better
man.

But in the middle of the night the goblin was awaked by a terrible
tumult and beating against the window shutters. People rapped noisily
without, and the watchman blew his horn, for a great fire had broken
out--the whole street was full of smoke and flame. Was it in the house
itself, or at a neighbour's? Where was it? Terror seized on all. The
huckster's wife was so bewildered that she took her gold earrings out
of her ears and put them in her pocket, that at any rate she might
save something; the huckster ran for his share-papers; and the maid
for her black silk mantilla, for she had found means to purchase one.
Each one wanted to save the best thing they had; the goblin wanted to
do the same thing, and in a few leaps he was up the stairs, and into
the room of the student, who stood quite quietly at the open window,
looking at the conflagration that was raging in the house of the
neighbour opposite. The goblin seized upon the wonderful book which
lay upon the table, popped it into his red cap, and held the cap tight
with both hands. The great treasure of the house was saved; and now he
ran up and away, quite on to the roof of the house, on to the chimney.
There he sat, illuminated by the flames of the burning house opposite,
both hands pressed tightly over his cap, in which the treasure lay;
and now he knew the real feelings of his heart, and knew to whom it
really belonged. But when the fire was extinguished, and the goblin
could think calmly again, why, then....

"I must divide myself between the two," he said; "I can't quite give
up the huckster, because of the porridge!"

Now, that was spoken quite like a human creature. We all of us visit
the huckster for the sake of the porridge.

IN A THOUSAND YEARS.

Yes, in a thousand years people will fly on the wings of steam through
the air, over the ocean! The young inhabitants of America will become
visitors of old Europe. They will come over to see the monuments and
the great cities, which will then be in ruins, just as we in our time
make pilgrimages to the tottering splendours of Southern Asia. In a
thousand years they will come!

The Thames, the Danube, and the Rhine still roll their course, Mont
Blanc stands firm with its snow-capped summit, and the Northern Lights
gleam over the lands of the North; but generation after generation has
become dust, whole rows of the mighty of the moment are forgotten,
like those who already slumber under