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 billowy leagues of
Downs; in front, the vale, with its clustered 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 grass 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
grass beside the beast: "and don't, for goodness' sake, keep on