Part 46

'But I shouldn't like,' said Elsie, 'to go up the chimney. This isn't my best frock, of course, but still....'

'Quite so,' said the Crow. 'I only came that way for fun, and because I can fly. You shall go in by the chief gate of the kingdom, like a lady. Do come.'

But Elsie still hesitated. 'What sort of thing is it you want me to tame?' she said doubtfully.

The enormous crow hesitated. 'A--a sort of lizard,' it said at last. 'And if you can only tame it so that it will do what you tell it to, you'll save the whole kingdom, and we'll put up a statue to you; but not in the People's Park, unless they wish it,' the bird added mysteriously.

'I should like to save a kingdom,' said Elsie, 'and I like lizards. I've seen lots of them in India.'

'Then you'll come?' said the Crow.

'Yes. But how do we go?'

'There are only two doors out of this world into another,' said the Crow. 'I'll take you through the nearest. Allow me!' It put its wing round her so that her face nestled against the black softness of the under-wing feathers. It was warm and dark and sleepy there, and very comfortable. For a moment she seemed to swim easily in a soft sea of dreams. Then, with a little shock, she found herself standing on a marble terrace, looking out over a city far more beautiful and wonderful than she had ever seen or imagined. The great man-sized Crow was by her side.

'Now,' it said, pointing with the longest of its long black wing-feathers, 'you see this beautiful city?'

'Yes,' said Elsie, 'of course I do.'

'Well ... I hardly like to tell you the story,' said the Crow, 'but it's a long time ago, and I hope you won't think the worse of us--because we're really very sorry.'

'If you're really sorry,' said Elsie primly, 'of course it's all right.'

'Unfortunately it isn't,' said the Crow. 'You see the great square down there?'

Elsie looked down on a square of green trees, broken a little towards the middle.

'Well, that's where the ... where it is--what you've got to tame, you know.'

'But what did you do that was wrong?'

'We were unkind,' said the Crow slowly, 'and unjust, and ungenerous. We had servants and workpeople doing everything for us; we had nothing to do but be kind. And we weren't.'

'Dear me,' said Elsie feebly.

'We had several warnings,' said the Crow. 'There was an old parchment, and it said just how you ought to behave and all that. But we didn't care what it said. I was Court Magician as well as Prime Minister, and I ought to have known better, but I didn't. We all wore frock-coats and high hats then,' he added sadly.

'Go on,' said Elsie, her eyes wandering from one beautiful building to another of the many that nestled among the trees of the city.

'And the old parchment said that if we didn't behave well our bodies would grow like our souls. But we didn't think so. And then all in a minute they did--and we were crows, and our bodies were as black as our souls. Our souls are quite white now,' it added reassuringly.

'But what was the dreadful thing you'd done?'

'We'd been unkind to the people who worked for us--not given them enough food or clothes or fire, and at last we took away even their play. There was a big park that the people played in, and we built a wall round it and took it for ourselves, and the King was going to set a statue of himself up in the middle. And then before we could begin to enjoy it we were turned into big black crows; and the working people into big white pigeons--and they can go where they like, but we have to stay here till we've tamed the.... We never can go into the park, until we've settled the thing that guards it. And that thing's a big big lizard--in fact ... it's a dragon!'

'Oh!' cried Elsie; but she was not as frightened as the Crow seemed to expect. Because every now and then she had felt sure that she was really safe in her own bed, and that this was a dream. It was not a dream, but the belief that it was made her very brave, and she felt quite sure that she could settle a dragon, if necessary--a dream dragon, that is. And the rest of the time she thought about Foxe's Book of Martyrs and what a heroine she now had the chance to be.

'You want me to kill it?' she asked.

'Oh no! To tame it,' said the Crow.

'We've tried all sorts of means--long whips, like people tame horses with, and red-hot bars, such as lion-tamers use--and it's all been perfectly useless; and there the dragon lives, and will live till some one can tame him and get him to follow them like a tame fawn, and eat out of their hand.'

'What does the dragon like to eat?' Elsie asked.