Part 6 (2/2)
”It's all up with me, Maria! Never no more can I go up on them there Downs, was it ever so!”
”Now don't you take on like that,” said his wife, who was a _very_ sensible woman: ”but tell us all about it first, whatever it is as has given you this shake-up, and then me and you and the son here, between us, we ought to be able to get to the bottom of it!”
”It began some nights ago,” said the shepherd. ”You know that cave up there--I never liked it, somehow, and the sheep never liked it neither, and when sheep don't like a thing there's generally some reason for it.
Well, for some time past there's been faint noises coming from that cave--noises like heavy sighings, with grunts mixed up in them; and sometimes a snoring, far away down--_real_ snoring, yet somehow not _honest_ snoring, like you and me o'nights, you know!”
”_I_ know,” remarked the Boy, quietly.
”Of course I was terrible frightened,” the shepherd went on; ”yet somehow I couldn't keep away. So this very evening, before I come down, I took a cast round by the cave, quietly. And there--O Lord! there I saw him at last, as plain as I see you!”
”Saw _who_?” said his wife, beginning to share in her husband's nervous terror.
”Why _him_, I'm a telling you!” said the shepherd. ”He was sticking half-way out of the cave, and seemed to be enjoying of the cool of the evening in a poetical sort of way. He was as big as four cart-horses, and all covered with s.h.i.+ny scales--deep-blue scales at the top of him, shading off to a tender sort o' green below. As he breathed, there was that sort of flicker over his nostrils that you see over our chalk roads on a baking windless day in summer. He had his chin on his paws, and I should say he was meditating about things. Oh, yes, a peaceable sort o'
beast enough, and not ramping or carrying on or doing anything but what was quite right and proper. I admit all that. And yet, what am I to do?
_Scales_, you know, and claws, and a tail for certain, though I didn't see that end of him--I ain't _used_ to 'em, and I don't _hold_ with 'em, and that's a fact!”
The Boy, who had apparently been absorbed in his book during his father's recital, now closed the volume, yawned, clasped his hands behind his head, and said sleepily:
”It's all right, father. Don't you worry. It's only a dragon.”
”Only a dragon?” cried his father. ”What do you mean, sitting there, you and your dragons? _Only_ a dragon indeed! And what do _you_ know about it?”
”'Cos it _is_, and 'cos I _do_ know,” replied the Boy, quietly. ”Look here, father, you know we've each of us got our line. _You_ know about sheep, and weather, and things; _I_ know about dragons. I always said, you know, that that cave up there was a dragon-cave. I always said it must have belonged to a dragon some time, and ought to belong to a dragon now, if rules count for anything. Well, now you tell me it _has_ got a dragon, and so _that's_ all right. I'm not half as much surprised as when you told me it _hadn't_ got a dragon. Rules always come right if you wait quietly. Now, please, just leave this all to me. And I'll stroll up to-morrow morning--no, in the morning I can't, I've got a whole heap of things to do--well, perhaps in the evening, if I'm quite free, I'll go up and have a talk to him, and you'll find it'll be all right. Only, please, don't you go worrying round there without me. You don't understand 'em a bit, and they're very sensitive, you know!”
”He's quite right, father,” said the sensible mother. ”As he says, dragons is his line and not ours. He's wonderful knowing about bookbeasts, as every one allows. And to tell the truth, I'm not half happy in my own mind, thinking of that poor animal lying alone up there, without a bit o' hot supper or anyone to change the news with; and maybe we'll be able to do something for him; and if he ain't quite respectable our Boy'll find it out quick enough. He's got a pleasant sort o' way with him that makes everybody tell him everything.”
Next day, after he'd had his tea, the Boy strolled up the chalky track that led to the summit of the Downs; and there, sure enough, he found the dragon, stretched lazily on the sward in front of his cave. The view from that point was a magnificent one. To the right and left, the bare and willowy leagues of Downs; in front, the vale, with its cl.u.s.tered homesteads, its threads of white roads running through orchards and well-tilled acreage, and, far away, a hint of grey old cities on the horizon. A cool breeze played over the surface of the gra.s.s and the silver shoulder of a large moon was showing above distant junipers. No wonder the dragon seemed in a peaceful and contented mood; indeed, as the Boy approached he could hear the beast purring with a happy regularity. ”Well, we live and learn!” he said to himself. ”None of my books ever told me that dragons 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s 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.
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