But after what he had seen, the goblin could no longer sit
and listen quietly to the wisdom and understanding down
stairs; so, as soon as the evening light glimmered in the
garret, he took courage, for it seemed to him as if the rays
of light were strong cables, drawing him up, and obliging him
to go and peep through the keyhole; and, while there, a
feeling of vastness came over him such as we experience by the
ever-moving sea, when the storm breaks forth; and it brought
tears into his eyes. He did not himself know why he wept, yet
a kind of pleasant feeling mingled with his tears. "How
wonderfully glorious it would be to sit with the student under
such a tree;" but that was out of the question, he must be
content to look through the keyhole, and be thankful for even
that Chinese Japanese interpreter.
There he stood on the old landing, with the autumn wind
blowing down upon him through the trap-door. It was very cold;
but the little creature did not really feel it, till the light
in the garret went out, and the tones of music died away. Then
how he shivered, and crept down stairs again to his warm
corner, where it felt home-like and comfortable. And when
Christmas came again, and brought the dish of jam and the
great lump of butter, he liked the huckster best of all .
Soon after, in the middle of the night, the goblin was
awoke by a terrible noise and knocking against the window
shutters and the house doors, and by the sound of the
watchman's horn; for a great fire had broken out, and the
whole street appeared full of flames. Was it in their house,
or a neighbor's? No one could tell, for terror had seized upon
all. The huckster's wife was so bewildered that she took her
gold ear-rings out of her ears and put them in her pocket,
that she might save something at least. The huckster ran to
get his business papers, and the servant resolved to save her
blue silk mantle, which she had managed to buy. Each wished to
keep the best things they had. The goblin had the same wish;
for, with one spring, he was up stairs and in the student's
room, whom he found standing by the open window, and looking
quite calmly at the fire, which was raging at the house of a
neighbor opposite. The book
which lay on the table, and popped it into his red cap, which
he held tightly with both hands. The greatest treasure in the
house was saved; and he ran away with it to the roof, and
seated himself on the chimney. The flames of the burning house
opposite illuminated him as he sat, both hands pressed tightly
over his cap, in which the treasure lay; and then he found out
what feelings really reigned in his heart, and knew exactly
which way they tended. And yet, when the fire was
extinguished, and the goblin again began to reflect, he
hesitated, and said at last, "I must divide myself between the
two; I cannot quite give up the huckster, because of the jam Temperate staff China."