-- All the little children whom the good fairies take to , because their cruel mothers and fathers will not ; all who are untaught and brought up heathens , and all who come to grief by ill-usage or ignorance or neglect ; all the little children who are overlaid , or given gin when they are young , or are let to drink out of hot kettles , or to fall into the fire ; all the little children in alleys and courts , and tumble-down cottages , who die by fever , and cholera , and measles , and scarlatina , and nasty complaints which no one has any business to have , and which no one will have some day , when folks have common sense ; and all the little children who have been killed by cruel masters and wicked soldiers ; they were all there , except , of course , the babes of Bethlehem who were killed by wicked King Herod ; for they were taken straight to heaven long ago , as everybody knows , and we call them the Holy Innocents . But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty tricks , and left off tormenting dumb animals now that he had plenty of playfellows to amuse him . Instead of that , I am sorry to say , he would meddle with the creatures , all but the water-snakes , for they would stand no nonsense . So he tickled the madrepores , to make them shut up ; and frightened the crabs , to make them hide in the sand and peep out at him with the tips of their eyes ; and put stones into the anemones ' mouths , to make them fancy that their dinner was coming . The other children warned him , and said , `` Take care what you are at . Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid is coming . '' But Tom never heeded them , being quite riotous with high spirits and good luck , till , one Friday morning early , Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid came indeed . A very tremendous lady she was ; and when the children saw her they all stood in a row , very upright indeed , and smoothed down their bathing dresses , and put their hands behind them , just as if they were going to be examined by the inspector . And she had on a black bonnet , and a black shawl , and no crinoline at all ; and a pair of large green spectacles , and a great hooked nose , hooked so much that the bridge of it stood quite up above her eyebrows ; and under her arm she carried a great birch-rod . Indeed , she was so ugly that Tom was tempted to make faces at her : but did not ; for he did not admire the look of the birch-rod under her arm . And she looked at the children one by one , and seemed very much pleased with them , though she never asked them one question about how they were behaving ; and then began giving them all sorts of nice sea-things -- sea-cakes , sea-apples , sea-oranges , sea-bullseyes , sea-toffee ; and to the very best of all she gave sea-ices , made out of sea-cows ' cream , which never melt under water . And , if you do n't quite believe me , then just think -- What is more cheap and plentiful than sea-rock ? Then why should there not be sea-toffee as well ? And every one can find sea-lemons -LRB- ready quartered too -RRB- if they will look for them at low tide ; and sea - grapes too sometimes , hanging in bunches ; and , if you will go to Nice , you will find the fish-market full of sea-fruit , which they call `` frutta di mare : '' though I suppose they call them `` fruits de mer '' now , out of compliment to that most successful , and therefore most immaculate , potentate who is seemingly desirous of inheriting the blessing pronounced on those who remove their neighbours ' land - mark . And , perhaps , that is the very reason why the place is called Nice , because there are so many nice things in the sea there : at least , if it is not , it ought to be . Now little Tom watched all these sweet things given away , till his mouth watered , and his eyes grew as round as an owl 's . For he hoped that his turn would come at last ; and so it did . For the lady called him up , and held out her fingers with something in them , and popped it into his mouth ; and , lo and behold , it was a nasty cold hard pebble . `` You are a very cruel woman , '' said he , and began to whimper . `` And you are a very cruel boy ; who puts pebbles into the sea - anemones ' mouths , to take them in , and make them fancy that they had caught a good dinner !
As you did XXXXX them , so I must do to you . ''
For So above at de if of till to under