This arrangement did not suit Peter. "I will _not_ eat the tails," he screamed, kicking his heels angrily against the rock,--"the tails is made out of nassy old string!" And, I am sorry to say, Peter made a snatch at both chocolate mice and knocked them out of Rudolf's hand. This, of course, made it necessary for Rudolf to box Peter's ears, and a tussle quickly followed, in the middle of which something dreadful happened. The large flat rock they were sitting on gave several queer shakes and heaves and then suddenly rose right up under the three children and threw them head over heels into the air. They were not a bit hurt, but they were very, very much surprised when they scrambled to their feet and saw the rock erect on a long kind of tail it had, glaring at them out of one red angry eye. Ann was the first to recognize it. "Oh, oh," she cried, "it's not a rock at all--it's Betsy's Warming-pan!" The Pan, giving a deep throaty kind of growl, began to shuffle toward them. "I'd like to have the warming of _you_ three," he snarled. "I'll teach you to come sitting on top of me playing your tricks on my rheumatic bones--waking me out of the first good nap I've had in weeks!--I'll fix you--" "We're really very sorry," Ann began. "We didn't mean to sit on you, we thought--" But the Warming-pan did not want to hear what Ann thought. He turned round on her fiercely. "_You're_ the young person," he snapped, "who made the polite remarks about my figure this evening? Eh, didn't you? Can you deny it? Called me old-fashioned and 'country'--said nobody ever used _me_ any more!--I'll teach you to talk about hot-water bottles when _I'm_ through with you!" As he spoke he came closer and closer to Ann, snorting and puffing and glaring at her out of his one terrible eye. Although he was so round and waddled so clumsily, dragging his long tail behind him, his appearance was quite dreadful. He reminded Rudolf of the dragon in Peter's picture-book, and he hastily tried to imagine how Saint George must have felt when defending his princess. Clutching his sword, he thrust himself in front of Ann and bravely faced the Warming-pan. "Run!" he called to the others, "Fly!--and I will fight this monster to the death."