`` Do n't care ? '' said Tom . `` No . Do the duty which lies nearest you , and catch the first beetle you come across , is my motto ; and I have thriven by it for some hundred years . Now I must go on . Dear me , while I have been talking to you , at least nine new species have escaped me . '' And on went the giant , behind before , like a bull in a china-shop , till he ran into the steeple of the great idol temple -LRB- for they are all idolaters in those parts , of course , else they would never be afraid of giants -RRB- , and knocked the upper half clean off , hurting himself horribly about the small of the back . But little he cared ; for as soon as the ruins of the steeple were well between his legs , he poked and peered among the falling stones , and shifted his spectacles , and pulled out his pocket - magnifier , and cried - `` An entirely new Oniscus , and three obscure Podurellae ! Besides a moth which M. le Roi des Papillons -LRB- though he , like all Frenchmen , is given to hasty inductions -RRB- says is confined to the limits of the Glacial Drift . This is most important ! '' And down he sat on the nave of the temple -LRB- not being a man of the world -RRB- to examine his Podurellae . Whereon -LRB- as was to be expected -RRB- the roof caved in bodily , smashing the idols , and sending the priests flying out of doors and windows , like rabbits out of a burrow when a ferret goes in . But he never heeded ; for out of the dust flew a bat , and the giant had him in a moment . `` Dear me ! This is even more important ! Here is a cognate species to that which Macgilliwaukie Brown insists is confined to the Buddhist temples of Little Thibet ; and now when I look at it , it may be only a variety produced by difference of climate ! '' And having bagged his bat , up he got , and on he went ; while all the people ran , being in none the better humour for having their temple smashed for the sake of three obscure species of Podurella , and a Buddhist bat . `` Well , '' thought Tom , `` this is a very pretty quarrel , with a good deal to be said on both sides . But it is no business of mine . '' And no more it was , because he was a water-baby , and had the original sow by the right ear ; which you will never have , unless you be a baby , whether of the water , the land , or the air , matters not , provided you can only keep on continually being a baby .
So the giant ran round after the people , and the people ran round after the giant , and they are running , unto this day for aught I know , or do not know ; and will run XXXXX either he , or they , or both , turn into little children .
about behind by down like on till to while with