[p193]
‘Go on,’ said Elsie, her eyes wandering from one beautiful building to another of the many that nestled among the trees of the city.
‘And the old parchment said that if we didn’t behave well our bodies would grow like our souls. But we didn’t think so. And then all in a minute they did—and we were crows, and our bodies were as black as our souls. Our souls are quite white now,’ it added reassuringly.
‘But what was the dreadful thing you’d done?’
‘We’d been unkind to the people who worked for us—not given them enough food or clothes or fire, and at last we took away even their play. There was a big park that the people played in, and we built a wall round it and took it for ourselves, and the King was going to set a statue of himself up in the middle. And then before we could begin to enjoy it we were turned into big black crows; and the working people into big white pigeons—and they can go where they like, but we have to stay here till we’ve tamed the…. We never can go into the park, until we’ve settled the thing that guards it. And that thing’s a big big lizard—in fact … it’s a dragon!’
‘Oh!’ cried Elsie; but she was not as frightened as the Crow seemed to expect. [p194 Because every now and then she had felt sure that she was really safe in her own bed, and that this was a dream. It was not a dream, but the belief that it was made her very brave, and she felt quite sure that she could settle a dragon, if necessary—a dream dragon, that is. And the rest of the time she thought about Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and what a heroine she now had the chance to be.
‘You want me to kill it?’ she asked.
‘Oh no! To tame it,’ said the Crow.
‘We’ve tried all sorts of means—long whips, like people tame horses with, and red-hot bars, such as lion-tamers use—and it’s all been perfectly useless; and there the dragon lives, and will live till some one can tame him and get him to follow them like a tame fawn, and eat out of their hand.’
‘What does the dragon like to eat?’ Elsie asked.
‘Crows,’ replied the other in an uncomfortable whisper. ‘At least I’ve never known it eat anything else!’