"Goodness gracious! what a child to ask questions. Do you want to keep
me thinking all the time? Don't you know that thinking is very bad for
Dragons?" returned the big one, impatiently.

"How old am I, Father?" persisted the small Dragon.

"About six hundred and thirty, I believe. Ask your mother."

"No; don't!" said an old Dragon in the background; "haven't I enough
worries, what with being wakened in the middle of a nap, without being
obliged to keep track of my children's ages?"

"You've been fast asleep for over sixty years, Mother," said the child
Dragon. "How long a nap do you wish?"

"I should have slept forty years longer. And this strange little green
beast should be punished for falling into our cavern and disturbing us."

"I didn't know you were here, and I didn't know I was going to fall
in," explained Woot.

"Nevertheless, here you are," said the great Dragon, "and you have
carelessly wakened our entire tribe; so it stands to reason you must be
punished."

"In what way?" inquired the Green Monkey, trembling a little.

"Give me time and I'll think of a way. You're in no hurry, are you?"
asked the great Dragon.

"No, indeed," cried Woot. "Take your time. I'd much rather you'd all go
to sleep again, and punish me when you wake up in a hundred years or
so."

"Let me eat him!" pleaded the littlest Dragon.

"He is too small," said the father. "To eat this one Green Monkey would
only serve to make you hungry for more, and there are no more."

"Quit this chatter and let me get to sleep," protested another Dragon,
yawning in a fearful manner, for when he opened his mouth a sheet of
flame leaped forth from it and made Woot jump back to get out of its
way.

In his jump he bumped against the nose of a Dragon behind him, which
opened its mouth to growl and shot another sheet of flame at him. The
flame was bright, but not very hot, yet Woot screamed with terror and
sprang forward with a great bound. This time he landed on the paw of
the great Chief Dragon, who angrily raised his other front paw and
struck the Green Monkey a fierce blow. Woot went sailing through the
air and fell sprawling upon the rocky floor far beyond the place where
the Dragon Tribe was grouped.

All the great beasts were now thoroughly wakened and aroused, and they
blamed the monkey for disturbing their quiet. The littlest Dragon
darted after Woot and the others turned their unwieldy bodies in his
direction and followed, flashing