Bedtime Tale: The Water Babies Ch 5/Part 2

Bedtime Tale: The Water Babies Ch 5/Part 2

Enjoy this bedtime tale to help you drift off into a peaceful slumber. Tonight we read Chapter 5/Part 2 of the classic, The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley. This reading describes when Tom meets The Fairy Sisters and decides how he wants to behave in his life. This audio is perfect for children or adults who want to relax, discover magic, or find adventure before a great night's sleep.

Transcript

The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley,

Chapter 5,

Part 2 A very tremendous lady she was,

And when the children saw her they all stood in a row,

Very upright indeed,

And smoothed down their bathing dresses and put their hands behind them,

Just as if they were going to be examined by the inspector.

She had on a black bonnet,

And a black shawl,

And no crinoline at all,

And a pair of large green spectacles,

And a great hooked nose,

Hooked so much that the bridge of it stood quite up above her eyebrows,

And under her arms she carried a great birch rod.

Indeed,

She was so ugly that Tom was tempted to make faces at her,

But did not,

For he did not admire the look of the birch rod under her arm.

And she looked at the children one by one,

And seemed very much pleased with them,

Though she never asked them one question about how they were behaving,

And then began giving them all sorts of nice sea things,

Sea cakes,

Sea apples,

Sea oranges,

Sea bullseyes,

Sea toffee,

And to the very best of all she gave sea ices made out of the sea cow's cream,

Which never melt under water.

If you don't quite believe me,

Then just think,

What is more cheap and plentiful than sea rock?

Then why should there not be sea toffee as well?

And everyone can find sea lemons,

Ready quartered too,

If they will look for them at low tide,

And sea grapes too,

Sometimes hanging in bunches.

And if you will go to Nice,

You will find the fish market full of sea fruit,

Which they call Fruta de Mar,

Though I suppose they call them Fruits de Mer now,

Out of compliment to the most successful,

And therefore most immaculate,

Who is seemingly desirous of inheriting the blessing pronounced on those who remove their neighbor's landmark.

And,

Perhaps,

That is the very reason why the place is called Nice,

Because there are so many nice things in the sea there,

At least,

If it is not,

It ought to be.

Now little Tom watched all these sweet things given away,

Till his mouth watered,

And his eyes grew as round as an owl's,

For he hoped that his turn would come at last,

And so it did.

For the lady called him up and held out her fingers with something in them,

And popped it into his mouth,

And lo and behold,

It was a nasty,

Cold,

Hard pebble.

You are a very cruel woman,

Said he,

And began to whimper,

And you are a very cruel boy,

Who puts pebbles into the sea anemone's mouths,

To take them in,

And make them fancy that they had caught a good dinner,

As you did to them,

So I must do to you.

Who told you that,

Said Tom?

You did yourself,

This very minute.

Tom had never opened his lips,

So he was very much taken aback indeed.

Yes,

Everyone tells me exactly what they have done wrong,

And that without knowing it themselves,

So there is no use trying to hide anything from me.

Now go,

And be a good boy,

And I will put no more pebbles in your mouth.

If you put none in other creatures.

I did not know there was any harm in it,

Said Tom.

Then you know now.

People continually say that to me,

But I tell them,

If you don't know that fire burns,

That is no reason that it should not burn you,

And if you don't know that dirt breeds fever,

That is no reason why the fever should not kill you.

The lobster did not know that there was any harm in getting into the lobster pot,

But it caught him all the same.

Dear me,

Thought Tom,

She knows everything.

And so she did,

Indeed.

And so,

If you do not know that things are wrong,

There is no reason why you should not be punished for them,

Though not as much,

Not as much,

My little man.

And the lady looked very kindly after all,

As if you did know.

Well,

You are hard on a little poor lad,

Said Tom.

Not at all.

I am the best friend you will ever have in your life.

But I will tell you,

I cannot help punishing people when they do wrong.

I like it no more than they do.

I am often very,

Very sorry for them,

Poor things,

But I cannot help it.

If I tried not to do it,

I should do it all the same.

For I work by machinery,

Just like an engine,

And am full of wheels and springs inside,

And am wound up very carefully,

So that I cannot help going.

Was it long ago since they wound you up,

Asked Tom?

For he thought,

The cunning little fellow,

She will run down some day,

Or they may forget to wind her up,

As old Grimes used to forget to wind up his watch when he came in from the public house.

And then I shall be safe.

I was wound up once and for all,

So long ago,

That I forget all about it.

Dear me,

Said Tom,

You must have been made a long time.

I was never made,

My child,

And I shall go forever and ever,

For I am as old as eternity,

And yet as young as time.

And there came over the lady's face a very curious expression,

Very solemn and very sad,

And yet very,

Very sweet.

And she looked up and away as if she were gazing through the sea and through the sky at something far,

Far off.

And as she did so,

There came such a quiet,

Tender,

Patient,

Hopeful smile over her face,

That Tom thought for a moment that she did not look ugly at all.

And no more she did,

For she was like a great many people who have not a pretty feature in their faces,

And yet are lovely to behold.

And draw little children's hearts to them at once,

Because though the house is plain enough,

Yet from the windows a beautiful and good spirit is looking forth.

And Tom smiled in her face.

She looked so pleasant for the moment.

And the strange fairy smiled too and said,

Yes,

You thought me very ugly just now,

Did you not?

Tom hung down his head and got very red about the ears.

And I am very ugly.

I am the ugliest fairy in the world.

And I shall be,

Till people behave themselves as they ought to do.

And then I shall grow as handsome as my sister,

Who is the loveliest fairy in the world.

And her name is Miss Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By.

So she begins where I end,

And I begin where she ends.

And those who will not listen to her must listen to me,

As you will see.

Now all of you run away except Tom,

And he must stay and see what I am going to do.

It will be a very good warning for him to begin with,

Before he goes to school.

Now,

Tom,

Every Friday I come down here and call up all who have ill-used little children,

And serve them as they serve the children.

And at that Tom was frightened,

And crept under a stone,

Which made the two crabs who live there very angry,

And frightened their friend the butterfish into flapping hysterics.

But he would not move for them.

At first she called up the doctors who give the little children so much psychic.

They were most of them old ones,

For the young ones had learned better.

All but a few army surgeons,

Who still fancy that a baby's inside is much like a Scotch grenadier's.

And she set them all in a row,

And very rueful they looked,

For they knew what was coming.

At first she dosed them with calamel,

And jalop,

And salts,

And senna,

And brimstone,

And treacle,

And horrible faces they made.

And then she gave them great emetic of mustard and water,

And no basins,

And began all over again.

And that was the way she spent the morning.

And then she called up a whole troop of foolish ladies,

Who pinch up their children's waists and toes.

And she laced them all up in a tight stay,

So that they were choked and sick,

And their noses grew red,

And their hands and feet swelled.

And then she crammed their poor feet into the most dreadfully tight boots,

And made them all dance,

Which they did most clumsily indeed.

And then she asked them how they liked it,

And when they said not at all,

She let them go,

Because they had only done it out of foolish fashion,

Fancying it was good for their children,

As if wasps' waists and pigs' toes could be pretty or wholesome,

Or of any use to anybody.

Then she called up all the careless nursery maids,

And stuck pins into them all over,

And wheeled them about in preambulators with tight straps across their stomachs,

And their heads and arms hanging over the side,

Till they were quite sick and stupid,

And would have had sun strokes,

But being under water,

They could only have water strokes,

Which,

I assure you,

Are nearly as bad,

As you will find if you try to sit under a mill wheel.

And mind,

When you hear a rumbling at the bottom of the sea,

Sailors will tell you that is the groundswell,

But now you know better.

It is the old lady wheeling the maids about in preambulators.

And by this time she was so tired,

She had to go to luncheon.

And after luncheon she set to work again,

And called up all the cruel schoolmasters,

Whole regiments and brigades of them,

And when she saw them,

She frowned most terribly,

And set to work in earnest,

As if the best part of the day's work was to come.

More than half of them were nasty,

Dirty,

Frowzy,

Grubby,

Smelly old monks,

Who,

Because they dare not hit a man of their own size,

Amused themselves with beating little children instead,

As you may see in the picture of old Pope Gregory,

Teaching children to sing their Fa,

Fa,

Mi,

Fa,

With the cat-o'-nine-tails under his chair.

But,

Because they never had children of their own,

They took into their heads,

As some folks do still,

That they were the only people in the world who knew how to manage children.

And they first brought into England,

In the old Anglo-Saxon times,

The fashion of treating free boys,

And girls too,

Worse than you would treat a dog or a horse.

But Miss Be-done-by-as-you-did has caught them all long ago,

And given them many a taste of their own rods,

And much good it may do them.

And she boxed their ears,

And thumped them over the head with rulers,

And pantied their hands with canes,

And told them that they told stories,

And were this and that bad sort of people.

And the more they were very indignant,

They stood upon their honour,

And declared they told the truth,

The more she declared they were not,

And that they were only telling lies.

And at last she birched them all around soundly with her great birch rod,

And set them each in imposition of three hundred thousand lines of Hebrew to learn by heart,

Before she came back next Friday.

And at that they all cried and howled so,

That their breaths came all up through the sea bubbles out like soda water.

And that is one reason of the bubbles in the sea.

There are others,

But that is the one which principally concerns little boys.

And by that time she was so tired,

That she was glad to stop.

And indeed,

She had done a very good day's work.

Tom did not quite dislike the old lady,

But he could not help thinking her a little spiteful.

And no wonder if she was,

Poor old soul,

For if she has to wait to grow handsome till people do as they would be done by,

She would have to wait a very long time.

Poor old miss be done by as you did.

She has a great deal of hard work before her,

And it better have been born a washerwoman,

And stood over a tub all day.

But you see,

People cannot always choose their own profession.

But Tom longed to ask her one question.

And after all,

Whenever she looked at him,

She did not look cross at all.

And now and then,

There was a funny smile on her face.

And she chuckled to herself in a way which gave Tom courage,

And at last he said,

Pray ma'am,

May I ask you a question?

Certainly,

My little dear.

Why don't you bring all the bad masters here,

And serve them out too?

They're buddies that knock out poor collier boys,

And the nailers that file off the lads' noses,

And hammer their fingers,

And all the master sweeps,

Like my master grimes.

I saw him fall into the water long ago,

So I surely expected he would have been here.

I'm sure he was bad enough to me.

Then the old lady looked so very stern that Tom was quite frightened,

And sorry that he'd been so bold.

But she was not angry with him.

She only answered,

I look after them all week round,

And they are in a very different place from this,

Because they knew what they were doing was wrong.

She spoke very quietly,

But there was something in her voice which made Tom tingle from head to foot,

As if he had got into a shoal of sea nettles.

But these people,

She went on,

Did not know that they were doing wrong.

They were only stupid and impatient,

And therefore I will only punish them till they become patient,

And learn to use their common sense like reasonable beings.

But as for chimney sweeps,

And collier boys,

And nailer lads,

My sister has set good people to stop all that sort of thing,

And very much obliged to her I am,

For if she could only stop the cruel masters from ill-using poor children,

I should grow handsome at least a thousand years sooner.

And now,

Do you be a good boy,

And do as you would be done by,

Which they did not,

And then when my sister,

Madam,

Do as you would be done by,

Comes on Sunday,

Perhaps she will take notice of you,

And teach you how to behave.

She understands better than I do.

And so she went.

Tom was very glad to hear that there was no chance of meeting Grimes again,

Though he was a little sorry for him,

Considering that he sometimes used to give him the leavings of the beer.

But he determined to be a very good boy all Saturday,

And he was,

For he never frightened one crab,

Nor tickled any live corals,

Nor put stones into the sea and enemy's mouths to make them fancy that they had got a dinner.

And when Sunday morning came,

Sure enough,

Miss Do as you would be done by came too,

Whereat all the little children began dancing and clapping their hands,

And Tom danced too with all his might.

And as for the pretty lady,

I cannot tell you what the color of her hair was,

Or of her eyes,

No more than Tom,

For when anyone looks at her,

All they can think of is that she is the sweetest,

Kindest,

Tenderest,

Funniest,

Merriest face they ever saw or want to see.

But Tom saw that she was a very tall woman,

As tall as her sister,

But instead of being gnarly and horny,

And scaly and prickly like her,

She was the most nice,

Soft,

Fat,

Smooth,

Cuddly,

Delicious creature who ever nursed a baby.

And she understands babies thoroughly,

For she had plenty of her own,

Whole rows and regiments of them,

And has to this day.

And all her delight was,

Whenever she had a spare moment,

To play with babies,

In which she showed herself a woman of sense.

For babies are the best company,

And the pleasantest playfellows in the world,

At least,

So all the wise people in the world think.

And therefore,

When the children saw her,

They naturally all caught hold of her,

And pulled her till she sat down on a stone,

And climbed into her lap,

And clung round her neck,

And caught hold of her hands,

And then they all put their thumbs into their mouths,

And began cuddling and purring,

Like so many kittens,

As they ought to have done.

While those who could get nowhere else sat down on the sand,

And cuddled her feet.

For no one,

You know,

Wears shoes in the water,

Except horrid old bathing women,

Who are afraid of the water babies pinching their horny toes.

And Tom stood staring at them,

For he could not understand what it was all about.

And who are you,

Little darling,

She said.

Oh,

That is the new baby,

They all cried,

Pulling their thumbs out of their mouths,

And he never had any mother.

And they all put their thumbs back in again,

For they did not wish to lose any time.

Then I will be his mother,

And he shall have the best place.

So get out,

All of you,

At this moment.

And she took up two great armfuls of babies,

Nine hundred under one arm,

And thirteen hundred under the other,

And threw them away right and left into the water.

But they minded it no more than the naughty boys,

Minded when St.

Nicholas dripped them in his inkstand,

And did not even take their thumbs out of their mouths,

But came paddling and wriggling back to her like so many tadpoles,

Till you could see nothing of her from head to foot for the swarm of little babies.

But she took Tom in her arms,

And laid him in the softest place of all,

And kissed him,

And patted him,

And talked to him,

Tenderly and low,

Such things as he had never heard before in his life.

And Tom looked up into her eyes,

And loved her,

And loved,

Until he fell fast asleep from pure love.

And when he woke up,

She was telling the children a story.

And what story did she tell them?

One story she told them,

Which begins every Christmas Eve,

And yet never ends at all for ever and ever.

And as she went on,

The children took their thumbs out of their mouths and listened quite seriously,

But not sadly at all,

For she never told them anything sad.

And Tom listened too,

And never grew tired of listening.

And he listened so long,

That he fell fast asleep again.

And when he woke up,

The lady was nursing him still.

Don't go away,

Said little Tom.

This is so nice.

I never had anyone to cuddle me before.

Don't go away,

Said all the children.

You have not sung us one song.

Well,

I have time for only one.

So what shall it be?

The doll you lost,

The doll you lost,

Cried all the babies at once.

So the strange fairy sang.

I once had a sweet little doll,

Dears,

The prettiest doll in the world.

Her cheeks were so red and so white,

Dears,

And her hair was charmingly curled.

But I lost my poor little doll,

Dears,

As I played in the heath one day.

And I cried for her more than a week,

Dears,

But I could never find where she lay.

I found my poor little doll,

Dears,

As I played in the heath one day.

Folks say she has terribly changed,

Dears,

For her paint is all washed away,

And her arm trodden off by the crows,

Dears,

And her hair not the least bit curled.

Yet for old sake's sake,

She still is dear,

Dears,

The prettiest doll in the world.

What a silly song for a fairy to sing.

And what silly water babies to be quite delighted at it.

Well,

But you must see that they have not the advantage of Aunt Agatate's arguments in the sea land down below.

Now,

Said the fairy to Tom,

Will you be a good boy for my sake and torment no more sea beasts till I come back?

And will you cuddle me again?

Said poor little Tom.

Of course I will,

You little duck.

I should like to take you with me and cuddle you all the way.

Only I must not.

And away she went.

So Tom really tried to be a good boy and tormented no sea beasts after that as long as he lived.

And he is quite alive,

I assure you still.

Oh,

How good little boys ought to be when they have a kind mama to cuddle them and tell them stories.

And how afraid they ought to be of growing naughty and bringing tears into their mama's pretty eyes.

And that is the end of our story this evening.

Until next time.

Sweet dreams.

Reviews

That was so adorable! I stopped listening to Water babis. for a while because i couldn’t find them, but i found them!

Last chapter ( or are there more) with so many interesting lessons and lots of gained hours sleep. And funny old geographical mixed up references. Living in the Uk it’s easy to spot. Many extra hours of sleep regained. That is huge with a huge thank you to Hilary… 🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️ hope you are well. Xx