d he wanted to
stop and take some for himself. But just in time he remembered the wise
warning of Mother Magpie; and so he hopped on over the silver pebbles
through a silver door into a second room. And this was flooded with
yellow light as of sunshine, so dazzling that for a moment Whitebird's
yellow eyes could see nothing at all. When he could see, the place
seemed full of yellow eyes like his own, great yellow eyes heaped up
from floor to ceiling. And when he became used to this he looked again
and saw that these were golden coins, and that this was a cavern all of
gold.

Oh, such a wonderful sight! Oh, such a golden dream! The floor on which
he stood was deep with gold dust, which squished between his toes like
yellow sand on a sea beach. And then Whitebird lost his head and went
quite mad, forgetting the words of wise Mother Magpie.

"Gold dust, gold dust, a treasure for me!" he sang, hopping up and down
on one leg. "I can carry away a great beakful of the yellow seeds, and
each one will blossom into a golden flower for me--for me--for me!" He
was wholly crazy, as you see.

He thrust his bill deep into the gold dust of the floor, and greedily
filled it more than full, till it dropped over his white, white feathers
and splashed his coat so that he was no longer a white bird but a yellow
bird. Oh, the silly, greedy thing! But there are worse fates than being
a yellow bird.

Just at this moment a dreadful roar echoed through the caverns till they
rumbled like an earthquake, and into the golden chamber crashed a
horrible dragon-creature, the guardian of the King's treasure. His eyes
blazed red like coals, and from his mouth came smoke and flame so that
the gold melted before his breath. He rushed straight upon poor little
Whitebird to gobble him up, and as he came he roared: "Thief, thief! who
steals my master's treasure? I scorch you with my eye! I burn you with
my breath! I swallow you into the furnace of my throat. Gr-r-r-r!"

There seemed no chance for Whitebird to escape, the creature was so
near. But with a cry of terror he fluttered and hopped away as fast as
he could toward the narrow passage, through the gold chamber and the
silver chamber, leaving all the treasure behind. (Oh, don't you wish we
could have known how the diamond chamber looked, with its rainbow
light?)

Whitebird hopped and fluttered, fluttered and hopped, feeling the
dragon's hot breath close behind frizzling his feathers and blinding h