Whereon she curled up her lip , and looked dreadfully scornful , while her husband curled up his too , till he looked 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 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 . '' `` And then they pretend to scrape acquaintance with us again , '' said the lady . `` Why , I have actually known one of them propose to a lady salmon , the little impudent little creature . '' `` I should hope , '' said the gentleman , `` that there are very few ladies of our race who would degrade themselves by listening to such a creature for an instant . If I saw such a thing happen , I should consider it my duty 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 would have done it too . For you must know , no enemies are so bitter against each other as those who are of the same race ; and a salmon looks on a trout , as some great folks look on some little folks , as something just too much like himself to be tolerated . CHAPTER IV `` Sweet is the lore which Nature brings ; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things We murder to dissect . Enough of science and of art : Close up these barren leaves ; Come forth , and bring with you a heart That watches and receives . '' WORDSWORTH . So the salmon went up , after Tom had warned them of the wicked old otter ; and Tom went down , but slowly and cautiously , coasting along shore . He was many days about it , for it was many miles down to the sea ; and perhaps he would never have found his way , if the fairies had not guided him , without his seeing their fair faces , or feeling their gentle hands . And , as he went , he had a very strange adventure . It was a clear still September night , and the moon shone so brightly down through the water , that he could not sleep , though he shut his eyes as tight as possible . So at last he came up to the top , and sat upon a little point of rock , and looked up at the broad yellow moon , and wondered what she was , and thought that she looked at him . And he watched the moonlight on the rippling river , and the black heads of the firs , and the silver-frosted lawns , and listened to the owl 's hoot , and the snipe 's bleat , and the fox 's bark , and the otter 's laugh ; and smelt the soft perfume of the birches , and the wafts of heather honey off the grouse moor far above ; and felt very happy , though he could not well tell why .
You , of course , would have been very cold sitting there on a September night , without the least bit of clothes on your wet back ; but XXXXX was a water-baby , and therefore felt cold no more than a fish .
Alcibiades Mis-shapes Spain Tom days firs murder snipe wafts year