The Book of Dragons Read online

  Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  THE BOOK OF DRAGONS]

  The Book of DRAGONS

  E. Nesbit

  With illustrations by H. R. Millar

  Decorations by H. Granville Fell

  DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC. Mineola, New York

  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 Beasts PAGE 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 Stranger PAGE 19

  "By-and-by he began to wander." PAGE 30

  "The dragon ran after her." PAGE 36

  The Deliverers of Their Country PAGE 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 Told PAGE 57

  "Sure enough, it was a dragon." PAGE 69

  "The dwarfs seized the children." PAGE 73

  The Island of the Nine Whirlpools PAGE 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 Tamers PAGE 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 Gold PAGE 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 Cockatrice PAGE 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._

  The Book of DRAGONS

  THE BOOK OF BEASTS]