The Waterbabies: Chapter 6.
The otter told Tom about the great river and the broad sea And he thought he longed to get into the wide wide world, and enjoy the wonderful sights of which he was sure it was full .... And he set off to go down stream.
But towards evening it suddenly grew dark, and Tom looked up and saw a blanket of black clouds lying right across the valley above his head, resting on the crags right and left.
He felt not quite frightened, but very still; for everything was still. There was not a whisper of wind, nor a chirp of a bird to be heard; and next a few great drops of rain fell plop into the water, and one hit Tom on the nose and made him pop his head down quickly enough.
And the thunder roared, and the lightening flashed, and leaped across Vendale and back again from cloud to cloud, and cliff to cliff, till the rocks in the stream seemed to shake; and Tom looked up at it through the water, and thought it was the finest thing he ever seen in his life.
But out of the water he dared not put his head; for the rain came down by buckets full, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream, and churned it into foam; and soon the stream rose and rushed down higher and higher, and fouler and fouler, full of beetles and sticks, and worms and woodlice, and odds and ends, and this and that and the other, enough to fill nine museums.
Tom could hardly stand against the stream, and hid behind a rock. And now, by the flashes of lightening, Tom saw a new sight - all the bottom of the stream alive with great eels, turning and twisting along, all down stream away.
They were hurrying past him so fiercely and wildly that he was quite frightened and as they hurried past he could here them say "What a jolly thunderstorm! Down to the sea, down to the sea!"
