"I did nothing," replied the mussel. "I never do anything, except when any one sticks something between my sh.e.l.ls. Then I become furious and I pinch.... Hullo, are you there again, Goody Cray-Fish? Do you want one of your little legs amputated, eh?"
"The wind-bag!" said the cray-fish.
"But you might have died of hunger," said the reed-warbler.
"One doesn"t die so easily as that," replied the mussel. "Unless an accident befalls one, as in the case of our poor carp. In fact, I once lay for a whole year on a table in a room."
"Goodness gracious!" said the reed-warbler. "How did you get there?"
"I was fished up by a student or somebody. He wrapped me in a piece of paper and put me on the table. He wanted to see how long I could live.
Every Sat.u.r.day, he unpacked me and poured a little water over me; and that was enough to keep me alive."
"But how did you escape from him?"
"Well," said the mussel, "it was when he got engaged. People used to come and see him sometimes, you know, and, of course, they all had to look at the wonderful mussel that refused to die. There was a young girl among them who was very cross with him for teasing me so. But he only laughed at her. Well, when I had been there a year, he got engaged to her.... They were sitting on the sofa just by me, when it happened, and I was not so dead but that I could lift my sh.e.l.ls a little and see the whole thing: they"re funny creatures, those human beings! Well, then he asked her if there was anything she would like on that joyful day. Yes, she would like me to be put back in the water again. He laughed at her.
But off they went with me to the very pond where I was fished up and threw me in. Then I settled down among the other fellows and began all over again."
"Yes ... love!" said the reed-warbler, looking round at his wife.
"Ah ... love!" said she, returning his glance.
"I have nothing to say against it," said the mussel. "But, as a matter of fact, I have no personal experience of it."
"Surely you have a wife," said the reed-warbler. "Or, perhaps ...
perhaps you are a lady ...?"
"I am neither one or the other. I am just a mussel. And I lay my eggs and then that"s done!"
"Do you look after your children nicely?" asked the reed-warbler.
"What next!" exclaimed the mussel. "My children are very remarkable individuals. They are sailors."
"Sailors?"
"Yes, they are indeed. As soon as they come out of the egg, they hoist a great sail and put out. It"s only when they grow older, if they haven"t been eaten by that time, that they settle down as decent mussels with sh.e.l.ls upon them and philosophy in their const.i.tutions."
"Don"t let us talk about children," said the reed-warbler. "It always upsets my wife so. Tell us now how you found your way to this pond."
"Ah," said the mussel, "that comes of a peculiarity I possess of becoming furious when any one sticks something between my sh.e.l.ls. I don"t know if I told you that I possess that peculiarity?"
"You"ve told me several times," answered the reed-warbler. "I shall never forget it; I shall take care, be sure of that."
"Mind you do," said the mussel. "You know, it was one of your sort that managed my removal."
"A reed-warbler?"
"I don"t exactly know if it was a reed-warbler. I can"t see very well outside the water.... Good-day to you, good-day to you, Goody Cray-Fish!
I can always see you!... And to me one bird is much like another.
However, it must have been a gull. Well, I was sitting at the bottom and yawning, as I usually do. Just above me was a little roach. Then, suddenly, splash came the gull and seized the roach. He swooped down at such a pace that he plumped right to the bottom. One of his little toes stuck between my sh.e.l.ls and I pinched. The gull tugged and pulled, but I am strong when I become furious and I held tight. He was the stronger, in a way, nevertheless. For he pulled me off the bottom and then I went up through the water and into the air."
"Why, it"s quite a fairy-tale!" said the reed-warbler.
"We flew a good distance," the mussel continued, "high above the fields and woods. I could just peep out, for my sh.e.l.ls were ajar because of the bird"s toe. We lost the fish on the way, but I held on, however much the gull might struggle and kick. Of course, I did not mean to hang on for ever, you know, but I wanted to have my say as to where we should alight. Suppose I had been dropped into a tall tree and had to hang there and wait until a student came and got engaged...."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"He would have come all right," said the reed-warbler. "I"ve travelled a great deal, but I have never been anywhere that there wasn"t a student who got engaged."
"Well, in my case, it would have been rather uncertain," said the mussel. "And so, when I looked down and saw that there was blue underneath me, I let go and fell here, into the pond."
"And are you satisfied?"
"Yes, for the present. I have seen no other mussels, so it is a good deal pleasanter than in the other place."
"That"s a curious story," said the reed-warbler.
Then he sat and fell a-thinking and night came.
But Mrs. Reed-Warbler ran down the reed and peered into the dark water:
"Are you there, my little grub?" she asked.
"Yes, thank you," said the May-fly grub.
"Have you had a good time to-day?"
"Yes, thank you. I was only nearly eaten up by the perch; and then there was a duckling after me and a horrid dragon-fly grub and a water-beetle.
Otherwise everything was very nice indeed."
CHAPTER IX
The Water-Lily
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Don"t you think we shall be able to let the children out soon?" asked the reed-warbler.
"Certainly not!" said his wife. "There can be no question of the little dears standing on their legs for quite a month yet."
"They can stand on their legs as it is," said he, "for they nearly trample one another to death when I come along with a silly fly. I tell you, it"s getting a bit difficult to provide food for everybody. There are such an awful lot of us after it now. There are children all over the neighbourhood and they are all crying out for food."
"Are you beginning to see the truth of what I said, madam?" asked the eel, sticking his head out of the mud.
"Hold your tongue and mind your own business, you ugly fish," said Mrs.