chunk: Months pass, and Lizzie realizes that Laura is on the verge of death. Lizzie resolves to visit the goblins to buy some of their fruit, hoping to soothe Laura's pain. Carrying a silver penny, Lizzie goes down to the brook and is greeted in a friendly way by the goblins, who invite her to sit and dine with them. When they realize, however, that the Lizzie means to pay with mere silver to buy the goblin-fruits to help another person, they turn upon the girl. The goblins viciously pummel and assault Lizzie, and try to feed her their fruits by force. In the process, they drench the brave girl in fruit juice and pulpâbut Lizzie ingests none of the goblin fruit.
  Lizzie escapes and runs home, hoping that Laura will eat and drink the pulp and juice from her body. Her dying sister does so, but the taste of the fruit repulses her rather than satisfies her hunger. Laura then undergoes a violent transformation of such intensity that her life seems to hang in the balance.