THE GOBLINS' SPRING CLEANING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 56, 7 March 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE GOBLINS' SPRING CLEANING.

(By A. M. IVERACH.)

Crash! Bump! Smash! What a noise there was in the wood! Young Sam Squirrel paused with a nut halfway to lis mouth to listen. "Guns!" said he to no one in particular. "Men with guns. I shall* go quietly and have a look at tliem." He scrambled swiftly through the branches till he came to the place where the Boise was. But there weren't any men with guns. Down underground, Gobbo the gnome heard the commotion also. "Thunder, I suppose," he remarked, rubbing the clay from u, diamond that he had just dug up. "I do enjoy a thunderstorm too—l must really go up and watch the "lightning." He put the diamond in his pocket, packed up his tools, and went clambering up the passages to the outside world. But there wasn't any thunderstorm. Ernestine the mouse was enjoying a sap in his house when the noise began. He woke with a start and there was Emily, bis wife, wringing her paws and crying, "Oh, my goodness! My nerves are being shattered!" "What's all that um?" said Ernestine.

"How should I know?" demanded Emily. "Woodcutters, I suppose, chopping down all the trees. Go and stop them Ernestine. You know what a state my nerves are in." "There, there!" said Ernestine soothingly. "Go at once," cried Emily. Ernestine snatched up his hat and ran through the wood :n the direction, of the sound, wondering how he could stop the woodcutters from chopping the trees down. "For," thought he, "men are not likely to take much notice of a mere mouse even though his wife has weak nerves." At the thought of Emily's nerves he ran faster than ever,' till he came to the place where the noise was. But after all there weren't any woodcutters. On the edge of the wood in front of the Goblins* house, quite a crowd was gathered. Sam Squirrel was there and Gobbo the gnome, several idle pixies and three or four blackbirds. The noise, which was coming from the house, was simply deafening. Ernestine scurried up to Gobbo. "Whatever are they doing?" he panted. "You might well ask," said Gobbo 1 pointing to the ground where broken furniture and crockery were strewn. "Look out!" cried one of the blackbirds as a looking-glass came flying through an upstair window. It was followed by an armchair, a sofa and two bedsteads. Then several Goblins came lushing out and began beating a carpet hanging from some branches. "What on earth are you doing 1" asked one of the pixies. "Doing?" exclaimed the Goblins sounding quite astonished. "Can't you . see what we're doing?" "Smashing the furniture," said the pixie, "but what for?" "We're not smashing the furniture!" eried the Goblins indignantly. "We're spring cleaning." "Nonsense," chirped Bertie, the biggest blackbird. "You can't spring clean in the autumn."

"Can't we?" shouted the Goblins above the racket. "Well, this is an autumn cleaning then." And they went on beating the carpet. "But why are you throwing everything out of the window ?" persisted the pixie.

"Because you can't clean a house with the furniture in!" "cried they.

"But Avhy don't you. carry the things outside?" put in Ernestine, thinking of Emily. "It wouldn't make nearly so much noise." "Too slow!" they shouted from the clouds of tiust. "But you're breaking everything," said poor Ernestine, who didn't dare go home while the noise lasted. "Not everything," said the Goblins, and gathering up the carpet they rushed back indoors. "Oh, my goodness, I shall catch it," moaned the little mouse. "Emily will never forgive me if they don't stop." Looking up, he caught of Hob standing at the window upstairs with a big plate in his hands. "Hob! Hob!" he cried during a lull in the noise, "make them atop, do! My wife's nerves are in a dreadful state! , Hob grinned-as lie twirled the plate in his hands. "You know I helped you with the mending," piped Ernestine from below. Yes, Hob remembered. He remembered that nasty birthday cake he had stolen from Gobbo's house, too. "If it hadn't been for that idiot of a mouse," he thought, "I wouldn't have had to eat that cake!" And he flung the plate with all his force down upon Ernestine's head. A round piece broke out of the centre of the plate, which then sat round' Ernestine's neck like a collar. "Oh, what ingratitude!" wept Ernestine. % At that moment the Goblins, with Hob, at the!r head, rushed out of the house and surrounded him.

"Look, this fellow has broken our best plate!" they screamed shrilly. "I didn't! I haven't!" choked Ernestine, pointing at Hob. "He threw it at me!" "Well, it was your head that broke it," mocked Hob, "so you must pay for a new one!" Ernestine was speechless Avith anger and amazement. "Sixpence for a new plate!" demanded the Goblins, pressing closer, while the wood folk drew near to listen. Suddenly Ernestine smiled through his tears. He had just realised that the noise had stopped! "If you promise not to throw anything more out of the window I will give you two sixpences," he said cheerfully. "We promise!" the greedy Goblins cried at once, and Ernestine gladly handed over th,e sixpences. "Mind you keep, your promise," he said. "If they don't," put in Bertie Blackbird, "my brothers and I will peck holes in them." Ernestine didn't wait to hear any more, but ran home through the wood. "I stopped' the noise for you, Emily!" he cried. "You took a long time," complained his wife, "and yon know how bad my nerves are! But, good gracious, whatever is that round your neck? "My new collar, said Ernestine proudly. '3 bought it from the Goblins for two sixpences!