Opening, part 4 · page 21 2101The Princess said she would try not to be selfish.102Presently 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.103Uncle James said: "Good morning, sir.104We have brought you a small present for your birthday.105We do not like to let such an anniversary go by without some suitable testimonial, especially to one who is a stranger in our midst.106Our means are small, but our hearts are large.107We have but one Princess, but we give her freely--do we not, my child?"108The Princess said she supposed so, and the dragon came a little nearer.109Suddenly a voice cried: "Run!" and there was Tom, and he had brought the Zoological guinea pig and a pair of Belgian hares with him. "110Just to see fair," said Tom.111Uncle James was furious. "112What do you mean, sir," he cried, "by intruding on a State function with your common rabbits and things?113Go away, naughty little boy, and play with them somewhere else."114But 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.115The Princess, meantime, had run to the other side of the pillar and was peeping around it to see what was going on.116A 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!117We can't go back on our word like this.118Give a thing and take a thing?119Why, it's never done.120Let the poor exiled stranger dragon have his birthday present."121And they tried to get at Tom--but the guinea pig stood in the way.122"Yes," Tom cried. "123Fair play is a jewel.124And your helpless exile shall have the Princess--if he can catch her.125Now then, Mary Ann."126Mary 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.127When 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.128You see, he was so long he could not turn as quickly as she could.129Around and around the pillar ran the Princess.130The first time she ran around a long way from the pillar, and then nearer and nearer--with the 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.131It was exactly like winding a top--only the peg was the pillar, and the dragon's tail was the string.132And the magician was safe between the Belgian hares, and couldn't see anything but darkness, or do anything but choke.133When 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?"134This annoyed the dragon so much that he put out all his strength--spread his great purple wings, and tried to fly at her.135Of 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.136It spun so fast that everyone fell flat on their faces and held on tight to themselves, because they felt something was going to happen.137All but the magician, who was choking between the Belgian hares, and felt nothing but fur and fury.138And something did happen.139The dragon had sent the kingdom of Rotundia spinning the way it ought to have gone at the beginning of the world, and as it spun around, all the animals began to change sizes.140The guinea pigs got small, and the elephants got big, and the men and women and children would have changed sizes too, if they had not had the sense to hold on to themselves, very tight indeed, with both hands; which, of course, the animals could not be expected to know how to do.141And the best of it was that when the small beasts got big and the big beasts got small the dragon got small too, and fell at the Princess's feet--a little, crawling, purple newt with wings.1 2← previousOpening, part 3next →Opening, part 5↑ back to The Book of DragonsThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/4/page/2/