And when the giant understood what a great traveller Tom had been , he made a truce with him at once , and would have kept him there to this day to pick his brains , so delighted was he at finding any one to tell him what he did not know before . `` Ah , you lucky little dog ! '' said he at last , quite simply -- for he was the simplest , pleasantest , honestest , kindliest old Dominie Sampson of a giant that ever turned the world upside down without intending it -- `` ah , you lucky little dog ! If I had only been where you have been , to see what you have seen ! '' `` Well , '' said Tom , `` if you want to do that , you had best put your head under water for a few hours , as I did , and turn into a water - baby , or some other baby , and then you might have a chance . '' `` Turn into a baby , eh ? If I could do that , and know what was happening to me for but one hour , I should know everything then , and be at rest . But I ca n't ; I ca n't be a little child again ; and I suppose if I could , it would be no use , because then I should then know nothing about what was happening to me . Ah , you lucky little dog ! '' said the poor old giant . `` But why do you run after all these poor people ? '' said Tom , who liked the giant very much . `` My dear , it 's they that have been running after me , father and son , for hundreds and hundreds of years , throwing stones at me till they have knocked off my spectacles fifty times , and calling me a malignant and a turbaned Turk , who beat a Venetian and traduced the State -- goodness only knows what they mean , for I never read poetry - - and hunting me round and round -- though catch me they ca n't , for every time I go over the same ground , I go the faster , and grow the bigger . While all I want is to be friends with them , and to tell them something to their advantage , like Mr. Joseph Ady : only somehow they are so strangely afraid of hearing it . But , I suppose I am not a man of the world , and have no tact . '' `` But why do n't you turn round and tell them so ? '' `` Because I ca n't . You see , I am one of the sons of Epimetheus , and must go backwards , if I am to go at all . '' `` But why do n't you stop , and let them come up to you ? '' `` Why , my dear , only think .
XXXXX I did , all the butterflies and cockyolybirds would fly past me , and then I should catch no more new species , and should grow rusty and mouldy , and die .
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