Part 11

The rest may easily be imagined. The subterranean passage, into which we had entered for obtaining shelter, had another outlet upon the other side of the hill, and through that a herd of goats had come in for some purpose; but the rest of one of them had been rudely disturbed by the foot of Professor Cracker. No serious harm, however, was done, while the experience was not without scientific value, as it proved that the goat was very spirited--a circumstance that might be regarded as going to show that there was some spirit after all in that goat. This theory I, however, advance merely as a working hypothesis, leaving it to the reader to use his own judgment as to whether he will accept it as wholly true, or only in part.

Thus Mr Schneider’s story ended, and nothing has been heard publicly of the gnomes ever since. It is even believed that they keep their doors locked against all reformers. But, in commemoration of the event described, a board has been put up in the Dragon’s Den, upon which a representation of the encounter between the committee and the spirit of that goat has been roughly painted by an amateur artist; and below the picture there is a description of the adventure in doggerel verse, which caused me a great deal of trouble to translate, but which might be rendered in English as follows:--

“Stop, wanderer, and behold with silent contemplation, How exact science fought interior revelation. The cleverest thing that Cracker had invented Was by a stupid goat, with her two horns resented. Alas! such is the fate of all the would-be wise; We only know for sure that which we realise.”

THE END.

PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This is a mere assertion, and has not been proved. What is joy? By what recognised authority can it be shown to exist?--_Printer’s remark._

[2] We deprecate such statements which are scientifically improbable, and cannot be demonstrated as true. We never had any premonitions and refuse to believe in such things.--_Printer’s remark._

[3] We regret such vagaries. The scientific explanation, which is far more reasonable, would be that the noise was due to a current of air. Mr Schneider seems to have been labouring under an hallucination.--_Printer’s remark._

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.