The Sleepy Tale Of The Fiery Dragon By Edith Nesbit

Welcome,

Dear listeners to Drift Off,

Where we leave the worries of the day behind and journey into the calming world of bedtime stories.

I'm your host Joanne and I'm so glad you're here.

Tonight we'll be sharing a charming tale called The Fiery Dragon by Edith Nesbitt.

A magical story full of bravery,

Friendship,

And just the right touch of adventure to lull you into a peaceful sleep.

Before we begin,

Let's take a moment to settle in.

Gently close your eyes if you feel comfortable,

And take a slow deep breath in,

And a long soft breath out.

Allow your body to soften a little more with each breath,

Feeling the day melt away,

Knowing there's nothing you need to do right now but rest.

And so my friend,

Snuggle under those cozy blankets and let's begin our story.

The little white princess always woke in her little white bed when the starlings began to chatter in the pearl grey morning.

As soon as the woods were awake,

She used to run up the twisting turret stairs with her little bare feet and stand on the top of the tower in her white bed gown and kiss her hands to the sun and to the woods and to the sleeping town and say,

Good morning pretty world.

Then she would run down the cold stone steps and dress herself in her short skirt and her cap and apron and begin the day's work.

She swept the rooms and made the breakfast.

She washed the dishes and she scoured the pans.

And all this she did because she was a real princess.

For all who should have served her,

Only one remained faithful,

Her old nurse,

Who had lived with her in the tower all the princess's life.

And now the nurse was old and feeble.

The princess would not let her work anymore,

But did all the housework herself,

While nurse sat still and did the sewing,

Because this was a real princess with skin like milk and hair like flax and a heart like gold.

Her name was Sabrinetta and her grandmother was Sabra,

Who married Saint George after he had killed the dragon and by real rights all the country belonged to her.

The woods that stretched away to the mountains,

The downs that sloped down to the sea,

The pretty fields of corn and maize and rye,

The olive orchards and the vineyards,

And the little town itself,

With its towers and its turrets,

Its steep roofs and strange windows that nestled in the hollow between the sea,

Where the whirlpool was and the mountains,

White with snow and rosy with sunrise.

But when her father and mother had died,

Leaving her cousin to take care of the kingdom till she grew up,

He,

Being a very evil prince,

Took everything away from her and all the people followed him and now nothing was left her of all her possessions except the great dragon proof tower that her grandfather Saint George had built and all of who should have been her servants,

Only the good nurse.

This was why Sabrinetta was the first person in all the land to get a glimpse of the wonder.

Early,

Early,

Early,

While all the townspeople were fast asleep,

She ran up the turret steps and looked out over the field and at the other side of the field there was a green ferny ditch and a rosy thorny hedge and then came the wood.

And as Sabrinetta stood on her tower,

She saw a shaking and a twisting of the rose thorny hedge,

And then something very bright and shining wriggled out through it into the ferny ditch and back again.

It only came out for a minute,

But she saw it quite plainly and she said to herself,

Dear me,

What a curious shiny bright looking creature.

If it were bigger and if I didn't know that there have been no fabulous monsters for quite a long time now,

I should almost think it was a dragon.

The thing,

Whatever it was,

Did look rather like a dragon,

But then it was too small and it looked rather like a lizard,

And then it was too big.

It was about as long as a hearth rug.

I wish it had not been in such a hurry to get back into the wood,

Said Sabrinetta.

Of course it's quite safe for me in my dragon proof tower,

But if it is a dragon,

It's quite big enough to eat people,

And today is the first of May,

And the children go out to get flowers in the wood.

When Sabrinetta had done the housework,

She did not leave so much as a speck of dust anywhere even in the corniest corner of the winding stair.

She put on her milk white silky gown with the moon daisies worked on it and went up to the top of her tower again.

Across the fields,

Troops of children were going out to gather the May,

And the sound of their laughter and singing came up to the top of the tower.

I do hope it wasn't a dragon,

Said Sabrinetta.

The children went twos by threes,

And by tens and by twenties,

And the red and blue and yellow and white of their frocks were scattered on the green of the field.

It's like a green silk mantle worked with flowers,

Said the princess,

Smiling.

Then twos and by threes,

By tens and by twenties,

The children vanished into the wood,

Till the mantle of the field was left plain green once more.

All the embroidery is unpicked,

Said the princess,

Sighing.

The sun shone,

And the sky was blue,

And the fields were quite green,

And all the flowers were very bright indeed,

Because it was May Day.

Then,

Quite suddenly,

A cloud passed over the sun,

And the silence was broken by shrieks from far off,

And,

Like a many-colored torrent,

All the children burst from the wood and rushed,

A red and blue and yellow and white wave across the field,

Screaming as they ran.

Their voices came up to the princess on her tower,

And she heard the words threaded on their screams,

Like beads on sharp needles.

The dragon,

The dragon,

The dragon!

Open the gates,

The dragon is coming,

The fiery dragon!

And they swept across the field and into the gate of the town,

And the princess heard the gate bang,

And the children were out of sight.

But on the other side of the field,

The rose-thorns crackled and smashed in the hedge,

And something very large and glaring and horrible trampled the ferns in the ditch for one moment before it hit itself again in the culvert of the wood.

The princess went down and told her nurse,

And the nurse at once locked the great door of the tower and put the key in her pocket.

Let them take care of themselves,

She said,

When the princess begged to be allowed to go out and help to take care of the children.

My business is to take care of you,

My precious,

And I'm going to do it.

Old as I am,

I can turn a key still.

So Sabrinetta went up again to the top of her tower,

And cried whenever she thought of the children and the fiery dragon,

For she knew,

Of course,

That the gates of the town were not dragon-proof,

And that the dragon could just walk in whenever he liked.

The children ran straight to the palace,

Where the prince was cracking his hunting whip down at the kennels,

And told him what had happened.

Good sport,

Said the prince,

And he ordered out his pack of hippopotamuses at once.

It was his custom to hunt big game with hippopotamuses,

And people would not have minded that so much,

But he would swagger about in the streets of the town with his pack,

Yelping and gambling at his heels,

And when he did that,

The green grocer,

Who had his stall in the marketplace,

Always regretted it,

And the crockery merchant,

Who spread his wares on the pavement,

Was ruined for life every time the prince chose to show off his pack.

The prince rode out of the town with his hippopotamuses,

Trotting and frisking behind him,

And people got inside their houses as quickly as they could when they heard the voices of his pack,

And the blowing of his horn.

The pack squeezed through the town gates,

And off across country to hunt the dragon.

Few of you,

Who had not seen a pack of hippopotamuses in full cry,

Will be able to imagine at all what the hunt was like.

To begin with,

Hippopotamuses do not bay like hounds,

They grunt like pigs,

And their grunt is very big and fierce.

Then of course,

No one expects hippopotamuses to jump,

They just crash through the hedges and lumber through the standing corn,

Doing serious injury to the crops,

And annoying the farmers very much.

All the hippopotamuses had collars with their name and address on,

But when the farmers called at the palace to complain of the injury to their standing crops,

The prince always said it served them right for leaving their crops standing about in people's way,

And he never paid anything at all.

So now,

When he and his pack went on,

Several people in the town whispered,

I wish the dragon would eat him,

Which was very wrong of them no doubt,

But then he was such a very nasty prince.

They hunted by field,

And they hunted by wold,

They drew the woods blank,

And the scent didn't lie on the downs at all.

The dragon was shy,

And would not show himself.

But just as the prince was beginning to think there was no dragon at all,

But only a cock and bull,

His favorite old hippopotamus gave tongue.

The prince blew his horn and shouted,

Tally-ho,

Hark forward,

And the whole pack charged downhill toward the hollow by the wood.

For there,

Plain to see,

Was the dragon,

As big as a barge,

Glowing like a furnace,

And spitting fire and showing his shining teeth.

The hunt is up,

Cried the prince,

And indeed it was,

For the dragon,

Instead of behaving as a quarry should and running away,

Ran straight at the pack,

And the prince on his elephant had the mortification of seeing his prized pack swallowed up,

One by one in the twinkling of an eye,

By the dragon they had come out to hunt.

The dragon swallowed all the hippopotamuses just as a dog swallows bits of meat.

It was a shocking sight.

Of the whole of the pack that had come out sporting so merrily to the music of the horn,

Now not even a puppy hippopotamus was left,

And the dragon was looking anxiously around to see if he had forgotten anything.

The prince slipped off his elephant on the other side and ran into the thickest part of the wood.

He hoped the dragon could not break through the bushes there,

Since they were very strong and close.

He went crawling on his hands and knees in a most un-prince-like way,

And at last,

Finding a hollow tree,

He crept into it.

The wood was very still.

No crashing of branches and no smell of burning came to alarm the prince.

He drained the silver hunting bottle slung from his shoulder and stretched his legs in the hollow tree.

He never shed a single tear for his poor tame hippopotamuses,

Who had eaten from his hand and followed him faithfully in all the pleasures of the chase for so many years.

For he was a false prince,

With skin like leather and hair like hearth brushes and a heart like a stone.

He never shed a tear,

But he just went to sleep.

When he awoke,

It was dark.

He crept out of the tree and rubbed his eyes.

The wood was black about him,

But there was a red glow and a dell close by.

It was a fire of sticks,

And beside it sat a ragged youth with long yellow hair.

All around lay sleeping forms which breathed heavily.

Who are you?

Said the prince.

I'm Elfin,

The pig-keeper,

Said the ragged youth.

And who are you?

I'm Tarsim,

The prince,

Said the other.

And what are you doing out of your palace at this time of the night?

Asked the pig-keeper severely.

I've been hunting,

Said the prince.

The pig-keeper laughed.

Oh,

It was you I saw then.

A good hunt,

Wasn't it?

My pigs and I were looking on.

All the sleeping forms grunted and snored,

And the prince saw that they were pigs.

He knew it by their manners.

If you had known as much as I do,

Elfin went on,

You might have saved your back.

What do you mean?

Said Tarsim.

Why,

The dragon,

Said Elfin.

You went out at the wrong time of day.

The dragon should be hunted at night.

No thank you,

Said the prince with a shudder.

A daylight hunt is quite good enough for me,

You silly pig-keeper.

Oh well,

Said Elfin,

Do as you like about it.

The dragon will come and hunt you tomorrow,

As likely as not.

I don't care if he does,

You silly prince.

You're very rude,

Said Tarsim.

Oh no,

Only truthful,

Said Elfin.

Well,

Tell me the truth then.

What is it that,

If I had known as much as you do about,

I shouldn't have lost my hippopotamuses?

You don't speak very good English,

Said Elfin.

But come,

What will you give me if I tell you?

If you tell me what,

Said the Tarsim prince,

What you want to know?

I don't want to know anything,

Said Prince Tarsim.

Then you're more of a stilly than I even thought,

Said Elfin.

Don't you want to know how to settle the dragon before he settles you?

It might be as well,

The prince admitted.

Well,

I haven't much patience at any time,

Said Elfin.

And now I can assure you that there's very little left.

What will you give me if I tell you?

Half my kingdom,

Said the prince,

And my cousin's hand in marriage.

Done,

Said the pig keeper.

Here goes.

The dragon grows small at night.

He sleeps under the root of this tree.

I use him to light my fire with.

And,

Sure enough,

There under the tree was the dragon on a nest of scorched moss.

And he was about as long as your finger.

How can I kill him,

Said the prince?

I don't know that you can kill him,

Said Elfin.

But you can take him away if you brought anything to put him in.

That bottle of yours would do.

So between them they managed,

With bits of stick and by singeing their fingers a little,

To poke and shove the dragon till they made it creep into the silver hunting bottle.

And then the prince screwed on the top tight.

Now we've got him,

Said Elfin.

Let's take him home and put Solomon's seal on the mouth of the bottle.

And then he'll be safe enough.

Come along.

We'll divide up the kingdom tomorrow.

And then I shall have some money to buy fine clothes to go courting in.

But when the wicked prince made promises,

He did not make them to keep.

Go on with you.

What do you mean,

He said.

I found the dragon and I've imprisoned him.

I never said a word about courtings or kingdoms.

If you say I did,

I shall cut your head off at once.

And he drew his sword.

All right,

Said Elfin,

Shrugging his shoulders.

I'm better off than you are anyhow.

What do you mean,

Spluttered the prince.

Why,

You've only got a kingdom and a dragon.

But I've got clean hands and five and seventy fine black pigs.

So Elfin sat down again by his fire.

And the prince went home and told his parliament how clever and brave he had been.

And though he woke them up on purpose to tell them,

They were not angry,

But said,

You are indeed brave and clever,

For they knew what happened to people with whom the prince was not pleased.

Then the prime minister solemnly put Solomon's seal on the mouth of the bottle and the bottle was put in the treasury,

Which was the strongest building in the town and was made of solid copper with walls as thick as Waterloo Bridge.

The bottle was set down among the sacks of gold and the junior secretary to the junior clerk of the last lord of the treasury was appointed to sit up all night with it and see if anything happened.

The junior secretary had never seen a dragon and what was more,

He did not believe the prince had ever seen a dragon either.

The prince had never been a really truthful boy and it would have been just like him to bring home a bottle with nothing in it and then to pretend that there was a dragon inside.

So the junior secretary did not at all mind being left.

They gave him the key and when everyone in the town had gone back to bed,

He let in some of the junior secretaries from other government departments and they had a jolly game of hide and seek among the sacks of gold and played marbles with the diamonds and rubies and pearls in the big ivory chests.

They enjoyed themselves very much but by and by the copper treasury began to get warmer and warmer and suddenly the junior secretary cried out Look at the bottle!

The bottle,

Sealed with Solomon's seal,

Had swollen to three times its proper size and seemed to be nearly red hot and the air got warmer and warmer and the bottle bigger and bigger till all the junior secretaries agreed that the place was too hot to hold them and out they went,

Tumbling over each other in their haste and just as the last got out and locked the door the bottle burst and out came the dragon very fiery and swelling more and more every minute and he began to eat the sacks of gold and crunch up the pearls and diamonds and rubies as if they were sugar.

By breakfast time he had devoured the whole of the prince's treasures and when the prince came along the street at about eleven he met the dragon coming out of the broken door of the treasury with molten gold still dripping from his jaws then the prince turned and ran for his life and as he ran toward the dragon-proof tower the little white princess saw him coming and she ran down and unlocked the door and let him in and slammed the dragon-proof door in the fiery face of the dragon who sat down and whined outside because he wanted the prince very much indeed.

The princess took Prince Tyrosin into the best room and laid the cloth and gave him cream and eggs and white grapes and honey and bread with many other things,

Yellow and white and good to eat and she served him just as kindly as she would have done if he had been anyone else instead of the bad prince who had taken away her kingdom and kept it for himself because she was a true princess and had a heart of gold when he had eaten and drunk he begged the princess to show him how to lock and unlock the door the nurse was asleep so there was no one to tell the princess not to and she did you turn the key like this she said and the door keeps shut but turn it nine times round the wrong way and the door flies open and so it did and the moment it opened the prince pushed the white princess out of the tower just as he had pushed her out of her kingdom and shut the door for he wanted to have the tower all for himself and there she was in the street and on the other side of the way the dragon was sitting whining but he did not try to eat her because though the old nurse did not know it dragons cannot eat white princesses with heart of gold the princess could not walk through the streets of the town in her milky silky gown with the daisies on it and with no hat and no gloves so she turned the other way and ran out across the meadows toward the wood she had never been out of her tower before and the soft grass under her feet felt like grass of paradise she ran right into the thickest part of the wood because she did not know what her heart was made of and she was afraid of the dragon and there in a dell she came on Elfin and his five and seventy fine pigs he was playing his flute and around him the pigs were dancing cheerfully on their hind legs oh dear said the princess do take care of me I'm so frightened I will said Elfin putting his arms around her now you are quite safe what are you frightened of the dragon she said so it's gotten out of the silver bottle said Elfin I hope it's eaten the prince no said Sabrinetta but why he told her of the mean trick that the prince had played on him and he promised me half his kingdom and the hand of his cousin the princess said the Elfin oh dear what a shame said Sabrinetta trying to get out of his arms how dare he what's the matter he asked holding her tighter it was a shame or at least I thought so but now he may keep his kingdom half and whole if I may keep what I have what's that asked the princess why you my pretty my dear said Elfin and as for the princess his cousin forgive me dearest heart but when I asked for her I hadn't seen the real princess the only princess my princess do you mean me said Sabrinetta who else he asked yes five minutes ago I was a pig keeper now I've held you in my arms I'm a prince though I should have to keep pigs to the end of my days but you haven't asked me said the princess you asked me to take care of you said Elfin and I will all my life long so that was settled and they began to talk of really important things such as the dragon and the prince and all the time Elfin did not know that this was the princess but he knew that she had a heart of gold and he told her so many times the mistake said Elfin was it not having a dragon proof bottle I see that now oh is that all said the princess I can easily get you one of those because everything in my tower is dragon proof we ought to do something to settle the dragon and save the little children so she went off to get the bottle but she would not let Elfin come with her if what you say is true she said if you are sure that I have a heart of gold the dragon won't hurt me and somebody must stay with the pigs Elfin was quite sure so he let her go she took the dragon proof bottle made of burnished brass and ran back to the wood and to the dell where Elfin was sitting among his sleek black pigs waiting for her I thought you were never coming back he said you've been away a year at least the princess sat down beside him among the pigs and they held each other's hands till it was dark and then the dragon came crawling over the moss scorching it as he came and getting smaller as he crawled and curled up under the root of the tree now then said Elfin you hold the bottle then he poked and prodded the dragon with bits of stick till it crawled into the dragon proof bottle but there was no stopper never mind said Elfin I'll put my finger in for a stopper no let me said the princess but of course Elfin would not let her he stuck his finger into the top of the bottle and the princess cried out the sea the sea run for the cliffs and off they went with the five and seventy pigs trotting steadily after them in a long black procession the bottle got hotter and hotter in Elfin's hands because the dragon inside was puffing fire and smoke with all his might hotter and hotter and hotter but Elfin held on till they came to the cliff edge and there was the dark blue sea and the whirlpool going round and around Elfin lifted the bottle high above his head and hurled it out between the stars and the sea and it fell in the middle of the whirlpool we've saved the country said the princess you've saved the little children give me your hands I can't said Elfin I shall never be able to take your dear hands again my hands are burnt off and so they were they were only black cinders where his hands ought to have been the princess kissed them and cried over them and tore pieces of her silky milky gown to tie them up with and the two went back to the tower and told the nurse all about everything and the pigs sat outside and waited he is the bravest man in the world said Sabrinetta he has saved the country and the little children but oh his hands his poor dear darling hands here the door of the room opened and the oldest of the five and seventy pigs came in it went up to Elfin and rubbed itself against him with little loving grunts see the dear creature said the nurse wiping away a tear it knows it knows Sabrinetta stroked the pig because Elfin had no hands for stroking or for anything else the only cure for a dragon burn said the old nurse is pigs fat and well that faithful creature knows it it wouldn't for a kingdom cried Elfin stroking the pig as best as he could with his elbow is there no other cure asked the princess here another pig put its black nose in at the door and then another and another till the room was full of pigs a surging mass of rounded blackness pushing and struggling to get at Elfin and grunting softly in the language of true affection there is one other said the nurse the dear affectionate beasts they all want to die for you what is the other cure said Sabrinetta anxiously if a man is burnt by a dragon said the nurse and a certain number of people are willing to die for him it is enough if each had kissed the burn and wish it well in the depths of his loving heart the number the number cried Sabrinetta 77 said the nurse we only have 75 pigs said the princess and with me that 76 it must be 77 and I really can't die for him so nothing can be done said the nurse sadly he must have cork hands I knew about the 77 loving people said Elfin but I never thought my dear pigs loved me so much as all this and my dear too and of course that only makes it more impossible there is one other charm that cures dragon burns though but I'd rather be burnt black all over than marry anyone but you my dear my pretty why who must you marry to cure your dragon burns asked Sabrinetta a princess that's how St.

George cured his burns there now think of that said the nurse and I never heard tell of that cure old as I am but Sabrinetta threw her arms round Elfin's neck and held him as though she would never let him go then it's alright my dear brave precious Elfin she cried for I am a princess and you shall be my prince come along nurse don't wait to put on your bonnet we'll go and be married this very moment so they went and the pigs came after moving in stately blackness two by two and the minute he was married to the princess Elfin's hands got quite well and the people who were weary of Prince Tyrosim and his hippopotamuses hailed Sabrinetta and her husband as rightful sovereigns of the land next morning the prince and princess went out to see if the dragon had been washed ashore they could see nothing of him but when they looked out toward the whirlpool they saw a cloud of steam and the fishermen reported that the water for miles around was hot enough to shave with and as the water is hot there to this day we may feel pretty sure that the fierceness of that dragon was such that all the waters of all the sea were not enough to cool him the whirlpool is too strong for him to be able to get out of it so there he spins around and around forever and ever doing some useful work at last and warming the water for poor fisherfolk to shave with sweet dreams my friend sleep well