Opening, part 5 · page 21 2101Only they did not like to disobey their mother.102But one morning their mother was busy preparing some new dragon poison to lay down in the cellars, and their father was bandaging the hand of the boot boy, which had been scratched by one of the dragons who liked to eat Prime Ministers when they were to be had, so nobody remembered to say to the children: "Don't get up till it is quite dark!"103"Go now," said Harry. "104It would not be disobedient to go.105And I know exactly what we ought to do, but I don't know how we ought to do it."106"What ought we to do?" said Effie.107"We ought to wake St. George, of course," said Harry. "108He was the only person in his town who knew how to manage dragons; the people in the fairy tales don't count.109But St. George is a real person, and he is only asleep, and he is waiting to be waked up.110Only nobody believes in St. George now.111I heard father say so."112"We do," said Effie.113"Of course we do.114And don't you see, Ef, that's the very reason why we could wake him?115You can't wake people if you don't believe in them, can you?"116Effie said no, but where could they find St. George?117"We must go and look," said Harry boldly. "118You shall wear a dragonproof frock, made of stuff like the curtains.119And I will smear myself all over with the best dragon poison, and--"120Effie clasped her hands and skipped with joy and cried: "Oh, Harry!121I know where we can find St. George!122In St. George's Church, of course."123"Um," said Harry, wishing he had thought of it for himself, "you have a little sense sometimes, for a girl."124So the next afternoon, quite early, long before the beams of sunset announced the coming night, when everybody would be up and working, the two children got out of bed.125Effie wrapped herself in a shawl of dragonproof muslin--there was no time to make the frock--and Harry made a horrid mess of himself with the patent dragon poison.126It was warranted harmless to infants and invalids, so he felt quite safe.1 2← previousOpening, part 4next →Opening, part 6↑ back to The Book of DragonsThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/5/page/2/