But 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 larger than
he was now. That is not surprising; size has nothing to do with kindred.
A tiny weed may be first cousin to a great tree; and a little dog like
Vick knows that Lioness is a dog too, though she is twenty times larger
than herself.
So Tom knew that Ellie was a little girl, and thought about her all that
day, and longed to have had her to play with; but he had soon to think
of something else.
And here is the account 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. Bedonebyasyoudid, who reads the news
very carefully every morning, and especially the police cases.
He was going along the rocks in three-fathom water, watching the pollock
catch prawns, and the wrasses nibble barnacles off the rocks, shells and
all, when he saw a round cage of green withes; and inside it, looking
very much ashamed of himself, sat his friend the lobster, twiddling his
horns, instead of thumbs.
"What, have you been naughty, and have they put you in the lockup?"
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 and abused it because he was angry with himself.
"Where did you get in?"
"Through that round hole at the top."
"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."
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. [Footnote: You will understand from the lobster's
description of his attempt to get out of the "cage of green withes" in
which he found himself, that the lobster pot had hooks or spikes which
were bent in toward the center, so that the opening in the top was but
small.] "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 foremost.
"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."
"Dear me, I never thought of that," said the lobster; "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 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. "Yah!" 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.
Tom was horribly frightened, and still more frightened when she found
the hole in the top, and squeezed herself right down through it, all
eyes and teeth. But no sooner was her head inside than valiant Mr.
Lobster caught her by the nose and held on.
And there they were all three in the pot, rolling over and over, and
very tight packing it was. And the lobster tore at the otter, and the
otter tore at the lobster, and both squeezed and thumped poor Tom till
he had no breath left in his body; and I don't know what would have
happened to him if he had not at last got on the otter's back, and safe
out of the hole.
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.
Tom asked the lobster why he never thought of letting go. He said very
determinedly that it was a point of honour among lobsters.
And 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
delightful!"
And it ran to Tom, and Tom ran to it, and they hugged and kissed each
other for ever so long, they did not know why. But they did not want any
introductions there under the water.
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 just 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.
"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 head off, and rubbed off all its
flowers. And now I must plant it again with seaweeds, and coraline, and
anemones, 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, some bigger than Tom and
some smaller, all in the neatest little white bathing dresses; and when
they found that he was a new baby, they hugged and kissed him, and then
put him in the middle and danced around him on the sand, and there was
no one ever so happy as poor 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
last week."
And this is the reason why the rock-pools are always so neat and clean;
because the water babies come inshore after every storm to sweep them
out, and comb them down, and put them all to rights again.
Only where men are wasteful and dirty, and let sewers run into the sea
instead of putting the stuff upon the fields like thrifty, reasonable
souls; or throw herrings' heads and dead dog-fish, or any other refuse,
into the water; or in any way make a mess upon the clean shore--there
the water babies will not come, sometimes not for hundreds of years (for
they cannot abide anything smelly or foul), but leave the sea anemones
and the crabs to clear away everything till the good, tidy sea has
covered up all the dirt in soft mud and clean sand, where the water
babies can plant live cockles and whelks and razor shells and sea
cucumbers and golden combs, and make a pretty live garden again, after
man's dirt is cleared away. And that, I suppose, is the reason why there
are no water babies at any watering place which I have ever seen.
Now when Tom got to the home of the water babies, in Saint Brandan's
fairy isle, he found that the isle stood all on pillars, and that its
roots were full of caves. There were pillars of black basalt and pillars
of green and crimson serpentine; and pillars ribboned with red and white
and yellow sandstone; and there were blue grottoes and white grottoes,
all curtained and draped with seaweeds, purple and crimson, green and
brown; and strewn with soft white sand, on which the water babies sleep
every night. But, to keep the place clean and sweet, the crabs picked up
all the scraps off the floor and ate them like so many monkeys; while
the rocks were covered with ten thousand sea anemones, and corals and
madrepores, who scavenged the water all day long, and kept it nice and
pure. But, to make up to them for having to do such nasty work, they
were not left black and dirty, as poor chimney-sweeps and dustmen are.
No; the fairies are more considerate and just than that, and have
dressed them all in the most beautiful colours and patterns, till they
look like vast flower beds of gay blossoms.
And, instead of watchmen and policemen to keep out nasty things at
night, there were thousands and thousands of water snakes, and most
wonderful creatures they were.
They were dressed in green velvet, and black velvet, and purple velvet;
and were all jointed in rings; and some of them had three hundred brains
apiece, so that they must have been uncommonly shrewd detectives; and
some had eyes in their tails; and some had eyes in every joint, so that
they kept a very sharp lookout; and when they wanted a baby snake, they
just grew one at the end of their own tails, and when it was able to
take care of itself it dropped off; so that they brought up their
families very cheaply. But if any nasty thing came by, out they rushed
upon it; and then out of each of their hundreds of feet there sprang a
whole cutler's shop of
Scythes, Creeses,
Billhooks, Ghoorka swords,
Pickaxes, Tucks,
Forks, Javelins,
Penknives, Lances,
Rapiers, Halberts.
Sabres, Gisarines,
Yataghans, Poleaxes,
Fishhooks, Corkscrews,
Bradawls, Pins,
Gimlets, Needles,
And so forth,
which stabbed, shot, poked, pricked, scratched, ripped, pinked, and
crimped those naughty beasts so terribly that they had to run for their
lives, or else be chopped into small pieces and be eaten afterwards.
And 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 in alleys and courts,
and tumble-down cottages, who die by fever, and cholera, and measles,
and scarlatina, and nasty complaints which no one has any business to
have, and which no one will have some day, when folks have common sense;
and all the little children who have been killed by cruel masters and
wicked soldiers; they were all there, except, of course, the babes of
Bethlehem who were killed by wicked King Herod; for they were taken
straight to heaven long ago, as everybody knows, and we call them the
Holy Innocents.
[Illustration: MRS. BEDONEBYASYOUDID]
But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty tricks, and left off
tormenting dumb animals now that he had plenty of playfellows to amuse
him. Instead of that, I am sorry to say, he would meddle with the
creatures, all but the water snakes, for they would stand no nonsense.
So he tickled the madrepores, to make them shut up; and frightened the
crabs, to make them hide in the sand and peep out at him with the tips
of their eyes; and put stones into the anemones' [Footnote: The anemones
spoken of here are not to be confused with the flowers which grow on
land. The sea anemones are alive, but the circles of tentacles about
their mouths make them look like flowers of the most beautiful colors.
They have no eyes, and of course could not see what Tom was offering
them.] 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,
Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid came indeed.
A very tremendous lady she was; and when the children saw her they all
stood in a row, very upright indeed, and smoothed down their bathing
dresses, and put their hands behind them, just as if they were going to
be examined by the inspector.
And she had on a black bonnet, and a black shawl, and no crinoline at
all, and a pair of large green spectacles, and a great hooked nose,
hooked so much that the bridge of it stood quite up above her eyebrows;
and under her arm she carried a great birch-rod. Indeed she was so ugly
that Tom was tempted to make faces at her, but did not, for he did not
admire the look of the birch-rod under her arm.
And she looked at the children one by one, and seemed very much pleased
with them, though she never asked them one question about how they were
behaving; and then began giving them all sorts of nice sea things--sea
cakes, sea apples, sea oranges, sea bullseyes, sea toffee; and to the
very best of all she gave sea ices, made out of sea-cows' cream, which
never melt under water.
Now little Tom watched all these sweet things given away, till his mouth
watered, and his eyes grew as round as an owl's. For he hoped that his
turn would come at last; and so it did. For the lady called him up, and
held out her fingers with something in them, and popped it into his
mouth; and lo and behold, it was a nasty, cold, hard pebble.
"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 have caught a
good dinner. As you did to them, so must I do to you."
"Who told you that?" said Tom.
"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 creatures'." "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 they 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 punishing people when they do wrong. I like
it no more than they do; I am often very, very sorry for them, poor
things; but I cannot help it. If I tried not to do it, I should do it
all the same. For I work by machinery, just like an engine; and am full
of wheels and springs inside; and am wound up very carefully, so that I
cannot help going."
"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 forgot 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; for I am
as old as Eternity, and yet as young 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 children's hearts
to them at once; because though the house is plain enough, yet from the
windows a beautiful and good spirit is looking forth.
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.
"And I am very ugly. I am the ugliest fairy in the world; and I shall
be, till people behave themselves as they ought to do. And then I shall
grow as handsome as my sister, who is the loveliest fairy in the world;
and her name is Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby. So she begins where I end,
and I begin where she ends; and those who will not listen to her must
listen to me, as you will see. Now, all of you run away, except Tom; and
he may stay and see what I am going to do. It will be a very good
warning for him to begin with, before he goes to school.
"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 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), 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 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 their
children's waists and toes; and she laced them all up in tight stays, so
that they were choked and sick, and their noses grew red, and their
hands and feet swelled; and then she crammed their poor feet into the
most dreadfully tight boots, and made them all dance; 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 nursery-maids, 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 sunstrokes;
but, being under the water, they could only have water-strokes; which, I
assure you, are nearly as bad, as you will find if you try to sit under
a mill wheel. And mind--when you hear a rumbling at the bottom of the
sea, sailors will tell you that it is a ground swell; but now you know
better. It is the old lady wheeling the maids about in perambulators.
And by this time she was so tired, 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. And she boxed their ears, and
thumped them over the head with rulers, and pandied their hands with
canes, and told them that they told stories, and were this and that bad
sort of people; and the more they were very indignant, and stood upon
their honour, and declared they told the truth, the more she declared
they were not, and that they were only telling lies; and at last she
birched them all round soundly with her great birch-rod and set them
each an imposition of three hundred thousand lines of Hebrew to learn by
heart before she came back next Friday. And at that they all cried and
howled so, that their breaths came all up through the sea like bubbles
out of soda water; and that is one reason of the bubbles in the sea.
There are others; but that is the one which principally concerns little
boys. And by that time she was so tired that she was glad to stop; and,
indeed, she had done a very good day's work.
Tom did not quite dislike the old lady; but he could not help thinking
her a little spiteful--and no wonder if she was, poor old soul; for if
she has to wait to grow handsome till people do as they would be done
by, she will have to wait a very long time.
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 he 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 [Footnote: Butty, in the English coal-mining regions, is the
name given to a man who takes a contract to work out a certain area of
coal. He employs other people to work for him. A nailer is a man who
makes nails.] 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 impatient; and therefore I only punish
them till they become patient, and learn to use their common sense like
reasonable beings. But as for chimney-sweeps, and collier-boys, and
nailer lads, my sister has set good people to stop all that sort of
thing; and very much obliged to her I am; for if she could only stop the
cruel masters from ill-using poor children, I should grow handsome at
least a thousand years sooner. And now do you be a good boy, and do as
you would be done by, which they did not; and then, when my sister,
Madame Doasyouwouldbedoneby, comes on Sunday, perhaps she will take
notice of you, and teach you how to behave. She understands that better
than I do." And so she went.
Tom was very glad to hear that there was no chance of meeting Grimes
again, though he was a little sorry for him, considering that he used
sometimes to give him the leavings of the beer; but he determined to be
a very good boy all Saturday; and he was; for he never frightened one
crab, nor tickled any live corals, nor put stones into the sea-anemones'
mouths, to make them fancy they had got a dinner; and when Sunday
morning came, sure enough, Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came too. Whereat
all the little children began dancing and clapping their hands, and Tom
danced too with all his might.
And as for the pretty lady, I cannot tell you what the colour of her
hair was, or of her eyes; no more could Tom; for when people look at
her, all they can think of is, that she has the sweetest, kindest,
tenderest, funniest, merriest face they ever saw, or want to see. But
Tom saw that she was a very tall woman, as tall as her sister; but
instead of being gnarly, and horny, and scaly, and prickly, like her,
she was the most nice, soft, fat, smooth, pussy, cuddly, delicious
creature who ever nursed a baby; and she understood babies thoroughly,
for she had plenty of her own, whole rows and regiments of them, and has
to this day. And all her delight was, whenever she had a spare moment,
to play with babies, in which she showed herself a woman of sense; for
babies are the best company and the pleasantest playfellows in the
world; at least, so all the wise people in the world think. And
therefore when the children saw her, they naturally 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 understand 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 armfuls of babies--nine hundred under one arm
and thirteen hundred under the other--and threw them away, right and
left, into the water. But they 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.
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 asleep from pure love.
[Illustration: SHE TOOK TOM IN HER ARMS]
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 awoke, the lady was
nursing him still.
"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 no sea beasts after
that as long as he lived; and he is quite alive, I assure you, still.