CHAPTER III
TOM was now quite amphibious. You do not know what that means?
You had better, then, ask the nearest Government pupil-teacher, who maypossibly answer you smartly enough, thus--
"Amphibious. Adjective, derived from two Greek words, _amphi_, a fish,and _bios_, a beast. An animal supposed by our ignorant ancestors to becompounded of a fish and a beast; which therefore, like thehippopotamus, can't live on the land, and dies in the water."
However that may be, Tom was amphibious: and what is better still, hewas clean. For the first time in his life, he felt how comfortable itwas to have nothing on him but himself. But he only enjoyed it: he didnot know it, or think about it; just as you enjoy life and health, andyet never think about being alive and healthy; and may it be long beforeyou have to think about it!
_He felt how comfortable it was to have nothing on himbut himself_]
He did not remember having ever been dirty. Indeed, he did not rememberany of his old troubles, being tired, or hungry, or beaten, or sent updark chimneys. Since that sweet sleep, he had forgotten all about hismaster, 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 ofall, he had forgotten all the bad words which he had learned fromGrimes, and the rude boys with whom he used to play.
That is not strange: for you know, when you came into this world, andbecame a land-baby, you remembered nothing. So why should he, when hebecame a water-baby?
Then have you lived before?
My dear child, who can tell? One can only tell that, by rememberingsomething which happened where we lived before; and as we remembernothing, we know nothing about it; and no book, and no man, can nevertell us certainly.
There was a wise man once, a very wise man, and a very good man, whowrote a poem about the feelings which some children have about havinglived before; and this is what he said--
"_Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath elsewhere had its setting, And cometh from afar: Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory, do we come From God, who is our home._"
There, you can know no more than that. But if I was you, I would believethat. For then you will believe the one true doctrine of this wonderfulfairy tale; which is, that your soul makes your body, just as a snailmakes his shell. For the rest, it is enough for us to be sure thatwhether or not we lived before, we shall live again; though not, I hope,as poor little heathen Tom did. For he went downward into the water: butwe, I hope, shall go upward to a very different place.
But Tom was very happy in the water. He had been sadly overworked in theland-world; and so now, to make up for that, he had nothing butholidays in the water-world for a long, long time to come. He hadnothing to do now but enjoy himself, and look at all the pretty thingswhich are to be seen in the cool clear water-world, where the sun isnever 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 knowwhat one-tenth of the water-things eat; so we are not answerable for thewater-babies.
Sometimes he went along the smooth gravel water-ways, looking at thecrickets 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 inthousands, with every one of them a pretty little head and legs peepingout; or he went into a still corner, and watched the caddises eatingdead sticks as greedily as you would eat plum-pudding, and buildingtheir houses with silk and glue. Very fanciful ladies they were; none ofthem would keep to the same materials for a day. One would begin withsome pebbles; then she would stick on a piece of green wood; then shefound a shell, and stuck it on too; and the poor shell was alive, anddid not like at all being taken to build houses with: but the caddis didnot let him have any voice in the matter, being rude and selfish, asvain 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 overlike an Irishman's coat. Then she found a long straw, five times as longas herself, and said, "Hurrah! my sister has a tail, and I'll have onetoo;" and she stuck it on her back, and marched about with it quiteproud, though it was very inconvenient indeed. And, at that, tailsbecame all the fashion among the caddis-baits in that pool, as they wereat the end of the Long Pond last May, and they all toddled about withlong straws sticking out behind, getting between each other's legs, andtumbling over each other, and looking so ridiculous, that Tom laughed atthem till he cried, as we did. But they were quite right, you know; forpeople must always follow the fashion, even if it be spoon-bonnets.
Then sometimes he came to a deep still reach; and there he saw thewater-forests. They would have looked to you only little weeds: but Tom,you must remember, was so little that everything looked a hundred timesas big to him as it does to you, just as things do to a minnow, who seesand catches the little water-creatures which you can only see in amicroscope.
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 thewater, except efts and water-babies); and nimbly enough they ran amongthe branches. There were water-flowers there too, in thousands; and Tomtried to pick them: but as soon as he touched them, they drew themselvesin and turned into knots of jelly; and then Tom saw that they were allalive--bells, and stars, and wheels, and flowers, of all beautifulshapes and colours; and all alive and busy, just as Tom was. So now hefound that there was a great deal more in the world than he had fanciedat first sight.
There was one wonderful little fellow, too, who peeped out of the top ofa house built of round bricks. He had two big wheels, and one littleone, all over teeth, spinning round and round like the wheels in athrashing-machine; and Tom stood and stared at him, to see what he wasgoing to make with his machinery. And what do you think he was doing?Brick-making. With his two big wheels he swept together all the mudwhich floated in the water: all that was nice in it he put into hisstomach and ate; and all the mud he put into the little wheel on hisbreast, which really was a round hole set with teeth; and there he spunit into a neat hard round brick; and then he took it and stuck it onthe top of his house-wall, and set to work to make another. Now was nothe a clever little fellow?
Tom thought so: but when he wanted to talk to him the brick-maker wasmuch too busy and proud of his work to take notice of him.
Now you must know that all the things under the water talk; only notsuch a language as ours; but such as horses, and dogs, and cows, andbirds talk to each other; and Tom soon learned to understand them andtalk to them; so that he might have had very pleasant company if he hadonly been a good boy. But I am sorry to say, he was too like some otherlittle boys, very fond of hunting and tormenting creatures for meresport. Some people say that boys cannot help it; that it is nature, andonly a proof that we are all originally descended from beasts of prey.But whether it is nature or not, little boys can help it, and must helpit. For if they have naughty, low, mischievous tricks in their nature,as monkeys have, that is no reason why they should give way to thosetricks like monkeys, who know no better. And therefore they must nottorment dumb creatures; for if they do, a certain old lady who is comingwill surely give them exactly what they deserve.
But Tom did not know that; and he pecked and howked the poorwater-things about sadly, till they were all afraid of him, and got outof his way, or crept into their shells; so he had no one to speak to orplay with.
The water-fairies, of course, were very sorry to see him so unhappy, andlonged to take him, and tell him how naughty he was, and teach him to begood, and to play and romp with him too: but they had been forbidden todo that. Tom had to learn his lesson for himself by sound and sharpexperience, as many another foolish person has to do, though there maybe many a kind heart yearning over them all
the while, and longing toteach them what they can only teach themselves.
At last one day he found a caddis, and wanted it to peep out of itshouse: but its house-door was shut. He had never seen a caddis with ahouse-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 ashame! How should you like to have any one breaking your bedroom-doorin, to see how you looked when you were in bed? So Tom broke to piecesthe door, which was the prettiest little grating of silk, stuck all overwith shining bits of crystal; and when he looked in, the caddis pokedout her head, and it had turned into just the shape of a bird's. Butwhen Tom spoke to her she could not answer; for her mouth and face weretight tied up in a new night-cap of neat pink skin. However, if shedidn't answer, all the other caddises did; for they held up their handsand shrieked like the cats in Struwelpeter: "_Oh, you nasty horrid boy;there you are at it again! And she had just laid herself up for afortnight's sleep, and then she would have come out with such beautifulwings, and flown about, and laid such lots of eggs: and now you havebroken her door, and she can't mend it because her mouth is tied up fora fortnight, and she will die. Who sent you here to worry us out of ourlives?_"
So Tom swam away. He was very much ashamed of himself, and felt all thenaughtier; 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, andjumped clean out of the water in their fright. But as Tom chased them,he came close to a great dark hover under an alder root, and outfloushed a huge old brown trout ten times as big as he was, and ranright against him, and knocked all the breath out of his body; and Idon'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 bankhe 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 withtwo great eyes and a face just like a donkey's.
"Oh," said Tom, "you are an ugly fellow to be sure!" and he began makingfaces at him; and put his nose close to him, and halloed at him, like avery rude boy.
When, hey presto! all the thing's donkey-face came off in a moment, andout popped a long arm with a pair of pincers at the end of it, andcaught Tom by the nose. It did not hurt him much; but it held him quitetight.
"Yah, ah! Oh, let me go!" cried Tom.
"Then let me go," said the creature. "I want to be quiet. I want tosplit."
Tom promised to let him alone, and he let go. "Why do you want tosplit?" said Tom.
"Because my brothers and sisters have all split, and turned intobeautiful creatures with wings; and I want to split too. Don't speak tome. 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--heopened 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, assoft and smooth as Tom: but very pale and weak, like a little child whohas been ill a long time in a dark room. It moved its legs very feebly;and looked about it half ashamed, like a girl when she goes for thefirst time into a ballroom; and then it began walking slowly up a grassstem to the top of the water.
Tom was so astonished that he never said a word: but he stared with allhis eyes. And he went up to the top of the water too, and peeped out tosee what would happen.
And as the creature sat in the warm bright sun, a wonderful change cameover it. It grew strong and firm; the most lovely colours began to showon its body, blue and yellow and black, spots and bars and rings; outof its back rose four great wings of bright brown gauze; and its eyesgrew so large that they filled all its head, and shone like ten thousanddiamonds.
"Oh, you beautiful creature!" said Tom; and he put out his hand to catchit.
But the thing whirred up into the air, and hung poised on its wings amoment, and then settled down again by Tom quite fearless.
"No!" it said, "you cannot catch me. I am a dragon-fly now, the king ofall the flies; and I shall dance in the sunshine, and hawk over theriver, and catch gnats, and have a beautiful wife like myself. I knowwhat I shall do. Hurrah!" And he flew away into the air, and begancatching gnats.
"Oh! come back, come back," cried Tom, "you beautiful creature. I haveno one to play with, and I am so lonely here. If you will but come backI will never try to catch you."
"I don't care whether you do or not," said the dragon-fly; "for youcan't. But when I have had my dinner, and looked a little about thispretty place, I will come back, and have a little chat about all I haveseen in my travels. Why, what a huge tree this is! and what huge leaveson it!"
It was only a big dock: but you know the dragon-fly had never seen anybut little water-trees; starwort, and milfoil, and water-crowfoot, andsuch like; so it did look very big to him. Besides, he was veryshort-sighted, as all dragon-flies are; and never could see a yardbefore his nose; any more than a great many other folks, who are nothalf as handsome as he.
The dragon-fly did come back, and chatted away with Tom. He was a littleconceited about his fine colours and his large wings; but you know, hehad been a poor dirty ugly creature all his life before; so there weregreat excuses for him. He was very fond of talking about all thewonderful things he saw in the trees and the meadows; and Tom liked tolisten to him, for he had forgotten all about them. So in a little whilethey became great friends.
And I am very glad to say, that Tom learned such a lesson that day, thathe did not torment creatures for a long time after. And then thecaddises grew quite tame, and used to tell him strange stories about theway they built their houses, and changed their skins, and turned at lastinto winged flies; till Tom began to long to change his skin, and havewings like them some day.
And the trout and he made it up (for trout very soon forget if they havebeen frightened and hurt). So Tom used to play with them at hare andhounds, and great fun they had; and he used to try to leap out of thewater, head over heels, as they did before a shower came on; but somehowhe never could manage it. He liked most, though, to see them rising atthe flies, as they sailed round and round under the shadow of the greatoak, where the beetles fell flop into the water, and the greencaterpillars let themselves down from the boughs by silk ropes for noreason at all; and then changed their foolish minds for no reason at alleither; and hauled themselves up again into the tree, rolling up therope in a ball between their paws; which is a very clever rope dancer'strick; but why they should take so much trouble about it no one cantell.
And very often Tom caught them just as they touched the water; andcaught the alder-flies, and the caperers, and the cock-tailed duns andspinners, yellow, and brown, and claret, and gray, and gave them to hisfriends the trout. Perhaps he was not quite kind to the flies; but onemust do a good turn to one's friends when one can.
And at last he gave up catching even the flies; for he made acquaintancewith one by accident and found him a very merry little fellow. And thiswas the way it happened; and it is all quite true.
He was basking at the top of the water one hot day in July, catchingduns and feeding the trout, when he saw a new sort, a dark gray littlefellow with a brown head. He was a very little fellow indeed: but hemade the most of himself, as people ought to do. He cocked up his head,and he cocked up his wings, and he cocked up his tail, and he cocked upthe two whisks at his tail-end, and, in short, he looked the cockiestlittle man of all little men. And so he proved to be; for instead ofgetting away, he hopped upon Tom's finger, and sat there as bold as ninetailors; and he cried out in the tiniest, shrillest, squeakiest littlevoice 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. Imust just go and see after my wife for a few minutes. Dear me! what atroubles
ome business a family is!" (though the idle little rogue didnothing 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 tokeep 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 hissqueaking voice.
"So you live under the water? It's a low place. I lived there for sometime; and was very shabby and dirty. But I didn't choose that thatshould last. So I turned respectable, and came up to the top, and put onthis gray suit. It's a very business-like suit, you think, don't you?"
"Very neat and quiet indeed," said Tom.
"Yes, one must be quiet and neat and respectable, and all that sort ofthing 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 thelast week, to last me my life. So I shall put on a ball dress, and goout 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; andthinks about nothing but eggs. If she chooses to come, why she may; andif 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 whiteas a ghost.
"No, I ain't!" answered a little squeaking voice over his head. "This isme up here, in my ball-dress; and that's my skin. Ha, ha! you could notdo such a trick as that!"
And no more Tom could, nor all the conjurors in the world. For thelittle rogue had jumped clean out of his own skin, and left it standingon 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 stoppingan instant, just as if he had St. Vitus's dance. "Ain't I a prettyfellow now?"
And so he was; for his body was white, and his tail orange, and his eyesall the colours of a peacock's tail. And what was the oddest of all, thewhisks at the end of his tail had grown five times as long as they werebefore.
"Ah!" said he, "now I will see the gay world. My living won't cost memuch, for I have no mouth, you see, and no inside; so I can never behungry nor have the stomach-ache neither."
No more he had. He had grown as dry and hard and empty as a quill, assuch silly shallow-hearted fellows deserve to grow.
But, instead of being ashamed of his emptiness, he was quite proud ofit, as a good many fine gentlemen are, and began flirting and flippingup 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 grewso tired, that he tumbled into the water, and floated down. But whatbecame of him Tom never knew, and he himself never minded; for Tom heardhim 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-lilyleaf, he and his friend the dragon-fly, watching the gnats dance. Thedragon-fly had eaten as many as he wanted, and was sitting quite stilland sleepy, for it was very hot and bright. The gnats (who did not carethe least for their poor brothers' death) danced a foot over his headquite 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: butthe dragon-fly never stirred, and kept on chatting to Tom about thetimes when he lived under the water.
Suddenly, Tom heard the strangest noise up the stream; cooing, andgrunting, and whining, and squeaking, as if you had put into a bag twostock-doves, nine mice, three guinea-pigs, and a blind puppy, and leftthem there to settle themselves and make music.
He looked up the water, and there he saw a sight as strange as thenoise; a great ball rolling over and over down the stream, seeming onemoment of soft brown fur, and the next of shining glass: and yet it wasnot a ball; for sometimes it broke up and streamed away in pieces, andthen it joined again; and all the while the noise came out of it louderand louder.
Tom asked the dragon-fly what it could be: but, of course, with hisshort sight, he could not even see it, though it was not ten yards away.So he took the neatest little header into the water, and started off tosee for himself; and, when he came near, the ball turned out to be fouror five beautiful creatures, many times larger than Tom, who wereswimming about, and rolling, and diving, and twisting, and wrestling,and cuddling, and kissing, and biting, and scratching, in the mostcharming fashion that ever was seen. And if you don't believe me, youmay go to the Zoological Gardens (for I am afraid that you won't see itnearer, unless, perhaps, you get up at five in the morning, and go downto Cordery's Moor, and watch by the great withy pollard which hangs overthe backwater, where the otters breed sometimes), and then say, ifotters at play in the water are not the merriest, lithest, gracefullestcreatures you ever saw.
But, when the biggest of them saw Tom, she darted out from the rest, andcried in the water-language sharply enough, "Quick, children, here issomething to eat, indeed!" and came at poor Tom, showing such a wickedpair of eyes, and such a set of sharp teeth in a grinning mouth, thatTom, who had thought her very handsome, said to himself, _Handsome isthat handsome does_, and slipped in between the water-lily roots as fastas he could, and then turned round and made faces at her.
"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 withall his might, making horrible faces all the while, just as he used togrin through the railings at the old women, when he lived before. It wasnot quite well bred, no doubt; but you know, Tom had not finished hiseducation yet.
"Come away, children," said the otter in disgust, "it is not wortheating, after all. It is only a nasty eft, which nothing eats, not eventhose 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 handsquite plain, and I know you have a tail."
"I tell you I have not," said Tom. "Look here!" and he turned his prettylittle 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, shestood to it, right or wrong; so she answered:
"I say you are an eft, and therefore you are, and not fit food forgentlefolk like me and my children. You may stay here till the salmoneat you (she knew the salmon would not, but she wanted to frighten poorTom). Ha! ha! they will eat you, and we will eat them;" and the otterlaughed 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 isbogies.
"What are salmon?" asked Tom.
"Fish, you eft, great fish, nice fish to eat. They are the lords of thefish, and we are lords of the salmon;" and she laughed again. "We huntthem up and down the pools, and drive them up into a corner, the sillythings; 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 wecatch them, but we disdain to eat them all; we just bite out their softthroats and suck their sweet juice--Oh, so good!"--(and she licked herwicked lips)--"and then throw them away, and go and catch another. Theyare coming soon, children, coming soon; I can smell the rain coming upoff the sea, and then hurrah for a freshet, and salmon, and plenty ofeating all day long."
And the otter grew so proud that she turned head over heels twice, andthen stood upright h
alf 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 besafe if they liked. But out of the sea the silly things come, into thegreat river down below, and we come up to watch for them; and when theygo down again we go down and follow them. And there we fish for the bassand the pollock, and have jolly days along the shore, and toss and rollin the breakers, and sleep snug in the warm dry crags. Ah, that is amerry life too, children, if it were not for those horrid men."
"What are men?" asked Tom; but somehow he seemed to know before heasked.
"Two-legged things, eft: and, now I come to look at you, they areactually something like you, if you had not a tail" (she was determinedthat Tom should have a tail), "only a great deal bigger, worse luck forus; and they catch the fish with hooks and lines, which get into ourfeet sometimes, and set pots along the rocks to catch lobsters. Theyspeared my poor dear husband as he went out to find something for me toeat. I was laid up among the crags then, and we were very low in theworld, for the sea was so rough that no fish would come in shore. Butthey speared him, poor fellow, and I saw them carrying him away upon apole. Ah, he lost his life for your sakes, my children, poor dearobedient creature that he was."
And the otter grew so sentimental (for otters can be very sentimentalwhen 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 theburn, and Tom saw her no more for that time. And lucky it was for herthat she did so; for no sooner was she gone, than down the bank cameseven little rough terrier dogs, snuffing and yapping, and grubbing andsplashing, in full cry after the otter. Tom hid among the water-liliestill they were gone; for he could not guess that they were thewater-fairies come to help him.
But he could not help thinking of what the otter had said about thegreat river and the broad sea. And, as he thought, he longed to go andsee them. He could not tell why; but the more he thought, the more hegrew discontented with the narrow little stream in which he lived, andall his companions there; and wanted to get out into the wide wideworld, and enjoy all the wonderful sights of which he was sure it wasfull.
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, forthere was no water left to keep under. So the sun burned his back andmade him sick; and he went back again and lay quiet in the pool for awhole 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 wouldnot move an inch to take a fly, though there were thousands on thewater, but lay dozing at the bottom under the shade of the stones; andTom lay dozing too, and was glad to cuddle their smooth cool sides, forthe water was quite warm and unpleasant.
But toward evening it grew suddenly dark, and Tom looked up and saw ablanket of black clouds lying right across the valley above his head,resting on the crags right and left. He felt not quite frightened, butvery 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 rainfell plop into the water, and one hit Tom on the nose, and made him pophis head down quickly enough.
And then the thunder roared, and the lightning flashed, and leapt acrossVendale and back again, from cloud to cloud, and cliff to cliff, tillthe very rocks in the stream seemed to shake: and Tom looked up at itthrough the water, and thought it the finest thing he ever saw in hislife.
But out of the water he dared not put his head; for the rain came downby bucketsful, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream, andchurned it into foam; and soon the stream rose, and rushed down, higherand higher, and fouler and fouler, full of beetles, and sticks; andstraws, and worms, and addle-eggs, and wood-lice, and leeches, and oddsand ends, and omnium-gatherums, and this, that, and the other, enough tofill nine museums.
Tom could hardly stand against the stream, and hid behind a rock. Butthe trout did not; for out they rushed from among the stones, and begangobbling the beetles and leeches in the most greedy and quarrelsome way,and swimming about with great worms hanging out of their mouths, tuggingand kicking to get them away from each other.
And now, by the flashes of the lightning, Tom saw a new sight--all thebottom of the stream alive with great eels, turning and twisting along,all down stream and away. They had been hiding for weeks past in thecracks of the rocks, and in burrows in the mud; and Tom had hardly everseen them, except now and then at night: but now they were all out, andwent hurrying past him so fiercely and wildly that he was quitefrightened. And as they hurried past he could hear them say to eachother, "We must run, we must run. What a jolly thunderstorm! Down to thesea, down to the sea!"
And then the otter came by with all her brood, twining and sweepingalong 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 salmonto-morrow. Down to the sea, down to the sea!"
Then came a flash brighter than all the rest, and by the light of it--inthe thousandth part of a second they were gone again--but he had seenthem, he was certain of it--three beautiful little white girls, withtheir 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 heartheir voices clear and sweet through the roar of thunder and water andwind, singing as they died away, "Down to the sea!"
"Down to the sea?" said Tom; "everything is going to the sea, and I willgo too. Good-bye, trout." But the trout were so busy gobbling worms thatthey never turned to answer him; so that Tom was spared the pain ofbidding them farewell.
And now, down the rushing stream, guided by the bright flashes of thestorm; past tall birch-fringed rocks, which shone out one moment asclear as day, and the next were dark as night; past dark hovers underswirling banks, from which great trout rushed out on Tom, thinking himto be good to eat, and turned back sulkily, for the fairies sent themhome again with a tremendous scolding, for daring to meddle with awater-baby; on through narrow strids and roaring cataracts, where Tomwas deafened and blinded for a moment by the rushing waters; along deepreaches, where the white water-lilies tossed and flapped beneath thewind and hail; past sleeping villages; under dark bridge-arches, andaway and away to the sea. And Tom could not stop, and did not care tostop; he would see the great world below, and the salmon, and thebreakers, and the wide wide sea.
And when the daylight came, Tom found himself out in the salmon river.
And after a while he came to a place where the river spread out intobroad still shallow reaches, so wide that little Tom, as he put his headout of the water, could hardly see across.
And there he stopped. He got a little frightened. "This must be thesea," he thought. "What a wide place it is! If I go on into it I shallsurely lose my way, or some strange thing will bite me. I will stop hereand look out for the otter, or the eels, or some one to tell me where Ishall go."
So he went back a little way, and crept into a crack of the rock, justwhere the river opened out into the wide shallows, and watched for someone to tell him his way: but the otter and the eels were gone on milesand miles down the stream.
There he waited, and slept too, for he was quite tired with his night'sjourney; and, when he woke, the stream was clearing to a beautiful amberhue, though it was still very high. And after a while he saw a sightwhich made him jump up; for he knew in a moment it was one of the thingswhich he had come to look for.
Such a fish! ten times as big as the biggest trout, and a hundred timesas big as Tom, sculling up the stream past him, as easily as Tom hadsculled down.
Such a fish! shining silver from head to tail, and here and there acrimson dot; with a grand hooked nose and grand curling
lip, and a grandbright eye, looking round him as proudly as a king, and surveying thewater right and left as if all belonged to him. Surely he must be thesalmon, the king of all the fish.
Tom was so frightened that he longed to creep into a hole; but he neednot have been; for salmon are all true gentlemen, and, like truegentlemen, they look noble and proud enough, and yet, like truegentlemen, they never harm or quarrel with any one, but go about theirown business, and leave rude fellows to themselves.
The salmon looked at him full in the face, and then went on withoutminding him, with a swish or two of his tail which made the stream boilagain. And in a few minutes came another, and then four or five, and soon; and all passed Tom, rushing and plunging up the cataract with strongstrokes of their silver tails, now and then leaping clean out of waterand 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 Tomsaw that he was helping another salmon, an especially handsome one, whohad not a single spot upon it, but was clothed in pure silver from noseto tail.
"My dear," said the great fish to his companion, "you really lookdreadfully tired, and you must not over-exert yourself at first. Do restyourself behind this rock;" and he shoved her gently with his nose, tothe rock where Tom sat.
"_Oh, don't hurt me!" cried Tom. "I only want to look atyou; you are so handsome_"]
You must know that this was the salmon's wife. For salmon, like othertrue gentlemen, always choose their lady, and love her, and are true toher, and take care of her and work for her, and fight for her, as everytrue 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 hewas 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 sohandsome."
"Ah!" said the salmon, very stately but very civilly. "I really beg yourpardon; I see what you are, my little dear. I have met one or twocreatures like you before, and found them very agreeable andwell-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 wayhere. 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 theriver's mouth came and warned me and my wife of some new stake-netswhich had got into the stream, I cannot tell how, since last winter, andshowed us the way round them, in the most charmingly obliging way."
"So there are babies in the sea?" cried Tom, and clapped his littlehands. "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 theywere gone in an instant, down to the sea. So I went too; for I hadnothing 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 learnttheir low manners," said the salmon.
"No, indeed, poor little dear: but how sad for him to live among suchpeople as caddises, who have actually six legs, the nasty things; anddragon-flies, too! why they are not even good to eat; for I tried themonce, and they are all hard and empty; and, as for trout, every oneknows what they are." Whereon she curled up her lip, and lookeddreadfully scornful, while her husband curled up his too, till helooked as proud as Alcibiades.
"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 sorryto say they are relations of ours who do us no credit. A great manyyears 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 theworld and grow strong and fat, they chose to stay and poke about in thelittle streams and eat worms and grubs; and they are very properlypunished for it; for they have grown ugly and brown and spotted andsmall; and are actually so degraded in their tastes, that they will eatour children."
"And then they pretend to scrape acquaintance with us again," said thelady. "Why, I have actually known one of them propose to a lady salmon,the impudent little creature."
"I should hope," said the gentleman, "that there are very few ladies ofour race who would degrade themselves by listening to such a creaturefor an instant. If I saw such a thing happen, I should consider it myduty to put them both to death upon the spot." So the old salmon said,like an old blue-blooded hidalgo of Spain; and what is more, he wouldhave done it too. For you must know, no enemies are so bitter againsteach other as those who are of the same race; and a salmon looks on atrout as some great folks look on some little folks, as something justtoo much like himself to be tolerated.
The Water-Babies Page 5
