`` Come , away , children , '' said the otter in disgust , `` it is not worth eating , after all . It is only a nasty eft , which nothing eats , not even those vulgar pike in the pond . '' `` I am not an eft ! '' said Tom ; `` efts have tails . '' `` You are an eft , '' said the otter , very positively ; `` I see your two hands quite plain , and I know you have a tail . '' `` I tell you I have not , '' said Tom . `` Look here ! '' and he turned his pretty little self quite round ; and , sure enough , he had no more tail than you . The otter might have got out of it by saying that Tom was a frog : but , like a great many other people , when she had once said a thing , she stood to it , right or wrong ; so she answered : `` I say you are an eft , and therefore you are , and not fit food for gentlefolk like me and my children . You may stay there till the salmon eat you -LRB- she knew the salmon would not , but she wanted to frighten poor Tom -RRB- . Ha ! ha ! they will eat you , and we will eat them ; '' and the otter laughed such a wicked cruel laugh -- as you may hear them do sometimes ; and the first time that you hear it you will probably think it is bogies . `` What are salmon ? '' asked Tom . `` Fish , you eft , great fish , nice fish to eat . They are the lords of the fish , and we are lords of the salmon ; '' and she laughed again . `` We hunt them up and down the pools , and drive them up into a corner , the silly things ; they are so proud , and bully the little trout , and the minnows , till they see us coming , and then they are so meek all at once , and we catch them , but we disdain to eat them all ; we just bite out their soft throats and suck their sweet juice -- Oh , so good ! '' -- -LRB- and she licked her wicked lips -RRB- -- `` and then throw them away , and go and catch another . They are coming soon , children , coming soon ; I can smell the rain coming up off the sea , and then hurrah for a fresh , and salmon , and plenty of eating all day long . ''
And the otter grew so proud XXXXX she turned head over heels twice , and then stood upright half out of the water , grinning like a Cheshire cat .
after as at in into of off than that till