lf do
it. But they shan't have her--at least if I can help it. So, mother
dear--my clue is all right--will you get me a bit of paper and a pencil
and a lump of pease pudding, and I will set out at once. I saw a place
where I can climb over the wall of the garden quite easily.'

'You must mind and keep out of the way of the men on the watch,' said
his mother.

'That I will. I don't want them to know anything about it. They would
spoil it all. The cobs would only try some other plan--they are such
obstinate creatures! I shall take good care, mother. They won't kill
and eat me either, if they should come upon me. So you needn't mind
them.'

His mother got him what he had asked for, and Curdie set out. Close
beside the door by which the princess left the garden for the mountain
stood a great rock, and by climbing it Curdie got over the wall. He
tied his clue to a stone just inside the channel of the stream, and
took his pickaxe with him. He had not gone far before he encountered a
horrid creature coming towards the mouth. The spot was too narrow for
two of almost any size or shape, and besides Curdie had no wish to let
the creature pass. Not being able to use his pickaxe, however, he had
a severe struggle with him, and it was only after receiving many bites,
some of them bad, that he succeeded in killing him with his
pocket-knife. Having dragged him out, he made haste to get in again
before another should stop up the way.

I need not follow him farther in this night's adventures. He returned
to his breakfast, satisfied that the goblins were mining in the
direction of the palace--on so low a level that their intention must,
he thought, be to burrow under the walls of the king's house, and rise
up inside it--in order, he fully believed, to lay hands on the little
princess, and carry her off for a wife to their horrid Harelip.

CHAPTER 24

Irene Behaves Like a Princess

When the princess awoke from the sweetest of sleeps, she found her
nurse bending over her, the housekeeper looking over the nurse's
shoulder, and the laundry-maid looking over the housekeeper's. The room
was full of women-servants; and the gentlemen-at-arms, with a long
column of servants behind them, were peeping, or trying to peep in at
the door of the nursery.

'Are those horrid creatures gone?' asked the princess, remembering
first what had terrified her in the morning.

'You naughty, naughty little princess!' cried Lootie.