Bedtime Tale: The Water Babies Part 1/Ch 1

The Water Babies,

A fairy tale for a land baby,

By Charles Kingsley,

Part one of chapter one.

Once upon a time there was a little chimney sweep and his name was Tom.

That is a short name and you have heard it before so you will not have much trouble in remembering it.

He lived in a great town in the North Country where there were plenty of chimneys to sweep and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend.

He could not read nor write and did not care to do either and he never washed himself for there was no water up the court where he lived.

He had never been taught to say his prayers.

He had never even heard of God or of Christ except in words which you never have heard and which would 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 down the dark flues rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw and when the soot got in his eyes which he did every day in the week and when his master beat him which he did every day in the week and when he had not enough to eat which happened every day of the week likewise and he laughed the other half of the day when he was tossing half pennies with the other boys or playing leapfrog over the posts or bowling stones at the horses legs as they trotted by which last was excellent fun when there was a wall at hand behind them which to hide.

As for chimney sweeping and being hungry and being beaten he took all that for the way of the world like the rain and snow and thunder and stood manfully with his back to it till it was over as his old donkey did to a hailstorm and then shook his ears and was as jolly as ever and thought of fine times coming when he would be a man and a master sweep and sit in the public house with a quart of beer and a long pipe and play cards for silver money and wear velveteens and ankle jacks and keep a white bulldog with one great ear and carry her puppies in his pocket 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 soot sacks while he rode before them on his donkey with a pipe in his mouth and a flower in his buttonhole like a king at the head of his army yes there were good times coming and when his master let him have a pool at the leavings of his beer Tom was the jolliest boy in the whole town one day a smart little groom rode into the court where Tom lived Tom was just hiding behind a wall to heave half a brick at his horse's legs as is the custom of that country when they welcome strangers but the groom saw him and hallowed him to know where mr.

Grimes the chimney sweep lived now mr.

Grimes was Tom's own master and Tom was a good man of business and always civil to customers so he put the half brick down quietly behind the wall and proceeded to take orders mr.

Grimes was to come up next morning to Sir John hearth overs at the place for his old chimney sweep was gone to prison and the chimneys wanted sweeping and so he rode away not giving Tom time to ask what the sweep had gone to prison for which was a matter of interest to Tom as he'd been to prison once or twice himself moreover the groom looks so very neat and clean and has drab gaiters drab breeches drab jacket snow-white tie with a smart pin in it and clean round ruddy face that Tom was offended and disgusted at his appearance and considered him a stuck-up fellow who gave himself airs because he wore smart clothes that other people paid for and went behind the wall to fetch the half brick after all but did not remembering that he had come in the way of business and was as it were under a flag of truth his master was so delighted at his new customer that he knocked Tom down out of hand and drank more beer that night than he usually did in two in order to be sure of getting up in time the next morning for the more a man's headaches when he wakes the more glad he is to turn out and have a breath of fresh air and when he did get up at four the next morning he knocked Tom down again in order to teach him as young gentlemen used to be taught at public schools that he must be an extra good boy that day as they were going to a very great house and might make a very good thing of it if they could but give satisfaction and Tom thought so likewise and indeed would have done and behaved his best even without being knocked down for of all the places upon earth hearth over place which he had never seen was the most wonderful and of all men on earth Sir John whom he had seen having been sent to goal by him twice was the most awful hearth over place was really a grand place even for the rich North Country with a house so large that in the frame breaking riots which Tom could just remember the Duke of Wellington and 10,

000 soldiers to match were easily housed therein at least so Tom believed with a park full of deer which Tom believed to be monsters who were in the habit of eating children with miles of game preserves in which mr.

Grimes and the Collier lads poached at times on which occasions Tom saw pheasants and wondered what they tasted like with a noble Salmon River in mr.

Grimes and his friends would have liked to poach but then they must have gotten to the cold water and that they did not like at all in short hearth over was a grand place and Sir John a grand old man whom even mr.

Grimes respected for not only could he send mr.

Grimes to prison when he deserved it as he did once or twice a week not only did he own all the land about for miles not only was he jolly honest sensible squire as ever kept a pack of hounds who would do what he thought right by his neighbors as well as get what he thought right for himself but what was more he weighed full 15 stone was nobody knew how many inches round the chest and could have thrashed mr.

Grimes right in a fair fight which very few folk round there could do in which my dear little boy would not have been right for him to do as a great many things are not which one both can do and would like very much to do so so mr.

Grimes touched his hat to him when he rode through the town and called him a beardly odd chap and his young ladies greatly lasses which were too high compliments in the north country and thought that made up for his poaching sir John's pheasants whereby you may perceive that mr.

Grimes has not been to a properly inspected government national school now I dare say you you've never got up at three o'clock on a midsummer morning some people get up then because they want to catch salmon and some because they want to climb Alps and in great many because they must like Tom but I assure you that three o'clock on a midsummer morning is the pleasantest time of all the 24 hours and all the 365 days and why everyone does not get up then I could never tell save that they are all determined to spoil their nerves and their complexions by doing all night what they might just as well do all day but Tom instead of going out to dinner at half past 8 at night and to a ball at 10 and finishing off somewhere between 12 and 4 went to bed at 7 when his master went to the public house and slept like a dead pig for which reason he was as pirate as a game cock who always gets up early to wake the maids and just ready to get up when the fine gentlemen and ladies were just ready to go to bed so he and his master set out Grimes rode the donkey in front and Tom and the brushes walked behind out of the court up the street past the closed window shutters and the winking weary policemen and the roofs all shining gray in the gray dawn they pass through the pitman's village all shut up and silent now and through the turnpike and then they were out in the real country and plodding along the black dusty road between black slag walls with no sound but the groaning and thumping of the pit engine in the next field but soon the road grew white and the walls likewise and at the walls foot grew long grass and gay flowers all drenched with dew and instead of the groaning of the pit engine they heard the skylark saying it's matins high up in the air and the pit bird warbling in the sedges as he had warbled all night long all else was silent for old mrs.

Earth was still fast asleep and like many pretty people she looks still prettier asleep than awake the great elm trees and the gold green meadows were fast asleep above and the cows fast asleep beneath them nay the few clouds which were about were fast asleep likewise and so tired that they had lain down on the earth to rest in long white flakes and bars among the stems of the elm trees and along the tops of the alders by the stream waiting for the Sun to bid them rise and go about their day's business in the clear blue overhead on they went and Tom looked and looked for he never had been so far into the country before and longed to get over a gate and pick buttercups and look for birds nests in the hedge but mr.

Grimes was a man of business and would have not heard of that soon they came up with a poor Irish woman trudging along with a bundle on her back she had a gray shawl over her head and a crimson matter petticoat so you may be sure she came from Galway she had neither shoes nor stockings and limped along as if she were tired and foot sore but she was a very tall handsome woman with bright gray eyes and heavy black hair hanging about her cheeks and she took mr.

Grimes fancy so much that when he came alongside he called out to her this is a hard road for a gradely foot like that will ye up lass and ride behind me but perhaps she did not admire mr.

Grimes look and voice for she answered quietly no thank you I'd sooner walk with your little lad here you may please yourself crowd crimes and went on smoking so she walked besides Tom and talked to him and asked him where he lived and what he knew and all about himself till Tom thought he had never met such a pleasant spoken woman and she asked him at last whether he said his prayers and seemed sad when he told her that he knew no prayers to say then he asked her where she lived and she said far away by the sea and Tom asked her about the sea and she told him how it rolled and roared over the rocks and winter nights and lay still in the bright summer days for the children to bathe and play in it and many a story more till Tom long to go and see the sea and bathe in it likewise at last at the bottom of a hill they came to a spring not such a spring as you see here which soaks up out of white gravel in the bog among red fly catchers and pink bottle heath and sweet white orcas nor such a one as you may see to here which bubbles up around the warm sand bank in the hollow lane by the great tuft of lady ferns and makes the sand dance reel at the bottom day and night all the year round not such a spring as either of those but a real North Country limestone fountain like one of those in Sicily or Greece where the old heathen fancied the nymphs sat cooling themselves and hot summer's day while the shepherds peeped at them from behind the bushes out of a low cave of rock at the foot of a limestone Craig the great fountain rose quelling and bubbling and gurgling so that you could not tell where the water ended and the air began and ran away under the road a stream large enough to turn a mill among blue geranium and golden globe flower and wild raspberry and the bird cherry with his tassels of snow and there Grimes stopped and looked and Tom looked too Tom was wondering whether anything lived in that dark cave and came out at night to fly in the meadows but Grimes was not wondering at all without a word he got off his donkey and clambered over the low road wall and knelt down and began dipping his ugly head into the spring and making it very dirty Tom was picking the flowers as fast as he could the Irish woman helped him and showed him how to tie them up and a very pretty nose gay they had made between them but when he saw Grimes actually wash he stopped quite astonished and when Grimes had finished and began shaking his ears to dry them he said why master I never saw you do that before nor will again most likely it wasn't for cleanliness I did it but for coolness I'd be ashamed to want washing every week or so like any smutty collier lad I wish I might go and dip my head in said poor little Tom it must be as good as putting it under the town pump and there's no beetle here to drive a chap away now come along said Grimes what does want with washing myself thou did not drink half a gallon of beer last night like me I don't care for you said naughty Tom and ran down to the stream and began washing his face Grimes was very sulky because the woman preferred Tom's company to his so he dashed at him with horrid words and tore him up from his knees and began beating him but Tom was accustomed to that and got his head safe between mr.

Grimes legs and kicked his shins with all his might are you not ashamed of yourself Thomas Grimes cried the Irish woman over the wall Grimes looked up startled at her knowing his name but all he answered was no nor never was yet and went on beating Tom true for you if you ever had been ashamed of yourself you would have gone over into Vendale long ago what do you know about Vendale shouted Grimes but he left off beating Tom I know about Vendale and about you too I know for instance what happened at Aldermire cops by night two years ago come Martin mass you do shouted Grimes and leaving Tom he climbed up over the wall and faced the woman Tom thought he was gonna strike her but she looked him too full and fierce in the face for that yes I was there said the Irish woman quietly you're no Irish woman by your speech said Grimes after many bad words never mind who I am I saw what I saw and if you strike that boy again I can tell what I know Grimes seemed quite cowed and got on his donkey without another word stop said the Irish woman I have one more word for you both for you will both see me again before all is over those that wish to be clean clean they will be and those that wish to be foul foul they will be remember and she turned away and threw a gate into the meadow Grimes stood still a moment like a man who'd been stunned then he rushed after her shouting you come back but when he got back into the meadow the woman was not there has she hidden away there was no place to hide in but Grimes looked about and Tom also for he was as puzzled as Grimes himself at her disappearing so suddenly but look where they would she was not there Grimes came back again as silent as a post for he was a little frightened and getting on his donkey filled a fresh pipe and smoked away leaving Tom in peace and that is the end of our story this evening until next time sweet dreams