“Oh, nonsense!” the boy exclaimed. “You fellows go away and quit bothering me. I never saw such a country! A fine place for a boy to do as he pleases, surely! Come on, Fitz.”
All the goblins laughed heartily, and Bob disrespectfully made faces at them, to their increased amusement.
When the two comrades had made their round of the factories, and were out in the fresh air again, the boy murmured meekly, a sob in his throat:
“Fitz, I’m tired—I’m sick of it all! I wish I hadn’t come here, I—I wish I was back home again.”
“What!” his companion cried in assumed surprise.
“I do!”
“Back home, and be compelled to obey your elders—your parents and your teachers?” Fitz Mee said, grinning and winking impishly.
“Well,”—pettishly,—“it wouldn’t be any worse than being compelled to obey a lot of fool officers, anyhow.”
“You’re just compelled to do what pleases you, just as I told you,” Fitz Mee explained smoothly.