Now the goblin whom Quest had kicked first scooted away under the stone,
and then wriggled into the grass, and hopped off through the grass into
the woods, and through the woods into the osier clump.
He went up to Rampogusto all shaking with fright and said: “Rampogusto,
dread sovereign, I wasn’t able to jump on that youth whom you gave into
my care.”
Then Rampogusto fell into a frightful rage, because he knew those three
brothers well, and most of all he feared Quest, lest he should remember
the truth. For if Quest were to remember the truth, why, then Rampogusto
would never be able to get rid of old Witting nor the sacred fire.
So he seized the little goblin by the horns, picked him up and dusted
him soundly with a big birchrod.
“Go back!” he roared—“go back to the young man, and it will be a black
day for you if ever he remembers the truth!”
With these words Rampogusto let the goblin go; and the goblin, scared
half out of his wits, squatted for three days in the osier clump and
considered and considered how he might fulfil his difficult task. “I
shall have as much trouble with Quest, for sure, as Quest with me,”
reflected the goblin. For he was a scatter-brained little silly, and did
not care at all for a tiresome job.
But while he squatted in the osier clump those other two imps were
already at work, the one in Careful’s pouch and the other in Bluster’s
bosom. From that day forth Careful and Bluster began to rove over hill
and dale, and even slept but little at home—and all because of the
goblins!
There was the goblin curled up in the bottom of Careful’s pouch, and
that goblin loved riches better than the horn over his right eye.
So all day long he butted Careful in the ribs, teasing and goading him
on: “Hurry up, get on! We must seek, we must find! Let’s look for bees,
let’s gather honey, and then we will keep a tally with rows and rows of
scores!”
So said the goblin, because in those days they reckoned up a man’s
possessions with tallies.
Now a tally is only a long wooden stick with a notch cut in it for every
sum that is owing to a man!
But Bluster’s goblin butted him in the breast, and that goblin wanted to
be the strongest of all and lord of all the earth. So he worried and
worried Bluster, and urged him to roam through the woods looking for
young ash plants and slender maple saplings to make a warrior’s outfit
and weapons. “Hurry up, get on!” teased the goblin. “You must seek, you
must find! Spears, bows and arrows to suit a hero’s mind, so that man
and beast may tremble before us.”
And both Bluster and Careful listened to their goblins, and went off
after their own concerns as the goblins led them.
But Quest stayed with his grandfather that day and yet other three days,
and all the time he puzzled and puzzled over whatever it was that
All-Rosy might have told him; because Quest wanted to tell his
grandfather the truth; but, alas! he could not remember it at all!
So that day went by, and the next, and so three days; and on the third
day Quest said to his grandfather:
“Good-bye, grandfather. I am going to the hills, and shall not come back
until I remember the truth, if it should take me ten years.”
Now Witting’s hair was grey, and there was little he cared for in this
world except his grandson Quest, and him he loved and cherished as a
withered leaf cherishes a drop of dew. So the old man started sadly and
said:
“What good will the truth be to me, my boy, when I may be dead and gone
long before you remember it?”
This he said, and in his heart he grieved far more even than he showed
in his words; and he thought: “How could the boy leave me!”
But Quest replied:
“I must go, grandfather, because I have thought it out, and that seems
the right thing to me.”
Witting was a wise old man, and considered: “Perhaps there is more
wisdom in a young head than in an old one; only if the poor lad is doing
wrong it’s a sad weird he will have to dree—because he is so gentle and
upright.” And as Witting thought of that he grew sadder than ever, but
said nothing more. He just kissed his grandson good-bye and bade him go
where he wished.
But Quest’s heart sadly misgave him because of his grandfather, and he
very, very nearly changed his mind on the threshold and stayed beside
him. But he forced himself to do as he had made up his mind to, and went
out and away into the hills.
Just as Quest parted from his grandfather his imp thought he might as
well get out of the osier clump and tackle that tiresome job; and he
reached the clearing just as Quest was hurrying away.
So Quest went off to the hills, very downcast and sad; and when he came
to the first rock, lo and behold, there was the goblin, gibbering.
“Why,” thought Quest, “it’s the very same one—quite small, misshapen,
black as a mole and with big horns.”
The goblin stood right in Quest’s way, and would not let him pass. So
Quest got angry with the little monster for hindering him like this; he
picked up a stone, threw it at the goblin, and hit him squarely between
the horns. “Now I’ve killed him,” thought Quest.
But when he looked again there was the goblin as spry as ever, and two
more horns had sprouted where the stone had hit him!
“Well, evidently stones won’t drive him off,” said Quest. So he went
round the goblin and forward on his way. But the imp scuttled on in
front of him, to the right and to the left, and then straight in front,
for all the world like a rabbit.
At last they came to a little level spot between cliffs—a very stony
place; and on one side of it there was a deep well-spring. “Here will I
stay,” said Quest; and he at once spread out his sheep-skin coat under a
crab-tree and sat down, so that he might reflect in peace and remember
what All-Rosy had verily and truly told him.
But when the imp saw that, he squatted down straight in front of Quest
under the tree, played silly tricks on him, and worried him horribly. He
chased lizards under Quest’s feet, threw burrs at his shirt, and slipped
grasshoppers up his sleeves.
“Oh dear, this is most annoying!” thought Quest, when it had gone on for
some little time. “I have left my wise old grandfather, my brothers and
my home, so that I might be in quiet and remember the truth—and here am
I wasting my time with this horned imp of mischief!”
But as he had come out in a good cause, he nevertheless thought it the
right thing to stay where he was.