And looking round, he suddenly saw a little ugly black figure with bleared eyes and grinning teeth.  And behold, it was himself reflected in the mirror.  With tears of shame and anger at the contrast he turned to sneak up the chimney and hide.  But in his haste he upset the fire-irons.

Up jumped the little white lady with a scream; in rushed her nurse and made a dash at Tom.  But out of the window went he and down a tree and away through the garden and the park into the wood beyond, with the gardener, the groom, the dairymaid, Grimes, the steward, the keeper, Sir John, and the Irishwoman all in hot pursuit.

Through the wood rushed Tom until he came to a wall, where his quick wits enabled him to evade his pursuers—­except the Irishwoman, who followed him all the way, although he never knew.

At length he stood on a limestone rock which overhung a valley a thousand feet below, and down there he could see a little stream winding in and out, and by the stream a cottage.  It was a dangerous descent, but down went Tom without a moment’s hesitation; sick and giddy, on he went until at last he dropped on the grass and lay there unconscious.  But after a time he roused himself and stumbled on to the cottage.

The old dame of the cottage took pity on him and laid him on a bed of sweet hay.  But Tom could not rest, and think of the little white lady, he found his way to the river murmuring.  “I must be clean!  I must be clean!”

And still he had not seen the Irishwoman; in front of him now, for she had stepped into the river just before Tom, and had changed into the most beautiful of fairies underneath the water.  For she was, indeed, the Queen of the Water-Fairies, who were all waiting to receive her the moment she came back from the land-world.

Tom was so hot and longed so to be clean for once that he tumbled as quick as he could into the cool stream.  And he had not been in it half a minute before he fell into the quietest, coolest sleep that ever he had in his life.  The reason of his falling into such a delightful sleep is very simple.  It was merely that the fairies took him.  In fact, they turned him into a water-baby.

Meanwhile, of course, the chase after Tom had come to an end, although Sir John and his keepers made a second search the next day, for he felt sorry for the little sweep, and was afraid he might have fallen over some of the crags.  They found the little fellow’s rags by the side of the stream, and they also discovered his body in the water, and buried it over in Vendale churchyard.

II.—­A Lonely, Mischievous Water-Baby

Tom was very happy swimming about in the river, although he was now only about four inches long, with a set of external gills, just like those of an eft.  There are land-babies, and why not water-babies?  Some people tell us that water-babies are contrary to nature, but there are so many things in nature which we don’t expect to find that there may as well be water-babies as not.