`` So he told me the truth after all , poor little dear ! Ah , first thoughts are best , and a body 's heart 'll guide them right , if they will but hearken to it . '' And then she told Sir John all . `` Bring the dog here , and lay him on , '' said Sir John , without another word , and he set his teeth very hard . And the dog opened at once ; and went away at the back of the cottage , over the road , and over the meadow , and through a bit of alder copse ; and there , upon an alder stump , they saw Tom 's clothes lying . And then they knew as much about it all as there was any need to know . And Tom ? Ah , now comes the most wonderful part of this wonderful story . Tom , when he woke , for of course he woke -- children always wake after they have slept exactly as long as is good for them -- found himself swimming about in the stream , being about four inches , or -- that I may be accurate -- 3.87902 inches long and having round the parotid region of his fauces a set of external gills -LRB- I hope you understand all the big words -RRB- just like those of a sucking eft , which he mistook for a lace frill , till he pulled at them , found he hurt himself , and made up his mind that they were part of himself , and best left alone . In fact , the fairies had turned him into a water-baby . A water-baby ? You never heard of a water-baby . Perhaps not . That is the very reason why this story was written . There are a great many things in the world which you never heard of ; and a great many more which nobody ever heard of ; and a great many things , too , which nobody will ever hear of , at least until the coming of the Cocqcigrues , when man shall be the measure of all things . `` But there are no such things as water-babies . '' How do you know that ? Have you been there to see ? And if you had been there to see , and had seen none , that would not prove that there were none . If Mr. Garth does not find a fox in Eversley Wood -- as folks sometimes fear he never will -- that does not prove that there are no such things as foxes .
And as is Eversley XXXXX to all the woods in England , so are the waters we know to all the waters in the world .
Cocqcigrues Garth Wood alder copse eft first foxes left water-babies