said the mayor , and pulled as hard as he dared : but the more he pulled , the more the lobster pinched , till he was forced to be quiet . Then he tried to get his hook in with his other hand ; but the hole was too narrow . Then he pulled again ; but he could not stand the pain . Then he shouted and bawled for help : but there was no one nearer him than the men-of-war inside the breakwater . Then he began to turn a little pale ; for the tide flowed , and still the lobster held on . Then he turned quite white ; for the tide was up to his knees , and still the lobster held on . Then he thought of cutting off his finger ; but he wanted two things to do it with -- courage and a knife ; and he had got neither . Then he turned quite yellow ; for the tide was up to his waist , and still the lobster held on . Then he thought over all the naughty things he ever had done ; all the sand which he had put in the sugar , and the sloe-leaves in the tea , and the water in the treacle , and the salt in the tobacco -LRB- because his brother was a brewer , and a man must help his own kin -RRB- . Then he turned quite blue ; for the tide was up to his breast , and still the lobster held on . Then , I have no doubt , he repented fully of all the said naughty things which he had done , and promised to mend his life , as too many do when they think they have no life left to mend . Whereby , as they fancy , they make a very cheap bargain . But the old fairy with the birch rod soon undeceives them . And then he grew all colours at once , and turned up his eyes like a duck in thunder ; for the water was up to his chin , and still the lobster held on . And then came a man-of-war 's boat round the Mewstone , and saw his head sticking up out of the water . One said it was a keg of brandy , and another that it was a cocoa-nut , and another that it was a buoy loose , and another that it was a black diver , and wanted to fire at it , which would not have been pleasant for the mayor : but just then such a yell came out of a great hole in the middle of it that the midshipman in charge guessed what it was , and bade pull up to it as fast as they could . So somehow or other the Jack-tars got the lobster out , and set the mayor free , and put him ashore at the Barbican . He never went lobster-catching again ; and we will hope he put no more salt in the tobacco , not even to sell his brother 's beer . And that is the story of the Mayor of Plymouth , which has two advantages -- first , that of being quite true ; and second , that of having -LRB- as folks say all good stories ought to have -RRB- no moral whatsoever : no more , indeed , has any part of this book , because it is a fairy tale , you know . And now happened to Tom a most wonderful thing ; for he had not left the lobster five minutes before he came upon a water-baby .
A real live water-baby , sitting on the white XXXXX , very busy about a little point of rock .
breakwater finger help life lobster man pain sand thing tide