The waterbaby

• The Water-Babies: is a children's novel by the Reverend Charles Kingsley (1863). In the style of Victorian-era novels, The Water-Babies is a didactic moral fable. The protagonist is Tom, 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. The story is largely concerned with Christian redemption, though it also suggests that England treats its poor badly, and questions enforced child labor. Tom embarks on a series of adventures and lessons, and enjoys the community of other water babies once he proves himself a moral creature. TTom is allowed the company of Ellie, who had fallen into the river after he did, but who was not subjected to re-education as a water baby herself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water-Babies%2C_A_Fairy_Tale_for_a_Land_Baby

• water baby: suggests that HCE is like a foetus in the womb (of sleep) - awaiting his resurrection through birth (and waking).