Davy and the Goblin / What Followed Reading 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'

by Charles E. Carryl

It made me a wreck, with no hope of improvement, Too feeble to race with an invalid crab; I'm wry in the neck, with a rickety movement Peculiarly suited for drawing a cab. They pinch me with straps, and they bruise me with buckles, They drive me too rapidly over the stones;— A reason, perhaps, why a number of knuckles Have lately appeared on my prominent bones.

"I see them," cried Davy, eagerly; "I thought they were corns."

"Thank you," said Ribsy, haughtily. "As the next verse is the last you needn't trouble yourself to make any further observations."

I dream of a spot which I used to roam over In infancy's days, with a frolicsome skip, Content with my lot, which was planted with clover, And never annoyed by the crack of a whip. But I think my remarks will determine the question, Of why I am bony and thin as a rail; I'm off for some larks, to improve my digestion, And point the stern moral conveyed by my tail.

Here Ribsy got upon his legs again, and, after a refreshing fillip with his heels, cantered off along the road, whistling as he went. Two large blue-bottle flies were on his back, and his tail was flying around, with an angry whisk, like a pin-wheel; but, as he disappeared in the distance, the flies were still sitting calmly on the ridge of his spine, apparently enjoying the scenery.

Davy was about to start out again on his journey, when he heard a voice shouting "Hi! Hi!" and, looking back, he saw the poor cabman coming along the road on a brisk trot, dragging his cab after him. He had on Ribsy's harness, and seemed to be in a state of tremendous excitement.

As he came up with Davy the door of the cab flew open again, and the three-legged stools came tumbling out, followed by a dense cloud of dust.

"Get in! Get in!" shouted the cabman, excitedly. "Never mind the dust; I've turned it on to make believe we're going tremendously fast."

Davy hastily scrambled in, and the cabman started off again. The dust was pouring out of both faucets, and a heavy shower of gravel was rattling into the bath-tub; and, to make matters worse, the cabman was now going along at such an astonishing speed that the cab rocked violently from side to side, like a boat in a stormy sea. Davy made a frantic attempt to shut off the dust, but it seemed to come faster and faster, until he was almost choked, and by this time the gravel had become as large as cherry-stones, and was flying around in the cab and rattling about his ears like a little hail-storm. Now, all this was a great deal more than Davy had bargained for, and it was so very unpleasant that he presently sat down on the floor of the cab in the hope of getting a little out of the way of the flying gravel. As he did this the rocking motion became less violent, and then ceased altogether, as though the cabman had suddenly come to a stop. Then the dust cleared away, and Davy, to his surprise, found himself sitting in the road directly in front of the little house that Jack built.