Seven-Day Magic Read Online Free PDF

they saw its scaly scarlet sides and its hideous hungry jaws and its calamitous wreathing tail, and their hearts sank.
    "Don't just stand there.
Do
something!" Fredericka called to her friends and relations, from the dragon's grasp.
    Susan roused herself. "I will," she said. And she handed the book to the round gentleman.
    If you have understood about the book so far, you will know that for each person its power was different, because to each person it was the particular book that person had always longed to find.
    So that while for the five children it was a magic story with them
in
it, for the round gentleman it was something else again.
    "
'Wishful Ways for Wizards
!'" he read, from the title page. "Why, this is wonderful! If I'd had this when I was in vaudeville, I needn't have retired in the first place!" He turned the book's pages, sampling its contents. "'How to Turn Day to Night,' 'How to Tell Chalk from Cheese,' 'One Hundred Easy Card Tricks'!" he read.
    "Don't just
skim
! Find the right place!" called the captive Fredericka.
    "To be sure," said the round gentleman shamefacedly. "I was forgetting. 'How to Shrink a Dragon.' I'm sure I saw it here somewhere. Now
where...?
" He leafed through the pages.
    "Oh, for pity's sake let me!" said Mrs. Funkhouser, taking the book from him. But of course once in her housewifely hands, the book was a book of another color.
    "
'Helpful Hints for Homemakers
,'" she read. "'You take your skillet...'"
    The dragon, annoyed at this interruption, glared in her direction, and its gaze fell upon the book's title.
    "That isn't what it says," said the dragon. "It says, '
Dreadful Deeds for Dragons
.' And I want it!" It set Fredericka down, keeping one claw on her for safekeeping, and stretched its other claw toward Mrs. Funkhouser.
    "Don't look at
me,
you nasty creature, don't!" said Mrs. Funkhouser, snatching the book away. "Oh, you would, would you?" she added, as the dragon shot out an angry tongue of flame and a cloud of smoke. She consulted the book. "'To put out an oven fire, use salt,'" she read. "That ought to do it. Fetch the salt, somebody."
    John ran into the house.
    "Stop interfering," said the dragon. "Do I have to eat you, too? Oh, very well!" And it opened its cavernous mouth.
    Then it hesitated. Mrs. Funkhouser looked as if she would be all gristle. Fredericka undoubtedly would prove more toothsome. Should he save her till last or eat her first, as an appetizer?
    But he who hesitates is often lost.
    While the dragon was making up its mind, John came running out of the house with the salt box, and Mrs. Funkhouser shook it full in the dragon's face.
    There was a hissing sound, and the dragon's fire went out.
    I have heard it said that when a dragon's fire is put out, the dragon is rendered harmless. This is not true. Because what / say is, what about the teeth? They would still be there, fire or no fire. In this case they were, and the dragon now showed all of them in a snarl of fury.
    At the same time, having its fire put out hurts a dragon's pride and lowers it in its own esteem. And since a dragon's belief in itself is part of a dragon's power, it is lowered in the public eye, also. In this case by about ten feet. It had been a forty-foot dragon to start with; so the change made quite a difference.
    The crowd cheered.
    The dragon trembled with rage and frustration and snapped at Mrs. Funkhouser. But it was not yet used to its new size, and its coordination was poor. So was its aim.
    "Bite
me,
would you?" said Mrs. Funkhouser, dodging it easily. She consulted the book again. "'For bites, stings, et cetera, use household ammonia,'" she read.
    Barnaby did not wait to be asked but went rushing into the house.
    "This is undignified," said the dragon. "Either get a sword and fight me properly, or withdraw from the combat!"
    Mrs. Funkhouser did not deign to answer. Barnaby was back by now with the bottle from under the sink, and she took it from him and emptied it in the general