`` Hullo ! here is a pretty business , '' said Tom . `` Now take your great claws , and break the points off those spikes , and then we shall both get out easily . '' `` Dear me , I never thought of that , '' said the lobster ; `` and after all the experience of life that I have had ! '' You see , experience is of very little good unless a man , or a lobster , has wit enough to make use of it . For a good many people , like old Polonius , have seen all the world , and yet remain little better than children after all . But they had not got half the spikes away when they saw a great dark cloud over them : and lo , and behold , it was the otter . How she did grin and grin when she saw Tom . `` Yar ! '' said she , `` you little meddlesome wretch , I have you now ! I will serve you out for telling the salmon where I was ! '' And she crawled all over the pot to get in . Tom was horribly frightened , and still more frightened when she found the hole in the top , and squeezed herself right down through it , all eyes and teeth . But no sooner was her head inside than valiant Mr. Lobster caught her by the nose and held on . And there they were all three in the pot , rolling over and over , and very tight packing it was . And the lobster tore at the otter , and the otter tore at the lobster , and both squeezed and thumped poor Tom till he had no breath left in his body ; and I do n't know what would have happened to him if he had not at last got on the otter 's back , and safe out of the hole . He was right glad when he got out : but he would not desert his friend who had saved him ; and the first time he saw his tail uppermost he caught hold of it , and pulled with all his might . But the lobster would not let go . `` Come along , '' said Tom ; `` do n't you see she is dead ? '' And so she was , quite drowned and dead .
And that was the end XXXXX the wicked otter .
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