`` I am hunting , and strange game too , '' said he . `` Blessings on your heart , and what makes you look so sad the morn ? '' `` I 'm looking for a lost child , a chimney-sweep , that is run away . '' `` Oh , Harthover , Harthover , '' says she , `` ye were always a just man and a merciful ; and ye 'll no harm the poor little lad if I give you tidings of him ? '' `` Not I , not I , dame . I 'm afraid we hunted him out of the house all on a miserable mistake , and the hound has brought him to the top of Lewthwaite Crag , and -- '' Whereat the old dame broke out crying , without letting him finish his story . `` So he told me the truth after all , poor little dear ! Ah , first thoughts are best , and a body 's heart 'll guide them right , if they will but hearken to it . '' And then she told Sir John all . `` Bring the dog here , and lay him on , '' said Sir John , without another word , and he set his teeth very hard . And the dog opened at once ; and went away at the back of the cottage , over the road , and over the meadow , and through a bit of alder copse ; and there , upon an alder stump , they saw Tom 's clothes lying . And then they knew as much about it all as there was any need to know . And Tom ? Ah , now comes the most wonderful part of this wonderful story . Tom , when he woke , for of course he woke -- children always wake after they have slept exactly as long as is good for them -- found himself swimming about in the stream , being about four inches , or -- that I may be accurate -- 3.87902 inches long and having round the parotid region of his fauces a set of external gills -LRB- I hope you understand all the big words -RRB- just like those of a sucking eft , which he mistook for a lace frill , till he pulled at them , found he hurt himself , and made up his mind that they were part of himself , and best left alone . In fact , the fairies had turned him into a water-baby . A water-baby ? You never heard of a water-baby . Perhaps not . That is the very reason why this story was written .
There are a great many things in the world which you never heard of ; and a great many more which nobody ever heard XXXXX ; and a great many things , too , which nobody will ever hear of , at least until the coming of the Cocqcigrues , when man shall be the measure of all things .
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