`` Come out , '' said the wicked old otter , `` or it will be worse for you . '' But Tom looked at her from between two thick roots , and shook them with all his might , making horrible faces all the while , just as he used to grin through the railings at the old women , when he lived before . It was not quite well bred , no doubt ; but you know , Tom had not finished his education yet . `` 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 XXXXX 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 ! ''
after as at for in of than that till to