purred!"

"Hullo, dragon!" said the Boy, quietly, when he had got up to him.

The dragon, on hearing the approaching footsteps, made the beginning
of a courteous effort to rise. But when he saw it was a Boy, he set his
eyebrows severely.

"Now don't you hit me," he said; "or bung stones, or squirt water, or
anything. I won't have it, I tell you!"

"Not goin' to hit you," said the Boy wearily, dropping on the grass
beside the beast: "and don't, for goodness' sake, keep on saying
`Don't;' I hear so much of it, and it's monotonous, and makes me tired.
I've simply looked in to ask you how you were and all that sort of
thing; but if I'm in the way I can easily clear out. I've lots of
friends, and no one can say I'm in the habit of shoving myself in where
I'm not wanted!"

"No, no, don't go off in a huff," said the dragon, hastily; "fact
is,--I'm as happy up here as the day's long; never without an
occupation, dear fellow, never without an occupation! And yet, between
ourselves, it IS a trifle dull at times."

The Boy bit off a stalk of grass and chewed it. "Going to make a long
stay here?" he asked, politely.

"Can't hardly say at present," replied the dragon. "It seems a nice
place enough--but I've only been here a short time, and one must look
about and reflect and consider before settling down. It's rather
a serious thing, settling down. Besides--now I'm going to tell you
something! You'd never guess it if you tried ever so!--fact is, I'm such
a confoundedly lazy beggar!"

"You surprise me," said the Boy, civilly.

"It's the sad truth," the dragon went on, settling down between his paws
and evidently delighted to have found a listener at last: "and I fancy
that's really how I came to be here. You see all the other fellows were
so active and EARNEST and all that sort of thing--always rampaging, and
skirmishing, and scouring the desert sands, and pacing the margin of the
sea, and chasing knights all over the place, and devouring damsels, and
going on generally--whereas I liked to get my meals regular and then
to prop my back against a bit of rock and snooze a bit, and wake up and
think of things going on and how they kept going on just the same, you
know! So when it happened I got fairly caught."

"When WHAT happened, please?" asked the Boy.

"That's just what I don't precisely know," said the dragon. "I suppose
the earth sneezed, or shook itself, or the bottom dropped out of
something. Anyhow there was a shak