And all the while Tom was swimming about in the river, with a
pretty little lace-collar of gills about his neck, as lively as a
grig, and as clean as a fresh-run salmon.

Now if you don't like my story, then go to the schoolroom and learn
your multiplication-table, and see if you like that better. Some
people, no doubt, would do so. So much the better for us, if not
for them. It takes all sorts, they say, to make a world.



CHAPTER III



"He prayeth well who loveth well
Both men and bird and beast;
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."

COLERIDGE.


Tom was now quite amphibious. You do not know what that means?
You had better, then, ask the nearest Government pupil-teacher, who
may possibly answer you smartly enough, thus -

"Amphibious. Adjective, derived from two Greek words, amphi, a