So, I was trying to get our new stove to boil water for veggies, or something, and the new stove wasn't much interested in cooperating with my culinary intentions. Naturally, I began to mutter the phrase, "a watch pot never boils". From that I was swept back to elementary school, back in the dark ages, where I vaguely remembered having read a book called Davy and the Goblin. In that book, there was a short episode during which Davy comes upon someone leaning over a pot of watches, hoping to get them to boil. They don't, of course, so he pulls out a gun and shoots the pot of watches, muttering the phrase I used to begin this piece. Something like that. Anyway, I then had to look up the book to see if I'd remembered correctly. I pretty much had remembered that particular episode correctly, but virtually all of the rest of the book didn't seem at all familiar.

Davy, it seems, is a young boy who doesn't believe in make believe. No fairies, giants or goblins for him. So a goblin shows up to take him on a Believing Voyage, or something like that. So the book is a series of short vignettes wherein Davy comes across one imaginary thing or another. Some are from well-known stories, such as his visits to Jack and the Beanstalk's Farm and Sinbad the Sailor's House, and some are to places and creatures that were unknown to me.

I dunno, I wasn't much into this book. I suppose I need more of a plot now days. It would be a great book to read to small children, because it is fanciful and works well in small bits. The advantage for an adult reader is that the book contains oodles of word plays, which will likely be over the head of a six-to-ten-year old, but which will be fun for us more mature types. For example:

"What's the difference between a dog-watch and a watch-dog? It's a conundrum." "I don't know," said Davy, who would have laughed if he had not been a little afraid of the Dog. "A dog-watch keeps a watching on a bark," said the old Sea-Dog; "and a watch-dog keeps a barking on a watch."

Anyway, there you have it. It's probably not worth one's while if one is just reading to himself, but likely to be well worthwhile if one is reading to a young child.
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One of my favorite stories when young, tho0ugh I read it in the St. Nicholas Anthology, not this version. It contains "The Walloping Window Blind" as well as many ,ore amusing verses to adorn the tale of Davy's adventures with the goblin --to me, it comes closer than most to the whimsy of Alice in Wonderland while actually being funnier. I am not usually fond of the Hildebrand's photo realistic style, but I think it works better for this story than most. ( )