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UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00022226360 
 
THE WATER-BABIES 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/waterbabiesfairyOking 
 
'• 
 
TO 
 
 MY YOUNGEST SON 
 
 GRENVILLE ARTHUR 
 
 AND 
 
 TO ALL OTHER GOOD LITTLE BOYS 
 
 COME BEAD ME MY RIDDLE, EACH GOOD LITTLE MAN ; 
 IF YOU CANNOT READ IT, NO GROWN-UP FOLK CAN, 
 
THE WATER-BABIES 
 
CHAPTER L 
 
 NCE upon a time ther$ 
 was a little chimney- 
 sweep, and his name 
 was Tom. That is a short name, and you have heard 
 it before, so you will not have much trouble in remem- 
 bering it. He lived in a great town in the North coun- 
 try, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and 
 plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to 
 spend. He could not read nor write, and did not care 
 to do either ; and he never washed himself, for there wap 
 
THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 no water up the court where lie lived. He had never 
 been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of 
 God, or of Christ, except in words which you never have 
 heard, and which it would have been well if he had never 
 heard. He cried half his time, and laughed the other 
 half. He cried when he had to climb the dark flues, rub- 
 bing his poor knees and elbows raw ; and when the soot 
 got into his eyes, which it did every day in the week ; 
 and when his master beat him, which he did every day 
 in the week ; and when he had not enough to eat, which 
 
 happened every day 
 in the week like- 
 wise. And he 
 laughed the other 
 half of the day, when 
 he was tossing half- 
 pennies with the 
 other boys, or play- 
 g, ing leap-frog over 
 the posts, or bowling 
 stones at the horses' 
 legs as they trotted 
 by, which last was 
 excellent fun, when 
 there was a wall at hand behind which to hide. As for 
 chimney-sweeping, and being hungry, and being beaten. 
 he took all that for the wav of the world, like the rain 
 and snow and thunder, and stood manfully with his back 
 to it till it was over, as his old donkey did to a hail 
 storm ; and then shook his ears and was as jolly as ever ; 
 and thought of the fine times coming, when he would 
 be a man, and a master sweep, and sit in the public- 
 house with a quart of beer and a long pipe, and play 
 cards for silver monev, and wear velveteens and ankle- 
 
 \ 
 
A FAIR* TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 jacks, and keep a white bull-dog with one gray ear, and 
 carry her puppies in his pocket, just like a man. And 
 he would have apprentices, one, two, three, if he could. 
 How he would bully them, and knock them about, just 
 as his master did to him ; and make them carry home 
 the soot sacks while he rode before them on his donkey, 
 with a pipe in his mouth and a flower in his button-hole, 
 like a king at the 
 head of his army. 
 Yes, there were 
 good times com- 
 ing ; and, when 
 his master let 
 him have a pull 
 at the leavings 
 of his beer, Tom 
 was the jolliest 
 boy in the whole 
 town. 
 
 One day a smart 
 little groom rode 
 into the court 
 where Tom lived. 
 Tom was just 
 hiding behind a 
 wall, to heave 
 half a brick at his 
 
 horse's legs, as is the custom of that country when they 
 welcome strangers ; but the groom saw him, and hallooed 
 to him to know where Mr. Grimes, the chimney-sweep, 
 lived. Now, Mr. Grimes was Tom's own master, and 
 Tom was a good man of business, and always civil to 
 customers, so he put the half-brick down quietly behind 
 the wall, and proceeded to take orders. 
 
4 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Mr. Grimes was to come up next morning to Sir 
 John Harth over's, at the Place, for his old chimney- 
 sweep was gone to prison, and the chimneys wanted 
 sweeping. And so he rode away, not giving Tom 
 time to ask what the sweep had gone to prison for, 
 which was a matter of interest to Tom, as he had been 
 in prison once or twice himself. Moreover, the groom 
 looked so very neat and clean, with his drab gaiters, 
 drab breeches, drab jacket, snow-white tie with a smart 
 pin in it, and clean, round, ruddy face, that Tom was 
 offended and disgusted at his appearance, and consid- 
 ered him a stuck-up fellow, who gave himself airs because 
 he wore smart clothes, and other people paid for them ; 
 and went behind the wall to fetch the half-brick after 
 all, but did not, remembering that he had come in the 
 way of business, and was, as it were, under a flag of 
 truce. 
 
 His master was so delighted at his new customer that 
 he knocked Tom down out of hand, and drank more 
 beer that night than he usually did in two, in order to 
 be sure of getting up in time next morning ; for the more a 
 man's head aches when he wakes the more glad he is to 
 turn out and have a breath of fresh air. And, when he 
 did vet up at four the next morninq\ he knocked Tom 
 down again, in order to teach him (as young gentle- 
 men used to be taught at public schools) that he must 
 be an extra good boy that day, as they were going to a 
 very great house, and might make a very good thing of 
 it, if they could but give satisfaction. 
 
 And Tom thought so likewise, and, indeed, would 
 have done and behaved his best, even without being 
 knocked down. For, of all places upon earth, Harth- 
 over Place (which he had never seen) was the most 
 wonderful, and of all men on earth, Sir John (whom he 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 had seen, having been sent to gaol by him twice) was 
 the most awful. 
 
 Harthover Place was really a grand Place, even for 
 the rich North 
 country ; with a 
 house so large that 
 in the frame- 
 breaking riots, 
 which Tom could 
 just remember, 
 the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, and ten 
 thousand soldiers 
 to match, were 
 easily housed 
 therein ; at least, 
 so Tom believed ; 
 with a park full 
 of deer, which 
 Tom believed to 
 be monsters who 
 were in the habit 
 of eating children ; 
 with miles of 
 game- preserves, 
 in which Mr. 
 Grimes and the 
 collier lads 
 poached at times, 
 on which occa- 
 sions Tom saw pheasants, and wondered what they 
 tasted like ; with a noble salmon-river, in which Mr. 
 Grimes and his friends would have liked to poach ; but 
 then they must have got into cold water, and that they 
 
 
6 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 did not like at all. In short, Harthover was a grand 
 place, and Sir John a grand old man, whom even Mr. 
 Grimes respected ; for not only could he send Mr. Grimes 
 to prison when he deserved it, as he did once or twice a 
 week ; not only did he own all the land about for miles ; 
 not only was he a jolly, honest, sensible squire, as ever 
 kept a pack of hounds, who would do what he thought 
 right by his neighbors, as well as get what he thought 
 right for himself; but, what was more, he weighed full 
 fifteen stone, was nobody knew how many inches round 
 the chest, and could have thrashed Mr. Grimes himself 
 in fair fight, which very few folk round there could do, 
 and which, my dear little boy, would not have been 
 right for him to do, as a great many things are not which 
 one both can do, and would like very much to do. So 
 Mr. Grimes touched his hat to him when he rode 
 through the town, and called him a "buirdly awd 
 chap," and his young ladies " gradely lasses," which 
 are two high compliments in the North country ; ana 
 thought that that made up for his poaching Sir John's 
 heasants ; whereby you may perceive that Mr. Grimes 
 ad not been to a properly inspected Government Na- 
 tional School. 
 
 Now, I dare say, you never got up at three o'clock on 
 i midsummer morning. Some people get up then be- 
 cause they want to catch salmon ; and some because 
 they want to climb Alps ; and a great many more be- 
 cause they must, like Tom. But, I assure you, that 
 three o'clock on a midsummer morning is the pleas- 
 antest time of all the twenty-four hours, and all the 
 three hundred and sixty-five days ; and why every one 
 does not get up then, I never could tell, save that they 
 are all determined to spoil their nerves and their com- 
 plexions by doing all night what './hey might just as 
 
 I 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 well do all day. But Tom, instead of going out to din- 
 ner at half-past eight at night, and to a ball at ten, and 
 finishing off somewhere between twelve and four, went 
 to bed at seven, when his master went to the public- 
 house, and slept like a dead pig ; for which reason he 
 was as pert as a game-cock (who always gets up early 
 to wake the maids), and just ready to get up when the 
 fine gentlemen and ladies were just ready to go to bed. 
 
 So he and his master set out ; Grimes rode the donkey 
 in front, and Tom 
 and the brushes 
 walked behind ; out 
 of the court, and up 
 the street, past the 
 closed window-shut- 
 ters, and the wink- 
 ing, weary police- 
 men, and the roofs 
 all shining gray in 
 the gray dawn. 
 
 They passed 
 through the pit- 
 men's village, all 
 shut up and silent 
 now, and through the turnpike ; and then they were our 
 in the real country, and plodding along the black dusty 
 road, between black slag walls, with no sound but the 
 groaning and thumping of the pit-engine in the next 
 field. But soon the road grew white, and the walls like- 
 wise ; and at the wall's foot grew long grass and o-av 
 flowers, all drenched with dew ; and instead of the 
 groaning of the pit-engine, they heard the skylark saying 
 his matins high up in the air, and the pit-bird warbling 
 in the sedges, as he had warbled all night long. 
 
8 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 All else was silent. For old Mrs. Earth was still fast 
 asleep ; and, like many pretty people, she looked still 
 prettier asleep than awake. The great elm-trees in the 
 gold-green meadows were fast asleep above, and the 
 cows fast asleep beneath them ; nay, the few clouds 
 which were about were fast asleep likewise, and so tired 
 that they had lain down on the earth to rest, in long 
 white flakes and bars, among the stems of the elm-trees, 
 and along the tops of the alders by the stream, waiting 
 for the sun to bid them rise and go about their day's 
 business in the clear blue overhead. 
 
 On they went ; and Tom looked, and looked, for he 
 never had been so far into the country before ; and 
 longed to get over a gate, and pick buttercups, and look 
 for birds' nests in the hedge ; but Mr. Grimes was a man 
 of business, and would not have heard of that. 
 
 Soon they came up with a poor Irish-woman, trudging 
 along with a bundle at her back. She had a gray shawl 
 over her head, and a crimson madder petticoat ; so you 
 may be sure she came from Gal way. She had neither 
 shoes nor stockings, and limped along as if she were 
 tired and footsore ; but she was a verv tall handsome 
 woman, with bright gray eyes, and heavy black hair 
 hanging about her cheeks. And she took Mr. Grimes' 
 fancy so much, that when he came alongside he called 
 out to her : 
 
 u This is a hard road for a oradelv foot like that. 
 Will ye up, lass, and ride behind me?" 
 
 But, perhaps, she did not admire Mr. Grimes' look 
 and voice ; for she answered quietly : 
 
 tk No, thank you : I'd sooner walk with your little lad 
 here. " 
 
 " You may please yourself, " growled Grimes, and went 
 on smoking. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 9 
 
 So she walked beside Tom, and talked to him, and 
 asked him where he lived, and what he knew, and all 
 about himself, till Tom thought he had never met such 
 a pleasant-spoken woman. And she asked him, at last, 
 whether he said his prayers ! and seemed sad when he 
 told her that he knew no prayers to say. 
 
 Then he asked her 
 where she lived, and 
 she said far away by 
 the sea. And Tom 
 asked her about the sea ; 
 and she told him how it 
 rolled and roared over 
 the rocks in winter 
 nights, and lay still in 
 the bright summer days, 
 for the children to 
 bathe and play in it ; 
 and many a story more, ^ J 
 till Tom longed to go 
 and see the sea, and 
 bathe in it likewise. 
 
 At last, at the bottom 
 of a hill, they came to 
 a spring ; not such a 
 spring as you see here, 
 which soaks up out of 
 a white gravel in the bog, among red fly-catchers, and 
 pink bottle-heath, and sweet white orchis ; nor such a 
 one as you may see, too, here, which bubbles up under 
 the warm sandbank in the hollow lane, by the great tuft 
 of lady ferns, and makes the sand dance reels at the 
 bottom, day and night, all the year round ; not such a 
 spring as either of those ; but a real North country lime- 
 
 a-— Water- Babies 
 
IO THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 stone fountain, like one of those in Sicily or Greece, 
 where the old heathen fancied the nymphs sat cooling 
 themselves the hot summer's day, while the shepherds 
 peeped at them from behind the bushes. Out of a low 
 cave of rock, at the foot of a limestone crag, the great 
 fountain rose, quelling, and bubbling, and gurgling, so 
 clear that you could not tell where the water ended and 
 the air began ; and ran away under the road, a stream 
 large enough to turn a mill ; among blue geranium, and 
 golden globe-flower, and wild raspberry, and the bird- 
 cherry with its tassels of snow. 
 
 And there Grimes stopped and looked ; and Tom 
 looked, too. Tom was wondering whether anything 
 lived in that dark cave, and came out at night to fly in 
 the meadows. But Grimes was not wondering at all. 
 Without a word, he got off his donkey, and clambered 
 over the low road wall, and knelt down, and began 
 dipping his ugly head into the spring — and very dirty 
 he made it. 
 
 Tom was picking the flowers as fast as he could. The 
 Irish-woman helped him, and showed him how to tie 
 them up ; and a very pretty nosegay they had made be- 
 tween them. But when he saw Grimes actually wash, 
 he stopped, quite astonished ; and when Grimes had 
 finished, and began shaking his ears to dry them, he 
 said : 
 
 " Why, master, I never saw you do that before. '' 
 
 11 Nor will again, most likely. 'Twasn't for cleanli- 
 ness I did it, but for coolness. I'd be ashamed to want 
 washing every week or so, like any smutty collier lad." 
 
 "I wish I might go and dip my head in," said poof 
 little Tom. ''It must be as good as putting it under 
 the town-pump ; and there is no beadle here to drive a 
 chap away." 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. It 
 
 a 
 
 Thou come along," said Grimes ; "what dost want 
 with washing thyself? Thou did not drink half a gallon 
 of beer last night, like me." 
 
 "I don't care for you," said naughty Tom, and rav*. 
 down to the stream, and began washing his face. 
 
 Grimes was very sulky, because the woman preferred 
 Tom's company to his ; so he dashed at him with horrid 
 words, and tore him up from his knees, and began beat- 
 ing him. But Tom was accustomed to that, and got his 
 head safe between Mr. Grimes' legs, and kicked his 
 shins with all his might. 
 
 "Are you not ashamed of yourself, Thomas Grimes? " 
 cried the Irish-woman over the wall. 
 
 Grimes looked up, startled at her knowing his name ; 
 but all he answered was, " No, nor ever was yet ; " and 
 went on beating Tom. 
 
 ' ' True for you. If you ever had been ashamed of 
 yourself, you would have gone over into Vendale long 
 
 ago. 
 
 What do you know about Vendale?" shouted 
 Grimes ; but he left off beating Tom. 
 
 " I know about Vendale, and about you, too. I know, 
 for instance, what happened in Aldermire Copse, by 
 night, two years ago come Martinmas." 
 
 " You do? " shouted Grimes ; and, leaving Tom, he 
 climbed up over the wall, and faced the woman. Tom 
 thought he was going to strike her ; but she looked him 
 too full and fierce in the face for that. 
 
 " Yes ; I was there," said the Irish -woman quietly. 
 
 "You are no Irish-woman, by your speech," said 
 Grimes, after many bad words. 
 
 "Never mind who I am. I saw what I saw; 
 and if you strike that boy again, I can tell what I 
 know." 
 
12 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Grimes seemed quite cowed, and got on his donkey 
 without another word. 
 
 u Stop ! " said the Irish-woman. "I have one more 
 
 word for you 
 both ; for you will 
 both see me again 
 before all is over. 
 Those that wish to 
 be clean, clean 
 they will be ; and 
 those that wish to 
 be foul, foul they 
 will be. Remem- 
 ber." 
 
 And she turned 
 away, and through 
 a gate into the 
 meadow. Grimes 
 stood still a mo- 
 ment, like a man 
 who had been 
 stunned. Then he 
 |? rushed after her, 
 shouting, "You 
 come back." But 
 when he got into 
 the meadow, the 
 woman was not 
 there. 
 
 Had she hidden 
 away ? There was 
 no place to hide in. But Grimes looked about, and Tom 
 also, for he was as puzzled as Grimes himself at her dis 
 appearing so suddenly ; but look where they would she 
 w r as not there. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 *3 
 
 Grimes came back again as silent as a post, for he 
 was a little frightened ; and, getting on his donkey, 
 filled a fresh pipe, and smoked away, leaving Tom in 
 peace. 
 
 And now they 
 had gone three 
 miles more, and 
 came to Sir 
 John's lodge- 
 gates. 
 
 Very grand 
 lodges they 
 were, with very 
 grand iron gates 
 and stone gate- 
 posts, and on the 
 top of each a 
 most dreadful 
 bogy, all teeth, 
 horns, and tail, 
 which was the 
 crest which Sir 
 John's ancestors 
 wore in the Wars 
 of the Roses ; 
 and very prudent 
 men they were 
 to wear it, for all 
 their enemies 
 must have run 
 for their lives at the very first sight of them. 
 
 Grimes rang at the gate, and out came a keeper ok 
 the spot, and opened. 
 
 " I was told to expect thee," he said. "Now thouHv 
 
14 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 qe so good as to keep to the main avenue, and not let 
 me find a hare or rabbit on thee when thou comest back. 
 I shall look sharp for one, I tell thee." 
 
 u Not if it's in the bottom of the soot-bag," quoth 
 Grimes, and at that he laughed ; and the keeper laughed 
 and said : 
 
 u If that's thy sort, I may as well walk up with thee 
 to the hall." 
 
 "I think thou best had. It's thy business to see 
 after thy game, man, and not mine." 
 
 So the keeper went with them ; and, to Tom's sur- 
 prise, he and Grimes chatted together all the way quite 
 pleasantly. He did not know that a keeper is only a 
 poacher turned outside in, and a poacher a keeper turned 
 inside out. 
 
 They walked up a great lime avenue, a full mile long, 
 and between their stems Tom peeped trembling at the 
 horns of the sleeping deer, which stood up among the 
 ferns. Tom had never seen such enormous trees, and 
 as he looked up he fancied that the blue sky rested on 
 their heads. But he was puzzled very much by the 
 strange murmuring noise, which followed them all the 
 way. So much puzzled that at last he took courage to 
 ask the keeper what it was. 
 
 He spoke very civilly, and called him Sir, for he was 
 horribly afraid of him, which pleased the keeper, and he 
 told him that they were the bees about the lime flowers. 
 
 u What are bees?" asked Tom. 
 
 " What make honey." 
 
 "What is honey? " asked Tom. 
 
 "Thou hold thy noise," said Grimes. 
 
 "Let the boy be," said the keeper. "He's a civil 
 young chap now, and that's more than he'll be long if 
 he bides with thee." 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 15 
 
 Grimes laughed, for he took that for a compliment. 
 
 U I wish I were a keeper," said Tom, "to live ifc, 
 such a beautiful place, and wear green velveteens and 
 have a real dog- whistle at my button, like you." 
 
 The keeper laughed ; he was a kind-hearted fellow. 
 
 "L!et well 
 alone, lad, and 
 ill, too, at times. 
 Thy life's safer 
 than mine at all 
 events, eh, Mr. 
 Grimes? " 
 
 And Grimes 
 
 laughed 
 and then 
 
 again, 
 
 the 
 two men began 
 talking quite 
 low. Tom could 
 hear, though, 
 that it was 
 about some 
 poaching fight; 
 and at last 
 Grimes said 
 surlily, "Hast 
 thou anything 
 against me? " 
 
 "Not now." 
 
 " Then don't ask me any questions till thou hast, tor 
 I am a man of honor." 
 
 And at that they both laughed again, and thought it 
 a very good joke. 
 
 And by this time they were come up to the great 
 iron spates in front of the house : and Tom 
 
 stared 
 
16 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 through them at the rhododendrons and azaleas, which 
 were all in flower ; and then at the house itself, and 
 wondered how many chimneys there were in it, and 
 how long ago it was built, and what was the man's 
 name that built it, and whether he got much money for 
 his job ? 
 
 These last w T ere very difficult questions to answer. 
 For Harthover had been built at ninety different times, 
 and in nineteen different styles, and looked as if some- 
 body had built a whole street of houses of every imagin- 
 able shape, and then stirred them together with a spoon. 
 
 For the attics were Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 The third floor Norman. 
 
 The second Cinque-cento. 
 
 The first floor Elizabethan. 
 
 The right zving pure Doric. 
 
 The centre early English, with a huge portico copied from 
 the Parthenon. 
 
 The left wing pure Boeotian, which the country folk 
 admired most of all, because it was just like the new barracks 
 in the town, only tJiree times as big. 
 
 The grand staircase zvas copied from the cataco7nbs at 
 Rome. 
 
 The back staircase from the Tajmahal at Agra. This zvas 
 built by Sir yohris great-great-great-uncle \ who won, in Lord 
 dive's Indian Wars, plenty of money, plenty of wounds, and 
 no more taste than his betters. 
 
 The cellars were copied from the caves of Elephanta. 
 
 The offices from the Pavilion at Brighton. 
 
 And the rest from nothing in heaven, or earth, 01 
 under the earth. 
 
 So that Harthover House was a great puzzle to anti- 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 1 7 
 
 quarians, and a thorough Naboth's vineyard to critics, 
 and architects, and all persons who like meddling with 
 other men's business, and spending other men's money. 
 So they were all setting upon poor Sir John, year after 
 year, and trying to talk him into spending a hundred 
 thousand pounds or so, in building, to please them and 
 not himself. But he always put them off, like a canny 
 North-countryman as he was. One wanted him to build 
 a Gothic house, but he said he was no Goth ; and an- 
 other to build an Elizabethan, but he said he lived under 
 good Queen Victoria, and not good Queen Bess ; and an- 
 other was bold enough to tell him that his house was 
 ugly, but he said he lived inside it, and not outside ; 
 and another, that there was no unity in it, but he said 
 that that was just why he liked the old place. For he 
 liked to see how each Sir John, and Sir Hugh, and Sir 
 Ralph, and Sir Randal, had left his mark upon the 
 place, each after his own taste ; and he had no more 
 notion of disturbing his ancestors* work than of disturb- 
 ing their graves. For now the house looked like a real 
 live house, that had a history, and had grown and 
 grown as the world grew ; and that it was only an up- 
 start fellow who did not know who his own grandfather 
 was, who would change it for some spick and span new 
 Gothic or Elizabethan thing, which looked as if it had 
 been all spawned in a night, as mushrooms are. From 
 which you may collect (if you have wit enough) that 
 Sir John was a very sound-headed, sound-hearted squire, 
 and just the man to keep the country-side in order, and 
 show good sport with his hounds. 
 
 But Tom and his master did not go in through the 
 great iron gates, as if they had been Dukes or Bishops, 
 but round the back-way, and a very long way round it 
 was ; and into a little back-door, where the ash-boy let 
 
18 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 them in, yawning horribly ; and then in a passage the 
 housekeeper met them, in such a flowered chintz dress- 
 ing-gown, that Tom mistook her for My Lady herself, 
 and she gave Grimes solemn orders about "You will 
 
 take care of this, and 
 take care of that," as 
 if he was going up 
 the chimneys, and 
 not Tom. And 
 Grimes listened, and 
 said every now and 
 then, under h i s 
 voice, "You'll mind 
 that, you little beg- 
 gar?" and Tom did 
 mind, all at least that 
 he could. And then 
 the housekeeper 
 turned them into a 
 grand room, all cov- 
 ered up in sheets of 
 brown paper, and 
 bade them begin, in a 
 lofty and tremendous 
 voice ; and so, after 
 a whimper or two, 
 and a kick from his 
 master, into the 
 grate Tom went, and 
 up the chimney, 
 while a housemaid stayed in the room to watch the fur- 
 niture ; to whom Mr. Grimes paid many playful and 
 chivalrous compliments, but met with very slight 
 encouragement in return. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 19 
 
 How many chimneys Tom swept I cannot say ; but 
 he swept so many that he got quite tired, and puzzled, 
 too, for they were not like the town flues to which he 
 was accustomed, but such as you would find — if you 
 would only get up them and look, which perhaps you 
 would not like to 
 do — in old country- 
 houses, large and 
 crooked chimneys, 
 which had been 
 altered 3gain and 
 again, till they ran 
 one into another, 
 anastomosing (as 
 Professor Owen 
 would say) consid- 
 erably. So Tom 
 fairly lost his way 
 in them ; not that 
 he cared much for 
 that, though he 
 was in pitchy dark- 
 ness, for he was as 
 much at home in a 
 chimney as a mole 
 is underground ; 
 but at last, coming 
 down as he thought 
 
 the right chimney, he came down the w*ong one, and 
 found himself standing on the hearth-rug in a room the 
 like of which he had never seen before. 
 
 Tom had never seen the like. He had never been in 
 gentlefolks' rooms but when the carpets were all up, 
 and the curtains down, and the furniture huddled to 
 
20 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 gether under a cloth, and the pictures covered with 
 aprons and dusters ; and he had often enough wondered 
 what the rooms were like when they were all ready for 
 the quality to sit in. And now he saw, and he thought 
 the sight very pretty. 
 
 The room was all dressed in white — white window- 
 curtains, white bed-curtains, white furniture, and white 
 walls, with just a few lines of pink here and there. The 
 carpet was all over gay little flowers ; and the walls were 
 hung with pictures in gilt frames, which amused Tom 
 very much. There were pictures of ladies and gentle- 
 men, and pictures of horses and dogs. The horses he 
 liked ; but the dogs he did not care for much, for 
 there were no bull-dogs among them, not even a 
 terrier. But the two pictures which took his fancy 
 most were, one a man in long garments, with little 
 children and their mothers round him, who was laying 
 his hand upon the children's heads. That was a very 
 pretty picture, Tom thought, to hang in a lady's room. 
 For he could see that it was a lady's room by the dresses 
 which lay about. 
 
 The other picture was that of a man nailed to a cross, 
 which surprised Tom much. He fancied that he had 
 seen something like it in a shop-window. But why was 
 it there? "Poor man !" thought Tom, "and he looks 
 so kind and quiet. But why should the lady have such 
 a sad picture as that in her room? Perhaps it wa-s 
 some kinsman of hers, who had been murdered by the 
 savages in foreign parts, and she kept it there for a re- 
 membrance." And Tom felt sad, and awed, and turned 
 to look at something else. 
 
 The next thing he saw, and that too puzzled him, was 
 a washing-stand, with ewers and basins, and soap and 
 brushes, and towels, and a large bath full of clean 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 21 
 
 water — what a heap of things all for washing ! " She 
 must be a very dirty lady," thought Tom, u by my mas- 
 ter's rule, to want as much scrubbing as all that. But 
 she must be very cunning to put the dirt out of the way 
 so well afterwards, for I don't see a speck about the room, 
 not even on the very towels," 
 
 And then, looking towards the bed, he saw that dirty 
 lady, and held his breath with astonishment. 
 
 Under the snow-white coverlet, upon the snow-white 
 pillow, lay the most beautiful little girl that Tom had 
 ever seen. Her cheeks were almost as white as the 
 pillow, and her hair was like threads of gold spread all 
 about over the bed. She might have been as old as Tom, 
 or maybe a year or two older ; but Tom did not think of 
 
22 - THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 that. He thought only of her delicate skin and golden 
 hair, and wondered whether she was a real live person, 
 or one of the wax dolls he had seen in the shops. But 
 when he saw her breathe, he made up his mind that she 
 was alive, and stood staring at her, as if she had been 
 an angel out of heaven. 
 
 "No. She cannot be dirty. She never could have 
 been dirty," thought Tom to himself. And then he 
 thought, "And are all people like that when they are 
 washed?" And he looked at his own wrist, and tried 
 to rub the soot off, and wondered whether it ever would 
 come off. ' ' Certainly I should look much prettier then, 
 if I grew at all like her." 
 
 And looking round, he suddenly saw, standing close 
 to him, a little ugly, black, ragged figure, with bleared 
 eyes and grinning white teeth. He turned on it angrily. 
 What did such a little black ape want in that sweet 
 voun^ lady's room? And behold, it was himself re- 
 fleeted in a great mirror the like of which Tom had 
 never seen before. 
 
 And Tom, for the first time in his life, found out that 
 he was dirty ; and burst into tears with shame and anger ; 
 and turned to sneak up the chimney again and hide ; 
 and upset the fender and threw the fire-irons down, with 
 a noise as of ten thousand tin kettles tied to ten thousand 
 mad do^s' tails. 
 
 Up jumped the little white lady in her bed, and, see- 
 ing Tom, screamed as shrill as any peacock. In rushed 
 a stout old nurse from the next room, and seeing Tom 
 likewise, made up her mind that he had come to rob, 
 plunder, destroy, and burn ; and dashed at him, as he 
 lay over the fender, so fast that she caught him by the 
 jacket. 
 
 But she did not hold him. Tom had been in 3 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 2 3 
 
 policeman's hands many a time, and out of them, too, 
 what is more ; and he would have been ashamed to face 
 his friends for ever if he had been stupid enough to be 
 caught by an old woman ; so he doubled under the good 
 lady's arm, across the room, and out of the window in a 
 moment. 
 
 He did not need to drop out, though he would have 
 done so bravely enough. Nor even to let himself down 
 a spout, which would have 
 been an old game to him ; 
 for once he got up by a 
 spout to the church roof, 
 he said to take jackdaws' 
 eggs, but the policeman 
 said to steal lead ; and, 
 when he was seen on high, 
 sat there till the sun got 
 too hot, and came down 
 by another spout, leaving 
 the policemen to go back 
 to the station-house and eat 
 their dinners. 
 
 But all under the win- 
 dow spread a tree, with 
 great leaves and sweet 
 
 white flowers almost as big as his head. It was magnolia, 
 I suppose ; but Tom knew nothing about that, and cared 
 less ; for down the tree he went, like a cat, and across 
 the garden lawn, and over the iron railings, and up 
 the park towards the wood, leaving the old nurse to 
 scream murder and fire at the window. 
 
 The under gardener, mowing, saw Tom, and threw 
 down his scythe ; caught his leg in it, and cut his shin 
 open, whereby he kept his bed for a week ; but in his 
 
24 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 hurry he never knew it, and gave chase to poor Tom. 
 The dairymaid heard the noise, got the churn between 
 her knees, and tumbled over it, spilling all the cream ; 
 and yet she jumped up, and gave, chase to Tom. A 
 groom cleaning Sir John's hack at the stables let him 
 go loose, whereby he kicked himself lame in five min- 
 utes ; but he ran out and gave chase to Tom. Grimes 
 upset the soot-sack in the new-gravelled yard, and spoilt 
 it all utterly ; but he ran out and gave chase to Tom. 
 
 The old steward opened 
 the park -gate in such a 
 hurry that he hung up 
 his pony's chin upon the 
 spikes, and, for aught I 
 know, it hangs there 
 still ; but he jumped off, 
 and gave chase to Tom. 
 The ploughman left his 
 horses at the headland, 
 and one jumped over the 
 fence and pulled the 
 other into the ditch, 
 plough and all ; but he 
 
 ran on, 
 to Tom. 
 a trap, let 
 
 and 
 
 gave 
 
 The 
 
 chase 
 keeper, 
 
 who was taking a stoat out of a trap, let the stoat go, 
 and caught his own finger ; but he jumped up, and ran 
 after Tom ; and, considering what he said and how he 
 looked, I should have been sorry for Tom if he had 
 caught him. Sir John looked out of his study window 
 (for he was an early old gentleman) and up at the nurse, 
 and a marten dropped mud in his eye, so that he had at 
 last to send for the doctor ; and yet he ran out, and gave 
 phase to Tom. The Irish-woman, too, was walking up 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 25 
 
 to the house to beg — she must have got round by some 
 byway — but she threw away her bundle, and gave chase 
 to Tom likewise. Only my L,ady did not give chase ; 
 for when she had put her head out of the window, her 
 night-wig fell into the garden, and she had to ring up 
 her lady's-maid, and send her down for it privately, 
 which quite put her out of the running, so that she 
 came in nowhere, and is 
 consequently not placed. 
 
 In a word, never was 
 there heard at Hall 
 Place — not even when 
 the fox was killed in the 
 conservatory, among 
 acres of broken glass, and 
 tons of smashed flower- 
 pots — such a noise, row, 
 hubbub, babel, shindy, 
 hullaballoo, stramash, 
 charivari, and total con- 
 tempt of dignity, repose, 
 and order, as that day, 
 when Grimes, gardener, 
 the groom, the dairy- 
 maid, Sir John, the stew- 
 ard, the ploughman, the 
 keeper, and the Irish- 
 woman, all ran up the park, shouting " Stop thief ! " in 
 the belief that Tom had at least a thousand pounds' 
 worth of jewels in his empty pockets ; and the very 
 magpies and jays followed Tom up, screaking and 
 screaming, as if he were a hunted fox, beginning to 
 droop his brush. 
 
 And all the while poor Tom paddled up the park with 
 
 £ — Water- Ba.hi.es 
 
26 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 his little bare feet, like a small black gorilla fleeing to 
 the forest. Alas for him ! there was no big father gorilla 
 therein to take his part — to scratch out the gardener's 
 inside with one paw, toss the dairymaid into a tree with 
 another, and wrench off Sir John's head with a third, 
 while he cracked the keeper's skull with his teeth as 
 easily as if it had been a cocoanut or a paving-stone. 
 However, Tom did not remember ever having had a 
 
 father ; so he did not 
 look for one, and ex- 
 pected to have to take 
 care of himself ; while 
 as for running, he could 
 keep up for a couple of 
 miles with any stage- 
 coach, if there was the 
 chance of a copper or a 
 cigar-end, and turn 
 coach-wheels on his 
 hands and feet ten times 
 following, which is more 
 than you can do. Where- 
 fore his pursuers found 
 it very difficult to catch 
 him ; and we will hope that they did not catch him at 
 all. 
 
 Tom, of course, made for the woods. He had never 
 been in a wood in his life ; but he was sharp enough to 
 know that he might hide in a bush or swarm up a tree, 
 and, altogether, had more chance there than in the 
 open. If he had not known that, he would have been 
 foolisher than a mouse or a minnow. 
 
 But when he got into the wood, he found it a very 
 different sort of a place from what he had fancied. He 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 27 
 
 pushed into a thick cover of rhododendrons, and found 
 himself at once caught in a trap. The boughs laid hold 
 of his legs and arms, poked him in his face and his 
 stomach, made him shut his eyes tight (though that was 
 no great loss, for he could not see at best a yard before 
 his nose) ; and when he got through the rhododendrons, 
 the hassock-grass and sedges tumbled him over, and cut 
 his poor little fingers afterwards most spitefully ; the 
 birches birched him as 
 soundly as if he had been 
 a nobleman at Eton, and 
 over the face, too (which 
 is not fair swishing, as 
 all brave boys will 
 agree) ; and the lawyers 
 tripped him up, and tore 
 his shins as if they had 
 sharks' teeth — w h i c h 
 lawyers are likely enough 
 to have. 
 
 u I must get out of 
 this," thought Tom, "or 
 I shall stay here till some- 
 body comes to help me, 
 which is just what I don't want." 
 
 But how to £et out was a difficult matter. And indeed 
 I don't think he would ever have got out at all, but 
 have stayed there till the cock-robins covered him with 
 leaves, if he had not suddenly run his head against a 
 wall. 
 
 Now running your head against a wall is not pleasant, 
 especially if it is a loose wall, with the stones all set on 
 edge, and a sharp-cornered one hits you between the 
 eyes and makes you see all manner of beautiful stars. 
 
28 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 The stars are very beautiful, certainly ; but unfortunately 
 thev go in the twenty-thousandth part of a split second, 
 and the pain which comes after them does not. And so 
 Tom hurt his head ; but he was a brave boy, and did 
 not mind that a penny. He guessed that over the wall 
 the cover would end ; and up it he went, and over like 
 a squirrel. 
 
 And there he was, out on the great grouse-moors, 
 
 which the country folk 
 
 called Harthover Fell 
 
 (- + — heather and bog and 
 
 \ ,1 / rock, stretching away 
 
 and up, up to the very 
 sky. 
 
 Now, Tom was a 
 cunninsf little fellow 
 — as cunning as an old 
 ex-moor stag. Why 
 rot ? Though he was 
 but ten years old, he 
 had lived longer than 
 most stags, and had 
 more wits to start with 
 into the bargain. 
 He knew as well as a stag that if he backed he 
 might throw the hounds out. So the first thing he did 
 when he was over the wall was to make the neatest double 
 sharp to his right, and run along under the wall for 
 nearly half a mile. 
 
 Whereby Sir John, and the keeper, and the steward, 
 and the gardener, and the ploughman, and the dairy- 
 maid, and all the hue-and-cry together, went on ahead 
 half a mile in the very opposite direction, and inside the 
 wall, leaving him a mile off on the outside ; while Tom 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 29 
 
 heard their shouts die away in the woods and chuckled 
 to himself merrily. 
 
 At last he came to a dip in the land, and went to the 
 bottom of it, and then he 
 
 &3&tt 
 
 turned bravely away from 
 the wall and up the moor; 
 for he knew that he had 
 put a hill between him 
 and his enemies, and 
 could go on without their 
 seeing him. 
 
 But the Irish-woman, 
 alone of them all, had 
 seen which way Tom 
 went. She had kept 
 ahead of every one the 
 whole time ; and yet 
 she neither walked nor 
 ran. She went along 
 quite smoothly and 
 gracefully, while her feet 
 twinkled past each other 
 so fast that you could 
 not see which was fore- 
 most ; till every one 
 asked the other who the 
 strange woman was ; and 
 all agreed, for want of 
 anvthinor better to sav, 
 that she must be in 
 league with Tom. 
 
 But when she came to the plantation, they lost 
 sight of her ; and they could do no less. For she went 
 quietly over the wall after Tom, and followed him where- 
 
30 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 ever he went. Sir John and the rest saw no more of 
 her ; and out of sight was out of mind. 
 
 And now Tom was right away into the heather, 
 over just such a moor as those in which you have been 
 bred, except that there were rocks and stones lying 
 about everywhere, and that, instead of the moor grow- 
 ing flat as he went upwards, it grew more and more 
 broken and hilly, but not so rough but that little Tom 
 could jog along well enough, and find time, too, to stare 
 about at the strange place, which was like a new world 
 to him. 
 
 He saw great spiders there, with crowns and crosses 
 marked on their backs, who sat in the middle of their 
 webs, and, when they saw Tom coming, shook them so 
 fast that they became invisible. Then he saw lizards, 
 brown and gray and green, and thought they were 
 snakes, and would sting him ; but they were as much 
 frightened as he, and shot away into the heath. And 
 then, under a rock, he saw a pretty sight — a great 
 brown, sharp-nosed creature, with a white tag to her 
 brush, and round her four or five smutty little cubs, 
 the funniest fellows Tom ever saw. She la}- on her 
 back, rolling about, and stretching out her legs and 
 head and tail in the bright sunshine ; and the cubs 
 jumped over her, and ran round her, and nibbled her 
 paws, and lugged her about by the tail ; and she 
 seemed to enjoy it mightily. But one selfish little fel- 
 low stole away from the rest to a dead crow close by, 
 and dragged it off to hide it, though it was nearly as 
 big as he was. Whereat all his little brothers set off 
 after him in full cry, and saw Tom ; and then all ran 
 back, and up jumped Mrs. Vixen, and caught one up 
 in her mouth, and the rest toddled after her, and into a 
 dark crack in the rocks ; and there was an end of the show* 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 3* 
 
 And next he had a fright ; for, as he scrambled up 
 a sandy brow — whirr-poof-poof-cock-cock-kick — some- 
 thing went off in his face, with a most horrid noise. He 
 thought the ground had blown up, and the end of the 
 world come. 
 
 And when he opened his eyes (for he shut them very 
 tight), it was only an old cock-grouse, who had been 
 
 
 t$A% 
 
 
 washing himself in sand, like an Arab, for want of 
 water ; and who, when Tom had all but trodden on 
 him, jumped up with a noise like the express train, 
 leaving his wife and children to shift for themselves, 
 like an old coward, and went off, screaming " Cur-ru-u- 
 11 ck, cur-ru-u-uck — murder, thieves, fire — cur-u-uck- 
 Cock-kick — the end of the world is come — kick-kick- 
 
32 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 cock-kick." He was always fancying that the end of 
 the world was come, when anything happened which 
 was farther off than the end of his own nose. But the 
 end of the world was not come, any more than the 
 twelfth of August was ; though the old grouse-cock was 
 quite certain of it. 
 
 So the old grouse came back to his wife and family 
 an hour afterwards, and said solemnly, "Cock-cock- 
 kick ; my dears, the end of the world is not quite come ; 
 but I assure you it is coming the day after to-morrow- 
 cock. n But his wife heard that so often that she knew 
 all about it, and a little more. And, besides, she was 
 the mother of a family, and had seven little poults to 
 wash and feed every day ; and that made her very prac- 
 tical, and a little sharp-tempered ; so all she answered 
 was: "Kick-kick-kick — go and catch spiders, go and 
 catch spiders — kick." 
 
 So Tom went on and on, he hardly knew why ; but 
 he liked the great wide, strange place, and the cool, 
 fresh bracing air. But he went more and more slowly 
 as he got higher up the hill ; for now the ground grew 
 very bad indeed. Instead of soft turf and springy 
 heather, he met great patches of flat limestone rock, 
 just like ill-made pavements, with deep cracks between 
 the stones and ledges, filled with ferns; so he had to 
 hop from stone to stone, and now and then he slipped 
 in between, and hurt his little bare toes, though they 
 were tolerably tough ones ; but still he would go on 
 and up, he could not tell why. 
 
 What would Tom have said if he had seen, walking 
 over the moor behind him, the very same Irish-woman 
 who had taken his part upon the road? But whether it 
 was that he looked too little behind him, or whether it 
 was that she kept out of sight behind the rocks and 
 knolls, he never saw her, though she saw him. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 
 
 33 
 
 And now he began to get a little hungry, and very 
 thirsty ; for he had run a long way, and the sun had 
 risen high in heaven, and the rock was as hot as an 
 oven, and the air danced reels over it, as it does over a 
 limekiln, till everything round seemed quivering and 
 melting in the glare. 
 
 '^S&s^zG&iZW^ 
 
 But he could see nothing to eat anywhere, w4 sti$ 
 less to drink. 
 
 The heath was full of bilberries and whii«**>erries ; 
 but they were only in flower yet, for it was Jui*e. And 
 as for water, who can find that on the top oi a lime- 
 stone rock ? Now and then he passed by a de^p dark 
 swallow-hole, going down into the earth, as if it was the 
 chimney of some dwarf's house underground ; and more 
 than once, as he passed, he could hear water falling, 
 
34 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 trickling, tinkling, many, many feet below. How he 
 longed to get down to it, and cool his poor baked lips ! 
 But, brave little chimney-sweep as he was, he dared not 
 climb down such chimneys as those. 
 
 So he went on and on, till his head spun round with 
 the heat, and he thought he heard church-bells ringing. 
 a long way off. 
 
 "Ah ! " he thought, "where there is a church there 
 will be houses and people ; and, perhaps, some one will 
 give me a bit and a sup." So he set off again, to look 
 for the church ; for he was sure that he heard the bells 
 quite plain. 
 
 And in a minute more, when he looked round, he 
 stopped again, and said, c< Why, what a big place the 
 world is ! ' ' 
 
 And so it was ; for, from the top of the mountain, he 
 could see — what could he not see ? 
 
 Behind him, far below, was Harthover, and the dark 
 woods, and the shining salmon river ; and on his left, 
 far below, was the town, and the smoking chimneys of 
 the collieries ; and far, far away, the river widened to 
 the shining sea ; and little white specks, which were 
 ships, lay on its bosom. Before him lay, spread out 
 like a map, great plains, and farms, and villages, amid 
 dark knots of trees. They all seemed at his very 
 feet ; but he had sense to see that they were long miles 
 away. 
 
 And to his right rose moor after moor, hill after hill, 
 till they faded away, blue into blue sky. But between 
 him and those moors, and really at his very feet, lay 
 something, to which, as soon as Tom saw it, he deter- 
 mined to go, for that was the place for him. 
 
 A deep, deep green and rocky valley, very narrow, 
 and filled with wood ; but through the wood, hundreds 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 35 
 
 xA feet below him, he could see a clear stream glance. 
 Oh, if he could but get down to that stream ! Then, by 
 the stream, he saw the roof of a little cottage, and a 
 little garden set out in squares and beds. And there 
 was a tiny little red thing moving in the garden, no 
 bigger than a fly. As Tom looked down, he saw that 
 it was a woman in a red petticoat. Ah ! perhaps she 
 would give him something to eat. And there were the 
 church-bells ringing again. Surely there must be a vil- 
 lage down there. Well, nobody would know him, or 
 what had happened at the Place. The news could not 
 have got there yet, even if Sir John had set all the police- 
 men in the county after him ; and he could get down 
 there in five minutes. 
 
 Tom was quite right about the hue-and-cry not having 
 got thither ; for he had come, without knowing it, the 
 best part of ten miles from Harthover ; but he was wrong 
 about getting down in five minutes, for the cottage was 
 more than a mile off, and a good thousand feet below. 
 
 However, down he went, like a brave little man as 
 he was, though he was very footsore, and tired, and 
 hungry, and thirsty ; while the church-bells rang so 
 loud, he began to think that they must be inside his 
 own head, and the river chimed and tinkled far below ; 
 and this was the song which it sang : 
 
36 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 \y CLEAR and cool, clear 
 ^ and cool, 
 By langldng shalloiv and dreaming pool ; 
 Cool and clear, cool and clear, 
 By shining shingle and foaming wear; 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 37 
 
 Under the crag where the ouzel sings, 
 
 And the ivied wall where the church-bell rings, 
 
 Unde filed, for the undefiled ; 
 
 Play by me, bathe in vie, mother and child. 
 
 Dank and fold, dank and foul, 
 
 By the smoky town in its murky cowl; 
 
 Foul and dank, foul and dank, 
 
 By wharf and sewer and slimy bank ; 
 
 Darker and darker the farther I go, 
 
 Baser and baser the richer I grow ; 
 
 Who dare sport with the sin-defiled? 
 
 Shrink from me, turn from me, mother and child. 
 
 Strong and free, strong and free, 
 
 The floodgates are open, away to the sea, 
 
 Free and strong, free and strong, 
 
 Cleansing my streams as I hurry along, 
 
 To the golden sands and the leaping bar, 
 
 And the taintless tide that awaits me afar. 
 
 As I lose myself in the infinite main, 
 
 Like a soul that has sinned and is pardoned again, 
 
 Undefiled, for the undefiled ; 
 
 Play by me, bathe in me, mother a?id child. 
 
 So Tom went down ; and all the while he never saw 
 the Irish-woman going down behind him. 
 
*8 
 
 THE WAYER-BABIES. 
 
 'And is there care in heaven ? and is there love 
 In heavenly spirits to these creatures base 
 That may compassion of their evils move? 
 'There is : — else much more wretched were the case 
 Of men than beasts : But oh ! the exceeding grace 
 Of Highest God that loves His creatures so, 
 And all His works with mercy doth embrace, 
 That blessed Angels He sends to and fro, 
 To serve to wicked man, to serve His wicked foe I " 
 
 Spenser, 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A MILE off, 
 and a thousand 
 feet down. 
 
 So Tom found 
 i t ; though i t 
 seemed as if he 
 could have 
 chucked a pebble on 
 to the back of the 
 woman in the red pet-» 
 ticoat who was weed- 
 ing- in the garden, or 
 even across the dale 
 to the rocks beyond. 
 For the bottom of the 
 valley was just one 
 field broad, and on the 
 other side ran the 
 stream ; and above it, 
 gray crag, gray down, 
 gray stair, gray moor, 
 walled up to heaven. 
 A quiet, silent, rich, happy place ; a narrow crack 
 
40 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 cut deep into the earth ; so deep, and so out of the way, 
 that the bad bogies can hardly find it out. The name 
 of the place is Vendale ; and if you want to see it for 
 yourself, you must go up into the High Craven, and 
 search from Bolland Forest north by Ingleborough to 
 the Nine Standards and Cross Fell ; and if you have 
 not found it, you must turn south, and search the Lake 
 Mountains, down to Scaw Fell and the sea ; and then, 
 if you have not found it, you must go northward again 
 by merry Carlisle, and search the Cheviots all across, 
 from Annan Water to Berwick Law ; and then, whether 
 you have found Vendale or not, you will have found 
 such a country, and such a people, as ought to make 
 you proud of being a British boy. 
 
 So Tom went to go down ; and first he w r ent down 
 three hundred feet of steep heather, mixed up with loose 
 brown gritstone, as rough as a file ; which was not 
 pleasant to his poor little heels, as he came bump, 
 stump, jump, down the steep. And still he thought ha 
 could throw a stone into the garden. 
 
 Then he went down three hundred feet of limestone 
 terraces, one below the other, as straight as if a carpentet 
 had ruled them with his ruler and then cut them out 
 with his chisel. There was no heath there, but — 
 
 First, a little grass slope, covered with the prettiest 
 flowers, rockrose and saxifrage, and thyme and basil, 
 and all sorts of sweet herbs. 
 
 Then bump down a two-foot step of limestone. 
 
 Then another bit of grass and flowers. 
 
 Then bump dowm a one-foot step. 
 
 Then another bit of grass and flowers for fifty yards, 
 as steep as the house-roof, where he had to slide down 
 on his dear little tail. 
 
 Then another step of stone, ten feet high ; and there 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 4 1 
 
 lie had to stop himself, and crawl along the edge to find 
 a crack ; for if he had rolled over, he would have rolled 
 right into the old woman's garden, and frightened her 
 out of her wits. 
 
 Then, when he had found a dark, narrow crack, full 
 of green-stalked fern, such as hangs in the basket in the 
 drawing-room, and had crawled down through it, with 
 knees and elbows, as he would down a chimney, there 
 was another grass slope, and another step, and so on, 
 till — oh, dear me ! I wish it was all over ; and so did 
 lie. And yet he thought he could throw a stone into 
 the old woman's garden. 
 
 At last he came to a bank of beautiful shrubs ; white- 
 beam with its great silver-backed leaves, and mountain- 
 ash, and oak ; and below them cliff and crag, cliff and 
 crag, with great beds of crown-ferns and wood-sedge ; 
 while through the shrubs he could see the stream spark- 
 ling, and hear it murmur on the white pebbles. He 
 -did not know that it was three hundred feet below. 
 
 You would have been giddy, perhaps, at looking 
 down : but Tom was not. He was a brave little chim- 
 ney-sweep ; and when he found himself on the top of 
 a high cliff, instead of sitting down and crying for his 
 baba (though he never had had any baba to cry for), he 
 said, u Ah, this will just suit me!" though he was 
 very tired ; and down he went, by stock and stone, 
 sedge and ledge, bush and rush, as if he" had been 
 born a jolly little black ape, with four hands instead of 
 two. 
 
 And all the while he never saw the Irish-woman 
 coming down behind him. 
 
 But he was getting terribly tired now. The burning 
 sun on the fells had sucked him up ; but the damp heat 
 of the woody crag sucked him up still more ; and the 
 
 4 — Water-Babies 
 
42 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 perspiration ran out of the ends of his fingers and toes, 
 and washed him cleaner than he had been for a whole 
 year. But, of course, he dirtied everything terribly as 
 he went. There has been a great black smudge all 
 down the crag ever since. And there have been more 
 black beetles in Vendale since than ever were known 
 before ; all, of course, owing to Tom's having blacked 
 the original papa of them all, just as he was setting off 
 to be married, with a sky-blue coat, and scarlet leggings, 
 as smart as a gardener's dog with a polyanthus in his 
 mouth. 
 
 At last he got to the bottom. But, behold, it was not 
 the bottom — as people usually find when they are coming 
 down a mountain. For at the foot of the crag were 
 heaps and heaps of fallen limestone of every size from 
 that of your head to that of a stage-wagon, with holes 
 between them full of sweet heath-fern ; and before Tom 
 got through them, he was out in the bright sunshine 
 again ; and then he felt, once for all and suddenly, as 
 people generally do, that he was b-e-a-t, beat. 
 
 You must expect to be beat a few times in your life, 
 little man, if you live such a life as a man ought to live, 
 let you be as strong and healthy as you may : and when 
 you are you will find it a very ugly feeling. I hope 
 that that day you mav have a stout staunch friend by 
 you who is not beat ; for, if you have not, you had best 
 lie where you are, and wait for better times, as poor 
 Tom did. 
 
 He could not ^et on. The sun was burninp- and vet 
 he felt chill all over. He was quite empty, and yet he 
 felt quite sick. There were but two hundred yards of 
 smooth pasture between him and the cottage, and yet 
 he could not walk down it. He could hear the stream 
 murmuring only one field beyond it, and yet it seemed 
 to him as if it was a hundred miles off. 
 
A FAIRY TAhh FOR A LAND-BABY. 43 
 
 He lay down on the grass till the beetles ran over 
 him, and the flies settled on his nose. I don't know 
 when he would have got up again, if the gnats and the 
 midges had not taken compassion on him. But the 
 gnats blew their trumpets so loud in his ear, and the 
 midges nibbled so at his hands and face wherever they 
 could find a place free from soot, that at last he woke 
 up, and stumbled away, down over a low wall, and into 
 a narrow road, and up to the cottage-door. 
 
 And a neat, pretty cottage it was, with clipped yew 
 hedges all round the garden, and yews inside, too, cut 
 into peacocks and trumpets and teapots and all kinds of 
 queer shapes. And out of the open door came a noise 
 like that of the frogs on the Great-A, when they know 
 that it is going to be scorching hot to-morrow — and how 
 they know that I don't know, and you don't know, and 
 nobodv knows. 
 
 He came slowly up to the open door, which was all 
 hung round with clematis and roses ; and then peeped 
 in, half-afraid. 
 
 And there sat by the empty fireplace, which was filled 
 with a pot of sweet herbs, the nicest old woman that 
 ever was seen, in her red petticoat, and short dimity 
 bedgown, and clean white cap, with a black silk hand- 
 kerchief over it, tied under her chin. At her feet sat the 
 grandfather of all the cats ; and opposite her sat, on two 
 benches, twelve or fourteen neat, rosy, chubby little 
 children, learning their Chris-cross-row ; and gabble 
 enough they made about it. 
 
 Such a pleasant cottage it was, with a shiny clean stone 
 rioor, and curious old prints on the walls, and an old 
 black oak sideboard full of bright pewter and brass dishes, 
 and a cuckoo clock in the corner, which began shouting 
 as soon as Tom appeared : not that it was frightened at 
 Tom, but that it was just eleven o'clock 
 
44 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 All the children started at Tom's dirty black figure — ■ 
 the girls began to cry, and the boys began to laugh, and 
 all pointed at him rudely enough ; but Tom was too 
 tired to care for that. 
 
 "What art thou, and what dost want? " cried the old 
 dame. "A chimney-sweep] Away with thee! I'll 
 have no sweeps here." 
 
 4 'Water," said poor little Tom, quite faint. 
 
 "Water? There's plenty i' the beck," she said, 
 quite sharply. 
 
 "But I can't get there; I'm most clemmed with 
 hunger and drought." And Tom sank down upon the 
 door-step, and laid his head against the post. 
 
 And the old dame looked at him through her 
 spectacles one minute, and two, and three ; and then 
 she said, " He's sick ; and a bairn's a bairn, sweep or 
 none." 
 
 "Water," said Tom. 
 
 "God forgive me!" and she put by her spectacles, 
 and rose, and came to Tom. "Water's bad for thee; 
 I'll give thee milk." And she toddled off into the 
 next room, and brought a cup of milk and a bit of 
 bread. 
 
 Tom drank the milk off at one draught, and then 
 looked up, revived. 
 
 " Where didst come from ? " said the dame. 
 
 "Over Fell, there," said Tom, and pointed up into 
 the sky. 
 
 " Over Harthover? and down Lewthwaite Crag? Art 
 sure thou art not lying ? " 
 
 "Why should I?" said Tom, and leant his head 
 against the post. 
 
 " And how got ye up there? " 
 
 " I came over from the Place ;" and Tom was so tired 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 45 
 
 and desperate he had no heart or time to think of a 
 story, so he told all the truth in a few words. 
 
 " Bless thy little heart ! And thou hast not been 
 stealing, then? " 
 
 u No." 
 
 u Bless thy little heart ! and I'll warrant not. Why, 
 God's guided the bairn, because he was innocent ! 
 Away from the Place, and over Harthover Fell, and 
 down L,ewthwaite Crag? Who ever heard the like, 
 if God hadn't led him? Why dost not eat thy 
 bread?" 
 
 " I can't." 
 
 "It's good enough, for I made it myself." 
 
 "I can't," said Tom, and he laid his head on his 
 knees, and then asked — 
 
 u Isit Sunday?" 
 
 u No, then ; why should it be?" 
 Because I hear the church-bells ringing so." 
 Bless thy pretty heart ! The bairn's sick. Come 
 wi' me, and I'll hap thee up somewhere. If thou wert 
 a bit cleaner I'd put thee in my own bed, for the Lord's 
 sake. But come along here." 
 
 But when Tom tried to get up, he was so tired and 
 giddy that she had to help him and lead him. 
 
 She put him in an outhouse upon soft, sweet hay 
 and an old rug, and bade him sleep off his walk, and 
 she would come to him when school was over, in an 
 hour's time. 
 
 And so she went in again, expecting Tom to fall fast 
 asleep at once. 
 
 But Tom did not fall asleep. 
 
 Instead of it he turned and tossed and kicked about in 
 the strangest way, and felt so hot all over that he longed 
 to get into the river and cool himself ; and then he fell 
 
 u 
 
46 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 half asleep, and dreamt that he heard the little white 
 lady crying to him, "Oh, you're so dirty ; go and be 
 washed ; " and then that he heard the Irish-woman say- 
 ing, "Those that wish to be clean, clean thev will be." 
 And then he heard the church-bells ring so loud, close 
 to him, too, that he was sure it must be Sunday, in spite 
 of what the old dame had said ; and he would go to 
 church, and see what a church was like inside, for he 
 had never been in one, poor little fellow, in all his life. 
 But the people would never let him come in, all over 
 soot and dirt like that. He must go to the river and wash 
 first. And he said out loud again and again, though 
 being half asleep he did not know it, " I must be clean, 
 I must be clean." 
 
 All of a sudden he found himself, not in the outhouse 
 on the hay, but in the middle of a meadow, over the 
 road, with the stream just before him, saying continually, 
 " I must be clean, I must be clean." He had got there 
 on his own legs, between sleep and awake, as children 
 will often get out of bed, and go about the room when 
 they are not quite well. But he was not a bit surprised, 
 and went on to the bank of the brook, and lay down on 
 the grass, and looked into the clear, clear limestone 
 water, with every pebble at the bottom bright and clean, 
 while the little silver trout dashed about in fright at the 
 sight of his black face ; and he dipped his hand in and 
 found it so cool, cool, cool ; and he said, "I will be a 
 fish ; I will swim in the water ; I must be clean, I must 
 be clean." 
 
 So he pulled off all his clothes in such haste that he 
 tore some of them, which was easy enough with such 
 ragged old things. And he put his poor hot sore feet 
 into the water ; and then his legs ; and the farther he 
 went in, the more the church-bells rang in his head. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 47 
 
 u 
 
 'Ah!" said Tom, "I must be quick and wash my- 
 self ; the bells are ringing quite loud now ; and they 
 will stop soon, and then the door will be shut, and I 
 shall never be able to get in at all." 
 
 Tom was mistaken : for in England the church doors 
 are left open all service time, for everybody who likes 
 to come in, Churchman or Dissenter ; ay, even if he were 
 a Turk or a Heathen ; and if any man dared to turn him 
 out, as long as he behaved quietly, the good old English 
 law would punish that man, as he deserved, for order- 
 ing any peaceable person out of God's house, which 
 belongs to all alike. But Tom did not know that, any 
 more than he knew a great deal more which people 
 ought to know. 
 
 And all the while he never saw the Irish-woman, not 
 behind him this time, but before. 
 
 For just before he came to the river-side, she had stept 
 down into the cool clear water ; and her shawl and her 
 petticoat floated off her, and the green water-weeds 
 floated round her sides, and the white water-lilies floated 
 round her head, and the fairies of the stream came up 
 from the bottom and bore her away and down upon their 
 arms ; for she was the Queen of them all ; and perhaps 
 of more besides. 
 
 "Where have you been?" they asked her. 
 
 " I have been smoothing sick folks' pillows, and whis- 
 pering sweet dreams into their ears ; opening cottage 
 casements, to let out the stifling air ; coaxing little chil- 
 dren away from gutters, and foul pools where fever 
 breeds ; turning women from the gin-shop door, and 
 staying men's hands as they were going to strike their 
 wives ; doing all I can to help those who will not help 
 themselves : and little enough that is, and weary work 
 for me. But I have brought you a new little brother, 
 and watched him safe all the way here." 
 
48 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Then all the fairies laughed for joy at the thought that 
 they had a little brother comiug. 
 
 " But mind, maidens, he must not see you, or know 
 that you are here. He is but a savage now, and like the 
 beasts which perish ; and from the beasts which perish 
 he must learn. So you must not play with him, or speak 
 to him, or let him see you : but only keep him from 
 being harmed." 
 
 Then the fairies were sad, because they could not play 
 with their new brother, but they always did what they 
 were told. 
 
 And their Queen floated away down the river ; and 
 whither she went, thither she came. But all this Tom, 
 of course, never saw or heard : and perhaps if he had 
 it would have made little difference in the story ; for he 
 was so hot and thirsty, and longed so to be clean for 
 once, that he tumbled himself as quick as he could into 
 the clear cool stream. 
 
 And he had not been in it two minutes before he fell 
 fast asleep, into the quietest, sunniest, cosiest sleep that 
 ever he had in his life ; and he dreamt about the green 
 meadows by which he had walked that morning, and 
 the tall elm-trees, and the sleeping cows ; and after that 
 he dreamt of nothing at all. 
 
 The reason of his falling into such a delightful sleep 
 is very simple ; and yet hardly any one has found it out. 
 It was merely that the fairies took him. 
 
 Some people think that there are no fairies. Cousin 
 Cramchild tells little folks so in his Conversations. 
 Well, perhaps, there are none — in Boston, U. S., where 
 he was raised. There are only a clumsy lot of spirits 
 there, who can't make people hear without thumping 
 on the table: but they get their living thereby, and I 
 suppose that is all they want. And Aunt Agitate, iu 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 49 
 
 her Arguments on political economy, says there are 
 
 -».i 
 
 none. Well, perhaps there are none — in her political 
 
50 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 economy. But it is a wide world, my little man 
 — and thank Heaven for it, or else, between crino- 
 lines and theories, some of us would get squashed — and 
 plenty of room in it for fairies, without people seeing 
 them ; unless, of course, they look in the right place. 
 The most wonderful and the strongest things in the 
 world, you know, are just the things which no one can 
 see. There is life in you ; and it is the life in you which 
 makes you grow, and move, and think : and yet you 
 can't see it. And there is steam in a steam-engine ; and 
 that is what makes it move : and yet you can't see it ; 
 and so there may be fairies in the world, and they may 
 be just what makes the world go round to the old tune 
 of 
 
 u O est P amour, V amour, V amour 
 Qui fait la monde a la ronde : " 
 
 and yet no one may be able to see them except those 
 whose hearts are going round to that same tune. At all 
 events, we will make believe that there are fairies in the 
 world. It will not be the last time by many a one that 
 we shall have to make believe. And yet, after all, there 
 is no need for that. There must be fairies ; for this is a 
 fairy tale : and how can one have a fairy tale if there are 
 no fairies? 
 
 You don't see the logic of that? Perhaps not. Then 
 please not to see the logic of a great many arguments 
 exactly like it, which you will hear before your beard is 
 gray. 
 
 The kind old dame came back at twelve, when school 
 was over, to look at Tom : but there was no Tom there. 
 She looked about for his footprints ; but the ground was 
 so hard that there was no slot, as they say in dear old 
 North Devon. And if you grow up to be a brave healthy 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 5* 
 
 man, you may know some day what no slot means, and 
 know, too, I hope, what a slot does mean — a broad slot, 
 with blunt claws, which makes a man put out his cigar, 
 and set his teeth, and tighten his girths, when he sees 
 it ; and what his rights mean, if he has them, brow, bay, 
 tray, and points ; and see something worth seeing between 
 Haddon Wood and Countisbury Cliff, with good Mr. 
 Palk Collyns to show you the way and mend your bones 
 as fast as you smash them. Only when that jolly day 
 comes, please don' t break your 
 neck ; stogged in a mire you 
 never will be, I trust ; for you 
 are a heath-cropper bred and 
 born. 
 
 So the old dame went in 
 again quite sulky, thinking 
 that little Tom had tricked 
 her with a false story, and 
 shammed ill, and then run 
 
 awav again. 
 
 But she altered her mind 
 the next day. For when Sir 
 John and the rest of them 
 had run themselves out of 
 breath, and lost Tom, they went back again, looking 
 very foolish. 
 
 And they looked more foolish still when Sir John 
 heard more of the story from the nurse ; and more 
 foolish still, again, when they heard the whole story 
 from Miss Ellie, the little lady in white. All she had 
 seen was a poor little black chimney-sweep, crying and 
 sobbing, and going to get up the chimney again. Of 
 course, she was very much frightened : and no wondes. 
 But that W3.s all The boy had taken nothino; in the 
 
52 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 room ; by the mark of his little sooty feet, they eould 
 see that he had never been off the hearth-rug till the 
 nurse caught hold of him. It was all a mistake 
 
 So Sir John told Grimes to go home, and promised 
 him five shillings if he would bring the boy quietly up 
 to him, without beating him, that he might be sure 
 of the truth. For he took for granted, and Grimes, 
 too, that Tom had made his way home. 
 
 But no Tom came back to Mr. Grimes that evening ; 
 and he went to the police-office to tell them to look out 
 for the boy. But no Tom was heard of. As for his 
 having gone over those great fells to Vendale, they no 
 more dreamed of that than of his having gone to the 
 moon. 
 
 So Mr. Grimes came up to Harthover next day with 
 a very sour face ; but when he got there, Sir John was 
 over the hills and far away ; and Mr. Grimes had to sit 
 in the outer servants' hall all day, and drink strong ale 
 to wash away his sorrows ; and they were washed away 
 long before Sir John came back. 
 
 For good Sir John had slept very badly that night ; 
 and he said to his lady, u My dear, the boy must have 
 got over into the grouse-moors, and lost himself ; and he 
 lies very heavily on my conscience, poor little lad. But 
 I know what I will do." 
 
 So at five the next morning up he got, and into his 
 bath, and into his shooting-jacket and gaiters, and into 
 the stableyard, like a fine old English gentleman, with 
 a face as red as a rose, and a hand as hard as a table, and 
 a back as broad as a bullock's ; and bade them bring his 
 shooting pony, and the keeper to come on his pony, and 
 the huntsman, and the first whip, and the second whip, 
 and the underkeeper with the bloodhound in a leash — a 
 great dog, as tall as a calf, of the color of a gravel- 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 53 
 
 walk, with mahogany ears and nose, and a throat like a 
 chtirch-bell. They took him up to the place where Tom 
 had gone into the wood ; and there the hound lifted up 
 his mighty voice, and told them all he knew. 
 
 Then he took them to the place where Tom had 
 climbed the wall ; and they shoved it down, and all gol 
 through. 
 
 And then the 
 wise dog took them 
 over the moor, and 
 over the fells, step 
 by step, very slowly; 
 for the scent was a 
 day old, you know, 
 and very light from 
 the heat and 
 drought. But that 
 was why cunning 
 old Sir John started 
 at five in the morn- 
 ing. 
 
 And at last he 
 came to the top of 
 Lewthwaite Crag, 
 and there he bayed, 
 and looked up in 
 their faces, as much 
 as to say, u I tell 
 you he is gone down here ! ' ' 
 
 They could hardly believe that Tom would have gone 
 so far ; and when they looked at that awful cliff, they 
 could never believe that he would have dared to faos it 
 But, if the dog said so, it must be true. 
 
 (i Heaven forgive us I " said Sir John. "If vm find 
 
54 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 him at all, we shall find him lying at the bottom." And 
 he slapped his great hand upon his great thigh, and 
 said — 
 
 "Who will go down over Lewthwaite Crag, and see 
 if that boy is alive? Oh, that I were twenty years 
 younger, and I would go down myself! " And so he 
 would have done, as well as any sweep in the county. 
 Then he said — 
 
 "Twenty pounds to the man who brings me that 
 boy alive!" ana as was his way, what he said he 
 meant. 
 
 Now among the lot was a little groom-boy, a very 
 little groom, indeed ; and he was the same who had 
 ridden up the court, and told Tom to come to the Hall ; 
 and he said — 
 
 "Twenty pounds or none, I will go down over 
 Lewthwaite Crag, if it's only for the poor boy's sake. 
 For he was as civil a spoken little chap as ever climbed 
 a flue." 
 
 So down over Lewthwaite Crag he went : a very smart 
 groom he was at the top, and a very shabby one at the 
 bottom ; for he tore his gaiters, and he tore his breeches, 
 and he tore his jacket, and he burst his braces, and he 
 burst his boots, and he lost his hat, and, what was worst 
 of all, he lost his shirt pin, which he prized very much, 
 for it was gold, and he had won it in a raffle at Malton, 
 and there was a figure at the top of it, of t'ould mare, 
 noble old Beeswing herself, as natural as life ; so it 
 was a really severe loss : but he never saw anything of 
 Tom. 
 
 And all the while Sir John and the rest were riding 
 round, full three miles to the right, and back again, to 
 get into Vendale, and to the foot of the crag. 
 
 When they came to the old dame's school, all the 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 55 
 
 children came out to see. And the old dame came out^ 
 too ; and when she saw Sir John she curtsied very low, 
 for she was a tenant of his. 
 
 "Well, dame, and how are you?" said Sir John. 
 
 " Blessings on you as broad as your back, Harthover," 
 says she — she didn't call him Sir John, but only Harth- 
 over, for that is the fashion in the North country — "and 
 welcome into Vendale : but you're no hunting the fox 
 this time of the year ? " 
 
 " I am hunting, and strange game, too," said he. 
 
 "Blessings on your heart, and what makes you look 
 so sad the morn ? ' ' 
 
 "I'm looking for a lost child, a chimney-sweep, that 
 is run away. ' ' 
 
 "Oh, Harthover, Harthover, " says she, "ye were 
 always a just man and a merciful ; and ye' 11 no harm the 
 poor little lad if I give you tidings of him ? " 
 
 " Not I, not I, dame. I'm afraid we hunted him out 
 of the house all on a miserable mistake, and the hound 
 has brought him to the top of Lewthwaite Crag, 
 and- " 
 
 Whereat the old dame broke out crying, without let- 
 ting him finish his story. 
 
 "So he told me the truth after all, poor little dear ! 
 Ah, first thoughts are best, and a body's heart' 11 guide 
 them right, if they will but hearken to it." And then 
 she told Sir John all. 
 
 "Bring the dog here, and lay him on," said Sir 
 John, without another word, and he set his teeth very 
 hard. 
 
 And the dog opened at once ; and went away at the 
 back of the cottage, over the road, and over the meadow, 
 and through a bit of alder copse ; and there, upon an 
 alder stump, they saw Tom's clothes lying. And then 
 
56 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 they knew as much about it all as there was .any need 
 to know. 
 
 And Tom ? 
 
 Ah, now comes the most wonderful part of this won- 
 derful story. Tom, when he woke, for of course he 
 woke — children always wake after they have slept ex- 
 actly as long as it is good for them — found himself 
 swimming about in the stream, being about four inches, 
 or — that I may be accurate — 3*87902 inches long, and 
 having round the parotid region of his fauces a set of 
 external gills (I hope you understand all the big words) 
 just like those of a sucking eft, which he mistook for a 
 lace frill, till he pulled at them, found he hurt himself, 
 and made up his mind that they were part of himself, 
 and best left alone. 
 
 In fact, the fairies had turned him into a water- 
 baby. 
 
 A water-baby ? You never heard of a water-baby. 
 Perhaps not. That is the very reason why this story 
 was written. There are a great many things in the 
 world which you never heard of ; and a great many more 
 which nobody ever heard of ; and a great many things, 
 too, which nobody will ever hear of, at least until the 
 coming of the Cocqcigrues, when man shall be the 
 measure of all things. 
 
 u But there are no such things as water-babies." 
 
 How do you know that ? Have you been there to 
 see ? And if you had been there to see, and had seen 
 none, that would not prove that there were none. If 
 Mr. Garth does not find a fox in Kversley Wood — as 
 folks sometimes fear he never will — that does not prove 
 that there are no such things as foxes. And as is 
 Kverslev Wood to all the woods in England, so are the 
 waters w T e know to all the waters in the world. And no 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 57 
 
 one has a right to say that no water-babies exist, till 
 they have seen no water-babies existing ; which is Quite 
 a different thing, mind, from not seeing water-babies : 
 and a thing which nobody ever did, or perhaps ever 
 will do. 
 
 u But, surely, if there were water-babies, somebody 
 would have caught one at 
 least?" 
 
 Well, how do you know 
 that somebody has not ? 
 
 " But they would have put 
 It into spirits, or into the 
 Illustrated News, or perhaps 
 cut it into two halves, poor 
 dear little thing, and sent one 
 to Professor Owen and one 
 to Professor Huxley, to see 
 what they would each say 
 about it." 
 
 Ah, my dear little man ! 
 that does not follow at all, 
 as you will see before the end 
 of the story. 
 
 u But a water-baby is con- 
 trary to nature. ' ' 
 
 Well, but, my dear little 
 man, you must learn to 
 talk about such things, when you grow older, in a ver 
 different way from that. You must not talk abom 
 "ain't" and "can't" when you speak of this great 
 wonderful world round you, of which the wisest man 
 knows only the very smallest corner, and is, as the 
 great Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child picking* «l* 
 pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean. 
 
 5 — Water Babies 
 
58 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 You must not say that this cannot be, or that that 
 is contrary to nature. You do not know what Nature 
 is, or what she can do ; and nobody knows ; not even 
 Sir Roderick Murchison, or Professor Owen, or Pro- 
 fessor Sedgwick, or Professor Huxley, or Mr. Darwin, 
 or Professor Faraday, or Mr. Grove, or any other of 
 the great men whom good boys are taught to respect. 
 They are very wise men ; and you must listen respect- 
 fully to all they say : but even if they should say, which 
 I am sure they never would, " That cannot exist. That 
 is contrary to nature," you must wait a little, arid see ; 
 for perhaps even they may be wrong. It is only chil- 
 dren who read Aunt Agitate' s Arguments or Cousin 
 Cramchild's Conversations ; or lads who go to popular 
 lectures, and see a man pointing at a few big ugly pic- 
 tures on the wall, or making nasty smells with bottles 
 and squirts, for an hour or two, and calling that anat- 
 omy or chemistry — who talk about "cannot exist," 
 and "contrary to nature." Wise men are afraid to 
 say that there is anything contrary to nature, except 
 what is contrary to mathematical truth ; for two and 
 two cannot make five, and two straight lines cannot 
 join twice, and a part cannot be as great as the whole, 
 and so on (at least, so it seems at present) : but the wiser 
 men are, the less they talk about "cannot." That is 
 a very rash, dangerous word, that "cannot;" and if 
 people use it too often, the Queen of all the Fairies, 
 who makes the clouds thunder and the fleas bite, and 
 takes just as much trouble about one as about the other, 
 is apt to astonish them suddenly by showing them, that 
 though they say she cannot, yet she can, and, what is 
 more, will, whether they approve or not. 
 
 And therefore it is that there are dozens and hun- 
 dreds of things in the world which we should certainly 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 59 
 
 have said were contrary to nature, if we did not see them 
 going on under our eyes all day long. If people had 
 never seen little seeds grow into great plants and trees, 
 of quite different shape from themselves, and these 
 trees again produce fresh seeds, to grow into fresh trees, 
 they would have said, "The thing cannot be; it is 
 contrary to nature." And they would have been quite 
 as right in saying; so, as in saying 1 that most other things 
 cannot be. 
 
 Or suppose, again, that you had come, like M. Du 
 Chaillu, a traveller from unknown parts ; and that no 
 human being had ever seen or heard of an elephant. 
 And suppose that you described him to people, and said, 
 " This is the shape, and plan, and anatomy of the beast,, 
 and of his feet, and of his trunk, and of his grinders, 
 and of his tusks, though they are not tusks at all, but 
 two fore teeth run mad ; and this is the section of his 
 skull, more like a mushroom than a reasonable skull 
 of a reasonable or unreasonable beast ; and so forth, and 
 so forth ; and though the beast (which I assure you I 
 have seen and shot) is first cousin to the little hairy 
 coney of Scripture, second cousin to a pig, and (I sus- 
 pect) thirteenth or fourteenth cousin to a rabbit, yet he 
 is the wisest of all beasts, and can do everything save' 
 read, write, and cast accounts." People would surely 
 have said, "Nonsense; your elephant is contrary to 
 nature;" and have thought vou were telling; stories — 
 as the French thought of he Vaillant when he came 
 back to Paris and said that he had shot a giraffe ; and 
 as the king of the Cannibal Islands thought of the Eng- 
 lish sailor, when he said that in his country water turned 
 to marble, and rain fell as feathers. They would tell 
 you, the more they knew of science, "Your elephant 
 is an impossible monster, contrary to the laws of com- 
 
CO THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 parative anatomy, as far as yet known." To which 
 you would answer the less, the more you thought. 
 
 Did not learned men, too, hold, till within the last 
 twenty-five years, that a flying dragon was an impos- 
 sible monster ? And do we not now know that there 
 are hundreds of them found fossil up and down the 
 world ? People call them Pterodactyles : but that is 
 only because they are ashamed to call them flying drag- 
 ons, after denying so long that flying dragons could exist. 
 
 The truth is, that folks' fancy that such and such 
 things cannot be, simply because they have not seen 
 them, is worth no more than a savage's fancy that there 
 cannot be such a thing as a locomotive, because he 
 never saw one running wild in the forest. Wise men 
 know that their business is to examine what is, and not 
 to settle what is not. They know that there are ele- 
 phants ; they know that there have been flying dragons ; 
 and the wiser they are, the less inclined they will be to 
 say positively that there are no water-babies. 
 
 No water-babies, indeed? Why, wise men of old 
 said that everything on earth had its double in the 
 water ; and you may see that that is, if not quite true, 
 still quite as true as most other theories which you are 
 likely to hear for many a day. There are land-babies — 
 then why not water-babies? Are there not water-rats, 
 water-flies, water-crickets, zvater-crabs, water-tortoises, 
 zvater-scorpions, water-tigers and water-hogs, water- 
 cats and water-dogs, sea-/ions and sea-bears, sea-horses 
 and sea- elephants, sea-mice and sea-urchins, sea-razors 
 and sea-pens, sea-combs and sea-fans ; and of plants, 
 are there not water-grass, and zvater-crowfoot, water- 
 milfoil, and so on, without end? 
 
 " But all these things are only nicknames ; the watej 
 things are not really akin to the land things. * ' 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 6l 
 
 That's not always true. They are, in millions of 
 cases, not only of the same family, but actually the 
 same individual creatures. Do not even you know that 
 a green drake, and an alder-fly, and a dragon-fly, live 
 under water till they change their skins, just as Tom 
 changed his ? And if a water animal can continually 
 change into a land animal, why should not a land 
 animal sometimes change into a water animal ? Don't 
 be put down by any of Cousin Cramchild's arguments,. 
 
 but stand up to him like a man, and answer him (quite 
 respectfully, of course) thus : 
 
 If Cousin Cramchild says, that if there are water- 
 babies, they must grow into water-men, ask him how 
 "he knows that they do not? and then, how he knows 
 that they must, any more than the Proteus of the Adels- 
 berg caverns grows into a perfect newt. 
 
 If he says that it is too strange a transformation for 
 a land-baby to turn into a water-baby, ask him if he ever 
 heard of the transformation of Syllis, or the Distomas, 
 or the common jelly-fish, of which M. Quatrefages says 
 
02 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 excellently well — "Who would not exclaim that a 
 miracle had come to pass, if he saw a reptile come out 
 of the egg dropped by the hen in his poultry-yard, and 
 the reptile give birth at once to an indefinite number 
 of fishes and birds? Yet the history of the jelly-fish is 
 quite as wonderful as that would be." Ask him if he 
 knows about all this ; and if he does not, tell him to go 
 and look for himself ; and advise him (very respectfully, 
 of course) to settle no more what strange things cannot 
 happen, till he has seen what strange things do happen 
 every day. 
 
 If he says that things cannot degrade, that is, change 
 downwards into lower forms, ask him, who told him 
 that water-babies were lower than land-babies ? But 
 even if they were, does he know about the strange 
 degradation of the common goose-barnacles, which one 
 finds sticking on ships' bottoms ; or the still stranger 
 degradation of some cousins of theirs, of which one 
 hardly likes to talk, so shocking and ugly it is? 
 
 And, lastly, if he says (as he most certainly will) 
 that these transformations only take place in the lower 
 animals, and not in the higher, say that that seems to 
 little boys, and to some grown people, a very strange 
 fancy. For if the changes of the lower animals are 
 so wonderful, and so difficult to discover, why should 
 not there be changes in the higher animals far more 
 wonderful, and far more difficult to discover? And 
 may not man, the crown and flower of all things, un- 
 dergo some chaiiQ-e as much more wonderful than all 
 the rest, as the Great Exhibition is more wonderful 
 than a rabbit-burrow ? Let him answer that. And 
 if he says (as he will) that not having seen such a 
 change in his experience, he is not bound to believe it, 
 ask him respectfully, where his microscope has been? 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 63 
 
 Does not each of us, in coming into this world, go 
 through a transformation just as wonderful as that of 
 a sea-egg, or a butterfly ? and do not reason and analogy, 
 as well as Scripture, tell us that that transformation is 
 not the last? and that, though what we shall be, we 
 know not, yet we are here but as the crawling cater- 
 pillar, and shall be hereafter as the perfect fly. The 
 old Greeks, heathens as they were, saw as much as that 
 two thousand years ago ; and I care very little for 
 Cousin Cramchild, if he sees even less than they. And 
 so forth, and so forth, till he is quite cross. And then 
 tell him that if there are no water-babies, at least there 
 ought to be ; and that, at least, he cannot answer. 
 
 And meanwhile, my dear little man, till you know 
 a great deal more about nature than Professor Owen 
 and Professor Huxley put together, don't tell me about 
 what cannot be, or fancy that anything is too wonderful 
 to be true. "We are fearfully and wonderfully made," 
 said old David ; and so we are ; and so is everything 
 around us, down to the very deal table. Yes ; much 
 more fearfully and wonderfully made, already, is the 
 table, as it stands now, nothing but a piece of dead 
 deal-wood, than if, as foxes say, and geese believe, 
 spirits could make it dance, or talk to 3'ou by rapping 
 on it. 
 
 Am I in earnest? Oh, dear no! Don't you know 
 that this is a fairy tale, and all fun and pretence ; and 
 that you are not to believe one word of it, even if it is 
 true ? 
 
 But at all events, so it happened to Tom. And, there- 
 fore, the keeper, and the groom, and Sir John made a 
 great mistake, and were very unhappy (Sir John at 
 least) without any reason, when they found a black 
 thing in the water, and said it was Tom's body, and 
 
64 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 that he had been drowned. They were utterly mis- 
 taken. Tom was quite alive ; and cleaner and merriei 
 than he ever had been. The fairies had washed him, 
 you see, in the swift river, so thoroughly, that not only 
 his dirt, but his whole husk and shell had been washed 
 quite off him, and the pretty little real Tom was washed, 
 out of the inside of it, and swam away, as a caddis does 
 when its case of stones and silk is bored through, and 
 away it goes on its back, paddling to the shore, there to 
 split its skin, and fly away as a caperer, on four fawn- 
 colored wings, with long legs and horns. They are 
 foolish fellows, the caperers, and fly into the candle 
 at night, if you leave the door open. We will hope 
 Tom will be w T iser, now he has got safe out of his sooty 
 old shell. 
 
 But good Sir John did not understand all this, not 
 being a fellow of the Linnsean Society ; and he took it 
 into his head that Tom was drowned. When they looked 
 into the empty pockets of his shell, and found no jewels 
 there, nor money — nothing but three marbles, and a 
 brass buttou with a string to it — then Sir John did some- 
 thing as like crying as ever he did in his life, and blamed 
 himself more bitterly than he need have done. So he 
 cried, and the groom-boy cried, and the huntsman cried, 
 and the dame cried, and the little girl cried, and the 
 dairymaid cried, and the old nurse cried (for it was some- 
 what her fault), and my lady cried, for though people 
 have wigs, that is no reason why they should not have 
 hearts ; but the keeper did not cry, though he had been 
 so good-natured to Tom the morning before; for he was 
 so dried up with running after poachers, that you could 
 no more get tears out of him than milk out of leather; 
 and Grimes did not cry, for Sir John gave him ten 
 pounds, and he drank it all in a week. Sir John sent. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 6^ 
 
 far and wide, to find Tom's father and mother ; but he 
 might have looked till Doomsday for them, for one 
 was dead, and the other was in Botany Bay. And the 
 little girl would not play with her dolls for a whole 
 week, and never forgot poor little Tom. And soon my 
 lady put a pretty little tombstone over Tom's shell in 
 the little churchyard in Vendale, where the old dales- 
 men all sleep side by side between the limestone crags, 
 And the dame decked it with garlands every Sunday, 
 till she grew so old that she could not stir abroad ; then 
 the little children decked it for her. And always she 
 sang an old, old song, as she sat spinning what she called 
 her wedding-dress. The children could not understand 
 it, but they liked it none the less for that ; for it was 
 very sweet, and very sad ; and that was enough for them* 
 And these are the words of it : 
 
66 
 
 THE WATEk-B ABIES. 
 
 f 
 
 HEN all the 
 
 world is young, 
 lad, 
 And all the trees 
 
 are green ; 
 And every goose a 
 r^j swan, lad, 
 
 And every lass a 
 
 qneen ; 
 Then hey for boot 
 and horse, lad t 
 
 And round the world away ; 
 Young blood must have its course, laa* 
 And every doe" his day. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 When all the zvorld is old, lad, 
 And all the trees are brown ; 
 
 And all the sport is stale, lad, 
 And, all the zvheels run down ; 
 
 Creep liome, and take your place there t 
 The spent and maimed among: 
 
 God grant yon find one face there, 
 You loved when all zuas young. 
 
 *Those are the words : but they are only the body Oi 
 it : the soul of the song was the dear old woman's sweet 
 face, and sweet voice, and the sweet old air to which she 
 sang ; and that, alas ! one cannot put on paper. And at 
 last she grew so stiff and lame, that the angels were 
 
68 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 forced to carry her ; and they helped her on with her 
 wedding-dress, and carried her up over Harthover Fells, 
 and a long way beyond that, too ; and there was a new 
 schoolmistress in Vendale, and we will hope that she 
 was not certificated. 
 
 And all the while Tom was swimming about in the 
 river, with a pretty little lace-collar of gills about his 
 neck, as lively as a grig, and as clean as a fresh-run 
 salmon. 
 
 Now if you don't like my story, then go to the school- 
 room and learn your multiplication-table, and see if you 
 like that better. Some people, no doubt, would do so. 
 So much the better for us, if not for them. It takes all 
 sorts, they say, to make a world. 
 
 "He prayeth well who loveth well 
 Both men and bird and beast ; 
 He prayeth best w'lo loveth best 
 All things both great and small : 
 For the dear God who loveth us, 
 He made and loveth all." 
 
 Coleridge. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 (a 
 
 OM was now quite amphibious* 
 You do not know what that 
 means ? You had better, then, 
 ask the nearest Govern- 
 ment pupil-teacher, who 
 may possibly answer you 
 smartly enough, thus — ■ 
 "Amphibious. Adjective, 
 derived from two Greek 
 words, amphi, a fish, and bios, 
 a beast. An animal supposed 
 by our ignorant ancestors to 
 be compounded of a fish and 
 a beast ; which, like the hip- 
 popotamus, can't live on the 
 land, and dies in the water. 5 ' 
 However that may be, Tom was amphibious : and 
 what is better still, he was clean. For the first time in 
 his life, he felt how comfortable it was to have nothing 
 on him but himself. But he only enjoyed it : he did not 
 know it, or think about it ; just as you enjoy life and 
 health, and yet never think about being alive and 
 
 C6q> 
 
70 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 healthy ; and may it be long before you have to think 
 about it! 
 
 He did not remember having ever been dirty. In- 
 deed, he did not remember any of his old troubles, being 
 tired, or hungry, or beaten, or sent up dark chimneys. 
 Since that sweet sleep, he had forgotten all about his 
 master, and Harthover Place, and the little white girl, 
 and, in a word, all that had happened to him when he 
 lived before ; and, what was best of all, he had forgotten 
 all the bad words which he had learned from Grimes, 
 and the rude boys with whom he used to play. 
 
 That is not strange : for you know, when you cama 
 into this world, and became a land-baby, you remem- 
 bered nothing. So why should he when he became a 
 water-baby ? 
 
 Then have you lived before? 
 
 My dear child, who can tell ? One can only tell that 
 by remembering something which happened where we 
 lived before ; and as we remember nothing, we know 
 nothing about it ; and no book, and no man, can ever 
 tell us certainly. 
 
 There was a wise man once, a very w T ise man, and 
 a very good man, who wrote a poem about the feelings 
 which some children have about having lived before ; 
 and this is what he said — 
 
 "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; 
 The sonl that rises with us, our life's star, 
 Hath elsezvhere had its setting, 
 
 And cometh from afar: 
 Not in entire forge tfulness, 
 And not in utter nakedness, 
 But trailing clouds of glory, do we corns 
 From God, who is our home" 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY, 7 1 
 
 There, you can know no more than that. But if I was 
 you, I would believe that. For then the great fairy 
 Science, who is likely to be queen of all the fairies for 
 many a year to come, can only do you good, and never 
 do you harm ; and instead of fancying, with some 
 people, that your body makes your soul, as if a steam* 
 engine could make its own coke ; or, with some people, 
 that your soul has nothing to do with your body, but 
 is only stuck into it like a pin into a pincushion, to 
 fall out with the first shake ; — -you will believe the one 
 true, 
 
 orthodox, inductive, 
 
 rational, deductive, 
 
 philosophical, seductive, 
 
 logical, productive, 
 
 irrefragable, salutary, 
 
 nomiualistic, comfortable, 
 
 realistic, 
 
 and on-all-accounts-to-be-received 
 
 doctrine of this wonderful fairy tale ; which is, that your 
 soul makes your body, just as a snail makes his shell. 
 For the rest, it is enough for us to be sure that whether 
 or not we lived before, we shall live again ; though not, 
 I hope, as poor little heathen Tom did. For he went 
 downward into the water : but we, I hope, shall go up- 
 ward to a very different place. 
 
 But Tom was very happy in the water. He had been 
 sadly overworked in the land-world ; and so now, to 
 make up for that, he had nothing but holidays in the 
 water-world for a long, long time to come. He had 
 nothing to do now but enjoy himself, and look at all the 
 pretty things which are to be seen in the cool clear 
 water-world, where the sun is never too hot, and the 
 frost is never too cold. 
 
72 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 And what did he live on ? Water-cresses, perhaps ; 
 or perhaps water-gruel, and water-milk ; too many land- 
 babies do so 
 likewise. But 
 we do not know 
 what one-tenth 
 of the water- 
 things eat ; so 
 we are not an- 
 swerable for the 
 water-babies. 
 
 Sometimes he 
 went along the 
 smooth gravel 
 water-ways, 
 looking at the 
 crickets which 
 ran in and out 
 among the 
 stones, as rab- 
 bits do on land ; 
 or he climbed 
 over the ledges 
 of rock, and saw 
 the sand-pipes 
 ha n ging in 
 thousands, with 
 every one of 
 them a pretty 
 little head and 
 legs peeping 
 out ; or he went into a still corner, and watched the 
 caddises eating dead-sticks as greedily as you would eat 
 plum-pudding, and building their houses with silk and 
 
I 1 T 
 
 t> -Water-Babies 
 
 in) 
 
74 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 glue. Very fanciful ladies they were ; none of them 
 would keep to the same materials for a day. One would 
 begin with some pebbles ; then she would stick on a 
 piece of green wood ; then she found a shell, and stuck 
 it on, too ; and the poor shell was alive, and did not like 
 at all being taken to build houses with : but the caddis 
 did not let him have any voice in the matter, bein^ rude 
 and selfish, as vain people are apt to be ; 
 then she stuck on a piece of rotten wood, 
 then a very smart pink stone, and so on, 
 till she was patched all over like an Irish- 
 man's coat. Then she found a long 
 straw, five times as long as herself, and 
 said, " Hurrah, my sister has a tail, and I'll 
 have one, too ; " and she stuck it on her 
 back, and inarched about with it quite 
 proud, though it was very inconvenient, 
 indeed. And, at that, tails became an 
 the fashion among the caddis-baits in 
 that pool, as they were at the end of the 
 Long Pond last May, and they all toddled 
 about with long straws sticking out be- 
 hind, getting between each other's le^s, 
 and tumbling over each other, and look- 
 ing so ridiculous that Tom laughed at 
 them till he cried, as we did. But they 
 Wvre quite right, you know ; for people must always 
 follow the fashion, even if it be spoon-bonnets. 
 
 Then sometimes he came to a deep still reach ; and 
 there he saw the water-forests. They would have looked 
 to you only little weeds ; but Tom, you must remember, 
 was so little that everything looked a hundred times as 
 big to him as it does to you, just as things do to a 
 minnow, who sees and catches the little water-creatures 
 which you can only see in a microscope. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 75 
 
 And in the water- forest he saw the water-monkeys 
 and water-squirrels (they had all six legs, though ; 
 everything almost has six legs in the water, except efts 
 and water-babies) ; and nimbly enough they ran among 
 the branches. There were water-flowers there, too, in 
 thousands ; and Tom tried to pick them : but as soon as 
 he touched them, they drew themselves in and turned 
 into knots of jelly ; and then Tom saw that they were 
 all alive — bells, and stars, and wheels, and flowers, of 
 all beautiful shapes and colors ; and all alive and busy, 
 just as Tom was. So now he found that there was a 
 great deal more in the world than he had fancied at first 
 sight. 
 
 There was one wonderful little fellow, too, who peeped 
 out of the top of a house built of round bricks. He had 
 two big wheels, and one little one, all over teeth, spin* 
 nino; round and round like the wheels in a thrashing- 
 machine ; and Tom stood and stared at him, to see what 
 he was going to make with his machinery. And what 
 do you think he was doing? Brick-making. With his 
 two big wheels he swept together all the mud which 
 floated in the water : all that was nice in it he put into 
 his stomach and ate ; and all the mud he put into the 
 little wheel on his breast, which really was a round hole 
 set with teeth ; and there he spun it into a neat hard 
 round brick ; and then he took it and stuck it on the top 
 of his house-wall, and set to work to make another. 
 Now was not he a clever little fellow ? 
 
 Tom thought so : but when he wanted to talk to him 
 the brick-maker was much too busy and proud of his 
 work to take notice of him. 
 
 Now you must know that all the things under the 
 ■water talk ; only not such a language as ours ; but 
 such as horses , and dogs, and cows, and birds talk to 
 
76 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 each other ; and Tom soon learned to understand them 
 and talk to them ; so that he might have had very 
 pleasant company if he had only been a good boy. rmt 
 I am sorry to say, he was too like some other intle 
 boys, very fond of hunting and tormenting creatt/es 
 for mere sport. Some people say that boys cannot t clp 
 it ; that it is nature, and only a proof that we are all 
 originally descended from beasts of prey. But whether 
 it is nature or not, little boys can help it, and must 
 help it. For if they have naughty, low, mischievous 
 tricks in their nature, as monkeys have, that )s no 
 reason why they should give way to those tricks like 
 monkeys, who know no better. And therefore they 
 must not torment dumb creatures ; for if they do, a 
 certain old lady who is coming will surely give them 
 exactly what they deserve. 
 
 But Tom did not know that ; and he pecked and 
 howked the poor water-things about sadly, till they 
 were all afraid of him, and got out of his way, or 
 crept into their shells ; so he had no one to speak to or 
 play with. 
 
 The water-fairies, of course, were very sorry to see 
 him so unhappy, and longed to take him, and tell him 
 how naughty he was, and teach him to be good, and to 
 play and romp with him too : but they had been forbid- 
 den to do that. Tom had to learn his lesson for him- 
 self by sound and sharp experience, as many another 
 foolish person has to do, though there may be many 
 a kind heart yearning over them all the while, and 
 longing to teach them what they can only teach them- 
 selves. 
 
 At last one day he found a caddis, and wanted it to 
 peep out of its house : but its house-door was shut. He 
 had never seen a caddis with a house-door before : so 
 
A fAlRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 77 
 
 what must he do, the meddlesome little fellow, but pull 
 it open, to see what the poor lady was doing inside. 
 What a shame ! How should you like to have any one 
 breaking your bedroom door in, to see how you looked 
 when you were in bed ? So Tom broke to pieces the 
 door, which was the prettiest little grating of silk, 
 stuck all over with shining bits of crystal ; and when he 
 
 looked in, the caddis poked out her head, and it "had 
 turned into just the shape of a bird's. But when Tom 
 spoke to her she could not answer ; for her mouth and 
 face were tight tied up in a new night-cap of neat pink 
 skin. However, if she didn't answer, all the other cad- 
 dises did ; for they held up their hands and shrieked 
 like the cats in Struwelpeter : " Oh, you- nasty, horrid 
 boy ; there you are at it again! And she had just laid 
 
78 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 herself up for a fortnights sleepy and then she would 
 have come out with such beautiful zvings, and flown 
 about, and laid sucJi lots of eggs : and now you have 
 broken her door, and she can ' t mend it because lier mouth 
 is tied tip for a fortnight, and she will die. Who sent 
 you here to worry us out of our lives ? ' ' 
 
 So Tom swam away. He was very much ashamed 
 of himself, and felt all the naughtier; as little boys do 
 when they have done wrong and won't say so. 
 
 Then he came to a pool full of little trout, and began 
 tormenting them, and trying to catch them : but they 
 slipped through his fingers, and jumped clean out of 
 water in their fright. But as Tom chased them, he 
 came close to a great dark hover under an alder root, 
 and out floushed a huo-e old brown trout ten times as 
 big as he was, and ran right against him, and knocked 
 all the breath out of his body ; and I don't know which 
 was the more frightened of the two. 
 
 Then he went on sulky and lonely, as he deserved 
 to be ; and under a bank he saw a very ugly, dirty 
 creature sitting, about half as big as himself ; which 
 had six legs, and a big stomach, and a most ridiculous 
 head with two great eyes and a face just like a don- 
 key's. 
 
 "Oh," said Tom, "you are an ugly fellow to be 
 sure!" and he began making faces at him; and put 
 his nose close to him, and hallooed at him, like a very 
 rude boy. 
 
 When, hey presto ; all the thing's donkey-face came 
 off in a moment, and out popped a long arm with a 
 pair of pincers at the end of it, and caught Tom by the 
 nose. It did not hurt him much ; but it held him quite 
 tisrht. 
 
 l 7 ah, ah ! Oh, let me go 1 " cried Tom. 
 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 79 
 
 "Then let me go," said +h.e creature. "I want to 
 be quiet. I want to split." 
 
 Tom promised to let him alone, and he let go. 
 " Why do you want to split? " said Tom. 
 
 wt Because my brothers and sisters have all split, and 
 turned into beautiful creatures with wings ; and I want 
 to split too. Don't speak to me. I am sure I shall 
 split. I will split ! " 
 
 Tom stood still, and watched him. And he swelled 
 himself, and puffed, and stretched himself out stiff, and 
 at last— crack, puff, bang — he opened all dcwn his back, 
 and then up to the top of his head. 
 
 And out of his inside came the most slender, elegant, 
 soft creature, as soft and smooth as Tom : but very pale 
 and weak, like a little child who has been ill a loug time 
 in a dark room. It moved its legs very feebly ; and 
 looked about it half ashamed, like a girl when she goes 
 for the first time into a ballroom ; and then it began 
 walking slowly up a grass stem to the top of the 
 water. 
 
 Tom was so astonished that he never said a word : 
 but he stared with all his eyes. And he went up to the 
 top of the water, too, and peeped out to see what would 
 happen. 
 
 And as the creature sat in the warm bright sun, a 
 wonderful change came over it. It grew strong and 
 firm ; the most lovely colors began to show on its body, 
 blue and yellow and black, spots and bars and rings ; 
 out of its back rose four great wings of bright brown 
 gauze ; and its eyes grew so large that they filled all it* 
 head, and shone like ten thousand diamonds. 
 
 " Oh, you beautiful creature!" said Tom; and h, 
 put out his hand to catch it. 
 
 But the thing whirred up into the air, and hucj 
 
80 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 poised on its wings a moment, and then settled down 
 again by Tom, quite fearless. 
 
 "No!" it said, "you cannot catch me. I am a 
 dragon-fly now, the king of all the flies ; and I shall dance 
 in the sunshine, and hawk over the river, and catch 
 gnats, and have a beautiful wife like myself. I knc 
 what I shall do. Hurrah ! " And he flew away into thL 
 air, and began catching gnats. 
 
 "Oh! come back, come back," cried Tom, "you 
 beautiful creature. I have no one to play with, and I 
 am so lonely here. If you will but come back I will 
 never try to catch you." 
 
 "I don't care whether you do or not," said the 
 dragon-fly ; "for you can't. But when I have had my 
 dinner, and looked a little about this pretty place, I w r ill 
 come back, and have a little chat about all I have seen 
 in my travels. Why, what a huge tree this is ! and what 
 huge leaves on it ! " 
 
 It was only a big dock ; but you know the dragon-fly 
 had never seen any but little water- trees ; starwort, and 
 milfoil, and water-crowfoot, and such like ; so it did look 
 very big to him. Besides, he was ver v short-sighted, as 
 all dragon-flies are ; and never could'see a yard before 
 his nose ; any more than a great many other folks, who 
 are not half as handsome as he. 
 
 The dragon-fly did come back, and chatted away w T ith 
 Tom. He was a little conceited about his fine colors 
 and his large wings ; but, you know, he had been a 
 poor dirty ugly creature all his life before ; so there were 
 great excuses for him. He was very fond of talking 
 about all the wonderful things he saw in the trees and 
 the meadows ; and Tom liked to listen to him, for he had 
 forgotten all about them. So in a little while they 
 became great friends. 
 
(8i) 
 
82 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 And I am very glad to say that Tom learned such a 
 lesson that day that he did not torment creatures for a 
 long time after. And then the caddises grew quite tame, 
 ana uoct ^ fell him strange stories about the way they 
 built their houses, and changed their skins, and turned 
 at last into winded flies ; till Tom be^an to long to 
 change his skin, and have wings like them some day. 
 
 And the trout and he made it up (for trout very soon 
 forget if they have been frightened and hurt). So Tom 
 used to play with .them at hare and hounds, and great 
 fun they had ; and he used to try to leap out of the 
 water, head over heels, as they did before a shower 
 came on ; but somehow he never could manage it. He 
 liked most, though, to see them rising at the flies, as 
 they sailed round and round under the shadow of the 
 great oak, where the beetles fell flop into the water, 
 and the green caterpillars let themselves down from the 
 boughs by silk ropes for no reason at all ; and then 
 changed their foolish minds for no reason at all either ; 
 and hauled themselves up again into the tree, rolling up the 
 rope in a ball between their paws ; which is a very clever 
 rope-dancer's trick, and neither Blondin nor Leotari. 
 could do it : but why they should take so much trouble 
 about it no one can tell ; for they cannot get their living, 
 as Blondin and Leotard do, by trying to break their 
 necks on a string. 
 
 And very often Tom caught them just as they touched 
 the water ; and caught the alder-flies, and the caperers, 
 and the cock-tailed duns and spinners, yellow, and 
 brown, and claret, and gray, and gave them to his 
 friends the trout. Perhaps he was not quite kind to the 
 flies ; but one must do a good turn to one's friends when 
 one can. 
 
 And at last he gave up catching even the flies ; for he 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 83 
 
 made acqaintance with one by accident and found him a 
 
 very merry little fellow. And this was the way it hap- 
 pened ; and it is all quite true. 
 
 He was basking at the top of the water one hot day in 
 
 July, catching duns 
 
 and feeding the trout, 
 
 when he saw a new 
 
 sort, a dark grav little 
 
 fellow with a brown 
 
 head. He was a very 
 
 little fellow, indeed : 
 
 but he made the most 
 
 of himself, as people 
 
 ought to do. He 
 
 cocked up his head, 
 
 and he cocked up his 
 
 wings, and he cocked 
 
 up his tail, -and he 
 
 cocked up the two 
 
 whisks at his tail-end, 
 
 and, in short, he looked 
 
 the cockiest little man 
 
 of all little men. And 
 
 so he proved to be ; 
 
 for, instead of getting 
 
 away, he hopped upon 
 
 Tom's finger, and sat 
 
 there as bold as nine 
 
 tailors ; and he cried 
 
 out in the tiniest, shrillest, squeakiest little voice you 
 
 ever heard : 
 
 "Much obliged to you, indeed; but I don't want it y^t." 
 "Want what?" said Tom, quite taken aback bf hi* 
 
 impudence. 
 
84 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 "Your leg, which you are kind enough to hold out 
 for me to sit on. I must just go and see after my wife 
 for a few minutes. Dear me ! what a troublesome busi^ 
 ness a falnily is!" (though the idle little rogue did 
 nothing at all, but left his poor wife to lay all the eggs 
 by herself). " When I come back, I shall be glad of it, 
 if you'll be so good as to keep it sticking out just so ! " 
 and off he flew. 
 
 Tom thought him a very cool sort of personage ; and 
 still more so when, in five minutes, he came back, and 
 said — "Ah, you were tired waiting? Well, your other 
 leg will do as well." 
 
 And he popped himself down on Tom's knee, and 
 began chatting away in his squeaking voice. 
 
 "So you live under the water? It's a low place. I 
 lived there for some time ; and was very shabby and 
 dirty. But I didn't choose that that should last. So I 
 turned respectable, and came up to the top, and put on 
 this gray suit. It's a very business-like suit, you think, 
 don't you ?" 
 
 "Very neat and quiet indeed," said Tom. 
 
 "Yes, one must be quiet and neat and respectable, 
 and all that sort of thing for a little, when one becomes 
 a family man. But I'm tired of it, that's the truth. 
 I've done quite enough business, I consider, in the last 
 week, to last me my life. So I shall put on a ball dress, 
 and go out and be a smart man, and see the gay world, 
 and have a dance or two. Why shouldn't one be jolly 
 if one can ? " 
 
 "And what will become of your wife? " 
 
 "Oh ! she is a very plain, stupid creature, and that's 
 the truth ; and thinks about nothing but eggs. If she 
 chooses to come, why she may ; and if not, why I go 
 w ; ':hout her ; — and here I go." 
 
A *MIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 85 
 
 And, as he spoke, he turned quite pale, and then 
 quite whites. 
 
 "Why, you're ill!" said Tom. But he did not an- 
 swer. 
 
 " You're dead," said Tom, looking at him as he stood 
 on his knee, as white as a ghost. 
 
 " No, I ain't ! " answered a little squeaking voice over 
 his head. u This is me up here, in my ball-dress ; and 
 that's my skin. Ha, ha ! you could not do such a trick 
 as that !" 
 
 And no more Tom could, nor Houdin, nor Robin, 
 nor Frikell, nor all the conjurors in the world. For 
 the little rogue had jumped clean out of his own skin, 
 and left it standing on Tom's knee, eyes, wings, legs, 
 tail, exactly as if it had been alive. 
 
 "Ha, ha!" he said, and he jerked and skipped up 
 and down, never stopping an instant, just as if he had 
 St. Vitus' dance. "Ain't I a pretty fellow now?" 
 
 And so he was ; for his body was white, and his tail 
 orange, and his eyes all the colors of a peacock's tail. 
 And what was the oddest of all, the whisks at the end 
 of his tail had grown five times as long as they were 
 before. 
 
 "Ah ! " said he, " now I will see the gay world. My 
 living won't cost me much, for I have no mouth, you 
 see, and no inside ; so I can never be hungry nor have 
 the stomach-ache neither." 
 
 No more he had. He had grown as dry and hard 
 and empty as a quill, as such silly, shallow-hearted fel- 
 lows deserve to orrow. 
 
 But, instead of being ashamed of his emptiness, he 
 was quite proud of it, as a good many fine gentlemen 
 are, and began flirting and flipping up and down, and 
 singing — 
 
86 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 "My wife shall dance and I shall sing, 
 So merrily pass the day ; 
 For I hold it for quite the wisest thing 
 To drive dull care away" 
 
 And he danced up and down for three days and three 
 eights, till he grew so tired, that he tumbled into the 
 water, and floated down. But what became of him Tom 
 /lever knew, and he himself never minded ; for Tom 
 heard him singing to the last, as he floated down — 
 
 " To drive didl care azv ay-ay-ay / " 
 
 And if he did not care, why nobody else cared, 
 either. 
 
 But one day Tom had a new adventure. He was sit- 
 ting on a water-lily leaf, he and his friend the dragon- 
 fly, watching the gnats dance. The dragon-fly had 
 eaten as many as he wanted, and was sitting quite still 
 and sleepy, for it was very hot and bright. The gnats, 
 (who did not care the least for their poor brothers 1 
 death) danced a foot .over his head quite happily, and a 
 large black fly settled within an inch of his nose, and 
 be^an washing his own face and combing his hair with 
 his paws ; but the dragon-fly never stirred, and kept on 
 chatting to Tom about the times when he lived under 
 the water. 
 
 Suddenly, Tom heard the strangest noise up the 
 stream ; cooing, and grunting, and whining, and 
 squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two stock- 
 doves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and a blind puppy, 
 and left them there to settle themselves and make 
 music. 
 
 He looked up the water, and there he saw a sight as 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 87 
 
 strange as the noise ; a great ball rolling over and over 
 down the stream, seeming one moment of soft brown 
 fur, and the next of shining glass : and yet it was not a 
 ball ; for sometimes it broke up and streamed away in 
 pieces, and then it joined again ; and all the while the 
 noise came out of it louder and louder. 
 
 Tom asked the dragon-fly what it could be : but, of 
 course, with his short sight, he could not even see it, 
 though it was not ten yards away. So he took the 
 neatest little header into the water, and started off to see 
 for himself; and, when he came near, the ball turned 
 out to be four or five beautiful creatures, many times 
 larger than Tom, who were swimming about, and 
 rolling, and diving, and twisting, and wrestling, and 
 cuddling, and kissing, and biting, and scratching, in 
 the most charming fashion that ever was seen. And if 
 vou don't believe me, vou mav 00 to the Zoological 
 Gardens (for I am afraid that you won't see it nearer, 
 unless, perhaps, yon get up at five in the morning, and 
 go down to Cordery's Moor, and watch by the great 
 withy pollard which hangs over the backwater, where 
 the otters breed sometimes), and then say, if otters at 
 play in the water are not the merriest, lithest, grace- 
 fullest creatures you ever saw. 
 
 But, when the biggest of them saw Tom, she darted 
 out from the rest, and cried in the water-language, 
 sharply enough, "Quick, children, here is something to 
 eat, indeed !" and came at poor Tom, showing such a 
 wicked pair of eyes, and such a set of sharp teeth in a 
 grinning mouth, that Tom, who had thought her very 
 handsome, said to himself, Handsome is that handsome 
 does, and slipped in between the water-lily roots as fast 
 as he could, and then turned round and made faces at 
 her. 
 
88 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 " Come out," said the wicked old otter, " or it will be 
 worse for you. ' ' 
 
 But Tom looked at her from between two thick roots, 
 and shook them with all his might, making horrible 
 faces all the while, just as he used to grin through the 
 railings at the old women, when he lived before. It was 
 not quite well bred, no doubt ; but, you know, Tom had 
 not finished his education yet. 
 
 "Come away, children," said the otter in disgust, 
 "it is not worth eating, after all. It is only a nasty 
 eft, which nothing eats, not even those vulgar pike in 
 the pond." 
 
 u I am not an eft," said Tom ; " efts have tails." 
 
 " You are an eft," said the otter, very positively ; " I 
 see your two hands quite plain, and I know you have a 
 tail." 
 
 " I tell you I have not," said Tom. " Look here ! " 
 and he turned his pretty little self quite round ; and, 
 sure enough, he had no more tail than you. 
 
 The otter might have got out of it by saying that Tom 
 was a frog : but, like a great many other people, when 
 she had once said a thing, she stood to it, right or 
 wrong ; so she answered : 
 
 " I say you are an eft, and therefore you are, and not 
 fit food for gentlefolk like me and my children. You 
 may stay there till the salmon eat you (she knew the 
 salmon would not, but she wanted to frighten poor Tom). 
 Ha ! ha ! they will eat you, and we will eat them ; " and 
 the otter laughed such a wicked cruel lau^h — as vou 
 may hear them do sometimes ; and the first time that 
 you hear it you will probably think it is bogies. 
 
 " What are salmon ? " asked Tom. 
 
 " Fish, you eft, great fish, nice fish to eat. They are 
 the lords of the fish, and we are lords of tne salmon ;" 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY 
 
 S 9 
 
 and she laughed again. " We hunt them up and down 
 the pools, and drive them up into a corner, the silly 
 tilings ; they are so proud, and bully the little trout, and 
 the minnows, till they see us coming, and then they are 
 so meek all at once ; and we catch them, but we disdain 
 to eat them all ; we just bite out their soft throats and 
 suck their sweet juice — Oh, so good ! " — (and she licked 
 her wicked lips) — "and then throw them away, and go 
 and catch ~^= 
 
 another. 
 They are 
 coming soon, 
 ch il d r en ; 
 coming soon; 
 I can smell 
 the rain com- 
 ing up off the 
 sea, and then 
 hurrah for a 
 fresh, and 
 salmon, and ^iSBlfl 
 plenty of eat- 
 ing all day 
 long." 
 
 And the 
 
 otter grew so proud that she turned head over heels 
 twice, and then stood upright half out of the water, grin- 
 ning like a Cheshire cat. 
 
 "And where do they come from?" asked Tom, who 
 kept himself very close, for he was considerably fright- 
 ened. 
 
 " Out of the sea, eft, the great wide sea, where they 
 might stay and be safe if they liked. But out of the sea 
 the silly things come, into the great river down below; 
 
 7 — Wa.tr y Babies 
 
90 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 and we come up to watch for them : and when they go 
 down again we go down and follow them. And there 
 we fish for the bass and the pollock, and have jolly days 
 along the shore, and toss and roll in the breakers, and 
 sleep snug in the warm dry crags. Ah, that is a 
 merry life, too, children, if it were not for those horrid 
 men." 
 
 "What are men ? " asked Tom; but somehow he 
 seemed to know before he asked. 
 
 u Two-legged things, eft : and, now I come to look 
 at you, they are actually something like you, if you had 
 not a tail" (she was determined that Tom should have 
 a tail), "only a great deal bigger, worse luck for us; 
 and they catch the fish with hooks and lines, which get 
 into our feet sometimes, and set pots along the rocks to 
 catch lobsters. They speared my poor dear husband as 
 he went out to find something for me to eat. I was laid 
 up among the crags then, and we were very low in the 
 world, for the sea w T as so rough that no fish would come 
 in shore. But they speared him, poor fellow 7 , and I saw 
 them carrying him away upon a pole. Ah, he lost his 
 life for your sakes, my children, poor dear obedient 
 creature that he was." 
 
 And the otter grew 7 so sentimental (for otters can be very 
 sentimental when they choose, like a good many people 
 who are both cruel and greedy, and no good to anybody 
 at all), that she sailed solemnly away down the burn, and 
 Tom saw her no more for that time. And lucky it was 
 for her that she did so ; for no sooner was she gone than 
 down the bank came seven little rough terrier dogs, 
 snuffing and yapping, and grubbing and splashing, in 
 full cry after the otter. Tom hid among the water-lilies 
 till they were gone ; for he could not guess that they 
 were the water-fairies come to help him. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 9 1 
 
 But he could not help thinking of what the otter had 
 
 said about the great river and the broad sea. And, as 
 
 he thought, he longed to go and see them. He could 
 not tell why ; but the more he thought, the more ne 
 
9^ THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 grew discontented with the narrow little stream in which 
 he lived, and all his companions there ; and wanted to 
 get out into the wide, wide world, and enjoy all the 
 wonderful sights of which he was sure it was full. 
 
 And once he set off to go down the stream. But the 
 stream was very low ; and when he came to the shallows 
 he could not keep under water, for there was no water 
 left to keep under. So the sun burned his back and 
 made him sick ; and he went back again and lay quiet 
 in the pool for a whole week more. 
 
 And then, on the evening of a very hot day, he saw a 
 sight. 
 
 He had been very stupid all day, and so had the trout ; 
 for they would not move an inch to take a fly, though 
 there were thousands on the water, but lay dozing at 
 the bottom under the shade of the stones ; and Tom lay 
 dozing, too, and w T as glad to cuddle their smooth cool 
 sides, for the water was quite warm and unpleasant. 
 
 But toward evening it grew suddenly dark, and Tom 
 looked up and saw a blanket of black clouds lying right 
 across the valley above his head, resting on the crags 
 right and left. He felt not quite frightened, but very 
 still ; for everything was still. There was not a whisper 
 of wind, nor a chirp of a bird to be heard ; and next a 
 few great drops of rain fell plop into the water, and one 
 hit Tom on the nose, and made him pop his head down 
 quickly enough. 
 
 And then the thunder roared, and the lightning 
 flashed, and leapt across Vendale and back again, from 
 cloud to cloud, and cliff to cliff, till the very rocks in 
 the stream seemed to shake : and Tom looked up at it 
 through the water, and thought it the finest thing he 
 ever saw in his life. 
 
 But out of the water he dared not 'out his head ; for 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 93 
 
 the rain came down by bucketsful, and the hail ham- 
 mered like shot on the stream, and churned it into foam ; 
 and soon the stream rose, and rushed down, higher and 
 higher, and fouler and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks ; 
 and straws, and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood-lice, 
 and leeches, and odds and ends, and omnium-gather- 
 ums, and this, that, and the other, enough to fill nine 
 museums. 
 
 Tom could hardly stand against the stream, and hid 
 behind a rock. But the trout did not ; for out they 
 rushed from among the stones, and began gobbling the 
 beetles and leeches in the most greedy and quarrelsome 
 way, and swimming about with great worms hanging 
 out of their mouths, tugging and kicking to get them 
 away from each other. 
 
 And now, by the flashes of the lightning, Tom saw anew 
 sioht — all the bottom of the stream. alive with great eels, 
 turning and twisting along, all down stream and away. 
 They had been hiding for weeks past in the cracks of 
 the rocks, and in burrows in the mud ; and Tom had 
 hardly ever seen them, except now and then at night : 
 but now they were all out, and went hurrying past him 
 so fiercely and wildly that he was quite frightened. 
 And as they hurried past he could hear them say to 
 each other, u We must run, we must run. What a jolly 
 thunderstorm I Down to the sea, down to the sea ! " 
 
 And then the otter came by with all her brood, 
 twining and sweeping along as fast as the eels them- 
 selves ; and she spied Tom as she came by, and said : 
 
 " Now is your time, eft, if you want to see the world. 
 Come along, children, never mind those nasty eels : we 
 shall breakfast on salmon to-morrow. Down to the 
 sea, down to the sea f v1 
 
 Then came a flash Tmghter than all the rest, and 
 
94 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 by the light of it — in the thousandth part of a second 
 they were gone again — but he had seen them, he was 
 certain of it — three beautiful little white girls, with their 
 arms twined round each other's necks, floating down 
 the torrent, as they sang, "Down to the sea, down to 
 the sea ! ' ' 
 
 "Oh, stay! Wait for me!" cried Tom; but they 
 were gone : ve t he could hear their voices clear and 
 sweet through the roar of thunder and water and wind, 
 singing as they died away, " Down to the sea ! " 
 
 "Down to the sea?" said Tom; "everything is 
 going to the sea, and I will go too. Good-bye, trout." 
 But the trout were so busy gobbling worms that they 
 never turned to answer him ; so that Tom was spared 
 the pain of bidding them farewell. 
 
 And now, down the rushing stream, guided by the 
 bright flashes of the storm ; past tall birch-fringed rocks, 
 which shone out one moment as clear as day, and the 
 next were dark as night ; past dark hovers under swirl- 
 ing banks, from which great trout rushed out jn Tom, 
 thinking him to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, 
 for the fairies sent them home again with a tremendous 
 scolding, for daring to meddle with a water-baby ; on 
 through narrow strids and roaring cataracts, where 
 Tom was deafened and blinded for a moment by the 
 rushing waters ; along deep reaches, where the white 
 water-lilies tossed and flapped beneath the wind and 
 hail ; past sleeping villages ; under dark bridge-arches, 
 and away and away to the sea. And Tom could not 
 stop, and did not care to stop ; he would see the great 
 world below, and the salmon, and the breakers, and the 
 wide, wide sea. 
 
 And when the daylight came, Tom found himself out 
 in the salmon river 
 
(95) 
 
96 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 And what sort of a river was it? Was it like an 
 Irish stream, winding through the brown bogs, where 
 the wild ducks squatter up from among the white water- 
 lilies, and the curlews flit to and fro, crying, "Tullie- 
 wheep, mind your sheep ; " and Dennis tells you strange 
 stories of the Peishtamore, the great bogy-snake which 
 lies in the black peat pools, among the old pine-stems, 
 and puts his head out at night to snap at the cattle as 
 they come down to drink ? But you must not be- 
 lieve all that Dennis tells you, mind; for if you ask 
 him : 
 
 u Is there a salmon here, do you think, Dennis?" 
 
 u Is it salmon, thin, your honor manes? Salmon? 
 Cartloads it is of thim, thin, an' ridgmens, should thering 
 ache out of water, av' ye'd but the luck to see thim." 
 
 Then you fish the pool all over, and never get a rise. 
 
 " But there can't be a salmon here, Dennis ! and, if 
 you'll but think, if one had come up last tide, he'd be 
 gone to the higher pools by now." 
 
 " Slmre, thin, and your honor's the thrue fisherman, 
 and understands it all like a book. Why, ye spake as 
 if ye'd known the wather a thousand years ! As I said, 
 how could there be a fish here at all, just now ? " 
 
 u But you said just now they were shouldering each 
 other out of water ? " 
 
 And then Dennis will look up at you with his hand- 
 some, sly, soft, sleepy, good-natured, untrustable, Irish 
 gray eye, and answer with the prettiest smile : 
 
 " Shure, and didn't I think your honor would like a 
 pleasant answer? " 
 
 So you must not trust Dennis, because he is in the 
 habit of giving pleasant answers : but, instead of being 
 angry with him, you must remember that he is a poor 
 Paddy, and knows no better ; so you must just burst out 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 97 
 
 laughing ; and then he will burst out laughing, too, and 
 slave for you, and trot about after you, and show you good 
 sport if he can — for he is an affectionate fellow, and as 
 fond of sport as you are — and if he can't, tell you fibs 
 instead, a hundred an hour ; and wonder all the while 
 why poor ould Ireland does not prosper like England 
 and Scotland, and 
 some other places, 
 where folks have 
 taken up a ridiculous 
 fancy that honesty is 
 the best policy. 
 
 Or was it like a 
 Welsh salmon river, 
 which is remarkable 
 chiefly (at least till 
 this last year) for con- 
 taining no salmon, 
 as they have been all 
 poached out by the 
 enlightened peas- 
 antry, to prevent the 
 Cythrawl Sassenach 
 (which means you, 
 my little dear, 
 your kith and kin, 
 and signifies much 
 the same as the Chi- 
 nese Fan Quel) from coming bothering into Wales, with 
 good tackle, and ready money, and civilization, and 
 common honesty, and other like things of which the 
 Cymry stand in no ne^d whatsoever. 
 
 Or was it such a salmon stream as I trust you will see 
 among the Hampshire water-meadows before your hairs 
 
 '""• '"^--.X\ 
 
 
 
98 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 are gray, under the wise new fishing-laws? — when Win- 
 chester apprentices shall covenant, as they did three 
 hundred years ago, not to be made to eat salmon more 
 than three days a week ; and fresh-run fish shall be as 
 plentiful under Salisbury spire as they are in Holly-hole 
 at Christchurch ; in the good time coming, when folks 
 shall see that, of all Heaven's gifts of food, the one to 
 be protected most carefully is that worthy gentleman 
 salmon, who is generous enough to go down to the sea 
 weighing five ounces, and to come back next year 
 weighing five pounds, without having cost the soil or 
 the state one farthing ? 
 
 Or was it like a Scotch stream, such as Arthur Clough 
 drew in his u Bothie : " 
 
 " WJiere over a ledge of granite 
 Into a granite bason the amber torrent descended. .... 
 Beautiful tliere for the color derived from green rocks under ; 
 Beautiful most of all where beads of foam uprising 
 Mingle their clouds of zvldte with the delicate hue of the still- 
 ness. 
 Cliff over cliff for its sides, with rowan and pendant birch 
 boughs." , . . 
 
 Ah, my little man, when you are a big man, and fish 
 such a stream as that, you will hardly care, I think, 
 whether she be roaring down in full spate, like coffee 
 covered with scald cream, while the fish are swirling at 
 your fly as an oar-blade swirls in a boat-race, or flashing up 
 the cataract like silver arrows, out of the fiercest of the 
 foam ; or whether the fall be dwindled to a single thread, 
 and the shingle below be as white and dusty as a turn- 
 pike road, while the salmon huddle together in one dark 
 cloud in the clear amber pool, sleeping away their time 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 99 
 
 till the rain creeps back again off the sea. You will not 
 care much, if you have eyes and brains ; for you will lay 
 down your rod contentedly, and drink in at your eyes 
 the beauty of that glorious place ; and listen to the 
 water-ouzel piping on the stones, and watch the yellow 
 roes come down to drink and look up at you with 
 their great soft trustful eyes, as much as to say, ' ' You 
 Could not have the heart to shoot at us? " And then, 
 
 if you have sense, you will turn and talk to the great 
 giant of a gilly who lies basking on the stone beside you. 
 He will tell you no fibs, my little man ; for he is a 
 Scotchman, and fears God, and not the priest ; and, as 
 you talk with him, you will be surprised more and more 
 at his knowledge, his sense, his humor, his courtesy ; 
 and you will find out — unless you have found it out be- 
 fore — that a man may learn from his Bible to be a more 
 
IOO THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 thorough gentleman than if he had been brought up in 
 all the drawing-rooms in London. 
 
 No. It was none of these, the salmon stream a*" 
 Harthover. It was such a stream as you see in dear old 
 Bewick ; Bewick, who was born and bred upon them. 
 A full hundred yards broad it was, sliding on from broad 
 pool to broad shallow, and broad shallow to broad pool, 
 over great fields of shingle, under oak and ash coverts, 
 past low cliffs of sandstone, past green meadows, and 
 fair parks, and a great house of gray stone, and brown 
 moors above, and here and there against the sky the 
 smoking chimney of a colliery. You must look at 
 Bewick to see just what it was like, for he has drawn 
 it a hundred times with the care and the love of a true 
 north countryman ; and, even if you do not care about 
 '".he salmon river, you ought, like all good boys, to know 
 
 )ur Bewick. 
 
 At least, so old Sir John used to say, and very sensibly 
 ne put it too, as he was wont to do : 
 
 u If they want to describe a finished young gentleman 
 in France, I hear, they say of him, '// sait son Rabelais.^ 
 But if I want to describe one in England, I say, ''He 
 knows his Bewick.' 1 And I think that is the higher 
 compliment." 
 
 But Tom thought nothing about what the river was 
 like. All his fancy was to get down to the wide-wide 
 sea. 
 
 And after a while he came to a place where the river 
 spread out into broad still shallow reaches, so wide that 
 little Tom, as he put his head out of the water, could 
 hardly see across. 
 
 And there he stopped. He got a little frightened. 
 "This must be the sea," he thought. " What a wide 
 place it is ! If J go on into it I shall surely lose my 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. IOI 
 
 way, or some strange thing will bite ine. I will stop 
 here, and look out for the otter, or the eels, or some one 
 to tell me where I shall go." 
 
 So he went back a little way, and crept into a crack 
 of the rock, just where the river opened out into the 
 wide shallows, and watched for some one to tell him his 
 way ; but the otter and the eels were gone on miles and 
 miles down the stream. 
 
 There he waited, and slept, too, for he was quite 
 tired with his night's journey ; and, when he woke, the 
 stream was clearing to a beautiful amber hue, though it 
 was still very high. And after a while he saw a sight 
 which made him jump up ; for he knew in a moment 
 it was one of the things which he had come to look for. 
 
 Such a fish ; ten times as big as the biggest trout, 
 and a hundred times as big as Tom, sculling up the 
 stream past him, as easily as Tom had sculled down. 
 
 Such a fish ! shining silver from head to tail, and here 
 and there a crimson dot ; with a grand hooked nose 
 and grand curling lip, and a grand bright eye, looking 
 round him as proudly as a king, and surveying the 
 water right and left as if all belonged to him. Surely 
 he must be the salmon, the king of all the fish. 
 
 Tom was so frightened that he longed to creep into 
 a hole ; but he need not have been ; for Salmon are all 
 true gentlemen, and, like true gentlemen, they look 
 noble and proud enough, and yet, like true gentlemen, 
 they never harm or quarrel with any one, but go about 
 their own business, and leave rude fellows to them* 
 selves. 
 
 The salmon looked at him full in the face, and then 
 went on without minding him, with a swish or two of 
 his tail, which made the stream boil again. And in a 
 few minutes came another, and then four or five, and 
 
< 4 
 
 102 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 so on ; and all passed Tom, rushing and plunging up the 
 cataract with strong strokes of their silver tails, now and 
 then leaping clean out of water and up over a rock, 
 shining gloriously for a moment in the bright sun ; 
 while Tom was so delighted that he could have watched 
 them all day long. 
 
 And at last one came up bigger than all the rest ; but 
 he came slowly, and stopped, and looked back, and 
 seemed very anxious and busy. And Tom saw that he 
 was helping another salmon, an especially handsome 
 one, who had not a single spot upon it, but was clothed 
 in pure silver from nose to tail. 
 
 iv My dear," said the great fish to his companion, 
 
 you really look dreadfully tired, and you must not 
 overexert yourself at first. Do rest yourself behind this 
 rock ;*' and he shoved her gently with his nose, to the 
 rock where Tom sat. 
 
 You must know that this was the salmon's wife. 
 For salmon, like other true gentlemen, always choose 
 their lady, and love her, and are true to her, and take 
 care of her, and work for her, and fight for her, as every 
 true gentleman ought ; and are not like vulgar chub and 
 roach ?nd pike, who have no high feelings, and take no 
 care of their wives. 
 
 Then he saw Tom, and looked at him very fiercely 
 one moment, as if he was groin^ to bite him. 
 
 " What do you want here? " he said, very fiercely. 
 
 11 Oh, don't hurt me ! " cried Tom. " I only want to 
 look at you ; you are so handsome." 
 
 "Ah?" said the salmon, very stately but very civilly. 
 " I renlly beg your pardon ; I see what you are, my little 
 dear. I have met one or two creatures like you before, 
 and f mnd them very agreeable and well-behaved. In- 
 deed one of them snowed me a great kindness lately, 
 
m *H*k, ,, 
 
 (ioa> 
 
104 THE WATER-BABXES. 
 
 which I hope to be able to repay. I hope we snaU not 
 be in your way here. As soon as this lady is rested, we 
 shall proceed on our journey." 
 
 What a well-bred old salmon he was ! 
 
 ic So you have seen things like me before?" asked 
 Tom. 
 
 " Several times, my dear. Indeed, it was only last 
 night that one at the river's mouth came and warned me 
 and my wife of some new stake-nets whkh had got into 
 the stream, I cannot tell how, since last winter, and 
 showed us the way round them, in the most charmingly 
 obli^in^ way." 
 
 "So there are babies in the sea?" cried Tom, and 
 clapped his little hands. " Then I shall have some one 
 to play with there? How delightful ! " 
 
 u Were there no babies up this stream?" asked the 
 lady salmon. 
 
 " No ! And I orew so lonelv. I thought I saw three 
 last night ; but they were gone in an instant, down to 
 the sea. So I went, too ; for I had nothing to play with 
 but caddises and dragon-flies and trout." 
 
 u Ugh !" cried the lady, " what low company ! " 
 
 "My dear, if he has been in low company, he has 
 certainly not learnt their low manners," said the salmon. 
 
 "No, indeed, poor little dear: but how sad for him 
 to live among such people as caddises, who have actually 
 six legs, the nasty things ; and dragon-flies, too ! why 
 they are not even good to eat ; for I tried them once, and 
 they are all hard and empty ; and, as for trout, every 
 one knows what they are." Whereon she curled up 
 her lip, and looked dreadfully scornful, while her hus- 
 band curled up his, too ; till he looked as proud as 
 Alcibiades. 
 
 1 ' Why do you dislike the trout so ? " asked Tom. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 I°5 
 
 "My dear, we do not even mention them, if we can 
 help it ; for I am sorry to say they are relations of ours 
 who do us no credit. A great many years ago they 
 were just like us : but they were so lazy, and cowardly, 
 and greedy, that instead of going down to the sea every 
 year to see the world and grow strong and fat, they chose 
 to stay and poke about in the little streams and eat 
 worms and grubs ; and they are very properly punished 
 for it ; for they have grown ugly and brown and spotted 
 
 and small ; and are actually so degraded in their tastes 
 that they will eat our children." 
 
 "And then they pretend to scrape acquaintance with 
 us again," said the lady. "Why, I have actually 
 known one of them propose to a lady salmon, the little 
 impudent creature." 
 
 " I should hope," said the gentleman, " that there are 
 verv few ladies of our race who would degrade them- 
 selves by listening to such a creature for an instant. 
 If I saw such a thing happen, I should consider it my 
 duty to put them both to death upon the spot." So the 
 
 S — Water-Babies 
 
I06 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 old salmon said, like an old blue-blooded hidalgo of 
 Spain ; and what is more, he would have done it too. 
 For you must know, no enemies are so bitter against 
 each other as those who are of the same race ; and a 
 salmon looks on a trout, as some great folks look on 
 some little folks, as something just too much like him- 
 self to be tolerated. 
 
 " Sweet is the *ore wmch Nature brings ; 
 Our meddling intellect 
 Misshapes the beauteous forms of things 
 We murder to dissect. 
 
 "Enough of science and of art: 
 Close up these barren leaves ; 
 Come forth, and bring with you a heart 
 That watches and receives. ' ' 
 
 WORDSWORm 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 salmon went up, after 
 Tom had warned them 
 of the wicked old otter, 
 and Tom went down; 
 ■but slowly and cau- 
 tiously, coasting- along 
 the shore. He was 
 many days about it, for it 
 ==» — was many miles down to 
 the sea ; and perhaps he 
 would never have found his way 
 if the fairies had not guided him, 
 without his seeing their fair faces 
 or feel in gf their gentle hands. 
 And, as he went, he had a very strange adventure. It 
 was a clear still September night, and the moon shone 
 so brightly down through the water that he could not 
 sleep, though he shut his eyes as tight as possible. So 
 
 (107) 
 
IOS THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 at last he came up to the top, and sat upon a little point 
 of rock, and looked up at the broad yellow moon, and 
 wondered what she was, and thought that she looked at 
 him. And he watched the moonlight on the rippling 
 river, and the black heads of the firs, and the silver- 
 frosted lawns, and listened to the owl's hoot, and the 
 snipe's bleat, and the fox's bark, and the otter's laugh ; 
 and smelt the soft perfume of the birches, and the wafts 
 of heather honey off the grouse moor far above ; and 
 felt very happy, though he could not well tell why. 
 You, of course, would have been very cold sitting there 
 on a September night, without the least bit of clothes 
 on your wet back ; but Tom was a water-baby, and there- 
 fore felt cold no more than a fish. 
 
 Suddenly, he saw a beautiful sight. A bright red 
 light moved along the river-side, and threw down into 
 the water a long tap-root of flame. Tom, curious little 
 rogue that he was, must needs go and see what it was ; 
 so he swam to the shore, and met the light as it stopped 
 over a shallow run at the edge of a low rock. 
 
 And there, underneath the light, lay five or six great 
 salmon, looking up at the flame with their great goggle 
 eyes, and wagging their tails, as if they were very much 
 pleased at it. 
 
 Tom came to the top, to look at this wonderful light 
 nearer, and made a splash. 
 
 And he heard a voice say : 
 
 u There was a fish rose." 
 
 He did not know what the words meant : but he 
 seemed to know the sound of them, and to know the 
 voice which spoke them ; and he saw on the bank three 
 great two-legged creatures, one of whom held the light, 
 flaring and sputtering, and another a long pole. And 
 he knew that they were men, and was frightened, and 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. IO9 
 
 crept into a hole in the rock, from which he could see 
 what went on. 
 
 The man with the torch bent down over the water 
 and looked earnestly in ; and then he said : 
 
 " Tak' that muckle fellow, lad; he's ower fifteen 
 punds ; and haud your hand steady." 
 
 Tom felt that there was some danger coming, and 
 longed to warn the foolish salmon, who kept staring up 
 at the light as if he was bewitched. But before he 
 could make up his mind down came the pole through 
 the water ; there was a fearful splash and struggle, and 
 Tom saw that the poor salmon was speared right through, 
 and was lifted out of the water. 
 
 And then, from behind, there sprang on these three 
 men three other men ; and there were shouts, and 
 blows, and words which Tom recollected to have heard 
 before ; and he shuddered and turned sick at them 
 now, for he felt somehow that they were strange, and 
 ugly, and wrong, and horrible. And it all began to 
 come back to him. They were men ; and they were 
 fighting ; savage, deperate, up-and-down fighting, such 
 as Tom had seen too many times before. 
 
 And he stopped his little ears, and longed to swim 
 away ; and was very glad that he was a water-baby, and 
 had nothing to do any more with horrid dirty men, 
 with foul clothes on their backs, and foul words on their 
 lips ; but he dared not stir out of his hole : while the 
 rock shook over his head with the trampling and 
 struggling of the keepers and the poachers. 
 
 All of a sudden there was a tremendous splash, and a 
 frightful flash, and a hissing, and all was still. 
 
 For into the water, close to Tom, fell one of the men ; 
 he who held the light in his hand. Into the swift river 
 he sank, and rolled over and over in the current. Tom 
 
IIO THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 heard the men above run along, seemingly looking for 
 him ; but he drifted down into the deep hole be'low, 
 and there lay quite still, and they could not find him. 
 
 Tom waited a long time, till all was quiet ; and then 
 he peeped out, and saw the man lying. At last he 
 screwed up his courage and swam down to him. " Per- 
 haps," he thought, " the water has made him fall asleep, 
 as it did me." 
 
 Then he went nearer. He grew more and more 
 curious, he could not tell why. He must go and look 
 at him. He would go very quietly, of course; so he 
 swam round and round him, closer and closer ; and, as 
 he did not stir, at last he came quite close and looked 
 him in the face. 
 
 The moon shone so bright that Tom could see every 
 feature ; and, as he saw, he recollected, bit by bit, it 
 was his old master, Grimes. 
 
 Tom turned tail, and swam away as fast as he could. 
 
 l< Oh, dear me ! " he thought, " now he will turn intb 
 a water-baby. What a nasty, troublesome one he will 
 be ! And perhaps he will find me out, and beat me 
 
 aeain." 
 
 So he went up the river again a little way, and lay 
 there the rest of the night under an alder root ; but, 
 when morning came, he longed to go down again to 
 the big pool, and see whether Mr. Grimes had turned 
 into a water-baby yet. 
 
 So he went very carefully, peeping round all the rocks, 
 and hiding under all the roots. Mr. Grimes lay there 
 still ; he had not turned into a water-baby. In the 
 afternoon Tom went back again. He could not rest till 
 he had found out what had become of Mr. Grimes. But 
 this time Mr. Grimes was gone ; and Tom made up his 
 mind that he was turned into a water-babv. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. Ill 
 
 He might have made himself easy, poor little man ; 
 Mr. Grimes did not turn into a water-baby, or anything 
 like one at all. But he did not make himself easy ; and 
 a long time he was fearful lest he should meet Grimes 
 suddenly in some deep pool. He could not know that 
 the fairies had carried him away, and put him, where 
 they put everything which falls into the water, ex- 
 actly where it ought to be. But, do you know, what 
 had happened to Mr. Grimes had such an effect on 
 him that he never poached salmon any more. And it 
 is quite certain that, when a man becomes a confirmed 
 poacher, the only way to cure him is to put him under 
 water for twenty-four hours, like Grimes. So when 
 you grow to be a big man, do you behave as all honest 
 fellows should ; and never touch a fish or a head of game 
 which belongs to another man without his express 
 leave ; and then people will call you a gentleman, and 
 treat you like one ; and perhaps give you good sport : 
 instead of hitting you into the river, or calling you a 
 poaching snob. 
 
 Then Tom went on down, for he was afraid of staying 
 near Grimes : and as he went, all the vale looked sad. 
 The red and vellow leaves showered down into the 
 river ; the flies and beetles were all dead and gone ; the 
 chill autumn fog lay low upon the hills, and sometimes 
 spread itself so thickly on the river that he could not 
 see his way. But he felt his way instead, following the 
 flow of the stream, day after day, past great bridges, 
 past boats and barges, past the great town, with its 
 wharfs, and mills, and tall smoking chimneys, and ships 
 which rode at anchor in the stream ; and now and then 
 he ran against their hawsers, and wondered what they 
 were, and peeped out, and saw the sailors lounging on 
 board smoking their pipes; and ducked under again, 
 
HZ 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 for he was terribly afraid of being caught by man and 
 turned into a chimney-sweep once more. He did not 
 know that the fairies were close to him always, shutting 
 the sailors' eyes lest they should see him, and turning 
 him aside from millraces, and sewer-mouths, and all 
 foul and dangerous things. Poor little fellow, it was a 
 dreary journey for him ; and more than once he longed 
 to be back in Vendale, playing with the trout in the 
 
 bright summer sun. 
 
 But it could not be. 
 
 What has been once 
 
 never come 
 
 can 
 
 over again. And 
 people can be little 
 babies, even water- 
 babies, only once in 
 their lives. 
 
 Besides, people 
 who make up their 
 minds to go and see 
 the world, as Tom 
 did, must needs find 
 it a weary journey. 
 Lucky for them if 
 they do not lose 
 heart and stop half-way, instead of going on bravely to 
 the end as Tom did. For then they will remain neither 
 boys nor men, neither fish, flesh, nor good red-herring ; 
 having learnt a great deal too much, and yet not enough ; 
 and sown their wild oats, without having the advantage 
 of reaping them. 
 
 But Tom was always a brave, determined little English 
 bull-dog who never knew when he was beaten ; and on 
 and on he held, till he saw a long way off the red buoy 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 "3 
 
 through the fog. And then he found, to his surprise, 
 the stream turned round, and running up inland. 
 
 It was the tide, of course : but Tom knew nothing of 
 the tide. He only knew that in a minute more the 
 water, which had been fresh, turned salt all round him. 
 And then there came a change over him. He felt as 
 strong, and light, and fresh as if his veins had run cham- 
 pagne ; and gave, he did not know why, three skips out 
 of the water, a yard high, and head over heels, just as 
 the salmon do when they first touch the noble rich salt 
 water, which, as some 
 wise men tell us, is 
 the mother of all living 
 things. 
 
 He did not care now 
 for the tide being 
 against him. The red 
 buov was in sight, 
 dancing in the open 
 sea ; and to the buoy he 
 would go, and to it he 
 went. He passed great 
 shoals of bass and mul- 
 let, leaping and rushing 
 in after the shrimps, but he never heeded them or »hey 
 him ; and once he passed a great black shining seal, 
 who was coming in after the mullet. The seal ps.t his 
 head and shoulders out of water, and stared at him, 
 looking exactly like a fat old greasy negro with *l gray 
 pate. And Tom, instead of being frightened, said, 
 "How d'ye do, sir? what a beautiful place the sea 
 is ! ' And the old seal, instead of trying to bite him, 
 looked at him with his soft sleepy winking eyes, and 
 said, "Good tide to you, my little man ; are you ooking 
 
114 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 for your brothers and sisters ? I passed them all at play 
 outside." 
 
 u Oh, then," said Tom, " I shall have playfellows at 
 last," and he swam 011 to the buoy, and got upon it (for 
 he was quite out o r breath) and sat there and looked 
 round for water-babies ; but there were none to be seen. 
 
 The sea-breeze came in freshly with the tide and blew 
 the fog away ; and the little waves danced for joy around 
 the buoy, and the old buoy danced with them. The 
 shadows of the clouds ran races over the bright blue bay, 
 and yet never caught each other up ; and the breakers 
 plunged merrily upon the wide white sands, and jumped 
 up over the rocks, to see what the green fields inside 
 were like, and tumbled down and broke themselves all 
 to pieces, and never minded it a bit, but mended them- 
 selves and jumped up again. And the terns hovered 
 over Tom like huge white dragon-flies with black heads, 
 and the gulls laughed like girls at play, and the sea-pies, 
 with their red bills and legs, flew to and fro from shore 
 to shore, and whistled sweet and wild. And Tom 
 looked and looked, and listened ; and he would have 
 been very happy, if he could only have seen the water- 
 babies. Then, when the tide turned, he left the buoy, 
 and swam round and round in search of them : but in 
 vain. Sometimes he thought he heard them laughing ; 
 but it was only the laughter of the ripples. And some- 
 times he thought he saw them at the bottom : but it was 
 only white and pink shells. And once he was sure he 
 had found one, for he saw two bright eyes peeping out 
 of the sand. So he dived down, and began scraping the 
 sand away, and cried, "Don't hide; I do want some 
 one to play with so much !" And out jumped a great 
 turbot with his ugly eyes and mouth all awry, and 
 flopped away along the bottom, knocking poor Tom 
 
(»5) 
 
Il6 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 over. And he sat down at the bottom of the sea, and 
 cried salt tears from sheer disappointment. 
 
 To have come all this way, and faced so many dangers, 
 and yet to find no water-babies ! How hard ! Well, it 
 did seem hard : but people, even little babies, cannot 
 have all they want without waiting for it, and working 
 for it, too, my little man, as you will find out some day. 
 
 And Tom sat upon the buoy long days, long weeks, 
 looking out to sea, and wondering when the water- 
 babies would come back ; and yet they never came. 
 
 Then he began to ask all the strange things which 
 came in out of the sea if they had seen any ; and some 
 said " Yes," and some said nothing at all. 
 
 He asked the bass and the pollock ; but they were so 
 greedy after the shrimps that they did not care to answer 
 him a word. 
 
 Then there came in a whole fleet of purple sea-snails, 
 floating along, each on a sponge full of foam, and Tom 
 said, "Where do you come from, you pretty creatures? 
 and have you seen the water-babies ? n 
 * And the sea-snails answered, "Whence we come we 
 know not ; and whither w 7 e are going", who can tell ? 
 We float out our life in the mid-ocean, with the warm 
 sunshine above our heads, and the warm gulf-stream 
 below ; and that is enough for us. Yes ; perhaps we 
 have seen the water-babies. We have seen many 
 strange things as we sailed along." And they floated 
 away, the happy stupid things, and all went ashore 
 flpon the sands. 
 
 Then there came in a great lazy sunfish, as big as a 
 fat pig cut in half ; and he seemed to have been cut in 
 half, too, and squeezed in a clothes-press till he was flat ; 
 but to all his big body and big fins he had only a little 
 rabbit's mouth, no bigger than Tom's; and, when Tom 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 IJ 7 
 
 questioned him, he answered in a little squeaky feeble 
 voice : 
 
 " I'm sure I don't know ; I've lost my way. I meant 
 to go to the Chesapeake, and I'm afraid I've got wrong 
 somehow. Dear me ! it was all by following that pleas- 
 ant warm water. I'm sure I've lost my way." 
 
 And, when Tom asked him again, he could only an- 
 swer, " I've lost my way. Don't talk to me. I want tc 
 think." 
 
 But, like a good many other people, the more he tried 
 to think the less he 
 could think ; and 
 Tom saw him blun- 
 dering about all day, 
 till the coast-guards- 
 men saw his big fin 
 above the water, and 
 rowed out, and stuck 
 a boat-hook into 
 him, and took him 
 away. They took 
 him up to the town 
 and snowed him for 
 
 a penny a head, and made a good day's work of it. 
 of course Tom did not know that. 
 
 Then there came by a shoal of porpoises, rolling as 
 they went — papas, and mammas, and little children — 
 and all quite smooth and shiny, because the fairies 
 French-polish them every morning ; and they sighed so 
 softly as they came by that Tom took courage to speak 
 to them: but all they answered was, " Hush, hush, 
 hush ; " for that was all they had learnt to say. 
 
 And then there came a shoal of basking sharks, som^ 
 of them as long as a boat, and Tom was frightened at 
 
 But 
 
Il8 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 them. But they were very lazy, good-natured fellows, 
 not greedy tyrants like white sharks and blue sharks and 
 ground sharks and hammer-heads, who eat men, or 
 saw-fish and threshers and ice-sharks, who hunt the 
 poor old whales. They came and rubbed their great 
 sides against the buoy, and lay basking in the sun with 
 their backfins out of water ; and winked at Tom : but 
 he never could get them to speak. They had eaten so 
 many herrings that they were quite stupid ; and Tom 
 was glad when a collier brig came by and frightened 
 them all away ; for they did smell most horribly, cer- 
 tainly, and he had to hold his nose tight as long as they 
 were there. 
 
 And then there came by a beautiful creature, like a 
 ribbon of pure silver, with a sharp head and very long 
 teeth ; but it seemed very sick and sad. Sometimes it 
 rolled helpless on its side ; and then it dashed away, 
 glittering like white fire; and then it lay sick ag^in and 
 motionless. 
 
 "Where do you come from?" asked Tom. "And 
 why are you so sick and sad ? " 
 
 u I come from the warm Carolinas and the sandbanks 
 fringed with pines ; where the great owl-rays leap and 
 flap, like giant bats, upon the tide. But I wandered 
 north and north, upon the treacherous warm gulf-stream r 
 till I met with the cold icebergs, afloat in the mid-ocean. 
 So I got tangled among the icebergs, and chilled with 
 their frozen breath. But the water-babies helped me 
 from among them, and set me free again. And now I 
 am mending every day ; but I am very sick and sad ; 
 and perhaps I shall never get home again to play with 
 the owl-rays any more. ' ' 
 
 "Oh!" cried Tom. "And you have seen water- 
 babies ? Have you seen any near here ? ' ' 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. II9 
 
 u Yes ; they helped me again last night, or I should 
 have been eaten by a great black porpoise." 
 
 How vexatious ! The water-babies close to him, and 
 yet he could not find one. 
 
 And then he left the buoy, and used to go along the 
 sands and round the rocks, and come out in the night 
 — like the forsaken Merman in Mr. Arnold's beautiful, 
 beautiful poem, which you must learn by heart some 
 day — and sit upon a point of rock, among the shining 
 lea-weeds, in the low October tides, and cry and call 
 for the water-babies ; but he never heard a voice call in 
 return. And at last, with his fretting and crying, he 
 grew quite lean and thin. 
 
 But one day among the rocks he found a playfellow. 
 It was not a water-baby, alas ! but it was a lobster ; 
 and a very distinguished lobster he was ; for he had 
 live barnacles on his claws, which is a great mark of 
 distinction in lobsterdom, and no more to be bought 
 for money than a good conscience or the Victoria 
 Cross. 
 
 Tom had never seen a lobster before ; and he was 
 mightily taken with this one ; for he thought him the 
 most curious, odd, ridiculous creature he had ever seen ; 
 and there he was not far wrong ; for all the ingenious 
 men, and all the scientific men, and all the fanciful men, 
 in the world, with all the old German bogy-painters 
 into the bargain, could never invent, if all their wits 
 were boiled into one, anything so curious, and so ridic- 
 ulous, as a lobster. 
 
 He had one claw knobbed and the other jagged ; and 
 Tom delighted in watching him hold on to the seaweed 
 with his knobbed claw, while he cut up salads with his 
 jagged one, and then put them into his mouth, after 
 smelling at them, like a monkey. And always the 
 
120 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 little barnacles threw out their casting-nets and swept 
 the water, and came in for their share of whatever there 
 was for dinner. 
 
 But Tom was most astonished to see how he fired 
 himself off — snap ! like the leap-frogs which you make 
 out of a goose's breast-bone. Certainly he took the 
 most wonderful shots, and backwards, too. For, if he 
 wanted to go into a narrow crack ten yards off, what do 
 you think he did? If he had gone in head foremost, 
 of course he could not have turned round. So he used 
 to turn his tail to it, and lay his long horns, which 
 carry his sixth sense in their tips (and nobody knows 
 what that sixth sense is), straight down his back to 
 guide him, and twist his eyes back till they almost 
 came out of their sockets, and then made ready, pre- 
 sent, fire, snap ! — and away he went, pop into the hole ; 
 and peeped out and twiddled his whiskers, as much as 
 to say, "You couldn't do that." 
 
 Tom asked him about water-babies. " Yes," he said. 
 He had seen them often. But he did not think much 
 of them. They were meddlesome little creatures, that 
 went about helping fish and shells which got into 
 scrapes. Well, for his part, he should be ashamed to 
 be helped by little soft creatures that had not even a 
 shell on their backs. He had lived quite long enough 
 in the world to take care of himself. 
 
 He was a conceited fellow, the old lobster, and not 
 very civil to Tom ; and you will hear how he had to 
 alter his mind before he was done, as conceited people 
 generally have. But he was so funny, and Tom so 
 lonely, that he could not quarrel with him ; and the} 7 
 used to sit in holes in the rocks, and chat for hours. 
 
 And about this time there happened to Tom a very 
 strange and important adventure — so important, indeed, 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 121 
 
 that he was very near never finding the water-babies 
 
 at all ; and I am sure you would have been sorry fq 
 that- 
 
 Q — Water- Babies 
 
122 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 I hope that you have not forgotten the little white lady 
 all this while. At least, here she comes, looking like a 
 clean white good little darling, as she always was, and 
 always will be. For it befell in the pleasant short De- 
 cember days, when the wind always blows from the 
 southwest, till Old Father Christmas comes and spreads 
 the great white table-cloth, ready for little boys and girls 
 to give the birds their Christmas dinner of crumbs — it 
 befell (to go on) in the pleasant December days, that Sir 
 John was so busy hunting that nobody at home could 
 get a word out of him. Four days a week he hunted, 
 and very good sport he had ; and the other two he went 
 to the bench and the board of guardians, and very good 
 justice he did ; and, when he got home in time, he 
 dined at five ; for he hated this absurd new fashion of 
 dining at eight in the hunting season, which forces a 
 man to make interest with the footman for cold beef and 
 beer as soon as he comes in, and so spoil his appetite, 
 and then sleep in an arm-chair in his bedroom, all stiff 
 and tired, for two or three hours before he can get his 
 dinner like a gentleman. And do you be like Sir John, 
 my dear little man, when you are your own master ; 
 and, if you want either to read hard or ride hard, stick 
 to the good old Cambridge hours of breakfast at eight 
 and dinner at five ; by which you may get two days' 
 work out of one. But, of course, if you find a fox at 
 three in the afternoon and run him till dark, and leave 
 off twenty miles from home, why you must wait for 
 your dinner till you can get it, as better men than you 
 have done. Only see that, if you go hungry, your horse 
 does not ; but give him his warm gruel and beer, and 
 take him gently home, remembering that good horses 
 don't grow on the hed^e like blackberries. 
 
 It befell (to go on a second time) that Sir John, hunting 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 123 
 
 all day, and dining at five, fell asleep every evening, 
 and snored so terribly that all the windows in Harthover 
 shook, and the soot fell down the chimneys. Whereon 
 My Lady, being no more able to get conversation out of 
 him than a song out of a dead nightingale, determined 
 to go off and leave him, and the doctor, and Captain 
 Swinger the agent, to snore in concert every evening 
 to their hearts' content. So she started for the seaside 
 
 with all the children, in order to put herself and them 
 into condition by mild applications of iodine. She 
 might as well have staid at home and used Parry's liquid 
 horse-blister, for there was plenty of it in the stables ; 
 and then she would have saved her money, and saved 
 the chance, also, of making all the children ill instead 
 of well (as hundreds are made), by taking them to some 
 nasty smelling undrained lodging, and then wondering 
 
124 TH E WATER-BABIES. 
 
 how they caught scarlatina and diphtheria ; but people 
 won't be wise enough to understand that till they are 
 dead of bad smells, and then it will be too late ; besides, 
 you see, Sir John did certainly snore very loud. 
 
 But where she went to nobody must know, for fear 
 young ladies should begin to fancy that there are water- 
 babies there ! and so hunt and howk after them (besides 
 raising the price of lodgings), and keep them in acqua- 
 riums, as the ladies at Pompeii (as you may see by the 
 paintings) used to keep Cupids in cages. But nobody 
 ever heard that they starved the Cupids, or let them die 
 of dirt and neglect, as English young ladies do by the 
 poor sea-beasts. So nobody must know where My Lady 
 went. Letting water-babies die is as bad as taking 
 singing-birds' eggs; for, though there are thousands, ay, 
 millions, of both of them in the world, yet there is not 
 one too many. 
 
 Now it befell that, on the very shore, and over the 
 very rocks, where Tom was sitting with his friend the 
 lobster, there walked one day the little white lady, Ellie 
 herself, and with her a very wise man indeed — Professor 
 Ptthmllnsprts. 
 
 His mother was a Dutchwoman, and therefore he was 
 born at Curasao (of course you have learnt your geog- 
 raphy, and therefore know why) ; and his father a Pole, 
 and therefore he was brought up at Petropaulowski (of 
 course you have learnt your modern politics, and there- 
 fore know why) : but for all that he was as thorough an 
 Englishman as ever coveted his neighbor's goods. And 
 his name, as I said, was Professor Ptthmllnsprts, which 
 is a very ancient and noble Polish name. 
 
 He was, as I said, a very great naturalist, and chief 
 professor of Necrobioiieopalczonthydrochthonanthropopi- 
 thekology in the new university which the king of the 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 125 
 
 Cannibal Islands had founded ; and, being a member of 
 the Acclimatization Society, he had come here to collect 
 all the nasty things which he could find on the coast of 
 England, and turn them loose round the Cannibal 
 
 Islands, because they had not nasty things enough there 
 to eat what they left. 
 
 But he was a very worthy, kind, good-natured little 
 old gentleman ; and very fond of children (for he was 
 not the least a cannibal himself) ; and very good to all 
 
126 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 the world as long as it was good to him. Only one fault 
 he had, which cock-robins have likewise, as you may 
 see if you look out of the nursery window — that, when 
 any one else found a curious worm, he would hop round 
 them, and peck them, and set up his tail, and bristle 
 up his feathers, just as a cock-robin would ; and de- 
 clare that he found the worm first ; and that it was his 
 worm ; and, if not, that then it was not a worm at all. 
 
 He had met Sir John at Scarborough, or Fleetwood, 
 or somewhere or other (if you don't care where, nobody 
 else does), and had made acquaintance with him, and 
 become very fond of his children. Now, Sir John knew 
 nothing about sea-cockyolybirds, and cared less, provided 
 the fishmonger sent him good fish for dinner ; and My 
 Lady knew as little : but she thought it proper that the 
 children should know something. For in the stupid 
 old times, you must understand, children were taught 
 to know one thing, and to know it well ; but in these 
 enlightened new times they are taught to know a little 
 about everything, and to know it all ill ; which is a 
 great deal pleasanter and easier, and therefore quite right. 
 
 So Ellie and he were walking on the rocks, and he 
 was showing her about one in ten thousand of all the 
 beautiful and curious things which are to be seen there. 
 But little Ellie was not satisfied with them at all. She 
 liked much better to play with live children, or even 
 with dolls, which she could pretend were alive ; and at 
 last she said honestly, "I don't care about all these 
 things, because they can't play with me, or talk to 
 me. If there were little children now in the water, as 
 there used to be, and I could see them, I should like 
 that." 
 
 "Children in the water, you strange little duck?" 
 said the professor. 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 12? 
 
 "Yes," said Ellie. " I know there used to be chil- 
 dren in the water, and mermaids too, and mermen. I 
 
 saw them all in a picture at home, of a beautiful lady 
 sailing in a car drawn by dolphins, and babies flying 
 
128 . THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 round her, and one sitting in her lap ; and the mer- 
 maids swimming and playing, and the mermen trum- 
 peting on conch-shells ; and it is called 'The Triumph 
 of Galatea ; ' and there is a burning mountain in the 
 picture behind. It hangs on the great staircase, and 
 I have looked at it ever since I was a baby, and dreamt 
 about it a hundred times ; and it is so beautiful that it 
 must be true." 
 
 But the professor had not the least notion of allowing 
 that things were true, merely because people thought 
 them beautiful. For at that rate, he said, the Baltas 
 •would be quite right in thinking it a fine thing to eat 
 their grandpapas, because they thought it an ugly 
 thing to put them underground. The professor, indeed, 
 went further, and held that no man was forced to be- 
 lieve anything to be true but what he could see, hear, 
 taste, or handle. 
 
 He held very strange theories about a good many 
 things. He had even got up once at the British Asso- 
 ciation, and declared that apes had hippopotamus majors 
 in their brains just as men have. Which was a shock- 
 ing thing to say ; for, if it were so, what would become 
 of the faith, hope, and charity of immortal millions? 
 You may think that there are other more important 
 differences between you and an ape, such as being able 
 to speak, and make machines, and know right from 
 wrong, and say your prayers, and other little matters 
 of that kind ; but that is a child's fancy, my dear. 
 Nothing is to be depended on but the great hippopot- 
 amus test. If you have a hippopotamus major in your 
 brain, you are no ape, though you had four hands, no 
 feet, and were more apish than the apes of all aperies. 
 But if a hippopotamus major is ever discovered in one 
 single ape's brain, nothing will save your great-great- 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 29 
 
 great - great - great - great - great - great- great - great-great- 
 greater-greatest-grandmother from having been an ape 
 too. No, my dear little man ; always remember that 
 the one true, certain, final, and all-important difference 
 between you and an ape is that you have a hippopot- 
 amus major in your brain, and it has none ; and that r 
 therefore, to discover one in its brain will be a very 
 wrong and dangerous thing, at which every one will be 
 very much shocked, as we may suppose they were at the 
 professor. Though really, after all, it don't much mat- 
 ter ; because — as Lord Dundreary and others would put 
 it — nobody but men have hippopotamuses in their 
 brains ; so, if a hippopotamus was discovered in an 
 ape's brain, why it would not be one, you know, but 
 something else. 
 
 But the professor had gone, I am sorry to say, even 
 further than that ; for he had read at the British Associa- 
 tion at Melbourne, Australia, in the year 1999, a paper 
 which assured every one who found himself the better 
 or wiser for the news, that there were not, never had 
 been, and could not be, any rational or half-rational 
 beings except men, anywhere, anywhen, or anyhow ; 
 that nymphs, satyrs, fatins, inui, dwarfs, trolls, elves, 
 gnomes, fairies, brownies, nixes, wilts, kobolds, lepre- 
 channes, chiricaunes, banshees, will-d* -the-zvisps, follets, 
 latins, magots, goblins, afrits, marids, jinns, ghouls, 
 peris, deevs, angels, archangels, imps, bogies, or worse, 
 were nothing at all, and pure bosh and wind. And 
 he had to get up very early in the morning to prove 
 that, and to eat his breakfast overnight ; but he did it, 
 at least to his own satisfaction. Whereon a certain 
 great divine, and a very clever divine was he, called 
 him a regular Sadducee ; and probably he was quite 
 right. Whereon the professor, in return, called him 
 
130 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 a regular Pharisee ; and probably he was quite right, too. 
 But they did not quarrel in the least ; for, when men are 
 men of the world, hard words run off them like water 
 pff a duck's back. So the professor and the divine met 
 at dinner that evening, and sat together on the sofa 
 afterwards for an hour, and talked over the state of 
 female labor on the antarctic continent (for nobody talks 
 shop after his claret), and each vowed that the other was 
 the best company he ever met in his life. What an 
 advantage it is to be men of the world ! 
 
 From all which you may guess that the professor was 
 not the least of little Ellie's opinion. So he gave her a 
 succinct compendium of his famous paper at the British 
 Association, in a form suited for the youthful mind. 
 But, as we have gone over his arguments against water- 
 babies once already, which is once too often, we will not 
 repeat them here. 
 
 Now little Ellie was, I suppose, a stupid little girl ; 
 for, instead of being convinced by Professor Ptthmllu- 
 sprts' arguments, she only asked the same question over 
 again. 
 
 ' ' But why are there not water-babies? " 
 
 I trust and hope that it was because the professor trod 
 at that moment on the edge of a very sharp mussel, and 
 hurt one of his corns sadly, that he answered quite 
 sharply, forgetting that he was a scientific man, and 
 therefore ought to have known that he couldn't know; 
 and that he was a logician, and therefore ought to have 
 known that he could not prove a universal negative — ■ 
 I say, I trust and hope it was because the mussel hurt 
 his corn that the professor answered quite sharply : 
 
 u Because there ain't." 
 
 Which was not even good English, my dear little boy ; 
 for, as you must know from Aunt Agitate' s Arguments, 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 131 
 
 the professor ought to have said, if he was so angry as 10 
 say anything of the kind — Because there are not : or are 
 none : or are none of them : or (if he had been reading 
 Aunt Agitate too) because they do not exist. 
 
 And he groped with his net under the weeds so vio- 
 lently that, as it befell, he caught poor little Tom. 
 
 He felt the net very heavy ; and lifted it out quickly,, 
 with Tom all entangled in the meshes. 
 
 u Dear me!" he cried. " What a large pink Holo- 
 thurian ; what hands, too ! It must be connected with 
 Synapta." 
 
 And he took him out. 
 
 " It has actually eyes ! " he cried. " Why, it must be 
 a Cephalopod ! This is most extraordinary ! " 
 
 " No, I ain't ! " cried Tom, as loud as he could ; for 
 he did not like to be called bad names. 
 
 "It is a water-baby!" cried Ellie ; and of course it 
 was. 
 
 "Water-fiddlesticks, my dear!" said the professor; 
 and he turned away sharply. 
 
 There was no denying it. It was a water-baby : and 
 he had said a moment ago that there were none. What 
 was he to do? 
 
 He would have liked, of course, to have taken Tom 
 home in a bucket. He would not have put him in spirits. 
 Of course not. He would have kept him alive, and 
 petted him (for he was a very kind old gentleman), and. 
 written a book about him, and given him two long 
 names, of which the first would have said a little about 
 Tom, and the second all about himself; for of course he 
 would have called him Hydrotecnon Ptthmlinsprtsianum, 
 or some other long name like that ; for they are forced 
 to call everything by long names now, because they have 
 used up all the short ones, ever since they took to making 
 
132 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 nine species out of one. But — what would all the 
 learned men say to him after his speech at the British 
 Association? And what would Ellie say, after what he 
 had just told her? 
 
 There was a wise old heathen once, who said, ' ' Maxima 
 debetur pueris reverentia" — The greatest reverence is 
 due to children ; that is, that grown people should never 
 say or do anything wrong before children, lest they 
 should set them a bad example. Cousin Cramchild 
 says it means, "The greatest respectfulness is expected 
 from little boys. " But he was raised in a country where 
 little boys are not expected to be respectful, because all 
 of them are as good as the President : — Well, every one 
 knows his own concerns best ; so perhaps they are. But 
 poor Cousin Cramchild, to do him justice, not being of 
 that opinion, and having a moral mission, and being na 
 scholar to speak of, and hard up for an authority — why, 
 it was a very great temptation for him. But some people, 
 and I am afraid the professor was one of them, interpret 
 that in a more strange, curious, one-sided, left-handed, 
 topsy-turvy, inside out, behind-before fashion than even 
 Cousin Cramchild ; for they make it mean that you 
 must show your respect for children by never confessing 
 yourself in the wrong to them, even if you know that 
 you are so, lest they should lose confidence in their 
 elders. 
 
 Now, if the professor had said to Ellie, " Yes, my dar- 
 ling, it is a water-baby, and a very wonderful thing it is ; 
 and it shows how little I know of the wonders of nature, 
 in spite of forty years' honest labor. I was just telling you 
 that there could be no such creatures ; and, behold ! here 
 is one come to confound my conceit and show me that 
 Nature can do, and has done, beyond all that man's 
 poor fancy can imagine. So, let us thank the Maker. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 *33 
 
 the Inspirer, the Lord of Nature, for all His wonderful 
 and glorious works, and try and find out something 
 about this one ; " — I think that, if the professor had said 
 
 that, little Ellie would have believed him more firmly,, 
 and respected him more deeply, and loved him better 
 than ever she had done before. But he was of a dif- 
 
134 TH E WATER-BABIES. 
 
 ferent opinion. He hesitated a moment. He longed 
 to keep Tom, and yet lie half wished that he never had 
 caught him ; and at last he quite longed to get rid of 
 him. So he turned away and poked Tom with his 
 finger, for want of anything better to do ; and said care- 
 lessly, "My dear little maid, you must have dreamt 
 of water-babies last night, your head is so full of 
 them." 
 
 Now Tom had been in the most horrible and unspeak- 
 able fright all the while ; and had kept as quiet as he 
 could, though he was called a Holothurian and a Ceph- 
 alopod ; for it was fixed in his little head that if a man 
 with clothes on caught him, he might put clothes on 
 him, too, and make a dirty black chimney-sweep of him 
 again. But, when the professor poked him, it was more 
 than he could bear; and, between fright and rage, he 
 turned to bay as valiantly as a mouse in a corner, and 
 bit the professor's finger till it bled. 
 
 " Oh ! ah ! yah ! " cried he ; and glad of an excuse 
 to be rid of Tom, dropped him on to the seaweed, and 
 thence he dived into the water and was gone in a 
 moment. 
 
 "But it was a water-baby, and I heard it speak ! " 
 cried Ellie. "Ah, it is gone ! " And she jumped down 
 off the rock to try and catch Tom before he slipped into 
 the sea. 
 
 Too late ! and what was worse, as she sprang down, 
 she slipped, and fell some six feet with her head on a 
 sharp rock, and lay quite still. 
 
 The professor picked her up, and tried to waken her, 
 and called to her, and cried over her, for he loved her 
 very much : but she would not waken at all. So he 
 took her up in his arms and carried her to her governess, 
 and they all went home ; and little Ellie was put to bed, 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 35 
 
 and lay there quite still ; only now and then she woke 
 up and called out about the water-baby : but no one 
 knew what she meant, and the professor did not tell, 
 for he was ashamed to tell. 
 
 And, after a week, one moonlight night, the fairies 
 came flying in at the window and brought her such a 
 pretty pair of wings that she could not help putting 
 them on ; and she flew with them out of the window, 
 and over the land, and over the sea, and up through 
 the clouds, and nobody heard or saw anything of her 
 for a very long while. 
 
 And this is why they say that no one has ever yet 
 seen a water-baby. For my part, I believe that the 
 naturalists get dozens of them when they are out dredg- 
 ing ; but they say nothing about them, and throw them 
 overboard again, for fear of spoiling their theories. 
 But, you see, the professor was found out, as every one 
 is in due time. A very terrible old fairy found the pro- 
 fessor out ; she felt his bumps, and cast his nativity, 
 and took the lunars of him carefully inside and out ; 
 and so she knew what he would do as well as if she 
 had seen it in a print book, as they say in the dear old 
 west country ; and he did it ; and so he was found out 
 beforehand, as everybody always is ; and the old fairy 
 will find out the naturalists some day, and put them in 
 the Times, and then' on whose side will the laugh be ? 
 
 So the old fairy took him in hand very severely there 
 and then. But she says she is always most severe with 
 the best people, because there is most chance of curing 
 them, and therefore they are the patients who pay her 
 best ; for she has to work on the same salary as the Em- 
 peror of China's physicians (it is a pity that all do not), 
 no cure, no pay. 
 
 So she took the poor professor in hand : and because 
 
136 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 he was not content with things as they are, she filled 
 his head with things as they are not, to try if he would 
 like them better ; and because he did not choose to be- 
 lieve in a water-baby when he saw it, she made him be- 
 lieve in worse things than water-babies — in unicorns, 
 fire-drakes, maiiticoras, basilisks, a?nphisbce?ias, griffins, 
 phoenixes, rocs, ores, dog-headed men, three-headed dogs, 
 three-bodied geryons, and other pleasant creatures, which 
 folks think never existed yet, and which folks hope 
 never will exist, though they know nothing about the 
 matter, and never will ; and these creatures so upset, 
 terrified, flustered, aggravated, confused, astounded, hor- 
 rified, and totally flabbergasted the poor professor that 
 the doctors said that he was out of his wits for three 
 months ; and perhaps they were right, as they are now 
 and then. 
 
 So all the doctors in the county were called in to make 
 a report on his case ; and, of course, every one of them 
 flatly contradicted the other : else what use is there in 
 being a man of science ? But at last the majority agreed 
 on a report in the true medical language, one-half bad 
 Latin, the other half worse Greek, and the rest what 
 might have been English, if they had only learnt to 
 write it. And this is the beginning thereof — 
 
 " The subanhypaposnpcrnal anastomoses of peritomic dia~ 
 cellurite in the encephalo digital region of the distinguished 
 individual of whose symptomatic phcenomena we had the 
 melancholy honor [subsequently to a preliminary diagnostic 
 inspection) of making an inspectorial diagnosis, presenting the 
 inter exclusively quadrilateral and antviomian diathesis known 
 as Bumpsterhausen 's bine follicles, zve proceeded" — 
 
 But what they proceeded to do My Lady never knew ; 
 for she was so frightened at the long words that she ran 
 for her life, and locked herself into her bedroom, foi 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 137 
 
 fear of being squashed by the words and strangled by 
 the sentence. A boa constrictor, she said, was bad 
 company enough : but what was a boa constrictor made 
 of paving stones? 
 
 " It was quite shocking ! What can they think is the 
 matter with him ? " said she to the old nurse. 
 
 "That his wit's just addled ; may be wi' unbelief and 
 heathenry," quoth she. 
 
 " Then why can't they say so? " 
 
 And the heaven, and the sea, and the rocks, and the 
 vales re-echoed — "Why, indeed?" But the doctors 
 never heard them. 
 
 So she made Sir John write to the Times, to command 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the time being to 
 put a tax on long words : 
 
 A light tax on words over three syllables, which are 
 necessary evils, like rats : but, like them, must be kept 
 down judiciously. 
 
 A heavy tax on words over four syllables, as hetero- 
 doxy, spontaneity, spiritualism, spuriosity , etc. 
 
 And on words over five syllables (of which I hope no 
 one will wish to see any examples), a totally prohibitory 
 tax. 
 
 And a similar prohibitory tax on words derived from 
 three or more languages at once ; words derived from two 
 languages having become so common that there was no 
 more hope of rooting out them than of rooting out peth* 
 winds. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, being a scholar and 
 a man of sense, jumped at the notion ; for he saw in it 
 the one and only plan for abolishing Schedule D : but 
 when he brought in his bill, most of the Irish members, 
 and (I am sorry to say) some of the Scotch likewise, 
 opposed it most strongly, on the ground that in a free 
 
 7r.'- // "ater-Babies 
 
138 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 country no man was bound either to understand himself 
 or to let others understand him. So the bill fell through 
 on the first reading ; and the Chancellor, being a philos- 
 opher, comforted himself with the thought that it was 
 not the first time that a woman had hit off a grand idea 
 and the men turned up their stupid noses thereat. 
 
 Now the doctors had it all their own way ; and to work 
 they went in earnest, and they gave the poor professor 
 divers and sundry medicines, as prescribed by the an- 
 cients and moderns, from Hippocrates to Feuchtersleben, 
 as below, viz.: 
 
 1. Hellebore, to wit — • 
 
 Hellebore of AZta. 
 
 Hellebore of Galatia. 
 
 Hellebore of Sicily. 
 
 And all other Hellebores, after the method of 
 the Helleborizing Helleborisis of the Helleborit 
 era. But that zvoidd not do. Bumpster- 
 hauserCs bine follicles would not stir an inch 
 out of las encephalo digital region. 
 
 2. frying to find out what was the matter with him^ 
 after the method of 
 
 Hippocrates 
 
 Aretceus, 
 
 Celsus, 
 
 Coelius Aitrelianus, 
 
 A? id Galen. 
 
 But they found that a great deal too much trouble, 
 *s moU people have since • and so had recourse to— 
 
 3. Borage. 
 Cauteries, 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 39 
 
 Boring a hole in his head to let out fumes, whicfe 
 (says Gordonius) "will, without doubt, do much good." 
 But it didn't. 
 
 Bezoar stone. 
 
 Diamargaritum. 
 
 A rain's brain boiled in spice* 
 
 Oil of wormwood. 
 
 Water of Nile. 
 
 Capers. 
 
 Good wine [but there was none to be £?£)• 
 
 The water of a smith's forge. 
 
 Hops. 
 
 Ambergris. 
 
 Mandrake pillows. 
 
 Dormouse fat. 
 
 Hares' ears. 
 
 Starvation. 
 
 Camphor. 
 
 Salts and semia. 
 
 Musk. 
 
 Opium. 
 
 Strait-waistcoats. 
 
 Bullyings. 
 
 Bumpings. 
 
 Blisterings. 
 
 Bleedings. 
 
 Bucketings with cold water. 
 
 Knockings down. 
 
 Kneeling on his chest till they broke it in % ete* 9 
 etc.; after the mediceval or monkish method: 
 but that woidd not do. Bumpsterhauseri s blue 
 follicles stuck there still. 
 
140 THE WATER-BABIES- 
 
 Then— 
 
 4. Coaxing. 
 Kissing, 
 CJiampagne and turtle. 
 
 Red herrings and soda water* 
 
 Good advice. 
 
 Gardeiring. 
 
 Croquet. 
 
 Musical soirees* 
 
 Aunt Sally* 
 
 Mild tobacco* 
 
 The Saturday Review. 
 
 A carriage with outriders, etc*, etc* 
 
 After the modern method. But that would not do. 
 
 And if he had but been a convict lunatic, and had 
 shot at the Queen, killed all his creditors to avoid pay- 
 ing them, or indulged in any other little amiable eccen- 
 tricity of that kind, they would have given him in 
 addition — 
 
 The healthiest situation in England, on Easthamr> 
 stead Plain. 
 
 Free run of Windsor Forest. 
 
 The Times every morning. 
 
 A double-barrelled gun and pointers, and leave to 
 shoot three Wellington College boys a week (not more) 
 in case black game was scarce. 
 
 But as he was neither mad enough nor bad enough to 
 be allowed such luxuries, they grew desperate, and fell 
 into bad ways, viz. : 
 
 5. Svffumigations of sulphur. 
 
 Herrwiggius his " Incomparable drink for ?naa* 
 men ; " 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 141 
 
 Only they could not find out what it was. 
 
 Suffumigation of the liver of the fish * * * 
 
 Only they had forgotten its name, so Dr. Gray could 
 not well procure them a specimen. 
 
 Metallic tractors. 
 Hollowafs Ointment. 
 Electro-biology. 
 
 Valentine Greatrakes his Stroking Cure* 
 Spirit-rapping. 
 Hollozvafs Pills. 
 Table -turning. 
 Morisoris Pills. 
 Homceopathy. 
 Parr's Life Pills. 
 Mesmerism. 
 Pure Bosh. 
 
 Exorcisms for which they read Malezis Malefic^**?* 
 Nideri Formicarium t Delrio, Wierus, etc. 
 
 But could not get one that mentioned water-babies, 
 
 Hydropathy. 
 
 Madame Rachel's Elixir of Youth. 
 
 The Poughkeepsie Seer his Prophecies. 
 
 T7ie distilled liqnor of diddle eggs. 
 
 Pyropathy. 
 
 As successfully employed by the old inquisitor! «te 
 cure the malady of thought, and now by tne Persia 
 Mollahs to cure that of rheumatism. 
 
142 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Geopathy, or burying him. 
 
 Atmopathy, or steaming him. 
 
 Sympathy, after the method of Basil Valentine 
 his Triumph of Antimony, and Kenelm Digby 
 his Weapon-slave , zvliich some call a hair of the 
 dog that bit him. 
 
 Hermopathy, or pouring mercury down his throat 
 to move the animal spirits. 
 
 Meteoropatliy, or going up to the moon to look for 
 his lost wits, as Ruggiero did for Orlando 
 Furiosi s : only, having no hippogriff, they were 
 forced to use a balloon; and, falli7ig into the 
 North Sea, were picked up by a Yarmouth 
 herri?ig-boat, and came home much the wiser, 
 and all over scales. 
 
 Antipathy, or using him like "a man and a 
 brother" 
 
 Apathy, or doing nothing at all. 
 
 With all other ipathies and opathies which Noodle 
 has invented, and Foodie tried, since black- 
 fellows chipped flints at Abbeville — which is a 
 considerable time ago, to judge by the Great 
 Ex/iibition. 
 
 But nothing would do ; for he screamed and cried 
 all day for a water- baby to come and drive away the 
 monsters ; and of course they did not try to find one, be- 
 cause they did not believe in them, and were thinking 
 of nothing but Bumpsterhausen's blue follicles ; having, 
 as usual, set the cart before the horse, and taken the 
 effect for the cause. 
 
 So they were forced at last to let the poor professor 
 case his mind by writing a great book, exactly contrary 
 to all his old opinions ; in which he proved that the moon 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 H3 
 
 was made of green cheese, and that all the mites in it 
 (which you may see sometimes quite plain through a 
 telescope, if you will only keep the lens dirty enough, 
 p« Mr. Weekes kept his voltaic battery) are nothing in 
 
 the world but little babies, who are hatching and swarm* 
 ing up there in millions, ready to come down into this 
 world whenever children want a new little brother or 
 •ister. 
 
144 TH H WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Which must be a mistake, for this one reason : that, 
 there being no atmosphere round the moon (though 
 some one or other says there is, at least on the other 
 side, and that he has been round at the back of it to see, 
 and found that the moon was just the shape of a Bath 
 bun, and so wet that the man in the moon went about 
 on Midsummer-day in Mackintoshes and Cording's 
 boots, spearing eels and sneezing) ; that, therefore, I say, 
 there being no atmosphere, there can be no evaporation ; 
 and, therefore, the dew-point can never fall below 71*5° 
 below zero or Fahrenheit ; and, therefore, it cannot be 
 cold enough there about four o'clock in the morning to 
 condense the babies' mesenteric apophthegms into their 
 left ventricles ; and, therefore, they can never catch the 
 hooping-cough ; and, if they do not have hooping-cough, 
 they cannot be babies at all ; and, therefore, there are 
 no babies in the moon. — Q. E. D. 
 
 Which may seem a roundabout reason ; and so, per- 
 Laps, it is : but you will have heard worse ones in your 
 f ime, and from better men than you are. 
 
 But one thing is certain ; that, when the good old 
 doctor got his book written, he felt considerably relieved 
 from Bumpsterhausen's blue follicles ; and a few things 
 infinitely worse ; to wit, from pride and vain-glory, and 
 from blindness and hardness of heart ; which are the 
 true causes of Bumpsterhausen's blue follicles, and of a 
 good many other ugly things besides. Whereon the 
 foul flood-water in his brains ran down, and cleared to a 
 fine coffee color, such as fish like to rise in: till very fine 
 clean fresh-run fish did begin to rise in his brains ; and 
 he caught two or three of them (which is exceedingly 
 fine sport for brain rivers), and anatomized them care- 
 fully, and never mentioned what he found out from 
 then;, except to little children ; and became ever after a 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 145 
 
 sadder and a wiser man ; which is a very good thing to 
 become, my dear little boy, even though one has to pay 
 a heavy price for the blessing. 
 
 "Stern Lawgiver ! yet thou dost wear 
 
 The Godhead's most benignant grace; 
 Nor know we anything so fair 
 
 As is the smile upon thy face : 
 Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, 
 And fragrance in thy footing treads ; 
 Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; 
 And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, 
 are fresh and strong." 
 
 Wordsworth, Ode to Duty. 
 
CHAPTER ST. 
 
 UT what became 
 of little Tom ? 
 
 He slipped away 
 off the rocks into 
 the water, as I said 
 before. But he 
 could not help 
 thinking of little 
 Ellie. He did not 
 remember who she 
 was ; but he knew 
 that she was a little 
 girl, though she 
 was a hundred 
 times as big as he. 
 That is not sur- 
 prising : size has 
 nothing to do with 
 kindred. A tiny 
 weed may be first 
 cousin to a great tree ; and a little dog like Vick knows 
 that Lioness is a dog, too, though she is twenty times 
 larger than herself. So Tom knew that Ellie was a 
 little girl, and thought about her all that day, and 
 (146) 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 47 
 
 longed to have had her to play with ; but he had very 
 soon to think of something else. And here is the ac- 
 count of what happened to him, as it was published 
 next morning in the Waterproof Gazette, on the finest 
 watered paper, for the use of the great fairy, Mrs. Be- 
 donebyasyoudid, who reads the news very carefully 
 every morning, and especially the police cases, as you 
 will hear very soon. 
 
 He was going along the rocks in three-fathom water, 
 watching the pollock catch prawns, and the wrasses 
 nibble barnacles off the rocks, shells and all, when he 
 saw a round cage of green withes ; and inside it, look- 
 ing very much ashamed of himself, sat his friend the 
 lobster, twiddling his horns, instead of thumbs. 
 
 "What, have you been naughty, and have they put 
 you in the lock-up?" asked Tom. 
 
 The lobster felt a little indignant at such a notion, 
 but he was too much depressed in spirits to argue ; so 
 he only said, " I can't get out." 
 Why did you get in ? " 
 
 'After that nasty piece of dead fish. ' ' He had thought 
 it looked and smelt very nice when he was outside, and 
 so it did, for a lobster : but now he turned round ancl 
 abused it because he was angry with himself. 
 
 " Where did you get in?" 
 
 " Through that round hole at the top." 
 
 1 ' Then why don't you get out through it? " 
 
 "Because I can't;" and the lobster twiddled his 
 horns more fiercely than ever, but he was forced to 
 confess. 
 
 "I have jumped upwards, downwards, backwards, 
 and sideways, at least four thousand times ; and I can't 
 get out : I always get up underneath there, and can't 
 find the hole," 
 
 u 
 u 
 
I48 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Tom looked at the trap, and, having more wit than 
 the lobster, he saw plainly enough what was the matter ; 
 as you may if you will look at a lobster-pot. 
 
 11 Stop a bit," said Tom. "Turn your tail up to me, 
 and I'll pull you through hindforemost, and then you 
 won't stick in the spikes." 
 
 But the lobster was so stupid and clumsy that he 
 couldn't hit the hole. Like a great many fox-hunters, 
 he was very sharp as long as he was in his own 
 country ; but as soon as they get out of it they lose 
 their heads ; and so the lobster, so to speak, lost his tail. 
 
 Tom reached and clawed down the hole after him, 
 till he caught hold of him ; and then, as was to be 
 expected, the clumsy lobster pulled him in head fore- 
 most. 
 
 " Hullo ! here is a pretty business," said Tom. " Now 
 take your great claws, and break the points off those 
 spikes, and then we shall both get out easily." 
 
 u Dear me, I never thought of that," said the lob- 
 ster ; "and after all the experience of life that I have 
 had ! " 
 
 You see, experience is of very little good unless a 
 man, or a lobster, has wit enough to make use of it. 
 For a good many people, like old Polonius, have seen 
 all the world, and yet remain little better than children 
 after all. 
 
 But they had not got half the spikes away when they 
 saw a great dark cloud over them : and lo, and behold, 
 it was the otter. 
 
 How she did grin and grin when she saw Tom. 
 " Yar ! " said she, "you little meddlesome wretch, I 
 have you now ! I will serve you out for telling the 
 salmon where I was !" And she crawled all over the 
 pot to get in. 
 
(H9) 
 
150 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Tom was horribly frightened, and still more frightened 
 when she found the hole in the top and squeezed her- 
 self right down through it, all eyes and teeth. But no 
 sooner was her head inside than valiant Mr. Lobster 
 caught her by the nose and held on. 
 
 And there they were all three in the pot, rolling over 
 and over, and very tight packing it was. And the lob- 
 ster tore at the otter, and the otter tore at the lobster, 
 and both squeezed and thumped poor Tom till he had 
 no breath left in his body ; and I don't know what would 
 have happened to him if he had not at last got on the 
 otter's back, and safe out of the hole. 
 
 He was right glad when he got out : but he would 
 not desert his friend who had saved him ; and the first 
 time he saw his tail uppermost he caught hold of it, and 
 pulled with all his might. 
 
 But the lobster would not let go. 
 
 "Come along," said Tom; "don't you see she is 
 dead ? " And so she was, quite drowned and dead. 
 
 And that was the end of the wicked otter. 
 
 But the lobster would not let go. 
 
 " Come along, you stupid old stick-in-the-mud," cried 
 Tom, "or the fisherman will catch you!" And that 
 was true, for Tom felt some one above beginning to haul 
 up the pot. 
 
 But the lobster would not let go. 
 
 Tom saw the fisherman haul him up to the boat-side, 
 and thought it was all up with him. But when Mr. 
 Lobster saw the fisherman, he gave such a furious and 
 tremendous snap that he snapped out of his hand, and 
 out of the pot, and safe into the sea. But he left his 
 knobbed claw behind him ; for it never came into his 
 stupid head to let go, after all, so he. just shook his 
 claw off as the easier method. It was something of a 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 *5* 
 
 bull, that ; but you must know the lobster was au Irish 
 lobster, and was hatched off Island Magee at the mouth 
 
 of Belfast Lough. 
 
 Tom asked the lobster why he never thought of 
 letting go. He said very determinedly that it was a point 
 of honor among lobsters. And so it is, as the Mayor of 
 
152 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Plymouth found out once to his cost — eight or nine hun- 
 dred years ago, of course ; for if it had happened lately 
 it would be personal to mention it. 
 
 For one day he was so tired of sitting on a hard chair, 
 in a grand furred gown, with a gold chain round his 
 neck, hearing one policeman after another come in and 
 sing, "What shall we do with the drunken sailor, so 
 early in the morning?" and answering them each ex- 
 actly alike : 
 
 " Put him in the round-house till he gets sober, so 
 early in the morning" — 
 
 That, when it was over, he jumped up, and played 
 leap-frog with the town-clerk till he burst his buttons, 
 and then had his luncheon, and burst some more but- 
 tons, and then said : " It is a low spring-tide ; I shall go 
 out this afternoon and cut my capers." 
 
 Now he did not mean to cut such capers as you eat 
 with boiled mutton. It was the commandant of artil- 
 lery at Valetta who used to amuse himself with cutting 
 them, and who stuck upon one of the bastions a notice, 
 " No one allowed to cut capers here but me," which 
 greatly edified the midshipmen in port, and the Maltese 
 on the Nix Manmare stairs. But all that the mavor 
 meant was that he would go and have an afternoon's fun, 
 like any schoolboy, and catch lobsters with an iron hook. 
 
 So to the Mewstone he went, and for lobsters he 
 looked. And when he came to a certain crack in the 
 rocks he was so excited that, instead of putting in his 
 hook, he put in his hand ; and Mr. Lobster was at home, 
 and caught him by the finger, and held on. 
 
 "Yah !" said the mayor, and pulled as hard as he 
 dared : but the more he pulled, the more the lobster 
 pinched, till he was forced to be quiet. 
 
 Then he tried to get his hook in with his other hand \ 
 but the hole was too narrow. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 153 
 
 Then he pulled 
 
 again ; 
 
 but he could not stand the 
 
 pam. 
 
 Then he shouted and bawled for help : but there was 
 no one nearer him than the men-of-war inside the break- 
 water. 
 
 Then he began to turn a little pale ; for the tide 
 flowed, and still the lobster held on. 
 
 Then he turned quite white ; for the tide was up to 
 his knees, and still the 
 lobster held on. 
 
 Then he thought of 
 cutting off his finger ; 
 but he Avanted two 
 things to do it with — 
 
 and 
 had 
 
 a knife 
 
 got 
 
 o 
 
 nei- r 
 
 courage 
 and he 
 ther. 
 
 Then he turned 
 quite yellow ; for the 
 tide was up to his 
 waist, and still the 
 lobster held on. 
 
 Then he thought 
 over all the naughty 
 things he ever had 
 done ; all the sand which he had put in the sugar, and 
 the sloe-leaves in the tea, and the water in the treacle, 
 and the salt in the tobacco (because his brother was a 
 brewer, and a man must help his own kin). 
 
 Then he turned quite blue ; for the tide was up to his 
 breast, and still the lobster held on. 
 
 Then, I have no doubt, he repented fully of all the 
 said naughty things which he had done, and promised 
 to mend his life, as too many do when they think ther 
 
 J T — U 'ate* -Baited 
 
154 TH H WATER-BABIES. 
 
 have no life left to mend. Whereby, as they fancy, 
 they make a very cheap bargain. But the old fairy with 
 the birch rod soon undeceives them. 
 
 And then he grew all colors at once, and turned up his 
 eyes like a duck in thunder ; for the water was up to his 
 chin, and still the lobster held on. 
 
 And then came a man-of-war's boat round the Mew- 
 stone, and saw his head sticking up out of the water. 
 One said it was a keg of brandy, and another that it was 
 a cocoanut, and another that it was a buoy loose, and 
 another that it was a black diver, and wanted to fire at 
 it, which would not have been pleasant for the mayor : 
 but just then such a yell came out of a great hole in the 
 middle of it that the midshipman in charge guessed 
 what it was, and bade pull up to it as fast as they could. 
 So somehow or other the Jack-tars got the lobster out, 
 and set the mayor free, and put him ashore at the Bar- 
 bican. He never went lobster-catching again ; and we 
 will hope he put no more salt in the tobacco, not even to 
 sell his brother's beer. 
 
 And that is the story of the Mayor of Plymouth, which 
 has two advantages — first, that of being quite true ; 
 and, second, that of having (as folks say all good stories 
 ought to have) no moral whatsoever ; no more, indeed, 
 has any part of this book, because it is a fairy tale, you 
 know. 
 
 And now happened to Tom a most wonderful thing ; 
 for he had not left the lobster five minutes before he 
 came upon a water-baby. 
 
 A real live water-baby, sitting on the white sand, very 
 busy about a little point of rock. And when it saw Tom 
 it looked up for a moment, and then cried, "Why, you 
 are not one of us. You are a new baby ! Oh, how de- 
 lightful ! » 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 55 
 
 And it ran to Tom, and Tom ran to it, and they 
 hugged and kissed each other for ever so long, they did 
 not know why. But they did not want any introduc- 
 tions there under the water. 
 
 At last Tom said, "Oh, where have you been all this 
 while ? I have been looking for you so long, and I have 
 been so lonely." 
 
 "We have been here for days and days. There are 
 hundreds of us about the rocks. How was it you did 
 not see us, or hear us when we sing and romp every 
 evening before we go home? " 
 
 Tom looked at the baby again, and then he said : 
 
 "Well, this is wonderful! I have seen things like 
 you again and again, but I thought you were shells or 
 sea-creatures. I never took you for water-babies like 
 myself." 
 
 Now, was not that very odd? So odd, indeed, that 
 you will, no doubt, want to know how it happened, and 
 why Tom could never find a water-baby till after he had 
 got the lobster out of the pot. And if you will read this 
 story nine times over, and then think for yourself, you 
 will find out why. It is not good for little boys to be 
 told everything, and never to be forced to use their own 
 wits. They would learn, then, no more than they do at 
 Dr. Dulcimer's famous suburban establishment for the 
 idler members of the youthful aristocracy, where the 
 masters learn the lessons and the boys hear them — which 
 saves a great deal of trouble — for the time being. 
 
 " Now," said the baby, " come and help me, or I shall 
 not have finished before my brothers and sisters come, 
 and it is time to go home." 
 
 What shall I help you at ? " 
 
 'At this poor dear little rock ; a great clumsy boulder 
 came rolling by in the last storm and knocked all its 
 
 u 
 
156 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 head off and rubbed off all its flowers. And now I must 
 plant it again with seaweeds, and coralline, and ane- 
 mones, and I will make it the prettiest little rock-garden 
 on all the shore." 
 
 So they worked away at the rock, and planted it, and 
 smoothed the sand down round it, and capital fun they 
 had till the tide began to turn. And then Tom heard 
 all the other babies coming, laughing and singing and 
 shouting and romping ; and the noise they made was 
 just like the noise of the ripple. So he knew that he 
 had been hearing and seeing the water-babies all along ; 
 only he did not know them, because his eyes and ears 
 were not opened. 
 
 And in they came, dozens and dozens of them, tome 
 biogrer than Tom and some smaller, all in the neatest 
 little white bathing dresses ; and when they found that 
 he was a new baby, they hugged him and kissed him, and 
 then put him in the middle and danced round him on 
 the sand, and there was no one ever so happy as pool 
 little Tom. 
 
 " Now, then," they cried all at once, "we must come 
 away home, we must come away home, or the tide will 
 leave us dry. We have mended all the broken seaweed, 
 and put all the rock-pools in order, and planted all the 
 shells again in the sand, and nobody will see where the 
 ugly storm swept in last week." 
 
 And this is the reason why the rock-pools are always 
 so neat and clean ; because the water-babies come in- 
 shore after every storm to sweep them out, and comb 
 them down, and put them all to rights again. 
 
 Only when men are wasteful and dirty, and let sewers 
 run into the sea instead of putting the stuff upon the 
 fields like thrifty, reasonable souls ; or throw herrings' 
 heads and dead dog-fish, or any other refuse, into the 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 57 
 
 water ; or in any way make a mess upon the clean shore 
 — there the water-babies will not come, sometimes not 
 for hundreds of years (for they cannot abide anything 
 smelly or foul), but leave the sea-anemones and the crabs 
 to clear away everything, till the good tidy sea has 
 covered up all the dirt in soft mud and clean sand, 
 where the water-babies can plant live cockles and whelks 
 and razor-shells and sea-cucumbers and golden-combs, 
 and make a pretty live garden again, after man's dirt 
 is cleared away. And that, I suppose, is the reason 
 why there are no water-babies at any watering-place 
 which I have ever seen. 
 
 And where is the home of the water-babies ? In St. 
 Brandan's fairy isle. 
 
 Did you never hear of the blessed St. Brandan, how 
 he preached to the wild Irish on the wild, wild Kerry 
 coast, he and five other hermits, till they were weary 
 and longed to rest ? For the wild Irish would not listen 
 to them, or come to confession and to mass, but liked 
 better to brew potheen, and dance the pater o'pee, and 
 knock each other over the head with shillelaghs, and 
 shoot each other from behind turf-dykes, and steal each 
 other's cattle, and burn each other's homes ; till St. 
 Brandan and his friends were weary of them, for they 
 would not learn to be peaceable Christians at all. 
 
 So St. Brandan went out to the point of Old Dunmore, 
 and looked over the tide-way roaring round the Blas- 
 quets, at the end of all the world, and away into the 
 ocean, and sighed — "Ah, that I had wings as a dove ! " 
 And far away, before the setting sun, he saw a blue 
 fairy sea, and golden fairy islands, and he said, " Those 
 are the islands of the blest." Then he and his friends 
 got into a hooker, and sailed away and away to the west- 
 ward, and were never heard of more. But the people 
 
158 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 who would not hear him were changed into gorillas, and 
 gorillas they are until this day. 
 
 And when St. Brandan and the hermits came to that 
 fairy isle they found it overgrown with cedars and full 
 of beautiful birds ; and he sat down under the cedars 
 and preached to all the birds in the air. And they 
 liked his sermons so well that they told the fishes in 
 the sea ; and they came, and St. Brandan preached to 
 them ; and the fishes told the water-babies, who live in 
 the caves under the isle ; and they came up by hundreds 
 every Sunday, and St. Brandan got quite a neat little 
 Sunday-school. And there he taught the water-babiec 
 for a great many hundred years, till his eyes grew too 
 dim to see, and his beard grew so long that he dared 
 not walk for fear of treading on it, and then he might 
 have tumbled down. And at last he and the five hermits 
 fell fast asleep under the cedar-shades, and there they sleep 
 unto this day. But the fairies took to the water-babies, 
 and taught them their lessons themselves. 
 
 And some say that St. Brandan will awake and begin 
 to teach the babies once more : but some think that he 
 will sleep on, for better or worse, till the coming of the 
 Cocqcigrues. But, on still clear summer evenings, 
 when the sun sinks down into the sea, among golden 
 cloud-capes and cloud-islands, and locks and friths of 
 azure sky, the sailors fancy that they see, away to west- 
 ward, St. Brandan' s fairy isle. 
 
 But whether men can see it or not, St. Brandan's Isle 
 once actually stood there ; a great land out in the ocean, 
 which has sunk and sunk beneath the waves. Old Plato 
 called it Atlantis, and told strange tales of the wise men 
 who lived therein, and of the wars thev fought in the 
 old times. And from off that Island came strange 
 flowers, which linger still about this land : — the Cornish 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 59 
 
 heath and Cornish moneywort, and the delicate Venus' 
 hair, and the London-pride which covers the Kerry 
 Mountains, and the little pink butterwort of Devon, and 
 the great blue butterwort of Ireland, and the Connemara 
 heath, and the bristle-fern of the Turk waterfall, and 
 many a strange plant more ; all fairy tokens left for 
 wise men and good children from off St. Brandan's Isle. 
 Now, when Tom got there, he found that the isle 
 stood all on pillars, and that its roots were full of caves. 
 There were pillars of black basalt, like Staffa ; and pil- 
 lars of green and crimson serpentine, like Kynance ; and 
 pillars ribboned with red and white and yellow sand- 
 stone, like Livermead ; and there were blue grottoes, 
 like Capri, and white grottoes, like Adelsberg ; all cur- 
 tained and draped with seaweeds, purple and crimson, 
 green and brown ; and strewn with soft white sand, on 
 which the water-babies sleep every night. But, to keep 
 the place clean and sweet, the crabs picked up all the 
 scraps off the floor and ate them like so many monkeys ; 
 while the rocks were covered with ten thousand sea- 
 anemones, and corals and madrepores, who scavenged 
 the water all day long, and kept it nice and pure. But, 
 to make up to them for having to do such nasty work, 
 they were not left black and dirty, as poor chimney- 
 sweeps and dustmen are. No ; the fairies are more con- 
 siderate and just than that, and have dressed them all in 
 the most beautiful colors and patterns, till they look like 
 vast flower-beds of ^av blossoms. If vou think I am 
 talking nonsense, I can only say that it is true ; and that 
 an old gentleman named Fourier used to say that we 
 ought to do the same by chimney-sweeps and dustmen, 
 and honor them instead of despising them ; and he was 
 a very clever old gentleman : but, unfortunately for him 
 and the world, as mad as a March hare. 
 
l6o THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 And, instead of watchmen and policemen to keep out 
 nasty things at night, there were thousands and thou- 
 sands of water-snakes, and most wonderful creatures 
 thev were. Thev were all named after the Nereids, the 
 sea-fairies who took care of them, Eunice and Polynoe, 
 Phyllodoce and Psamathe, and all the rest of the pretty 
 darlings who swim round their Queen Amphitrite, and 
 her car of cameo shell. They were dressed in green 
 velvet, and black velvet, and purple velvet ; and were 
 all jointed in rings ; and some of them had three hun- 
 dred brains apiece, so that they must have been uncom- 
 monly shrewd detectives ; and some had eyes in their 
 tails ; and some had eyes in every joint, so that they 
 kept a very sharp lookout ; and when they wanted a 
 babv-snake, they just grew one at the end of their own 
 tails, and when it was able to take care of itself it 
 dropped off; so that they brought up their families very 
 cheaply. But, if any nasty thing came by, out they 
 rushed noon it ; and then out of each of their hundreds 
 of feet there sprang a whole cutler's shop of 
 
 Scythes, Javelins, 
 
 Billhooks, Lances, 
 
 Pickaxes, Halberts, 
 
 Forks, Gtsartnes, 
 
 Penknives, Poleaxes, 
 
 Rapiers, Fishhooks, 
 
 Sabres, Bradazvls 
 
 Yataghans, Gimlets, 
 
 Creeses, Corkscrews, 
 
 Ghoorka swords, Pins, 
 
 Tucks, Needles t 
 And so forth 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. l6l 
 
 which stabbed, shot, poked, pricked, scratched, ripped 
 pinked, and crimped those naughty beasts so terribl) 
 that they had to run for their lives, or else be chopped 
 into small pieces and be eaten afterwards. And, ii 
 that is not all, every word, true, then there is no faitfa 
 in microscopes, and all is over with the Linnaean So- 
 ciety. 
 
 And there were the water-babies in thousands, more 
 than Tom, or you either, could count. All the little 
 children whom the good fairies take to, because their 
 cruel mothers and fathers will not ; all who are untaught 
 and brought up heathens, and all who come to grief by 
 ill-usage or ignorance or neglect ; all the little children 
 who are overlaid, or given gin when they are young, or 
 are let to drink out of hot kettles, or to fall into the fire ; 
 all the little children in alleys and courts, and tumble- 
 down cottages, who die by fever, and cholera, and 
 measles, and scarlatina, and nasty complaints which no 
 one has any business to have, and which no one will 
 have some day, when folks have common sense ; and all 
 the little children who have been killed by cruel masters 
 and wicked soldiers ; they were all there, except, of 
 course, the babes of Bethlehem who were killed by 
 wicked King Herod ; for they were taken straight to 
 heaven long ago, as everybody knows, and we call them 
 the Holv Innocents. 
 
 J 
 
 But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty tricks, 
 and left off tormenting dumb animals now that he had 
 plenty of playfellows to amuse him. Instead of that, I 
 am sorry to say, he would meddle with the creatures, 
 all but the water-snakes, for they would stand no non- 
 sense. So he tickled the madrepores, to make them 
 shut up ; and frightened the crabs, to make them hide 
 in the sand and peep out at him with the tips of then 
 
162 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 eyes ; and put stones into the anemones' mouths, to 
 make them fancy that their dinner was coming. 
 
 The other children warned him, and said, " Take care 
 what you are at. Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid is coming. " 
 But Tom never heeded them, being quite riotous with 
 high spirits and good luck, till, one Friday morning 
 early, Sirs. Bedonebyasyoudid came indeed. 
 
 A very tremendous lady she was ; and when the chil- 
 dren saw her they all stood in a row, very upright, in- 
 deed, and smoothed down their bathing dresses, and put 
 their hands behind them, just as if they were going to 
 be examined by the inspector. 
 
 And she had on a black bonnet, and a black shawl, 
 and no crinoline at all ; and a pair of large green spec- 
 tacles, and a great hooked nose, hooked so much that 
 the bridge of it stood quite up above her eyebrows ; and 
 under her arm she carried a great birch-rod. Indeed, 
 she was so ugly that Tom was tempted to make faces at 
 her : but did not ; for he did not admire the look cf the 
 birch-rod under her arm. 
 
 And she looked at the children one by one, and seemed 
 very much pleased with them, though she never asked 
 them one question about how they were behaving ; auH 
 then be^an mvino; them all sorts of nice sea-thino-s — sea- 
 cakes, sea-apples, sea-oranges, sea-bullseyes, sea-toffee ; 
 and to the very best of all she gave sea-ices, made out 
 of sea-cows' cream, which never melt under water. 
 
 And if you don't quite believe me, then just think — 
 What is more cheap and plentiful than sea-rock? Then 
 why should there not be sea-toffee as well ? And every 
 one can find sea-lemons (ready quartered too) if they will 
 look for them at low tide; and sea-grapes, too, some- 
 times, hanging in bunches ; and, if you will go to Nice, 
 you will find the fish-market full of sea-fruit, which they 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 163 
 
 call " frutta di mare : " though I suppose they call them 
 " fruits de mer " now, out of compliment to that most 
 successful, and therefore most immaculate, potentate 
 who is seemingly desirous of inheriting the blessing pro- 
 nounced on those who re- 
 move their neighbors' land- 
 mark. And, perhaps, that is 
 the very reason why the 
 place is called Nice, because 
 there are so many nice 
 things in the sea there : at 
 least, if it is not, it ought 
 to be. 
 
 Now little Tom watched 
 all these sweet things given 
 away, till his mouth wat- 
 ered, and his eyes grew as 
 round as an owl's. For he 
 hoped that his turn would 
 come at last ; and so it did. 
 For the lady called him up, 
 and held out her fingers with 
 something in them, and 
 popped it into his mouth ; 
 and, lo and behold, it was a 
 nasty cold hard pebble. 
 
 "You are a very cruel 
 woman," said he, and began 
 to whimper. 
 
 "And you are a very cruel boy ; who puts pebbles into 
 the sea-anemones' mouths, to take them in, and make 
 them fancy that they had caught a good dinner ! As you 
 did to them, so I must do to you." 
 
 "Who told you that?" said Tom. 
 
1 64 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 " You did yourself, this very minute." 
 
 Tom had never opened his lips ; so he was very much 
 taken aback, indeed. 
 
 " Yes ; every one tells me exactly what they have 
 done wrong ; and that without knowing it themselves. 
 So there is no use trying to hide anything from me. 
 Now go, and be a good boy, and I will put no more 
 pebbles in your mouth, if you put none in other crea- 
 tures 1 ." 
 
 " I did not know there was any harm in it," said 
 Tom. 
 
 "Then you know now. People continually say that 
 to me : but I tell them, if you don't know that fire burns, 
 that is no reason that it should not burn you ; and if 
 you don't know that dirt breeds fever, that is no reason 
 why the fevers should not kill you. The lobster did 
 not know that there was any harm in getting into the 
 lobster-pot ; but it caught him all the same." 
 
 " Dear me," thought Tom, "she knows everything ! " 
 And so she did, indeed. 
 
 "And so, if you do not know that things are wrong, 
 that is no reason why you should not be punished for 
 them ; though not as much, not as much, my little 
 man" (and the lady looked very kindly, after all), "as 
 if you did know." 
 
 "Well, you are a little hard on a poor lad," said 
 Tom. 
 
 "Not at all ; I am the best friend you ever had in 
 all your life. But I will tell you ; I cannot help punish- 
 ing people when they do wrong. I like it no more than 
 they do ; I am often very, very sorry for them, poor 
 things : but I cannot help it. If I tried not to do it, I 
 should do it all the same. For I work by machinery, 
 just like an engine, and am full of wheels and springs 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 65 
 
 inside ; and am wound up very carefully, so that I can- 
 not help going." 
 
 "Was it long ago since they wound you up? " asked 
 Tom. For he thought, the cunning little fellow, " She 
 will run down some day : or they may forget to wind her 
 up, as old Grimes used to forget to wind up his watch 
 when he came in from the public-house ; and then I 
 shall be safe." 
 
 " I was wound up once and for all, so long ago, that 
 I forget all about it." 
 
 "Dear me," said Tom, "you must have been made 
 a long time ! " 
 
 "I never was made, my child; and I shall go for 
 ever and ever ; foi I am as old as Eternity, and yet as 
 vounor as Time." 
 
 And there came over the lady's face a very curious 
 expression — very solemn, and very sad ; and yet very, 
 very sweet. And she looked up and away, as if she 
 were gazing through the sea, and through the sky, at 
 something far, far off ; and as she did so, there came 
 such a quiet, tender, patient, hopeful smile over her face 
 that Tom thought for the moment that she did not look 
 ugly at all. And no more she did ; for she was like a 
 great many people who have not a pretty feature in their 
 faces, and yet are lovely to behold, and draw little chil- 
 dren's hearts to them at once ; because though the house 
 is plain enough, yet from the windows a beautiful and 
 good spirit is looking forth. 
 
 And Tom smiled in her face, she looked so pleasant for 
 the moment. And the strange fairy smiled too, and said : 
 
 " Yes. You thought me very ugly just now, did you 
 not?" 
 
 Tom hung down his head, and got very red about the 
 ears. 
 
1 66 /THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 " And I am very ugly. I am the ugliest fairy in the 
 world ; and I shall be, till people behave themselves as 
 thev ought to do. And then I shall grow as handsome 
 as my sister, who is the loveliest fairy in the world ; and 
 her name is Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. So she be- 
 gins where I end, and I begin where she ends ; and those 
 who will not listen to her must listen to me, as you 
 will see. Now, all of you run away, except Tom ; and 
 he may stay and see what J am going to do. It will 
 be a very good warning for him to begin with, before 
 he goes to school. 
 
 u Now, Tom, every Friday I come down here and call 
 up all who have ill-used little children and serve them 
 as they served the children." 
 
 And at that Tom was frightened, and crept under a 
 stone ; which made the two crabs who lived there very 
 angry, and frightened their friend the butter-fish into 
 flapping hysterics : but he would not move for them. 
 
 And first she called up all the doctors who give little 
 children so much physic (they were most of them old 
 ones ; for the young ones have learnt better, all but a 
 few army surgeons, who still fancy that a baby's inside 
 is much like a Scotch grenadier's), and she set them 
 all in a row ; and very rueful they looked ; for they 
 knew what was coming. 
 
 And first she pulled all their teeth out ; and then she 
 bled them all round ; and then she dosed them with 
 calomel, and jalap, and salts and senna, and brimstone 
 and treacle ; and horrible faces they made ; and then she 
 gave them a great emetic of mustard and water, and no 
 basons ; and began all over again ; and that was the way 
 she spent the morning. 
 
 And then she called up a whole troop of foolish ladies, 
 who pinch up their children's waists and toes ; and she 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 67 
 
 laced them all up in tight stays, so that they were 
 choked and sick, and their noses grew red, and their 
 hands and feet swelled ; and then she crammed their 
 poor feet into the most dreadfully tight boots, and made 
 them all dance, which they did most clumsily, indeed; and 
 then she asked them how they liked it ; and when they 
 said not at all, she let them go : because they had only 
 done it out of foolish fashion, fancying it was for their 
 children's good, as if wasps' waists and pigs' toes could 
 be pretty, or wholesome, or of any use to anybody. 
 
 Then she called up all the careless nurserymaids, and 
 stuck pins into them all over, and wheeled them about 
 in perambulators with tight straps across their stomachs 
 and their heads and arms hanging over the side, till they 
 were quite sick and stupid, and would have had sun- 
 strokes ; but, being under the water, they could only 
 have water-strokes ; which, I assure you, are nearly as 
 bad, as you will find out if you try to sit under a mill- 
 wheel. And mind — when you hear a rumbling at the 
 bottom of the sea, sailors will tell you that it is a ground- 
 swell : but now you know better. It is the old lady 
 wheeling the maids about in perambulators. 
 
 And bv that time she was so tired that she had to go 
 to luncheon. 
 
 And after luncheon she set to work again, and called 
 up all the cruel schoolmasters — whole regiments and 
 brigades of them ; and, when she saw them, she frowned 
 most terribly, and set to work in earnest, as if the best 
 part of the day's work was to come. More than half of 
 them were nasty, dirty, frowzy, grubby, smelly old 
 monks, who, because they dare not hit a man of their 
 own size, amused themselves with beating little * hildren 
 \nstead ; as you may see in the picture of old Pope 
 Gregory (good man and true though he was, when he 
 
l68 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 meddled with things which he did not understand), 
 teaching children to sing their fa-fa-mi-fa with a cat-o'- 
 nine-tails under his chair : but, because they never had 
 any children of their own, they took into their heads (as 
 folks do still) that they were the only people in the 
 w r orld who knew how to manage children : and they first 
 brought into England, in the old Anglo-Saxon times, 
 the fashion of treating free boys, and girls, too, worse 
 than you would treat a dog or a horse : but Mrs. Bedone- 
 bvasvoudid has caught them all lon^ a^o ; and oriven 
 them many a taste of their own rods ; and much good 
 may it do them. 
 
 And she boxed their ears, and thumped them over the 
 head with rulers, and pandied their hands with canes, 
 and told them that they told stories, and were this and 
 that bad sort of people ; and the more they were very 
 indignant, and stood upon their honor, and declared they 
 told the truth, the more she declared they were not, 
 and that they were only telling lies ; and at last she 
 birched them all round soundlv with her oreat birch-rod 
 and set them each an imposition of three hundred thou- 
 sand lines of Hebrew to learn by heart before she came 
 back next Friday. And at that they all howled and 
 cried so that their breaths came up through the sea like 
 bubbles out of soda-water ; and that is one reason of the 
 bubbles in the sea. There are others : but that is the 
 one which principally concerns little boys. And by that 
 time she was so tired that she was glad to stop ; and 
 indeed, she had done a very good day's work. 
 
 Tom did not quite dislike the old lady : but he could 
 not help thinking her a little spiteful— and- no wonder 
 if she *vas, poor old soul ; for if she has to wait to grow 
 handsome till people do as they would be done by, she 
 will have to wait a very long time. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 69 
 
 Poor old Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ! she has a great deal 
 of hard work before her, and had better have been 
 born a washerwoman, and stood over a tub all day ; 
 but, you see, people cannot always choose their own 
 profession. 
 
 But Tom longed to ask her one question ; and, after 
 all, whenever she looked at him, she did not look cross 
 at all ; and now and then there was a funny smile in her 
 face, and she chuckled to herself in a way which gave 
 Tom courage, and at last lie said : 
 
 " Pray, ma'am, may I ask you a question?" 
 
 " Certainly, my little dear." 
 
 "Why don't you bring all the bad masters here and 
 serve them out, too ? The butties that knock about the 
 poor collier-boys ; . and the nailers that file off their lads' 
 noses and hammer their fingers ; and all the master 
 sweeps, like my master, Grimes? I saw him fall into 
 the water long ago ; so I surely expected he would have 
 been here. I'm sure he was bad enough to me." 
 
 Then the old lady looked so very stern that Tom was 
 quite frightened, and sorry that he had been so bold. 
 But she was not angry with him. She only answered, 
 " I look after them all the week round ; and they are in 
 a very different place from this, because they knew that 
 they were doing wrong." 
 
 She spoke very quietly ; but there was something in 
 her voice which made Tom tingle from head to foot, as 
 if he had got into a shoal of sea-nettles. 
 
 " But these people," she went on, ' ' did not know that 
 they were doing wrong : they were only stupid and im- 
 patient ; and therefore I only punish them till they 
 become patient, and learn to use their common sense 
 like reasonable beings. But as for chimney-sweeps, 
 and collier-boys, and nailer lads, my sister has set good 
 
 12—- Water-Bahiea 
 
170 THE WATEP -BABIES. 
 
 people to stop all that sort of thing ; and very much 
 obliged to her I am ; for if she could only stop the cruel 
 masters from ill-using poor children, I should grow 
 handsome at least a thousand years sooner. And now 
 do you be a good boy, and do as you would be done by, 
 which they did not ; and then, when my sister, Madame 
 Doasyouwouldbedoneby, comes on Sunday, perhaps 
 she will take notice of you, and teach you how to be- 
 have. She understands that better than I do." And 
 so she went. 
 
 Tom was very glad to hear that there was no chance 
 of meeting Grimes again, though he was a little sorry 
 for him, considering that he used sometimes to give him 
 the leavings of the beer : but he determined to be a very 
 good boy all Saturday ; and he was ; for he never fright- 
 ened one crab, nor tickled any live corals, nor put stones 
 into the sea anemones' mouths, to make them fancy 
 they had got a dinner; and when Sunday morning 
 came, sure enough, Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby 
 came, too. Whereat all the little children began 
 dancing and clapping their hands, and Tom danced too 
 with all his might. 
 
 And as for the pretty lady, I cannot tell you what the 
 color of her hair was, or of her eves: no more could 
 Tom ; for, when any one looks at her, all they can think 
 of is, that she has the sweetest, kindest, tenderest, fun- 
 niest, merriest face they ever saw, or want to see. But 
 Tom saw that she was a very tall woman, as tall as her 
 sister : but instead of being gnarly, and horny, and 
 scaly, and prickly, like her, she was the most nice, soft, 
 fat, smooth, pussy, cuddly, delicious creature who ever 
 nursed a baby ; and she understood babies thoroughly, 
 for she had plenty of her own, whole rows and regiments 
 of them, and has to this day. And all her delight was, 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 171 
 
 whenever she had a spare moment, to play with babies, 
 in which she showed herself a woman of sense ; for 
 babies are the best company and the pleasantest play- 
 fellows in the world ; at least, so all the wise people in 
 the world think. And, therefore, when the children 
 saw her, they naturally all caught hold of her, and 
 pulled her, till she sat down on a stone, and climbed 
 into her lap, and clung round her neck, and caught hold 
 of her hands ; and then they all put their thumbs into 
 their mouths, and began cuddling and purring like so 
 many kittens, as they ought to have done. While those 
 who could get nowhere else sat down on the sand, and 
 cuddled her feet — for no one, you know, wears shoes in 
 the water, except horrid old bathing-women, who are 
 afraid of the water-babies pinching their horny toes. 
 And Tom stood staring at them ; for he could not under- 
 stand what it was all about. 
 
 "And who are you, you little darling?" she said. 
 
 "Oh, that is the new baby !" they all cried, pulling 
 their thumbs out of their mouths ; " and he never had 
 any mother," and they all put their thumbs back again, 
 for they did not wish to lose any time. 
 
 "Then I will be his mother, and he shall have the 
 very best place ; so get out, all of you, this moment." 
 
 And she took up two great arm fills of babies — nine 
 hundred under one arm and thirteen hundred under the 
 other — and threw them away, right and left, into the 
 water. But they minded it no more than the naughty 
 boys in Struwelpeter minded when St. Nicholas dipped 
 them in his inkstand ; and did not even take their 
 thumbs out of their mouths, but came paddling and 
 wriggling back to her like so many tadpoles, till you 
 could see nothing of her from head to foot for the 
 swarm of little babies. 
 
172 THE WATER-RABIES. 
 
 But she took Tom in her arms, and laid him in the 
 softest place of all, and kissed him, and patted him, 
 and talked to him, tenderly and low, such things as he 
 had never heard before in his life ; and Tom looked up 
 into her eyes, and loved her, and loved, till he fell fast 
 asleep from pure love. 
 
 And when he woke she was telling the children a 
 story. And what story did she tell them ? One story 
 she told them, which begins every Christmas Eve, and 
 yet never ends at all for ever and ever ; and, as she went 
 on, the children took their thumbs out of their mouths 
 and listened quite seriously ; but not sadly at all ; for 
 she never told them anything sad ; and Tom listened 
 too, and never grew tired of listening. And he listened 
 so long that he fell fast asleep again, and, when he woke, 
 the lady was nursing him still. 
 
 " Don't go away," said little Tom. "This is so nice. 
 I never had any one to cuddle me before." 
 
 " Don't go away," said all the children ; "you have 
 not sung us one song." 
 
 "Well, I have time for only one. So what shall it 
 be?" 
 
 "The doll you lost ! The doll you lost?" cried all 
 fche babies at once. 
 
 So the strange fairy san.g : 
 
 / once had a sweet little doll, dears, 
 
 The prettiest doll in the world ; 
 Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears, 
 
 And her hair was so charmingly curled. 
 But I lost my poor little doll, dears, 
 
 As I played in the heath one day ; 
 And I cried for her more than a week, dears. 
 
 But I never coidd find zvhere she lay. 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 I found my poor little doll, dears, 
 As I played in the heath one day: 
 
 173 
 
 Folks say she is terribly changed, dears, 
 For her paint is all zvashed away, 
 
174 TH E WATER-BABIES. 
 
 A?id her arm trodden off by the cows, dears t 
 And her hair not the least bit curled: 
 
 Yet for old sakcs" sake she is still, dears , 
 The prettiest doll in the world. 
 
 What a silly song for a fairy to sing. 
 
 And what silly water-babies to be quite delighted at 
 
 it! 
 
 Well, but you see they have not the advantage of 
 
 ..^s 
 
 Aunt Agitate's Arguments in the sea-land down below. 
 
 " Now," said the fairy to Tom, "will you be a good 
 boy for my sake, and torment no more sea-beasts till I 
 come back ? " 
 
 "And you will cuddle me again?" said poor little 
 Tom. 
 
 "Of course I will, you little duck. I should like to 
 take you with me and cuddle you all the way, only I 
 must not ; " and away she went. 
 
 So Tom really tried to be a good boy, and tormented 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 175 
 
 long as he lived ; 
 
 and he is 
 
 no sea-beasts after that as 
 quite alive, I assure you, still. 
 
 Oh, how good little boys ought to be who have kind 
 pussy mammas to cuddle them and tell them stories ; 
 and how afraid they ought to be of growing naughty, 
 and bringing tears into their mammas' pretty eyes ! 
 
 •'Thou little child, yet glorious in the night 
 Of heaven-born freedom on thy Being's height, 
 "Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke 
 The Years to bring the inevitable yoke — 
 
 Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife ? 
 Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight, 
 And custom lie upon thee with a weight 
 Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life" 
 
 Wordsworth, 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HERE I come to the 
 very saddest part of 
 all my story. I 
 know some people 
 will onlv laugfh at 
 : ^ it, and call it much ado about 
 nothing. But I know one man 
 who would not ; and he was an 
 officer with a pair of gray mous- 
 taches as long as your arm, who 
 said once in company that two of 
 the most heart-rending sights in 
 the world, which moved him most 
 to tears, which he would do any- 
 thing to prevent or remedy, were 
 a child over a broken toy and a 
 child stealing sweets. 
 
 The company did not laugh at him ; his moustaches 
 were too long and too gray for that ; but, after he was 
 (176) 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 77 
 
 gone, they called him sentimental and so forth, all but 
 one dear little old Quaker lady with a soul as white as 
 her cap, who was not, of course, generally partial to 
 soldiers ; and she said very quietly, like a Quaker : 
 
 u Friends, it is borne upon my mind that that is a 
 truly brave man." 
 
 Now you may fancy that Tom was quite good, when 
 he had everything that he could want or wish ; but you 
 would be very much mistaken. Being quite comfort- 
 able is a very good thing ; but it does not make people 
 good. Indeed, it sometimes makes them naughty, as it 
 has made the people in America ; and as it made the 
 people in the Bible, who waxed fat and kicked, like 
 horses overfed and underworked. And I am very sorry 
 to say that this happened to little Tom. For he grew 
 so fond of the sea-bullseyes and sea-lollipops that his 
 foolish little head could think of nothing else : and he 
 was always longing for more, and wondering when the 
 strange lady would come again and give him some, and 
 what she would give him, and how much, and whether 
 she would give him more than the others. And he 
 thought of nothing but lollipops by day, and dreamt of 
 nothing else by night — and what happened then ? 
 
 That he began to watch the lady to see where she kept 
 the sweet things : and began hiding, and sneaking, and 
 following her about, and pretending to be looking the 
 other way, or going after something else, till he found 
 out that she kept them in a beautiful mother-of-pearl 
 cabinet away in a deep crack of the rocks. 
 
 And he longed to go to the cabinet, and yet he was 
 afraid ; and then he longed again, and was less afraid ; 
 and at last, by continual thinking about it, he longed so 
 violently that he was not afraid at all. And one night, 
 when all the other children were asleep, and he could 
 
I78 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 not sleep for thinking of lollipops, he crept away among 
 the rocks and got to the cabinet, and behold ! it was 
 open. 
 
 But when he saw all the nice things inside, instead of 
 being delighted, he was quite frightened, and wished he 
 had never come there. And then he would only touch 
 them, and he did ; and then he would only taste one, and 
 he did ; and then he would only eat one, and he did ; 
 and then he would only eat two, and then three, and so 
 on ; and then he was terrified lest she should come and 
 catch him, and began gobbling them down so fast that 
 he did not taste them, or have any pleasure in them ; 
 and then he felt sick, and would have only one more ; 
 and then only one more again ; and so on till he had 
 eaten them all up. 
 
 And all the while, close behind him, stood Mrs. Be- 
 donebyasyoudid. 
 
 Some people may say, But why did she not keep her 
 cupboard locked ? Well, I know. It may seem a very 
 strange thing, but she never does keep her cupboard 
 locked ; every one may go and taste for themselves, and 
 fare accordingly. It is very odd, but so it is ; and I am 
 quite sure that she knows best. Perhaps she wishes 
 people to keep their fingers out of the fire, by having 
 them burned. 
 
 She took off her spectacles, because she did not like 
 to see too much ; and in her pity she arched up her eye- 
 brows into her very hair, and her eyes grew so wide that 
 they would h-ave taken in all the sorrows of the world, 
 and filled with great big tears, as they too often do. 
 
 But all she said was : 
 
 "Ah, you poor little dear ! you are just like all the 
 rest.'" 7 
 
 But she said it to herself, and Tom neither heard nor 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 79 
 
 saw her. Now you must not fancy that she was senti- 
 mental at all. If you do, and think that she is going to 
 let off you, or me, or any human being when we do 
 wrong, because she is too tender-hearted to punish us, 
 then you will find yourself very much mistaken, as many 
 a man does every year and every day. 
 
 But what did the strange fairy do when she saw all 
 her lollipops eaten? 
 
 Did she fly at Tom, catch him by the scruff of the 
 neck, hold him, howk him, hump him, hurry him, hit 
 him, poke him, pull him, pinch him, pound him, put 
 him in the corner, shake him, slap him, set him on a 
 cold stone to reconsider himself, and so forth ? 
 
 Not a bit. You may watch her at work if you know 
 where to find her. But you will never see her do that. 
 For, if she had, she knew quite well Tom would have 
 fought, and kicked, and bit, and said bad words, and 
 turned again that moment into a naughty little heathen 
 chimney-sweep, with his hand, like Ishmael's of old, 
 against every man, and every man's hand against him. 
 
 Did she question him, hurry him, frighten him, 
 threaten him, to make him confess? Not a bit. You 
 may see her, as I said, at her work often enough if you 
 know where to look for her : but you will never see her 
 do that. For, if she had, she would have tempted him 
 to tell lies- in his fright ; and that would have been worse 
 for him, it possible, than even becoming a heathen 
 chimney-sweep again. 
 
 No. She leaves that for anxious parents and teachers 
 (lazy ones, some call them), who, instead of giving chil- 
 dren a fair trial, such as they would expect and demand 
 for themselves, force them by fright to confess their own 
 faults — which is so cruel and unfair that no judge on 
 the bench dare do it to the wickedest thief or murderer, 
 
l8o THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 for the good British law forbids it — ay, and even punish 
 them to make them confess, which is so detestable a 
 crime that it is never committed now, save by Inquisi- 
 tors, and Kings of Naples, and a few other wretched 
 people of whom the world is weary. And then they 
 say, "We have trained up the child in the way he 
 should go, and when he grew up he has departed from 
 it. Why then did Solomon say that he would not de- 
 part from it?" But perhaps the way of beating, and 
 hurrying, and frightening, and questioning was not the 
 way that the child should go ; for it is not even the way 
 in which a colt should go if you want to break it in and 
 make it a quiet, serviceable horse. 
 
 Some folks may say, "Ah! but the Fairy does not 
 need to do that if she knows everything already." True. 
 But, if she did not know, she would not surely behave 
 worse than a British judge and jury ; and no more 
 should parents and teachers either. 
 
 So she just said nothing at all about the matter, not 
 even when Tom came next day with the rest for sweet 
 things. He was horriblv afraid of coming : DU t. he was 
 still more afraid of staying away, lest any one should 
 suspect him. He was dreadfully afraid, too, lest there 
 should be no sweets — as was to be expected, he having 
 eaten them ail — and lest then the fairy should inquire 
 who had taken them. But, behold ! she pulled out just 
 as many as ever, which astonished Tom, and frightened 
 him still more. 
 
 And,, when the fairy looked him full in the face, he 
 shook from head to foot : however, she gave him his 
 share like the rest, and he thought within himself that 
 she could not have found him out. 
 
 But, when he put the sweets into his mouth, he 
 hated the taste of them ; and they made him so sick 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 181 
 
 that he had to get away as fast as he could ; and ter- 
 ribly sick he was, and very cross and unhappy, all the 
 week after. 
 
 Then, when next week came, he had his shar^ again; 
 and again the fairy looked 
 him full in the face ; but 
 more sadly than she had 
 ever looked. And he could 
 not bear the sweets ; but 
 took them again in spite of 
 himself. 
 
 And when Mrs. Doasyou- 
 wouldbedoneby came, he 
 wanted to be cuddled like 
 the rest, but she said very 
 seriously : 
 
 "I should like to cuddle 
 you ; but I cannot, you are 
 so horny and prickly." 
 
 And Tom looked at him- 
 self: and he was all over 
 prickles, just like a sea-egg. 
 
 Which was quite natural ; 
 for you must know and be- 
 lieve that people's souls 
 make their bodies just as a 
 snail makes its shell (I am 
 not joking, my little man ; I 
 am in serious, solemn earn- 
 est). And, therefore, when Tom's soul grew all prickly 
 with naughty tempers, his body could not help growing 
 prickly, too, so that nobody would cuddle him, or play 
 with him, or even like to look at him. 
 
 What could Tom do now but go away and hide in 
 
l82 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 a corner and cry ? For nobody would play with him, 
 and he knew full well why. 
 
 And he was so miserable all that week that when the 
 ugly fairy came and looked at him once more full in the 
 face, more seriously and sadly than ever, he could stand 
 it no longer, and thrust the sweetmeats away, saying, 
 "No, I don't want any : I can't bear them now," and 
 then burst out crying, poor little man, and told Mrs. 
 Bedonebyasyoudid every word as it happened. 
 
 He was horribly frightened when he had done so ; for 
 he expected her to punish him very severely. But, in- 
 stead, she only took him up and kissed him, which was 
 not quite pleasant, for her chin was very bristly, indeed ; 
 but he was so lonely-hearted, he thought that rough 
 kissing was better than none. 
 
 u I will forgive you, little man," she said. " I always 
 forgive every one the moment they tell me the truth of 
 their own accord." 
 
 11 Then you will take away all these nasty prickles? " 
 
 "That is a very different matter. You put them 
 there yourself, and only you can take them away." 
 
 "But how can I do that?" asked Tom, crying 
 afresh. 
 
 "Well, I think it is time for you to go to school ; so 
 I shall fetch you a schoolmistress, who will teach you 
 how to get rid of your prickles." And so she went 
 away. 
 
 Tom was frightened at the notion of a schoolmistress ; 
 for he thought she would certainly come with a birch- 
 rod or a cane ; but he comforted himself, at last, that she 
 might be something like the old woman in Vendale — 
 which she was not in the least ; for, when the fairy 
 brought her, she was the most beautiful little girl that 
 ever was seen, with long curls floating behind her like a 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 183 
 
 golden cloud, and long robes floating all round her like 
 a silver one. 
 
 tl There he is," said the fairy ; " and you must teach 
 him to be good, whether you like or not." 
 
 " I know," said the little girl ; but she did not seem 
 
 SVA1H St 
 
 quite to like, for she put her finger in her mouth, and 
 looked at Tom under her brows ; and Tom put his finger 
 in his mouth, and looked at her under his brows, for he 
 was horriblv ashamed of himself. 
 
 J 
 
 The little girl seemed hardly to know how to begin ; 
 and perhaps she would never have begun at all if poor 
 
184 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Tom had not burst out crying, and begged her to teach 
 him to be good and help him to cure his prickles ; and 
 at that she grew so tender-hearted that she began 
 teaching him as prettily as ever child was taught in the 
 world. 
 
 And what did the little girl teach Tom ? She taught 
 him, first, what you have been taught ever since you 
 said your first prayers at your mother's knees ; but she 
 taught him much more simply. For the lessons in that 
 world, my child, have no such hard words in them as 
 the lessons in this, and therefore the water-babies like 
 them better than you like your lessons, and long to learn 
 them more and more ; and grown men cannot puzzle nor 
 quarrel over their meaning, as they do here on land ; for 
 those lessons all rise clear and pure, like the Test out of 
 Overton Pool, out of the everlasting ground of all life 
 and truth. 
 
 So she taught Tom every day in the week ; only on 
 Sundays she always went away home, and the kind fairy 
 took her place. And before she had taught Tom many 
 Sundays, his prickles had vanished quite away, and his 
 skin was smooth and clean again. 
 
 " Dear me ! " said the little girl ; "why, I know you 
 now. You are the very same little chimney-sweep who 
 came into my bedroom." 
 
 "Dear me!" cried Tom. "And I know you, too, 
 now. You are the very little white lady whom I saw in 
 bed." And he jumped at her, and longed to hug and 
 kiss her ; but did not, remembering that she was a lady 
 born ; so he only jumped round and round her till he 
 was quite tired. 
 
 And then they began telling each other all their story 
 — how he had got into the water, and she had fallen 
 over the rock ; and how he had swum down to the sea, 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 1 85 
 
 and how she had flown out of the window ; and how 
 this, that, and the other, till it was all talked out : and 
 then they both began over again, and I can't say which 
 of the two talked fastest. 
 
 And then they set to work at their lessons again, and 
 both liked them so well that they went on well till seven 
 full years were past and gone. 
 
 You may fancy that Tom was quite content and 
 happy all those seven years ; but the truth is, he was 
 not. He had always one thing on his mind, and that 
 was — where little Bllie went, when she went home on 
 Sundays. 
 
 " To a very beautiful place, she said." 
 
 But what was the beautiful place like, and where was 
 it? 
 
 Ah ! that is just what she could not say. And it is 
 strange, but true, that no one can say ; and that those 
 who have been oftenest in it, or even nearest to it, can 
 say least about it, and make people understand least 
 what it is like. There are a good many folks about the 
 Other-end-of-Nowhere (where Tom went afterwards), 
 who pretend to know it from north to south as well as 
 if they had been penny postmen there ; but, as they are 
 safe at the Other-end-of-Nowhere, nine hundred and 
 ninety-nine million miles away, what they say cannot 
 concern us. 
 
 But the dear, sweet, loving, wise, good, self-sacrificing' 
 people, who really go there, can never tell you anything 
 about it, save that it is the most beautiful place in the 
 world ; and, if you ask them more, they grow modest 
 and hold their peace, for fear of being laughed at ; and 
 quite right they are. 
 
 So all that good little Ellie could say was, that it 
 was worth all the rest of the world put together. And 
 
 13 — Water- B ahies 
 
1 86 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 of course that only made Tom the more anxious to go 
 likewise. 
 
 "Miss Ellie," he said at last, "I will know why I 
 cannot go with you when you go home on Sundays, or 
 I shall have no peace, and give you none either. ' ! 
 
 "You must ask the fairies that." 
 
 So when the fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, came 
 next, Tom asked her. 
 
 " Little boys who are only fit to play with sea-beasts 
 cannot go there," she said. " Those who go there must 
 go first where they do not like, and do what they do not 
 like, and help somebody they do not like." 
 
 "Whv, did Elliedothat?" 
 
 "Ask her." 
 
 And Ellie blushed, and said, " Yes, Tom ; I did not 
 like coming here at first ; I was so much happier at 
 home, where it is always Sunday. And I was afraid of 
 you, Tom, at first, because — because " 
 
 "Because I was all over prickles? But I am not 
 prickly now, am I, Miss Ellie? " 
 
 " No," said Ellie. " I like you very much now ; and 
 I like coming here, too." 
 
 "And, perhaps," said the fairy, "you will learn to 
 like going where you don't like, and helping some one 
 that you don't like, as Ellie has." 
 
 But Tom put his finger in his mouth, and hung his 
 head down ; for he did not see that at all. 
 
 So when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, Tom 
 asked her ; for he thought in his little head, " She is not 
 so strict as her sister, and perhaps she may let me off 
 more easily." 
 
 Ah, Tom, Tom, silly fellow ! and yet I don't know 
 why I should blame you, while so many grown people 
 have got the very same notion in their heads. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 187 
 
 But, when they try it, they get just the same answer 
 as Tom did. For, when he asked the second fairy, 
 she told him just what the first did, and in the very 
 same words. 
 
 Tom was very unhappy at that. And, when Ellie 
 went home on Sunday, he fretted and cried all day, and 
 did not care to listen to the fairy's stories about good 
 children, though they were prettier than ever. Indeed, 
 the more he overheard of them, the less he liked to listen, 
 because they were all about children who did what they 
 did not like, and took trouble for other people, and 
 worked to feed their little brothers and sisters instead of 
 caring only for their play. And, when she began to tell 
 a story about a holy child in old times, who was mar- 
 tyred by the heathen because it would not worship idols, 
 Tom could bear no more, and ran away and hid among 
 the rocks. 
 
 And, when Ellie came back, he was shy with her, be- 
 cause he fancied she looked down on him, and thought 
 him a coward. And then he grew quite cross with her, 
 because she was superior to him, and did what he could 
 not do. And poor Ellie was quite surprised and sad ; 
 and at last Tom burst out crying ; but he would not tell 
 her what was really in his mind. 
 
 And all the while he was eaten up with curiosity to 
 know where Ellie went to ; so that be began not to care 
 for his playmates, or for the sea-palace or anything else. 
 But perhaps that made matters all the easier for him ; 
 for he grew so discontented with everything round him 
 that he did not care to stay, and did not care where he 
 went 
 
 "Well," he said, at last, "I am so miserable here, 
 I'll go ; if only you will go with me? " 
 
 'Ah ! " said Ellie, " I wish I might ; but the worst of 
 
 u 
 
1 88 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 it is, that the fairy says that you must go alone if you go 
 at all. Now don't poke that poor crab about, Tom M 
 (for he was feeling very naughty and mischievous), "or 
 the fairy will have to punish you." 
 
 Tom was very nearly saying, "I don't care if she 
 does ; " but he stopped himself in time. 
 
 " I know what she wants me to do," he said, whining 
 most dolefully. " She wants me to go after that horrid 
 old Grimes. I don't like him, that's certain. And if 
 I find him, he will turn me into a chimney-sweep 
 again, I know. That's what I have been afraid of all 
 along." 
 
 "No, he won't — I know as much as that. Nobody 
 can turn water-babies into sweeps, or hurt them at all, 
 as long as they are good." 
 
 "Ah," said naughty Tom, "I see what you want; 
 you are persuading me all along to go, because you are 
 tired of me, and want to get rid of me." 
 
 Little Ellie opened her eyes very wide at that, and 
 they were all brimming over with tears. 
 
 "Oh, Tom, Tom ! " she said, very mournfully — and 
 then she cried, "Oh, Tom ! where are you? " 
 
 And Tom cried, " Oh, Ellie, where are you ? " 
 
 For neither of them could see each other — not the 
 least. Little Ellie vanished quite away, and Tom heard 
 her voice calling him, and growing smaller and smaller, 
 and fainter and fainter, till all was silent. 
 
 Who was frightened then but Tom? He swam up 
 and down among the rocks, into all the halls and cham- 
 bers, faster than ever he swam before, but could not 
 find her. He shouted after her, but she did not answer ; 
 he asked all the other children, but they had not seen 
 her ; and at last he went up to the top of the water and 
 began crying and screaming for Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 189 
 
 — which perhaps was the best thing to do — for she came 
 in a moment. 
 
 "Oh!" said Tom. " Oh dear, oh dear! I have 
 been naughty to Ellie, and I have killed her — I know I 
 have killed her." 
 
 " Not quite that," said 
 the fairy; "but I have 
 sent her away home, and 
 she will not come back 
 again for I do not know 
 how long." 
 
 And at that Tom cried 
 so bitterly that the salt sea 
 was swelled with his 
 tears, and the tide was 
 •3,954,620,819 of an inch 
 higher than it had been 
 the day before : but per- 
 haps that was owing to the 
 waxing of the moon. It 
 may have been so : but it 
 is considered risdit in the 
 new philosophy, you know, 
 to give spiritual causes for 
 physical phenomena — es- 
 pecially in parlor-tables ; 
 and, of course, physical 
 causes for spiritual ones, 
 like thinking, and pray- 
 ing, and knowing right from wrong. And so they odds 
 it till it comes even, as folks say down in Berkshire. 
 
 "How cruel of you to send Ellie away!" sobbed 
 Tom. " However, I will find her again, if I go to the 
 world's end to look for her." 
 
190 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 The fairy did not slap Tom, and tell him to hold his 
 tongue : but she took him on her lap very kindly, just 
 as her sister would have done ; and put him in mind 
 how it was not her fault, because she was wound up 
 inside, like watches, and could not help doing things 
 whether she liked or not. And then she told him how 
 he had been in the nursery long enough, and must go 
 out now and see the world, if he intended ever to be a 
 man ; and how he must go all alone by himself, as every 
 one else that ever was born has to go, and see with his 
 own eyes, and smell with his own nose, and make his 
 own bed and lie on it, and burn his own fingers if he 
 put them into the fire. And then she told him how 
 many fine things there were to be seen in the world, 
 and what an odd, curious, pleasant, orderly, respectable, 
 well-managed, and, on the whole, successful (as, indeed, 
 might have been expected) sort of a place it was, if 
 people would only be tolerably brave and honest and 
 good in it ; and then she told him not to be afraid of 
 anything he met, for nothing would harm him if he 
 remembered all his lessons, and did what he knew w r as 
 right. And at last she comforted poor little Tom so 
 much that he was quite eager to go, and wanted to set 
 out that minute. " Only," he said, "if I might see Bllie 
 once before I went ! ' ' 
 
 " Why do you want that ? " 
 
 "Because — because I should be so much happier if 
 I thought she had forgiven me." 
 
 And in the twinkling of an eye there stood Ellie, 
 pmiling and looking so happy that Tom longed to kiss 
 her ; but was still afraid it would not be respectful, be- 
 cause she was a lady born. 
 
 "I am going, Ellie !" said Tom. "I am going, if it 
 is to the world's end. But I don't like going at all, and 
 that's the truth." 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 191 
 
 " Pooh ! pooh! pooh!" said the fairy. "You will 
 like it very well indeed, you little rogue, and you know 
 that at the bottom of your heart. But if you don't, I 
 will make you like it. Come here, and see what hap- 
 pens to people who do only what is pleasant." 
 
 And she took out one of her cupboards (she had all 
 sorts of mysterious cupboards in the cracks of the rocks) 
 the most wonderful waterproof book, full of such photo- 
 graphs as never were seen. For she had found out 
 photography (and this is a fact) more than 13,598,000 
 years before anybody was born ; and, what is more, her 
 photographs did not merely represent light and shade, 
 as ours do, but color also, and all colors, as you may 
 see if you look at a black-cock's tail, or a butterfly's 
 wing, or indeed most things that are or can be, so to 
 speak. And therefore her photographs were very curious 
 and famous, and the children looked with great delight 
 for the opening of the book. 
 
 And on the title-page was written, " The History of 
 the great and famous nation of the Doasyoulikes, who 
 came awav from the country of Hardwork, because 
 they wanted to play on the Jews' harp all day long." 
 
 In the first picture they saw these Doasyoulikes Hying 
 in the land of Readymade, at the foot of the Happy-go- 
 lucky Mountains, where flapdoodle grows wild ; and if 
 you want to know what that is, you must read Peter 
 Simple. 
 
 They lived very much such a life as those jolly old 
 Greeks in Sicily, whom you may see painted on the an- 
 cient vases, and really there seemed to be great excuses 
 for them, for they had no need to work. 
 
 Instead of houses they lived in the beautiful caves of 
 tufa, and bathed in the warm springs three times a day ; 
 and, as for clothes, it was so warm there that the gentle- 
 
192 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 men walked about in little beside a cocked hat and a 
 pair of straps, or some light summer tackle of that kind ; 
 and the ladies all gathered gossamer in autumn (when 
 they were not too lazy) to make their winter dresses. 
 
 They were very fond of music, but it was too much 
 trouble to learn the piano or the violin ; and as for 
 dancing, that would have been too great an exertion. 
 So they sat on ant-hills all day long, and played on the 
 Jews' harp ; and, if the ants bit them, why they just got 
 up and went to the next ant-hill, till they were bitten 
 there likewise. 
 
 And they sat under the flapdoodle-trees, and let the 
 flapdoodle drop into their mouths ; and under the vines, 
 and squeezed the grape-juice down their throats ; and, 
 if any little pigs ran about ready roasted, crying, " Come 
 and eat me," as was their fashion in that country, they 
 waited till the pigs ran against their mouths, and then 
 took a bite, and were content, just as so many oysters 
 would have been. 
 
 They needed no weapons, for no enemies ever came 
 near their land ; and no tools, for everything was ready- 
 made to their hand ; and the stern old fairy Necessity 
 never came near them to hunt them up, and make them 
 use their wits, or die. 
 
 And so on, and so on, and so on, till there were never 
 such comfortable, easy-going, happy-go-lucky people .in 
 the world. 
 
 u Well, that is a jolly life," said Tom. 
 
 "You think so? " said the fairy. " Do you see that 
 great peaked mountain there behind," said the fairy, 
 "with smoke coming out of its top? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "And do you see all those ashes, and slag, and cinders 
 lying about? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 193 
 
 *' Then turn over the next five hundred years, and you 
 will see what happens next." 
 
 And behold the mountain had blown up like a barrel 
 of gunpowder, and then boiled over like a kettle ; 
 
194 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 whereby one-third of the Doasyoulikes were blown into 
 the air, and another third were smothered in ashes ; so 
 that there was only one-third left. 
 
 " You see," said the fairy, "what conies of living on 
 a burning mountain." 
 
 "Oh, whv did you not warn them?" said little 
 Ellie. 
 
 " I did warn them all that I could. I let the smoke 
 come out of the mountain ; and wherever there is smoke 
 there is fire. And I laid the ashes and cinders all about ; 
 and wherever there are cinders, cinders may be again. 
 But they did not like to face facts, my dears, as very few 
 people do ; and so they invented a cock-and-bull story, 
 which, I am sure, I never told them, that the smoke w r as 
 the breath of a giant, whom some gods or other had 
 buried under the mountain ; and that the cinders were 
 what the dwarfs roasted the little pigs whole with ; and 
 other nonsense of that kind. And, when folks are in 
 that humor, I cannot teach them, save by the good old 
 birch-rod." 
 
 And then she turned over the next five hundred 
 years : and there were the remnant of the Doasyoulikes, 
 doing as they liked, as before. They were too lazy to 
 move away from the mountain ; so they said, "If it has 
 blown up once, that is all the more reason that it should 
 not blow up again." And they were few in number : but 
 they only said, " The more the merrier, but the fewer the 
 better fare." However, that was not quite true ; for all 
 the flapdoodle-trees were killed by the volcano, and they 
 had eaten all the roast pigs, who, of course, could not be 
 expected to have little ones. So they had to live very 
 hard, on nuts and roots which they scratched out of the 
 ground with sticks. Some of them talked of sowing 
 corn, as their ancestors used to do, before they came into 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 195 
 
 the land of Readymade ; but they had forgotten how to 
 make ploughs (they had forgotten even how to make 
 Jews' harps by this time), and had eaten all the seed- 
 corn which they brought out of the land of Hardwork 
 years since ; and, of course, it was too much trouble to 
 go away and find more. So they lived miserably on 
 roots and nuts, and all the weakly little children had 
 great stomachs, and then died. 
 
 "Why," said Tom, " they are growing no better than 
 savages. ' ' 
 
 "And look how ugly they are all getting," said 
 Ellie. 
 
 " Yes ; when people live on poor vegetables instead of 
 roast beef and plum-pudding, their jaws grow large and 
 their lips grow coarse, like the poor Paddies who eat 
 potatoes." 
 
 And she turned over the next five hundred years. 
 And there they were all living up in trees, and making 
 nests to keep off the rain. And underneath the trees 
 lions were prowling about. 
 
 " Why," said Ellie, "the lions seem to have eaten a 
 good many of them, for there are very few left now." 
 
 "Yes," said the fairy; "you see it was only the 
 strongest and most active ones who could climb the 
 trees, and so escape." 
 
 "But what great, hulking, broad-shouldered chaps 
 they are," said Tom ; " they are a rough lot as ever I 
 
 saw. 
 
 Yes, they are getting very strong now ; for the ladies 
 will not marry any but the very strongest and fiercest 
 gentlemen, who can help them up the trees out of the 
 lions' way." 
 
 And she turned over the next five hundred years. 
 And in that they were fewer still, and stronger, and 
 
196 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 fiercer ; but their feet had changed shape very oddly, for 
 they laid hold of the branches with their great toes, as 
 if they had been thumbs, just as a Hindoo tailor uses his 
 toes to thread his needle. 
 
 The children were very much surprised, and asked the 
 fairy whether that was her doing. 
 
 lt Yes and no," she said, smiling. "It was only 
 those who could use their feet as well as their hands who 
 could get a good living ; or, indeed, get married ; so that 
 they got the best of everything, and starved out all the 
 rest ; and those who are left keep up a regular breed 
 of toe-thumb-men, as a breed of short-horns, or skye- 
 terriers, or fancy pigeons is kept up." 
 
 "But there is a hairy one among them," said little 
 Ellie. 
 
 "Ah !" said the fairy, " that will be a great man in 
 his time, and chief of all the tribe." 
 
 And, when she turned over the next five hundred 
 years, it was true. 
 
 For this hairy chief had had hairy children, and they 
 hairier children still ; and every one wished to marry 
 hairy husbands, and have hairy children too ; for the 
 climate was growing so damp that none but the hairy 
 ones could live : all the rest coughed and sneezed, and 
 had sore throats, and went into consumptions, before 
 they could grow up to be men and women. 
 
 Then the fairy turned over the next five hundred 
 years. And they were fewer still. 
 
 " Why, there is one on the ground picking up roots," 
 said Ellie, "and he cannot walk upright." 
 
 No more he could ; for in the same way that the 
 shape of their feet had altered, the shape of their backs 
 had altered also. 
 
 "Why," cried Tom, " I declare they are all apes." 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 197 
 
 " Something fearfully like it, poor foolish creatures," 
 said the fairy. "They are grown so stupid now that 
 
 
 they can hardly think : for none of them have used 
 their wits for many hundred years. They have almost 
 forgotten, too, how to talk. For each stupid child for- 
 
I98 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 got some of the words it heard from its stupid parents, 
 and had not wits enough to make fresh words for itself. 
 Beside, they are grown so fierce and suspicious and brutal 
 that they keep out of each other's way, and mope and 
 sulk in the dark forests, never hearing each other's voice, 
 till they have forgotten almost what speech is like. I 
 am afraid they will all be apes very soon, and all by 
 doing only what they liked." 
 
 And in the next five hundred years they were all 
 dead and gone, by bad food and wild beasts and hunters ; 
 all except one tremendous old fellow with jaws like a 
 jack, who stood full seven feet high ; and M. Du Chaillu 
 came up to him, and shot him, as he stood roaring and 
 thumping his breast. And he remembered that his 
 ancestors had once been men, and tried to say, "Am I 
 not a man and a brother?" but had forgotten how to 
 use his tongue ; and then he had tried to call for a 
 doctor, but he had forgotten the word for one. So all 
 he said was " Ubboboo ! " and died. 
 
 And that was the end of the great and jolly nation of 
 the Doasyoulikes. And, when Torn and Ellie came to 
 the end of the book, they looked very sad and solemn ; 
 and they had good reason so to do, for they really fan- 
 cied that the men were apes, and never thought, in their 
 simplicity, of asking whether the creatures had hippo- 
 potamus majors in their brains or not ; in which case, as 
 you have been told already, they could not possibly have 
 been apes, though they were more apish than the apes 
 of all the aperies. 
 
 " But could you not have saved them from becoming 
 apes?" said little Ellie, at last. 
 
 "At first, my dear; if only they would have behaved 
 like men, and set to work to do what they did not like. 
 But the longer they waited, and behaved like the dumb 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 I 99 
 
 beasts, who only do what they like, the stupider and 
 clumsier they grew ; till at last they were past all cure, 
 for they had thrown their own wits away. It is such 
 things as this that help to make me so ugly, that I know 
 not when I shall grow fair. 
 
 "And where are they all now? " asked Ellie. 
 
 "Exactly where they ought to be, my dear.'* 
 
 "Yes?" said the fairy, 
 solemnly, half to herself, as 
 she closed the wonderful 
 book. " Folks say now that 
 I can make beasts into men, 
 by circumstance, and selec- 
 tion, and competition, and 
 so forth. Well, perhaps they 
 are right ; and perhaps, 
 again, they are wrong. That 
 is one of the seven things 
 which I am forbidden to tell, 
 till the coming of the Cocq- 
 cigrues ; and, at all events, it 
 is no concern of theirs. 
 Whatever their ancestors 
 were, men they are ; and I 
 advise them to behave as 
 such, and act accordingly. 
 But let them recollect this, 
 
 that there are two sides to every question, and a down- 
 hill as well as an uphill road ; and, if I can turn beasts 
 into men, I can, by the same laws of circumstance, and 
 selection, and competition, turn men into beasts. You 
 were very near being turned into a beast once or twice, 
 little Tom. Indeed, if you had not made up your mind 
 to go on this journey, and see the world, like an English- 
 
200 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 man, I am not sure but that you would have ended as an 
 eft in a pond." 
 
 "Oh, dear me !" said Tom ; "sooner than that, and 
 be all over slime, I'll go this minute, if it is to the 
 world's end." 
 
 "And Nature, the old Nurse, took 
 The child upon her knee, 
 Saying, ' Here is a story book 
 Thy father hath written for thee. 
 
 " ' Come wander with me,' she said, 
 1 Into regions yet untrod, 
 And read what is still unread 
 In the manuscripts of God.' 
 
 " And he wandered away and away 
 With Nature, the dear old Nurse, 
 Who sang to him night and day 
 The rhymes of the universe." 
 
 LONGFEUXW. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OW," said 
 Tom, "I 
 am ready to 
 be off, if it's 
 to the world's end." 
 kt Ah!" said the 
 fairy, ' ' that is a brave, 
 good bov. But von 
 must go farther than 
 the world's end, if you 
 want to find Mr. 
 Grimes ; for he is at 
 the Oth er-end-of- No- 
 where. You must go 
 to Shiny Wall, and 
 through the white gate 
 that never was opened ; 
 and then you will come 
 to Peacepool, and Mo- 
 ther Carey's Haven, 
 where the good whales 
 go when they die. And there Mother Carey will tell 
 you the way to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, and there you 
 will find Mr. Grimes. ' ' 
 
 14 — Water-Babies 
 
 £201) 
 
202 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 " Oh, dear !" said Tom. "But I do not know my 
 way to Shiny Wall, or where it is at all." 
 
 " Little boys must take the trouble to find out things 
 for themselves, or they will never grow to be men ; so 
 that you must ask all the beasts in the sea and the birds 
 in the air, and if you have been good to them, some of 
 them will tell you the way to Shiny Wall." 
 
 "Well," said Tom, "it will be a long journey, so I 
 had better start at once. Good-bye, Miss Ellie ; you 
 know I am getting a big boy, and I must go out and see 
 the world." 
 
 " I know you must," said Ellie; "but you will not 
 forget me, Tom. I shall wait here till you come." 
 
 And she shook hands with him, and bade him good- 
 bye. Tom longed very much again to kiss her ; but he 
 thought it would not be respectful, considering she was 
 a lady born ; so he promised not to forget her : but his 
 little whirl-about of a head was so full of the notion of 
 going out to see the world, that it forgot her in five 
 minutes : however, though his head forgot her, I am 
 glad to say his heart did not. 
 
 So he asked all the beasts in the sea, and all the birds 
 in the air, but none of them knew the way to Shiny 
 Wall. For why ? He was still too far down south. 
 
 Then he met a ship, far larger than he had ever 
 seen — a gallant ocean-steamer, with a long cloud of 
 smoke trailing behind ; and he wondered how she 
 went on without sails, and swam up to her to see. A 
 school of dolphins were running races round and round 
 her, going three feet for her one, and Tom asked them 
 the way to Shiny Wall : but they did not know. Then 
 he tried to find out how she moved, and at last he saw 
 her screw, and was so delighted with it that he played 
 under her quarter all day, till he nearly had his nose 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 203 
 
 knocked off by the fans, and thought it time to move. 
 Then he watched the sailors upon deck, and the ladies, 
 with their bonnets and parasols : but none of them could 
 
 see him, because their eyes were not opened — as, indeed, 
 most people's eyes are not. 
 
 At last there came out into the quarter-gallery a very 
 
204 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 pretty lady, in deep black widow's weeds, and in her 
 arms a baby. She leaned over the quarter-gallery, and 
 looked back and back toward England far away ; and as 
 she looked she sang : 
 
 I. 
 
 "Soft, soft wind, from out the sweet south sliding, 
 Waft thy silver cloud-webs athwart the siunmer sea ; 
 
 Thin, thin threads of mist on dewy fingers twining 
 Weave a veil of dappled gauze to shade my babe and me. 
 
 II. 
 
 " Deep, deep Love, within thine own abyss abiding, 
 Pour TJiyself abroad, Lord, on earth and air and sea ; 
 
 Worn, tueary hearts within Thy holy temple lading, 
 Shield from sorrow, sin, and shame my helpless babe and me!' 
 
 Her voice was so soft and low, and the music of the 
 air so sweet, that Tom conld have listened to it all day. 
 But as she held the baby over the gallery rail, to show 
 it the dolphins leaping and the water gurgling in the 
 ship's wake, lo ! and behold, the baby saw Tom. 
 
 He was quite sure of that ; for when their eyes met, 
 the baby smiled and held out its hands ; and Tom smiled 
 and held out his hands too ; and the baby kicked and 
 leaped, as if it wanted to jump overboard to him. 
 
 "What do you see, my darling?" said the lady; 
 and her eyes followed the baby's till she, too, caught 
 sight of Tom, swimming about among the foam-beads 
 below. 
 
 She gave a little shriek and start ; and then she said, 
 quite quietly, " Babies in the sea ? Well, perhaps, it is 
 Mie happiest place for them;" and waved her hand to 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 205 
 
 Tom, and cried, "Wait a little, darling, only a little : 
 and perhaps we shall go with you and be at rest. ' ' 
 
 And at that an old nurse, all in black, came out and 
 talked to her and drew her in. And Tom turned away 
 northward, sad and 
 wondering; and 
 watched the great 
 steamer slide away 
 into the dusk, and the 
 lights on board peep 
 out one by one, and 
 die out again, and the 
 long bar of smoke fade 
 away into the evening 
 mist, till all was out 
 of sight. 
 
 And he swam north- 
 ward again, day after 
 day, till at last he met 
 the King of the Her- 
 rings, with a curry- 
 comb growing out of 
 his nose, and a sprat 
 in his mouth for a 
 cigar, and asked him 
 the way to Shiny Wall; 
 so he bolted his sprat 
 head foremost, and 
 said : 
 
 " If I were you, young gentleman, I should go to the 
 Allalonestone, and ask the last of the Gairfowl. She is 
 of a very ancient clan, very nearly as ancient as my 
 own ; and knows a good deal which these modern up- 
 starts don't, as ladies of old houses are likely to d^.' 
 
2o6 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Tom asked his way to her, and the King of the Her- 
 rings told him very 
 kindly, for he was 
 a courteous old gen- 
 tleman of the old 
 school, though he 
 was horribly ugly> 
 and strangely be- 
 dizened, too, like 
 the old dandies 
 who lounge in the 
 club-house win- 
 dows. 
 
 But just as Tom 
 
 had thanked him 
 
 l and set off, he called 
 
 after him: u Hi ! I 
 
 say, can you fly ? ' y 
 
 " I never tried,'* 
 says Tom. "Why?" 
 
 11 Because, if you 
 can, I should ad- 
 vise you to say 
 nothing to the old 
 1 a d v about it. 
 There ; take a hint. 
 Good-bye." 
 
 And away Tom 
 went for seven 
 days and seven 
 nights due north- 
 west, till he came 
 to a great codbank, 
 
 the like of which he never said before. The 
 
 great 
 
 cod 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 20/ 
 
 lay below in tens of thousands, and gobbled shell-fkh 
 all day long ; and the blue sharks roved about in hun- 
 dreds, and gobbled them when they came up. So they 
 ate, and ate, and ate each other, as they had done since 
 the making of the world ; for no man had come here 
 yet to catch them, and find out how rich old Mother 
 Carey is. 
 
 And there he saw the last of the Gairfowl, standing up 
 on the Allalonestone, all alone. And a verv grand old 
 lady she was, full three feet high, and bolt upright, like 
 some old Highland chieftainess. She ' ad on a black 
 velvet gown, and a white pinner and ? ron, and a very 
 high bridge to her nose (which is a s ;e mark of hiodi 
 breeding), and a large pair of whi' spectacles on it 
 which made her look rather odd : bu it was the ancient 
 fashion of her house. 
 
 And, instead of wings, she had two little feathery 
 arms, with which she fanned herself, and complained of 
 the dreadful heat : and she kept on crooning an old song 
 to herself, which she learnt when she was a little baby- 
 bird, long ago — 
 
 " Two little birds they sat on a stone, 
 One swam away, and then tliere was one, 
 With a fal-lal-la-lady. 
 
 " The other swam after, and then there was none > 
 And so the poor stone zvas left all alone ; 
 With a fal-lal-la-lady \" 
 
 It was "flew" away, properly, and not "swam" 
 away : but, as she could not fly, she had a right to altet 
 it. However, it was a very fit song for her to sing, be- 
 cause she was a lady herself. 
 
20b" THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Tom came up to her very humbly, and made his bow ; 
 and the first thing she said was — 
 
 u Have you wings ? Can you fly ? " 
 
 "Oh, dear, no, ma'am ; I should not think of such 
 a thing," said cunning little Tom. 
 
 " Then I shall have great pleasure in talking to you, 
 my dear. It is quite refreshing nowadays to see any- 
 thing without wings. They must all have wings, for- 
 sooth, now, every new upstart sort of bird, and fly. 
 What can they want with flying, and raising themselves 
 above their proper station in life ? In the days of my 
 ancestors no birds ever thought of having wings, and 
 did very well without ; and now they all laugh at me 
 because I keep to the good old fashion. Why, the 
 very marrocks and dovekies have got wings, the vulgar 
 creatures, and poor little ones enough they are ; and 
 my own cousins too, the razor-bills, who are gentlefolk 
 born, and ought to know better than to ape their in- 
 feriors." 
 
 And so she was running on, while Tom tried to get 
 in a word edgeways ; and at last he did, when the old 
 lady got out of breath, and began fanning herself again ; 
 and then he asked if she knew the way to Shiny Wall. 
 
 "Shiny Wall? Who should know better than I? 
 We all came from Shiny Wall, thousands of years ago, 
 when it was decently cold, and the climate was fit for 
 gentlefolk ; but now, what with the heat, and what with 
 these vulgar-winged things who fly up and down and eat 
 everything, so that gentlepeople's hunting is all spoilt, 
 and one cannot really get one's living, or hardly venture 
 off the rock for fear of being flown against by some 
 creature that would not have dared to come within a 
 mile of one a thousand years ago — what was I saying? 
 Why, we have quite gone down in the world, my dear, 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 209 
 
 and have nothing left but our honor. And I am the 
 last of my family. A friend of mine and I came and 
 settled on this rock when we were young, to be out of 
 the way of low people. Once we were a great nation, 
 and spread over all the Northern Isles. But men shot 
 us so, and knocked us on the head, and took our eggs — 
 why, if you will believe it, they say that on the coast of 
 Labrador the sailors used to lay a plank from the rock 
 on board the thing called their ship, and drive us along 
 the plank by hundreds, till we tumbled down into the 
 ship's waist in heaps ; and then, I suppose, they ate us, 
 the nasty fellows ! Well — but — what was I saying ? 
 At last, there were none of us left, except on the old 
 Gairfowlskerry, just off the Iceland coast, up which no 
 man could climb. Even there we had no peace ; for 
 one day, when I was quite a young girl, the land rocked, 
 and the sea boiled, and the sky grew dark, and all the 
 air was filled with smoke and dust, and down tumbled 
 the old Gairfowlskerry into the sea. The dovekies and 
 marrocks, of course, all flew away ; but we were too 
 proud to do that. Some of us were dashed to pieces and 
 some drowned ; and those who were left got away 
 to Eldey, and the dovekies tell me they are all dead 
 now, and that another Gairfowlskerry has risen out of 
 the sea close to the old one, but that it is such a poor 
 flat place that it is not safe to live on : and so here I am 
 left all alone." 
 
 This was the Gairfowl's story, and, strange as it may 
 seem, it is every word of it true. 
 
 " If you only had had wings ! " said Tom , ** then you 
 might all have flown away, too." 
 
 u Yes, young gentleman : and if people are not gen- 
 tlemen and ladies, and forget that noblesse oblige, they 
 will find it as easy to get on in the world as other people 
 
2IO THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 who don't care what they do. Why, if I had not recol- 
 lected that noblesse oblige, I should not have been all 
 alone now." And the poor old lady sighed. 
 
 " How was that, ma'am?" 
 
 u Why, my dear, a gentleman came hither with me, 
 and, after we had been here some time, he wanted to 
 marry — in fact, he actually proposed to me. Well, 1 
 can't blame him ; I was young, and very handsome 
 then, I don't deny : but, you see, I could not hear of 
 such a thing, because he was my deceased sister's hus- 
 band, you see? " 
 
 "Of course not, ma'am," said Tom ; though, of course, 
 he knew nothing about it. "She was very much dis- 
 eased, I suppose? " 
 
 " You do not understand me, my dear. I mean that, 
 being a lady, and with right and honorable feelings, as 
 our house always has had, I felt it my duty to snub him, 
 and howk him, and peck him continually, to keep him 
 at his proper distance ; and, to tell the truth, I once 
 pecked him a little too hard, poor fellow, and he tumbled 
 backwards off the rock, and — really, it was very unfor- 
 tunate, but it was not my fault — a shark coming by saw 
 him flapping, and snapped him up. And since then I 
 have lived all alone — 
 
 1 With a fal-lal-la-lady! 
 
 And soon I shall be gone, my little dear, and nobody 
 will miss me ; and then the poor stone will be left all 
 alone." 
 
 " But, please, which is the way to Shiny Wall ? " said 
 Tom. 
 
 "Oh, you must go, my little dear — you must go. Let 
 me see — I am sure — that is — really, my poor old brains 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOJt A LAND-BABY. 211 
 
 are getting quite puzzled. Do you know, my little 
 dear, I am afraid, if you want to know, you must ask 
 some of these vulgar birds about, for I have quite for- 
 gotten." 
 
 And the poor old Gairfowl began to cry tears of pure 
 oil ; and Tom was quite sorry for her ; and for himself, 
 too, for he was at his wit's end whom to ask. 
 
 But by there came a flock of petrels, who are Mother 
 Carey's own chickens ; and Tom thought them much 
 prettier than Lady Gairfowl, and so perhaps they were ; 
 for Mother Carey had had a great deal of fresh experience 
 between the time that she invented the Gairfowl and the 
 time that she invented them. They flitted along like a 
 flock of black swallows, and hopped and skipped from 
 wave to wave, lifting up their little feet behind them so 
 daintily, and whistling to each other so tenderly, that 
 Tom fell in love with them at once, and called them to 
 know the wav to Shinv Wall. 
 
 "Shiny Wall? Do you want Shinv Wall? Then 
 come with us, and we will show you. We are Mother 
 Carey's own chickens, and she sends us out over all 
 the seas, to show the good birds the way home." 
 
 Tom was delighted, and swam off to them, after he 
 had made his bow to the Gairfowl. But she would not 
 return his bow : but held herself bolt upright, and wept 
 tears of oil as she sang : 
 
 "And so the poor stone was left all alone ; 
 With a fal-lal-la-lady" 
 
 But she was wrong there ; for the stone was not left 
 all alone : and the next time that Tom goes by it, he will 
 see a sight worth seeing 1 . 
 
 The old Gairfowl is gone already : but there are better 
 
212 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 things come in her place ; and when Tom comes he will 
 see the fishing-smacks anchored there in hundreds, from 
 Scotland, and from Ireland, and from the Orkneys, and 
 the Shetlands, and from all the Northern ports, full of 
 the children of the old Norse Vikings, the masters of 
 the sea. And the men will be hauling in the great cod 
 by thousands, till their hands are sore from the lines ; 
 and they will be making cod-liver oil and guano, and 
 salting down the fish ; and there will be a man-of-war 
 steamer there to protect them, and a lighthouse to show 
 them the way ; and you and I, perhaps, shall go some 
 day to the Allalonestone to the great summer sea-fair, 
 and dredge strange creatures such as man never saw be- 
 fore ; and we shall hear the sailors boast that it is not 
 the worst jewel in Queen Victorians crown, for there are 
 eighty miles of codbank, and food for all the poor folk 
 in the land. That is what Tom will see, and perhaps 
 you and I shall see it too. And then we shall not be 
 sorry because we cannot get a Gairfowl to stuff, much 
 less find Gairfowl enough to drive them into stone pens 
 and slaughter them, as the old Norsemen did, or drive 
 them on board along a plank till the ship was victualled 
 with them, as the old '.English and French rovers used 
 to do, of whom dear old Hakluyt tells : but we shall 
 remember what Mr. Tennyson says : how 
 
 " The old order changeth, giving place to the new, 
 And God fulfils himself in many ways." 
 
 And now Tom was all agog to start for Shiny Wall ; 
 but the petrels said no. They must go first to Allfowls- 
 ness, and wait there for the great gathering of all the 
 sea-birds, before they start for their summer breeding- 
 places far away in the Northern Isles ; and there they 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 213 
 
 would be sure to find some birds which were going to 
 Shiny Wall ; but where Allfowlsness was, he must prom- 
 
 ise never to tell, lest men should go there and shoo* 
 the birds, and stuff them, and put them into stupid xuu- 
 
214 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 seums, instead of leaving them to play and breed and 
 work in Mother Carey's water-garden, where they ought 
 to be. 
 
 So where Allfowlsness is nobody must know ; and all 
 that is to be said about it is, that Tom waited there 
 many days ; and as he waited, he saw a very curious 
 sight. On the rabbit burrows on the shore there gath- 
 ered hundreds and hundreds of hoodie-crows, such as 
 you see in Cambridgeshire. And they made such a 
 noise that Tom came on shore and went up to see what 
 was the matter. 
 
 And there he found them holding their great caucus, 
 which they hold every year in the North ; and all their 
 stump-orators were speechifying ; and for a tribune, the 
 speaker stood on an old sheep's skull. 
 
 And they cawed and cawed, and boasted of all the 
 clever things they had done ; how many lambs' eyes 
 they had picked out, and how many dead bullocks they 
 had eaten, and how many young grouse they had swal- 
 lowed whole, and how many grouse-eggs they had flown 
 away with, stuck on the point of their bills, which is 
 the hoodie-crow's particularly clever feat, of which he is 
 as proud as a gipsy is of doing the hokanybaro ; and what 
 that is, I won't tell you. 
 
 And at last they brought out the prettiest, neatest 
 young lady-crow that ever was seen, and set her in the 
 middle, and all began abusing and vilifying, and rating, 
 and bullyragging at her, because she had stolen no 
 grouse-eggs, and had actually dared to say that she would 
 not steal any. So she was to be tried publicly by their 
 laws (for the hoodies always try some offenders in their 
 great yearly parliament). And there she stood in the 
 middle, in her black gown and gray hood, looking as 
 meek and as neat as a Quakeress, and they all bawled 
 at her at once-^ 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 215 
 
 And it was in vain that she pleaded — 
 
 That she did not like grouse-eggs ; 
 
 That she coidd get her living very ivell without them ; 
 
 That she was afraid to eat them, for fear of the game- 
 keepers ; 
 
 That she had not the heart to eat them, because the grouse 
 were such pretty, kind, jolly birds ; 
 
 And a dozen reasons more. 
 
 For all the other scanl-crows set upon her, and pecked 
 her to death there and then, before Tom could come to 
 help her ; and then flew away, very proud of what they 
 had done. 
 
 Now, was not this a scandalous transaction ? 
 
 But they are true republicans, these hoodies, who do 
 every one just what he likes, and make other people do 
 so, too ; so that, for any freedom of speech, thought, or 
 action which is allowed among them, they might as well 
 be American citizens of the new school. 
 
 But the fairies took the good crow, and gave her nine 
 new sets of feathers running, and turned her at last into 
 the most beautiful bird of paradise with a green velvet 
 suit and a long tail, and sent her to eat fruit in the 
 Spice Islands, where cloves and nutmegs grow. 
 
 And Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid settled her account with 
 the wicked hoodies. For, as they flew away, what 
 should they find but a nasty dead dog ? — on which they 
 all set to work, pecking and gobbling and cawing and 
 quarrelling to their hearts' content. But the moment 
 afterwards they all threw up their bills into the air, and 
 gave one screech ; and then turned head over heels back' 
 ward, and fell down dead, one hundred and twentv-three 
 of them at once. For why? The fairy had told the 
 
216 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 gamekeeper in a dream to fill the dead dog full of strycfr 
 nine ; and so he did. 
 
 And after a while the birds began to gather at All- 
 fowlsness, in thousands and tens of thousands, blackening 
 all the air ; swans and brant geese, harlequins and eiders, 
 harolds and garganeys, smews and goosanders, divers 
 and loons, grebes and dovekies, auks and razor-bills, 
 gannets and petrels, skuas and terns, with gulls beyond 
 all naming or numbering ; and they paddled and 
 washed and splashed and combed and brushed them- 
 selves on the sand, till the shore was white with feathers ; 
 and they quacked and clucked and gabbled and chat- 
 tered and screamed and whooped as they talked over 
 matters with their friends, and settled where they were 
 to go and breed that summer, till you might have heard 
 them ten miles off; and lucky it was for them that there 
 was no one to hear them but the old keeper, w 7 ho lived 
 all alone upon the Ness, in a turf hut thatched with 
 heather and fringed round with great stones flung across 
 the roof by bent ropes, lest the winter gales should blow 
 the hut right away. But he never minded the birds nor 
 hurt them, because they were not in season ; indeed, he 
 minded but two things in the world, and these were his 
 Bible and his grouse ; for he was as good an old Scotch- 
 man as ever knit stockings on a winter's night : only, 
 when all the birds were going, he toddled out, and took 
 off his cap to them, and wished them a merry journey 
 and a safe return ; and then gathered up all the feathers 
 which they had left, and cleaned them to sell down 
 south, and make feather-beds for stuffy people to lie on. 
 
 Then the petrels asked this bird and that whether 
 they would take Tom to Shiny Wall : but one set was 
 going to Sutherland, and one to the Shetlands, and one 
 to Norway, and one to Spitzbergen, and one to Iceland, 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 21'; 
 
 and one to Greenland : but none would go to Shiny 
 Wall. So the good-natured petrels said that they would 
 show him part of the way themselves, but they were only 
 going as far as Jan Mayen's Land ; and after that he must 
 shift for himself. 
 
 And then all 
 the birds rose up, ____ ^^^^^T"^^^-; 
 
 and streamed 
 away in long black 4^ 
 lines, north and 
 northeast, and 
 northwest, across 
 the bright blue 
 summer skv ; and 
 their cry was like 
 ten thousand packs 
 of hounds and ten 
 thousand peals of 
 bells. Only the 
 puffins stayed be- 
 hind, and killed 
 the young rabbits, 
 and laid their e^o-s 
 in the rabbit bur- 
 rows ; which was 
 rough practice, cer- 
 tainly ; but a man 
 must see to his 
 own family. 
 
 And, as Tom and the petrels went northeastward, it 
 began to blow right hard ; for the old gentleman in the 
 gray greatcoat, who looks after the big copper boiler, 
 in the gulf of Mexico, had got behindhand with his 
 work ; so Mother Carey had sent an electric message to 
 
 J.5 — Watcr-Babief 
 
2l8 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 him for more steam ; and now the steam was coming, as 
 much in an hour as ought to have come in a week, puff- 
 ing and roaring and swishing and swirling, till you could 
 not see where the sky ended and the sea began. But 
 Tom and the petrels never cared, for the gale was right 
 abaft, and away they went over the crests of the billows, 
 merry as so many flying-fish. 
 
 And at last they saw an ugly sight — the black side 
 of a great ship, water-logged in the trough of the sea. 
 Her funnel and her masts were overboard, and swayed 
 and surged under her lee ; her decks were swept as 
 clean as a barn floor, and there was no living soul on 
 board. 
 
 The petrels flew up to her, and wailed round her ; for 
 they were very sorry, indeed, and also they expected to 
 find some salt pork ; and Tom scrambled on board of 
 her and looked round, frightened and sad. 
 
 And there, in a little cot, lashed tight under the bul- 
 wark, lay a baby, fast asleep ; the very same baby, Tom 
 saw at once, which he had seen in the singing lady's 
 arms. 
 
 He went up to it, and wanted to wake it ; but behold, 
 from under the cot jumped a little black and tan terrier 
 dog, and began barking and snapping at Tom> and would 
 not let him touch the cot. 
 
 Tom knew the dog's teeth could not hurt him : but 
 at least it could shove him away, and did ; and he and 
 the dog fought and struggled, for he wanted to help the 
 baby, and did not want to throw the poor dog overboard ; 
 but, as they were struggling, there came a tall green 
 sea, and walked in over the weather side of the ship, and 
 swept them all into the waves. 
 
 "Oh, the baby, the baby !" screamed Tom : but the 
 next moment he did not scream at aU ; for he saw the 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 219 
 
 cot settling down through the 
 
 green 
 
 water, with the 
 
 baby, smiling in it, fast asleep ; and he saw the fairies 
 come up from below, and carry baby and cradle gently 
 down in their soft arms ; and then he knew it was all 
 right, and that there would be a new water-baby in St. 
 Brandan's Isle. 
 
 And the poor little 
 
 dog? 
 
 Why, after he had 
 kicked and coughed a 
 little, he sneezed so 
 hard that he sneezed 
 himself clean out of his 
 skin, and turned into 
 a water-dog, and 
 jumped and danced 
 round Tom, and ran 
 over the crests of the 
 waves, and snapped 
 at the jelly-fish and 
 the mackerel, and fol- 
 lowed Tom the whole 
 way to the Other- 
 end-of-Nowhere. 
 
 Then they went on 
 again till they began 
 to see the peak of Jan 
 Mayen's Land, stand- 
 
 ing up like a white sugar-loaf, two miles above the clouds. 
 
 And there they fell in with a white flock of molly- 
 mocks, who were feeding on a dead whale. 
 
 "These are the fellows to show you the way," said 
 Mother Carey's chickens ; "we cannot help you farther 
 north. We don't like to get among the ice pack for 
 
220 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 fear it should nip our toes : but the molly dare fly any- 
 where." 
 
 So the petrels called to the mollys : but they were so 
 busy and greedy, gobbling and pecking and spluttering 
 and fighting over the blubber, that they did not take the 
 least notice. 
 
 "Come, come," said the petrels, " you lazy greedy 
 lubbers, this young gentleman is going to Mother Carey, 
 and, if you don't attend on him, you won't earn your 
 discharge from her, you know." 
 
 "Greedy we are," says a great fat old molly, "but 
 lazy we ain't ; and, as for lubbers, we're no more lubbers 
 than you. Let's have a look at the lad." 
 
 And he flapped right into Tom's face, and stared at 
 him in the most impudent way (for the mollys are 
 audacious fellows, as all whalers know), and then asked 
 him where he hailed from, and what land he sighted 
 last. 
 
 And, when Tom told him, he seemed plseased, and 
 said he was a good plucked one to have got so far. 
 
 "Come along, lads," he said to the rest, "and give 
 this little chap a cast over the pack, for Mother Carey's 
 sake. We've eaten blubber enough for to-day, and 
 we'll e'en work out a bit of our time by helping the 
 lad." 
 
 So the mollys took Tom up on their backs, and flew 
 off with him, laughing and joking — and oh, how they 
 did smell of train oil ! 
 
 " Who are you, you jolly birds?" asked Tom. 
 
 " We are the spirits of the old Greenland skippers (as 
 every sailor knows), who hunted here, right whales and 
 horse- whales, full hundreds of years agone. But, be- 
 cause we were saucy and greedy, we were all turned 
 into mollys, to eat whale's blubber all our days. But 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 221 
 
 lubbers we are none, and could sail a ship now against 
 any man in the North seas, though we don't hold with 
 this new-fangled steam. And it's a shame of those 
 black imps of petrels to call us so ; but because they're 
 her grace's pets, they think they may say anything they 
 like." 
 
 "And who are you ? " asked Tom of him, for he saw 
 that he was the king of all the birds. 
 
 tc 
 
 My name is Hendrick Hudson, and a right good 
 skipper was I ; and my name will last to the world's 
 end, in spite of all the wrong I did. For I discovered 
 Hudson River, and I named Hudson's Bay ; and many 
 have come in my wake that dared not have shown me 
 the way. But I was a hard man in my time, that's 
 truth, and stole the poor Indians off the coast of Maine, 
 
222 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 and sold them for slaves down in Virginia ; and at last I 
 was so cruel to my sailors, here in these very seas, that 
 they set me adrift in an open boat, and I never was 
 heard of more. So now I'm the king of all mollys, till 
 I've worked out my time." 
 
 And now they came to the edge of the pack, and be- 
 yond it they could see Shiny Wall looming, through 
 mist, aud snow, and storm. But the pack rolled hor- 
 ribly upon the swell, and the ice giants fought and 
 roared, and leapt upon each other's backs, and ground 
 each other to powder, so that Tom was afraid to venture 
 among them, lest he should be ground to powder too. 
 And he was the more afraid, when he saw lying among 
 the ice pack the wrecks of many a gallant ship ; some 
 with masts and yards all standing, some with the sea- 
 men frozen fast on board. Alas, alas, for them ! They 
 were all true English hearts ; and thev came to their end 
 like o-ood knights-errant, in searching for the white gate 
 that never was opened yet. 
 
 But the good mollys took Tom and his dog up, and 
 flew with them safe over the pack and the roaring 
 ice giants, and set them down at the foot of Shiny 
 Wall. 
 
 "And where, is the gate?" asked Tom. 
 
 "There is no gate," said the mollys. 
 
 u No gate? " cried Tom, aghast. 
 
 "None ; never a crack of one, and that's the whole 
 of the secret, as better fellows, lad, than you have found 
 to their cost ; and if there had been, they'd have killed 
 by now every right whale that swims the sea." 
 
 "What am I to do, then?" 
 
 11 Dive under the floe, to be sure, if you have pluck." 
 
 "I've not come so far to turn now," said Tom ; "so 
 here goes for a header. ' ' 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 223 
 
 "A lucky voyage to you, lad," said the mollys ; " we 
 knew you were one of the right sort. So good-bye. " 
 
 "Why don't you come too?" asked Tom. 
 
 But the mollys only wailed sadly, " We can't go yet, 
 we can't go yet," aud flew away over the pack. 
 
 So Tom dived under the great white gate which 
 never was opened yet, and weut on in black darkness, 
 at the bottom of the sea, for seven days and seven nights. 
 And yet he was not a bit frightened. Why should he 
 be? He was a brave English lad, whose business is to 
 go out and see all the world. 
 
 And at last he saw the light, and clear, clear water 
 overhead ; and up he came a thousand fathoms, among 
 clouds of sea-moths, which fluttered round his head. 
 There were moths with pink heads and wings and opal 
 bodies, that flapped about slowly ; moths with brown 
 wings, that flapped about quickly ; yellow shrimps, that 
 hopped and skipped most quickly of all ; and jellies of 
 all the colors in the world, that neither hopped nor 
 skipped, but only dawdled and yawned, and would not 
 get out of his way. The dog snapped at them till his 
 jaws were tired ; but Tom hardly minded them at all, 
 he was so eager to get to the top of the water, and see 
 the pool where the good whales go. 
 
 And a very large pool it was, miles and miles across, 
 though the air was so clear that the ice cliffs on the oppo~ 
 site side looked as if they were close at hand. All round 
 it the ice cliffs rose, in walls and spires and battlements, 
 and caves and bridges, and stories and galleries, in 
 which the ice-fairies live, and drive away the storms and 
 clouds, that Mother Carey's pool may lie calm from 
 year's end to year's end. And the sun acted policeman, 
 and walked round outside every day, peeping just over 
 the top of the ice wall, to see that all went right ; and 
 
224 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 now and then he played conjuring tricks, or had an ex~ 
 hibition of fireworks, to amuse the ice-fairies. For he 
 would make himself into four or five suns at once, or 
 paint the sky with rings and crosses and crescents of 
 white fire, and stick himself in the middle of them, and 
 wink at the fairies ; and I daresay they were much 
 amused ; for anything' s fun in the country. 
 
 And there the good whales lav, the happy, sleepy 
 beasts, upon the still oily sea. They were all right 
 whales, you must know, and finners, and razor-backs, 
 and bottle-noses, and spotted sea-unicorns with long 
 ivory horns. But the sperm whales are such raging, 
 ramping, roaring, rumbustious fellows, that, if Mother 
 Carey let them in, there would be no more peace in 
 Peacepool. So she packs them away in a great pond by 
 themselves at the South Pole, two hundred and sixty- 
 three miles south-southeast of Mount Erebus, the great 
 volcano in the ice ; and there they butt each other 
 with their ugly noses, day and night, from year's end to 
 year's end. 
 
 But here there were only good and quiet beasts, lying 
 about like the black hulls of sloops and blowing every 
 now and then jets of white steam, or sculling round with 
 their huge mouths open, for the sea-moths to swim down 
 their throats. There were no threshers there to thresh 
 their poor old backs, or sword-fish to stab their stomachs, 
 or saw-fish to rip them up, or ice-sharks to bite lumps 
 out of their sides, or whalers to harpoon and lance them. 
 They were quite safe and happy there ; and all they had 
 to do was to wait quietly in Peacepool till Mother 
 Carey sent for them to make them out of old beasts into 
 new. 
 
 Tom swam up to the nearest whale, and asked the 
 way to Mother Carey. 
 
(225) 
 
226 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 " There she sits in the middle," says the whale. 
 
 Tom looked ; but he could see nothing in the 
 middle of the pool, but one peaked iceberg ; and he 
 said so. 
 
 "That's Mother Carey," said the whale, "as you 
 will find when you get to her. There she sits making 
 old beasts into new all the year round." 
 
 " How does she do that?" 
 
 " That's her concern, not mine," said the old whale ; 
 and yawned so wide (for he was very large) that there 
 swam into his mouth 943 sea-moths, 13,846 jelly-fish no 
 bigger than pins' heads, a string of salpse nine yards 
 long, and forty-three little ice-crabs, who gave each 
 other a parting pinch all round, tucked their legs und^r 
 their stomachs, and determined to die decently, like 
 Julius Caesar. 
 
 "I suppose," said Tom, "she cuts up a great whale 
 like you into a whole shoal of porpoises? " 
 
 At which the old whale laughed so violently that he 
 coughed up all the creatures ; who swam away again, 
 very thankful at having escaped out of that terrible 
 whalebone net of his, from which bourne no traveller 
 returns ; and Tom went on to the iceberg, wondering. 
 
 And, when he came near it, it took the form of the 
 grandest old lady he had ever seen — a white marble 
 lady, sitting on a white marble throne. And from the 
 foot of the throne there swum away, out and out into 
 the sea, millions of new-born creatures, of more shapes 
 and colors than man ever dreamed. And they were 
 Mother Carey's children, whom she makes out of the 
 sea-water all day long. 
 
 He expected, of course — like some grown people who 
 ought to know better — to find her snipping, piecing, 
 fitting, stitching, cobbling, basting, filing, planing, ham- 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 227 
 
 mering, turning, polishing, moulding, measuring, chis- 
 elling, clipping, and so forth, as men do when they go to 
 work to make anything. 
 
 But, instead of that, she sat quite still with her chin 
 upon her hand, look- 
 ing down into the 
 sea with two great 
 grand blue eyes, as 
 blue as the sea it- 
 self. Her hair was 
 as white as the 
 snow — for she was 
 very old— in fact, as 
 old as anything 
 which you are likely 
 to come across, ex- 
 cept the difference 
 between right and 
 wrong. 
 
 And, when she 
 saw Tom, she looked 
 at him very kindly. 
 
 "What do you 
 want, my little man? 
 It is a long time 
 since I have seen a 
 water-baby here." 
 
 Tom told her his 
 errand, and asked 
 the way to the Other-end-of- Nowhere. 
 
 " You ought to know yourself, for you have been there 
 already." 
 
 "Have I, ma'am? I'm sure I forget all about it." 
 
 "Then look at me." 
 
228 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 And, as Tom looked into her great blue eyes, he recol- 
 lected the way perfectly. 
 
 Now, was not that strange ? 
 
 "Thank you, ma'am," said Tom. "Then I won't 
 trouble your ladyship any more ; I hear you are very 
 busy. ' ' 
 
 "I am never more busy than I am now," she said, 
 without stirring a ringer. 
 
 ik I heard, ma'am, that you were always making new 
 beasts out of old." 
 
 ' ' So people fancy. But I am not going to trouble 
 myself to make things, my little dear. I sit here and 
 make them make themselves." 
 
 " You are a clever fairy, indeed," thought Tom. And 
 he was quite right. 
 
 That is a grand trick of good old Mother Carey's, and 
 a grand answer, which she has had occasion to make 
 several times to impertinent people. 
 
 There was once, for instance, a fairy who was so clever 
 that she found out how to make butterflies. I don't 
 mean sham ones ; no : but real live ones, which would 
 fly, and eat, and lay eggs, and do everything that they 
 ought ; and she was so proud of her skill that she went 
 flying straight off to the North Pole, to boast to Mothei 
 Carey how she could make butterflies. 
 
 But Mother Carey laughed. 
 
 "Know, silly child," she said, "that any one can 
 make things, if they will take time and trouble enough : 
 but it is not every one who, like me, can make things 
 make themselves." 
 
 But people do not yet believe that Mother Carey is as 
 clever as all that comes to ; and they will not till they, 
 too, go the journey to the Other-end-of-Nowhere. 
 
 "And now, my pretty little man," said Mother Carey t 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 229 
 
 "you are sure you know the way to the Other-end-of- 
 Nowhere?" 
 
 Tom thought ; and behold, he had forgotten it utterly. 
 
 i 'That is because you took your eyes off me." 
 
 Tom looked at her again, and recollected ; and then 
 looked away, and forgot in an instant. 
 
 " But what am I to do, ma'am? For I can't keep 
 looking at you when I am somewhere else." 
 
230 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 11 You must do without me, as most people have to do, 
 for nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths of their 
 lives ; and look at the dog instead ; for he knows 
 the way well enough, and will not forget it. Besides, 
 you may meet some very queer-tempered people there, 
 who will not let you pass without this passport of mine, 
 which you must hang round your neck and take care 
 of ; and, of course, as the dog will always go behind 
 you, you must go the whole way backward." 
 
 "Backward ! " cried Tom. "Then I shall not be able 
 to see my way." 
 
 "On the contrary, if you look forward, you will not 
 see a step before you, and be certain to go wrong ; but, 
 if you look behind you, and watch carefully whatever 
 you have passed, and especially keep your eye on the 
 dog, who goes by instinct, and therefore can't go wrong, 
 then you will know what is coming next, as plainly as 
 if you saw it in a looking-glass." 
 
 Tom was very much astonished : but he obeyed her, 
 for he had learnt always to believe what the fairies told 
 him. 
 
 "So it is, my dear child," said Mother Carey ; "and 
 I will tell you a story, which will show you that I am 
 perfectly right, as it is my custom to be. 
 
 "Once on a time, there were two brothers. One 
 was called Prometheus, because he always looked before 
 him, and boasted that he was wise beforehand. The 
 other was called Epimetheus, because he always looked 
 behind him, and did not boast at all ; but said humbly, 
 like an Irishman, that he had sooner prophesy after the 
 event. 
 
 "Well, Prometheus w r as a very clever fellow, of 
 course, and invented all sorts of wonderful things. But, 
 unfortunately, when they were set to work, to work was 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 23 1 
 
 just what they would not do ; wherefore very little has 
 come of them, and very little is left of them ; and now 
 nobody knows what they were, save a few archaeological 
 old gentlemen who scratch in queer corners, and find 
 little there save Ptinum Furem, Blaptem Mortisagam, 
 Acarum Horridnm, Ti 11 earn Laciniarum. 
 
 "But Epimetheus was a very slow fellow, certainly, 
 and went among men for a clod, and a muff, and a 
 milksop, and a slowcoach, and a bloke, and a boodle, 
 and so forth. And very little he did, for many years : 
 but what he did, he never had to do over again. 
 
 "And what happened at last? There came to the 
 two brothers the most beautiful creature that ever was 
 seen, Pandora by name ; which means, All the gifts of 
 the gods. But because she had a strange box in her 
 hand, this fanciful, forecasting, suspicious, prudential, 
 theoretical, deductive, prophesying Prometheus, who 
 was always settling what was going to happen, would 
 have nothing to do with pretty Pandora and her box. 
 
 "But Epimetheus took her and it, as he took every- 
 thing that came ; and married her for better for worse, as 
 every man ought, whenever he has even the chance of a 
 good wife. And they opened the box between them, of 
 course, to see what was inside : for, else, of what possible 
 use could it have been to them ? 
 
 "And out flew all the ills which flesh is heir to ; all 
 the children of the four great bogies, Self-will, Igno- 
 rance, Fear, and Dirt — for instance : 
 
 Measles, Famines, 
 
 Monks, Quacks, 
 
 Scarlatina, Unpaid bills, 
 
 Idols, Tight stays, 
 
 Hooping-coughs, Potatoes, 
 
232 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Popes, Bad zvine, 
 
 Wars, Despots, 
 
 Peacemongers, Demagogues, 
 
 And, worst of all, Naughty Boys and Girls. 
 
 But one thing remained at the bottom of the box, and 
 that was, Hope. 
 
 " So Epimetheus got a great deal of trouble, as most 
 men do in this world : but he got the three best things 
 in the world into the bargain — a good wife, and experi- 
 ence, and hope : while Prometheus had just as much 
 trouble, and a great deal more (as you will hear), of his 
 own making ; with nothing beside, save fancies spun out 
 of his own brain, as a spider spins her web out of hei 
 stomach. 
 
 "And Prometheus kept on looking before him so fai 
 ahead, that as he was running about with a box of luci 
 fers (which were the only useful things he ever invented, 
 and do as much harm as good), he trod on his own nose, 
 and tumbled down (as most deductive philosophers do), 
 whereby he set the Thames on fire ; and they have hardly 
 put it out again yet. So he had to be chained to the 
 top of a mountain, with a vulture by him to give him 
 a peck whenever he stirred, lest he should turn the 
 whole world upside down with his prophecies and his 
 theories. 
 
 u But stupid old Epimetheus went working and grub- 
 bing on, with the help of his wife Pandora, always look- 
 ing behind him to see what had happened, till he really 
 learnt to know now and then what would happen next ; 
 and understood so well which side his bread was buttered, 
 and which way the cat jumped, that he began to make 
 things which would work, and go on working, too ; to 
 till and drain the ground, and to make looms, and ships, 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 233 
 
 and railroads, and steam ploughs, and electric telegraphs, 
 and all the things which you see in the Great Exhibi- 
 tion ; and to foretell famine, and bad weather, and the 
 price of stocks, and (what is hardest of all) the next 
 vagary of the great idol Whirligig, which some call 
 Public Opinion ; till at last he grew as rich as a Jew and 
 as fat as a farmer, and people thought twice before they 
 meddled with him, but only once before they asked him 
 
 to help them ; for, because he earned his money well, he 
 could afford to spend it well likewise. 
 
 "And his children are the men of science, who get 
 good lasting work done in the world ; but the children 
 of Prometheus are the fanatics, and the theorists, and 
 the bigots, and the bores, and the noisy, windy people, 
 who go telling silly folk what will happen, instead of 
 looking to see what has happened already." 
 
 lO — h ater-Babies 
 
234 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Now, was not Mother Carey's a wonderful story ? 
 And, I am happy to say, Tom believed it, every word. 
 
 For so it happened to Tom likewise. He was very 
 sorely tried ; for though, by keeping the dog to heels 
 (or rather to toes, for he had to walk backward), he could 
 see pretty well which way the dog was hunting, yet it 
 was much slower work to go backwards than to go for- 
 wards. But, what was more trying still, no sooner had 
 he got out of Peacepool than there came running to 
 him all the conjurors, fortune-tellers, astrologers, proph- 
 esiers, projectors, prestigiators, as many as were in those 
 parts (and there are too many of them everywhere), 
 Old Mother Shipton on her broomstick, with Merlin, 
 Thomas the Rhymer, Gerbertus, Rabanus Maurus, Nos- 
 tradamus, Zadkiel, Raphael, Moore, Old Nixon, and a 
 good many in black coats and white ties who might 
 have known better, considering in what century they 
 were born, all bawling and screaming at him, "Look 
 a-head, only look a-head ; and we will show you what 
 man never saw before, and right away to the end of the 
 world!" 
 
 But I am proud to say that, though Tom had not 
 been to Cambridge — for, if he had, he would have cer- 
 tainly been senior wrangler — he was such a little dogged, 
 hard, gnarly, foursquare brick of an English boy, that 
 he never turned his head round once all the way from 
 Peacepool to the Other-end-of-Nowhere : but kept his 
 eye on the dog, and let him pick out the scent, hot or 
 cold, straight or crooked, wet or dry, up hill or down 
 dale ; by which means he never made a single mistake, 
 and saw all the wonderful and hitherto by-no-mortal- 
 man-imagined things, which it is my duty to relate to 
 you in the next chapter. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 "Come to me, ye children ! 
 For I hear you at your play ; 
 And the questions that perplexed me 
 Have vanished quite away. 
 
 " Ye open the Eastern windows, 
 That look towards the sun, 
 Where thoughts are singing swallows, 
 And the brooks of morning run. 
 
 235 
 
 " For what are all our contrivings 
 And the wisdom of our books, 
 When compared with your caresses, 
 And the gladness of your looks ? 
 
 " Ye are better than all the ballads 
 That ever were sung or said ; 
 For ye are living poems, 
 And all the rest are dead." 
 
 LONGFEI^OW. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. and LAST. 
 
 ERE begins the never- 
 
 to-be-too-much-stud- 
 
 ied account of the 
 
 nine - hundred -and 
 
 ninety-ninth part of 
 
 the wonderful things 
 
 which Tom saw on his 
 
 journey to the Other-end- 
 
 of-Nowhere ; which all 
 
 good little children are 
 
 requested to read ; that, if 
 
 ever they °:et to the Other- 
 
 end-of-Nowhere, as they 
 
 may very probably do, 
 
 they may not burst out 
 
 laughing, or try to run 
 
 away, or do any other 
 
 silly vulgar thing which 
 
 may offend Mrs. Bedoue- 
 
 byasyoudid. 
 
 Now, as soon as Tom 
 had left Peacepool, he 
 came to the white lap of 
 the great sea-mother, ten thousand fathoms deep ; where 
 (236) 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 237 
 
 she makes world-pap all day long, for the steam-giants 
 to knead, and the fire-giants to bake, till it has risen 
 and hardened into mountain-loaves and island-cakes. 
 
 And there Tom was very near being kneaded up in 
 the world-pap, and turned into a fossil water-baby ; 
 which would have astonished the Geological Society 
 of New Zealand some hundreds of thousands of years 
 hence. 
 
 For, as he walked along in the silence of the sea- 
 twilight, on the soft white ocean floor, he was aware of 
 a hissing, and a roaring, and a thumping, and a pump- 
 ing, as of all the steam-engines in the world at once. 
 And, when he came near, the water grew boiling hot ; 
 not that that hurt him in the least : but it also grew as 
 foul as gruel ; and every moment he stumbled over dead 
 shells, and fish, and sharks, and seals, and whales, which 
 had been killed by the hot water. 
 
 And at last he came to the great sea-serpent himself, 
 lying dead at the bottom ; and as he was too thick to 
 scramble over, Tom had to walk round him three- 
 quarters of a mile and more, which put him out of his 
 path sadly ; and, when he had got round, he came to 
 the place called Stop. And there he stopped, and just 
 in time. 
 
 For he was on the edge of a vast hole in the bottom of 
 the sea, up which was rushing and roaring clear steam 
 enough to work all the engines in the world at once ; so 
 clear, indeed, that it was quite light at moments ; and 
 Tom could see almost up to the top of the water 
 above, and down below into the pit for nobody knows 
 how far. 
 
 But, as soon as he bent his head over the edge, he 
 got such a rap on the nose from pebbles, that he jumped 
 back again ; for the steam, as it rushed up, rasped away 
 
i3S THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 <he sides of the hole, and hurled it up into the sea in a 
 shower of mud and gravel and ashes ; and then it spread 
 all around, and sank again, and covered in the dead fish 
 so fast, that before Tom had stood there five minutes he 
 was buried in silt up to his ankles, and began to be 
 afraid that he should have been buried alive. 
 
 And perhaps he would have been, but that while he 
 was thinking, the whole piece of ground on which he 
 stood was torn off and blown upwards, and away flew 
 Tom a mile up through the sea, wondering what was 
 coming next. 
 
 At last he stopped — thump ! and found himself tight 
 in the legs of the most wonderful bogy which he had 
 ever seen. 
 
 It had I don't know how many wings, as big as the 
 sails of a windmill, and spread out in a ring like them ; 
 and with them it hovered over the steam which rushed 
 up, as a ball hovers over the top of a fountain. And for 
 every wing above it had a leg below, with a claw like a 
 comb at the tip, and a nostril at the root ; and in the 
 middle it had no stomach and one eye ; and as for its 
 mouth, that was all on one side, as the madreporiform 
 tubercle in a star-fish is. Well, it was a very strange 
 beast ; but no stranger than some dozens which you 
 may see. 
 
 "What do you want here," it cried quite peevishly, 
 11 getting in my way ? " and it tried to drop Tom : but he 
 held on tight to its claws, thinking himself safer where 
 he was. 
 
 So Tom told him who he was, and what his errand 
 was. And the thing winked its one eye, and sneered : 
 
 11 I am too old to be taken in in that way. You are 
 come after gold — I know you are." 
 
 "Gold ! What is gold?" And really Tom did not 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 239 
 
 know ; but the suspicious old bogy would not believe 
 him. 
 
 But after a while Tom began to understand a little. 
 For, as the vapors came up out of the hole, the bogy 
 smelt them with his nostrils, and combed them and 
 sorted them with his combs ; and then, when they 
 steamed up through them against his wings, they were 
 changed into showers and streams of metal. From one 
 wing fell gold-dust, and from another silver, and from 
 another copper, and from another tin, and from another 
 lead, and so on, and sank into the soft mud, into veins 
 and cracks, and hardened there. Whereby it comes to 
 pass that the rocks are full of metal. 
 
 But, all of a sudden, somebody shut off the steam 
 below, and the hole was left empty in an instant ; and 
 then down rushed the water into the hole, in such a 
 whirlpool that the bogy spun round and round as fast as 
 a teetotum. But that was all in his day's work, like 
 a fair fall with the hounds ; so all he did was to say to 
 Tom— 
 
 "Now is your time, youngster, to get down, if you 
 are in earnest, which I don't believe." 
 
 "You'll soon see," said Tom ; and away he went, as 
 bold as Baron Munchausen, and shot down the rushing 
 cataract like a salmon at Ballisodare. 
 
 And, when he got to the bottom, he swam till he was 
 washed on shore safe upon the Other-end-of-Nowhere ; 
 and he found it, to his surprise, as most other people do, 
 much more like This-end-of-Somewhere than he had 
 been in the habit of expecting. 
 
 And first he went through Waste-paper-land, where all 
 the stupid books lie in heaps, up hill and down dale, 
 like leaves in a winter wood ; and there he saw people 
 digging and grubbing among them, to make worse 
 
240 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 books out of bad ones, and thrashing chaff to save the 
 dust of it ; and a very good trade they drove thereby, 
 especially among children. 
 
 Then he went by the sea of slops, to the mountain of 
 messes, and the territory of tuck, where the ground was 
 very sticky, for it was all made of bad toffee (not Ever ton 
 toffee, of course), and full of deep cracks and holes 
 choked with wind-fallen fruit, and green gooseberries, 
 and sloes, and crabs, and whinberries, and hips and 
 haws, and all the nastv things which little children will 
 eat, if they can get them. But the fairies hide them 
 out of the way in that country as fast as they can, and 
 very hard work they have, and of very little use it is. 
 For as fast as they hide away the old trash foolish and 
 w r icked people make fresh trash full of lime and poisonous 
 paints, and actually go and steal receipts out of old 
 Madame Science's big book to invent poisons for little 
 children, and sell them at wakes and fairs and tuck- 
 shops. Very well. Let them go on. Dr. Lethebv and 
 Dr. Hassall cannot catch them, though they are setting 
 traps for them all day long. But the Fairy with the 
 birch-rod will catch them all in time, and make them 
 begin at one corner of their shops, and eat their way 
 out at the other : bv which time thev will have got 
 such stomach-aches as will cure them of poisoning little 
 children. 
 
 Next he saw all the little people in the world, writing 
 all the little books in the world, about all the other little 
 people in the world ; probably because they had no great 
 people to write about : and if the names of the books 
 were not Squeeky, nor the Pumplighter, nor the Narrow 
 Narrow World, nor the Hills of the Chattermuch, nor 
 the Children's Twaddeday, why then they were some- 
 thing else. And all the rest of the little people in the 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 241 
 
 world read the books, and thought themselves each as 
 good as the President ; and perhaps? they were right, for 
 every one knows his own business best. But Tom 
 thought he would sooner have a jolly good fairy tale, 
 about Jack the Giant-killer or Beauty and the Beast, 
 which taught him something that he didn't know al- 
 ready. 
 
 And next he came to the centre of Creation (the hub, 
 they call it there), which lies in latitude \2'2\° south 
 and longitude 108 "56° east. 
 
 And there he found all the wise people instructing 
 mankind in the science of spirit-rapping, while their 
 house was burning over their heads : and when Tom 
 told them of the fire, they held an indignation meeting 
 forthwith, and unanimously determined to hang Tom's 
 dog for coming into their country with gunpowder in 
 his mouth. Tom couldn't help saying that though they 
 did fancy they had carried all the wit away with them 
 out of Lincolnshire two hundred years ago, yet if they 
 had had one such Lincolnshire nobleman among them 
 as good old Lord Yarborough, he would have called 
 for the fire-engines before he hanged other people's 
 doo-s. But it was of no use, and the do°: was handed : 
 and Tom couldn't even have his carcase; for they had 
 abolished the have-his-carcase act in that country, for 
 fear lest when rogues fell out, honest men should come 
 by their own. And so they would have succeeded per- 
 fectly, as they always do, only that (as they also always 
 do) they failed in one little particular, viz., that the dog 
 would not die, being a water-dog, but bit their fingers 
 so abominably that they were forced to let him go^ and 
 Tom likewise, as British subjects. Whereon they 
 recommended rapping for the spirits of their fathers ; 
 and very much astonished the poor old spirits were 
 
242 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 when they came, and saw how, according to the laws of 
 Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, their descendants had weak- 
 ened their constitution by hard living. 
 
 Then came Tom to the Island of Poluragmosyne 
 (which some call Rogues' Harbor ; but they are wrong ; 
 for that is in the middle of Bramshill Bushes, and the 
 county police have cleared it out long ago). There 
 every one knows his neighbor's business better than his 
 own ; and a very noisy place it is, as might be expected, 
 Considering that all the inhabitants are ex officio on the 
 wrong side of the house in the "Parliament of Man 
 and the Federation of the World ;" and are always 
 making wry mouths, and crying that the fairies' grapes 
 were sour. 
 
 There Tom saw ploughs drawing horses, nails driving 
 hammers, birds' nests taking boys, books making 
 authors, bulls keeping china-shops, monkeys shaving 
 cats, dead dogs drilling live lions, blind brigadiers 
 shelfed as principals of colleges, play-actors not in the 
 least shelfed as popular preachers ; and, in short, every 
 one set to do something which he had not learnt, because 
 in what he had learnt, or pretended to learn, he had 
 failed. 
 
 There stands the Pantheon of the Great Unsuccessful, 
 from the builders of the Tower of Babel to those of the 
 Trafalgar Fountains ; in which politicians lecture on the 
 constitutions which ought to have marched, conspirators 
 on the revolutions which ought to have succeeded, econ- 
 omists on the schemes which ought to have made ever) 7 
 one's fortune, and projectors on the discoveries which 
 ought to have set the Thames on fire. There cobblers 
 lecture on orthopedy (whatsoever that may be) because 
 they cannot sell their shoes ; and poets on ^Esthetics 
 (whatever that may be) because they cannot sell their 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 243 
 
 poetry. There philosophers demonstrate that England 
 would be the freest and richest country in the world, if 
 she would only turn Papist again ; penny-a-liners abuse 
 the Times, because they have not wit enough to get on 
 its staff; and young ladies walk about with lockets of 
 Charles the First's hair (or of somebody else's, when the 
 Jews' genuine stock is used up), inscribed with the neat 
 and appropriate legend — which, indeed, is popular 
 through all that land, and which, I hope, you will learn 
 to translate in due time and to perpend likewise : 
 
 " Victrix causa diis placuit, sed victa puellis." 
 
 When he got into the middle of the town, they all 
 set on him at once, to show him his way ; or rather, to 
 show him that he did not know his way ; for as for ask- 
 ing him what way he wanted to go, no one ever thought 
 oAhat. 
 
 But one pulled him hither, and another poked him 
 thither, and a third cried — 
 
 u You mustn't go west, I tell you ; it is destruction to 
 go west." 
 
 "But I am not going west, as you may see," saicl 
 Tom. 
 
 And another, " The east lies here, my dear ; I assure 
 you this is the east." 
 
 u But I don't want to go east," said Tom. 
 
 "Well, then, at all events, whichever way you are 
 going, you are going wrong," cried they all with ont 
 voice — which was the only thing which they ever agieed 
 about ; and all pointed at once to all the thirty-and-two 
 points of the compass, till Tom thought all the sign-posts 
 in England had got together and fallen fighting. 
 
 And whether he would have ever escaped out of the 
 
244 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 town, it is hard to say, if the dog had not taken it into 
 his head that they were going to pull his master to 
 pieces, and tackled them so sharply about the gastroc- 
 nemius muscle, that he gave them some business of 
 their own to think of at last ; and while they were 
 rubbing their bitten calves, Tom and the dog got safe 
 away. 
 
 On the borders of that island he found Gotham, where 
 the wise men live ; the same who dragged the pond be- 
 cause the moon had fallen into it, and planted a hedge 
 round the cuckoo, to keep spring all the year. And he 
 found them bricking up the town gate, because it was so 
 wide that little folks could not get through. And, when 
 he asked why, they told him they were expanding their 
 liturgy. So he went on ; for it was no business of his : 
 only he could not help saying that in his country, if the 
 kitten could not get in at the same hole as the cat, she 
 might stay outside and mew. 
 
 But he saw the end of such fellows, when he came 
 to the island of the Golden Asses, where nothing but 
 thistles grow. For there they were all turned into mokes 
 with ears a yard long, for meddling with matters which 
 they do not understand, as Lucius did in the story. And 
 like him, mokes they must remain, till, by the laws of 
 development, the thistles develop into roses. Till then, 
 they must comfort themselves with the thought that 
 the longer their ears are the thicker their hides ; and so 
 a good beating don't hurt them. 
 
 Then came Tom to the great land of Hearsay, in which 
 are no less than thirty and odd kings, beside half a dozen 
 Republics, and perhaps more by next mail. 
 
 And there he fell in with a deep, dark, deadly, and 
 destructive war, waged by the princes and potentates of 
 those parts, both spiritual and temporal, against what 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 245 
 
 do you think? One thing I am sure of. That unless 
 I told you, you would never know ; nor how they waged 
 that war either ; for all their strategy and art military 
 consisted in the safe and easy process of stopping their 
 ears and screaming, " Oh, don't tell us!" and then 
 running away. 
 
 So, when Tom came into that land, he found them 
 all, high and low, man, woman, and child, running for 
 their lives day and night continually, and entreating not 
 to be told they didn't know what : only the land being 
 an island and they having a dislike to the water (being 
 a musty lot for the most part), they ran round the shore 
 for ever, which (as the island was exactly of the same 
 circumference as the planet on which we have the honor 
 of living) was hard work, especially to those who had 
 business to look after. But before them, as bandmaster 
 and fugleman, ran a gentleman shearing a pig ; the 
 melodious strains of which animal led them for ever, if 
 not to conquest, still to flight ; and kept up their spirits 
 mightily with the thought that they would at least have 
 the pig's wool for their pains. 
 
 And running after them, day and night, came such a 
 poor, lean, seedy, hard-worked old giant, as ought to 
 have been cockered up, and had a good dinner given 
 him, and a good wife found him, and been set to play 
 with the little children ; and then he would have been a 
 very presentable old fellow, after all ; for he had a 
 heart, though it was considerably overgrown with 
 brains. 
 
 He was made up principally of fish-bones and parch- 
 ment, put together with wire and Canada balsam ; and 
 smelt strongly of spirits, though he never drank any- 
 thing but water : but spirits he used somehow, there is 
 no denying. He had a great pair of spectacles on his 
 
246 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 nose, and a butterfly-net in one hand, and a geological 
 hammer in the other ; and was hung all over with 
 pockets, full of collecting boxes, bottles, microscopes, 
 telescopes, barometers, ordnance maps, scalpels, forceps, 
 photographic apparatus, and all other tackle for finding 
 out everything about everything, and a little more, too. 
 And, most strange of all, he was running not forwards 
 but backwards, as fast as he could. 
 
 Away all the good folks ran from him, except Tom, 
 who stood his ground and dodged between his legs ; and 
 the giant, when he had passed him, looked down, and 
 cried, as if he was quite pleased and comforted — 
 
 "What? Who are you? And you actually don't 
 run away, like all the rest?" But he had to take 
 his spectacles off, Tom remarked, in order to see him 
 plainly. 
 
 Tom told him who he was ; and the giant pulled out 
 a bottle and a cork instantly, to collect him with. 
 
 But Tom was too sharp for that, and dodged between 
 his legs and in front of him ; and then the giant could 
 not see him at all. 
 
 u No, no, no!" said Tom ; "I've not been round the 
 world, and through the world, and up to Mother Carey's 
 haven, beside being caught in a net and called a Holo- 
 thurian and a Cephalopod, to be bottled up by any old 
 giant like vou. " 
 
 And when the giant understood what a great traveller 
 Tom had been, he made a truce with him at once, and 
 would have kept him there to this day to pick his brains, 
 so delighted was he at finding any one to tell him what 
 he did not know before. 
 
 "Ah, you lucky little dog!" said he at last, quite 
 simply — for he was the simplest, pleasantest, honestest, 
 kindliest old Dominie Sampson of a giant that ever 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 247 
 
 turned the world upside down without intending it — 
 " ah, you lucky little dog ! If I had only been where 
 you have been, to see what you have seen ! " 
 
 "Well," said Tom, "if you want to do that, you had 
 best put your head under water for a few hours, as I did, 
 and turn into a water-baby, or some other baby, and 
 then you might have a chance." 
 
 "Turn into a baby, eh? If I could do that, and 
 know what was happening to me for but one hour, I 
 should know everything then, and be at rest. But I 
 can't ; I can't be a little child again ; and I suppose if I 
 could, it would be no use, because then I should know 
 nothing about what was happening to me. Ah, you 
 lucky little dog ! " said the poor old giant. 
 
 "But why do you run after all these poor people?" 
 said Tom, who liked the giant very much. 
 
 " My dear, it's they that have been running after me, 
 father and son, for hundreds and hundreds of years, 
 throwing stones at me till they have knocked off my 
 spectacles fifty times, and calling me a malignant and 
 a turbaned Turk, who beat a Venetian and traduced the 
 State — goodness only knows what they mean, for I never 
 read poetry — and hunting me round and round — though 
 catch me they can't, for every time I go over the same 
 ground I go the faster, and grow the bigger. While all 
 I want is to be friends with them, and to tell them 
 something to their advantage, like Mr. Joseph Ady : 
 only somehow they are so strangely afraid of hearing it. 
 But, I suppose, I am not a man of the world, and have 
 no tact." 
 
 " But why don't you turn round and tell them so? " 
 
 " Because I can't. You see, I am one of the sons of 
 Bpimetheus, and must go backwards, if I am to go at 
 all." 
 
248 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 "But why dou't you stop, and let them come up to 
 you? " 
 
 "Why, my dear, only think. If I did, all the butter- 
 flies and cockyolybirds would fly past me, and then I 
 should catch no more new species, and should grow 
 rusty and mouldy, and die. And I don't intend to do 
 that, my dear ; for I have a destiny before me, they say: 
 though what it is I don't know, and don't care." 
 
 "Don't care?" said Tom. 
 
 u No. Do the duty which lies nearest you, and catch 
 the first beetle you come across, is my motto ; and I 
 have thriven by it for some hundred years. Now I must 
 go on. Dear me, while I have been talking to you, at 
 least nine new species have escaped me." 
 
 And on went the giant, behind before, like a bull in 
 a china-shop, till he ran into the steeple of the great idol 
 temple (for they are all idolaters in those parts, of course, 
 else they would never be afraid of giants), and knocked 
 the upper half clean off, hurting himself horribly about 
 the small of the back. 
 
 But little he cared ; for as soon as the ruins of the 
 steeple were well between his legs, he poked and peered 
 among the falling stones, and shifted his spectacles, and 
 pulled out his pocket-magnifier, and cried — 
 
 "An entirely new Oniscus, and three obscure Podu- 
 rellse ! Besides a moth which M. le Roi des Papillons 
 (though he, like all Frenchmen, is given to hasty induc- 
 tions) says is confined to the limits of the Glacial Drift. 
 This is most important ! " 
 
 And down he sat on the nave of the temple (not being 
 a man of the world) to examine his Podurellse. Whereon 
 (as was to be expected) the roof caved in bodily, smash- 
 ing the idols, and sending the priests flying out of doors 
 and windows, like rabbits out of a burrow when a ferret 
 goes in. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 249 
 
 But he never heeded ; for out of the dust flew a bat, 
 and the giant had him in a moment. 
 
 " Dear me ! This is even more important ! Here is 
 a cognate species to that which Macgilliwaukie Brown 
 insists is confined to the Buddhist temples of Little 
 Thibet ; and now when I look at it, it may be only a 
 variety produced by difference of climate ! " 
 
 And having bagged his bat, up he got, and on he 
 "went ; while all the people ran, being in none the 
 better humor for having their temple smashed for the 
 sake of three obscure species of Podurellse, and a bud- 
 dhist bat. 
 
 44 Well," thought Tom, " this is a very pretty quarrel, 
 frith a good deal to be said on both sides. But it is no 
 business of mine." 
 
 And no more it was, because he was a water-baby, 
 and had the original sow by the right ear ; which you 
 will never have, unless you be a baby, whether of the 
 water, the land, or the air, matters not, provided you 
 can only keep on continually being a baby. 
 
 So the giant ran round after the people, and the people 
 ran round after the giant, and they are running unto 
 this day for aught I know, or do not know ; and will 
 run till either he, or they, or both, turn into little 
 children. And then, as Shakespeare says (and therefore 
 "t must be true) — 
 
 "Jack shall have Gill 
 
 Nought shall go ill 
 
 The man shall have his mare again, and all go well.'" 
 
 Then Tom came to a very famous island, which was 
 called, in the days of the great traveller Captain Gulliver, 
 the Isle of Laputa, But Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid has 
 
 X7 — Water Babies 
 
250 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 named it over again, the Isle of Tomtoddies, all heads 
 and no bodies. 
 
 And when Tom came near it he heard such a grum- 
 bling and grunting and growling and wailing and weep- 
 ing and whining that he thought people must be ringing 
 little pigs, or cropping puppies' ears, or drowning kittens: 
 but when he came nearer still, he began to hear words 
 among the noise ; which was the Tomtoddies' song which 
 they sing morning and evening, and all night, too, to 
 their great idol Examination — 
 
 "I can't learn my lesson : the examiner's coming ! " 
 
 And that was the only song which they knew. 
 
 And when Tom got on shore the first thing he saw 
 was a great pillar, on one side of which was inscribed, 
 "Playthings not allowed here;" at which he was so 
 shocked that he would not stay to see what was written 
 on the other side. Then he looked round for the people 
 of the island : but instead of men, women, and children, 
 he found nothing but turnips and radishes, beet and 
 mangold wurzel, without a single green leaf among them, 
 and half of them burst and decayed, with toadstools 
 growing out of them. Those which were left began 
 crying to Tom, in half a dozen different languages at 
 once, and all of them badly spoken, "I can't learn my 
 lesson ; do come and help me ! " And one cried, " Can 
 you show me how to extract this square root? " 
 
 And another, " Can you tell me the distance between 
 a Lyrse and p Camelopardis ? " 
 
 And another, " What is the latitude and longitude of 
 Snooksville, in Noman's County, Oregon, U. S. ? " 
 
 And another, " What was the name of Mutius Scae- 
 vola's thirteenth cousin's grandmother's maid's cat?" 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 25 1 
 
 And another, "How long would it take a school in- 
 spector of average activity to tumble head over heels 
 from London to York ? " 
 
 And another, "Can you tell me the name of a place 
 that nobody ever heard of, where nothing ever happened, 
 in a country which has not been discovered yet? " 
 
 And another, u Can you show me how to correct this 
 hopelessly corrupt passage of Graidiocolosyrtus Taben- 
 niticus, or the cause why crocodiles have no tongues? " 
 
 And so on, and so on, and so on, till one would have 
 thought they were all trying for tide-waiters' places, or 
 cornetcies in the heavy dragoons. 
 
 "And what good on earth will it do you if I did tell 
 you?" quoth Tom. 
 
 Well, they didn't know that: all they knew was the 
 examiner was coming. 
 
 Then Tom stumbled on the hugest and softest nimble- 
 comequick turnip you ever saw filling a hole in a crop of 
 swedes, and it cried to him, " Can you tell me anything 
 at all about anything you like? " 
 
 ''About what? " says Tom. 
 
 "About anything you like ; for as fast as I learn things 
 I forget them again. So my mamma says that my intel- 
 lect is not adapted for methodic science, and says that I 
 must go for general information." 
 
 Tom told him that he did not know general infor- 
 mation, nor any officers in the army : only he had a 
 friend once that went for a drummer : but he could tell 
 him a great many strange things which he had seen in 
 his travels. 
 
 So he told him prettily enough, while the poor turnip 
 listened very carefully ; and the more he listened, the 
 more he forgot, and the more water ran out of him. 
 
 Tom thought he was crying : but it was only his poor 
 
252 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 brains running away from being worked so hard ; and as 
 Tom talked, the unhappy turnip streamed down all over 
 with juice, and split and shrank till nothing was left of 
 him but rind and w r ater ; whereat Tom ran away in a 
 fright, for he thought he might be taken up for killing 
 the turnip. 
 
 But, on the contrary, the turnip's parents were highly 
 delighted, and considered him a saint and a martyr, and 
 put up a long inscription over his tomb about his won- 
 derful talents, early development, and unparalleled pre- 
 cocity. Were they not a foolish couple ? But there was 
 a still more foolish couple next to them, who were 
 beating a wretched little radish, no bigger than my 
 thumb, for sullenness aud obstinacy and wilful stupidity, 
 and never knew that the reason why it couldn't learn 
 or hardly even speak was, that there was a great worm 
 inside it eating all its brains. But even they are no 
 foolisher than some hundred score of papas and mammas, 
 who fetch the rod when they ought to fetch a new toy, 
 and send to the dark cupboard instead of to the doctor. 
 
 Tom was so puzzled and frightened with all he saw, 
 that he was longing to ask the meaning of it ; and at 
 last he stumbled over a respectable old stick lying half- 
 covered with earth. But a very stout and worthy stick it 
 was, for it belonged to good Roger Ascham in old time, 
 and he carved on its head King Edward the Sixth, with 
 the Bible in his hand. 
 
 " You see," said the stick, "there were as pretty little 
 children once as you could wish to see, and might have 
 been so still if they had been only left to grow up like 
 human beings, and then handed over to me ; but their 
 foolish fathers and mothers, instead of letting them pick 
 flowers, and make dirt-pies, and get birds' nests, and 
 dance round the gooseberry bush, as little children 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 2 53 
 
 should, kept thein always at lessons, working, working, 
 working, learning week-day lessons all week-days, and 
 Sunday lessons all Sunday, and weekly examinations 
 every Saturday, and monthly examinations every month, 
 and yearly examinations ever year, everything seven 
 times over, as if once was not enough, and enough as 
 good as a feast — till their brains grew big, and their 
 bodies grew small, and they were all changed into tur- 
 nips, with little but water 
 inside ; and still their 
 foolish parents actually 
 pick the leaves off them 
 as fast as they grow, lest 
 they should have any- 
 thing green about them." 
 
 "Ah!" said Tom, "if 
 dear Mrs. Doasyouwould- 
 bedoneby knew of it she 
 would send them a lot 
 of tops, and balls, and 
 marbles, and ninepins, 
 and make them all as jolly 
 as sand-boys. ' ' 
 
 " It would be no use," 
 said the stick. ' ' They 
 can't play now, if they tried. Don't you see how their 
 legs have turned to roots and grown into the ground, by 
 never taking any exercise, but sapping and moping al- 
 ways in the same place ? But here comes the Bxaminer- 
 of-all-Examiners. So you had better get away, I warn 
 you, or he will examine you and your dog into the bar- 
 gain, and set him to examine all the other dogs, and 
 you to examine all the other water-babies. There 
 is no escaping out of his hands, for his nose is nine 
 
254 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 thousand miles long, and can go down chimneys, and 
 through keyholes, upstairs, downstairs, in my lady's 
 chamber, examining all little boys, and the little boys' 
 tutors likewise. But when he is thrashed — so Mrs. Be- 
 donebyasyoudid has promised me — I shall have the 
 thrashing of him : and if I don't lay it on with a will 
 it's a pity." 
 
 Tom went off : but rather slowly and surlily ; for he 
 was somewhat minded to face this same Examiner-of-all- 
 Examiners, who came striding among the poor turnips, 
 binding heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and 
 laying them on little children's shoulders, like the 
 Scribes and Pharisees of old, and not touching the same 
 with one of his fingers ; for he had plenty of money, and 
 a fine house to live in, and so forth ; which was more 
 than the poor little turnips had. 
 
 But, when he got near, he looked so big and burly 
 and dictatorial, and shouted so loud to Tom to come 
 and be examined, that Tom ran for his life, and the dog, 
 too. And really it was time : for the poor turnips, in 
 their hurrvand fright, crammed themselves so fast to be 
 ready for the Examiner, that they burst and popped by 
 dozens all round him, till the place sounded like Alder- 
 shot on a field-dav, and Tom thought he should be blown 
 into the air, dog and all. 
 
 As he went down to the shore he passed the poor 
 turnip's new tomb. But Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid had 
 taken away the epitaph about talents and precocity and 
 development, and put up one of her own instead, which 
 Tom thought much more sensible : 
 
 "Instruction sore long time I bore. 
 And cramming was in vain ; 
 Till heaven did please my woes to ease, 
 With water on the brain." 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 255 
 
 So Tom jumped into the sea, and swam on his way, 
 singing : 
 
 "Farewell, Tomtoddies all ; I thank my stars 
 That nought I know save those three royal r J s : 
 Reading and riting sure, with rithmetick, 
 Will help a lad of sense through thin and thick" 
 
 Whereby you may see that Tom was no poet : but no 
 more was John Bunyan, though he was as wise a man 
 as you will meet in a month of Sundays. 
 
 And next he came to Oldwivesfabledom, where the 
 folks were all heathens, and worshipped a howling ape. 
 
 And there he found a little boy sitting in the middle 
 of the road, and crying bitterly. 
 
 "What are you crying for? " said Tom. 
 
 " Because I am not as frightened as I could wish 
 to be." 
 
 " Not frightened? You are a queer little chap : but, 
 if you want to be frightened, here goes — Boo ! " 
 
 u Ah," said the little boy, "that is very kind of 
 you ; but I don't feel that it has made any impres- 
 sion." 
 
 Tom offered to upset him, punch him, stamp on him, 
 fettle him over the head with a brick, or anything 
 else whatsoever which would give him the slightest 
 comfort. 
 
 But he only thanked Tom very civilly, in fine long 
 words which he had heard other folk use, and which, 
 therefore, he thought were fit and proper to use himself; 
 and cried on till his papa and mamma came, and sent 
 off for the Powwow man immediately. And a very 
 good-natured gentleman and lady they were, though 
 they were heathens ; and talked quite pleasantly to Tom 
 
2.56 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 about his travels, till the Powwow man arrived, with his 
 thunderbox under his arm. 
 
 And a well-fed, ill-favored gentleman he was, as ever 
 served Her Majesty at Portland. Tom was a little 
 frightened at first ; for he thought it was Grimes. But 
 he soon saw his mistake : for Grimes always looked a 
 man in the face ; and this fellow never did. And when 
 he spoke, it was fire and smoke ; and when he sneezed, 
 it was squibs and crackers ; and when he cried (which 
 he did whenever it paid him), it was boiling pitch ; and 
 some of it was sure to stick. 
 
 u Here we are again ! " cried he, like the clown in a 
 pantomime. u So you can't feel frightened, my little 
 dear — eh? I'll do that for you. I'll make an im- 
 pression on you ! Yah ! Boo ! Whirroo ! Hulla- 
 baloo ! " 
 
 And he rattled, thumped, brandisned his thunderbox, 
 yelled, shouted, raved, roared, stamped, and danced cor- 
 robory like any black fellow ; and then he touched a 
 spring in the thunderbox, and out popped turnip-ghost? 
 and magic-lanthorns and pasteboard bogies and spring- 
 heeled Jacks and sallaballas, with such a horrid din, 
 clatter, clank, roll, rattle, and roar, that the little boy 
 turned up the whites of his eyes, and fainted right 
 away. 
 
 And at that his poor heathen papa and mamma were 
 as much delighted as if they had found a gold mine ,, 
 and fell down upon their knees before the Powwow 
 man, and gave him a palanquin w T ith a pole of solid 
 silver and curtains of cloth of gold ; and carried him 
 about in it on their backs : but as soon as thev had taken 
 him up, the pole stuck to their shoulders, and they could 
 not set him down any more, but carried him on willy- 
 nilly, as Sinbad carried the old man of the sea : which 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 257 
 
 was a pitiable sight to see ; for the father was a very 
 brave officer, and wore two swords and a blue button ; 
 and the mother was as pretty a lady as ever had pinched 
 feet like a Chinese. But, you see, they had chosen to 
 do a foolish thing just once too often ; so, by the laws of 
 Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, they had to go on doing it 
 whether they chose or not, till the coming of the 
 Cocqcigrues. 
 
 Ah ! don't you wish that some one would go and 
 convert those poor heathens, and teach them not to 
 frighten their little children into fits? 
 
 "Now, then," said the Powwow man to Tom, 
 (i wouldn't you like to be frightened, my little dear? 
 For I can see plainly that you are a very wicked, 
 naughty, graceless, reprobate boy." 
 
 "You're another," quoth Tom, very sturdily. And 
 when the man ran at him, and cried " Boo ! " Tom ran 
 at him in return, and cried "Boo !" likewise, right in 
 his face, and set the little dog upon him ; and at his legs 
 the dog went. 
 
 At which, if you will believe it, the fellow turned tail, 
 thunderbox and all, with a "Woof!" like an old sow 
 on the common ; and ran for his life, screaming, "Help! 
 thieves ! murder ! fire ! He is going to kill me ! I am 
 a ruined man ! He will murder me ; and break, burn, 
 and destroy my precious and invaluable thunderbox ; 
 and then you will have no more thunder-showers in the 
 land. Help! help! help!" 
 
 At which the papa and mamma and all the people of 
 Oldwivesfabledom flew at Tom, shouting, "Oh, the 
 wicked, impudent, hard-hearted, graceless boy ! Beat 
 him, kick him, shoot him, drown him, hang him, burn 
 him !" and so forth : but luckily they had nothing to 
 shoot, hang, or burn him with, for the fairies had M-* 
 
258 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 all the killing-tackle out of the way a little while before ; 
 so they could only pelt him with stones ; and some of 
 the stones went clean through him, and came out the 
 other side. But he did not mind that a. bit ; for the 
 holes closed up again as fast as they were made, because 
 he was a water-baby. However, he was very glad when 
 he was safe out of the country, for the noise there made 
 him all but deaf. 
 
 Then he came to a very quiet place, called Leave- 
 heavenalone. And there the sun was drawing water out 
 of the sea to make steam-threads, and the wind was 
 twisting them up to make cloud-patterns, till they had 
 worked between them the loveliest wedding- veil of Chan- 
 tilly lace, and hung it up in their own Crystal Palace for 
 any one to buy who could afford it ; while the good old 
 sea never grudged, for she knew they would pay her 
 back honestly. So the sun span, and the wind wove, 
 and all went well with the great steam-loom ; as is likely, 
 considering — and considering — and considering — 
 
 And at last, after innumerable adventures, each more 
 wonderful than the last, he saw before him a huge 
 building, much bigger, and — what is most surprising — 
 a little uglier than a certain new lunatic asylum, but not 
 built quite of the same materials. None of it, at least — 
 or, indeed, for aught that I ever saw, any part of any 
 other building whatsoever — is cased with nine-inch 
 brick inside and out, and filled up with rubble between 
 the walls, in order that any gentleman who has been 
 confined during Her Majesty's pleasure may be uncon- 
 fined during his own pleasure, and take a walk in the 
 neighboring park to improve his spirits, after an hour's 
 light and wholesome labor with his dinner-fork or one 
 of the legs of his iron bedstead. No. The walls of 
 this building were built on an entirely different prin* 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 259 
 
 ciple, which need not be described, as it has not yet been 
 discovered. 
 
 Tom walked towards this great building, wondering 
 what it was, and having a strange fancy that he might 
 find Mr. Grimes inside it, till he saw running toward 
 him, and shouting " Stop ! " three or four people, who, 
 when they came nearer, were nothing else than police- 
 men's truncheons, running along without legs or arms. 
 
 Tom was not astonished. He was 
 long past that. Besides, he had seen the 
 navicular in the water move, nobody 
 knows how, a hundred times, without 
 arms, or legs, or anything to stand in 
 their stead. Neither was he frightened ; 
 for he had been doing no harm. 
 
 So he stopped ; and, when the foremost 
 truncheon came up and asked his busi- 
 ness, he showed Mother Carey's pass ; 
 and the truncheon looked at it in the 
 oddest fashion ; for he had one eye in the 
 middle of his upper end, so that when he 
 looked at anything, being quite stiff, he 
 had to slope himself, and poke himself, 
 till it was a wonder why he did not 
 tumble over ; but, being quite full of the 
 spirit of justice (as all policemen, and 
 their truncheons, ought to be), he was always in a 
 position of stable equilibrium, whichever way he put 
 himself. 
 
 "All right — pass on," said he at last. And then he 
 
 added : U I had better go with you, young man." And 
 
 Tom had no objection, for such company was bGth r** 
 
 spectable and safe ; so the truncheon coiled its thong 
 
 neatly round its handle, to prevent tripping itself up— 
 
26o THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 for the thong had got loose in running — and marched on 
 bv Tom's side. 
 
 J 
 
 u Why have you no policeman to carry you?" a^ked 
 Tom, after a while. 
 
 "Because we are not like those clumsy-made trun- 
 cheons in the land-world, which cannot go without having 
 a whole man to carry them about. We do our own work 
 for ourselves ; and do it very well, though I say it who 
 should not. 
 
 "Then why have you a thong to your handle?" 
 asked Tom. 
 
 "To hang ourselves up bv, of course, when we are 
 off duty." 
 
 Tom had got his answer, and had no more to say, 
 till they came up to the great iron door of the prison. 
 And there the truncheon knocked twice with its own 
 head. 
 
 A wicket in the door opened, and out looked a tre- 
 mendous old brass blunderbuss charged up to the muzzle 
 with slugs, who was the porter ; and Tom started back 
 a little at the sight. 
 
 " What case is this?" he asked in a deep voice, out 
 of his broad bell mouth. 
 
 " If you please, sir, it is no case ; only a young gentle- 
 man from her ladyship, who wants to see Grimes, the 
 master-sweep." 
 
 "Grimes?" said the blunderbuss. And he pulled in 
 his muzzle, perhaps to look over his prison-lists. 
 
 "Grimes is up chimney No. 345," he said from in- 
 side. " So the young gentleman had better go on to 
 the roof." 
 
 Tom looked up at the enormous wall, which seemed 
 at least ninety miles high, and wondered how he should 
 ever get up : but, when he hinted that to the trun- 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LaND-BABY. 
 
 26l 
 
 cheon, it settled the matter in a moment. For it 
 whisked round, and gave him such a shove behind as 
 sent him up to the roof in no time, with his little dog 
 under his arm. 
 
 v ! • 
 
 And there he walked along the leads, till he met 
 another truncheon, and told him his errand. 
 " Very good," it said. 
 
 ,( Come along : but it will be 
 
262 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 of no use. He is the most unremorseful, hard-hearted, 
 foul-mouthed fellow I have in charge : and thinks about 
 nothing but beer and pipes, which are not allowed here, 
 of course." 
 
 So they walked along over the leads, and very sooty 
 they were, and Tom thought the chimneys must w r ant 
 sweeping very much. But he was surprised to see that 
 the soot did not stick to his feet, or dirty them in the 
 least. Neither did the live coals, which were lying 
 about in plenty, burn him ; for, being a water-baby, his 
 radical humors were of a moist and cold nature, as you 
 may read at large in Lemnius, Cardan, Van Helmont, 
 and other gentlemen, who knew as much as they could, 
 and no man can know more. 
 
 And at last they came to chimney No. 345. Out of 
 the top of it, his head and shoulders just showing, stuck 
 poor Mr. Grimes, so sooty, and bleared, and ugly, that 
 Tom could hardlv bear to look at him. And in his 
 mouth was a pipe ; but it was not a-light ; though he 
 was pulling at it with all his might. 
 
 "Attention, Mr. Grimes," said the truncheon; "here 
 is a gentleman come to see you." 
 
 But Mr. Grimes only said bad words ; and kept 
 grumbling, u My pipe won't draw. My pipe won't 
 draw. ' ' 
 
 "Keep a civil tongue, and attend!" said the trun- 
 cheon ; and popped up just like Punch, hitting Grimes 
 such a crack over the head with itself, that his brains 
 rattled inside like a dried walnut in its shell. He tried 
 to get his hands out, and rub the place : but he could 
 not, for they were stuck fast in the chimney. Now he 
 was forced to attend. 
 
 " Hey !" he said ; "why, it's Tom ! I suppose you 
 have come here to laugh at me, you spiteful little 
 atomy ! ' * 
 
(263) 
 
264 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Tom assured him he had not, but only wanted Co help 
 him. 
 
 "I don't want anything except beer, and that I can't 
 get ; and a light to this bothering pipe, and that I can't 
 get either." 
 
 " I'll get you one," said Tom ; and he took up a live 
 coal (there were plenty lying about) and put it to Grimes' 
 pipe : but it went out instantly. 
 
 "It's no use," said the truncheon, leaniug itself up 
 against the chimney and looking on. " I tell you, it is 
 no use. His heart is so cold that it freezes everything 
 that comes near him. You will see that presently, plain 
 
 enough. 
 
 "Oh, of course, it's my fault. Everything's always 
 my fault," said Grimes. "Now don't go to hit me 
 again " (for the truncheon started upright and looked 
 very wicked) ; "you know, if my arms were only free, 
 you daren't hit me then." 
 
 The truncheon leant back against the chimney, and 
 took no notice of the personal insult, like a well-trained 
 policeman as it was, though he was ready enough to 
 avenge any transgression against morality or order. 
 
 "But can't I help you in any other way ? Can't I 
 help you to get out of this chimney? " said Tom. 
 
 "No," interposed the truncheon; "he has com » tc 
 the place where everybody must help themselves ; and 
 he will find it out, I hope, before he has done with 
 
 me." 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Grimes, "of course it's me. Did I 
 ask to be brought here into the prison ? Did I ask to be 
 set to sweep your foul chimneys? Did I ask to have 
 lighted straw put under me to make me go up? Did I 
 ask to stick fast in the very first chimney of all, because 
 it was so shamefully clogged up with soot? Did I ask 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 265 
 
 to stay here — I don't know how long — a hundred years, 
 I do believe, and never get my pipe, nor my beer, nor 
 nothing fit for a beast, let alone a man ? " 
 
 "No," answered a solemn voice behind. " No more 
 did Tom, when you behaved to him in the very same 
 way. ' ' 
 
 It was Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. And, when the 
 truncheon saw her, it started bolt upright — Attention ! 
 — and made such a low bow, that if it had not been full 
 of the spirit of justice, it must have tumbled on its end, 
 and probably hurt its one eye. And Tom made his 
 bow, too. 
 
 " Oh, ma'am," he said, "don't think about me; 
 that's all past and gone, and good times and bad times 
 and all times pass over. But may not I help poor Mr. 
 Grimes? Mayn't I try and get some of these bricks 
 away, that he may move his arms? " 
 
 "You may try, of course," she said. 
 
 So Tom pulled and tugged at the bricks : but he could 
 not move one. And then he tried to wipe Mr. Grimes* 
 face : but the soot would not come off. 
 
 "Oh, dear!" he said. "I have come all this way, 
 through all these terrible places, to help you, and now I 
 am of no use at all." 
 
 " You had best leave me alone," said Grimes ; " you 
 are a good-natured forgiving little chap, and that's truth ; 
 but you'd best be off. The hail's coming on soon, and 
 it will beat the eyes out of your little head." 
 
 "What hail?" 
 
 "Why, hail that falls every evening here ; and, till it 
 comes close to me, it's like so much warm rain : but 
 then it turns to hail over my head, and knocks me about 
 like small shot." 
 
 "The hail will never come any more," said the 
 
 j S— Water-Babies 
 
266 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 strange lady. " I have told you before what it was. It 
 was your mother's tears, those which she shed when she 
 prayed for you by her bedside ; but your cold heart froze 
 it into hail. But she is gone to heaven now, and will 
 weep no more for her graceless son." 
 
 Then Grimes was silent awhile ; and then he looked 
 very sad. 
 
 " So my old mother's gone, and I never there to speak 
 to her ! Ah ! a good woman she was, and might have 
 been a happy one, in her little school there in Vendale, 
 if it hadn't been for me and my bad ways." 
 
 "Did she keep the school in Vendale? " asked Tom. 
 And then he told Grimes all the story of his going to 
 her house, and how she could not abide the sight of a 
 chimney-sweep, and then how kind she was, and how 
 he turned into a water-baby. 
 
 u Ah !" said Grimes, " good reason she had to hate 
 the sight of a chimney-sweep. I ran away from her and 
 took up with the sweeps, and never let her know where 
 I was, nor sent her a penny to help her, and now it's too 
 late — too late ! " said Mr. Grimes. 
 
 And he began crying and blubbering like a great 
 baby, till his pipe dropped out of his mouth, and broke 
 all to bits. 
 
 " Oh, dear, if I was but a little chap in Vendale again, 
 to see the clear beck, and the apple-orchard, and the 
 yew-hedge, how different I would go on ! But it's too 
 late now. So you go along, you kind little chap, and 
 don't stand to look at a man crying, that's old enough 
 to be your father, and never feared the face of man, nor 
 of worse neither. But I'm beat now, and beat I must be. 
 I've made my bed, and I must lie on it. Foul I would 
 be, and foul I am, as an Irish-woman said to me once ; 
 and little I heeded it. It's all my own fault ; but it's 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 267 
 
 too late." And he cried so bitterly that Tom began 
 crying, too. 
 
 "Never too late," said the fairy, in such a strange, 
 soft, new voice that Tom looked up at her ; and she was 
 so beautiful for the moment that Tom half fancied she 
 was her sister. 
 
 No more was it too late. For, as poor Grimes cried 
 and blubbered on, his own tears did what his mother's 
 could not do, and Tom's could not do, and nobody's on 
 earth could do for him ; for they washed the soot off his 
 face and off his clothes ; and then they washed the mor- 
 tar away from between the bricks ; and the chimney 
 crumbled down ; and Grimes began to get out of it. 
 
 Up jumped the truncheon, and was going to hit him 
 on the crown a tremendous thump, and drive him down 
 again like a cork into a bottle. But the strange lady 
 put it aside. 
 
 Will you obey me if I give you a chance ? " 
 l As you please, ma'am. You're stronger than me — • 
 that I know too well, and wiser than me, I know too 
 well also. And, as for being my own master, I've 
 fared ill enough with that as yet. So whatever your 
 ladyship pleases to order me ; for I'm beat, and that's the 
 truth." 
 
 u Be it so then — you may come out. But remember, 
 disobey me again, and into a worse place still you 
 go." 
 
 "I beg pardon, ma'am, but I never disobeyed you 
 that. I know of. I never had the honor of setting eyes 
 upon you till I came to these ugly quarters." 
 
 " Never saw me? Who said to you, Those that will 
 be foul, foul they will be?" 
 
 Grimes looked up ; and Tom looked up too ; for the 
 voice was that of the Irish-woman who met them the 
 
 (( 
 
268 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 day that they went out together to Harthover. "I 
 gave you your warning then : but you gave it yourself a 
 thousand times before and since. Every bad word that 
 you said — every cruel and mean thing that you did — 
 every time that you got tipsy — every day that you went 
 dirty — you were disobeying me, whether you knew it or 
 not." 
 
 "If I'd only known, ma'am " 
 
 "You knew well enough that you were disobeying 
 something, though you did not know it was me. But 
 come out and take your chance. Perhaps it may be 
 your last. ' ' 
 
 So Grimes stepped out of the chimney, and really, if 
 it had not been for the scars on his face, he looked as 
 clean and respectable as a master-sweep need look. 
 
 "Take him away," said she to the truncheon, "and 
 give him his ticket-of-leave. " 
 
 "And what is he to do, ma'am?" 
 
 " Get him to sweep out the crater of Etna ; he will find 
 some very steady men working out their time there, who 
 will teach him his business : but mind, if that crater 
 gets choked up again, and there is an earthquake in con- 
 sequence, bring them all to me, and I shall investigate 
 the case very severely." 
 
 So the truncheon inarched off Mr. Grimes, looking as 
 meek as a drowned worm. 
 
 And for aught I know, or do not know, he is sweeping 
 the crater of Etna to this very day. 
 
 "And now," said the fairy to Tom, "your work here 
 is done. You may as well go back again." 
 
 "I should be glad enough to go," said Tom, "but 
 how am I to get up that great hole again, now the steam 
 has stopped blowing?" 
 
 4 * X will take you up the backstairs : but I must bandage 
 
A FAIRY TALE l'OR A LAND-BABY. 269 
 
 your eyes first ; for I never allow anybody to see those 
 backstairs of mine. ' ' 
 
 "I am sure I shall not tell anybody about them, 
 ma'am, if you bid me not." 
 
 "Aha ! So you think, my little man. But you would 
 soon forget your promise if you got back into the land- 
 world. For, if people only once found out that you had 
 been up my backstairs, you would have all the fine 
 ladies kneeling to you, and the rich men emptying their 
 purses before you, and statesmen offering you place and 
 power ; and young and old, rich and poor, crying to 
 you, ' Only tell us the great backstairs secret, and we 
 will be your slaves ; we will make you lord, king, em- 
 peror, bishop, archbishop, pope, if you like — only tell us 
 the secret of the backstairs. For thousands of years we 
 have been paying, and petting, and obeying, and wor- 
 shipping quacks who told us they had the key of the 
 backstairs, and could smuggle us up them ; and in spite 
 df all our disappointments, we will honor, and glorify, 
 and adore, and beatify, and translate, and apotheotize 
 you likewise, on the chance of your knowing something 
 about the backstairs, that we may all go on pilgrimage 
 to it ; and, even if we cannot get up it, lie at the foot 
 af it, and cry — 
 
 'Ok, backstairs, 
 
 precious backstairs, comfortable backstairs, 
 
 invaluable backstairs, huma7ie backstairs, 
 
 requisite backstairs, reasonable backstairs, 
 
 necessary backstairs, long-sought backstairs, 
 
 go od-n attired backstairs, coveted backstairs, 
 
 cosmopolitan backstairs, aristocratic backstairs, 
 
 comprehensive backstairs, respectable backstairs, 
 
 accommodating backstairs, gentlemanlike backstairs, 
 
270 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 well-bred backstairs, ladylike backstairs , 
 
 commercial backstairs, orthodox backstairs, 
 
 ecojiomical backstairs, probable backstairs, 
 
 practical backstairs, credible backstairs, 
 
 logical backstairs, demonstrable backstairs, 
 
 deductive backstairs, irrefragable backstairs, 
 
 potent backstairs, 
 all-but-omnipotent backstairs, 
 &c. 
 
 Jave us from the consequences of our own actions, and 
 from the cruel fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ! ' Do 
 not you think that you would be a little tempted then 
 to tell what you know, laddie?" 
 
 Tom thought so certainly. u But why do they want 
 so to know about the backstairs?" asked he, being a 
 little frightened at the long words, and not understand- 
 ing them the least ; as, indeed, he was not meant to do, 
 or you either. 
 
 "That I shall never tell you. I never put things 
 into little folks' heads which are but too likely to come 
 there of themselves. So come — now I must bandage 
 your eyes." So she tied the bandage on his eyes with 
 one hand, and with the other she took it off. 
 
 " Now," she said, "you are safe up the stairs." Tom 
 opened his eyes very wide, and his mouth, too ; for he 
 had not, as he thought, moved a single step. But, when 
 he looked round him, there could be no doubt that he 
 was safe up the backstairs, whatsoever they may be, 
 which no man is going to tell you, for the plain reason 
 that no man knows. 
 
 The first thing which Tom saw was the black cedars, 
 high and sharp against the rosy dawn ; and St. Brandan's 
 Isle reflected double in the still broad silver sea. The 
 
A FAIRY TALK FOR A LAND-BABY. 
 
 271 
 
 good 
 
 wind sang softly in the cedars, and the water sang among 
 
 the caves : the sea-birds sang as they streamed out into 
 
 the ocean, and the laud-birds as they built among the 
 
 boughs ; and the air was so full of song that it stirred 
 
 St. Brandan and his 
 
 hermits, as they 
 
 slumbered in the 
 
 shade ; and they 
 
 moved their 
 
 old lips, and 
 
 their morning hymn 
 
 amid their dreams. 
 
 But among all the 
 
 sono-s one came 
 
 across the water 
 
 more sweet and clear 
 
 than all ; for it was 
 
 the song of a young 
 
 girl's voice. 
 
 And what was the 
 song which she 
 sang 
 
 ? Ah, my little 
 man, I am too old 
 
 that 
 you too 
 
 sing 
 
 song, 
 voung 
 
 to 
 and 
 
 to understand it. 
 But have patience, 
 and keep your eye 
 single and your 
 hands clean, and you will learn some day to sing it your- 
 self, without needing any man to teach you. 
 
 And, as Tom neared the island, there sat upon a rock 
 the most graceful creature that ever was seen, looking 
 down, with her chin upon her hand, and paddling with 
 
272 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 her feet in the water. And when they came to her she 
 
 looked up, and behold it was Ellie. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Ellie," said he, " how you are grown ! " 
 " Oh, Tom," said she, "how you are grown, too ! " 
 And no wonder ; they were both quite grown up — he 
 
 into a tall man, and she into a beautiful woman. 
 
 " Perhaps I may be grown," she said. "I have had 
 
 time enough ; for I have been sitting here waiting for 
 
 you many a hundred years, till I thought you were never 
 
 coming." 
 
 " Many a hundred years? " thought Tom ; but he had 
 
 seen so much in his travels that he had quite given up 
 
 being astonished ; and, indeed, he could think of nothing 
 
 but Ellie. So he stood and looked at Ellie, and Ellie 
 
 looked at him ; and they liked the employment so much 
 
 that they stood and looked for seven years more, and 
 
 neither spoke nor stirred. 
 
 At last they heard the fairy say : "Attention, children. 
 
 Are you never going to look at me again ? " 
 
 "We have been looking at you all this while," they 
 
 said. And so thev thought thev had been. 
 " Then look at me once more," said she. 
 They looked — and both of them cried out at once, 
 
 "Oh, who are you, after all?" 
 
 " You are our dear Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby." 
 " No, you are good Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ; but you 
 
 are grown quite beautiful now ! " 
 
 " To you," said the fairy. " But look again." 
 "You are Mother Carey," said Tom, in a very low, 
 
 solemn voice ; for he had found out something which 
 
 made him very happy, and yet frightened him more than 
 
 all that he had ever seen. 
 
 " But you are grown quite young again." 
 " To you," said the fairy. " Look again." 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 273 
 
 "You are the Irish -woman who met me the day I 
 went to Harthover ! " 
 
 And when they looked she was neither of them, and 
 yet all of them at once. 
 
 u My name is written in my eyes, if you have eyes to 
 see it there." 
 
 And they looked into her great, deep, soft eyes, and 
 they changed again and again into every hue, as the 
 light changes in a diamond. 
 
 ' ' Now read my name, ' ' said she, at last. 
 
 And her eyes flashed, for one moment, clear, white, 
 blazing light : but the children could not read her 
 name ; for they were dazzled, and hid their faces in their 
 hands. 
 
 " Not yet, young things, not yet," said she, smiling ; 
 and then she turned to Ellie. 
 
 " You may take him home with you now on Sundays, 
 Ellie. He has won his spurs in the great battle, and be- 
 come fit to go with you and be a man ; because he has 
 done the thing he did not like." 
 
 So Tom went home with Ellie on Sundays, and some- 
 times on week-days, too ; and he is now a great man of 
 science, and can plan railroads, and steam-engines, and 
 electric telegraphs, and rifled guns, and so forth ; and 
 knows everything about everything, except why a hen's 
 egg don' t turn into a crocodile, and two or three other 
 little things which no one will know till the coming of 
 the Cocqcigrues. And all this from what he learnt when 
 he was a water-baby, underneath the sea. 
 
 u And of course Tom married Ellie ? " 
 
 My dear child, what a silly notion ! Don't you know 
 that no one ever marries in a fairy tale, under the rank 
 of a prince or a princess? 
 
 " And Tom's dos?" 
 
274 
 
 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 Oh, you may see him any clear night in July ; for the 
 old dog-star was so worn out by the last three hot sum- 
 mers that there have been no dog-days since ; so that 
 they had to take him down and put Tom's dog up in 
 his place. Therefore, as new brooms sweep clean, we 
 may hope for some warm weather this year. And that 
 is the end of my story. 
 
A FAIRY TALE FOR A LAND-BABY. 2/5 
 
 MORAL. 
 
 And now, my dear little man, what should we learn from 
 this parable ? 
 
 We should learn thirty-seven or thirty-nine things, I am 
 not exactly sure which : but one thing, at least, we may learn, 
 and that is this — when we see efts in the pond, never to throw 
 stones at them, or catch them with crooked pins, or put them 
 into vivariums with sticklebacks, that the sticklebacks may 
 prick them in their poor little stomachs, and make them jump 
 out of the glass into somebody's zvork-box, and so come to a 
 bad end. For these efts are nothing else but the water-babies 
 who are stupid and dirty, and will not learn their lessons and 
 keep themselves clean ; and, therefore [as comparative anato- 
 mists zvill tell you fifty years hence, though they are not 
 learned enough to tell you nozv), their skulls grow flat, their 
 jaws grow out, and their drains grow small, and their tails 
 grow long, and they lose all their ribs {which I am sure you 
 woidd not like to do), and their skins grow dirty and spotted, 
 and they never get into the clear rivers, much less into the 
 great wide sea, but hang about in dirty ponds, and live in 
 the mud, and eat zvorms, as they deserve to do. 
 
 But that is no reason why you should ill-use them : but 
 only why you should pity them, and be kind to them, and hope 
 that some day they will wake up, and be ashamed of their 
 nasty, dirty, lazy, stupid life, and try to amend, and become 
 something better once more. For, perhaps, if they do so, then 
 after 379,423 years, nine months, thirteen days, two hours t 
 
276 THE WATER-BABIES. 
 
 and twenty-one minutes [for aught that appears to the con- 
 trary), if they work very hard and wash very hard all thai 
 time, their brains may grozv bigger, and their jaws grow 
 smaller, and their ribs come back, and their tails witlier off, 
 and they will turn into water-babies again, and perhaps after 
 that into land-babies ; and after that perliaps into grown men. 
 
 Yon knoiv they woii't? Very well, I daresay yon know 
 best. But, you see, some folks have a great liking for those 
 poor little efts. They never did anybody any harm, or could 
 if they tried ; and their only fault is, that they do no good — 
 any more than some thousands of their betters. But what 
 with ducks, and ivhat with pike, and what with sticklebacks, 
 and what with zuater-beetles, and what witli naughty boys, 
 they are " sae sair hadden doun," as the Scotsmen say, that it 
 is a ivonder how they live ; and some folks cant help hoping, 
 with good Bishop Butler, that they may have another cha7ice, 
 to make things fair and even, someiuhcre, somewhen, some- 
 how. 
 
 Meanwhile, do you learn your lessons, and thank God that 
 you nave plenty of cold zvater to wash in ; and wash in it 
 too, like a true Englishman. And then, if my story is not 
 true, something better is ; and if I am not qtdte right, still you 
 will be, as long as you stick to hard work and cold water. 
 
 But remember alzvays, as I told you at first, that this is all 
 a fairy tale, and only fun and pretence : and, therefore, you 
 wre not to believe a word of it, even if it is true. 
 
"I heard a thousand blended notes> 
 While in a grove I sate reclined; 
 In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts 
 Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 
 
 "To her fair works did Nature link 
 
 The human soul that through me ran; 
 And much it grieved my heart to think, 
 What man has made of man." 
 
 — Wordsworth. 
 
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 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 90 illustrations. 
 
 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE. By Charles and Mary Lamb. 
 65 illustrations. 
 
 ADVENTURES IN TOYLAND. 70 illustrations. 
 
 ADVENTURES OF A BROWNIE. 18 illustrations. 
 
 MIXED PICKLES. 31 illustrations. 
 
 LITTLE LAME PRINCE. By Miss Mulock. 24 illustrations. 
 
 THE SLEEPY KING. 77 illustrations. 
 
 RIP VAN WINKLE. By Washington Irving. 46 illustrations. 
 
 A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES. By Robert Louis Steven- 
 son. 100 illustrations. 
 
 ANIMAL STORIES FOR LITTLE PEOPLE. 50 illustrations. 
 
ALTEMUS' 
 
 Stories from History Series 
 
 A series of stories from history which every boy and girl should 
 know. No library is complete without these valuable con- 
 tributions to juvenile literature. 
 
 Profusely illustrated. Bound in cloth with illuminated covers, 
 40 cents each. 
 
 KOMULUS, THE FOUNDER OF ROME. By Jacob Abbott. 49 
 illustrations. 
 
 CYRUS THE GREAT, THE FOUNDER OF THE PERSIAN 
 EMPIRE. By Jacob Abbott. 40 illustrations. 
 
 DARIUS THE GREAT, KING OF THE MEDES AND PER- 
 SIANS. By Jacob Abbott. 34 illustrations. 
 
 XERXES THE GREAT, KING OF PERSIA. By Jacob Abbott. 
 39 illustrations. 
 
 ALEXANDER THE GREAT, KING OF MACEDON. By Jacob 
 Abbott. 51 illustrations. 
 
 PYRRHUS, KING OF EPIRUS. By Jacob Abbott. 45 illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 HANNIBAL, THE CARTHAGINIAN. By Jacob Abbott. 37 
 illustrations. 
 
 JULIUS CyESAR, THE ROMAN CONQUEROR. By Jacob Ab- 
 bott. 44 illustrations. 
 
 DICKENS' CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 80 illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 ALFRED THE GREAT, OF ENGLAND. By Jacob Abbott. 40 
 illustrations. 
 
 WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, OF ENGLAND. By Jacob 
 Abbott, 43 illustrations. 
 
4 HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OP 
 AMERICA. 70 illustrations. 
 
 HERNANDO CORTEZ, THE CONQUEROR OF MEXICO. By 
 Jacob Abbott. 30 illustrations. 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH, OF ENGLAND. By Jacob Abbott. 49 
 illustrations. 
 
 MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. By Jacob Abbott. 45 illustrations. 
 
 GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. 68 il- 
 lustrations. 
 
 KING CHARLES THE FIRST, OF ENGLAND. By Jacob Ab- 
 bott. 41 illustrations. 
 
 KING CHARLES THE SECOND, OF ENGLAND. By Jacob 
 Abbott. 28 illustrations. 
 
 MADAME ROLAND, A HEROINE OF THE FRENCH REVO- 
 LUTION. By Jacob Abbott. 42 illustrations. 
 
 MARIE ANTOINETTE, QUEEN OF FRANCE. By John S. C. 
 Abbott. 41 illustrations. 
 
 JOSEPHINE, EMPRESS OF FRANCE. By Jacob Abbott. 40 
 illustrations. 
 
 BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. By Pres- 
 cott Holmes. 70 illustrations. 
 
 MILITARY HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES. 60 illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 HEROES OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY. 60 illustrations. 
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 With portraits and illustrations. 
 
 BATTLES OF THE WAR FOR THE UNION. By Prescott 
 Holmes. 80 illustrations. 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE WAR WITH SPAIN. 
 
 50 illustrations. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 5 
 
 Altemus' Illustrated 
 Mother Goose Series 
 
 A series of entirely new editions of the most popular books 
 for young people. Handsomely printed from large, clear 
 type, on choice paper; each volume containing about one 
 hundred illustrations. Full Cloth, stamped in ink (6% x 8% 
 inches). Price, 50 cents each. 
 
 Aladdin; or, The Wonderful Lamp. — Our Animal Friends. — 
 Beauty and the Beast. — Bird Stories for Little People. 
 — Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper. — The House 
 that Jack Built. — Jack and the Bean-Stalk. — Jack the 
 Giant-Killer. — Little Red Riding Hood. — Puss in Boots. — 
 The Sleeping Beauty. — Who Killed Cock Robin? 
 
 Altemus' Illustrated 
 Little Men and Women Series 
 
 A new series for young people, by the best known English 
 and American authors. Profusely illustrated, and with 
 handsome and appropriate bindings. Cloth, 12mo. Price, 
 50 cts. each. 
 
 1 Black Beauty. By Anna Sewell. 
 
 2 Hiawatha. By Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 3 Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. 
 
 By Lewis Carroll. 
 
 4 How Bessie Kept House. By Amanda M. Douglas. 
 
6 HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS 
 
 Altemus' Illustrated Little Men and Women Series, Continued. 
 
 5 Paul and Virginia. I'.y Sainte Pierre. 
 
 *> GaLOPOFF, TILE TALKING PONY. By Tudor Jenks. 
 
 / Gypsy, the Talking Dog. I'.v Tudor .Jenks. 
 
 s Caps and Capeks. By Gabrielle K. Jackson. 
 
 9 Doughnuts and Diplomas. By Gabrielle E. Jackson. 
 
 10 Fob Prey and Spoils. By Frederick A. Ober. 
 
 11 Tommy Foster's Adventures. By Frederick A. Ober. 
 
 12 Folly in Fairyland. I'.v Carolyn Wells. 
 lo Folly in the Forest. By Carolyn Wells. 
 
 14 Polly Perkins' Adventure. By E. Louis Liddell. 
 
 15 Helen's Babies. By John Habberton. 
 
 16 A Little Rough Rider. By Tudor Jenks. 
 
 17 Another Year with Denise and Ned Toodles. By Gabrielle 
 
 E. Jackson. 
 
 18 The Boy Geologist. By Prof. E. J. Houston. 
 
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS, 7 
 
 Altemus* Illustrated 
 
 Wee Books for Wee Folks 
 
 Pilled with charming' stories, beautifully illustrated with pic- 
 tures in colors and black and white. Daintily, yet durably 
 bound. Price, 50 cents each. 
 
 Nursery Tales. — Nursery Rhymes. — The Story of Peter Rab- 
 bit. — The Foolish Fox. — Three Little Pigs. — The Robber 
 Kitten. 
 
 Children's Gift Series 
 
 A new series of the most famous children's classics, in new 
 and attractive bindings with full page illustrations in color 
 and black and white. Cloth, 4to, 75 cents each. 
 
 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. — Through the Looking 
 Glass and What Alice Found There. — A Child's Garden 
 op Verses. — Mother Goose's Rhymes, Jingles and Fairy 
 Tales. — Swiss Family Robinson. — The Adventures of 
 Robinson Crusoe. — Grimm's Fairy Tales. — Andersen's 
 Fairy Tales. — Bible Pictures and Stories. — Animal Sto- 
 ries for Little People. 
 
 One-Syllable Series 
 
 For Young Readers 
 
 Embracing popular works arranged for the young folks in 
 words of one syllable. With numerous illustrations by 
 the best artists. Handsomely bound, with illuminated 
 covers. Price, 50 cents each. 
 
 liEsop's Fables. — A Child's Life of Christ. — The Adventures 
 op Robinson Crusoe. — Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. — 
 Swiss Family Robinson. — Gulliver's Travels. — A Child's 
 Story of the Old Testament. — A Child's Story of the 
 New Testament. — Bible Stories for Little Children.— 
 The Story of Jesus. 
 
8 HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Altemus' Illustrated 
 
 Dainty Series of Choice Gift Books 
 
 Bound in half-white vellum, illuminated sides, unique designs 
 in gold and colors, with numerous half-tone illustrations. 
 Price, 50 cents each. 
 
 The Silver Buckle. By M. Nataline Crumpton 
 
 Charles Dickens' Children Stories. 
 
 The Children's Shakespeare. 
 
 Young Eobin Hood. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 Honor Bright. By Mary C. Rowsell. 
 
 The Voyage of the Mary Adair. By Frances E. Crompton. 
 
 The Kingfisher's Egg. By L. T. Meade. 
 
 Tattine. By Ruth Ogden. 
 
 The Doings of a Dear Little Couple. By Mary D. Brine. 
 
 Our Soldier Boy. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 The Little Skipper. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 
 Little Gervaise and Other Stories. 
 
 The Christmas Fairy. By John Strange Winter. 
 
 Molly the Drummer Boy. By Harriet T. Comstock. 
 
 How a "Dear Little Couple" Went Abroad. By Mary D. 
 
 Brine. 
 The Rose-Carnation. By Frances E. Crompton. 
 Mother's Little Man. By Mary D. Brine. 
 Little Swan Maidens. By Frances E. Crompton. 
 Little Lady Val. By Evelyn Everett Green. 
 A Young Hero. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 Queen of the Day. By L. T. Meade. 
 That Little French Baby. By John Strange Winter. 
 The Powder Monkey. By G. Manville Fenn. 
 The Doll that Talked. By Tudor Jenks. 
 What Charlie Found to Do. By Amanda M. Douglas. 
 
iHENBY ALTEMUS COMPANY'S PUBLICATIONS. 9 
 
 Altemus' 
 
 Young Folks Puzzle Pictures' Series 
 
 A new series for young people, including numerous Puzzle 
 Pictures by the best artists. Full cloth, illuminated cover 
 design. Price, 50 cents each. 
 
 Mother Goose's Puzzle Pictures. 
 
 The Tale of Peter Babbit, with Puzzle Pictures. 
 
 Animal Tales, with Puzzle Pictures. 
 
 The Night Before Christmas, with Puzzle Pictures. 
 
 Dog Tales, Cat Tales and Other Tales, with Puzzle Picturfs 
 
 Altemus' Illustrated 
 
 Mother Stories Series 
 
 An entirely new series, including the best stories that mothers 
 can tell their children. Handsomely printed and profusely 
 illustrated. Ornamental cloth. Price, 50 cents each. 
 
 Mother Stories. 89 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Nursery Ehymes and Tales. 135 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Fairy Tales. 117 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Nature Stories. 97 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Stories from the Old Testament. 45 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Stories from the New Testament. 45 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Bedtime Stories. 86 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Animal Stories. 92 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Bird Stories. 131 illustrations. 
 
 Mother Santa Claus Stories. 91 illustrations. 
 
The Motor Boat Club Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 The keynote of these books is manliness. The stories are wonder- 
 fully entertaining, and they are at the same time sound and whole- 
 some. No boy will willingly lay down an unfinished book in this 
 series. 
 
 i THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OF THE KENNEBEC; Or, The 
 Secret of Smugglers' Island. 
 
 2 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT NANTUCKET ; Or, The Mys- 
 
 tery of the Dunstan Heir. 
 
 3 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OFF LONG ISLAND; Or, A Dar- 
 
 ing Marine Game at Racing Speed. 
 
 4 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AND THE WIRELESS; Or, The 
 
 Dot, Dash and Dare Cruise. 
 
 5 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB IN FLORIDA; Or, Laying the 
 
 Ghost of Alligator Swamp. 
 
 6 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT THE GOLDEN GATE; Or, A 
 
 Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog. 
 
 7 THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB ON THE GREAT LAKES; Or, 
 
 The Flying Dutchman of the Big Fresh Water. 
 
 Goth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 The Range and Grange Hustlers 
 
 By FRANK GEE PATCHIN 
 
 Have you any idea of the excitements, the glories of life on great 
 ranches in the' West ? Any bright boy will "devour" the books of 
 this series, once he has made a start with the first volume. 
 
 1 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE RANCH : 
 
 Or, The Boy Shepherds of the Great Divide. 
 
 2 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS' GREATEST 
 
 ROUND-UP; Or, Pitting Their Wits Against a Packers' 
 Combine. 
 
 3 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE PLAINS; 
 
 Or, Following the Steam Plows Across the Prairie, 
 
 4 THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS AT CHICAGO; 
 
 Or. The Conspiracy of the Wheat Pit. 
 
 Goth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
Submarine Boys Series 
 
 By VICTOR G. DURHAM 
 
 These splendid books for boys and girls deal with life aboard sub- 
 marine torpedo boats, and with the adventures of the young crew, 
 and possess, in addition to the author's surpassing knack of story- 
 telling, a great educational value for all young readers. 
 
 i THE SUBMARINE BOYS ON DUTY; Or, Life on a Diving 
 Torpedo Boat. 
 
 2 THE SUBMARINE BOYS' TRIAL TRIP; Or, "Making Good" 
 
 as Young Experts. 
 
 3 THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE MIDDIES; Or, The 
 
 Prize Detail at Annapolis. 
 
 4 THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SPIES; Or, Dodging 
 
 the Sharks of the Deep. 
 
 5 THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING CRUISE; Or, The 
 
 Young Kings of the Deep. 
 
 6 THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG; Or, Deeding 
 
 Their Lives to Uncle Sam. 
 
 7 THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SMUGGLERS; Or, 
 
 Breaking Up the New Jersey Customs Frauds. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 The Square Dollar Boys Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 The reading boy will be a voter within a few years J these books 
 are bound to make him think, and when he casts his vote he will 
 do it more intelligently for having read these volumes. 
 
 1 THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS WAKE UP; Or, Fighting the 
 
 Trolley Franchise Steal. 
 2. THE SQUARE DOLLAR BOYS SMASH THE RING; Or, In 
 
 the Lists Against the Crooked Land Deal. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c, 
 
 The College Girls Series 
 
 By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A.M. 
 
 1 GRACE HARLOWES FIRST YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 
 
 2 GRACE HARLOWES SECOND YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 
 
 3 GRACE HARLOWES THIRD YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 
 
 4 GRACE HARLOWE'S FOURTH YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 
 
 5 GRACE HARLOWE'S RETURN TO OVERTON CAMPUS. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c 
 
Pony Rider Boys Series 
 
 By FRANK GEE PATCHIN 
 
 These tales may be aptly described the best books for boys and girls. 
 
 1 THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ROCKIES; Or, The Secret of the 
 Lost Claim.— 2 THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN TEXAS; Or, The 
 Veiled Riddle of the Plains.— 3 THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN 
 MONTANA: Or, The Mystery of the Old Custer Trail.— 4 THE 
 PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE OZARKS; Or, The Secret of Ruby 
 Mountain.— a THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ALKALI; Or, 
 Finding a Key to the Desert Maze.— 6 THE PONY RIDER BOYS 
 IN NEW MEXICO; Or, The End of the Silver Trail.— 7 THE PONY 
 RIDER BOYS IN THE GRAND CANYON; Or, The Mystery of 
 Bright Angel Gulch. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 The Boys of Steel Series 
 
 By JAMES R. MEARS 
 
 Each book presents vivid picture of this great industry. Each story 
 is full of adventure and fascination. 
 
 1 THE IRON BOYS IN THE MINES; Or, Starting at the Bottom of 
 the Shaft.— 2 THE IRON BOYS AS FOREMEN; Or, Heading the 
 Diamond Drill Shift— 3 THE IRON BOYS ON THE ORE BOATS; 
 Or, Roughing It on the Great Lakes.— 4 THE IRON BOYS IN THE 
 STEEL MILLS; Or, Beginning Anew in the Cinder Pits. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c 
 
 The Madge Morton Books 
 
 By AMY D. V. CHALMERS 
 
 1 MADGE MORTON— CAPTAIN OF THE MERRY MAID. 
 
 2 MADGE MORTON'S SECRET. 
 
 3 MADGE MORTONS TRUST. 
 
 4 MADGE MORTONS VICTORY. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c 
 
West Point Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 The principal characters in these narratives are manly, young 
 Americans whose doings will inspire all boy readers, 
 i DICK PRESCOTT'S FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, 
 
 Two Chums in the Cadet Gray. 
 2. DICK PRESCOTT'S SECOND YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, 
 
 Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life. 
 
 3 DICK PRESCOTT'S THIRD YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, 
 
 Standing Firm for Flag and Honor. 
 
 4 DICK PRESCOTT'S FOURTH YEAR AT WEST POINT; Or, 
 
 Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 Annapolis Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 The Spirit of the new Navy is delightfully and truthfully depicted 
 in these volumes. 
 
 1 DAVE DARRIN'S FIRST YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; Or, Two 
 
 Plebe Midshipmen at the U. S. Naval Academy. 
 
 2 DAVE DARRIN'S SECOND YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; Or, 
 
 Two Midshipmen as Naval Academy "Youngsters." 
 
 3 DAVE DARRIN'S THIRD YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS ; Or, Lead- 
 
 ers of the Second Class Midshipmen. 
 
 4 DAVE DARRIN'S FOURTH YEAR AT ANNAPOLIS; Or, 
 
 Headed for Graduation and the Big Cruise. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 The Young Engineers Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 The heroes of these stories are known to readers of the High 
 School Boys Series. In this new series Tom Reade and Harry 
 Hazelton prove worthy of all the traditions of Dick & Co. 
 
 1 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN COLORADO ; Or, At Railroad 
 
 Building in Earnest. 
 
 2 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA; Or, Laying Tracks 
 
 on the "Man-Killer" Quicksand. 
 
 3 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN NEVADA; Or, Seeking For- 
 
 tune on the Turn of a Pick. 
 
 4 THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN MEXICO; Or, Fighting the 
 
 Mine Swindlers. 
 
 Qoth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
Boys of the Army Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 These books breathe the life and spirit of the United States Army 
 of to-day, and the life, just as it is, is described by a master pen. 
 
 i UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE RANKS; Or, Two Recruits in 
 the United States Army. 
 
 z UNCLE SAM'S BOYS ON FIELD DUTY; Or, Winning Cor- 
 poral's Chevrons. 
 
 3 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS AS SERGEANTS ; Or, Handling Their 
 
 First Real Commands. 
 
 4 UNCLE SAM'S BOYS IN THE PHILIPPINES; Or, Follow- 
 
 ing the Flag Against the Moros. 
 
 (Other volumes to follow rapidly.) 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 Battleship Boys Series 
 
 By FRANK GEE PATCHIN 
 
 These stories throb with the life of young Americans on to-day's 
 huge drab Dreadnaughts. 
 
 1 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS AT SEA; Or, Two Apprentices in 
 
 Uncle Sam's Navy. 
 
 2 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS FIRST STEP UPWARD; Or, 
 
 Winning Their Grades as Petty Officers. 
 
 3 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN FOREIGN SERVICE; Or, 
 
 Earning New Ratings in European Seas. 
 
 4 THE BATTLESHIP BOYS IN THE TROPICS; Or, Uphold- 
 
 ing the American Flag in a Honduras Revolution. 
 (Other volumes to follozv rapidly.) 
 
 Goth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 The Meadow-Brook Girls Series 
 
 By JANET ALDRIDGE 
 
 Real live stories pulsing with the vibrant atmosphere' of outdoor 
 life. 
 
 1 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS. 
 
 2 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY. 
 
 3 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS AFLOAT. 
 
 4 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS IN THE HILLS. 
 3 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS BY THE SEA. 
 
 6 THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
High School Boys Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 In this series of bright, crisp books a new note has been struck. 
 
 Boys of every age under sixty will be interested in these fascinat- 
 ing volumes. 
 
 i THE HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMEN; Or, Dick & Co.'s First 
 Year Pranks and Sports. 
 
 2 THE HIGH SCHOOL PITCHER; Or, Dick & Co. on the 
 
 Gridley Diamond. 
 
 3 THE HIGH SCHOOL LEFT END ; Or, Dick & Co. Grilling on 
 
 the Football Gridiron. 
 
 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM ; Or, Dick & 
 
 Co. Leading the Athletic Vanguard. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 Grammar School Boys Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 This series of stories, based on the actual doings of grammar 
 school boys, comes near to the heart of the average American boy. 
 
 1 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS OF GRIDLEY; Or, Dick 
 
 & Co. Start Things Moving. 
 
 2 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS SNOWBOUND; Or, Dick 
 
 & Co. at Winter Sports. 
 
 3 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN THE WOODS ; Or, 
 
 Dick & Co. Trail Fun and Knowledge. 
 
 4 THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER ATHLETICS ; 
 
 Or, Dick & Co. Make Their Fame Secure. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 H igh School Boy s' Vacation Series 
 
 By H. IRVING HANCOCK 
 
 "Give us more Dick Prescott books!" 
 
 This has been the burden of the cry from young readers of the 
 country over. Almost numberless letters have been received by the 
 publishers, making this eager demand : for Dick Prescott, Dave Dar- 
 rin, Tom Reade, and the other members of Dick & Co. are the most 
 popular high school boys in the land. Boys will alternately thrill 
 and chuckle when reading these splendid narratives. 
 
 1 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' CANOE CLUB; Or, Dick & Co.'s 
 
 Rivals on Lake Pleasant. 
 
 2 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS IN SUMMER CAMP; Or, The 
 
 Dick Prescott Six Training for the Gridley Eleven. 
 
 3 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' FISHING TRIP; Or, Dick & Co. 
 
 in the Wilderness. 
 
 4 THE HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' TRAINING HIKE; Or, Dick & 
 
 Co. Making Themselves "Hard as Nails." 
 
 Goth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
The Circus Boys Series 
 
 By EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON 
 
 Mr. Darlington's books breathe forth every phase of an intensely 
 interesting and exciting life. 
 
 i THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS; Or, Making 
 the Start in the Sawdust Life. 
 
 2 THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT; Or, Win- 
 
 ning New Laurels on the Tanbark. 
 
 3 THE CIRCUS BOYS IN DIXIE LAND; Or, Winning the 
 
 Plaudits of the Sunny South. 
 
 4 THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI; Or, Afloat with 
 
 the Big Show on the Big River. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 The High School Girls Series 
 
 By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. 
 
 These' breezy stories of the American High School Girl take the 
 reader fairly by storm. 
 
 1 GRACE HARLOWE'S PLEBE YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; 
 
 Or, The Merry Doings of the Oakdale Freshman Girls. 
 
 2 GRACE HARLOWE'S SOPHOMORE YEAR AT HIGH 
 
 SCHOOL; Or, The Record of the Girl Chums in Work and 
 Athletics. 
 
 3 GRACE HARLOWE;S JUNIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL;. 
 
 Or, Fast Friends in the Sororities. 
 
 4 GRACE HARLOWE'S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; 
 
 Or, The Parting of the Ways. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
 The Automobile Girls Series 
 
 By LAURA DENT CRANE 
 
 No girl's library — no family book-case can be' considered at all 
 complete unless it contains these sparkling twentieth-century books. 
 
 1 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT NEWPORT; Or, Watching the Sum- 
 mer Parade.— 2 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS IN THE BERKSHIRES; 
 Or, The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail.— 3 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS 
 ALONG THE HUDSON: Or, Fighting Fire in Sleepy Hollow.— 
 4 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT CHICAGO; Or, Winning Out 
 .Against Heavy Odds.— 5 THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT PALM 
 BEACH; Or, Proving Their Mettle Under Southern Skies.— 6 THE 
 AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT WASHINGTON: Or. Checkmating the. 
 Plots of Foreign Spies. 
 
 Cloth, Illustrated Price, per Volume, 50c. 
 
THE 
 
 WHITE HOUSE 
 
 SM FRANCISCO 
 
 BOOKS 
 
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