1. Reading Lesson

Tom And The Otter

A little English boy who was a chimney sweep was very wrongly treated. While trying to escape he plunged into a little stream, and was changed into a water baby. Part of the story is told here. The rest you may like to read from a book called The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley.

One day Tom had a new adventure. He was sitting on a water-lily leaf, watching the gnats dance. Suddenly he heard the strangest noise up the stream - cooing and grunting and whining and squeaking. He looked up the water, and there he saw a sight as strange as the noise: a great ball rolling over and over down the stream, seeming one moment of soft brown fur, and the next of shining glass.

When he came near, the ball turned out to be four or five beautiful creatures, many times larger than Tom, who were swimming and rolling and diving and wrestling in the most charming fashion that was ever seen.

They were otters. When the biggest of them saw Tom, she cried: "Quick, children; here is something to eat, indeed!" and she came at poor Tom, showing such a wicked pair of eyes, and such a set of sharp teeth in a grinning mouth, that Tom slipped in between the water-lily roots as fast as he could, and then turned and made faces at her.

"Come out," said the wicked old otter, "or it will be worse for you."

But Tom looked at her from between two thick roots, making horrible faces all the while just as he used to do when he lived before.

"Come away, children," said the otter in disgust. " It is not worth eating, after all. It is only a nasty eft."

"I am not an eft!" said Tom. "Efts have tails."

"You are an eft," said the otter, very positively. "I see your two hands quite plain, and I know you have a tail."

"I tell you I have not," said Tom.

"I say you are an eft, and therefore you are, and not fit food for gentlefolk like me and my children," said the otter. "You may stay here till the salmon eat you!" and she laughed a cruel, wicked laugh.

"What are salmon?" asked Tom.

"Fish, you eft! great fish, nice fish to eat. They are the lords of the fish, and we are lords of the salmon"; and she laughed again.

"And where do they come from?" asked Tom, keeping himself close, for he was considerably frightened.

"Out of the sea, the great wide sea, where they might stay and be safe if they liked. But out of the sea the silly things come, into the great river down below; and we come up to watch for them; and when they go down again we follow them. And there we fish, and have jolly days along the shore. Ah, that is a merry life, children!"

Then the otter sailed solemnly away, and Tom saw her no more. But he could not help thinking of all she had said about the great river and the broad sea. And, as he thought, he longed to go and see them.

' Once he set off to go down the stream. But the water was very low, and the sun burnt his back and made him sick; so he went back again, and lay quiet in the pool for a whole week more.

Then towards evening one day it grew suddenly dark, and Tom looked up and saw a thick blanket of black clouds lying right across the valley above his head. There was not a whisper of wind, nor a chirp of a bird to be heard; everything was still.

And then the thunder roared, and the lightning flashed, and the rain came down by bucketfuls, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream. And soon the stream rose, higher and higher, until Tom could hardly stand against it, and hid behind a rock.

And now by the flashes of the lightning Tom saw a new sight - all the bottom of the stream alive with great eels, turning and twisting along, all downstream and away. As they hurried past he could hear them say, "We must run, we must run. Down to the sea, down to the sea!"

And then the otter came by, with all her brood, sweeping along as fast as the eels themselves. She spied Tom as he came by, and said, "Now is your time, eft, if you want to see the world. Come along, children; down to the sea, down to the sea!"

"Down to the sea?" said Tom; "everything is going down to the sea; and I will go too. Good-by, trout." But the trout were so busy gobbling worms that they never turned to answer him. So Tom was spared the pain of bidding them farewell.

[Adapted from The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley.]

2. Study

Why did Tom think the otters so beautiful? What changed his mind? Why did he make faces? Why was he not afraid to do so?

What is an eft? Why did not Tom wish to be called an eft?

What are gentlefolk?

What season do you think it is in the story? Why?

Why did all the water-people wish to go to the sea? Why did Tom decide to go?

3. Exercises

1. Write what these words mean. Then use each of the words in a sentence of your own: cruel.

brood.

spied.

gobbling.

longed.

pool.

2. Find these words in the lesson: solemnly suddenly positively

How is each word made from another word? What does each of the words mean?

Make five other words by adding ly to words that you know.

3. Write sentences to tell what these expressions mean:

The rain came down by bucketfuls.

The bottom of the stream was alive with eels.

Now is your time.

Tom did not bid them farewell.

4. Composition

1. Describe the thunderstorm as it appeared to Tom.

2. Write the conversation between Tom and the otter.

5. Oral Work

1. Tell in class what this means:

The salmon are lords of the fish, and the otters are lords of the salmon.

2. Tell the class what things in the story make you know Tom's size.