CHAPTER 18, part 3
The queen was the only one Curdie could see with any distinctness. She sat sideways to him, and the light of the fire shone full upon her face. He could not consider her handsome. Her nose was certainly broader at the end than its extreme length, and her eyes, instead of being horizontal, were set up like two perpendicular eggs, one on the broad, the other on the small end. Her mouth was no bigger than a small buttonhole until she laughed, when it stretched from ear to ear--only, to be sure, her ears were very nearly in the middle of her cheeks.
Anxious to hear everything they might say, Curdie ventured to slide down a smooth part of the rock just under him, to a projection below, upon which he thought to rest. But whether he was not careful enough, or the projection gave way, down he came with a rush on the floor of the cavern, bringing with him a great rumbling shower of stones.
The goblins jumped from their seats in more anger than consternation, for they had never yet seen anything to be afraid of in the palace. But when they saw Curdie with his pick in his hand their rage was mingled with fear, for they took him for the first of an invasion of miners. The king notwithstanding drew himself up to his full height of four feet, spread himself to his full breadth of three and a half, for he was the handsomest and squarest of all the goblins, and strutting up to Curdie, planted himself with outspread feet before him, and said with dignity:
'Pray what right have you in my palace?' 'The right of necessity, Your Majesty,' answered Curdie. 'I lost my way and did not know where I was wandering to.' 'How did you get in?' 'By a hole in the mountain.' 'But you are a miner! Look at your pickaxe!' Curdie did look at it, answering:
'I came upon it lying on the ground a little way from here. I tumbled over some wild beasts who were playing with it. Look, Your Majesty.' And Curdie showed him how he was scratched and bitten.
The king was pleased to find him behave more politely than he had expected from what his people had told him concerning the miners, for he attributed it to the power of his own presence; but he did not therefore feel friendly to the intruder.
'You will oblige me by walking out of my dominions at once,' he said, well knowing what a mockery lay in the words. 'With pleasure, if Your Majesty will give me a guide,' said Curdie. 'I will give you a thousand,' said the king with a scoffing air of magnificent liberality. 'One will be quite sufficient,' said Curdie. But the king uttered a strange shout, half halloo, half roar, and in rushed goblins till the cave was swarming. He said something to the first of them which Curdie could not hear, and it was passed from one to another till in a moment the farthest in the crowd had evidently heard and understood it. They began to gather about him in a way he did not relish, and he retreated towards the wall. They pressed upon him.
'Stand back,' said Curdie, grasping his pickaxe tighter by his knee. They only grinned and pressed closer. Curdie bethought himself and began to rhyme.
'Ten, twenty, thirty-- You're all so very dirty! Twenty, thirty, forty--
You're all so thick and snorty! 'Thirty, forty, fifty-- You're all so puff-and-snifty! Forty, fifty, sixty--
Beast and man so mixty!
'Fifty, sixty, seventy-- Mixty, maxty, leaventy!
Sixty, seventy, eighty--
All your cheeks so slaty!
'Seventy, eighty, ninety, All your hands so flinty!
Eighty, ninety, hundred,
Altogether dundred!'
