Transcribed from the 1889 Macmillan and Co. edition by DavidPrice,
THE
WATER BABIES
A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby
BY
CHARLES KINGSLEY
NEWEDITION
WITH ONE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS BY LINLEYSAMBOURNE
London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1889
All rights reserved
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh
TO
MY YOUNGESTSON
GRENVILLE ARTHUR
AND
TO ALL OTHER GOOD LITTLE BOYS
COME READ MEMY RIDDLE, EACH GOOD LITTLE MAN;
IF YOU CANNOT READ IT, NO GROWN-UP FOLKCAN.
“I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined;
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Being sad thoughts to the mind.“To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think,
What man has made of man.”Wordsworth.
CHAPTER I
“I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined;
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.“To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think,
What man has made of man.”Wordsworth.
Once upon a time there was a littlechimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is a short name,and you have heard it before, so you will not have much troublein remembering it. He lived in a great town in the Northcountry, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plentyof money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He couldnot read nor write, and did not care to do either; and he neverwashed himself, for there was no water up the court where helived. He had never been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of God, or of Christ, except in words whichyou never have heard, and which it would have been well if he hadnever heard. He cried half his time, and laughed the otherhalf. He cried when he had to climb the dark flues, rubbinghis poor knees and elbows raw; and when the soot got into hiseyes, which it did every day in th