There she sits making old beasts into new all the year round . '' `` How does she do that ? '' `` That 's her concern , not mine , '' said the old whale ; and yawned so wide -LRB- for he was very large -RRB- that there swam into his mouth 943 sea-moths , 13,846 jelly-fish no bigger than pins ' heads , a string of salpae nine yards long , and forty-three little ice-crabs , who gave each other a parting pinch all round , tucked their legs under their stomachs , and determined to die decently , like Julius Caesar . `` I suppose , '' said Tom , `` she cuts up a great whale like you into a whole shoal of porpoises ? '' At which the old whale laughed so violently that he coughed up all the creatures ; who swam away again very thankful at having escaped out of that terrible whalebone net of his , from which bourne no traveller returns ; and Tom went on to the iceberg , wondering . And , when he came near it , it took the form of the grandest old lady he had ever seen -- a white marble lady , sitting on a white marble throne . And from the foot of the throne there swum away , out and out into the sea , millions of new-born creatures , of more shapes and colours than man ever dreamed . And they were Mother Carey 's children , whom she makes out of the sea-water all day long . He expected , of course -- like some grown people who ought to know better -- to find her snipping , piecing , fitting , stitching , cobbling , basting , filing , planing , hammering , turning , polishing , moulding , measuring , chiselling , clipping , and so forth , as men do when they go to work to make anything . But , instead of that , she sat quite still with her chin upon her hand , looking down into the sea with two great grand blue eyes , as blue as the sea itself . Her hair was as white as the snow -- for she was very very old -- in fact , as old as anything which you are likely to come across , except the difference between right and wrong . And , when she saw Tom , she looked at him very kindly . `` What do you want , my little man ? It is long since I have seen a water-baby here . '' Tom told her his errand , and asked the way to the Other-end-of - Nowhere . `` You ought to know yourself , for you have been there already . '' `` Have I , ma'am ? I 'm sure I forget all about it . '' `` Then look at me . '' And , as Tom looked into her great blue eyes , he recollected the way perfectly .
Now , was not XXXXX strange ?
At about between in near on out that under upon