[Illustration: _He felt the net very heavy; and lifted it out quickly, with Tom all entangled in the meshes_] And he groped with his net under the weeds so violently, that, as it befell, he caught poor little Tom. He felt the net very heavy; and lifted it out quickly, with Tom all entangled in the meshes. "Dear me!" he cried. "What a large pink Holothurian; with hands, too! It must be connected with Synapta." And he took him out. "It has actually eyes!" he cried. "Why, it must be a Cephalopod! This is most extraordinary!" "No, I ain't!" cried Tom, as loud as he could; for he did not like to be called bad names. "It is a water-baby!" cried Ellie; and of course it was. "Water-fiddlesticks, my dear!" said the professor; and he turned away sharply. There was no denying it. It was a water-baby: and he had said a moment ago that there were none. What was he to do? He would have liked, of course, to have taken Tom home in a bucket. He would not have put him in spirits. Of course not. He would have kept him alive, and petted him (for he was a very kind old gentleman), and written a book about him, and given him two long names, of which the first would have said a little about Tom, and the second all about himself. There was a wise old heathen once, who said, "Maxima debetur pueris reverentia"--The greatest reverence is due to children; that is, that grown people should never say or do anything wrong before children, lest they should set them a bad example.--But some people, and I am afraid the professor was one of them, interpret that in a strange, curious, one-sided, left-handed, topsy-turvy, inside-out-behind-before fashion; for they make it mean, that you must show your respect for children, by never confessing yourself in the wrong to them, even if you know that you are so, lest they should lose confidence in their elders. [Illustration]