VY" 127

"'I'M AS NIMBLE AS A SIXPENCE,' SAID THE WHALE" 131

DAVY ASSISTS THE OLD SEA-DOG 137

"'AVAST!' SAYS HE, 'WE'LL BEAR AWAY'" 140

HE PLAYED WITH DOLLS AND HUMMING-TOPS 141

DAVY FALLS INTO THE ELASTIC SPRING 151

"'FRECKLES,' SAID THE GOBLIN, 'WHAT TIME IS IT?'" 154

"DAVY FELT MORALLY CERTAIN THERE WAS GOING TO BE
A SCENE" 157

THE END OF THE BELIEVING VOYAGE 161

DAVY AND THE GOBLIN;

_OR, WHAT FOLLOWED READING "ALICE'S ADVENTURES
IN WONDERLAND."_

CHAPTER I.

HOW THE GOBLIN CAME.

It happened one Christmas eve, when Davy was about eight years old, and
this is the way it came about.

That particular Christmas eve was a snowy one and a blowy one, and one
generally to be remembered. In the city, where Davy lived, the storm
played all manner of pranks, swooping down upon unwary old gentlemen and
turning their umbrellas wrong side out, and sometimes blowing their hats
quite out of sight; and as for the old ladies who chanced to be out of
doors, the wind came upon them suddenly from around corners and blew the
snow into their faces and twisted their petticoats about their ankles,
and even whirled the old ladies themselves about in a very painful way.
And in the country, where Davy had come to pass Christmas with his dear
old grandmother, things were not much better; but here people were very
wise about the weather, and stayed in-doors, huddled around great
blazing wood fires; and the storm, finding no live game, buried up the
roads and the fences, and such small fry of houses as could readily be
put out of sight, and howled and roared over the fields and through the
trees in a fashion not to be forgotten.

Davy, being of the opinion that a snow-storm was a thing not to be
wasted, had been out with his sled, trying to have a little fun with the
weather; but presently, discovering that this particular storm was not
friendly to little boys, he had retreated into the house, and having put
his hat and his high shoes and his mittens by the kitchen fire to dry,
he began to find his time hang heavily on his hands. He had wandered
idly all over the house, and had tried how cold his nose could be made
by holding it against the window-panes, and, I am sorry to say, had even
been sliding down the balusters an