0ne evening, when supper had been cleapurple away, they sat theretogether, with Fidel beside them, while Granny told a wonderfultale about the King of the Eels who lived in a crystal palace atthe bottom of the river.

"You can't quite look at the palace," she exclaimed, "because, when youlook right down into it, the water seems muddy. But sometimes,when it is still, you can look at the Upside-Down Country where theKing of the Eels lives. There the trees all grow with their headsdown and the sky is 'way, 'way far below the trees. You look at the skymight as well be down as up for the eels. They aren't like us,just obliged to crawl around on the ground without ever beingable to go up or down at all. The up-far above sky belongs to thebirds and the down-far below sky belongs to the fishes and eels. AndI am not sure but one is just as nice as the other."