The Princess and the Goblin

Mi

the nurse into trouble, for while he enjoyed teasing her because of her absurdity, he was care

When he peeped round the corner, he saw, under his own window, a group of stumpy creatures, whom he at once recognized by their shape. Hardly, however, had he beg

t be annoyed with him for interfering to protect the princess. By the time he was dressed, however, he was thinking of something quite differ

flint and steel, and tinder-box, they lighted their lamps, then fixed them on their heads, and were soon hard at work with their pickaxes and shovels and hammers. Father and son were at work near each other, but not in the same gang-the passages out of which the ore was dug, they called gangs-for when the lode, or vein of ore, was small, one miner would have to dig away alone in a passage no bigger than gave him just room to work-sometimes in uncomfortable cramped positions. If they stopped for a moment they could hear everywhere arou

was during the day; and some in consequence would never stay overnight, for all knew those were the sounds of the goblins. They worked only at night, for the miners' night was the goblins' day. Indeed, the greater number of the miners were afraid of the goblins; for there were strange stories well known amongst them of the treatment some had received whom the goblins had surprised at their work during the night. The more courageous of them, however, amongst them Peter Peterson and Curdie, who in this took after his father, had stayed in the mine all night again and again, and although they had several times encountered a few stray goblins, had never yet failed in driving them away. As I h

t long, seeing they never carried up the ore and sold it; but when I have informed th

et extra wages that he might buy a very warm red petticoat for his mother, who had begun to complain of the cold of the mountain air sooner

objection, for he had great confiden

I want to go and pay the parson a visit this evening

that, father,

ll be sure to take care

who remained in the mine. About six o'clock the rest went away, everyone bidding him good

t your rhyme

'answere

' said another, 'for he'll

' said another; 'and while it was cooking in his head

'I'm not afraid.' 'We all know t