`Here!' cried Alice, quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how large she had grown in the last few minutes, and she jumped up in such a hurry that she tipped over the jury-box with the edge of her skirt, upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below, and there they lay sprawling about, reminding her very much of a globe of goldfish she had accidentally upset the week before.
`Oh, I BEG your pardon!' she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay, and began picking them up again as quickly as she could, for the accident of the goldfish kept running in her head, and she had a vague sort of idea that they must be collected at once and put back into the jury-box, or they would die.
Wilson was the richest man in Blackstable, he was thought to have at least five hundred a year, and he had married his cook--Philip sat demurely in the stiff parlour, used only to receive visitors, and busied himself with the restless movements of
goldfish in a bowl.
"Oh, do not give me credit for this, madame; it was done by the Romans, who much esteemed them, and Pliny relates that they sent slaves from Ostia to Rome, who carried on their heads fish which he calls the mulus, and which, from the description, must probably be the
goldfish. It was also considered a luxury to have them alive, it being an amusing sight to see them die, for, when dying, they change color three or four times, and like the rainbow when it disappears, pass through all the prismatic shades, after which they were sent to the kitchen.
Some minds are wonderful for keeping their bloom in this way, as a patriarchal
goldfish apparently retains to the last its youthful illusion that it can swim in a straight line beyond the encircling glass.
"Rabbits, ribbons, sweetmeats,
goldfish, rolls of coloured paper," said the reverend gentleman with rapidity.
The sculptor should have represented New York as a conjuror in evening dress, smiling blandly as he changed a rabbit into a bowl of
goldfish. For that, above all else, is New York's speciality.
It was half a dock for the dingy in which one plowed these miniature waters and half a bathing-box for those who preferred their morning tub among the
goldfish. I could not think of a safer asylum than this, if we must spend the night upon the premises; and Raffles agreed with me when I had led him by sheltering shrubbery and perilous lawn to the diminutive chalet between the rhododendrons and the water.
This article not being forthcoming either, he requested to be served with a fricassee of boot-tops and
goldfish sauce, and then laughing heartily, gratified his hearers with a very long, very loud, and most melodious bellow.
Many
goldfish suffer from Swim Bladder Disease that prevents them from staying afloat.
"I know it's silly to cry over a
goldfish but we'd had him so long."
The
goldfish was still alive after being taken from its pond by the cat, who took it home in its mouth.