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diff --git a/23661.txt b/23661.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..160c2f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/23661.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5213 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: THE BOOK OF DRAGONS] + + +The Book of DRAGONS + +E. Nesbit + + With illustrations by + H. R. Millar + + Decorations by + H. Granville Fell + + DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC. + Mineola, New York + + + + +Contents + + PAGE + + I. The Book of Beasts 1 + + II. Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger 19 + + III. The Deliverers of Their Country 39 + + IV. The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told 57 + + V. The Island of the Nine Whirlpools 79 + + VI. The Dragon Tamers 99 + + VII. The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone + and the Heart of Gold 119 + + VIII. Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the + Cockatrice 139 + + + + +List of Illustrations + + The Book of Dragons _frontispiece_ + + The Book of Beasts PAGE 1 + + "The dragon flew away across the garden." PAGE 9 + + "The Manticora took refuge in the General Post + Office." PAGE 14 + + Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger PAGE 19 + + "By-and-by he began to wander." PAGE 30 + + "The dragon ran after her." PAGE 36 + + The Deliverers of Their Country PAGE 39 + + "The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off." PAGE 44 + + "He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class + carriage." PAGE 51 + + The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told PAGE 57 + + "Sure enough, it was a dragon." PAGE 69 + + "The dwarfs seized the children." PAGE 73 + + The Island of the Nine Whirlpools PAGE 79 + + "The lone tower on the Island of the Nine + Whirlpools." PAGE 89 + + "Little children play around him and over him." PAGE 97 + + The Dragon Tamers PAGE 99 + + "The dragon's purring pleased the baby." PAGE 107 + + "He brought something in his mouth--it was a bag of + gold." PAGE 117 + + The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the + Heart of Gold PAGE 119 + + "The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the + bottle!'" PAGE 130 + + "They saw a cloud of steam." PAGE 136 + + Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the + Cockatrice PAGE 139 + + "Creeping across the plain." PAGE 148 + + "That smells good, eh?" PAGE 153 + + + _To Rosamund, + chief among those for whom these tales are told, + The Book of Dragons is dedicated + in the confident hope + that she, one of these days, will dedicate a book + of her very own making + to the one who now bids + eight dreadful dragons + crouch in all humbleness + at those little brown feet._ + + + + +The Book of DRAGONS + +[Illustration: THE BOOK OF BEASTS] + + + + +I. The Book of Beasts + + +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. + +And then, quite suddenly, Nurse came in and said, "Master Lionel, dear, +they've come to fetch you to go and be King." + +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." + +"You're going on as if you was going to be an eel instead of a King," +said Nurse. + +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. + +They bowed low to Lionel, and the gravest one said: "Sire, your +great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the King of this country, is +dead, and now you have got to come and be King." + +"Yes, please, sir," said Lionel, "when does it begin?" + +"You will be crowned this afternoon," said the grave gentleman who was +not quite so grave-looking as the other. + +"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. + +"Your Nurse will be removed to the Palace later. No, never mind about +changing your suit; the Royal robes will cover all that up." + +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. + +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." + +"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." + +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 thousands of people shouting, "Long live Lionel! Long +live our little King!" + +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. + +As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and the +Prime Minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand. + +"I thought we were a Republic," said Lionel. "I'm sure there hasn't been +a King for some time." + +"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." + +"But hadn't my great-great-however-much-it-is-grandfather a crown?" + +"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." + +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. + +Nurse was there, and tea was ready: seedy cake and plummy cake, and jam +and hot buttered toast, and the prettiest china with red and gold and +blue flowers on it, and real tea, and as many cups of it as you liked. + +After tea Lionel said: "I think I should like a book. Will you get me +one, Nurse?" + +"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." + +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?" + +"They are yours, Your Majesty," answered the Chancellor. "They were the +property of the late King, your great-great--" + +"Yes, I know," Lionel interrupted. "Well, I shall read them all. I love +to read. I am so glad I learned to read." + +"If I might venture to advise Your Majesty," said the Prime Minister, "I +should not read these books. Your great--" + +"Yes?" said Lionel, quickly. + +"He was a very good King--oh, yes, really a very superior King in his +way, but he was a little--well, strange." + +"Mad?" asked Lionel, cheerfully. + +"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." + +Lionel looked puzzled. + +"The fact is," the Chancellor went on, twisting his red beard in an +agitated way, "your great--" + +"Go on," said Lionel. + +"--was called a wizard." + +"But he wasn't?" + +"Of course not--a most worthy King was your great--" + +"I see." + +"But I wouldn't touch his books." + +"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. + +"I must look at this one," Lionel said, for on the back in big letters +he read: _The Book of Beasts_. + +The Chancellor said, "Don't be a silly little King." + +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. + +"There," said Lionel, "Isn't that lovely? Why--" + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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 worm, or a centipede or a revolutionist, or +something like that." + +"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. + +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 _The Book of +Beasts_. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +Lionel began to cry. + +[Illustration: "The dragon flew away across the garden." _See page 8._] + +The Chancellor and the Prime Minister and the Nurse 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." + +"Perhaps, my Lord," said the Prime Minister, "we'd better first find out +just exactly what he has done." + +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!" + +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. + +"You are a naughty little King," she said, "and nobody will love you." + +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. + +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. + +Then he made a law that everyone should always have enough to eat. And +this pleased everyone except the ones who had always had too much. + +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." + +But Nurse said: "Don't count your chickens, my dear. You haven't seen +the last of that Dragon yet." + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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? + +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 _The Book of Beasts_ could not be wicked, like the +Dragon, and he thought: "Suppose I could get another beast out who would +fight the Dragon?" + +So he took _The Book of Beasts_ 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'?" + +The Chancellor answered: "The Manticora, of course." + +"What is he like?" asked the King. + +"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!" + +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 Chancellor had said. And under the picture +was written, "Manticora." + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration "The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office." +_See page 13._] + +The Dragon was a perfect nuisance for the whole of Saturday, except +during the hour of noon, and then he had 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. + +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." + +Nurse washed his face, and told him not to be a silly little King. +"Crying," said she, "never did anyone any good yet." + +"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 _must_ try to see if I +can't save the people." + +"Well, if you must, you must," said Nurse, "but don't tear your clothes +or get your feet wet." + +So off he went. + +The Blue Bird sang more sweetly than ever, and the Butterfly shone more +brightly, as Lionel once more carried _The Book of Beasts_ 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. + +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. + +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 _The Book of Beasts_ 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Lionel jumped off the white horse's back in the very middle of the +Pebbly Waste, and he hurriedly unclasped _The Book of Beasts_ 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. + +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 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. + +It was then that he saw _The Book of Beasts_ 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. + +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. + +"Oh, hurrah!" he cried. "Now we really have done it." + +And he clasped the book very tightly with the turquoise and ruby clasps. + +"Oh, my precious Hippogriff," he cried. "You are the bravest, dearest, +most beautiful--" + +"Hush," whispered the Hippogriff modestly. "Don't you see that we are +not alone?" + +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. + + * * * * * + +They all got home somehow, and all lived happy ever after. + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: UNCLE JAMES OR THE PURPLE STRANGER] + + + + +II. Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger + + +The Princess and the gardener's boy were playing in the backyard. + +"What will you do when you grow up, Princess?" asked the gardener's boy. + +"I should like to marry you, Tom," said the Princess. "Would you mind?" + +"No," said the gardener's boy. "I shouldn't mind much. I'll marry you if +you like--if I have time." + +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. + +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 _are_ 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 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. + +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: + +"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." + +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. + +There always was some such person, because in Rotundia everybody was +kind--except one. + +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. _All the +animals were the wrong sizes!_ And this was how it happened. + +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 round 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. + +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. + +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. + +"Hurry up," he said. "Come down and lie still, can't you?" + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_History of Rotundia_, 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. + +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." + +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 _History of Rotundia_, 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. + +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." + +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. + +"I'll go to the pillar," thought Tom, as he went through 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 must have knocked its wing and broken it against the pillar. + +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. + +So now he said: "I am afraid you don't feel quite well." + +The dragon shook his large purple head. He could not speak, but like all +other animals, he could understand well enough when he liked. + +"Can I get you anything?" asked Tom, politely. + +The dragon opened his purple eyes with an inquiring smile. + +"A bun or two, now," said Tom, coaxingly. "There's a beautiful bun tree +quite close." + +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. + +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. + +Tom gave all the buns to the dragon, saying: "Here, try to eat a little. +You'll soon feel better then." + +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 _History +of Rotundia_, in his 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. + +"Perhaps it's all for the best," said Tom. "I might not have liked that +prize either, if I had gotten it." + +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. + +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. + +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 +_Babes in the Wood_, or the _Norfolk Tragedy_, and one 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. + +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. + +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. + +"What is it, Fido--good little elephant--then?" said Tom, and the +sagacious animal repeated its former gesture. Then Tom understood. + +"Oh, something is to happen on her birthday? All right. I'll be on the +lookout." And he was. + +[Illustration: "By-and-by he began to wander." _See page 29._] + +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," 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! + +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." + +The people thought of the dragon's tail and said, "Hear, hear." + +Uncle James went on: "Something has happened to a gentle and defenseless +member of our community. We don't know what has happened." + +Everyone thought of the rabbit named Frederick, and groaned. + +"The defenses of our country have been swallowed up," said Uncle James. + +Everyone thought of the poor army. + +"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." + +Everyone thought of themselves--and they said, "What is the simple +precaution?" + +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." + +The crowd cheered wildly--and the Princess from her balcony clapped her +hands. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Early in the morning Tom went to the palace. He looked out across the +downs--there were hardly any rabbits playing there now--and then he +gathered white roses and threw them at the Princess's window till she +woke up and looked out. + +"Come up and kiss me," she said. + +So Tom climbed up the white rosebush and kissed the Princess through the +window, and said: "Many happy returns of the day." + +Then Mary Ann began to cry, and said: "Oh, Tom--how can you? When you +know quite well--" + +"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." + +"Is that all?" said the Princess. "Oh--that's easy--I've often done +that!" + +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!" + +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. + +"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." + +The Princess said she would try not to be selfish. + +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. + +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 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?" + +The Princess said she supposed so, and the dragon came a little nearer. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +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 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. + +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?" + +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 +_had_ to come, and the pillar _had_ to come around with the tail, and +the island _had_ 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "The dragon ran after her." _See page 34._] + +"Funny little thing," said the Princess, when she saw it. "I will take +it for a birthday present." + +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. + +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. + +All this happened several years ago, and the other day I saw in the +_Rotundia Times_ 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 _K.C.D._, 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 _Rotundia Times_ 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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: THE DELIVERERS OF THEIR COUNTRY] + + + + +III. The Deliverers of Their Country + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, yes--it's out," said the doctor. "Here it is, on the brush. This is +very interesting." + +Effie had never heard her father say that about anything that she had +any share in. She said: "What?" + +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. + +"Dear me," he said. "Dear, dear me! Four well-developed limbs; a long +caudal appendage; five toes, unequal in lengths, almost like one of the +_Lacertidae_, 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." + +"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 +_does_ hurt." + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +"It is a new specimen," he said, "and finer than yours, Doctor." + +It was a tiny lizard, about half an inch long--with scales and wings. + +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. + +And from inside the boot came crawling a lizard as big as a kitten, with +large, shiny wings. + +"Why," said Effie, "I know what it is. It is a dragon like the one St. +George killed." + +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. + +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 +_Standard_ 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 ALARMING +PLAGUE OF DRAGONS at the top of the paper. + +[Illustration: "The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off." _See +page 43._] + +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 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. + +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 police inspector used to +set fire to the towers, and burnt them and dragons and all. + +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. + +And yet there seemed to be more dragons than ever. + +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. + +But the size Effie was most afraid of was about as big as your dining +room, and that size ate little girls and boys. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +But one morning their mother was busy preparing 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!" + +"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." + +"What ought we to do?" said Effie. + +"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." + +"We do," said Effie. + +"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?" + +Effie said no, but where could they find St. George? + +"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--" + +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." + +"Um," said Harry, wishing he had thought of it for himself, "you have a +little sense sometimes, for a girl." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, I want to go home," said Effie. + +"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." + +"And are we," asked Effie--"deliverers, I mean?" + +"You'll see," said her brother, and on they went. + +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. + +"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. + +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." + +And at that St. George opened his eyes sleepily, and stretched himself +and said: "What's the matter, little girl?" + +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. + +"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." + +Just then a flight of dragons passed overhead, and St. George half drew +his sword. + +But he shook his head again and pushed the sword back as the flight of +dragons grew small in the distance. + +"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?" + +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." + +"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." + +St. George was beginning to settle down again on his stone slab. + +"Good night, very sorry I can't help you," he said, yawning behind his +marble hand. + +"Oh, but you can," cried Effie. "Tell us--what taps?" + +"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." + +And he fell back into his marble and was fast asleep again in a moment. + +"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?" + +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." + +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. + +"We might hide in the church till it is dark," he said, "and then--" + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +[Illustration: "He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class +carriage." _See page 50._] + +Harry and Effie could see the country below, hedges 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. + +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. + +"He knows where he wants to go," said Harry. "Oh, if he would only drop +us before he gets there!" + +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. + +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. + +But they were afraid to come out of the cave, so they went farther in, +and presently the cave opened out and 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: UNIVERSAL TAPROOM. PRIVATE. NO ONE +ALLOWED INSIDE. + +So they opened the door at once just to peep in, and then they +remembered what St. George had said. + +"We can't be worse off than we are," said Harry, "with a dragon waiting +for us outside. Let's go in." + +They went boldly into the taproom, and shut the door behind them. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Then the children knew that they were indeed the deliverers of their +country. + +"They will put up a monument to us," said Harry, "as high as Nelson's! +All the dragons are dead." + +"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." + +But this did not happen, and the children began to feel that they had +not been so frightfully clever after all. + +"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 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." + +"Let's turn it on," she said. "It might carry off the dragons." + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +How did they get home again? By the Snowdon railway of course. + +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. + +And what did Father and Mother say when Effie and Harry got home? + +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. + +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!" + +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." + +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. + +You must get him to show it to you! + + + + +[Illustration: THE ICE DRAGON] + + + + +IV. The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told + + +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. + +Their names were George and Jane. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"But what is the Rory Bory what's-its-name?" asked Jane. "Who lights it, +and what's it there for?" + +George had to own that he had not learned that. + +"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." + +"And what are they?" asked Jane. + +"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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"No," said Jane. "I said if we were little stars." + +"But we aren't," said George. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"It looks very near," said Jane, hunching up her shoulders to keep her +neck warm. + +"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." + +Jane got off the fence. + +"Oh, George, _let's_," she said. "We shall never have such a chance +again--all alone by ourselves--and quite late, too." + +"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 remember what they said about not going on the grass." + +"They said the _lawn_," said Jane. "We're not going on the _lawn_. Oh, +George, do, do let's. It doesn't look so _very_ far--we could be back +before they had time to get dreadfully angry." + +"All right," said George, "but mind, I don't want to go." + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"Polar bears and Arctic wolves, of course I mean," she said, for she did +not want George to think her stupid again. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +There was a signpost of silvery snow, and on it in letters of pure ice +the children read: THIS WAY TO THE NORTH POLE. + +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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +"Hey! You there! Stop!" + +"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. + +"You don't happen to have any bullets about you?" said he. + +"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." + +"Quite so," said the sportsman, "these accidents will occur. You don't +carry firearms, then, I presume?" + +"I haven't any fire_arms_," said George, "but I have a fire_work_. 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 foreign postage stamps in his knickerbocker pockets. + +"One could but try," the sportsman replied, and he held out his hand. + +But Jane pulled at her brother's jacket-tail and whispered, "Ask him +what he wants it for." + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +"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. + +"Excuse me," said the collector, "but have you such a thing as a needle +about you--a very long needle?" + +"I have a needle _book_," replied Jane, politely, "but there 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." + +"Curiously enough," said the collector, "I too wish to use the needle in +connection with cork." + +"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?" + +"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." + +And there, sure enough, in the collector's butterfly net sat the great +Arctic moth, listening attentively to the conversation. + +"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. + +When the collector saw that the moth was free, he seemed less angry than +grieved. + +"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." + +So they went on, leaving him too, trying to go uphill towards the +Crystal Palace. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +Jane said so, but George said they were as straight as ramrods. + +And these flames were the Aurora Borealis, which the children had seen +as far away as Forest Hill. + +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. + +"It is like a dream," said Jane. + +And George said, "It _is_ the North Pole. Just think of the fuss people +always make about getting here--and it was no trouble at all, really." + +"I daresay lots of people have gotten here," said Jane, dismally. "It's +not the getting _here_--I see that--it's the getting back again. +Perhaps no one will ever know that _we_ have been here, and the robins +will cover us with leaves and--" + +"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 _is_ the North Pole, my pocket +compass Uncle James gave me will spin around and around, and then I +shall know. Come on." + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"Oh, George," cried Jane, "it _is_ a dragon; I can see its wings. +Whatever shall we do?" + +And, sure enough, it _was_ 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. + +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." + +[Illustration: "Sure enough, it was a dragon." _See page 68._] + +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. + +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. + +"It's bears," said Jane. "I know it is. Oh, how I wish we hadn't come; +and my boots are so wet." + +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. + +"Bears, indeed," cried a shrill voice. "You'll wish we were bears before +you've done with us." + +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. + +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. + +"Don't cry for real," whispered George, "or you'll get chilblains in +your eyes. But pretend to howl--it frightens them." + +So Jane went on pretending to howl, and the real crying stopped: It +always does when you begin to pretend. You try it. + +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?" + +"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." + +"And what are those fires for?" bellowed George--for Jane was crying +louder and louder. + +"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." + +"WHATEVER--DO--YOU--WANT--HIM--TO--DO--THAT--FOR?" yelled George. + +"Oh--just for spite," bawled the dwarfs carelessly--as if they were +saying, "Just for fun." + +Jane stopped crying to say: "You are heartless." + +"No, we aren't," they said. "Our hearts are made of the finest sealskin, +just like little fat sealskin purses--" + +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. + +"Thank you so much for telling us," said George. "Good evening. (Keep on +howling, Jane!)" + +But the dwarfs came a step nearer, muttering and whispering. Then the +muttering stopped--and there was a 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. + +Then the chief dwarf came quite close and said: "What's that on your +head?" + +And George felt it was all up--for he knew it was his father's sealskin +cap. + +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!" + +Looking at the wicked seal-faces all around them, George and Jane felt +that their fate was sealed indeed. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +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?" + +[Illustration: "The dwarfs seized the children." _See page 72._] + +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!" + +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. + +"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?" + +The white grouse laughed, and his laugh was echoed by thousands of kind, +soft bird voices. + +"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!" + +Thus spoke the grouse, who certainly had very pretty manners. + +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. + +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?" + +Just then came a new, strange, jerky fluttering of wings far softer +than the grouse's, and George and Jane cried out together: "Oh, _do_ +mind your wings in the fires!" + +For they saw at once that it was the great white Arctic moth. + +"What's the matter?" he asked, settling on the dragon's tail. + +So they told him. + +"Sealskin, are they?" said the moth. "Just you wait a minute!" + +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. + +And then the doom of the bad sealskin dwarfs fell suddenly on them. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, thank you--thank you, darling Arctic moth," cried Jane. "You are +good--I do hope you haven't eaten enough to disagree with you +afterward!" + +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." + +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! + +"Oh, dear," said Jane, "this is the worst of all!" + +"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. + +It grew colder and colder and colder, and even under the grouse feathers +the children shivered. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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-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. + +"He's going to take us home," said Jane. "Oh, he is a good dragon. I +_am_ glad!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + +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! + +So they went indoors. + +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. + +It was long past their time, anyhow. + +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. + +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! + + + + +[Illustration: THE ISLAND OF THE NINE WHIRLPOOLS] + + + + +V. The Island of the Nine Whirlpools + + +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. + +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. + +"What do you want, my dear?" she said to the Queen. + +"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--" + +"Oh, yes," said the witch. "I know all about him. And so you want a +child? Do you know it will bring you sorrow?" + +"It will bring me joy first," said the Queen. + +"Great sorrow," said the witch. + +"Greater joy," said the Queen. + +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?" + +"The King would be very much annoyed," said the poor Queen. + +"Well, well," said the witch. "What will you give me for the child?" + +"Anything you ask for, and all I have," said the Queen. + +"Then give me your gold crown." + +The Queen took it off quickly. + +"And your necklace of blue sapphires." + +The Queen unfastened it. + +"And your pearl bracelets." + +The Queen unclasped them. + +"And your ruby clasps." + +And the Queen undid the clasps. + +"Now the lilies from your breast." + +The Queen gathered together the lilies. + +"And the diamonds of your little bright shoe buckles." + +The Queen pulled off her shoes. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +"Oh, thank you, thank you," said the Queen, "and when will it come?" + +"You will find it when you get home." + +"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?" + +"Nothing, thank you," said the witch. "I could make more diamonds in a +day than I should wear in a year." + +"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?" + +"There is one thing I should rather like," said the witch, "but it's +hard to get in my trade." + +"Oh, tell me what," said the Queen. + +"I should like some one to love me," said the witch. + +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." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"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 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?" + +And the Queen hung her head and had to confess that she had only asked +for a child. + +"Very well, madam," said the King, "very well--have your own way. And +make the most of your daughter, while she is a child." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +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. + +And to her husband she said, "My dear, why do you go on worrying about +it? Our daughter is not a boy, it is 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." + +Then the King found his tongue. + +"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." + +The Queen knew at once by the King's tone that he was going to be +disagreeable. + +"Ah," she said, "don't punish the child because she loves her mother." + +"I'm not going to punish her for that," said he. "I'm only going to +teach her to respect her father." + +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. + +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." + +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. + +The Queen, left at home, cried for a day and a night, and then she +remembered the witch and called to her. And the witch came, and the +Queen told her all. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"Oh, Mother, Mother, Mother," she cried, and hung around the Queen's +neck as if she would never let go. + +"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." + +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. + +And now all days seemed like one day to the Princess, and the next day +always seemed the day when her 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. + +But no one told the story of the deliverer who was to come. And the +years went by. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "The Lone Tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools." +_See page 88._] + +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 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. + +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. + +"I've come to save you," he said. "How darling and beautiful you are!" + +"You are very good, and very clever, and very dear," said the Princess, +smiling and giving him both her hands. + +He shut a little kiss in each hand before he let them go. + +"So now, when the tide is low again, I will take you away in my boat," +he said. + +"But what about the dragon and the griffin?" asked the Princess. + +"Dear me," said Nigel. "I didn't know about them. I suppose I can kill +them?" + +"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!" + +"Well, don't the beasts ever go to sleep?" + +"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." + +"What time does he sleep today?" asked Nigel. + +"At eleven," said the Princess. + +"Ah," said Nigel, "can you do sums?" + +"No," said the Princess sadly. "I was never good at them." + +"Then I must," said Nigel. "I can, but it's slow work, and it makes me +very unhappy. It'll take me days and days." + +"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." + +So he did. And then she told him all about herself. + +"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." + +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. + +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?" + +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 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. + +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. + +"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." + +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: + + AFTER NINE DAYS + T ii. 24. + D ii. 27 Ans. + P.S.--And the griffin is artificial. R. + +He clapped his hands softly. + +"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. + +"So now we must wait," said he. And they waited. + +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. + +"You're sure he won't hurt you, my only treasure?" said Nigel. + +"Quite," said the Princess. "I only wish I were half as sure that he +wouldn't hurt you." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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 chronometer, +and looked at it through her tears as he had bidden her look, so as to +know when to pull the rope. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +So they talked it over and arranged everything. + +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." + +And the griffin, waking suddenly from his dreams, twisted 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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?" + +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." + +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 day another, and so on till the ninth day, and then the sea was as +smooth as glass. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "Little children play around him and over him." _See page +96._] + + + + +[Illustration: VI + +THE DRAGON TAMERS] + + + + +VI. The Dragon Tamers + + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"I heard nothing," said he. + +"Neither did I," said she. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"No you don't," said the dragon in a spluttering voice, like a damp +squib. + +"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!" + +The dragon seemed very much struck by this remark. + +"Do you mind saying that again?" said he, quite politely. + +So John said again, very distinctly: +"_Here_--_is_--_a_--_nice_--_end_--_for_--_a_--_respectable_--_blacksmith._" + +"I didn't know," said the dragon. "Fancy now! You're the very man I +wanted." + +"So I understood you to say before," said John, his teeth chattering. + +"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?" + +"I might, sir," said John, politely, for you must always be polite to a +possible customer, even if he be a dragon. + +"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?" + +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. + +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. + +All the blacksmith welled up in John's heart, and he felt more at ease. + +"You could certainly do with a rivet or two, sir," said he. "In fact, +you want a good many." + +"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!" + +"I don't want to be eaten last, sir," said John. + +"Well then, I'll eat you first," said the dragon. + +"I don't want that, sir, either," said John. + +"Go on with you, you silly man," said the dragon, "you don't know your +own silly mind. Come, set to work." + +"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." + +"Upon my word of honor as a dragon," said the other. + +"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?" + +"It would be so undignified," objected the dragon. + +"We always fasten a horse up," said John, "and he's the 'noble animal.'" + +"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?" + +"My hammer," said John. "A blacksmith is nothing without a hammer." + +"But you'd want that for riveting me. You must think of something else, +and at once, or I'll eat you first." + +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. + +"Whatever's that?" said the dragon, starting so that every plate on his +body rattled. + +"It's only the baby," said John. + +"What's that?" asked the dragon. "Something you value?" + +"Well, yes, sir, rather," said the blacksmith. + +"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." + +"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." + +The dragon purred at this compliment and said: "All right, I'll be +careful. Now go and fetch the thing, whatever it is." + +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. + +"You just purr to it, sir," he said, "and it'll be as good as gold." + +So the dragon purred, and his purring pleased the baby so much that it +stopped crying. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +[Illustration: "The dragon's purring pleased the baby." _See page +106._] + +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. + +John ran as hard as he could into the town, and found the mayor and +corporation. + +"There's a dragon in my dungeon," he said; "I've chained him up. Now +come and help to get my baby away." + +And he told them all about it. + +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. + +"But what about my baby?" said John. + +"Oh, well," said the mayor, "if anything should happen, you will always +be able to remember that your baby perished in a good cause." + +So John went home again, and told his wife some of the tale. + +"You've given the baby to the dragon!" she cried. "Oh, you unnatural +parent!" + +"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." + +So down went the blacksmith, and there was the dragon purring away with +all his might to keep the baby quiet. + +"Hurry up, can't you?" he said. "I can't keep up this noise all night." + +"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." + +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. + +"Oh, dear," said the dragon, "this is awful." He patted the baby with +his claw, but it screamed more than ever. + +"And I am so tired too," said the dragon. "I did so hope I should have a +good night." + +The baby went on screaming. + +"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?" + +"I do, a little," said the mother. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +So now John went to the mayor, and said: "I've got the dragon and I've +saved the town." + +"Noble preserver," cried the mayor, "we will get up a subscription for +you, and crown you in public with a laurel wreath." + +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. + +The first poem dealt with the noble conduct of the mayor in arranging to +have the dragon tied up. The second 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +And the dragon was so dull from having been alone for ten years that he +said: "Come in, dears." + +"You won't hurt us, or breathe fire at us or anything?" asked Tina. + +And the dragon said, "Not for worlds." + +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." + +"Does he?" said the dragon, showing his teeth. "If only I were out of +this!" + +"If we let you loose you might manage to run away before he could catch +you." + +"Yes, I might," answered the dragon, "but then again I mightn't." + +"Why--you'd never fight him?" said Tina. + +"No," said the dragon; "I'm all for peace, I am. You let me out, and +you'll see." + +So the children loosed the dragon from the chains and 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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +"He isn't chained up yet," said Johnnie. "Shall I send him to claim the +reward?" + +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. + +"I don't trust you," said Johnnie. "Look how you treated my father when +he chained up the dragon." + +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. + +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?" + +And all the children said: "Yes, of course we will. What fun!" + +"Well, then," said Tina, "you must all bring your basins of bread and +milk to the forge tomorrow at breakfast time." + +"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." + +All the children promised, and next morning Tina and Johnnie rolled +their big washing tub down the winding stair. + +"What's that noise?" asked the dragon. + +"It's only a big giant breathing," said Tina, "He's gone by now." + +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?" + +"Oh, yes," said the dragon, "it's very dull here." + +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. + +"What's this?" asked the dragon. "And what's the matter?" + +"This is bread and milk," said Johnnie; "it's our breakfast--all of it." + +"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." + +"Dear Mr. Dragon," said Tina, "I wish you wouldn't eat us. How would you +like to be eaten yourself?" + +"Not at all," the dragon confessed, "but nobody will eat me." + +"I don't know," said Johnnie, "there's a giant--" + +"I know. I fought with him, and licked him." + +"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." + +"He's seven times as big," said Tina. + +"No, nine times," said Johnnie. "He's bigger than the steeple." + +"Oh, dear," said the dragon. "I never expected this." + +"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." + +"That's tiresome," said the dragon. "And I suppose this sloppy stuff in +the tub is the bread sauce?" + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +This was all very well for Johnnie and Tina; but if you are kind +children with feeling hearts you will perhaps feel 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. + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +And he said, "I don't know how I could ever have liked eating anything +but bread and milk. I _am_ 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 +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. + +In a few minutes they heard him clanking up the steps. He brought +something in his mouth--it was a bag of gold. + +"It's no good to me," he said. "Perhaps you might find it useful." So +they thanked him very kindly. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "He brought something in his mouth--it was a bag of +gold." _See page 116._] + + + + +[Illustration: VII + +THE FIERY DRAGON] + + + + +VII. The Fiery Dragon, + +or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold + + +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!" + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +This was why Sabrinetta was the first person in all the land to get a +glimpse of the wonder. + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +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 white, silky gown with the moon-daisies +worked on it, and went up to the top of her tower again. + +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. + +"I do hope it wasn't a dragon," said Sabrinetta. + +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. + +"It's like a green silk mantle worked with flowers," said the Princess, +smiling. + +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. + +"All the embroidery is unpicked," said the Princess, sighing. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"Who are you?" said the Prince. + +"I'm Elfin, the pig keeper," said the ragged youth. "And who are you?" + +"I'm Tiresome, the Prince," said the other. + +"And what are you doing out of your palace at this time of night?" asked +the pig keeper, severely. + +"I've been hunting," said the Prince. + +The pig keeper laughed. "Oh, it was you I saw, then? A good hunt, wasn't +it? My pigs and I were looking on." + +All the sleeping forms grunted and snored, and the Prince saw that they +were pigs: He knew it by their manners. + +"If you had known as much as I do," Elfin went on, "you might have saved +your pack." + +"What do you mean?" said Tiresome. + +"Why, the dragon," said Elfin. "You went out at the wrong time of day. +The dragon should be hunted at night." + +"No, thank you," said the Prince, with a shudder. "A daylight hunt is +quite good enough for me, you silly pig keeper." + +"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." + +"You're very rude," said Tiresome. + +"Oh, no, only truthful," said Elfin. + +"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?" + +"You don't speak very good English," said Elfin. "But come, what will +you give me if I tell you?" + +"If you tell me what?" said the tiresome Prince. + +"What you want to know." + +"I don't want to know anything," said Prince Tiresome. + +"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?" + +"It might be as well," the Prince admitted. + +"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?" + +"Half my kingdom," said the Prince, "and my cousin's hand in marriage." + +"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." + +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. + +"How can I kill him?" asked the Prince. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +But when the wicked Prince made promises he did not make them to keep. + +"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. + +"All right," said Elfin, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm better off than +you are, anyhow." + +"What do you mean?" spluttered the Prince. + +"Why, you've only got a kingdom (and a dragon), but I've got clean hands +(and five and seventy fine black pigs)." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'" +_See page 129._] + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh, dear," said the Princess, "do take care of me. I am so frightened." + +"I will," said Elfin, putting his arms around her. "Now you are quite +safe. What were you frightened of?" + +"The dragon," she said. + +"So it's gotten out of the silver bottle," said Elfin. "I hope it's +eaten the Prince." + +"No," said Sabrinetta. "But why?" + +He told her of the mean trick that the Prince had played on him. + +"And he promised me half his kingdom and the hand of his cousin the +Princess," said Elfin. + +"Oh, dear, what a shame!" said Sabrinetta, trying to get out of his +arms. "How dare he?" + +"What's the matter?" he asked, holding her tighter. "It _was_ a shame, +or at least _I_ thought so. But now he may keep his kingdom, half and +whole, if I may keep what I have." + +"What's that?" asked the Princess. + +"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 _only_ Princess, _my_ Princess." + +"Do you mean me?" said Sabrinetta. + +"Who else?" he asked. + +"Yes, but five minutes ago you hadn't seen me!" + +"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." + +"But you haven't asked _me_," said the Princess. + +"You asked me to take care of you," said Elfin, "and I will--all my life +long." + +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. + +"The mistake," said Elfin, "was in not having a dragonproof bottle. I +see that now." + +"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." + +So she started off to get the bottle, but she would not let Elfin come +with her. + +"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." + +Elfin was quite sure, so he let her go. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +"I thought you were never coming back," he said. "You have been away a +year, at least." + +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. + +"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. + +"Never mind," said Elfin. "I'll put my finger in for a stopper." + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"We've saved the country," said the Princess. "You've saved the little +children. Give me your hands." + +"I can't," said Elfin. "I shall never be able to take your dear hands +again. My hands are burnt off." + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +"See the dear creature," said the nurse, wiping away a tear. "It knows, +it knows!" + +Sabrinetta stroked the pig, because Elfin had no hands for stroking or +for anything else. + +"The only cure for a dragon burn," said the old nurse, "is pig's fat, +and well that faithful creature knows it----" + +"I wouldn't for a kingdom," cried Elfin, stroking the pig as best he +could with his elbow. + +"Is there no other cure?" asked the Princess. + +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. + +"There is one other," said the nurse. "The dear, affectionate +beasts--they all want to die for you." + +"What is the other cure?" said Sabrinetta anxiously. + +"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 enough if each should kiss +the burn and wish it well in the depths of his loving heart." + +"The number! The number!" cried Sabrinetta. + +"Seventy-seven," said the nurse. + +"We have only seventy-five pigs," said the Princess, "and with me that's +seventy-six!" + +"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." + +"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." + +"Why, who must you marry to cure your dragon burns?" asked Sabrinetta. + +"A Princess. That's how St. George cured his burns." + +"There now! Think of that!" said the nurse. "And I never heard tell of +that cure, old as I am." + +But Sabrinetta threw her arms round Elfin's neck, and held him as though +she would never let him go. + +"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." + +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. + +[Illustration: "They saw a cloud of steam." _See page 135._] + +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 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. + + * * * * * + +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 _pork_ should never be uttered on pain of +death, and should, besides, be scratched out of all the dictionaries. + + + + +[Illustration: VIII + +KIND LITTLE EDMUND] + + + + +VIII. Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"It is such waste of time," said he. "They only know what everybody +knows. I want to find out new things that nobody has thought of but me." + +"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. + +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." + +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. + +Edmund was not afraid of these noises--though they were very strange and +terrible. He wanted to find out what made them. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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. + +"I _am_ 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +But quite suddenly the fire ahead gave a pale flicker and went down; and +the clucking ceased. + +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 big hand-washing basin, and in the middle of the basin Edmund saw +a large pale person sitting. + +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. + +"Whatever are you?" said Edmund. + +"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." + +I think I have said before what a kindhearted boy Edmund was. + +"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. + +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. + +"But what can I do for you?" said the creature. + +"Tell me stories," said Edmund. + +"What about?" said the cockatrice. + +"About true things that they don't know at school," said Edmund. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"But it's true," said Edmund. "Just you look where the fire burnt my +hand." + +"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. + +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 MRS. D. KNOCK AND RING, and a white +label that said CALL ME AT THREE. 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. + +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 came an +immense yellow dragon, who wriggled off down the brass cave like a long, +rattling worm--or perhaps more like a monstrous centipede. + +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." + +He was caned for untruthfulness without any delay. His master was never +one for postponing a duty. + +"But it's true," said Edmund. "You just see if it isn't." + +He pointed out of the window, and everyone could see a vast yellow cloud +rising up into the air above the mountain. + +"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. + +So while the master was writing _Lying is very wrong, and liars must be +caned. It is all for their own good_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"Oh, my poor, dear granny," said Edmund, for he had a feeling heart, as +I ought to have told you before. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"Well," said the cockatrice thoughtfully, when the tale had been told. +"What then?" + +"I don't think you quite understand," said Edmund gently. "The dragon +has swallowed up the town." + +"Does it matter?" said the cockatrice. + +[Illustration: "Creeping across the plain." _See page 147._] + +"But I live there," said Edmund blankly. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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----" + +"Of course it is," said Edmund, losing patience at last. "Oh--do help +me. What can I do?" + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +And the cockatrice drew the fire up close around his shoulders, tucked +himself up in it, and went to sleep. + +Now this was exactly the right way to manage Edmund, only no one had +ever thought of trying to do it before. + +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. + +Though he had played truant so often, he knew one or two things that +perhaps you don't know, though you have 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. + +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 THE BABY IS ASLEEP. 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 _Draco centipedis_ in +the learned books. + +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." + +The drakling stopped snoring and said sleepily: "It ain't time yet." + +"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. + +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. + +"Hurry up," said Edmund, as it fumbled clumsily with the seventeenth +shoe. + +"Mother said I was never to go out without my shoes," said the +drakling; so Edmund had to help it to put them on. It took some time, +and was not a comfortable occupation. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +The drakling sat down and waited, but it watched the fire with hungry +eyes. + +"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?" + +It reached out a claw toward the cockatrice's basin. + +"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?" + +"I beg your pardon," said the drakling humbly, "but I am really _very_ +hungry." + +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. + +When Edmund came to the proper place he stopped. + +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 one side, and a rush of hot air came up +that nearly choked him. But the drakling came close and looked down with +one eye and sniffed, and said: "That smells good, eh?" + +"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?" + +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: "_Facilis descensus_." + +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. + +"Now," said he. + +"Well, now," said the cockatrice. "Go to the mouth of the cave and laugh +at the dragon so that she hears you." + +Edmund very nearly said "Why?" but he stopped in time, and instead, +said: "She won't hear me--" + +"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. + +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. + +And the dragon, lying asleep in the sun, woke up and said very crossly: +"What are you laughing at?" + +[Illustration: "That smells good, eh?" _See page 152._] + +"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 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. + +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!" + +And Edmund found the courage to cry "Ha, ha!" which sounded like +tremendous laughter in the echo of the cave. + +"Dear me," said the dragon. "I _thought_ the town stuck in my throat +rather. I must take it out, and look through it more carefully." And +with that she coughed--and choked--and there was the town, on the +hillside. + +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 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. + +"Well," said the master, "where were you yesterday?" + +Edmund explained, and the master at once caned him for not speaking the +truth. + +"But it _is_ true," said Edmund. "Why, the whole town was swallowed by +the dragon. You know it was--" + +"Nonsense," said the master. "There was a thunderstorm and an +earthquake, that's all." And he caned Edmund more than ever. + +"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?" + +"It was _always_ 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. + +"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. + +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. + +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--how different from the revered Head of the nice school where your +good parents are kind enough to send you. + +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. + +"A wild goose," said they, "is nothing like a cockatrice." + +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. + +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. + +But he is quite an old man now, and he hasn't gotten that door open +yet! + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 23, "around" changed to "round" (round piece of land) + +Page 152, "chocked" changed to "choked" (nearly choked him) + +Page 154, "he" changed to "she" (that she coughed) + + + + + +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.txt or 23661.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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