“You’ll never be a man if you stay in Goblinland.”
“I won’t?”
“No.”
“Won’t I ever grow any?”
“Not as long as you stay in Goblinland—and eat our kind of food.”
“Well, I’ll get older, and then I’ll be a man, or a goblin, or something—won’t I?”
“You’ll still be a boy.”
“Pshaw!” Bob pouted. “I don’t like that. You told me I could be what I pleased in Goblinland.”
“No, I didn’t,” Fitz Mee returned quietly but firmly. “I told you that in our country boys—meaning goblin boys, of course—were compelled to do what pleased them and were not permitted to do what pleased others. That law or custom is still in effect; and you, as a human boy, will be subject to it.”