II
11. And when the day came, Tom found himself out in the salmon river. And after a while he came to a place where the river spread out into broad, still, shallow reaches so wide that little Tom, as he put his head out of the water, could hardly see across.
12. And there he stopped. He got a little frightened. "This must be the sea," he thought. "What a wide place it is! If I go on into it, I shall surely lose my way or some strange thing will bite me. I will stop here and look out for the otter or the eels, or some one to tell me where I shall go."
13. So he went back a little way and crept into a crack of the rock, just where the river opened out into the wide shallows, and watched for some one to tell him his way; but the otter and the eels were gone on miles and miles down the stream.
14. There he waited, and slept, too, for he was quite tired with his night's journey; and when he woke, the stream was clearing to a beautiful amber hue, though it was still very high.
15. Tom went on down, and, as he went, all the vale looked sad. The red and yellow leaves showered down into the river; the flies and beetles were all dead and gone; the chill autumn fog lay low upon the hills, and sometimes spread itself so thickly on the river that he could not see his way.
16. But he felt his way instead, following the flow of the stream day after day, past great bridges, past boats and barges, past the great town with its wharves and mills and tall smoking chimneys, and ships which rode at anchor in the stream; and now and then he ran against their hawsers and wondered what they were, and peeped out and saw the sailors lounging on board, and ducked under again, for he was terribly afraid of being caught by man and turned into a chimney sweep once more.
Past the ships which rode at anchor in the stream
17. Poor little fellow! It was a dreary journey for him; and more than once he longed to be back in Vendale, playing with the trout in the bright summer sun. But it could not be. What has been once can never come over again. And people can be little babies, even water-babies, only once in their lives.
18. Besides, people who make up their minds to go and see the world, as Tom did, must needs find it a weary journey. Lucky for them if they do not lose heart and stop half way, instead of going on bravely to the end, as Tom did.
19. But Tom was always a brave, determined little English bulldog, who never knew when he was beaten; and on and on he held, till he saw a long way off the red buoy through the fog. And then he found, to his surprise, the stream turned round and running up inland.
20. It was the tide, of course; but Tom knew nothing of the tide. He only knew that in a minute more the water, which had been fresh, turned salt all around him. And then there came a change over him. He felt strong and light and fresh, and gave, he did not know why, three skips out of the water, a yard high, and head over heels, just as the salmon do when they first touch the noble, rich salt water, which, as some wise men tell us, is the mother of all living things.
21. He did not care now for the tide being against him. The red buoy was in sight, dancing in the open sea; and to the buoy he would go, and to it he went. He passed great shoals of bass and mullet, leaping and rushing in after the shrimps, but he never heeded them nor they him; and once he passed a great, black, shining seal who was coming in after the mullet.
22. The seal put his head and shoulders out of water and stared at him. And Tom, instead of being frightened, said: "How d'ye do, sir? What a beautiful place the sea is!"
23. And the old seal, instead of trying to bite him, looked at him with his soft, sleepy, winking eyes and said: "Good tide to you, my little man; are you looking for your brothers and sisters? I passed them all at play outside."
24. "Oh, then," said Tom, "I shall have playfellows at last!" And he swam on to the buoy and got upon it—for he was quite out of breath—and sat there and looked round for water-babies; but there were none to be seen.