And indeed she was; for she had gained by kindness what she never would have gained by force, which shows that it is best to be gentle in all things if we want to be successful.
Meanwhile, Kelch, being completely in the dark, did not know his way, and in spite of all his care suddenly slipped and fell right down the centre of the tree trunk. However, as he was in Faeryland, he felt no fear, for, indeed, he was falling quite gently, as the air was so heavy, and he was so small and light. Down, down he fell through the darkness, till at last he came bump upon a cushion of moss which was at the foot of the tree. Here there was a faint glimmer of light, and he saw above him the mighty roots of the oak stretching out in all directions like the rafters of a huge hall. His eyes soon became accustomed to the glimmering twilight in which he now found himself, and he looked around to see where he would go next. Through the misty blue light he espied a small hole which seemed to lead downward in a gentle slope, but it was so dark that he felt rather afraid to enter into it. Suddenly he saw that the misty blue light was caused by the radiance of some decayed wood which lay about, so, catching up a piece, he advanced boldly into the hole, and soon discovered that it gave him sufficient light to see a short distance before him.
Kelch was now in a narrow tunnel, the sides, floor, and roof of which were nothing but rough rock, but as he advanced these commenced to glisten with jewels, until they reflected the light of his decayed wood torch so brightly, that he walked in the centre of a brilliant blaze. At last the passage ended suddenly at a deep hole, up which rushed a current of warm air. There seemed no way of getting down, but Kelch, remembering his experience in the oak tree, never hesitated for a moment, but flung himself boldly into the hole. The warm air bore him up, and he fell gently for a long time, seeing the sides of the hole rushing past him one blaze of light, like a splendid jewel. The air grew hotter and hotter as he fell, until at length he tumbled right into the centre of a heap of gold dust, which made him sneeze dreadfully. All around him was a soft golden light, such as he had seen in the treasure vault of the Wicked Baron; so, throwing away his useless torch, he jumped to his feet and looked about him.
He was now in the middle of a large plain, and could see neither the sides nor the roof of what he thought must be a cavern, as it was below the earth, but only a soft gold mist floating above him, and surrounding him on all sides, while the ground was covered with fine glittering gold dust, in which lay great rocks and stones of pure yellow gold, gleaming dully in the subdued yellow twilight.
It was truly a wonderful place, and what was more wonderful was, that Kelch now found he had grown again to his natural size; so, very satisfied with everything, he marched along over the plain to look for the Golden Goblin.
For a long time the plain was quite lonely, and then he saw one or two people in the distance; shortly afterwards, some more, until at length he found himself among a great crowd of shadows. Kelch knew they were dream-shadows, although they looked like flesh and blood men and women, and he moved through the dense mass quite unnoticed, so intent were they on their occupations. These consisted in picking up nuggets of gold from the ground and putting them in their pockets; but Kelch noticed that all their pockets had the bottoms cut off, so that when the nuggets were put in, they simply fell through to the ground once more. Some of the shadows wore chains of gold, of which they seemed very proud, and not one person paid any attention to another, but each bent eagerly down gathering up the gold, and putting it into their bottomless pockets. There were old white-headed men, palsied elderly women, men in the prime of life, and beautiful maidens; but all their faces wore the same eager expression, as they clutched the shining gold.
Kelch could not help pitying them as they worked at their fruitless tasks, but he knew they did it of their own free will, so that the work which appeared a pain to him was a pleasure to them.
Suddenly he recollected the phial given to him by the Owl, and, as he did not see anything of the Goblin, pulled it out of his pocket and began to sprinkle the water of contentment on the avaricious shadows.
Every time a drop fell on one of them, that shadow vanished, and Kelch knew that it had returned to its sleeping body on earth, quite contented with its station in life, and would look no more for gold.
Hundreds of shadows vanished as he sprinkled them with the water of contentment, when all at once a quiver passed through the crowd, and before Kelch had time to wink, the Golden Goblin, with his eyes blazing with rage, stood before him, looking uglier than ever.