She gave a little shriek and start ; and then she said , quite quietly , `` Babies in the sea ? Well , perhaps it is the happiest place for them ; '' and waved her hand to Tom , and cried , `` Wait a little , darling , only a little : and perhaps we shall go with you and be at rest . '' And at that an old nurse , all in black , came out and talked to her , and drew her in . And Tom turned away northward , sad and wondering ; and watched the great steamer slide away into the dusk , and the lights on board peep out one by one , and die out again , and the long bar of smoke fade away into the evening mist , till all was out of sight . And he swam northward again , day after day , till at last he met the King of the Herrings , with a curry-comb growing out of his nose , and a sprat in his mouth for a cigar , and asked him the way to Shiny Wall ; so he bolted his sprat head foremost , and said : `` If I were you , young Gentleman , I should go to the Allalonestone , and ask the last of the Gairfowl . She is of a very ancient clan , very nearly as ancient as my own ; and knows a good deal which these modern upstarts do n't , as ladies of old houses are likely to do . '' Tom asked his way to her , and the King of the Herrings told him very kindly , for he was a courteous old gentleman of the old school , though he was horribly ugly , and strangely bedizened too , like the old dandies who lounge in the club-house windows . But just as Tom had thanked him and set off , he called after him : `` Hi ! I say , can you fly ? '' `` I never tried , '' says Tom . `` Why ? '' `` Because , if you can , I should advise you to say nothing to the old lady about it . There ; take a hint . Good-bye . '' And away Tom went for seven days and seven nights due north-west , till he came to a great codbank , the like of which he never saw before . The great cod lay below in tens of thousands , and gobbled shell-fish all day long ; and the blue sharks roved above in hundreds , and gobbled them when they came up . So they ate , and ate , and ate each other , as they had done since the making of the world ; for no man had come here yet to catch them , and find out how rich old Mother Carey is . And there he saw the last of the Gairfowl , standing up on the Allalonestones all alone . And a very grand old lady she was , full three feet high , and bolt upright , like some old Highland chieftainess . She had on a black velvet gown , and a white pinner and apron , and a very high bridge to her nose -LRB- which is a sure mark of high breeding -RRB- , and a large pair of white spectacles on it , which made her look rather odd : but it was the ancient fashion of her house .
And instead of wings , she had two little feathery arms , with which she fanned herself , and complained of the dreadful heat ; and she kept on crooning an old song to herself , which she learnt when she was a little baby-bird , long ago - `` Two little birds they sat XXXXX a stone , One swam away , and then there was one , With a fal-lal-la-lady .
So after as for if in of on till with