Tom was now quite amphibious, and what is better still, he was clean.
For the first time in his life he felt how comfortable it was to have
nothing on him but himself. But he only enjoyed it; he did not know it,
or think about it; just as you enjoy life and health, and yet never
think about being alive and healthy; and may it be long before you have
to think about it!
He did not remember having ever been dirty. Indeed, he did not remember
any of his old troubles--being tired, or hungry, 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 came into this world, and
became a land baby, you remembered nothing. So why should he, when he
became a water baby?
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.
And what did he live on? Water cresses, perhaps; or perhaps water gruel,
and water milk; too many land babies do so likewise. But we do not know
what one tenth of the water-things eat; so we are not answerable for the
water babies.
Sometimes he went along the smooth gravel water-ways, looking at the
crickets which ran in and out among the stones, as rabbits do on land;
or he climbed over the ledges of rock, and saw the sand pipes hanging in
thousands, with every one of them a pretty little head and legs peeping
out; or he went into a still corner, and watched the caddises eating
dead sticks as greedily as you would eat plum pudding, and building
their houses with silk and glue. Very fanciful ladies they were; none of
them would keep to the same materials for a day. One would begin with
some pebbles; then she would stick on a piece of green wood; then she
found a shell, and stuck it on too; and the poor shell was alive, and
did not like at all being taken to build houses with; but the caddis did
not let him have any voice in the matter, being rude and selfish, as
vain people are apt to be; then she stuck on a piece of rotten wood,
then a very smart pink stone, and so on, till she was patched all over
like an Irishman's coat. Then she found a long straw, five times as long
as herself, and said, "Hurrah! my sister has a tail, and I'll have one
too;" and she stuck it on her back, and marched about with it quite
proud, though it was very inconvenient indeed. And, at that, tails
became all the fashion among the caddis-baits in that pool, and they all
toddled about with long straws sticking out behind, getting between each
other's legs, and tumbling over each other, and looking so ridiculous,
that Tom laughed at them till he cried.
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.
And in the water forest he saw the water monkeys and water squirrels
(they had all six legs, though; everything, almost, has six legs in the
water, except efts and water babies); and nimbly enough they ran among
the branches. There were water flowers there too, in thousands; and Tom
tried to pick them; but as soon as he touched them, they drew themselves
in and turned into knots of jelly; and then Tom saw that they were all
alive--bells, and stars, and wheels, and flowers, of all beautiful
shapes and colours; and all alive and busy, just as Tom was. So now he
found that there was a great deal more in the world than he had fancied
at first sight.
Now you must know that all the things under the water talk; only not
such a language as ours; but such as horses, and dogs, and cows, and
birds talk to each other; and Tom soon learned to understand them and
talk to them; so that he might have had very pleasant company if he had
only been a good boy. But I am sorry to say, he was too like some other
little boys, very fond of hunting and tormenting creatures for mere
sport, 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 forbidden to
do that. Tom had to learn his lesson for himself by sound and sharp
experience, as many another foolish person has to do, though there may
be many a kind heart yearning over them all the while, and longing to
teach them what they can only teach themselves.
At last one day he found a caddis, and wanted it to peep out of its
house; but its house door was shut. He had never seen a caddis with a
house door before; so what must he do, the meddlesome little fellow, but
pull it open, to see what the poor lady was doing inside. What a shame!
How should you like to have any one breaking your bedroom door in, to
see how you looked when you 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 nightcap of neat pink skin. However, if she
didn't answer, all the other caddises did; for they held up their hands
and shrieked: "Oh, you nasty, horrid boy; there you are at it again! And
she had just laid herself up for a fortnight's sleep, and then she would
have come out with such beautiful wings, and flown about, and laid such
lots of eggs; and now you have broken her door, and she can't mend it
because her mouth is tied up for a fortnight, and she will die. Who sent
you here to worry us out of our lives?"
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
huge old brown trout ten times as big as he was, and ran up against him,
and knocked all the breath out of him; 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 donkey'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 halloed 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
tight.
"Yah, ah! Oh, let me go!" cried Tom,
"Then let me go," said the 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.
"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 down 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 long time in a dark room. It made his legs very feebly;
and looked about it half asleep like a girl when she goes for the first
time to a ballroom; and then it began walking slowly up 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 colours began to show
on its body--blue and yellow and black, spots and bars and rings; out of
its back rose four great wings of bright brown gauze; and its eyes grew
so large that they filled all its head, and shone like ten thousand
diamonds.
"Oh, you beautiful creature!" said Tom; and he put out his hand to catch
it.
But the thing whirred up into the air, and hung poised on its wings a
moment, and then settled down again by Tom quite fearless.
[Illustration: "OH, YOU BEAUTIFUL CREATURE! SAID TOM.]
"No!" it said, "you cannot catch me. I am a dragon fly now, the king of
all flies; and I shall dance in the sunshine, and hawk over the river,
and catch gnats, and have a beautiful wife like myself. I know what I
shall do. Hurrah!" And he flew away into the air, and began catching
gnats.
"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 will come back, and have a little chat about all I have
seen in my travels. Why, what a huge tree this is! and what huge leaves
on it!"
It was only a big dock; but you know the dragon fly had never seen any
but little water trees; starwort, and milfoil, and water crowfoot, and
such like; so it did look very big to him. Besides, he was very
shortsighted, 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 with Tom. He was a little
conceited about his fine colours and his large wings; but you know, he
had been a poor, dirty, ugly creature all his life before; so there were
great excuses for him. He was very fond of talking about all the
wonderful things he saw in the trees and meadows; and Tom liked to
listen to him, for he had forgotten all about them. So in a little while
they became great friends.
And I am very glad to say that Tom learned such a lesson that day, that
he did not torment creatures for a long time after. And then the
caddises grew quite tame, and used to tell him strange stories about the
way they built their houses, and changed their skins, and turned at last
into winged flies, till Tom began to long to change his skin, and have
wings like them some day.
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.
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 made acquaintance
with one by accident and found him a very merry little fellow. And this
was the way it happened; and it is all quite true.
He was basking at the top of the water one hot day in July, catching
duns and feeding the trout, when he saw a new sort, a dark gray little
fellow with a brown head. He was a very little fellow, indeed; but he
made the most of himself, as people ought to do. He cocked up his head,
and he cocked up his wings, and he cocked up his tail, and, 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 yet."
"Want what?" said Tom, quite taken aback by his impudence.
"Your leg, which you are kind enough to hold out for me to sit on. I
must go and see after my wife for a few minutes. Dear me! what a
troublesome business a family is!" (though the idle little rogue did
nothing at all, but left his poor wife to lay all the eggs by herself).
"When I come back, I shall be glad of it, if you'll be so good as to
keep it sticking out just so;" and off he flew.
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 suit. It's a business-like suit, don't you think?"
"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 without her; and here I go."
And as he spoke, he turned quite pale, and then quite white.
"Why, you're ill!" said Tom. But he did not answer.
"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. "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. 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 Saint Vitus's 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 colours of a peacock's tail. And what was the oddest of all, the
whisks at the end of his tail had grown five times as long as they were
before.
"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 fellows deserve to grow.
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:
"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 nights, till he grew
so tired that he tumbled into the water and floated down. But what
became of him Tom never knew, and he himself never minded; for Tom heard
him singing to the last, as he floated down:
"To drive dull care away-ay-ay!"
And if he did not care, why nobody else cared, either.
But one day Tom had a new adventure. He was sitting on a water-lily
leaf, he and his friend the dragon fly, watching the gnats dance. The
dragon fly had eaten as many as he wanted, and was sitting quite still
and sleepy, for it was very hot and bright. The gnats (who did not care
the least for the death of their poor brothers) danced a foot over his
head quite happily, and a large black fly settled within an inch of his
nose, and began washing his own face and combing his hair with his paws;
but the dragon fly never stirred, and kept on chatting to Tom.
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 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
Tom 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 otters, 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.
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.
[Illustration: TOM ESCAPED THE OTTER]
"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."
"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 laugh--as you 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 the salmon;" and she laughed again. "We hunt
them up and down the pools, and drive them up into a corner, the silly
things; they are so proud, and bully the little trout, and the minnows,
till they see us coming, and then they are so meek all at once; and we
catch them, but we disdain to eat them all; we just bite off their soft
throats and suck their sweet juice--Oh, so good!"--(and she licked her
wicked lips)--"and then throw them away, and go and catch another. They
are coming soon, children, coming soon; I can smell the rain coming up
off the sea, and then hurrah for a fresh, and salmon, and plenty of
eating all day long."
And the otter grew so proud that she turned head over heels twice, and
then stood upright half out of the water, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"And where do they come from?" asked Tom, who kept himself very close,
for he was considerably frightened.
"Out of the sea, eft, the great, wide sea, where they might stay and be
safe if they liked. [Footnote: Salmon live in the sea, as the otter
says, but each autumn they go up the rivers to spawn.] But out of the
sea the silly things come, into the great river down below, and we come
up to watch for them; and when they go down again, we go down and follow
them. And there we fish for the bass and the pollock, and have jolly
days along the shore, and toss and roll in the breakers, and sleep snug
in the warm dry crags. Ah, that is a merry life, too, children, if it
were not for those horrid men."
"What are men?" asked Tom; but somehow he seemed to know before he
asked.
"Two-legged things, eft; and, now I come to look at you, they are
actually something like you, if you had not a tail" (she was determined
that Tom should have a tail), "only a great deal bigger, worse luck for
us; and they catch the fish with hooks and lines, which get into our
feet sometimes, and set pots along the rocks to catch lobsters. They
speared my poor, dear husband as he went out to find something for me to
eat. I was laid up among the crags then, and we were very low in the
world, for the sea was so rough that no fish would come in shore. But
they speared him, poor fellow, and I saw them carrying him away upon a
pole. Ah, he lost his life for your sakes, my children, poor, dear,
obedient creature that he was."
And the otter grew so sentimental (for otters can be very sentimental
when they choose, like a good many people who are both cruel and greedy,
and no good to anybody at all) that she sailed solemnly away down the
burn, and Tom saw her no more for that time.
And lucky it was for her that she did so; for no sooner was she gone,
than down the bank came seven 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.
But he could not help thinking of what the otter had said about the
great river and the broad sea. And as he thought, he longed to go and
see them. He could not tell why; but the more he thought, the more he
grew discontented with the narrow little stream in which he lived, and
all his companions there; and wanted to get out into the wide, wide
world, and enjoy all the wonderful sights of which he was sure it was
full.
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
make 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 was 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 leaped
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 put his head; for the rain came down
by bucketfuls, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream and churned
it into foam; and soon the stream rose, and rushed down, higher and
higher, and fouler and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks, and straws,
and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood lice, and leeches, and odds and
ends, and 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 a new sight--all the
bottom of the stream alive with great eels, turning and twisting along,
all down stream and away. They had been hiding for weeks past in the
cracks of the rocks, and in burrows in the mud; and Tom had hardly even
seen them, except now and then at night; but now they were all out, and
went hurrying past him so fiercely and wildly that he was quite
frightened. And as they hurried past he could hear them say to each
other, "We must run, we must run. What a jolly thunderstorm! Down to the
sea, down to the sea!"
And then the otter came by with all her brood, twining and sweeping
along as fast as the eels themselves; and she spied Tom as she came by,
and said:
"Now is your time, eft, if you want to see the world. Come along,
children, never mind those nasty eels; we shall breakfast on salmon to-
morrow. Down to the sea, down to the sea!"
Then came a flash brighter than all the rest, and by the light of it--in
the thousandth part of a second they were gone again--but he had seen
them, he was certain of it--three beautiful little white girls, with
their arms twined round each other's necks, floating down the torrent,
as they sang, "Down to the sea, down to the sea!"
"Oh, stay! Wait for me!" cried Tom; but they were gone; yet he could
hear their voices clear and sweet through the roar of thunder and water
and wind, singing as they died away, "Down to the sea!"
"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
swirling banks, from which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking him
to be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the fairies sent them
home again with a tremendous scolding, for daring to meddle with a water
baby; on through narrow strids [Footnote: strid (rare) means a place the
length of a stride] 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.
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.
[Illustration: THE SALMON, KING OF ALL THE FISH]
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 I go on into it I shall
surely lose my way, or some strange thing will bite me. I will stop here
and look out for the otter, or the eels, or some one to tell me where I
shall go."
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 themselves.
The salmon looked at him full in the face, and then went on without
minding him, with a swish or two of his tail which made the stream boil
again. And in a few minutes came another, and then four or five, and so
on; and all passed Tom, rushing and plunging up the cataract with strong
strokes of their silver tails, now and then leaping clean out of water
and up over a rock, shining gloriously for a moment in the bright sun;
while Tom was so delighted that he could have watched them all day long.
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.
"My dear," said the great fish to his companion, "you really look
dreadfuly 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 were 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 and 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 going to bite him.
"What do you want here?" he said, very fiercely.
"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 really beg your
pardon; I see what you are, my little dear. I have met one or two
creatures like you before, and found them very agreeable and well
behaved. Indeed, one of them showed me a great kindness lately, which I
hope to be able to repay. I hope we shall not be in your way here. As
soon as this lady is rested, we shall proceed on our journey."
What a well-bred old salmon he was!
"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
which had got into the stream, I cannot tell how, since last winter, and
showed us the way round them, in the most charmingly obliging way."
"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!"
"Were there no babies up this stream?" asked the lady salmon.
"No! and I grew so lonely. I thought I saw three last night; but they
were gone in an instant, down to the sea. So I went, too; for I had
nothing to play with but caddises and dragon flies and trout,"
"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 husband curled up his, too, till he looked as proud
as Alcibiades. [Footnote: Alcibiades was a particularly handsome and
particularly proud Greek, who lived in the time of the great wars
between the two Greek states of Athens and Sparta. He took part in these
wars, first on the side of Athens, then on the side of Sparta, and
finally succeeded in gaining the hatred of both states by his treachery
and unscrupulousness. He went into exile, but was finally put to death
by the Persians at the command of the Athenians and Spartans (404 B.
C.)]
"Why do you dislike the trout so?" asked Tom.
"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."