The Dragon MEGAPACK ®. Kenneth Grahame

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СКАЧАТЬ the top of this tree there is a chaffinch’s nest; tell me how many eggs there are in it.”

      The star-gazer took his glass, looked up, and said, “Five.”

      “Now,” said the father to the eldest son, “take away the eggs without letting the bird that is sitting upon them and hatching them know anything of what you are doing.”

      So the cunning thief climbed up the tree, and brought away to his father the five eggs from under the bird; and it never saw or felt what he was doing, but kept sitting on at its ease. Then the father took the eggs, and put one on each corner of the table, and the fifth in the middle, and said to the huntsman, “Cut all the eggs in two pieces at one shot.”

      The huntsman took up his bow, and at one shot struck all the five eggs as his father wished.

      “Now comes your turn,” said he to the young tailor; “sew the eggs and the young birds in them together again, so neatly that the shot shall have done them no harm.”

      Then the tailor took his needle, and sewed the eggs as he was told; and when he had done, the thief was sent to take them back to the nest, and put them under the bird without its knowing it. Then she went on sitting, and hatched them: and in a few days they crawled out, and had only a little red streak across their necks, where the tailor had sewn them together.

      “Well done, sons!” said the old man; “you have made good use of your time, and learnt something worth the knowing; but I am sure I do not know which ought to have the prize. Oh, that a time might soon come for you to turn your skill to some account!”

      Not long after this there was a great bustle in the country; for the king’s daughter had been carried off by a mighty dragon, and the king mourned over his loss day and night, and made it known that whoever brought her back to him should have her for a wife.

      Then the four brothers said to each other, “Here is a chance for us; let us try what we can do.” And they agreed to see whether they could not set the princess free.

      “I will soon find out where she is, however,” said the star-gazer, as he looked through his glass; and he soon cried out, “I see her afar off, sitting upon a rock in the sea, and I can spy the dragon close by, guarding her.”

      Then he went to the king, and asked for a ship for himself and his brothers; and they sailed together over the sea, till they came to the right place. There they found the princess sitting, as the star-gazer had said, on the rock; and the dragon was lying asleep, with his head upon her lap.

      “I dare not shoot at him,” said the huntsman, “for I should kill the beautiful young lady also.”

      “Then I will try my skill,” said the thief, and went and stole her away from under the dragon, so quietly and gently that the beast did not know it, but went on snoring.

      Then away they hastened with her full of joy in their boat towards the ship; but soon came the dragon roaring behind them through the air; for he awoke and missed the princess. But when he got over the boat, and wanted to pounce upon them and carry off the princess, the huntsman took up his bow and shot him straight through the heart so that he fell down dead. They were still not safe; for he was such a great beast that in his fall he overset the boat, and they had to swim in the open sea upon a few planks. So the tailor took his needle, and with a few large stitches put some of the planks together; and he sat down upon these, and sailed about and gathered up all pieces of the boat; and then tacked them together so quickly that the boat was soon ready, and they then reached the ship and got home safe.

      When they had brought home the princess to her father, there was great rejoicing; and he said to the four brothers, “One of you shall marry her, but you must settle amongst yourselves which it is to be.”

      Then there arose a quarrel between them; and the star-gazer said, “If I had not found the princess out, all your skill would have been of no use; therefore she ought to be mine.”

      “Your seeing her would have been of no use,” said the thief, “if I had not taken her away from the dragon; therefore she ought to be mine.”

      “No, she is mine,” said the huntsman; “for if I had not killed the dragon, he would, after all, have torn you and the princess into pieces.”

      “And if I had not sewn the boat together again,” said the tailor, “you would all have been drowned, therefore she is mine.”

      Then the king put in a word, and said, “Each of you is right; and as all cannot have the young lady, the best way is for none of you to have her: for the truth is, there is somebody she likes a great deal better. But to make up for your loss, I will give each of you, as a reward for his skill, a quarter of a kingdom.”

      So the brothers agreed that this plan would be much better than either quarrelling or marrying a lady who had no mind to have them. And the king then gave to each a quarter of a kingdom, as he had said; and they lived very happily the rest of their days, and took good care of their father; and somebody took better care of the young lady, than to let either the dragon or one of the craftsmen have her again.

      THE FIFTY-FIRST DRAGON, by Heywood Broun

      Of all the pupils at the knight school Gawaine le Cœur-Hardy was among the least promising. He was tall and sturdy, but his instructors soon discovered that he lacked spirit. He would hide in the woods when the jousting class was called, although his companions and members of the faculty sought to appeal to his better nature by shouting to him to come out and break his neck like a man. Even when they told him that the lances were padded, the horses no more than ponies and the field unusually soft for late autumn, Gawaine refused to grow enthusiastic. The Headmaster and the Assistant Professor of Pleasaunce were discussing the case one spring afternoon and the Assistant Professor could see no remedy but expulsion.

      “No,” said the Headmaster, as he looked out at the purple hills which ringed the school, “I think I’ll train him to slay dragons.”

      “He might be killed,” objected the Assistant Professor.

      “So he might,” replied the Headmaster brightly, but he added, more soberly, “we must consider the greater good. We are responsible for the formation of this lad’s character.”

      “Are the dragons particularly bad this year?” interrupted the Assistant Professor. This was characteristic. He always seemed restive when the head of the school began to talk ethics and the ideals of the institution.

      “I’ve never known them worse,” replied the Headmaster. “Up in the hills to the south last week they killed a number of peasants, two cows and a prize pig. And if this dry spell holds there’s no telling when they may start a forest fire simply by breathing around indiscriminately.”

      “Would any refund on the tuition fee be necessary in case of an accident to young Cœur Hardy?”

      “No,” the principal answered, judicially, “that’s all covered in the contract. But as a matter of fact he won’t be killed. Before I send him up in the hills I’m going to give him a magic word.”

      “That’s a good idea,” said the Professor. “Sometimes they work wonders.”

      From that day on Gawaine specialized in dragons. His course included both theory and practice. In the morning there were long lectures on the history, anatomy, manners and customs of dragons. Gawaine did not distinguish himself in these studies. He had a marvelously versatile gift for forgetting things. СКАЧАТЬ