foundations of the house. The goblins were themselves dismayed at the
noise, for they knew, by careful spying and measuring, that they must
now be very near, if not under, the king's house, and they feared giving
an alarm. They, therefore, remained quiet for awhile, and when they
began to work again, they no doubt thought themselves very fortunate
in
coming upon a vein of sand which filled a winding fissure in the rock
on which the house was built. By scooping this away they soon came
out
in the king's wine-cellar.
No sooner did they and where they were, than they scurried back
again,
like rats into their holes, and running at full speed to the goblin
palace, announced their success to the king and queen with shouts of
triumph. In a moment the goblin royal family and the whole goblin
people
were on their way in hot haste to the king's house, each eager to have a
share in the glory of carrying off that same night the Princess Irene.
The queen went stumping along in one shoe of stone and one of skin.
This
could not have been pleasant, and my readers may wonder that, with
such
Madhuri Noah
C:\Users\MNoah\Documents\The Princess and the Goblin1.docx
Page 263 of 634