Chapter I: Front Matter

THE WATER-BABIES

A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby

BY CHARLES KINGSLEY

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY
WARWICK GOBLE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1922

_First Published 1863_
_Edition with 32 Illustrations in Colour by Warwick Goble, Crown
4to, 1909_
_With 16 Illustrations in Colour by Warwick Goble, Demy 8vo, October
1910_
_Reprinted November 1910, 1912_
_With 16 Illustrations in Colour by Warwick Goble, Medium 8vo, 1922_

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

TO

MY YOUNGEST SON

GRENVILLE ARTHUR

AND

TO ALL OTHER GOOD LITTLE BOYS

COME READ ME MY RIDDLE, EACH GOOD LITTLE MAN;
IF YOU CANNOT READ IT, NO GROWN-UP FOLK CAN.

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The thing whirred up into the air, and hung poised on its
wings, . . . a dragon fly, ... the king of all the
flies.--p. 74 _Frontispiece_

In rushed a stout old nurse from the next room 20

Play by me, bathe in me, mother and child 32

A quiet, silent, rich, happy place 35

She was the Queen of them all 44

From which great trout rushed out on Tom 88

He watched the moonlight on the rippling river 101

Tom had never seen a lobster before 113

The fairies came flying in at the window and brought her
such a pretty pair of wings 126

A real live water-baby, sitting on the white sand 146

Tom found that the isle stood all on pillars, and that its
roots were full of caves 151

He crept away among the rocks, and got to the cabinet, and
behold! it was open 172

There he saw the last of the Gairfowl, standing up on the
Allalonestone, all alone 201

The most beautiful bird of paradise 210

"That's Mother Carey" 219

Pandora and her box 224

"I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined;
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

"To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think,
What man has made of man."

WORDSWORTH.