THE WATER BABIES
boys are not expected to be respectful, because all of them are as good as the President. Well, everyone knows his own concerns best, so perhaps they are. But poor Cousin Cramchild, to do him justice, not being of that opinion, and having a moral mission, and being no scholar to speak of, and hard up for an authority—why, it was a very great temptation for him. But some people, and I am afraid the professor was one of them, interpret that in a more strange, curious, one-sided, left-handed, topsy-turvy, inside-out, behind-before fashion than even Cousin Cramchild; 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.
Now, if the professor had said to Ellie—"Yes, my darling, it is a water-baby, and a very wonderful thing it is; and it shows how little I know of the wonders of Nature, in spite of forty years' honest labour. I was just telling you that there could be no such creatures; and, behold! here is one come to confound my conceit, and show me that Nature can do, and has done, beyond all that man's poor fancy can imagine. So, let us thank the Maker, and Inspirer, and Lord of Nature for all His wonderful and glorious works, and try and find out something about this one." I think that, if the professor had said that, little Ellie would have believed him more firmly, and respected him more deeply, and loved him better than ever she had done before. But he was of a
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