ctor, but he had
forgotten the word for one. So all he said was "Ubboboo!" and died.

And that was the end of the great and jolly nation of the Doasyoulikes.
And, when Tom and Ellie came to the end of the book, they looked very
sad and solemn; and they had good reason so to do, for they really
fancied that the men were apes, and never thought, in their simplicity,
of asking whether the creatures had hippopotamus majors in their brains
or not; in which case, as you have been told already, they could not
possibly have been apes, though they were more apish than the apes of
all aperies.

"But could you not have saved them from becoming apes?" said little
Ellie, at last.

"At first, my dear; if only they would have behaved like men, and set to
work to do what they did not like. But the longer they waited, and
behaved like the dumb beasts, who only do what they like, the stupider
and clumsier they grew; till at last they were past all cure, for they
had thrown their own wits away. It is such things as this that help to
make me so ugly, that I know not when I shall grow fair."

"And where are they all now?" asked Ellie.

"Exactly where they ought to be, my dear."

"Yes!" said the fairy, solemnly, half to herself, as she closed the
wonderful book. "Folks say now that I can make beasts into men; by
circumstance, and selection, and competition, and so forth. Well,
perhaps they are right; and perhaps, again, they are wrong. That is one
of the seven things which I am forbidden to tell, till the coming of the
Cocqcigrues; and, at all events, it is no concern of theirs. Whatever
their ancestors were, men they are; and I advise them to behave as such,
and act accordingly. But let them recollect this, that there are two
sides to every question, and a downhill as well as an uphill road; and,
if I can turn beasts into men, I can, by the same laws of circumstance,
and selection, and competition, turn men into beasts. You were very near
being turned into a beast once or twice, little Tom. Indeed, if you had
not made up your mind to go on this journey, and see the world, like an
Englishman, I am not sure but that you would have ended as an eft in a
pond."

"Oh, dear me!" said Tom; "sooner than that, and be all over slime, I'll
go this minute, if it is to the world's end."

"And Nature, the old Nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying, 'Here is a story book
Thy father hath written