THE LAST CHAPTER
ALL the rest went up the mountain, and separated in groups to the homes
of the miners. Curdie and his father and mother took Lootie with them.
And the whole way, a light, of which all but Lootie understood the
origin, shone upon their path. But when they looked round they could see
nothing of the silvery globe.
For days and days the water continued to rush from the doors and windows
of the king's house, and a few goblin bodies were swept out into the
road.
Curdie saw that something must be done. He spoke to his father and the
rest of the miners, and they at once proceeded to make another outlet
for the waters. By setting all hands to the work, tunneling here and
building there, they soon succeeded; and having also made a little
tunnel to drain the water away from under the king's house, they were
soon able to get into the wine cellar, where they found a multitude of
dead goblins--among the rest the queen, with the skin-shoe gone, and the
stone one fast to her ankle--for the water had swept away the barricade
which prevented the men-at-arms from following the goblins, and had
greatly widened the passage. They built it securely up, and then went
back to their labors in the mine.
A good many of the goblins with their creatures escaped from the
inundation out upon the mountain. But most of them soon left that part
of the country, and most of those who remained grew milder in character,
and indeed became very much like the Scotch Brownies. Their skulls
became softer as well as their hearts, and their feet grew harder, and
by degrees they became friendly with the inhabitants of the mountain and
even with the miners. But the latter were merciless to any of the _cobs'
creatures_ that came their way, until at length they all but
disappeared. Still--
"_But, Mr. Author, we would rather hear more about the Princess and
Curdie. We don't care about the goblins and their nasty creatures. They
frighten us--rather._"
"_But you know if you once get rid of the goblins there is no fear of
the princess or of Curdie._"
"_But we want to know more about them._"
"_Some day, perhaps, I may tell you the further history of both of them;
how Curdie came to visit Irene's grandmother, and what she did for him;
and how the princess and he met again after they were older--and
how--But there! I don't mean to go any farther at present._"
"_Then you're leaving the story unfinished, Mr. Author!_"
"_Not more unfinished than a story ought to be, I hope. If you ever knew
a story finished, all I can say is, I never did. Somehow, stories won't
finish. I think I know why, but I won't say that either, now._"
THE END
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 11, "clevernesss" changed to "cleverness" (knowledge and
cleverness)
Page 68, "gleamimg" changed to "gleaming" (were sparkling and gleaming)
Page 77, "would'nt" changed to "wouldn't" (wouldn't have come)
Page 103, "arrange" changed to "arranges" (all that arranges itself)
Page 191, "of thing" added to text (the kind of thing)
End of Project Gutenberg's The Princess and the Goblin, by George MacDonald