bottom bright and clean, while the little silver trout dashed about
in fright at the sight of his black face; and he dipped his hand in
and found it so cool, cool, cool; and he said, "I will be a fish; I
will swim in the water; I must be clean, I must be clean."

So he pulled off all his clothes in such haste that he tore some of
them, which was easy enough with such ragged old things. And he
put his poor hot sore feet into the water; and then his legs; and
the farther he went in, the more the church-bells rang in his head.

"Ah," said Tom, "I must be quick and wash myself; the bells are
ringing quite loud now; and they will stop soon, and then the door
will be shut, and I shall never be able to get in at all."

Tom was mistaken: for in England the church doors are left open
all service time, for everybody who likes to come in, Churchman or
Dissenter; ay, even if he were a Turk or a Heathen; and if any man
dared to turn him out, as long as he behaved quietly, the good old
English law would punish that man, as he deserved, for ordering any
peaceable person out of God's house, which belongs to all alike.
But Tom did not know that, any more than he knew a great deal more
which people ought to know.

And all the while he never saw the Irishwoman, not behind him this
time, but before.

For just before he came to the river side, she had stept down into
the cool clear water; and her shawl and her petticoat floated off
her, and the green water-weeds floated round her sides, and the
white water-lilies floated round her head, and the fairies of the