"I have jumped upwards, downwards, backwards, and sideways, at least four thousand times, and I can't get out; I always get up underneath there, and can't find the hole." Tom looked at the trap, and having more wit than the 5 lobster, he saw plainly enough what was the matter, as you may if you look at a lobster pot. "Stop a bit," said Tom. "Turn your tail up to me and I'll pull you through hind foremost, and then you won't stick in the spikes." But the lobster was so stupid and clumsy that he could n't hit the hole. Like a great many fox hunters, he was very sharp as long as he was in his own country; but as soon as they get out of it they lose their heads; and the lobster, so to speak, lost his tail. Tom reached and clawed down the hole after him till he caught hold of him; and then, as was to be expected, the clumsy lobster pulled him in head foremost. 10 15 "Hullo! here is a pretty business," said Tom. "Now take your great claws and break the points off those 20 spikes, and then we shall both get out easily." "Dear me, I never thought of that," said the lobster; "and after all the experience of life that I have had!" You see experience is of very little good unless a man, or a lobster, has wit enough to make use of it. For a good 25 many people, like old Polonius, have seen all the world, and yet remain little better than children after all. But they had not got half the spikes away when they saw a great dark cloud over them, and, lo and behold! it was the otter. ! How she did grin and grin when she saw Tom. "Yar!" 5 said she; "you little, meddlesome wretch, I have you now I will serve you out for telling the salmon where I was!" And she crawled all over the pot to get in. Tom was horribly frightened, and still more frightened when she found the hole in the top and squeezed herself 10 right down through it, all eyes and teeth. But no sooner was her head inside than valiant Mr. Lobster caught her by the nose and held on. And there they were, all three in the pot, rolling over and over, and very tight packing it was. And the lobster 15 tore at the otter, and the otter tore at the lobster, and both squeezed and thumped poor Tom till he had no breath left in his body; and I don't know what would have happened to him if he had not at last got on the otter's back, and safe out of the hole. 20 He was right glad when he got out, but he would not desert his friend who had saved him; and the first time he saw his tail uppermost he caught hold of it and pulled with all his might. 25 But the lobster would not let go. "Come along," said Tom; "don't you see she is dead?" And so she was, quite drowned and dead. And that was the end of the wicked otter. But the lobster would not let go. "Come along, you stupid old stick-in-the-mud," cried Tom, "or the fisherman will catch you!" And that was true, for Tom felt some one above beginning to haul up the pot. But the lobster would not let go. 5 Tom saw the fisherman haul him up to the boatside, and thought it was all up with him. But when Mr. Lobster saw the fisherman he gave such a furious and tremendous snap that he snapped out of his hand, and out 10 of the pot, and safe into the sea. But he left his knobbed claw behind him; for it never came into his stupid head to let go after all; so he just shook his claw off as the easier method. Tom asked the lobster why he never thought of letting 15 go. He said very determinedly that it was a point of honor among lobsters. And so it is. From The Water Babies three-fathom: eighteen feet. -prawns: shellfish, like shrimps. -wrasses: ENF. 5 THE SUCCORY MARGARET DELAND MRS. MARGARET Deland is an American novelist and lecturer. NOTE. The succory, or chicory, is a common roadside plant. 10 15 In upland pastures, Dim and sweet; But by the dusty road, Where tired feet Toil to and fro, Where flaunting sin May see thy heavenly hue, Toward that tenderer blue. GEORGE ELIOT was the assumed name of Mary Ann Evans, who held the foremost place among women writers of the nineteenth century. Her novels are faithful pictures of village and country life in England. Among the most popular of her books is The Mill on the Floss, the early chapters of which deal with Maggie Tulliver's girlhood. George Eliot died in 1880. 5 66 Maggie," said Mrs. Tulliver, beckoning Maggie to her and whispering in her ear," go and get your hair brushed.” "Tom, come out with me," whispered Maggie, pulling her brother's sleeve as she passed him; and Tom followed willingly enough. "Come upstairs with me, Tom," she whispered, when they were outside the door. "There's something I want to do before dinner." 10 "There's no time to play at anything before dinner," said Tom, whose imagination was impatient of any inter- 15 mediate prospect. "Oh, yes, there is time for this; do come, Tom." Tom followed Maggie upstairs into her mother's room, and saw her go at once to a drawer, from which she took out a large pair of scissors. "What are they for, Maggie?" said Tom, feeling his curiosity awakened. Maggie answered by seizing her front locks and cutting them straight across the middle of her forehead, 20 20 |