ght dash away or lie
quiet, but wherever he was he knew the hook was still there; and when he
was tired with all his struggles, the fisherman at the other end of the
line began to haul it in gradually, and poor old salmon was drawn nearer
and nearer to the land, and at last picked out of the water with a
landing-net. And now he lies at Billingsgate, waiting for someone to buy
him and take him to a shop to sell him again to be eaten. All round
there are many cries--indeed, a noise such as you never heard before.
What you hear is something like this: 'Haddock and cod, come buy! Fine
fresh fish, fresh cod, buy, buy! Here you are; couldn't buy any finer.
All this lot for ten shillings! Look here! look here! Whiting and
turbot! crabs crawling all alive, alive, oh! Shrimps do you want? Fine
shrimps, the very best! Here you are, buy! buy!' and so on, everyone
shouting out to make the fishmongers buy their fish. Perhaps a crab
crawls too near the edge of his stall, and falls over with a crash, and
the man who owns him picks him up and throws him back, and off jumps
Master Crab again as quick as you please, and does just the same thing
again. You would think he would not want to tumble down: it must hurt
him, even through such a thick shell; but he thinks if he goes on long
enough perhaps he'll find again those lovely rocks all soaked with the
great sea tide, which somehow he seems to have lost. So he goes on
scuttling about and tumbling down until someone picks him up and throws
him into a bag with the rest, and he is carried off to the shop, where,
poor crab! he will never have a chance of finding his dear rocks again
or hearing the water rushing in over the seaweed.

He was perhaps lying under a great mass of seaweed in a deep pool, when
a pole came walking along and poked into his side. He did not want it at
all--in fact, he got quite angry with it, and shook himself free; but
that pole only waggled about, and stuck into him again, and at last he
seized it with his claws, and the more it shook, the tighter he held on,
and he did not know that that was just what the man who was bending over
the pool wanted. So the pole was pulled out with Master Crab sticking to
it, and the man caught hold of him so neatly that he had not time to use
his claws, and popped him into a bag, and he has never found the seaside
since, and now he never will again. But perhaps he would not mind so
much if he knew that Mrs. Crab did not miss him at all