{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21784/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21784","id":"gutenberg_21784","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21784","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Christmas","Christmas -- Juvenile poetry"],"text":"Produced by David Edwards, Jana Srna and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from scans of public domain material\nproduced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n          [Illustration]\n\n\n\n      THE GOBLINS' CHRISTMAS\n\n\n          [Illustration]\n\n\nCopyright, 1908, by M. E. Anderson\n\n\n\n\n      The Goblins' Christmas\n\n\n\n                By\n\n        Elizabeth Anderson\n\n\n\n          [Illustration]\n\n\n  Illustrated by Alexander Sharp\n\n\n           Los Angeles\n     Segnogram Publishing Co.\n              1908\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nPreface\n\n\nOnce upon a time I visited Fairy-land and spent a day in Goblin-town.\nThe people there are much like ourselves, only they are very, very small\nand roguish. They play pranks on one another and have great fun. They\nare good natured and jolly, and rarely get angry. But if one does get\nangry, he quickly recovers his good nature and joins again in the sport.\n\nIf a Goblin should continue angry he would take on some visible form.\nPerhaps he would become a toad or a squirrel, or some other little\nanimal, and would have to live here on the Earth-plane forevermore. But,\nif he keeps good natured, he can come here and have his fun, and not be\nseen by any one except a Seer, or very wise person.\n\nThe Goblins are gracious to the wise people now, but they were not\nalways so. A long, long time ago, on a Christmas-eve, the Fairy-folk\nwere having great sport. All the little people of the Unseen-world had\ngathered together in the Earth-realm. There were Brownies, and Gnomes,\nand Elves; even some little Cherubs had joined them. They were having a\nwild dance and a gay time when who should appear but Kris Kringle! Now\nthe Fairies did not know that he was a Magician, or Seer, and so they\ntried to make sport of him. But Kris by his wonderful magic, changed\nthem into the most beautiful toys. They became straight little\njumping-jacks, and dolls in bright dresses, and the dearest little\nrabbit with white, soft fur. And somewhere in the bottom of the sleigh\none was turned into a cute little Teddy-bear. Then old Kris tucked all\nthese toys into his roomy sleigh, and shook the reins of his waiting\nsteed. \"Go on!\" he said, \"For I've many, many a chimney to reach\ntonight.\"\n\nNow this is the tale of \"The Goblins' Christmas\" that the moonbeams\ntold, as they heard it from the Fairy-Queen, who declares that every\nword of it is perfectly true.\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Presented to]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nIllustrations.\n\n\n\"Down the Milky way\"                17\n\n\"The big black caldron\"             21\n\n\"As through the air they flew\"      25\n\n\"They climbed the sleigh\"           27\n\n\"'Playthings rare,' he said\"        31\n\n\"For his Christmas treat\"           41\n\n\nPreface                              6\n\nPresentation                         9\n\nFairy Queen                         12\n\nSprite and Toadstool                18\n\nBoy and Rabbit                      35\n\nWitch with Broom                    37\n\nElf and Spider                      38\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Fairy Queen]\n\n\n\nTo EARL and GEORGIA:\n\n\n    The little Man, and tiny Maid,\n    Who love the Fairies in the glade,\n    Who see them in the tangled grass\n    The Gnomes and Brownies, as they pass,\n    Who hear the Sprites from Elf-land call\n    Go, frolic with these Brownies small,\n    And join these merry sporting Elves,\n    But ever be your own sweet selves.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe GOBLINS' CHRISTMAS\n\n\n    The big bright Moon hung high and round,\n        In a densely darkened sky;\n    The tall pines swayed, and mocked, and groaned;\n        The mountains grew so high\n    That the Man-in-the-Moon came out and said,\n        \"Ho! Spooks, for a merry dance.\"\n    The winds blow hard, the caverns roar,\n        While o'er the earth they prance.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    A Witch and a Goblin led the sprites;\n        Out from the sky they sprung;\n    And down the milky way they slid,\n        And over a chasm swung.\n    The streams around ran witches' broth,\n        The fumes were strong and rank.\n    These Elfin creatures all were wroth,\n        While of the stuff they drank.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Down the Milky way]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Sprite and Toadstool]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    The cunning Moon looked on and laughed\n        With a shrill and sneering jibe;\n    Her soul grew fat to see them chaffed,\n        This mad and elfish tribe.\n    The big black caldron boiled so high\n        With food for these queer mites,\n    That it lit the world throughout the sky,\n        And down came all the Sprites.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: The big black caldron]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    Their mad career upset a star,\n        As through the air they flew:\n    It cringed in fear, and shot afar,\n        And fell where no one knew.\n    Orion's sword was broke in bits,\n        Corona's crown was gone,\n    Capella seemed to lose her wits,\n        While all so longed for dawn.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    Then from the night there came a sound\n        Of sleigh-bells ringing sweet;\n    Out of the chaos came a man--\n        Kris Kringle--for his Christmas treat.\n    \"Ho! Kris!\" they cried, \"We'll have some fun,\n        We'll bind the old man down,\n    We'll tie him up, and toss him o'er\n        Into our Goblin-town.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: As through the air they flew]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    They climbed the sleigh with shout and din,\n        To bind his hands and feet;\n    A hundred strong they clambered in\n        Our good old Kris to meet.\n    He sat quite still, with twinkling eyes,\n        Then seized his mystic wand,\n    He raised it up, and waved it round\n        Stilled was this chattering band.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: They climbed the sleigh]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    Stiffly stark and still they stood,\n        Clad in elfish clothes;\n    Some were wax, and some were wood,\n        One had crushed his nose.\n    \"Playthings rare,\" he said and smiled,\n        \"For children rich and poor;\n    Some I'll leave the crippled child,\n        And some at the orphan's door.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    He shook his reins, and called his steed\n        To bear him swiftly on.\n    Full well it knew its Master's need\n        To hurry e'er the dawn.\n    From house to house they scampered down,\n        Their sleigh-bells ringing clear,\n    Through chimneys in the sleepy town--\n        Good Kris and his reindeer.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: 'Playthings rare,' he said]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Fairy Queen]\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Boy and Rabbit]\n\n    The windows rattled, the moonbeams tattled\n        A tale so strange and queer.\n    They told how at night, in dire affright\n        The Moon had hid in fear.\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    That he'd called in sport his elfish court\n        Of spooks and witches gay,\n    Each Elfin child, by glee beguiled,\n        Brought scores of others, they say.\n\n    Then a man appeared, with flowing beard,\n        In a sled with a reindeer fleet;\n    They gathered about with din and shout,\n        To bind him hands and feet.\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Witch with Broom]\n\n    Then the Moon laughed loud at the gathering crowd,\n        While he held his sides in mirth,\n    To see old Kris in a plight like this,\n        Toiling o'er the earth.\n\n\n\n[Illustration: Elf and Spider]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    But alas for the Moon, he had laughed like a loon,\n        For Kris is a hero of old,\n    Yes, Kris is a seer; with his small reindeer,\n        He captured the Goblins bold.\n\n    And he changed them, they say in a wonderful way,\n        To toys, for his Christmas cheer.\n    The big dolls stare with a goblin air,\n        The small ones cringe with fear.\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n    While the moonbeams prattle, I hear a rattle\n        Of hoofs on the chimney side;\n    Then out on the snow I gaze below,\n        \"Hurrah! it's Kris Kringle,\" I cried.\n\n    Then, sly as a mouse, he entered the house,\n        And hung up his treasures so gay.\n    Then out with a dash, he sped like a flash,\n        Into the night, and away.\n\n\n\n[Illustration: For his Christmas treat]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n[Illustration]","title":"The Goblins' Christmas","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":1223}