +the nest again, with six midge-grubs, which she had caught in one bite. +Her husband was there too with a dragon-fly, which the children tore to +pieces and ate up amid cries of delight.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing the matter with their appetites or with their voices +either," he said. "If only they could shift for themselves! I am as lean +as a skeleton."</p> + +<p>"And what about me?" said she. "But the children are thriving and that +is the great thing."</p> + +<p>He sighed and flew away and came home and flew away again; and so it +went on till evening. Then they both sat wearily on the edge of the nest +and looked out across the smooth pond:</p> + +<p>"It is curious how the life exhausts one," she said. "Sometimes, when I +feel thoroughly tired, I can almost understand those animals who let +their children look after themselves. Did you notice the eel the other +day? How fat and gay he is."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i064.jpg" width="400" height="213" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p>"Are you talking of me, madam?" asked the eel, sticking his head out of +the mud.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're always there!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"More or less. One has to wriggle and twist."</p> + +<p>"Have you any news of your children?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, thank goodness!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, really?" said the perch. "I have an idea that I ate a couple of +them at breakfast.... Excuse me for being so frank!"</p> + +<p>"Not at all, not at all!" said the eel. "The family is large enough even +so."</p> + +<p>"How on earth did they come up here from the sea?" asked the roach.</p> + + + +<p>"Just as I did, I imagine," said the eel. "They've got scent of +something to be made here; and two or three miles are nothing to them."</p> + +<p>"Heigho!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Are you sighing because of all this fuss with the children? Well, +madam, what did I tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," replied Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I could never behave like +you."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 410px;"> +<img src="images/i065.jpg" width="410" height="550" alt="'OH! REALLY,' SAID THE PERCH [p. 64 " title="" /> +<span class="caption">'OH! REALLY,' SAID THE PERCH [p. 64 </span> +</div> + +<p>"One has one's duties," said the reed-warbler.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> "And the loftier one's +station in life, the heavier the duties."</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness, then, that I am of lowly station," said the eel. "I +have a capital time in the mud."</p> + +<p>"Then, again, one is interested in preserving a certain amount of poetry +in the world. There is plenty of rabble, plenty of ugliness, I admit. +All the more reason why we higher animals should do something to promote +the ideal. And I can't imagine anything more ideal than a father's +labours on behalf of his family, even though they do become rather +fatiguing at times."</p> + +<p>"You're tremendously up in the clouds to-day, Mr. Reed-Warbler," said +the eel. "Every one to his taste. But, as for poetry, I must confess +that I have not seen much of it in my life. And yet I have wriggled and +twisted about the world a good deal. The great question, everywhere, is +eating and eating and eating. And those who have children to care for +are the worst robbers of the lot. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>"That's a disgusting fellow," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "It was very nice +of you to give him a piece of your mind. I quite agree with you. +Besides, I myself performed a really fine action to-day."</p> + +<p>She ran to the reed and looked into the water:</p> + +<p>"Are you there, my little grub?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, thank you," said the May-fly grub.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And how are you?"</p> + +<p>"Fairly. The eel almost caught sight of me; and I was nearly getting +into the bladder-wort's prison; and the water-spider was after me before +that. Otherwise, I'm all right."</p> + +<p>"What's this now?" asked the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"Oh," answered his wife, "it's a protegée of mine! A little May-fly +grub. I promised that I wouldn't eat her. She is so happy at the thought +of being grown-up ... and that only for a couple of hours, poor little +thing!"</p> + +<p>She said nothing about her intention of eating the grub when she was +grown up; and the reed-warbler was seriously angry.</p> + +<p>"What sentimental gammon!" he said. "It's unseemly for a woman with five +children to commit such follies."</p> + +<p>"I thought it so poetic to give her leave to live," said she.</p> + +<p>"Fiddlesticks!" said her husband. "Poetry doesn't apply to one's food. +If it did, we should all die of hunger. Besides you can't take a +creature like that into consideration."</p> + +<p>Thereupon he ran down the reed and hunted eagerly for the grub, to eat +her.</p> + +<p>But she heard what he said and had gone down to the bottom with terror +in her little heart.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i069.jpg" width="600" height="448" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>The Carp</h3> + +<p>The summer wore on and things grew worse and worse.</p> + +<p>No end of young had come out of the eggs and they filled the whole pond. +Out in the middle it was quite green with millions of little +water-weeds, which died and rotted and reeked till seven big perch died +of it and floated on their backs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The pond's blossoming!" sneered the rushes.</p> + +<p>"There's a horrid smell here," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"I think, considering all things, that it's delightful here," said the +carp.</p> + +<p>The carp swam a little way in among the reeds. He had made a friend +there, in the shape of the fresh-water mussel, who waded ever so slowly +through the mud, or else settled on the bottom and yawned.</p> + +<p>They suited each other, these two, for they were quiet and sedate +people, who led the same sort of life.</p> + +<p>"I don't care to go hunting wildly for food," said the carp. "I open my +mouth where the water is moderately thick and let whatever there is run +in. Something always sticks. Then one needn't kill people and one +doesn't see all that misery."</p> + +<p>"It's just so with us," said the fresh-water mussel. "I employ exactly +the same methods. It's more gentlemanly and I have grown stout on it."</p> + +<p>Then the two sat and talked and yawned all the time and amused +themselves capitally notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>"Mind you don't go too near them," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler to the May-fly +grub.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will; thanks very much," said the grub.</p> + +<p>"The carp and the mussel are nicer than the others, I think," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler to her husband.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Really? And why, pray, madam?" asked the eel, who was always where he +was least expected. "Surely they do just the same as all of us ... only +the animals which they eat are smaller."</p> + +<p>"There is a difference, my good fellow," said the reed-warbler. "It's +only your lack of refinement that prevents your seeing it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, wriggle and twist!" said the eel.</p> + +<p>The reed-warbler did not condescend to answer him, but turned to the +carp and the mussel, struck up a little trill and said politely:</p> + +<p>"My wife and I have the honour to bid you good-morning, gentlemen. We +are delighted to observe that you lead your lives in a more mannerly way +than most of the other inhabitants of the pond. We have suffered greatly +at the sight of the extraordinary cruelty ..." he paused, caught a +blue-bottle, and tossed it to his children in the nest ... "of the +extraordinary cruelty that prevails in society here. It cannot but be +extremely unpleasant for well-bred people to witness the cynical and +unveiled brutality with which every one satisfies his app— ..." Here he +seized a caddis-fly, ate it, wiped his mouth, and continued, "satisfies +his appetite. You, gentlemen, are different. If you had wings, I should +be inclined to believe that originally you did not belong to this +company at all."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your presumption is absolutely correct," replied the carp, waving his +fins complacently.</p> + +<p>"You are quite right," said the mussel, yawning politely.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 286px;"> +<img src="images/i072.jpg" width="286" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"I was born in another pond," said the carp, "but I must confess that I +have no distinct recollection of it. I only know that they did not lead +such a wild, brigand's life there as here. For instance, I don't think +there were any fish but carp in the pond, which, of course, improved the +tone, you know. No doubt it was a nobleman's carp-pond. We were fed five +times a day and everything was removed that could inconvenience us in +any way. Until I came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> here, I had never set eyes on such things as +pikes, water-spiders or that horrible bladder-wort."</p> + +<p>"It must have been idyllic there," said the reed-warbler. "May I ask, +were there no reed-warblers?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" said the carp, "I think they had permission to build in the +reeds. And then there were a good many frogs, probably to cheer us up +with their croaking."</p> + +<p>"Then how did you come here?"</p> + +<p>"A-ah," said the carp, "that's not an easy question for me to answer. +You see, we came in a basket, I and a large number of my friends. And +then we were tilted out into the pond. I can't think of any other reason +than that they wished to improve the tone here. We had nothing to +complain of where we were before. Did you hear anything about well-bred +people in this place expressing such a wish?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the reed-warbler. "It didn't happen in my time. But I have +only been here since the spring."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," said the carp. "Yes, I've been here four years. I wish I +were anywhere else. One lives in everlasting terror of the pike. A +number of my friends have disappeared in an utterly incomprehensible +manner and, I believe, saving your presence, that the pike has eaten +them. And then, as you very properly observed, the prevailing tone here +is rather ill-bred.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> But it doesn't matter much to you. I presume you go +away in the autumn?"</p> + +<p>"A little trip to Italy," said the reed-warbler, "with my family."</p> + +<p>The carp waited and thought for a while. He yawned once or twice, then +said:</p> + +<p>"You might be able to do me a service ... it occurred to me when I saw +that nice, pointed beak of yours."</p> + +<p>"Delighted, I'm sure," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"You see, every one has his cross to bear and mine is in my gills. Would +you care to see?..."</p> + +<p>He opened one of his gill-lids and the reed-warbler ran down the reed +and peeped in:</p> + +<p>"Yes, upon my word," he said, "there's a cross there."</p> + +<p>"That's the double-animal," said the carp with a deep sigh.</p> + +<p>"The what?..."</p> + +<p>"The double-animal. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I brought him +with me from the otherwise first-rate, high-class carp-pond which I was +telling you about. The pain he caused me even then was great, but lately +it has become almost unendurable. You must know, the animal consists +originally of two worms ... of the kind, you know, that don't care to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> +work for themselves, but take up their quarters with respectable people +and suck at them. I have a couple of dozen of those in my stomach, but +they don't inconvenience me anything like so much as the double-animal. +You see, to increase the meanness of the proceeding, these scoundrels +have a trick of fastening together in pairs, cross-wise. They suck +themselves firmly on to each other, until they grow into one, and then +they suck at me with united strength."</p> + +<p>"I never heard anything like it!" said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"I have one like it on the other side of my head, in my other gill," +said the carp. "We can talk about him later. Meanwhile, may I ask you if +you would kindly try to remove the brute with your beak? I should be +exceedingly grateful to you. I am in such pain that I would rather die +than go on living like this."</p> + +<p>At that moment, it was as though the world were coming to an end.</p> + +<p>The reed-bank heaved and swayed, the reeds snapped. The reed-warblers +screamed, all the seven of them; the water spurted up; the mussel rolled +over; the spider's parlour was smashed.</p> + +<p>"At last!... At last!..."</p> + +<p>It was the pike's voice.</p> + +<p>"Spare my life! Spare my life!" yelled the carp.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<p>What happened next no one was ever able properly to describe.</p> + +<p>The carp cracked and crunched between the pike's teeth, and all who were +near thought their last day had come. But, a little after, it grew still +and, when the reed-warblers had recovered themselves, the pike was gone, +and the carp's tail-fin lay and floated on the water.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<img src="images/i076.jpg" width="450" height="266" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>The reed-warblers' nest had dropped down on one side and they had to +work for some time before they got it right. However, all the children +were safe and sound and gradually they recovered from their alarm. The +water grew clear again and the mussel sat down below and yawned.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That was a noble character, that friend of yours who has been taken +from us," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the mussel. "For that matter, I have had experiences of my +own...."</p> + +<p>"We shall look forward to hearing your story to-morrow," said the +reed-warbler. "We are too much upset to talk any more to-day."</p> + +<p>Just then, the carp's tail sank to the bottom.</p> + +<p>Goody Cray-Fish caught it and dragged it to her hole.</p> + +<p>"Poor people must be content with crumbs from the rich man's table," +said she.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i079.jpg" width="600" height="366" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>The Mussel</h3> + +<p>The next evening, the reed-warbler peeped down into the water.</p> + +<p>The fresh-water mussel was sitting there and yawning as usual. There was +nothing out of the way about him.</p> + +<p>"Good-evening," said the reed-warbler. "How are you, after your friend's +unhappy end?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you," replied the mussel. "It has not disturbed my composure in +the least. Generally speaking, nothing disturbs my composure. Only, if +any one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> sticks something between my shells, I become furious and I +pinch."</p> + +<p>"I should do the same in your place," said the reed-warbler. "And your +equanimity is really quite enviable. But still I think that the +misfortune of one's neighbour ... of your intimate friend."</p> + +<p>"I have no neighbour," said the mussel. "And the carp was not my +intimate friend. We were not rivals, that is all. In a case like that, +it's easy to be friends. I was often amused at the carp's way of +talking. But I never contradict, except when any one sticks something +between my shells. The carp had had to do with human beings; that's what +it was. It always makes animals so ridiculous. You're the same, for that +matter."</p> + +<p>"I look upon that as a compliment," said the reed-warbler, who was a +little offended but did not wish to show it. "However, I have nothing to +do with human beings, except that they protect me and have not the heart +to do me harm, because of my pretty voice. They stop and listen to me as +they pass. Many a poet has written beautiful lines about me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, really?" said the mussel. "Upon my word, they did something of the +sort about me too. But what they said was lies."</p> + +<p>"What did they say?"</p> + +<p>"There was a lot of rubbish about pearls."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, have you pearls? Wife! Wife! The mussel has pearls!"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," said the fresh-water mussel. "Do stop shouting like +that. You can be heard all over the pond. If any one overheard you, I +should be in danger of being fished up. Thank goodness, there are no +pearls formed on me!"</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 353px;"> +<img src="images/i081.jpg" width="353" height="450" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"O-oh!" said the reed-warbler, in a disappointed tone.</p> + +<p>"It's just the pearls the poets talk their nonsense about. They sing of +how happy the mussel is with the precious pearl he guards, and all that +sort of thing.... Do you know what a pearl is?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"It's a nasty, pushing parasite ... something like the double-animal +that hurt the carp. When it comes into us, it hurts us, of course. Then +we cover the brute with mother of pearl till it dies. And then it sits +on our shell and plays at being a pearl."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the reed-warbler. "Do you hear that, wife? All our illusions +are vanishing one by one. Soon there will be nothing but vacancy around +us."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it won't be vacant so long as we have those five greedy children!" +said she. "They are crying for more."</p> + +<p>"They shall have no more to-day," he answered, crossly. "You and I have +been running and flying about for them all day long. Now, upon my word, +I intend to be left in peace to have a chat with the neighbours. Let's +give them a flogging."</p> + +<p>And a flogging they got. And then they cried still more and then they +went to sleep.</p> + +<p>"You hinted last night that you were not born here, in the pond," said +the reed-warbler. "Tell us where you come from."</p> + +<p>"With pleasure," replied the mussel. "I am fond of a gossip in the +evening myself. And no one will believe that I have had any experience, +because I move about so little.... But wait a bit. There's a saucy +person there I want a word with...."</p> + +<p>It was no other than Goody Cray-Fish.</p> + +<p>She had crawled nearer and was fumbling at the mussel with her legs. Now +he slammed his shell down upon one of them and cut it off in the middle. +Goody screamed like one possessed and hammered away at the mussel with +her claws, but he only laughed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 418px;"> +<img src="images/i083.jpg" width="418" height="550" alt="'HE SLAMMED HIS SHELL DOWN'" title="" /> +<span class="caption">'HE SLAMMED HIS SHELL DOWN'</span> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What a common fellow!" cried Goody. "Can't he leave a respectable woman +alone?"</p> + +<p>"Aye," said the mussel, "when she doesn't go for me!"</p> + +<p>"A wretched mussel like that!" she screamed. "A mollusc! He is much +lower in rank than I and he dares to be impertinent. I have twenty-one +pairs of legs and he knows it: how many has he?"</p> + +<p>"Come along, with all the one-and-twenty!" said the mussel.</p> + +<p>Goody went on scolding and then the reed-warbler interfered:</p> + +<p>"Drop that strong language now," he said. "It doesn't matter about those +legs. I have only two myself."</p> + +<p>"I should be sorry to be found lacking in respect for you, Mr. +Reed-Warbler," said the cray-fish. "I know who are my betters, right +enough. But I can't understand how a fine gentleman like you can care to +talk to one of those molluscs."</p> + +<p>Scolding and grumbling, she withdrew to her hole, but left her head and +claws hanging outside. The mussel opened his shell, but kept four or +five of his eyes constantly fixed on Goody. These eyes were on the edge +of the mantle which lay in the slit between the shells. As soon as the +cray-fish made the slightest movement, he closed his shells at once:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>"One's soft inside all right," he said. "But one shows the hard shell to +the world."</p> + +<p>"Go on with your story," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"I was born in another pond, far from here," said the mussel. "I can't +give you a detailed description of it, because, as you will understand, +one in my position does not have many opportunities of looking about +him. It was not as grand as in the high-class carp-pond, that's sure +enough. To be honest with you, I think it was much the same as here—an +awful heap of rabble of every kind, but lots of mussels in particular. +They sat in the mud as close as paving-stones and took the bread out of +one another's mouths. If you had a mouthful of water, it was generally +mere swipes. Some one else had sucked all the goodness out of it, you +see."</p> + +<p>"What did you do then?" asked the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"I did nothing," replied the mussel. "I never do anything, except when +any one sticks something between my shells. Then I become furious and I +pinch.... Hullo, are you there again, Goody Cray-Fish? Do you want one +of your little legs amputated, eh?"</p> + +<p>"The wind-bag!" said the cray-fish.</p> + +<p>"But you might have died of hunger," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"One doesn't die so easily as that," replied the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> mussel. "Unless an +accident befalls one, as in the case of our poor carp. In fact, I once +lay for a whole year on a table in a room."</p> + +<p>"Goodness gracious!" said the reed-warbler. "How did you get there?"</p> + +<p>"I was fished up by a student or somebody. He wrapped me in a piece of +paper and put me on the table. He wanted to see how long I could live. +Every Saturday, he unpacked me and poured a little water over me; and +that was enough to keep me alive."</p> + +<p>"But how did you escape from him?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said the mussel, "it was when he got engaged. People used to +come and see him sometimes, you know, and, of course, they all had to +look at the wonderful mussel that refused to die. There was a young girl +among them who was very cross with him for teasing me so. But he only +laughed at her. Well, when I had been there a year, he got engaged to +her.... They were sitting on the sofa just by me, when it happened, and +I was not so dead but that I could lift my shells a little and see the +whole thing: they're funny creatures, those human beings! Well, then he +asked her if there was anything she would like on that joyful day. Yes, +she would like me to be put back in the water again. He laughed at her. +But off they went with me to the very pond where I was fished up and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +threw me in. Then I settled down among the other fellows and began all +over again."</p> + +<p>"Yes ... love!" said the reed-warbler, looking round at his wife.</p> + +<p>"Ah ... love!" said she, returning his glance.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to say against it," said the mussel. "But, as a matter +of fact, I have no personal experience of it."</p> + +<p>"Surely you have a wife," said the reed-warbler. "Or, perhaps ... +perhaps you are a lady ...?"</p> + +<p>"I am neither one or the other. I am just a mussel. And I lay my eggs +and then that's done!"</p> + +<p>"Do you look after your children nicely?" asked the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"What next!" exclaimed the mussel. "My children are very remarkable +individuals. They are sailors."</p> + +<p>"Sailors?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, they are indeed. As soon as they come out of the egg, they hoist a +great sail and put out. It's only when they grow older, if they haven't +been eaten by that time, that they settle down as decent mussels with +shells upon them and philosophy in their constitutions."</p> + +<p>"Don't let us talk about children," said the reed-warbler. "It always +upsets my wife so. Tell us now how you found your way to this pond."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ah," said the mussel, "that comes of a peculiarity I possess of +becoming furious when any one sticks something between my shells. I +don't know if I told you that I possess that peculiarity?"</p> + +<p>"You've told me several times," answered the reed-warbler. "I shall +never forget it; I shall take care, be sure of that."</p> + +<p>"Mind you do," said the mussel. "You know, it was one of your sort that +managed my removal."</p> + +<p>"A reed-warbler?"</p> + +<p>"I don't exactly know if it was a reed-warbler. I can't see very well +outside the water.... Good-day to you, good-day to you, Goody Cray-Fish! +I can always see you!... And to me one bird is much like another. +However, it must have been a gull. Well, I was sitting at the bottom and +yawning, as I usually do. Just above me was a little roach. Then, +suddenly, splash came the gull and seized the roach. He swooped down at +such a pace that he plumped right to the bottom. One of his little toes +stuck between my shells and I pinched. The gull tugged and pulled, but I +am strong when I become furious and I held tight. He was the stronger, +in a way, nevertheless. For he pulled me off the bottom and then I went +up through the water and into the air."</p> + +<p>"Why, it's quite a fairy-tale!" said the reed-warbler.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We flew a good distance," the mussel continued, "high above the fields +and woods. I could just peep out, for my shells were ajar because of the +bird's toe. We lost the fish on the way, but I held on, however much the +gull might struggle and kick. Of course, I did not mean to hang on for +ever, you know, but I wanted to have my say as to where we should +alight. Suppose I had been dropped into a tall tree and had to hang +there and wait until a student came and got engaged...."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 389px;"> +<img src="images/i090.jpg" width="389" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"He would have come all right," said the reed-warbler. "I've travelled a +great deal, but I have never been anywhere that there wasn't a student +who got engaged."</p> + +<p>"Well, in my case, it would have been rather uncertain," said the +mussel. "And so, when I looked down and saw that there was blue +underneath me, I let go and fell here, into the pond."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And are you satisfied?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, for the present. I have seen no other mussels, so it is a good +deal pleasanter than in the other place."</p> + +<p>"That's a curious story," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>Then he sat and fell a-thinking and night came.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Reed-Warbler ran down the reed and peered into the dark water:</p> + +<p>"Are you there, my little grub?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, thank you," said the May-fly grub.</p> + +<p>"Have you had a good time to-day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, thank you. I was only nearly eaten up by the perch; and then there +was a duckling after me and a horrid dragon-fly grub and a water-beetle. +Otherwise everything was very nice indeed."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i093.jpg" width="600" height="444" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>The Water-Lily</h3> + +<p>"Don't you think we shall be able to let the children out soon?" asked +the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" said his wife. "There can be no question of the little +dears standing on their legs for quite a month yet."</p> + +<p>"They can stand on their legs as it is," said he,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> "for they nearly +trample one another to death when I come along with a silly fly. I tell +you, it's getting a bit difficult to provide food for everybody. There +are such an awful lot of us after it now. There are children all over +the neighbourhood and they are all crying out for food."</p> + +<p>"Are you beginning to see the truth of what I said, madam?" asked the +eel, sticking his head out of the mud.</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue and mind your own business, you ugly fish," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Your husband has come round to my views long ago," said the eel. "I can +see that plainly. He would give anything to be able to roam about as a +free bird, instead of wearing himself out with a big family."</p> + +<p>"You're quite mistaken, my good fellow," said the reed-warbler. "I +certainly admit ..."</p> + +<p>"You'd better mind what you're admitting!" screamed his wife and pecked +at him.</p> + +<p>"Wriggle and twist!" said the eel; and off he went.</p> + +<p>That afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Reed-Warbler sat discussing the question +again:</p> + +<p>"If only we can hold out," said he. "Just now, I was fighting like mad +with my old friend, the flycatcher, for a ridiculous little grub. I got +it, but he will never forgive me. When poverty comes in at the door,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +love flies out at the window, as the human beings say. It will end in +screaming and quarrelling all over the pond."</p> + +<p>"It cannot be worse than it is," said she. "Do as I do and think of all +the beautiful things the poets have sung about us. It always helps to +keep one's spirits up."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/i095.jpg" width="350" height="256" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"I wish I had a couple of nice little poets here to feed the children +with," said he, grumpily.</p> + +<p>They sat again for a while, plunged in gloomy thoughts. The young ones +were having their mid-day nap. Then he said:</p> + +<p>"Things are queerly divided in this world. The number of sorrows and +cares that we have, we free birds, to whom the whole world is open! Look +at the water-lily. She's bound to her place. She has to struggle up +through the dark water for ever so many days before she reaches the +surface. Then she's there and unfolds her white flower and is happy. She +hasn't a care ...<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> look at her, lying and rocking and dreaming. I wish +we were water-lilies!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "And her seeds ripen in her lap and then +glide down in the water and take root and grow up and, next year, they +blossom around her. Oh, how delightful it must be!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but think of the bladder-wort and how he took us in!" said he.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" she replied. "Of course, it was that horrid spider who lived +with him that led him into evil courses. No one will make me believe +that there is anything but peace and contentment in the water-lily's +beautiful calyx."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" he said. "She's talking to that pretty little spear-wort beside +her."</p> + +<p>The two anxious birds bent their heads and listened.</p> + +<p>"You spiteful minx!" said the water-lily. "You enticed two bumble-bees +away from me to-day, though you haven't a farthing's-worth of honey in +your withered calices."</p> + +<p>"Scold away!" said the spear-wort. "All your fine clothes won't help you +in the least. Things go by merit, you see. No respectable bumble-bee +will look at a frivolous person like you. And you may be sure that I +have more honey in one of my flowers than you in your whole body."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here I stand with all my pollen ripe," said the water-lily, "and can't +get rid of it. How can any one care to look at a beggar like you? But I +shall find a way of revenging myself. You annoyed me long ago, when we +were growing up through the water. Your nasty thin stalks swarmed over +me and would have choked me, if they could. You, with your pretence! In +the autumn, there won't be a particle of you left. It's too funny, that +you should be allowed to stand in the way of respectable people."</p> + +<p>"In the autumn, my seeds will be ripe and sown, Water-Lily dear," +replied the spear-wort. "And, next spring, I shall grow up and tease +you, just as I'm doing now. Trust me for that."</p> + +<p>"Unless they come and clean out the pond first," said the water-lily. +"For then they'll take you and leave me here because of my beauty."</p> + +<p>The spear-wort could say nothing to this, for it was true.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear?" whispered Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Hush," answered the reed-warbler. "Here comes a bumble-bee."</p> + +<p>And a big, buzzing bumble-bee came and whirred upon her wings and hung +for a while in the air, above the two flowers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<p>"This way, please, dear Bumble-Bee!" cried the water-lily and displayed +her white petals to the best advantage. "I keep the freshest honey in +the whole district. Pray come nearer. I have combs and combs full. And +here is pollen in fancy wrappers. And I have laid out my broad green +leaves on the water for you to rest on, if you are tired. See for +yourself ... it is quite dry here ... pray ..."</p> + +<p>"Don't mind that humbug," said the spear-wort. "This is the real old +shop for honey. I scorn to advertise in that silly way, with big white +petals and all that pretence. I put all I know into my honey and my +pollen. I only have a little white flower for you to know me by."</p> + +<p>"You must on no account be seen going into that common shop," screamed +the water-lily. "Your honoured children will simply be poisoned by the +stuff she keeps. If indeed she has any, for there were two big +bumble-bees with her this morning and they looked very dissatisfied when +they flew away."</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe her," cried the spear-wort. "It's sheer jealousy +makes her talk like that. The bumble-bees were exceedingly pleased and +they have produced a quantity of honey. Mother Water-Lily's is +yesterday's. No one will have anything to say to it; I swear it's all +spoilt."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 414px;"> +<img src="images/i099.jpg" width="414" height="550" alt="THE WATER LILY" title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE WATER LILY</span> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Buzz ... buzz ...!" said the bee and flew away.</p> + +<p>"You humbug!" said the water-lily.</p> + + +<p>"You idiot!" said the spear-wort.</p> + +<p>"That's the worst of keeping bad company," said the water-lily.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 389px;"> +<img src="images/i102.jpg" width="389" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p>"It comes of your mountebank ways, of course," said the spear-wort. +"They're enough to drive respectable people from the pond."</p> + +<p>They could think of nothing more to say and lay on the water and looked +angrily at each other.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear!" said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Where on earth is one to go +to find poetry?"</p> + +<p>"Where can one find a fly?" said her husband.</p> + +<p>"We must take life as it is," said the mussel, "and meddle with it as +little as possible. That's what I do; and there's nothing to prevent my +remaining here and growing to be a hundred."</p> + +<p>A boy stood on the edge of the pond. He had a big stone in his hand. +Suddenly, he flung it into the water with all his might. Then he went on +and thought no more about it.</p> + +<p>But the stone had hit the mussel and smashed him to pieces.</p> + +<p>"There!" he said. "That's the end of me. Both shells smashed ... there's +nothing to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> done. Good-bye and thank you for your pleasant company."</p> + + + +<p>One by one all the eyes on his mantle grew dim; and then he was dead.</p> + +<p>"Goodness knows who will be the next!" said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>But Goody Cray-Fish came slowly crawling and took the dead mussel in her +claws:</p> + +<p>"Now I shall get my leg back with interest," said she.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i103.jpg" width="600" height="473" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3>The Cray-Fish's Journey</h3> + + +<p>"How is my dear grub?" asked little Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Pretty well, thanks," replied the May-fly grub. "There was a roach, who +wanted to eat me; and two caddis-grubs, who tugged at me; and a +whirligig, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> bit me in one of my legs. Otherwise, I've had a capital +time."</p> + +<p>Aren't you almost ready?"</p> + +<p>"To-day or to-morrow, I think."</p> + +<p>"Take care you don't meet with an accident first," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler, kindly.</p> + +<p>Goody Cray-Fish crept round restlessly:</p> + +<p>"Food's scarce," she said. "Oh, if I were only a smart bird and could +fly away! But, it's true, you're angry with me, ma'am, and I hardly dare +speak to you."</p> + +<p>"I was very angry with you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But, since then, I +have experienced such horrors that I've almost forgotten it. I have made +the acquaintance of a spider who ate her own mother."</p> + +<p>"Oh dear, oh dear!" said the cray-fish. "That's enough to upset any +mother."</p> + +<p>"So it is. She also ate her husband."</p> + +<p>"I don't say that's right," said the cray-fish. "But at any rate it's +more excusable, for men are neither more nor less than monsters. Oh, of +course, I make an exception of your own husband, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Is it true, Goody Cray-Fish?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler—"tell me, did you +really eat your children?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I had the misfortune to eat seven of them," replied the cray-fish, with +a woebegone face. "But it was out of sheer love. They were so nice. And, +as I was patting them with my claws, I happened to touch them too hard. +So I had to eat them myself, rather than let them go to strangers."</p> + +<p>"It's terrible to listen to," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's sad," said the cray-fish. "But their troubles are over now, +poor little dears, while their hundred and ninety-three brothers and +sisters have to go on struggling through this wicked world! Goodness +alone knows how many of them are still alive and how they are doing!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's a wicked world," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Would you mind telling me, ma'am?" asked the cray-fish, "don't you +think a body might get away from the pond?"</p> + +<p>"We shall leave in the autumn," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "for Italy. But +you have no wings, Goody Cray-Fish, so I don't see how you can go."</p> + +<p>"That's just it. If one had wings, one would soon be off. But they might +be in one's way in the water. However, there are other people who +travel, though they have no wings. What about the eel, ma'am, for +instance?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes ... the eel," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "He can wriggle and twist. +You can't, you see."</p> + +<p>"No," replied the cray-fish looking very sadly out of her stalked eyes. +"I can't do that at all. Because of my stiff shirt, you know. Though I +may be thankful for it, too, or I should have been done for long ago."</p> + +<p>"What do you propose, then?"</p> + +<p>The cray-fish crawled right under the reeds, where the nest hung, and +asked, in a low whisper:</p> + +<p>"What do you think of the mussel, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"The mussel?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, the mussel. You see, I sit here in the mud and hear such a lot of +things and turn them over in my mind. And I heard the story with which +the mussel was diverting you and Mr. Reed-Warbler the other day. Do you +think it's to be depended on?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I do."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't take much account of the mussel," said the cray-fish. "A +mollusc like that! And then he insulted me, besides. But I've eaten him +now and I don't like to speak harm of what I've eaten myself. And, if +the story is genuine, another person might possibly save herself in the +same manner."</p> + +<p>"Why, you have no shells to pinch with, Goody Cray-Fish!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, but I have my claws," replied the cray-fish. "And, believe me, +ma'am, they can pinch too."</p> + +<p>The reed-warbler came home from hunting and his wife told him about the +cray-fish's plan. They both laughed at it, but Goody Cray-Fish stuck to +her guns.</p> + +<p>She did not go to her hole all the morning, but crawled around and swam +on the surface of the water, to see if no opportunity offered.</p> + +<p>About the middle of the day, a little roach came skimming along.</p> + +<p>"Look out, grub!" cried Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"I've hidden under a leaf and I'm all right," replied the May-fly grub.</p> + +<p>"Here's the roach," said the cray-fish. "Now we only want the gull."</p> + +<p>She kept just under the roach and looked out eagerly, in every +direction, with her long eyes.</p> + +<p>"What do you want, you ugly cray-fish?" said the roach, and struck out +with his tail.</p> + +<p>"I sha'n't hurt you, Mr. Fish," said she. "The pond is meant for +everybody, I should think. Surely a person's entitled to go and take the +air outside her own door."</p> + +<p>The eel put his head out of the mud:</p> + +<p>"That's right, Goody Cray-Fish, stick to it!" he said. "Wriggle and +twist!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>And the reed-warblers laughed and peeped down to see what on earth was +going to come of it; and the youngsters were told as much of it as their +little brains could take in, and they peeped too. The spider ran up and +looked on, the May-fly grub was nearly jumping out of her cocoon with +curiosity. The bladder-wort forgot to catch insects, the water-lily and +the spear-wort stopped quarrelling; they all stared at the cray-fish and +the roach. For they had all heard something of what was at hand, one +from the other. But none of them said a word, lest they should frighten +away the roach; he was the only one who had not the least suspicion. +Only the reeds whispered softly to one another. But this they always do, +so nobody minds them.</p> + +<p>Just then a gull swooped down upon the roach.</p> + +<p>It made such a splash in the water that no one could quite see what +happened. But the roach was gone, and presently the reed-warblers +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Look!... Look!... There's the gull flying with the roach ... and the +cray-fish is hanging on to his hind-toe!"</p> + +<p>The water-lily and the spear-wort shouted the news and the rushes +whispered it on and soon there was not a midge-grub in the pond but knew +all about the extraordinary thing that had happened.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"So she had her way," said the reed-warblers.</p> + +<p>And they discussed for quite an hour where she would be likely to +arrive, but no one could work that out and none of those in the pond +ever got to know.</p> + +<p>Only the woman who lived by the pond knew. For, when the gull came above +the chimney of her little cottage, he gave such a kick with his leg that +the cray-fish dropped off. She went right down the woman's chimney; and +there stood a pot of boiling water, which she fell into.</p> + +<p>"Oh dear!" said the cray-fish. "That was a silly business."</p> + +<p>It was so silly that she turned as red as fire all over her body and +died then and there. But, when the woman took her pot and was going to +make herself a drop of coffee, she stared in amazement at that fine big +cray-fish:</p> + +<p>"Well, I never!" she said. "Best thanks to whoever sent you."</p> + +<p>Then she ate her.</p> + +<p>That same evening, the May-fly broke through her cocoon.</p> + +<p>She flew up, on tiny little thin, transparent wings and with three long +threads hanging from her abdomen to help her keep her balance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 203px;"> +<img src="images/i110.jpg" width="203" height="400" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"I say, isn't this lovely?" she cried. "How delicious life is! It's +worth while living for ever so many days as a poor grub, if only one is +permitted to gaze upon this splendour for an hour."</p> + +<p>"Oh, so you're there, are you?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You look very +nice."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said the May-fly. "Now I must just go round the pond and +lay my eggs. Then I'll come back and sit down in the reeds and die; and +then you can eat me. And a thousand thanks to you for sparing my life +that time and for warning me when I was in danger. If you hadn't done +that, I should never have beheld this glorious sight."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If only you don't over-eat yourself on the way and forget your +promise!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"There's no danger of that," replied the May-fly. "I have eaten all I +need. I haven't even a mouth! I shall just enjoy an hour or two of this +delightful life and then lay my eggs. That's my lot; and I don't +complain."</p> + +<p>"Life is not so delightful as you think," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "If I +were a true friend to you, I would save you from seeing all your +illusions shattered."</p> + +<p>"How can you say that life is not delightful?" said the May-fly. "Look +... and look ... and look...."</p> + +<p>"I will be a true friend to you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You shall be +spared disappointment. I will eat you straight away."</p> + +<p>Then she caught her and ate her.</p> + +<p>"Good-evening, madam," said the eel. "Are you sitting and contemplating +the poetry of Nature? I just saw you destroying a bit of it ... for the +May-fly.... That's poetry, if you like! Well, did she taste nice?"</p> + +<p>"You're a horrid, vulgar fellow," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"You talk like one who is chock-full of poetry," retorted the eel. "I +rejoice to see you making such smart progress as a murderess. You were +shockingly squeamish at first!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i113.jpg" width="600" height="381" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>The Worst Day of All</h3> + +<p>The summer was drawing to an end.</p> + +<p>The beeches were quite yellow with the heat; and the pond was overgrown +with plants almost right up to the middle. All the tadpoles had turned +into frogs; all the young animals were growing and wanted more food. The +water-lily and the spear-wort had stopped quarrelling, for they had +nothing more to quarrel about. Both of them had lost their white +blossoms and their heads were full of seeds.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> + +<p>The reed-warblers' children were now so big that they had begun to leave +the nest and flutter about in the weeds. But they were not quite sure of +themselves and still dangled after their parents. They never went so far +away but that they could easily return to the nest; and they lay in it +every evening and fought for room and bit and kicked one another, while +their half-starved parents sat beside them and hushed them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, mummy ... do get me that fly!" said one.</p> + +<p>"I can't catch these horrid midges," said the second.</p> + +<p>"Boo-hoo!... Boo-hoo!... The dragon-fly flew away from me!" said the +third.</p> + +<p>"I daren't take hold of the daddy-long-legs," said the fourth.</p> + +<p>But the fifth said nothing, for he was a poor little beggar, who always +hung his beak.</p> + +<p>"We'll never make a proper reed-warbler of him," said the father.</p> + +<p>And, when they were being drilled in flying and hopping and scrambling +in the reeds, or examined in singing, the fifth was always behind the +rest.</p> + +<p>"We shall never be able to drag him with us to Italy," said the +reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>And little Mrs. Reed-Warbler sighed.</p> + +<p>In the water below, the duck splashed about with her grown-up +ducklings.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The end is near," she said. "I am sure of it. I have a horrid +presentiment all over my body."</p> + +<p>"What harm can happen to you?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You don't +travel, so you're not exposed to as many dangers as the rest of us."</p> + +<p>"One can never tell," said the duck. "I feel it in my back."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 281px;"> +<img src="images/i115.jpg" width="281" height="350" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Then she paddled on and quacked to her children with her anxious old +voice and wore a distressful look in her eyes.</p> + +<p>One day something happened that set the whole pond in commotion.</p> + +<p>The pike was suddenly hauled up out of the water.</p> + +<p>The reed-warbler saw it himself. The pike hung and sprawled terribly at +the end of a thin line, flew through the air in a great curve and fell +down on the grass. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> the other end of the line was a rod, and at the +other end of the rod a boy, who was crimson in the face with delight at +the big fish he had caught.</p> + +<p>"It serves him right, the highwayman!" said the perch.</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness, he's gone!" croaked the frogs.</p> + +<p>And all the little roach and carp danced round the water with delight.</p> + +<p>"He had not many friends," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"He had not one," said the perch. "He was the worst robber in the pond."</p> + +<p>"He never did anything to me," said the water-lily. "He was a brave and +distinguished gentleman, who hadn't his equal among the lot of you. It +was always a real pleasure to me when he came sweeping past my stalks."</p> + +<p>"Well, I have seen many go sweeping down his throat," said the eel. "And +they did not think that so amusing. But he did just what I should have +done in his place! Now that he's gone, I suppose I'm the biggest in the +pond."</p> + +<p>He stretched himself to his full length.</p> + +<p>"You have grown big and stout," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"I have had a good year," said the eel. "But I shall soon be going to +sea now and working off my fat."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the evening of the same day a man stood at the edge of the pond, just +where the reed-warblers lived. He wore high boots with wooden soles and +whetted a scythe till the sound of it whizzed through the air.</p> + +<p>"What's going to happen now?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>"Quack! Quack!" cried the duck in terror.</p> + +<p>But the man spat on his hands and took hold of the scythe. Then he +walked out into the water and began to cut down the reeds, close in, at +the edge, and right out, as far as they grew. They fell into the water, +with a soft sigh; and then, when he had finished, he stood on the bank +and contemplated his work.</p> + +<p>"That was a fine clearing," he said. "Duck-hunting begins to-morrow."</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i117.jpg" width="400" height="334" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>Then he went a bit farther with his scythe and made another clearing.</p> + +<p>But he had caused terrible misfortunes. He had torn the water-spider's +nest and crushed the spider herself. He had broken the bladder-wort at +the root with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> heavy wooden boots. And the reed-warblers' nest lay +overturned among the cut reeds.</p> + +<p>The reed-warblers flew round the nest with loud screams:</p> + +<p>"The children! The children!" they cried.</p> + +<p>The children had saved themselves. Four had fluttered on land and sat +there and looked thoroughly bewildered. The fifth was half-buried under +the reeds and could not get out.</p> + +<p>The two old ones with difficulty brought it in to the others:</p> + +<p>"Oh dear! oh dear!" said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler, in despair. "What are +we to do now?"</p> + +<p>"It might have been worse," replied her husband. "Suppose it had +happened a month ago! Now the youngsters are able to look after +themselves, all except that one there."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was a terrible place to come to!" said she. "It was a great +shame of you to drag me here. I would much rather have remained in +Italy, even if I had never got married."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk nonsense, wife," said he. "You wanted to come here just as +much as I did. This is where we were born and where our home is and +where we had to build our nest. We can't help it; it's in our blood. +Besides, we have had a very good time, and have shared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> each other's +joys and sorrows. Don't let us squabble now in our old age, but rather +see that we get the children's travelling-suits ready and then be off."</p> + +<p>Then she became sensible and they sat late into the night and talked +about it. The youngsters ran round in the grass and ate ants and thought +the whole thing great fun, for children know no better. Only the fifth +one hung about disconsolately.</p> + +<p>"What are we to do with the poor little wretch?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, +pushing a mouthful to him.</p> + +<p>"We shall never get him to Italy alive," said her husband.</p> + +<p>Quite early next morning there was a tremendous uproar round the pond.</p> + +<p>Men shouted and dogs barked. They put out the boat and rowed her with +difficulty through the thick weeds. The woman of the pond stood outside +her cottage, curtseying and pouring out tea.</p> + +<p>"Whatever is this?" asked the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>"It's the world coming to an end," said the duck. "Quack! Quack! Quack!"</p> + +<p>"To the bottom! To the bottom!" said the eel. "Wriggle and twist!"</p> + +<p>The terrified reed-warbler family pressed close together in the grass. +But then the two old ones grew inquisitive and could not keep still. +They warned the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> youngsters to stay quiet, whatever happened, and sat +down, a little way from each other, on the tops of the reeds beside the +clearing.</p> + +<p>"Bang! Bang!" went the guns over the pond. "Bang! Bang! Bang!"</p> + +<p>And there were lots of ducks quacking and lots of small birds who flew +out of their hiding-places in terror. Great ugly dogs, with their +tongues hanging out of their mouths, swam round and barked. The leaves +of the water-lily dived right under the water and the spear-wort +disappeared entirely and never came back again.</p> + +<p>"Bang! Bang! Bang!"</p> + +<p>"There lies our duck," said the reed-warbler.</p> + +<p>And there she lay on her back, dead, only waiting for the dogs to come +and fetch her.</p> + +<p>"Bang! Bang!"</p> + +<p>"I must get away, I can stand it no longer," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. +"Let us fly back to the children."</p> + +<p>She received no answer and, when she looked round, her husband was gone.</p> + +<p>She stared at the reed on which he had been sitting and up in the air +and down at the water. Then she gave a frightful scream:</p> + +<p>"Oh, poor forlorn widow that I am! What shall I do? What shall I do?"</p> + +<p>He lay in the water, hit by a stray shot, dead, stiff.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 372px;"> +<img src="images/i121.jpg" width="372" height="500" alt="'HE LAY IN THE WATER, HIT BY A STRAY SHOT'" title="" /> +<span class="caption">'HE LAY IN THE WATER, HIT BY A STRAY SHOT'</span> +</div><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Children! Children! Your father is dead!"</p> + +<p>The four looked at her in dismay, when she brought the news; the fifth +stared vacantly and stupidly, as usual. The uproar continued, out in the +pond. The six reed-warblers sat in a row on the edge and were at their +wits' end what to do.</p> + +<p>Then, gradually, it became quiet again.</p> + +<p>The smoke of the powder lifted and the water calmed down. The men with +the guns sat up above in the wood and ate their lunch; and the woman of +the pond counted the money she had made.</p> + +<p>"That was a terrible business," said the water-lily.</p> + +<p>"My husband is dead," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler and sang a dirge that would +have moved a stone.</p> + +<p>"My respectful condolences, madam," said the eel and came up out of the +mud. "But will you admit that I was right? Think how much care and +sorrow one escapes by keeping out of all this domesticity. I don't know +my wife, as I once had the honour of telling you; I have never seen her. +It wouldn't occur to me to shed a tear if anyone told me that she was +dead."</p> + +<p>"You horrid, heartless person!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "To talk like +that to a widow with five children, all unprovided for, and one of them +a cripple too!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, those women!" said the eel and disappeared.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>That evening, little Mrs. Reed-Warbler sat and thought things over.</p> + +<p>"We must go," she said, "this very night. There's nothing else for us to +do. If we fly and hop as well as we can and work hard and behave +sensibly, we shall be all right."</p> + +<p>"I can't keep up with you," said the crippled child.</p> + +<p>"I was forgetting you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler.</p> + +<p>She looked at the poor child for a while. Then she shook her wings and +took a quick resolve:</p> + +<p>"No, you can't keep up with us," she said. "And we can't stay here and +be ruined for your sake. If I leave you behind, you'll be eaten by a fox +or a cat or those greedy ants. It would be a pity for you to be +tortured, you poor little fellow. It's better that I should kill you +myself and have done with it."</p> + +<p>Then and there, she rushed at the youngster and pecked away at his head +until he was dead:</p> + +<p>"Now let's be off!" she said.</p> + +<p>"Madam," said the eel, "you must not go without allowing me to say +good-bye to you. You are a charming woman and you know how to adapt +yourself to circumstances. You were incensed at the horrid robbers in +the pond; and you yourself ate innocent flies from morning till night. +You loved poetry; but you ate the poor May-fly, though you promised her +that she should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> be allowed to live her poetic life for an hour. You +were furious with the spider who ate her mother, and with the cray-fish, +who ate her children; and now, of your own accord you have pecked your +sick child to death, so that you may go to Italy."</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness, I sha'n't see you any more, you detestable, spiteful +fellow!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But I may as well tell you that I +killed my child for pity."</p> + +<p>"And the spider ate her mother from hunger and the cray-fish her +children from love," said the eel. "And I let mine shift for themselves +from common sense!"</p> + +<p>"My dears," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "that eel was positively created to +live in this horrible pond!"</p> + +<p>Then they flew away.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I shall stay here, for all that," said the eel. "I am +longing for the sea."</p> + +<p>He looked round warily, then crept up into the grass and wriggled and +twisted quickly to the nearest ditch.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span><br /><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/i127.jpg" width="600" height="486" alt="" title="chapter heading" /> +</div> + +<h3>The End</h3> + +<p>November came and was no different from what it usually is.</p> + +<p>The trees stood with bare branches. The leaves rustled over the earth or +floated on the pond. The reeds were all cut down; the water-lily's +leaves withered away, with stalks and all, while she, deep down at the +bottom,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> slept her winter sleep and dreamt of her next white spring +costume.</p> + +<p>And down at the bottom lay all the frogs, buried deep in the mud, so +that only their noses stuck out. It looked as though the pond were paved +with frogs' noses. The plants in the water were as leafless as the +plants on land. Hidden among the stalks and withered leaves, under the +stones and in the mud lay animals sleeping, or eggs waiting for the +spring to come and hatch them.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 265px;"> +<img src="images/i128.jpg" width="265" height="350" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>All the birds had flown, except the chaffinch and a few others, who +hopped about and managed as best they could. The flies were all gone and +the dragon-flies and spiders and midges and butterflies and all the +rest. There were only a few grumpy fish left in the pond.</p> + +<p>And the storm raged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> among the trees, till they cracked and creaked, and +whipped the pond up into tall waves with foam on their crests.</p> + + +<p>"It is really horrid here in winter," said the woman of the pond, as she +stuffed her windows with moss. "Such a howling in the chimney and a +creaking and cracking in the wood and a roaring and rushing in the pond! +I wish we had the glorious summer again. That is a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> happy time and +peaceful time. Then it's pleasant living by the pond."</p> + +<p>A poet, accompanied by seven ladies, walked on the path around the pond.</p> + +<p>He wore a fur-lined coat and turned the collar over his ears; and the +ladies were wrapped up so that nothing showed but the tips of their +noses. For it was very cold.</p> + +<p>"Ladies," said the poet, "when you look at that wild unsightly pond now, +you have simply no idea how charming it can be in summer. Now, all these +elements have been let loose. Waves rage against waves, the storm rushes +round and the trees stand naked and disconsolate. It is a real picture +of strife and sorrow and cruelty. But, ladies, come out here on a +summer's day and you shall see a different sight. Then the reeds grow +along the banks in all their elegance; water-lily and spear-wort float +side by side upon the surface of the water and nod smilingly to each +other with their white flowers. The midges hover in the air and the +frogs croak and glad birds sing. Deep in the water swim beautiful fish +disporting themselves gaily. The mussels in the mud dream of beautiful +pearls, the cray-fish crawl slowly round and round and enjoy life and +happiness. Ladies, you simply cannot imagine what a picture of peace and +happiness the pond offers. It is, as it were,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> an abstract of all the +wonderful harmonies of Nature, the sight of which consoles us poor +mortals, who strive and wrangle from morn till dewy eve and envy and +slander and persecute one another. Remember, ladies, to come out to the +pond when summer is here. It braces a mortal for his bitter fight to see +the peace and gladness in which God's lower creatures live ... those of +His creatures which have not received our great intellectual gifts, but +a purer and deeper happiness instead."</p> + +<p>Thus spake the poet. And seven ladies listened respectfully to his words +... and nobody laid violent hands upon him.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 401px;"> +<img src="images/i129.jpg" width="401" height="450" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center">THE END</p> + +<p class="center">BRISTOL: BURLEIGH LTD., AT THE BURLEIGH PRESS</p> + +<div class="centerbox"> +<p class="center">Transcriber's note:</p> + +<p>The majority of the images in this book are untitled, and are 'in +context' with where they are placed. No 'title' or 'alt' has been used +when placing them.</p></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pond, by Carl Ewald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POND *** + +***** This file should be named 31708-h.htm or 31708-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/0/31708/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pond + +Author: Carl Ewald + +Illustrator: Warwick Reynolds + +Translator: Alexander Texeira De Mattos + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31708] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POND *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE POND + + _By Carl Ewald_ + + TRANSLATED FROM + THE DANISH BY + ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS + AND + ILLUSTRATED BY + _Warwick Reynolds_ + + [Illustration] + + THORNTON BUTTERWORTH LTD + 15 BEDFORD ST LONDON WC2 + + _Published 1922_ + + [Illustration] + + + + + THE ROYAL ROAD + LIBRARY + + THE CARL EWALD BOOKS + + Translated by + ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS + + * * * * * + + 1. TWO-LEGS + + 2. THE OLD WILLOW TREE + and other stories + + 6. THE POND + + THE NETTA SYRETT BOOKS + + 3. TOBY & THE ODD BEASTS + + 4. RACHEL & THE SEVEN WONDERS + + 8. MAGIC LONDON + + THE W. H. KOEBEL BOOKS + + 5. THE BUTTERFLIES' DAY + + 7. THE PAGEANT OF THE FLOWERS + + * * * * * + +THE ROYAL ROAD LIBRARY + + + + +THE POND + +[Illustration: THE CRAYFISH DROPPED OFF p. 105] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + _Page_ + + CHAPTER I. + THE BEGINNING 13 + + CHAPTER II. + A MAN OF THE WORLD 19 + + CHAPTER III. + A MOTHER 27 + + CHAPTER IV. + THE WATER-SPIDER 37 + + CHAPTER V. + THE BLADDER-WORT 49 + + CHAPTER VI. + SUMMER 59 + + CHAPTER VII. + THE CARP 67 + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE MUSSEL 77 + + CHAPTER IX. + THE WATER-LILY 91 + + CHAPTER X. + THE CRAY-FISH'S JOURNEY 99 + + CHAPTER XI. + THE WORST DAY OF ALL 109 + + CHAPTER XII. + THE END 123 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + The cray-fish dropped off (_Colour_) _Frontispiece_ + + The pike appeared among the reeds with wide-open + mouth and rows of sharp teeth and angry + eyes (_Colour_) 40 + + 'He was in my way,' said the spider 44 + + 'Oh! really,' said the perch (_Colour_) 64 + + He slammed his shell down 80 + + The Water Lily (_Colour_) 96 + + He lay in the water, hit by a stray shot 116 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Beginning + +[Illustration] + + +One day in early spring, a young reed-warbler sat in a bush in Italy and +hung his beak. + +This was not because he really had anything to complain of. The sun was +shining; there were flies in plenty; and no one was doing him harm. A +little while before, a pretty girl, with jet-black eyes, had sat under +the bush and listened to his song and kissed her hand to him. + +And yet he wanted something. + +He was tired of the Italian flies. He had a feeling in his wings as if +he could do hundreds of miles at a stretch. There were notes in his +throat which he was unable to get out and his little heart was filled +with a longing which he could not understand and which would have made +him cry, if a reed-warbler knew how to cry. But he can only sing and he +sings just alike on all days, whether he be glad or sorry. + +So he sang. And, when he stopped, he heard a voice, from a bush close +by, which resembled his own to a nicety, only it was not so strong. + +He was off in a moment and alighting on a twig gazed at the sweetest +little lady reed-warbler that one could wish to set eyes on. + +There was no one to introduce them to each other and so they introduced +themselves. For there is not the same stiff etiquette among birds as at +a court ball. Also things move more quickly; and, when they had chatted +for five minutes or so, the reed-warbler said: + +"Now that I have seen you, I know what's the matter with me. I am +longing to go back to the land where I was born. I have a distinct +recollection of a quiet pond, with reeds and rushes and green beeches +round it." + +"I am longing to go there, too," said the little reed-warbler. "I +remember it also." + +"Then the best thing that we can do is to get engaged," said he. "As +soon as we come to the pond, we will celebrate our marriage and build a +nest." + +"Will you love me till I die?" she asked. + +"I can't answer for more than the summer," he replied. "But I promise +you that." + +Then she said yes. They had no one to announce the engagement to, for +they had seen none of their relations since the autumn. So they had a +little banquet to themselves. He treated her to some fat flies; and they +sang a little duet and started on their journey. + +They flew for many days. + +Sometimes they rested a little, when they came to a green valley, and +they also made travelling-acquaintances. For there were many birds going +the same way and they often flew in flocks and flights. But the two +reed-warblers always kept close together, as good sweethearts should. +And, when they were tired, they cheered each other with tales of the +quiet pond. + +At last they arrived. + +It was a beautiful morning towards the end of May. The sun was shining; +and white clouds floated slowly through the sky. The beeches were quite +out and the oaks nearly. The reeds and rushes were green, the little +waves danced merrily in the sun and all things wore a look of sheer +enjoyment. + +"Isn't it lovely?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"Yes," she said. "We will live here." + +Close to the shore they found a place which they liked. They bound three +reeds together with fine fibres, a yard above the water, and then wove +the dearest little basket, which they lined with nice down. When the +reeds swayed in the wind, the nest swayed too, but that did not matter, +for it was bound fast and reed-warblers are never seasick. + +[Illustration] + +It took them eight days to build it; and they were awfully happy +together all the time. They sang, so that they could be heard right +across the pond; and, in the evening, when they were tired, they hopped +about in the reeds and smiled upon each other or peeped at their +neighbours on either side and opposite. + +"There's the water-lily shooting up through the water," said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "I remember her well; she is so stately and so +beautiful." + +"There is the green frog sitting on the edge," said he. "He catches +flies and grubs, just as I do, but there are enough here for both of us, +so we shan't fall out." + +"Look at the cray-fish crawling down below!" cried she. "And there's the +roach ... and the perch ... and oh, look, there's quite a green wood at +the bottom of the pond and fish swimming between the branches and +caddis-grubs rocking in their cases!..." + +"Yes, it's charming here," he said, in a tone as though it all belonged +to him. + +"And they all look so nice," she said, "and so happy. I feel sure they +are all newly married like ourselves." + +"Of course," said the reed-warbler. "Every one gets married in the +spring. But I don't believe there's anybody in the wide world as happy +as we are." + +And then he stretched out his neck and sang, for all to hear: + + There's not in the wide world a sweetheart like mine, + So fair, so fine, + And no singer on earth sings better! + Let others go worship whomever they will, + I'm true to my beautiful sweetheart still + And shall never, forget her. + +"And so you're only going to love me for the summer?" she said. + +"That's just a way of talking," said he. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A Man of The World + +[Illustration] + + +Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler heaved five deep sighs and, at each sigh, she +laid an egg. Then she sat down on the eggs and sighed again. + +And the reeds swayed in the balmy wind and the nest swayed and the eggs +swayed that lay in the nest and the dear little brown bird that sat on +the eggs. Even the husband swayed. For, when one rush sways, the other +sways too; and he was sitting on one just beside the nest. + +"You're no worse off than others, darling," he said. "Look down into the +water and see for yourself." + +"I can see nothing," she said sadly. + +"Fiddlesticks!" said the reed-warbler. "You can peep over for a minute, +if you sit down again at once." + +And so she peeped over. + +It was certainly very busy down below. + +[Illustration] + +The pond-snail was swimming with her pointed shell on her back. She +stood right on her head in the water and made a boat of her broad foot, +which lay level with the surface of the pond and supported the whole +fabric. Then she stretched out her foot and the boat was gone and she +went down to the bottom and stuck a whole heap of slimy eggs to the +stalk of a water-lily. + +The pike came and laid an egg in a water-milfoil bush. The carp did the +same; and the perch hung a nice nest of eggs in between the reeds where +the warblers had built their nest. The frog brought her eggs, the +stickleback had almost finished his nest and hundreds of animals that +were so small that one could hardly see them ran about and made ready +for their young ones. + +Just then, the eel put his head up out of the mud: + +"If you will permit me, madam ... I have seen a bit of the world +myself...." + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler gave a faint scream. + +"I can't stand that person," she said to her husband. "He's so like the +adder, who ate my little sister last year, when she fell to the ground +as she was learning to fly. He has the same offensive manners and is +just as slippery." + +"Oh," said the eel, "it's a great misfortune for me if I meet with your +disapproval, madam, on that account. And it's quite unjust. I am only a +fish and not the slightest relation to the adder, who took that little +liberty with your sister, madam. We may have just a superficial +resemblance, in figure and movement: one has to wriggle and twist. But I +am really much more slippery. My name, for that matter, is Eel ... at +your service." + +"My wife is hatching her eggs," said the reed-warbler. "She can't stand +much excitement." + +"Thank you for telling me, Mr. Reed-Warbler," said the eel. "I did not +mean to intrude.... But as I have travelled considerably myself, like +you and your good lady, I thought I might venture to address you, in the +hope that we may hold the same liberal opinions concerning the petty +affairs of the pond." + +"So you are a traveller. Can you fly?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"Not exactly," said the eel. "I can't fly. But I can wriggle and twist. +I can get over a good stretch of country, which is more than most fish +are able to say. I feel grand in the damp grass; and give me the most +ordinary ditch and you'll never hear me complain. I come straight from +the sea, you know. And, when I've eaten myself fat here, I shall go back +to the sea again." + +"That's saying a good deal," said the reed-warbler. + +"Yes," said the eel, modestly. "And just because I have seen something +of the world, all this fuss about children in the pond here strikes me +as a bit absurd." + +"You're talking rather thoughtlessly, my good Eel," said the +reed-warbler. "I can see you have neither wife nor children." + +"Oh," said the eel, making a fine flourish with his tail, "that depends +on how you look at it! Last year, I brought about a million eels into +the world." + +"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Aren't you exaggerating?" asked her husband, who was equally impressed, +but did not wish to show it. + +"Possibly," replied the eel. "That's easily done, with such large +figures. But it's of no consequence. You can divide it by two, if that +eases your conscience." + +"And what about your own conscience, as the father of such an enormous +progeny?" + +"I never really consulted it," said the eel. + +"And how's your wife?" asked little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Can't say. I never saw her." + +"You never saw your wife?" + +"No, madam. Nor my children either." + +"Indeed, you do your friends an injustice," said the reed-warbler. "For, +only a moment ago, with my own eyes I saw how the stickleback built a +nest down there for his children." + +"The stickleback!" said the eel, with a sneer. "I can't stand +sticklebacks: they prick me so horribly in the neck. But that has +nothing to do with the case. What is a stickleback, I ask you? I +remember once when I was caught and about to be skinned. I was very +small at the time and the cook, who was going to put a knife into me, +said 'No bigger than a stickleback'!" + +"Were you caught? Were you about to be skinned?" asked the reed-warbler. +"How on earth did you escape?" + +"I slipped away from the cook," replied the eel. "Thanks to my +slipperiness, which your good lady disliked. Then I got into the sink +... out through the gutter, the gutter-pipe, the ditch and so on. One +has to wriggle and twist." + +"You may well say that!" said the reed-warbler. + +"One goes through a bit of everything, you see," said the eel. "But to +return to what we were saying, take us eels, for instance. We fling our +young into the sea and, for the rest, leave them to their own resources. +Like men of the world that we are, we know what life is worth and +therefore we fling them out wholesale, by the million, as I said just +now: I beg pardon, by the half-million; I don't want to offend your love +of accuracy. In this way, the children learn to shift for themselves at +once. I was brought up in this way myself and learnt to wriggle and +twist." + +"I can't understand it," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Very sorry," said the eel. "Perhaps my conversation is rather too much +for a lady who is sitting on her eggs." + +"I think children are the sweetest things in the world," she said. "One +can't help being fond of them, whether they're one's own or another's." + +"The ladies are always right," said the eel, eating a couple of +caddis-grubs and a little worm. "But am I mistaken, or did I see you eat +a grub just now, madam, which your husband brought you?" + +"A grub...?" + +"Yes ... isn't that a child too?" + +"I shall faint in a minute," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler; and she did. + +"Wriggle and twist!" said the eel; and off he went. + +The reed-warbler brought his wife back to life with three fat flies, +seven sweet songs and a jog on her neck. + +[Illustration] + +"You ought to appreciate me, at any rate!" he said, when she was +sufficiently recovered for him to speak to her. "The way I feed you and +sing to you! Think what other husbands are like." + +"So I do," she replied. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A Mother + +[Illustration] + + +Time passed and all respectable bird-wives were sitting on their eggs +and wearing a serious look in their eyes, while their husbands went +hunting for flies or sang to them. + +It was the same at the Reed-Warblers'. But there was no denying that the +husband was sometimes a little tired and cross. Then he would reflect +upon the easy time which the Eel husband had and the Frog husband and +the Perch husband and all the others. + +One evening he sat in the nest and sang: + + Now spring is here, to God all praise! + Though in hard work I'm up to the eyes. + For billing and cooing I'd just seven days; + Now I've to flutter about after flies + For my little wife, who our eggs is hatching; + And don't those flies just take some catching! + And each chick will want food for the good of its voice. + Aha, I have every right to rejoice! + +"If you're tired of it, why did you do it?" said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "You took pains enough to curry favour with me at first. +How smart you used to look. I believe you're already beginning to lose +your colouring." + +"It's weary work," he said. "When a fellow has to go after flies like +this, in all weathers, his wedding-finery soon wears out." + +"I don't think you're singing as nicely as you did," said she. + +"Really? Well, I can just as easily stop. It's for your sake that I pipe +my tune. Besides, you can see for yourself that I'm only joking. I'm +tremendously glad of the children. It will be an honour and a pleasure +to me to stuff them till they burst. Perhaps we might have been +satisfied with three." + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" she said. + +"So I am, dear, because of the other two. But, as I don't know which two +those are, it makes no difference." + +She put on a very serious face. But he caught a fat fly that was +passing, popped it into her mouth and struck up so pretty a trill that +she fell quite in love with him again. + +[Illustration] + +At that moment a deep sigh rose from the water under the bank. + +"That came from a mother," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I could hear that +plainly." + +"That's what it did," said a hoarse voice. + +The Reed-Warblers peeped down and beheld a cray-fish, who sat in the mud +staring with her stalked eyes. + +"Dear me, is that you, Goody Cray-Fish?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"It is indeed, dear madam," said the cray-fish. "It's myself and no +other. I was just sitting down here in my dirt listening to what the +quality were saying. Heavens, what a good time a fine lady like you +enjoys, compared with another!" + +"Every one has his burden," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Believe me, it's no +joke sitting here and perspiring." + +The cray-fish crossed her eyes and folded her antennae. + +"Yes, you may well talk," said she. "How long does it last with you? +Four or five weeks, I should say. But I have to go for six months with +mine." + +"Goodness gracious! But then you can move about." + +"Oh," said Goody, "moving is always a rather slow matter for a +cray-fish. And then you have only five eggs, ma'am, but I have two +hundred." + +"Dear me!" said the reed-warbler. "Then your poor husband has to slave +to provide food for that enormous family." + +"He? The monster!" replied the cray-fish. "He knows too much for that. I +haven't so much as seen him since the wedding." + +"Then you must have a huge, big nest for all those eggs," said the wife. + +"It's easy to see that you don't know poor folks' circumstance, dear +madam," said the cray-fish. "People of our class can't afford nests. No, +I just have to drag the eggs about with me as best I may." + +"Where are they, then, Goody Cray-Fish?" + +"I carry them on my hind legs, lady. I have ten little hind legs, you +see, besides my eight proper legs and my claws, which are very necessary +to bite one's way through this wicked world with. And on each of my hind +legs there is a heap of twenty eggs. That makes two hundred in all. I'll +show them to you, if you like. The eggs are worth looking at." + +[Illustration] + +So saying, the cray-fish turned over on her back and stuck out her tail +as far as she could. And there the eggs were, just as she had said, on +ten little back legs. + +"That comes of having too many hind-legs," said the reed-warbler. + +"For shame! To poke fun at the poor woman!" said his wife. + +But the cray-fish slowly turned round again and said, quietly: + +"Gentlemen are always so witty. We women understand one another better. +And I shouldn't so much mind about the eggs, if it wasn't that one can't +change one's clothes." + +"Change your clothes?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes, ma'am ... you change yours too, from time to time, I know. I have +seen the feathers with my own eyes, floating on the water. And it goes +so easily and quickly: a feather here, a feather there and it's done. +But other people, who wear a stiff shirt, have to take it all off at +once. And I can't do that, you see, as long as I am carrying the eggs +about. Therefore, since I have been married, I change only once a year. +Now one always grows a bit stouter, even though one is but a common +woman; and so I feel pretty uncomfortable sometimes, I assure you." + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler was greatly touched; and her husband began to sing, +for he was afraid lest all this sadness should make the eggs melancholy +and spoil the children's voices. + +But, at that moment, the cray-fish screamed and struck out with her +claws and carried on like a mad woman. + +"Look!... Ma'am ... do look!... There comes the monster!" + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler leant so far over the edge of the nest that she would +have plumped into the pond if her husband had not given her a good +shove. But he had no time to scold her, for he was curious himself. They +both stared down into the water. + +And there, as she had said, came Goody Cray-Fish's husband slowly +creeping up to her backwards. + +"Good-day, mother," he said. "I'm going to change." + +"Oh, are you?" she screamed. "Yes, that's just like you. You can run and +change at any moment while your poor lawfully-wedded wife has to go +about in her old clothes. You would do better to think of me and the +children." + +[Illustration] + +"Why should I, mother?" he replied, calmly. "What good would it do if I +thought of you? And what need have I to meddle with women's work? What +must be must be. Hold your tongue now, while it lasts, for this is no +joke!" + +Then the reed-warblers saw how he raised himself on his tail and split +across the middle of his back. Then he bent and twisted and pulled off +his coat over his head. + +"That's that," he said, puffing and blowing. "Now for the trousers!" + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler drew back her head, but immediately peeped down again. +And the cray-fish stretched and wriggled until, with a one, two, three, +the shell of his tail was shed as well. + +Now he was quite naked and funny to look at and talked with a very faint +voice: + +"Good-bye, mother," he said. "Give the young ones my love, for they will +be gone, I daresay, before I come back again. I am retiring for ten days +or so and shall be at home to nobody." + +"You monster!" yelled Goody. "Just look at him ... now he'll creep into +his hole and lie there idle. In ten days' time he'll come out again, in +brand-new clothes, looking most awfully arrogant." She wrung her claws +and glared terribly with her stalked eyes. "I should really like to +crawl into the hole after him and bite him to death," she continued. +"His life isn't worth twopence in his present condition. But I loved +him once. And one is and remains just a silly woman." + +"Yes, Goody Cray-Fish, and then you have the children," said little Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. + +"That's true," she replied. "And, indeed, they are my only comfort. The +dear little things, I feel as if I would love to eat them. You should +just see, ma'am, how they hang on to my skirts during the first week. +They are so fond of me that they simply can't leave me." + +"How nice that is!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes. And afterwards I have no trouble with them at all. You may believe +me or not, as you please, dear lady, but, as soon as they are a week +old, they go into the world and look after themselves. It's in their +blood. It has never been known in the pond for a twelve-day-old +cray-fish to be a burden on his family. And then you're done with them; +and that may be rather sad, but, of course, it's a relief as well: two +hundred children like that, in a small household! But you shall see +them, ma'am, when they come ... I really have to control myself in order +not to eat them, they're such dears!" + +"Well, I'll tell you something, Goody Cray-Fish," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. "When my young ones are out, you shall have the shells." + +"Oh, how good of you, ma'am!" said the cray-fish. "You could not +possibly do me a greater kindness. For I promise you I shall eat them. I +eat as much chalk as I can get hold of against the time when I change my +things, for that puts starch into the new shirt. But then, also, you +must really promise me, ma'am, to look at my young ones. They are so +sweet that, goodness knows, I should like to eat them...." + +At that moment, a large carp appeared in the water, with a sad, weary +face: + +"You do eat them," he said. + +"Oh!" yelled Goody, and went backwards into her hole and showed herself +no more. + +But Mrs. Reed-Warbler fainted on her five eggs and the carp swam on with +his sad, weary face. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Water-Spider + +[Illustration] + + +Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler was not feeling very well. + +She was nervous and tired from sitting on the eggs and she had just a +touch of fever. She could not sleep at night, or else she dreamt of the +cray-fish and the carp and the eel and screamed so loud that her husband +nearly fell into the pond with fright. + +"I wish we had gone somewhere else," she said. "Obviously, there's none +but common people in this pond. Just think how upset I was about Goody +Cray-Fish. Do you really believe she eats her children?" + +Before he could reply, the eel stuck his head out of the mud and made +his bow: + +"Absolutely, madam," he said, "ab-so-lutely. That is to say, if she can +get hold of them. They decamp as soon as they can, for they have an +inkling, you know, of what's awaiting them. Children are cleverer than +people think." + +"But that's terrible," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Oh, well," said the eel, "one eats so many things from year's end to +year's end! I don't condemn her for that. But, I admit, it doesn't look +well amid all that show of affection.... Hullo, there's the pike!... +Forgive me for retiring in the middle of this interesting conversation." + +He was off. + +And the pike appeared among the reeds with wide-open mouth and rows of +sharp teeth and angry eyes. + +"Oof!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Come down here and I'll eat you," said the pike, grinning with all his +teeth. + +"Please keep to your own element," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, indignantly. + +"I eat everything," said the pike, "ev-e-ry-thing. I smell eel, I smell +cray-fish, I smell carp. Where are they? Tell me at once, or I'll break +your reed with one blow of my tail!" + +[Illustration: THE PIKE APPEARED AMONG THE REEDS [p. 38 ] + +The reed-warblers were silent for sheer terror. And the pike struck out +with his tail and swam away. The blow was so powerful that the reeds +sighed and swayed and the birds flew up with startled screams. But the +reeds held and the nest remained where it was. Mrs. Reed-Warbler settled +down again and her husband began to sing, so that no one should see how +frightened he had been. Then she said: + +"A nice place this!" + +[Illustration] + +"You take things too much to heart," said he. "Life is the same +everywhere; and we must be satisfied as long as we can get on well +together. I am very much afraid that all this excitement will hurt the +children's voices and then they will disgrace us at the autumn concert. +Pull yourself together and control yourself!" + +"It's easy for you to talk," she said. "And I know well enough what life +is worth. My innocent little sister was eaten by an adder and my mother +was caught by a hawk, just after she had taught us to fly. I myself had +to travel in hot haste to Italy, last autumn, if I didn't want to die of +hunger. Then you came; and I have already learnt that marriage is not an +unmixed blessing. After all, one would be glad of peace just after the +children are born. And then, of course, I think of what the children +will grow up like in this murderers' den. Children take after others. +And such examples as they see before them here! Really, it might end in +their eating their parents!" + +"Yes, why not, if they taste good?" asked a ladylike voice on the +surface of the water. + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler shrank back and hardly dared look down. + +A little water-spider sat on the leaf of a water-lily and smoothed her +fine velvet dress. + +"You're looking very hard at me, Mrs. Reed-Warbler, but you won't eat +me," she said. "I lie too heavy on the stomach. I am a bit poisonous ... +just poisonous enough, of course, and no more. Apart from that, I am +really the most inoffensive woman in the water." + +"And you say that one ought to eat one's parents?" asked Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. + +"Maybe that was a rather free way of talking to a bird," said the +spider. "What suits one doesn't necessarily suit another. I only know +that I ate my mother last year and a fine, fat, old lady she was." + +"Sing to me, or I'll die!" screamed Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +Her husband sang. And, meanwhile, they looked down at the water-spider. + +She plunged head foremost into the water. For a moment, she let her +abdomen float on the surface of the pond and distended her spinnerets +till they were full of air. Then the creature sank and shone like silver +as she glided down to the bottom. + +"That's very, very pretty," said the reed-warbler. + +"Be quiet," said his wife and stared till she nearly strained her neck. + +Deep down in a bush, the spider had spun a bell, which she filled with +air. The bell was built of the finest yarn that she was able to supply +and fastened on every side with strong, fine threads, so that it could +not float away. And round about it was a big web for catching +insects.... Just now a water-mite was hanging in it and the spider took +her into the bell and sucked her out. + +"It's really remarkable," said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "She has a nest +just as we have, hung up between the reeds. For all we know, she may sit +on her eggs." + +[Illustration] + +"Ask her," said the reed-warbler. + +"I want first to get to the bottom of that story about her mother," said +she, sternly. + +Soon after, the spider came up again and sat on the leaf of the +water-lily and smoothed herself out. + +"You were looking down at me, weren't you?" she said. "Yes ... I have +quite a nice place, haven't I? A regular smart little parlour. You must +know I am an animal that loves fresh air, like Mr. Reed-Warbler and +yourself. And, as my business happens to lie in the water, it was +easiest for me to arrange it this way. It's thoroughly cosy down there, +I assure you. And, in the winter, I lock the door and sleep and snore +the whole day long." + +"Have you any eggs?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Rather!" said the spider. "I have everything that belongs to a +well-regulated household. I have any number of eggs. As I lay them, by +degrees, I hang them up in bundles from the ceiling of my parlour." + +"Don't you hatch them?" + +"No, dear lady. My heart is not so warm as that. And it's not necessary +either. They come out nicely by themselves." + +"Did your husband help you build the parlour?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"He had enough to do building for himself, the booby!" she said. "You +needn't think I would have him in my parlour, He made himself a little +room beside it; and then there was the tunnel between us and that was +really more than enough." + +"_Was?_" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Is he no longer with you, then?... +Oh, you mustn't take my question amiss, if it pains you. I find it so +difficult to understand the domestic conditions of the lower classes.... +Perhaps you don't even know where he is?" + +"Why, I should just think I did know!" replied the spider. "More or +less. For I ate him last Wednesday." + +"Goodness gracious me!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"He was in my way," said the spider. "I tumbled over him wherever I +went. And what was I to do with him? So I ate him up; and a tough little +brute he was!" + +"She ate her husband on Wednesday and she ate her mother last year," +said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Sing to me, or that terrible woman will be the +death of me!" + +But the reed-warbler himself was so frightened that he could not get out +a note. And the spider did not care in the least. + +"Yes ... mother," she said. "That was only out of hunger. I didn't eat +her alone, either. My brothers and sisters shared in the feast. We were +famishing and there was nothing else to eat, for it was well in the +autumn. Then mother came along, just in the nick of time, and so we ate +her." + +She jumped into the water again. + +But Mrs. Reed-Warbler did not sleep a wink that night. She kept on +whispering to herself: + +"She ate her mother ... she ate her husband on Wednesday...." + +"Come, don't think about it," said the reed-warbler. "Why, your own +mother was eaten by the hawk; and, if you eat me, it will be for love!" + +[Illustration: 'HE WAS IN MY WAY,' SAID THE SPIDER] + +"You ought to be ashamed to jest in such times as these," said she. + +"I think all times are alike," he said. "Those we live in always seem +the worst." + +Then morning came and the sun shone and he sang to his little brown wife +until she recovered her spirits. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The Bladder-Wort + +[Illustration] + + +Little Mrs. Reed-Warbler's babies were now expected any day. + +There was no end to her nervousness and unreasonableness. Her husband +simply could not satisfy her. If he brought her a fly, she shook her +head and asked how could he think her capable of eating immediately +before the most important event in her life. If he brought her none, she +said it was evidently his intention to starve her. If he sang, it was +unbearable to listen to him. If he was silent, she could plainly see +that he no longer cared for her. + +"You don't appreciate me as I deserve," he said. "You ought to be +married to the eel for a bit, or to the cray-fish's husband; then you +would know what's what." + +"And you ought to have taken the spider," said she. "Then you would have +been eaten." + +"Dear lady! Dear lady!" cried the cray-fish from down in the mud. + +"Well?" said the reed-warbler. + +"I can't stand this!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I only wanted to ask you, dear lady, not to forget me and those +shells," said the cray-fish. + +"I won't have anything to do with an odious woman like you, who eats her +own children," replied Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Oh, dear!... Surely, ma'am, you don't believe that mean carp who was +here the other day? A horrid, malicious fellow like that! He doesn't +even belong to the pond, you know. He's a regular man's fish. They only +put him here to fatten him up and eat him afterwards ... I saw it myself +last year; he was a mere spawn then; now he has grown big and stout on +men's food; and he has plenty of time, too, since he doesn't have to +work like another; and so he runs round and slanders poor people and +robs them of the sympathy of kind ladies like yourself." + +"Stop your chattering, Goody Cray-Fish," said the reed-warbler. "You'll +drive my wife quite silly with your silly talk." + +"Oh, dear!... Well, I beg a thousand pardons," said the cray-fish. "I +only want to remind the lady about the egg-shells." + +Then she went backwards into her hole. + +"Why will you think so much about all that rabble?" said the +reed-warbler to his wife. "There are other things in the world besides +cray-fish and eels and spiders. Find something pretty to look at. That +would do you good just now." + +"Show me something," she said, languidly. + +"Look at the beautiful white flower down below there," said he. "See how +charmingly he rises above the water. He surely can be neither a robber +nor a cut-throat." + +It was really a beautiful white flower that grew up from the bottom of +the pond on a long, thin stalk and looked exceedingly sweet and +innocent. Mrs. Reed-Warbler glanced at him kindly: + +"What's your name, you pretty flower?" she asked. "May I look at you a +little?" + +"Look as much as you please," replied the flower. "My name's +Bladder-Wort, and I have no time to waste in talking to you. I have +things to attend to and must hurry." + +[Illustration] + +Mrs. Reed-Warbler stretched her neck and peeped down into the water. + +"That horrid spider has her nest between his leaves," she said. + +"Well, the bladder-wort can't help that," replied her husband. "It's a +flower's fate to stand where he stands and take things as they come. He +sucks his food calmly out of the ground, has no stains on his flowers, +and no blood on his leaves. That's what makes him so poetic and so +refined." + +"Hush!" she said. "They are talking together." + +And talk together they did, with a vengeance. + +"Have you caught anything?" asked the bladder-wort. + +"Indeed I have," replied the water-spider. "I don't go to bed fasting. +This is a good time of year for water-mites, and so I don't complain. +And how have you done?" + +"Nicely, thank you," said the bladder-wort. "I have caught a hundred and +fifty midge-grubs and forty carp-spawn this afternoon. But I'm not +satisfied. I don't believe I could ever be satisfied." + +"What's that he's saying!" whispered little Mrs. Reed-Warbler, and +looked at her husband in dismay. + +"Be quiet," he said. "Let us hear more." + +The spider went into her parlour, hung seven eggs from the ceiling, +swallowed a mouthful of air and came out again. + +"You're really a terrible robber," she said. "If it wasn't that I had +come to lodge with you, I should be furious with you. Why, you take the +bread out of my mouth!" + +"Nonsense!" said the bladder-wort. "Surely there's plenty for the two +of us! I am quite pleased to have a lodger who drives the same trade as +myself. It gives one something to talk about." + +"It's really odd that a flower like yourself should have turned robber," +said the spider. "It's not in your nature, generally speaking." + +"What am I to say?" replied the flower. "These are hard times. There are +a great many of us, and the earth is quite exhausted. So I hit upon this +and it goes swimmingly. But then I have got my apparatus just right. +Would you like to see it?" + +[Illustration] + +"Very much," said the spider. "But you won't hurt me, will you?" + +"Be easy," said the bladder-wort, with a laugh. "You're too big for me. +Run along one of my stalks and I'll explain the whole thing to you." + +The spider crept cautiously for some way down the branch and then +stopped and looked at a little bladder there. + +"That's tight," said the bladder-wort. "That is one of my traps. I +catch my prey in them. I have a couple of hundred of them." + +"So you can eat two hundred water-mites at a time?" said the spider, +enviously. + +"I can. If they come. But I'm never so jolly lucky as all that. Now just +look: beside the bladder you will see a little flap, which is quite +loose. When some fool or other knocks up against it, it goes in +and--slap, dash!--the fool tumbles into the bladder. He can't get out; +and then I eat him at my leisure." + +"Do you hear?" whispered Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes," said the reed-warbler, with a very serious face. + +The spider could not resist fumbling at the flap with one of her legs: + +"Ow!" she yelled suddenly. + +She darted back with a jerk and the leg remained caught in the bladder. +It was drawn inside in a twinkling and the flap closed and the leg was +gone. + +"Give me back my leg, please," said the spider, angrily. + +"Have I your leg?" asked the bladder-wort. "Well then, you must have +touched the flap. What did you do that for, dear friend? I made a point +of warning you!" + +"You said I was too big." + +"So you are, worse luck! But, of course, I can easily eat you in bits, +like this." + +"It's not nice of you, seeing that you're my landlord," said the spider. +"But as I have seven legs left, I suppose I must forgive you." + +"Do, dear friend," said the bladder-wort. "I must tell you, I am not +really master of myself when those flaps are meddled with. Then I have +to eat what is inside of them. So be careful next time!" + +"You may be sure of that," said the spider. "One has to be cautious with +a fellow like you. Would you think it indiscreet if I asked you what my +leg tastes like?" + +"Oh, well," said the bladder-wort, "there wasn't much on it. For that +matter, I've finished, in case you care to see what's left of it." + +Just then the flap was opened, and a tiny little hard stump was flung +out into the water. + +"Is that my leg?" asked the spider. + +"Don't you recognise it?" + +The bladder-wort laughed contentedly. The spider stood and looked at the +stump for a little while. Then she said good-night and limped sadly into +her parlour. + +"Good-night," said the bladder-wort, pleasantly. "And good luck to your +hunting in the morning." + +"I shall never survive this," said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +But, at that moment, she felt something alive under her: + +"The children!" she screamed. + +She was up on the edge of the nest in a second. On the opposite side sat +her husband, watching just as eagerly as she. + +[Illustration] + +One egg was quite in two and one of the others was burst. A wee, blind, +naked youngster lay in the nest; and from the other egg protruded the +dearest little leg of a chick. + +"Did you ever see anything like it?" cried she. "Isn't it charming?" + +"Delightful!" said he. + +Then they began carefully to peck at the other eggs. And, inside, the +young chicks pecked with their little beaks and five minutes later, +they were all five out. + +"Help me to clear up," she said. + +Out flew the shells, on every side, down into the water. + +"God bless you, kind lady!" cried Goody Cray-Fish from down below. + +She was out for an evening stroll. But no one heard her. The +reed-warblers were mad with delight over their children and had no +thought for anything else in the world. + +"What are you thinking of?" said the husband. "They'll perish with cold. +Sit on them at once!" + +And she sat on them and covered them up and peeped at them every moment. + +But he stayed up half the night, singing, on the top of the reed. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Summer + +[Illustration] + + +The whole pond was alive. + +There were not only great, horrid pikes and great mannerly carp and +roach and perch and sticklebacks and eels. There were cray-fish and +frogs and newts, pond-snails and fresh-water mussels, water-beetles and +daddy-long-legs, whirligigs and ever so many others. + +There was the duck, who quacked at her ducklings, and the swan, who +glided over the water with bent neck and rustling wings, stately and +elegant. There was the dragon-fly, who buzzed through the air, and there +were the dragon-fly's young, who crawled upon the water-plants and ate +till they burst. But that did not matter; they just had to burst, if +they were to come to anything. + +There was the bladder-wort, who had his innocent white flowers above the +water and his death-traps down at the bottom; the spider, who was still +his lodger and now had the whole ceiling full of eggs, and hundreds of +thousands of midge-grubs, who lay on the surface of the water and stuck +up their air-vessels and hurried down to the bottom the moment a shadow +fell over the pond. There were hundreds of thousands of midges, who +danced in the air, and there was the water-lily, who knew how beautiful +she was, and who was unapproachable for self-conceit. + +There were many more, whom you could not count without getting dizzy. +And then there were the tadpoles, who were ever so many and ever so +merry. And you only had to take a drop of water and examine it through a +magnifying-glass to see how it swarmed with tiny little animals, who all +danced about and ate one another without the least compunction. + +But just under the reed-warblers' nest there was a little May-fly grub, +who was in a terrible state of fright. + +She had entered into conversation with little Mrs. Reed-Warbler one day, +when the latter had gone all the way down the reed to find food for her +five youngsters, who were simply insatiable and kept on crying for more. +Just at that moment, the May-fly grub had come up to the surface; and +now the bird's beak was exactly over her. + +"Let me live," said she. + +"That's what they all say," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "My children have to +live, too!" + +[Illustration] + +So saying she tried to snatch her. But the grub wriggled so and looked +so queer that she could not. + +"Listen to me for a moment," said the grub; "then I'm sure that you +won't hurt me. I am so small and so thin and fill so little space in a +stomach." + +"Well, what is it?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I have lived here a long time," said the grub. "I have heard you talk +to your husband and to the cray-fish and the eel and the spider. It was +all so beautiful, what you said. I am certain that you have a good +heart." + +"I don't know about my heart," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But I know I +have five hungry children." + +"I am a child myself," said the grub. "And I should so awfully like to +live till I grow up." + +"Do you think that life is so pleasant?" + +"I don't know. I am only a child, you see. I crawl about down here and +wait. When I am grown up, I shall have wings and be able to fly like +you." + +"You don't surely imagine that you're a bird?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Oh, no! I certainly don't aim so high as that. I shall just become a +May-fly." + +"I know them," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I have eaten lots of them. They +taste very good." + +"Oh, well, in that case, do wait for me to grow up, before you eat me. I +shall only live for a few hours, you know, when I get my wings. I shall +just have time to fly once round the pond and lay my eggs in the water. +Then I must die. And then you may eat me and welcome. But let me go now. +And tell your husband also. He has been after me twice." + +"Very well," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "though it's foolish of me. You'll +probably cheat me and let someone else eat you first." + +"I shall do my best to escape," said the grub. "And, now, thank you ever +so much." + +Before the grub had done speaking, little Mrs. Reed-Warbler was up in +the nest again, with six midge-grubs, which she had caught in one bite. +Her husband was there too with a dragon-fly, which the children tore to +pieces and ate up amid cries of delight. + +"There's nothing the matter with their appetites or with their voices +either," he said. "If only they could shift for themselves! I am as lean +as a skeleton." + +"And what about me?" said she. "But the children are thriving and that +is the great thing." + +He sighed and flew away and came home and flew away again; and so it +went on till evening. Then they both sat wearily on the edge of the nest +and looked out across the smooth pond: + +"It is curious how the life exhausts one," she said. "Sometimes, when I +feel thoroughly tired, I can almost understand those animals who let +their children look after themselves. Did you notice the eel the other +day? How fat and gay he is." + +"Are you talking of me, madam?" asked the eel, sticking his head out of +the mud. + +"Oh, you're always there!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"More or less. One has to wriggle and twist." + +"Have you any news of your children?" + +"No, thank goodness!" + +"Oh, really?" said the perch. "I have an idea that I ate a couple of +them at breakfast.... Excuse me for being so frank!" + +"Not at all, not at all!" said the eel. "The family is large enough even +so." + +"How on earth did they come up here from the sea?" asked the roach. + +[Illustration] + +"Just as I did, I imagine," said the eel. "They've got scent of +something to be made here; and two or three miles are nothing to them." + +"Heigho!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Are you sighing because of all this fuss with the children? Well, +madam, what did I tell you?" + +"Not at all," replied Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "I could never behave like +you." + +[Illustration: 'OH! REALLY,' SAID THE PERCH [p. 64 ] + +"One has one's duties," said the reed-warbler. "And the loftier one's +station in life, the heavier the duties." + +"Thank goodness, then, that I am of lowly station," said the eel. "I +have a capital time in the mud." + +"Then, again, one is interested in preserving a certain amount of poetry +in the world. There is plenty of rabble, plenty of ugliness, I admit. +All the more reason why we higher animals should do something to promote +the ideal. And I can't imagine anything more ideal than a father's +labours on behalf of his family, even though they do become rather +fatiguing at times." + +"You're tremendously up in the clouds to-day, Mr. Reed-Warbler," said +the eel. "Every one to his taste. But, as for poetry, I must confess +that I have not seen much of it in my life. And yet I have wriggled and +twisted about the world a good deal. The great question, everywhere, is +eating and eating and eating. And those who have children to care for +are the worst robbers of the lot. Good-bye." + +"That's a disgusting fellow," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "It was very nice +of you to give him a piece of your mind. I quite agree with you. +Besides, I myself performed a really fine action to-day." + +She ran to the reed and looked into the water: + +"Are you there, my little grub?" she asked. + +"Yes, thank you," said the May-fly grub. + +"And how are you?" + +"Fairly. The eel almost caught sight of me; and I was nearly getting +into the bladder-wort's prison; and the water-spider was after me before +that. Otherwise, I'm all right." + +"What's this now?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"Oh," answered his wife, "it's a protegee of mine! A little May-fly +grub. I promised that I wouldn't eat her. She is so happy at the thought +of being grown-up ... and that only for a couple of hours, poor little +thing!" + +She said nothing about her intention of eating the grub when she was +grown up; and the reed-warbler was seriously angry. + +"What sentimental gammon!" he said. "It's unseemly for a woman with five +children to commit such follies." + +"I thought it so poetic to give her leave to live," said she. + +"Fiddlesticks!" said her husband. "Poetry doesn't apply to one's food. +If it did, we should all die of hunger. Besides you can't take a +creature like that into consideration." + +Thereupon he ran down the reed and hunted eagerly for the grub, to eat +her. + +But she heard what he said and had gone down to the bottom with terror +in her little heart. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The Carp + +[Illustration] + + +The summer wore on and things grew worse and worse. + +No end of young had come out of the eggs and they filled the whole pond. +Out in the middle it was quite green with millions of little +water-weeds, which died and rotted and reeked till seven big perch died +of it and floated on their backs. + +"The pond's blossoming!" sneered the rushes. + +"There's a horrid smell here," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I think, considering all things, that it's delightful here," said the +carp. + +The carp swam a little way in among the reeds. He had made a friend +there, in the shape of the fresh-water mussel, who waded ever so slowly +through the mud, or else settled on the bottom and yawned. + +They suited each other, these two, for they were quiet and sedate +people, who led the same sort of life. + +"I don't care to go hunting wildly for food," said the carp. "I open my +mouth where the water is moderately thick and let whatever there is run +in. Something always sticks. Then one needn't kill people and one +doesn't see all that misery." + +"It's just so with us," said the fresh-water mussel. "I employ exactly +the same methods. It's more gentlemanly and I have grown stout on it." + +Then the two sat and talked and yawned all the time and amused +themselves capitally notwithstanding. + +"Mind you don't go too near them," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler to the May-fly +grub. + +"Yes, I will; thanks very much," said the grub. + +"The carp and the mussel are nicer than the others, I think," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler to her husband. + +"Really? And why, pray, madam?" asked the eel, who was always where he +was least expected. "Surely they do just the same as all of us ... only +the animals which they eat are smaller." + +"There is a difference, my good fellow," said the reed-warbler. "It's +only your lack of refinement that prevents your seeing it." + +"Yes, wriggle and twist!" said the eel. + +The reed-warbler did not condescend to answer him, but turned to the +carp and the mussel, struck up a little trill and said politely: + +"My wife and I have the honour to bid you good-morning, gentlemen. We +are delighted to observe that you lead your lives in a more mannerly way +than most of the other inhabitants of the pond. We have suffered greatly +at the sight of the extraordinary cruelty ..." he paused, caught a +blue-bottle, and tossed it to his children in the nest ... "of the +extraordinary cruelty that prevails in society here. It cannot but be +extremely unpleasant for well-bred people to witness the cynical and +unveiled brutality with which every one satisfies his app-- ..." Here he +seized a caddis-fly, ate it, wiped his mouth, and continued, "satisfies +his appetite. You, gentlemen, are different. If you had wings, I should +be inclined to believe that originally you did not belong to this +company at all." + +"Your presumption is absolutely correct," replied the carp, waving his +fins complacently. + +"You are quite right," said the mussel, yawning politely. + +[Illustration] + +"I was born in another pond," said the carp, "but I must confess that I +have no distinct recollection of it. I only know that they did not lead +such a wild, brigand's life there as here. For instance, I don't think +there were any fish but carp in the pond, which, of course, improved the +tone, you know. No doubt it was a nobleman's carp-pond. We were fed five +times a day and everything was removed that could inconvenience us in +any way. Until I came here, I had never set eyes on such things as +pikes, water-spiders or that horrible bladder-wort." + +"It must have been idyllic there," said the reed-warbler. "May I ask, +were there no reed-warblers?" + +"Oh, yes!" said the carp, "I think they had permission to build in the +reeds. And then there were a good many frogs, probably to cheer us up +with their croaking." + +"Then how did you come here?" + +"A-ah," said the carp, "that's not an easy question for me to answer. +You see, we came in a basket, I and a large number of my friends. And +then we were tilted out into the pond. I can't think of any other reason +than that they wished to improve the tone here. We had nothing to +complain of where we were before. Did you hear anything about well-bred +people in this place expressing such a wish?" + +"No," said the reed-warbler. "It didn't happen in my time. But I have +only been here since the spring." + +"Oh, I see," said the carp. "Yes, I've been here four years. I wish I +were anywhere else. One lives in everlasting terror of the pike. A +number of my friends have disappeared in an utterly incomprehensible +manner and, I believe, saving your presence, that the pike has eaten +them. And then, as you very properly observed, the prevailing tone here +is rather ill-bred. But it doesn't matter much to you. I presume you go +away in the autumn?" + +"A little trip to Italy," said the reed-warbler, "with my family." + +The carp waited and thought for a while. He yawned once or twice, then +said: + +"You might be able to do me a service ... it occurred to me when I saw +that nice, pointed beak of yours." + +"Delighted, I'm sure," said the reed-warbler. + +"You see, every one has his cross to bear and mine is in my gills. Would +you care to see?..." + +He opened one of his gill-lids and the reed-warbler ran down the reed +and peeped in: + +"Yes, upon my word," he said, "there's a cross there." + +"That's the double-animal," said the carp with a deep sigh. + +"The what?..." + +"The double-animal. Unfortunately, I have to admit that I brought him +with me from the otherwise first-rate, high-class carp-pond which I was +telling you about. The pain he caused me even then was great, but lately +it has become almost unendurable. You must know, the animal consists +originally of two worms ... of the kind, you know, that don't care to +work for themselves, but take up their quarters with respectable people +and suck at them. I have a couple of dozen of those in my stomach, but +they don't inconvenience me anything like so much as the double-animal. +You see, to increase the meanness of the proceeding, these scoundrels +have a trick of fastening together in pairs, cross-wise. They suck +themselves firmly on to each other, until they grow into one, and then +they suck at me with united strength." + +"I never heard anything like it!" said the reed-warbler. + +"I have one like it on the other side of my head, in my other gill," +said the carp. "We can talk about him later. Meanwhile, may I ask you if +you would kindly try to remove the brute with your beak? I should be +exceedingly grateful to you. I am in such pain that I would rather die +than go on living like this." + +At that moment, it was as though the world were coming to an end. + +The reed-bank heaved and swayed, the reeds snapped. The reed-warblers +screamed, all the seven of them; the water spurted up; the mussel rolled +over; the spider's parlour was smashed. + +"At last!... At last!..." + +It was the pike's voice. + +"Spare my life! Spare my life!" yelled the carp. + +What happened next no one was ever able properly to describe. + +The carp cracked and crunched between the pike's teeth, and all who were +near thought their last day had come. But, a little after, it grew still +and, when the reed-warblers had recovered themselves, the pike was gone, +and the carp's tail-fin lay and floated on the water. + +[Illustration: ] + +The reed-warblers' nest had dropped down on one side and they had to +work for some time before they got it right. However, all the children +were safe and sound and gradually they recovered from their alarm. The +water grew clear again and the mussel sat down below and yawned. + +"That was a noble character, that friend of yours who has been taken +from us," said the reed-warbler. + +"Yes," said the mussel. "For that matter, I have had experiences of my +own...." + +"We shall look forward to hearing your story to-morrow," said the +reed-warbler. "We are too much upset to talk any more to-day." + +Just then, the carp's tail sank to the bottom. + +Goody Cray-Fish caught it and dragged it to her hole. + +"Poor people must be content with crumbs from the rich man's table," +said she. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Mussel + +[Illustration] + + +The next evening, the reed-warbler peeped down into the water. + +The fresh-water mussel was sitting there and yawning as usual. There was +nothing out of the way about him. + +"Good-evening," said the reed-warbler. "How are you, after your friend's +unhappy end?" + +"Thank you," replied the mussel. "It has not disturbed my composure in +the least. Generally speaking, nothing disturbs my composure. Only, if +any one sticks something between my shells, I become furious and I +pinch." + +"I should do the same in your place," said the reed-warbler. "And your +equanimity is really quite enviable. But still I think that the +misfortune of one's neighbour ... of your intimate friend." + +"I have no neighbour," said the mussel. "And the carp was not my +intimate friend. We were not rivals, that is all. In a case like that, +it's easy to be friends. I was often amused at the carp's way of +talking. But I never contradict, except when any one sticks something +between my shells. The carp had had to do with human beings; that's what +it was. It always makes animals so ridiculous. You're the same, for that +matter." + +"I look upon that as a compliment," said the reed-warbler, who was a +little offended but did not wish to show it. "However, I have nothing to +do with human beings, except that they protect me and have not the heart +to do me harm, because of my pretty voice. They stop and listen to me as +they pass. Many a poet has written beautiful lines about me." + +"Oh, really?" said the mussel. "Upon my word, they did something of the +sort about me too. But what they said was lies." + +"What did they say?" + +"There was a lot of rubbish about pearls." + +"Oh, have you pearls? Wife! Wife! The mussel has pearls!" + +"Not a bit of it," said the fresh-water mussel. "Do stop shouting like +that. You can be heard all over the pond. If any one overheard you, I +should be in danger of being fished up. Thank goodness, there are no +pearls formed on me!" + +[Illustration] + +"O-oh!" said the reed-warbler, in a disappointed tone. + +"It's just the pearls the poets talk their nonsense about. They sing of +how happy the mussel is with the precious pearl he guards, and all that +sort of thing.... Do you know what a pearl is?" + +"No," said the reed-warbler. + +"It's a nasty, pushing parasite ... something like the double-animal +that hurt the carp. When it comes into us, it hurts us, of course. Then +we cover the brute with mother of pearl till it dies. And then it sits +on our shell and plays at being a pearl." + +"Oh!" said the reed-warbler. "Do you hear that, wife? All our illusions +are vanishing one by one. Soon there will be nothing but vacancy around +us." + +"Oh, it won't be vacant so long as we have those five greedy children!" +said she. "They are crying for more." + +"They shall have no more to-day," he answered, crossly. "You and I have +been running and flying about for them all day long. Now, upon my word, +I intend to be left in peace to have a chat with the neighbours. Let's +give them a flogging." + +And a flogging they got. And then they cried still more and then they +went to sleep. + +"You hinted last night that you were not born here, in the pond," said +the reed-warbler. "Tell us where you come from." + +"With pleasure," replied the mussel. "I am fond of a gossip in the +evening myself. And no one will believe that I have had any experience, +because I move about so little.... But wait a bit. There's a saucy +person there I want a word with...." + +It was no other than Goody Cray-Fish. + +She had crawled nearer and was fumbling at the mussel with her legs. Now +he slammed his shell down upon one of them and cut it off in the middle. +Goody screamed like one possessed and hammered away at the mussel with +her claws, but he only laughed. + +[Illustration: 'HE SLAMMED HIS SHELL DOWN'] + +"What a common fellow!" cried Goody. "Can't he leave a respectable woman +alone?" + +"Aye," said the mussel, "when she doesn't go for me!" + +"A wretched mussel like that!" she screamed. "A mollusc! He is much +lower in rank than I and he dares to be impertinent. I have twenty-one +pairs of legs and he knows it: how many has he?" + +"Come along, with all the one-and-twenty!" said the mussel. + +Goody went on scolding and then the reed-warbler interfered: + +"Drop that strong language now," he said. "It doesn't matter about those +legs. I have only two myself." + +"I should be sorry to be found lacking in respect for you, Mr. +Reed-Warbler," said the cray-fish. "I know who are my betters, right +enough. But I can't understand how a fine gentleman like you can care to +talk to one of those molluscs." + +Scolding and grumbling, she withdrew to her hole, but left her head and +claws hanging outside. The mussel opened his shell, but kept four or +five of his eyes constantly fixed on Goody. These eyes were on the edge +of the mantle which lay in the slit between the shells. As soon as the +cray-fish made the slightest movement, he closed his shells at once: + +"One's soft inside all right," he said. "But one shows the hard shell to +the world." + +"Go on with your story," said the reed-warbler. + +"I was born in another pond, far from here," said the mussel. "I can't +give you a detailed description of it, because, as you will understand, +one in my position does not have many opportunities of looking about +him. It was not as grand as in the high-class carp-pond, that's sure +enough. To be honest with you, I think it was much the same as here--an +awful heap of rabble of every kind, but lots of mussels in particular. +They sat in the mud as close as paving-stones and took the bread out of +one another's mouths. If you had a mouthful of water, it was generally +mere swipes. Some one else had sucked all the goodness out of it, you +see." + +"What did you do then?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"I did nothing," replied the mussel. "I never do anything, except when +any one sticks something between my shells. Then I become furious and I +pinch.... Hullo, are you there again, Goody Cray-Fish? Do you want one +of your little legs amputated, eh?" + +"The wind-bag!" said the cray-fish. + +"But you might have died of hunger," said the reed-warbler. + +"One doesn't die so easily as that," replied the mussel. "Unless an +accident befalls one, as in the case of our poor carp. In fact, I once +lay for a whole year on a table in a room." + +"Goodness gracious!" said the reed-warbler. "How did you get there?" + +"I was fished up by a student or somebody. He wrapped me in a piece of +paper and put me on the table. He wanted to see how long I could live. +Every Saturday, he unpacked me and poured a little water over me; and +that was enough to keep me alive." + +"But how did you escape from him?" + +"Well," said the mussel, "it was when he got engaged. People used to +come and see him sometimes, you know, and, of course, they all had to +look at the wonderful mussel that refused to die. There was a young girl +among them who was very cross with him for teasing me so. But he only +laughed at her. Well, when I had been there a year, he got engaged to +her.... They were sitting on the sofa just by me, when it happened, and +I was not so dead but that I could lift my shells a little and see the +whole thing: they're funny creatures, those human beings! Well, then he +asked her if there was anything she would like on that joyful day. Yes, +she would like me to be put back in the water again. He laughed at her. +But off they went with me to the very pond where I was fished up and +threw me in. Then I settled down among the other fellows and began all +over again." + +"Yes ... love!" said the reed-warbler, looking round at his wife. + +"Ah ... love!" said she, returning his glance. + +"I have nothing to say against it," said the mussel. "But, as a matter +of fact, I have no personal experience of it." + +"Surely you have a wife," said the reed-warbler. "Or, perhaps ... +perhaps you are a lady ...?" + +"I am neither one or the other. I am just a mussel. And I lay my eggs +and then that's done!" + +"Do you look after your children nicely?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"What next!" exclaimed the mussel. "My children are very remarkable +individuals. They are sailors." + +"Sailors?" + +"Yes, they are indeed. As soon as they come out of the egg, they hoist a +great sail and put out. It's only when they grow older, if they haven't +been eaten by that time, that they settle down as decent mussels with +shells upon them and philosophy in their constitutions." + +"Don't let us talk about children," said the reed-warbler. "It always +upsets my wife so. Tell us now how you found your way to this pond." + +"Ah," said the mussel, "that comes of a peculiarity I possess of +becoming furious when any one sticks something between my shells. I +don't know if I told you that I possess that peculiarity?" + +"You've told me several times," answered the reed-warbler. "I shall +never forget it; I shall take care, be sure of that." + +"Mind you do," said the mussel. "You know, it was one of your sort that +managed my removal." + +"A reed-warbler?" + +"I don't exactly know if it was a reed-warbler. I can't see very well +outside the water.... Good-day to you, good-day to you, Goody Cray-Fish! +I can always see you!... And to me one bird is much like another. +However, it must have been a gull. Well, I was sitting at the bottom and +yawning, as I usually do. Just above me was a little roach. Then, +suddenly, splash came the gull and seized the roach. He swooped down at +such a pace that he plumped right to the bottom. One of his little toes +stuck between my shells and I pinched. The gull tugged and pulled, but I +am strong when I become furious and I held tight. He was the stronger, +in a way, nevertheless. For he pulled me off the bottom and then I went +up through the water and into the air." + +"Why, it's quite a fairy-tale!" said the reed-warbler. + +"We flew a good distance," the mussel continued, "high above the fields +and woods. I could just peep out, for my shells were ajar because of the +bird's toe. We lost the fish on the way, but I held on, however much the +gull might struggle and kick. Of course, I did not mean to hang on for +ever, you know, but I wanted to have my say as to where we should +alight. Suppose I had been dropped into a tall tree and had to hang +there and wait until a student came and got engaged...." + +[Illustration] + +"He would have come all right," said the reed-warbler. "I've travelled a +great deal, but I have never been anywhere that there wasn't a student +who got engaged." + +"Well, in my case, it would have been rather uncertain," said the +mussel. "And so, when I looked down and saw that there was blue +underneath me, I let go and fell here, into the pond." + +"And are you satisfied?" + +"Yes, for the present. I have seen no other mussels, so it is a good +deal pleasanter than in the other place." + +"That's a curious story," said the reed-warbler. + +Then he sat and fell a-thinking and night came. + +But Mrs. Reed-Warbler ran down the reed and peered into the dark water: + +"Are you there, my little grub?" she asked. + +"Yes, thank you," said the May-fly grub. + +"Have you had a good time to-day?" + +"Yes, thank you. I was only nearly eaten up by the perch; and then there +was a duckling after me and a horrid dragon-fly grub and a water-beetle. +Otherwise everything was very nice indeed." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Water-Lily + +[Illustration] + + +"Don't you think we shall be able to let the children out soon?" asked +the reed-warbler. + +"Certainly not!" said his wife. "There can be no question of the little +dears standing on their legs for quite a month yet." + +"They can stand on their legs as it is," said he, "for they nearly +trample one another to death when I come along with a silly fly. I tell +you, it's getting a bit difficult to provide food for everybody. There +are such an awful lot of us after it now. There are children all over +the neighbourhood and they are all crying out for food." + +"Are you beginning to see the truth of what I said, madam?" asked the +eel, sticking his head out of the mud. + +"Hold your tongue and mind your own business, you ugly fish," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler. + +"Your husband has come round to my views long ago," said the eel. "I can +see that plainly. He would give anything to be able to roam about as a +free bird, instead of wearing himself out with a big family." + +"You're quite mistaken, my good fellow," said the reed-warbler. "I +certainly admit ..." + +"You'd better mind what you're admitting!" screamed his wife and pecked +at him. + +"Wriggle and twist!" said the eel; and off he went. + +That afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Reed-Warbler sat discussing the question +again: + +"If only we can hold out," said he. "Just now, I was fighting like mad +with my old friend, the flycatcher, for a ridiculous little grub. I got +it, but he will never forgive me. When poverty comes in at the door, +love flies out at the window, as the human beings say. It will end in +screaming and quarrelling all over the pond." + +"It cannot be worse than it is," said she. "Do as I do and think of all +the beautiful things the poets have sung about us. It always helps to +keep one's spirits up." + +[Illustration] + +"I wish I had a couple of nice little poets here to feed the children +with," said he, grumpily. + +They sat again for a while, plunged in gloomy thoughts. The young ones +were having their mid-day nap. Then he said: + +"Things are queerly divided in this world. The number of sorrows and +cares that we have, we free birds, to whom the whole world is open! Look +at the water-lily. She's bound to her place. She has to struggle up +through the dark water for ever so many days before she reaches the +surface. Then she's there and unfolds her white flower and is happy. She +hasn't a care ... look at her, lying and rocking and dreaming. I wish +we were water-lilies!" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "And her seeds ripen in her lap and then +glide down in the water and take root and grow up and, next year, they +blossom around her. Oh, how delightful it must be!" + +"Yes, but think of the bladder-wort and how he took us in!" said he. + +"Pooh!" she replied. "Of course, it was that horrid spider who lived +with him that led him into evil courses. No one will make me believe +that there is anything but peace and contentment in the water-lily's +beautiful calyx." + +"Hush!" he said. "She's talking to that pretty little spear-wort beside +her." + +The two anxious birds bent their heads and listened. + +"You spiteful minx!" said the water-lily. "You enticed two bumble-bees +away from me to-day, though you haven't a farthing's-worth of honey in +your withered calices." + +"Scold away!" said the spear-wort. "All your fine clothes won't help you +in the least. Things go by merit, you see. No respectable bumble-bee +will look at a frivolous person like you. And you may be sure that I +have more honey in one of my flowers than you in your whole body." + +"Here I stand with all my pollen ripe," said the water-lily, "and can't +get rid of it. How can any one care to look at a beggar like you? But I +shall find a way of revenging myself. You annoyed me long ago, when we +were growing up through the water. Your nasty thin stalks swarmed over +me and would have choked me, if they could. You, with your pretence! In +the autumn, there won't be a particle of you left. It's too funny, that +you should be allowed to stand in the way of respectable people." + +"In the autumn, my seeds will be ripe and sown, Water-Lily dear," +replied the spear-wort. "And, next spring, I shall grow up and tease +you, just as I'm doing now. Trust me for that." + +"Unless they come and clean out the pond first," said the water-lily. +"For then they'll take you and leave me here because of my beauty." + +The spear-wort could say nothing to this, for it was true. + +"Did you hear?" whispered Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Hush," answered the reed-warbler. "Here comes a bumble-bee." + +And a big, buzzing bumble-bee came and whirred upon her wings and hung +for a while in the air, above the two flowers. + +"This way, please, dear Bumble-Bee!" cried the water-lily and displayed +her white petals to the best advantage. "I keep the freshest honey in +the whole district. Pray come nearer. I have combs and combs full. And +here is pollen in fancy wrappers. And I have laid out my broad green +leaves on the water for you to rest on, if you are tired. See for +yourself ... it is quite dry here ... pray ..." + +"Don't mind that humbug," said the spear-wort. "This is the real old +shop for honey. I scorn to advertise in that silly way, with big white +petals and all that pretence. I put all I know into my honey and my +pollen. I only have a little white flower for you to know me by." + +"You must on no account be seen going into that common shop," screamed +the water-lily. "Your honoured children will simply be poisoned by the +stuff she keeps. If indeed she has any, for there were two big +bumble-bees with her this morning and they looked very dissatisfied when +they flew away." + +"Don't you believe her," cried the spear-wort. "It's sheer jealousy +makes her talk like that. The bumble-bees were exceedingly pleased and +they have produced a quantity of honey. Mother Water-Lily's is +yesterday's. No one will have anything to say to it; I swear it's all +spoilt." + +[Illustration: THE WATER LILY] + +"Buzz ... buzz ...!" said the bee and flew away. + +"You humbug!" said the water-lily. + +"You idiot!" said the spear-wort. + +"That's the worst of keeping bad company," said the water-lily. + +"It comes of your mountebank ways, of course," said the spear-wort. +"They're enough to drive respectable people from the pond." + +They could think of nothing more to say and lay on the water and looked +angrily at each other. + +"Oh dear!" said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "Where on earth is one to go +to find poetry?" + +"Where can one find a fly?" said her husband. + +"We must take life as it is," said the mussel, "and meddle with it as +little as possible. That's what I do; and there's nothing to prevent my +remaining here and growing to be a hundred." + +A boy stood on the edge of the pond. He had a big stone in his hand. +Suddenly, he flung it into the water with all his might. Then he went on +and thought no more about it. + +But the stone had hit the mussel and smashed him to pieces. + +"There!" he said. "That's the end of me. Both shells smashed ... there's +nothing to be done. Good-bye and thank you for your pleasant company." + +[Illustration] + +One by one all the eyes on his mantle grew dim; and then he was dead. + +"Goodness knows who will be the next!" said the reed-warbler. + +But Goody Cray-Fish came slowly crawling and took the dead mussel in her +claws: + +"Now I shall get my leg back with interest," said she. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +[Illustration] + +The Cray-Fish's Journey + + +"How is my dear grub?" asked little Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Pretty well, thanks," replied the May-fly grub. "There was a roach, who +wanted to eat me; and two caddis-grubs, who tugged at me; and a +whirligig, who bit me in one of my legs. Otherwise, I've had a capital +time." + +Aren't you almost ready?" + +"To-day or to-morrow, I think." + +"Take care you don't meet with an accident first," said Mrs. +Reed-Warbler, kindly. + +Goody Cray-Fish crept round restlessly: + +"Food's scarce," she said. "Oh, if I were only a smart bird and could +fly away! But, it's true, you're angry with me, ma'am, and I hardly dare +speak to you." + +"I was very angry with you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But, since then, I +have experienced such horrors that I've almost forgotten it. I have made +the acquaintance of a spider who ate her own mother." + +"Oh dear, oh dear!" said the cray-fish. "That's enough to upset any +mother." + +"So it is. She also ate her husband." + +"I don't say that's right," said the cray-fish. "But at any rate it's +more excusable, for men are neither more nor less than monsters. Oh, of +course, I make an exception of your own husband, ma'am." + +"Is it true, Goody Cray-Fish?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler--"tell me, did you +really eat your children?" + +"I had the misfortune to eat seven of them," replied the cray-fish, with +a woebegone face. "But it was out of sheer love. They were so nice. And, +as I was patting them with my claws, I happened to touch them too hard. +So I had to eat them myself, rather than let them go to strangers." + +"It's terrible to listen to," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Yes, it's sad," said the cray-fish. "But their troubles are over now, +poor little dears, while their hundred and ninety-three brothers and +sisters have to go on struggling through this wicked world! Goodness +alone knows how many of them are still alive and how they are doing!" + +"Yes, it's a wicked world," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Would you mind telling me, ma'am?" asked the cray-fish, "don't you +think a body might get away from the pond?" + +"We shall leave in the autumn," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "for Italy. But +you have no wings, Goody Cray-Fish, so I don't see how you can go." + +"That's just it. If one had wings, one would soon be off. But they might +be in one's way in the water. However, there are other people who +travel, though they have no wings. What about the eel, ma'am, for +instance?" + +"Yes ... the eel," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "He can wriggle and twist. +You can't, you see." + +"No," replied the cray-fish looking very sadly out of her stalked eyes. +"I can't do that at all. Because of my stiff shirt, you know. Though I +may be thankful for it, too, or I should have been done for long ago." + +"What do you propose, then?" + +The cray-fish crawled right under the reeds, where the nest hung, and +asked, in a low whisper: + +"What do you think of the mussel, ma'am?" + +"The mussel?" + +"Yes, the mussel. You see, I sit here in the mud and hear such a lot of +things and turn them over in my mind. And I heard the story with which +the mussel was diverting you and Mr. Reed-Warbler the other day. Do you +think it's to be depended on?" + +"Of course I do." + +"Well, I don't take much account of the mussel," said the cray-fish. "A +mollusc like that! And then he insulted me, besides. But I've eaten him +now and I don't like to speak harm of what I've eaten myself. And, if +the story is genuine, another person might possibly save herself in the +same manner." + +"Why, you have no shells to pinch with, Goody Cray-Fish!" + +"No, but I have my claws," replied the cray-fish. "And, believe me, +ma'am, they can pinch too." + +The reed-warbler came home from hunting and his wife told him about the +cray-fish's plan. They both laughed at it, but Goody Cray-Fish stuck to +her guns. + +She did not go to her hole all the morning, but crawled around and swam +on the surface of the water, to see if no opportunity offered. + +About the middle of the day, a little roach came skimming along. + +"Look out, grub!" cried Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"I've hidden under a leaf and I'm all right," replied the May-fly grub. + +"Here's the roach," said the cray-fish. "Now we only want the gull." + +She kept just under the roach and looked out eagerly, in every +direction, with her long eyes. + +"What do you want, you ugly cray-fish?" said the roach, and struck out +with his tail. + +"I sha'n't hurt you, Mr. Fish," said she. "The pond is meant for +everybody, I should think. Surely a person's entitled to go and take the +air outside her own door." + +The eel put his head out of the mud: + +"That's right, Goody Cray-Fish, stick to it!" he said. "Wriggle and +twist!" + +And the reed-warblers laughed and peeped down to see what on earth was +going to come of it; and the youngsters were told as much of it as their +little brains could take in, and they peeped too. The spider ran up and +looked on, the May-fly grub was nearly jumping out of her cocoon with +curiosity. The bladder-wort forgot to catch insects, the water-lily and +the spear-wort stopped quarrelling; they all stared at the cray-fish and +the roach. For they had all heard something of what was at hand, one +from the other. But none of them said a word, lest they should frighten +away the roach; he was the only one who had not the least suspicion. +Only the reeds whispered softly to one another. But this they always do, +so nobody minds them. + +Just then a gull swooped down upon the roach. + +It made such a splash in the water that no one could quite see what +happened. But the roach was gone, and presently the reed-warblers +exclaimed: + +"Look!... Look!... There's the gull flying with the roach ... and the +cray-fish is hanging on to his hind-toe!" + +The water-lily and the spear-wort shouted the news and the rushes +whispered it on and soon there was not a midge-grub in the pond but knew +all about the extraordinary thing that had happened. + +"So she had her way," said the reed-warblers. + +And they discussed for quite an hour where she would be likely to +arrive, but no one could work that out and none of those in the pond +ever got to know. + +Only the woman who lived by the pond knew. For, when the gull came above +the chimney of her little cottage, he gave such a kick with his leg that +the cray-fish dropped off. She went right down the woman's chimney; and +there stood a pot of boiling water, which she fell into. + +"Oh dear!" said the cray-fish. "That was a silly business." + +It was so silly that she turned as red as fire all over her body and +died then and there. But, when the woman took her pot and was going to +make herself a drop of coffee, she stared in amazement at that fine big +cray-fish: + +"Well, I never!" she said. "Best thanks to whoever sent you." + +Then she ate her. + +That same evening, the May-fly broke through her cocoon. + +She flew up, on tiny little thin, transparent wings and with three long +threads hanging from her abdomen to help her keep her balance. + +[Illustration] + +"I say, isn't this lovely?" she cried. "How delicious life is! It's +worth while living for ever so many days as a poor grub, if only one is +permitted to gaze upon this splendour for an hour." + +"Oh, so you're there, are you?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You look very +nice." + +"Thank you," said the May-fly. "Now I must just go round the pond and +lay my eggs. Then I'll come back and sit down in the reeds and die; and +then you can eat me. And a thousand thanks to you for sparing my life +that time and for warning me when I was in danger. If you hadn't done +that, I should never have beheld this glorious sight." + +"If only you don't over-eat yourself on the way and forget your +promise!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"There's no danger of that," replied the May-fly. "I have eaten all I +need. I haven't even a mouth! I shall just enjoy an hour or two of this +delightful life and then lay my eggs. That's my lot; and I don't +complain." + +"Life is not so delightful as you think," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "If I +were a true friend to you, I would save you from seeing all your +illusions shattered." + +"How can you say that life is not delightful?" said the May-fly. "Look +... and look ... and look...." + +"I will be a true friend to you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You shall be +spared disappointment. I will eat you straight away." + +Then she caught her and ate her. + +"Good-evening, madam," said the eel. "Are you sitting and contemplating +the poetry of Nature? I just saw you destroying a bit of it ... for the +May-fly.... That's poetry, if you like! Well, did she taste nice?" + +"You're a horrid, vulgar fellow," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"You talk like one who is chock-full of poetry," retorted the eel. "I +rejoice to see you making such smart progress as a murderess. You were +shockingly squeamish at first!" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Worst Day of All + +[Illustration] + + +The summer was drawing to an end. + +The beeches were quite yellow with the heat; and the pond was overgrown +with plants almost right up to the middle. All the tadpoles had turned +into frogs; all the young animals were growing and wanted more food. The +water-lily and the spear-wort had stopped quarrelling, for they had +nothing more to quarrel about. Both of them had lost their white +blossoms and their heads were full of seeds. + +The reed-warblers' children were now so big that they had begun to leave +the nest and flutter about in the weeds. But they were not quite sure of +themselves and still dangled after their parents. They never went so far +away but that they could easily return to the nest; and they lay in it +every evening and fought for room and bit and kicked one another, while +their half-starved parents sat beside them and hushed them. + +"Oh, mummy ... do get me that fly!" said one. + +"I can't catch these horrid midges," said the second. + +"Boo-hoo!... Boo-hoo!... The dragon-fly flew away from me!" said the +third. + +"I daren't take hold of the daddy-long-legs," said the fourth. + +But the fifth said nothing, for he was a poor little beggar, who always +hung his beak. + +"We'll never make a proper reed-warbler of him," said the father. + +And, when they were being drilled in flying and hopping and scrambling +in the reeds, or examined in singing, the fifth was always behind the +rest. + +"We shall never be able to drag him with us to Italy," said the +reed-warbler. + +And little Mrs. Reed-Warbler sighed. + +In the water below, the duck splashed about with her grown-up +ducklings. + +"The end is near," she said. "I am sure of it. I have a horrid +presentiment all over my body." + +"What harm can happen to you?" asked Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "You don't +travel, so you're not exposed to as many dangers as the rest of us." + +"One can never tell," said the duck. "I feel it in my back." + +[Illustration] + +Then she paddled on and quacked to her children with her anxious old +voice and wore a distressful look in her eyes. + +One day something happened that set the whole pond in commotion. + +The pike was suddenly hauled up out of the water. + +The reed-warbler saw it himself. The pike hung and sprawled terribly at +the end of a thin line, flew through the air in a great curve and fell +down on the grass. At the other end of the line was a rod, and at the +other end of the rod a boy, who was crimson in the face with delight at +the big fish he had caught. + +"It serves him right, the highwayman!" said the perch. + +"Thank goodness, he's gone!" croaked the frogs. + +And all the little roach and carp danced round the water with delight. + +"He had not many friends," said the reed-warbler. + +"He had not one," said the perch. "He was the worst robber in the pond." + +"He never did anything to me," said the water-lily. "He was a brave and +distinguished gentleman, who hadn't his equal among the lot of you. It +was always a real pleasure to me when he came sweeping past my stalks." + +"Well, I have seen many go sweeping down his throat," said the eel. "And +they did not think that so amusing. But he did just what I should have +done in his place! Now that he's gone, I suppose I'm the biggest in the +pond." + +He stretched himself to his full length. + +"You have grown big and stout," said the reed-warbler. + +"I have had a good year," said the eel. "But I shall soon be going to +sea now and working off my fat." + +On the evening of the same day a man stood at the edge of the pond, just +where the reed-warblers lived. He wore high boots with wooden soles and +whetted a scythe till the sound of it whizzed through the air. + +"What's going to happen now?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +"Quack! Quack!" cried the duck in terror. + +But the man spat on his hands and took hold of the scythe. Then he +walked out into the water and began to cut down the reeds, close in, at +the edge, and right out, as far as they grew. They fell into the water, +with a soft sigh; and then, when he had finished, he stood on the bank +and contemplated his work. + +"That was a fine clearing," he said. "Duck-hunting begins to-morrow." + +[Illustration] + +Then he went a bit farther with his scythe and made another clearing. + +But he had caused terrible misfortunes. He had torn the water-spider's +nest and crushed the spider herself. He had broken the bladder-wort at +the root with his heavy wooden boots. And the reed-warblers' nest lay +overturned among the cut reeds. + +The reed-warblers flew round the nest with loud screams: + +"The children! The children!" they cried. + +The children had saved themselves. Four had fluttered on land and sat +there and looked thoroughly bewildered. The fifth was half-buried under +the reeds and could not get out. + +The two old ones with difficulty brought it in to the others: + +"Oh dear! oh dear!" said little Mrs. Reed-Warbler, in despair. "What are +we to do now?" + +"It might have been worse," replied her husband. "Suppose it had +happened a month ago! Now the youngsters are able to look after +themselves, all except that one there." + +"Oh, it was a terrible place to come to!" said she. "It was a great +shame of you to drag me here. I would much rather have remained in +Italy, even if I had never got married." + +"Don't talk nonsense, wife," said he. "You wanted to come here just as +much as I did. This is where we were born and where our home is and +where we had to build our nest. We can't help it; it's in our blood. +Besides, we have had a very good time, and have shared each other's +joys and sorrows. Don't let us squabble now in our old age, but rather +see that we get the children's travelling-suits ready and then be off." + +Then she became sensible and they sat late into the night and talked +about it. The youngsters ran round in the grass and ate ants and thought +the whole thing great fun, for children know no better. Only the fifth +one hung about disconsolately. + +"What are we to do with the poor little wretch?" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, +pushing a mouthful to him. + +"We shall never get him to Italy alive," said her husband. + +Quite early next morning there was a tremendous uproar round the pond. + +Men shouted and dogs barked. They put out the boat and rowed her with +difficulty through the thick weeds. The woman of the pond stood outside +her cottage, curtseying and pouring out tea. + +"Whatever is this?" asked the reed-warbler. + +"It's the world coming to an end," said the duck. "Quack! Quack! Quack!" + +"To the bottom! To the bottom!" said the eel. "Wriggle and twist!" + +The terrified reed-warbler family pressed close together in the grass. +But then the two old ones grew inquisitive and could not keep still. +They warned the youngsters to stay quiet, whatever happened, and sat +down, a little way from each other, on the tops of the reeds beside the +clearing. + +"Bang! Bang!" went the guns over the pond. "Bang! Bang! Bang!" + +And there were lots of ducks quacking and lots of small birds who flew +out of their hiding-places in terror. Great ugly dogs, with their +tongues hanging out of their mouths, swam round and barked. The leaves +of the water-lily dived right under the water and the spear-wort +disappeared entirely and never came back again. + +"Bang! Bang! Bang!" + +"There lies our duck," said the reed-warbler. + +And there she lay on her back, dead, only waiting for the dogs to come +and fetch her. + +"Bang! Bang!" + +"I must get away, I can stand it no longer," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. +"Let us fly back to the children." + +She received no answer and, when she looked round, her husband was gone. + +She stared at the reed on which he had been sitting and up in the air +and down at the water. Then she gave a frightful scream: + +"Oh, poor forlorn widow that I am! What shall I do? What shall I do?" + +He lay in the water, hit by a stray shot, dead, stiff. + +[Illustration: 'HE LAY IN THE WATER, HIT BY A STRAY SHOT'] + +"Children! Children! Your father is dead!" + +The four looked at her in dismay, when she brought the news; the fifth +stared vacantly and stupidly, as usual. The uproar continued, out in the +pond. The six reed-warblers sat in a row on the edge and were at their +wits' end what to do. + +Then, gradually, it became quiet again. + +The smoke of the powder lifted and the water calmed down. The men with +the guns sat up above in the wood and ate their lunch; and the woman of +the pond counted the money she had made. + +"That was a terrible business," said the water-lily. + +"My husband is dead," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler and sang a dirge that would +have moved a stone. + +"My respectful condolences, madam," said the eel and came up out of the +mud. "But will you admit that I was right? Think how much care and +sorrow one escapes by keeping out of all this domesticity. I don't know +my wife, as I once had the honour of telling you; I have never seen her. +It wouldn't occur to me to shed a tear if anyone told me that she was +dead." + +"You horrid, heartless person!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "To talk like +that to a widow with five children, all unprovided for, and one of them +a cripple too!" + +"Oh, those women!" said the eel and disappeared. + +That evening, little Mrs. Reed-Warbler sat and thought things over. + +"We must go," she said, "this very night. There's nothing else for us to +do. If we fly and hop as well as we can and work hard and behave +sensibly, we shall be all right." + +"I can't keep up with you," said the crippled child. + +"I was forgetting you," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. + +She looked at the poor child for a while. Then she shook her wings and +took a quick resolve: + +"No, you can't keep up with us," she said. "And we can't stay here and +be ruined for your sake. If I leave you behind, you'll be eaten by a fox +or a cat or those greedy ants. It would be a pity for you to be +tortured, you poor little fellow. It's better that I should kill you +myself and have done with it." + +Then and there, she rushed at the youngster and pecked away at his head +until he was dead: + +"Now let's be off!" she said. + +"Madam," said the eel, "you must not go without allowing me to say +good-bye to you. You are a charming woman and you know how to adapt +yourself to circumstances. You were incensed at the horrid robbers in +the pond; and you yourself ate innocent flies from morning till night. +You loved poetry; but you ate the poor May-fly, though you promised her +that she should be allowed to live her poetic life for an hour. You +were furious with the spider who ate her mother, and with the cray-fish, +who ate her children; and now, of your own accord you have pecked your +sick child to death, so that you may go to Italy." + +"Thank goodness, I sha'n't see you any more, you detestable, spiteful +fellow!" said Mrs. Reed-Warbler. "But I may as well tell you that I +killed my child for pity." + +"And the spider ate her mother from hunger and the cray-fish her +children from love," said the eel. "And I let mine shift for themselves +from common sense!" + +"My dears," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler, "that eel was positively created to +live in this horrible pond!" + +Then they flew away. + +"I don't think I shall stay here, for all that," said the eel. "I am +longing for the sea." + +He looked round warily, then crept up into the grass and wriggled and +twisted quickly to the nearest ditch. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The End + +[Illustration] + + +November came and was no different from what it usually is. + +The trees stood with bare branches. The leaves rustled over the earth or +floated on the pond. The reeds were all cut down; the water-lily's +leaves withered away, with stalks and all, while she, deep down at the +bottom, slept her winter sleep and dreamt of her next white spring +costume. + +And down at the bottom lay all the frogs, buried deep in the mud, so +that only their noses stuck out. It looked as though the pond were paved +with frogs' noses. The plants in the water were as leafless as the +plants on land. Hidden among the stalks and withered leaves, under the +stones and in the mud lay animals sleeping, or eggs waiting for the +spring to come and hatch them. + +[Illustration] + +All the birds had flown, except the chaffinch and a few others, who +hopped about and managed as best they could. The flies were all gone and +the dragon-flies and spiders and midges and butterflies and all the +rest. There were only a few grumpy fish left in the pond. + +And the storm raged among the trees, till they cracked and creaked, and +whipped the pond up into tall waves with foam on their crests. + +[Illustration] + +"It is really horrid here in winter," said the woman of the pond, as she +stuffed her windows with moss. "Such a howling in the chimney and a +creaking and cracking in the wood and a roaring and rushing in the pond! +I wish we had the glorious summer again. That is a happy time and +peaceful time. Then it's pleasant living by the pond." + +A poet, accompanied by seven ladies, walked on the path around the pond. + +He wore a fur-lined coat and turned the collar over his ears; and the +ladies were wrapped up so that nothing showed but the tips of their +noses. For it was very cold. + +"Ladies," said the poet, "when you look at that wild unsightly pond now, +you have simply no idea how charming it can be in summer. Now, all these +elements have been let loose. Waves rage against waves, the storm rushes +round and the trees stand naked and disconsolate. It is a real picture +of strife and sorrow and cruelty. But, ladies, come out here on a +summer's day and you shall see a different sight. Then the reeds grow +along the banks in all their elegance; water-lily and spear-wort float +side by side upon the surface of the water and nod smilingly to each +other with their white flowers. The midges hover in the air and the +frogs croak and glad birds sing. Deep in the water swim beautiful fish +disporting themselves gaily. The mussels in the mud dream of beautiful +pearls, the cray-fish crawl slowly round and round and enjoy life and +happiness. Ladies, you simply cannot imagine what a picture of peace and +happiness the pond offers. It is, as it were, an abstract of all the +wonderful harmonies of Nature, the sight of which consoles us poor +mortals, who strive and wrangle from morn till dewy eve and envy and +slander and persecute one another. Remember, ladies, to come out to the +pond when summer is here. It braces a mortal for his bitter fight to see +the peace and gladness in which God's lower creatures live ... those of +His creatures which have not received our great intellectual gifts, but +a purer and deeper happiness instead." + +Thus spake the poet. And seven ladies listened respectfully to his words +... and nobody laid violent hands upon him. + +THE END + +BRISTOL: BURLEIGH LTD., AT THE BURLEIGH PRESS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pond, by Carl Ewald + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POND *** + +***** This file should be named 31708.txt or 31708.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/0/31708/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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