And some say that St. Brandan will awake and begin to teach the babies once more : but some think that he will sleep on , for better for worse , till the coming of the Cocqcigrues . But , on still clear summer evenings , when the sun sinks down into the sea , among golden cloud-capes and cloud-islands , and locks and friths of azure sky , the sailors fancy that they see , away to westward , St. Brandan 's fairy isle . But whether men can see it or not , St. Brandan 's Isle once actually stood there ; a great land out in the ocean , which has sunk and sunk beneath the waves . Old Plato called it Atlantis , and told strange tales of the wise men who lived therein , and of the wars they fought in the old times . And from off that island came strange flowers , which linger still about this land : - the Cornish heath , and Cornish moneywort , and the delicate Venus 's hair , and the London-pride which covers the Kerry mountains , and the little pink butterwort of Devon , and the great blue butterwort of Ireland , and the Connemara heath , and the bristle-fern of the Turk waterfall , and many a strange plant more ; all fairy tokens left for wise men and good children from off St. Brandan 's Isle . Now when Tom got there , he found that the isle stood all on pillars , and that its roots were full of caves . There were pillars of black basalt , like Staffa ; and pillars of green and crimson serpentine , like Kynance ; and pillars ribboned with red and white and yellow sandstone , like Livermead ; and there were blue grottoes like Capri , and white grottoes like Adelsberg ; all curtained and draped with seaweeds , purple and crimson , green and brown ; and strewn with soft white sand , on which the water-babies sleep every night . But , to keep the place clean and sweet , the crabs picked up all the scraps off the floor and ate them like so many monkeys ; while the rocks were covered with ten thousand sea-anemones , and corals and madrepores , who scavenged the water all day long , and kept it nice and pure . But , to make up to them for having to do such nasty work , they were not left black and dirty , as poor chimney-sweeps and dustmen are . No ; the fairies are more considerate and just than that , and have dressed them all in the most beautiful colours and patterns , till they look like vast flower-beds of gay blossoms . If you think I am talking nonsense , I can only say that it is true ; and that an old gentleman named Fourier used to say that we ought to do the same by chimney-sweeps and dustmen , and honour them instead of despising them ; and he was a very clever old gentleman : but , unfortunately for him and the world , as mad as a March hare . And , instead of watchmen and policemen to keep out nasty things at night , there were thousands and thousands of water-snakes , and most wonderful creatures they were . They were all named after the Nereids , the sea-fairies who took care of them , Eunice and Polynoe , Phyllodoce and Psamathe , and all the rest of the pretty darlings who swim round their Queen Amphitrite , and her car of cameo shell . They were dressed in green velvet , and black velvet , and purple velvet ; and were all jointed in rings ; and some of them had three hundred brains apiece , so that they must have been uncommonly shrewd detectives ; and some had eyes in their tails ; and some had eyes in every joint , so that they kept a very sharp look-out ; and when they wanted a baby-snake , they just grew one at the end of their own tails , and when it was able to take care of itself it dropped off ; so that they brought up their families very cheaply . But if any nasty thing came by , out they rushed upon it ; and then out of each of their hundreds of feet there sprang a whole cutler 's shop of Scythes , Javelins , Billhooks , Lances , Pickaxes , Halberts , Forks , Gisarines , Penknives , Poleaxes , Rapiers , Fishhooks , Sabres , Bradawls , Yataghans , Gimblets , Creeses , Corkscrews , Ghoorka swords , Pins , Tucks , Needles , And so forth , which stabbed , shot , poked , pricked , scratched , ripped , pinked , and crimped those naughty beasts so terribly , that they had to run for their lives , or else be chopped into small pieces and be eaten afterwards . And , if that is not all , every word , true , then there is no faith in microscopes , and all is over with the Linnaean Society . And there were the water-babies in thousands , more than Tom , or you either , could count . -- All the little children whom the good fairies take to , because their cruel mothers and fathers will not ; all who are untaught and brought up heathens , and all who come to grief by ill-usage or ignorance or neglect ; all the little children who are overlaid , or given gin when they are young , or are let to drink out of hot kettles , or to fall into the fire ; all the little children in alleys and courts , and tumble-down cottages , who die by fever , and cholera , and measles , and scarlatina , and nasty complaints which no one has any business to have , and which no one will have some day , when folks have common sense ; and all the little children who have been killed by cruel masters and wicked soldiers ; they were all there , except , of course , the babes of Bethlehem who were killed by wicked King Herod ; for they were taken straight to heaven long ago , as everybody knows , and we call them the Holy Innocents . But I wish Tom had given up all his naughty tricks , and left off tormenting dumb animals now that he had plenty of playfellows to amuse him . Instead of that , I am sorry to say , he would meddle with the creatures , all but the water-snakes , for they would stand no nonsense .
So he tickled the madrepores , to make them shut up ; and frightened the crabs , to make them hide in the sand and peep out at him with the tips of their eyes ; and put stones XXXXX the anemones ' mouths , to make them fancy that their dinner was coming .
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