`` You do not understand me , my dear . I mean , that being a lady , and with right and honourable feelings , as our house always has had , I felt it my duty to snub him , and howk him , and peck him continually , to keep him at his proper distance ; and , to tell the truth , I once pecked him a little too hard , poor fellow , and he tumbled backwards off the rock , and -- really , it was very unfortunate , but it was not my fault -- a shark coming by saw him flapping , and snapped him up . And since then I have lived all alone - ` With a fal-lal-la-lady . ' And soon I shall be gone , my little dear , and nobody will miss me ; and then the poor stone will be left all alone . '' `` 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 XXXXX 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 .
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