At last Tom said , `` Oh , where have you been all this while ? I have been looking for you so long , and I have been so lonely . '' `` We have been here for days and days . There are hundreds of us about the rocks . How was it you did not see us , or hear us when we sing and romp every evening before we go home ? '' Tom looked at the baby again , and then he said : `` Well , this is wonderful ! I have seen things just like you again and again , but I thought you were shells , or sea-creatures . I never took you for water-babies like myself . '' 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 XXXXX 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 .
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