So he ran to the middle of the track and waved his hat up and down, trying to stop the train. On, on it came, but George did not move. It was near enough now for his father to see him. The whistle blew long and loud, still George did not move.
The whistle blew again and again, but George stood still in the middle of the track. His father was frantic with fear that the train would run over his little son, and he pulled down hard on the screaming whistle, while he plied the brakes to the wheels. The great engine slowed down with much groaning of wheels just before it came to the place where George was standing.
“What is the matter, George?” cried his father as he leaped from the engine and caught the boy in his arms. “Is your mother ill?”
“No, father,” said George, “but the trestle is washed away, and if you had gone on you would have been killed—and I didn’t want you to be killed.”
“You have done more than that, my son,” said his father; “you have saved the lives of my passengers, and all the train property.”
The passengers crowded around him, and called him a brave little boy and patted him on the shoulder.
THE PRINCE AND THE DRAGON
Wherein a brave young prince rescues his mother from a dangerous place.
Once upon a time a king and queen were giving a grand festival. The queen disappeared and no one could find her. The king told his three sons to go out and not to return until they had found their mother. Each one had a large trumpet; the one that found the queen was to blow a loud blast and the other two brothers would come to him. The oldest brother went into the cities; the second brother went into towns and villages, but the youngest brother went into the woods.