"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 shells 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 shells 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...." [Illustration] "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 [Illustration] "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.