Davy and the Goblin: What Followed Reading 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'Carryl, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Science
Davy and the Goblin: What Followed Reading 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'
Carryl, Charles E. (Charles Edward)
Fantasy literature
Now Davy knew perfectly well, as all little boys should know, that when
you meet a savage in the woods you must get behind a tree as quickly as
possible; but he did this in such haste that he found, to his dismay,
that he and the savage had chosen the same tree, and in the next instant
the savage was after him. The tree was a very large one, and Davy, in
his fright, went around it a number of times, so rapidly that he
presently caught sight of the back of the savage, and he was surprised
to see that he was no bigger than a large monkey; and, moreover, that he
was gorgeously dressed, in a beautiful blue coat, with brass buttons on
the tail of it, and pink striped trousers. He had hardly made this
discovery when the savage vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared,
and the next moment Davy came suddenly upon a high paling of logs, that
began at the tree and extended in a straight line far out into the
forest.
It was very puzzling to Davy when it occurred to him that, although he
had been around the tree at least a dozen times, he had never seen this
paling before, and a door that was in it also bothered him; for, though
it was quite an ordinary-looking door, it had no knob nor latch, nor,
indeed, any way of being opened that he could perceive. On one side of
it, in the paling, was a row of bell-pulls, marked:--
_Family_;
_Police_;
_Butcher_;
_Baker_;
_Candlestick-maker_;
and on the door itself was a large knocker, marked:--
+-------------+
| _Postman._ |
+-------------+
After examining all these Davy decided that, as he had a letter in
charge, he was more of a postman than anything else, and he therefore
raised the knocker and rapped loudly. Immediately all the bell-pulls
began flying in and out of their own accord, with a deafening clangor of
bells behind the paling; and then the door swung slowly back upon its
hinges.
Davy walked through the door-way and found himself in the oddest-looking
little country place that could possibly be imagined. There was a little
lawn laid out, on which a sort of soft fur was growing instead of grass,
and here and there about the lawn, in the place of flower-beds, little
footstools, neatly covered with carpet, were growing out of the fur. The
trees were simply large feather-dusters, with varnished handles; but
they seemed, nevertheless, to be growing in a very thriving manner, and
on a little mound at the back of the lawn stood a small house, built
entirely of big conch-shells, with their pink mouths turned outward.
This gave the house a very cheerful appearance, as if it were constantly
on a broad grin.
[Illustration: "THE SAVAGE WAS SITTING IN THE SHADE OF ONE OF THE
DUSTERS."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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