the stone slab by the dragon's paw.

It turned its head towards the sugar. The pinky sunset light fell on its
face, and Elsie saw that it was weeping! Great fat tears as big as prize
pears were coursing down its wrinkled cheeks.

'Oh, don't,' said Elsie, '_don't_ cry! Poor dragon, what's the matter?'

'Oh!' sobbed the dragon, 'I'm only so glad you've come. I--I've been so
lonely. No one to love me. You _do_ love me, don't you?'

'I--I'm sure I shall when I know you better,' said Elsie kindly.

'Give me a kiss, dear,' said the dragon, sniffing.

It is no joke to kiss a dragon. But Elsie did it--somewhere on the hard
green wrinkles of its forehead.

'Oh, _thank_ you,' said the dragon, brushing away its tears with the tip
of its tail. 'That breaks the charm. I can move now. And I've got back
all my lost wisdom. Come along--I _do_ want my tea!'

So, to the waiting crowd at the gate came Elsie and the dragon side by
side. And at sight of the dragon, tamed, a great shout went up from the
crowd; and at that shout each one in the crowd turned quickly to the
next one--for it was the shout of men, and not of crows. Because at the
first sight of the dragon, tamed, they had left off being crows for ever
and ever, and once again were men.

The King came running through the gates, his royal robes held high, so
that he shouldn't trip over them, and he too was no longer a crow, but a
man.

And what did Elsie feel after being so brave? Well, she felt that she
would like to cry, and also to laugh, and she felt that she loved not
only the dragon, but every man, woman, and child in the whole
world--even Mrs. Staines.

She rode back to the Palace on the dragon's back.

And as they went the crowd of citizens who had been crows met the crowd
of citizens who had been pigeons, and these were poor men in poor
clothes.

It would have done you good to see how the ones who had been rich and
crows ran to meet the ones who had been pigeons and poor.

'Come and stay at my house, brother,' they cried to those who had no
homes. 'Brother, I have many coats, come and choose some,' they cried to
the ragged. 'Come and feast with me!' they cried to all. And the rich
and the poor went off arm in arm to feast and be glad that night, and
the next day to work side by side. 'For,' said the King, speaking with
his hand on the neck of the tamed dragon, 'our land has been called
Crownowland. But we are no longer crows. We are men: and we will be Jus