"What do you want, you ugly cray-fish?" said the roach, and struck out with his tail.
"I sha'n't hurt you, Mr. Fish," said she. "The pond is meant for everybody, I should think. Surely a person's entitled to go and take the air outside her own door."
The eel put his head out of the mud:
"That's right, Goody Cray-Fish, stick to it!" he said. "Wriggle and twist!"
And the reed-warblers laughed and peeped down to see what on earth was going to come of it; and the youngsters were told as much of it as their little brains could take in, and they peeped too. The spider ran up and looked on, the May-fly grub was nearly jumping out of her cocoon with curiosity. The bladder-wort forgot to catch insects, the water-lily and the spear-wort stopped quarrelling; they all stared at the cray-fish and the roach. For they had all heard something of what was at hand, one from the other. But none of them said a word, lest they should frighten away the roach; he was the only one who had not the least suspicion. Only the reeds whispered softly to one another. But this they always do, so nobody minds them.
Just then a gull swooped down upon the roach.
It made such a splash in the water that no one could quite see what happened. But the roach was gone, and presently the reed-warblers exclaimed:
"Look!... Look!... There's the gull flying with the roach ... and the cray-fish is hanging on to his hind-toe!"
The water-lily and the spear-wort shouted the news and the rushes whispered it on and soon there was not a midge-grub in the pond but knew all about the extraordinary thing that had happened.
"So she had her way," said the reed-warblers.