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My Father's Dragon – This is the Read Online Version of this wonderful classic story

MY FATHER'S DRAGON

STORY BY

RUTH STILES GANNETT

ILLUSTRATIONS Past

RUTH CHRISMAN GANNETT

For My

Male parent

1.	My Begetter Meets the Cat	ix
two.	My Father Runs Away	15
three.	My Male parent Finds the Island	22
4.	My Begetter Finds the River	31
five.	My Begetter Meets Some Tigers	39
6.	My Father Meets A Rhinoceros	48
7.	My Father Meets A Lion	56
viii.	My Father Meets A Gorilla	63
nine.	My Father Makes A Bridge	73
10.	My Father Finds the Dragon	79

[ix]

Affiliate 1

MY FATHER MEETS THE True cat

Ane cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an sometime alley cat on his street. The cat was very drippy and uncomfortable so my father said, "Wouldn't y'all like to come up dwelling with me?"

This surprised the cat—she had never earlier met anyone who cared about old alley cats—but she said, "I'd be very much obliged if I could sit by a warm furnace, and perhaps take a saucer of milk."

"We accept a very nice furnace to sit by," said my father, "and I'grand certain my female parent has an extra saucer of milk."

[10]

My father and the cat became skillful friends only my begetter's mother was very upset about the cat. She hated cats, specially ugly onetime aisle cats. "Elmer Elevator," she said to my father, "if you think I'm going[11]to give that cat a saucer of milk, you're very wrong. In one case you start feeding stray alley cats yous might equally well await to feed every stray in town, and I amnon going to do it!"

This fabricated my father very deplorable, and he apologized to the cat considering his female parent had been and so rude. He told the true cat to stay anyhow, and that somehow he would bring her a saucer of milk each twenty-four hours. My father fed the true cat for three weeks, but one 24-hour interval his mother establish the 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 father sneaked out and found the cat. Together they went for a walk in the park and tried to think of nice things to talk about. My male parent said, "When I grow up I'm going to have an airplane. Wouldn't it be wonderful to fly just anywhere y'all might think of!"

"Would y'all like to wing very, very much?" asked the cat.

"I certainly would. I'd do anything if I could fly."

[12]

"Well," said the cat, "If y'all'd really like to fly that much, I think I know of a sort of a fashion you might get[thirteen] to fly while you're however a little boy."

"Yous mean you know where I could get an airplane?"

"Well, not exactly an aeroplane, but something even better. Every bit you can encounter, I'yard an old true cat at present, but in my younger days I was quite a traveler. My traveling days are over merely last spring I took just i more than trip and sailed to the Isle of Tangerina, stopping at the port of Cranberry. Well, it just and so happened that I missed the boat, and while waiting for the next I idea I'd wait around a bit. I was specially interested in a place called Wild Island, which nosotros had passed on our way to Tangerina. Wild Island and Tangerina are joined together by a long string of rocks, but people never get to Wild Island considering information technology'south generally jungle and inhabited by very wild animals. So, I decided to go across the rocks and explore it for myself. It certainly is an interesting place, only I saw something there that fabricated me want to weep."

[fourteen]

[15]

Chapter Ii

MY Father RUNS Abroad

"Wild Island is practically cut in two by a very broad and muddy river," continued the true cat. "This river begins almost 1 stop of the island and flows into the ocean at the other. At present the animals there are very lazy, and they used to hate having to go all the mode effectually the starting time of this river to get to the other side of the[16] island. It made visiting inconvenient and post deliveries wearisome, especially during the Christmas blitz. Crocodiles could have carried passengers and mail beyond the river, simply 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's merely what the animals did for many years."

"But what does all this have to practise with airplanes?" asked my father, who idea the cat was taking an awfully long time to explicate.

"Be patient, Elmer," said the cat, and she went on with the story. "One day almost four months before I arrived on Wild Island a baby dragon fell from a depression-flight cloud onto the bank of the river. He was too young to fly very well, and too, he had bruised one wing quite desperately, so he couldn't go back to his cloud. The animals found him soon afterward and everybody said, 'Why, this is just exactly what we've needed[17] all these years!' They tied a big rope effectually his neck and waited for the wing to get well. This was going to end all their crossing-the-river troubles."

"I've never seen a dragon," said my male parent. "Did you lot run into him? How big is he?"

"Oh, yes, indeed I saw the dragon. In fact, we became great friends," said the cat. "I used to hide in the bushes and talk to him when nobody was around. He's[xviii] not a very big dragon, about the size of a big black bear, although I imagine he's grown quite a bit since I left. He'due south got a long tail and yellowish and bluish stripes. His horn and eyes and the bottoms of his feet are bright scarlet, and he has gilded-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 deport passengers, and even though he is only a baby dragon, they work him all day and all nighttime too sometimes. They make him carry loads that are much likewise heavy, and if he complains, they twist his wings and beat him. He'southward always tied to a stake on a rope but long enough to go beyond the river. His only friends are the crocodiles, who say 'Howdy' to him one time a week if they don't forget. Really, he'southward the well-nigh miserable beast I've ever see. When I left I promised I'd try to help him someday, although I couldn't see how. The rope effectually his neck is about the biggest, toughest rope you tin can imagine,[19] with and so many knots it would have days to untie them all.

"Anyway, when you were talking nearly airplanes, you gave me a skillful idea. At present, I'grand quite sure that if y'all were able to rescue the dragon, which wouldn't exist the least chip easy, he'd let you ride him most anywhere, provided y'all were prissy to him, of course. How well-nigh trying it?"

"Oh, I'd love to," said my father, and he was and so angry at his female parent for being rude to the cat that he didn't experience the least bit sad about running away from domicile for a while.

That very afternoon my father and the true cat went down to the docks to see about ships going to the Island of Tangerina. They found out that a ship would be sailing the next week, then correct abroad they started planning for the rescue of the dragon. The true cat was a great help in suggesting things for my male parent to have with him, and she told him everything she knew well-nigh Wild Island. Of grade, she was as well old to go along.[20]

Everything had to be kept very cloak-and-dagger, and then when they found or bought anything to take on the trip they hid it behind a rock in the park. The night earlier my father sailed he borrowed his father's knapsack and he and the cat packed everything very carefully. He took chewing gum, two dozen pink lollipops, a packet of prophylactic bands, black rubber boots, a compass, a tooth castor and a tube of molar paste, vi magnifying glasses, a very precipitous jackknife, a comb and a hairbrush, vii hair ribbons of different colors, an empty grain bag with a label maxim "Cranberry," some clean clothes, and enough nutrient to last my father while he was on the ship. He couldn't alive on mice, so he took xx-five peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and vi apples, because that'south all the apples he could find in the pantry.

When everything was packed my father and the cat went downward to the docks to the send. A night watchman was on duty, so while the cat made loud queer noises to distract his attending, my begetter ran over the gang-[21]plank onto the ship. He went down into the concur and hid amongst some numberless of wheat. The ship sailed early the adjacent morning.

[22]

Chapter 3 MY Father FINDS THE ISLAND

My male parent hid in the concord for half dozen days and nights. Twice he was nigh caught when the ship stopped to take on more cargo. Only at last he heard a sailor say that the next port would be Cranberry and that they'd exist unloading the wheat in that location. My begetter knew that the sailors would transport him habitation if they caught him, so he looked in his knapsack and took out a rubber band and the empty grain handbag with the label saying "Cranberry." At the final moment my begetter got inside the pocketbook, knapsack and all, folded the top of the pocketbook inside, and put the prophylactic band around the top. He didn't wait merely exactly like the other numberless merely it was the all-time he could practise.

[23]

[24]

Soon the sailors came to unload. They lowered a large net into the hold and began moving the bags of wheat. Of a sudden one sailor yelled, "Great Scott! This is the queerest bag of wheat I've ever seen! It'southward all lumpy-similar, but the label says it'southward to go to Cranberry."

The other sailors looked at the handbag too, and my father, who was in the pocketbook, of course, tried even harder to await similar a pocketbook of wheat. And then another sailor felt the bag and he but happened to get concord of my father'southward elbow. "I know what this is," he said. "This is a bag of dried corn on the cob," and he dumped my male parent into the big net along with the bags of wheat.

This all happened in the late afternoon, then tardily that the merchant in Cranberry who had ordered the wheat didn't count his numberless until the next morning. (He was a very punctual man, and never late for dinner.) The sailors told the captain, and the captain wrote downwards on a slice of newspaper, that they had delivered one hundred and 60 bags of wheat and one bag of dried corn on[25] the cob. They left the piece of paper for the merchant and sailed abroad that evening.

My father heard later that the merchant spent the whole next mean solar day counting and recounting the numberless and feeling each one trying to find the purse of stale corn on the cob. He never constitute information technology because as soon as it was dark my begetter climbed out of the bag, folded information technology up and put it dorsum in his knapsack. He walked along the shore to a nice sandy place and lay down to sleep.

[26]

My male parent was very hungry when he woke up the adjacent forenoon. Only as he was looking to see if he had annihilation left to eat, something hitting him on the head. It was a tangerine. He had been sleeping right under a tree full of big, fat tangerines. And then he remembered that this was the Isle of Tangerina. Tangerine trees grew wild everywhere. My father picked as many equally he had room for, which was thirty-one, and started off to find Wild Island.

He walked and walked and walked along the shore, looking for the rocks that joined the two islands. He walked all day, and in one case when he met a fisherman and asked him about 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 Isle, only non one has come back live. We think they were eaten by the wild animals." This didn't bother my father. He kept walking and slept on the beach again that night.[27]

It was beautifully clear the side by side mean solar day, and way down the shore my father could see a long line of rocks leading out into the ocean, and way, way out at the cease he could simply encounter a tiny patch of green. He speedily ate 7 tangerines and started down the beach.

It was almost dark when he came to the rocks, but at that place, way out in the sea, was the patch of green. He sat downwardly and rested a while, remembering that the cat had said, "If you can, get out to the island at nighttime, because so the wild animals won't see you coming along the rocks and you can hibernate when you go at that place." So my father picked seven more tangerines, put on his black rubber boots, and waited for dark.

It was a very black dark and my begetter could hardly see the rocks ahead of him. Sometimes they were quite high and sometimes the waves nigh covered them, and they were slippery and difficult to walk on. Sometimes the rocks were far autonomously and my father had to become a running start and spring from one to the next.[28]

Subsequently a while he began to hear a rumbling noise. Information technology grew louder and louder as he got nearer to the isle. At last it seemed as if he was right on tiptop of the noise, and he was. He had jumped from a rock onto the back of a small whale who was fast comatose and cuddled upward betwixt two rocks. The whale was snoring and making more noise than a steam shovel, and so information technology never heard[29]my father say, "Oh, I didn't know that was you!" And it never knew my father had jumped on its back by mistake.

For 7 hours my father climbed and slipped and leapt from rock to stone, but while it was still dark he finally reached the very last stone and stepped off onto Wild Isle.

[30]

[31]

Affiliate Four

MY Male parent FINDS THE RIVER

The jungle began just beyond a narrow strip of beach; thick, nighttime, clammy, scary jungle. My father hardly knew where to go, then he crawled nether a wahoo bush to recall, and ate eight tangerines. The first thing to exercise, he decided, was to find the river, because the dragon was tied somewhere forth its bank. And so he idea, "If the river flows into the body of water, I ought to be able to find it quite hands if I just walk along the beach far plenty." And so my begetter walked until the sun rose and he was quite far from the Bounding main Rocks. It was unsafe to stay near them because they might exist guarded in the daytime. He plant a dodder of tall grass and sat down. Then he took off his rubber boots and ate[32] three more than tangerines. He could have eaten twelve but he hadn't seen any tangerines on this island and he could not take a chance running out of something to eat.

My begetter slept all that day and only woke upwardly belatedly in the afternoon when he heard a funny picayune voice saying, "Queer, queer, what a dear niggling dock! I mean, dear, honey, what a queer piddling rock!" My father saw a tiny paw rubbing itself on his knapsack. He lay very notwithstanding and the mouse, for itwas a mouse, hurried away 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 embankment because it was nigh nighttime 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, and then he did, and somebody close past said, "Is that yous, Monkey?" My father said, "Yes." Then the voice said, "Y'all must have something on your back, Monkey," and my male parent said "Yes," considering he did. He had his knapsack on his back. "What do you have on your back, Monkey?" asked the voice.

My father didn't know what to say considering what would a monkey have on its back, and how would it sound telling someone about it if it did have something? Only then another voice said, "I bet yous're taking your sick grandmother to the doctor's." My begetter said "Yes" and hurried on. Quite by blow he establish out subsequently that he had been talking to a pair of tortoises.

[34]

[36]

The 2d affair that happened was that he nigh walked correct between ii wild boars who were talking in low solemn whispers. When he first saw the dark shapes he thought they were boulders. Simply in time he heard one of them say, "There are three signs of a contempo invasion. First, fresh tangerine peels were plant under the wahoo bush near the Sea Rocks. Second, a mouse reported an extraordinary rock some distance from the Sea Rocks which upon further investigation but wasn't there. However, more than fresh tangerine peels were institute in the same spot, which is the tertiary sign of invasion. Since tangerines do not grow on our island, somebody must have brought them across the Ocean Rocks from the other isle, which may, or may not, accept something to practise with the appearance and/or disappearance of the extraordinary rock reported by the mouse."

After a long silence the other boar said, "You know, I remember nosotros're taking all this besides seriously. Those peels probably floated over here all past themselves, and yous know how unreliable mice are. Also, if at that place had[37] been an invasion,I would have seen information technology!"

"Perhaps you're correct," said the first boar. "Shall we retire?" Whereupon they both trundled dorsum into the jungle.

Well, that taught my father a lesson, and afterward that he saved all his tangerine peels. He walked all night and toward morn came to the river. Then his troubles actually began.

[38]

[39]

Chapter Five

MY Male parent MEETS SOME TIGERS

The river was very broad and muddy, and the jungle was very gloomy and dense. The copse grew close to each other, and what room there was between them was taken upwards by great high ferns with gummy leaves. My father hated to get out the beach, but he decided to start along the river bank where at least the jungle wasn't quite and then thick. He ate iii tangerines, making sure to go on all the peels this time, and put on his safety boots.

My begetter tried to follow the river bank only it was very swampy, and as he went farther the swamp became deeper. When information technology was virtually as deep equally his boot tops he got stuck in the oozy, mucky mud. My father tugged and tugged, and about pulled his boots right[40] off, just at last he managed to wade to a drier place. Hither the jungle was and then thick that he could hardly see where the river was. He unpacked his compass and figured out the direction he should walk in order to stay near the river. Merely he didn't know that the river made a very abrupt curve abroad from him just a piddling way beyond, and so every bit he walked straight alee he was getting farther and farther away from the river.

It was very hard to walk in the jungle. The sticky leaves of the ferns defenseless at my father's hair, and he kept tripping over roots and rotten logs. Sometimes the copse were clumped so closely together that he couldn't clasp betwixt them and had to walk a long way around.

He began to hear whispery noises, but he couldn't run into any animals anywhere. The deeper into the jungle he went the surer he was that something was following him, and then he idea he heard whispery noises on both sides of him every bit well as backside. He tried to run, but[41] he tripped over more roots, and the noises merely 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 information technology and then that he could see annihilation that might try to attack him. Was he surprised when he looked and saw fourteen light-green eyes coming out of the jungle all around the clearing, and when the dark-green eyes turned into seven tigers! The tigers walked around him in a big circle, looking hungrier all the time, and then they sat down and began to talk.

"I suppose you lot idea we didn't know you were trespassing in our jungle!"

[42]

Then the adjacent tiger spoke. "I suppose you're going to say you didn't know it was our jungle!"

"Did you know that not one explorer has ever left this island alive?" said the third tiger.

My father thought of the cat and knew this wasn't true. Just of course he had too much sense to say so. 1 doesn't contradict a hungry tiger.[43]

The tigers went on talking in turn. "You're our offset little boy, you know. I'm curious to know if you lot're especially tender."

"Maybe you recollect we have regular meal-times, only we don't. We simply consume whenever we're feeling hungry," said the 5th tiger.[44]

"And we're very hungry right at present. In fact, I can inappreciably wait," said the sixth.

"Ican't wait!" said the seventh tiger.

And then all the tigers said together in a loud roar, "Let's begin right now!" and they moved in closer.

My father looked at those vii hungry tigers, and so he had an thought. He quickly opened his knapsack and took out the chewing gum. The cat had told him that tigers were specially fond of chewing gum,[45] which was very scarce on the island. And so he threw them each a slice but they just growled, "As fond as nosotros are of chewing mucilage, nosotros're certain we'd like you lot even better!" and they moved so close that he could feel them animate on his face.

"Merely this is very special chewing gum," said my father. "If you keep on chewing it long enough it will turn greenish, and then if you constitute information technology, it will grow more chewing gum, and the sooner you lot beginning chewing the sooner y'all'll have more."

The tigers said, "Why, you don't say! Isn't that fine!" And as each one wanted to be the commencement to plant the chewing gum, they all unwrapped their pieces and began chewing as hard every bit they could. Every in one case in a while one tiger would look into another's mouth and say, "Nope, it's non done notwithstanding," until finally they were all so busy looking into each other's mouths to make sure that no one was getting ahead that they forgot all about my father.

[46]

[48]

Affiliate Six

MY Begetter MEETS A RHINOCEROS

My father before long found a trail leading away from the clearing. All sorts of animals might be using it likewise, but he decided to follow the trail no matter what he met because it might lead to the dragon. He kept a sharp lookout in front end and backside and went on.

Only equally he was feeling quite safe, he came around a curve right behind the two wild boars. One of them was saying to the other, "Did you know that the tortoises thought they saw Monkey carrying his sick grandmother to the doctor'due south last night? Just Monkey'due south grandmother died a week ago, so they must have seen something else. I wonder what it was."

"I told y'all that there was an invasion itinerant," said[49] the other boar, "and I intend to find out what it is. I simply tin't stand invasions."

"Nee meither," said a tiny niggling voice. "I mean, me neither," and my male parent knew that the mouse was at that place, besides.

"Well," said the start boar, "you search the trail upward this way to the dragon. I'll become dorsum down the other way through the big clearing, and we'll send Mouse to picket the Body of water Rocks in case the invasion should[fifty]determine to become abroad before we observe information technology."

My male parent hid behind a mahogany tree just in time, and the showtime boar walked right by him. My father waited for the other boar to get a caput start on him, simply he didn't wait very long because he knew that when the outset boar saw the tigers chewing gum in the immigration, he'd be fifty-fifty more suspicious.

Soon the trail crossed a piddling brook and my father, who by this time was very thirsty, stopped to get a potable of water. He still had on his rubber boots, so he waded into a little pool of h2o and was stooping downwardly when something quite sharp picked him up by the seat of the pants and shook him very difficult.

"Don't you know that'due south my private weeping pool?" said a deep angry vocalisation.

My father couldn't encounter who was talking because he was hanging in the air right over the puddle, merely he said, "Oh, no, I'k and so deplorable. I didn't know that everybody had a private weeping pool."

[51]

[52]

"Everybody doesn't!" said the angry vocalisation, "but I practise because I have such a large matter to weep near, and I drown everybody I detect using my weeping pool." With that the brute tossed my male parent up and down over the water.

"What—is it—that—you—weep about—so much?" asked my father, trying to go his breath, and he idea over all the things he had in his pack.

"Oh, I have many things to weep most, just the biggest thing is the color of my tusk." My father squirmed every which way trying to see the tusk, but it was through the seat of his pants where he couldn't possibly see it. "When I was a young rhinoceros, my tusk was pearly white," said the animal (and then my father knew that he was hanging by the seat of his pants from a rhino' tusk!), "but it has turned a nasty yellow-gray in my old age, and I find it very ugly. You lot see, everything else about me is ugly, only when I had a beautiful tusk I didn't worry and so much nigh the rest.[53] Now that my tusk is ugly likewise, I can't slumber nights only thinking about how completely ugly I am, and I weep all the fourth dimension. But why should I be telling y'all these things? I caught yous using my pool and now I'm going to drown you."

"Oh, wait a minute, Rhinoceros," said my begetter. "I have some things that will make your tusk all white and beautiful over again. Just let me down and I'll give them to you lot."

The rhinoceros said, "Y'all practise? I tin inappreciably believe it! Why, I'chiliad so excited!" He put my father down and danced around in a circle while my male parent got out the tube of molar paste and the toothbrush.

"Now," said my begetter, "merely move your tusk a little nearer, please, and I'll show you how to begin." My father wet the brush in the puddle, squeezed on a dab of tooth paste, and scrubbed very difficult in one tiny spot. And so he told the rhinoceros to wash it off, and when the puddle was calm once more, he told the rhinoceros to look[54] in the water and see how white the little spot was. It was hard to see in the dim low-cal of the jungle, simply sure enough, the spot shone pearly white, just like new. The rhinoceros was so pleased that he grabbed the toothbrush and began scrubbing violently, forgetting all about my begetter.

Just then my begetter 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 rhino, and at the toothbrush, and at the tube of molar paste, and then he scratched his ear on a tree. "Tell me, Rhinoceros," he said, "where did y'all get that fine tube of tooth paste and that toothbrush?"

"Too busy!" said the rhinoceros, and he went on brushing every bit hard equally he could.

The boar sniffed angrily and trotted downwards the trail toward the dragon, muttering to himself, "Very suspicious—tigers too decorated chewing gum, Rhinoceros too[55] busy brushing his tusk—must get hold of that invasion. Don't like it ane bit, not one fleck! Information technology'south upsetting everybody terribly—wonder what information technology's doing here, anyway."

[56]

Chapter Vii

MY FATHER MEETS A LION

My father waved goodbye to the rhinoceros, who was much too busy to notice, got a potable 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 blast information technology! I told you not to go blackberrying yesterday. Won't you ever learn? What will your female parent say!"

My male parent crept along and peered into a small clearing just ahead. A panthera leo was prancing near 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 he yelled at himself, because it was himself he was yelling at all the time.

My father could run across that the trail went through the clearing, so he decided to clamber 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 every bit he was about to reach the trail on the other side the yelling suddenly stopped. My male parent looked around and saw the lion glaring at him. The panthera leo charged and skidded to a cease a few inches away.

[58]

[59]

"Who are you lot?" the panthera leo yelled at my father.

"My name is Elmer Lift."

"Where do you think yous're going?"

"I'g going home," said my father.

"That's what you call up!" said the king of beasts. "Ordinarily I'd save you for afternoon tea, just I happen to be upset enough and hungry enough to eat y'all right now." And he picked up my begetter in his front paws to feel how fat he was.

My father said, "Oh, please, King of beasts, before you eat me, tell me why yous are so particularly upset today."

"It'south my mane," said the king of beasts, as he was figuring how many bites a little boy would brand. "You see what a dreadful mess it is, and I don't seem to be able to do anything nearly it. My female parent is coming over on the dragon this afternoon, and if she sees me this manner I'm afraid she'll terminate my assart. She can't stand up messy manes! Only I'thou going to swallow you now, so it won't make any deviation to you."[lx]

"Oh, look a minute," said my father, "and I'll give you lot merely the things you lot need to make your mane all tidy and beautiful. I accept them hither in my pack."

"You practice?" said the king of beasts. "Well, give them to me, and perhaps I'll save you for afternoon tea afterwards all," and he put my begetter down on the ground.

My father opened the pack and took out the comb and the castor and the seven pilus ribbons of dissimilar colors. "Expect," he said, "I'll show you what to do on your forelock, where you can watch me. Start you brush a while, and then you rummage, and so y'all brush again until all the twigs and snarls are gone. Then you lot divide information technology up in three and braid it similar this and tie a ribbon around the cease."

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 take the comb and castor and see if I tin can practise it." So my[61] begetter gave him the comb and brush and the panthera leo began busily grooming his mane. As a thing of fact, he was so decorated that he didn't even know when my father left.

[62]

[63]

Chapter Eight

MY FATHER MEETS A GORILLA

My begetter was very hungry and so he sat down nether a baby banyan tree on the side of the trail and ate iv tangerines. He wanted to eat eight or 10, but he had merely thirteen left and information technology might be a long time before he could become more. He packed abroad all the peels and was about to get up 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 see for yourself. All the tigers are sitting around chewing gum to beat out the band. Old Rhinoceros is then busy brushing his tusk that he doesn't even look effectually to see who's going by, and they're all so decorated they won't even talk to me!"[64]

"Horsefeathers!" said the other boar, at present very close to my begetter. "They'll talk to me! I'm going to get to the lesser of this if it'southward the last affair I do!"

The voices passed my begetter and went around a curve, and he hurried on because he knew how much more upset the boars would be when they saw the panthera leo's mane tied up in pilus ribbons.

Presently my father came to a crossroads and he stopped to read the signs. Direct ahead an arrow pointed to the Get-go of the River; to the left, the Body of water Rocks; and to the right, to the Dragon[65] Ferry. My begetter was reading all these signs when he heard pawsteps and ducked backside the signpost. A cute lioness paraded past and turned down toward the clearings. Although she could have seen my father if she had bothered to glance at the mail,[66] she was much too occupied looking dignified to see anything but the tip of her own nose. It was the lion's mother, of course, and that, thought my father, must hateful that the dragon was on this side of the river. He hurried on merely it was further away than he had judged. He finally came to the river bank in the belatedly afternoon and looked all effectually, simply there was no dragon anywhere in sight. He must have gone dorsum to the other side.

My male parent saturday down nether a palm tree and was trying to accept a skilful 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 voice.

"Well what?" said my father, for which he was very sorry when he looked up and discovered he was talking to an enormous and very violent gorilla.

"Well, explicate yourself," said the gorilla. "I'll requite yous till ten to tell me your name, business, your historic period[67] and what'due south in that pack," and he began counting to 10 as fast as he could.

[68]

My male parent didn't even accept time to say "Elmer Elevator, explorer" before the gorilla interrupted, "Too slow! I'll twist your arms the fashion I twist that dragon's wings, and and then nosotros'll run into if you can't hurry upwardly a chip." He grabbed my father's artillery, 1 in each fist, and was simply about to twist them when he suddenly allow go and began scratching his chest with both hands.

"Smash those fleas!" he raged. "They won't requite you a moment'southward peace, and the worst of information technology is that yous can't even get a proficient look at them. Rosie! Rhoda! Rachel! Ruthie! Ruby! Roberta! Come up here and get rid of this flea on my breast. It's driving me crazy!"

Six picayune monkeys tumbled out of the palm tree, dashed to the gorilla, and began combing the hair on his chest.

"Well," said the gorilla, "information technology'due south still there!"

"We're looking, we're looking," said the six little[69] monkeys, "just they're awfully hard to see, you know."

[70]

"I know," said the gorilla, "only hurry. I've got work to exercise," and he winked at my begetter.

"Oh, Gorilla," said my male parent, "in my knapsack I have vi magnifying spectacles. They'd be just the affair for hunting fleas." My begetter unpacked them and gave one to Rosie, one to Rhoda, i to Rachel, one to Ruthie, 1 to Ruby, and one to Roberta.

[72]

"Why, they're miraculous!" said the 6 petty monkeys. "Information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to see the fleas now, just there are hundreds of them!" And they went on hunting frantically.

A moment later many more monkeys appeared out of a nigh-by clump of mangroves and began crowding around to get a await at the fleas through the magnifying glasses. They completely surrounded the gorilla, and he could not encounter my father nor did he retrieve to twist his arms.

[73]

Affiliate Nine

MY FATHER MAKES A Bridge

My begetter walked back and along along the bank trying to retrieve of some manner to cross the river. He found a high flagpole with a rope going over to the other side. The rope went through a loop at the superlative of the pole and then downwards the pole and effectually a big crank. A sign on the crank said:

TO SUMMON DRAGON, YANK THE CRANK
REPORT Hell-raising CONDUCT
TO GORILLA

From what the cat had told my male parent, he knew that the other cease of the rope was tied around the dragon's neck, 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 so 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 choke to death or fly back to this side. What a life for a baby dragon!

My father knew that if he called to the dragon to come across the river, the gorilla would surely hear him, and then he thought almost climbing the pole and going across on the rope. The pole was very loftier, and even if he could get to the top without existence seen he'd have to go all the manner beyond hand over mitt. The river was very muddy, and all sorts of unfriendly things might alive in it, merely my father could think of no other way to become across. He was nigh to start upward the pole when, despite all the dissonance the monkeys were making, he heard a loud splash behind him. He looked all around in the water but it was dusk at present, and he couldn't run into anything at that place.

"It'due south me, Crocodile," said a vox to the left. "The[75] water's lovely, and I have such a craving for something sweet. Won't you lot come in for a swim?"

A stake moon came out from behind the clouds and my begetter could meet where the voice was coming from. The crocodile's head was just peeping out of the water.[76]

"Oh, no thank you," said my father. "I never swim after sundown, but I do have something sweet to offering you. Possibly you lot'd like a lollipop, and mayhap you have friends who would like lollipops, also?"

"Lollipops!" said the crocodile. "Why, that is a care for! How about information technology, boys?"

A whole chorus of voices shouted, "Hurrah! Lollipops!" and my begetter counted as many as seventeen crocodiles with their heads but peeping out of the h2o.

"That's fine," said my begetter every bit he got out the two dozen pink lollipops and the rubber bands. "I'll stick one hither in the bank. Lollipops concluding longer if yous keep them out of the water, you know. Now, one of you can take this one."

The crocodile who had offset spoken swam up and tasted it. "Delicious, mighty succulent!" he said.

"Now if you don't mind," said my male parent, "I'll just walk forth your back and fasten another lollipop to[77] the tip of your tail with a rubber band. Yous don't mind, do you?"

[78]

"Oh no, not in the least," said the crocodile.

"Can you get your tail out of the water just a bit?" asked my father.

"Yes, of class," said the crocodile, and he lifted upward his tail. And then my father ran forth his back and fastened another lollipop with a rubber band.

"Who's next?" said my father, and a second crocodile swam up and began sucking on that lollipop.

"Now, you lot gentlemen tin can save a lot of time if you just line upwards across the river," said my father, "and I'll be forth to give you each a lollipop."

Then the crocodiles lined up 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 Ten

MY Male parent FINDS THE DRAGON

When my father was crossing the back of the fifteenth crocodile with two more lollipops to go, the dissonance of the monkeys suddenly stopped, and he could hear a much bigger noise getting louder every 2d. Then he could hear seven furious tigers and 1 raging rhinoceros and two seething lions and 1 ranting gorilla along with countless screeching monkeys, led by two extremely irate wild boars, all yelling, "It's a trick! It'due south a trick! There's an invasion and information technology must be after our dragon. Impale information technology! Impale it!" The whole crowd stampeded down to the bank.

Every bit my father was fixing the seventeenth lollipop for the concluding crocodile he heard a wild boar scream,[80] "Look, it came this manner! Information technology'southward over there now, see! The crocodiles fabricated a bridge for information technology," and merely equally my begetter leapt onto the other bank one of the wild boars jumped onto the back of the first crocodile. My father didn't accept a moment to spare.

By at present the dragon realized that my male parent was coming to rescue him. He ran out of the bushes and[81] jumped up and down yelling. "Here I am! I'yard correct here! Can yous come across me? Hurry, the boar is coming over on the crocodiles, too. They're all coming over! Oh, please hurry, hurry!" The noise was merely terrific.

My father ran up to the dragon, and took out his very precipitous jackknife. "Steady, sometime boy, steady. We'll make it. Only stand even so," he told the dragon as he began to saw through the big rope.

By this time both boars, all 7 tigers, the two lions, the rhinoceros, and the gorilla, along with the endless screeching monkeys, were all on their way across the crocodiles and there was still a lot of rope to cut through.

"Oh, hurry," the dragon kept proverb, and my father once more told him to stand up withal.

"If I don't retrieve I tin make information technology," said my father, "nosotros'll fly over to the other side of the river and I can finish cut the rope there."[82]

[83]

Suddenly the screaming grew louder and madder and my father thought the animals must have crossed the river. He looked around, and saw something which surprised and delighted him. Partly considering he had finished his lollipop, and partly because, as I told you before, crocodiles are very moody and not the to the lowest degree bit dependable and are always looking for something to consume, the first crocodile had turned away from the bank and started swimming downwards the river. The 2d crocodile hadn't finished all the same, so he followed right after the first, however sucking his lollipop. All the residue did the same affair, one right after the other, until they were all pond away in a line. The ii wild boars, the seven tigers, the rhinoceros, the two lions, the gorilla, along with the endless screeching monkeys, were all riding downwards the heart of the river on the railroad train of crocodiles sucking pinkish lollipops, and all yelling and screaming and getting their feet wet.[84]

[85]

[86]

My father and the dragon laughed themselves weak because it was such a airheaded sight. As soon as they had recovered, my begetter finished cut the rope and the dragon raced around in circles and tried to plough a somersault. He was the most excited baby dragon that ever lived. My father was in a bustle to fly abroad, and when the dragon finally calmed down a bit my male parent climbed upward onto his back.

"All aboard!" said the dragon. "Where shall we go?"

"We'll spend the night on the embankment, and tomorrow nosotros'll outset on the long journey habitation. So, it'southward off to the shores of Tangerina!" shouted my father as the dragon soared above the dark jungle and the muddied river and all the animals bellowing at them and all the crocodiles licking pink lollipops and grinning wide grins. Afterwards all, what did the crocodiles care nearly a way to cross the river, and what a fine feast they were conveying on their backs![87]

As my male parent and the dragon passed over the Bounding main Rocks they heard a tiny excited vox scream, "Bum cack! Bum cack! We dreed our nagon! I mean, we need our dragon!"

But my male parent and the dragon knew that aught in the world would ever make them go back to Wild Island.

THE END

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Source: http://freekidsbooks.org/fathers-dragon-read-online-version/