like the leap-frogs which you make out of a goose 's breast-bone . Certainly he took the most wonderful shots , and backwards , too . For , if he wanted to go into a narrow crack ten yards off , what do you think he did ? If he had gone in head foremost , of course he could not have turned round . So he used to turn his tail to it , and lay his long horns , which carry his sixth sense in their tips -LRB- and nobody knows what that sixth sense is -RRB- , straight down his back to guide him , and twist his eyes back till they almost came out of their sockets , and then made ready , present , fire , snap ! -- and away he went , pop into the hole ; and peeped out and twiddled his whiskers , as much as to say , `` You could n't do that . '' Tom asked him about water-babies . `` Yes , '' he said . He had seen them often . But he did not think much of them . They were meddlesome little creatures , that went about helping fish and shells which got into scrapes . Well , for his part , he should be ashamed to be helped by little soft creatures that had not even a shell on their backs . He had lived quite long enough in the world to take care of himself . He was a conceited fellow , the old lobster , and not very civil to Tom ; and you will hear how he had to alter his mind before he was done , as conceited people generally have . But he was so funny , and Tom so lonely , that he could not quarrel with him ; and they used to sit in holes in the rocks , and chat for hours . And about this time there happened to Tom a very strange and important adventure -- so important , indeed , that he was very near never finding the water-babies at all ; and I am sure you would have been sorry for that . I hope that you have not forgotten the little white lady all this while . At least , here she comes , looking like a clean white good little darling , as she always was , and always will be . For it befell in the pleasant short December days , when the wind always blows from the south-west , till Old Father Christmas comes and spreads the great white table-cloth , ready for little boys and girls to give the birds their Christmas dinner of crumbs -- it befell -LRB- to go on -RRB- in the pleasant December days , that Sir John was so busy hunting that nobody at home could get a word out of him . Four days a week he hunted , and very good sport he had ; and the other two he went to the bench and the board of guardians , and very good justice he did ; and , when he got home in time , he dined at five ; for he hated this absurd new fashion of dining at eight in the hunting season , which forces a man to make interest with the footman for cold beef and beer as soon as he comes in , and so spoil his appetite , and then sleep in an arm-chair in his bedroom , all stiff and tired , for two or three hours before he can get his dinner like a gentleman .
And do you be like Sir XXXXX , my dear little man , when you are your own master ; and , if you want either to read hard or ride hard , stick to the good old Cambridge hours of breakfast at eight and dinner at five ; by which you may get two days ' work out of one .
Father John Tom breast-bone crumbs fire hours leap-frogs sixth south-west