When Sabrinetta had done the housework (she did not leave so much as a speck of dust anywhere, even in the corneriest corner of the winding stair) she put on her milk white, silky gown with the moon-daisies worked 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 the tower. "I do hope it wasn't a dragon," said Sabrinetta. The children went by twos and by threes and by tens and by twenties, and the red and blue and yellow and white of their frocks were scattered on the 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 children vanished into the wood, till the mantle of the field was left plain green 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 was broken by shrieks from far off; and, like a many-colored torrent, all the children burst from the wood and rushed, a red and blue and yellow and white wave, across the field, screaming as they ran. Their voices came up to the Princess on her tower, and she heard the words threaded on 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 the Princess heard the gate bang, and the children were out of sight--but on the other side of the field the rose-thorns crackled and smashed in the hedge, and something very large and glaring and horrible trampled the ferns in the ditch for one moment before it hid itself again in the covert of the wood. The Princess went down and told her nurse, and the nurse at once locked the great door of the tower and put the key in her pocket. "Let them take care of themselves," she said, when the Princess begged to be allowed to go out and help to take care of the children. "My business 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 whenever she thought of the children and the fiery dragon. For she knew, of course, that the gates of the town were not dragonproof, and that the dragon could just walk in whenever he liked. The children ran straight to the palace, where the Prince was cracking his hunting whip down at the kennels, and told him what had happened.