hes birched him as soundly as if he had been a nobleman at
Eton, and over the face too (which is not fair swishing, as all brave
boys will agree)" (page 235).

What could you imagine more amusing in its way than the extremely absurd
"argument" the author makes for the existence of water babies (page
254): "You never heard of a water baby? Perhaps not. That is the very
reason why this story was written. There are a great many things in the
world which you never heard of; and a great many more which nobody ever
heard of; and a great many things, too, which nobody ever will hear of.
No water babies, indeed! Why, wise men of old said that everything on
earth had its double in the water; and you may see that that is, if not
quite true, still quite as true as most other theories which you are
likely to hear for many a day. There are land babies, then why not water
babies? _Are there not water rats, water flies, water crickets, water
crabs, water tortoises, water scorpions, water tigers and so on without
end?_ To be sure, there must be water babies. Am I in earnest? Oh dear
no!"

Read the account of the policemen, beginning on page 306, for an example
of a broader humor.

Page 347: "And the sun acted policeman, and worked round outside every
day, peeping just over the top of the icewall, to see that all went
right; and now and then he played conjuring tricks, or had an exhibition
of fireworks, to amuse the sea fairies. For he would make himself into
four or five suns at once, or paint the sky with rings and crosses and
crescents of white fire and stick himself in the middle of them, and
wink at the fairies; and I dare say they were very much amused, for
anything's fun in the country."

Do not think of "skipping" the _Moral_. No more attractive "moral" was
ever written for fable or fairy tale!

IV. _Pathos._ Tom, the Chimney Sweep is always pathetic. He enlists our
sympathies wholly from the time we meet him where there was "plenty of
money for Tom to earn and his master to spend," until he "pulled off all
his clothes in such haste that he tore some of them, which was easy
enough with such ragged old things," "put his poor, hot, sore feet into
the water," "tumbled himself as quick as he could into the clear, cool
stream" and in two minutes "fell fast asleep, into the quietest,
sunniest, coziest sleep that he had ever had in his life and--dreamt of
nothing at all." It is only as Tom the Water Baby that he does not make
us