GOBLIN COUNSELS
HE must have slept a long time, for when he awoke, he felt wonderfully
restored--indeed he felt almost well, and he was also very hungry. There
were voices in the outer cave.
Once more then, it was night; for the goblins slept during the day, and
went about their affairs during the night.
In the universal and constant darkness of their dwelling, they had no
reason to prefer the one arrangement to the other; but from aversion to
the sun-people, they chose to be busy when there was least chance of
their being met either by the miners below, when they were burrowing, or
by the people of the mountain above, when they were feeding their sheep
or catching their goats. And indeed it was only when the sun was away
that the outside of the mountain was sufficiently like their own dismal
regions to be endurable to their mole-eyes, so thoroughly had they
become disused to any light beyond that of their own fires and torches.
Curdie listened, and soon found that they were talking of himself.
"How long will it take?" asked Harelip.
"Not many days, I should think," answered the king. "They are poor
feeble creatures, those sun-people, and want to be always eating. _We_
can go a week at a time without food, and be all the better for it; but
I've been told _they_ eat two or three times every day! Can you believe
it?--They must be quite hollow inside--not at all like us, nine-tenths
of whose bulk is solid flesh and bone. Yes--I judge a week of starvation
will do for him."
"If I may be allowed a word," interposed the queen, "--and I think I
ought to have some voice in the matter--"
"The wretch is entirely at your disposal, my spouse," interrupted the
king. "He is your property. You caught him yourself. We should never
have done it."
The queen laughed. She seemed in far better humor than the night before.
"I was about to say," she resumed, "that it does seem a pity to waste so
much fresh meat."
"What are you thinking of, my love?" said the king. "The very notion of
starving him implies that we are not going to give him any meat, either
salt or fresh."
"I'm not such a stupid as that comes to," returned her Majesty. "What I
mean is, that by the time he is starved, there will hardly be a picking
upon his bones."
The king gave a great laugh.
"Well, my spouse, you may have him when you like," he said. "I don't
fancy him for my part. I am pretty sure he is tough eating."
"That would be to honor instead of punish his insolence," returned the
queen. "But why should our poor creatures be deprived of so much
nourishment? Our little dogs and cats and pigs and small bears would
enjoy him very much."
"You are the best of housekeepers, my lovely queen!" said her husband.
"Let it be so by all means. Let us have our people in, and get him out
and kill him at once. He deserves it. The mischief he might have brought
upon us, now that he had penetrated so far as our most retired citadel,
is incalculable. Or rather let us tie him hand and foot, and have the
pleasure of seeing him torn to pieces by full torchlight in the great
hall."
"Better and better!" cried the queen and prince together, both of them
clapping their hands. And the prince made an ugly noise with his
hare-lip, just as if he had intended to be one at the feast.
"But," added the queen, bethinking herself, "he is so troublesome. For
as poor creatures as they are, there is something about those sun-people
that is _very_ troublesome. I cannot imagine how it is that with such
superior strength and skill and understanding as ours, we permit them to
exist at all. Why do we not destroy them entirely, and use their cattle
and grazing lands at our pleasure? Of course, we don't want to live in
their horrid country! It is far too glaring for our quieter and more
refined tastes. But we might use it for a sort of outhouse, you know.
Even our creatures' eyes might get used to it, and if they did grow
blind, that would be of no consequence, provided they grew fat as well.
But we might even keep their great cows and other creatures, and then we
should have a few more luxuries, such as cream and cheese, which at
present we only taste occasionally, when our brave men have succeeded in
carrying some off from their farms."
"It is worth thinking of," said the king; "and I don't know why you
should be the first to suggest it, except that you have a positive
genius for conquest. But still, as you say, there is something very
troublesome about them; and it would be better, as I understand you to
suggest, that we should starve him for a day or two first, so that he
may be a little less frisky when we take him out."
"Once there was a goblin
Living in a hole;
Busy he was cobblin'
A shoe without a sole.
"By came a birdie:
'Goblin, what do you do?'
'Cobble at a sturdie
Upper leather shoe.'
"'What's the good o' that, sir?'
Said the little bird,
'Why it's very pat, sir--
Plain without a word.
"'Where 'tis all a hill, sir,
Never can be holes:
Why should their shoes have soles, sir,
When they've got no souls?'"
"What's that horrible noise?" cried the queen, shuddering from pot-metal
head to granite shoes.
"I declare," said the king with solemn indignation, "it's the
sun-creature in the hole!"
"Stop that disgusting noise!" cried the crown-prince valiantly, getting
up and standing in front of the heap of stones, with his face toward
Curdie's prison.--"Do now, or I'll break your head."
"Break away," shouted Curdie, and began singing again--
"Once there was a goblin
Living in a hole,--"
"I really cannot bear it," said the queen. "If I could only get at his
horrid toes with my slippers again!"
"I think we had better go to bed," said the king.
"It's not time to go to bed," said the queen.
"I would if I was you," said Curdie.
"Impertinent wretch!" said the queen, with the utmost scorn in her
voice.
"An impossible _if_," said his Majesty with dignity.
"Quite," returned Curdie, and began singing again--
"Go to bed,
Goblin, do.
Help the queen
Take off her shoe.
"If you do,
It will disclose
A horrid set
Of sprouting toes."
"What a lie!" roared the queen in a rage.
"By the way, that reminds me," said the king, "that, for as long as we
have been married, I have never seen your feet, queen. I think you might
take off your shoes when you go to bed! They positively hurt me
sometimes."
"I will do just as I like," retorted the queen sulkily.
"You ought to do as your hubby wishes you," said the king.
"I will not," said the queen.
"Then I insist upon it," said the king.
Apparently his Majesty approached the queen for the purpose of following
the advice given by Curdie, for the latter heard a scuffle, and then a
great roar from the king.
"Will you be quiet then?" said the queen wickedly.
"Yes, yes, queen. I only meant to coax you."
"Hands off!" cried the queen triumphantly. "I'm going to bed. You may
come when you like. But as long as I am queen, I will sleep in my shoes.
It is my royal privilege. Harelip, go to bed."
"I'm going," said Harelip sleepily.
"So am I," said the king.
"Come along then," said the queen; "and mind you are good, or I'll--"
"Oh, no, no, no!" screamed the king, in the most supplicating of tones.
Curdie heard only a muttered reply in the distance; and then the cave
was quite still.
They had left the fire burning, and the light came through brighter than
before. Curdie thought it was time to try again if anything could be
done. But he found he could not get even a finger through the chink
between the slab and the rock. He gave a great rush with his shoulder
against the slab, but it yielded no more than if it had been part of the
rock. All he could do was to sit down and think again.
By and by he came to the resolution to pretend to be dying, in the hope
they might take him out before his strength was too much exhausted to
let him have a chance. Then, for the creatures, if he could but find his
axe again, he would have no fear of them; and if it were not for the
queen's horrid shoes, he would have no fear at all.
Meantime, until they should come again at night, there was nothing for
him to do but forge new rhymes, now his only weapons. He had no
intention of using them at present, of course; but it was well to have a
stock, for he might live to want them, and the manufacture of them would
help to while away the time.