 CHAPTER 1 OF THE BOOK OF DRAGONS THE BOOK OF DRAGONS by Edith Nesbitt To Rosamond, chief among those for whom these tales are told, the Book of Dragons is dedicated and 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. CHAPTER 1 THE BOOK OF BEESTS He happened to be building a palace when the news came, and he left all the bricks kicking about the floor for nurse to clear up, but then the news was rather remarkable news. You see, there was a knock at the front door and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel felt it was the man come to see about the gas, which had not been allowed to be lighted since the day when Lionel made a swing by tying his skipping rope to the gas bracket. And then quite suddenly, nurse came in and said, Master Lionel, dear, they've come to fetch you to go and be king. Then she made haste to change his smock and to wash his face and hands and brush his hair, and all the time she was doing it Lionel kept wriggling and fidgeting and saying, Oh, don't nurse, and I'm sure my ears are quite clean, or never mind my hair, it's all right, and that'll do. You're going on as if you were going to be an eel instead of a king, said nurse. The minute nurse let go for a moment Lionel bolted off without waiting for his clean handkerchief, and in the drawing room there were two very grave-looking gentlemen in red robes with fur and gold coronets with velvet sticking up out of the middle like the cream in the very expensive jam tarts. They bowed low to Lionel and the gravest one said, Sire, your great-great-great-great-grandfather, the king of this country, is dead, and now you have got to come and be king. Yes, please, sir, said Lionel, when does it begin? You will be crowned this afternoon, said the grave gentleman who was not quite so grave-looking as the other. Would you like me to bring nurse, or what time would you like me to be fetched, and hadn't I better put on my velvet suit with the lace collar, said Lionel, who had often been out to tea? Your nurse will be removed to the palace later. No, never mind about changing your suit, the royal robes will cover all that up. Grave gentleman led the way to a coach with eight white horses which was drawn up in front of the house where Lionel lived. It was number seven 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. Goodbye, nurse. Goodbye, ducky, said nurse. Say good little king now and say please and thank you, and remember to pass the cake to the little girls and don't have more than two helps of anything. So Alf went Lionel to be made a king. He had never expected to be a king any more than you have, so it was all quite new to him, so knew that he had never even thought of it. And as the coach went through the town he had to bite his tongue to be quite sure it was real, because if his tongue was real it showed he wasn't dreaming. An hour before he had been building with bricks in the nursery. And now the streets were all fluttering with flags. Every window was crowded with people waving handkerchiefs and scattering flowers. There were scarlet soldiers everywhere along the pavements, and all the bells of all the churches were ringing like mad. And like a great song to the music of their ringing he heard thousands of people shouting, Long live Lionel, long live our little king. He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his best clothes, but he soon forgot to think about that. If he had been a girl he would very likely have bothered about it the whole time. As they went along the grave gentlemen, who were the chancellor and the prime minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand. I thought we were a republic, said Lionel. I'm sure there hasn't been a king for some time. Sire, your great-great-great-great-great grandfather's death happened when my grandfather was a little boy, said the prime minister. And since then your loyal people have been saving up to buy you a crown. So much a week, you know, according to people's means. Six pints a week from those who have first-rate pocket money, down to a hay-pinny a week from those who haven't so much. You know it's the rule that the crown must be paid for by the people. But hadn't my great-great-however much it is, grandfather a crown? Yes, but he sent it to be tinned over for fear of vanity, and he had had all the jewels taken out and sold them to buy books. He was a strange man, a very good king he was, but he had his faults. He was fond of books. Almost with his last breath he sent the crown to be tinned. And he never lived to pay the tinsmith's bill. Only the prime minister wiped away a tear, and just then the carriage stopped and Lionel was taken out of the carriage to be crowned. Being crowned is much more tiring work than you would suppose, and by the time it was over and Lionel had worn the royal robes for an hour or two and had had his hand kissed by everybody whose business it was to do it, he was quite worn out and was very glad to get into the palace nursery. This was there, and tea was ready, seedy cake and plummy cake, and jam and hot buttered toast, and the prettiest china with red and gold and blue flowers on it, and real tea and as many cups of it as you liked. After tea Lionel said, I think I should like a book, will you get me one, nurse? Bless the child, said nurse. You don't suppose you've lost the use of your legs with just being a king. Come along, do, and get your books yourself. So Lionel went down into the library. The prime minister and the chancellor were there, and when Lionel came in they bowed very low and were beginning to ask Lionel, most politely, what on earth he was coming bothering for now. When Lionel cried out, Oh, what a world full of books, are they yours? They are yours, Your Majesty, answered the chancellor. They were the property of the late king, Your Great Great. Yes, I know, Lionel interrupted. Well, I shall read them all. I love to read. I am so glad I learned to read. If I might venture to advise Your Majesty, said the prime minister, I should not read these books. Your Great—yes, said Lionel quickly. He was a very good king. Oh, yes, really a very superior king in his way, but he was a little, well, strange. Mad, asked Lionel cheerfully. No, no, both the gentlemen were sincerely shocked. Not mad, but if I may express it so, he was too clever by half, and I should not like a little king of mine to have anything to do with his books. Lionel looked puzzled. The fact is, the chancellor went on, twisting his red beard in an agitated way, Your Great—go on, said Lionel—was called a wizard. But he wasn't? Of course not. A most worthy king was Your Great—I see. But I wouldn't touch his books. Just this one, cried Lionel, laying his hands on the cover of a great brown book that lay on the study-table. It had gold patterns on the brown leather, and gold clasps with turquoises and rubies in the twists of them, and gold corners so that the leather should not wear out too quickly. I must look at this one, Lionel said, for on the back in big letters he read, The Book of Beasts. The chancellor said, Don't be a silly little king. The Lionel had got the gold clasps undone, and he opened the first page. And there was a beautiful butterfly, all red and brown and yellow and blue, so beautifully painted that it looked as if it were alive. There, said Lionel, isn't that lovely? Why—but as he spoke, the beautiful butterfly fluttered its many-colored wings on the yellow old page of the book, and flew up and out of the window. Well, said the prime minister, as soon as he could speak for the lump of wonder that had got into his throat and tried to choke him. That's magic, that is. But before he had spoken, the king had turned the next page, and there was a shining bird complete and beautiful in every blue feather of him. Under him was written, Blue Bird of Paradise. And while the king gazed enchanted at the charming picture, the blue bird fluttered his wings on the yellow page, and spread them, and flew out of the book. Then the prime minister snatched the book away from the king and shut it up on the blank page where the bird had been, and put it on a very high shelf. And the chancellor gave the king a good shaking and said, You're a naughty, disobedient little king, and was very angry indeed. I don't see that I've done any harm, said Lionel. He hated being shaken, as all boys do. He would much rather have been slapped. No harm, said the chancellor. Ah, but what do you know about it? That's the question. How do you know what might have been on the next page? A snake, or a worm, or a centipede, or a revolutionist, or something like that? Well, I'm sorry if I vexed you, said Lionel. Come, let's kiss and be friends. He kissed the prime minister, and they settled down for a nice quiet game of knots and crosses, while the chancellor went to add up his accounts. But when Lionel was in bed, he could not sleep for thinking of the book. And when the full moon was shining with all her might and light, he got up and crept down to the library, and climbed up and got the book of beasts. He took it outside to the terrace, where the moonlight was as bright as day, and he opened the book and saw the empty pages with butterfly and blue bird of paradise underneath, and then he turned the next page. There was some sort of red thing sitting under a palm tree, and under it was written dragon. The dragon did not move, and the king shut up the book rather quickly and went back to bed. But the next day he wanted another look, so he took the book out into the garden, and when he undid the clasts with the rubies and turquoises, the book opened all by itself at the picture with dragon underneath, and the sun shone full on the page. And then quite suddenly a great red dragon came out of the book and spread vast scarlet wings and flew away across the garden to the far hills, and Lionel was left with the empty page before him. For the page was quite empty except for the green palm tree and the yellow desert, and the little streaks of red where the paintbrush had gone outside the pencil outline of the red dragon. And then Lionel felt that he had indeed done it. He had not been king twenty-four hours, and already he had let loose a red dragon to worry his faithful subjects' lives out. And they had been saving up so long to buy him a crown and everything. Lionel began to cry. The chancellor and the prime minister and the nurse all came running to see what was the matter. And when they saw the book they understood, and the chancellor said, You naughty little king, put him to bed, nurse, and let him think over what he's done. Perhaps my lord, said the prime minister, we'd better first find out just exactly what he has done. Then Lionel in floods of tears said, It's a red dragon and it's gone flying away to the hills and I am so sorry and, oh, do forgive me. But the prime minister and the chancellor had other things to think of than forgiving Lionel. They hurried off to consult the police and see what could be done. Everyone did what they could. They sat on committees and stood on guard and lay in wait for the dragon, but he stayed up in the hills and there was nothing more to be done. The faithful nurse, meanwhile, did not neglect her duty. Perhaps she did more than anyone else, for she slapped the king and put him to bed without his tea, and when it got dark she would not give him a candle to read by. You are a naughty little king, she said, and nobody will love you. Next day the dragon was still quiet, though the more poetic of Lionel's subjects could see the redness of the dragon shining through the green trees quite plainly. So Lionel put on his crown and sat on his throne and said he wanted to make some laws. And I need hardly say that though the prime minister and the chancellor and the nurse might have the very poorest opinion of Lionel's private judgment and might even slap him and send him to bed, the minute he got on his throne and set his crown on his head he became infallible, which means that everything he said was right and that he couldn't possibly make a mistake. So when he said, there is to be a law forbidding people to open books in schools or elsewhere. He had the support of at least half of his subjects, and the other half, the grown-up half, pretended to think he was quite right. Then he made a law that everyone should always have enough to eat, and this pleased everyone except the ones who had always had too much. And when several other nice new laws were made and written down he went home and made mud houses and was very happy. And he said to his nurse, people will love me now I've made such a lot of pretty new laws for them. But nurse said, don't count your chickens my dear, you haven't seen the last of that dragon yet. Now the next day was Saturday, and in the afternoon the dragon suddenly swooped down upon the common in all his hideous redness and carried off the soccer players, umpires, goalposts, ball and all. And the people were very angry indeed, and they said, we might as well be a republic after saving up all these years to get his crown and everything. And wise people shook their heads and foretold a decline in the national love of sport. And indeed soccer was not at all popular for some time afterward. Lionel did his best to be a good king during the week, and the people were beginning to forgive him for letting the dragon out of the book. After all, they said, soccer is a dangerous game, and perhaps it is wise to discourage it. Popular opinion held that the soccer players, being tough and hard, had disagreed with the dragon so much that he had gone away to some place where they only play cat's cradle and games that do not make you hard and tough. All the same parliament met on the Saturday afternoon, a convenient time for most of the members would be free to attend, to consider the dragon. But unfortunately the dragon, who had only been asleep, woke up because it was Saturday, and he considered the parliament. And afterwards there were not any members left. So they tried to make a new parliament, but being a member of parliament had somehow grown as unpopular as soccer playing, and no one would consent to be elected, so they had to do without a parliament. When the next Saturday came around, everyone was a little nervous, but the red dragon was pretty quiet that day and only ate an orphanage. Lionel was very, very unhappy. He felt that it was his disobedience that had brought this trouble on the parliament and the orphanage and the soccer players, and he felt that it was his duty to try and do something. The question was, what? The bluebird that had come out of the book used to sing very nicely in the palace rose garden, and the butterfly was very tame and would perch on his shoulder when he walked among the tall lilies. So Lionel saw that all the creatures in the book of beasts could not be wicked like the dragon, and he thought, suppose I could get another beast out who would fight the dragon. So he took the book of beasts out into the rose garden and opened the page next to the one where the dragon had been just a tiny bit to see what the name was. He could only see Korah, but he felt the middle of the page swelling up thick with the creature that was trying to come out, and it was only by putting the book down and sitting on it suddenly, very hard, that he managed to get it shut. Then he fastened the clasps with the rubies and turquoises in them and sent for the chancellor, who had been ill since Saturday, and so had not been eaten with the rest of the parliament. And he said, what animal ends in Korah? The chancellor answered, the manta Korah, of course. What is he like? asked the king. He is the sworn foe of dragons, said the chancellor. He drinks their blood. He is yellow with the body of a lion and the face of a man. I wish we had a few manta Korahs here now, but the last died hundreds of years ago, worse luck. Then the king ran and opened the book at the page that had Korah on it, and there was the picture, manta Korah, all yellow with a lion's body and a man's face, just as the chancellor had said. And under the picture was written manta Korah. In a few minutes the manta Korah came sleepily out of the book, rubbing its eyes with its hands and mewing piteously. It seemed very stupid, and when Lionel gave it a push and said, go along and fight the dragon, do. It put its tail between its legs and fairly ran away. It went and hid behind the town hall, and at night when the people were asleep it went around and ate all the pussycats in the town, and then it mewed more than ever. And on the Saturday morning when people were a little timid about going out because the dragon had no regular hour for calling, the manta Korah went up and down the streets and drank all the milk that was left in the cans at the doors for people's teas, and it ate the cans as well. And just when it had finished the very last little hay penny worth, which was short measure because the milkman's nerves were quite upset, the red dragon came down the street looking for the manta Korah. It edged off when it saw him coming, for it was not at all the dragon fighting kind. And seeing no other door open the poor hunted creature took refuge in the general post office, and there the dragon found it trying to conceal itself among the ten o'clock mail. The dragon fell on the manta Korah at once, and the mail was no defense. The mewings were heard all over the town. All the kitties and the milk the manta Korah had had seemed to have strengthened its mew wonderfully. Then there was a sad silence, and presently the people whose windows looked that way saw the dragon come walking down the steps of the general post office, spitting fire and smoke together with tufts of manta Korah fur, and the fragments of the registered letters. Things were growing very serious. However popular the king might become during the week, the dragon was sure to do something on Saturday to upset the people's loyalty. The dragon was a perfect nuisance for the whole of Saturday, except during the hour of noon. And then he had to rest under a tree, or he would have caught fire from the heat of the sun. You see, he was very hot to begin with. At last came a Saturday when the dragon actually walked into the royal nursery and carried off the king's own pet rocking horse. Then the king cried for six days, and on the seventh he was so tired that he had to stop. He heard the bluebird singing among the roses and saw the butterfly fluttering among the lilies, and he said, nurse, wipe my face, please. I am not going to cry anymore. Nurse washed his face and told him not to be a silly little king. Crying, said she, never did anyone any good yet. I don't know, said the little king. I seem to see better and to hear better now that I've cried for a week. Now nurse, dear, I know I'm right, so kiss me in case I never come back. I must try to see if I can't save the people. Well, if you must, you must, said nurse. But don't tear your clothes or get your feet wet. So off he went. The bluebird sang more sweetly than ever, and the butterfly shone more brightly, as Lionel, once more, carried the book of beasts out into the rose garden and opened it, very quickly so that he might not be afraid and change his mind. The book fell open wide, almost in the middle, and there was written at the bottom of the page, Hippogriff. And before Lionel had time to see what the picture was, there was a fluttering of great wings and a stamping of hoofs and a sweet, soft, friendly neighing. And there came out of the book a beautiful white horse with a long, long white mane and a long, long white tail. And he had great wings like swan's wings and the softest, kindest eyes in the world. And he stood there among the roses. The Hippogriff rubbed its silky, soft, milky white nose against the little king's shoulder and the little king thought, but for the wings you are very like my poor, dear, lost rocking horse. And the bluebird's song was very loud and sweet. Then suddenly the king saw, coming through the sky, the great, straggling, sprawling, wicked shape of the red dragon. And he knew at once what he must do. He caught up the book of beasts and jumped on the back of the gentle, beautiful Hippogriff. And leaning down, he whispered in the sharp, white ear, fly, dear Hippogriff, fly your very fastest to the pebbly waist. And when the dragon saw them start, he turned and flew after them, with his great wings flapping like clouds at sunset. And the Hippogriff's wide wings were snowy as clouds at moonrise. When the people in the town saw the dragon fly off after the Hippogriff and the king, they all came out of their houses to look. And when they saw the two disappear, they made up their minds to the worst and began to think what they would wear for court mourning. But the dragon could not catch the Hippogriff. The red wings were bigger than the white ones, but they were not so strong. And so the white-winged horse flew away and away and away with the dragon pursuing, till he reached the very middle of the pebbly waist. Now the pebbly waist is just like the parts of the seaside where there is no sand, all round, loose, shifting stones, and there is no grass there and no tree within 100 miles of it. Lionel jumped off the white horse's back in the very middle of the pebbly waist, and he hurriedly unclasped the book of beasts and laid it open on the pebbles. Then he clattered among the pebbles in his haste to get back onto his white horse and had just jumped on when up came the dragon. He was flying very feebly and looking around everywhere for a tree, for it was just owned the stroke of 12. The sun was shining like a gold guinea in the blue sky, and there was not a tree for 100 miles. The white-winged horse flew around and around the dragon as he writhed on the dry pebbles. He was getting very hot. Indeed, parts of him had even begun to smoke. He knew that he must certainly catch fire in another minute unless he could get under a tree. He made a snatch with his red claws at the king and hippogriff, but he was too feeble to reach them, and decides he did not dare to overexert himself for fear he should get any hotter. It was then that he saw the book of beasts lying on the pebbles open at the page with dragon written at the bottom. He looked, and he hesitated, and he looked again. And then with one last squirm of rage the dragon wriggled himself back into the picture and sat down under the palm tree, and the page was a little singed as he went in. As soon as Lionel saw that the dragon had really been obliged to go and sit under his own palm tree because it was the only tree there, he jumped off his horse and shut the book with a bang. Oh, hurrah! he cried. Now we really have done it. And he clasped the book very tightly with the turquoise and ruby clasps. Oh, my precious hippogriff, he cried. You are the bravest, dearest, most beautiful. Hush, whispered the hippogriff modestly. Don't you see that we are not alone? And indeed there was quite a crowd round them on the pebbly waste, the prime minister and the parliament and the soccer players and the orphanage and the mantecora and the rocking horse, and indeed everyone who had been eaten by the dragon. You see, it was impossible for the dragon to take them into the book with him. It was a tight fit, even for one dragon. So, of course, he had to leave them outside. They all got home somehow and all lived happy ever after. When the king asked the mantecora where he would like to live, he begged to be allowed to go back into the book. I do not care for public life, he said. Of course he knew his way unto his own page, so there was no danger of his opening the book at the wrong page and letting out a dragon or anything. So he got back into his picture and has never come out since. That is why you will never see a mantecora as long as you live, except in a picture book. And of course he left the kitties outside, because there was no room for them in the book and the milk cans, too. Then the rocking horse begged to be allowed to go and live on the hippogriff's page of the book. I should like, he said, to live somewhere where dragons can't get at me. So the beautiful white-winged hippogriff showed him the way in, and there he stayed till the king had him taken out for his great-great, great-great grandchildren to play with. As for the hippogriff, he accepted the position of the king's own rocking horse, a situation left vacant by the retirement of the wooden one. And the bluebird and the butterfly sing and flutter among the lilies and roses of the palace garden to this very day. End of Chapter 1. Chapter 2 of The Book of Dragons. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information nor to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Laurie Ann Walden. The Book of Dragons by Edith Nesbitt. Chapter 2, Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger. The princess and the gardener's boy were playing in the backyard. What will you do when you grow up, princess? asked the gardener's boy. I should like to marry you, Tom, said the princess. Would you mind? No, said the gardener's boy. I shouldn't mind much. I'll marry you if you like, if I have time. For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown up, to be a general and a poet and a prime minister and an admiral and a civil engineer. Meanwhile, he was top of all his classes at school and tip-top of the geography class. As for the princess Marianne, she was a very good little girl, and everyone loved her. She was always kind and polite, even to her uncle James and to other people whom she did not like very much. And though she was not very clever for a princess, she always tried to do her lessons. Even if you know perfectly well that you can't do your lessons, you may as well try. And sometimes you find that, by some fortunate accident, they really are done. Then the princess had a truly good heart. She was always kind to her pets. She never slapped her hippopotamus when it broke her dolls in its playful gambles. And she never forgot to feed her rhinoceroses and their little hutch in the backyard. Her elephant was devoted to her. And sometimes Marianne made her nurse quite cross by smuggling the dear little thing up to bed with her and letting it go to sleep with its long trunk laid lovingly across her throat and its pretty head cuddled under the royal right ear. When the princess had been good all through the week, for like all real, live, nice children, she was sometimes naughty, but never bad. Nurse would allow her to ask her little friends to come on Wednesday morning early and spend the day because Wednesday is the end of the week in that country. Then, in the afternoon, when all the little dukes and duchesses and marquises and countesses had finished their rice pudding and had had their hands and faces washed after it, nurse would say, now my dears, what would you like to do this afternoon? Just as if she didn't know. And the answer would be always the same. Oh, do let's go to the zoological gardens and ride on the big guinea pig and feed the rabbits and hear the door mouse asleep. So their pinafores were taken off and they all went to the zoological gardens where 20 of them could ride at a time on the guinea pig and where even the little ones could feed the great rabbits if some grown-up person were kind enough to lift them up for the purpose. There always was some such person because in Rotundia everybody was kind, except one. Now that you have read as far as this, you know, of course, that the kingdom of Rotundia was a very remarkable place and if you are a thoughtful child, as of course you are, you will not need me to tell you what was the most remarkable thing about it. But in case you are not a thoughtful child and it is just possible, of course, that you are not, I will tell you at once what that most remarkable thing was. All the animals were the wrong sizes. And this was how it happened. In old, old, olden times, when all our world was just loose earth and air and fire and water mixed up anyhow like a pudding and spinning around like mad trying to get the different things to settle into their proper places, a round piece of earth got loose and went spinning away by itself across the water, which was just beginning to try to get spread out smooth into a real sea. And as the great round piece of earth flew away, going around and around as hard as it could, it met a long piece of hard rock that had got loose from another part of the pudding-gee mixture. And the rock was so hard and was going so fast that it ran its point through the round piece of earth and stuck out on the other side of it so that the two together were like a very, very much too big spinning top. I am afraid all this is very dull, but, you know, geography is never quite lively. And after all, I must give you a little information, even in a fairy tale, like the powder in jam. Well, when the pointed rock smashed into the round bit of earth, the shock was so great that it set them spinning together through the air, which was just getting into its proper place, like all the rest of the things. Only, as luck would have it, they forgot which way around they had been going and began to spin around the wrong way. Presently, center of gravity, a great giant who was managing the whole business woke up in the middle of the earth and began to grumble. Hurry up, he said. Come down and lie still, can't you? So the rock with the round piece of earth fell into the sea and the point of the rock went into a hole that just fitted it in the stony sea bottom and there it spun around the wrong way seven times and then lay still. And that round piece of land became, after millions of years, the kingdom of Rotundia. This is the end of the geography lesson and now for just a little natural history so that we may not feel that we are quite wasting our time. Of course, the consequence of the island having spun around the wrong way was that when the animals began to grow on the island, they all grew the wrong sizes. The guinea pig, as you know, was as big as our elephants and the elephant, dear little pet, was the size of the silly, tiny, black and tan dogs that ladies sometimes carry in their muffs. The rabbits were about the size of our rhinoceroses and all about the wild parts of the island they had made their burrows as big as railway tunnels. The door mouse, of course, was the biggest of all the creatures. I can't tell you how big he was. Even if you think of elephants, it will not help you at all. Luckily, there was only one of him and he was always asleep. Otherwise, I don't think the Rotundians could have borne with him. As it was, they made him a house and it saved the expense of a brass band because no band could possibly have been heard when the door mouse was talking in his sleep. The men and women and children in this wonderful island were quite the right size because their ancestors had come over with the conqueror long after the island had settled down and the animals grown on it. Now the natural history lesson is over and if you have been attending, you know more about Rotundia than anyone there did except three people. The Lord Chief Schoolmaster, the princess's uncle who was a magician and knew everything without learning it and Tom, the gardener's son. Tom had learned more at school than anyone else because he wished to take a prize. The prize offered by the Lord Chief Schoolmaster was a history of Rotundia, beautifully bound with the royal arms on the back. But after that day when the princess said she meant to marry Tom, the gardener's boy thought it over and he decided that the best prize in the world would be the princess. And this was the prize Tom meant to take. And when you are a gardener's son and have decided to marry a princess, you will find that the more you learn at school, the better. The princess always played with Tom on the days when the little dukes and marquises did not come to tea. And when he told her he was almost sure of the first prize, she clapped her hands and said, Dear Tom, dear, good, clever Tom, you deserve all the prizes and I will give you my pet elephant and you can keep him till we're married. The pet elephant was called Fido and the gardener's son took him away in his coat pocket. He was the dearest little elephant you ever saw about six inches long, but he was very, very wise. He could not have been wiser if he had been a mile high. He lay down comfortably in Tom's pocket and when Tom put in his hand, Fido curled his little trunk around Tom's fingers with an affectionate confidence that made the boy's heart warm to his new little pet. What with the elephant and the princess's affection and the knowledge that the very next day he would receive the history of rotundia, beautifully bound with the royal arms on the cover, Tom could hardly sleep a wink. And besides, the dog did bark so terribly. There was only one dog in rotundia, the kingdom could not afford to keep more than one. He was a Mexican lapdog of the kind that in most parts of the world only measures seven inches from the end of his dear nose to the tip of his darling tail. But in rotundia, he was bigger than I can possibly expect you to believe. And when he barked, his bark was so large that it filled up all the night and left no room for sleep or dreams or polite conversation or anything else at all. He never barked at things that went on in the island. He was too large-minded for that. But when ships went blundering by in the dark, tumbling over the rocks at the end of the island, he would bark once or twice, just to let the ships know that they couldn't come playing about there just as they liked. But on this particular night, he barked and barked and barked. And the princess said, oh dear, oh dear, I wish he wouldn't, I am so sleepy. And Tom said to himself, I wonder whatever is the matter, as soon as it's light, I'll go and see. So when it began to be pretty pink and yellow daylight, Tom got up and went out. And all the time, the Mexican lapdog barked so that the houses shook and the tiles on the roof of the palace rattled like milk cans in a cart whose horse is frisky. I'll go to the pillar, thought Tom as he went through the town. The pillar, of course, was the top of the piece of rock that had stuck itself through Rotundia millions of years before and made it spin around the wrong way. It was quite in the middle of the island and stuck up ever so far. And when you were at the top, you could see a great deal farther than when you were not. As Tom went out from the town and across the downs, he thought what a pretty sight it was to see the rabbits in the bright, dewy morning, frisking with their young ones by the mouths of their burrows. He did not go very near the rabbits, of course, because when a rabbit of that size is at play, it does not always look where it is going and it might easily have crushed Tom with its foot and then it would have been very sorry afterward. And Tom was a kind boy and would not have liked to make even a rabbit unhappy. Earwigs in our country often get out of the way when they think you were going to walk on them. They too have kind hearts and they would not like you to be sorry afterward. So Tom went on looking at the rabbits and watching the morning grow more and more red and golden. And the Mexican lapdog barked all the time till the church bells tinkled and the chimney of the apple factory rocked again. But when Tom got to the pillar, he saw that he would not need to climb to the top to find out what the dog was barking at. For there by the pillar lay a very large purple dragon. His wings were like old purple umbrellas that have been very much rained on. And his head was large and bald like the top of a purple toadstool. And his tail, which was purple too, was very, very, very long and thin and tight like the lash of a carriage whip. It was licking one of its purple umbrella-y wings and every now and then it moaned and leaned its head back against the rocky pillar as though it felt faint. Tom saw at once what had happened. A flight of purple dragons must have crossed the island in the night and this poor one must have knocked its wing and broken it against the pillar. Everyone is kind to everyone in Rotandia and Tom was not afraid of the dragon although he had never spoken to one before. He had often watched them flying across the sea but he had never expected to get to know one personally. So now he said, I am afraid you don't feel quite well. The dragon shook his large purple head. He could not speak but like all other animals he could understand well enough when he liked. Can I get you anything? Asked Tom politely. The dragon opened his purple eyes with an inquiring smile. A bun or two now, said Tom coaxingly. There's a beautiful bun tree quite close. The dragon opened a great purple mouth and licked his purple lips so Tom ran and shook the bun tree and soon came back with an armful of fresh current 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 having spun the wrong way is that all the things we have to make buns and cakes and shortbread grow on trees and bushes but in Rotandia they have to make their cauliflower and cabbages and carrots and apples and onions just as our cooks make puddings and turnovers. Tom gave all the buns to the dragon saying, here try to eat a little, you'll soon feel better then. The dragon ate up the buns, knotted rather ungraciously and began to lick his wing again. So Tom left him and went back to the town with the news and everyone was so excited at a real live dragons being on the island. A thing that had never happened before that they all went out to look at it instead of going to the prize giving and the Lord Chief Schoolmaster went with the rest. Now he had Tom's prize, the history of Rotandia in his pocket, the one bound in calf with the royal arms on the cover and it happened to drop out and the dragon ate it so Tom never got the prize after all but the dragon when he had gotten it did not like it. Perhaps it's all for the best said Tom. I might not have liked that prize either if I had gotten it. It happened to be a Wednesday so when the princesses friends were asked what they would like to do all the little dukes and marquises and earls said, let's go and see the dragon. But the little duchesses and marchionesses and countesses said they were afraid. Then princess Marianne spoke up royally and said, don't be silly because it's only in fairy stories and histories of England and things like that that people are unkind and want to hurt each other. In Rotandia everyone is kind and no one has anything to be afraid of unless they're naughty and then we know is for our own good. Let's all go and see the dragon. We might take him some acid drops. So they went and all the titled children took it in turns to feed the dragon with acid drops and he seemed pleased and flattered and wagged as much of his purple tail as he could get at conveniently for it was a very, very long tail indeed. But when it came to the princesses turn to give an acid drop to the dragon he smiled a very wide smile and wagged his tail to the very last long inch of it as much as to say, oh you nice kind pretty little princess. But deep down in his wicked purple heart he was saying, oh you nice fat pretty little princess I should like to eat you instead of these silly acid drops. But of course nobody heard him except the princess's uncle and he was a magician and accustomed to listening at doors. It was part of his trade. Now you will remember that I told you there was one wicked person in Rotundia and I cannot conceal from you any longer that this complete bad was the princess's uncle James. Magicians are always bad as you know from your fairy books and some uncles are bad as you see by the babes in the wood or the Norfolk tragedy. And one James at least was bad as you have learned from your English history. And when anyone is a magician and is also an uncle and is named James as well you need not expect anything nice from him. He is a three fold complete bad and he will come to no good. Uncle James had long wanted to get rid of the princess and have the kingdom to himself. He did not like many things. A nice kingdom was almost the only thing he cared for but he had never seen his way quite clearly because everyone is so kind in Rotundia that wicked spells will not work there but run off those blameless islanders like water off a duck's back. Now however uncle James thought there might be a chance for him because he knew that now there were two wicked people on the island who could stand by each other himself and the dragon. He said nothing but he exchanged a meaningful glance with the dragon and everyone went home to tea and no one had seen the meaningful glance except Tom. Tom went home and told his elephant all about it. The intelligent little creature listened carefully and then climbed from Tom's knee to the table on which stood an ornamental calendar that the princess had given Tom for a Christmas present. With its tiny trunk the elephant pointed out a date the 15th of August the princess's birthday and looked anxiously at its master. What is it Fido? Good little elephant then said Tom and the sagacious animal repeated his former gesture. Then Tom understood. Oh something is to happen on her birthday. All right I'll be on the lookout and he was. At first the people of Rotundia were quite pleased with the dragon who lived by the pillar and fed himself from the bun trees but by and by he began to wander. He would creep into the burrows made by the great rabbits and excursionists sporting on the downs would see his long, tight, whipped like tail wriggling down a burrow and out of sight and before they had time to say, there he goes his ugly purple head would come poking out from another rabbit hole perhaps just behind them or laugh softly to itself just in their ears and the dragon's laugh was not a merry one. This sort of hide and seek amused people at first but by and by it began to get on their nerves and if you don't know what that means ask mother to tell you next time you're playing blind man's buff when she has a headache. Then the dragon got into the habit of cracking his tail as people crack whips and this also got on people's nerves. Then too little things began to be missed and you know how unpleasant that is even in a private school and in a public kingdom it is of course much worse. The things that were missed were nothing much at first a few little elephants, a hippopotamus or two and some giraffes and things like that. It was nothing much as I say but it made people feel uncomfortable. Then one day a favorite rabbit of the princesses called Frederick mysteriously disappeared and then came a terrible morning when the Mexican lapdog was missing. He had barked ever since the dragon came to the island and people had grown quite used to the noise so when his barking suddenly ceased it woke everybody up and they all went out to see what was the matter and the lapdog was gone. A boy was sent to wake the army so that it might look for him but the army was gone too and now the people began to be frightened. Then Uncle James came out onto the terrace of the palace and he made the people a speech. He said, friends, fellow citizens, I cannot disguise from myself or from you that this purple dragon is a poor, penniless exile, a helpless alien in our midst and besides he is a, is no end of a dragon. The people thought of the dragon's tail and said, here, here. Uncle James went on, something has happened to a gentle and defenseless member of our community. We don't know what has happened. Everyone thought of the rabbit named Frederick and groaned. The defenses of our country have been swallowed up, said Uncle James. Everyone thought of the poor army. There is only one thing to be done. Uncle James was warming to his subject. Could we ever forgive ourselves if by neglecting a simple precaution we lost more rabbits or even perhaps our navy, our police, and our fire brigade? For I warn you that the purple dragon will respect nothing, however sacred. Everyone thought of themselves and they said, what is the simple precaution? Then Uncle James said, tomorrow is the dragon's birthday. He is accustomed to have a present on his birthday. If he gets a nice present he will be in a hurry to take it away and show it to his friends and he will fly off and never come back. The crowd cheered wildly and the princess from her balcony clapped her hands. The present the dragon expects, said Uncle James cheerfully, is rather an expensive one. But when we give it should not be an begrudging spirit, especially to visitors. What the dragon wants is a princess. We have only one princess, it is true, but far be it from us to display a miserly temper at such a moment. And the gift is worthless that costs the giver nothing. Your readiness to give up your princess will only show how generous you are. The crowd began to cry for they loved their princess, though they quite saw that their first duty was to be generous and give the poor dragon what it wanted. The princess began to cry for she did not want to be anybody's birthday present, especially a purple dragon's. And Tom began to cry because he was so angry. He went straight home and told his little elephant and the elephant cheered him up so much that presently the two grew quite absorbed in a top that the elephant was spinning with his little trunk. Early in the morning Tom went to the palace. He looked out across the downs. There were hardly any rabbits playing there now. And then he gathered white roses and threw them at the princess's window until she woke up and looked out. Come up and kiss me, she said. So Tom climbed up the white rose bush and kissed the princess through the window and said, many happy returns of the day. Then Marianne began to cry and said, oh Tom, how can you when you know quite well? Oh don't, said Tom. Why Marianne, my precious, my princess, what do you think I should be doing while the dragon was getting his birthday present? Don't cry, my own little Marianne. Fido and I have arranged everything. You've only got to do as you were told. Is that all, said the princess. Oh that's easy, I've often done that. Then Tom told her what she wants to do and she kissed him again and again. Oh you dear good clever Tom, she said. How glad I am that I gave you Fido. You two have saved me, you deers. The next morning Uncle James put on his best coat and hat and the vest with the gold snakes on it. He was a magician and he had a bright taste in vests and he called with a cab to take the princess out. Come little birthday present, he said tenderly. The dragon will be so pleased and I'm glad to see you're not crying. You know my child, we cannot begin too young to learn to think of the happiness of others rather than our own. I should not like my dear little niece to be selfish or to wish to deny a trivial pleasure to a poor sick dragon far from his home and friends. The princess said she would try not to be selfish. Presently the cab drew up near the pillar and there was the dragon, his ugly purple head shining in the sun and his ugly purple mouth half open. Uncle James said, Good morning, sir. We have brought you a small present for your birthday. We do not like to let such an anniversary go by without some suitable testimonial, especially to one who is a stranger in our midst. Our means are small, but our hearts are large. We have but one princess, but we give her freely. Do we not, my child? The princess said she supposed so and the dragon came a little nearer. Suddenly a voice cried, run! And there was Tom and he had brought the zoological guinea pig and a pair of Belgian hairs with him. Just to see fair, said Tom. Uncle James was furious. What do you mean, sir? He cried, by intruding on a state function with your common rabbits and things. Go away, naughty little boy and play with him somewhere else. But while he was speaking, the rabbits had come up one on each side of him. Their great sides towering ever so high and now they pressed him between them so that he was buried in their thick fur and almost choked. The princess, meantime, had run to the other side of the pillar and was peeping around it to see what was going on. A crowd had followed the cab out of the town. Now they reached the scene of the state function and they all cried out, fair play, play fair. We can't go back on our word like this. Give a thing and take a thing? Why, it's never done. Let the poor exiled stranger dragon have his birthday present. And they tried to get it, Tom, but the guinea pigs stood in the way. Yes, Tom cried, fair play is a jewel and your helpless exile shall have the princess if he can catch her. Now then, Mary Ann. Mary Ann looked around the big pillar and called to the dragon. Boo, you can't catch me and began to run as fast as ever she could and the dragon ran after her. When the princess had run a half mile, she stopped, dodged around a tree and ran back to the pillar and around it and the dragon after her. You see, he was so long he could not turn as quickly as she could. Around and around the pillar ran the princess. The first time she ran around a long way from the pillar and then nearer and nearer with the dragon after her all the time and he was so busy trying to catch her that he never noticed that Tom had tied the very end of his long, tight, whip-cordy tail to the rock so that the more the dragon ran around the more times he twisted his tail around the pillar. It was exactly like winding a top. Only the peg was the pillar and the dragon's tail was the string. And the magician was safe between the Belgian hairs but couldn't see anything but darkness or do anything but choke. When the dragon was wound onto the pillar as much as he possibly could be and is tight, like cotton on a reel, the princess stopped running and though she had very little breath left she managed to say, yeah, who's won now? This annoyed the dragon so much that he put out all his strength, spread his great purple wings and tried to fly at her. Of course this pulled his tail and pulled it very hard so hard that as he pulled the tail had to come and the pillar had to come around with the tail and the island had to come around with the pillar. And in another minute the tail was loose and the island was spinning around exactly like a top. It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held on tight to themselves because they felt something was going to happen. All but the magician who was choking between the Belgian hairs and felt nothing but fur and fury. And something did happen. The dragon had sent the kingdom of Rotundia spinning the way it ought to have gone at the beginning of the world and as it spun around all the animals began to change sizes. The guinea pigs got small and the elephants got big and the men and women and children would have changed sizes too if they had not had the sense to hold onto themselves very tight indeed with both hands which of course the animals could not be expected to know how to do. And the best of it was that when the small beasts got big and the big beasts got small the dragon got small too and fell at the princess's feet a little crawling purple mute with wings. Funny little thing said the princess when she saw it I will take it for a birthday present. But while all the people were still on their faces holding on tight to themselves Uncle James the magician never thought of holding tight. He only thought of how to punish Belgian hairs and the sons of gardeners. So when the big beasts grew small he grew small with the other beasts and the little purple dragon when he fell at the princess's feet saw there a very small magician named Uncle James and the dragon took him because it wanted a birthday present. So now all the animals were new sizes and at first it seemed very strange to everyone to have great lumbering elephants and a tiny little doormouse but they have gotten used to it now and think no more of it than we do. All this happened several years ago and the other day I saw in their rotundia times an account of the wedding of the princess with Lord Thomas Gardner K.C.D. And I knew she could not have married anyone but Tom so I suppose they made him a lord on purpose for the wedding and K.C.D. of course means clever conqueror of the dragon. If you think that is wrong it is only because you don't know how they spell in rotundia. The paper said that among the beautiful presents of the bridegroom to the bride was an enormous elephant on which the bridal pair made their wedding tour. This must have been Fido. You remember Tom promised to give him back to the princess when they were married. The rotundia times called the married couple the happy pair. It was clever of the paper to think of calling them that. It is such a pretty and novel expression and I think it is truer than many of the things you see in papers. Because you see the princess and the Gardner son were so fond of each other they could not help being happy and besides they had an elephant of their very own to ride on. If that is not enough to make people happy I should like to know what is. Though of course I know there are some people who could not be happy unless they had a whale to sail on and perhaps not even then. But they are greedy grasping people the kind who would take four helps of pudding as likely as not which neither Tom nor Mary Ann ever did. End of chapter two. Chapter three of The Book of Dragons. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Laurie Ann Walden. The Book of Dragons by Edith Nesfit. Chapter three, The Deliverers of Their Country. It all began with Effie's getting something in her eye. It hurt very much indeed and it felt something like a red hot spark. Only it seemed to have legs as well and wings like a fly. Effie rubbed and cried. Not real crying, but the kind your eye does all by itself without your being miserable inside your mind. And then she went to her father to have the thing in her eye taken out. Effie's father was a doctor so of course he knew how to take things out of eyes. He did it very cleverly with a soft paint brush dipped in castor oil. When he had gotten the thing out, he said, this is very curious. Effie had often got things in her eye before and her father had always seemed to think it was natural. Rather tiresome and naughty perhaps, but still natural. He had never before thought it curious. Effie stood holding her handkerchief to her eye and said, I don't believe it's out. People always say this when they have had something in their eyes. Oh yes, it's out, said the doctor. Here it is on the brush. This is very interesting. Effie had never heard her father say that about anything that she had any share in. She said, what? The doctor carried the brush very carefully across the room and held the point of it under his microscope. Then he twisted the brass screws of the microscope and looked through the top with one eye. Dear me, he said. Dear, dear me. Four well-developed limbs, a long caudal appendage, five toes unequal in lengths, almost like one of the Lacer today, yet there are traces of wings. The creature under his eye wriggled a little in the castor oil and he went on. Yes, a bat-like wing. A new specimen undoubtedly. Effie run round to the professor and asked him to be kind enough to step in for a few minutes. You might give me six pence, Daddy, said Effie, because I did bring you the new specimen. I took great care of it inside my eye and my eye does hurt. The doctor was so pleased with the new specimen that he gave Effie a shilling and presently the professor stepped around. He stayed to lunch and he and the doctor quarreled very happily all the afternoon about the name and the family of the thing that had come out of Effie's eye. But at tea time another thing happened. Effie's brother Harry fished something out of his tea, which he thought at first was an earwig. He was just getting ready to drop it on the floor and end its life in the usual way. When it shook itself in the spoon, spread two wet wings and flopped onto the tablecloth. There it sat, stroking itself with its feet and stretching its wings. And Harry said, why, it's a tiny newt. The professor leaned forward before the doctor could say a word. I'll give you half a crown for it, Harry my lad, he said, speaking very fast. And then he picked it up carefully on his handkerchief. It is a new specimen, he said, and finer than yours, doctor. It was a tiny lizard about half an inch long with scales and wings. So now the doctor and the professor each had a specimen and they were both very pleased. But before long these specimens began to seem less valuable. For the next morning, when the knife boy was cleaning the doctor's boots, he suddenly dropped the brushes and the boot and the blacking and screamed out that he was burnt. And from inside the boot came crawling a lizard as big as a kitten with large, shiny wings. Why, said Effie, I know what it is. It is a dragon like the one St. George killed. And Effie was right. That afternoon, Towser was bitten in the garden by a dragon about the size of a rabbit which he had tried to chase. And the next morning all the papers were full of the wonderful winged lizards that were appearing all over the country. The papers would not call them dragons because of course no one believes in dragons nowadays. And at any rate the papers were not going to be so silly as to believe in fairy stories. At first there were only a few but in a week or two the country was simply running alive with dragons of all sizes. And in the air you could sometimes see them as thick as a swarm of bees. They all looked alike except as to size. They were green with scales and they had four legs and a long tail and great wings like bats' wings. Only the wings were a pale, half transparent yellow like the gearboxes on bicycles. They breathed fire and smoke as all proper dragons must but still the newspapers went on pretending they were lizards until the editor of the standard was picked up and carried away by a very large one. And then the other newspaper people had not anyone left to tell them what they ought not to believe. So when the largest elephant in the zoo was carried off by a dragon the papers gave up pretending and put alarming plague of dragons at the top of the paper. You have no idea how alarming it was and at the same time how aggravating. The large size dragons were terrible certainly but when once you had found out that the dragons always went to bed early because they were afraid of the chill night air you had only to stay indoors all day and you were pretty safe from the big ones but the smaller sizes were a perfect nuisance. The ones as big as earwigs got in the soap and they got in the butter. The ones as big as dogs got in the bath and the fire and smoke inside them made them steam like anything when the cold water tap was turned on so that careless people were often scalded quite severely. The ones that were as large as pigeons would get into work baskets or corner drawers and bite you when you were in a hurry to get a needle or a handkerchief. The ones as big as sheep were easier to avoid because you could see them coming but when they flew in at the windows and curled up under your eider down and you did not find them till you went to bed it was always a shock. The ones this size did not eat people, only lettuce but they always scorched the sheets and pillowcases dreadfully. Of course the county council and the police did everything that could be done. It was no use offering the hand of the princess to anyone who killed a dragon. This way was all very well in olden times when there was only one dragon and one princess but now there were far more dragons than princesses although the royal family was a large one. And besides it would have been a mere waste of princesses to offer rewards for killing dragons because everybody killed as many dragons as they could quite out of their own heads and without rewards at all just to get the nasty things out of the way. The county council undertook to cremate all dragons delivered at their offices between the hours of 10 and two and whole wagon loads and cart loads and truck loads of dead dragons could be seen any day of the week standing in a long line in the street where the county council had their offices. Boys brought barrow loads of dead dragons and children on their way home from morning school would call in to leave the handful or two of little dragons they had brought in their satchels or carried in their knotted pocket handkerchiefs. And yet there seemed to be as many dragons as ever. Then the police stuck up great wood and canvas towers covered with patent glue. When the dragons flew against these towers they stuck fast as flies and wasps do on the sticky papers in the kitchens. And when the towers were covered all over with dragons the police inspector used to set fire to the towers and burnt them and dragons and all. And yet there seemed to be more dragons than ever. The shops were full of patent dragon poison and anti-dragon soap and dragon proof curtains for the windows and indeed everything that could be done was done. And yet there seemed to be more dragons than ever. It was not very easy to know what would poison a dragon because you see they ate such different things. The largest kind ate elephants as long as there were any and then went on with horses and cows. Another size ate nothing but lilies of the valley and a third size ate only prime ministers if they were to be had and if not would feed freely on servants in livery. Another size lived on bricks and three of them ate two thirds of the South Lambeth infirmary in one afternoon. But the size Effie was most afraid of was about as big as your dining room and that size ate little girls and boys. At first Effie and her brother were quite pleased with the change in their lives. It was so amusing to sit up all night instead of going to sleep and to play in the garden lighted by electric lamps. And it sounded so funny to hear mother say when they were going to bed. Good night, my darlings. Sleep sound all day and don't get up too soon. You must not get up before it's quite dark. You wouldn't like the nasty dragons to catch you. But after a time they got very tired of it all. They wanted to see the flowers and trees growing in the fields and to see the pretty sunshine out of doors and not just through glass windows and patent dragon proof curtains. And they wanted to play on the grass which they were not allowed to do in the electric lamp lighted garden because of the night, do you? And they wanted so much to get out just for once in the beautiful, bright, dangerous daylight that they began to try and think of some reason why they ought to go out. Only they did not like to disobey their mother. But one morning their mother was busy preparing some new dragon poison to lay down in the cellars. And their father was bandaging the hand of the boot boy which had been scratched by one of the dragons who liked to eat prime ministers when they were to be had. So nobody remembered to say to the children, don't get up till it is quite dark. Go now, said Harry. It would not be disobedient to go. And I know exactly what we ought to do, but I don't know how we ought to do it. What ought we to do? said Effie. We ought to wake Saint George, of course, said Harry. He was the only person in his town who knew how to manage dragons. The people in the fairy tales don't count. But Saint George is a real person and he is only asleep and he is waiting to be waked up. Only nobody believes in Saint George now. I heard father say so. We do, said Effie. Of course we do. And don't you see, Eff, that's the very reason why we could wake him. You can't wake people if you don't believe in them, can you? Effie said no, but where could they find Saint George? We must go and look, said Harry boldly. You shall wear a dragon-proof frock made of stuff like the curtains. And I will smear myself all over with the best dragon poison and... Effie clasped her hand and skipped with joy and cried. Oh, Harry, I know where we can find Saint George. In Saint George's church, of course. Um, said Harry, wishing he had thought of it for himself. You have a little sense sometimes for a girl. So the next afternoon, quite early, long before the beams of sunset announced the coming night, when everybody would be up and working, the two children got out of bed. Effie wrapped herself in a shawl of dragon-proof muslin. There was no time to make the frock. And Harry made a horrid mess of himself with a patent dragon poison. It was warranted harmless to infants and invalids, so he felt quite safe. Then they joined hands and sat out to walk to Saint George's church. As you know, there are many Saint George's churches, but fortunately they took the turning that leads to the right one and went along in the bright sunlight, feeling very brave and adventurous. There was no one about in the streets except dragons, and the place was simply swarming with them. Fortunately, none of the dragons were just the right size for eating little boys and girls, or perhaps this story might have had to end here. There were dragons on the pavement and dragons on the roadway, dragons basking on the front doorsteps of public buildings, and dragons preening their wings on the roofs in the hot afternoon sun. The town was quite green with them. Even when the children had gotten out of the town and were walking in the lanes, they noticed that the fields on each side were greener than usual with the scaly legs and tails. And some of the smaller sizes had made themselves asbestos nests in the flowering Hawthorne hedges. Effie held her brother's hand very tight, and once when a fat dragon flopped against her ear, she screamed out, and a whole flight of green dragons rose from the field at the sound and sprawled away across the sky. The children could hear the rattle of their wings as they flew. Oh, I want to go home, said Effie. Don't be silly, said Harry. Surely you haven't forgotten about the seven champions and all the princes. People who are going to be their country's deliverers never scream and say they want to go home. And are we, asked Effie. Deliverers, I mean? You'll see, said her brother, and on they went. When they came to St. George's church, they found the door open and they walked right in, but St. George was not there. So they walked around the churchyard outside, and presently they found the great stone tomb of St. George with the figure of him carved in marble outside in his armor and helmet and with his hands folded on his breast. However can we wake him, they said. Then Harry spoke to St. George, but he would not answer and he called, but St. George did not seem to hear. And then he actually tried to awaken the great dragon slayer by shaking his marble shoulders. But St. George took no notice. Then Effie began to cry and she put her arms around St. George's neck as well as she could for the marble, which was very much in the way at the back. And she kissed the marble face and she said, oh dear good kind St. George, please wake up and help us. And at that St. George opened his eyes sleepily and stretched himself and said, what's the matter little girl? So the children told him all about it. He turned over in his marble and leaned on one elbow to listen. But when he heard that there were so many dragons, he shook his head. It's no good, he said. They would be one too many for poor old George. You should have waked me before. I was always for a fair fight. One man, one dragon was my motto. Just then a flight of dragons passed overhead and St. George half drew his sword. But he shook his head again and pushed the sword back as the flight of dragons grew small in the distance. I can't do anything, he said. Things have changed since my time. St. Andrew told me about it. They woke him up over the engineer's strike and he came to talk to me. He says everything is done by machinery now. There must be some way of settling these dragons. By the way, what sort of weather have you been having lately? This seemed so careless and unkind that Harry would not answer. But Effie said patiently, it has been very fine. Father says it is the hottest weather there has ever been in this country. Ah, I guessed as much, said the champion thoughtfully. Well, the only thing would be dragons can't stand wet and cold. That's the only thing. If you could find the taps. St. George was beginning to settle down again on his stone slab. Good night, very sorry I can't help you. He said, yawning behind his marble hand. Oh, but you can, cried Effie. Tell us what taps. Oh, like in the bathroom, said St. George, still more sleepily. And there's a looking glass too, shows you all the world and what's going on. St. Dennis told me about it, said it was a very pretty thing. I'm sorry I can't. Good night. And he fell back into his marble and was fast asleep again in a moment. We shall never find the taps, said Harry. I say, wouldn't it be awful if St. George woke up when there was a dragon near, the size that eats champions? Effie pulled off her dragon proof veil. We didn't meet any the size of the dining room as we came along, she said. I dare say we shall be quite safe. So she covered St. George with the veil and Harry rubbed off as much as he could of the dragon poison onto St. George's armor so as to make everything quite safe for him. We might hide in the church till it is dark, he said, and then, but at that moment a dark shadow fell on them and they saw that it was a dragon exactly the size of the dining room at home. So then they knew that all was lost. The dragon swooped down and caught the two children in his claws. He caught Effie by her green silk sash and Harry by the little point at the back of his eaten jacket. And then, spreading his great yellow wings, he rose into the air, rattling like a third class carriage when the break is hard on. Oh, Harry, said Effie, I wonder when he will eat us. The dragon was flying across woods and fields with great flaps of his wings that carried him a quarter of a mile at each flap. Harry and Effie could see the country below, hedges and rivers and churches and farmhouses flowing away from under them, much faster than you see them running away from the sides of the fastest express train. And still the dragon flew on. The children saw other dragons in the air as they went, but the dragon who was as big as the dining room never stopped to speak to any of them but just flew on quite steadily. He knows where he wants to go, said Harry. Oh, if he would only drop us before he gets there. But the dragon held on tight and he flew and flew and flew until at last when the children were quite giddy, he settled down with a rattling of all his scales on the top of a mountain. And he lay there on his great green scaly side, panting and very much out of breath because he had come such a long way. But his claws were fast in Effie's sash and the little point at the back of Harry's eaten jacket. Then Effie took out the knife Harry had given her on her birthday. It had cost only six pints to begin with and she had had it a month and it never could sharpen anything but slate pencils. But somehow she managed to make that knife cut her sash in front and crept out of it leaving the dragon with only a green silk bow in one of his claws. That knife would never have cut Harry's jacket tail off though and when Effie had tried for some time she saw that this was so and gave it up. But with her help, Harry managed to wriggle quietly out of his sleeves so that the dragon had only an eaten jacket in his other claw. Then the children crept on tiptoe to a crack in the rocks and got in. It was much too narrow for the dragon to get in also so they stayed in there and waited to make faces at the dragon when he felt rested enough to sit up and begin to think about eating them. He was very angry indeed when they made faces at him and blew out fire and smoke at them but they ran farther into the cave so that he could not reach them and when he was tired of blowing he went away. But they were afraid to come out of the cave so they went farther in and presently the cave opened out and grew bigger and the floor was soft sand and when they had come to the very end of the cave there was a door and on it was written universal taproom, private, no one allowed inside. So they opened the door at once just to peep in and then they remembered what St. George had said. We can't be worse off than we are, said Harry with a dragon waiting for us outside. Let's go in. They went boldly into the taproom and shut the door behind them. And now they were in a sort of room cut out of the solid rock and all along one side of the room were taps and all the taps were labeled with China labels like you see in baths. And as they could both read words of two syllables or even three sometimes they understood at once that they had gotten to the place where the weather is turned on from. There were six big taps labeled sunshine, wind, rain, snow, hail, ice and a lot of little ones labeled fair to moderate, showery, south breeze nice growing weather for the crops, skating, good open weather, south wind, east wind and so on. And the big tap labeled sunshine was turned full on. They could not see any sunshine. The cave was lighted by a skylight of blue glass. So they supposed the sunlight was pouring out by some other way as it does with the tap that washes out the underneath parts of patent sinks in kitchens. Then they saw that one side of the room was just a big looking glass. And when you looked in it you could see everything that was going on in the world and all at once too which is not like most looking glasses. They saw the carts delivering the dead dragons at the county council offices and they saw St. George asleep under the dragon proof veil and they saw their mother at home crying because her children had gone out in the dreadful, dangerous daylight and she was afraid a dragon had eaten them. And they saw the whole of England like a great puzzle map, green in the field parts and brown in the towns and black in the places where they make coal and crockery and cutlery and chemicals. All over it on the black parts and on the brown and on the green there was a network of green dragons and they could see that it was still broad daylight and no dragons had gone to bed yet. Effie said, dragons do not like cold and she tried to turn off the sunshine but the tap was out of order and that was why there had been so much hot weather and why the dragons had been able to be hatched. So they left the sunshine tap alone and they turned on the snow and left the tap full on while they went to look in the glass. There they saw the dragons running all sorts of ways like ants, if you are cruel enough to pour water into an ant heap which of course you never are. And the snow fell more and more. Then Effie turned the rain tap quite full on and presently the dragons began to wriggle less and by and by some of them lay quite still so the children knew the water had put out the fires inside them and they were dead. So then they turned on the hail only half owned for fear of breaking people's windows and after a while there were no more dragons to be seen moving. Then the children knew that they were indeed the deliverers of their country. They will put up a monument to us said Harry as high as Nelson's, all the dragons are dead. I hope the one that was waiting outside for us is dead said Effie. And about the monument Harry, I'm not so sure what can they do with such a lot of dead dragons? It would take years and years to bury them and they could never be burnt now as they are so soaking wet. I wish the rain would wash them off into the sea. But this did not happen and the children began to feel that they had not been so frightfully clever after all. I wonder what this old thing's for said Harry. He had found a rusty old tap which seemed as though it had not been used for ages. It's China label was quite coated over with dirt and cobwebs. When Effie had cleaned it with a bit of her skirt for curiously enough, both the children had come out without pocket handkerchiefs. She found that the label said, waste. Let's turn it on, she said. It might carry off the dragons. The tap was very stiff from not having been used for such a long time but together they managed to turn it on and then ran to the mirror to see what happened. Already a great round black hole had opened in the very middle of the map of England and the sides of the map were tilting themselves up so that the rain ran down toward the hole. Oh hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! cried Effie and she hurried back to the taps and turned on everything that seemed wet. Showery, good open weather, nice growing weather for the crops and even south and southwest because she had heard her father say that those winds brought rain. And now the floods of rain were pouring down on the country and great sheets of water flowed toward the center of the map and cataracts of water poured into the great round hole in the middle of the map and the dragons were being washed away and disappearing down the waste pipe in great green masses and scattered green shoals, single dragons and dragons by the dozen of all sizes from the ones that carry off elephants down to the ones that get in your tea. Presently there was not a dragon left so then they turned off the tap named waste and they half turned off the one labeled sunshine. It was broken so that they could not turn it off altogether and they turned on fair to moderate and showery and both taps stuck so that they could not be turned off which accounts for our climate. How did they get home again? By the Snowden Railway of course. And was the nation grateful? Well the nation was very wet and by the time the nation had gotten dry again it was interested in the new invention for toasting muffins by electricity and all the dragons were almost forgotten. Dragons do not seem so important when they are dead and gone and you know there never was a reward offered. And what did father and mother say when Effie and Harry got home? My dear that is the sort of silly question new children always will ask. However just for this once I don't mind telling you. Mother said, oh my darlings, my darlings, you're safe, you're safe. You naughty children, how could you be so disobedient? Go to bed at once. And their father the doctor said, I wish I had known what you were going to do. I should have liked to preserve a specimen. I threw away the one I got out of Effie's eye. I intended to get a more perfect specimen. I did not anticipate this immediate extinction of the species. The professor said nothing but he rubbed his hands. He had kept his specimen, the one the size of an earwig that he gave Harry half a crown for. And he has it to this day. You must get him to show it to you. End of chapter three.