know?"

"'Course I have," said the Boy. "Heaps of it. And some of it's
quite good, I feel sure, only there's no one here cares about it.

Mother's very kind and all that, when I read it to her, and so's
father for that matter. But somehow they don't seem to--"

"Exactly," cried the dragon; "my own case exactly. They don't
seem to, and you can't argue with 'em about it. Now you've got
culture, you have, I could tell it on you at once, and I should
just like your candid opinion about some little things I threw
off lightly, when I was down there. I'm awfully pleased to have
met you, and I'm hoping the other neighbours will be equally
agreeable. There was a very nice old gentleman up here only last
night, but he didn't seem to want to intrude."

"That was my father," said the boy, "and he IS a nice old
gentleman, and I'll introduce you some day if you like."

"Can't you two come up here and dine or something to-morrow?"
asked the dragon eagerly. "Only, of course, if you've got
nothing better to do," he added politely.

"Thanks awfully," said the Boy, "but we don't go out anywhere
without my mother, and, to tell you the truth, I'm afraid she
mightn't quite approve of you. You see there's no getting over
the hard fact that you're a dragon, is there? And when you talk
of settling down, and the neighbours, and so on, I can't help
feeling that you don't quite realize your position. You're an