(As a matter of fact they were all born
on the same day, but for some reason which is not explained only one
of them was called Foch.)
You, reader, are one of those ignorant people who do so much discredit
to our Public Schools. You fondly think that the whitebait is a
special kind of fish, that there are father whitebaits and mother
whitebaits and baby whitebaits. You are wrong. There are only baby
whitebaits. At least there are baby herrings and baby pilchards, and
these are called whitebait because they are eaten by the mackerel and
because they look white when they are swimming upside down.
Anyhow Walter and John and Isabel and Margaret and Rupert and
Stephanie and little Foch began life as whitebait. They used to charge
about the Cornish seas with whole platefuls of other whitebait,
millions of them, and wherever they went they were pursued by
thousands of mackerel, who wanted to eat them. One day John felt that
the moment was very near when he would be eaten by a mackerel, and he
was quite right. Isabel felt the same thing, but she was wrong.
She jumped out of the water and was eaten by a sea-gull. When the
fishermen saw Isabel leaping into the air they came out and caught
the mackerel in a net. They also caught Margaret with a lot of other
whitebait; and she was eaten by a barrister at "Claridge's.
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