THE WATER BABIES
was a great pillar, on one side of which was inscribed "Playthings not allowed here"; at which he was so shocked that he would not stay to see what was written on the other side. Then he looked round for the people of the island: but instead of men, women, and children, he found nothing but turnips and radishes, beet and mangold-wurzel without a single green leaf among them, and half of them burst and decayed, with toad-stools growing out of them. Those which were left began crying to Tom, in half a dozen different languages at once, and all of them badly spoken, "I can't learn my lesson; do come and help me!" And one cried "Can you show me how to extract this square root?"
And another "Can you tell me the distance between α Lyræ and β Camelopardalis?"
And another, "What is the latitude and longitude of Snooksvie, in Norman's County, Oregon, U.S.?"
And another, "What was the name of Mutius Scævola's thirteenth cousin's grandmother's maid's cat?"
And another, "How long would it take a school-inspector of average activity to tumble head over heels from London to York?"
And another, "Can you tell me the name of a place that nobody ever heard of, where nothing ever happened, in a country which has not been discovered yet?"
And another, "Can you show me how to correct this hopelessly corrupt passage of Graidiocolosyrtus
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