But as the old proverb says, "What goes up, must come down," and in a few minutes he was on the ground again. This time he stood on the sandy beach of a great sea.
"I wonder if I can jump all the way across," he said aloud.
"Ask me not in mournful numbers
What o'clock a boy has dreams;
Sleep is real, sleep is earnest,
Hash is seldom what it seems."
And a great gray-bearded eel wagged his head solemnly at Billy from a few feet off the shore.
"Did you speak?" said Billy.
"No, I sang, which is worse," said the eel sadly.
"I thought it was you."
"It wasn't you, it was I," said the eel. "What a sad world it is, to be sure!"
"How do you mean?" asked Billy.
"I don't mean, I swim, and that's a terrible bore."