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My Father'due south Dragon – This is the Read Online Version of this wonderful classic story
MY Male parent'Southward DRAGON
STORY BY
RUTH STILES GANNETT
ILLUSTRATIONS Past
RUTH CHRISMAN GANNETT
For My
Father
CONTENTS
| i. | My Father Meets the Cat | 9 | |
| two. | My Male parent Runs Away | 15 | |
| 3. | My Begetter Finds the Island | 22 | |
| four. | My Father Finds the River | 31 | |
| 5. | My Father Meets Some Tigers | 39 | |
| 6. | My Father Meets A Rhinoceros | 48 | |
| 7. | My Male parent Meets A Lion | 56 | |
| 8. | My Begetter Meets A Gorilla | 63 | |
| nine. | My Father Makes A Span | 73 | |
| 10. | My Father Finds the Dragon | 79 |
[9]
Affiliate One
MY Father MEETS THE CAT
I common cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old aisle cat on his street. The true cat was very drippy and uncomfortable so my father said, "Wouldn't yous like to come home with me?"
This surprised the cat—she had never before met anyone who cared nigh old alley cats—merely she said, "I'd be very much obliged if I could sit past a warm furnace, and peradventure have a saucer of milk."
"We accept a very nice furnace to sit by," said my father, "and I'm certain my mother has an extra saucer of milk."
[10]
My male parent and the cat became skilful friends but my father'due south mother was very upset about the cat. She hated cats, particularly ugly one-time aisle cats. "Elmer Lift," she said to my father, "if you think I'yard going[11]to give that cat a saucer of milk, you lot're very wrong. Once you showtime feeding stray aisle cats yous might equally well look to feed every devious in town, and I amnot going to practise it!"
This made my father very lamentable, and he apologized to the cat because his mother had been so rude. He told the cat to stay anyway, and that somehow he would bring her a saucer of milk each solar day. My begetter fed the true cat for three weeks, but 1 day his mother found the true cat's saucer in the cellar and she was extremely angry. She whipped my father and threw the cat out the door, but later on my begetter sneaked out and found the cat. Together they went for a walk in the park and tried to think of nice things to talk nigh. My father said, "When I grow upward I'm going to take an airplane. Wouldn't it be wonderful to fly just anywhere you might think of!"
"Would you like to fly very, very much?" asked the true cat.
"I certainly would. I'd exercise anything if I could wing."
[12]
"Well," said the cat, "If you'd really like to wing that much, I think I know of a sort of a way you lot might get[xiii] to wing while you lot're still a little boy."
"You hateful you know where I could go an airplane?"
"Well, non exactly an plane, but something even better. As y'all tin see, I'm an old cat now, but in my younger days I was quite a traveler. My traveling days are over only last bound I took just ane more trip and sailed to the Isle of Tangerina, stopping at the port of Cranberry. Well, information technology merely then happened that I missed the boat, and while waiting for the next I thought I'd wait around a bit. I was specially interested in a identify chosen Wild Island, which we had passed on our way to Tangerina. Wild Island and Tangerina are joined together by a long string of rocks, simply people never go to Wild Island because information technology's mostly jungle and inhabited by very wild animals. So, I decided to go beyond the rocks and explore information technology for myself. It certainly is an interesting place, simply I saw something there that fabricated me desire to weep."
[xiv]
[15]
Affiliate 2
MY Father RUNS AWAY
"Wild Isle is practically cutting in two by a very wide and dirty river," connected the cat. "This river begins almost one end of the isle and flows into the ocean at the other. At present the animals at that place are very lazy, and they used to hate having to go all the mode around the beginning of this river to get to the other side of the[sixteen] isle. Information technology made visiting inconvenient and mail service deliveries wearisome, particularly during the Christmas blitz. Crocodiles could accept carried passengers and post beyond the river, but crocodiles are very moody, and not the least bit undecayed, and are ever looking for something to eat. They don't care if the animals have to walk around the river, so that'due south just what the animals did for many years."
"Simply what does all this accept to do with airplanes?" asked my father, who thought the cat was taking an awfully long time to explain.
"Be patient, Elmer," said the cat, and she went on with the story. "One day about 4 months before I arrived on Wild Island a babe dragon brutal from a low-flight cloud onto the banking company of the river. He was as well young to wing very well, and besides, he had hobbling i wing quite badly, so he couldn't get back to his cloud. The animals constitute him soon afterward and everybody said, 'Why, this is just exactly what nosotros've needed[17] all these years!' They tied a big rope around his neck and waited for the fly to become well. This was going to end all their crossing-the-river troubles."
"I've never seen a dragon," said my father. "Did yous encounter him? How big is he?"
"Oh, yes, indeed I saw the dragon. In fact, we became bang-up friends," said the cat. "I used to hide in the bushes and talk to him when nobody was effectually. He's[eighteen] not a very big dragon, about the size of a large blackness conduct, although I imagine he's grown quite a fleck since I left. He'southward got a long tail and yellowish and blue stripes. His horn and eyes and the bottoms of his anxiety are bright blood-red, and he has gold-colored wings."
"Oh, how wonderful!" said my father. "What did the animals do with him when his wing got well?"
"They started training him to carry passengers, and even though he is only a baby dragon, they work him all mean solar day and all nighttime too sometimes. They brand him carry loads that are much as well heavy, and if he complains, they twist his wings and beat him. He's e'er tied to a stake on a rope just long enough to go across the river. His only friends are the crocodiles, who say 'Hello' to him one time a week if they don't forget. Really, he'due south the virtually miserable animate being I've e'er come beyond. When I left I promised I'd try to aid him anytime, although I couldn't meet how. The rope around his neck is about the biggest, toughest rope you can imagine,[xix] with so many knots it would take days to untie them all.
"Anyway, when you were talking about airplanes, you gave me a skilful idea. Now, I'm quite sure that if you were able to rescue the dragon, which wouldn't be the least flake easy, he'd let you ride him virtually anywhere, provided yous were squeamish to him, of grade. How about trying information technology?"
"Oh, I'd beloved to," said my male parent, and he was so angry at his mother for being rude to the true cat that he didn't experience the least bit sad about running away from dwelling for a while.
That very afternoon my father and the cat went downward to the docks to meet nigh ships going to the Island of Tangerina. They found out that a ship would be sailing the side by side calendar week, so right abroad they started planning for the rescue of the dragon. The cat was a dandy help in suggesting things for my father to take with him, and she told him everything she knew about Wild Island. Of course, she was besides old to proceed.[20]
Everything had to be kept very hush-hush, so when they found or bought anything to take on the trip they hid information technology behind a rock in the park. The night before my male parent sailed he borrowed his begetter'south knapsack and he and the true cat packed everything very advisedly. He took chewing mucilage, two dozen pink lollipops, a package of prophylactic bands, black rubber boots, a compass, a tooth castor and a tube of tooth paste, vi magnifying glasses, a very sharp jackknife, a comb and a hairbrush, seven pilus ribbons of different colors, an empty grain bag with a label saying "Cranberry," some clean clothes, and enough nutrient to last my father while he was on the send. He couldn't alive on mice, so he took 20-five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and six apples, because that's all the apples he could notice in the pantry.
When everything was packed my father and the cat went down to the docks to the ship. A nighttime watchman was on duty, so while the cat made loud queer noises to distract his attention, my father ran over the gang-[21]plank onto the ship. He went downwardly into the concur and hid amid some bags of wheat. The ship sailed early the next morning.
[22]
Chapter Iii
MY FATHER FINDS THE Island
My father hid in the hold for six days and nights. Twice he was virtually caught when the ship stopped to take on more cargo. Only at last he heard a crewman say that the next port would be Cranberry and that they'd be unloading the wheat at that place. My father knew that the sailors would send him abode if they caught him, then he looked in his knapsack and took out a rubber band and the empty grain bag with the label saying "Cranberry." At the last moment my father got inside the handbag, knapsack and all, folded the elevation of the purse within, and put the rubber band around the top. He didn't await just exactly similar the other bags simply it was the all-time he could do.
[23]
[24]
Before long the sailors came to unload. They lowered a big net into the hold and began moving the bags of wheat. Suddenly i sailor yelled, "Slap-up Scott! This is the queerest purse of wheat I've ever seen! Information technology's all lumpy-like, but the characterization says it'due south to go to Cranberry."
The other sailors looked at the handbag too, and my father, who was in the purse, of grade, tried even harder to look similar a purse of wheat. And so some other crewman felt the handbag and he just happened to get concord of my father's elbow. "I know what this is," he said. "This is a bag of dried corn on the cob," and he dumped my father into the big internet along with the bags of wheat.
This all happened in the late afternoon, so late that the merchant in Cranberry who had ordered the wheat didn't count his numberless until the side by side morning time. (He was a very punctual human being, and never late for dinner.) The sailors told the helm, and the captain wrote downwardly on a piece of paper, that they had delivered ane hundred and sixty numberless of wheat and 1 bag of dried corn on[25] the cob. They left the piece of paper for the merchant and sailed away that evening.
My father heard later that the merchant spent the whole next twenty-four hour period counting and recounting the bags and feeling each one trying to detect the bag of dried corn on the cob. He never found it because as soon as it was nighttime my male parent climbed out of the bag, folded it up and put information technology back in his knapsack. He walked along the shore to a overnice sandy identify and lay downward to sleep.
[26]
My begetter was very hungry when he woke upward the next morning. Simply as he was looking to come across if he had anything left to consume, something hit him on the head. Information technology was a tangerine. He had been sleeping correct under a tree full of large, fat tangerines. And then he remembered that this was the Isle of Tangerina. Tangerine trees grew wild everywhere. My father picked as many as he had room for, which was xxx-one, and started off to find Wild Island.
He walked and walked and walked along the shore, looking for the rocks that joined the ii islands. He walked all solar day, and once when he met a fisherman and asked him near Wild Island, the fisherman began to milk shake and couldn't talk for a long while. It scared him that much, just thinking about it. Finally he said, "Many people have tried to explore Wild Island, but not one has come back alive. We think they were eaten by the wild animals." This didn't bother my father. He kept walking and slept on the beach over again that nighttime.[27]
It was beautifully clear the side by side twenty-four hour period, and way downwardly the shore my begetter could see a long line of rocks leading out into the ocean, and way, way out at the finish he could just see a tiny patch of green. He rapidly ate seven tangerines and started down the beach.
It was almost dark when he came to the rocks, but at that place, fashion out in the sea, was the patch of light-green. He sabbatum down and rested a while, remembering that the true cat had said, "If you lot can, get out to the island at night, because then the wildlife won't meet you lot coming along the rocks and y'all tin hide when you get in that location." So my father picked seven more tangerines, put on his black rubber boots, and waited for nighttime.
Information technology was a very black nighttime and my father could hardly encounter the rocks ahead of him. Sometimes they were quite high and sometimes the waves well-nigh covered them, and they were glace and hard to walk on. Sometimes the rocks were far apart and my father had to get a running get-go and leap from one to the next.[28]
Later on a while he began to hear a rumbling noise. Information technology grew louder and louder as he got nearer to the isle. At concluding it seemed as if he was correct on top of the dissonance, and he was. He had jumped from a stone onto the dorsum of a small whale who was fast asleep and cuddled up between ii rocks. The whale was snoring and making more noise than a steam shovel, then it never heard[29]my father say, "Oh, I didn't know that was you lot!" And it never knew my father had jumped on its dorsum by mistake.
For seven hours my father climbed and slipped and leapt from rock to rock, merely while information technology was still dark he finally reached the very concluding rock and stepped off onto Wild Island.
[30]
[31]
Chapter Four
MY FATHER FINDS THE RIVER
The jungle began just beyond a narrow strip of embankment; thick, night, clammy, scary jungle. My male parent hardly knew where to get, so he crawled under a wahoo bush to recollect, and ate eight tangerines. The first thing to practise, he decided, was to find the river, because the dragon was tied somewhere along its bank. Then he thought, "If the river flows into the ocean, I ought to exist able to find it quite easily if I just walk along the beach far enough." So my father walked until the sun rose and he was quite far from the Body of water Rocks. It was unsafe to stay most them considering they might exist guarded in the daytime. He found a clump of tall grass and saturday down. So he took off his rubber boots and ate[32] three more tangerines. He could take eaten twelve but he hadn't seen any tangerines on this island and he could non hazard running out of something to eat.
My father slept all that solar day and only woke up tardily in the afternoon when he heard a funny little vocalization saying, "Queer, queer, what a dearest little dock! I mean, honey, dear, what a queer little rock!" My father saw a tiny paw rubbing itself on his knapsack. He lay very even so and the mouse, for information technologywas a mouse, hurried abroad muttering to itself, "I must odor tumduddy. I mean, I must tell somebody."
[33]
My begetter waited a few minutes and then started down the beach considering it was nigh night at present, and he was afraid the mouse really would tell somebody. He walked all night and two scary things happened. First, he just had to sneeze, then he did, and somebody close by said, "Is that y'all, Monkey?" My father said, "Yes." Then the voice said, "You must have something on your back, Monkey," and my father said "Yep," because he did. He had his knapsack on his back. "What do you have on your back, Monkey?" asked the voice.
My male parent didn't know what to say because what would a monkey have on its back, and how would it sound telling someone about information technology if it did have something? Just then another voice said, "I bet you're taking your sick grandmother to the physician'due south." My begetter said "Yes" and hurried on. Quite past accident he found out later that he had been talking to a pair of tortoises.
[34]
[36]
The second thing that happened was that he about walked correct between two wild boars who were talking in low solemn whispers. When he first saw the dark shapes he thought they were boulders. Merely in time he heard i of them say, "There are three signs of a recent invasion. First, fresh tangerine peels were found nether the wahoo bush near the Ocean Rocks. Second, a mouse reported an extraordinary stone some distance from the Ocean Rocks which upon further investigation simply wasn't there. Nevertheless, more fresh tangerine peels were found in the aforementioned spot, which is the third sign of invasion. Since tangerines do not abound on our island, somebody must have brought them beyond the Ocean Rocks from the other island, which may, or may non, accept something to practise with the appearance and/or disappearance of the boggling rock reported past the mouse."
Afterward a long silence the other boar said, "You know, I think nosotros're taking all this too seriously. Those peels probably floated over hither all by themselves, and you know how unreliable mice are. Likewise, if there had[37] been an invasion,I would have seen it!"
"Peradventure yous're right," said the first boar. "Shall we retire?" Whereupon they both trundled back into the jungle.
Well, that taught my begetter a lesson, and after that he saved all his tangerine peels. He walked all dark and toward morning came to the river. Then his troubles really began.
[38]
[39]
Chapter Five
MY FATHER MEETS SOME TIGERS
The river was very wide and muddy, and the jungle was very gloomy and dumbo. The trees grew shut to each other, and what room there was between them was taken upwards by great high ferns with sticky leaves. My father hated to get out the beach, simply he decided to start along the river bank where at least the jungle wasn't quite and then thick. He ate three tangerines, making sure to proceed all the peels this time, and put on his rubber boots.
My father tried to follow the river banking concern just it was very swampy, and every bit he went farther the swamp became deeper. When it was almost every bit deep every bit his boot tops he got stuck in the oozy, mucky mud. My father tugged and tugged, and nearly pulled his boots correct[forty] off, but at last he managed to wade to a drier place. Hither the jungle was so thick that he could hardly see where the river was. He unpacked his compass and figured out the direction he should walk in society to stay near the river. Merely he didn't know that the river made a very abrupt bend away from him just a little fashion beyond, so as he walked direct ahead he was getting further and farther away from the river.
It was very hard to walk in the jungle. The glutinous leaves of the ferns defenseless at my father's pilus, and he kept tripping over roots and rotten logs. Sometimes the copse were clumped so closely together that he couldn't clasp between them and had to walk a long manner around.
He began to hear whispery noises, simply he couldn't see whatever animals anywhere. The deeper into the jungle he went the surer he was that something was following him, and then he thought he heard whispery noises on both sides of him as well as behind. He tried to run, but[41] he tripped over more roots, and the noises only came nearer. Once or twice he thought he heard something laughing at him.
At last he came out into a immigration and ran correct into the middle of it so that he could see annihilation that might try to attack him. Was he surprised when he looked and saw fourteen green eyes coming out of the jungle all around the immigration, and when the greenish eyes turned into vii tigers! The tigers walked around him in a large circle, looking hungrier all the time, and so they sat downward and began to talk.
"I suppose you thought we didn't know yous were trespassing in our jungle!"
[42]
So the next tiger spoke. "I suppose you're going to say you lot didn't know it was our jungle!"
"Did y'all know that not 1 explorer has ever left this island alive?" said the third tiger.
My father thought of the true cat and knew this wasn't true. But of course he had too much sense to say so. I doesn't contradict a hungry tiger.[43]
The tigers went on talking in turn. "You're our first lilliputian boy, y'all know. I'm curious to know if yous're specially tender."
"Perchance you think we have regular meal-times, but we don't. We merely eat whenever we're feeling hungry," said the fifth tiger.[44]
"And we're very hungry right at present. In fact, I can hardly wait," said the 6th.
"Ican't wait!" said the seventh tiger.
And so all the tigers said together in a loud roar, "Let'south begin correct now!" and they moved in closer.
My father looked at those seven hungry tigers, and so he had an idea. He quickly opened his knapsack and took out the chewing gum. The cat had told him that tigers were peculiarly addicted of chewing gum,[45] which was very scarce on the island. And then he threw them each a piece simply they but growled, "Equally fond every bit we are of chewing mucilage, we're certain nosotros'd like you even meliorate!" and they moved and then close that he could experience them animate on his face.
"Simply this is very special chewing glue," said my father. "If you proceed on chewing it long plenty it will turn green, and then if you establish it, it will grow more than chewing glue, and the sooner you start chewing the sooner you lot'll have more."
The tigers said, "Why, you don't say! Isn't that fine!" And equally each one wanted to be the starting time to establish the chewing gum, they all unwrapped their pieces and began chewing every bit hard as they could. Every once in a while i tiger would look into some other's oral fissure and say, "Nope, it's non done nonetheless," until finally they were all and then busy looking into each other'south mouths to make sure that no 1 was getting ahead that they forgot all near my father.
[46]
[48]
Chapter Six
MY FATHER MEETS A Rhinoceros
My father soon found a trail leading away from the clearing. All sorts of animals might be using it too, but he decided to follow the trail no matter what he met because it might lead to the dragon. He kept a sharp scout in front and behind and went on.
Just as he was feeling quite safe, he came around a curve right backside the two wild boars. 1 of them was saying to the other, "Did you know that the tortoises thought they saw Monkey carrying his sick grandmother to the physician'southward last night? Merely Monkey's grandmother died a week ago, so they must accept seen something else. I wonder what it was."
"I told you that there was an invasion itinerant," said[49] the other boar, "and I intend to discover out what it is. I just can't stand invasions."
"Nee meither," said a tiny little vocalism. "I mean, me neither," and my father knew that the mouse was at that place, too.
"Well," said the first boar, "you search the trail upwardly this way to the dragon. I'll get back down the other way through the big clearing, and we'll transport Mouse to sentinel the Bounding main Rocks in example the invasion should[50]make up one's mind to go away before we notice it."
My male parent hid behind a mahogany tree only in time, and the first boar walked right past him. My male parent waited for the other boar to become a head start on him, but he didn't wait very long because he knew that when the start boar saw the tigers chewing gum in the clearing, he'd exist fifty-fifty more suspicious.
Soon the trail crossed a lilliputian brook and my begetter, who past this fourth dimension was very thirsty, stopped to get a beverage of water. He nevertheless had on his safety boots, then he waded into a picayune puddle of water and was stooping down when something quite sharp picked him upwards by the seat of the pants and shook him very difficult.
"Don't you know that's my private weeping pool?" said a deep aroused voice.
My father couldn't run across who was talking considering he was hanging in the air correct over the pool, but he said, "Oh, no, I'thou so sorry. I didn't know that everybody had a private weeping pool."
[51]
[52]
"Everybody doesn't!" said the angry voice, "merely I practice because I accept such a large thing to weep most, and I drown everybody I notice using my weeping pool." With that the creature tossed my father up and down over the h2o.
"What—is it—that—y'all—weep about—so much?" asked my father, trying to get his breath, and he thought over all the things he had in his pack.
"Oh, I have many things to cry well-nigh, just the biggest thing is the color of my tusk." My father squirmed every which mode trying to see the tusk, just it was through the seat of his pants where he couldn't peradventure see it. "When I was a immature rhinoceros, my tusk was pearly white," said the creature (and and then my male parent knew that he was hanging by the seat of his pants from a rhinoceros' tusk!), "but it has turned a nasty xanthous-gray in my former historic period, and I find information technology very ugly. You lot see, everything else almost me is ugly, but when I had a beautiful tusk I didn't worry so much about the rest.[53] At present that my tusk is ugly likewise, I can't sleep nights only thinking about how completely ugly I am, and I weep all the time. But why should I be telling you these things? I caught you lot using my pool and at present I'm going to drown yous."
"Oh, wait a minute, Rhinoceros," said my father. "I have some things that will brand your tusk all white and beautiful once again. Merely let me downwardly and I'll requite them to you lot."
The rhino said, "You do? I can hardly believe it! Why, I'm so excited!" He put my male parent down and danced around in a circle while my begetter got out the tube of tooth paste and the toothbrush.
"Now," said my male parent, "just move your tusk a little nearer, please, and I'll prove you how to brainstorm." My begetter moisture the castor in the pool, squeezed on a dab of tooth paste, and scrubbed very hard in one tiny spot. So he told the rhinoceros to wash information technology off, and when the pool was at-home again, he told the rhinoceros to await[54] in the water and see how white the little spot was. It was hard to encounter in the dim low-cal of the jungle, but certain enough, the spot shone pearly white, simply like new. The rhino was so pleased that he grabbed the toothbrush and began scrubbing violently, forgetting all about my begetter.
Simply and so my father heard hoofsteps and he jumped behind the rhinoceros. It was the boar coming back from the big clearing where the tigers were chewing gum. The boar looked at the rhinoceros, and at the toothbrush, and at the tube of tooth paste, and then he scratched his ear on a tree. "Tell me, Rhinoceros," he said, "where did you get that fine tube of molar paste and that toothbrush?"
"Too busy!" said the rhinoceros, and he went on brushing every bit hard as he could.
The boar sniffed angrily and trotted downwards the trail toward the dragon, muttering to himself, "Very suspicious—tigers too busy chewing gum, Rhino too[55] decorated brushing his tusk—must get hold of that invasion. Don't like information technology one bit, non i bit! It'southward upsetting everybody terribly—wonder what it's doing here, anyhow."
[56]
Chapter Seven
MY FATHER MEETS A LION
My father waved farewell to the rhinoceros, who was much likewise decorated to observe, got a drinkable farther down the brook, and waded back to the trail. He hadn't gone very far when he heard an angry animal roaring,[57] "Ding boom it! I told you non to go blackberrying yesterday. Won't y'all always larn? What will your mother say!"
My father crept along and peered into a small-scale clearing just ahead. A lion was prancing about clawing at his mane, which was all snarled and full of blackberry twigs. The more he clawed the worse it became and the madder he grew and the more than he yelled at himself, because it was himself he was yelling at all the time.
My father could run into that the trail went through the clearing, so he decided to crawl around the edge in the underbrush and not disturb the king of beasts.
He crawled and crawled, and the yelling grew louder and louder. Just as he was about to reach the trail on the other side the yelling all of a sudden stopped. My father looked around and saw the lion glaring at him. The panthera leo charged and skidded to a stop a few inches away.
[58]
[59]
"Who are you?" the lion yelled at my begetter.
"My name is Elmer Elevator."
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm going home," said my father.
"That's what you think!" said the king of beasts. "Unremarkably I'd save you for afternoon tea, but I happen to be upset enough and hungry enough to eat you right now." And he picked up my father in his front paws to feel how fat he was.
My male parent said, "Oh, please, King of beasts, earlier you swallow me, tell me why y'all are and so particularly upset today."
"It's my mane," said the lion, as he was figuring how many bites a little boy would make. "You see what a dreadful mess information technology is, and I don't seem to be able to do anything well-nigh information technology. My female parent is coming over on the dragon this afternoon, and if she sees me this style I'm afraid she'll stop my allowance. She tin can't stand messy manes! Just I'm going to eat you at present, so information technology won't make any difference to you lot."[60]
"Oh, look a minute," said my begetter, "and I'll give you just the things you lot demand to make your mane all tidy and beautiful. I accept them here in my pack."
"You practice?" said the king of beasts. "Well, give them to me, and perchance I'll save y'all for afternoon tea subsequently all," and he put my father down on the ground.
My male parent opened the pack and took out the comb and the castor and the seven pilus ribbons of different colors. "Wait," he said, "I'll bear witness you what to do on your forelock, where you can sentry me. First you brush a while, and and so y'all comb, and then you brush once again until all the twigs and snarls are gone. So you divide information technology up in three and braid it like this and tie a ribbon around the end."
As my father was doing this, the lion watched very carefully and began to look much happier. When my father tied on the ribbon he was all smiles. "Oh, that's wonderful, really wonderful!" said the king of beasts. "Let me have the comb and brush and see if I tin practice it." So my[61] begetter gave him the comb and brush and the lion began busily training his mane. As a thing of fact, he was then decorated that he didn't even know when my father left.
[62]
[63]
Chapter Eight
MY Male parent MEETS A GORILLA
My father was very hungry so he sabbatum down under a baby banyan tree on the side of the trail and ate 4 tangerines. He wanted to eat eight or ten, but he had only xiii left and it might be a long time before he could get more than. He packed away all the peels and was about to get upward when he heard the familiar voices of the boars.
"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes, but wait and come across for yourself. All the tigers are sitting around chewing glue to beat the band. Old Rhinoceros is then decorated brushing his tusk that he doesn't even look around to come across who'due south going past, and they're all so busy they won't even talk to me!"[64]
"Horsefeathers!" said the other boar, now very close to my male parent. "They'll talk to me! I'm going to get to the bottom of this if information technology'due south the last thing I do!"
The voices passed my begetter and went around a curve, and he hurried on because he knew how much more than upset the boars would exist when they saw the panthera leo's mane tied up in hair ribbons.
Before long my father came to a crossroads and he stopped to read the signs. Straight alee an arrow pointed to the Get-go of the River; to the left, the Ocean Rocks; and to the correct, to the Dragon[65] Ferry. My male parent was reading all these signs when he heard pawsteps and ducked behind the signpost. A beautiful lioness paraded past and turned down toward the clearings. Although she could have seen my male parent if she had bothered to glance at the post,[66] she was much too occupied looking dignified to see anything but the tip of her own nose. Information technology was the lion's mother, of class, and that, thought my father, must mean that the dragon was on this side of the river. He hurried on only it was further away than he had judged. He finally came to the river bank in the late afternoon and looked all around, but there was no dragon anywhere in sight. He must take gone back to the other side.
My father sabbatum downward nether a palm tree and was trying to have a good idea when something big and black and hairy jumped out of the tree and landed with a loud crash at his feet.
"Well?" said a huge vocalisation.
"Well what?" said my begetter, for which he was very sorry when he looked up and discovered he was talking to an enormous and very vehement gorilla.
"Well, explicate yourself," said the gorilla. "I'll requite you till 10 to tell me your proper name, business, your age[67] and what'southward in that pack," and he began counting to 10 as fast equally he could.
[68]
My father didn't even have time to say "Elmer Lift, explorer" before the gorilla interrupted, "Too slow! I'll twist your arms the way I twist that dragon'due south wings, and then nosotros'll come across if y'all tin can't hurry up a chip." He grabbed my father'southward arms, ane in each fist, and was simply about to twist them when he of a sudden let become and began scratching his breast with both hands.
"Blast those fleas!" he raged. "They won't requite you a moment's peace, and the worst of it is that you lot can't fifty-fifty get a good look at them. Rosie! Rhoda! Rachel! Ruthie! Cherry! Roberta! Come here and get rid of this flea on my chest. It'south driving me crazy!"
Six trivial monkeys tumbled out of the palm tree, dashed to the gorilla, and began combing the hair on his chest.
"Well," said the gorilla, "it'southward still there!"
"We're looking, nosotros're looking," said the six niggling[69] monkeys, "merely they're awfully hard to see, y'all know."
[70]
"I know," said the gorilla, "but bustle. I've got piece of work to do," and he winked at my father.
"Oh, Gorilla," said my father, "in my knapsack I have half dozen magnifying glasses. They'd be just the thing for hunting fleas." My father unpacked them and gave one to Rosie, one to Rhoda, one to Rachel, ane to Ruthie, one to Ruby, and one to Roberta.
[72]
"Why, they're miraculous!" said the six picayune monkeys. "Information technology's easy to run into the fleas now, but there are hundreds of them!" And they went on hunting frantically.
A moment later many more than monkeys appeared out of a nigh-by clump of mangroves and began crowding effectually to get a await at the fleas through the magnifying spectacles. They completely surrounded the gorilla, and he could not meet my father nor did he recall to twist his arms.
[73]
Chapter 9
MY FATHER MAKES A BRIDGE
My father walked back and forth along the banking company trying to remember of some way to cantankerous the river. He found a high flagpole with a rope going over to the other side. The rope went through a loop at the peak of the pole then downwardly the pole and around a large crank. A sign on the crank said:
TO SUMMON DRAGON, YANK THE CRANK
REPORT DISORDERLY CONDUCT
TO GORILLA
From what the cat had told my father, he knew that the other end of the rope was tied around the dragon'south cervix, and he felt sorrier than ever for the poor dragon. If he were on this side, the gorilla would[74] twist his wings until it hurt and then much that he'd have to fly to the other side. If he were on the other side, the gorilla would crank the rope until the dragon would either asphyxiate to death or wing back to this side. What a life for a infant dragon!
My begetter knew that if he called to the dragon to come up across the river, the gorilla would surely hear him, so he idea nigh climbing the pole and going across on the rope. The pole was very high, and even if he could get to the superlative without existence seen he'd accept to get all the way across hand over hand. The river was very muddy, and all sorts of unfriendly things might live in it, only my father could think of no other way to get beyond. He was about to offset upward the pole when, despite all the racket the monkeys were making, he heard a loud splash behind him. He looked all around in the water only it was dusk now, and he couldn't meet anything there.
"It'south me, Crocodile," said a voice to the left. "The[75] water'south lovely, and I have such a craving for something sweet. Won't you come in for a swim?"
A pale moon came out from behind the clouds and my father could see where the voice was coming from. The crocodile's head was just peeping out of the h2o.[76]
"Oh, no thank you," said my father. "I never swim afterwards sundown, but I practice have something sweet to offering you. Perhaps you'd like a lollipop, and perhaps you have friends who would similar lollipops, too?"
"Lollipops!" said the crocodile. "Why, that is a treat! How virtually information technology, boys?"
A whole chorus of voices shouted, "Hurrah! Lollipops!" and my father counted equally many as seventeen crocodiles with their heads merely peeping out of the h2o.
"That's fine," said my begetter as he got out the two dozen pinkish lollipops and the condom bands. "I'll stick 1 here in the bank. Lollipops last longer if yous continue them out of the water, you know. At present, one of you lot can have this 1."
The crocodile who had beginning spoken swam up and tasted it. "Delicious, mighty delicious!" he said.
"Now if you don't mind," said my begetter, "I'll just walk along your dorsum and fasten another lollipop to[77] the tip of your tail with a rubber band. You lot don't mind, do you?"
[78]
"Oh no, not in the least," said the crocodile.
"Tin you get your tail out of the water but a bit?" asked my father.
"Yep, of course," said the crocodile, and he lifted upward his tail. And so my male parent ran along his back and fastened another lollipop with a rubber band.
"Who'southward next?" said my father, and a second crocodile swam up and began sucking on that lollipop.
"At present, y'all gentlemen can save a lot of time if y'all only line up across the river," said my male parent, "and I'll exist forth to give you each a lollipop."
So the crocodiles lined upward right across the river with their tails in the air, waiting for my father to fasten on the rest of the lollipops. The tail of the seventeenth crocodile just reached the other bank.
[79]
Chapter 10
MY FATHER FINDS THE DRAGON
When my male parent was crossing the dorsum of the fifteenth crocodile with two more lollipops to go, the noise of the monkeys suddenly stopped, and he could hear a much bigger noise getting louder every second. So he could hear seven furious tigers and i raging rhinoceros and two seething lions and i ranting gorilla along with countless screeching monkeys, led by two extremely irate wild boars, all yelling, "It's a trick! It'southward a play a joke on! There's an invasion and information technology must exist after our dragon. Impale information technology! Impale it!" The whole crowd stampeded down to the bank.
Equally my father was fixing the seventeenth lollipop for the last crocodile he heard a wild boar scream,[lxxx] "Look, it came this manner! Information technology'southward over there now, see! The crocodiles made a span for it," and just equally my father leapt onto the other bank one of the wild boars jumped onto the back of the start crocodile. My father didn't have a moment to spare.
By now the dragon realized that my begetter was coming to rescue him. He ran out of the bushes and[81] jumped upwardly and down yelling. "Here I am! I'thou right here! Tin you run into me? Hurry, the boar is coming over on the crocodiles, too. They're all coming over! Oh, delight hurry, hurry!" The noise was simply terrific.
My male parent ran up to the dragon, and took out his very sharp jackknife. "Steady, quondam boy, steady. We'll arrive. Just stand up withal," he told the dragon equally he began to saw through the big rope.
By this time both boars, all vii tigers, the 2 lions, the rhinoceros, and the gorilla, along with the countless screeching monkeys, were all on their way across the crocodiles and there was withal a lot of rope to cut through.
"Oh, hurry," the dragon kept saying, and my father once again told him to stand up still.
"If I don't think I tin make it," said my father, "we'll fly over to the other side of the river and I can finish cutting the rope in that location."[82]
[83]
Suddenly the screaming grew louder and madder and my father thought the animals must have crossed the river. He looked effectually, and saw something which surprised and delighted him. Partly because he had finished his lollipop, and partly considering, equally I told you earlier, crocodiles are very moody and not the to the lowest degree bit dependable and are always looking for something to swallow, the first crocodile had turned away from the depository financial institution and started swimming down the river. The 2d crocodile hadn't finished however, so he followed correct after the beginning, still sucking his lollipop. All the rest did the same affair, 1 right after the other, until they were all swimming away in a line. The ii wild boars, the seven tigers, the rhino, the two lions, the gorilla, forth with the endless screeching monkeys, were all riding downward the center of the river on the railroad train of crocodiles sucking pink lollipops, and all yelling and screaming and getting their anxiety wet.[84]
[85]
[86]
My male parent and the dragon laughed themselves weak because it was such a silly sight. As soon every bit they had recovered, my male parent finished cutting the rope and the dragon raced around in circles and tried to plow a somersault. He was the most excited baby dragon that ever lived. My male parent was in a hurry to wing abroad, and when the dragon finally calmed down a bit my father climbed upwardly onto his back.
"All aboard!" said the dragon. "Where shall nosotros get?"
"We'll spend the night on the beach, and tomorrow we'll kickoff on the long journey dwelling house. So, information technology's off to the shores of Tangerina!" shouted my father every bit the dragon soared above the dark jungle and the muddy river and all the animals bellowing at them and all the crocodiles licking pink lollipops and grinning wide grins. Subsequently all, what did the crocodiles intendance almost a way to cross the river, and what a fine feast they were carrying on their backs![87]
Equally my father and the dragon passed over the Sea Rocks they heard a tiny excited voice scream, "Bum cack! Bum cack! We dreed our nagon! I mean, we demand our dragon!"
But my begetter and the dragon knew that nothing in the world would always make them go dorsum to Wild Island.
THE Stop
Source: http://freekidsbooks.org/fathers-dragon-read-online-version/
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