A SHORT CHAPTER ABOUT CURDIE
CURDIE spent many nights in the mine. His father and he had taken
Mrs.
Peterson into the secret, for they knew mother could hold her tongue,
which was more than could be said of all the miners' wives. But Curdie
did not tell her that every night he spent in the mine, part of it went
in earning a new red petticoat for her.
Mrs. Peterson was such a nice good mother! All mothers are more or
less,
but Mrs. Peterson was nice and good all _more_ and no _less_. She
made a
little heaven in that poor cottage on the hillside--for her husband and
son to go home to out of the dreary earth in which they worked. I
doubt
if the princess was very much happier even in the arms of her huge
great-grandmother than Peter and Curdie were in the arms of Mrs.
Peterson. True, her hands were hard, and chapped, and large, but it
was
with work for them; and therefore in the sight of the angels, her hands
Madhuri Noah
C:\Users\MNoah\Documents\The Princess and the Goblin1.docx
Page 121 of 634