Kabanata Kabanata 29 · Masonwork

. Masonwork

He had all at once remembered the resolution of the goblins to carry

out their second plan upon the failure of the first. No doubt they

were already busy, and the mine was therefore in the greatest danger of

being flooded and rendered useless--not to speak of the lives of the

miners.

When he reached the mouth of the mine, after rousing all the miners

within reach, he found his father and a good many more just entering.

They all hurried to the gang by which he had found a way into the

goblin country. There the foresight of Peter had already collected a

great many blocks of stone, with cement, ready for building up the weak

place--well enough known to the goblins. Although there was not room

for more than two to be actually building at once, they managed, by

setting all the rest to work in preparing the cement and passing the

stones, to finish in the course of the day a huge buttress filling the

whole gang, and supported everywhere by the live rock. Before the hour

when they usually dropped work, they were satisfied the mine was secure.

They had heard goblin hammers and pickaxes busy all the time, and at

length fancied they heard sounds of water they had never heard before.

But that was otherwise accounted for when they left the mine, for they

stepped out into a tremendous storm which was raging all over the

mountain. The thunder was bellowing, and the lightning lancing out of

a huge black cloud which lay above it and hung down its edges of thick

mist over its sides. The lightning was breaking out of the mountain,

too, and flashing up into the cloud. From the state of the brooks, now

swollen into raging torrents, it was evident that the storm had been

storming all day.

The wind was blowing as if it would blow him off the mountain, but,

anxious about his mother and the princess, Curdie darted up through the

thick of the tempest. Even if they had not set out before the storm

came on, he did not judge them safe, for in such a storm even their

poor little house was in danger. Indeed he soon found that but for a

huge rock against which it was built, and which protected it both from

the blasts and the waters, it must have been swept if it was not blown

away; for the two torrents into which this rock parted the rush of

water behind it united again in front of the cottage--two roaring and

dangerous streams, which his mother and the princess could not possibly

have passed. It was with great difficulty that he forced his way

through one of them, and up to the door.

The moment his hand fell on the latch, through all the uproar of winds

and waters came the joyous cry of the princess:

'There's Curdie! Curdie! Curdie!'

She was sitting wrapped in blankets on the bed, his mother trying for

the hundredth time to light the fire which had been drowned by the rain

that came down the chimney. The clay floor was one mass of mud, and

the whole place looked wretched. But the faces of the mother and the

princess shone as if their troubles only made them the merrier. Curdie

burst out laughing at the sight of them.

'I never had such fun!' said the princess, her eyes twinkling and her

pretty teeth shining. 'How nice it must be to live in a cottage on the

mountain!'

'It all depends on what kind your inside house is,' said the mother.

'I know what you mean,' said Irene. 'That's the kind of thing my

grandmother says.'

By the time Peter returned the storm was nearly over, but the streams

were so fierce and so swollen that it was not only out of the question

for the princess to go down the mountain, but most dangerous for Peter

even or Curdie to make the attempt in the gathering darkness.

'They will be dreadfully frightened about you,' said Peter to the

princess, 'but we cannot help it. We must wait till the morning.'

With Curdie's help, the fire was lighted at last, and the mother set

about making their supper; and after supper they all told the princess

stories till she grew sleepy. Then Curdie's mother laid her in

Curdie's bed, which was in a tiny little garret-room. As soon as she

was in bed, through a little window low down in the roof she caught

sight of her grandmother's lamp shining far away beneath, and she gazed

at the beautiful silvery globe until she fell asleep.