Now , was not that very odd ? So odd , indeed , that you will , no doubt , want to know how it happened , and why Tom could never find a water-baby till after he had got the lobster out of the pot . And , if you will read this story nine times over , and then think for yourself , you will find out why . It is not good for little boys to be told everything , and never to be forced to use their own wits . They would learn , then , no more than they do at Dr. Dulcimer 's famous suburban establishment for the idler members of the youthful aristocracy , where the masters learn the lessons and the boys hear them -- which saves a great deal of trouble -- for the time being . `` Now , '' said the baby , `` come and help me , or I shall not have finished before my brothers and sisters come , and it is time to go home . '' `` What shall I help you at ? '' `` At this poor dear little rock ; a great clumsy boulder came rolling by in the last storm , and knocked all its head off , and rubbed off all its flowers . And now I must plant it again with seaweeds , and coralline , and anemones , and I will make it the prettiest little rock-garden on all the shore . '' So they worked away at the rock , and planted it , and smoothed the sand down round , it , and capital fun they had till the tide began to turn . And then Tom heard all the other babies coming , laughing and singing and shouting and romping ; and the noise they made was just like the noise of the ripple . So he knew that he had been hearing and seeing the water-babies all along ; only he did not know them , because his eyes and ears were not opened . And in they came , dozens and dozens of them , some bigger than Tom and some smaller , all in the neatest little white bathing dresses ; and when they found that he was a new baby , they hugged him and kissed him , and then put him in the middle and danced round him on the sand , and there was no one ever so happy as poor little Tom . `` Now then , '' they cried all at once , `` we must come away home , we must come away home , or the tide will leave us dry . We have mended all the broken sea-weed , and put all the rock-pools in order , and planted all the shells again in the sand , and nobody will see where the ugly storm swept in last week . '' And this is the reason why the rock-pools are always so neat and clean ; because the water-babies come inshore after every storm to sweep them out , and comb them down , and put them all to rights again . Only where men are wasteful and dirty , and let sewers run into the sea instead of putting the stuff upon the fields like thrifty reasonable souls ; or throw herrings ' heads and dead dog-fish , or any other refuse , into the water ; or in any way make a mess upon the clean shore -- there the water-babies will not come , sometimes not for hundreds of years -LRB- for they can not abide anything smelly or foul -RRB- , but leave the sea-anemones and the crabs to clear away everything , till the good tidy sea has covered up all the dirt in soft mud and clean sand , where the water-babies can plant live cockles and whelks and razor-shells and sea-cucumbers and golden - combs , and make a pretty live garden again , after man 's dirt is cleared away . And that , I suppose , is the reason why there are no water-babies at any watering-place which I have ever seen . And where is the home of the water-babies ? In St. Brandan 's fairy isle .
Did you never hear of the blessed St. Brandan , how he preached to the wild Irish XXXXX the wild , wild Kerry coast , he and five other hermits , till they were weary and longed to rest ?
In So as at down for of on over till