The Water-Babies

ild, yet glorio

freedom on thy

arnest pains do

bring the ine

ith thy blesse

ul shall have he

ie upon thee

t, and deep a

DSW

ould not; and he was an officer with a pair of gray moustaches as long as your arm, who said once in company that two of the most heart-rending sights

e, they called him sentimental and so forth, all but one dear little old Quaker lady with a soul as white a

upon my mind that that

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

and following her about, and pretending to be looking the other way, or going after something else, till

l thinking about it, he longed so violently that he was not afraid at all. And one night, when all the other children were asleep,

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 gobb

ose behind him, stood

r does keep her cupboard locked; every one may go and taste for themselves, and fare accordingly. It is very odd, but so it is;

arched up her eyebrows into her very hair, and her eyes grew so wide that they would have t

she sa

e dear! you are jus

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

e fairy do when she saw

m, hurry him, hit him, poke him, pull him, pinch him, pound him, put him in the corn

e knew quite well Tom would have fought, and kicked, and bit, and said bad words, and turned again that moment into a naugh

rk 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

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 Inquisitors, 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

rything already." True. But, if she did not know, she would not surely behave wo

ore 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

head to foot: however she gave him his share like the rest, and

and they made him so sick that he had to get away as fast as he could; a

looked him full in the face; but more sadly than she had ever looked. A

ame, he wanted to be cuddled like th

you; but I cannot, you

: and he was all over pri

m not joking, my little man; I am in serious, solemn earnest). And therefore, when Tom's soul grew all prickly with naughty tempe

de in a corner and cry? For nobody would

iously and sadly than ever, he could stand it no longer, and thrust the sweetmeats away, saying, "No, I don't want any: I

t, instead, she only took him up and kissed him, which was not quite pleasant, for her chin was ver

. "I always forgive every one the moment t

ke away all these

. You put them there yourself, a

o that?" asked T

I shall fetch you a schoolmistress, who will teach you

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 beau

"and you must teach him to be

finger in her mouth, and looked at Tom under her brows; and Tom put his finger in

had not burst out crying, and begged her to teach him to be good and help him to cure his prickles; and at t

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

me, and the kind fairy took her place. And before she had taught Tom many Sunday

know you now. You are the very same littl

saw in bed." And he jumped at her, and longed to hug and kiss her; but did not, rememberi

ock; and how he had swum down to the sea, and how she had flown out of the window; and how this, that, and the othe

n, and both liked them so well that they went o

ars; but the truth is, he was not. He had always one thing on his min

autiful plac

eautiful place lik

, 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 sout

you anything about it, save that it is the most beautiful place in all the world; and, if you ask them

worth all the rest of the world put together. And of co

cannot go with you when you go home on Sundays, or

ask the fa

. Bedonebyasyoudid, ca

e," she said. "Those who go there must go first where they do not li

d Ellie

k h

re at first; I was so much happier at home, where it is always S

ickles? But I am not prick

e you very much now; and

to like going where you don't like, and helpi

mouth, and hung his head down;

or he thought in his little head, She is not so strict a

why I should blame you, while so many grown peo

Tom did. For, when he asked the second fairy, she told

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 car

And then he grew quite cross with her, because she was superior to him, and did what he could not do. And poor Ellie

his playmates, or for the sea-palace or anything else. But perhaps that made matters all the easier for him; fo

am so miserable here, I'll go

you must go alone if you go at all. Now don't poke that poor crab about, Tom" (for h

I don't care if she does;" bu

ter that horrid old Grimes. I don't like him, that's certain. And if I find him, he will

dy can turn water-babies into sweeps, or h

ou are persuading me all along to go, because y

ery wide at that, and they wer

y mournfully-and then she cri

"Oh, Ellie, w

vanished quite away, and Tom heard her voice calling him, and growi

d 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

have been naughty to Ellie, and I hav

ave sent her away home, and she will not c

wing to the waxing of the moon. It may have been so; but it is considered right in the new philosophy, you know, to give spiritual causes for physical phenomena-especially in parlour-ta

bed Tom. "However, I will find her again,

w 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 hav

you wa

be so much happier if I th

looking so happy that Tom longed to kiss her; but was still a

, if it is to the world's end. But I don't

ogue, and you know that at the bottom of your heart. But if you don't, I will make y

(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 colour also, and all colours, as you may see if you look at a

ous nation of the Doasyoulikes, who came away from the country of Ha

adymade, at the foot of the Happy-go-lucky Mountains, where flapdoodle gr

ly, whom you may see painted on the ancient vases, and really ther

es, it was so warm there that the gentlemen walked about in little beside a cocked hat and a pair of straps, or some light summe

hat would have been too great an exertion. So they sat on ant-hills all day long, and played on the Jews' harp; a

ice down their throats; and, if any little pigs ran about ready roasted, crying, "Come and eat me," as was their fashion in that count

s, for everything was readymade to their hand; and the stern old fairy Necess

ere were never such comfortable, easy-go

s a jolly lif

hat great peaked mountain there behind," said

es

ose ashes, and slag, a

es

ve hundred years, and you w

over like a kettle; whereby one-third of the Doasyoulikes were blown into the air

y, "what comes of living

not warn them?" s

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 was the breath of a giant, whom some gods or other had burie

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 the land

hey are growing no

y they are all ge

t beef and plum-pudding, their jaws grow large, and their

ey were all living up in trees, and making nests to keep off

to have eaten a good many of them

nly the strongest and most active ones w

uldered chaps they are," said Tom;

l not marry any but the very strongest and fiercest gentle

d fiercer; but their feet had changed shape very oddly, for they laid hold of the branches with thei

surprised, and asked the fai

iving: or, indeed, get married; so that they got the best of everything, and starved out all the rest; and those who are le

hairy one among

ill be a great man in his tim

ver the next five hund

ds, and have hairy children too; for the climate was growing so damp that none but the hairy ones could live: all the re

the next five hundred years

d picking up roots," said Ellie

at the shape of their feet had altered,

, "I declare the

to talk. For each stupid child forgot 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

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 no

ad good reason so to do, for they really fancied that the men were apes, and never thought, in their simplicity, of asking whether the creatures had hippopotamus majors

ed them from becoming apes?

and behaved like the dumb beasts, who only do what they like, the stupider and clumsier they grew; till at last they were past all cure,

they all now?

they ought to

coming of the Cocqcigrues; 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 downhill as well as an uphill road; and, if I can turn beasts into men, I c

hat, and be all over slime, I'll go thi