he went down stream, where it was very silent, and rested awhile in
little pools. Here it was that he met with his first enemy, a warty
Hoptoad with jealous eyes. That Toad thought that he owned the pools
because he bathed there every springtime, and though it was a kind
little Dragon, the Toad hated him, and began to plot against him.
"Ho! little Yellow Dragon," he said, "you are very wonderful to see, and
you must be very clever; but you haven't got everything you want, have
you?"
The Dragon smiled, shook his head, and made silent signs with his lips.
Then the Toad understood, for he said: "Ho-ho, I understand that you
cannot speak. But are you happy?"
The Dragon smiled sweetly and nodded, then pointed to the stream.
That made the Toad madder than ever, for he thought it meant that the
Dragon was claiming the whole stream. So the Toad said: "See, Dragon,
there is a wonderful food that you have never tasted, that is a poached
egg."
This he said with his heart full of guile, for he knew full well that
poached eggs are deadly poison to Dragons.
The Dragon looked puzzled, and the Toad said, "Have you?"
The Dragon shook his head. "Well," said the Toad, "it is the most
delicious thing in the woods; now you wait and see."
He went hoppity-hop, to a sand-bank where he had seen a Turtle lay its
eggs that morning. He dug out one. He rolled it upon a stone, and split
it open with the sharp spur on his heel. As soon as it was stiffened by
the sun heat, he said, "Here now, Dragon, swallow it down, while I get
another for myself."
The poor innocent little Dragon did not know any better. He tried to
swallow the poached egg. The moment he did, it stuck in his throat, and
poisoned him. At once his toes sank into the ground. He turned green all
over, and his head was changed into a strange new flower. There it is to
this day, standing silently where it can hear the brook a-prattling. Its
body is green all over, and its head is yellow and its jaws are wide
open with a poached egg stuck in its throat. And that is how it all came
about. Some call it Toad Flax, and some call it Butter and Eggs, but we
who know how it happened call it the Dragon and the Poached Egg.
Poor dear little Yellow Dragon!
TALE 32
The Fairy Bird or the Humming-bird Moth
When I was a schoolboy, a number of my companions brought the news that
the strangest bird in the world had come that day to our garden and
hovered over the flowers. I
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