`` But , please , which is the way to Shiny Wall ? '' said Tom . `` Oh , you must go , my little dear -- you must go . Let me see -- I am sure -- that is -- really , my poor old brains are getting quite puzzled . Do you know , my little dear , I am afraid , if you want to know , you must ask some of these vulgar birds about , for I have quite forgotten . '' And the poor old Gairfowl began to cry tears of pure oil ; and Tom was quite sorry for her ; and for himself too , for he was at his wit 's end whom to ask . But by there came a flock of petrels , who are Mother Carey 's own chickens ; and Tom thought them much prettier than Lady Gairfowl , and so perhaps they were ; for Mother Carey had had a great deal of fresh experience between the time that she invented the Gairfowl and the time that she invented them . They flitted along like a flock of black swallows , and hopped and skipped from wave to wave , lifting up their little feet behind them so daintily , and whistling to each other so tenderly , that Tom fell in love with them at once , and called them to know the way to Shiny Wall . `` Shiny Wall ? Do you want Shiny Wall ? Then come with us , and we will show you . We are Mother Carey 's own chickens , and she sends us out over all the seas , to show the good birds the way home . '' Tom was delighted , and swam off to them , after he had made his bow to the Gairfowl . But she would not return his bow : but held herself bolt upright , and wept tears of oil as she sang : `` And so the poor stone was left all alone ; With a fal-lal-la-lady . '' But she was wrong there ; for the stone was not left all alone : and the next time that Tom goes by it , he will see a sight worth seeing . The old Gairfowl is gone already : but there are better things come in her place ; and when Tom comes he will see the fishing-smacks anchored there in hundreds , from Scotland , and from Ireland , and from the Orkneys , and the Shetlands , and from all the Northern ports , full of the children of the old Norse Vikings , the masters of the sea . And the men will be hauling in the great cod by thousands , till their hands are sore from the lines ; and they will be making cod-liver oil and guano , and salting down the fish ; and there will be a man-of-war steamer there to protect them , and a lighthouse to show them the way ; and you and I , perhaps , shall go some day to the Allalonestone to the great summer sea-fair , and dredge strange creatures such as man never saw before ; and we shall hear the sailors boast that it is not the worst jewel in Queen Victoria 's crown , for there are eighty miles of codbank , and food for all the poor folk in the land . That is what Tom will see , and perhaps you and I shall see it too . And then we shall not be sorry because we can not get a Gairfowl to stuff , much less find gairfowl enough to drive them into stone pens and slaughter them , as the old Norsemen did , or drive them on board along a plank till the ship was victualled with them , as the old English and French rovers used to do , of whom dear old Hakluyt tells : but we shall remember what Mr. Tennyson says : how `` The old order changeth , giving place to the new , And God fulfils himself in many ways . '' And now Tom was all agog to start for Shiny Wall ; but the petrels said no .
They must go first to Allfowlsness , and wait there for the great gathering XXXXX all the sea-birds , before they start for their summer breeding-places far away in the Northern Isles ; and there they would be sure to find some birds which were going to Shiny Wall : but where Allfowlsness was , he must promise never to tell , lest men should go there and shoot the birds , and stuff them , and put them into stupid museums , instead of leaving them to play and breed and work in Mother Carey 's water-garden , where they ought to be .
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