For the little rogue had jumped clean out of his own skin , and left it standing on 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 stopping an instant , just as if he had St. Vitus 's dance . `` Ai n't I a pretty fellow now ? '' And so he was ; for his body was white , and his tail orange , and his eyes all the colours of a peacock 's tail . And what was the oddest of all , the whisks at the end of his tail had grown five times as long as they were before . `` Ah ! '' said he , `` now I will see the gay world . My living , wo n't cost me much , for I have no mouth , you see , and no inside ; so I can never be hungry nor have the stomach-ache neither . '' No more he had . He had grown as dry and hard and empty as a quill , as such silly shallow-hearted fellows deserve to grow . But , instead of being ashamed of his emptiness , he was quite proud of it , as a good many fine gentlemen are , and began flirting and flipping up 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 grew so tired , that he tumbled into the water , and floated down . But what became of him Tom never knew , and he himself never minded ; for Tom heard him 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 - lily leaf , he and his friend the dragon-fly , watching the gnats dance . The dragon-fly had eaten as many as he wanted , and was sitting quite still and sleepy , for it was very hot and bright . The gnats -LRB- who did not care the least for their poor brothers ' death -RRB- danced a foot over his head quite 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 : but the dragon-fly never stirred , and kept on chatting to Tom about the times when he lived under the water . Suddenly , Tom heard the strangest noise up the stream ; cooing , and grunting , and whining , and squeaking , as if you had put into a bag two stock-doves , nine mice , three guinea-pigs , and a blind puppy , and left them there to settle themselves and make music .
He looked up the water , and there he saw a sight XXXXX strange as the noise ; a great ball rolling over and over down the stream , seeming one moment of soft brown fur , and the next of shining glass : and yet it was not a ball ; for sometimes it broke up and streamed away in pieces , and then it joined again ; and all the while the noise came out of it louder and louder .
For To as if into on over so with within