Water-Babies Classic Collection

Once upon a time, there was a little chimney-sweep named Tom, who lived in a great town in the North country. This is a short name, and you have heard it before, so you will not have much trouble in remembering it. In this town, there were plenty of chimneys to sweep and plenty of money for Tom to earn and his master to spend. However, Tom could not read nor write, and he did not care to do either. He never washed himself, for there was no water up the court where he lived, and he had never been taught to say his prayers. Tom had never heard of God or of Christ, except in words which you never have heard, and which it would have been well if he had never heard.

Tom spent half his time crying and the other half laughing. He cried when he had to climb the dark flues, rubbing his poor knees and elbows raw, and when the soot got into his eyes, which happened every day of the week. He also cried when his master beat him, which occurred every day of the week, and when he did not have enough to eat, which likewise happened every day of the week. However, Tom laughed the other half of the day when he was tossing halfpennies with the other boys, playing leap-frog over the posts, or bowling stones at the horses' legs as they trotted by, which was excellent fun, especially when there was a wall at hand behind which to hide.

The story is thematically concerned with Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the book to argue that England treats its poor badly and to question child labour, among other themes. The protagonist, Tom, is a young chimney sweep who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he dies and is transformed into a "water baby", as he is told by a caddis fly — an insect that sheds its skin — and begins his moral education.

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