Kingsley - The Water-Babies A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOURBY
WARWICK GOBLE
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1922

First Published1863
Edition with 32 Illustrations in Colour byWarwick Goble, Crown 4to, 1909
With 16 Illustrations in Colour by Warwick Goble,Demy 8vo, October 1910
Reprinted November 1910, 1912
With 16 Illustrations in Colour by Warwick Goble,Medium 8vo, 1922
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

GRENVILLE ARTHUR

TO ALL OTHER GOOD LITTLE BOYS

"I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined;
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
"To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think,
What man has made of man."

Wordsworth .

Once upon a timethere was a little chimney-sweep, and his name was Tom. That is ashort name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have muchtrouble in remembering it. He lived in a great town in the Northcountry, where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep, and plentyof money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. He could not readnor write, and did not care to do either; and he never washedhimself, for there was no water up the court where he lived. He hadnever been taught to say his prayers. He never had heard of God, orof Christ, except in words which you never have heard, and which itwould have been well if he had never heard. He cried half his time,and laughed the other half. He cried when he had to climb the darkflues, rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw; and when the soot gotinto his eyes, which it did every day in the week; and when hismaster beat him, which he did every day in the week; and when hehad not enough to eat, which happened every day in the weeklikewise. And he laughed the other half of the day, when he wastossing [2] halfpennies with the other boys, or playing leap-frog over theposts, or bowling stones at the horses' legs as they trotted by,which last was excellent fun, when there was a wall at hand behindwhich to hide. As for chimney-sweeping, and being hungry, and beingbeaten, he took all that for the way of the world, like the rainand snow and thunder, and stood manfully with his back to it tillit was over, as his old donkey did to a hail-storm; and then shookhis ears and was as jolly as ever; and thought of the fine timescoming, when he would be a man, and a master sweep, and sit in thepublic-house with a quart of beer and a long pipe, and play cardsfor silver money, and wear velveteens and ankle-jacks, and keep awhite bull-dog with one grey ear, and carry her puppies in hispocket, just like a man. And he would have apprentices, one, two,three, if he could. How he would bully them, and knock them about,just as his master did to him; and make them carry home the sootsacks, while he rode before them on his donkey, with a pipe in hismouth and a flower in his button-hole, like a king at the head ofhis army. Yes, there were good times coming; and, when his masterlet him have a pull at the leavings of his beer, Tom was thejolliest boy in the whole town.