The Goblin and the Grocer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Goblin and the Grocer (also translated The Goblin and the Huckster) is a Danish fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book.
[edit] Synopsis
Once, a student lived in the attic and a grocer on the first floor. Because the grocer gave him a lump of jam and butter at Christmas, the goblin belonged to him. One day, the student came to buy cheese and candles; then he realized that his cheese was wrapped in a page from a poetry book, so he bought the book instead of the cheese, and spoke rudely of the grocer's ability to understand poetry. The goblin, offended, used magic to make everything in the room speak and they all agreed that poetry was useless. The goblin went to tell the student, but it saw a light and a marvelous tree in the room. He kept going back, but could not give up the jam.
One day there was a fire. The goblin ran to save the poetry book and realized that it thought the book the greatest treasure in the house. Still, it decided to divide its time between the grocer and the student, because of the jam.
