The Water-Babies

lore which N

dling i

e beauteous f

er to d

science

these bar

and bring wi

hes and r

DSW

coasting along shore. He was many days about it, for it was many miles down to the sea; and perhaps he would never hav

oon, 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 birch

e water a long tap-root of flame. Tom, curious little rogue that he was, must needs go and see what it wa

n, looking up at the flame with their great goggle eyes, and

ok at this wonderful light

eard a v

as a fis

saw on the bank three great two-legged creatures, one of whom held the light, flaring and sputtering, and another a long pol

wn over the water, and looked

ad; he's ower fifteen punds

as if he was bewitched. But before he could make up his mind, down came the pole through the water; there was a fear

ard 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

do any more with horrid dirty men, with foul clothes on their backs, and foul words on their lips; but he dared not st

dous splash, and a frightful flash

ver he sank, and rolled over and over in the current. Tom heard the men above run along seemingly looking f

aw the man lying. At last he screwed up his courage and swam down to him.

look at him. He would go very quietly, of course; so he swam round and round him, closer a

every feature; and, as he saw, he recollecte

and swam away as

ater-baby. What a nasty troublesome one he will be!

ght under an alder root; but, when morning came, he longed to go down again

had not turned into a water-baby. In the afternoon Tom went back again. He could not rest till he had found out what ha

which falls into the water, exactly where it ought to be. But, do you know, what had happened to Mr. Grimes had such an effect on him that he never poached salmon any more. And it is quite certain that, when a man becomes a confirmed poacher, the only way to cure him is to put him under water for twenty-four hours, like Grimes. So whe

barges, past the great town, with its wharfs, and mills, and tall smoking chimneys, and ships which rode at anchor in the stream; and now and then he ran against their hawsers, and wondered what they were, and peeped out, and saw the sailors lounging on board smoking their pipes; and ducked under again, for he was terribly afraid of being caught by man and turned into a chimney-sweep once more. He did not know that the fairies were close to him

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, n

was beaten; and on and on he held, till he saw a long way off the red buoy through the

ere came a change over him. He felt as strong, and light, and fresh, as if his veins had run champagne; and gave, he did not know why, three skips out of the water, a y

him; and once he passed a great black shining seal, who was coming in after the mullet. The seal put his head and shoulders out of water, and stared at him, looking exactly like a fat old greasy negro with a gray pate. And Tom, instead of being frightened, said, "How d'y

to the buoy, and got upon it (for he was quite out of breath) and sat t

s 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

hard! Well, it did seem hard: but people, even little babies, cannot have all they want w

looking out to sea, and wondering when the wate

h came in out of the sea if they had seen any; a

hey were so greedy after the shrimps tha

ong, each on a sponge full of foam, and Tom said, "Where do you co

ith 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-babie

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

sapeake, and I'm afraid I've got wrong somehow. Dear me! it was al

ould only answer, "I've lost my way

till the coast-guardsmen saw his big fin above the water, and rowed out, and struck a boat-hook into him, and took him away. The

th and shiny, because the fairies French-polish them every morning; and they sighed so softly as they came by, that Tom

o 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 t

d very long teeth; but it seemed very sick and sad. Sometimes it rolled helpless on its side;

?" asked Tom. "And why

reacherous warm gulf-stream, till I met with the cold icebergs, afloat in the mid ocean. So I got tangled among the icebergs, and chilled with their frozen breath. But the water-babies

have seen water-babies? Ha

night, or I should have been e

babies close to him, and

tiful, beautiful poem, which you must learn by heart some day-and sit upon a point of rock, among the shining sea-weeds, in the low October tides, and

nd a very distinguished lobster he was; for he had live barnacles on his claws, which is a great mark of

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

ile he cut up salads with his jagged one, and then put them into his mouth, after smelling at them, like a monkey. And always th

at 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 do

tle creatures, that went about helping fish and shells which got into scrapes. Well, for his part, he should be ashamed to be helped

lter his mind before he was done, as conceited people generally have. But he was so funny, and Tom so lo

adventure-so important, indeed, that he was very near never finding the

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 yo

in Swinger the agent, to snore in concert every evening to their hearts' content. So she started for the seaside with all the children, in order to put herself and them into condition by mild applications of iodine. She might as well have stayed at home and used Parry's liquid horse-blister, for there was plenty of it in the stables; and then she would have saved her money, and s

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

sitting with his friend the lobster, there walked one day the little white lad

and therefore he was brought up at Petropaulowski (of course you have learnt your modern politics, and therefore know why): but for all that he was as thor

ng of the Cannibal Islands had founded; and, being a member of the Acclimatisation Society, he had come here to collect all the nasty things which he c

im. 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 the

olybirds, 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, childre

ot 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

you strange little duc

ies flying round her, and one sitting in her lap; and the mermaids swimming and playing, and the mermen trumpeting on conch-shells; and it is called 'The Triumph of Galatea;' and there is a burning

d, 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 undergroun

a child's fancy, my dear. Nothing is to be depended on but the great hippopotamus test. If you have a hippopotamus major in your brain, you are no ape, though you had four hands, no feet, and were more apish than the apes of all aperies. But if a hippopotamus major is ever discovered in one single ape's brain, nothing will save your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-greater-greatest-grandmother from having been an ape too. No, my dear little man; always remember that the one true, certain, final, and all-importan

ill-o'-the-wisps, follets, lutins, 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 a regular Pha

nct compendium of his famous paper at the British Association, in a form suited for the youthful mind. But, as we h

or, instead of being convinced by Professor Ptthmllnsprt

there not w

e 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 h

e there

the professor ought to have said, if he was so angry as to say anything of the kind-Because there are not:

he weeds so violently, that, as it

d lifted it out quickly, with

pink Holothurian; with hands, too!

took

d. "Why, it must be a Cephalopo

oud as he could; for he did no

y!" cried Ellie; a

ar!" said the professor; a

r-baby: and he had said a moment ago t

ng names, of which the first would have said a little about Tom, and the second all about himself; for of course he would have called him Hydrotecnon Ptthmllnsprtsianum, or some other long name like that; for they are forced to call everything by long name

s are not expected to be respectful, because all of them are as good as the President:- Well, every one knows his own concerns best; so perhaps they are. But poor Cousin Cramchild, to do him justice, not being of that opinion, and having a moral mission, and being no scholar to speak of, and hard up for an authority-why, it was a very great temptation for him. But some people, and I

d all that man's poor fancy can imagine. So, let us thank the Maker, and Inspirer, and Lord of Nature for all His wonderful and glorious works, and try and find out something about this one;"-I think that, if the professor had said that, little Ellie would have believed him more firmly, and respected him more deeply, and loved him better, than ever she had done before. But

s 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 profes

rid of Tom, dropped him on to the seaweed, and then

Ellie. "Ah, it is gone!" And she jumped down off the ro

wn, she slipped, and fell some six feet, with

So he took her up in his arms and carried her to her governess, and they all went home; and little Ellie was put to bed, and lay there quite still; only

pair of wings that she could not help putting them on; and she flew with them out of the window, and over the l

you see the professor was found out, as every one is in due time. A very terrible old fairy found the professor out; she felt his bumps, and cast his nativity, and took the lunars of him carefully inside and out; and so she knew what he would do as well as if she had

people, because there is most chance of curing them, and therefore they are the patients who pay her best; for she

water-babies-in unicorns, fire-drakes, manticoras, basilisks, amphisbaenas, griffins, phoenixes, rocs, orcs, 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

lse what use is there in being men of science? But at last the majority agreed on a report in the true medical language, one half bad Latin, t

symptomatic phoenomena we had the melancholy honour (subsequently to a preliminary diagnostic inspection) of making an inspectorial di

her life, and locked herself into her bedroom, for fear of being squashed by the words and strangled by the sen

n they think is the matter with

ed; may be wi' unbelief a

can't th

ocks, and the vales re-echoed-"Why ind

command the Chancellor of the Exchequer for

which are necessary evils, like rats: but

llables, as heterodoxy, spontanei

hich I hope no one will wish to see an

es at once; words derived from two languages having become so common that

and (I am sorry to say) some of the Scotch likewise, opposed it most strongly, on the ground that in a free country no man was bound either to understand himself or to let others understand him. So the bill fell throu

nd they gave the poor professor divers and sundry medicines, as prescribed by

ebore,

ore of

re of G

ore of

rists of the Helleboric era. But that would not do. Bumpsterhausen's bl

hat was the matter with

ocra

tae

ls

s Aure

Ga

oo much trouble, as most people ha

Bor

ter

mes, which (says Gordonius) "will, with

ar s

arga

ain boiled

f wor

r of

pe

t there was n

of a smi

erg

ake p

ouse

s' e

rva

mp

and

u

iu

-waist

lyi

pin

edi

s with co

ings

after the medieval or monkish method: but that would n

en

Coa

ss

ne and

ngs and s

adv

den

oq

al so

t S

tob

turday

ith outrider

n method. But t

d all his creditors to avoid paying them, or indulged in any other little

tion in England, on

of Windso

s every

ve to shoot three Wellington College boys a

nough to be allowed such luxuries, they gr

igations

"Incomparable dr

ld not find o

of the liver o

name, so Dr. Gray could not

ic tra

ay's O

ro-bi

atrakes his S

t-rap

way's

e-tu

on's

eopa

Life

mer

e B

Maleus Maleficarum, Nideri For

t one that menti

rop

hel's Elix

psie Seer hi

ed liquor o

opa

rs to cure the malady of thought, and now by

, or bur

, or stea

riumph of Antimony, and Kenelm Digby his Weapon-sal

ercury down his throat t

oso's: only, having no hippogriff, they were forced to use a balloon; and, falling into the North

ng him like "a ma

doing not

nd Foodle tried, since black-fellows chipped flints at Abbéville-

of course they did not try to find one, because they did not believe in them, and were thinking of nothing but Bu

cheese, and that all the mites in it (which you may see sometimes quite plain through a telescope, if you will only keep the lens dirty enough, as Mr. Weekes kept his voltaic battery)

e moon went about on Midsummer-day in Macintoshes and Cording's boots, spearing eels and sneezing); that, therefore, I say, there being no atmosphere, there can be no evaporation; and therefore the dew-point can never fall below 71.5 degrees below zero of Fahrenheit: and, therefore, it cannot be cold

haps, it is: but you will have heard worse ones

blue follicles, and of a good many other ugly things besides. Whereon the foul flood-water in his brains ran down, and cleared to a fine coffee colour, such as fish like to rise in, till very fine clean fresh-run fish did begin to rise in his brains; and he caught two or three of them (which is exceeding