Part 59

He swam miserably round the moat looking for the old Carp, his only acquaintance in this strange wet world. And at last, pushing through a thick tangle of water weeds he found the great fish.

'Now then,' said the Carp testily, 'haven't you any better manners than to come tearing a gentleman's bed-curtains like that?'

'I beg your pardon,' said Kenneth Fish, 'but I know how clever you are. Do please help me.'

'What do you want now?' said the Carp, and spoke a little less crossly.

'I want to get out. I want to go and be a boy again.'

'But you must have said you wanted to be a fish.'

'I didn't mean it, if I did.'

'You shouldn't say what you don't mean.'

'I'll try not to again,' said Kenneth humbly, 'but how can I get out?'

'There's only one way,' said the Carp rolling his vast body over in his watery bed, 'and a jolly unpleasant way it is. Far better stay here and be a good little fish. On the honour of a gentleman that's the best thing you can do.'

'I want to get out,' said Kenneth again.

'Well then, the only way is ... you know we always teach the young fish to look out for hooks so that they may avoid them. You must look out for a hook and take it. Let them catch you. On a hook.'

The Carp shuddered and went on solemnly, 'Have you strength? Have you patience? Have you high courage and determination? You will want them all. Have you all these?'

'I don't know what I've got,' said poor Kenneth, 'except that I've got a tail and fins, and I don't know a hook when I see it. Won't you come with me? Oh! dear Mr. Doyen Carp, do come and show me a hook.'

'It will hurt you,' said the Carp, 'very much indeed. You take a gentleman's word for it.'

'I know,' said Kenneth, 'you needn't rub it in.'

The Carp rolled heavily out of his bed.

'Come on then,' he said, 'I don't admire your taste, but if you want a hook, well, the gardener's boy is fishing in the cool of the evening. Come on.'

He led the way with a steady stately movement.

'I want to take the ring with me,' said Kenneth, 'but I can't get hold of it. Do you think you could put it on my fin with your snout?'

'My what!' shouted the old Carp indignantly and stopped dead.

'Your nose, I meant,' said Kenneth. 'Oh! please don't be angry. It would be so kind of you if you would. Shove the ring on, I mean.'

'That will hurt too,' said the Carp, and Kenneth thought he seemed not altogether sorry that it should.

It did hurt very much indeed. The ring was hard and heavy, and somehow Kenneth's fin would not fold up small enough for the ring to slip over it, and the Carp's big mouth was rather clumsy at the work. But at last it was done. And then they set out in search of a hook for Kenneth to be caught with.

'I wish we could find one! I wish we could!' Kenneth Fish kept saying.

'You're just looking for trouble,' said the Carp. 'Well, here you are!'

Above them in the clear water hung a delicious-looking worm. Kenneth Boy did not like worms any better than you do, but to Kenneth Fish that worm looked most tempting and delightful.

'Just wait a sec.,' he said, 'till I get that worm.'