The Book of Dragons Read Online Free PDF Page B

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 having a present on his birthday. If he gets a nice present he will be in a hurry to take it away and show it to his friends, and he will fly off and never come back.”
    The crowd cheered wildly—and the Princess from her balcony clapped her hands.
    “The present the dragon expects,” said Uncle James, cheerfully, “is rather an expensive one. But, when we give, it should not be in a grudging spirit, especially to visitors. What the dragon wants is a Princess. We have only one Princess, it istrue; 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 teetotum which the elephant was spinning with his little trunk.
    Early in the morning Tom went to the palace. He looked out across the downs—there were hardly any rabbits playing there now—and then he gathered white roses and threw them at the Princess’s window till she woke up and looked out.
    “Come up and kiss me,” she said.
    So Tom climbed up the white rose bush and kissed the Princess through the window, and said:
    “Many happy returns of the day.”
    Then Mary Ann began to cry, and said:
    “Oh, Tom—how can you? When you know quite well—”
    “Oh, don’t,” said Tom. “Why, Mary Ann, my precious, my Princess—what do you think I should be doing while the dragon was getting his birthday present? Don’t cry, my own little Mary Ann! Fido and I have arranged everything. You’ve only got to do as you are told.”
    “Is that all?” said the Princess. “Oh—that’s easy—I’ve often done
that!”
    Then Tom told her what she was to do. And she kissed him again and again. “Oh, you dear, good, clever Tom,” she said; “how glad I am that I gave you Fido. You two have saved me. You dears!”
    The next morning Uncle James put on his best coat and hat and the waistcoat with the gold snakes on it—he was a magician, and he had a bright taste in waistcoats—and he called 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.”
    And the Princess said she would try not to be selfish.
    So presently the cab drew up near the pillar, and therewas the dragon, his ugly purple head shining in the sun, and his ugly purple mouth half open.
    Then Uncle James said, “Good morning, sir. We have brought you a small present for your birthday. We do not like to let such an anniversary go by without some suitable testimonial, especially to one who is a stranger in our midst. Our means are small, but our hearts are large. We have but one Princess, but we give her freely—do we not, my child?”
    The Princess said she supposed so, and the dragon came a little nearer.
    Suddenly a voice cried: “Run!” and there was Tom, and he had brought the Zoological guinea-pig and a pair of Belgian hares with him.
    “Just to see fair,”