"And you are a very cruel boy; who puts pebbles into the sea-
anemones' mouths, to take them in, and make them fancy that they
had caught a good dinner! As you did to them, so I must do to
you."
"Who told you that?" said Tom.
"You did yourself, this very minute."
Tom had never opened his lips; so he was very much taken aback
indeed.
"Yes; every one tells me exactly what they have done wrong; and
that without knowing it themselves. So there is no use trying to
hide anything from me. Now go, and be a good boy, and I will put
no more pebbles in your mouth, if you put none in other
creatures'."
"I did not know there was any harm in it," said Tom.
"Then you know now. People continually say that to me: but I tell
them, if you don't know that fire burns, that is no reason that it
should not burn you; and if you don't know that dirt breeds fever,
that is no reason why the fevers should not kill you. The lobster
did not know that there was any harm in getting into the lobster-
pot; but it caught him all the same."
"Dear me," thought Tom, "she knows everything!" And so she did,
indeed.
"And so, if you do not know that things are wrong that is no reason
why you should not be punished for them; though not as much, not as
much, my little man" (and the lady looked very kindly, after all),
"as if you did know.
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