Contents

PAGE
I.The Book of Beasts[1]
II.Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger[19]
III.The Deliverers of Their Country[39]
IV.The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told[57]
V.The Island of the Nine Whirlpools[79]
VI.The Dragon Tamers[99]
VII.The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold[119]
VIII.Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice[139]


List of Illustrations

The Book of Dragons[frontispiece]
The Book of Beastspage [1]
"The dragon flew away across the garden."page [9]
"The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office."page [14]
Uncle James, or The Purple Strangerpage [19]
"By-and-by he began to wander."page [30]
"The dragon ran after her."page [36]
The Deliverers of Their Countrypage [39]
"The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off."page [44]
"He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class carriage."page [51]
The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Toldpage [57]
"Sure enough, it was a dragon."page [69]
"The dwarfs seized the children."page [73]
The Island of the Nine Whirlpoolspage [79]
"The lone tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools."page [89]
"Little children play around him and over him."page [97]
The Dragon Tamerspage [99]
"The dragon's purring pleased the baby."page [107]
"He brought something in his mouth—it was a bag of gold."page [117]
The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Goldpage [119]
"The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'"page [130]
"They saw a cloud of steam."page [136]
Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatricepage [139]
"Creeping across the plain."page [148]
"That smells good, eh?"page [153]

To Rosamund,
chief among those for whom these tales are told,
The Book of Dragons is dedicated
in the confident hope
that she, one of these days, will dedicate a book
of her very own making
to the one who now bids
eight dreadful dragons
crouch in all humbleness
at those little brown feet.