"But I did feel it, father."
"I tell you to hold your tongue. You are no patriot."
Curdie suppressed his laughter, and lay still as a mouse--but no
stiller, for every moment he kept nibbling away with his fingers at the
edges of the hole. He was slowly making it bigger, for here the rock had
been very much shattered with the blasting.
There seemed to be a good many in the family, to judge from the mass
of
confused talk which now and then came through the hole; but when all
were speaking together, and just as if they had bottle-brushes--each at
least one--in their throats, it was not easy to make out much that was
said. At length he heard once more what the father-goblin was saying.
"Now then," he said, "get your bundles on your backs. Here, Helfer, I'll
help you up with your chest."
"I wish it _was_ my chest, father."
"Your turn will come in good time enough! Make haste. I _must_ go to
the
Madhuri Noah
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