Then I found one; then Mary another, and then I still another. It was
truly great sport, this dragon-hunting.
We put them all into the lunch-pail where they lay sullenly on the
bottom, glaring at each other, but not offering to fight, as we rather
hoped they would.
Then, what to do? These dragons in their regular lairs at the bottom
of Lagunita might do a lot of most interesting things, but dredged up
in this summary way and deposited in a strange tin pail in the glaring
light of day, they seemed wholly indisposed to carry on any
performances of dragon for our benefit. So we decided to take them
home, and try to fix up for them a still smaller lakelet than
Lagunita; one, say, in a tub! Then, perhaps, they would feel more at
home and ease, and might do something for us.
So we took them home. And we fixed a tub with sand in the bottom,
water over that, and over the top of the tub a screen of netting that
would let air and sunlight in, but not dragons out. Then we collected
some miscellaneous small water-beasties and a few water-plants, and
put them in, and so really had a very comfortable and home-like place
for the dragons. They seemed to take to it all right; we called our
new lakelet Monday Pond, because of some relation between the tub and
washday, I suppose, and we had very good fun with our dragons for
several weeks. Think of the advantage of having your dragon right at
home! If it is a bad day, or we are lazy, or there may be visitors who
stay too long so there is only a little time for ourselves, how
convenient it is to have a dragon--or indeed a whole brood of
dragons--right in your study. Much better, of course, than to have to
sail to a distant island and tramp through leagues of forest or thorny
bushes or over burning desert or among spouting volcanoes to find your
dragon, as most princes in fairy stories have to do.
I can't, of course, venture to tell you of all the interesting things
that Mary and I saw our dragons do. Two or three will have to do. Or
my publisher will cry, "Cut it short; cut it short, I say." And that
will hurt me, for he is really a most forbearing publisher, and quite
in the way of a friend. The three things shall be, one, eating, and
what with; two, getting a new skin, and why; and third, changing from
an under-water, crawling, squirmy, ugly dragon into an aerial,
whizzing, flashing, dashing, beautiful-winged dragon, and when. Of
course one of the most important things about any dragon is what and
how he eats; and the other most important thing about Mary's and my
special kind of dragon is his remarkable change. This was to us much
more remarkable than having three heads or even getting a new head
every time an old one is cut off, which seems to be rather a usual
habit of fairy-book dragons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account