voice:
'It is some foolish animal from Outside.'
'Is it good to eat?' inquired a smaller Dragon beside the great one. 'I'm hungry.'
'Hungry!' exclaimed all the Dragons, in a reproachful chorus; and then the great one said chidingly: 'Tut— tut, my son! You've no reason to be hungry at this time.'
'Why not?' asked the little Dragon. 'I haven't eaten anything in eleven years.'
'Eleven years is nothing,' remarked another Dragon, sleepily opening and closing his eyes; 'I haven't feasted for eighty-seven years, and I dare not get hungry for a dozen or so years to come. Children who eat between meals should be broken of the habit.'
'All I had, eleven years ago, was a rhinoceros, and that's not a full meal at all,' grumbled the young one. 'And, before that, I had waited sixty-two years to be fed; so it's no wonder I'm hungry.'
'How old are you now?' asked Woot, forgetting his own dangerous position in his interest in the conversation.
'Why, I'm — I'm — How old am I, Father?' asked the little Dragon.
'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 from their eyes and mouths flames which lighted up the entire cavern. Woot almost gave himself up for lost, at that moment, but he scrambled to his feet and dashed away to the farthest end of the cave, the Dragons following more leisurely because they were too clumsy to move fast. Perhaps they thought there was no need of haste, as the monkey could not escape from the cave. But, away up at the end of the place, the cavern floor was heaped with tumbled rocks, so Woot, with an agility born of fear, climbed from rock to rock until he found himself crouched against the cavern roof. There he waited, for he could go no farther, while on over the tumbled rocks slowly crept the Dragons — the littlest one coming first because he was hungry as well as angry.
The beasts had almost reached him when Woot, remembering his lace apron — now sadly torn and soiled — recovered his wits and shouted: 'Open!' At the cry a hole appeared in the roof of the cavern, just over his head, and through it the sunlight streamed full upon the Green Monkey
The Dragons paused, astonished at the magic and blinking at the sunlight, and this gave Woot time to climb through the opening. As soon as he reached the surface of the earth the hole closed again, and the boy monkey realized, with a thrill of joy, that he had seen the last of the dangerous Dragon family
He sat upon the ground, still panting hard from his exertions, when the bushes before him parted and his former enemy, the Jaguar, appeared.
'Don't run,' said the woodland beast, as Woot sprang up; 'you are perfectly safe, so far as I am concerned, for since you so mysteriously disappeared I have had my breakfast. I am now on my way home to sleep the rest of the day.'
'Oh, indeed!' returned the Green Monkey, in a tone both sorry and startled. 'Which of my friends did you manage to eat?'
'None of them,' returned the Jaguar, with a sly grin had a dish of magic scrambled eggs-on toast — and it wasn't a bad feast, at all. There isn't room in me for even you, and I don't regret it because I judge, from your green color, that you are not ripe, and would make an indifferent meal. We jaguars have to be careful of our digestions. Farewell, Friend Monkey. Follow the path I made through the bushes and you will find your friends.'
With this the Jaguar marched on his way and Woot took his advice and followed the trail he had made until he came to the place where the little Brown Bear, and the Tin Owl, and the Canary were conferring together and wondering what had become of their comrade, the Green Monkey.
Chapter Ten
Tommy Kwikstep
'Our best plan,' said the Scarecrow Bear, when the Green Monkey had related the story of his adventure with the Dragons, 'is to get out of this Gillikin Country as soon as we can and try to find our way to the castle of Glinda, the Good Sorceress. There are too many dangers lurking here to suit me, and Glinda may be able to restore us to our proper forms.'
'If we turn south now,' the Tin Owl replied, 'we might go straight into the Emerald City. That's a place I wish to avoid, for I'd hate to have my friends see me in this sad plight,' and he blinked his eyes and fluttered his tin wings mournfully.
'But I am certain we have passed beyond Emerald City,' the Canary assured him, sailing lightly around their heads. 'So, should we turn south from here, we would pass into the Munchkin Country, and continuing south we would reach the Quadling Country where Glinda's castle is located.'
'Well, since you're sure of that, let's start right away,' proposed the Bear. 'It's a long journey, at the best, and I'm getting tired of walking on four legs.'
'I thought you never tired, being stuffed with straw,' said Woot.
'I mean that it annoys me, to be obliged to go on all fours, when two legs are my proper walking equipment,' replied the Scarecrow. 'I consider it beneath my dignity. In other words, my remarkable brains can tire, through humiliation, although my body cannot tire.'
'That is one of the penalties of having brains,' remarked the Tin Owl with a sigh. 'I have had no brains since I was a man of meat, and so I never worry. Nevertheless, I prefer my former manly form to this owl's shape and would be glad to break Mrs. Yoop's enchantment as soon as possible. I am so noisy, just now, that I disturb myself,' and he fluttered his wings with a clatter that echoed throughout the forest.
