The Book of Dragons, by Edith Nesbit
Title: The Book of Dragons Author: Edith Nesbit Illustrator: H. R. Millar
H. Granville Fell
Release Date: November 29, 2007 [EBook #23661] Language: English
*** THE BOOK OF DRAGONS ***
Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at
The Book of
DRAGONS E. Nesbit
With illustrations by
H. R. Millar
Decorations by
H. Granville Fell
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC. Mineola, New York
[v]
Contents
PAGE
I. The Book of Beasts 1
II. Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger 19
1
III. The Deliverers of Their Country 39
IV. The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told 57
V. The Island of the Nine Whirlpools 79
VI. The Dragon Tamers 99
VII. The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold 119
VIII. Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice 139 [vii]
List of Illustrations
The Book of Dragons frontispiece
The Book of Beasts page 1
"The dragon flew away across the garden." page 9
"The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office." page 14
Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger page 19 "By-and-by he began to wander." page 30 "The dragon ran after her." page 36
The Deliverers of Their Country page 39
"The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off." page 44
"He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class carriage." page 51
The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told page 57 "Sure enough, it was a dragon." page 69 "The dwarfs seized the children." page 73
The Island of the Nine Whirlpools page 79
"The lone tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools." page 89 [viii]"Little children play around him and over him." page 97
The Dragon Tamers page 99
"The dragon's purring pleased the baby." page 107
"He brought something in his mouth--it was a bag of gold." page 117
The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold page 119
"The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'" page 130 "They saw a cloud of steam." page 136
Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice page 139
"Creeping across the plain." page 148 "That smells good, eh?" page 153 [ix]
To Rosamund,
chief among those for whom these tales are told, The Book of Dragons is dedicated
in the confident hope
that she, one of these days, will dedicate a book of her very own making
to the one who now bids eight dreadful dragons crouch in all humbleness at those little brown feet. The Book of
DRAGONS [1]
[3]
I. The Book of Beasts
He happened to be building a Palace when the news came, and he left all the bricks kicking about the floor for Nurse to clear
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up--but then the news was rather remarkable news. You see, there was a knock at the front door and voices talking downstairs, and Lionel thought it was the man come to see about the gas, which had not been allowed to be lighted since the day when Lionel made a swing by tying his skipping rope to the gas bracket.
And then, quite suddenly, Nurse came in and said, "Master Lionel, dear, they've come to fetch you to go and be King."
Then she made haste to change his smock and to wash his face and hands and brush his hair, and all the time she was doing it Lionel kept wriggling and fidgeting and saying, "Oh, don't, Nurse," and, "I'm sure my ears are quite clean," or, "Never mind my hair, it's all right," and, "That'll do."
"You're going on as if you was going to be an eel instead of a King," said Nurse.
The minute Nurse let go for a moment Lionel bolted off without waiting for his clean handkerchief, and in the drawing room there were two very grave-looking gentlemen in red robes with fur, and gold coronets with velvet sticking up out of the middle like the cream in the very expensive jam tarts.
They bowed low to Lionel, and the gravest one said: "Sire, your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, the[4] King of this country, is dead, and now you have got to come and be King."
"Yes, please, sir," said Lionel, "when does it begin?"
"You will be crowned this afternoon," said the grave gentleman who was not quite so grave-looking as the other.
"Would you like me to bring Nurse, or what time would you like me to be fetched, and hadn't I better put on my velvet suit with the
lace collar?" said Lionel, who had often been out to tea.
"Your Nurse will be removed to the Palace later. No, never mind about changing your suit; the Royal robes will cover all that up."
The grave gentlemen led the way to a coach with eight white horses, which was drawn up in front of the house where Lionel lived. It was No. 7, on the left-hand side of the street as you go up.
Lionel ran upstairs at the last minute, and he kissed Nurse and said: "Thank you for washing me. I wish I'd let you do the other ear.
No--there's no time now. Give me the hanky. Good-bye, Nurse."
"Good-bye, ducky," said Nurse. "Be a good little King now, and say 'please' and 'thank you,' and remember to pass the cake to the little girls, and don't have more than two helps of anything."
So off went Lionel to be made a King. He had never expected to be a King any more than you have, so it was all quite new to him-- so new that he had never even thought of it. And as the coach went through the town he had to bite his tongue to be quite sure it was real, because if his tongue was real it showed he wasn't dreaming. Half an hour before he had been building with bricks in the nursery; and now--the streets were all fluttering with flags; every window was crowded with people waving handkerchiefs and scattering flowers; there were scarlet soldiers everywhere along the pavements, and all the bells of all the churches were ringing like mad, and like a great song to the music of their ringing he heard thou[5]sands of people shouting, "Long live Lionel! Long live our little King!"
He was a little sorry at first that he had not put on his best clothes, but he soon forgot to think about that. If he had been a girl he
would very likely have bothered about it the whole time.
As they went along, the grave gentlemen, who were the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, explained the things which Lionel did not understand.
"I thought we were a Republic," said Lionel. "I'm sure there hasn't been a King for some time."
"Sire, your great-great-great-great-great-grandfather's death happened when my grandfather was a little boy," said the Prime Minister, "and since then your loyal people have been saving up to buy you a crown--so much a week, you know, according to people's means--sixpence a week from those who have first-rate pocket money, down to a halfpenny a week from those who haven't so much. You know it's the rule that the crown must be paid for by the people."
3
"But hadn't my great-great-however-much-it-is-grandfather a crown?"