The Water-babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-babyThe adventures of Tom, a sooty little chimney sweep with a great longing to be clean, who is stolen by fairies and turned into a water baby. |
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The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby Charles Kingsley,Linley Sambourne No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
afraid asked baby backstairs beasts beautiful beautiful creature Bedonebyasyoudid began birch-rod birds bogy Brandan butterwort catch caught chimney chimney-sweep clean crag creatures cried crying dirty dovekies Epimetheus eyes fairy fairy tale fancy fellow fish folks frightened Gairfowl gentleman grew Grimes grow Harthover head heard Hellebore hippopotamus hole Holothurian hundred Intermediate Grades Irishwoman jumped knew lady laughed legs little boys little children little Ellie live lobster looked Mother Carey mouth nasty naughty never night nose once otter perhaps petrels play poor little pretty professor rocks round salmon seen Shiny Wall Sir John sleep stone story strange stream stupid sure SWAIN swam sweet tail tell things thought thunderbox told Tom longed Tom waited Tom's took trout truncheon turned ugly Vendale water-babies wings wonderful
Popular passages
Page 174 - Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear The Godhead's most benignant grace; Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.
Page 46 - AND is there care in heaven ? And is there love In heavenly spirits to these creatures base, That may compassion of their evils move ? There is : else much more wretched were the case Of men than beasts. But O ! th...
Page 127 - One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can. Sweet is the lore which Nature brings ; Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things : — We murder to dissect.
Page 282 - Come to me, O ye children ! And whisper in my ear What the birds and the winds are singing In your sunny atmosphere. For what are all our contrivings, And the wisdom of our books, When compared with your caresses, And the gladness of your looks ? Ye are better than all the ballads That ever were sung or said ; For ye are living poems, And all the rest are dead.
Page 240 - Thy Father has written for thee." "Come, wander with me," she said, "Into regions yet untrod, And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God." And he wandered away and away With Nature, the dear old nurse, Who sang to him night and day The rhymes of the universe. And whenever the way seemed long, Or his heart began to fail, She would sing a more wonderful song, Or tell a more marvellous tale.
Page 207 - The doll you lost! The doll you lost!" cried all the babies at once. So the strange fairy sang:— / 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 so charmingly curled. But I lost my poor little doll, dears, As I played in the...
Page 210 - Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height, Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke The years to bring the inevitable yoke, Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife? Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight, And custom lie upon thee with a weight, Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!
Page 80 - When all the world is young, lad, And all the trees are green; And every goose a swan, lad, And every lass a queen; Then hey for boot and horse, lad, And round the world away; Young blood must have its course lad, And every dog his day. When all the world is old, lad, And all the trees are brown; And all the sport is stale, lad, And all the wheels run down; Creep home, and take your place there, The spent and maimed among; God grant you find one face there, You loved when all was young.
Page 239 - And Nature, the old nurse, took The child upon her knee, Saying: "Here is a story-book Thy Father has written for thee." "Come, wander with me," she said, "Into regions yet untrod; And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God.