The Book of Dragons - The Original Classic Edition. Nesbit Edith

       He went straight home and told his little elephant; and the elephant cheered him up so much that presently the two grew quite ab-sorbed in a top that 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[33] 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 rosebush 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 vest with the gold snakes on it--he was a magician, and he had a bright taste in vests--and he called with a cab to take the Princess out.

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       "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." The Princess said she would try not to be selfish.

       Presently the cab drew up near the pillar, and there was the dragon, his ugly purple head shining in the sun, and his ugly purple mouth half open.

       Uncle James said: "Good morning, sir. We have brought you a small present for your birthday. We do not like to let such an an-niversary go by without some suitable[34] 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," said Tom.

       Uncle James was furious. "What do you mean, sir," he cried, "by intruding on a State function with your common rabbits and things? Go away, naughty little boy, and play with them somewhere else."

       But while he was speaking the rabbits had come up one on each side of him, their great sides towering ever so high, and now they pressed him between them so that he was buried in their thick fur and almost choked. The Princess, meantime, had run to the other side of the pillar and was peeping around it to see what was going on. A crowd had followed the cab out of the town; now they reached the scene of the "State Function"--and they all cried out: "Fair play--play fair! We can't go back on our word like this. Give a thing and take a thing? Why, it's never done. Let the poor exiled stranger dragon have his birthday present." And they tried to get at Tom--but the guinea pig stood in the way.

       "Yes," Tom cried. "Fair play is a jewel. And your helpless exile shall have the Princess--if he can catch her. Now then, Mary Ann." Mary Ann looked around the big pillar and called to the dragon: "Bo! you can't catch me," and began to run as fast as ever she could,

       and the dragon ran after her. When the Princess had run a half mile she stopped, dodged around a tree, and ran back to the pillar

       and around it, and the dragon after her. You see, he was so long he could not turn as quickly as she could. Around and around the pillar ran the Princess. The first time she ran around a long way from the pillar, and then nearer and nearer--with the[35] dragon after her all the time; and he was so busy trying to catch her that he never noticed that Tom had tied the very end of his long, tight, whipcordy tail to the rock, so that the more the dragon ran around, the more times he twisted his tail around the pillar. It was exactly like winding a top--only the peg was the pillar, and the dragon's tail was the string. And the magician was safe between the Belgian hares, and couldn't see anything but darkness, or do anything but choke.

       When the dragon was wound onto the pillar as much as he possibly could be, and as tight--like cotton on a reel--the Princess

       stopped running, and though she had very little breath left, she managed to say, "Yah--who's won now?"

       This annoyed the dragon so much that he put out all his strength--spread his great purple wings, and tried to fly at her. Of course this pulled his tail, and pulled it very hard, so hard that as he pulled the tail had to come, and the pillar had to come around with the tail, and the island had to come around with the pillar, and in another minute the tail was loose, and the island was spinning around exactly like a top. It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held on tight to themselves, because they felt something was going to happen. All but the magician, who was choking between the Belgian hares, and felt nothing but fur and fury.