`` No , I ai n't ! '' cried Tom , as loud as he could ; for he did not like to be called bad names . `` It is a water-baby ! '' cried Ellie ; and of course it was . `` Water-fiddlesticks , my dear ! '' said the professor ; and he turned away sharply . There was no denying it . It was a water-baby : and he had said a moment ago that there were none . What was he to do ? He would have liked , of course , to have taken Tom home in a bucket . He would not have put him in spirits . Of course not . He would have kept him alive , and petted him -LRB- for he was a very kind old gentleman -RRB- , and written a book about him , and given him two long names , of which the first would have said a little about Tom , and the second all about himself ; for of course he would have called him Hydrotecnon Ptthmllnsprtsianum , or some other long name like that ; for they are forced to call everything by long names now , because they have used up all the short ones , ever since they took to making nine species out of one . But -- what would all the learned men say to him after his speech at the British Association ? And what would Ellie say , after what he had just told her ? There was a wise old heathen once , who said , `` Maxima debetur pueris reverentia '' -- The greatest reverence is due to children ; that is , that grown people should never say or do anything wrong before children , lest they should set them a bad example . -- Cousin Cramchild says it means , `` The greatest respectfulness is expected from little boys . '' But he was raised in a country where little boys are not expected to be respectful , because all of them are as good as the President : - Well , every one knows his own concerns best ; so perhaps they are . But poor Cousin Cramchild , to do him justice , not being of that opinion , and having a moral mission , and being no scholar to speak of , and hard up for an authority -- why , it was a very great temptation for him . But some people , and I am afraid the professor was one of them , interpret that in a more strange , curious , one-sided , left-handed , topsy-turvy , inside-out , behind-before fashion than even Cousin Cramchild ; for they make it mean , that you must show your respect for children , by never confessing yourself in the wrong to them , even if you know that you are so , lest they should lose confidence in their elders .
Now , XXXXX the professor had said to Ellie , `` Yes , my darling , it is a water-baby , and a very wonderful thing it is ; and it shows how little I know of the wonders of nature , in spite of forty years ' honest labour .
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