ch he had come with the rest of the miners
in the progress of their excavations. The goblins had talked of coming
back for the rest of their household gear: he saw nothing that would
have made him suspect a family had taken shelter there for a single
night. The floor was rough and stony; the walls full of projecting
corners; the roof in one place twenty feet high, in another endangering
his forehead; while on one side a stream, no thicker than a needle, it
is true, but still sufficient to spread a wide dampness over the wall,
flowed down the face of the rock. But the troop in front of him was
toiling under heavy burdens. He could distinguish Helfer now and then,
in the flickering light and shade, with his heavy chest on his bending
shoulders; while the second brother was almost buried in what looked
like a great feather bed. 'Where do they get the feathers?' thought
Curdie; but in a moment the troop disappeared at a turn of the way, and
it was now both safe and necessary for Curdie to follow them, lest they
should be round the next turning before he saw them again, for so he
might lose them altogether. He darted after them like a greyhound.
When he reached the corner and looked cautiously round, he saw them
again at some distance down another long passage. None of the
galleries he saw that night bore signs of the work of man--or of goblin
either. Stalactites, far older than the mines, hung from their roofs;
and their floors were rough with boulders and large round stones,
showing that there water must have once run. He waited again at this
corner till they had disappeared round the next, and so followed them a
long way through one passage after another. The passages grew more and
more lofty, and were more and more covered in the roof with shining
stalactites.

It was a strange enough procession which he followed. But the
strangest part of it was the household animals which crowded amongst
the feet of the goblins. It was true they had no wild animals down
there--at least they did not know of any; but they had a wonderful
number of tame ones. I must, however, reserve any contributions
towards the natural history of these for a later position in my story.

At length, turning a corner too abruptly, he had almost rushed into the
middle of the goblin family; for there they had already set down all
their burdens on the floor of a cave considerably larger than that
which they had left. They were as yet too breath