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diff --git a/23661-h/23661-h.htm b/23661-h/23661-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e65d5c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/23661-h/23661-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6169 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Book of Dragons, by E. Nesbit. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} +.fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position: relative; + bottom: 0.33em; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} +.hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Dragons, by Edith Nesbit + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Book of Dragons + +Author: Edith Nesbit + +Illustrator: H. R. Millar + H. Granville Fell + +Release Date: November 29, 2007 [EBook #23661] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF DRAGONS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><a name="front" id="front"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 268px;"> +<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="268" height="400" alt="THE BOOK OF DRAGONS" title="THE BOOK OF DRAGONS" /> +</div> + + +<h1>The Book of<br /> +DRAGONS</h1> + +<h2>E. Nesbit</h2> + +<div class='center'> +With illustrations by</div> +<h3>H. R. Millar</h3> +<div class='center'> +Decorations by</div> +<h3>H. Granville Fell</h3> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><br /><br /> +DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.<br /> +Mineola, New York</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>Contents</h2> + + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'> </td><td align='left'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'>The Book of Beasts</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'>Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'>The Deliverers of Their Country</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'>The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'>The Island of the Nine Whirlpools</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'>The Dragon Tamers</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'>The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'>Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> +</table></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>List of Illustrations</h2> + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations"> +<tr><td align='left'>The Book of Dragons</td><td align='center'><a href="#front"><i>frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Book of Beasts</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The dragon flew away across the garden."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"By-and-by he began to wander."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The dragon ran after her."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_36">36</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Deliverers of Their Country</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class carriage."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Sure enough, it was a dragon."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_69">69</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The dwarfs seized the children."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Island of the Nine Whirlpools</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The lone tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_89">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>"Little children play around him and over him."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_97">97</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Dragon Tamers</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The dragon's purring pleased the baby."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_107">107</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"He brought something in his mouth—it was a bag of gold."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_117">117</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'"</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_130">130</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"They saw a cloud of steam."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_139">139</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Creeping across the plain."</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"That smells good, eh?"</td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span> <a href="#Page_153">153</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> + + +<div class='center'> +<i>To Rosamund,<br /> +chief among those for whom these tales are told,<br /> +The Book of Dragons is dedicated<br /> +in the confident hope<br /> +that she, one of these days, will dedicate a book<br /> +of her very own making<br /> +to the one who now bids<br /> +eight dreadful dragons<br /> +crouch in all humbleness<br /> +at those little brown feet.</i><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>The Book of<br /> +DRAGONS</h2> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 249px;"> +<img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="249" height="400" alt="THE BOOK OF BEASTS" title="THE BOOK OF BEASTS" /> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> + +<h2>I. The Book of Beasts</h2> + + +<p>He happened to be building a Palace when the news +came, and he left all the bricks kicking about the floor +for Nurse to clear up—but then the news was rather +remarkable news. You see, there was a knock at the front +door and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel thought it +was the man come to see about the gas, which had not +been allowed to be lighted since the day when Lionel +made a swing by tying his skipping rope to the gas +bracket.</p> + +<p>And then, quite suddenly, Nurse came in and said, +"Master Lionel, dear, they've come to fetch you to go and +be King."</p> + +<p>Then she made haste to change his smock and to wash +his face and hands and brush his hair, and all the time she +was doing it Lionel kept wriggling and fidgeting and saying, +"Oh, don't, Nurse," and, "I'm sure my ears are quite +clean," or, "Never mind my hair, it's all right," and, "That'll +do."</p> + +<p>"You're going on as if you was going to be an eel instead +of a King," said Nurse.</p> + +<p>The minute Nurse let go for a moment Lionel bolted off +without waiting for his clean handkerchief, and in the +drawing room there were two very grave-looking gentlemen +in red robes with fur, and gold coronets with velvet +sticking up out of the middle like the cream in the very +expensive jam tarts.</p> + +<p>They bowed low to Lionel, and the gravest one said: +"Sire, your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +King of this country, is dead, and now you have got to +come and be King."</p> + +<p>"Yes, please, sir," said Lionel, "when does it begin?"</p> + +<p>"You will be crowned this afternoon," said the grave +gentleman who was not quite so grave-looking as the +other.</p> + +<p>"Would you like me to bring Nurse, or what time would +you like me to be fetched, and hadn't I better put on my +velvet suit with the lace collar?" said Lionel, who had +often been out to tea.</p> + +<p>"Your Nurse will be removed to the Palace later. No, +never mind about changing your suit; the Royal robes will +cover all that up."</p> + +<p>The grave gentlemen led the way to a coach with eight +white horses, which was drawn up in front of the house +where Lionel lived. It was No. 7, on the left-hand side of +the street as you go up.</p> + +<p>Lionel ran upstairs at the last minute, and he kissed +Nurse and said: "Thank you for washing me. I wish I'd let +you do the other ear. No—there's no time now. Give me +the hanky. Good-bye, Nurse."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, ducky," said Nurse. "Be a good little King +now, and say 'please' and 'thank you,' and remember to +pass the cake to the little girls, and don't have more than +two helps of anything."</p> + +<p>So off went Lionel to be made a King. He had never +expected to be a King any more than you have, so it was +all quite new to him—so new that he had never even +thought of it. And as the coach went through the town he +had to bite his tongue to be quite sure it was real, because +if his tongue was real it showed he wasn't dreaming. Half +an hour before he had been building with bricks in the +nursery; and now—the streets were all fluttering with +flags; every window was crowded with people waving +handkerchiefs and scattering flowers; there were scarlet +soldiers everywhere along the pavements, and all the +bells of all the churches were ringing like mad, and like a +great song to the music of their ringing he heard thou<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>sands +of people shouting, "Long live Lionel! Long live our +little King!"</p> + +<p>He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his +best clothes, but he soon forgot to think about that. If he +had been a girl he would very likely have bothered about +it the whole time.</p> + +<p>As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the +Chancellor and the Prime Minister, explained the things +which Lionel did not understand.</p> + +<p>"I thought we were a Republic," said Lionel. "I'm sure +there hasn't been a King for some time."</p> + +<p>"Sire, your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather's +death happened when my grandfather was a little boy," +said the Prime Minister, "and since then your loyal people +have been saving up to buy you a crown—so much a +week, you know, according to people's means—sixpence +a week from those who have first-rate pocket money, +down to a halfpenny a week from those who haven't so +much. You know it's the rule that the crown must be paid +for by the people."</p> + +<p>"But hadn't my great-great-however-much-it-is-grandfather +a crown?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he sent it to be tinned over, for fear of vanity, +and he had had all the jewels taken out, and sold them to +buy books. He was a strange man; a very good King he +was, but he had his faults—he was fond of books. Almost +with his last breath he sent the crown to be tinned—and +he never lived to pay the tinsmith's bill."</p> + +<p>Here the Prime Minister wiped away a tear, and just +then the carriage stopped and Lionel was taken out of the +carriage to be crowned. Being crowned is much more tiring +work than you would suppose, and by the time it was +over, and Lionel had worn the Royal robes for an hour or +two and had had his hand kissed by everybody whose +business it was to do it, he was quite worn out, and was +very glad to get into the Palace nursery.</p> + +<p>Nurse was there, and tea was ready: seedy cake and +plummy cake, and jam and hot buttered toast, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +prettiest china with red and gold and blue flowers on it, +and real tea, and as many cups of it as you liked.</p> + +<p>After tea Lionel said: "I think I should like a book. Will +you get me one, Nurse?"</p> + +<p>"Bless the child," said Nurse. "You don't suppose +you've lost the use of your legs with just being a King? +Run along, do, and get your books yourself."</p> + +<p>So Lionel went down into the library. The Prime +Minister and the Chancellor were there, and when Lionel +came in they bowed very low, and were beginning to ask +Lionel most politely what on earth he was coming bothering +for now—when Lionel cried out: "Oh, what a worldful +of books! Are they yours?"</p> + +<p>"They are yours, Your Majesty," answered the +Chancellor. "They were the property of the late King, your +great-great—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," Lionel interrupted. "Well, I shall read +them all. I love to read. I am so glad I learned to read."</p> + +<p>"If I might venture to advise Your Majesty," said the +Prime Minister, "I should not read these books. Your +great—"</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said Lionel, quickly.</p> + +<p>"He was a very good King—oh, yes, really a very superior +King in his way, but he was a little—well, strange."</p> + +<p>"Mad?" asked Lionel, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"No, no"—both the gentlemen were sincerely shocked. +"Not mad; but if I may express it so, he was—er—too +clever by half. And I should not like a little King of mine to +have anything to do with his books."</p> + +<p>Lionel looked puzzled.</p> + +<p>"The fact is," the Chancellor went on, twisting his red +beard in an agitated way, "your great—"</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Lionel.</p> + +<p>"—was called a wizard."</p> + +<p>"But he wasn't?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not—a most worthy King was your great—"</p> + +<p>"I see."</p> + +<p>"But I wouldn't touch his books."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just this one," cried Lionel, laying his hands on the +cover of a great brown book that lay on the study table. It +had gold patterns on the brown leather, and gold clasps +with turquoises and rubies in the twists of them, and gold +corners, so that the leather should not wear out too +quickly.</p> + +<p>"I must look at this one," Lionel said, for on the back in +big letters he read: <i>The Book of Beasts</i>.</p> + +<p>The Chancellor said, "Don't be a silly little King."</p> + +<p>But Lionel had got the gold clasps undone, and he +opened the first page, and there was a beautiful Butterfly +all red, and brown, and yellow, and blue, so beautifully +painted that it looked as if it were alive.</p> + +<p>"There," said Lionel, "Isn't that lovely? Why—"</p> + +<p>But as he spoke the beautiful Butterfly fluttered its +many-colored wings on the yellow old page of the book, +and flew up and out of the window.</p> + +<p>"Well!" said the Prime Minister, as soon as he could +speak for the lump of wonder that had got into his throat +and tried to choke him, "that's magic, that is."</p> + +<p>But before he had spoken, the King had turned the next +page, and there was a shining bird complete and beautiful +in every blue feather of him. Under him was written, "Blue +Bird of Paradise," and while the King gazed enchanted at +the charming picture the Blue Bird fluttered his wings on +the yellow page and spread them and flew out of the book.</p> + +<p>Then the Prime Minister snatched the book away from +the King and shut it up on the blank page where the bird +had been, and put it on a very high shelf. And the +Chancellor gave the King a good shaking, and said: +"You're a naughty, disobedient little King!" and was very +angry indeed.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that I've done any harm," said Lionel. He +hated being shaken, as all boys do; he would much rather +have been slapped.</p> + +<p>"No harm?" said the Chancellor. "Ah—but what do you +know about it? That's the question. How do you know +what might have been on the next page—a snake or a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +worm, or a centipede or a revolutionist, or something like +that."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm sorry if I've vexed you," said Lionel. "Come, +let's kiss and be friends." So he kissed the Prime Minister, +and they settled down for a nice quiet game of noughts +and crosses while the Chancellor went to add up his +accounts.</p> + +<p>But when Lionel was in bed he could not sleep for thinking +of the book, and when the full moon was shining with +all her might and light he got up and crept down to the +library and climbed up and got <i>The Book of Beasts</i>.</p> + +<p>He took it outside to the terrace, where the moonlight +was as bright as day, and he opened the book, and saw +the empty pages with "Butterfly" and "Blue Bird of +Paradise" underneath, and then he turned the next page. +There was some sort of red thing sitting under a palm +tree, and under it was written "Dragon." The Dragon did +not move, and the King shut up the book rather quickly +and went back to bed.</p> + +<p>But the next day he wanted another look, so he took the +book out into the garden, and when he undid the clasps +with the rubies and turquoises, the book opened all by +itself at the picture with "Dragon" underneath, and the +sun shone full on the page. And then, quite suddenly, a +great Red Dragon came out of the book and spread vast +scarlet wings and flew away across the garden to the far +hills, and Lionel was left with the empty page before him, +for the page was quite empty except for the green palm +tree and the yellow desert, and the little streaks of red +where the paintbrush had gone outside the pencil outline +of the Red Dragon.</p> + +<p>And then Lionel felt that he had indeed done it. He had +not been King twenty-four hours, and already he had let +loose a Red Dragon to worry his faithful subjects' lives +out. And they had been saving up so long to buy him a +crown, and everything!</p> + +<p>Lionel began to cry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 284px;"> +<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="284" height="400" alt=""The dragon flew away across the garden." See page 8." title=""The dragon flew away across the garden." See page 8." /> +<span class="caption">"The dragon flew away across the garden." <br /><a href="#Page_8"><i>See page 8.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>The Chancellor and the Prime Minister and the Nurse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +all came running to see what was the matter. And when +they saw the book they understood, and the Chancellor +said: "You naughty little King! Put him to bed, Nurse, and +let him think over what he's done."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, my Lord," said the Prime Minister, "we'd better +first find out just exactly what he has done."</p> + +<p>Then Lionel, in floods of tears, said: "It's a Red Dragon, +and it's gone flying away to the hills, and I am so sorry, +and, oh, do forgive me!"</p> + +<p>But the Prime Minister and the Chancellor had other +things to think of than forgiving Lionel. They hurried off to +consult the police and see what could be done. Everyone +did what they could. They sat on committees and stood +on guard, and lay in wait for the Dragon, but he stayed up +in the hills, and there was nothing more to be done. The +faithful Nurse, meanwhile, did not neglect her duty. +Perhaps she did more than anyone else, for she slapped +the King and put him to bed without his tea, and when it +got dark she would not give him a candle to read by.</p> + +<p>"You are a naughty little King," she said, "and nobody +will love you."</p> + +<p>Next day the Dragon was still quiet, though the more +poetic of Lionel's subjects could see the redness of the +Dragon shining through the green trees quite plainly. So +Lionel put on his crown and sat on his throne and said he +wanted to make some laws.</p> + +<p>And I need hardly say that though the Prime Minister +and the Chancellor and the Nurse might have the very +poorest opinion of Lionel's private judgement, and might +even slap him and send him to bed, the minute he got on +his throne and set his crown on his head, he became infallible—which +means that everything he said was right, and +that he couldn't possibly make a mistake. So when he +said: "There is to be a law forbidding people to open +books in schools or elsewhere"—he had the support of at +least half of his subjects, and the other half—the grown-up +half—pretended to think he was quite right.</p> + +<p>Then he made a law that everyone should always have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +enough to eat. And this pleased everyone except the ones +who had always had too much.</p> + +<p>And when several other nice new laws were made and +written down he went home and made mud-houses and +was very happy. And he said to his Nurse: "People will +love me now I've made such a lot of pretty new laws for +them."</p> + +<p>But Nurse said: "Don't count your chickens, my dear. +You haven't seen the last of that Dragon yet."</p> + +<p>Now, the next day was Saturday. And in the afternoon +the Dragon suddenly swooped down upon the common in +all his hideous redness, and carried off the Soccer +Players, umpires, goal-posts, ball, and all.</p> + +<p>Then the people were very angry indeed, and they said: +"We might as well be a Republic. After saving up all these +years to get his crown, and everything!"</p> + +<p>And wise people shook their heads and foretold a +decline in the National Love of Sport. And, indeed, soccer +was not at all popular for some time afterward.</p> + +<p>Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, +and the people were beginning to forgive him for letting +the Dragon out of the book. "After all," they said, "soccer +is a dangerous game, and perhaps it is wise to discourage +it."</p> + +<p>Popular opinion held that the Soccer Players, being +tough and hard, had disagreed with the Dragon so much +that he had gone away to some place where they only +play cats' cradle and games that do not make you hard +and tough.</p> + +<p>All the same, Parliament met on the Saturday afternoon, +a convenient time, for most of the Members would +be free to attend, to consider the Dragon. But unfortunately +the Dragon, who had only been asleep, woke up +because it was Saturday, and he considered the +Parliament, and afterwards there were not any Members +left, so they tried to make a new Parliament, but being a +member of Parliament had somehow grown as unpopular +as soccer playing, and no one would consent to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +elected, so they had to do without a Parliament. When the +next Saturday came around everyone was a little nervous, +but the Red Dragon was pretty quiet that day and only ate +an Orphanage.</p> + +<p>Lionel was very, very unhappy. He felt that it was his +disobedience that had brought this trouble on the +Parliament and the Orphanage and the Soccer Players, +and he felt that it was his duty to try and do something. +The question was, what?</p> + +<p>The Blue Bird that had come out of the book used to +sing very nicely in the Palace rose garden, and the +Butterfly was very tame, and would perch on his shoulder +when he walked among the tall lilies: so Lionel saw that all +the creatures in <i>The Book of Beasts</i> could not be wicked, +like the Dragon, and he thought: "Suppose I could get +another beast out who would fight the Dragon?"</p> + +<p>So he took <i>The Book of Beasts</i> out into the rose garden +and opened the page next to the one where the Dragon +had been just a tiny bit to see what the name was. He +could only see "cora," but he felt the middle of the page +swelling up thick with the creature that was trying to +come out, and it was only by putting the book down and +sitting on it suddenly, very hard, that he managed to get it +shut. Then he fastened the clasps with the rubies and +turquoises in them and sent for the Chancellor, who had +been ill since Saturday, and so had not been eaten with +the rest of the Parliament, and he said: "What animal ends +in 'cora'?"</p> + +<p>The Chancellor answered: "The Manticora, of course."</p> + +<p>"What is he like?" asked the King.</p> + +<p>"He is the sworn foe of Dragons," said the Chancellor. +"He drinks their blood. He is yellow, with the body of a +lion and the face of a man. I wish we had a few Manticoras +here now. But the last died hundreds of years ago—worse +luck!"</p> + +<p>Then the King ran and opened the book at the page that +had "cora" on it, and there was the picture—Manticora, +all yellow, with a lion's body and a man's face, just as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +Chancellor had said. And under the picture was written, +"Manticora."</p> + +<p>In a few minutes the Manticora came sleepily out of the +book, rubbing its eyes with its hands and mewing piteously. +It seemed very stupid, and when Lionel gave it a +push and said, "Go along and fight the Dragon, do," it put +its tail between its legs and fairly ran away. It went and hid +behind the Town Hall, and at night when the people were +asleep it went around and ate all the pussy-cats in the +town. And then it mewed more than ever. And on the +Saturday morning, when people were a little timid about +going out, because the Dragon had no regular hour for +calling, the Manticora went up and down the streets and +drank all the milk that was left in the cans at the doors for +people's teas, and it ate the cans as well.</p> + +<p>And just when it had finished the very last little halfpenny +worth, which was short measure, because the milkman's +nerves were quite upset, the Red Dragon came +down the street looking for the Manticora. It edged off +when it saw him coming, for it was not at all the Dragon-fighting +kind; and, seeing no other door open, the poor, +hunted creature took refuge in the General Post Office, +and there the Dragon found it, trying to conceal itself +among the ten o'clock mail. The Dragon fell on the +Manticora at once, and the mail was no defense. The mewings +were heard all over the town. All the kitties and the +milk the Manticora had had seemed to have strengthened +its mew wonderfully. Then there was a sad silence, and +presently the people whose windows looked that way saw +the Dragon come walking down the steps of the General +Post Office spitting fire and smoke, together with tufts of +Manticora fur, and the fragments of the registered letters. +Things were growing very serious. However popular +the King might become during the week, the Dragon was +sure to do something on Saturday to upset the people's +loyalty.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 270px;"> +<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="270" height="400" alt=""The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office." See page 13." title=""The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office." See page 13." /> +<span class="caption">"The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office."<br /><a href="#Page_13"><i>See page 13.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>The Dragon was a perfect nuisance for the whole of +Saturday, except during the hour of noon, and then he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +to rest under a tree or he would have caught fire from the +heat of the sun. You see, he was very hot to begin with.</p> + +<p>At last came a Saturday when the Dragon actually +walked into the Royal nursery and carried off the King's +own pet Rocking Horse. Then the King cried for six days, +and on the seventh he was so tired that he had to stop. He +heard the Blue Bird singing among the roses and saw the +Butterfly fluttering among the lilies, and he said: "Nurse, +wipe my face, please. I am not going to cry any more."</p> + +<p>Nurse washed his face, and told him not to be a silly little +King. "Crying," said she, "never did anyone any good +yet."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said the little King, "I seem to see better, +and to hear better now that I've cried for a week. Now, +Nurse, dear, I know I'm right, so kiss me in case I never +come back. I <i>must</i> try to see if I can't save the people."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you must, you must," said Nurse, "but don't +tear your clothes or get your feet wet."</p> + +<p>So off he went.</p> + +<p>The Blue Bird sang more sweetly than ever, and the +Butterfly shone more brightly, as Lionel once more carried +<i>The Book of Beasts</i> out into the rose garden, and +opened it—very quickly, so that he might not be afraid +and change his mind. The book fell open wide, almost in +the middle, and there was written at the bottom of the +page, "Hippogriff," and before Lionel had time to see what +the picture was, there was a fluttering of great wings and +a stamping of hoofs, and a sweet, soft, friendly neighing; +and there came out of the book a beautiful white horse +with a long, long, white mane and a long, long, white tail, +and he had great wings like swan's wings, and the softest, +kindest eyes in the world, and he stood there among the +roses.</p> + +<p>The Hippogriff rubbed its silky-soft, milky white nose +against the little King's shoulder, and the little King +thought: "But for the wings you are very like my poor, +dear lost Rocking Horse." And the Blue Bird's song was +very loud and sweet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then suddenly the King saw coming through the sky +the great straggling, sprawling, wicked shape of the Red +Dragon. And he knew at once what he must do. He caught +up <i>The Book of Beasts</i> and jumped on the back of the +gentle, beautiful Hippogriff, and leaning down he whispered +in the sharp, white ear: "Fly, dear Hippogriff, fly +your very fastest to the Pebbly Waste."</p> + +<p>And when the Dragon saw them start, he turned and +flew after them, with his great wings flapping like clouds +at sunset, and the Hippogriff's wide wings were snowy as +clouds at moonrise.</p> + +<p>When the people in the town saw the Dragon fly off +after the Hippogriff and the King they all came out of their +houses to look, and when they saw the two disappear +they made up their minds to the worst, and began to think +what they would wear for Court mourning.</p> + +<p>But the Dragon could not catch the Hippogriff. The red +wings were bigger than the white ones, but they were not +so strong, and so the white-winged horse flew away and +away and away, with the Dragon pursuing, till he reached +the very middle of the Pebbly Waste.</p> + +<p>Now, the Pebbly Waste is just like the parts of the seaside +where there is no sand—all round, loose, shifting +stones, and there is no grass there and no tree within a +hundred miles of it.</p> + +<p>Lionel jumped off the white horse's back in the very +middle of the Pebbly Waste, and he hurriedly unclasped +<i>The Book of Beasts</i> and laid it open on the pebbles. Then +he clattered among the pebbles in his haste to get back on +to his white horse, and had just jumped on when up came +the Dragon. He was flying very feebly, and looking around +everywhere for a tree, for it was just on the stroke of +twelve, the sun was shining like a gold guinea in the blue +sky, and there was not a tree for a hundred miles.</p> + +<p>The white-winged horse flew around and around the +Dragon as he writhed on the dry pebbles. He was getting +very hot: indeed, parts of him even had begun to smoke. +He knew that he must certainly catch fire in another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +minute unless he could get under a tree. He made a snatch +with his red claws at the King and Hippogriff, but he was +too feeble to reach them, and besides, he did not dare to +overexert himself for fear he should get any hotter.</p> + +<p>It was then that he saw <i>The Book of Beasts</i> lying on the +pebbles, open at the page with "Dragon" written at the +bottom. He looked and he hesitated, and he looked again, +and then, with one last squirm of rage, the Dragon wriggled +himself back into the picture and sat down under the +palm tree, and the page was a little singed as he went in.</p> + +<p>As soon as Lionel saw that the Dragon had really been +obliged to go and sit under his own palm tree because it +was the only tree there, he jumped off his horse and shut +the book with a bang.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hurrah!" he cried. "Now we really have done it."</p> + +<p>And he clasped the book very tightly with the turquoise +and ruby clasps.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my precious Hippogriff," he cried. "You are the +bravest, dearest, most beautiful—"</p> + +<p>"Hush," whispered the Hippogriff modestly. "Don't you +see that we are not alone?"</p> + +<p>And indeed there was quite a crowd round them on the +Pebbly Waste: the Prime Minister and the Parliament and +the Soccer Players and the Orphanage and the Manticora +and the Rocking Horse, and indeed everyone who had +been eaten by the Dragon. You see, it was impossible for +the Dragon to take them into the book with him—it was a +tight fit even for one Dragon—so, of course, he had to +leave them outside.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>They all got home somehow, and all lived happy ever +after.</p> + +<p>When the King asked the Manticora where he would +like to live he begged to be allowed to go back into the +book. "I do not care for public life," he said.</p> + +<p>Of course he knew his way onto his own page, so there +was no danger of his opening the book at the wrong page +and letting out a Dragon or anything. So he got back into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +his picture and has never come out since: That is why you +will never see a Manticora as long as you live, except in a +picture-book. And of course he left the kitties outside, +because there was no room for them in the book—and the +milk cans too.</p> + +<p>Then the Rocking Horse begged to be allowed to go and +live on the Hippogriff's page of the book. "I should like," +he said, "to live somewhere where Dragons can't get at +me."</p> + +<p>So the beautiful, white-winged Hippogriff showed him +the way in, and there he stayed till the King had him taken +out for his great-great-great-great-grandchildren to play +with.</p> + +<p>As for the Hippogriff, he accepted the position of the +King's Own Rocking Horse—a situation left vacant by +the retirement of the wooden one. And the Blue Bird and +the Butterfly sing and flutter among the lilies and roses +of the Palace garden to this very day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 242px;"> +<img src="images/gs05.jpg" width="242" height="400" alt="UNCLE JAMES +OR THE PURPLE +STRANGER" title="UNCLE JAMES +OR THE PURPLE +STRANGER" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II. Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger</h2> + + +<p>The Princess and the gardener's boy were playing in +the backyard.</p> + +<p>"What will you do when you grow up, Princess?" asked +the gardener's boy.</p> + +<p>"I should like to marry you, Tom," said the Princess. +"Would you mind?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the gardener's boy. "I shouldn't mind much. +I'll marry you if you like—if I have time."</p> + +<p>For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown +up, to be a general and a poet and a Prime Minister and +an admiral and a civil engineer. Meanwhile, he was top of +all his classes at school, and tip-top of the geography +class.</p> + +<p>As for the Princess Mary Ann, she was a very good little +girl, and everyone loved her. She was always kind and +polite, even to her Uncle James and to other people whom +she did not like very much; and though she was not very +clever, for a Princess, she always tried to do her lessons. +Even if you know perfectly well that you can't do your +lessons, you may as well try, and sometimes you find that +by some fortunate accident they really <i>are</i> done. Then the +Princess had a truly good heart: She was always kind to +her pets. She never slapped her hippopotamus when it +broke her dolls in its playful gambols, and she never forgot +to feed her rhinoceroses in their little hutch in the +backyard. Her elephant was devoted to her, and sometimes +Mary Ann made her nurse quite cross by smuggling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +the dear little thing up to bed with her and letting it go to +sleep with its long trunk laid lovingly across her throat, +and its pretty head cuddled under the Royal right ear.</p> + +<p>When the Princess had been good all through the +week—for, like all real, live, nice children, she was sometimes +naughty, but never bad—Nurse would allow her to +ask her little friends to come on Wednesday morning early +and spend the day, because Wednesday is the end of the +week in that country. Then, in the afternoon, when all the +little dukes and duchesses and marquises and countesses +had finished their rice pudding and had had their hands +and faces washed after it, Nurse would say: "Now, my +dears, what would you like to do this afternoon?" just as +if she didn't know. And the answer would be always the +same:</p> + +<p>"Oh, do let's go to the Zoological Gardens and ride on +the big guinea pig and feed the rabbits and hear the dormouse +asleep."</p> + +<p>So their pinafores were taken off and they all went to +the Zoological Gardens, where twenty of them could ride +at a time on the guinea pig, and where even the little ones +could feed the great rabbits if some grown-up person +were kind enough to lift them up for the purpose.</p> + +<p>There always was some such person, because in +Rotundia everybody was kind—except one.</p> + +<p>Now that you have read as far as this you know, of +course, that the Kingdom of Rotundia was a very remarkable +place; and if you are a thoughtful child—as of course +you are—you will not need me to tell you what was the +most remarkable thing about it. But in case you are not a +thoughtful child—and it is just possible of course that you +are not—I will tell you at once what that most remarkable +thing was. <i>All the animals were the wrong sizes!</i> And this +was how it happened.</p> + +<p>In old, old, olden times, when all our world was just +loose earth and air and fire and water mixed up anyhow +like a pudding, and spinning around like mad trying to get +the different things to settle into their proper places, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'around'">round</ins> piece of earth got loose and went spinning away by +itself across the water, which was just beginning to try to +get spread out smooth into a real sea. And as the great +round piece of earth flew away, going around and around +as hard as it could, it met a long piece of hard rock that +had got loose from another part of the puddingy mixture, +and the rock was so hard, and was going so fast, that it ran +its point through the round piece of earth and stuck out +on the other side of it, so that the two together were like +a very-very-much-too-big spinning top.</p> + +<p>I am afraid all this is very dull, but you know geography +is never quite lively, and after all, I must give you a little +information even in a fairy tale—like the powder in jam.</p> + +<p>Well, when the pointed rock smashed into the round bit +of earth the shock was so great that it set them spinning +together through the air—which was just getting into its +proper place, like all the rest of the things—only, as luck +would have it, they forgot which way around they had +been going, and began to spin around the wrong way. +Presently Center of Gravity—a great giant who was managing +the whole business—woke up in the middle of the +earth and began to grumble.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up," he said. "Come down and lie still, can't you?"</p> + +<p>So the rock with the round piece of earth fell into the +sea, and the point of the rock went into a hole that just fitted +it in the stony sea bottom, and there it spun around +the wrong way seven times and then lay still. And that +round piece of land became, after millions of years, the +Kingdom of Rotundia.</p> + +<p>This is the end of the geography lesson. And now for +just a little natural history, so that we may not feel that we +are quite wasting our time. Of course, the consequence of +the island having spun around the wrong way was that +when the animals began to grow on the island they all +grew the wrong sizes. The guinea pig, as you know, was as +big as our elephants, and the elephant—dear little pet—was +the size of the silly, tiny, black-and-tan dogs that +ladies carry sometimes in their muffs. The rabbits were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +about the size of our rhinoceroses, and all about the wild +parts of the island they had made their burrows as big as +railway tunnels. The dormouse, of course, was the biggest +of all the creatures. I can't tell you how big he was. Even +if you think of elephants it will not help you at all. Luckily +there was only one of him, and he was always asleep. +Otherwise I don't think the Rotundians could have borne +with him. As it was, they made him a house, and it saved +the expense of a brass band, because no band could possibly +have been heard when the dormouse was talking in +his sleep.</p> + +<p>The men and women and children in this wonderful +island were quite the right size, because their ancestors +had come over with the Conqueror long after the island +had settled down and the animals grown on it.</p> + +<p>Now the natural history lesson is over, and if you have +been attending, you know more about Rotundia than anyone +there did, except three people: the Lord Chief +Schoolmaster, the Princess's uncle—who was a magician, +and knew everything without learning it—and Tom, the +gardener's son.</p> + +<p>Tom had learned more at school than anyone else, +because he wished to take a prize. The prize offered by +the Lord Chief Schoolmaster was a <i>History of Rotundia</i>, +beautifully bound, with the Royal arms on the back. But +after that day when the Princess said she meant to marry +Tom, the gardener's boy thought it over, and he decided +that the best prize in the world would be the Princess, +and this was the prize Tom meant to take; and when you +are a gardener's son and have decided to marry a +Princess, you will find that the more you learn at school +the better.</p> + +<p>The Princess always played with Tom on the days when +the little dukes and marquises did not come to tea—and +when he told her he was almost sure of the first prize, she +clapped her hands and said: "Dear Tom, dear good, clever +Tom, you deserve all the prizes. And I will give you my pet +elephant—and you can keep him till we're married."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + +<p>The pet elephant was called Fido, and the gardener's +son took him away in his coat pocket. He was the dearest +little elephant you ever saw—about six inches long. But +he was very, very wise—he could not have been wiser if +he had been a mile high. He lay down comfortably in +Tom's pocket, and when Tom put in his hand, Fido curled +his little trunk around Tom's fingers with an affectionate +confidence that made the boy's heart warm to his new little +pet. What with the elephant, and the Princess's affection, +and the knowledge that the very next day he would +receive the <i>History of Rotundia</i>, beautifully bound, with +the Royal arms on the cover, Tom could hardly sleep a +wink. And, besides, the dog did bark so terribly. There +was only one dog in Rotundia—the kingdom could not +afford to keep more than one: He was a Mexican lapdog of +the kind that in most parts of the world only measures +seven inches from the end of his dear nose to the tip of his +darling tail—but in Rotundia he was bigger than I can possibly +expect you to believe. And when he barked, his bark +was so large that it filled up all the night and left no room +for sleep or dreams or polite conversation, or anything +else at all. He never barked at things that went on in the +island—he was too large-minded for that; but when ships +went blundering by in the dark, tumbling over the rocks +at the end of the island, he would bark once or twice, just +to let the ships know that they couldn't come playing +about there just as they liked.</p> + +<p>But on this particular night he barked and barked and +barked—and the Princess said, "Oh dear, oh dear, I wish +he wouldn't, I am so sleepy." And Tom said to himself, "I +wonder whatever is the matter. As soon as it's light I'll go +and see."</p> + +<p>So when it began to be pretty pink-and-yellow daylight, +Tom got up and went out. And all the time the Mexican +lapdog barked so that the houses shook, and the tiles on +the roof of the palace rattled like milk cans in a cart whose +horse is frisky.</p> + +<p>"I'll go to the pillar," thought Tom, as he went through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +the town. The pillar, of course, was the top of the piece of +rock that had stuck itself through Rotundia millions of +years before, and made it spin around the wrong way. It +was quite in the middle of the island, and stuck up ever so +far, and when you were at the top you could see a great +deal farther than when you were not.</p> + +<p>As Tom went out from the town and across the downs, +he thought what a pretty sight it was to see the rabbits in +the bright, dewy morning, frisking with their young ones +by the mouths of their burrows. He did not go very near +the rabbits, of course, because when a rabbit of that size +is at play it does not always look where it is going, and it +might easily have crushed Tom with its foot, and then it +would have been very sorry afterward. And Tom was a +kind boy, and would not have liked to make even a rabbit +unhappy. Earwigs in our country often get out of the way +when they think you are going to walk on them. They too +have kind hearts, and they would not like you to be sorry +afterward.</p> + +<p>So Tom went on, looking at the rabbits and watching +the morning grow more and more red and golden. And the +Mexican lapdog barked all the time, till the church bells +tinkled, and the chimney of the apple factory rocked +again.</p> + +<p>But when Tom got to the pillar, he saw that he would +not need to climb to the top to find out what the dog was +barking at.</p> + +<p>For there, by the pillar, lay a very large purple dragon. +His wings were like old purple umbrellas that have been +very much rained on, and his head was large and bald, +like the top of a purple toadstool, and his tail, which was +purple too, was very, very, very long and thin and tight, +like the lash of a carriage whip.</p> + +<p>It was licking one of its purple umbrella-y wings, and +every now and then it moaned and leaned its head back +against the rocky pillar as though it felt faint. Tom saw at +once what had happened. A flight of purple dragons must +have crossed the island in the night, and this poor one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +must have knocked its wing and broken it against the +pillar.</p> + +<p>Everyone is kind to everyone in Rotundia, and Tom was +not afraid of the dragon, although he had never spoken to +one before. He had often watched them flying across the +sea, but he had never expected to get to know one +personally.</p> + +<p>So now he said: "I am afraid you don't feel quite well."</p> + +<p>The dragon shook his large purple head. He could not +speak, but like all other animals, he could understand well +enough when he liked.</p> + +<p>"Can I get you anything?" asked Tom, politely.</p> + +<p>The dragon opened his purple eyes with an inquiring +smile.</p> + +<p>"A bun or two, now," said Tom, coaxingly. "There's a +beautiful bun tree quite close."</p> + +<p>The dragon opened a great purple mouth and licked his +purple lips, so Tom ran and shook the bun tree, and soon +came back with an armful of fresh currant buns, and as he +came he picked a few of the Bath kind, which grow on the +low bushes near the pillar.</p> + +<p>Because, of course, another consequence of the +island's having spun the wrong way is that all the things +we have to make—buns and cakes and shortbread—grow +on trees and bushes, but in Rotundia they have to make +their cauliflowers and cabbages and carrots and apples +and onions, just as our cooks make puddings and +turnovers.</p> + +<p>Tom gave all the buns to the dragon, saying: "Here, try +to eat a little. You'll soon feel better then."</p> + +<p>The dragon ate up the buns, nodded rather ungraciously, +and began to lick his wing again. So Tom left him +and went back to the town with the news, and everyone +was so excited at a real live dragon's being on the island—a +thing that had never happened before—that they all +went out to look at it, instead of going to the prize-giving, +and the Lord Chief Schoolmaster went with the rest. Now, +he had Tom's prize, the <i>History of Rotundia</i>, in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +pocket—the one bound in calf, with the Royal arms on the +cover—and it happened to drop out, and the dragon ate +it, so Tom never got the prize after all. But the dragon, +when he had gotten it, did not like it.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it's all for the best," said Tom. "I might not +have liked that prize either, if I had gotten it."</p> + +<p>It happened to be a Wednesday, so when the Princess's +friends were asked what they would like to do, all the little +dukes and marquises and earls said, "Let's go and see +the dragon." But the little duchesses and marchionesses +and countesses said they were afraid.</p> + +<p>Then Princess Mary Ann spoke up royally, and said, +"Don't be silly, because it's only in fairy stories and histories +of England and things like that, that people are unkind +and want to hurt each other. In Rotundia everyone is kind, +and no one has anything to be afraid of, unless they're +naughty; and then we know it's for our own good. Let's all +go and see the dragon. We might take him some acid +drops." So they went. And all the titled children took it in +turns to feed the dragon with acid drops, and he seemed +pleased and flattered, and wagged as much of his purple +tail as he could get at conveniently; for it was a very, very +long tail indeed. But when it came to the Princess's turn +to give an acid drop to the dragon, he smiled a very wide +smile, and wagged his tail to the very last long inch of it, +as much as to say, "Oh, you nice, kind, pretty little +Princess." But deep down in his wicked purple heart he +was saying, "Oh, you nice, fat, pretty little Princess, I +should like to eat you instead of these silly acid drops." +But of course nobody heard him except the Princess's +uncle, and he was a magician, and accustomed to listening +at doors. It was part of his trade.</p> + +<p>Now, you will remember that I told you there was one +wicked person in Rotundia, and I cannot conceal from you +any longer that this Complete Bad was the Princess's +Uncle James. Magicians are always bad, as you know from +your fairy books, and some uncles are bad, as you see by +the <i>Babes in the Wood</i>, or the <i>Norfolk Tragedy</i>, and one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +James at least was bad, as you have learned from your +English history. And when anyone is a magician, and is +also an uncle, and is named James as well, you need not +expect anything nice from him. He is a Threefold +Complete Bad—and he will come to no good.</p> + +<p>Uncle James had long wanted to get rid of the Princess +and have the kingdom to himself. He did not like many +things—a nice kingdom was almost the only thing he +cared for—but he had never seen his way quite clearly, +because everyone is so kind in Rotundia that wicked +spells will not work there, but run off those blameless +islanders like water off a duck's back. Now, however, +Uncle James thought there might be a chance for him—because +he knew that now there were two wicked people +on the island who could stand by each other—himself +and the dragon. He said nothing, but he exchanged a +meaningful glance with the dragon, and everyone went +home to tea. And no one had seen the meaningful glance +except Tom.</p> + +<p>Tom went home, and told his elephant all about it. The +intelligent little creature listened carefully, and then +climbed from Tom's knee to the table, on which stood an +ornamental calendar that the Princess had given Tom for +a Christmas present. With its tiny trunk the elephant +pointed out a date—the fifteenth of August, the Princess's +birthday, and looked anxiously at its master.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Fido—good little elephant—then?" said +Tom, and the sagacious animal repeated its former gesture. +Then Tom understood.</p> + +<p>"Oh, something is to happen on her birthday? All right. +I'll be on the lookout." And he was.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/gs06.jpg" width="300" height="341" alt=""By-and-by he began to wander." See page 29." title=""By-and-by he began to wander." See page 29." /> +<span class="caption">"By-and-by he began to wander."<br /><a href="#Page_29"><i>See page 29.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>At first the people of Rotundia were quite pleased with +the dragon, who lived by the pillar and fed himself from +the bun trees, but by-and-by he began to wander. He +would creep into the burrows made by the great rabbits; +and excursionists, sporting on the downs, would see his +long, tight, whiplike tail wriggling down a burrow and out +of sight, and before they had time to say, "There he goes,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +his ugly purple head would come poking out from another +rabbit-hole—perhaps just behind them—or laugh softly +to itself just in their ears. And the dragon's laugh was not +a merry one. This sort of hide-and-seek amused people at +first, but by-and-by it began to get on their nerves: and if +you don't know what that means, ask Mother to tell you +next time you are playing blind man's buff when she has a +headache. Then the dragon got into the habit of cracking +his tail, as people crack whips, and this also got on people's +nerves. Then, too, little things began to be missed. +And you know how unpleasant that is, even in a private +school, and in a public kingdom it is, of course, much +worse. The things that were missed were nothing much at +first—a few little elephants, a hippopotamus or two, and +some giraffes, and things like that. It was nothing much, +as I say, but it made people feel uncomfortable. Then one +day a favorite rabbit of the Princess's, called Frederick, +mysteriously disappeared, and then came a terrible morning +when the Mexican lapdog was missing. He had barked +ever since the dragon came to the island, and people had +grown quite used to the noise. So when his barking suddenly +ceased it woke everybody up—and they all went +out to see what was the matter. And the lapdog was gone!</p> + +<p>A boy was sent to wake the army, so that it might look +for him. But the army was gone too! And now the people +began to be frightened. Then Uncle James came out onto +the terrace of the palace, and he made the people a +speech. He said: "Friends—fellow citizens—I cannot disguise +from myself or from you that this purple dragon is a +poor penniless exile, a helpless alien in our midst, and, +besides, he is a—is no end of a dragon."</p> + +<p>The people thought of the dragon's tail and said, "Hear, +hear."</p> + +<p>Uncle James went on: "Something has happened to a +gentle and defenseless member of our community. We +don't know what has happened."</p> + +<p>Everyone thought of the rabbit named Frederick, and +groaned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The defenses of our country have been swallowed up," +said Uncle James.</p> + +<p>Everyone thought of the poor army.</p> + +<p>"There is only one thing to be done." Uncle James was +warming to his subject. "Could we ever forgive ourselves +if by neglecting a simple precaution we lost more rabbits—or +even, perhaps, our navy, our police, and our fire +brigade? For I warn you that the purple dragon will +respect nothing, however sacred."</p> + +<p>Everyone thought of themselves—and they said, "What +is the simple precaution?"</p> + +<p>Then Uncle James said: "Tomorrow is the dragon's +birthday. He is accustomed to have a present on his birthday. +If he gets a nice present he will be in a hurry to take +it away and show it to his friends, and he will fly off and +never come back."</p> + +<p>The crowd cheered wildly—and the Princess from her +balcony clapped her hands.</p> + +<p>"The present the dragon expects," said Uncle James, +cheerfully, "is rather an expensive one. But, when we give, +it should not be in a grudging spirit, especially to visitors. +What the dragon wants is a Princess. We have only one +Princess, it is true; but far be it from us to display a miserly +temper at such a moment. And the gift is worthless +that costs the giver nothing. Your readiness to give up +your Princess will only show how generous you are."</p> + +<p>The crowd began to cry, for they loved their Princess, +though they quite saw that their first duty was to be generous +and give the poor dragon what it wanted.</p> + +<p>The Princess began to cry, for she did not want to be +anybody's birthday present—especially a purple dragon's. +And Tom began to cry because he was so angry.</p> + +<p>He went straight home and told his little elephant; and +the elephant cheered him up so much that presently the +two grew quite absorbed in a top that the elephant was +spinning with his little trunk.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning Tom went to the palace. He looked +out across the downs—there were hardly any rabbits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +playing there now—and then he gathered white roses and +threw them at the Princess's window till she woke up and +looked out.</p> + +<p>"Come up and kiss me," she said.</p> + +<p>So Tom climbed up the white rosebush and kissed the +Princess through the window, and said: "Many happy +returns of the day."</p> + +<p>Then Mary Ann began to cry, and said: "Oh, Tom—how +can you? When you know quite well—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't," said Tom. "Why, Mary Ann, my precious, +my Princess—what do you think I should be doing while +the dragon was getting his birthday present? Don't cry, +my own little Mary Ann! Fido and I have arranged everything. +You've only got to do as you are told."</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" said the Princess. "Oh—that's easy—I've +often done that!"</p> + +<p>Then Tom told her what she was to do. And she kissed +him again and again. "Oh, you dear, good, clever Tom," +she said. "How glad I am that I gave you Fido. You two +have saved me. You dears!"</p> + +<p>The next morning Uncle James put on his best coat and +hat and the vest with the gold snakes on it—he was a +magician, and he had a bright taste in vests—and he +called with a cab to take the Princess out.</p> + +<p>"Come, little birthday present," he said tenderly. "The +dragon will be so pleased. And I'm glad to see you're not +crying. You know, my child, we cannot begin too young to +learn to think of the happiness of others rather than our +own. I should not like my dear little niece to be selfish, or +to wish to deny a trivial pleasure to a poor, sick dragon, +far from his home and friends."</p> + +<p>The Princess said she would try not to be selfish.</p> + +<p>Presently the cab drew up near the pillar, and there was +the dragon, his ugly purple head shining in the sun, and +his ugly purple mouth half open.</p> + +<p>Uncle James said: "Good morning, sir. We have brought +you a small present for your birthday. We do not like to +let such an anniversary go by without some suitable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +testimonial, especially to one who is a stranger in our +midst. Our means are small, but our hearts are large. We +have but one Princess, but we give her freely—do we not, +my child?"</p> + +<p>The Princess said she supposed so, and the dragon +came a little nearer.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a voice cried: "Run!" and there was Tom, and +he had brought the Zoological guinea pig and a pair of +Belgian hares with him. "Just to see fair," said Tom.</p> + +<p>Uncle James was furious. "What do you mean, sir," he +cried, "by intruding on a State function with your common +rabbits and things? Go away, naughty little boy, and play +with them somewhere else."</p> + +<p>But while he was speaking the rabbits had come up one +on each side of him, their great sides towering ever so +high, and now they pressed him between them so that he +was buried in their thick fur and almost choked. The +Princess, meantime, had run to the other side of the pillar +and was peeping around it to see what was going on. A +crowd had followed the cab out of the town; now they +reached the scene of the "State Function"—and they all +cried out: "Fair play—play fair! We can't go back on our +word like this. Give a thing and take a thing? Why, it's +never done. Let the poor exiled stranger dragon have his +birthday present." And they tried to get at Tom—but the +guinea pig stood in the way.</p> + +<p>"Yes," Tom cried. "Fair play is a jewel. And your helpless +exile shall have the Princess—if he can catch her. +Now then, Mary Ann."</p> + +<p>Mary Ann looked around the big pillar and called to the +dragon: "Bo! you can't catch me," and began to run as fast +as ever she could, and the dragon ran after her. When the +Princess had run a half mile she stopped, dodged around +a tree, and ran back to the pillar and around it, and the +dragon after her. You see, he was so long he could not +turn as quickly as she could. Around and around the pillar +ran the Princess. The first time she ran around a long +way from the pillar, and then nearer and nearer—with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +dragon after her all the time; and he was so busy trying to +catch her that he never noticed that Tom had tied the +very end of his long, tight, whipcordy tail to the rock, so +that the more the dragon ran around, the more times he +twisted his tail around the pillar. It was exactly like winding +a top—only the peg was the pillar, and the dragon's +tail was the string. And the magician was safe between the +Belgian hares, and couldn't see anything but darkness, or +do anything but choke.</p> + +<p>When the dragon was wound onto the pillar as much as +he possibly could be, and as tight—like cotton on a reel—the +Princess stopped running, and though she had very +little breath left, she managed to say, "Yah—who's won +now?"</p> + +<p>This annoyed the dragon so much that he put out all his +strength—spread his great purple wings, and tried to fly +at her. Of course this pulled his tail, and pulled it very +hard, so hard that as he pulled the tail <i>had</i> to come, and +the pillar <i>had</i> to come around with the tail, and the island +<i>had</i> to come around with the pillar, and in another minute +the tail was loose, and the island was spinning around +exactly like a top. It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on +their faces and held on tight to themselves, because they +felt something was going to happen. All but the magician, +who was choking between the Belgian hares, and felt +nothing but fur and fury.</p> + +<p>And something did happen. The dragon had sent the +kingdom of Rotundia spinning the way it ought to have +gone at the beginning of the world, and as it spun around, +all the animals began to change sizes. The guinea pigs got +small, and the elephants got big, and the men and women +and children would have changed sizes too, if they had +not had the sense to hold on to themselves, very tight +indeed, with both hands; which, of course, the animals +could not be expected to know how to do. And the best of +it was that when the small beasts got big and the big +beasts got small the dragon got small too, and fell at the +Princess's feet—a little, crawling, purple newt with wings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 223px;"> +<img src="images/gs07.jpg" width="223" height="350" alt=""The dragon ran after her." See page 34." title=""The dragon ran after her." See page 34." /> +<span class="caption">"The dragon ran after her."<br /><a href="#Page_34"><i>See page 34.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Funny little thing," said the Princess, when she saw it. +"I will take it for a birthday present."</p> + +<p>But while all the people were still on their faces, holding +on tight to themselves, Uncle James, the magician, +never thought of holding tight—he only thought of how to +punish Belgian hares and the sons of gardeners; so when +the big beasts grew small, he grew small with the other +beasts, and the little purple dragon, when he fell at the +Princess's feet, saw there a very small magician named +Uncle James. And the dragon took him because it wanted +a birthday present.</p> + +<p>So now all the animals were new sizes—and at first it +seemed very strange to everyone to have great lumbering +elephants and a tiny little dormouse, but they have gotten +used to it now, and think no more of it than we do.</p> + +<p>All this happened several years ago, and the other day +I saw in the <i>Rotundia Times</i> an account of the wedding of +the Princess with Lord Thomas Gardener, K.C.D., and I +knew she could not have married anyone but Tom, so I +suppose they made him a Lord on purpose for the wedding—and +<i>K.C.D.</i>, of course, means Clever Conqueror of +the Dragon. If you think that is wrong it is only because +you don't know how they spell in Rotundia. The paper +said that among the beautiful presents of the bridegroom +to the bride was an enormous elephant, on which the +bridal pair made their wedding tour. This must have been +Fido. You remember Tom promised to give him back to +the Princess when they were married. The <i>Rotundia Times</i> +called the married couple "the happy pair." It was clever +of the paper to think of calling them that—it is such a +pretty and novel expression, and I think it is truer than +many of the things you see in papers.</p> + +<p>Because, you see, the Princess and the gardener's son +were so fond of each other they could not help being +happy—and besides, they had an elephant of their very +own to ride on. If that is not enough to make people +happy, I should like to know what is. Though, of course, I +know there are some people who could not be happy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +unless they had a whale to sail on, and perhaps not even +then. But they are greedy, grasping people, the kind who +would take four helps of pudding, as likely as not, which +neither Tom nor Mary Ann ever did.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 267px;"> +<img src="images/gs08.jpg" width="267" height="400" alt="THE +DELIVERERS +OF THEIR +COUNTRY" title="THE +DELIVERERS +OF THEIR +COUNTRY" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III. The Deliverers of Their Country</h2> + + +<p>It all began with Effie's getting something in her eye. It +hurt very much indeed, and it felt something like a red-hot +spark—only it seemed to have legs as well, and wings +like a fly. Effie rubbed and cried—not real crying, but the +kind your eye does all by itself without your being miserable +inside your mind—and then she went to her father to +have the thing in her eye taken out. Effie's father was a +doctor, so of course he knew how to take things out of +eyes—he did it very cleverly with a soft paintbrush +dipped in castor oil.</p> + +<p>When he had gotten the thing out, he said: "This is very +curious." Effie had often got things in her eye before, and +her father had always seemed to think it was natural—rather +tiresome and naughty perhaps, but still natural. He +had never before thought it curious.</p> + +<p>Effie stood holding her handkerchief to her eye, and +said: "I don't believe it's out." People always say this when +they have had something in their eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes—it's out," said the doctor. "Here it is, on the +brush. This is very interesting."</p> + +<p>Effie had never heard her father say that about anything +that she had any share in. She said: "What?"</p> + +<p>The doctor carried the brush very carefully across the +room, and held the point of it under his microscope—then +he twisted the brass screws of the microscope, and +looked through the top with one eye.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," he said. "Dear, dear me! Four well-developed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +limbs; a long caudal appendage; five toes, unequal in +lengths, almost like one of the <i>Lacertidae</i>, yet there are +traces of wings." The creature under his eye wriggled a +little in the castor oil, and he went on: "Yes; a batlike wing. +A new specimen, undoubtedly. Effie, run round to the professor +and ask him to be kind enough to step in for a few +minutes."</p> + +<p>"You might give me sixpence, Daddy," said Effie, +"because I did bring you the new specimen. I took great +care of it inside my eye, and my eye <i>does</i> hurt."</p> + +<p>The doctor was so pleased with the new specimen that +he gave Effie a shilling, and presently the professor +stepped round. He stayed to lunch, and he and the doctor +quarreled very happily all the afternoon about the name +and the family of the thing that had come out of Effie's eye.</p> + +<p>But at teatime another thing happened. Effie's brother +Harry fished something out of his tea, which he thought +at first was an earwig. He was just getting ready to drop it +on the floor, and end its life in the usual way, when it +shook itself in the spoon—spread two wet wings, and +flopped onto the tablecloth. There it sat, stroking itself +with its feet and stretching its wings, and Harry said: +"Why, it's a tiny newt!"</p> + +<p>The professor leaned forward before the doctor could +say a word. "I'll give you half a crown for it, Harry, my lad," +he said, speaking very fast; and then he picked it up carefully +on his handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"It is a new specimen," he said, "and finer than yours, +Doctor."</p> + +<p>It was a tiny lizard, about half an inch long—with scales +and wings.</p> + +<p>So now the doctor and the professor each had a specimen, +and they were both very pleased. But before long +these specimens began to seem less valuable. For the +next morning, when the knife-boy was cleaning the doctor's +boots, he suddenly dropped the brushes and the +boot and the blacking, and screamed out that he was +burnt.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p> + +<p>And from inside the boot came crawling a lizard as big +as a kitten, with large, shiny wings.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Effie, "I know what it is. It is a dragon like +the one St. George killed."</p> + +<p>And Effie was right. That afternoon Towser was bitten +in the garden by a dragon about the size of a rabbit, which +he had tried to chase, and the next morning all the papers +were full of the wonderful "winged lizards" that were +appearing all over the country. The papers would not call +them dragons, because, of course, no one believes in +dragons nowadays—and at any rate the papers were not +going to be so silly as to believe in fairy stories. At first +there were only a few, but in a week or two the country +was simply running alive with dragons of all sizes, and in +the air you could sometimes see them as thick as a swarm +of bees. They all looked alike except as to size. They were +green with scales, and they had four legs and a long tail +and great wings like bats' wings, only the wings were +a pale, half-transparent yellow, like the gear-boxes on +bicycles.</p> + +<p>They breathed fire and smoke, as all proper dragons +must, but still the newspapers went on pretending they +were lizards, until the editor of the <i>Standard</i> was picked +up and carried away by a very large one, and then the +other newspaper people had not anyone left to tell them +what they ought not to believe. So when the largest elephant +in the Zoo was carried off by a dragon, the papers +gave up pretending—and put <span class="smcap">Alarming Plague of Dragons</span> +at the top of the paper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 268px;"> +<img src="images/gs09.jpg" width="268" height="400" alt=""The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off." See page 43." title=""The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off." See page 43." /> +<span class="caption">"The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off."<br /><a href="#Page_43"><i>See page 43.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>You have no idea how alarming it was, and at the same +time how aggravating. The large-size dragons were terrible +certainly, but when once you had found out that the +dragons always went to bed early because they were +afraid of the chill night air, you had only to stay indoors +all day, and you were pretty safe from the big ones. But +the smaller sizes were a perfect nuisance. The ones as big +as earwigs got in the soap, and they got in the butter. The +ones as big as dogs got in the bath, and the fire and smoke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +inside them made them steam like anything when the cold +water tap was turned on, so that careless people were +often scalded quite severely. The ones that were as large +as pigeons would get into workbaskets or corner drawers +and bite you when you were in a hurry to get a needle or +a handkerchief. The ones as big as sheep were easier to +avoid, because you could see them coming; but when +they flew in at the windows and curled up under your +eiderdown, and you did not find them till you went to bed, +it was always a shock. The ones this size did not eat +people, only lettuce, but they always scorched the sheets +and pillowcases dreadfully.</p> + +<p>Of course, the County Council and the police did everything +that could be done: It was no use offering the hand +of the Princess to anyone who killed a dragon. This way +was all very well in olden times—when there was only one +dragon and one Princess; but now there were far more +dragons than Princesses—although the Royal Family was +a large one. And besides, it would have been a mere waste +of Princesses to offer rewards for killing dragons, because +everybody killed as many dragons as they could quite out +of their own heads and without rewards at all, just to get +the nasty things out of the way. The County Council +undertook to cremate all dragons delivered at their +offices between the hours of ten and two, and whole wagonloads +and cartloads and truckloads of dead dragons +could be seen any day of the week standing in a long line +in the street where the County Council had their offices. +Boys brought barrowloads of dead dragons, and children +on their way home from morning school would call in to +leave the handful or two of little dragons they had +brought in their satchels, or carried in their knotted +pocket handkerchiefs. And yet there seemed to be as +many dragons as ever. Then the police stuck up great +wood and canvas towers covered with patent glue. When +the dragons flew against these towers, they stuck fast, as +flies and wasps do on the sticky papers in the kitchen; and +when the towers were covered all over with dragons, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +police inspector used to set fire to the towers, and burnt +them and dragons and all.</p> + +<p>And yet there seemed to be more dragons than ever. +The shops were full of patent dragon poison and anti-dragon +soap, and dragonproof curtains for the windows; +and indeed, everything that could be done was done.</p> + +<p>And yet there seemed to be more dragons than ever.</p> + +<p>It was not very easy to know what would poison a dragon, +because, you see, they ate such different things. The +largest kind ate elephants as long as there were any, and +then went on with horses and cows. Another size ate +nothing but lilies of the valley, and a third size ate only +Prime Ministers if they were to be had, and, if not, would +feed freely on servants in livery. Another size lived on +bricks, and three of them ate two thirds of the South +Lambeth Infirmary in one afternoon.</p> + +<p>But the size Effie was most afraid of was about as big as +your dining room, and that size ate little girls and boys.</p> + +<p>At first Effie and her brother were quite pleased with +the change in their lives. It was so amusing to sit up all +night instead of going to sleep, and to play in the garden +lighted by electric lamps. And it sounded so funny to hear +Mother say, when they were going to bed: "Good night, +my darlings, sleep sound all day, and don't get up too +soon. You must not get up before it's quite dark. You +wouldn't like the nasty dragons to catch you."</p> + +<p>But after a time they got very tired of it all: They wanted +to see the flowers and trees growing in the fields, and +to see the pretty sunshine out of doors, and not just +through glass windows and patent dragonproof curtains. +And they wanted to play on the grass, which they were +not allowed to do in the electric lamp-lighted garden +because of the night-dew.</p> + +<p>And they wanted so much to get out, just for once, in +the beautiful, bright, dangerous daylight, that they began +to try and think of some reason why they ought to go out. +Only they did not like to disobey their mother.</p> + +<p>But one morning their mother was busy preparing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +some new dragon poison to lay down in the cellars, and +their father was bandaging the hand of the boot boy, +which had been scratched by one of the dragons who +liked to eat Prime Ministers when they were to be had, so +nobody remembered to say to the children: "Don't get up +till it is quite dark!"</p> + +<p>"Go now," said Harry. "It would not be disobedient to +go. And I know exactly what we ought to do, but I don't +know how we ought to do it."</p> + +<p>"What ought we to do?" said Effie.</p> + +<p>"We ought to wake St. George, of course," said Harry. +"He was the only person in his town who knew how to +manage dragons; the people in the fairy tales don't count. +But St. George is a real person, and he is only asleep, and +he is waiting to be waked up. Only nobody believes in St. +George now. I heard father say so."</p> + +<p>"We do," said Effie.</p> + +<p>"Of course we do. And don't you see, Ef, that's the very +reason why we could wake him? You can't wake people if +you don't believe in them, can you?"</p> + +<p>Effie said no, but where could they find St. George?</p> + +<p>"We must go and look," said Harry boldly. "You shall +wear a dragonproof frock, made of stuff like the curtains. +And I will smear myself all over with the best dragon poison, +and—"</p> + +<p>Effie clasped her hands and skipped with joy and cried: +"Oh, Harry! I know where we can find St. George! In St. +George's Church, of course."</p> + +<p>"Um," said Harry, wishing he had thought of it for himself, +"you have a little sense sometimes, for a girl."</p> + +<p>So the next afternoon, quite early, long before the +beams of sunset announced the coming night, when +everybody would be up and working, the two children got +out of bed. Effie wrapped herself in a shawl of dragonproof +muslin—there was no time to make the frock—and +Harry made a horrid mess of himself with the patent dragon +poison. It was warranted harmless to infants and +invalids, so he felt quite safe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then they joined hands and set out to walk to St. +George's Church. As you know, there are many St. +George's churches, but fortunately they took the turning +that leads to the right one, and went along in the bright +sunlight, feeling very brave and adventurous.</p> + +<p>There was no one about in the streets except dragons, +and the place was simply swarming with them. +Fortunately none of the dragons were just the right size +for eating little boys and girls, or perhaps this story might +have had to end here. There were dragons on the pavement, +and dragons on the roadway, dragons basking on +the front doorsteps of public buildings, and dragons +preening their wings on the roofs in the hot afternoon +sun. The town was quite green with them. Even when the +children had gotten out of the town and were walking in +the lanes, they noticed that the fields on each side were +greener than usual with the scaly legs and tails; and some +of the smaller sizes had made themselves asbestos nests +in the flowering hawthorn hedges.</p> + +<p>Effie held her brother's hand very tight, and once when +a fat dragon flopped against her ear she screamed out, +and a whole flight of green dragons rose from the field at +the sound, and sprawled away across the sky. The children +could hear the rattle of their wings as they flew.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I want to go home," said Effie.</p> + +<p>"Don't be silly," said Harry. "Surely you haven't forgotten +about the Seven Champions and all the princes. +People who are going to be their country's deliverers +never scream and say they want to go home."</p> + +<p>"And are we," asked Effie—"deliverers, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"You'll see," said her brother, and on they went.</p> + +<p>When they came to St. George's Church they found the +door open, and they walked right in—but St. George was +not there, so they walked around the churchyard outside, +and presently they found the great stone tomb of St. +George, with the figure of him carved in marble outside, in +his armor and helmet, and with his hands folded on his +breast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How ever can we wake him?" they said. Then Harry +spoke to St. George—but he would not answer; and he +called, but St. George did not seem to hear; and then he +actually tried to waken the great dragon-slayer by shaking +his marble shoulders. But St. George took no notice.</p> + +<p>Then Effie began to cry, and she put her arms around +St. George's neck as well as she could for the marble, +which was very much in the way at the back, and she +kissed the marble face, and she said: "Oh, dear, good, kind +St. George, please wake up and help us."</p> + +<p>And at that St. George opened his eyes sleepily, and +stretched himself and said: "What's the matter, little girl?"</p> + +<p>So the children told him all about it; he turned over in +his marble and leaned on one elbow to listen. But when he +heard that there were so many dragons he shook his +head.</p> + +<p>"It's no good," he said, "they would be one too many for +poor old George. You should have waked me before. I was +always for a fair fight—one man one dragon, was my +motto."</p> + +<p>Just then a flight of dragons passed overhead, and St. +George half drew his sword.</p> + +<p>But he shook his head again and pushed the sword +back as the flight of dragons grew small in the distance.</p> + +<p>"I can't do anything," he said. "Things have changed +since my time. St. Andrew told me about it. They woke +him up over the engineers' strike, and he came to talk to +me. He says everything is done by machinery now; there +must be some way of settling these dragons. By the way, +what sort of weather have you been having lately?"</p> + +<p>This seemed so careless and unkind that Harry would +not answer, but Effie said patiently, "It has been very fine. +Father says it is the hottest weather there has ever been +in this country."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I guessed as much," said the Champion, thoughtfully. +"Well, the only thing would be ... dragons can't +stand wet and cold, that's the only thing. If you could find +the taps."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<p>St. George was beginning to settle down again on his +stone slab.</p> + +<p>"Good night, very sorry I can't help you," he said, yawning +behind his marble hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you can," cried Effie. "Tell us—what taps?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, like in the bathroom," said St. George, still more +sleepily. "And there's a looking glass, too; shows you all +the world and what's going on. St. Denis told me about it; +said it was a very pretty thing. I'm sorry I can't—good +night."</p> + +<p>And he fell back into his marble and was fast asleep +again in a moment.</p> + +<p>"We shall never find the taps," said Harry. "I say, +wouldn't it be awful if St. George woke up when there was +a dragon near, the size that eats champions?"</p> + +<p>Effie pulled off her dragonproof veil. "We didn't meet +any the size of the dining room as we came along," she +said. "I daresay we shall be quite safe."</p> + +<p>So she covered St. George with the veil, and Harry +rubbed off as much as he could of the dragon poison onto +St. George's armor, so as to make everything quite safe for +him.</p> + +<p>"We might hide in the church till it is dark," he said, +"and then—"</p> + +<p>But at that moment a dark shadow fell on them, and +they saw that it was a dragon exactly the size of the dining +room at home.</p> + +<p>So then they knew that all was lost. The dragon +swooped down and caught the two children in his claws; +he caught Effie by her green silk sash, and Harry by the little +point at the back of his Eton jacket—and then, spreading +his great yellow wings, he rose into the air, rattling like +a third-class carriage when the brake is hard on.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Harry," said Effie, "I wonder when he will eat us!" +The dragon was flying across woods and fields with great +flaps of his wings that carried him a quarter of a mile at +each flap.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 284px;"> +<img src="images/gs10.jpg" width="284" height="400" alt=""He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class carriage." See page 50." title=""He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class carriage." See page 50." /> +<span class="caption">"He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class carriage."<br /><a href="#Page_50"><i>See page 50.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>Harry and Effie could see the country below, hedges<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +and rivers and churches and farmhouses flowing away +from under them, much faster than you see them running +away from the sides of the fastest express train.</p> + +<p>And still the dragon flew on. The children saw other +dragons in the air as they went, but the dragon who was +as big as the dining room never stopped to speak to any +of them, but just flew on quite steadily.</p> + +<p>"He knows where he wants to go," said Harry. "Oh, if he +would only drop us before he gets there!"</p> + +<p>But the dragon held on tight, and he flew and flew and +flew until at last, when the children were quite giddy, he +settled down, with a rattling of all his scales, on the top of +a mountain. And he lay there on his great green scaly side, +panting, and very much out of breath, because he had +come such a long way. But his claws were fast in Effie's +sash and the little point at the back of Harry's Eton jacket.</p> + +<p>Then Effie took out the knife Harry had given her on her +birthday. It had cost only sixpence to begin with, and she +had had it a month, and it never could sharpen anything +but slate-pencils; but somehow she managed to make that +knife cut her sash in front, and crept out of it, leaving the +dragon with only a green silk bow in one of his claws. That +knife would never have cut Harry's jacket-tail off, though, +and when Effie had tried for some time she saw that this +was so and gave it up. But with her help Harry managed +to wriggle quietly out of his sleeves, so that the dragon +had only an Eton jacket in his other claw. Then the children +crept on tiptoe to a crack in the rocks and got in. It +was much too narrow for the dragon to get in also, so they +stayed in there and waited to make faces at the dragon +when he felt rested enough to sit up and begin to think +about eating them. He was very angry, indeed, when they +made faces at him, and blew out fire and smoke at them, +but they ran farther into the cave so that he could not +reach them, and when he was tired of blowing he went +away.</p> + +<p>But they were afraid to come out of the cave, so they +went farther in, and presently the cave opened out and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +grew bigger, and the floor was soft sand, and when they +had come to the very end of the cave there was a door, +and on it was written: <span class="smcap">Universal Taproom. Private. No one +allowed inside.</span></p> + +<p>So they opened the door at once just to peep in, and +then they remembered what St. George had said.</p> + +<p>"We can't be worse off than we are," said Harry, "with a +dragon waiting for us outside. Let's go in."</p> + +<p>They went boldly into the taproom, and shut the door +behind them.</p> + +<p>And now they were in a sort of room cut out of the solid +rock, and all along one side of the room were taps, and all +the taps were labeled with china labels like you see in +baths. And as they could both read words of two syllables +or even three sometimes, they understood at once that +they had gotten to the place where the weather is turned +on from. There were six big taps labeled "Sunshine," +"Wind," "Rain," "Snow," "Hail," "Ice," and a lot of little +ones, labeled "Fair to moderate," "Showery," "South +breeze," "Nice growing weather for the crops," "Skating," +"Good open weather," "South wind," "East wind," and so +on. And the big tap labeled "Sunshine" was turned full on. +They could not see any sunshine—the cave was lighted +by a skylight of blue glass—so they supposed the sunlight +was pouring out by some other way, as it does with the +tap that washes out the underneath parts of patent sinks +in kitchens.</p> + +<p>Then they saw that one side of the room was just a big +looking glass, and when you looked in it you could see +everything that was going on in the world—and all at +once, too, which is not like most looking glasses. They +saw the carts delivering the dead dragons at the County +Council offices, and they saw St. George asleep under the +dragonproof veil. And they saw their mother at home crying +because her children had gone out in the dreadful, +dangerous daylight, and she was afraid a dragon had +eaten them. And they saw the whole of England, like a +great puzzle map—green in the field parts and brown in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +the towns, and black in the places where they make coal +and crockery and cutlery and chemicals. All over it, on +the black parts, and on the brown, and on the green, there +was a network of green dragons. And they could see that +it was still broad daylight, and no dragons had gone to +bed yet.</p> + +<p>Effie said, "Dragons do not like cold." And she tried to +turn off the sunshine, but the tap was out of order, and +that was why there had been so much hot weather, and +why the dragons had been able to be hatched. So they left +the sunshine tap alone, and they turned on the snow and +left the tap full on while they went to look in the glass. +There they saw the dragons running all sorts of ways like +ants if you are cruel enough to pour water into an ant-heap, +which, of course, you never are. And the snow fell +more and more.</p> + +<p>Then Effie turned the rain tap quite full on, and presently +the dragons began to wriggle less, and by-and-by some +of them lay quite still, so the children knew the water had +put out the fires inside them, and they were dead. So then +they turned on the hail—only half on, for fear of breaking +people's windows—and after a while there were no more +dragons to be seen moving.</p> + +<p>Then the children knew that they were indeed the deliverers +of their country.</p> + +<p>"They will put up a monument to us," said Harry, "as +high as Nelson's! All the dragons are dead."</p> + +<p>"I hope the one that was waiting outside for us is dead!" +said Effie. "And about the monument, Harry, I'm not so +sure. What can they do with such a lot of dead dragons? +It would take years and years to bury them, and they +could never be burnt now they are so soaking wet. I wish +the rain would wash them off into the sea."</p> + +<p>But this did not happen, and the children began to feel +that they had not been so frightfully clever after all.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what this old thing's for," said Harry. He had +found a rusty old tap, which seemed as though it had not +been used for ages. Its china label was quite coated over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +with dirt and cobwebs. When Effie had cleaned it with a +bit of her skirt—for curiously enough both the children +had come out without pocket handkerchiefs—she found +that the label said "Waste."</p> + +<p>"Let's turn it on," she said. "It might carry off the +dragons."</p> + +<p>The tap was very stiff from not having been used for +such a long time, but together they managed to turn it on, +and then ran to the mirror to see what happened.</p> + +<p>Already a great, round black hole had opened in the +very middle of the map of England, and the sides of the +map were tilting themselves up, so that the rain ran down +toward the hole.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!" cried Effie, and she hurried +back to the taps and turned on everything that +seemed wet. "Showery," "Good open weather," "Nice +growing weather for the crops," and even "South" and +"South-West," because she had heard her father say that +those winds brought rain.</p> + +<p>And now the floods of rain were pouring down on the +country, and great sheets of water flowed toward the center +of the map, and cataracts of water poured into the +great round hole in the middle of the map, and the dragons +were being washed away and disappearing down the +waste pipe in great green masses and scattered green +shoals—single dragons and dragons by the dozen; of all +sizes, from the ones that carry off elephants down to the +ones that get in your tea.</p> + +<p>Presently there was not a dragon left. So then they +turned off the tap named "Waste," and they half-turned off +the one labeled "Sunshine"—it was broken, so that they +could not turn it off altogether—and they turned on "Fair +to moderate" and "Showery" and both taps stuck, so that +they could not be turned off, which accounts for our +climate.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>How did they get home again? By the Snowdon railway +of course.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> + +<p>And was the nation grateful? Well—the nation was very +wet. And by the time the nation had gotten dry again it +was interested in the new invention for toasting muffins +by electricity, and all the dragons were almost forgotten. +Dragons do not seem so important when they are dead +and gone, and, you know, there never was a reward +offered.</p> + +<p>And what did Father and Mother say when Effie and +Harry got home?</p> + +<p>My dear, that is the sort of silly question you children +always will ask. However, just for this once I don't mind +telling you.</p> + +<p>Mother said: "Oh, my darlings, my darlings, you're +safe—you're safe! You naughty children—how could you +be so disobedient? Go to bed at once!"</p> + +<p>And their father the doctor said: "I wish I had known +what you were going to do! I should have liked to preserve +a specimen. I threw away the one I got out of Effie's eye. I +intended to get a more perfect specimen. I did not anticipate +this immediate extinction of the species."</p> + +<p>The professor said nothing, but he rubbed his hands. +He had kept his specimen—the one the size of an earwig +that he gave Harry half a crown for—and he has it to this +day.</p> + +<p>You must get him to show it to you!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 239px;"> +<img src="images/gs11.jpg" width="239" height="400" alt="THE +ICE +DRAGON" title="THE +ICE +DRAGON" /> + +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>IV. The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told</h2> + + +<p>This is the tale of the wonders that befell on the +evening of the eleventh of December, when they did +what they were told not to do. You may think that you +know all the unpleasant things that could possibly happen +to you if you are disobedient, but there are some +things which even you do not know, and they did not +know them either.</p> + +<p>Their names were George and Jane.</p> + +<p>There were no fireworks that year on Guy Fawkes' Day, +because the heir to the throne was not well. He was cutting +his first tooth, and that is a very anxious time for any +person—even for a Royal one. He was really very poorly, +so that fireworks would have been in the worst possible +taste, even at Land's End or in the Isle of Man, whilst in +Forest Hill, which was the home of Jane and George, anything +of the kind was quite out of the question. Even the +Crystal Palace, empty-headed as it is, felt that this was no +time for Catherine-wheels.</p> + +<p>But when the Prince had cut his tooth, rejoicings were +not only admissible but correct, and the eleventh of +December was proclaimed firework day. All the people +were most anxious to show their loyalty, and to enjoy +themselves at the same time. So there were fireworks and +torchlight processions, and set pieces at the Crystal +Palace, with "Blessings on our Prince" and "Long Live our +Royal Darling" in different-colored fires; and the most private +of boarding schools had a half holiday; and even the +children of plumbers and authors had tuppence each +given them to spend as they liked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<p>George and Jane had sixpence each—and they spent +the whole amount on a golden rain, which would not light +for ever so long, and when it did light went out almost at +once, so they had to look at the fireworks in the gardens +next door, and at the ones at the Crystal Palace, which +were very glorious indeed.</p> + +<p>All their relations had colds in their heads, so Jane and +George were allowed to go out into the garden alone to let +off their firework. Jane had put on her fur cape and her +thick gloves, and her hood with the silver fox fur on it that +was made out of Mother's old muff; and George had his +overcoat with the three capes, and his comforter, and +Father's sealskin traveling cap with the pieces that come +down over your ears.</p> + +<p>It was dark in the garden, but the fireworks all about +made it seem very gay, and though the children were cold +they were quite sure that they were enjoying themselves.</p> + +<p>They got up on the fence at the end of the garden to see +better; and then they saw, very far away, where the edge +of the dark world is, a shining line of straight, beautiful +lights arranged in a row, as if they were the spears carried +by a fairy army.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how pretty," said Jane. "I wonder what they are. It +looks as if the fairies were planting little shining baby +poplar trees and watering them with liquid light."</p> + +<p>"Liquid fiddlestick!" said George. He had been to +school, so he knew that these were only the Aurora +Borealis, or Northern Lights. And he said so.</p> + +<p>"But what is the Rory Bory what's-its-name?" asked +Jane. "Who lights it, and what's it there for?"</p> + +<p>George had to own that he had not learned that.</p> + +<p>"But I know," said he, "that it has something to do with +the Great Bear, and the Dipper, and the Plough, and +Charles's Wain."</p> + +<p>"And what are they?" asked Jane.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they're the surnames of some of the star families. +There goes a jolly rocket," answered George, and Jane felt +as if she almost understood about the star families.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>The fairy spears of light twinkled and gleamed: They +were much prettier than the big, blaring, blazing bonfire +that was smoking and flaming and spluttering in the next-door-but-one +garden—prettier even than the colored fires +at the Crystal Palace.</p> + +<p>"I wish we could see them nearer," Jane said. "I wonder +if the star families are nice families—the kind that Mother +would like us to go to tea with, if we were little stars?"</p> + +<p>"They aren't that sort of families at all, Silly," said her +brother, kindly trying to explain. "I only said 'families' +because a kid like you wouldn't have understood if I'd +said constel ... and, besides, I've forgotten the end of the +word. Anyway, the stars are all up in the sky, so you can't +go to tea with them."</p> + +<p>"No," said Jane. "I said if we were little stars."</p> + +<p>"But we aren't," said George.</p> + +<p>"No," said Jane, with a sigh. "I know that. I'm not so stupid +as you think, George. But the Tory Bories are somewhere +at the edge. Couldn't we go and see them?"</p> + +<p>"Considering you're eight, you haven't much sense." +George kicked his boots against the fencing to warm his +toes. "It's half the world away."</p> + +<p>"It looks very near," said Jane, hunching up her shoulders +to keep her neck warm.</p> + +<p>"They're close to the North Pole," said George. "Look +here—I don't care a straw about the Aurora Borealis, but +I shouldn't mind discovering the North Pole: It's awfully +difficult and dangerous, and then you come home and +write a book about it with a lot of pictures, and everybody +says how brave you are."</p> + +<p>Jane got off the fence.</p> + +<p>"Oh, George, <i>let's</i>," she said. "We shall never have such +a chance again—all alone by ourselves—and quite late, +too."</p> + +<p>"I'd go right enough if it wasn't for you," George +answered gloomily, "but you know they always say I lead +you into mischief—and if we went to the North Pole +we should get our boots wet, as likely as not, and you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +remember what they said about not going on the grass."</p> + +<p>"They said the <i>lawn</i>," said Jane. "We're not going on the +<i>lawn</i>. Oh, George, do, do let's. It doesn't look so <i>very</i> far—we +could be back before they had time to get dreadfully +angry."</p> + +<p>"All right," said George, "but mind, I don't want to go."</p> + +<p>So off they went. They got over the fence, which was +very cold and white and shiny because it was beginning to +freeze, and on the other side of the fence was somebody +else's garden, so they got out of that as quickly as they +could, and beyond that was a field where there was another +big bonfire, with people standing around it who +looked quite dark-skinned.</p> + +<p>"It's like Indians," said George, and wanted to stop and +look, but Jane pulled him on, and they passed by the bonfire +and got through a gap in the hedge into another +field—a dark one; and far away, beyond quite a number of +other dark fields, the Northern Lights shone and sparkled +and twinkled.</p> + +<p>Now, during the winter the Arctic regions come much +farther south than they are marked on the map. Very few +people know this, though you would think they could tell +it by the ice in the jugs of a morning. And just when +George and Jane were starting for the North Pole, the +Arctic regions had come down very nearly as far as Forest +Hill, so that, as the children walked on, it grew colder and +colder, and presently they saw that the fields were covered +with snow, and there were great icicles hanging from +all the hedges and gates. And the Northern Lights still +seemed some way off.</p> + +<p>They were crossing a very rough, snowy field when +Jane first noticed the animals. There were white rabbits +and white hares and all sorts and sizes of white birds, and +some larger creatures in the shadows of the hedges that +Jane was sure were wolves and bears.</p> + +<p>"Polar bears and Arctic wolves, of course I mean," she +said, for she did not want George to think her stupid +again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was a great hedge at the end of this field, all covered +with snow and icicles; but the children found a place +where there was a hole, and as no bears or wolves +seemed to be just in that part of the hedge, they crept +through and scrambled out of the frozen ditch on the +other side. And then they stood still and held their breath +with wonder.</p> + +<p>For in front of them, running straight and smooth right +away to the Northern Lights, lay a great wide road of pure +dark ice, and on each side were tall trees all sparkling with +white frost, and from the boughs of the trees hung strings +of stars threaded on fine moonbeams, and shining so +brightly that it was like a beautiful fairy daylight. Jane said +so; but George said it was like the electric lights at the +Earl's Court Exhibition.</p> + +<p>The rows of trees went as straight as ruled lines away—away +and away—and at the other end of them shone the +Aurora Borealis.</p> + +<p>There was a signpost of silvery snow, and on it in letters +of pure ice the children read: <span class="smcap">This way to the North Pole.</span></p> + +<p>Then George said: "Way or no way, I know a slide when +I see one—so here goes." And he took a run on the frozen +snow, and Jane took a run when she saw him do it, and the +next moment they were sliding away, each with feet half a +yard apart, along the great slide that leads to the North +Pole.</p> + +<p>This great slide is made for the convenience of the +Polar bears, who, during the winter months, get their food +from the Army and Navy Stores—and it is the most perfect +slide in the world. If you have never come across it, it +is because you have never let off fireworks on the +eleventh of December, and have never been thoroughly +naughty and disobedient. But do not be these things in +the hope of finding the great slide—because you might +find something quite different, and then you will be sorry.</p> + +<p>The great slide is like common slides in that when once +you have started you have to go on to the end—unless +you fall down—and then it hurts just as much as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +smaller kind on ponds. The great slide runs downhill all +the way, so that you keep on going faster and faster and +faster. George and Jane went so fast that they had not +time to notice the scenery. They only saw the long lines of +frosted trees and the starry lamps, and on each side, rushing +back as they slid on, a very broad, white world and a +very large, black night; and overhead as well as in the +trees the stars were bright like silver lamps, and far ahead +shone and trembled and sparkled the line of fairy spears. +Jane said that, and George said: "I can see the Northern +Lights quite plain."</p> + +<p>It is very pleasant to slide and slide and slide on clear, +dark ice—especially if you feel you are really going somewhere, +and more especially if that somewhere is the +North Pole. The children's feet made no noise on the ice, +and they went on and on in a beautiful white silence. But +suddenly the silence was shattered and a cry rang out +over the snow.</p> + +<p>"Hey! You there! Stop!"</p> + +<p>"Tumble for your life!" cried George, and he fell down at +once, because it is the only way to stop. Jane fell on top +of him—and then they crawled on hands and knees to the +snow at the edge of the slide—and there was a sportsman, +dressed in a peaked cap and a frozen moustache, like the +one you see in the pictures about Ice-Peter, and he had a +gun in his hand.</p> + +<p>"You don't happen to have any bullets about you?" said +he.</p> + +<p>"No," George said, truthfully. "I had five of father's +revolver cartridges, but they were taken away the day +Nurse turned out my pockets to see if I had taken the +knob of the bathroom door by mistake."</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said the sportsman, "these accidents will +occur. You don't carry firearms, then, I presume?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't any fire<i>arms</i>," said George, "but I have a fire<i>work</i>. +It's only a squib one of the boys gave me, if that's +any good." And he began to feel among the string and peppermints, +and buttons and tops and nibs and chalk and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +foreign postage stamps in his knickerbocker pockets.</p> + +<p>"One could but try," the sportsman replied, and he held +out his hand.</p> + +<p>But Jane pulled at her brother's jacket-tail and whispered, +"Ask him what he wants it for."</p> + +<p>So then the sportsman had to confess that he wanted +the firework to kill the white grouse with; and, when they +came to look, there was the white grouse himself, sitting +in the snow, looking quite pale and careworn, and waiting +anxiously for the matter to be decided one way or the +other.</p> + +<p>George put all the things back in his pockets, and said, +"No, I shan't. The reason for shooting him stopped yesterday—I +heard Father say so—so it wouldn't be fair, anyhow. +I'm very sorry; but I can't—so there!"</p> + +<p>The sportsman said nothing, only he shook his fist at +Jane, and then he got on the slide and tried to go toward +the Crystal Palace—which was not easy, because that way +is uphill. So they left him trying, and went on.</p> + +<p>Before they started, the white grouse thanked them in +a few pleasant, well-chosen words, and then they took a +sideways slanting run and started off again on the great +slide, and so away toward the North Pole and the twinkling, +beautiful lights.</p> + +<p>The great slide went on and on, and the lights did not +seem to come much nearer, and the white silence +wrapped around them as they slid along the wide, icy +path. Then once again the silence was broken to bits by +someone calling: "Hey! You there! Stop!"</p> + +<p>"Tumble for your life!" cried George, and tumbled as +before, stopping in the only possible way, and Jane +stopped on top of him, and they crawled to the edge and +came suddenly on a butterfly collector, who was looking +for specimens with a pair of blue glasses and a blue net +and a blue book with colored plates.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me," said the collector, "but have you such a +thing as a needle about you—a very long needle?"</p> + +<p>"I have a needle <i>book</i>," replied Jane, politely, "but there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +aren't any needles in it now. George took them all to do +the things with pieces of cork—in the 'Boy's Own +Scientific Experimenter' and 'The Young Mechanic.' He +did not do the things, but he did for the needles."</p> + +<p>"Curiously enough," said the collector, "I too wish to +use the needle in connection with cork."</p> + +<p>"I have a hatpin in my hood," said Jane. "I fastened the +fur with it when it caught in the nail on the greenhouse +door. It is very long and sharp—would that do?"</p> + +<p>"One could but try," said the collector, and Jane began +to feel for the pin. But George pinched her arm and whispered, +"Ask what he wants it for." Then the collector had +to own that he wanted the pin to stick through the great +Arctic moth, "a magnificent specimen," he added, "which +I am most anxious to preserve."</p> + +<p>And there, sure enough, in the collector's butterfly net +sat the great Arctic moth, listening attentively to the conversation.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I couldn't!" cried Jane. And while George was +explaining to the collector that they would really rather +not, Jane opened the blue folds of the butterfly net, and +asked the moth quietly if it would please step outside for +a moment. And it did.</p> + +<p>When the collector saw that the moth was free, he +seemed less angry than grieved.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said he, "here's a whole Arctic expedition +thrown away! I shall have to go home and fit out another. +And that means a lot of writing to the papers and things. +You seem to be a singularly thoughtless little girl."</p> + +<p>So they went on, leaving him too, trying to go uphill +towards the Crystal Palace.</p> + +<p>When the great white Arctic moth had returned thanks +in a suitable speech, George and Jane took a sideways +slanting run and started sliding again, between the star-lamps +along the great slide toward the North Pole. They +went faster and faster, and the lights ahead grew brighter +and brighter—so that they could not keep their eyes +open, but had to blink and wink as they went—and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +suddenly the great slide ended in an immense heap of +snow, and George and Jane shot right into it because they +could not stop themselves, and the snow was soft, so that +they went in up to their very ears.</p> + +<p>When they had picked themselves out and thumped +each other on the back to get rid of the snow, they +shaded their eyes and looked, and there, right in front of +them, was the wonder of wonders—the North Pole—towering +high and white and glistening, like an ice-lighthouse, +and it was quite, quite close, so that you had to put your +head as far back as it would go, and farther, before you +could see the high top of it. It was made entirely of ice. +You will hear grown-up people talk a great deal of nonsense +about the North Pole, and when you are grown up, +it is even possible that you may talk nonsense about it +yourself (the most unlikely things do happen) but deep +down in your heart you must always remember that the +North Pole is made of clear ice, and could not possibly, if +you come to think of it, be made of anything else.</p> + +<p>All around the Pole, making a bright ring about it, were +hundreds of little fires, and the flames of them did not +flicker and twist, but went up blue and green and rosy and +straight like the stalks of dream lilies.</p> + +<p>Jane said so, but George said they were as straight as +ramrods.</p> + +<p>And these flames were the Aurora Borealis, which the +children had seen as far away as Forest Hill.</p> + +<p>The ground was quite flat, and covered with smooth, +hard snow, which shone and sparkled like the top of a +birthday cake that has been iced at home. The ones done +at the shops do not shine and sparkle, because they mix +flour with the icing sugar.</p> + +<p>"It is like a dream," said Jane.</p> + +<p>And George said, "It <i>is</i> the North Pole. Just think of the +fuss people always make about getting here—and it was +no trouble at all, really."</p> + +<p>"I daresay lots of people have gotten here," said Jane, +dismally. "It's not the getting <i>here</i>—I see that—it's the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +getting back again. Perhaps no one will ever know that <i>we</i> +have been here, and the robins will cover us with leaves +and—"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said George. "There aren't any robins, and +there aren't any leaves. It's just the North Pole, that's all, +and I've found it; and now I shall try to climb up and plant +the British flag on the top—my handkerchief will do; and +if it really <i>is</i> the North Pole, my pocket compass Uncle +James gave me will spin around and around, and then I +shall know. Come on."</p> + +<p>So Jane came on; and when they got close to the clear, +tall, beautiful flames they saw that there was a great, +queer-shaped lump of ice all around the bottom of the +Pole—clear, smooth, shining ice, that was deep, beautiful +Prussian blue, like icebergs, in the thick parts, and all +sorts of wonderful, glimmery, shimmery, changing colors +in the thin parts, like the cut-glass chandelier in Grandmamma's +house in London.</p> + +<p>"It is a very curious shape," said Jane. "It's almost +like"—she moved back a step to get a better view of it—"it's +almost like a dragon."</p> + +<p>"It's much more like the lampposts on the Thames +Embankment," said George, who had noticed a curly thing +like a tail that went twisting up the North Pole.</p> + +<p>"Oh, George," cried Jane, "it <i>is</i> a dragon; I can see its +wings. Whatever shall we do?"</p> + +<p>And, sure enough, it <i>was</i> a dragon—a great, shining, +winged, scaly, clawy, big-mouthed dragon—made of pure +ice. It must have gone to sleep curled around the hole +where the warm steam used to come up from the middle +of the earth, and then when the earth got colder, and the +column of steam froze and was turned into the North +Pole, the dragon must have got frozen in his sleep—frozen +too hard to move—and there he stayed. And though he +was very terrible he was very beautiful too.</p> + +<p>Jane said so, but George said, "Oh, don't bother; I'm +thinking how to get onto the Pole and try the compass +without waking the brute."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 320px;"> +<img src="images/gs12.jpg" width="320" height="339" alt=""Sure enough, it was a dragon." See page 68." title=""Sure enough, it was a dragon." See page 68." /> +<span class="caption">"Sure enough, it was a dragon."<br /><a href="#Page_68"><i>See page 68.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + +<p>The dragon certainly was beautiful, with his deep, +clear Prussian blueness, and his rainbow-colored glitter. +And rising from within the cold coil of the frozen dragon +the North Pole shot up like a pillar made of one great +diamond, and every now and then it cracked a little, +from sheer cold. The sound of the cracking was the only +thing that broke the great white silence in the midst of +which the dragon lay like an enormous jewel, and the +straight flames went up all around him like the stalks of +tall lilies.</p> + +<p>And as the children stood there looking at the most +wonderful sight their eyes had ever seen, there was a soft +padding of feet and a hurry-scurry behind them, and from +the outside darkness beyond the flame-stalks came a +crowd of little brown creatures running, jumping, scrambling, +tumbling head over heels and on all fours, and some +even walking on their heads. They joined hands as they +came near the fires and danced around in a ring.</p> + +<p>"It's bears," said Jane. "I know it is. Oh, how I wish we +hadn't come; and my boots are so wet."</p> + +<p>The dancing-ring broke up suddenly, and the next +moment hundreds of furry arms clutched at George and +Jane, and they found themselves in the middle of a great, +soft, heaving crowd of little fat people in brown fur +dresses, and the white silence was quite gone.</p> + +<p>"Bears, indeed," cried a shrill voice. "You'll wish we +were bears before you've done with us."</p> + +<p>This sounded so dreadful that Jane began to cry. Up to +now the children had only seen the most beautiful and +wondrous things, but now they began to be sorry they +had done what they were told not to, and the difference +between "lawn" and "grass" did not seem so great as it +had at Forest Hill.</p> + +<p>Directly Jane began to cry, all the brown people started +back. No one cries in the Arctic regions for fear of being +struck by the frost. So that these people had never seen +anyone cry before.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry for real," whispered George, "or you'll get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +chilblains in your eyes. But pretend to howl—it frightens +them."</p> + +<p>So Jane went on pretending to howl, and the real crying +stopped: It always does when you begin to pretend. You +try it.</p> + +<p>Then, speaking very loud so as to be heard over the +howls of Jane, George said: "Yah—who's afraid? We are +George and Jane—who are you?"</p> + +<p>"We are the sealskin dwarfs," said the brown people, +twisting their furry bodies in and out of the crowd like the +changing glass in kaleidoscopes. "We are very precious +and expensive, for we are made, throughout, of the very +best sealskin."</p> + +<p>"And what are those fires for?" bellowed George—for +Jane was crying louder and louder.</p> + +<p>"Those," shouted the dwarfs, coming a step nearer, "are +the fires we make to thaw the dragon. He is frozen now—so +he sleeps curled up around the Pole—but when we +have thawed him with our fires he will wake up and go +and eat everybody in the world except us."</p> + +<p>"WHATEVER—DO—YOU—WANT—HIM—TO—DO—THAT—FOR?" +yelled George.</p> + +<p>"Oh—just for spite," bawled the dwarfs carelessly—as +if they were saying, "Just for fun."</p> + +<p>Jane stopped crying to say: "You are heartless."</p> + +<p>"No, we aren't," they said. "Our hearts are made of the +finest sealskin, just like little fat sealskin purses—"</p> + +<p>And they all came a step nearer. They were very fat and +round. Their bodies were like sealskin jackets on a very +stout person; their heads were like sealskin muffs; their +legs were like sealskin boas; and their hands and feet were +like sealskin tobacco pouches. And their faces were like +seals' faces, inasmuch as they, too, were covered with +sealskin.</p> + +<p>"Thank you so much for telling us," said George. "Good +evening. (Keep on howling, Jane!)"</p> + +<p>But the dwarfs came a step nearer, muttering and whispering. +Then the muttering stopped—and there was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +silence so deep that Jane was afraid to howl in it. But it +was a brown silence, and she had liked the white silence +better.</p> + +<p>Then the chief dwarf came quite close and said: "What's +that on your head?"</p> + +<p>And George felt it was all up—for he knew it was his +father's sealskin cap.</p> + +<p>The dwarf did not wait for an answer. "It's made of one +of us," he screamed, "or else one of the seals, our poor +relations. Boy, now your fate is sealed!"</p> + +<p>Looking at the wicked seal-faces all around them, +George and Jane felt that their fate was sealed indeed.</p> + +<p>The dwarfs seized the children in their furry arms. +George kicked, but it is no use kicking sealskin, and Jane +howled, but the dwarfs were getting used to that. They +climbed up the dragon's side and dumped the children +down on his icy spine, with their backs against the North +Pole. You have no idea how cold it was—the kind of cold +that makes you feel small and prickly inside your clothes, +and makes you wish you had twenty times as many +clothes to feel small and prickly inside of.</p> + +<p>The sealskin dwarfs tied George and Jane to the North +Pole, and, as they had no ropes, they bound them with +snow-wreaths, which are very strong when they are made +in the proper way, and they heaped up the fires very close +and said: "Now the dragon will get warm, and when he +gets warm he will wake, and when he wakes he will be +hungry, and when he is hungry he will begin to eat, and +the first thing he will eat will be you."</p> + +<p>The little, sharp, many-colored flames sprang up like +the stalks of dream lilies, but no heat came to the children, +and they grew colder and colder.</p> + +<p>"We shan't be very nice when the dragon does eat us, +that's one comfort," said George. "We shall be turned into +ice long before that."</p> + +<p>Suddenly there was a flapping of wings, and the white +grouse perched on the dragon's head and said: "Can I be +of any assistance?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 287px;"> +<img src="images/gs13.jpg" width="287" height="400" alt=""The dwarfs seized the children." See page 72." title=""The dwarfs seized the children." See page 72." /> +<span class="caption">"The dwarfs seized the children."<br /><a href="#Page_72"><i>See page 72.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now, by this time the children were so cold, so cold, so +very, very cold, that they had forgotten everything but +that, and they could say nothing else. So the white grouse +said: "One moment. I am only too grateful for this opportunity +of showing my sense of your manly conduct about +the firework!"</p> + +<p>And the next moment there was a soft whispering rustle +of wings overhead, and then, fluttering slowly, softly +down, came hundreds and thousands of little white fluffy +feathers. They fell on George and Jane like snowflakes, +and, like flakes of fallen snow lying one above another, +they grew into a thicker and thicker covering, so that +presently the children were buried under a heap of white +feathers, and only their faces peeped out.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you dear, good, kind white grouse," said Jane, "but +you'll be cold yourself, won't you, now you have given us +all your pretty dear feathers?"</p> + +<p>The white grouse laughed, and his laugh was echoed by +thousands of kind, soft bird voices.</p> + +<p>"Did you think all those feathers came out of one +breast? There are hundreds and hundreds of us here, and +every one of us can spare a little tuft of soft breast feathers +to help to keep two kind little hearts warm!"</p> + +<p>Thus spoke the grouse, who certainly had very pretty +manners.</p> + +<p>So now the children snuggled under the feathers and +were warm, and when the sealskin dwarfs tried to take the +feathers away, the grouse and his friends flew in their +faces with flappings and screams, and drove the dwarfs +back. They are a cowardly folk.</p> + +<p>The dragon had not moved yet—but then he might at +any moment get warm enough to move, and though +George and Jane were now warm they were not comfortable +nor easy in their minds. They tried to explain to the +grouse; but though he is polite, he is not clever, and he +only said: "You've got a warm nest, and we'll see that no +one takes it from you. What more can you possibly want?"</p> + +<p>Just then came a new, strange, jerky fluttering of wings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +far softer than the grouse's, and George and Jane cried +out together: "Oh, <i>do</i> mind your wings in the fires!"</p> + +<p>For they saw at once that it was the great white Arctic +moth.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" he asked, settling on the dragon's +tail.</p> + +<p>So they told him.</p> + +<p>"Sealskin, are they?" said the moth. "Just you wait a +minute!"</p> + +<p>He flew off very crookedly, dodging the flames, and +presently he came back, and there were so many moths +with him that it was as if a live sheet of white wingedness +were suddenly drawn between the children and the stars.</p> + +<p>And then the doom of the bad sealskin dwarfs fell suddenly +on them.</p> + +<p>For the great sheet of winged whiteness broke up and +fell as snow falls, and it fell upon the sealskin dwarfs; and +every snowflake of it was a live, fluttering, hungry moth +that buried its greedy nose deep in the sealskin fur.</p> + +<p>Grown-up people will tell you that it is not moths but +moths' children who eat fur—but this is only when they +are trying to deceive you. When they are not thinking +about you they say, "I fear the moths have got at my +ermine tippet," or, "Your poor Aunt Emma had a lovely +sable cloak, but it was eaten by moths." And now there +were more moths than have ever been together in this +world before, all settling on the sealskin dwarfs.</p> + +<p>The dwarfs did not see their danger till it was too late. +Then they called for camphor and bitter apple and oil of +lavender and yellow soap and borax; and some of the +dwarfs even started to get these things, but long before +any of them could get to the chemist's, all was over. The +moths ate and ate and ate till the sealskin dwarfs, being +sealskin throughout, even to the empty hearts of them, +were eaten down to the very life—and they fell one by one +on the snow and so came to their end. And all around the +North Pole the snow was brown with their flat bare pelts.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you—thank you, darling Arctic moth," cried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +Jane. "You are good—I do hope you haven't eaten enough +to disagree with you afterward!"</p> + +<p>Millions of moth voices answered, with laughter as soft +as moth wings, "We should be a poor set of fellows if we +couldn't over eat ourselves once in a while—to oblige a +friend."</p> + +<p>And off they all fluttered, and the white grouse flew off, +and the sealskin dwarfs were all dead, and the fires went +out, and George and Jane were left alone in the dark with +the dragon!</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," said Jane, "this is the worst of all!"</p> + +<p>"We've no friends left to help us," said George. He never +thought that the dragon himself might help them—but +then that was an idea that would never have occurred to +any boy.</p> + +<p>It grew colder and colder and colder, and even under +the grouse feathers the children shivered.</p> + +<p>Then, when it was so cold that it could not manage to +be any colder without breaking the thermometer, it +stopped. And then the dragon uncurled himself from +around the North Pole, and stretched his long, icy length +over the snow, and said: "This is something like! How faint +those fires did make me feel!"</p> + +<p>The fact was, the sealskin dwarfs had gone the wrong +way to work: The dragon had been frozen so long that +now he was nothing but solid ice all through, and the fires +only made him feel as if he were going to die.</p> + +<p>But when the fires were out he felt quite well, and very +hungry. He looked around for something to eat. But he +never noticed George and Jane, because they were frozen +to his back.</p> + +<p>He moved slowly off, and the snow-wreaths that bound +the children to the Pole gave way with a snap, and there +was the dragon, crawling south—with Jane and George on +his great, scaly, icy shining back. Of course the dragon +had to go south if he went anywhere, because when you +get to the North Pole there is no other way to go. The +dragon rattled and tinkled as he went, exactly like the cut-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>glass +chandelier when you touch it, as you are strictly forbidden +to do. Of course there are a million ways of going +south from the North Pole—so you will own that it was +lucky for George and Jane when the dragon took the right +way and suddenly got his heavy feet on the great slide. Off +he went, full speed, between the starry lamps, toward +Forest Hill and the Crystal Palace.</p> + +<p>"He's going to take us home," said Jane. "Oh, he is a +good dragon. I <i>am</i> glad!"</p> + +<p>George was rather glad too, though neither of the children +felt at all sure of their welcome, especially as their +feet were wet, and they were bringing a strange dragon +home with them.</p> + +<p>They went very fast, because dragons can go uphill as +easily as down. You would not understand why if I told +you—because you are only in long division at present; yet +if you want me to tell you, so that you can show off to +other children, I will. It is because dragons can get their +tails into the fourth dimension and hold on there, and +when you can do that everything else is easy.</p> + +<p>The dragon went very fast, only stopping to eat the collector +and the sportsman, who were still struggling to go +up the slide—vainly, because they had no tails, and had +never even heard of the fourth dimension.</p> + +<p>When the dragon got to the end of the slide he crawled +very slowly across the dark field beyond the field where +there was a bonfire, next to the next-door garden at Forest +Hill.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He went slower and slower, and in the bonfire field he +stopped altogether, and because the Arctic regions had +not got down so far as that, and because the bonfire was +very hot, the dragon began to melt and melt and melt—and +before the children knew what he was doing they +found themselves sitting in a large pool of water, and their +boots were as wet as wet, and there was not a bit of +dragon left!</p> + +<p>So they went indoors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of course some grown-up or other noticed at once that +the boots of George and Jane were wet and muddy, and +that they had both been sitting down in a very damp +place, so they were sent to bed immediately.</p> + +<p>It was long past their time, anyhow.</p> + +<p>Now, if you are of an inquiring mind—not at all a nice +thing in a little child who reads fairy tales—you will want +to know how it is that since the sealskin dwarfs have all +been killed, and the fires all been let out, the Aurora +Borealis shines, on cold nights, as brightly as ever.</p> + +<p>My dear, I do not know! I am not too proud to own that +there are some things I know nothing about—and this is +one of them. But I do know that whoever has lighted those +fires again, it is certainly not the sealskin dwarfs. They +were all eaten by moths—and motheaten things are of no +use, even to light fires!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 228px;"> +<img src="images/gs14.jpg" width="228" height="400" alt="THE ISLAND +OF THE NINE +WHIRLPOOLS" title="THE ISLAND +OF THE NINE +WHIRLPOOLS" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>V. The Island of the Nine Whirlpools</h2> + + +<p>The dark arch that led to the witch's cave was hung +with a black-and-yellow fringe of live snakes. As the +Queen went in, keeping carefully in the middle of the arch, +all the snakes lifted their wicked, flat heads and stared at +her with their wicked, yellow eyes. You know it is not +good manners to stare, even at Royalty, except of course +for cats. And the snakes had been so badly brought up +that they even put their tongues out at the poor lady. +Nasty, thin, sharp tongues they were too.</p> + +<p>Now, the Queen's husband was, of course, the King. +And besides being a King he was an enchanter, and considered +to be quite at the top of his profession, so he was +very wise, and he knew that when Kings and Queens want +children, the Queen always goes to see a witch. So he gave +the Queen the witch's address, and the Queen called on +her, though she was very frightened and did not like it at +all. The witch was sitting by a fire of sticks, stirring something +bubbly in a shiny copper cauldron.</p> + +<p>"What do you want, my dear?" she said to the Queen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if you please," said the Queen, "I want a baby—a +very nice one. We don't want any expense spared. My husband +said—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said the witch. "I know all about him. And so +you want a child? Do you know it will bring you sorrow?"</p> + +<p>"It will bring me joy first," said the Queen.</p> + +<p>"Great sorrow," said the witch.</p> + +<p>"Greater joy," said the Queen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then the witch said, "Well, have your own way. I suppose +it's as much as your place is worth to go back without +it?"</p> + +<p>"The King would be very much annoyed," said the poor +Queen.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said the witch. "What will you give me for +the child?"</p> + +<p>"Anything you ask for, and all I have," said the Queen.</p> + +<p>"Then give me your gold crown."</p> + +<p>The Queen took it off quickly.</p> + +<p>"And your necklace of blue sapphires."</p> + +<p>The Queen unfastened it.</p> + +<p>"And your pearl bracelets."</p> + +<p>The Queen unclasped them.</p> + +<p>"And your ruby clasps."</p> + +<p>And the Queen undid the clasps.</p> + +<p>"Now the lilies from your breast."</p> + +<p>The Queen gathered together the lilies.</p> + +<p>"And the diamonds of your little bright shoe buckles."</p> + +<p>The Queen pulled off her shoes.</p> + +<p>Then the witch stirred the stuff that was in the cauldron, +and, one by one, she threw in the gold crown and +the sapphire necklace and the pearl bracelets and the +ruby clasps and the diamonds of the little bright shoe +buckles, and last of all she threw in the lilies.</p> + +<p>The stuff in the cauldron boiled up in foaming flashes of +yellow and blue and red and white and silver, and sent out +a sweet scent, and presently the witch poured it out into +a pot and set it to cool in the doorway among the snakes.</p> + +<p>Then she said to the Queen: "Your child will have hair +as golden as your crown, eyes as blue as your sapphires. +The red of your rubies will lie on its lips, and its skin will +be clear and pale as your pearls. Its soul will be white and +sweet as your lilies, and your diamonds will be no clearer +than its wits."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, thank you," said the Queen, "and when +will it come?"</p> + +<p>"You will find it when you get home."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And won't you have something for yourself?" asked +the Queen. "Any little thing you fancy—would you like a +country, or a sack of jewels?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, thank you," said the witch. "I could make +more diamonds in a day than I should wear in a year."</p> + +<p>"Well, but do let me do some little thing for you," the +Queen went on. "Aren't you tired of being a witch? +Wouldn't you like to be a Duchess or a Princess, or something +like that?"</p> + +<p>"There is one thing I should rather like," said the witch, +"but it's hard to get in my trade."</p> + +<p>"Oh, tell me what," said the Queen.</p> + +<p>"I should like some one to love me," said the witch.</p> + +<p>Then the Queen threw her arms around the witch's +neck and kissed her half a hundred times. "Why," she said, +"I love you better than my life! You've given me the baby—and +the baby shall love you too."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it will," said the witch, "and when the sorrow +comes, send for me. Each of your fifty kisses will be a spell +to bring me to you. Now, drink up your medicine, there's +a dear, and run along home."</p> + +<p>So the Queen drank the stuff in the pot, which was quite +cool by this time, and she went out under the fringe of +snakes, and they all behaved like good Sunday-school +children. Some of them even tried to drop a curtsy to her +as she went by, though that is not easy when you are +hanging wrong way up by your tail. But the snakes knew +the Queen was friends with their mistress; so, of course, +they had to do their best to be civil.</p> + +<p>When the Queen got home, sure enough there was the +baby lying in the cradle with the Royal arms blazoned on +it, crying as naturally as possible. It had pink ribbons to +tie up its sleeves, so the Queen saw at once it was a girl. +When the King knew this he tore his black hair with fury.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you silly, silly Queen!" he said. "Why didn't I marry +a clever lady? Did you think I went to all the trouble and +expense of sending you to a witch to get a girl? You knew +well enough it was a boy I wanted—a boy, an heir, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +Prince—to learn all my magic and my enchantments, and +to rule the kingdom after me. I'll bet a crown—my crown," +he said, "you never even thought to tell the witch what +kind you wanted! Did you now?"</p> + +<p>And the Queen hung her head and had to confess that +she had only asked for a child.</p> + +<p>"Very well, madam," said the King, "very well—have +your own way. And make the most of your daughter, while +she is a child."</p> + +<p>The Queen did. All the years of her life had never held +half so much happiness as now lived in each of the +moments when she held her little baby in her arms. And +the years went on, and the King grew more and more +clever at magic, and more and more disagreeable at +home, and the Princess grew more beautiful and more +dear every day she lived.</p> + +<p>The Queen and the Princess were feeding the goldfish +in the courtyard fountains with crumbs of the Princess's +eighteenth birthday cake, when the King came into the +courtyard, looking as black as thunder, with his black +raven hopping after him. He shook his fist at his family, as +indeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was +not a King with pretty home manners. The raven sat down +on the edge of the marble basin and tried to peck the goldfish. +It was all he could do to show that he was in the same +temper as his master.</p> + +<p>"A girl indeed!" said the King angrily. "I wonder you can +dare to look me in the face, when you remember how your +silliness has spoiled everything."</p> + +<p>"You oughtn't to speak to my mother like that," said the +Princess. She was eighteen, and it came to her suddenly +and all in a moment that she was a grown-up, so she spoke +out.</p> + +<p>The King could not utter a word for several minutes. He +was too angry. But the Queen said, "My dear child, don't +interfere," quite crossly, for she was frightened.</p> + +<p>And to her husband she said, "My dear, why do you go +on worrying about it? Our daughter is not a boy, it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +true—but she may marry a clever man who could rule +your kingdom after you, and learn as much magic as ever +you cared to teach him."</p> + +<p>Then the King found his tongue.</p> + +<p>"If she does marry," he said, slowly, "her husband will +have to be a very clever man—oh, yes, very clever +indeed! And he will have to know a very great deal more +magic than I shall ever care to teach him."</p> + +<p>The Queen knew at once by the King's tone that he was +going to be disagreeable.</p> + +<p>"Ah," she said, "don't punish the child because she +loves her mother."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to punish her for that," said he. "I'm only +going to teach her to respect her father."</p> + +<p>And without another word he went off to his laboratory +and worked all night, boiling different-colored things in +crucibles, and copying charms in curious twisted letters +from old brown books with mold stains on their yellowy +pages.</p> + +<p>The next day his plan was all arranged. He took the +poor Princess to the Lone Tower, which stands on an +island in the sea, a thousand miles from everywhere. He +gave her a dowry, and settled a handsome income on her. +He engaged a competent dragon to look after her, and also +a respectable griffin whose birth and upbringing he knew +all about. And he said: "Here you shall stay, my dear, +respectful daughter, till the clever man comes to marry +you. He'll have to be clever enough to sail a ship through +the Nine Whirlpools that spin around the island, and to +kill the dragon and the griffin. Till he comes you'll never +get any older or any wiser. No doubt he will soon come. +You can employ yourself in embroidering your wedding +gown. I wish you joy, my dutiful child."</p> + +<p>And his carriage, drawn by live thunderbolts (thunder +travels very fast), rose in the air and disappeared, and the +poor Princess was left, with the dragon and the griffin, on +the Island of the Nine Whirlpools.</p> + +<p>The Queen, left at home, cried for a day and a night, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +then she remembered the witch and called to her. And the +witch came, and the Queen told her all.</p> + +<p>"For the sake of the twice twenty-five kisses you gave +me," said the witch, "I will help you. But it is the last thing +I can do, and it is not much. Your daughter is under a +spell, and I can take you to her. But, if I do, you will have +to be turned to stone, and to stay so till the spell is taken +off the child."</p> + +<p>"I would be a stone for a thousand years," said the poor +Queen, "if at the end of them I could see my dear again."</p> + +<p>So the witch took the Queen in a carriage drawn by live +sunbeams (which travel more quickly than anything else +in the world, and much quicker than thunder), and so +away and away to the Lone Tower on the Island of the +Nine Whirlpools. And there was the Princess sitting on +the floor in the best room of the Lone Tower, crying as if +her heart would break, and the dragon and the griffin +were sitting primly on each side of her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mother, Mother, Mother," she cried, and hung +around the Queen's neck as if she would never let go.</p> + +<p>"Now," said the witch, when they had all cried as much +as was good for them, "I can do one or two other little +things for you. Time shall not make the Princess sad. All +days will be like one day till her deliverer comes. And you +and I, dear Queen, will sit in stone at the gate of the tower. +In doing this for you I lose all my witch's powers, and +when I say the spell that changes you to stone, I shall +change with you, and if ever we come out of the stone, I +shall be a witch no more, but only a happy old woman."</p> + +<p>Then the three kissed one another again and again, and +the witch said the spell, and on each side of the door +there was now a stone lady. One of them had a stone +crown on its head and a stone scepter in its hand; but the +other held a stone tablet with words on it, which the griffin +and the dragon could not read, though they had both +had a very good education.</p> + +<p>And now all days seemed like one day to the Princess, +and the next day always seemed the day when her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +mother would come out of the stone and kiss her again. +And the years went slowly by. The wicked King died, and +some one else took his kingdom, and many things were +changed in the world; but the island did not change, nor +the Nine Whirlpools, nor the griffin, nor the dragon, nor +the two stone ladies. And all the time, from the very first, +the day of the Princess's deliverance was coming, creeping +nearer, and nearer, and nearer. But no one saw it coming +except the Princess, and she only in dreams. And the +years went by in tens and in hundreds, and still the Nine +Whirlpools spun around, roaring in triumph the story of +many a good ship that had gone down in their swirl, bearing +with it some Prince who had tried to win the Princess +and her dowry. And the great sea knew all the other stories +of the Princes who had come from very far, and had +seen the whirlpools, and had shaken their wise young +heads and said: "'Bout ship!" and gone discreetly home to +their nice, safe, comfortable kingdoms.</p> + +<p>But no one told the story of the deliverer who was to +come. And the years went by.</p> + +<p>Now, after more scores of years than you would like to +add up on your slate, a certain sailor-boy sailed on the +high seas with his uncle, who was a skilled skipper. And +the boy could reef a sail and coil a rope and keep the +ship's nose steady before the wind. And he was as good a +boy as you would find in a month of Sundays, and worthy +to be a Prince.</p> + +<p>Now there is Something which is wiser than all the +world—and it knows when people are worthy to be +Princes. And this Something came from the farther side of +the seventh world, and whispered in the boy's ear.</p> + +<p>And the boy heard, though he did not know he heard, +and he looked out over the black sea with the white foam-horses +galloping over it, and far away he saw a light. And +he said to the skipper, his uncle: "What light is that?"</p> + +<p>Then the skipper said: "All good things defend you, +Nigel, from sailing near that light. It is not mentioned in all +charts; but it is marked in the old chart I steer by, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +was my father's father's before me, and his father's +father's before him. It is the light that shines from the +Lone Tower that stands above the Nine Whirlpools. And +when my father's father was young he heard from the +very old man, his great-great-grandfather, that in that +tower an enchanted Princess, fairer than the day, waits to +be delivered. But there is no deliverance, so never steer +that way; and think no more of the Princess, for that is +only an idle tale. But the whirlpools are quite real."</p> + +<p>So, of course, from that day Nigel thought of nothing +else. And as he sailed hither and thither upon the high +seas he saw from time to time the light that shone out to +sea across the wild swirl of the Nine Whirlpools. And one +night, when the ship was at anchor and the skipper asleep +in his bunk, Nigel launched the ship's boat and steered +alone over the dark sea towards the light. He dared not go +very near till daylight should show him what, indeed, +were the whirlpools he had to dread.</p> + +<p>But when the dawn came he saw the Lone Tower standing +dark against the pink and primrose of the East, and +about its base the sullen swirl of black water, and he +heard the wonderful roar of it. So he hung off and on, all +that day and for six days besides. And when he had +watched seven days he knew something. For you are certain +to know something if you give for seven days your +whole thought to it, even though it be only the first +declension, or the nine-times table, or the dates of the +Norman Kings.</p> + +<p>What he knew was this: that for five minutes out of the +1,440 minutes that make up a day the whirlpools slipped +into silence, while the tide went down and left the yellow +sand bare. And every day this happened, but every day it +was five minutes earlier than it had been the day before. +He made sure of this by the ship's chronometer, which he +had thoughtfully brought with him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 278px;"> +<img src="images/gs15.jpg" width="278" height="400" alt=""The Lone Tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools." See page 88." title=""The Lone Tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools." See page 88." /> +<span class="caption">"The Lone Tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools."<br /><a href="#Page_88"><i>See page 88.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>So on the eighth day, at five minutes before noon, Nigel +got ready. And when the whirlpools suddenly stopped +whirling and the tide sank, like water in a basin that has a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +hole in it, he stuck to his oars and put his back into his +stroke, and presently beached the boat on the yellow +sand. Then he dragged it into a cave, and sat down to +wait.</p> + +<p>By five minutes and one second past noon, the +whirlpools were black and busy again, and Nigel peeped +out of his cave. And on the rocky ledge overhanging the +sea he saw a Princess as beautiful as the day, with golden +hair and a green gown—and he went out to meet her.</p> + +<p>"I've come to save you," he said. "How darling and +beautiful you are!"</p> + +<p>"You are very good, and very clever, and very dear," +said the Princess, smiling and giving him both her hands.</p> + +<p>He shut a little kiss in each hand before he let them go.</p> + +<p>"So now, when the tide is low again, I will take you away +in my boat," he said.</p> + +<p>"But what about the dragon and the griffin?" asked the +Princess.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Nigel. "I didn't know about them. I suppose +I can kill them?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be a silly boy," said the Princess, pretending to +be very grown up, for, though she had been on the island +time only knows how many years, she was just eighteen, +and she still liked pretending. "You haven't a sword, or a +shield, or anything!"</p> + +<p>"Well, don't the beasts ever go to sleep?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," said the Princess, "but only once in twenty-four +hours, and then the dragon is turned to stone. But +the griffin has dreams. The griffin sleeps at teatime every +day, but the dragon sleeps every day for five minutes, and +every day it is three minutes later than it was the day +before."</p> + +<p>"What time does he sleep today?" asked Nigel.</p> + +<p>"At eleven," said the Princess.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Nigel, "can you do sums?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the Princess sadly. "I was never good at +them."</p> + +<p>"Then I must," said Nigel. "I can, but it's slow work, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +it makes me very unhappy. It'll take me days and days."</p> + +<p>"Don't begin yet," said the Princess. "You'll have plenty +of time to be unhappy when I'm not with you. Tell me all +about yourself."</p> + +<p>So he did. And then she told him all about herself.</p> + +<p>"I know I've been here a long time," she said, "but I +don't know what Time is. And I am very busy sewing silk +flowers on a golden gown for my wedding day. And the +griffin does the housework—his wings are so convenient +and feathery for sweeping and dusting. And the dragon +does the cooking—he's hot inside, so, of course, it's no +trouble to him; and though I don't know what Time is I'm +sure it's time for my wedding day, because my golden +gown only wants one more white daisy on the sleeve, and +a lily on the bosom of it, and then it will be ready."</p> + +<p>Just then they heard a dry, rustling clatter on the rocks +above them and a snorting sound. "It's the dragon," said +the Princess hurriedly. "Good-bye. Be a good boy, and get +your sum done." And she ran away and left him to his +arithmetic.</p> + +<p>Now, the sum was this: "If the whirlpools stop and the +tide goes down once in every twenty-four hours, and they +do it five minutes earlier every twenty-four hours, and if +the dragon sleeps every day, and he does it three minutes +later every day, in how many days and at what time in the +day will the tide go down three minutes before the dragon +falls asleep?"</p> + +<p>It is quite a simple sum, as you see: You could do it in a +minute because you have been to a good school and have +taken pains with your lessons; but it was quite otherwise +with poor Nigel. He sat down to work out his sum with a +piece of chalk on a smooth stone. He tried it by practice +and the unitary method, by multiplication, and by rule-of-three-and-three-quarters. +He tried it by decimals and by +compound interest. He tried it by square root and by cube +root. He tried it by addition, simple and otherwise, and he +tried it by mixed examples in vulgar fractions. But it was +all of no use. Then he tried to do the sum by algebra, by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +simple and by quadratic equations, by trigonometry, by +logarithms, and by conic sections. But it would not do. He +got an answer every time, it is true, but it was always a different +one, and he could not feel sure which answer was +right.</p> + +<p>And just as he was feeling how much more important +than anything else it is to be able to do your sums, the +Princess came back. And now it was getting dark.</p> + +<p>"Why, you've been seven hours over that sum," she +said, "and you haven't done it yet. Look here, this is what +is written on the tablet of the statue by the lower gate. It +has figures in it. Perhaps it is the answer to the sum."</p> + +<p>She held out to him a big white magnolia leaf. And she +had scratched on it with the pin of her pearl brooch, and +it had turned brown where she had scratched it, as magnolia +leaves will do. Nigel read:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +AFTER NINE DAYS<br /> +T ii. 24.<br /> +D ii. 27 Ans.<br /> +P.S.—And the griffin is artificial. R.<br /> +</div> + +<p>He clapped his hands softly.</p> + +<p>"Dear Princess," he said, "I know that's the right answer. +It says R too, you see. But I'll just prove it." So he hastily +worked the sum backward in decimals and equations and +conic sections, and all the rules he could think of. And it +came right every time.</p> + +<p>"So now we must wait," said he. And they waited.</p> + +<p>And every day the Princess came to see Nigel and +brought him food cooked by the dragon, and he lived in +his cave, and talked to her when she was there, and +thought about her when she was not, and they were both +as happy as the longest day in summer. Then at last came +The Day. Nigel and the Princess laid their plans.</p> + +<p>"You're sure he won't hurt you, my only treasure?" said +Nigel.</p> + +<p>"Quite," said the Princess. "I only wish I were half as +sure that he wouldn't hurt you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My Princess," he said tenderly, "two great powers are +on our side: the power of Love and the power of +Arithmetic. Those two are stronger than anything else in +the world."</p> + +<p>So when the tide began to go down, Nigel and the +Princess ran out on to the sands, and there, in full sight of +the terrace where the dragon kept watch, Nigel took his +Princess in his arms and kissed her. The griffin was busy +sweeping the stairs of the Lone Tower, but the dragon +saw, and he gave a cry of rage—and it was like twenty +engines all letting off steam at the top of their voices +inside Cannon Street Station.</p> + +<p>And the two lovers stood looking up at the dragon. He +was dreadful to look at. His head was white with age—and +his beard had grown so long that he caught his claws in it +as he walked. His wings were white with the salt that had +settled on them from the spray of the sea. His tail was +long and thick and jointed and white, and had little legs to +it, any number of them—far too many—so that it looked +like a very large fat silkworm; and his claws were as long +as lessons and as sharp as bayonets.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, love!" cried Nigel, and ran out across the +yellow sand toward the sea. He had one end of a cord tied +to his arm.</p> + +<p>The dragon was clambering down the face of the cliff, +and next moment he was crawling and writhing and +sprawling and wriggling across the beach after Nigel, making +great holes in the sand with his heavy feet—and the +very end of his tail, where there were no legs, made, as it +dragged, a mark in the sand such as you make when you +launch a boat; and he breathed fire till the wet sand +hissed again, and the water of the little rock pools got +quite frightened, and all went off in steam.</p> + +<p>Still Nigel held on and the dragon after him. The +Princess could see nothing for the steam, and she stood +crying bitterly, but still holding on tight with her right +hand to the other end of the cord that Nigel had told her +to hold; while with her left she held the ship's chrono<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>meter, +and looked at it through her tears as he had bidden +her look, so as to know when to pull the rope.</p> + +<p>On went Nigel over the sand, and on went the dragon +after him. And the tide was low, and sleepy little waves +lapped the sand's edge.</p> + +<p>Now at the lip of the water, Nigel paused and looked +back, and the dragon made a bound, beginning a scream +of rage that was like all the engines of all the railways in +England. But it never uttered the second half of that +scream, for now it knew suddenly that it was sleepy—it +turned to hurry back to dry land, because sleeping near +whirlpools is so unsafe. But before it reached the shore +sleep caught it and turned it to stone. Nigel, seeing this, +ran shoreward for his life—and the tide began to flow in, +and the time of the whirlpools' sleep was nearly over, and +he stumbled and he waded and he swam, and the Princess +pulled for dear life at the cord in her hand, and pulled him +up on to the dry shelf of rock just as the great sea dashed +in and made itself once more into the girdle of Nine +Whirlpools all around the island.</p> + +<p>But the dragon was asleep under the whirlpools, and +when he woke up from being asleep he found he was +drowned, so there was an end of him.</p> + +<p>"Now, there's only the griffin," said Nigel. And the +Princess said: "Yes—only—" And she kissed Nigel and +went back to sew the last leaf of the last lily on the bosom +of her wedding gown. She thought and thought of what +was written on the stone about the griffin being artificial—and +next day she said to Nigel: "You know a griffin is +half a lion and half an eagle, and the other two halves +when they've joined make the leo-griff. But I've never seen +him. Yet I have an idea."</p> + +<p>So they talked it over and arranged everything.</p> + +<p>When the griffin fell asleep that afternoon at teatime, +Nigel went softly behind him and trod on his tail, and at +the same time the Princess cried: "Look out! There's a lion +behind you."</p> + +<p>And the griffin, waking suddenly from his dreams, twist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>ed +his large neck around to look for the lion, saw a lion's +flank, and fastened its eagle beak in it. For the griffin had +been artificially made by the King-enchanter, and the two +halves had never really got used to each other. So now the +eagle half of the griffin, who was still rather sleepy, +believed that it was fighting a lion, and the lion part, being +half asleep, thought it was fighting an eagle, and the whole +griffin in its deep drowsiness hadn't the sense to pull itself +together and remember what it was made of. So the griffin +rolled over and over, one end of it fighting with the +other, till the eagle end pecked the lion end to death, and +the lion end tore the eagle end with its claws till it died. +And so the griffin that was made of a lion and an eagle perished, +exactly as if it had been made of Kilkenny cats.</p> + +<p>"Poor griffin," said the Princess, "it was very good at +the housework. I always liked it better than the dragon: It +wasn't so hot-tempered."</p> + +<p>At that moment there was a soft, silky rush behind the +Princess, and there was her mother, the Queen, who had +slipped out of the stone statue at the moment the griffin +was dead, and now came hurrying to take her dear +daughter in her arms. The witch was clambering slowly +off her pedestal. She was a little stiff from standing still so +long.</p> + +<p>When they had all explained everything over and over +to each other as many times as was good for them, the +witch said: "Well, but what about the whirlpools?"</p> + +<p>And Nigel said he didn't know. Then the witch said: "I'm +not a witch anymore. I'm only a happy old woman, but I +know some things still. Those whirlpools were made by +the enchanter-King's dropping nine drops of his blood +into the sea. And his blood was so wicked that the sea has +been trying ever since to get rid of it, and that made the +whirlpools. Now you've only got to go out at low tide."</p> + +<p>So Nigel understood and went out at low tide, and +found in the sandy hollow left by the first whirlpool a +great red ruby. That was the first drop of the wicked +King's blood. The next day Nigel found another, and next<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +day another, and so on till the ninth day, and then the sea +was as smooth as glass.</p> + +<p>The nine rubies were used afterwards in agriculture. +You had only to throw them out into a field if you wanted +it plowed. Then the whole surface of the land turned itself +over in its anxiety to get rid of something so wicked, and +in the morning the field was found to be plowed as thoroughly +as any young man at Oxford. So the wicked King +did some good after all.</p> + +<p>When the sea was smooth, ships came from far and +wide, bringing people to hear the wonderful story. And a +beautiful palace was built, and the Princess was married +to Nigel in her gold dress, and they all lived happily as +long as was good for them.</p> + +<p>The dragon still lies, a stone dragon on the sand, and at +low tide the little children play around him and over him. +But the pieces that were left of the griffin were buried +under the herb-bed in the palace garden, because it had +been so good at housework, and it wasn't its fault that it +had been made so badly and put to such poor work as +guarding a lady from her lover.</p> + +<p>I have no doubt that you will wish to know what the +Princess lived on during the long years when the dragon +did the cooking. My dear, she lived on her income—and +that is a thing that a great many people would like to be +able to do.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 332px;"> +<img src="images/gs16.jpg" width="332" height="400" alt=""Little children play around him and over him." See page 96." title=""Little children play around him and over him." See page 96." /> +<span class="caption">"Little children play around him and over him."<br /><a href="#Page_96"><i>See page 96.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 253px;"> +<img src="images/gs17.jpg" width="253" height="400" alt="VI +THE DRAGON +TAMERS" title="VI +THE DRAGON +TAMERS" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VI. The Dragon Tamers</h2> + + +<p>There was once an old, old castle—it was so old that +its walls and towers and turrets and gateways and +arches had crumbled to ruins, and of all its old splendor +there were only two little rooms left; and it was here that +John the blacksmith had set up his forge. He was too poor +to live in a proper house, and no one asked any rent for +the rooms in the ruin, because all the lords of the castle +were dead and gone this many a year. So there John blew +his bellows and hammered his iron and did all the work +which came his way. This was not much, because most of +the trade went to the mayor of the town, who was also a +blacksmith in quite a large way of business, and had his +huge forge facing the square of the town, and had twelve +apprentices, all hammering like a nest of woodpeckers, +and twelve journeymen to order the apprentices about, +and a patent forge and a self-acting hammer and electric +bellows, and all things handsome about him. So of course +the townspeople, whenever they wanted a horse shod or +a shaft mended, went to the mayor. John the blacksmith +struggled on as best he could, with a few odd jobs from +travelers and strangers who did not know what a superior +forge the mayor's was. The two rooms were warm and +weather-tight, but not very large; so the blacksmith got +into the way of keeping his old iron, his odds and ends, +his fagots, and his twopence worth of coal in the great +dungeon down under the castle. It was a very fine dungeon +indeed, with a handsome vaulted roof and big iron<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +rings whose staples were built into the wall, very strong +and convenient for tying captives to, and at one end was +a broken flight of wide steps leading down no one knew +where. Even the lords of the castle in the good old times +had never known where those steps led to, but every now +and then they would kick a prisoner down the steps in +their lighthearted, hopeful way, and sure enough, the prisoners +never came back. The blacksmith had never dared +to go beyond the seventh step, and no more have I—so I +know no more than he did what was at the bottom of +those stairs.</p> + +<p>John the blacksmith had a wife and a little baby. When +his wife was not doing the housework she used to nurse +the baby and cry, remembering the happy days when she +lived with her father, who kept seventeen cows and lived +quite in the country, and when John used to come courting +her in the summer evenings, as smart as smart, with a +posy in his buttonhole. And now John's hair was getting +gray, and there was hardly ever enough to eat.</p> + +<p>As for the baby, it cried a good deal at odd times; but at +night, when its mother had settled down to sleep, it would +always begin to cry, quite as a matter of course, so that +she hardly got any rest at all. This made her very tired.</p> + +<p>The baby could make up for its bad nights during the +day if it liked, but the poor mother couldn't. So whenever +she had nothing to do she used to sit and cry, because she +was tired out with work and worry.</p> + +<p>One evening the blacksmith was busy with his forge. He +was making a goat-shoe for the goat of a very rich lady, +who wished to see how the goat liked being shod, and also +whether the shoe would come to fivepence or sevenpence +before she ordered the whole set. This was the only order +John had had that week. And as he worked his wife sat and +nursed the baby, who, for a wonder, was not crying.</p> + +<p>Presently, over the noise of the bellows and over the +clank of the iron, there came another sound. The blacksmith +and his wife looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"I heard nothing," said he.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Neither did I," said she.</p> + +<p>But the noise grew louder—and the two were so anxious +not to hear it that he hammered away at the goat-shoe +harder than he had ever hammered in his life, and +she began to sing to the baby—a thing she had not had +the heart to do for weeks.</p> + +<p>But through the blowing and hammering and singing +the noise came louder and louder, and the more they tried +not to hear it, the more they had to. It was like the noise +of some great creature purring, purring, purring—and the +reason they did not want to believe they really heard it +was that it came from the great dungeon down below, +where the old iron was, and the firewood and the +twopence worth of coal, and the broken steps that went +down into the dark and ended no one knew where.</p> + +<p>"It can't be anything in the dungeon," said the blacksmith, +wiping his face. "Why, I shall have to go down there +after more coals in a minute."</p> + +<p>"There isn't anything there, of course. How could there +be?" said his wife. And they tried so hard to believe that +there could be nothing there that presently they very +nearly did believe it.</p> + +<p>Then the blacksmith took his shovel in one hand and +his riveting hammer in the other, and hung the old stable +lantern on his little finger, and went down to get the coals.</p> + +<p>"I am not taking the hammer because I think there is +something there," said he, "but it is handy for breaking +the large lumps of coal."</p> + +<p>"I quite understand," said his wife, who had brought the +coal home in her apron that very afternoon, and knew +that it was all coal dust.</p> + +<p>So he went down the winding stairs to the dungeon and +stood at the bottom of the steps, holding the lantern +above his head just to see that the dungeon really was +empty, as usual. Half of it was empty as usual, except for +the old iron and odds and ends, and the firewood and the +coals. But the other side was not empty. It was quite full, +and what it was full of was Dragon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It must have come up those nasty broken steps from +goodness knows where," said the blacksmith to himself, +trembling all over, as he tried to creep back up the winding +stairs.</p> + +<p>But the dragon was too quick for him—it put out a great +claw and caught him by the leg, and as it moved it rattled +like a great bunch of keys, or like the sheet iron they make +thunder out of in pantomimes.</p> + +<p>"No you don't," said the dragon in a spluttering voice, +like a damp squib.</p> + +<p>"Deary, deary me," said poor John, trembling more than +ever in the claw of the dragon. "Here's a nice end for a +respectable blacksmith!"</p> + +<p>The dragon seemed very much struck by this remark.</p> + +<p>"Do you mind saying that again?" said he, quite politely.</p> + +<p>So John said again, very distinctly: "<i>Here</i>—<i>is</i>—<i>a</i>—<i>nice</i>—<i>end</i>—<i>for</i>—<i>a</i>—<i>respectable</i>—<i>blacksmith.</i>"</p> + +<p>"I didn't know," said the dragon. "Fancy now! You're the +very man I wanted."</p> + +<p>"So I understood you to say before," said John, his teeth +chattering.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mean what you mean," said the dragon, +"but I should like you to do a job for me. One of my wings +has got some of the rivets out of it just above the joint. +Could you put that to rights?"</p> + +<p>"I might, sir," said John, politely, for you must always be +polite to a possible customer, even if he be a dragon.</p> + +<p>"A master craftsman—you are a master, of course?—can +see in a minute what's wrong," the dragon went on. +"Just come around here and feel my plates, will you?"</p> + +<p>John timidly went around when the dragon took his +claw away; and sure enough, the dragon's wing was hanging +loose, and several of the plates near the joint certainly +wanted riveting.</p> + +<p>The dragon seemed to be made almost entirely of iron +armor—a sort of tawny, red-rust color it was; from damp, +no doubt—and under it he seemed to be covered with +something furry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> + +<p>All the blacksmith welled up in John's heart, and he felt +more at ease.</p> + +<p>"You could certainly do with a rivet or two, sir," said he. +"In fact, you want a good many."</p> + +<p>"Well, get to work, then," said the dragon. "You mend +my wing, and then I'll go out and eat up all the town, and +if you make a really smart job of it I'll eat you last. There!"</p> + +<p>"I don't want to be eaten last, sir," said John.</p> + +<p>"Well then, I'll eat you first," said the dragon.</p> + +<p>"I don't want that, sir, either," said John.</p> + +<p>"Go on with you, you silly man," said the dragon, "you +don't know your own silly mind. Come, set to work."</p> + +<p>"I don't like the job, sir," said John, "and that's the truth. +I know how easily accidents happen. It's all fair and +smooth, and 'Please rivet me, and I'll eat you last'—and +then you get to work and you give a gentleman a bit of a +nip or a dig under his rivets—and then it's fire and smoke, +and no apologies will meet the case."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word of honor as a dragon," said the other.</p> + +<p>"I know you wouldn't do it on purpose, sir," said John, +"but any gentleman will give a jump and a sniff if he's +nipped, and one of your sniffs would be enough for me. +Now, if you'd just let me fasten you up?"</p> + +<p>"It would be so undignified," objected the dragon.</p> + +<p>"We always fasten a horse up," said John, "and he's the +'noble animal.'"</p> + +<p>"It's all very well," said the dragon, "but how do I know +you'd untie me again when you'd riveted me? Give me +something in pledge. What do you value most?"</p> + +<p>"My hammer," said John. "A blacksmith is nothing without +a hammer."</p> + +<p>"But you'd want that for riveting me. You must think of +something else, and at once, or I'll eat you first."</p> + +<p>At this moment the baby in the room above began to +scream. Its mother had been so quiet that it thought she +had settled down for the night, and that it was time to +begin.</p> + +<p>"Whatever's that?" said the dragon, starting so that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +every plate on his body rattled.</p> + +<p>"It's only the baby," said John.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" asked the dragon. "Something you value?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, sir, rather," said the blacksmith.</p> + +<p>"Then bring it here," said the dragon, "and I'll take care +of it till you've done riveting me, and you shall tie me up."</p> + +<p>"All right, sir," said John, "but I ought to warn you. +Babies are poison to dragons, so I don't deceive you. It's +all right to touch—but don't you go putting it into your +mouth. I shouldn't like to see any harm come to a nice-looking +gentleman like you."</p> + +<p>The dragon purred at this compliment and said: "All +right, I'll be careful. Now go and fetch the thing, whatever +it is."</p> + +<p>So John ran up the steps as quickly as he could, for he +knew that if the dragon got impatient before it was fastened, +it could heave up the roof of the dungeon with one +heave of its back, and kill them all in the ruins. His wife +was asleep, in spite of the baby's cries; and John picked +up the baby and took it down and put it between the dragon's +front paws.</p> + +<p>"You just purr to it, sir," he said, "and it'll be as good as +gold."</p> + +<p>So the dragon purred, and his purring pleased the baby +so much that it stopped crying.</p> + +<p>Then John rummaged among the heap of old iron and +found there some heavy chains and a great collar that had +been made in the days when men sang over their work +and put their hearts into it, so that the things they made +were strong enough to bear the weight of a thousand +years, let alone a dragon.</p> + +<p>John fastened the dragon up with the collar and the +chains, and when he had padlocked them all on safely he +set to work to find out how many rivets would be needed.</p> + +<p>"Six, eight, ten—twenty, forty," said he. "I haven't half +enough rivets in the shop. If you'll excuse me, sir, I'll step +around to another forge and get a few dozen. I won't be a +minute."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 325px;"> +<img src="images/gs18.jpg" width="325" height="357" alt=""The dragon's purring pleased the baby." See page 106." title=""The dragon's purring pleased the baby." See page 106." /> +<span class="caption">"The dragon's purring pleased the baby."<br /><a href="#Page_106"><i>See page 106.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>And off he went, leaving the baby between the dragon's +fore-paws, laughing and crowing with pleasure at the very +large purr of it.</p> + +<p>John ran as hard as he could into the town, and found +the mayor and corporation.</p> + +<p>"There's a dragon in my dungeon," he said; "I've +chained him up. Now come and help to get my baby +away."</p> + +<p>And he told them all about it.</p> + +<p>But they all happened to have engagements for that +evening; so they praised John's cleverness, and said they +were quite content to leave the matter in his hands.</p> + +<p>"But what about my baby?" said John.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said the mayor, "if anything should happen, +you will always be able to remember that your baby perished +in a good cause."</p> + +<p>So John went home again, and told his wife some of the +tale.</p> + +<p>"You've given the baby to the dragon!" she cried. "Oh, +you unnatural parent!"</p> + +<p>"Hush," said John, and he told her some more. "Now," +he said, "I'm going down. After I've been down you can go, +and if you keep your head the boy will be all right."</p> + +<p>So down went the blacksmith, and there was the +dragon purring away with all his might to keep the baby +quiet.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, can't you?" he said. "I can't keep up this +noise all night."</p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry, sir," said the blacksmith, "but all the +shops are shut. The job must wait till the morning. And +don't forget you've promised to take care of that baby. +You'll find it a little wearing, I'm afraid. Good night, sir."</p> + +<p>The dragon had purred till he was quite out of breath—so +now he stopped, and as soon as everything was quiet +the baby thought everyone must have settled for the +night, and that it was time to begin to scream. So it began.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," said the dragon, "this is awful." He patted +the baby with his claw, but it screamed more than ever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And I am so tired too," said the dragon. "I did so hope +I should have a good night."</p> + +<p>The baby went on screaming.</p> + +<p>"There'll be no peace for me after this," said the dragon. +"It's enough to ruin one's nerves. Hush, then—did 'ums, +then." And he tried to quiet the baby as if it had been a +young dragon. But when he began to sing "Hush-a-by, +Dragon," the baby screamed more and more and more. "I +can't keep it quiet," said the dragon; and then suddenly he +saw a woman sitting on the steps. "Here, I say," said he, +"do you know anything about babies?"</p> + +<p>"I do, a little," said the mother.</p> + +<p>"Then I wish you'd take this one, and let me get some +sleep," said the dragon, yawning. "You can bring it back in +the morning before the blacksmith comes."</p> + +<p>So the mother picked up the baby and took it upstairs +and told her husband, and they went to bed happy, for +they had caught the dragon and saved the baby.</p> + +<p>And next day John went down and explained carefully +to the dragon exactly how matters stood, and he got an +iron gate with a grating to it and set it up at the foot of the +steps, and the dragon mewed furiously for days and days, +but when he found it was no good he was quiet.</p> + +<p>So now John went to the mayor, and said: "I've got the +dragon and I've saved the town."</p> + +<p>"Noble preserver," cried the mayor, "we will get up a +subscription for you, and crown you in public with a laurel +wreath."</p> + +<p>So the mayor put his name down for five pounds, and +the corporation each gave three, and other people gave +their guineas and half guineas and half crowns and +crowns, and while the subscription was being made the +mayor ordered three poems at his own expense from the +town poet to celebrate the occasion. The poems were +very much more admired, especially by the mayor and +corporation.</p> + +<p>The first poem dealt with the noble conduct of the +mayor in arranging to have the dragon tied up. The sec<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>ond +described the splendid assistance rendered by the +corporation. And the third expressed the pride and joy of +the poet in being permitted to sing such deeds, beside +which the actions of St. George must appear quite +commonplace to all with a feeling heart or a well-balanced +brain.</p> + +<p>When the subscription was finished there was a thousand +pounds, and a committee was formed to settle what +should be done with it. A third of it went to pay for a banquet +to the mayor and corporation; another third was +spent in buying a gold collar with a dragon on it for the +mayor and gold medals with dragons on them for the corporation; +and what was left went in committee expenses.</p> + +<p>So there was nothing for the blacksmith except the laurel +wreath and the knowledge that it really was he who +had saved the town. But after this things went a little better +with the blacksmith. To begin with, the baby did not +cry so much as it had before. Then the rich lady who +owned the goat was so touched by John's noble action +that she ordered a complete set of shoes at 2 shillings, 4 +pence, and even made it up to 2 shillings, 6 pence, in +grateful recognition of his public-spirited conduct. Then +tourists used to come in breaks from quite a long way off, +and pay twopence each to go down the steps and peep +through the iron grating at the rusty dragon in the dungeon—and +it was threepence extra for each party if the +blacksmith let off colored fire to see it by, which, as the +fire was extremely short, was twopence-halfpenny clear +profit every time. And the blacksmith's wife used to provide +teas at ninepence a head, and altogether things grew +brighter week by week.</p> + +<p>The baby—named John, after his father, and called +Johnnie for short—began presently to grow up. He was +great friends with Tina, the daughter of the whitesmith, +who lived nearly opposite. She was a dear little girl with +yellow pigtails and blue eyes, and she was tired of hearing +the story of how Johnnie, when he was a baby, had been +minded by a real dragon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> + +<p>The two children used to go together to peep through +the iron grating at the dragon, and sometimes they would +hear him mew piteously. And they would light a halfpenny's +worth of colored fire to look at him by. And they +grew older and wiser.</p> + +<p>At last one day the mayor and corporation, hunting the +hare in their gold gowns, came screaming back to the +town gates with the news that a lame, humpy giant, as big +as a tin church, was coming over the marshes toward the +town.</p> + +<p>"We're lost," said the mayor. "I'd give a thousand +pounds to anyone who could keep that giant out of the +town. I know what he eats—by his teeth."</p> + +<p>No one seemed to know what to do. But Johnnie and +Tina were listening, and they looked at each other, and +ran off as fast as their boots would carry them.</p> + +<p>They ran through the forge, and down the dungeon +steps, and knocked at the iron door. "Who's there?" said +the dragon. "It's only us," said the children.</p> + +<p>And the dragon was so dull from having been alone for +ten years that he said: "Come in, dears."</p> + +<p>"You won't hurt us, or breathe fire at us or anything?" +asked Tina.</p> + +<p>And the dragon said, "Not for worlds."</p> + +<p>So they went in and talked to him, and told him what +the weather was like outside, and what there was in the +papers, and at last Johnnie said: "There's a lame giant in +the town. He wants you."</p> + +<p>"Does he?" said the dragon, showing his teeth. "If only I +were out of this!"</p> + +<p>"If we let you loose you might manage to run away +before he could catch you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I might," answered the dragon, "but then again I +mightn't."</p> + +<p>"Why—you'd never fight him?" said Tina.</p> + +<p>"No," said the dragon; "I'm all for peace, I am. You let +me out, and you'll see."</p> + +<p>So the children loosed the dragon from the chains and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +the collar, and he broke down one end of the dungeon and +went out—only pausing at the forge door to get the blacksmith +to rivet his wing.</p> + +<p>He met the lame giant at the gate of the town, and the +giant banged on the dragon with his club as if he were +banging an iron foundry, and the dragon behaved like a +smelting works—all fire and smoke. It was a fearful sight, +and people watched it from a distance, falling off their +legs with the shock of every bang, but always getting up +to look again.</p> + +<p>At last the dragon won, and the giant sneaked away +across the marshes, and the dragon, who was very tired, +went home to sleep, announcing his intention of eating the +town in the morning. He went back into his old dungeon +because he was a stranger in the town, and he did not know +of any other respectable lodging. Then Tina and Johnnie +went to the mayor and corporation and said, "The giant is +settled. Please give us the thousand pounds reward."</p> + +<p>But the mayor said: "No, no, my boy. It is not you who +have settled the giant, it is the dragon. I suppose you have +chained him up again? When he comes to claim the +reward he shall have it."</p> + +<p>"He isn't chained up yet," said Johnnie. "Shall I send +him to claim the reward?"</p> + +<p>But the mayor said he need not trouble; and now he +offered a thousand pounds to anyone who would get the +dragon chained up again.</p> + +<p>"I don't trust you," said Johnnie. "Look how you treated +my father when he chained up the dragon."</p> + +<p>But the people who were listening at the door interrupted, +and said that if Johnnie could fasten up the +dragon again they would turn out the mayor and let +Johnnie be mayor in his place. For they had been dissatisfied +with the mayor for some time, and thought they +would like a change.</p> + +<p>So Johnnie said, "Done," and off he went, hand in hand +with Tina, and they called on all their little friends and +said: "Will you help us to save the town?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> + +<p>And all the children said: "Yes, of course we will. What +fun!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then," said Tina, "you must all bring your basins +of bread and milk to the forge tomorrow at breakfast +time."</p> + +<p>"And if ever I am mayor," said Johnnie, "I will give a banquet, +and you shall be invited. And we'll have nothing but +sweet things from beginning to end."</p> + +<p>All the children promised, and next morning Tina and +Johnnie rolled their big washing tub down the winding +stair.</p> + +<p>"What's that noise?" asked the dragon.</p> + +<p>"It's only a big giant breathing," said Tina, "He's gone by +now."</p> + +<p>Then, when all the town children brought their bread +and milk, Tina emptied it into the wash tub, and when the +tub was full Tina knocked at the iron door with the grating +in it and said: "May we come in?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said the dragon, "it's very dull here."</p> + +<p>So they went in, and with the help of nine other children +they lifted the washing tub in and set it down by the +dragon. Then all the other children went away, and Tina +and Johnnie sat down and cried.</p> + +<p>"What's this?" asked the dragon. "And what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"This is bread and milk," said Johnnie; "it's our breakfast—all +of it."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the dragon, "I don't see what you want with +breakfast. I'm going to eat everyone in the town as soon +as I've rested a little."</p> + +<p>"Dear Mr. Dragon," said Tina, "I wish you wouldn't eat +us. How would you like to be eaten yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," the dragon confessed, "but nobody will eat +me."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Johnnie, "there's a giant—"</p> + +<p>"I know. I fought with him, and licked him."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but there's another come now—the one you +fought was only this one's little boy. This one is half as big +again."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He's seven times as big," said Tina.</p> + +<p>"No, nine times," said Johnnie. "He's bigger than the +steeple."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," said the dragon. "I never expected this."</p> + +<p>"And the mayor has told him where you are," Tina went +on, "and he is coming to eat you as soon as he has sharpened +his big knife. The mayor told him you were a wild +dragon—but he didn't mind. He said he only ate wild +dragons—with bread sauce."</p> + +<p>"That's tiresome," said the dragon. "And I suppose this +sloppy stuff in the tub is the bread sauce?"</p> + +<p>The children said it was. "Of course," they added, +"bread sauce is only served with wild dragons. Tame ones +are served with apple sauce and onion stuffing. What a +pity you're not a tame one: He'd never look at you then," +they said. "Good-bye, poor dragon, we shall never see you +again, and now you'll know what it's like to be eaten." And +they began to cry again.</p> + +<p>"Well, but look here," said the dragon, "couldn't you +pretend I was a tame dragon? Tell the giant that I'm just a +poor little timid tame dragon that you kept for a pet."</p> + +<p>"He'd never believe it," said Johnnie. "If you were our +tame dragon we should keep you tied up, you know. We +shouldn't like to risk losing such a dear, pretty pet."</p> + +<p>Then the dragon begged them to fasten him up at once, +and they did so: with the collar and chains that were +made years ago—in the days when men sang over their +work and made it strong enough to bear any strain.</p> + +<p>And then they went away and told the people what they +had done, and Johnnie was made mayor, and had a glorious +feast exactly as he had said he would—with nothing +in it but sweet things. It began with Turkish delight and +halfpenny buns, and went on with oranges, toffee, +coconut ice, peppermints, jam puffs, raspberry-noyeau, +ice creams, and meringues, and ended with bull's-eyes +and gingerbread and acid drops.</p> + +<p>This was all very well for Johnnie and Tina; but if you +are kind children with feeling hearts you will perhaps feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +sorry for the poor deceived, deluded dragon—chained up +in the dull dungeon, with nothing to do but to think over +the shocking untruths that Johnnie had told him.</p> + +<p>When he thought how he had been tricked, the poor +captive dragon began to weep—and the large tears fell +down over his rusty plates. And presently he began to feel +faint, as people sometimes do when they have been crying, +especially if they have not had anything to eat for ten +years or so.</p> + +<p>And then the poor creature dried his eyes and looked +about him, and there he saw the tub of bread and milk. So +he thought, "If giants like this damp, white stuff, perhaps +I should like it too," and he tasted a little, and liked it so +much that he ate it all up.</p> + +<p>And the next time the tourists came, and Johnnie let off +the colored fire, the dragon said shyly: "Excuse my troubling +you, but could you bring me a little more bread and +milk?"</p> + +<p>So Johnnie arranged that people should go around with +carts every day to collect the children's bread and milk +for the dragon. The children were fed at the town's +expense—on whatever they liked; and they ate nothing +but cake and buns and sweet things, and they said the +poor dragon was very welcome to their bread and milk.</p> + +<p>Now, when Johnnie had been mayor ten years or so he +married Tina, and on their wedding morning they went to +see the dragon. He had grown quite tame, and his rusty +plates had fallen off in places, and underneath he was soft +and furry to stroke. So now they stroked him.</p> + +<p>And he said, "I don't know how I could ever have liked +eating anything but bread and milk. I <i>am</i> a tame dragon +now, aren't I?" And when they said that yes, he was, the +dragon said: "I am so tame, won't you undo me?" And +some people would have been afraid to trust him, but +Johnnie and Tina were so happy on their wedding day +that they could not believe any harm of anyone in the +world. So they loosened the chains, and the dragon said: +"Excuse me a moment, there are one or two little things I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +should like to fetch," and he moved off to those mysterious +steps and went down them, out of sight into the darkness. +And as he moved, more and more of his rusty plates +fell off.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes they heard him clanking up the steps. +He brought something in his mouth—it was a bag of gold.</p> + +<p>"It's no good to me," he said. "Perhaps you might find it +useful." So they thanked him very kindly.</p> + +<p>"More where that came from," said he, and fetched +more and more and more, till they told him to stop. So +now they were rich, and so were their fathers and mothers. +Indeed, everyone was rich, and there were no more +poor people in the town. And they all got rich without +working, which is very wrong; but the dragon had never +been to school, as you have, so he knew no better.</p> + +<p>And as the dragon came out of the dungeon, following +Johnnie and Tina into the bright gold and blue of their +wedding day, he blinked his eyes as a cat does in the sunshine, +and he shook himself, and the last of his plates +dropped off, and his wings with them, and he was just like +a very, very extra-sized cat. And from that day he grew +furrier and furrier, and he was the beginning of all cats. +Nothing of the dragon remained except the claws, which +all cats have still, as you can easily ascertain.</p> + +<p>And I hope you see now how important it is to feed your +cat with bread and milk. If you were to let it have nothing +to eat but mice and birds it might grow larger and fiercer, +and scalier and tailier, and get wings and turn into the +beginning of dragons. And then there would be all the +bother over again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 334px;"> +<img src="images/gs19.jpg" width="334" height="400" alt=""He brought something in his mouth—it was a bag of gold." See page 116." title=""He brought something in his mouth—it was a bag of gold." See page 116." /> +<span class="caption">"He brought something in his mouth—it was a bag of gold."<br /><a href="#Page_116"><i>See page 116.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 268px;"> +<img src="images/gs20.jpg" width="268" height="400" alt="VII + THE FIERY +DRAGON" title="VII + THE FIERY +DRAGON" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VII. The Fiery Dragon,<br /> +or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold</h2> + + +<p>The little white Princess always woke in her little white +bed when the starlings began to chatter in the pearl +gray morning. As soon as the woods were awake, she used +to run up the twisting turret-stairs with her little bare feet, +and stand on the top of the tower in her white bed-gown, +and kiss her hands to the sun and to the woods and to the +sleeping town, and say: "Good morning, pretty world!"</p> + +<p>Then she would run down the cold stone steps and +dress herself in her short skirt and her cap and apron, and +begin the day's work. She swept the rooms and made the +breakfast, she washed the dishes and she scoured the +pans, and all this she did because she was a real Princess. +For of all who should have served her, only one remained +faithful—her old nurse, who had lived with her in the +tower all the Princess's life. And, now the nurse was old +and feeble, the Princess would not let her work any more, +but did all the housework herself, while Nurse sat still and +did the sewing, because this was a real Princess with skin +like milk and hair like flax and a heart like gold.</p> + +<p>Her name was Sabrinetta, and her grandmother was +Sabra, who married St. George after he had killed the +dragon, and by real rights all the country belonged to her: +the woods that stretched away to the mountains, the +downs that sloped down to the sea, the pretty fields of +corn and maize and rye, the olive orchards and the vineyards, +and the little town itself—with its towers and its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +turrets, its steep roofs and strange windows—that nestled +in the hollow between the sea, where the whirlpool was, +and the mountains, white with snow and rosy with +sunrise.</p> + +<p>But when her father and mother had died, leaving her +cousin to take care of the kingdom till she grew up, he, +being a very evil Prince, took everything away from her, +and all the people followed him, and now nothing was left +her of all her possessions except the great dragon proof +tower that her grandfather, St. George, had built, and of all +who should have been her servants only the good nurse.</p> + +<p>This was why Sabrinetta was the first person in all the +land to get a glimpse of the wonder.</p> + +<p>Early, early, early, while all the townspeople were fast +asleep, she ran up the turret-steps and looked out over +the field, and at the other side of the field there was a +green, ferny ditch and a rose-thorny hedge, and then +came the wood. And as Sabrinetta stood on her tower she +saw a shaking and a twisting of the rose-thorny hedge, +and then something very bright and shining wriggled out +through it into the ferny ditch and back again. It only +came out for a minute, but she saw it quite plainly, and +she said to herself: "Dear me, what a curious, shiny, +bright-looking creature! If it were bigger, and if I didn't +know that there have been no fabulous monsters for quite +a long time now, I should almost think it was a dragon."</p> + +<p>The thing, whatever it was, did look rather like a +dragon—but then it was too small; and it looked rather +like a lizard—only then it was too big. It was about as long +as a hearthrug.</p> + +<p>"I wish it had not been in such a hurry to get back into +the wood," said Sabrinetta. "Of course, it's quite safe for +me, in my dragonproof tower; but if it is a dragon, it's +quite big enough to eat people, and today's the first of +May, and the children go out to get flowers in the wood."</p> + +<p>When Sabrinetta had done the housework (she did not +leave so much as a speck of dust anywhere, even in the +corneriest corner of the winding stair) she put on her milk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +white, silky gown with the moon-daisies worked on it, and +went up to the top of her tower again.</p> + +<p>Across the fields troops of children were going out to +gather the may, and the sound of their laughter and +singing came up to the top of the tower.</p> + +<p>"I do hope it wasn't a dragon," said Sabrinetta.</p> + +<p>The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and +by twenties, and the red and blue and yellow and white of +their frocks were scattered on the green of the field.</p> + +<p>"It's like a green silk mantle worked with flowers," said +the Princess, smiling.</p> + +<p>Then by twos and by threes, by tens and by twenties, +the children vanished into the wood, till the mantle of the +field was left plain green once more.</p> + +<p>"All the embroidery is unpicked," said the Princess, +sighing.</p> + +<p>The sun shone, and the sky was blue, and the fields +were quite green, and all the flowers were very bright +indeed, because it was May Day.</p> + +<p>Then quite suddenly a cloud passed over the sun, and +the silence was broken by shrieks from far off; and, like a +many-colored torrent, all the children burst from the +wood and rushed, a red and blue and yellow and white +wave, across the field, screaming as they ran. Their +voices came up to the Princess on her tower, and she +heard the words threaded on their screams like beads on +sharp needles: "The dragon, the dragon, the dragon! Open +the gates! The dragon is coming! The fiery dragon!"</p> + +<p>And they swept across the field and into the gate of the +town, and the Princess heard the gate bang, and the children +were out of sight—but on the other side of the field +the rose-thorns crackled and smashed in the hedge, and +something very large and glaring and horrible trampled +the ferns in the ditch for one moment before it hid itself +again in the covert of the wood.</p> + +<p>The Princess went down and told her nurse, and the +nurse at once locked the great door of the tower and put +the key in her pocket.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let them take care of themselves," she said, when the +Princess begged to be allowed to go out and help to take +care of the children. "My business is to take care of you, +my precious, and I'm going to do it. Old as I am, I can turn +a key still."</p> + +<p>So Sabrinetta went up again to the top of her tower, and +cried whenever she thought of the children and the fiery +dragon. For she knew, of course, that the gates of the town +were not dragonproof, and that the dragon could just +walk in whenever he liked.</p> + +<p>The children ran straight to the palace, where the +Prince was cracking his hunting whip down at the kennels, +and told him what had happened.</p> + +<p>"Good sport," said the Prince, and he ordered out his +pack of hippopotamuses at once. It was his custom to +hunt big game with hippopotamuses, and people would +not have minded that so much—but he would swagger +about in the streets of the town with his pack yelping and +gamboling at his heels, and when he did that, the green-grocer, +who had his stall in the marketplace, always +regretted it; and the crockery merchant, who spread his +wares on the pavement, was ruined for life every time the +Prince chose to show off his pack.</p> + +<p>The Prince rode out of the town with his hippopotamuses +trotting and frisking behind him, and people got +inside their houses as quickly as they could when they +heard the voices of his pack and the blowing of his horn. +The pack squeezed through the town gates and off across +country to hunt the dragon. Few of you who had not seen +a pack of hippopotamuses in full cry will be able to imagine +at all what the hunt was like. To begin with, hippopotamuses +do not bay like hounds: They grunt like +pigs, and their grunt is very big and fierce. Then, of +course, no one expects hippopotamuses to jump. They +just crash through the hedges and lumber through the +standing corn, doing serious injury to the crops, and +annoying the farmers very much. All the hippopotamuses +had collars with their name and address on, but when the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +farmers called at the palace to complain of the injury to +their standing crops, the Prince always said it served +them right for leaving their crops standing about in people's +way, and he never paid anything at all.</p> + +<p>So now, when he and his pack went out, several people +in the town whispered, "I wish the dragon would eat +him"—which was very wrong of them, no doubt, but then +he was such a very nasty Prince.</p> + +<p>They hunted by field, and they hunted by wold; they +drew the woods blank, and the scent didn't lie on the +downs at all. The dragon was shy, and would not show +himself.</p> + +<p>But just as the Prince was beginning to think there was +no dragon at all, but only a cock and bull, his favourite old +hippopotamus gave tongue. The Prince blew his horn and +shouted: "Tally ho! Hark forward! Tantivy!" and the whole +pack charged downhill toward the hollow by the wood. +For there, plain to be seen, was the dragon, as big as a +barge, glowing like a furnace, and spitting fire and showing +his shining teeth.</p> + +<p>"The hunt is up!" cried the Prince. And indeed it was. +For the dragon—instead of behaving as a quarry should, +and running away—ran straight at the pack, and the +Prince, on his elephant, had the mortification of seeing +his prize pack swallowed up one by one in the twinkling +of an eye, by the dragon they had come out to hunt. The +dragon swallowed all the hippopotamuses just as a dog +swallows bits of meat. It was a shocking sight. Of the +whole of the pack that had come out sporting so merrily +to the music of the horn, now not even a puppy-hippopotamus +was left, and the dragon was looking anxiously +around to see if he had forgotten anything.</p> + +<p>The Prince slipped off his elephant on the other side +and ran into the thickest part of the wood. He hoped the +dragon could not break through the bushes there, since +they were very strong and close. He went crawling on +hands and knees in a most un-Prince-like way, and at +last, finding a hollow tree, he crept into it. The wood was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +very still—no crashing of branches and no smell of burning +came to alarm the Prince. He drained the silver hunting +bottle slung from his shoulder, and stretched his legs +in the hollow tree. He never shed a single tear for his +poor tame hippopotamuses who had eaten from his +hand and followed him faithfully in all the pleasures of +the chase for so many years. For he was a false Prince, +with a skin like leather and hair like hearth brushes and +a heart like a stone. He never shed a tear, but he just +went to sleep.</p> + +<p>When he awoke it was dark. He crept out of the tree and +rubbed his eyes. The wood was black about him, but there +was a red glow in a dell close by. It was a fire of sticks, and +beside it sat a ragged youth with long, yellow hair; all +around lay sleeping forms which breathed heavily.</p> + +<p>"Who are you?" said the Prince.</p> + +<p>"I'm Elfin, the pig keeper," said the ragged youth. "And +who are you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm Tiresome, the Prince," said the other.</p> + +<p>"And what are you doing out of your palace at this time +of night?" asked the pig keeper, severely.</p> + +<p>"I've been hunting," said the Prince.</p> + +<p>The pig keeper laughed. "Oh, it was you I saw, then? A +good hunt, wasn't it? My pigs and I were looking on."</p> + +<p>All the sleeping forms grunted and snored, and the +Prince saw that they were pigs: He knew it by their +manners.</p> + +<p>"If you had known as much as I do," Elfin went on, "you +might have saved your pack."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" said Tiresome.</p> + +<p>"Why, the dragon," said Elfin. "You went out at the +wrong time of day. The dragon should be hunted at night."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," said the Prince, with a shudder. "A +daylight hunt is quite good enough for me, you silly pig +keeper."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said Elfin, "do as you like about it—the dragon +will come and hunt you tomorrow, as likely as not. I +don't care if he does, you silly Prince."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You're very rude," said Tiresome.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, only truthful," said Elfin.</p> + +<p>"Well, tell me the truth, then. What is it that, if I had +known as much as you do about, I shouldn't have lost my +hippopotamuses?"</p> + +<p>"You don't speak very good English," said Elfin. "But +come, what will you give me if I tell you?"</p> + +<p>"If you tell me what?" said the tiresome Prince.</p> + +<p>"What you want to know."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to know anything," said Prince Tiresome.</p> + +<p>"Then you're more of a silly even than I thought," said +Elfin. "Don't you want to know how to settle the dragon +before he settles you?"</p> + +<p>"It might be as well," the Prince admitted.</p> + +<p>"Well, I haven't much patience at any time," said Elfin, +"and now I can assure you that there's very little left. +What will you give me if I tell you?"</p> + +<p>"Half my kingdom," said the Prince, "and my cousin's +hand in marriage."</p> + +<p>"Done," said the pig keeper. "Here goes! The dragon +grows small at night! He sleeps under the root of this tree. +I use him to light my fire with."</p> + +<p>And, sure enough, there under the tree was the dragon +on a nest of scorched moss, and he was about as long as +your finger.</p> + +<p>"How can I kill him?" asked the Prince.</p> + +<p>"I don't know that you can kill him," said Elfin, "but you +can take him away if you've brought anything to put him +in. That bottle of yours would do."</p> + +<p>So between them they managed, with bits of stick and +by singeing their fingers a little, to poke and shove the +dragon till they made it creep into the silver hunting +bottle, and then the Prince screwed on the top tight.</p> + +<p>"Now we've got him," said Elfin. "Let's take him home +and put Solomon's seal on the mouth of the bottle, and +then he'll be safe enough. Come along—we'll divide up +the kingdom tomorrow, and then I shall have some money +to buy fine clothes to go courting in."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> + +<p>But when the wicked Prince made promises he did not +make them to keep.</p> + +<p>"Go on with you! What do you mean?" he said. "I found +the dragon and I've imprisoned him. I never said a word +about courtings or kingdoms. If you say I did, I shall cut +your head off at once." And he drew his sword.</p> + +<p>"All right," said Elfin, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm better +off than you are, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" spluttered the Prince.</p> + +<p>"Why, you've only got a kingdom (and a dragon), but I've +got clean hands (and five and seventy fine black pigs)."</p> + +<p>So Elfin sat down again by his fire, and the Prince went +home and told his Parliament how clever and brave he +had been, and though he woke them up on purpose to tell +them, they were not angry, but said: "You are indeed +brave and clever." For they knew what happened to +people with whom the Prince was not pleased.</p> + +<p>Then the Prime Minister solemnly put Solomon's seal +on the mouth of the bottle, and the bottle was put in the +Treasury, which was the strongest building in the town, +and was made of solid copper, with walls as thick as +Waterloo Bridge.</p> + +<p>The bottle was set down among the sacks of gold, and +the junior secretary to the junior clerk of the last Lord of +the Treasury was appointed to sit up all night with it and +see if anything happened. The junior secretary had never +seen a dragon, and, what was more, he did not believe the +Prince had ever seen a dragon either. The Prince had +never been a really truthful boy, and it would have been +just like him to bring home a bottle with nothing in it and +then to pretend that there was a dragon inside. So the +junior secretary did not at all mind being left. They gave +him the key, and when everyone in the town had gone +back to bed he let in some of the junior secretaries from +other Government departments, and they had a jolly +game of hide-and-seek among the sacks of gold, and +played marbles with the diamonds and rubies and pearls +in the big ivory chests.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>They enjoyed themselves very much, but by-and-by the +copper treasury began to get warmer and warmer, and +suddenly the junior secretary cried out, "Look at the +bottle!"</p> + +<p>The bottle sealed with Solomon's seal had swollen to +three times its proper size and seemed to be nearly red +hot, and the air got warmer and warmer and the bottle +bigger and bigger, till all the junior secretaries agreed that +the place was too hot to hold them, and out they went, +tumbling over each other in their haste, and just as the +last got out and locked the door the bottle burst, and out +came the dragon, very fiery, and swelling more and more +every minute, and he began to eat the sacks of gold and +crunch up the pearls and diamonds and rubies as if they +were sugar.</p> + +<p>By breakfasttime he had devoured the whole of the +Prince's treasures, and when the Prince came along the +street at about eleven, he met the dragon coming out of +the broken door of the Treasury, with molten gold still +dripping from his jaws. Then the Prince turned and ran +for his life, and as he ran toward the dragonproof tower +the little white Princess saw him coming, and she ran +down and unlocked the door and let him in, and slammed +the dragonproof door in the fiery face of the dragon, who +sat down and whined outside, because he wanted the +Prince very much indeed.</p> + +<p>The Princess took Prince Tiresome into the best room, +and laid the cloth, and gave him cream and eggs and +white grapes and honey and bread, with many other +things, yellow and white and good to eat, and she served +him just as kindly as she would have done if he had been +anyone else instead of the bad Prince who had taken away +her kingdom and kept it for himself—because she was a +true Princess and had a heart of gold.</p> + +<p>When he had eaten and drunk, he begged the Princess +to show him how to lock and unlock the door. The nurse +was asleep, so there was no one to tell the Princess not to, +and she did.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 330px;"> +<img src="images/gs21.jpg" width="330" height="395" alt=""The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'" See page 129." title=""The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'" See page 129." /> +<span class="caption">"The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'"<br /><a href="#Page_129"><i>See page 129.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You turn the key like this," she said, "and the door +keeps shut. But turn it nine times around the wrong way, +and the door flies open."</p> + +<p>And so it did. And the moment it opened, the Prince +pushed the white Princess out of her tower, just as he had +pushed her out of her kingdom, and shut the door. For he +wanted to have the tower all for himself. And there she +was, in the street, and on the other side of the way the +dragon was sitting whining, but he did not try to eat her, +because—though the old nurse did not know it—dragons +cannot eat white Princesses with hearts of gold.</p> + +<p>The Princess could not walk through the streets of the +town in her milky-silky gown with the daisies on it, and +with no hat and no gloves, so she turned the other way, +and ran out across the meadows, toward the wood. She +had never been out of her tower before, and the soft grass +under her feet felt like grass of Paradise.</p> + +<p>She ran right into the thickest part of the wood, +because she did not know what her heart was made of, +and she was afraid of the dragon, and there in a dell she +came on Elfin and his five and seventy fine pigs. He was +playing his flute, and around him the pigs were dancing +cheerfully on their hind legs.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear," said the Princess, "do take care of me. I am +so frightened."</p> + +<p>"I will," said Elfin, putting his arms around her. "Now +you are quite safe. What were you frightened of?"</p> + +<p>"The dragon," she said.</p> + +<p>"So it's gotten out of the silver bottle," said Elfin. "I hope +it's eaten the Prince."</p> + +<p>"No," said Sabrinetta. "But why?"</p> + +<p>He told her of the mean trick that the Prince had played +on him.</p> + +<p>"And he promised me half his kingdom and the hand of +his cousin the Princess," said Elfin.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, what a shame!" said Sabrinetta, trying to get +out of his arms. "How dare he?"</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" he asked, holding her tighter. "It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +<i>was</i> a shame, or at least <i>I</i> thought so. But now he may +keep his kingdom, half and whole, if I may keep what I +have."</p> + +<p>"What's that?" asked the Princess.</p> + +<p>"Why, you—my pretty, my dear," said Elfin, "and as for +the Princess, his cousin—forgive me, dearest heart, but +when I asked for her I hadn't seen the real Princess, the +<i>only</i> Princess, <i>my</i> Princess."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean me?" said Sabrinetta.</p> + +<p>"Who else?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but five minutes ago you hadn't seen me!"</p> + +<p>"Five minutes ago I was a pig keeper—now I've held you +in my arms I'm a Prince, though I should have to keep pigs +to the end of my days."</p> + +<p>"But you haven't asked <i>me</i>," said the Princess.</p> + +<p>"You asked me to take care of you," said Elfin, "and I +will—all my life long."</p> + +<p>So that was settled, and they began to talk of really +important things, such as the dragon and the Prince, and +all the time Elfin did not know that this was the Princess, +but he knew that she had a heart of gold, and he told her +so, many times.</p> + +<p>"The mistake," said Elfin, "was in not having a dragonproof +bottle. I see that now."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is that all?" said the Princess. "I can easily get you +one of those—because everything in my tower is dragonproof. +We ought to do something to settle the dragon and +save the little children."</p> + +<p>So she started off to get the bottle, but she would not +let Elfin come with her.</p> + +<p>"If what you say is true," she said, "if you are sure that +I have a heart of gold, the dragon won't hurt me, and +somebody must stay with the pigs."</p> + +<p>Elfin was quite sure, so he let her go.</p> + +<p>She found the door of her tower open. The dragon had +waited patiently for the Prince, and the moment he +opened the door and came out—though he was only out +for an instant to post a letter to his Prime Minister saying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +where he was and asking them to send the fire brigade to +deal with the fiery dragon—the dragon ate him. Then the +dragon went back to the wood, because it was getting +near his time to grow small for the night.</p> + +<p>So Sabrinetta went in and kissed her nurse and made +her a cup of tea and explained what was going to happen, +and that she had a heart of gold, so the dragon couldn't +eat her; and the nurse saw that of course the Princess was +quite safe, and kissed her and let her go.</p> + +<p>She took the dragonproof bottle, made of burnished +brass, and ran back to the wood, and to the dell, where +Elfin was sitting among his sleek black pigs, waiting for +her.</p> + +<p>"I thought you were never coming back," he said. "You +have been away a year, at least."</p> + +<p>The Princess sat down beside him among the pigs, and +they held each other's hands till it was dark, and then the +dragon came crawling over the moss, scorching it as he +came, and getting smaller as he crawled, and curled up +under the root of the tree.</p> + +<p>"Now then," said Elfin, "you hold the bottle." Then he +poked and prodded the dragon with bits of stick till it +crawled into the dragonproof bottle. But there was no +stopper.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Elfin. "I'll put my finger in for a stopper."</p> + +<p>"No, let me," said the Princess. But of course Elfin +would not let her. He stuffed his finger into the top of the +bottle, and the Princess cried out: "The sea—the sea—run +for the cliffs!" And off they went, with the five and +seventy pigs trotting steadily after them in a long black +procession.</p> + +<p>The bottle got hotter and hotter in Elfin's hands, +because the dragon inside was puffing fire and smoke +with all his might—hotter and hotter and hotter—but +Elfin held on till they came to the cliff edge, and there was +the dark blue sea, and the whirlpool going around and +around.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></p> + +<p>Elfin lifted the bottle high above his head and hurled it +out between the stars and the sea, and it fell in the middle +of the whirlpool.</p> + +<p>"We've saved the country," said the Princess. "You've +saved the little children. Give me your hands."</p> + +<p>"I can't," said Elfin. "I shall never be able to take your +dear hands again. My hands are burnt off."</p> + +<p>And so they were: There were only black cinders where +his hands ought to have been. The Princess kissed them, +and cried over them, and tore pieces of her silky-milky +gown to tie them up with, and the two went back to the +tower and told the nurse all about everything. And the +pigs sat outside and waited.</p> + +<p>"He is the bravest man in the world," said Sabrinetta. +"He has saved the country and the little children; but, oh, +his hands—his poor, dear, darling hands!"</p> + +<p>Here the door of the room opened, and the oldest of the +five and seventy pigs came in. It went up to Elfin and +rubbed itself against him with little loving grunts.</p> + +<p>"See the dear creature," said the nurse, wiping away a +tear. "It knows, it knows!"</p> + +<p>Sabrinetta stroked the pig, because Elfin had no hands +for stroking or for anything else.</p> + +<p>"The only cure for a dragon burn," said the old nurse, +"is pig's fat, and well that faithful creature knows it——"</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't for a kingdom," cried Elfin, stroking the pig +as best he could with his elbow.</p> + +<p>"Is there no other cure?" asked the Princess.</p> + +<p>Here another pig put its black nose in at the door, and +then another and another, till the room was full of pigs, a +surging mass of rounded blackness, pushing and struggling +to get at Elfin, and grunting softly in the language of +true affection.</p> + +<p>"There is one other," said the nurse. "The dear, affectionate +beasts—they all want to die for you."</p> + +<p>"What is the other cure?" said Sabrinetta anxiously.</p> + +<p>"If a man is burnt by a dragon," said the nurse, "and a +certain number of people are willing to die for him, it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +enough if each should kiss the burn and wish it well in the +depths of his loving heart."</p> + +<p>"The number! The number!" cried Sabrinetta.</p> + +<p>"Seventy-seven," said the nurse.</p> + +<p>"We have only seventy-five pigs," said the Princess, +"and with me that's seventy-six!"</p> + +<p>"It must be seventy-seven—and I really can't die for +him, so nothing can be done," said the nurse, sadly. "He +must have cork hands."</p> + +<p>"I knew about the seventy-seven loving people," said +Elfin. "But I never thought my dear pigs loved me so much +as all this, and my dear too—and, of course, that only +makes it more impossible. There's one other charm that +cures dragon burns, though; but I'd rather be burnt black +all over than marry anyone but you, my dear, my pretty."</p> + +<p>"Why, who must you marry to cure your dragon burns?" +asked Sabrinetta.</p> + +<p>"A Princess. That's how St. George cured his burns."</p> + +<p>"There now! Think of that!" said the nurse. "And I never +heard tell of that cure, old as I am."</p> + +<p>But Sabrinetta threw her arms round Elfin's neck, and +held him as though she would never let him go.</p> + +<p>"Then it's all right, my dear, brave, precious Elfin," she +cried, "for I am a Princess, and you shall be my Prince. +Come along, Nurse—don't wait to put on your bonnet. +We'll go and be married this very moment."</p> + +<p>So they went, and the pigs came after, moving in stately +blackness, two by two. And, the minute he was married +to the Princess, Elfin's hands got quite well. And the +people, who were weary of Prince Tiresome and his hippopotamuses, +hailed Sabrinetta and her husband as rightful +Sovereigns of the land.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 335px;"> +<img src="images/gs22.jpg" width="335" height="335" alt=""They saw a cloud of steam." See page 135." title=""They saw a cloud of steam." See page 135." /> +<span class="caption">"They saw a cloud of steam."<br /><a href="#Page_135"><i>See page 135.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>Next morning the Prince and Princess went out to see if +the dragon had been washed ashore. They could see +nothing of him; but when they looked out toward the +whirlpool they saw a cloud of steam; and the fishermen +reported that the water for miles around was hot enough +to shave with! And as the water is hot there to this day, we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +may feel pretty sure that the fierceness of that dragon was +such that all the waters of all the sea were not enough to +cool him. The whirlpool is too strong for him to be able to +get out of it, so there he spins around and around forever +and ever, doing some useful work at last, and warming the +water for poor fisher-folk to shave with.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Prince and Princess rule the land well and wisely. The +nurse lives with them, and does nothing but fine sewing, +and only that when she wants to very much. The Prince +keeps no hippopotamuses, and is consequently very popular. +The five and seventy devoted pigs live in white marble +sties with brass knockers and Pig on the doorplate, +and are washed twice a day with Turkish sponges and +soap scented with violets, and no one objects to their following +the Prince when he walks abroad, for they behave +beautifully, and always keep to the footpath, and obey the +notices about not walking on the grass. The Princess +feeds them every day with her own hands, and her first +edict on coming to the throne was that the word <i>pork</i> +should never be uttered on pain of death, and should, +besides, be scratched out of all the dictionaries.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 265px;"> +<img src="images/gs23.jpg" width="265" height="400" alt="VIII KIND LITLE EDMUND" title="VIII KIND LITTLE EDMUND" /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>VIII. Kind Little Edmund,<br /> +or The Caves and the Cockatrice</h2> + + +<p>Edmund was a boy. The people who did not like him +said that he was the most tiresome boy that ever +lived, but his grandmother and his other friends said that +he had an inquiring mind. And his granny often added +that he was the best of boys. But she was very kind and +very old.</p> + +<p>Edmund loved to find out about things. Perhaps you +will think that in that case he was constant in his attendance +at school, since there, if anywhere, we may learn +whatever there is to be learned. But Edmund did not want +to learn things: He wanted to find things out, which is +quite different. His inquiring mind led him to take clocks +to pieces to see what made them go, to take locks off +doors to see what made them stick. It was Edmund who +cut open the India rubber ball to see what made it +bounce, and he never did see, any more than you did +when you tried the same experiment.</p> + +<p>Edmund lived with his grandmother. She loved him +very much, in spite of his inquiring mind, and hardly +scolded him at all when he frizzled up her tortoiseshell +comb in his anxiety to find out whether it was made of +real tortoiseshell or of something that would burn. +Edmund went to school, of course, now and then, and +sometimes he could not prevent himself from learning +something, but he never did it on purpose.</p> + +<p>"It is such waste of time," said he. "They only know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +what everybody knows. I want to find out new things that +nobody has thought of but me."</p> + +<p>"I don't think you're likely to find out anything that +none of the wise men in the whole world have thought of +all these thousands of years," said Granny.</p> + +<p>But Edmund did not agree with her. He played truant +whenever he could, for he was a kindhearted boy, and +could not bear to think of a master's time and labor being +thrown away on a boy like himself—who did not wish to +learn, only to find out—when there were so many worthy +lads thirsting for instruction in geography and history +and reading and ciphering, and Mr. Smiles's "Self-Help."</p> + +<p>Other boys played truant too, of course—and these +went nutting or blackberrying or wild plum gathering, but +Edmund never went on the side of the town where the +green woods and hedges grew. He always went up the +mountain where the great rocks were, and the tall, dark +pine trees, and where other people were afraid to go +because of the strange noises that came out of the caves.</p> + +<p>Edmund was not afraid of these noises—though they +were very strange and terrible. He wanted to find out +what made them.</p> + +<p>One day he did. He had invented, all by himself, a very +ingenious and new kind of lantern, made with a turnip and +a tumbler, and when he took the candle out of Granny's bedroom +candlestick to put in it, it gave quite a splendid light.</p> + +<p>He had to go to school next day, and he was caned for +being absent without leave—although he very straightforwardly +explained that he had been too busy making +the lantern to have time to come to school.</p> + +<p>But the day after he got up very early and took the +lunch Granny had ready for him to take to school—two +boiled eggs and an apple turnover—and he took his +lantern and went off as straight as a dart to the mountains +to explore the caves.</p> + +<p>The caves were very dark, but his lantern lighted them +up beautifully; and they were most interesting caves, with +stalactites and stalagmites and fossils, and all the things<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +you read about in the instructive books for the young. But +Edmund did not care for any of these things just then. He +wanted to find out what made the noises that people were +afraid of, and there was nothing in the caves to tell him.</p> + +<p>Presently he sat down in the biggest cave and listened +very carefully, and it seemed to him that he could distinguish +three different sorts of noises. There was a heavy +rumbling sound, like a very large old gentleman asleep +after dinner; and there was a smaller sort of rumble going +on at the same time; and there was a sort of crowing, +clucking sound, such as a chicken might make if it happened +to be as big as a haystack.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," said Edmund to himself, "that the +clucking is nearer than the others." So he started up again +and explored the caves once more. He found out nothing, +but about halfway up the wall of the cave, he saw a hole. +And, being a boy, he climbed up to it and crept in; and it +was the entrance to a rocky passage. And now the clucking +sounded more plainly than before, and he could +hardly hear the rumbling at all.</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> going to find out something at last," said Edmund, +and on he went. The passage wound and twisted, and +twisted and turned, and turned and wound, but Edmund +kept on.</p> + +<p>"My lantern's burning better and better," said he +presently, but the next minute he saw that all the light did +not come from his lantern. It was a pale yellow light, and +it shone down the passage far ahead of him through what +looked like the chink of a door.</p> + +<p>"I expect it's the fire in the middle of the earth," said +Edmund, who had not been able to help learning about +that at school.</p> + +<p>But quite suddenly the fire ahead gave a pale flicker and +went down; and the clucking ceased.</p> + +<p>The next moment Edmund turned a corner and found +himself in front of a rocky door. The door was ajar. He +went in, and there was a round cave, like the dome of +St. Paul's. In the middle of the cave was a hole like a very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +big hand-washing basin, and in the middle of the basin +Edmund saw a large pale person sitting.</p> + +<p>This person had a man's face and a griffin's body, and +big feathery wings, and a snake's tail, and a cock's comb +and neck feathers.</p> + +<p>"Whatever are you?" said Edmund.</p> + +<p>"I'm a poor starving cockatrice," answered the pale person +in a very faint voice, "and I shall die—oh, I know I +shall! My fire's gone out! I can't think how it happened; I +must have been asleep. I have to stir it seven times round +with my tail once in a hundred years to keep it alight, and +my watch must have been wrong. And now I shall die."</p> + +<p>I think I have said before what a kindhearted boy +Edmund was.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up," said he. "I'll light your fire for you." And off +he went, and in a few minutes he came back with a great +armful of sticks from the pine trees outside, and with +these and a lesson book or two that he had forgotten to +lose before, and which, quite by an oversight, were safe in +his pocket, he lit a fire all around the cockatrice. The +wood blazed up, and presently something in the basin +caught fire, and Edmund saw that it was a sort of liquid +that burned like the brandy in a snapdragon. And now the +cockatrice stirred it with his tail and flapped his wings in +it so that some of it splashed out on Edmund's hand and +burnt it rather badly. But the cockatrice grew red and +strong and happy, and its comb grew scarlet, and its feathers +glossy, and it lifted itself up and crowed "Cock-a-trice-a-doodle-doo!" +very loudly and clearly.</p> + +<p>Edmund's kindly nature was charmed to see the cockatrice +so much improved in health, and he said: "Don't +mention it; delighted, I'm sure," when the cockatrice +began to thank him.</p> + +<p>"But what can I do for you?" said the creature.</p> + +<p>"Tell me stories," said Edmund.</p> + +<p>"What about?" said the cockatrice.</p> + +<p>"About true things that they don't know at school," said +Edmund.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> + +<p>So the cockatrice began, and he told him about mines +and treasures and geological formations, and about +gnomes and fairies and dragons, and about glaciers and +the Stone Age and the beginning of the world, and about +the unicorn and the phoenix, and about Magic, black and +white.</p> + +<p>And Edmund ate his eggs and his turnover, and listened. +And when he got hungry again he said good-bye +and went home. But he came again the next day for more +stories, and the next day, and the next, for a long time.</p> + +<p>He told the boys at school about the cockatrice and his +wonderful true tales, and the boys liked the stories; but +when he told the master he was caned for untruthfulness.</p> + +<p>"But it's true," said Edmund. "Just you look where the +fire burnt my hand."</p> + +<p>"I see you've been playing with fire—into mischief as +usual," said the master, and he caned Edmund harder +than ever. The master was ignorant and unbelieving: but I +am told that some schoolmasters are not like that.</p> + +<p>Now, one day Edmund made a new lantern out of something +chemical that he sneaked from the school laboratory. +And with it he went exploring again to see if he could +find the things that made the other sorts of noises. And in +quite another part of the mountain he found a dark passage, +all lined with brass, so that it was like the inside of +a huge telescope, and at the very end of it he found a +bright green door. There was a brass plate on the door +that said <span class="smcap">mrs. d. knock and ring</span>, and a white label that said +<span class="smcap">call me at three</span>. Edmund had a watch: It had been given +to him on his birthday two days before, and he had not +yet had time to take it to pieces and see what made it go, +so it was still going. He looked at it now. It said a quarter +to three.</p> + +<p>Did I tell you before what a kindhearted boy Edmund +was? He sat down on the brass doorstep and waited till +three o'clock. Then he knocked and rang, and there was a +rattling and puffing inside. The great door flew open, and +Edmund had only just time to hide behind it when out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +came an immense yellow dragon, who wriggled off down +the brass cave like a long, rattling worm—or perhaps +more like a monstrous centipede.</p> + +<p>Edmund crept slowly out and saw the dragon stretching +herself on the rocks in the sun, and he crept past the great +creature and tore down the hill into the town and burst +into school, crying out: "There's a great dragon coming! +Somebody ought to do something, or we shall all be +destroyed."</p> + +<p>He was caned for untruthfulness without any delay. His +master was never one for postponing a duty.</p> + +<p>"But it's true," said Edmund. "You just see if it isn't."</p> + +<p>He pointed out of the window, and everyone could see +a vast yellow cloud rising up into the air above the +mountain.</p> + +<p>"It's only a thunder shower," said the master, and caned +Edmund more than ever. This master was not like some +masters I know: He was very obstinate, and would not +believe his own eyes if they told him anything different +from what he had been saying before his eyes spoke.</p> + +<p>So while the master was writing <i>Lying is very wrong, and +liars must be caned. It is all for their own good</i> on the black-board +for Edmund to copy out seven hundred times, +Edmund sneaked out of school and ran for his life across +the town to warn his granny, but she was not at home. So +then he made off through the back door of the town, and +raced up the hill to tell the cockatrice and ask for his help. +It never occurred to him that the cockatrice might not +believe him. You see, he had heard so many wonderful +tales from him and had believed them all—and when you +believe all a person's stories they ought to believe yours. +This is only fair.</p> + +<p>At the mouth of the cockatrice's cave Edmund stopped, +very much out of breath, to look back at the town. As he +ran he had felt his little legs tremble and shake, while the +shadows of the great yellow cloud fell upon him. Now he +stood once more between warm earth and blue sky, and +looked down on the green plain dotted with fruit trees and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +red-roofed farms and plots of gold corn. In the middle of +that plain the gray town lay, with its strong walls with the +holes pierced for the archers, and its square towers with +holes for dropping melted lead on the heads of strangers; +its bridges and its steeples; the quiet river edged with willow +and alder; and the pleasant green garden place in the +middle of the town, where people sat on holidays to +smoke their pipes and listen to the band.</p> + +<p>Edmund saw it all; and he saw, too, creeping across the +plain, marking her way by a black line as everything withered +at her touch, the great yellow dragon—and he saw +that she was many times bigger than the whole town.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my poor, dear granny," said Edmund, for he had a +feeling heart, as I ought to have told you before.</p> + +<p>The yellow dragon crept nearer and nearer, licking her +greedy lips with her long red tongue, and Edmund knew +that in the school his master was still teaching earnestly +and still not believing Edmund's tale the least little bit.</p> + +<p>"He'll jolly well have to believe it soon, anyhow," said +Edmund to himself, and though he was a very tender-hearted +boy—I think it only fair to tell you that he was +this—I am afraid he was not as sorry as he ought to have +been to think of the way in which his master was going to +learn how to believe what Edmund said. Then the dragon +opened her jaws wider and wider and wider. Edmund shut +his eyes, for though his master was in the town, the amiable +Edmund shrank from beholding the awful sight.</p> + +<p>When he opened his eyes again there was no town—only +a bare place where it had stood, and the dragon licking +her lips and curling herself up to go to sleep, just as +Kitty does when she has quite finished with a mouse. +Edmund gasped once or twice, and then ran into the cave +to tell the cockatrice.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the cockatrice thoughtfully, when the tale +had been told. "What then?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think you quite understand," said Edmund gently. +"The dragon has swallowed up the town."</p> + +<p>"Does it matter?" said the cockatrice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 313px;"> +<img src="images/gs24.jpg" width="313" height="375" alt=""Creeping across the plain." See page 147." title=""Creeping across the plain." See page 147." /> +<span class="caption">"Creeping across the plain."<br /><a href="#Page_147"><i>See page 147.</i></a></span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But I live there," said Edmund blankly.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said the cockatrice, turning over in the +pool of fire to warm its other side, which was chilly, +because Edmund had, as usual, forgotten to close the +cave door. "You can live here with me."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I haven't made my meaning clear," said +Edmund patiently. "You see, my granny is in the town, and +I can't bear to lose my granny like this."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what a granny may be," said the cockatrice, +who seemed to be growing weary of the subject, +"but if it's a possession to which you attach any importance——"</p> + +<p>"Of course it is," said Edmund, losing patience at last. +"Oh—do help me. What can I do?"</p> + +<p>"If I were you," said his friend, stretching itself out in the +pool of flame so that the waves covered him up to his +chin, "I should find the drakling and bring it here."</p> + +<p>"But why?" said Edmund. He had gotten into the habit +of asking why at school, and the master had always found +it trying. As for the cockatrice, he was not going to stand +that sort of thing for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't talk to me!" he said, splashing angrily in the +flames. "I give you advice; take it or leave it—I shan't +bother about you anymore. If you bring the drakling here +to me, I'll tell you what to do next. If not, not."</p> + +<p>And the cockatrice drew the fire up close around his +shoulders, tucked himself up in it, and went to sleep.</p> + +<p>Now this was exactly the right way to manage Edmund, +only no one had ever thought of trying to do it before.</p> + +<p>He stood for a moment looking at the cockatrice; the +cockatrice looked at Edmund out of the corner of his eye +and began to snore very loudly, and Edmund understood, +once and for all, that the cockatrice wasn't going to put up +with any nonsense. He respected the cockatrice very +much from that moment, and set off at once to do exactly +as he was told—for perhaps the first time in his life.</p> + +<p>Though he had played truant so often, he knew one or +two things that perhaps you don't know, though you have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +always been so good and gone to school regularly. For +instance, he knew that a drakling is a dragon's baby, and +he felt sure that what he had to do was to find the third of +the three noises that people used to hear coming from the +mountains. Of course, the clucking had been the cockatrice, +and the big noise like a large gentleman asleep after +dinner had been the big dragon. So the smaller rumbling +must have been the drakling.</p> + +<p>He plunged boldly into the caves and searched and +wandered and wandered and searched, and at last he +came to a third door in the mountain, and on it was written +<span class="smcap">The baby is asleep</span>. Just before the door stood fifty pairs +of copper shoes, and no one could have looked at them +for a moment without seeing what sort of feet they were +made for, for each shoe had five holes in it for the drakling's +five claws. And there were fifty pairs because the +drakling took after his mother, and had a hundred feet—no +more and no less. He was the kind called <i>Draco centipedis</i> +in the learned books.</p> + +<p>Edmund was a good deal frightened, but he remembered +the grim expression of the cockatrice's eye, and the +fixed determination of his snore still rang in his ears, in +spite of the snoring of the drakling, which was, in itself, +considerable. He screwed up his courage, flung the door +open, and called out: "Hello, you drakling. Get out of bed +this minute."</p> + +<p>The drakling stopped snoring and said sleepily: "It ain't +time yet."</p> + +<p>"Your mother says you are to, anyhow; and look sharp +about it, what's more," said Edmund, gaining courage +from the fact that the drakling had not yet eaten him.</p> + +<p>The drakling sighed, and Edmund could hear it getting +out of bed. The next moment it began to come out of its +room and to put on its shoes. It was not nearly so big as +its mother; only about the size of a Baptist chapel.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up," said Edmund, as it fumbled clumsily with +the seventeenth shoe.</p> + +<p>"Mother said I was never to go out without my shoes,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +said the drakling; so Edmund had to help it to put +them on. It took some time, and was not a comfortable +occupation.</p> + +<p>At last the drakling said it was ready, and Edmund, who +had forgotten to be frightened, said, "Come on then," and +they went back to the cockatrice.</p> + +<p>The cave was rather narrow for the drakling, but it +made itself thin, as you may see a fat worm do when it +wants to get through a narrow crack in a piece of hard +earth.</p> + +<p>"Here it is," said Edmund, and the cockatrice woke up +at once and asked the drakling very politely to sit down +and wait. "Your mother will be here presently," said the +cockatrice, stirring up its fire.</p> + +<p>The drakling sat down and waited, but it watched the +fire with hungry eyes.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," it said at last, "but I am always +accustomed to having a little basin of fire as soon as I get +up, and I feel rather faint. Might I?"</p> + +<p>It reached out a claw toward the cockatrice's basin.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," said the cockatrice sharply. "Where +were you brought up? Did they never teach you that 'we +must not ask for all we see'? Eh?"</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," said the drakling humbly, "but I am +really <i>very</i> hungry."</p> + +<p>The cockatrice beckoned Edmund to the side of the +basin and whispered in his ear so long and so earnestly +that one side of the dear boy's hair was quite burnt off. +And he never once interrupted the cockatrice to ask why. +But when the whispering was over, Edmund—whose +heart, as I may have mentioned, was very tender—said to +the drakling: "If you are really hungry, poor thing, I can +show you where there is plenty of fire." And off he went +through the caves, and the drakling followed.</p> + +<p>When Edmund came to the proper place he stopped.</p> + +<p>There was a round iron thing in the floor, like the ones +the men shoot the coals down into your cellar, only much +larger. Edmund heaved it up by a hook that stuck out at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +one side, and a rush of hot air came up that nearly +<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'chocked'">choked</ins> him. But the drakling came close and looked +down with one eye and sniffed, and said: "That smells +good, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Edmund, "well, that's the fire in the middle +of the earth. There's plenty of it, all done to a turn. You'd +better go down and begin your breakfast, hadn't you?"</p> + +<p>So the drakling wriggled through the hole, and began to +crawl faster and faster down the slanting shaft that leads +to the fire in the middle of the earth. And Edmund, doing +exactly as he had been told, for a wonder, caught the end +of the drakling's tail and ran the iron hook through it so +that the drakling was held fast. And it could not turn +around and wriggle up again to look after its poor tail, +because, as everyone knows, the way to the fires below is +very easy to go down, but quite impossible to come back +on. There is something about it in Latin, beginning: +"<i>Facilis descensus</i>."</p> + +<p>So there was the drakling, fast by the silly tail of it, and +there was Edmund very busy and important and very +pleased with himself, hurrying back to the cockatrice.</p> + +<p>"Now," said he.</p> + +<p>"Well, now," said the cockatrice. "Go to the mouth of the +cave and laugh at the dragon so that she hears you."</p> + +<p>Edmund very nearly said "Why?" but he stopped in +time, and instead, said: "She won't hear me—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well," said the cockatrice. "No doubt you +know best," and he began to tuck himself up again in the +fire, so Edmund did as he was bid.</p> + +<p>And when he began to laugh his laughter echoed in the +mouth of the cave till it sounded like the laughter of a +whole castleful of giants.</p> + +<p>And the dragon, lying asleep in the sun, woke up and +said very crossly: "What are you laughing at?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 235px;"> +<img src="images/gs25.jpg" width="235" height="325" alt=""That smells good, eh?" See page 152." title=""That smells good, eh?" See page 152." /> +<span class="caption">"That smells good, eh?"<br /><a href="#Page_152"><i>See page 152.</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p>"At you," said Edmund, and went on laughing. The +dragon bore it as long as she could, but, like everyone +else, she couldn't stand being made fun of, so presently +she dragged herself up the mountain very slowly, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +she had just had a rather heavy meal, and stood outside +and said, "What are you laughing at?" in a voice that made +Edmund feel as if he should never laugh again.</p> + +<p>Then the good cockatrice called out: "At you! You've +eaten your own drakling—swallowed it with the town. +Your own little drakling! He, he, he! Ha, ha, ha!"</p> + +<p>And Edmund found the courage to cry "Ha, ha!" which +sounded like tremendous laughter in the echo of the cave.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said the dragon. "I <i>thought</i> the town stuck in +my throat rather. I must take it out, and look through it +more carefully." And with that <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'he'">she</ins> coughed—and +choked—and there was the town, on the hillside.</p> + +<p>Edmund had run back to the cockatrice, and it had told +him what to do. So before the dragon had time to look +through the town again for her drakling, the voice of the +drakling itself was heard howling miserably from inside +the mountain, because Edmund was pinching its tail as +hard as he could in the round iron door, like the one +where the men pour the coals out of the sacks into the cellar. +And the dragon heard the voice and said: "Why, whatever's +the matter with Baby? He's not here!" and made +herself thin, and crept into the mountain to find her drakling. +The cockatrice kept on laughing as loud as it could, +and Edmund kept on pinching, and presently the great +dragon—very long and narrow she had made herself—found +her head where the round hole was with the iron +lid. Her tail was a mile or two off—outside the mountain. +When Edmund heard her coming he gave one last nip to +the drakling's tail, and then heaved up the lid and stood +behind it, so that the dragon could not see him. Then he +loosed the drakling's tail from the hook, and the dragon +peeped down the hole just in time to see her drakling's +tail disappear down the smooth, slanting shaft with one +last squeak of pain. Whatever may have been the poor +dragon's other faults, she was an excellent mother. She +plunged headfirst into the hole, and slid down the shaft +after her baby. Edmund watched her head go—and then +the rest of her. She was so long, now she had stretched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +herself thin, that it took all night. It was like watching a +goods train go by in Germany. When the last joint of her +tail had gone Edmund slammed down the iron door. He +was a kindhearted boy, as you have guessed, and he was +glad to think that dragon and drakling would now have +plenty to eat of their favorite food, forever and ever. He +thanked the cockatrice for his kindness, and got home +just in time to have breakfast and get to school by nine. +Of course, he could not have done this if the town had +been in its old place by the river in the middle of the plain, +but it had taken root on the hillside just where the dragon +left it.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the master, "where were you yesterday?"</p> + +<p>Edmund explained, and the master at once caned him +for not speaking the truth.</p> + +<p>"But it <i>is</i> true," said Edmund. "Why, the whole town was +swallowed by the dragon. You know it was—"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said the master. "There was a thunderstorm +and an earthquake, that's all." And he caned +Edmund more than ever.</p> + +<p>"But," said Edmund, who always would argue, even in +the least favorable circumstances, "how do you account +for the town being on the hillside now, instead of by the +river as it used to be?"</p> + +<p>"It was <i>always</i> on the hillside," said the master. And all +the class said the same, for they had more sense than to +argue with a person who carried a cane.</p> + +<p>"But look at the maps," said Edmund, who wasn't going +to be beaten in argument, whatever he might be in the +flesh. The master pointed to the map on the wall.</p> + +<p>There was the town, on the hillside! And nobody but +Edmund could see that of course the shock of being swallowed +by the dragon had upset all the maps and put them +wrong.</p> + +<p>And then the master caned Edmund again, explaining +that this time it was not for untruthfulness, but for his +vexatious argumentative habits. This will show you what +a prejudiced and ignorant man Edmund's master was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>—how +different from the revered Head of the nice school +where your good parents are kind enough to send you.</p> + +<p>The next day Edmund thought he would prove his tale +by showing people the cockatrice, and he actually persuaded +some people to go into the cave with him; but the +cockatrice had bolted himself in and would not open the +door—so Edmund got nothing by that except a scolding +for taking people on a wild-goose chase.</p> + +<p>"A wild goose," said they, "is nothing like a cockatrice."</p> + +<p>And poor Edmund could not say a word, though he +knew how wrong they were. The only person who +believed him was his granny. But then she was very old +and very kind, and had always said he was the best of +boys.</p> + +<p>Only one good thing came of all this long story. Edmund +has never been quite the same boy since. He does not +argue quite so much, and he agreed to be apprenticed to +a locksmith, so that he might one day be able to pick the +lock of the cockatrice's front door—and learn some more +of the things that other people don't know.</p> + +<p>But he is quite an old man now, and he hasn't gotten +that door open yet!</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> + +<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Dragons, by Edith Nesbit + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF DRAGONS *** + +***** This file should be named 23661-h.htm or 23661-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/6/23661/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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