Help ! help ! help ! '' At which the papa and mamma and all the people of Oldwivesfabledom flew at Tom , shouting , `` Oh , the wicked , impudent , hard-hearted , graceless boy ! Beat him , kick him , shoot him , drown him , hang him , burn him ! '' and so forth : but luckily they had nothing to shoot , hang , or burn him with , for the fairies had hid all the killing - tackle out of the way a little while before ; so they could only pelt him with stones ; and some of the stones went clean through him , and came out the other side . But he did not mind that a bit ; for the holes closed up again as fast as they were made , because he was a water-baby . However , he was very glad when he was safe out of the country , for the noise there made him all but deaf . Then he came to a very quiet place , called Leaveheavenalone . And there the sun was drawing water out of the sea to make steam - threads , and the wind was twisting them up to make cloud-patterns , till they had worked between them the loveliest wedding veil of Chantilly lace , and hung it up in their own Crystal Palace for any one to buy who could afford it ; while the good old sea never grudged , for she knew they would pay her back honestly . So the sun span , and the wind wove , and all went well with the great steam - loom ; as is likely , considering -- and considering -- and considering - And at last , after innumerable adventures , each more wonderful than the last , he saw before him a huge building , much bigger , and -- what is most surprising -- a little uglier than a certain new lunatic asylum , but not built quite of the same materials . None of it , at least -- or , indeed , for aught that I ever saw , any part of any other building whatsoever -- is cased with nine-inch brick inside and out , and filled up with rubble between the walls , in order that any gentleman who has been confined during Her Majesty 's pleasure may be unconfined during his own pleasure , and take a walk in the neighbouring park to improve his spirits , after an hour 's light and wholesome labour with his dinner-fork or one of the legs of his iron bedstead . No . The walls of this building were built on an entirely different principle , which need not be described , as it has not yet been discovered . Tom walked towards this great building , wondering what it was , and having a strange fancy that he might find Mr. Grimes inside it , till he saw running toward him , and shouting `` Stop ! '' three or four people , who , when they came nearer , were nothing else than policemen 's truncheons , running along without legs or arms . Tom was not astonished . He was long past that . Besides , he had seen the naviculae in the water move nobody knows how , a hundred times , without arms , or legs , or anything to stand in their stead . Neither was he frightened for he had been doing no harm .
XXXXX he stopped ; and , when the foremost truncheon came up and asked his business , he showed Mother Carey 's pass ; and the truncheon looked at it in the oddest fashion ; for he had one eye in the middle of his upper end , so that when he looked at anything , being quite stiff , he had to slope himself , and poke himself , till it was a wonder why he did not tumble over ; but , being quite full of the spirit of justice -LRB- as all policemen , and their truncheons , ought to be -RRB- , he was always in a position of stable equilibrium , whichever way he put himself .
So as inside nearer than that to toward towards without