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THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN
_Illustrations especially engraved and printed by the Beck Engraving
Company, Philadelphia_
THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN
_By_ George MacDonald
[Illustration]
ILLUSTRATED BY
JESSIE WILLCOX SMITH
DAVID MCKAY COMPANY _Publishers_
Philadelphia, MCMXX.
Copyright, 1920, by David McKay Company
ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING
PAGE
She ran for some distance, turned several times, and
then began to be afraid 14
She clapped her hands with delight, and up rose
such a flapping of wings 22
"Never mind, Princess Irene," he said. "You mustn't
kiss me to-night. But you shan't break your word.
I will come another time" 42
In an instant she was on the saddle, and clasped
in his great strong arms 68
"Come," and she still held out her arms 96
The goblins fell back a little when he began, and
made horrible grimaces all through the rhyme 118
Curdie went on after her, flashing his torch about 138
There sat his mother by the fire, and in her arms
lay the princess fast asleep 184
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. WHY THE PRINCESS HAS A STORY ABOUT HER 9
II. THE PRINCESS LOSES HERSELF 13
III. THE PRINCESS AND--WE SHALL SEE WHO 16
IV. WHAT THE NURSE THOUGHT OF IT 24
V. THE PRINCESS LETS WELL ALONE 29
VI. THE LITTLE MINER 32
VII. THE MINES 45
VIII. THE GOBLINS 50
IX. THE HALL OF THE GOBLIN PALACE 59
X. THE PRINCESS'S KING-PAPA 68
XI. THE OLD LADY'S BEDROOM 73
XII. A SHORT CHAPTER ABOUT CURDIE 82
XIII. THE COBS' CREATURES 85
XIV. THAT NIGHT WEEK 90
XV. WOVEN AND THEN SPUN 95
XVI. THE RING 106
XVII. SPRING-TIME 109
XVIII. CURDIE'S CLUE 112
XIX. GOBLIN COUNSELS 122
XX. IRENE'S CLUE 128
XXI. THE ESCAPE 134
XXII. THE OLD LADY AND CURDIE 147
XXIII. CURDIE AND HIS MOTHER 155
XXIV. IRENE BEHAVES LIKE A PRINCESS 165
XXV. CURDIE COMES TO GRIEF 168
XXVI. THE GOBLIN-MINERS 174
XXVII. THE GOBLINS IN THE KING'S HOUSE 177
XXVIII. CURDIE'S GUIDE 184
XXIX. MASON-WORK 189
XXX. THE KING AND THE KISS 192
XXXI. THE SUBTERRANEAN WATERS 196
XXXII. THE LAST CHAPTER 202
THE PRINCESS AND THE GOBLIN
CHAPTER I
WHY THE PRINCESS HAS A STORY ABOUT HER
THERE was once a little princess who--
"_But, Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?_"
"_Because every little girl is a princess._"
"_You will make them vain if you tell them that._"
"_Not if they understand what I mean._"
"_Then what do you mean?_"
"_What_ do you _mean by a princess?_"
"_The daughter of a king._"
"_Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no
need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of
forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I
have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and
lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are
princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to
tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I
can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have._"
"_Please go on._"
There was once a little princess whose father was king over a great
country full of mountains and valleys. His palace was built upon one of
the mountains, and was very grand and beautiful. The princess, whose
name was Irene, was born there, but she was sent soon after her birth,
because her mother was not very strong, to be brought up by country
people in a large house, half castle, half farm-house, on the side of
another mountain, about halfway between its base and its peak.
The princess was a sweet little creature, and at the time my story
begins was about eight years old. I think, but she got older very fast.
Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night-sky, each
with a star dissolved in the blue. Those eyes you would have thought
must have known they came from there, so often were they turned up in
that direction. The ceiling of her nursery was blue, with stars in it,
as like the sky as they could make it. But I doubt if ever she saw the
real sky with the stars in it, for a reason which I had better mention
at once.
These mountains were full of hollow places underneath; huge caverns, and
winding ways, some with water running through them, and some shining
with all colors of the rainbow when a light was taken in. There would
not have been much known about them, had there not been mines there,
great deep pits, with long galleries and passages running off from them,
which had been dug to get at the ore of which the mountains were full.
In the course of digging, the miners came upon many of these natural
caverns. A few of them had far-off openings out on the side of a
mountain, or into a ravine.
Now in these subterranean caverns lived a strange race of beings, called
by some gnomes, by some kobolds, by some goblins. There was a legend
current in the country that at one time they lived above ground, and
were very like other people. But for some reason or other, concerning
which there were different legendary theories, the king had laid what
they thought too severe taxes upon them, or had required observances of
them they did not like, or had begun to treat them with more severity in
some way or other, and impose stricter laws; and the consequence was
that they had all disappeared from the face of the country. According to
the legend, however, instead of going to some other country, they had
all taken refuge in the subterranean caverns, whence they never came out
but at night, and then seldom showed themselves in any numbers, and
never to many people at once. It was only in the least frequented and
most difficult parts of the mountains that they were said to gather even
at night in the open air. Those who had caught sight of any of them said
that they had greatly altered in the course of generations; and no
wonder, seeing they lived away from the sun, in cold and wet and dark
places. They were now, not ordinarily ugly, but either absolutely
hideous, or ludicrously grotesque both in face and form. There was no
invention, they said, of the most lawless imagination expressed by pen
or pencil, that could surpass the extravagance of their appearance. And
as they grew mis-shapen in body, they had grown in knowledge and
cleverness, and now were able to do things no mortal could see the
possibility of. But as they grew in cunning, they grew in mischief, and
their great delight was in every way they could think of to annoy the
people who lived in the open-air-story above them. They had enough of
affection left for each other, to preserve them from being absolutely
cruel for cruelty's sake to those that came in their way; but still they
so heartily cherished the ancestral grudge against those who occupied
their former possession, and especially against the descendants of the
king who had caused their expulsion, that they sought every opportunity
of tormenting them in ways that were as odd as their inventors; and
although dwarfed and mis-shapen, they had strength equal to their
cunning. In the process of time they had got a king, and a government of
their own, whose chief business, beyond their own simple affairs, was to
devise trouble for their neighbors. It will now be pretty evident why
the little princess had never seen the sky at night. They were much too
afraid of the goblins to let her out of the house then, even in company
with ever so many attendants; and they had good reason, as we shall see
by-and-by.