`` I should hope , '' said the gentleman , `` that there are very few ladies of our race who would degrade themselves by listening to such a creature for an instant . If I saw such a thing happen , I should consider it my duty to put them both to death upon the spot . '' So the old salmon said , like an old blue-blooded hidalgo of Spain ; and what is more , he would have done it too . For you must know , no enemies are so bitter against each other as those who are of the same race ; and a salmon looks on a trout , as some great folks look on some little folks , as something just too much like himself to be tolerated . CHAPTER IV `` Sweet is the lore which Nature brings ; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things We murder to dissect . Enough of science and of art : Close up these barren leaves ; Come forth , and bring with you a heart That watches and receives . '' WORDSWORTH . So the salmon went up , after Tom had warned them of the wicked old otter ; and Tom went down , but slowly and cautiously , coasting along shore . He was many days about it , for it was many miles down to the sea ; and perhaps he would never have found his way , if the fairies had not guided him , without his seeing their fair faces , or feeling their gentle hands . And , as he went , he had a very strange adventure . It was a clear still September night , and the moon shone so brightly down through the water , that he could not sleep , though he shut his eyes as tight as possible . So at last he came up to the top , and sat upon a little point of rock , and looked up at the broad yellow moon , and wondered what she was , and thought that she looked at him . And he watched the moonlight on the rippling river , and the black heads of the firs , and the silver-frosted lawns , and listened to the owl 's hoot , and the snipe 's bleat , and the fox 's bark , and the otter 's laugh ; and smelt the soft perfume of the birches , and the wafts of heather honey off the grouse moor far above ; and felt very happy , though he could not well tell why . You , of course , would have been very cold sitting there on a September night , without the least bit of clothes on your wet back ; but Tom was a water-baby , and therefore felt cold no more than a fish . Suddenly , he saw a beautiful sight . A bright red light moved along the river-side , and threw down into the water a long tap-root of flame . Tom , curious little rogue that he was , must needs go and see what it was ; so he swam to the shore , and met the light as it stopped over a shallow run at the edge of a low rock . And there , underneath the light , lay five or six great salmon , looking up at the flame with their great goggle eyes , and wagging their tails , as if they were very much pleased at it . Tom came to the top , to look at this wonderful light nearer , and made a splash . And he heard a voice say : `` There was a fish rose . ''
He did not know what the words meant : but he seemed to know the sound of them , and to know the voice which spoke them ; and he saw on the bank three great two-legged creatures , one XXXXX whom held the light , flaring and sputtering , and another a long pole .
So about after against along for of on that without