and all the rest of them returned, they found that it had undergone
a change.

The lid stood open like a shark's mouth; they saw a row of teeth,
bigger than they had ever seen before, but every other tooth was
black. The whole machine was swollen at the sides like a seed-fish;
the boards were bent, and the pedal pointed upwards like a foot
in the act of walking; the arms of the candlesticks looked like
clenched fists. It was a dreadful sight!

"It's falling to pieces," screamed the bass, and spread out a fin,
ready to turn.

And now the boards fell off, the box was open, and one could see
what it was like inside; and that was the prettiest sight of all.

"It's a trap! Don't go too near!" said the eel-mother.

"It's a hand-loom!" said the stickleback, who builds a nest for
itself and understands the art of weaving.

"It's a gravel-sifter," said a red-eye, who lived below the
lime-quarry.

It may have been a gravel-sifter. But there were a great many
fallals and odds and ends which were not in the least like the
sifter which they use for riddling sand. There were little manichords
which resembled toes in white woollen stockings, and when they
moved it was just as if a foot with two hundred skeleton toes were
walking; and it walked and walked and yet never left the spot.