d, he thought, must have grown
steeper in parts since he was Curdie's age. His back was to the light
of the sunset, which closed him all round in a beautiful setting, and
Curdie thought what a grand-looking man his father was, even when he
was tired. It is greed and laziness and selfishness, not hunger or
weariness or cold, that take the dignity out of a man, and make him
look mean.

'Ah, Curdie! There you are!' he said, seeing his son come bounding
along as if it were morning with him and not evening.

'You look tired, Father,' said Curdie.

'Yes, my boy. I'm not so young as you.'

'Nor so old as the princess,' said Curdie.

'Tell me this,' said Peter, 'why do people talk about going downhill
when they begin to get old? It seems to me that then first they begin
to go uphill.'

'You looked to me, Father, when I caught sight of you, as if you had
been climbing the hill all your life, and were soon to get to the top.'

'Nobody can tell when that will be,' returned Peter. 'We're so ready
to think we're just at the top when it lies miles away. But I must not
keep you, my boy, for you are wanted; and we shall be anxious to know
what the princess says to you--that is, if she will allow you to tell
us.'

'I think she will, for she knows there is nobody more to be trusted
than my father and mother,' said Curdie, with pride.

And away he shot, and ran, and jumped, and seemed almost to fly down
the long, winding, steep path, until he came to the gate of the king's
house.

There he met an unexpected obstruction: in the open door stood the
housekeeper, and she seemed to broaden herself out until she almost
filled the doorway.

'So!' she said, 'it's you, is it, young man? You are the person that
comes in and goes out when he pleases, and keeps running up and down my
stairs without ever saying by your leave, or even wiping his shoes, and
always leaves the door open! Don't you know this is my house?'

'No, I do not,' returned Curdie respectfully. 'You forget, ma'am, that
it is the king's house.'

'That is all the same. The king left it to me to take care of--and
that you shall know!'

'Is the king dead, ma'am, that he has left it to you?' asked Curdie,
half in doubt from the self-assertion of the woman.

'Insolent fellow!' exclaimed the housekeeper. 'Don't you see by my
dress that I am in the king's service?'

'And am I not one of his miners?'

'Ah! that goes for nothing. I am one of his household.