`` I gave you your warning then : but you gave it yourself a thousand times before and since . Every bad word that you said -- every cruel and mean thing that you did -- every time that you got tipsy -- every day that you went dirty -- you were disobeying me , whether you knew it or not . '' `` If I 'd only known , ma'am -- '' `` You knew well enough that you were disobeying something , though you did not know it was me . But come out and take your chance . Perhaps it may be your last . '' So Grimes stepped out of the chimney , and really , if it had not been for the scars on his face , he looked as clean and respectable as a master-sweep need look . `` Take him away , '' said she to the truncheon , `` and give him his ticket-of-leave . '' `` And what is he to do , ma'am ? '' `` Get him to sweep out the crater of Etna ; he will find some very steady men working out their time there , who will teach him his business : but mind , if that crater gets choked again , and there is an earthquake in consequence , bring them all to me , and I shall investigate the case very severely . '' So the truncheon marched off Mr. Grimes , looking as meek as a drowned worm . And for aught I know , or do not know , he is sweeping the crater of Etna to this very day . `` And now , '' said the fairy to Tom , `` your work here is done . You may as well go back again . '' `` I should be glad enough to go , '' said Tom , `` but how am I to get up that great hole again , now the steam has stopped blowing ? '' `` I will take you up the backstairs : but I must bandage your eyes first ; for I never allow anybody to see those backstairs of mine . '' `` I am sure I shall not tell anybody about them , ma'am , if you bid me not . '' `` Aha ! So you think , my little man . But you would soon forget your promise if you got back into the land-world . For , if people only once found out that you had been up my backstairs , you would have all the fine ladies kneeling to you , and the rich men emptying their purses before you , and statesmen offering you place and power ; and young and old , rich and poor , crying to you , ` Only tell us the great backstairs secret , and we will be your slaves ; we will make you lord , king , emperor , bishop , archbishop , pope , if you like -- only tell us the secret of the backstairs .
For thousands XXXXX years we have been paying , and petting , and obeying , and worshipping quacks who told us they had the key of the backstairs , and could smuggle us up them ; and in spite of all our disappointments , we will honour , and glorify , and adore , and beatify , and translate , and apotheotise you likewise , on the chance of your knowing something about the backstairs , that we may all go on pilgrimage to it ; and , even if we can not get up it , lie at the foot of it , and cry - ` Oh , backstairs , precious backstairs , invaluable backstairs , requisite backstairs , necessary backstairs , good-natured backstairs , cosmopolitan backstairs , comprehensive backstairs , accommodating backstairs , well-bred backstairs , commercial backstairs , economical backstairs , practical backstairs , logical backstairs , deductive backstairs , comfortable backstairs , humane backstairs , reasonable backstairs , long-sought backstairs , coveted backstairs , aristocratic backstairs , respectable backstairs , gentlenmanlike backstairs , ladylike backstairs , orthodox backstairs , probable backstairs , credible backstairs , demonstrable backstairs , irrefragable backstairs , potent backstairs , all-but-omnipotent backstairs , & c. Save us from the consequences of our own actions , and from the cruel fairy , Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid ! '
So about before for if of since that though whether