The Princess and the Goblin

Go

to feel rather hungry; so he dropped his pickaxe, got out a lump of bread which in the morning he had laid in a damp hole in the rock, sat down on a heap of ore, and ate his supper. Then he leaned back for five minutes' rest before beginning his work again, and laid his head against t

etter be mov

nd deeper v

n't be through tonight, if he work ever so hard

e does come through into our

against which his head lay, 'he would have been through; but he's a couple of yards past it now, and if he follow the lode it will be a week before it leads him in. You see i

t you must help me to get it on my

smoke, I admit. But you're as

all right. But I could carry ten ti

I confess, my boy.' 'Ain

in weakness. Why they come so so

ur head's so hard,

ink how the fellows up above there have to put on

father? I should like it-especially when

ot the fashion. The ki

queen

ecause she came from upstairs; and so, when she died, the next queen would not be inferior to her as she called

' said the first voice, which was evidently that of the mot

was the only silly thing I ever knew His Majesty guilty of. Why should

r.' 'Pooh! pooh! He's just as happ

? They didn't tease he

king worshipped h

then? Didn't the a

the young pri

r do that. It must have be

't kno

y wear shoe

answer it. But in order to do so, I must first

ut her

hout her

you? Ho

didn't know I saw them. And wh

What'

not seen the queen's feet. Just imagine! the ends of

ld the king have fal

em. That is why all the men, and women too, upstairs wear sho

you wish for shoes again, Hel

mother; p

don'

ch a big box

terpreted as in reply to a blow from his

so much before!' rem

ere only fifty last month. Mind you see to the bed and bedding. As s

u laughing a

the miners will find themselves in-

at do yo

not

something. You alway

fe.' 'That may be; but it's not

rp one. What a mother

, fa

soon as we've got away from this thin place I'm going there to hear what night they fix upon.

n the low bass for a good while, as inarticulate as if the goblin's tongue had been

o when you are at th

o months. Podge, you mind the table and chairs. I commit them to your care. The

various household goods and their transport; and Cu

d it said that they had no toes: he had never had opportunity of inspecting them closely enough, in the dusk in which they always appeared, to satisfy himself whether it was a correct report. Indeed, he had not been able even to satisfy himself as to whether they had no fingers, although that also was commonly said to be the fact. One of the miners, indeed, who had had more schooling than the rest, was wont to argue that such must have been the primordial condition of humanity, and that education and handicraft had developed both toes and fingers-with w

ie in a farther part of the mountain, between which and the mine there was as yet no communication. There must be one nearly completed, however; for it could be but a thin partition which now separated them. If only he could get through in time to follow the goblins as they retreated! A few blows would doubtless be sufficient-just whe

both his hands, he drew it gen

noise?' said th

s light, lest it s

er that stayed behind th

I haven't heard a blow for an ho

have been a stone carrie

ill have more

nxious to know whether the removal of the stone had made an opening into the goblins' house, he put in his hand to feel. It went in a good way, and then came in conta

ter, Helfer?' a

t of the wall an

wild beasts in our cou

s, father.

nd reduce them to a level with the country upstairs? T

d feel it

ld your tongue. Y

oment he kept nibbling away with his fingers at the edges of the hole. He was slowly

the hole; but when all were speaking together, and just as if they had bottle-brushes-each at least one-in their thr

ndles on your backs. Here, Helfer,

was my ches

n the morning. Now light your torches, and come along. What a distinction it is, to provide our own light, instead of being dependent on a thing hung up in the air-a most disagreeable contrivance-inten

fire to light their torches by. But a moment's reflection showed him that they would