[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 allthe bricks kicking about the floor for Nurse to clear up--but then thenews was rather remarkable news. You see, there was a knock at the frontdoor and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel thought it was the mancome to see about the gas, which had not been allowed to be lightedsince the day when Lionel made a swing by tying his skipping rope to thegas 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 handsand brush his hair, and all the time she was doing it Lionel keptwriggling and fidgeting and saying, "Oh, don't, Nurse, " and, "I'm suremy 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 waitingfor his clean handkerchief, and in the drawing room there were two verygrave-looking gentlemen in red robes with fur, and gold coronets withvelvet sticking up out of the middle like the cream in the veryexpensive jam tarts. 

They bowed low to Lionel, and the gravest one said: "Sire, yourgreat-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the King of this country, isdead, 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 wasnot quite so grave-looking as the other. 

"Would you like me to bring Nurse, or what time would you like me to befetched, and hadn't I better put on my velvet suit with the lacecollar?" said Lionel, who had often been out to tea. 

"Your Nurse will be removed to the Palace later. No, never mind aboutchanging 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 littlegirls, 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 Kingany more than you have, so it was all quite new to him--so new that hehad never even thought of it. And as the coach went through the town hehad to bite his tongue to be quite sure it was real, because if histongue was real it showed he wasn't dreaming. Half an hour before he hadbeen building with bricks in the nursery; and now--the streets were allfluttering with flags; every window was crowded with people wavinghandkerchiefs and scattering flowers; there were scarlet soldierseverywhere along the pavements, and all the bells of all the churcheswere ringing like mad, and like a great song to the music of theirringing he heard thousands of people shouting, "Long live Lionel! Longlive 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 wouldvery likely have bothered about it the whole time. 

As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and thePrime Minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand. 

"I thought we were a Republic, " said Lionel. "I'm sure there hasn't beena King for some time. "

"Sire, your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather's death happenedwhen my grandfather was a little boy, " said the Prime Minister, "andsince then your loyal people have been saving up to buy you a crown--somuch a week, you know, according to people's means--sixpence a week fromthose who have first-rate pocket money, down to a halfpenny a week fromthose who haven't so much. You know it's the rule that the crown must bepaid 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 hadhad all the jewels taken out, and sold them to buy books. He was astrange man; a very good King he was, but he had his faults--he was fondof books. Almost with his last breath he sent the crown to betinned--and he never lived to pay the tinsmith's bill. "

Here the Prime Minister wiped away a tear, and just then the carriagestopped and Lionel was taken out of the carriage to be crowned. Beingcrowned is much more tiring work than you would suppose, and by the timeit was over, and Lionel had worn the Royal robes for an hour or two andhad had his hand kissed by everybody whose business it was to do it, hewas 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 jamand hot buttered toast, and the prettiest china with red and gold andblue 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 meone, Nurse?"

"Bless the child, " said Nurse. "You don't suppose you've lost the use ofyour legs with just being a King? Run along, do, and get your booksyourself. "

So Lionel went down into the library. The Prime Minister and theChancellor were there, and when Lionel came in they bowed very low, andwere beginning to ask Lionel most politely what on earth he was comingbothering 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 theproperty of the late King, your great-great--"

"Yes, I know, " Lionel interrupted. "Well, I shall read them all. I loveto read. I am so glad I learned to read. "

"If I might venture to advise Your Majesty, " said the Prime Minister, "Ishould not read these books. Your great--"

"Yes?" said Lionel, quickly. 

"He was a very good King--oh, yes, really a very superior King in hisway, but he was a little--well, strange. "

"Mad?" asked Lionel, cheerfully. 

"No, no"--both the gentlemen were sincerely shocked. "Not mad; but if Imay express it so, he was--er--too clever by half. And I should not likea 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 anagitated 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 greatbrown book that lay on the study table. It had gold patterns on thebrown leather, and gold clasps with turquoises and rubies in the twistsof them, and gold corners, so that the leather should not wear out tooquickly. 

"I must look at this one, " Lionel said, for on the back in big lettershe 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, andblue, 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 wingson 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 lumpof wonder that had got into his throat and tried to choke him, "that'smagic, that is. "

But before he had spoken, the King had turned the next page, and therewas a shining bird complete and beautiful in every blue feather of him. Under him was written, "Blue Bird of Paradise, " and while the King gazedenchanted at the charming picture the Blue Bird fluttered his wings onthe yellow page and spread them and flew out of the book. 

Then the Prime Minister snatched the book away from the King and shut itup on the blank page where the bird had been, and put it on a very highshelf. 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 beingshaken, 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 nextpage--a snake or a worm, or a centipede or a revolutionist, orsomething like that. "

"Well, I'm sorry if I've vexed you, " said Lionel. "Come, let's kiss andbe friends. " So he kissed the Prime Minister, and they settled down fora nice quiet game of noughts and crosses while the Chancellor went toadd 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 gotup and crept down to the library and climbed up and got _The Book ofBeasts_. 

He took it outside to the terrace, where the moonlight was as bright asday, and he opened the book, and saw the empty pages with "Butterfly"and "Blue Bird of Paradise" underneath, and then he turned the nextpage. There was some sort of red thing sitting under a palm tree, andunder it was written "Dragon. " The Dragon did not move, and the Kingshut up the book rather quickly and went back to bed. 

But the next day he wanted another look, so he took the book out intothe 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 greatRed Dragon came out of the book and spread vast scarlet wings and flewaway across the garden to the far hills, and Lionel was left with theempty page before him, for the page was quite empty except for the greenpalm tree and the yellow desert, and the little streaks of red where thepaintbrush had gone outside the pencil outline of the Red Dragon. 

And then Lionel felt that he had indeed done it. He had not been Kingtwenty-four hours, and already he had let loose a Red Dragon to worryhis faithful subjects' lives out. And they had been saving up so long tobuy 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 runningto 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 outjust exactly what he has done. "

Then Lionel, in floods of tears, said: "It's a Red Dragon, and it's goneflying 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 ofthan forgiving Lionel. They hurried off to consult the police and seewhat could be done. Everyone did what they could. They sat on committeesand stood on guard, and lay in wait for the Dragon, but he stayed up inthe hills, and there was nothing more to be done. The faithful Nurse, meanwhile, did not neglect her duty. Perhaps she did more than anyoneelse, for she slapped the King and put him to bed without his tea, andwhen 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'ssubjects could see the redness of the Dragon shining through the greentrees quite plainly. So Lionel put on his crown and sat on his throneand said he wanted to make some laws. 

And I need hardly say that though the Prime Minister and the Chancellorand the Nurse might have the very poorest opinion of Lionel's privatejudgement, and might even slap him and send him to bed, the minute hegot on his throne and set his crown on his head, he becameinfallible--which means that everything he said was right, and that hecouldn't possibly make a mistake. So when he said: "There is to be a lawforbidding people to open books in schools or elsewhere"--he had thesupport of at least half of his subjects, and the other half--thegrown-up half--pretended to think he was quite right. 

Then he made a law that everyone should always have enough to eat. Andthis pleased everyone except the ones who had always had too much. 

And when several other nice new laws were made and written down he wenthome 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 forthem. "

But Nurse said: "Don't count your chickens, my dear. You haven't seenthe last of that Dragon yet. "

Now, the next day was Saturday. And in the afternoon the Dragon suddenlyswooped down upon the common in all his hideous redness, and carried offthe Soccer Players, umpires, goal-posts, ball, and all. 

Then the people were very angry indeed, and they said: "We might as wellbe a Republic. After saving up all these years to get his crown, andeverything!"

And wise people shook their heads and foretold a decline in the NationalLove of Sport. And, indeed, soccer was not at all popular for some timeafterward. 

Lionel did his best to be a good King during the week, and the peoplewere beginning to forgive him for letting the Dragon out of the book. "After all, " they said, "soccer is a dangerous game, and perhaps it iswise to discourage it. "

Popular opinion held that the Soccer Players, being tough and hard, haddisagreed with the Dragon so much that he had gone away to some placewhere they only play cats' cradle and games that do not make you hardand tough. 

All the same, Parliament met on the Saturday afternoon, a convenienttime, for most of the Members would be free to attend, to consider theDragon. But unfortunately the Dragon, who had only been asleep, woke upbecause it was Saturday, and he considered the Parliament, andafterwards there were not any Members left, so they tried to make a newParliament, but being a member of Parliament had somehow grown asunpopular as soccer playing, and no one would consent to be elected, sothey had to do without a Parliament. When the next Saturday came aroundeveryone was a little nervous, but the Red Dragon was pretty quiet thatday and only ate an Orphanage. 

Lionel was very, very unhappy. He felt that it was his disobedience thathad brought this trouble on the Parliament and the Orphanage and theSoccer Players, and he felt that it was his duty to try and dosomething. The question was, what?

The Blue Bird that had come out of the book used to sing very nicely inthe Palace rose garden, and the Butterfly was very tame, and would perchon his shoulder when he walked among the tall lilies: so Lionel saw thatall the creatures in _The Book of Beasts_ could not be wicked, like theDragon, and he thought: "Suppose I could get another beast out who wouldfight the Dragon?"

So he took _The Book of Beasts_ out into the rose garden and opened thepage next to the one where the Dragon had been just a tiny bit to seewhat the name was. He could only see "cora, " but he felt the middle ofthe page swelling up thick with the creature that was trying to comeout, and it was only by putting the book down and sitting on itsuddenly, very hard, that he managed to get it shut. Then he fastenedthe clasps with the rubies and turquoises in them and sent for theChancellor, who had been ill since Saturday, and so had not been eatenwith 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 theirblood. He is yellow, with the body of a lion and the face of a man. Iwish we had a few Manticoras here now. But the last died hundreds ofyears 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 anda man's face, just as the Chancellor had said. And under the picturewas written, "Manticora. "

In a few minutes the Manticora came sleepily out of the book, rubbingits eyes with its hands and mewing piteously. It seemed very stupid, andwhen 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 andhid behind the Town Hall, and at night when the people were asleep itwent around and ate all the pussy-cats in the town. And then it mewedmore than ever. And on the Saturday morning, when people were a littletimid about going out, because the Dragon had no regular hour forcalling, the Manticora went up and down the streets and drank all themilk that was left in the cans at the doors for people's teas, and itate 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 edgedoff when it saw him coming, for it was not at all the Dragon-fightingkind; and, seeing no other door open, the poor, hunted creature tookrefuge in the General Post Office, and there the Dragon found it, tryingto conceal itself among the ten o'clock mail. The Dragon fell on theManticora at once, and the mail was no defense. The mewings were heardall over the town. All the kitties and the milk the Manticora had hadseemed to have strengthened its mew wonderfully. Then there was a sadsilence, and presently the people whose windows looked that way saw theDragon come walking down the steps of the General Post Office spittingfire and smoke, together with tufts of Manticora fur, and the fragmentsof the registered letters. Things were growing very serious. Howeverpopular the King might become during the week, the Dragon was sure to dosomething 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, exceptduring the hour of noon, and then he had to rest under a tree or hewould have caught fire from the heat of the sun. You see, he was veryhot to begin with. 

At last came a Saturday when the Dragon actually walked into the Royalnursery and carried off the King's own pet Rocking Horse. Then the Kingcried for six days, and on the seventh he was so tired that he had tostop. He heard the Blue Bird singing among the roses and saw theButterfly fluttering among the lilies, and he said: "Nurse, wipe myface, 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 hearbetter now that I've cried for a week. Now, Nurse, dear, I know I'mright, so kiss me in case I never come back. I _must_ try to see if Ican't save the people. "

"Well, if you must, you must, " said Nurse, "but don't tear your clothesor get your feet wet. "

So off he went. 

The Blue Bird sang more sweetly than ever, and the Butterfly shone morebrightly, as Lionel once more carried _The Book of Beasts_ out into therose garden, and opened it--very quickly, so that he might not be afraidand change his mind. The book fell open wide, almost in the middle, andthere was written at the bottom of the page, "Hippogriff, " and beforeLionel had time to see what the picture was, there was a fluttering ofgreat wings and a stamping of hoofs, and a sweet, soft, friendlyneighing; and there came out of the book a beautiful white horse with along, long, white mane and a long, long, white tail, and he had greatwings like swan's wings, and the softest, kindest eyes in the world, andhe stood there among the roses. 

The Hippogriff rubbed its silky-soft, milky white nose against thelittle King's shoulder, and the little King thought: "But for the wingsyou are very like my poor, dear lost Rocking Horse. " And the Blue Bird'ssong 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 hemust do. He caught up _The Book of Beasts_ and jumped on the back of thegentle, beautiful Hippogriff, and leaning down he whispered in thesharp, white ear: "Fly, dear Hippogriff, fly your very fastest to thePebbly Waste. "

And when the Dragon saw them start, he turned and flew after them, withhis great wings flapping like clouds at sunset, and the Hippogriff'swide wings were snowy as clouds at moonrise. 

When the people in the town saw the Dragon fly off after the Hippogriffand the King they all came out of their houses to look, and when theysaw the two disappear they made up their minds to the worst, and beganto think what they would wear for Court mourning. 

But the Dragon could not catch the Hippogriff. The red wings were biggerthan the white ones, but they were not so strong, and so thewhite-winged horse flew away and away and away, with the Dragonpursuing, till he reached the very middle of the Pebbly Waste. 

Now, the Pebbly Waste is just like the parts of the seaside where thereis no sand--all round, loose, shifting stones, and there is no grassthere and no tree within a hundred miles of it. 

Lionel jumped off the white horse's back in the very middle of thePebbly Waste, and he hurriedly unclasped _The Book of Beasts_ and laidit open on the pebbles. Then he clattered among the pebbles in his hasteto get back on to his white horse, and had just jumped on when up camethe Dragon. He was flying very feebly, and looking around everywhere fora tree, for it was just on the stroke of twelve, the sun was shininglike a gold guinea in the blue sky, and there was not a tree for ahundred miles. 

The white-winged horse flew around and around the Dragon as he writhedon the dry pebbles. He was getting very hot: indeed, parts of him evenhad begun to smoke. He knew that he must certainly catch fire inanother minute unless he could get under a tree. He made a snatch withhis red claws at the King and Hippogriff, but he was too feeble to reachthem, and besides, he did not dare to overexert himself for fear heshould get any hotter. 

It was then that he saw _The Book of Beasts_ lying on the pebbles, openat the page with "Dragon" written at the bottom. He looked and hehesitated, and he looked again, and then, with one last squirm of rage, the Dragon wriggled himself back into the picture and sat down under thepalm 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 andsit under his own palm tree because it was the only tree there, hejumped 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 arenot alone?"

And indeed there was quite a crowd round them on the Pebbly Waste: thePrime Minister and the Parliament and the Soccer Players and theOrphanage and the Manticora and the Rocking Horse, and indeed everyonewho had been eaten by the Dragon. You see, it was impossible for theDragon to take them into the book with him--it was a tight fit even forone 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 beggedto 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 ofhis opening the book at the wrong page and letting out a Dragon oranything. 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, exceptin a picture-book. And of course he left the kitties outside, becausethere 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 theHippogriff's page of the book. "I should like, " he said, "to livesomewhere where Dragons can't get at me. "

So the beautiful, white-winged Hippogriff showed him the way in, andthere he stayed till the King had him taken out for hisgreat-great-great-great-grandchildren to play with. 

As for the Hippogriff, he accepted the position of the King's OwnRocking Horse--a situation left vacant by the retirement of the woodenone. And the Blue Bird and the Butterfly sing and flutter among thelilies 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 ifyou like--if I have time. "

For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown up, to be ageneral and a poet and a Prime Minister and an admiral and a civilengineer. Meanwhile, he was top of all his classes at school, andtip-top of the geography class. 

As for the Princess Mary Ann, she was a very good little girl, andeveryone loved her. She was always kind and polite, even to her UncleJames and to other people whom she did not like very much; and thoughshe was not very clever, for a Princess, she always tried to do herlessons. 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 fortunateaccident they really _are_ done. Then the Princess had a truly goodheart: She was always kind to her pets. She never slapped herhippopotamus when it broke her dolls in its playful gambols, and shenever forgot to feed her rhinoceroses in their little hutch in thebackyard. Her elephant was devoted to her, and sometimes Mary Ann madeher nurse quite cross by smuggling the dear little thing up to bed withher and letting it go to sleep with its long trunk laid lovingly acrossher throat, and its pretty head cuddled under the Royal right ear. 

When the Princess had been good all through the week--for, like allreal, live, nice children, she was sometimes naughty, but neverbad--Nurse would allow her to ask her little friends to come onWednesday morning early and spend the day, because Wednesday is the endof the week in that country. Then, in the afternoon, when all the littledukes and duchesses and marquises and countesses had finished their ricepudding and had had their hands and faces washed after it, Nurse wouldsay: "Now, my dears, what would you like to do this afternoon?" just asif 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 guineapig and feed the rabbits and hear the dormouse asleep. "

So their pinafores were taken off and they all went to the ZoologicalGardens, 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 somegrown-up person were kind enough to lift them up for the purpose. 

There always was some such person, because in Rotundia everybody waskind--except one. 

Now that you have read as far as this you know, of course, that theKingdom of Rotundia was a very remarkable place; and if you are athoughtful child--as of course you are--you will not need me to tell youwhat was the most remarkable thing about it. But in case you are not athoughtful child--and it is just possible of course that you are not--Iwill tell you at once what that most remarkable thing was. _All theanimals were the wrong sizes!_ And this was how it happened. 

In old, old, olden times, when all our world was just loose earth andair and fire and water mixed up anyhow like a pudding, and spinningaround like mad trying to get the different things to settle into theirproper places, a round piece of earth got loose and went spinning awayby itself across the water, which was just beginning to try to getspread out smooth into a real sea. And as the great round piece of earthflew away, going around and around as hard as it could, it met a longpiece of hard rock that had got loose from another part of the puddingymixture, and the rock was so hard, and was going so fast, that it ranits point through the round piece of earth and stuck out on the otherside of it, so that the two together were like a very-very-much-too-bigspinning top. 

I am afraid all this is very dull, but you know geography is never quitelively, and after all, I must give you a little information even in afairy tale--like the powder in jam. 

Well, when the pointed rock smashed into the round bit of earth theshock was so great that it set them spinning together through theair--which was just getting into its proper place, like all the rest ofthe things--only, as luck would have it, they forgot which way aroundthey had been going, and began to spin around the wrong way. PresentlyCenter of Gravity--a great giant who was managing the wholebusiness--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 thepoint of the rock went into a hole that just fitted it in the stony seabottom, and there it spun around the wrong way seven times and then laystill. And that round piece of land became, after millions of years, theKingdom of Rotundia. 

This is the end of the geography lesson. And now for just a littlenatural history, so that we may not feel that we are quite wasting ourtime. Of course, the consequence of the island having spun around thewrong way was that when the animals began to grow on the island they allgrew the wrong sizes. The guinea pig, as you know, was as big as ourelephants, and the elephant--dear little pet--was the size of the silly, tiny, black-and-tan dogs that ladies carry sometimes in their muffs. Therabbits were about the size of our rhinoceroses, and all about the wildparts of the island they had made their burrows as big as railwaytunnels. 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 willnot help you at all. Luckily there was only one of him, and he wasalways asleep. Otherwise I don't think the Rotundians could have bornewith him. As it was, they made him a house, and it saved the expense ofa brass band, because no band could possibly have been heard when thedormouse was talking in his sleep. 

The men and women and children in this wonderful island were quite theright size, because their ancestors had come over with the Conquerorlong 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 totake a prize. The prize offered by the Lord Chief Schoolmaster was a_History of Rotundia_, beautifully bound, with the Royal arms on theback. 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 prizein the world would be the Princess, and this was the prize Tom meant totake; and when you are a gardener's son and have decided to marry aPrincess, you will find that the more you learn at school the better. 

The Princess always played with Tom on the days when the little dukesand marquises did not come to tea--and when he told her he was almostsure of the first prize, she clapped her hands and said: "Dear Tom, deargood, clever Tom, you deserve all the prizes. And I will give you my petelephant--and you can keep him till we're married. "

The pet elephant was called Fido, and the gardener's son took him awayin his coat pocket. He was the dearest little elephant you eversaw--about six inches long. But he was very, very wise--he could nothave been wiser if he had been a mile high. He lay down comfortably inTom's pocket, and when Tom put in his hand, Fido curled his little trunkaround Tom's fingers with an affectionate confidence that made the boy'sheart warm to his new little pet. What with the elephant, and thePrincess's affection, and the knowledge that the very next day he wouldreceive the _History of Rotundia_, beautifully bound, with the Royalarms on the cover, Tom could hardly sleep a wink. And, besides, the dogdid bark so terribly. There was only one dog in Rotundia--the kingdomcould not afford to keep more than one: He was a Mexican lapdog of thekind that in most parts of the world only measures seven inches from theend of his dear nose to the tip of his darling tail--but in Rotundia hewas bigger than I can possibly expect you to believe. And when hebarked, his bark was so large that it filled up all the night and leftno room for sleep or dreams or polite conversation, or anything else atall. He never barked at things that went on in the island--he was toolarge-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 ortwice, just to let the ships know that they couldn't come playing aboutthere just as they liked. 

But on this particular night he barked and barked and barked--and thePrincess 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 asit's light I'll go and see. "

So when it began to be pretty pink-and-yellow daylight, Tom got up andwent out. And all the time the Mexican lapdog barked so that the housesshook, and the tiles on the roof of the palace rattled like milk cans ina cart whose horse is frisky. 

"I'll go to the pillar, " thought Tom, as he went through the town. Thepillar, of course, was the top of the piece of rock that had stuckitself through Rotundia millions of years before, and made it spinaround the wrong way. It was quite in the middle of the island, andstuck up ever so far, and when you were at the top you could see a greatdeal farther than when you were not. 

As Tom went out from the town and across the downs, he thought what apretty sight it was to see the rabbits in the bright, dewy morning, frisking with their young ones by the mouths of their burrows. He didnot go very near the rabbits, of course, because when a rabbit of thatsize is at play it does not always look where it is going, and it mighteasily have crushed Tom with its foot, and then it would have been verysorry afterward. And Tom was a kind boy, and would not have liked tomake even a rabbit unhappy. Earwigs in our country often get out of theway when they think you are going to walk on them. They too have kindhearts, and they would not like you to be sorry afterward. 

So Tom went on, looking at the rabbits and watching the morning growmore and more red and golden. And the Mexican lapdog barked all thetime, till the church bells tinkled, and the chimney of the applefactory rocked again. 

But when Tom got to the pillar, he saw that he would not need to climbto the top to find out what the dog was barking at. 

For there, by the pillar, lay a very large purple dragon. His wings werelike old purple umbrellas that have been very much rained on, and hishead was large and bald, like the top of a purple toadstool, and histail, which was purple too, was very, very, very long and thin andtight, like the lash of a carriage whip. 

It was licking one of its purple umbrella-y wings, and every now andthen it moaned and leaned its head back against the rocky pillar asthough it felt faint. Tom saw at once what had happened. A flight ofpurple dragons must have crossed the island in the night, and this poorone must have knocked its wing and broken it against the pillar. 

Everyone is kind to everyone in Rotundia, and Tom was not afraid of thedragon, although he had never spoken to one before. He had often watchedthem flying across the sea, but he had never expected to get to know onepersonally. 

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 allother 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 treequite close. "

The dragon opened a great purple mouth and licked his purple lips, soTom ran and shook the bun tree, and soon came back with an armful offresh 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 thewrong way is that all the things we have to make--buns and cakes andshortbread--grow on trees and bushes, but in Rotundia they have to maketheir cauliflowers and cabbages and carrots and apples and onions, justas 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 tolick his wing again. So Tom left him and went back to the town with thenews, and everyone was so excited at a real live dragon's being on theisland--a thing that had never happened before--that they all went outto look at it, instead of going to the prize-giving, and the Lord ChiefSchoolmaster went with the rest. Now, he had Tom's prize, the _Historyof Rotundia_, in his pocket--the one bound in calf, with the Royal armson the cover--and it happened to drop out, and the dragon ate it, so Tomnever 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 thatprize either, if I had gotten it. "

It happened to be a Wednesday, so when the Princess's friends were askedwhat they would like to do, all the little dukes and marquises and earlssaid, "Let's go and see the dragon. " But the little duchesses andmarchionesses 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 thingslike that, that people are unkind and want to hurt each other. InRotundia 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'sall go and see the dragon. We might take him some acid drops. " So theywent. And all the titled children took it in turns to feed the dragonwith acid drops, and he seemed pleased and flattered, and wagged as muchof 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 givean acid drop to the dragon, he smiled a very wide smile, and wagged histail 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 hearthe was saying, "Oh, you nice, fat, pretty little Princess, I should liketo eat you instead of these silly acid drops. " But of course nobodyheard him except the Princess's uncle, and he was a magician, andaccustomed to listening at doors. It was part of his trade. 

Now, you will remember that I told you there was one wicked person inRotundia, and I cannot conceal from you any longer that this CompleteBad was the Princess's Uncle James. Magicians are always bad, as youknow 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 leastwas bad, as you have learned from your English history. And when anyoneis a magician, and is also an uncle, and is named James as well, youneed not expect anything nice from him. He is a Threefold CompleteBad--and he will come to no good. 

Uncle James had long wanted to get rid of the Princess and have thekingdom to himself. He did not like many things--a nice kingdom wasalmost the only thing he cared for--but he had never seen his way quiteclearly, because everyone is so kind in Rotundia that wicked spells willnot work there, but run off those blameless islanders like water off aduck's back. Now, however, Uncle James thought there might be a chancefor him--because he knew that now there were two wicked people on theisland who could stand by each other--himself and the dragon. He saidnothing, but he exchanged a meaningful glance with the dragon, andeveryone went home to tea. And no one had seen the meaningful glanceexcept Tom. 

Tom went home, and told his elephant all about it. The intelligentlittle creature listened carefully, and then climbed from Tom's knee tothe table, on which stood an ornamental calendar that the Princess hadgiven Tom for a Christmas present. With its tiny trunk the elephantpointed 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 thesagacious animal repeated its former gesture. Then Tom understood. 

"Oh, something is to happen on her birthday? All right. I'll be on thelookout. " 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, wholived by the pillar and fed himself from the bun trees, but by-and-by hebegan to wander. He would creep into the burrows made by the greatrabbits; and excursionists, sporting on the downs, would see his long, tight, whiplike tail wriggling down a burrow and out of sight, andbefore they had time to say, "There he goes, " his ugly purple headwould come poking out from another rabbit-hole--perhaps just behindthem--or laugh softly to itself just in their ears. And the dragon'slaugh was not a merry one. This sort of hide-and-seek amused people atfirst, but by-and-by it began to get on their nerves: and if you don'tknow what that means, ask Mother to tell you next time you are playingblind man's buff when she has a headache. Then the dragon got into thehabit of cracking his tail, as people crack whips, and this also got onpeople's nerves. Then, too, little things began to be missed. And youknow how unpleasant that is, even in a private school, and in a publickingdom it is, of course, much worse. The things that were missed werenothing 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 ofthe Princess's, called Frederick, mysteriously disappeared, and thencame a terrible morning when the Mexican lapdog was missing. He hadbarked ever since the dragon came to the island, and people had grownquite used to the noise. So when his barking suddenly ceased it wokeeverybody up--and they all went out to see what was the matter. And thelapdog was gone!

A boy was sent to wake the army, so that it might look for him. But thearmy was gone too! And now the people began to be frightened. Then UncleJames came out onto the terrace of the palace, and he made the people aspeech. He said: "Friends--fellow citizens--I cannot disguise frommyself or from you that this purple dragon is a poor penniless exile, ahelpless alien in our midst, and, besides, he is a--is no end of adragon. "

The people thought of the dragon's tail and said, "Hear, hear. "

Uncle James went on: "Something has happened to a gentle and defenselessmember 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 hissubject. "Could we ever forgive ourselves if by neglecting a simpleprecaution we lost more rabbits--or even, perhaps, our navy, our police, and our fire brigade? For I warn you that the purple dragon will respectnothing, however sacred. "

Everyone thought of themselves--and they said, "What is the simpleprecaution?"

Then Uncle James said: "Tomorrow is the dragon's birthday. He isaccustomed to have a present on his birthday. If he gets a nice presenthe will be in a hurry to take it away and show it to his friends, and hewill fly off and never come back. "

The crowd cheered wildly--and the Princess from her balcony clapped herhands. 

"The present the dragon expects, " said Uncle James, cheerfully, "israther an expensive one. But, when we give, it should not be in agrudging spirit, especially to visitors. What the dragon wants is aPrincess. We have only one Princess, it is true; but far be it from usto display a miserly temper at such a moment. And the gift is worthlessthat costs the giver nothing. Your readiness to give up your Princesswill only show how generous you are. "

The crowd began to cry, for they loved their Princess, though they quitesaw that their first duty was to be generous and give the poor dragonwhat it wanted. 

The Princess began to cry, for she did not want to be anybody's birthdaypresent--especially a purple dragon's. And Tom began to cry because hewas so angry. 

He went straight home and told his little elephant; and the elephantcheered him up so much that presently the two grew quite absorbed in atop that the elephant was spinning with his little trunk. 

Early in the morning Tom went to the palace. He looked out across thedowns--there were hardly any rabbits playing there now--and then hegathered white roses and threw them at the Princess's window till shewoke up and looked out. 

"Come up and kiss me, " she said. 

So Tom climbed up the white rosebush and kissed the Princess through thewindow, and said: "Many happy returns of the day. "

Then Mary Ann began to cry, and said: "Oh, Tom--how can you? When youknow quite well--"

"Oh, don't, " said Tom. "Why, Mary Ann, my precious, my Princess--what doyou think I should be doing while the dragon was getting his birthdaypresent? Don't cry, my own little Mary Ann! Fido and I have arrangedeverything. You've only got to do as you are told. "

"Is that all?" said the Princess. "Oh--that's easy--I've often donethat!"

Then Tom told her what she was to do. And she kissed him again andagain. "Oh, you dear, good, clever Tom, " she said. "How glad I am that Igave you Fido. You two have saved me. You dears!"

The next morning Uncle James put on his best coat and hat and the vestwith the gold snakes on it--he was a magician, and he had a bright tastein vests--and he called with a cab to take the Princess out. 

"Come, little birthday present, " he said tenderly. "The dragon will beso 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 othersrather than our own. I should not like my dear little niece to beselfish, 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, hisugly purple head shining in the sun, and his ugly purple mouth halfopen. 

Uncle James said: "Good morning, sir. We have brought you a smallpresent for your birthday. We do not like to let such an anniversary goby without some suitable testimonial, especially to one who is astranger in our midst. Our means are small, but our hearts are large. Wehave 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 theZoological guinea pig and a pair of Belgian hares with him. "Just to seefair, " said Tom. 

Uncle James was furious. "What do you mean, sir, " he cried, "byintruding on a State function with your common rabbits and things? Goaway, naughty little boy, and play with them somewhere else. "

But while he was speaking the rabbits had come up one on each side ofhim, their great sides towering ever so high, and now they pressed himbetween 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 waspeeping around it to see what was going on. A crowd had followed the cabout of the town; now they reached the scene of the "State Function"--andthey all cried out: "Fair play--play fair! We can't go back on our wordlike this. Give a thing and take a thing? Why, it's never done. Let thepoor exiled stranger dragon have his birthday present. " And they triedto get at Tom--but the guinea pig stood in the way. 

"Yes, " Tom cried. "Fair play is a jewel. And your helpless exile shallhave the Princess--if he can catch her. Now then, Mary Ann. "

Mary Ann looked around the big pillar and called to the dragon: "Bo! youcan't catch me, " and began to run as fast as ever she could, and thedragon 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 thedragon after her. You see, he was so long he could not turn as quicklyas she could. Around and around the pillar ran the Princess. The firsttime she ran around a long way from the pillar, and then nearer andnearer--with the dragon after her all the time; and he was so busytrying to catch her that he never noticed that Tom had tied the very endof his long, tight, whipcordy tail to the rock, so that the more thedragon 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 thedragon's tail was the string. And the magician was safe between theBelgian hares, and couldn't see anything but darkness, or do anythingbut choke. 

When the dragon was wound onto the pillar as much as he possibly couldbe, 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--spreadhis great purple wings, and tried to fly at her. Of course this pulledhis 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, andthe island _had_ to come around with the pillar, and in another minutethe tail was loose, and the island was spinning around exactly like atop. It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held ontight to themselves, because they felt something was going to happen. All but the magician, who was choking between the Belgian hares, andfelt nothing but fur and fury. 

And something did happen. The dragon had sent the kingdom of Rotundiaspinning 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 guineapigs got small, and the elephants got big, and the men and women andchildren would have changed sizes too, if they had not had the sense tohold on to themselves, very tight indeed, with both hands; which, ofcourse, the animals could not be expected to know how to do. And thebest of it was that when the small beasts got big and the big beasts gotsmall the dragon got small too, and fell at the Princess's feet--alittle, 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 takeit for a birthday present. "

But while all the people were still on their faces, holding on tight tothemselves, Uncle James, the magician, never thought of holdingtight--he only thought of how to punish Belgian hares and the sons ofgardeners; so when the big beasts grew small, he grew small with theother beasts, and the little purple dragon, when he fell at thePrincess's feet, saw there a very small magician named Uncle James. Andthe dragon took him because it wanted a birthday present. 

So now all the animals were new sizes--and at first it seemed verystrange to everyone to have great lumbering elephants and a tiny littledormouse, but they have gotten used to it now, and think no more of itthan 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 LordThomas Gardener, K. C. D. , and I knew she could not have married anyonebut Tom, so I suppose they made him a Lord on purpose for thewedding--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 theyspell in Rotundia. The paper said that among the beautiful presents ofthe bridegroom to the bride was an enormous elephant, on which thebridal pair made their wedding tour. This must have been Fido. Youremember Tom promised to give him back to the Princess when they weremarried. The _Rotundia Times_ called the married couple "the happypair. " It was clever of the paper to think of calling them that--it issuch a pretty and novel expression, and I think it is truer than many ofthe things you see in papers. 

Because, you see, the Princess and the gardener's son were so fond ofeach other they could not help being happy--and besides, they had anelephant of their very own to ride on. If that is not enough to makepeople happy, I should like to know what is. Though, of course, I knowthere are some people who could not be happy unless they had a whale tosail on, and perhaps not even then. But they are greedy, graspingpeople, 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 verymuch indeed, and it felt something like a red-hot spark--only it seemedto have legs as well, and wings like a fly. Effie rubbed and cried--notreal crying, but the kind your eye does all by itself without your beingmiserable inside your mind--and then she went to her father to have thething in her eye taken out. Effie's father was a doctor, so of course heknew how to take things out of eyes--he did it very cleverly with a softpaintbrush dipped in castor oil. 

When he had gotten the thing out, he said: "This is very curious. " Effiehad often got things in her eye before, and her father had always seemedto think it was natural--rather tiresome and naughty perhaps, but stillnatural. He had never before thought it curious. 

Effie stood holding her handkerchief to her eye, and said: "I don'tbelieve it's out. " People always say this when they have had somethingin their eyes. 

"Oh, yes--it's out, " said the doctor. "Here it is, on the brush. This isvery interesting. "

Effie had never heard her father say that about anything that she hadany share in. She said: "What?"

The doctor carried the brush very carefully across the room, and heldthe point of it under his microscope--then he twisted the brass screwsof the microscope, and looked through the top with one eye. 

"Dear me, " he said. "Dear, dear me! Four well-developed limbs; a longcaudal appendage; five toes, unequal in lengths, almost like one of the_Lacertidae_, yet there are traces of wings. " The creature under his eyewriggled a little in the castor oil, and he went on: "Yes; a batlikewing. A new specimen, undoubtedly. Effie, run round to the professor andask him to be kind enough to step in for a few minutes. "

"You might give me sixpence, Daddy, " said Effie, "because I did bringyou 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 ashilling, and presently the professor stepped round. He stayed to lunch, and he and the doctor quarreled very happily all the afternoon about thename and the family of the thing that had come out of Effie's eye. 

But at teatime another thing happened. Effie's brother Harry fishedsomething out of his tea, which he thought at first was an earwig. Hewas just getting ready to drop it on the floor, and end its life in theusual way, when it shook itself in the spoon--spread two wet wings, andflopped onto the tablecloth. There it sat, stroking itself with its feetand stretching its wings, and Harry said: "Why, it's a tiny newt!"

The professor leaned forward before the doctor could say a word. "I'llgive you half a crown for it, Harry, my lad, " he said, speaking veryfast; 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 wereboth very pleased. But before long these specimens began to seem lessvaluable. For the next morning, when the knife-boy was cleaning thedoctor's boots, he suddenly dropped the brushes and the boot and theblacking, and screamed out that he was burnt. 

And from inside the boot came crawling a lizard as big as a kitten, withlarge, 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 adragon about the size of a rabbit, which he had tried to chase, and thenext morning all the papers were full of the wonderful "winged lizards"that were appearing all over the country. The papers would not call themdragons, because, of course, no one believes in dragons nowadays--and atany rate the papers were not going to be so silly as to believe in fairystories. At first there were only a few, but in a week or two thecountry was simply running alive with dragons of all sizes, and in theair you could sometimes see them as thick as a swarm of bees. They alllooked alike except as to size. They were green with scales, and theyhad four legs and a long tail and great wings like bats' wings, only thewings were a pale, half-transparent yellow, like the gear-boxes onbicycles. 

They breathed fire and smoke, as all proper dragons must, but still thenewspapers went on pretending they were lizards, until the editor of the_Standard_ was picked up and carried away by a very large one, and thenthe other newspaper people had not anyone left to tell them what theyought not to believe. So when the largest elephant in the Zoo wascarried off by a dragon, the papers gave up pretending--and put ALARMINGPLAGUE OF DRAGONS at the top of the paper. 

[Illustration: "The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off. " _Seepage 43. _]

You have no idea how alarming it was, and at the same time howaggravating. The large-size dragons were terrible certainly, but whenonce you had found out that the dragons always went to bed early becausethey were afraid of the chill night air, you had only to stay indoorsall day, and you were pretty safe from the big ones. But the smallersizes were a perfect nuisance. The ones as big as earwigs got in thesoap, and they got in the butter. The ones as big as dogs got in thebath, and the fire and smoke inside them made them steam like anythingwhen the cold water tap was turned on, so that careless people wereoften scalded quite severely. The ones that were as large as pigeonswould get into workbaskets or corner drawers and bite you when you werein a hurry to get a needle or a handkerchief. The ones as big as sheepwere easier to avoid, because you could see them coming; but when theyflew in at the windows and curled up under your eiderdown, and you didnot find them till you went to bed, it was always a shock. The ones thissize did not eat people, only lettuce, but they always scorched thesheets and pillowcases dreadfully. 

Of course, the County Council and the police did everything that couldbe done: It was no use offering the hand of the Princess to anyone whokilled a dragon. This way was all very well in olden times--when therewas only one dragon and one Princess; but now there were far moredragons than Princesses--although the Royal Family was a large one. Andbesides, it would have been a mere waste of Princesses to offer rewardsfor killing dragons, because everybody killed as many dragons as theycould quite out of their own heads and without rewards at all, just toget the nasty things out of the way. The County Council undertook tocremate all dragons delivered at their offices between the hours of tenand two, and whole wagonloads and cartloads and truckloads of deaddragons could be seen any day of the week standing in a long line in thestreet where the County Council had their offices. Boys broughtbarrowloads of dead dragons, and children on their way home from morningschool would call in to leave the handful or two of little dragons theyhad brought in their satchels, or carried in their knotted pockethandkerchiefs. And yet there seemed to be as many dragons as ever. Thenthe police stuck up great wood and canvas towers covered with patentglue. When the dragons flew against these towers, they stuck fast, asflies and wasps do on the sticky papers in the kitchen; and when thetowers were covered all over with dragons, the police inspector used toset fire to the towers, and burnt them and dragons and all. 

And yet there seemed to be more dragons than ever. The shops were fullof patent dragon poison and anti-dragon soap, and dragonproof curtainsfor 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, yousee, they ate such different things. The largest kind ate elephants aslong as there were any, and then went on with horses and cows. Anothersize ate nothing but lilies of the valley, and a third size ate onlyPrime Ministers if they were to be had, and, if not, would feed freelyon servants in livery. Another size lived on bricks, and three of themate two thirds of the South Lambeth Infirmary in one afternoon. 

But the size Effie was most afraid of was about as big as your diningroom, and that size ate little girls and boys. 

At first Effie and her brother were quite pleased with the change intheir lives. It was so amusing to sit up all night instead of going tosleep, and to play in the garden lighted by electric lamps. And itsounded so funny to hear Mother say, when they were going to bed: "Goodnight, my darlings, sleep sound all day, and don't get up too soon. Youmust not get up before it's quite dark. You wouldn't like the nastydragons to catch you. "

But after a time they got very tired of it all: They wanted to see theflowers and trees growing in the fields, and to see the pretty sunshineout of doors, and not just through glass windows and patent dragonproofcurtains. And they wanted to play on the grass, which they were notallowed to do in the electric lamp-lighted garden because of thenight-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 somereason why they ought to go out. Only they did not like to disobey theirmother. 

But one morning their mother was busy preparing some new dragon poisonto lay down in the cellars, and their father was bandaging the hand ofthe boot boy, which had been scratched by one of the dragons who likedto eat Prime Ministers when they were to be had, so nobody remembered tosay 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 knowexactly 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 onlyperson in his town who knew how to manage dragons; the people in thefairy tales don't count. But St. George is a real person, and he is onlyasleep, 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 wecould wake him? You can't wake people if you don't believe in them, canyou?"

Effie said no, but where could they find St. George?

"We must go and look, " said Harry boldly. "You shall wear a dragonprooffrock, made of stuff like the curtains. And I will smear myself all overwith the best dragon poison, and--"

Effie clasped her hands and skipped with joy and cried: "Oh, Harry! Iknow 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 alittle sense sometimes, for a girl. "

So the next afternoon, quite early, long before the beams of sunsetannounced the coming night, when everybody would be up and working, thetwo children got out of bed. Effie wrapped herself in a shawl ofdragonproof muslin--there was no time to make the frock--and Harry madea horrid mess of himself with the patent dragon poison. It was warrantedharmless to infants and invalids, so he felt quite safe. 

Then they joined hands and set out to walk to St. George's Church. Asyou know, there are many St. George's churches, but fortunately theytook the turning that leads to the right one, and went along in thebright sunlight, feeling very brave and adventurous. 

There was no one about in the streets except dragons, and the place wassimply swarming with them. Fortunately none of the dragons were just theright size for eating little boys and girls, or perhaps this story mighthave had to end here. There were dragons on the pavement, and dragons onthe 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 gottenout of the town and were walking in the lanes, they noticed that thefields on each side were greener than usual with the scaly legs andtails; and some of the smaller sizes had made themselves asbestos nestsin the flowering hawthorn hedges. 

Effie held her brother's hand very tight, and once when a fat dragonflopped against her ear she screamed out, and a whole flight of greendragons rose from the field at the sound, and sprawled away across thesky. 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 theSeven Champions and all the princes. People who are going to be theircountry'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 theywalked right in--but St. George was not there, so they walked around thechurchyard outside, and presently they found the great stone tomb of St. George, with the figure of him carved in marble outside, in his armorand 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 notseem to hear; and then he actually tried to waken the greatdragon-slayer by shaking his marble shoulders. But St. George took nonotice. 

Then Effie began to cry, and she put her arms around St. George's neckas well as she could for the marble, which was very much in the way atthe 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 himselfand said: "What's the matter, little girl?"

So the children told him all about it; he turned over in his marble andleaned on one elbow to listen. But when he heard that there were so manydragons he shook his head. 

"It's no good, " he said, "they would be one too many for poor oldGeorge. You should have waked me before. I was always for a fairfight--one man one dragon, was my motto. "

Just then a flight of dragons passed overhead, and St. George half drewhis sword. 

But he shook his head again and pushed the sword back as the flight ofdragons 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 sortof weather have you been having lately?"

This seemed so careless and unkind that Harry would not answer, butEffie said patiently, "It has been very fine. Father says it is thehottest weather there has ever been in this country. "

"Ah, I guessed as much, " said the Champion, thoughtfully. "Well, theonly thing would be . . . Dragons can't stand wet and cold, that's theonly 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 hismarble hand. 

"Oh, but you can, " cried Effie. "Tell us--what taps?"

"Oh, like in the bathroom, " said St. George, still more sleepily. "Andthere's a looking glass, too; shows you all the world and what's goingon. St. Denis told me about it; said it was a very pretty thing. I'msorry 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 awfulif St. George woke up when there was a dragon near, the size that eatschampions?"

Effie pulled off her dragonproof veil. "We didn't meet any the size ofthe dining room as we came along, " she said. "I daresay we shall bequite safe. "

So she covered St. George with the veil, and Harry rubbed off as much ashe could of the dragon poison onto St. George's armor, so as to makeeverything 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 wasa dragon exactly the size of the dining room at home. 

So then they knew that all was lost. The dragon swooped down and caughtthe 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 athird-class carriage when the brake is hard on. 

"Oh, Harry, " said Effie, "I wonder when he will eat us!" The dragon wasflying across woods and fields with great flaps of his wings thatcarried him a quarter of a mile at each flap. 

[Illustration: "He rose into the air, rattling like a third-classcarriage. " _See page 50. _]

Harry and Effie could see the country below, hedges and rivers andchurches and farmhouses flowing away from under them, much faster thanyou 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 airas they went, but the dragon who was as big as the dining room neverstopped 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 dropus before he gets there!"

But the dragon held on tight, and he flew and flew and flew until atlast, when the children were quite giddy, he settled down, with arattling of all his scales, on the top of a mountain. And he lay thereon 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'ssash 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. Ithad cost only sixpence to begin with, and she had had it a month, and itnever could sharpen anything but slate-pencils; but somehow she managedto make that knife cut her sash in front, and crept out of it, leavingthe dragon with only a green silk bow in one of his claws. That knifewould never have cut Harry's jacket-tail off, though, and when Effie hadtried for some time she saw that this was so and gave it up. But withher help Harry managed to wriggle quietly out of his sleeves, so thatthe dragon had only an Eton jacket in his other claw. Then the childrencrept on tiptoe to a crack in the rocks and got in. It was much toonarrow for the dragon to get in also, so they stayed in there and waitedto make faces at the dragon when he felt rested enough to sit up andbegin to think about eating them. He was very angry, indeed, when theymade faces at him, and blew out fire and smoke at them, but they ranfarther into the cave so that he could not reach them, and when he wastired 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 wassoft sand, and when they had come to the very end of the cave there wasa door, and on it was written: UNIVERSAL TAPROOM. PRIVATE. NO ONEALLOWED INSIDE. 

So they opened the door at once just to peep in, and then theyremembered what St. George had said. 

"We can't be worse off than we are, " said Harry, "with a dragon waitingfor 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 allalong one side of the room were taps, and all the taps were labeled withchina labels like you see in baths. And as they could both read words oftwo syllables or even three sometimes, they understood at once that theyhad gotten to the place where the weather is turned on from. There weresix big taps labeled "Sunshine, " "Wind, " "Rain, " "Snow, " "Hail, " "Ice, "and a lot of little ones, labeled "Fair to moderate, " "Showery, " "Southbreeze, " "Nice growing weather for the crops, " "Skating, " "Good openweather, " "South wind, " "East wind, " and so on. And the big tap labeled"Sunshine" was turned full on. They could not see any sunshine--the cavewas lighted by a skylight of blue glass--so they supposed the sunlightwas pouring out by some other way, as it does with the tap that washesout 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 inthe world--and all at once, too, which is not like most looking glasses. They saw the carts delivering the dead dragons at the County Counciloffices, and they saw St. George asleep under the dragonproof veil. Andthey saw their mother at home crying because her children had gone outin the dreadful, dangerous daylight, and she was afraid a dragon hadeaten them. And they saw the whole of England, like a great puzzlemap--green in the field parts and brown in the towns, and black in theplaces where they make coal and crockery and cutlery and chemicals. Allover it, on the black parts, and on the brown, and on the green, therewas a network of green dragons. And they could see that it was stillbroad daylight, and no dragons had gone to bed yet. 

Effie said, "Dragons do not like cold. " And she tried to turn off thesunshine, but the tap was out of order, and that was why there had beenso much hot weather, and why the dragons had been able to be hatched. Sothey left the sunshine tap alone, and they turned on the snow and leftthe tap full on while they went to look in the glass. There they saw thedragons running all sorts of ways like ants if you are cruel enough topour water into an ant-heap, which, of course, you never are. And thesnow fell more and more. 

Then Effie turned the rain tap quite full on, and presently the dragonsbegan to wriggle less, and by-and-by some of them lay quite still, sothe children knew the water had put out the fires inside them, and theywere dead. So then they turned on the hail--only half on, for fear ofbreaking people's windows--and after a while there were no more dragonsto be seen moving. 

Then the children knew that they were indeed the deliverers of theircountry. 

"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 withsuch 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 therain would wash them off into the sea. "

But this did not happen, and the children began to feel that they hadnot been so frightfully clever after all. 

"I wonder what this old thing's for, " said Harry. He had found a rustyold tap, which seemed as though it had not been used for ages. Its chinalabel was quite coated over with dirt and cobwebs. When Effie hadcleaned it with a bit of her skirt--for curiously enough both thechildren had come out without pocket handkerchiefs--she found that thelabel 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 tosee what happened. 

Already a great, round black hole had opened in the very middle of themap of England, and the sides of the map were tilting themselves up, sothat the rain ran down toward the hole. 

"Oh, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!" cried Effie, and she hurried back to thetaps and turned on everything that seemed wet. "Showery, " "Good openweather, " "Nice growing weather for the crops, " and even "South" and"South-West, " because she had heard her father say that those windsbrought rain. 

And now the floods of rain were pouring down on the country, and greatsheets of water flowed toward the center of the map, and cataracts ofwater poured into the great round hole in the middle of the map, and thedragons were being washed away and disappearing down the waste pipe ingreat green masses and scattered green shoals--single dragons anddragons by the dozen; of all sizes, from the ones that carry offelephants down to the ones that get in your tea. 

Presently there was not a dragon left. So then they turned off the tapnamed "Waste, " and they half-turned off the one labeled "Sunshine"--itwas broken, so that they could not turn it off altogether--and theyturned on "Fair to moderate" and "Showery" and both taps stuck, so thatthey 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 thetime the nation had gotten dry again it was interested in the newinvention for toasting muffins by electricity, and all the dragons werealmost forgotten. Dragons do not seem so important when they are deadand 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 willask. 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 atonce!"

And their father the doctor said: "I wish I had known what you weregoing to do! I should have liked to preserve a specimen. I threw awaythe one I got out of Effie's eye. I intended to get a more perfectspecimen. I did not anticipate this immediate extinction of thespecies. "

The professor said nothing, but he rubbed his hands. He had kept hisspecimen--the one the size of an earwig that he gave Harry half a crownfor--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 theeleventh of December, when they did what they were told not to do. Youmay think that you know all the unpleasant things that could possiblyhappen to you if you are disobedient, but there are some things whicheven 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 heirto the throne was not well. He was cutting his first tooth, and that isa very anxious time for any person--even for a Royal one. He was reallyvery poorly, so that fireworks would have been in the worst possibletaste, 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 quiteout 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 onlyadmissible but correct, and the eleventh of December was proclaimedfirework day. All the people were most anxious to show their loyalty, and to enjoy themselves at the same time. So there were fireworks andtorchlight processions, and set pieces at the Crystal Palace, with"Blessings on our Prince" and "Long Live our Royal Darling" indifferent-colored fires; and the most private of boarding schools had ahalf holiday; and even the children of plumbers and authors had tuppenceeach given them to spend as they liked. 

George and Jane had sixpence each--and they spent the whole amount on agolden rain, which would not light for ever so long, and when it didlight went out almost at once, so they had to look at the fireworks inthe gardens next door, and at the ones at the Crystal Palace, which werevery glorious indeed. 

All their relations had colds in their heads, so Jane and George wereallowed to go out into the garden alone to let off their firework. Janehad put on her fur cape and her thick gloves, and her hood with thesilver fox fur on it that was made out of Mother's old muff; and Georgehad his overcoat with the three capes, and his comforter, and Father'ssealskin 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 verygay, and though the children were cold they were quite sure that theywere enjoying themselves. 

They got up on the fence at the end of the garden to see better; andthen they saw, very far away, where the edge of the dark world is, ashining line of straight, beautiful lights arranged in a row, as if theywere the spears carried by a fairy army. 

"Oh, how pretty, " said Jane. "I wonder what they are. It looks as if thefairies were planting little shining baby poplar trees and watering themwith liquid light. "

"Liquid fiddlestick!" said George. He had been to school, so he knewthat these were only the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. And hesaid 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 ajolly rocket, " answered George, and Jane felt as if she almostunderstood about the star families. 

The fairy spears of light twinkled and gleamed: They were much prettierthan the big, blaring, blazing bonfire that was smoking and flaming andspluttering in the next-door-but-one garden--prettier even than thecolored fires at the Crystal Palace. 

"I wish we could see them nearer, " Jane said. "I wonder if the starfamilies are nice families--the kind that Mother would like us to go totea 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 youwouldn't have understood if I'd said constel . . . And, besides, I'veforgotten 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 youthink, George. But the Tory Bories are somewhere at the edge. Couldn'twe go and see them?"

"Considering you're eight, you haven't much sense. " George kicked hisboots 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 herneck warm. 

"They're close to the North Pole, " said George. "Look here--I don't carea straw about the Aurora Borealis, but I shouldn't mind discovering theNorth Pole: It's awfully difficult and dangerous, and then you come homeand write a book about it with a lot of pictures, and everybody says howbrave you are. "

Jane got off the fence. 

"Oh, George, _let's_, " she said. "We shall never have such a chanceagain--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 wentto the North Pole we should get our boots wet, as likely as not, andyou 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 backbefore 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 whiteand shiny because it was beginning to freeze, and on the other side ofthe fence was somebody else's garden, so they got out of that as quicklyas they could, and beyond that was a field where there was another bigbonfire, with people standing around it who looked quite dark-skinned. 

"It's like Indians, " said George, and wanted to stop and look, but Janepulled him on, and they passed by the bonfire and got through a gap inthe hedge into another field--a dark one; and far away, beyond quite anumber of other dark fields, the Northern Lights shone and sparkled andtwinkled. 

Now, during the winter the Arctic regions come much farther south thanthey are marked on the map. Very few people know this, though you wouldthink they could tell it by the ice in the jugs of a morning. And justwhen George and Jane were starting for the North Pole, the Arcticregions had come down very nearly as far as Forest Hill, so that, as thechildren walked on, it grew colder and colder, and presently they sawthat the fields were covered with snow, and there were great icicleshanging from all the hedges and gates. And the Northern Lights stillseemed some way off. 

They were crossing a very rough, snowy field when Jane first noticed theanimals. There were white rabbits and white hares and all sorts andsizes of white birds, and some larger creatures in the shadows of thehedges that Jane was sure were wolves and bears. 

"Polar bears and Arctic wolves, of course I mean, " she said, for she didnot want George to think her stupid again. 

There was a great hedge at the end of this field, all covered with snowand icicles; but the children found a place where there was a hole, andas no bears or wolves seemed to be just in that part of the hedge, theycrept 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 theNorthern Lights, lay a great wide road of pure dark ice, and on eachside were tall trees all sparkling with white frost, and from the boughsof the trees hung strings of stars threaded on fine moonbeams, andshining so brightly that it was like a beautiful fairy daylight. Janesaid so; but George said it was like the electric lights at the Earl'sCourt Exhibition. 

The rows of trees went as straight as ruled lines away--away andaway--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 icethe children read: THIS WAY TO THE NORTH POLE. 

Then George said: "Way or no way, I know a slide when I see one--so heregoes. " And he took a run on the frozen snow, and Jane took a run whenshe saw him do it, and the next moment they were sliding away, each withfeet half a yard apart, along the great slide that leads to the NorthPole. 

This great slide is made for the convenience of the Polar bears, who, during the winter months, get their food from the Army and NavyStores--and it is the most perfect slide in the world. If you have nevercome across it, it is because you have never let off fireworks on theeleventh of December, and have never been thoroughly naughty anddisobedient. But do not be these things in the hope of finding the greatslide--because you might find something quite different, and then youwill be sorry. 

The great slide is like common slides in that when once you have startedyou have to go on to the end--unless you fall down--and then it hurtsjust as much as the smaller kind on ponds. The great slide runsdownhill all the way, so that you keep on going faster and faster andfaster. George and Jane went so fast that they had not time to noticethe scenery. They only saw the long lines of frosted trees and thestarry lamps, and on each side, rushing back as they slid on, a verybroad, white world and a very large, black night; and overhead as wellas in the trees the stars were bright like silver lamps, and far aheadshone and trembled and sparkled the line of fairy spears. Jane saidthat, and George said: "I can see the Northern Lights quite plain. "

It is very pleasant to slide and slide and slide on clear, darkice--especially if you feel you are really going somewhere, and moreespecially if that somewhere is the North Pole. The children's feet madeno noise on the ice, and they went on and on in a beautiful whitesilence. But suddenly the silence was shattered and a cry rang out overthe snow. 

"Hey! You there! Stop!"

"Tumble for your life!" cried George, and he fell down at once, becauseit is the only way to stop. Jane fell on top of him--and then theycrawled on hands and knees to the snow at the edge of the slide--andthere 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 gunin his hand. 

"You don't happen to have any bullets about you?" said he. 

"No, " George said, truthfully. "I had five of father's revolvercartridges, but they were taken away the day Nurse turned out my pocketsto see if I had taken the knob of the bathroom door by mistake. "

"Quite so, " said the sportsman, "these accidents will occur. You don'tcarry firearms, then, I presume?"

"I haven't any fire_arms_, " said George, "but I have a fire_work_. It'sonly a squib one of the boys gave me, if that's any good. " And he beganto feel among the string and peppermints, and buttons and tops and nibsand 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 himwhat he wants it for. "

So then the sportsman had to confess that he wanted the firework to killthe white grouse with; and, when they came to look, there was the whitegrouse 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--soit 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 hegot on the slide and tried to go toward the Crystal Palace--which wasnot easy, because that way is uphill. So they left him trying, and wenton. 

Before they started, the white grouse thanked them in a few pleasant, well-chosen words, and then they took a sideways slanting run andstarted off again on the great slide, and so away toward the North Poleand the twinkling, beautiful lights. 

The great slide went on and on, and the lights did not seem to come muchnearer, and the white silence wrapped around them as they slid along thewide, icy path. Then once again the silence was broken to bits bysomeone calling: "Hey! You there! Stop!"

"Tumble for your life!" cried George, and tumbled as before, stopping inthe only possible way, and Jane stopped on top of him, and they crawledto the edge and came suddenly on a butterfly collector, who was lookingfor specimens with a pair of blue glasses and a blue net and a blue bookwith colored plates. 

"Excuse me, " said the collector, "but have you such a thing as a needleabout you--a very long needle?"

"I have a needle _book_, " replied Jane, politely, "but there aren't anyneedles in it now. George took them all to do the things with pieces ofcork--in the 'Boy's Own Scientific Experimenter' and 'The YoungMechanic. ' He did not do the things, but he did for the needles. "

"Curiously enough, " said the collector, "I too wish to use the needle inconnection with cork. "

"I have a hatpin in my hood, " said Jane. "I fastened the fur with itwhen it caught in the nail on the greenhouse door. It is very long andsharp--would that do?"

"One could but try, " said the collector, and Jane began to feel for thepin. But George pinched her arm and whispered, "Ask what he wants itfor. " Then the collector had to own that he wanted the pin to stickthrough 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 greatArctic moth, listening attentively to the conversation. 

"Oh, I couldn't!" cried Jane. And while George was explaining to thecollector that they would really rather not, Jane opened the blue foldsof the butterfly net, and asked the moth quietly if it would please stepoutside for a moment. And it did. 

When the collector saw that the moth was free, he seemed less angry thangrieved. 

"Well, well, " said he, "here's a whole Arctic expedition thrown away! Ishall have to go home and fit out another. And that means a lot ofwriting to the papers and things. You seem to be a singularlythoughtless little girl. "

So they went on, leaving him too, trying to go uphill towards theCrystal Palace. 

When the great white Arctic moth had returned thanks in a suitablespeech, George and Jane took a sideways slanting run and started slidingagain, between the star-lamps along the great slide toward the NorthPole. They went faster and faster, and the lights ahead grew brighterand brighter--so that they could not keep their eyes open, but had toblink and wink as they went--and then suddenly the great slide ended inan immense heap of snow, and George and Jane shot right into it becausethey could not stop themselves, and the snow was soft, so that they wentin up to their very ears. 

When they had picked themselves out and thumped each other on the backto get rid of the snow, they shaded their eyes and looked, and there, right in front of them, was the wonder of wonders--the NorthPole--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 farback as it would go, and farther, before you could see the high top ofit. It was made entirely of ice. You will hear grown-up people talk agreat 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 (themost unlikely things do happen) but deep down in your heart you mustalways remember that the North Pole is made of clear ice, and could notpossibly, if you come to think of it, be made of anything else. 

All around the Pole, making a bright ring about it, were hundreds oflittle fires, and the flames of them did not flicker and twist, but wentup 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 seenas far away as Forest Hill. 

The ground was quite flat, and covered with smooth, hard snow, whichshone and sparkled like the top of a birthday cake that has been iced athome. The ones done at the shops do not shine and sparkle, because theymix 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 peoplealways make about getting here--and it was no trouble at all, really. "

"I daresay lots of people have gotten here, " said Jane, dismally. "It'snot 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 robinswill cover us with leaves and--"

"Nonsense, " said George. "There aren't any robins, and there aren't anyleaves. It's just the North Pole, that's all, and I've found it; and nowI shall try to climb up and plant the British flag on the top--myhandkerchief will do; and if it really _is_ the North Pole, my pocketcompass Uncle James gave me will spin around and around, and then Ishall know. Come on. "

So Jane came on; and when they got close to the clear, tall, beautifulflames they saw that there was a great, queer-shaped lump of ice allaround the bottom of the Pole--clear, smooth, shining ice, that wasdeep, beautiful Prussian blue, like icebergs, in the thick parts, andall sorts of wonderful, glimmery, shimmery, changing colors in the thinparts, like the cut-glass chandelier in Grandmamma's house in London. 

"It is a very curious shape, " said Jane. "It's almost like"--she movedback 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, " saidGeorge, who had noticed a curly thing like a tail that went twisting upthe 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 sleepcurled around the hole where the warm steam used to come up from themiddle of the earth, and then when the earth got colder, and the columnof steam froze and was turned into the North Pole, the dragon must havegot 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 toget 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 Prussianblueness, and his rainbow-colored glitter. And rising from within thecold coil of the frozen dragon the North Pole shot up like a pillar madeof one great diamond, and every now and then it cracked a little, fromsheer cold. The sound of the cracking was the only thing that broke thegreat white silence in the midst of which the dragon lay like anenormous jewel, and the straight flames went up all around him like thestalks of tall lilies. 

And as the children stood there looking at the most wonderful sighttheir eyes had ever seen, there was a soft padding of feet and ahurry-scurry behind them, and from the outside darkness beyond theflame-stalks came a crowd of little brown creatures running, jumping, scrambling, tumbling head over heels and on all fours, and some evenwalking on their heads. They joined hands as they came near the firesand 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 offurry arms clutched at George and Jane, and they found themselves in themiddle of a great, soft, heaving crowd of little fat people in brown furdresses, and the white silence was quite gone. 

"Bears, indeed, " cried a shrill voice. "You'll wish we were bears beforeyou've done with us. "

This sounded so dreadful that Jane began to cry. Up to now the childrenhad only seen the most beautiful and wondrous things, but now they beganto be sorry they had done what they were told not to, and the differencebetween "lawn" and "grass" did not seem so great as it had at ForestHill. 

Directly Jane began to cry, all the brown people started back. No onecries in the Arctic regions for fear of being struck by the frost. Sothat these people had never seen anyone cry before. 

"Don't cry for real, " whispered George, "or you'll get chilblains inyour eyes. But pretend to howl--it frightens them. "

So Jane went on pretending to howl, and the real crying stopped: Italways 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 theirfurry bodies in and out of the crowd like the changing glass inkaleidoscopes. "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 cryinglouder and louder. 

"Those, " shouted the dwarfs, coming a step nearer, "are the fires wemake to thaw the dragon. He is frozen now--so he sleeps curled up aroundthe Pole--but when we have thawed him with our fires he will wake up andgo 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 weresaying, "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. Theirbodies were like sealskin jackets on a very stout person; their headswere like sealskin muffs; their legs were like sealskin boas; and theirhands and feet were like sealskin tobacco pouches. And their faces werelike seals' faces, inasmuch as they, too, were covered with sealskin. 

"Thank you so much for telling us, " said George. "Good evening. (Keep onhowling, Jane!)"

But the dwarfs came a step nearer, muttering and whispering. Then themuttering stopped--and there was a silence so deep that Jane was afraidto howl in it. But it was a brown silence, and she had liked the whitesilence better. 

Then the chief dwarf came quite close and said: "What's that on yourhead?"

And George felt it was all up--for he knew it was his father's sealskincap. 

The dwarf did not wait for an answer. "It's made of one of us, " hescreamed, "or else one of the seals, our poor relations. Boy, now yourfate is sealed!"

Looking at the wicked seal-faces all around them, George and Jane feltthat their fate was sealed indeed. 

The dwarfs seized the children in their furry arms. George kicked, butit is no use kicking sealskin, and Jane howled, but the dwarfs weregetting used to that. They climbed up the dragon's side and dumped thechildren 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 feelsmall and prickly inside your clothes, and makes you wish you had twentytimes as many clothes to feel small and prickly inside of. 

The sealskin dwarfs tied George and Jane to the North Pole, and, as theyhad no ropes, they bound them with snow-wreaths, which are very strongwhen they are made in the proper way, and they heaped up the fires veryclose and said: "Now the dragon will get warm, and when he gets warm hewill wake, and when he wakes he will be hungry, and when he is hungry hewill begin to eat, and the first thing he will eat will be you. "

The little, sharp, many-colored flames sprang up like the stalks ofdream lilies, but no heat came to the children, and they grew colder andcolder. 

"We shan't be very nice when the dragon does eat us, that's onecomfort, " said George. "We shall be turned into ice long before that. "

Suddenly there was a flapping of wings, and the white grouse perched onthe 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, verycold, that they had forgotten everything but that, and they could saynothing else. So the white grouse said: "One moment. I am only toograteful for this opportunity of showing my sense of your manly conductabout the firework!"

And the next moment there was a soft whispering rustle of wingsoverhead, and then, fluttering slowly, softly down, came hundreds andthousands of little white fluffy feathers. They fell on George and Janelike snowflakes, and, like flakes of fallen snow lying one aboveanother, they grew into a thicker and thicker covering, so thatpresently the children were buried under a heap of white feathers, andonly their faces peeped out. 

"Oh, you dear, good, kind white grouse, " said Jane, "but you'll be coldyourself, won't you, now you have given us all your pretty dearfeathers?"

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 arehundreds and hundreds of us here, and every one of us can spare a littletuft of soft breast feathers to help to keep two kind little heartswarm!"

Thus spoke the grouse, who certainly had very pretty manners. 

So now the children snuggled under the feathers and were warm, and whenthe sealskin dwarfs tried to take the feathers away, the grouse and hisfriends flew in their faces with flappings and screams, and drove thedwarfs back. They are a cowardly folk. 

The dragon had not moved yet--but then he might at any moment get warmenough to move, and though George and Jane were now warm they were notcomfortable nor easy in their minds. They tried to explain to thegrouse; 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 softerthan 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 cameback, and there were so many moths with him that it was as if a livesheet of white wingedness were suddenly drawn between the children andthe 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 alive, fluttering, hungry moth that buried its greedy nose deep in thesealskin fur. 

Grown-up people will tell you that it is not moths but moths' childrenwho eat fur--but this is only when they are trying to deceive you. Whenthey are not thinking about you they say, "I fear the moths have got atmy 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 everbeen together in this world before, all settling on the sealskin dwarfs. 

The dwarfs did not see their danger till it was too late. Then theycalled for camphor and bitter apple and oil of lavender and yellow soapand borax; and some of the dwarfs even started to get these things, butlong before any of them could get to the chemist's, all was over. Themoths ate and ate and ate till the sealskin dwarfs, being sealskinthroughout, even to the empty hearts of them, were eaten down to thevery life--and they fell one by one on the snow and so came to theirend. And all around the North Pole the snow was brown with their flatbare pelts. 

"Oh, thank you--thank you, darling Arctic moth, " cried Jane. "You aregood--I do hope you haven't eaten enough to disagree with youafterward!"

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 ourselvesonce in a while--to oblige a friend. "

And off they all fluttered, and the white grouse flew off, and thesealskin dwarfs were all dead, and the fires went out, and George andJane 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 thatthe dragon himself might help them--but then that was an idea that wouldnever have occurred to any boy. 

It grew colder and colder and colder, and even under the grouse feathersthe children shivered. 

Then, when it was so cold that it could not manage to be any colderwithout breaking the thermometer, it stopped. And then the dragonuncurled himself from around the North Pole, and stretched his long, icylength over the snow, and said: "This is something like! How faint thosefires did make me feel!"

The fact was, the sealskin dwarfs had gone the wrong way to work: Thedragon had been frozen so long that now he was nothing but solid ice allthrough, 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. Helooked around for something to eat. But he never noticed George andJane, because they were frozen to his back. 

He moved slowly off, and the snow-wreaths that bound the children to thePole gave way with a snap, and there was the dragon, crawlingsouth--with Jane and George on his great, scaly, icy shining back. Ofcourse the dragon had to go south if he went anywhere, because when youget to the North Pole there is no other way to go. The dragon rattledand tinkled as he went, exactly like the cut-glass chandelier when youtouch it, as you are strictly forbidden to do. Of course there are amillion ways of going south from the North Pole--so you will own that itwas lucky for George and Jane when the dragon took the right way andsuddenly 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 allsure of their welcome, especially as their feet were wet, and they werebringing 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 longdivision at present; yet if you want me to tell you, so that you canshow off to other children, I will. It is because dragons can get theirtails into the fourth dimension and hold on there, and when you can dothat everything else is easy. 

The dragon went very fast, only stopping to eat the collector and thesportsman, who were still struggling to go up the slide--vainly, becausethey 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 slowlyacross the dark field beyond the field where there was a bonfire, nextto the next-door garden at Forest Hill. 

 * * * * *

He went slower and slower, and in the bonfire field he stoppedaltogether, and because the Arctic regions had not got down so far asthat, and because the bonfire was very hot, the dragon began to melt andmelt and melt--and before the children knew what he was doing they foundthemselves sitting in a large pool of water, and their boots were as wetas 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 ofGeorge and Jane were wet and muddy, and that they had both been sittingdown 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 alittle child who reads fairy tales--you will want to know how it is thatsince the sealskin dwarfs have all been killed, and the fires all beenlet out, the Aurora Borealis shines, on cold nights, as brightly asever. 

My dear, I do not know! I am not too proud to own that there are somethings I know nothing about--and this is one of them. But I do know thatwhoever has lighted those fires again, it is certainly not the sealskindwarfs. They were all eaten by moths--and motheaten things are of nouse, 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 ablack-and-yellow fringe of live snakes. As the Queen went in, keepingcarefully 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 itis not good manners to stare, even at Royalty, except of course forcats. And the snakes had been so badly brought up that they even puttheir tongues out at the poor lady. Nasty, thin, sharp tongues they weretoo. 

Now, the Queen's husband was, of course, the King. And besides being aKing he was an enchanter, and considered to be quite at the top of hisprofession, so he was very wise, and he knew that when Kings and Queenswant children, the Queen always goes to see a witch. So he gave theQueen the witch's address, and the Queen called on her, though she wasvery frightened and did not like it at all. The witch was sitting by afire 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. Wedon't want any expense spared. My husband said--"

"Oh, yes, " said the witch. "I know all about him. And so you want achild? 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 asyour 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 byone, she threw in the gold crown and the sapphire necklace and the pearlbracelets and the ruby clasps and the diamonds of the little bright shoebuckles, and last of all she threw in the lilies. 

The stuff in the cauldron boiled up in foaming flashes of yellow andblue and red and white and silver, and sent out a sweet scent, andpresently the witch poured it out into a pot and set it to cool in thedoorway among the snakes. 

Then she said to the Queen: "Your child will have hair as golden as yourcrown, eyes as blue as your sapphires. The red of your rubies will lieon its lips, and its skin will be clear and pale as your pearls. Itssoul will be white and sweet as your lilies, and your diamonds will beno 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. "Anylittle 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 aday 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 ora Princess, or something like that?"

"There is one thing I should rather like, " said the witch, "but it'shard 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 herhalf 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 forme. 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 thistime, and she went out under the fringe of snakes, and they all behavedlike good Sunday-school children. Some of them even tried to drop acurtsy to her as she went by, though that is not easy when you arehanging wrong way up by your tail. But the snakes knew the Queen wasfriends with their mistress; so, of course, they had to do their best tobe civil. 

When the Queen got home, sure enough there was the baby lying in thecradle with the Royal arms blazoned on it, crying as naturally aspossible. It had pink ribbons to tie up its sleeves, so the Queen saw atonce it was a girl. When the King knew this he tore his black hair withfury. 

"Oh, you silly, silly Queen!" he said. "Why didn't I marry a cleverlady? Did you think I went to all the trouble and expense of sending youto a witch to get a girl? You knew well enough it was a boy I wanted--aboy, an heir, a Prince--to learn all my magic and my enchantments, andto rule the kingdom after me. I'll bet a crown--my crown, " he said, "younever 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 askedfor a child. 

"Very well, madam, " said the King, "very well--have your own way. Andmake the most of your daughter, while she is a child. "

The Queen did. All the years of her life had never held half so muchhappiness as now lived in each of the moments when she held her littlebaby in her arms. And the years went on, and the King grew more and moreclever at magic, and more and more disagreeable at home, and thePrincess grew more beautiful and more dear every day she lived. 

The Queen and the Princess were feeding the goldfish in the courtyardfountains with crumbs of the Princess's eighteenth birthday cake, whenthe King came into the courtyard, looking as black as thunder, with hisblack raven hopping after him. He shook his fist at his family, asindeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was not a King withpretty home manners. The raven sat down on the edge of the marble basinand tried to peck the goldfish. It was all he could do to show that hewas in the same temper as his master. 

"A girl indeed!" said the King angrily. "I wonder you can dare to lookme in the face, when you remember how your silliness has spoiledeverything. "

"You oughtn't to speak to my mother like that, " said the Princess. Shewas eighteen, and it came to her suddenly and all in a moment that shewas 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, forshe was frightened. 

And to her husband she said, "My dear, why do you go on worrying aboutit? Our daughter is not a boy, it is true--but she may marry a cleverman who could rule your kingdom after you, and learn as much magic asever you cared to teach him. "

Then the King found his tongue. 

"If she does marry, " he said, slowly, "her husband will have to be avery clever man--oh, yes, very clever indeed! And he will have to know avery 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 bedisagreeable. 

"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 toteach her to respect her father. "

And without another word he went off to his laboratory and worked allnight, boiling different-colored things in crucibles, and copying charmsin curious twisted letters from old brown books with mold stains ontheir yellowy pages. 

The next day his plan was all arranged. He took the poor Princess to theLone Tower, which stands on an island in the sea, a thousand miles fromeverywhere. He gave her a dowry, and settled a handsome income on her. He engaged a competent dragon to look after her, and also a respectablegriffin whose birth and upbringing he knew all about. And he said: "Hereyou shall stay, my dear, respectful daughter, till the clever man comesto marry you. He'll have to be clever enough to sail a ship through theNine Whirlpools that spin around the island, and to kill the dragon andthe griffin. Till he comes you'll never get any older or any wiser. Nodoubt he will soon come. You can employ yourself in embroidering yourwedding gown. I wish you joy, my dutiful child. "

And his carriage, drawn by live thunderbolts (thunder travels veryfast), 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 sheremembered the witch and called to her. And the witch came, and theQueen told her all. 

"For the sake of the twice twenty-five kisses you gave me, " said thewitch, "I will help you. But it is the last thing I can do, and it isnot 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 tillthe spell is taken off the child. "

"I would be a stone for a thousand years, " said the poor Queen, "if atthe end of them I could see my dear again. "

So the witch took the Queen in a carriage drawn by live sunbeams (whichtravel more quickly than anything else in the world, and much quickerthan thunder), and so away and away to the Lone Tower on the Island ofthe Nine Whirlpools. And there was the Princess sitting on the floor inthe best room of the Lone Tower, crying as if her heart would break, andthe dragon and the griffin were sitting primly on each side of her. 

"Oh, Mother, Mother, Mother, " she cried, and hung around the Queen'sneck as if she would never let go. 

"Now, " said the witch, when they had all cried as much as was good forthem, "I can do one or two other little things for you. Time shall notmake the Princess sad. All days will be like one day till her deliverercomes. And you and I, dear Queen, will sit in stone at the gate of thetower. In doing this for you I lose all my witch's powers, and when Isay the spell that changes you to stone, I shall change with you, and ifever we come out of the stone, I shall be a witch no more, but only ahappy old woman. "

Then the three kissed one another again and again, and the witch saidthe spell, and on each side of the door there was now a stone lady. Oneof 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 griffinand the dragon could not read, though they had both had a very goodeducation. 

And now all days seemed like one day to the Princess, and the next dayalways seemed the day when her mother would come out of the stone andkiss her again. And the years went slowly by. The wicked King died, andsome one else took his kingdom, and many things were changed in theworld; but the island did not change, nor the Nine Whirlpools, nor thegriffin, 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 exceptthe Princess, and she only in dreams. And the years went by in tens andin hundreds, and still the Nine Whirlpools spun around, roaring intriumph 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 herdowry. And the great sea knew all the other stories of the Princes whohad come from very far, and had seen the whirlpools, and had shakentheir wise young heads and said: "'Bout ship!" and gone discreetly hometo their nice, safe, comfortable kingdoms. 

But no one told the story of the deliverer who was to come. And theyears went by. 

Now, after more scores of years than you would like to add up on yourslate, a certain sailor-boy sailed on the high seas with his uncle, whowas a skilled skipper. And the boy could reef a sail and coil a rope andkeep the ship's nose steady before the wind. And he was as good a boy asyou 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 knowswhen people are worthy to be Princes. And this Something came from thefarther 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 outover the black sea with the white foam-horses galloping over it, and faraway he saw a light. And he said to the skipper, his uncle: "What lightis that?"

Then the skipper said: "All good things defend you, Nigel, from sailingnear that light. It is not mentioned in all charts; but it is markedin 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 fromthe Lone Tower that stands above the Nine Whirlpools. And when myfather's father was young he heard from the very old man, hisgreat-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 isonly an idle tale. But the whirlpools are quite real. "

So, of course, from that day Nigel thought of nothing else. And as hesailed hither and thither upon the high seas he saw from time to timethe light that shone out to sea across the wild swirl of the NineWhirlpools. And one night, when the ship was at anchor and the skipperasleep in his bunk, Nigel launched the ship's boat and steered aloneover the dark sea towards the light. He dared not go very near tilldaylight should show him what, indeed, were the whirlpools he had todread. 

But when the dawn came he saw the Lone Tower standing dark against thepink and primrose of the East, and about its base the sullen swirl ofblack water, and he heard the wonderful roar of it. So he hung off andon, all that day and for six days besides. And when he had watched sevendays he knew something. For you are certain to know something if yougive for seven days your whole thought to it, even though it be only thefirst declension, or the nine-times table, or the dates of the NormanKings. 

What he knew was this: that for five minutes out of the 1, 440 minutesthat make up a day the whirlpools slipped into silence, while the tidewent 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 daybefore. He made sure of this by the ship's chronometer, which he hadthoughtfully 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. Andwhen the whirlpools suddenly stopped whirling and the tide sank, likewater in a basin that has a hole in it, he stuck to his oars and puthis back into his stroke, and presently beached the boat on the yellowsand. Then he dragged it into a cave, and sat down to wait. 

By five minutes and one second past noon, the whirlpools were black andbusy again, and Nigel peeped out of his cave. And on the rocky ledgeoverhanging the sea he saw a Princess as beautiful as the day, withgolden 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 killthem?"

"Don't be a silly boy, " said the Princess, pretending to be very grownup, for, though she had been on the island time only knows how manyyears, she was just eighteen, and she still liked pretending. "Youhaven'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, andthen the dragon is turned to stone. But the griffin has dreams. Thegriffin sleeps at teatime every day, but the dragon sleeps every day forfive minutes, and every day it is three minutes later than it was theday 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 mevery unhappy. It'll take me days and days. "

"Don't begin yet, " said the Princess. "You'll have plenty of time to beunhappy 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 whatTime is. And I am very busy sewing silk flowers on a golden gown for mywedding day. And the griffin does the housework--his wings are soconvenient and feathery for sweeping and dusting. And the dragon doesthe cooking--he's hot inside, so, of course, it's no trouble to him; andthough 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 anda 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 andleft him to his arithmetic. 

Now, the sum was this: "If the whirlpools stop and the tide goes downonce in every twenty-four hours, and they do it five minutes earlierevery twenty-four hours, and if the dragon sleeps every day, and he doesit three minutes later every day, in how many days and at what time inthe day will the tide go down three minutes before the dragon fallsasleep?"

It is quite a simple sum, as you see: You could do it in a minutebecause you have been to a good school and have taken pains with yourlessons; but it was quite otherwise with poor Nigel. He sat down to workout his sum with a piece of chalk on a smooth stone. He tried it bypractice and the unitary method, by multiplication, and byrule-of-three-and-three-quarters. He tried it by decimals and bycompound interest. He tried it by square root and by cube root. He triedit by addition, simple and otherwise, and he tried it by mixed examplesin vulgar fractions. But it was all of no use. Then he tried to do thesum by algebra, by simple and by quadratic equations, by trigonometry, by logarithms, and by conic sections. But it would not do. He got ananswer every time, it is true, but it was always a different one, and hecould not feel sure which answer was right. 

And just as he was feeling how much more important than anything else itis to be able to do your sums, the Princess came back. And now it wasgetting dark. 

"Why, you've been seven hours over that sum, " she said, "and you haven'tdone it yet. Look here, this is what is written on the tablet of thestatue by the lower gate. It has figures in it. Perhaps it is the answerto the sum. "

She held out to him a big white magnolia leaf. And she had scratched onit with the pin of her pearl brooch, and it had turned brown where shehad 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 Rtoo, you see. But I'll just prove it. " So he hastily worked the sumbackward in decimals and equations and conic sections, and all the ruleshe 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 cookedby the dragon, and he lived in his cave, and talked to her when she wasthere, and thought about her when she was not, and they were both ashappy as the longest day in summer. Then at last came The Day. Nigel andthe 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 hewouldn't hurt you. "

"My Princess, " he said tenderly, "two great powers are on our side: thepower of Love and the power of Arithmetic. Those two are stronger thananything else in the world. "

So when the tide began to go down, Nigel and the Princess ran out on tothe sands, and there, in full sight of the terrace where the dragon keptwatch, Nigel took his Princess in his arms and kissed her. The griffinwas busy sweeping the stairs of the Lone Tower, but the dragon saw, andhe gave a cry of rage--and it was like twenty engines all letting offsteam at the top of their voices inside Cannon Street Station. 

And the two lovers stood looking up at the dragon. He was dreadful tolook at. His head was white with age--and his beard had grown so longthat he caught his claws in it as he walked. His wings were white withthe salt that had settled on them from the spray of the sea. His tailwas long and thick and jointed and white, and had little legs to it, anynumber of them--far too many--so that it looked like a very large fatsilkworm; and his claws were as long as lessons and as sharp asbayonets. 

"Good-bye, love!" cried Nigel, and ran out across the yellow sand towardthe 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 hewas crawling and writhing and sprawling and wriggling across the beachafter Nigel, making great holes in the sand with his heavy feet--and thevery end of his tail, where there were no legs, made, as it dragged, amark in the sand such as you make when you launch a boat; and hebreathed fire till the wet sand hissed again, and the water of thelittle rock pools got quite frightened, and all went off in steam. 

Still Nigel held on and the dragon after him. The Princess could seenothing for the steam, and she stood crying bitterly, but still holdingon tight with her right hand to the other end of the cord that Nigel hadtold 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 toknow when to pull the rope. 

On went Nigel over the sand, and on went the dragon after him. And thetide was low, and sleepy little waves lapped the sand's edge. 

Now at the lip of the water, Nigel paused and looked back, and thedragon made a bound, beginning a scream of rage that was like all theengines of all the railways in England. But it never uttered the secondhalf of that scream, for now it knew suddenly that it was sleepy--itturned to hurry back to dry land, because sleeping near whirlpools is sounsafe. But before it reached the shore sleep caught it and turned it tostone. Nigel, seeing this, ran shoreward for his life--and the tidebegan 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 fordear life at the cord in her hand, and pulled him up on to the dry shelfof rock just as the great sea dashed in and made itself once more intothe girdle of Nine Whirlpools all around the island. 

But the dragon was asleep under the whirlpools, and when he woke up frombeing 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 ofthe last lily on the bosom of her wedding gown. She thought and thoughtof what was written on the stone about the griffin being artificial--andnext day she said to Nigel: "You know a griffin is half a lion and halfan eagle, and the other two halves when they've joined make theleo-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 wentsoftly behind him and trod on his tail, and at the same time thePrincess cried: "Look out! There's a lion behind you. "

And the griffin, waking suddenly from his dreams, twisted his largeneck around to look for the lion, saw a lion's flank, and fastened itseagle beak in it. For the griffin had been artificially made by theKing-enchanter, and the two halves had never really got used to eachother. So now the eagle half of the griffin, who was still rathersleepy, believed that it was fighting a lion, and the lion part, beinghalf asleep, thought it was fighting an eagle, and the whole griffin inits deep drowsiness hadn't the sense to pull itself together andremember what it was made of. So the griffin rolled over and over, oneend of it fighting with the other, till the eagle end pecked the lionend to death, and the lion end tore the eagle end with its claws till itdied. 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. Ialways liked it better than the dragon: It wasn't so hot-tempered. "

At that moment there was a soft, silky rush behind the Princess, andthere was her mother, the Queen, who had slipped out of the stone statueat the moment the griffin was dead, and now came hurrying to take herdear daughter in her arms. The witch was clambering slowly off herpedestal. She was a little stiff from standing still so long. 

When they had all explained everything over and over to each other asmany times as was good for them, the witch said: "Well, but what aboutthe whirlpools?"

And Nigel said he didn't know. Then the witch said: "I'm not a witchanymore. I'm only a happy old woman, but I know some things still. Thosewhirlpools were made by the enchanter-King's dropping nine drops of hisblood into the sea. And his blood was so wicked that the sea has beentrying ever since to get rid of it, and that made the whirlpools. Nowyou've only got to go out at low tide. "

So Nigel understood and went out at low tide, and found in the sandyhollow left by the first whirlpool a great red ruby. That was the firstdrop of the wicked King's blood. The next day Nigel found another, andnext day another, and so on till the ninth day, and then the sea was assmooth as glass. 

The nine rubies were used afterwards in agriculture. You had only tothrow them out into a field if you wanted it plowed. Then the wholesurface of the land turned itself over in its anxiety to get rid ofsomething so wicked, and in the morning the field was found to be plowedas thoroughly as any young man at Oxford. So the wicked King did somegood after all. 

When the sea was smooth, ships came from far and wide, bringing peopleto hear the wonderful story. And a beautiful palace was built, and thePrincess was married to Nigel in her gold dress, and they all livedhappily as long as was good for them. 

The dragon still lies, a stone dragon on the sand, and at low tide thelittle children play around him and over him. But the pieces that wereleft 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 thatit had been made so badly and put to such poor work as guarding a ladyfrom her lover. 

I have no doubt that you will wish to know what the Princess lived onduring the long years when the dragon did the cooking. My dear, shelived on her income--and that is a thing that a great many people wouldlike to be able to do. 

[Illustration: "Little children play around him and over him. " _See page96. _]

[Illustration: VI

THE DRAGON TAMERS]

VI. The Dragon Tamers

There was once an old, old castle--it was so old that its walls andtowers and turrets and gateways and arches had crumbled to ruins, and ofall its old splendor there were only two little rooms left; and it washere that John the blacksmith had set up his forge. He was too poor tolive in a proper house, and no one asked any rent for the rooms in theruin, because all the lords of the castle were dead and gone this many ayear. So there John blew his bellows and hammered his iron and did allthe work which came his way. This was not much, because most of thetrade went to the mayor of the town, who was also a blacksmith in quitea large way of business, and had his huge forge facing the square of thetown, and had twelve apprentices, all hammering like a nest ofwoodpeckers, and twelve journeymen to order the apprentices about, and apatent forge and a self-acting hammer and electric bellows, and allthings handsome about him. So of course the townspeople, whenever theywanted a horse shod or a shaft mended, went to the mayor. John theblacksmith struggled on as best he could, with a few odd jobs fromtravelers and strangers who did not know what a superior forge themayor's was. The two rooms were warm and weather-tight, but not verylarge; so the blacksmith got into the way of keeping his old iron, hisodds and ends, his fagots, and his twopence worth of coal in the greatdungeon down under the castle. It was a very fine dungeon indeed, with ahandsome vaulted roof and big iron rings whose staples were built intothe wall, very strong and convenient for tying captives to, and at oneend 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 wherethose steps led to, but every now and then they would kick a prisonerdown the steps in their lighthearted, hopeful way, and sure enough, theprisoners never came back. The blacksmith had never dared to go beyondthe seventh step, and no more have I--so I know no more than he did whatwas at the bottom of those stairs. 

John the blacksmith had a wife and a little baby. When his wife was notdoing the housework she used to nurse the baby and cry, remembering thehappy days when she lived with her father, who kept seventeen cows andlived quite in the country, and when John used to come courting her inthe 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 enoughto eat. 

As for the baby, it cried a good deal at odd times; but at night, whenits 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 usedto sit and cry, because she was tired out with work and worry. 

One evening the blacksmith was busy with his forge. He was making agoat-shoe for the goat of a very rich lady, who wished to see how thegoat liked being shod, and also whether the shoe would come to fivepenceor sevenpence before she ordered the whole set. This was the only orderJohn had had that week. And as he worked his wife sat and nursed thebaby, 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 eachother. 

"I heard nothing, " said he. 

"Neither did I, " said she. 

But the noise grew louder--and the two were so anxious not to hear itthat he hammered away at the goat-shoe harder than he had ever hammeredin his life, and she began to sing to the baby--a thing she had not hadthe heart to do for weeks. 

But through the blowing and hammering and singing the noise came louderand louder, and the more they tried not to hear it, the more they hadto. It was like the noise of some great creature purring, purring, purring--and the reason they did not want to believe they really heardit was that it came from the great dungeon down below, where the oldiron was, and the firewood and the twopence worth of coal, and thebroken 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 hisface. "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 hiswife. And they tried so hard to believe that there could be nothingthere that presently they very nearly did believe it. 

Then the blacksmith took his shovel in one hand and his riveting hammerin the other, and hung the old stable lantern on his little finger, andwent 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 inher 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 thebottom of the steps, holding the lantern above his head just to see thatthe 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 thecoals. But the other side was not empty. It was quite full, and what itwas full of was Dragon. 

"It must have come up those nasty broken steps from goodness knowswhere, " said the blacksmith to himself, trembling all over, as he triedto creep back up the winding stairs. 

But the dragon was too quick for him--it put out a great claw and caughthim 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 dampsquib. 

"Deary, deary me, " said poor John, trembling more than ever in the clawof 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 Iwanted. "

"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 likeyou to do a job for me. One of my wings has got some of the rivets outof it just above the joint. Could you put that to rights?"

"I might, sir, " said John, politely, for you must always be polite to apossible customer, even if he be a dragon. 

"A master craftsman--you are a master, of course?--can see in a minutewhat's wrong, " the dragon went on. "Just come around here and feel myplates, will you?"

John timidly went around when the dragon took his claw away; and sureenough, the dragon's wing was hanging loose, and several of the platesnear the joint certainly wanted riveting. 

The dragon seemed to be made almost entirely of iron armor--a sort oftawny, red-rust color it was; from damp, no doubt--and under it heseemed 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 thenI'll go out and eat up all the town, and if you make a really smart jobof 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 yourown silly mind. Come, set to work. "

"I don't like the job, sir, " said John, "and that's the truth. I knowhow easily accidents happen. It's all fair and smooth, and 'Please rivetme, and I'll eat you last'--and then you get to work and you give agentleman a bit of a nip or a dig under his rivets--and then it's fireand 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 anygentleman will give a jump and a sniff if he's nipped, and one of yoursniffs 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 meagain when you'd riveted me? Give me something in pledge. What do youvalue 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 motherhad 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 hisbody 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 tillyou've done riveting me, and you shall tie me up. "

"All right, sir, " said John, "but I ought to warn you. Babies are poisonto dragons, so I don't deceive you. It's all right to touch--but don'tyou go putting it into your mouth. I shouldn't like to see any harm cometo a nice-looking gentleman like you. "

The dragon purred at this compliment and said: "All right, I'll becareful. 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 thedragon got impatient before it was fastened, it could heave up the roofof the dungeon with one heave of its back, and kill them all in theruins. His wife was asleep, in spite of the baby's cries; and Johnpicked up the baby and took it down and put it between the dragon'sfront 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 itstopped crying. 

Then John rummaged among the heap of old iron and found there some heavychains and a great collar that had been made in the days when men sangover their work and put their hearts into it, so that the things theymade were strong enough to bear the weight of a thousand years, letalone a dragon. 

John fastened the dragon up with the collar and the chains, and when hehad padlocked them all on safely he set to work to find out how manyrivets would be needed. 

"Six, eight, ten--twenty, forty, " said he. "I haven't half enough rivetsin the shop. If you'll excuse me, sir, I'll step around to another forgeand get a few dozen. I won't be a minute. "

[Illustration: "The dragon's purring pleased the baby. " _See page106. _]

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 andcorporation. 

"There's a dragon in my dungeon, " he said; "I've chained him up. Nowcome 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 theypraised John's cleverness, and said they were quite content to leave thematter in his hands. 

"But what about my baby?" said John. 

"Oh, well, " said the mayor, "if anything should happen, you will alwaysbe 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 unnaturalparent!"

"Hush, " said John, and he told her some more. "Now, " he said, "I'm goingdown. After I've been down you can go, and if you keep your head the boywill be all right. "

So down went the blacksmith, and there was the dragon purring away withall 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 totake 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 hestopped, and as soon as everything was quiet the baby thought everyonemust have settled for the night, and that it was time to begin toscream. So it began. 

"Oh, dear, " said the dragon, "this is awful. " He patted the baby withhis claw, but it screamed more than ever. 

"And I am so tired too, " said the dragon. "I did so hope I should have agood night. "

The baby went on screaming. 

"There'll be no peace for me after this, " said the dragon. "It's enoughto ruin one's nerves. Hush, then--did 'ums, then. " And he tried to quietthe 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'tkeep it quiet, " said the dragon; and then suddenly he saw a womansitting on the steps. "Here, I say, " said he, "do you know anythingabout babies?"

"I do, a little, " said the mother. 

"Then I wish you'd take this one, and let me get some sleep, " said thedragon, yawning. "You can bring it back in the morning before theblacksmith comes. "

So the mother picked up the baby and took it upstairs and told herhusband, and they went to bed happy, for they had caught the dragon andsaved the baby. 

And next day John went down and explained carefully to the dragonexactly how matters stood, and he got an iron gate with a grating to itand set it up at the foot of the steps, and the dragon mewed furiouslyfor 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'vesaved the town. "

"Noble preserver, " cried the mayor, "we will get up a subscription foryou, and crown you in public with a laurel wreath. "

So the mayor put his name down for five pounds, and the corporation eachgave three, and other people gave their guineas and half guineas andhalf crowns and crowns, and while the subscription was being made themayor ordered three poems at his own expense from the town poet tocelebrate 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 tohave the dragon tied up. The second described the splendid assistancerendered by the corporation. And the third expressed the pride and joyof the poet in being permitted to sing such deeds, beside which theactions of St. George must appear quite commonplace to all with afeeling heart or a well-balanced brain. 

When the subscription was finished there was a thousand pounds, and acommittee was formed to settle what should be done with it. A third ofit went to pay for a banquet to the mayor and corporation; another thirdwas spent in buying a gold collar with a dragon on it for the mayor andgold medals with dragons on them for the corporation; and what was leftwent in committee expenses. 

So there was nothing for the blacksmith except the laurel wreath and theknowledge that it really was he who had saved the town. But after thisthings went a little better with the blacksmith. To begin with, the babydid not cry so much as it had before. Then the rich lady who owned thegoat was so touched by John's noble action that she ordered a completeset of shoes at 2 shillings, 4 pence, and even made it up to 2shillings, 6 pence, in grateful recognition of his public-spiritedconduct. 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 irongrating at the rusty dragon in the dungeon--and it was threepence extrafor each party if the blacksmith let off colored fire to see it by, which, as the fire was extremely short, was twopence-halfpenny clearprofit every time. And the blacksmith's wife used to provide teas atninepence a head, and altogether things grew brighter week by week. 

The baby--named John, after his father, and called Johnnie forshort--began presently to grow up. He was great friends with Tina, thedaughter of the whitesmith, who lived nearly opposite. She was a dearlittle girl with yellow pigtails and blue eyes, and she was tired ofhearing the story of how Johnnie, when he was a baby, had been minded bya real dragon. 

The two children used to go together to peep through the iron grating atthe dragon, and sometimes they would hear him mew piteously. And theywould light a halfpenny's worth of colored fire to look at him by. Andthey grew older and wiser. 

At last one day the mayor and corporation, hunting the hare in theirgold gowns, came screaming back to the town gates with the news that alame, humpy giant, as big as a tin church, was coming over the marshestoward the town. 

"We're lost, " said the mayor. "I'd give a thousand pounds to anyone whocould keep that giant out of the town. I know what he eats--by histeeth. "

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 wouldcarry them. 

They ran through the forge, and down the dungeon steps, and knocked atthe iron door. "Who's there?" said the dragon. "It's only us, " said thechildren. 

And the dragon was so dull from having been alone for ten years that hesaid: "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 waslike outside, and what there was in the papers, and at last Johnniesaid: "There's a lame giant in the town. He wants you. "

"Does he?" said the dragon, showing his teeth. "If only I were out ofthis!"

"If we let you loose you might manage to run away before he could catchyou. "

"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, andyou'll see. "

So the children loosed the dragon from the chains and the collar, andhe broke down one end of the dungeon and went out--only pausing at theforge door to get the blacksmith to rivet his wing. 

He met the lame giant at the gate of the town, and the giant banged onthe dragon with his club as if he were banging an iron foundry, and thedragon behaved like a smelting works--all fire and smoke. It was afearful sight, and people watched it from a distance, falling off theirlegs 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 hisintention of eating the town in the morning. He went back into his olddungeon because he was a stranger in the town, and he did not know ofany other respectable lodging. Then Tina and Johnnie went to the mayorand corporation and said, "The giant is settled. Please give us thethousand pounds reward. "

But the mayor said: "No, no, my boy. It is not you who have settled thegiant, it is the dragon. I suppose you have chained him up again? Whenhe comes to claim the reward he shall have it. "

"He isn't chained up yet, " said Johnnie. "Shall I send him to claim thereward?"

But the mayor said he need not trouble; and now he offered a thousandpounds to anyone who would get the dragon chained up again. 

"I don't trust you, " said Johnnie. "Look how you treated my father whenhe chained up the dragon. "

But the people who were listening at the door interrupted, and said thatif Johnnie could fasten up the dragon again they would turn out themayor and let Johnnie be mayor in his place. For they had beendissatisfied with the mayor for some time, and thought they would like achange. 

So Johnnie said, "Done, " and off he went, hand in hand with Tina, andthey called on all their little friends and said: "Will you help us tosave 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 andmilk to the forge tomorrow at breakfast time. "

"And if ever I am mayor, " said Johnnie, "I will give a banquet, and youshall be invited. And we'll have nothing but sweet things from beginningto end. "

All the children promised, and next morning Tina and Johnnie rolledtheir 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, Tinaemptied it into the wash tub, and when the tub was full Tina knocked atthe 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 liftedthe washing tub in and set it down by the dragon. Then all the otherchildren 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'mgoing 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 youlike 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 thisone'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 iscoming to eat you as soon as he has sharpened his big knife. The mayortold him you were a wild dragon--but he didn't mind. He said he only atewild dragons--with bread sauce. "

"That's tiresome, " said the dragon. "And I suppose this sloppy stuff inthe tub is the bread sauce?"

The children said it was. "Of course, " they added, "bread sauce is onlyserved with wild dragons. Tame ones are served with apple sauce andonion stuffing. What a pity you're not a tame one: He'd never look atyou then, " they said. "Good-bye, poor dragon, we shall never see youagain, and now you'll know what it's like to be eaten. " And they beganto cry again. 

"Well, but look here, " said the dragon, "couldn't you pretend I was atame dragon? Tell the giant that I'm just a poor little timid tamedragon that you kept for a pet. "

"He'd never believe it, " said Johnnie. "If you were our tame dragon weshould keep you tied up, you know. We shouldn't like to risk losing sucha 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 whenmen 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, andJohnnie was made mayor, and had a glorious feast exactly as he had saidhe would--with nothing in it but sweet things. It began with Turkishdelight and halfpenny buns, and went on with oranges, toffee, coconutice, peppermints, jam puffs, raspberry-noyeau, ice creams, andmeringues, and ended with bull's-eyes and gingerbread and acid drops. 

This was all very well for Johnnie and Tina; but if you are kindchildren with feeling hearts you will perhaps feel sorry for the poordeceived, deluded dragon--chained up in the dull dungeon, with nothingto 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 beganto weep--and the large tears fell down over his rusty plates. Andpresently he began to feel faint, as people sometimes do when they havebeen crying, especially if they have not had anything to eat for tenyears or so. 

And then the poor creature dried his eyes and looked about him, andthere he saw the tub of bread and milk. So he thought, "If giants likethis damp, white stuff, perhaps I should like it too, " and he tasted alittle, and liked it so much that he ate it all up. 

And the next time the tourists came, and Johnnie let off the coloredfire, the dragon said shyly: "Excuse my troubling you, but could youbring me a little more bread and milk?"

So Johnnie arranged that people should go around with carts every day tocollect the children's bread and milk for the dragon. The children werefed at the town's expense--on whatever they liked; and they ate nothingbut cake and buns and sweet things, and they said the poor dragon wasvery welcome to their bread and milk. 

Now, when Johnnie had been mayor ten years or so he married Tina, and ontheir wedding morning they went to see the dragon. He had grown quitetame, and his rusty plates had fallen off in places, and underneath hewas soft and furry to stroke. So now they stroked him. 

And he said, "I don't know how I could ever have liked eating anythingbut bread and milk. I _am_ a tame dragon now, aren't I?" And when theysaid that yes, he was, the dragon said: "I am so tame, won't you undome?" And some people would have been afraid to trust him, but Johnnieand Tina were so happy on their wedding day that they could not believeany harm of anyone in the world. So they loosened the chains, and thedragon said: "Excuse me a moment, there are one or two little things Ishould like to fetch, " and he moved off to those mysterious steps andwent down them, out of sight into the darkness. And as he moved, moreand more of his rusty plates fell off. 

In a few minutes they heard him clanking up the steps. He broughtsomething in his mouth--it was a bag of gold. 

"It's no good to me, " he said. "Perhaps you might find it useful. " Sothey thanked him very kindly. 

"More where that came from, " said he, and fetched more and more andmore, till they told him to stop. So now they were rich, and so weretheir fathers and mothers. Indeed, everyone was rich, and there were nomore 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 youhave, so he knew no better. 

And as the dragon came out of the dungeon, following Johnnie and Tinainto the bright gold and blue of their wedding day, he blinked his eyesas a cat does in the sunshine, and he shook himself, and the last of hisplates dropped off, and his wings with them, and he was just like avery, very extra-sized cat. And from that day he grew furrier andfurrier, and he was the beginning of all cats. Nothing of the dragonremained except the claws, which all cats have still, as you can easilyascertain. 

And I hope you see now how important it is to feed your cat with breadand milk. If you were to let it have nothing to eat but mice and birdsit might grow larger and fiercer, and scalier and tailier, and get wingsand turn into the beginning of dragons. And then there would be all thebother over again. 

[Illustration: "He brought something in his mouth--it was a bag ofgold. " _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 thestarlings began to chatter in the pearl gray morning. As soon as thewoods were awake, she used to run up the twisting turret-stairs with herlittle bare feet, and stand on the top of the tower in her whitebed-gown, and kiss her hands to the sun and to the woods and to thesleeping town, and say: "Good morning, pretty world!"

Then she would run down the cold stone steps and dress herself in hershort skirt and her cap and apron, and begin the day's work. She sweptthe rooms and made the breakfast, she washed the dishes and she scouredthe pans, and all this she did because she was a real Princess. For ofall who should have served her, only one remained faithful--her oldnurse, 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 workany more, but did all the housework herself, while Nurse sat still anddid the sewing, because this was a real Princess with skin like milk andhair 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 thecountry belonged to her: the woods that stretched away to the mountains, the downs that sloped down to the sea, the pretty fields of corn andmaize and rye, the olive orchards and the vineyards, and the little townitself--with its towers and its turrets, its steep roofs and strangewindows--that nestled in the hollow between the sea, where the whirlpoolwas, and the mountains, white with snow and rosy with sunrise. 

But when her father and mother had died, leaving her cousin to take careof the kingdom till she grew up, he, being a very evil Prince, tookeverything away from her, and all the people followed him, and nownothing was left her of all her possessions except the great dragonproof tower that her grandfather, St. George, had built, and of all whoshould have been her servants only the good nurse. 

This was why Sabrinetta was the first person in all the land to get aglimpse of the wonder. 

Early, early, early, while all the townspeople were fast asleep, she ranup the turret-steps and looked out over the field, and at the other sideof the field there was a green, ferny ditch and a rose-thorny hedge, andthen came the wood. And as Sabrinetta stood on her tower she saw ashaking and a twisting of the rose-thorny hedge, and then something verybright and shining wriggled out through it into the ferny ditch and backagain. It only came out for a minute, but she saw it quite plainly, andshe said to herself: "Dear me, what a curious, shiny, bright-lookingcreature! If it were bigger, and if I didn't know that there have beenno fabulous monsters for quite a long time now, I should almost think itwas a dragon. "

The thing, whatever it was, did look rather like a dragon--but then itwas too small; and it looked rather like a lizard--only then it was toobig. It was about as long as a hearthrug. 

"I wish it had not been in such a hurry to get back into the wood, " saidSabrinetta. "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'sthe 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 aspeck of dust anywhere, even in the corneriest corner of the windingstair) she put on her milk white, silky gown with the moon-daisiesworked 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 thetower. 

"I do hope it wasn't a dragon, " said Sabrinetta. 

The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and by twenties, andthe red and blue and yellow and white of their frocks were scattered onthe 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 childrenvanished into the wood, till the mantle of the field was left plaingreen 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 wasbroken by shrieks from far off; and, like a many-colored torrent, allthe children burst from the wood and rushed, a red and blue and yellowand white wave, across the field, screaming as they ran. Their voicescame up to the Princess on her tower, and she heard the words threadedon 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 thePrincess heard the gate bang, and the children were out of sight--but onthe other side of the field the rose-thorns crackled and smashed in thehedge, and something very large and glaring and horrible trampled theferns in the ditch for one moment before it hid itself again in thecovert of the wood. 

The Princess went down and told her nurse, and the nurse at once lockedthe great door of the tower and put the key in her pocket. 

"Let them take care of themselves, " she said, when the Princess beggedto be allowed to go out and help to take care of the children. "Mybusiness 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 whenevershe thought of the children and the fiery dragon. For she knew, ofcourse, that the gates of the town were not dragonproof, and that thedragon could just walk in whenever he liked. 

The children ran straight to the palace, where the Prince was crackinghis hunting whip down at the kennels, and told him what had happened. 

"Good sport, " said the Prince, and he ordered out his pack ofhippopotamuses at once. It was his custom to hunt big game withhippopotamuses, and people would not have minded that so much--but hewould swagger about in the streets of the town with his pack yelping andgamboling at his heels, and when he did that, the green-grocer, who hadhis stall in the marketplace, always regretted it; and the crockerymerchant, who spread his wares on the pavement, was ruined for lifeevery time the Prince chose to show off his pack. 

The Prince rode out of the town with his hippopotamuses trotting andfrisking behind him, and people got inside their houses as quickly asthey could when they heard the voices of his pack and the blowing of hishorn. The pack squeezed through the town gates and off across country tohunt the dragon. Few of you who had not seen a pack of hippopotamuses infull cry will be able to imagine at all what the hunt was like. To beginwith, hippopotamuses do not bay like hounds: They grunt like pigs, andtheir grunt is very big and fierce. Then, of course, no one expectshippopotamuses to jump. They just crash through the hedges and lumberthrough the standing corn, doing serious injury to the crops, andannoying the farmers very much. All the hippopotamuses had collars withtheir name and address on, but when the farmers called at the palace tocomplain of the injury to their standing crops, the Prince always saidit served them right for leaving their crops standing about in people'sway, and he never paid anything at all. 

So now, when he and his pack went out, several people in the townwhispered, "I wish the dragon would eat him"--which was very wrong ofthem, no doubt, but then he was such a very nasty Prince. 

They hunted by field, and they hunted by wold; they drew the woodsblank, 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 atall, but only a cock and bull, his favourite old hippopotamus gavetongue. The Prince blew his horn and shouted: "Tally ho! Hark forward!Tantivy!" and the whole pack charged downhill toward the hollow by thewood. 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 thedragon--instead of behaving as a quarry should, and running away--ranstraight at the pack, and the Prince, on his elephant, had themortification of seeing his prize pack swallowed up one by one in thetwinkling of an eye, by the dragon they had come out to hunt. The dragonswallowed all the hippopotamuses just as a dog swallows bits of meat. Itwas a shocking sight. Of the whole of the pack that had come outsporting so merrily to the music of the horn, now not even apuppy-hippopotamus was left, and the dragon was looking anxiously aroundto see if he had forgotten anything. 

The Prince slipped off his elephant on the other side and ran into thethickest part of the wood. He hoped the dragon could not break throughthe bushes there, since they were very strong and close. He wentcrawling 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--nocrashing of branches and no smell of burning came to alarm the Prince. He drained the silver hunting bottle slung from his shoulder, andstretched his legs in the hollow tree. He never shed a single tear forhis poor tame hippopotamuses who had eaten from his hand and followedhim faithfully in all the pleasures of the chase for so many years. Forhe was a false Prince, with a skin like leather and hair like hearthbrushes and a heart like a stone. He never shed a tear, but he just wentto 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 closeby. 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?" askedthe 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'tit? My pigs and I were looking on. "

All the sleeping forms grunted and snored, and the Prince saw that theywere pigs: He knew it by their manners. 

"If you had known as much as I do, " Elfin went on, "you might have savedyour 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 isquite good enough for me, you silly pig keeper. "

"Oh, well, " said Elfin, "do as you like about it--the dragon will comeand hunt you tomorrow, as likely as not. I don't care if he does, yousilly 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 muchas you do about, I shouldn't have lost my hippopotamuses?"

"You don't speak very good English, " said Elfin. "But come, what willyou 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'tyou 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 canassure you that there's very little left. What will you give me if Itell 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 atnight! He sleeps under the root of this tree. I use him to light my firewith. "

And, sure enough, there under the tree was the dragon on a nest ofscorched 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 himaway if you've brought anything to put him in. That bottle of yourswould do. "

So between them they managed, with bits of stick and by singeing theirfingers a little, to poke and shove the dragon till they made it creepinto the silver hunting bottle, and then the Prince screwed on the toptight. 

"Now we've got him, " said Elfin. "Let's take him home and put Solomon'sseal on the mouth of the bottle, and then he'll be safe enough. Comealong--we'll divide up the kingdom tomorrow, and then I shall have somemoney 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 andI've imprisoned him. I never said a word about courtings or kingdoms. Ifyou say I did, I shall cut your head off at once. " And he drew hissword. 

"All right, " said Elfin, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm better off thanyou 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 toldhis Parliament how clever and brave he had been, and though he woke themup on purpose to tell them, they were not angry, but said: "You areindeed brave and clever. " For they knew what happened to people withwhom the Prince was not pleased. 

Then the Prime Minister solemnly put Solomon's seal on the mouth of thebottle, and the bottle was put in the Treasury, which was the strongestbuilding in the town, and was made of solid copper, with walls as thickas Waterloo Bridge. 

The bottle was set down among the sacks of gold, and the juniorsecretary to the junior clerk of the last Lord of the Treasury wasappointed to sit up all night with it and see if anything happened. Thejunior secretary had never seen a dragon, and, what was more, he did notbelieve the Prince had ever seen a dragon either. The Prince had neverbeen a really truthful boy, and it would have been just like him tobring home a bottle with nothing in it and then to pretend that therewas a dragon inside. So the junior secretary did not at all mind beingleft. They gave him the key, and when everyone in the town had gone backto bed he let in some of the junior secretaries from other Governmentdepartments, and they had a jolly game of hide-and-seek among the sacksof gold, and played marbles with the diamonds and rubies and pearls inthe big ivory chests. 

They enjoyed themselves very much, but by-and-by the copper treasurybegan to get warmer and warmer, and suddenly the junior secretary criedout, "Look at the bottle!"

The bottle sealed with Solomon's seal had swollen to three times itsproper size and seemed to be nearly red hot, and the air got warmer andwarmer and the bottle bigger and bigger, till all the junior secretariesagreed 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 outand locked the door the bottle burst, and out came the dragon, veryfiery, and swelling more and more every minute, and he began to eat thesacks of gold and crunch up the pearls and diamonds and rubies as ifthey 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 thedragon coming out of the broken door of the Treasury, with molten goldstill dripping from his jaws. Then the Prince turned and ran for hislife, and as he ran toward the dragonproof tower the little whitePrincess saw him coming, and she ran down and unlocked the door and lethim in, and slammed the dragonproof door in the fiery face of thedragon, who sat down and whined outside, because he wanted the Princevery much indeed. 

The Princess took Prince Tiresome into the best room, and laid thecloth, 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 servedhim just as kindly as she would have done if he had been anyone elseinstead of the bad Prince who had taken away her kingdom and kept it forhimself--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 tolock and unlock the door. The nurse was asleep, so there was no one totell 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. Butturn 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 whitePrincess 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. Andthere she was, in the street, and on the other side of the way thedragon was sitting whining, but he did not try to eat her, because--though the old nurse did not know it--dragons cannot eat whitePrincesses with hearts of gold. 

The Princess could not walk through the streets of the town in hermilky-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 thewood. She had never been out of her tower before, and the soft grassunder her feet felt like grass of Paradise. 

She ran right into the thickest part of the wood, because she did notknow what her heart was made of, and she was afraid of the dragon, andthere in a dell she came on Elfin and his five and seventy fine pigs. Hewas playing his flute, and around him the pigs were dancing cheerfullyon 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 quitesafe. What were you frightened of?"

"The dragon, " she said. 

"So it's gotten out of the silver bottle, " said Elfin. "I hope it'seaten 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 thePrincess, " said Elfin. 

"Oh, dear, what a shame!" said Sabrinetta, trying to get out of hisarms. "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 andwhole, 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'tseen 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 aPrince, 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 lifelong. "

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 knowthat 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. Isee that now. "

"Oh, is that all?" said the Princess. "I can easily get you one ofthose--because everything in my tower is dragonproof. We ought to dosomething to settle the dragon and save the little children. "

So she started off to get the bottle, but she would not let Elfin comewith her. 

"If what you say is true, " she said, "if you are sure that I have aheart of gold, the dragon won't hurt me, and somebody must stay with thepigs. "

Elfin was quite sure, so he let her go. 

She found the door of her tower open. The dragon had waited patientlyfor the Prince, and the moment he opened the door and came out--thoughhe was only out for an instant to post a letter to his Prime Ministersaying where he was and asking them to send the fire brigade to dealwith the fiery dragon--the dragon ate him. Then the dragon went back tothe wood, because it was getting near his time to grow small for thenight. 

So Sabrinetta went in and kissed her nurse and made her a cup of tea andexplained what was going to happen, and that she had a heart of gold, sothe dragon couldn't eat her; and the nurse saw that of course thePrincess was quite safe, and kissed her and let her go. 

She took the dragonproof bottle, made of burnished brass, and ran backto the wood, and to the dell, where Elfin was sitting among his sleekblack pigs, waiting for her. 

"I thought you were never coming back, " he said. "You have been away ayear, at least. "

The Princess sat down beside him among the pigs, and they held eachother's hands till it was dark, and then the dragon came crawling overthe 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 proddedthe dragon with bits of stick till it crawled into the dragonproofbottle. 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 criedout: "The sea--the sea--run for the cliffs!" And off they went, with thefive and seventy pigs trotting steadily after them in a long blackprocession. 

The bottle got hotter and hotter in Elfin's hands, because the dragoninside was puffing fire and smoke with all his might--hotter and hotterand hotter--but Elfin held on till they came to the cliff edge, andthere was the dark blue sea, and the whirlpool going around and around. 

Elfin lifted the bottle high above his head and hurled it out betweenthe 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 littlechildren. Give me your hands. "

"I can't, " said Elfin. "I shall never be able to take your dear handsagain. My hands are burnt off. "

And so they were: There were only black cinders where his hands ought tohave been. The Princess kissed them, and cried over them, and torepieces of her silky-milky gown to tie them up with, and the two wentback to the tower and told the nurse all about everything. And the pigssat outside and waited. 

"He is the bravest man in the world, " said Sabrinetta. "He has saved thecountry 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 seventypigs came in. It went up to Elfin and rubbed itself against him withlittle 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 orfor 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 hecould 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 andanother, till the room was full of pigs, a surging mass of roundedblackness, pushing and struggling to get at Elfin, and grunting softlyin the language of true affection. 

"There is one other, " said the nurse. "The dear, affectionatebeasts--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 numberof people are willing to die for him, it is enough if each should kissthe 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'sseventy-six!"

"It must be seventy-seven--and I really can't die for him, so nothingcan be done, " said the nurse, sadly. "He must have cork hands. "

"I knew about the seventy-seven loving people, " said Elfin. "But I neverthought 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 charmthat cures dragon burns, though; but I'd rather be burnt black all overthan 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 ofthat cure, old as I am. "

But Sabrinetta threw her arms round Elfin's neck, and held him as thoughshe would never let him go. 

"Then it's all right, my dear, brave, precious Elfin, " she cried, "for Iam a Princess, and you shall be my Prince. Come along, Nurse--don't waitto 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, twoby two. And, the minute he was married to the Princess, Elfin's handsgot quite well. And the people, who were weary of Prince Tiresome andhis hippopotamuses, hailed Sabrinetta and her husband as rightfulSovereigns 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 hadbeen washed ashore. They could see nothing of him; but when they lookedout toward the whirlpool they saw a cloud of steam; and the fishermenreported 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 surethat the fierceness of that dragon was such that all the waters of allthe sea were not enough to cool him. The whirlpool is too strong for himto be able to get out of it, so there he spins around and around foreverand ever, doing some useful work at last, and warming the water for poorfisher-folk to shave with. 

 * * * * *

The Prince and Princess rule the land well and wisely. The nurse liveswith them, and does nothing but fine sewing, and only that when shewants to very much. The Prince keeps no hippopotamuses, and isconsequently very popular. The five and seventy devoted pigs live inwhite marble sties with brass knockers and Pig on the doorplate, and arewashed 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 obeythe notices about not walking on the grass. The Princess feeds themevery day with her own hands, and her first edict on coming to thethrone was that the word _pork_ should never be uttered on pain ofdeath, 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 themost tiresome boy that ever lived, but his grandmother and his otherfriends said that he had an inquiring mind. And his granny often addedthat 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 inthat case he was constant in his attendance at school, since there, ifanywhere, we may learn whatever there is to be learned. But Edmund didnot want to learn things: He wanted to find things out, which is quitedifferent. His inquiring mind led him to take clocks to pieces to seewhat 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 itbounce, and he never did see, any more than you did when you tried thesame experiment. 

Edmund lived with his grandmother. She loved him very much, in spite ofhis inquiring mind, and hardly scolded him at all when he frizzled upher tortoiseshell comb in his anxiety to find out whether it was made ofreal tortoiseshell or of something that would burn. Edmund went toschool, of course, now and then, and sometimes he could not preventhimself from learning something, but he never did it on purpose. 

"It is such waste of time, " said he. "They only know what everybodyknows. 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 wisemen 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'stime and labor being thrown away on a boy like himself--who did not wishto learn, only to find out--when there were so many worthy ladsthirsting for instruction in geography and history and reading andciphering, and Mr. Smiles's "Self-Help. "

Other boys played truant too, of course--and these went nutting orblackberrying or wild plum gathering, but Edmund never went on the sideof the town where the green woods and hedges grew. He always went up themountain where the great rocks were, and the tall, dark pine trees, andwhere other people were afraid to go because of the strange noises thatcame out of the caves. 

Edmund was not afraid of these noises--though they were very strange andterrible. He wanted to find out what made them. 

One day he did. He had invented, all by himself, a very ingenious andnew kind of lantern, made with a turnip and a tumbler, and when he tookthe candle out of Granny's bedroom candlestick to put in it, it gavequite a splendid light. 

He had to go to school next day, and he was caned for being absentwithout leave--although he very straightforwardly explained that he hadbeen 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 hadready for him to take to school--two boiled eggs and an appleturnover--and he took his lantern and went off as straight as a dart tothe 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 stalagmitesand fossils, and all the things you read about in the instructive booksfor the young. But Edmund did not care for any of these things justthen. He wanted to find out what made the noises that people were afraidof, 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 ofnoises. There was a heavy rumbling sound, like a very large oldgentleman asleep after dinner; and there was a smaller sort of rumblegoing on at the same time; and there was a sort of crowing, cluckingsound, such as a chicken might make if it happened to be as big as ahaystack. 

"It seems to me, " said Edmund to himself, "that the clucking is nearerthan the others. " So he started up again and explored the caves oncemore. 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; andit was the entrance to a rocky passage. And now the clucking soundedmore 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 hewent. The passage wound and twisted, and twisted and turned, and turnedand wound, but Edmund kept on. 

"My lantern's burning better and better, " said he presently, but thenext minute he saw that all the light did not come from his lantern. Itwas a pale yellow light, and it shone down the passage far ahead of himthrough what looked like the chink of a door. 

"I expect it's the fire in the middle of the earth, " said Edmund, whohad not been able to help learning about that at school. 

But quite suddenly the fire ahead gave a pale flicker and went down; andthe clucking ceased. 

The next moment Edmund turned a corner and found himself in front of arocky 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 avery big hand-washing basin, and in the middle of the basin Edmund sawa large pale person sitting. 

This person had a man's face and a griffin's body, and big featherywings, 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 veryfaint voice, "and I shall die--oh, I know I shall! My fire's gone out! Ican't think how it happened; I must have been asleep. I have to stir itseven times round with my tail once in a hundred years to keep italight, 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 thepine trees outside, and with these and a lesson book or two that he hadforgotten to lose before, and which, quite by an oversight, were safe inhis 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 itwas a sort of liquid that burned like the brandy in a snapdragon. Andnow the cockatrice stirred it with his tail and flapped his wings in itso that some of it splashed out on Edmund's hand and burnt it ratherbadly. But the cockatrice grew red and strong and happy, and its combgrew scarlet, and its feathers glossy, and it lifted itself up andcrowed "Cock-a-trice-a-doodle-doo!" very loudly and clearly. 

Edmund's kindly nature was charmed to see the cockatrice so muchimproved in health, and he said: "Don't mention it; delighted, I'msure, " 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 andgeological formations, and about gnomes and fairies and dragons, andabout glaciers and the Stone Age and the beginning of the world, andabout the unicorn and the phoenix, and about Magic, black and white. 

And Edmund ate his eggs and his turnover, and listened. And when he gothungry again he said good-bye and went home. But he came again the nextday 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 truetales, and the boys liked the stories; but when he told the master hewas caned for untruthfulness. 

"But it's true, " said Edmund. "Just you look where the fire burnt myhand. "

"I see you've been playing with fire--into mischief as usual, " said themaster, and he caned Edmund harder than ever. The master was ignorantand unbelieving: but I am told that some schoolmasters are not likethat. 

Now, one day Edmund made a new lantern out of something chemical that hesneaked from the school laboratory. And with it he went exploring againto 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, alllined 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 abrass plate on the door that said MRS. D. KNOCK AND RING, and a whitelabel that said CALL ME AT THREE. Edmund had a watch: It had been givento him on his birthday two days before, and he had not yet had time totake it to pieces and see what made it go, so it was still going. Helooked at it now. It said a quarter to three. 

Did I tell you before what a kindhearted boy Edmund was? He sat down onthe brass doorstep and waited till three o'clock. Then he knocked andrang, and there was a rattling and puffing inside. The great door flewopen, and Edmund had only just time to hide behind it when out came animmense 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 therocks in the sun, and he crept past the great creature and tore down thehill into the town and burst into school, crying out: "There's a greatdragon coming! Somebody ought to do something, or we shall all bedestroyed. "

He was caned for untruthfulness without any delay. His master was neverone 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 cloudrising up into the air above the mountain. 

"It's only a thunder shower, " said the master, and caned Edmund morethan ever. This master was not like some masters I know: He was veryobstinate, and would not believe his own eyes if they told him anythingdifferent from what he had been saying before his eyes spoke. 

So while the master was writing _Lying is very wrong, and liars must becaned. It is all for their own good_ on the black-board for Edmund tocopy out seven hundred times, Edmund sneaked out of school and ran forhis life across the town to warn his granny, but she was not at home. Sothen he made off through the back door of the town, and raced up thehill to tell the cockatrice and ask for his help. It never occurred tohim that the cockatrice might not believe him. You see, he had heard somany wonderful tales from him and had believed them all--and when youbelieve all a person's stories they ought to believe yours. This is onlyfair. 

At the mouth of the cockatrice's cave Edmund stopped, very much out ofbreath, to look back at the town. As he ran he had felt his little legstremble and shake, while the shadows of the great yellow cloud fell uponhim. Now he stood once more between warm earth and blue sky, and lookeddown on the green plain dotted with fruit trees and red-roofed farmsand 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 itssquare towers with holes for dropping melted lead on the heads ofstrangers; its bridges and its steeples; the quiet river edged withwillow and alder; and the pleasant green garden place in the middle ofthe town, where people sat on holidays to smoke their pipes and listento the band. 

Edmund saw it all; and he saw, too, creeping across the plain, markingher way by a black line as everything withered at her touch, the greatyellow dragon--and he saw that she was many times bigger than the wholetown. 

"Oh, my poor, dear granny, " said Edmund, for he had a feeling heart, asI ought to have told you before. 

The yellow dragon crept nearer and nearer, licking her greedy lips withher long red tongue, and Edmund knew that in the school his master wasstill teaching earnestly and still not believing Edmund's tale the leastlittle bit. 

"He'll jolly well have to believe it soon, anyhow, " said Edmund tohimself, and though he was a very tender-hearted boy--I think it onlyfair to tell you that he was this--I am afraid he was not as sorry as heought to have been to think of the way in which his master was going tolearn how to believe what Edmund said. Then the dragon opened her jawswider and wider and wider. Edmund shut his eyes, for though his masterwas in the town, the amiable Edmund shrank from beholding the awfulsight. 

When he opened his eyes again there was no town--only a bare place whereit had stood, and the dragon licking her lips and curling herself up togo to sleep, just as Kitty does when she has quite finished with amouse. Edmund gasped once or twice, and then ran into the cave to tellthe 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 dragonhas 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 towarm 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 grannylike this. "

"I don't know what a granny may be, " said the cockatrice, who seemed tobe growing weary of the subject, "but if it's a possession to which youattach any importance----"

"Of course it is, " said Edmund, losing patience at last. "Oh--do helpme. What can I do?"

"If I were you, " said his friend, stretching itself out in the pool offlame so that the waves covered him up to his chin, "I should find thedrakling and bring it here. "

"But why?" said Edmund. He had gotten into the habit of asking why atschool, and the master had always found it trying. As for thecockatrice, 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. "Igive 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. Ifnot, not. "

And the cockatrice drew the fire up close around his shoulders, tuckedhimself up in it, and went to sleep. 

Now this was exactly the right way to manage Edmund, only no one hadever thought of trying to do it before. 

He stood for a moment looking at the cockatrice; the cockatrice lookedat 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'tgoing to put up with any nonsense. He respected the cockatrice very muchfrom that moment, and set off at once to do exactly as he was told--forperhaps the first time in his life. 

Though he had played truant so often, he knew one or two things thatperhaps you don't know, though you have always been so good and gone toschool regularly. For instance, he knew that a drakling is a dragon'sbaby, and he felt sure that what he had to do was to find the third ofthe three noises that people used to hear coming from the mountains. Ofcourse, the clucking had been the cockatrice, and the big noise like alarge gentleman asleep after dinner had been the big dragon. So thesmaller rumbling must have been the drakling. 

He plunged boldly into the caves and searched and wandered and wanderedand searched, and at last he came to a third door in the mountain, andon it was written THE BABY IS ASLEEP. Just before the door stood fiftypairs of copper shoes, and no one could have looked at them for a momentwithout seeing what sort of feet they were made for, for each shoe hadfive holes in it for the drakling's five claws. And there were fiftypairs because the drakling took after his mother, and had a hundredfeet--no more and no less. He was the kind called _Draco centipedis_ inthe learned books. 

Edmund was a good deal frightened, but he remembered the grim expressionof the cockatrice's eye, and the fixed determination of his snore stillrang in his ears, in spite of the snoring of the drakling, which was, initself, 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'smore, " said Edmund, gaining courage from the fact that the drakling hadnot yet eaten him. 

The drakling sighed, and Edmund could hear it getting out of bed. Thenext moment it began to come out of its room and to put on its shoes. Itwas not nearly so big as its mother; only about the size of a Baptistchapel. 

"Hurry up, " said Edmund, as it fumbled clumsily with the seventeenthshoe. 

"Mother said I was never to go out without my shoes, " said thedrakling; 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 tobe frightened, said, "Come on then, " and they went back to thecockatrice. 

The cave was rather narrow for the drakling, but it made itself thin, asyou may see a fat worm do when it wants to get through a narrow crack ina piece of hard earth. 

"Here it is, " said Edmund, and the cockatrice woke up at once and askedthe drakling very politely to sit down and wait. "Your mother will behere presently, " said the cockatrice, stirring up its fire. 

The drakling sat down and waited, but it watched the fire with hungryeyes. 

"I beg your pardon, " it said at last, "but I am always accustomed tohaving a little basin of fire as soon as I get up, and I feel ratherfaint. Might I?"

It reached out a claw toward the cockatrice's basin. 

"Certainly not, " said the cockatrice sharply. "Where were you broughtup? 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 inhis ear so long and so earnestly that one side of the dear boy's hairwas quite burnt off. And he never once interrupted the cockatrice to askwhy. But when the whispering was over, Edmund--whose heart, as I mayhave mentioned, was very tender--said to the drakling: "If you arereally hungry, poor thing, I can show you where there is plenty offire. " 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 shootthe coals down into your cellar, only much larger. Edmund heaved it upby a hook that stuck out at one side, and a rush of hot air came upthat nearly choked him. But the drakling came close and looked down withone 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 beginyour breakfast, hadn't you?"

So the drakling wriggled through the hole, and began to crawl faster andfaster down the slanting shaft that leads to the fire in the middle ofthe 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 itso that the drakling was held fast. And it could not turn around andwriggle up again to look after its poor tail, because, as everyoneknows, the way to the fires below is very easy to go down, but quiteimpossible 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 wasEdmund very busy and important and very pleased with himself, hurryingback to the cockatrice. 

"Now, " said he. 

"Well, now, " said the cockatrice. "Go to the mouth of the cave and laughat 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 hebegan 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 cavetill 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 longas she could, but, like everyone else, she couldn't stand being made funof, so presently she dragged herself up the mountain very slowly, because she had just had a rather heavy meal, and stood outside andsaid, "What are you laughing at?" in a voice that made Edmund feel as ifhe should never laugh again. 

Then the good cockatrice called out: "At you! You've eaten your owndrakling--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 liketremendous laughter in the echo of the cave. 

"Dear me, " said the dragon. "I _thought_ the town stuck in my throatrather. I must take it out, and look through it more carefully. " Andwith that she coughed--and choked--and there was the town, on thehillside. 

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 herdrakling, the voice of the drakling itself was heard howling miserablyfrom inside the mountain, because Edmund was pinching its tail as hardas he could in the round iron door, like the one where the men pour thecoals out of the sacks into the cellar. And the dragon heard the voiceand said: "Why, whatever's the matter with Baby? He's not here!" andmade herself thin, and crept into the mountain to find her drakling. Thecockatrice kept on laughing as loud as it could, and Edmund kept onpinching, and presently the great dragon--very long and narrow she hadmade 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 heardher coming he gave one last nip to the drakling's tail, and then heavedup 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 peepeddown the hole just in time to see her drakling's tail disappear down thesmooth, slanting shaft with one last squeak of pain. Whatever may havebeen the poor dragon's other faults, she was an excellent mother. Sheplunged 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 likewatching a goods train go by in Germany. When the last joint of her tailhad gone Edmund slammed down the iron door. He was a kindhearted boy, asyou have guessed, and he was glad to think that dragon and draklingwould 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 tohave breakfast and get to school by nine. Of course, he could not havedone this if the town had been in its old place by the river in themiddle of the plain, but it had taken root on the hillside just wherethe dragon left it. 

"Well, " said the master, "where were you yesterday?"

Edmund explained, and the master at once caned him for not speaking thetruth. 

"But it _is_ true, " said Edmund. "Why, the whole town was swallowed bythe dragon. You know it was--"

"Nonsense, " said the master. "There was a thunderstorm and anearthquake, that's all. " And he caned Edmund more than ever. 

"But, " said Edmund, who always would argue, even in the least favorablecircumstances, "how do you account for the town being on the hillsidenow, instead of by the river as it used to be?"

"It was _always_ on the hillside, " said the master. And all the classsaid the same, for they had more sense than to argue with a person whocarried a cane. 

"But look at the maps, " said Edmund, who wasn't going to be beaten inargument, whatever he might be in the flesh. The master pointed to themap on the wall. 

There was the town, on the hillside! And nobody but Edmund could seethat of course the shock of being swallowed by the dragon had upset allthe maps and put them wrong. 

And then the master caned Edmund again, explaining that this time it wasnot for untruthfulness, but for his vexatious argumentative habits. Thiswill show you what a prejudiced and ignorant man Edmund's masterwas--how different from the revered Head of the nice school where yourgood parents are kind enough to send you. 

The next day Edmund thought he would prove his tale by showing peoplethe cockatrice, and he actually persuaded some people to go into thecave with him; but the cockatrice had bolted himself in and would notopen the door--so Edmund got nothing by that except a scolding fortaking 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 theywere. The only person who believed him was his granny. But then she wasvery 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 beenquite the same boy since. He does not argue quite so much, and he agreedto be apprenticed to a locksmith, so that he might one day be able topick the lock of the cockatrice's front door--and learn some more of thethings that other people don't know. 

But he is quite an old man now, and he hasn't gotten that door openyet!

 * * * * *

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)