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011 - Chapters 19-20 · Princess and the Goblin

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  Speaker 1: Section eleven of The Princess and the Goblin. This is
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  Speaker 1: the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by a Lizzie Driver. The Princess and the Goblin
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  Speaker 1: by George mac donald, Chapters nineteen to twenty. Chapter nineteen,
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  Speaker 1: Goblin councils. He must have slept a long time, for
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  Speaker 1: when he awoke he felt wonderfully restored, indeed almost well,
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  Speaker 1: and very hungry. There were voices in the outer cave
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  Speaker 1: once more. Then it was night, For the Goblin slept
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  Speaker 1: during the day and went about their affairs during the night.
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  Speaker 1: In the universal and constant darkness of their dwelling. They
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  Speaker 1: had no reason to prefer the one arrangement to the other,
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  Speaker 1: but from aversion to the sun people, they chose to
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  Speaker 1: be busy when there was least chance their being met,
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  Speaker 1: either by the miners below when they were burrowing, or
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  Speaker 1: by the people of the mountain above when they were
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  Speaker 1: feeding their sheep or catching their goats. And indeed it
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  Speaker 1: was only when the sun was away that the outside
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  Speaker 1: of the mountain was sufficiently like their own dismal regions
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  Speaker 1: to be endurable to their mole eyes. So thoroughly had
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  Speaker 1: they become unaccustomed to any light beyond that of their
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  Speaker 1: own fires and torches. Curdie listened and soon found that
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  Speaker 1: they were talking of himself. How long will it take,
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  Speaker 1: asked Harelip. Not many days, I should think, answered the King.
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  Speaker 1: They are poor feeble creatures, those sun people, and want
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  Speaker 1: to be always eating. We can go a week at
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  Speaker 1: a time without food and be all the better for it.
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  Speaker 1: But I have been told they eat two or three
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  Speaker 1: times every day. Can you believe it? They must be
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  Speaker 1: quite hollow inside, not at all like us, nine tenths
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  Speaker 1: of whose bulk is solid flesh and bone. Yes, I
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  Speaker 1: judge a week of starvation will do for him, if
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  Speaker 1: I may be allowed a word, interposed the Queen, and
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  Speaker 1: I think I ought to have some voice in the matter.
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  Speaker 1: The wretch is entirely at your disposal, my spouse, interrupted
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  Speaker 1: the King. He is your property. You caught him yourself.
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  Speaker 1: We should never have done it. The Queen laughed. She
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  Speaker 1: seemed in far better humor than the night before. I
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  Speaker 1: was about to say. She resumed that it does seem
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  Speaker 1: a pity to waste so much fresh meat. What are
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  Speaker 1: you thinking of, my love, asked the king. The very
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  Speaker 1: notion of starving him implies that we are not going
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  Speaker 1: to give him any meat, either salt or fresh. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not such as stupid as that comes to, returned her majesty.
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  Speaker 1: What I mean is that by the time he is starved,
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  Speaker 1: there will hardly be a picking of his bones. The
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  Speaker 1: king gave a great laugh. Well, my spouse, you may
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  Speaker 1: have him when you like, he said. I don't fancy him,
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  Speaker 1: for my part. I am pretty sure he is tough eating.
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  Speaker 1: That would we to honor instead of punish his insolence,
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  Speaker 1: returned the queen. But why should our poor creatus be
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  Speaker 1: deprived of so much nourishment? Our little dogs and cats,
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  Speaker 1: and pigs and small bears would enjoy him very much.
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  Speaker 1: You are the best of housekeepers, my lovely queen, said
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  Speaker 1: her husband. Let it be so by all means. Let
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  Speaker 1: us have our people in and get him out, and
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  Speaker 1: kill him at once. He deserves it. The mischief he
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  Speaker 1: might have brought upon us now that he had penetrated
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  Speaker 1: so far as our most retired citadel is incalculable. Or rather,
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  Speaker 1: let us tie him hand and foot and have the
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  Speaker 1: pleasure of seeing him torn to pieces by full torchlight
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  Speaker 1: in the Great hall. Better and better, cried the Queen
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  Speaker 1: and the Prince together, both of them clapping their hands,
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  Speaker 1: and the Prince made an ugly noise with his hare lip,
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  Speaker 1: just as if he had intended to be one at
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  Speaker 1: the feast. But added the Queen, bethinking herself, he is
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  Speaker 1: so troublesome for poor creatures as they are. There is
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  Speaker 1: something about those Sun people that is very troublesome. I
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  Speaker 1: cannot imagine how it is that, with such superior strength
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  Speaker 1: and skill and understanding as ours, we permit them to
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  Speaker 1: exist at all? Why do we not destroy them entirely
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  Speaker 1: and use their cattle and grazing lands at our pleasure.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, we don't want to live in their horrid country.
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  Speaker 1: It is far too glaring for our quieter and more
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  Speaker 1: refined tastes. But we might use it as a sort
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  Speaker 1: of outhouse. You know, even our creature's eyes might get
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  Speaker 1: used to it, And if they did grow blind, that
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  Speaker 1: would be of no consequence, provided they grow fat as well.
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  Speaker 1: But we might even keep their great cows and other creatures,
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  Speaker 1: and then we should have a few more luxuries such
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  Speaker 1: as cream and cheese, which at present we only taste
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  Speaker 1: occasionally when our brave men have succeeded in carrying some
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  Speaker 1: off from their farms. It is worth thinking of, said
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  Speaker 1: the King. And I don't know why you should be
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  Speaker 1: the first to suggest it, except that you've a positive
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  Speaker 1: genius for conquest. But still, as you say, there is
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  Speaker 1: something very troublesome about them, and it would be better,
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  Speaker 1: as I understand you, to suggest that we should starve
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  Speaker 1: him for a day or two first, so that he
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  Speaker 1: may be a little less frisky when we take him out.
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  Speaker 1: Once there was a goblin living in a hole, busy
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  Speaker 1: he was coblin a shoe without a sole. By came
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  Speaker 1: a birdy goblin, what do you do cobble at a
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  Speaker 1: sturdy upon leather shoe? What's that? Good, old sir, says
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  Speaker 1: the little bird? Why it's very pat sir, plain without
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  Speaker 1: a word? Where tis all a hole? Sir? Never can
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  Speaker 1: be holes? Why should their shoes have solca when they've
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  Speaker 1: got no souls? What's that? Horrible noise? Cried the Queen,
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  Speaker 1: shuddering from pot metal head to granite shoes. I declare,
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  Speaker 1: said the King, with solemn indignation, it's the sun creature
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  Speaker 1: in the hole. Stop that disgusting noise, cried the crown Prince, valiantly,
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  Speaker 1: getting up and standing in front of the heap of
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  Speaker 1: stones with his face towards Curdie's prison. Do now, or
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  Speaker 1: I'll break your head. Back away, shouted Curdie and began
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  Speaker 1: singing again. Once there was a goblin living in a hole.
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  Speaker 1: I really cannot bear it, said the Queen. If only
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  Speaker 1: I could get at his horrid toes with my slippers again.
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  Speaker 1: I think we had better go to bed, said the King.
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  Speaker 1: It's not time to go to bed, said the Queen.
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  Speaker 1: I would if I was you, said Curdie. Impertinent wretch,
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  Speaker 1: said the Queen, with the utmost scorn in her voice.
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  Speaker 1: An impossible if, said his Majesty. With dignity quite replied Curdie,
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  Speaker 1: and began singing again. Go to bed, goblin, do help
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  Speaker 1: the Queen take off her shoe. If you do, it
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  Speaker 1: will disclose a horrid set of sprouting toes. What a lie,
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  Speaker 1: roared the queen in a rage. By the way, that
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  Speaker 1: reminds me, said the King that, for as long as
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  Speaker 1: we have been married, I have never seen your feet, Queen.
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  Speaker 1: I think you might take off your shoes when you
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  Speaker 1: go to bed, they positively hurt me. Sometimes I will
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  Speaker 1: do as I like, retorted the Queen sulkily. You ought
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  Speaker 1: to do as your own hubby wishes you, said the King.
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  Speaker 1: I will not, said the queen. Then I insist upon it,
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  Speaker 1: said the King. Apparently his majesty approached the Queen for
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of following the advice given by Curdie. For
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  Speaker 1: the latter heard a scuffle and then a great roar
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  Speaker 1: from the King. Will you be quite, then, said the
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  Speaker 1: queen wickedly. Yes, yes, Queen, I only meant to coax you.
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  Speaker 1: Hands off, cried the Queen triumphantly. I am going to bed.
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  Speaker 1: You may come when you like, but as long as
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  Speaker 1: I am Queen, I will sleep in my shoes. It
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  Speaker 1: is my royal privilege. Harelip, go to bed. I am going,
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  Speaker 1: said Harelip sleepily. So am I said the King. Come along,
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  Speaker 1: then said the Queen, and mind your good or I'll
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  Speaker 1: oh no, no, no, screamed the King in the most
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  Speaker 1: supplicating of tones. Curdie heard only a muttered reply in
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  Speaker 1: the distance, and then the cave was quite still. They
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  Speaker 1: had left the fire burning and the light came through
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  Speaker 1: brighter than before. Curdie thought it was time to try
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  Speaker 1: again if anything could be done, But he found he
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  Speaker 1: could not even get a finger through the chink between
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  Speaker 1: the slab and the rock. He gave a great rush
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  Speaker 1: with his shoulder against the slab, but it yielded no
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  Speaker 1: more than if it had been part of the rock.
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  Speaker 1: All he could do was to sit down and think again.
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  Speaker 1: By and by he came to the resolution to pretend
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  Speaker 1: to be dying, in the hope they might take him
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  Speaker 1: out before his strength was too much exhausted to let
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  Speaker 1: him have a chance. Then, for the creatures, if he
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  Speaker 1: could but find his axe again, he would have no
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  Speaker 1: fear of them, and if it were not for the
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  Speaker 1: Queen's horrid shoes, he would have no fear at all. Meantime,
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  Speaker 1: until they should come again at night, there was nothing
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  Speaker 1: for him to do but forge new rhymes, now his
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  Speaker 1: only weapons. He had no intention of using them at present,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but it was well to have a stock,
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  Speaker 1: for he might live to want them, and the manufacture
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  Speaker 1: of them would help to while away the time. Chapter twenty,
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  Speaker 1: Irene's Clue. That same morning, early the Princess woke in
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  Speaker 1: a terrible fright there was a hideous noise in her room,
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  Speaker 1: creatures snarling and hissing and rocketing about as if they
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  Speaker 1: were fighting. The moment she came to herself, she remembered
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  Speaker 1: something she had never thought of, again, what her grandmother
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  Speaker 1: told her to do when she was frightened. She immediately
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  Speaker 1: took off her ring and put it under her pillow.
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  Speaker 1: As she did so, she fancied she felt a finger
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  Speaker 1: and thumb take it gently from her palm. It must
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  Speaker 1: be my grandmother, she said to herself, and the thought
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  Speaker 1: gave her such courage that she stopped put on her
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  Speaker 1: dainty little slippers before running from the room. While doing this,
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  Speaker 1: she caught sight of a long cloak of sky blue
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  Speaker 1: thrown over the back of a chair by the bedside.
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  Speaker 1: She had never seen it before, but it was evidently
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  Speaker 1: waiting for her. She put it on, and then, feeling
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  Speaker 1: with the forefinger of her right hand, soon found her
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  Speaker 1: grandmother's thread, which she proceeded at once to follow, expecting
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  Speaker 1: it would lead us straight up the old stair. When
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  Speaker 1: she reached the door, she found it went down and
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  Speaker 1: ran along the floor, so that she womans had to
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  Speaker 1: crawl in order to keep a hold of it. Then,
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  Speaker 1: to her surprise and somewhat to her dismay, she found
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  Speaker 1: that instead of leading her towards the stair, it turned
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  Speaker 1: in quite the opposite direction. It led her through certain
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  Speaker 1: narrow passages towards the kitchen, turning aside ere she reached it,
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  Speaker 1: and guiding her to a door which communicated with a
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  Speaker 1: small back yard. Some of the maids were already up,
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  Speaker 1: and this door was standing open across the yard. The
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  Speaker 1: thread still ran up along the ground until it brought
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  Speaker 1: her to a door in the wall which opened upon
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  Speaker 1: the mountainside. When she had passed through, the thread rose
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  Speaker 1: up about half her height, and she could hold it
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  Speaker 1: with ease as she walked. It led hers straight up
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  Speaker 1: the mountain. The cause of her alarm was less frightful
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  Speaker 1: than she supposed. The cook's great black cat, pursued by
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  Speaker 1: the housekeeper's terrier, had bounced against her bedroom door, which
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  Speaker 1: had not been properly fastened, and the two had burst
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  Speaker 1: into the room together and commenced a battle royale. How
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  Speaker 1: the nurse came to sleep through it was a mystery,
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  Speaker 1: but I suspect the old lady had something to do
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  Speaker 1: with it. It was a clear, warm morning, the wind
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  Speaker 1: blew deliciously over the mountain side. Here and there she
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  Speaker 1: saw a late primrose, but she did not stop to
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  Speaker 1: call upon them. The sky was mottled with small clouds.
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  Speaker 1: The sun was not yet up, but smer. Their fluffy
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  Speaker 1: edges had caught his light and hung out orange and
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  Speaker 1: gold colored fringes upon the air. The dew lay in
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  Speaker 1: round drops upon the leaves, and hung like tiny diamond
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  Speaker 1: ear rings from the blades of grass about a path.
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  Speaker 1: How lovely that bit of gossamer is, thought the princess,
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  Speaker 1: looking at a long, undulating line that shone at some
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  Speaker 1: distance from her up the hill. It was not the
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  Speaker 1: time for gossamers, though, and Irene soon discovered that it
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  Speaker 1: was her own thread she saw shining on before her
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  Speaker 1: in the light of the morning. It was leading her.
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  Speaker 1: She knew not whither, but she had never in her
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  Speaker 1: life been out before sunrise, and everything was so fresh
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  Speaker 1: and cool and lively and full of something coming that
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  Speaker 1: she felt too happy to be afraid of anything. After
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  Speaker 1: leading her up a good distance, the thread turned to
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  Speaker 1: the left and down the path upon which she and
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  Speaker 1: Lootie had met Curdie. But she never thought of that,
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  Speaker 1: for now, in the morning light, with its far out
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  Speaker 1: to look over the country, no path could be more
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  Speaker 1: open and airy and cheerful. She could see the road
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  Speaker 1: almost to the horizon along which she had so often
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  Speaker 1: watched her King Papa and his troop come, shining with
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  Speaker 1: the bugle blast cleave in the air before them, and
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  Speaker 1: it was like a companion to her. Down and down
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  Speaker 1: the path went, then up, and then down, and then
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  Speaker 1: up again, getting rugged and more rugged as it went.
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  Speaker 1: And still along the path went the silvery thread, And
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  Speaker 1: still along the thread went Tyrene's little rose tipped forefinger.
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  Speaker 1: By and by she came to a little stream that
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  Speaker 1: jabbered and prattled down the hill and up the side
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  Speaker 1: of the stream went both path and thread. And still
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  Speaker 1: the path grew rougher and steeper, and the mountain grew wilder,
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  Speaker 1: till Irene she began to think she was going a
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  Speaker 1: very long way from home, And when she turned to
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  Speaker 1: look back, she saw that the level country had vanished,
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  Speaker 1: and the rough, bare mountain had closed in about her.
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  Speaker 1: But still on, whence the thread, and on went the princess.
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  Speaker 1: Everything around her was getting brighter and brighter as the
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  Speaker 1: sun came nearer, till at length, his first rays all
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  Speaker 1: at once alighted on the top of a rock before her,
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  Speaker 1: like some golden creature fresh from the sky. Then she
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  Speaker 1: saw that the little stream ran out of a hole
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  Speaker 1: in that rock, that the path did not go past
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  Speaker 1: the rock, and that the thread was leading her straight
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  Speaker 1: up to it. A shudder ran through her from head
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  Speaker 1: to foot. When she found that the thread was actually
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  Speaker 1: taking her into the hole out of which the stream ran.
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  Speaker 1: It ran out babbling joyously, but she had to go in.
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  Speaker 1: She did not hesitate. Right into the hole she went,
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  Speaker 1: which was high enough to let her walk without stooping.
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  Speaker 1: For a little way, there was a brown glimmer, but
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  Speaker 1: at the first turn it all but ceased, and before
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  Speaker 1: she had gone many paces she was in total darkness.
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  Speaker 1: Then she began to be frightened. Indeed, every moment she
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  Speaker 1: kept feeling the thread backwards and forwards. And as she
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  Speaker 1: went farther and father into the darkness of the great
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  Speaker 1: hollow mountain, she kept thinking more and more about her
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  Speaker 1: grandmother and all that she had said to her, and
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  Speaker 1: how kind she had been, and how beautiful she was,
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  Speaker 1: and all about her lovely room and the fire of roses,
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  Speaker 1: and the great lamp had sent its light through stone walls,
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  Speaker 1: and she became more and more sure that the thread
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  Speaker 1: could not have gone there of itself, and that her
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  Speaker 1: grandmother must have sent it. But it tried her dreadfully
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  Speaker 1: when the path went down very steep, and especially when
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  Speaker 1: she came to places where she had to go down
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  Speaker 1: rough stairs, and even sometimes a ladder. Through one narrow
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  Speaker 1: passage after another, over lumps of rock and sand and clay,
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  Speaker 1: the thread guided her until she came to a small
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  Speaker 1: hole through which she had to creep, finding no change
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  Speaker 1: on the other side. Shall I ever get back? She thought,
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  Speaker 1: over and over again, wondering at herself that she was
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  Speaker 1: not ten times more frightened, and often feeling as if
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  Speaker 1: she were only walking in the story of a dream.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes she heard the noise of water, a dull gurgling
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  Speaker 1: inside the rock. By and by she heard the sounds
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  Speaker 1: of blows, which came nearer and nearer, But again they
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  Speaker 1: grew duller and almost died away. In a hundred directions,
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  Speaker 1: she turned obedient to the guiding thread. At last she
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  Speaker 1: spied a dark red shine, and came upon the mica window,
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  Speaker 1: and thence away and round about and right into a
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  Speaker 1: cavern where glowed the red embers of a fire. Here
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  Speaker 1: the thread began to rise. It rose as high as
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  Speaker 1: her head, and higher still. What should she do if
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  Speaker 1: she lost her hold she was pulling it down, She
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  Speaker 1: might break it. She could see it far up, glowing
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  Speaker 1: as red as her fire opal in the light of
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  Speaker 1: the embers. But presently she came to a huge heap
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  Speaker 1: of stones piled in a slope against the wall of
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  Speaker 1: the cavern. On these she climbed and soon recovered the
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  Speaker 1: level of the thread, only, however, to find the next
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  Speaker 1: moment that it vanished through the heap of stones and
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  Speaker 1: left her standing on it, with her face to the
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  Speaker 1: solid rock. For one terrible moment, she felt as if
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  Speaker 1: her grandmother had forsaken her. The thread, which the spiders
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  Speaker 1: had spun far over the seas, which her grandmother had
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  Speaker 1: sat in the moonlight and spun again for her, which
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  Speaker 1: she had tempered in the rose fire and tied to
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  Speaker 1: an opal ring, had left her, had gone where she
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  Speaker 1: could no longer follow. It had brought her into a
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  Speaker 1: horrible cavern, and there left her. She was forsaken. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: when shall I wake? She said to herself in an agony.
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  Speaker 1: But the same moment she knew it was no dream.
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  Speaker 1: She threw herself upon the heap and began to cry.
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  Speaker 1: It was well. She did not know what creatures, one
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  Speaker 1: of them with stone shoes on her feet, were lying
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  Speaker 1: in the next cave, But neither did she know who
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  Speaker 1: was on the other side of the slab. At length,
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  Speaker 1: the thought struck her that at least she could follow
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  Speaker 1: the thread backwards and thus get out of the mountain
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  Speaker 1: and home. She rose at once and found the thread,
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  Speaker 1: But the instant she tried to fill it backwards, it
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  Speaker 1: vanished from her touch. Forwards, it laid her hand up
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  Speaker 1: to the heap of stones. Backwards, it seemed nowhere, neither
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  Speaker 1: could she see it as before in the light of
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  Speaker 1: the fire. She burst into a wailing cry, and again
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  Speaker 1: threw herself down on the stones, and of Section eleven