said Tom , quite taken aback by his impudence . `` Your leg , which you are kind enough to hold out for me to sit on . I must just go and see after my wife for a few minutes . Dear me ! what a troublesome business a family is ! '' -LRB- though the idle little rogue did nothing at all , but left his poor wife to lay all the eggs by herself -RRB- . `` When I come back , I shall be glad of it , if you 'll be so good as to keep it sticking out just so ; '' and off he flew . Tom thought him a very cool sort of personage ; and still more so , when , in five minutes he came back , and said -- `` Ah , you were tired waiting ? Well , your other leg will do as well . '' And he popped himself down on Tom 's knee , and began chatting away in his squeaking voice . `` So you live under the water ? It 's a low place . I lived there for some time ; and was very shabby and dirty . But I did n't choose that that should last . So I turned respectable , and came up to the top , and put on this gray suit . It 's a very business-like suit , you think , do n't you ? '' `` Very neat and quiet indeed , '' said Tom . `` Yes , one must be quiet and neat and respectable , and all that sort of thing for a little , when one becomes a family man . But I 'm tired of it , that 's the truth . I 've done quite enough business , I consider , in the last week , to last me my life .
XXXXX I shall put on a ball dress , and go out and be a smart man , and see the gay world , and have a dance or two .
So after by in of on that though to under